US08459161B2
A punch retainer can utilize a spring passage to retain a locking ball and a spring. A retaining member can be disposed in the spring passage to hold the spring and ball therein and to impart a desired compressive force on the spring. The retaining member can be axially aligned with the centerline of the spring passage and can axially compress the spring. The retaining member can be adjusted to adjust the compression of the spring. A single dowel passage can be utilized to accurately align the retainer in a desired orientation.
US08459146B2
The present invention aims to provide a dial control device having a maneuverability of a control knob improved by making this in cylindrical shape and downsized by disposing another control knob installed within the first-mentioned cylindrical control knob. A dial control device comprising: a cylindrical control knob, a sun gear rotating integrally with said control knob for transmission of a driving force from said control knob, a planet gear interlocking with said sun gear, an internal gear cooperating with said sun gear to guide said planet gear in a direction of its movement, and a control cable coupled to said planet gear so as to operate an external device, wherein said driving force generated by rotational operation of said control knob is transmitted via said sun gear, said planet gear and said control cable to the external device to control operation of said external device.
US08459140B2
A wrist assembly is provided for securing an end effector to a robotic arm. The wrist assembly comprises a first portion (205, 207) containing a slot for releasably engaging an end effector (231), and a second portion (203) which is attached to the first portion. The orientation of the first portion with respect to the second portion is adjustable to impart a leveling effect to the end effector.
US08459139B2
Disclosed are a robot joint driving apparatus and a robot having the same, capable of minimizing tension of a wire applied to a movable member by installing an idle pulley in a power transmission structure using a ball screw apparatus and the wire. The robot joint driving apparatus includes a reversible drive motor, a pair of movable members performing a linear movement according to rotation of the reversible drive motor, a wire connected to the movable members from both directions of the movable members, an idle pulley rotatably installed at one side of the wire, a joint part rotatably installed at an opposite side of the wire, and an adjustment unit to adjust tension of the wire.
US08459137B1
An integrated assembly useful for controlling a variable speed drive having a housing and a control shaft projecting therefrom. The control assembly consists of a control arm fixed on the control shaft to effect its rotation; a return to neutral mechanism disposed about the control shaft to bias the control shaft to a neutral position; and a rotary, viscous fluid damper integrated with the return to neutral mechanism, the damper having a rotor engaged to the control shaft and a stator fixed to the housing of the variable speed drive to moderate, or slow the rotational movement of the control shaft under the influence of inputs from the control arm and the return to neutral mechanism. The neutral arm of the return to neutral mechanism is integrally formed with the external case of the rotary, viscous fluid damper, creating a compact control mechanism.
US08459136B1
An improved shifter detent plate to replace the stock shifter detent plate used in certain automatic transmissions equipped with horseshoe shifters to provide positive stops between gears during forward shifts, thereby allowing the user to manually shift through the gears of the automatic transmission without accidentally skipping a gear.
US08459135B2
A transmission connected to an engine input member and having an output transfer gear, first and second transmission input shaft members, first and second countershaft members, a plurality of co-planar gear sets, and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. The first and second transmission input shaft members are rotatably supported in the transmission housing by a combination of ball and needle bearings. The first and second countershaft members are rotatably supported in the transmission housing by plurality of thrust bearings. The torque transmitting devices include a plurality of synchronizer assemblies and a dual clutch assembly. The transmission is operable to provide at least one reverse speed ratio and a plurality of forward speed ratios between the input member and the output member.
US08459131B2
A soil sampling machine and its method of use is provided. The soil sampling machine can include a sampling mechanism configured and positioned to obtain a soil sample. A storage tank is located on the machine and can store the obtained sample material from the sampling mechanism. A hose connects the sampling mechanism and the storage tank and a vacuum generator generates a vacuum force in the hose to transport the obtained soil sample from the sampling mechanism to the storage tank.
US08459130B2
The invention provides a device for extraction of a defined sample volume from a larger sample volume. The device includes a body having a reference surface and a measuring cavity extending from a part of the reference surface into the body, thereby forming at least one opening plane substantially uniform with the reference surface. An information carrier is applied to or distributed with the device, having direct or indirect volume information about defined volume established for the cavity. The invention also relates to a method for determining the volume of such a cavity, to a set of at least two such devices, to a method for dilution of at least two liquid samples by using at least two such devices, to an analytic instrument, to a method for operating such an instrument, to a system including the device and the instrument, and to a method for operating the system.
US08459126B2
A testing apparatus includes a support mechanism, a pushing device and a clamping device. The pushing device includes a guiding member, a driving member moveably attached to the guiding member, and a resilient component located between the guiding member and the guiding member. The clamping device is attached to the driving member, and secures a product. The driving member and the clamping device deforms the resilient component in a first direction, and the resilient component biases the driving member and the clamping device in a second direction, that is opposite to the first direction.
US08459110B2
An integrated MEMS gyroscope, is provided with: at least a first driving mass driven with a first driving movement along a first axis upon biasing of an assembly of driving electrodes, the first driving movement generating at least one sensing movement, in the presence of rotations of the integrated MEMS gyroscope; and at least a second driving mass driven with a second driving movement along a second axis, transverse to the first axis, the second driving movement generating at least a respective sensing movement, in the presence of rotations of the integrated MEMS gyroscope. The integrated MEMS gyroscope is moreover provided with a first elastic coupling element, which elastically couples the first driving mass and the second driving mass in such a way as to couple the first driving movement to the second driving movement with a given ratio of movement.
US08459106B2
The equipment (1) for test stands of the braking system of vehicles comprises a supporting element (2) associable with a test stand (A) of the braking system of vehicles, on top of part of measuring rollers (C). The supporting element (2) has a lowered portion (3) suited to accommodate resting a first wheel (D) of a vehicle while a second wheel (E) of the vehicle is resting on the measuring rollers (C) and is substantially aligned with the first wheel (D).
US08459103B2
A method for operating a debris monitoring system comprises continuously sensing the passage of particulates through a gas turbine engine to produce a time-domain sensor signal. The time-domain sensor signal is Fourier transformed to produce a frequency domain sensor signal. The frequency domain sensor signal is partitioned into bins corresponding to particulate composition categories. At least one feature is identified within each bin, and is used to determine the amount of particulate flow in each particulate composition category.
US08459099B2
For leak testing closed containers (9) which are filled with a filling product containing at least one liquid component the container is introduced in a test cavity (1) which is evacuated at least down to vapor pressure of that liquid component. The pressure in the surrounding of the container (9) and thus within test cavity (1) is monitored. Monitoring is performed by a vacuum pressure sensor (7), whereas lowering pressure surrounding the container (9) is performed by a vacuum pump (5). Leakage is detected by monitoring a pressure change in the surrounding of the container which is due to evaporation of liquid emerging from a leak and being evaporated in the low pressure surrounding.
US08459097B2
A gas concentration of a gas may be detected from a gas mixture using gas detectors sensitive to the gas. A gas concentration may be measured by a first gas detector at a first operating temperature, and a first signal characteristic of the measured gas concentration may be provided. An operating temperature of the first gas detector may be changed to a second operating temperature, or a second gas detector having the second operating temperature may be provided. A gas concentration may then be measured at the second operating temperature, and a second signal characteristic of the measured gas concentration may be provided. The gas concentration of the gas from the gas mixture may be determined using a first concentration value allocated to the first signal and a second concentration value allocated to the second signal.
US08459092B2
A system and method of validating checkweigher performance (weighing accuracy). The invention involves removing an object to be weighed from a conveyor prior to the object reaching a checkweigher to be validated, weighing the object on a static scale, reintroducing the object to the conveyor upstream of the checkweigher, weighing the object with the checkweigher, and comparing the two weight readings of the object to determine if the checkweigher is accurately weighing objects. Validation objects may be automatically removed from the conveyor by a transfer mechanism.
US08459089B2
The invention relates to driving means for displacing two elongate members, the driving means comprising: a first set of at least a row of primary rollers and a row of secondary rollers; a second set of at least a row of primary rollers and a row of secondary rollers; wherein the first set is connected to a first member and the second set is connected to a second member; and wherein a belt serpentines between the primary rollers of the first set and the primary rollers of the second set along the length of the members and serpentines back between the secondary rollers of the first set and the secondary rollers of the second set.
US08459087B2
The invention relates to a method for producing a blank, which is composed at least substantially of material that can be embossed, in particular aluminum or an aluminum alloy, for closing a container along the edge thereof, in particular by means of adhesive bonding or sealing, the blank having an embossed surface and being stamped from a continuous material. The invention is characterized in that markings are embossed on the continuous material when the surface of the blank is embossed, said markings being used for the position determination during the stamping process.
US08459082B2
A system for changing a roller, has a system for determining parameters which characterize the identity and/or the operating state of a roller of an industrial plant, at least one sensor arranged on the roller for furnishing parameters being designed such that the furnished identity parameter of the roller is detectable, and a reading device designed for reading out detected parameters from the sensor without contact. The sensor is also designed to detect an operation state parameter of the roller and can be operated at a roller temperature of at least 150 C. In a rollerchanging wagon on which a roller can be mounted in such a manner that the roller can be guided into or out of a roll stand, the sensor is arranged on the roller for the purpose of furnishing and/or detecting parameters. The process security for an industrial plant can be increased by such a system.
US08459074B2
A strip has a strip head and a strip leg. It is rolled, beginning at the strip head, in a roll stand of a rolling device between an upper and a lower roller arrangement of the roll stand. It is monitored whether the strip foot reaches a switching point located, viewed in the rolling direction, in front of the roll stand. From the time the strip leg reaches the switching point, the roller arrangements are subjected to a bending force expanding the roller arrangements by means of an adjusting device, the force being at least as high as a minimal force. The minimal force is at least as high as a balancing force of the upper roller arrangement. The minimal force is determined as a function of the parameters of the strip and/or the operating parameters of the rolling device.
US08459071B2
A lock device comprises an interlocking means comprising two axially movable parts (61, 62) interconnecting a cylinder core (20) and an extension (40, 50) so that free-turning operation is provided in one mode of operation and the extension rotates with the cylinder core in another operational mode.
US08459070B2
A combination locking arrangement includes a locking member, a locking lever connected to the locking member; and at least first and second tumbler discs rotatable about a tumbler disc axis. When each of the tumbler discs is rotated to an unlocking orientation, the locking lever engages aligned recesses in the tumbler discs, such that further rotation of the tumbler discs moves the locking member from the locking position to the releasing position. A dial is rotatable about the tumbler disc axis for selective rotation of the tumbler discs, and includes a drive portion rotationally secured in interlocking engagement with the first tumbler disc in one of a plurality of code selecting orientations. The locking lever includes a disc securing portion positioned to prevent axial disengagement of the first tumbler disc from the dial drive portion when the locking lever is engaged with the aligned recesses in the tumbler discs.
US08459065B2
A drum type washing machine including a housing having an introduction port, a door to open and close the introduction port, a locking member provided at the door, a locking device provided at the housing to lock the locking member. The locking device has a first through hole and a first support extending from the perimeter of the first through hole. The housing has a second support extending from the perimeter of a second through hole, through which the first support is inserted, to support the outside of the first support in a plane contact state. The first support is prevented from being damaged due to impact during transportation.
US08459057B2
Disclosed is a refrigerator, in which the structure of an ice supply device is improved. The refrigerator includes a main body, in which at least one storage chamber is formed; a door opening and closing the at least one storage chamber; an ice making unit provided on a rear surface of the door to make ice; an ice storage container provided under the ice making unit to store the ice made by the ice making unit; and at least one receiving rack provided on at least one side of right and left sides of the ice making unit or the ice storage container.
US08459056B2
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a cold air flow passage structure for allowing ice, which is received in an ice-storing device provided in a refrigerating chamber door, to be in a frozen state without being melted.The refrigerator of the present invention comprises a main body including at least a refrigerating chamber and a cold air flow passage for supplying cold air to the refrigerating chamber, a refrigerating chamber door for opening or closing the refrigerating chamber, and an ice bank provided in the refrigerating chamber door and having a container for storing ice therein, wherein at least a portion of the cold air discharged from the cold air flow passage is discharged directly to the ice bank.According to the refrigerator of the present invention, even though an ice bank for storing ice is provided in a refrigerating chamber door, it is possible to prevent a phenomenon by which ice is partially melted and stuck again together.Further, since ice is not partially melted and stuck again together, it is possible to prevent a phenomenon by which an overload is applied to an ice crusher provided in the ice bank.
US08459055B2
Disclosed is the auger in an ice bin mounted in a refrigerator, and the like. The auger in the ice bin is configured to rotate a plurality of augers having spiral-shaped transfer blades and to dispose ice in each space between the transfer blades of the auger for transfer. Accordingly, a certain amount of ice can always be discharged without simultaneously discharging a great amount of ice, and a user may select the number of ice, thus to diversity functions of an ice dispenser. In addition, since the auger is made of a flexible material, the ice can be prevented from being crushed during transfer, thereby enhancing the reliability of the ice dispenser.
US08459053B2
A system and method for a compressor may include an inverter drive connected to the compressor that receives electric power and modulates a speed of the compressor by modulating a frequency of the electric power. A control module connected to the inverter drive monitors compressor power data and compressor speed data from the inverter drive, and calculates a saturated condenser temperature of a refrigeration system associated with the compressor based on the compressor power data and the compressor speed data.
US08459051B2
An air conditioner includes a compressor, a first heat exchanger, and a first pipe configured to allow refrigerant to flow from the first heat exchanger. A bypass pipe is branched off from the first pipe and is configured to expand refrigerant flowing through the bypass pipe. A second heat exchanger is configured to allow the expanded refrigerant of the bypass pipe to heat-exchange with the refrigerant flowing along the first pipe. A second pipe couples the second heat exchanger to the compressor so that the refrigerant expanded by the bypass pipe and heat-exchanged at the second heat exchanger can be introduced into the compressor.
US08459049B2
Method and apparatus for refrigerant flow control are disclosed. One exemplary method relates to a method of controlling a flow of a refrigerant in an appliance comprising a refrigerant flow controller and a refrigerant flow valve, wherein the refrigerant flow controller is configured to direct the refrigerant flow valve to one of a substantially fully opened position and a substantially fully closed position. The method comprises directing the refrigerant flow valve, via the refrigerant flow controller, to at least one transition position between the substantially fully opened position and the substantially fully closed position, and operating the appliance with the refrigerant flow valve at the at least one transition position.
US08459045B2
In a helium 3 refrigerator-utilizing magnetic property measurement system (MPMS) which enables magnetization measurement to be effected until 0.3 K, a main pipe, to enable magnetization measurement to be infallibly effected even when the upper limit of a magnetic field the MPMS can induce is applied, includes an upper supporting tube positioned in the uppermost part and allowing a bellows to be connected to the lateral part thereof, a condensing tube supported in the lower part of the upper supporting tube, an outer tube fixed in the lower part of the condensing tube and adapted to form an outer wall of an insulated vacuum chamber, and a lower inner tube forming an inner wall of the insulated vacuum chamber. In each of the tubes, the lower inner tube is formed of titanium. As a result, a background signal can be decreased and the measurement can be infallibly effected until the upper limit of the magnetic field of the MPMS.
US08459036B2
A nozzle is provided that can be used as part of an aircraft engine. In one form the nozzle includes an inner cowl and an outer cowl. The inner cowl can be actuated to a variety of positions. The outer cowl is piggybacked on the inner cowl and is initially retained in first position relative to the inner cowl with an outer cowl actuator. The outer cowl actuator can be commanded to release the outer cowl so that the outer cowl can be moved to a second position relative to the inner cowl. In one form the outer cowl actuator is an explosive bolt and a spring is provided to urge the outer cowl to the second position.
US08459034B2
A fuel delivery system for a gas turbine engine includes one or more subsets of combustors, and at least two fuel manifolds including a fuel manifold coupled to each combustor subset and configured to deliver fuel to only the subset of combustors during a predetermined gas turbine engine operating mode. A gas turbine engine assembly including a fuel delivery system and a method of operating a gas turbine engine is also described herein.
US08459031B2
A system and method are disclosed for the combined production of power and heat from an external heat source stream, where the system utilizes four basic stream of different compositions to co-generate power and to heat an external heat absorber stream from an external heat source stream.
US08459027B2
Combustion engine comprising interconnected combustion cylinders (1, 2, 3, 4), comprising at least two sets of each two opposed working combustion cylinders (1, 2, 3, 4), said two cylinders of each set being interconnected by a common piston rod (5, 6), said two piston rods (5, 6) being connected by one balance arm (7), and the exploitable energy is taken from the kinetic energy of said balance arm (7).
US08459026B2
A central turbocharger configuration in a V-engine with two turbochargers is described. In one example approach, a V-engine includes first and second in-board exhaust manifolds; first and second turbines coupled to the first and second manifolds, respectively; and a passage intermediate to and coupling outlets of the first and second turbines; and a junction branching from the passage downward into the valley.
US08459017B2
An exhaust aftertreatment system is provided. The exhaust aftertreatment system includes a mixing arrangement for mixing flows of exhaust along a flow path. The mixing arrangement radially and angularly rearranges segments of two different portions of flow to mix the different portions of flow. The mixing arrangement initially converts a generally radially stratified temperature profile into an angularly stratified temperature profile to increase surface area between cool segments of exhaust gas and hot segments of exhaust gas. The aftertreatment system may also include a combustion chamber, a combustor housing and a combustor liner. The mixing arrangement is downstream from the combustion chamber to direct radially outward hot gas passing through the combustor liner and to direct radially outer cool gas passing between the liner and the combustor housing radially inward in an interleaving fashion.
US08459009B2
A method for controlling an SCR-exhaust gas after-treatment system (1) of an internal combustion engine (8), in particular of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, has one or more steps for determining the quality of the reducing means.
US08459001B2
In one embodiment, a system includes an emissions reduction system including a compressor in fluid communication with a catalyst mixing tank. The compressor is configured to output an air flow configured to deliver catalyst from the catalyst mixing tank to a catalyst injection grid. A temperature of the air flow is increased by the compressor.
US08458996B2
Some embodiments of a tobacco product package device can be used to enhance freshness and other characteristics of tobacco products or other products contained therein. Certain features can improve product freshness both during shelf life and during consumer use.
US08458994B2
A method of shipping at least one child-resistant medicate container via a carrier includes providing or obtaining at least one child-resistant medicate container including a front sidewall, and an opposing rear sidewall, a right sidewall, an opposing left sidewall, and at least one locking mechanism. The method also includes creating or obtaining a flat-rate shipping package from a carrier, inserting the at least one child-resistant medicate container into the package, and closing the package to enclose the at least one child-resistant medicate container within the package so that the package is generally flat and acceptable by the carrier for a flat-rate shipping. The method also includes causing the closed package to be shipped or transported by the carrier at a flat-rate.
US08458992B2
Containers are closed with screw caps by a carousel machine of which a central drum (31) is rotatable about a vertical axis (A) and carries a set of capping units (36) equipped with respective capping heads (37), each presenting a gripper (38) by which the cap (3) is held, and a mechanism (66) by which the hinged jaws (39) of the gripper (38) are opened and closed; each capping head (37) is capable of axial motion induced by components incorporated into the relative unit (36), which are guided axially in their movements and supported by auxiliary components (40; 49, 50) associated rigidly with the central drum (31).
US08458991B2
A wrapping device (10) for an apparatus (1) for enveloping and packaging a group (3) of articles (2) while they are being moved on a conveyor device (6) with a web-shaped material (4). The wrapping device (10) includes a rod-shaped wrapping element (14), which is laterally fixed to two parallely disposed circulating traction elements (12) on both sides of the conveyor device, whereby said wrapping element (14) is moved by these traction elements (12). The wrapping element (14) is further fixable largely form-lockingly and without play in corresponding receiving elements (16, 48) of the respective traction elements (12), whereby at least one of the receiving elements (16, 48) includes a securing element (20) that can be moved against the return force of a spring locking device (18).
US08458989B2
A clip control system is described. The invention in a first embodiment is a clip control system comprising a stuffer/clipper comprising a reader and a processing unit and having an operating parameter, a clip package mountable to the stuffer/clipper and holding a plurality of clips, and information encoded in the clip package and readable by the reader, the processing unit configured to receive the information and to set the operating parameter based thereon. The clip package is a reel or a canister. In another embodiment, the invention comprises a clip package holding a plurality of clips and being mountable to a stuffer/clipper having a reader. The clip package has information encoded therein and readable by the reader. In either embodiment, the information is encoded in an RFID tag, a bar code, or a magnetic strip. The reader is a RFID reader, a bar code reader, or a magnetic strip reader. The information is product-specific information and can also include the identity of the clip manufacturer.
US08458984B2
An embodiment of the system for forming a movable slab foundation as comprised by the present invention has a slab foundation, at least one substantially vertical support member, at least one support surface, and at least one support sleeve. The at least one support sleeve surrounds the at least one support member and is encased within the slab foundation and is capable of movement axially along the axis of the at least one support member. The at least one vertical support member is capable of rotation relative to the at least one support sleeve to restrict the movement of the at least one support sleeve downward relative to the at least one vertical support member, thereby maintaining the height of the at least one support sleeve and the slab foundation relative to the at least one support surface.
US08458975B2
A flooring system having a top floor layer, a sub-floor, and an underlayment material disposed between the sub-floor and the top floor layer is disclosed. The underlayment material may include a cross-linked, polyolefin foam having a moisture vapor transmission rate of less than about 3.0 lb/1000 ft2/24 hr, and an average sound pressure level of less than about 15 dB over a range of about 300 Hz to about 1000 Hz. Foam density, gel fraction, and resin blend may combine to provide an underlayment material having such reflective sound and moisture vapor barrier properties.
US08458971B2
The present disclosure is directed generally towards fire-resistant wood products and formulations for fire-resistant coatings. In some embodiments, the disclosure includes a fire-resistant coating comprising an aromatic isocyanate (present in a quantity ranging from about 15% to about 39%), castor oil (present in a quantity ranging from about 37% to about 65%), and intumescent particles (present in a quantity ranging from about 1% to about 40%). Further aspects are directed towards materials such as wood products coated with fire-resistant coatings according to embodiments of the disclosure.
US08458968B2
A window or door assembly and/or system having a drain method and device that is less invasive than previous implementations. The assembly can include slidable window or door panels and an upright support allowing translational movement of the panels. Distal thereto, a weeping upright is provided. The upright support and the weeping upright can form a channel therebetween where the liquid is collected, wherein the channel in one embodiment is L-shaped. To remove liquid from the channel, an accumulator that is perpendicular to the channel can receive the fluid through an opening. Liquid can also be removed through a drainage opening within the upright support or weeping upright. An aperture along with a connector along a bottom portion of the channel can also be used to remove the liquid within the channel.
US08458965B1
The window well cover and accessory for use there with includes a cover that is hingedly attached top of a window well. The window well cover includes height-adjusting means to tilt the window well to a particular orientation with respect to the window well. The window well cover includes an accessory that is secured to a top surface of the window well cover, and which provides a decorative feature to an adjacent home as well as a weighting means for maintaining the window well cover atop of the window well. The window well cover is constructed of a transparent material to enable light to penetrate down into the window well. The window well cover is capable of rotating outwardly and away from the respective home in order to provide ingress and egress with respect to the window well.
US08458936B2
A collapsible fabric display system comprises a frame and a fabric membrane configured for securement to the frame, which includes a hollow tubular spine and a pair of opposed fabric spreaders attached to the spine—the spreader being located within the spine. The spreaders are movable along the spine under urging of a spreader drive mechanism between a retracted condition of the frame in which the spreaders are located proximate one another, and an extended condition of the frame (illustrated) in which the spreaders are remote from one another. The spreaders each comprise a hub mounted on the spine and a plurality of spreader ribs pivotably connected to each hub, made up of a set of internal ribs and a set of external ribs. The free ends of the ribs are configured for connection to the fabric in use and the use of two sets of three ribs give the display an A-frame configuration. The fabric membrane is a double-sided sheet with anchor points for the free ends of the spreader ribs that correspond to the extremities of the fabric. At the base of the structure, the anchor points define feet, each having a fabric pocket that provides an anchor point for the free ends for a pair of ribs. The free ends of the remaining ribs fit into fabric pockets located within the opposed apices of the resultant A-shaped display structure.
US08458935B2
An example includes printing a graphic on a vinyl billboard sign and defining a translucent portion of the vinyl billboard sign, disposing adhesive on one of the vinyl billboard sign and a target surface, overlaying the translucent portion of the vinyl billboard sign with at least one planar electroluminescent lamp unit, overlaying the electroluminescent lamp unit with the target surface; attaching a power bus to the at least one planar electroluminescent lamp, connecting the lamp unit to a source of power, wherein the source of power comprises a power source, and the power bus includes a plurality of individual power lines to carry power to the at least one lamp unit and switching the power source to control illumination of the at least one planar electroluminescent lamp unit to shine through the vinyl billboard sign.
US08458928B2
An article of footwear with an outer member including slots that increase flexibility is disclosed. The outer member also includes an inner plate including a set of protective strips. The inner plate is disposed along an inner surface of the outer member so that the protective strips are aligned with and cover the slots in the outer member.
US08458919B2
A setting device for aligning a shift transmission, including, but not limited to a main bearing shaft mounted in a shift lever housing and a setting element, which can be hooked in guide means mounted on the shift lever housing, the setting element being situated along a central axis of the main bearing shaft.
US08458918B2
A drawing device for creating Mandala includes a single molded unit of a base plate, a support surface, and an outer frame, with the support surface being slightly recessed in relation to the bordering outer frame and the inner frame having the exact measurements of the support surface. The inner frame contains one or several voids within it and is positioned inside the outer frame on the drawing material lying on the support surface, and stencils(s) shaped to fit precisely into the matching void(s) of the inner frame can be positioned onto the drawing material lying on the support surface, allowing for the stencil to be rotated or mirrored repeatedly within the void of the inner frame while still maintaining its exact center point due to the void(s) and stencil(s) being non-circular, exhibiting at least at three edges.
US08458908B2
The invention relates to a hair removal apparatus (100) having a base body (10) and a slide (20), which is mounted thereon to be movable (displaceably). At least one wet shaver unit (40) comprising a razor blade, such as a blade cartridge for wet shaving, is mounted on the slide. Due to the mobility of the slide (20), this wet shaver unit (40) is protected from damage in the event of impact of the hair removal apparatus, e.g., in a fall to the floor. Certain target positions of the slide (20) can be secured with a slip clutch, such that they become unlocked on exceeding a minimum force that is acting and thereby release a movement of the slide.
US08458898B2
A method for preparing a terminal end of a cable to connect to a cable connector is provided. The method includes stripping a jacket, an insulating layer, and a corrugated outer conductor from a first section of a coaxial cable, stripping the jacket from a second section of the coaxial cable, and axially advancing a terminal end of the corrugated outer conductor beyond a terminal end of the insulating layer, resulting in an open section of the corrugated coaxial cable having an open space between the corrugated outer conductor and the inner conductor. A tool for accomplishing the foregoing is further provided, and includes first and second opposing jaws that engage the inner and outer conductors, respectively, such that operating the tool causes a terminal end of the outer conductor to axially advance toward the terminal end of the inner conductor.
US08458891B2
A method of centering a disk of a hard disk drive includes arranging a disk on an upper end portion of a hub on which a plurality of disks are rotatably assembled, and assembling the disk on the hub by vibrating the hub. Accordingly, the disks and/or spacers may be easily assembled on the hub, a time of centering may be relatively much reduced, and a superior centering quality may be obtained.
US08458889B2
An actuator manufacturing method includes alternately stacking a plurality of dielectric elastomer layers and a plurality of conductive rubber layers along the direction of thickness to form a sheet, and wrapping the sheet formed about a core to form a rolled sheet. When the sheet formed in the step of alternately stacking is wrapped about the core, the sheet is formed by the dielectric elastomer layers and the conductive rubber layers. Therefore, even if the dielectric elastomer layers in the sheet are made to be thin, the thickness of the entire sheet is prevented from being excessively thin.
US08458888B2
A method of forming at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) includes patterning a wiring layer to form at least one fixed plate and forming a sacrificial material on the wiring layer. The method further includes forming an insulator layer of one or more films over the at least one fixed plate and exposed portions of an underlying substrate to prevent formation of a reaction product between the wiring layer and a sacrificial material. The method further includes forming at least one MEMS beam that is movable over the at least one fixed plate. The method further includes venting or stripping of the sacrificial material to form at least a first cavity.
US08458877B1
An air hose removal device for removing a hose from a push-to-connect (quick connect push-in) fitting comprises a first lever arm and a second lever arm. The device comprises a generally planar rigid upper fork located on a second lever arm anterior end having a “V” shaped notch. The device comprises a generally planar rigid lower fork mount located on a second lever arm anterior end having a slot that runs longitudinally with respect to the plane of operation of the first lever arm and the second lever arm. The device comprises a rigid lower fork attachment with a “V” shaped notch and a threaded stud located on a lower fork attachment bottom surface that further comprises a mated internally threaded knob. The lower fork attachment comprises a monolithic “vee” block located on a lower fork attachment top surface having a groove located in the “vee” block top surface.
US08458876B2
A swage tool for swaging axially swaged fittings includes a housing having an inner surface and a first yoke. A ram includes a recessed portion having a threaded inner surface portion. A piston includes a second yoke. A piston rod includes a spring holder and a threaded portion screwed into the threaded inner surface portion of the ram. A spring is connected to the spring holder. Carbon fiber bearings are provided on the ram and on an outer surface portion of the piston rod in axial slidable engagement with the inner surface of the housing.
US08458861B2
A coupling device for coupling containers includes a body part having a fastening piece and a cam part on upper and lower parts thereof, and a planar coupling plate between the upper and lower parts. The fastening piece is fastenable to an upper corner piece in a corner of a container by rotating the body part around its vertical axis. The cam part controls the motion of the body part and receives substantially vertical forces between the containers. The body part includes a first rotating locking part for preventing and/or releasing the motion of the body part, and a second rotating locking part for enabling and/or preventing lateral motion of the body part. The second locking part is in direct or indirect contact with the first locking part so that when the first locking part rotates, the second locking part also rotates, enabling a locking mode or an unlocking mode.
US08458852B2
The present invention relates to a system of creating and applying a heated cleaning fluid to a surface. The system includes a housing with a first, a second and a third exhaust gas opening. A first, second, and third heat exchanger are enclosed within the housing. The first and second exchangers are serially arranged, while the third is at an angle relative to the first and second and directly adjacent to the first opening. Super heated exhaust gas flows through first opening and third exchanger. Heated gas flows through the second opening and passes below the third exchanger. Super heated exhaust gas exiting the third exchanger mixes with the heated gas in a mixing chamber of the housing, which is then supplied to the first and second exchangers. Fluid passes through the three exchangers and exits the third exchanger heated. That heated fluid passes to a cleaning wand for application.
US08458851B2
An extractor cleaning machine including a base or foot moveable along a surface to be cleaned, and a handle pivotally coupled to the foot and moveable between an upright storage position and an inclined operating position. The cleaning machine also includes a recovery tank insertable into a space between the foot and the handle. The handle is positioned directly over at least a portion of the recovery tank when the handle is in the upright storage position, and the recovery tank is removable from the space while the handle is in the upright storage position.
US08458849B2
A mobile robotic vacuum cleaner with a detachable electrical fan is disclosed to include a housing having a fan chamber, an electrical fan detachably mounted in the fan chamber, and a cover plate detachably fastened to the housing to hold down the electrical fan in the fan chamber. Subject to the use of the detachable cover plate to hold down the electrical fan in the fan chamber, the electrical fan can be installed in the fan chamber conveniently without any fastening members, such as screws, or the use of any hand tool, such as screwdriver and, after removal of the cover plate, the electrical fan can be removed from the housing easily.
US08458848B1
The multiple paint roller holder includes a roller frame and a handle connected to the roller frame. The handle is preferably connected to the frame by a bent or angled neck to place the handle in a raised position. The roller frame includes an upper cross member having corresponding upper roller holding pins, a lower cross member having corresponding lower roller holding pins, and an extendable center beam interconnecting the upper and lower cross members. Each pair of upper roller holding pin and lower roller holding pin rotatably holds a paint roller therebetween. The extendable center beam allows temporary lengthening of the center beam to facilitate mounting and removal of a plurality of paint rollers disposed vertically within the frame. The multiple paint rollers held thereby facilitate faster painting of surfaces.
US08458842B2
A post-CMP wafer cleaning apparatus includes a chamber; a plurality of rollers adapted to hold and rotate a wafer within the chamber; at least one brush adapted to scrub a surface of the wafer to be cleaned; and a liquid spraying device adapted to spray a liquid on the wafer, the liquid spraying device comprising two spray bars jointed together via a joint member.
US08458840B2
Device for back massage, in which each brush is removable, the face opposite the brush face having a prismatic axle for transmitting the action of the motor system, and in which the support has, for each brush, a prismatic seat combined with the aforementioned prismatic axle, at least one of the walls of the prism of the axle or of the seat having, moreover, a recess perpendicular to the wall to receive a part driven by a spring placed, in turn, inside a recess situated in a corresponding face of the seat or axle and in which each axle has, in turn, on the face opposite the brush face, a groove around said axle to receive a corresponding wall located on the support.
US08458829B2
A child enclosure apparatus that includes a hub assembly, a base assembly having four base legs in an X-shaped configuration, a side structure having four side posts, an upper assembly having four pairs of upper arms with each pair connected with medial latch connectors, lower corner assemblies, each having a pair of plates that are pivotally mounted to a side post and a pair of base legs, upper corner assemblies, each having two pair of plates that are configured at a right angle to each other, and cables extending from the base assemblies, through the side posts and being connected to the upper arms and to the latch connectors. The enclosure apparatus is operated by linear movement of the hub assembly.
US08458826B2
A washing device (10) for dispensing water in the sanitary field, in particular in a shower or a sink, including an outlet (1) for spraying fluids with a lower throughput rate, as well as a delivery device (6) for increasing the fluid pressure before the spraying. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the washing device (10) includes a heating device (5) for heating the water. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the atomisation is accomplished by way of a fluid jet (21) hitting an obstacle (21; 34) with a high relative speed. Thereby, the obstacle may be a moved or stationary solid body (34) or at least one further fluid jet (21). Preferably, the spraying is accomplished by way of the outlet (1) including at least one nozzle set (2) with at least two nozzles (3), for producing impacting fluid jets (21) and for atomising the fluid.
US08458824B2
The invention relates to a device for the attachment of a wall-mounted object, such as an item of sanitary ware and in particular a toilet bowl, to a wall (W) using at least one wall bracket (2) which can be fixed to the wall (W) of a building, an object, such as the body of a toilet bowl (3), being supported on said wall bracket (2) and said object (3) being screwed to said wall bracket by means of a respective locking screw (4) which engages through a respective hole (5) in the upper side (6) of the object (3) and can be screwed down into the respective wall bracket (2) from above.
US08458821B2
The helmet stabilization apparatus includes a helmet adapted to be worn by a user, a night vision goggle unit attached to a front portion of the helmet, and a removable counterweight attached to a rear portion of the helmet that balances with the weight of the night vision goggle unit, wherein said removable counterweight can be connected in a variety of manners, such as a magnetic means of connection, a hook and loop connection, or a mechanical means of connection. Furthermore, the helmet may provide staggered connections, such that the removable counterweight may be positioned on the helmet at the user's desired orientation. This allows the user to move the center of mass of the system such that it is self-stabilizing on the user's head. Moreover, the removable counterweight may be formed such that when it is removed, it may be coupled with an attachable handle to form a plurality of tools or weapons. This is beneficial in that it provides a collection of tools while only one object need be carried.
US08458814B1
A cookie cutting glove having a cookie cutter or cookie stamp attached to a glove for use by children and adults to cut and shape cookie dough easily and enjoyably while requiring minimal small motor skills. The glove has an internal layer of a resilient polymer that provides a rigidity to the glove when a user presses the cookie cutter in the dough as well as provides insulation against heat and electricity. The cookie cutter is attached to the glove by many variations, such as a strap or a ribbon. The glove is not limited to one specific style, but is any style that covers a palm and a back of a hand and has a plurality of finger cavities. In one embodiment, an outer surface of the glove itself is the cookie cutter. Without the cookie cutter, the glove is useful as an oven mitt.
US08458813B2
An eye shield is provided that may allow for compact storage and ease of assembly and use. The eye shield may include a frame for supporting the eye shield upon a user and a pair of hinges that are arranged upon the frame between a pair of temple portions and an intermediate segment of a forehead portion of the frame. A lens may be mounted to the pair of hinges for pivotal movement from a flat position to a use position.
US08464351B2
A security apparatus positioned between at least one domain having a level of trust or of sensitivity A and at least one domain having a level of trust or sensitivity B, bearing in mind that the level A is different from the level B, comprises a virtualization software layer V implemented on the physical layer H and positioned between said physical layer H and at least one set consisting of at least three different compartmentalized blocks having different sensitivity levels, BLA, BLB, MDS. The compartmentalized blocks rest on the physical layer H and the virtualization layer and the blocks include at least one of: a network block A, BLA, comprising all the network functions used to process data of security level A, a network block B, BLB, comprising all the network functions used to process data of security level B, and a security module software block, MDS, or airlock positioned between at least one block of BLA type and at least one block of BLB type, said security module being designed to monitor the exchanges of data between said blocks BLA and BLB, said security module comprising all the security, filtering or cryptographic function transformations.
US08464349B2
Methods and apparatus for dynamically adding and deleting new code to previously validated application executing in a secured runtime. New code is written to a portion of secured memory not executable by application. New code is validated to ensure it cannot directly call operating system, address memory outside of secured memory, or modify secured memory state. Indirect branch instructions may only target addresses aligned on fixed size boundaries within the secured memory. Validated code is copied to portion of secured memory executable by application in two stage process that ensures partially copied segments cannot be executed. Validated new code can be deleted once all threads reach safe execution point, provided code was previously inserted as unit or contains no internal targets that can be called by code not also being deleted.
US08464336B2
A virtual private network client for cellular mobile devices is described. The VPN network client establishes a secure VPN connection with a remote VPN security device. The VPN network client establishes a secure control channel with the secure VPN gateway and, upon a successful authentication, receives a session cookie with a unique identifier. In the event communication with the secure VPN gateway is subsequently temporarily lost, the VPN network client performs a fast reconnect without requiring re-authentication of the cellular mobile device by communicating the session cookie to the secure VPN gateway. Prior to performing the fast reconnect, the VPN network client identifies a set of transport mechanisms currently available to the cellular mobile device and, when only a cellular network is available and not a wireless packet-based connection, the VPN network client defers the fast reconnect until application-layer data is received from a user application and is ready to be sent to the remote VPN security device via the VPN connection.
US08464335B1
The present disclosure provides distributed, multi-tenant Virtual Private Network (VPN) cloud systems and methods for mobile security and user based policy enforcement. In an exemplary embodiment, plural mobile devices are configured to connect to one or more enforcement or processing nodes over VPN connections. The enforcement or processing nodes are configured to perform content filtering, policy enforcement, and the like on some or all of the traffic from the mobile devices. The present invention is described as multi-tenant as it can connect to plural clients across different companies with different policies in a single distributed system. Advantageously, the present invention allows smartphone and tablet users to protect themselves from mobile malware, without requiring a security applications on the device. It allows administrators to seamless enforce policy for a user regardless of the device or network they are connecting to, as well as get granular visibility into the user's network behavior.
US08464327B2
Method and apparatus for integrating distributed shared services system which integrates web based applications with each other and with other centralized application to provide a single sign-on approach for authentication and authorization services for distributed web sites requiring no access time back to the authentication/authorization server is provided.
US08464323B2
An authentication apparatus performs local and global corrections on image data. Local correction uses the shape of a local line indicated by line information contained in a neighboring region on image data whose feature value extracted from the shape of a line is used for authentication. Global correction uses the shape of a global line indicated by line information contained in a region larger than the neighboring region. The authentication apparatus calculates the difference between line information contained in image data corrected by local correction and line information contained in image data corrected by global correction and compares the difference with a threshold. If the difference is less than the threshold, the authentication apparatus outputs, as line information contained in image data, line information corrected by local correction and, if the difference is greater, it outputs, as line information contained in image data, line information corrected by global correction.
US08464322B2
Introducing, managing and restricting devices in an environment is discussed, including how to securely introduce the devices, how to establish trust between the devices, how to manage bandwidth requirements and other resource requirements of the devices, how to aggregate resource usage when multiple devices within an environment are engaging in a common task, and how to restrict device access to environment resources. Various techniques including manual and automatic solutions are disclosed.
US08464319B2
A scope hierarchy corresponding to a resource to which a type of access is requested is identified, the scope hierarchy including multiple scope levels each of which has an associated access control list. An access control list associated with a lower scope level can further restrict access permitted to the resource by an access control list associated with a higher scope level. Based at least in part on one or more of the access control lists associated with the multiple scope levels, a determination is made as to whether the requested type of access to the resource is permitted.
US08464314B2
A method and apparatus for controlling document access and application usage using centrally managed rules. The rules are stored and manipulated in a central rule database via a rule server. Policy enforcers are installed on client systems and/or on servers and perform document access and application usage control for both direct user document accesses and application usage, and application program document accesses by evaluating the rules sent to the policy enforcer. The rule server decides which rules are required by each policy enforcer. A policy enforcer can also perform obligation and remediation operations as a part of rule evaluation. Policy enforcers on client systems and servers can operate autonomously, evaluating policies that have been received, when communications have been discontinued with the rule server.
US08464312B1
A method and system for integrating network policy enforcement into an existing network infrastructure comprises a communications bus that links expert policy devices, such as intrusion prevention devices, with one or more connection points. The connection points are network devices that are equipped with enforcement logic for receiving reports of events via a published interface on the communications bus about the existing network infrastructure from either the policy devices or the connection points themselves, and enforcing policy at the connection points by generating an action in response to the reported events, including actions to block traffic, remediate devices, limit bandwidth, and the like, until the reported event has been addressed in a manner that ensures the security of the existing network infrastructure.
US08464310B2
A technique for providing interactive television viewing. A programming signal is combined with a code signal to form a transmission signal, wherein different programming signals correspond to respective code signals. The technique includes broadcasting the transmission signal, receiving the broadcast transmission signal with a TV receiver at a viewer's location, and displaying the programming signal in the received transmission signal. At least one code signal is pre-stored at the viewer's location. Interactive program data is also pre-stored at the viewer's location, wherein different interactive program data correspond to respective ones of the pre-stored code signals. The technique further includes detecting the code signal in the received transmission signal, determining whether the detected code signal matches the pre-stored code signal and, if so, inputting to a display the pre-stored interactive program data that corresponds to the detected code signal, displaying to the viewer the interactive program data that corresponds to the detected code signal, and recording a viewer response signal that has been manually inputted, interactively with the displayed programming signal, based on the displayed interactive program data.
US08464280B2
A system and method for controlling the execution of notifications in a computer system with multiple notification contexts. A RunOn operator enables context hopping between notification contexts. Push-based stream operators optionally perform error checking to determine if notifications combined into a push-based stream share a common notification context. Context boxes group together notification creators and associate their notifications with a common scheduler and notification context. Operators employ a composition architecture, in which they receive one or more push-based streams and produce a transformed push-based stream that may be further operated upon. Components may be used in combinations to implement various policies, including a strict policy in which all notifications are scheduled in a common execution context, a permissive policy that provides programming flexibility, and a hybrid policy that combines flexibility with error checking.
US08464277B2
A method and system for process/data sharing. A trigger response unit, corresponding to a first application residing in a first system, is deployed in a second system. The trigger response unit detects information embedded in trigger data, representing the first application with associated data, when the trigger data is activated in a second system. Based on the information detected, a launching request is generated and sent to the first system to launch an instance of the first application in the first system with respect to the associated data. The second system receives, via a remote access protocol, a dynamic graphical representation of the first application launched in the first system based on the launching request. The associated data is manipulated in the second system using the first application launched in the first system via the dynamic graphical representation of the first application displayed in the second system.
US08464276B1
A method, system, and medium are provided for monitoring channels running on a queue manager. Both the total number of channel instances and instances of each named channel running on a queue manager may be monitored. An alarm may be generated when the total number of channel instances exceeds a threshold value. An alarm may also be generated when the instances of a particular named channel exceed a threshold value for the particular named channel.
US08464275B2
A method of using a plurality of subscriber types in managing a message queue of a database management system is described and provided. The method comprises creating a subscriber with a set of rules to the message queue. The subscriber is designated as one or more of the plurality of subscriber types. Moreover, an event notification registration representing a request to be notified if a message to the message queue satisfies the set of rules may be created. In response to a new message for enqueuing to the message queue, it is determined whether the new message satisfies the set of rules. If the new message satisfies the set of rules and if so determined by a triggered event notification registration, a notification is performed according to the triggered event notification registration. A requirement that a receiver of the notification dequeue the new message from the message queue depends on the subscriber type designation.
US08464274B2
An information processing system includes a first process, a second process, a management process and a relay process. The first process executes a predetermined process and communicates with other processes. The second process is started in response to a start request sent from the first process and executes a predetermined process. The management process manages communication between the first process and the second process. The relay process receives, from the first process, the start request to the second process and usage data used in the first process and the second process. The relay process further starts the second process by proxy, transfers the usage data to the second process, and notifies the management process of the start of the second process.
US08464261B2
The transactional memory system described herein may implement parallel co-transactions that access a shared memory such that at most one of the co-transactions in a set will succeed and all others will fail (e.g., be aborted). Co-transactions may improve the performance of programs that use transactional memory by attempting to perform the same high-level operation using multiple algorithmic approaches, transactional memory implementations and/or speculation options in parallel, and allowing only the first to complete to commit its results. If none of the co-transactions succeeds, one or more may be retried, possibly using a different approach and/or transactional memory implementation. The at-most-one property may be managed through the use of a shared “done” flag. Conflicts between co-transactions in a set and accesses made by transactions or activities outside the set may be managed using lazy write ownership acquisition and/or a priority-based approach. Each co-transaction may execute on a different processor resource.
US08464254B1
Techniques relating to tracking storage operations performed by a guest virtual machine executing on a computer system are disclosed. The guest virtual machine may include a filter driver that provides an indication to a storage tracking virtual machine executing on the computer system that the guest virtual machine is performing a write operation to a production storage device. The storage tracking virtual machine then communicates information about the write operation to a backup storage device (e.g., one that provides continuous data production (CDP) to the computer system). In another embodiment, the storage tracking virtual machine may insert breakpoints into a guest virtual machine. When a first breakpoint triggers, the storage tracking virtual machine captures an I/O buffer of the guest virtual machine. After a second breakpoint triggers, the storage tracking virtual machine communicates information about the write operation to a backup storage device.
US08464250B1
A system for on-demand cloning of virtual machines (VMs) includes a virtual server to host a number of VMs, the virtual server including at least one master VM. The system also includes a Web server to authenticate a user in response to a request for online access to a new VM on the virtual server. In addition, the system includes a cloning module, in communication with the Web server and the virtual server, to automatically clone the master VM to create a unique VM clone for the user on the virtual server responsive to the request.
US08464247B2
The present invention provides methods and systems for dynamically generating configuration files used in installing software distributions and software installation testing. In particular, the present invention employs a framework comprising an API to discover and monitor an inventory of distributions, a set of templates for the configuration files, and plugins that may be selectively invoked to customize the configuration files. When performing installation testing, a server will access the distribution inventory and select appropriate templates that are to be part of the test. The server will then automatically generate the installation configuration files from the templates. The server may also execute one or more plugins that customize the configuration files as desired. Small client applications run on the target machines of the installation tests and are used to download the configuration files and the distributions. The present invention may also employ a scheduling service to coordinate the operations of the server and target machines.
US08464242B2
A hardware and/or software translation system to automatically apply user-specific configuration settings to a computer irrespective of the application version or operation system version for which the settings were originally established. By automatically applying user-specific configuration settings to a version of an application or operating system, the translation system eliminates any post-installation reconfiguration, thereby simplifying the process of changing or upgrading the version of an application or operating system.
US08464241B2
A method for updating a plurality of disk images, each of the plurality of disk images derived from a common base disk image and a delta image comprising a plurality of delta files, includes applying a delta file to a base disk image to generate a second disk image comprising a portion of the base disk image modified by the delta file and an unmodified portion of the base disk image. Each delta file represents at least one difference between one of the plurality of user disk images and the base disk image. The method includes applying a patch to a copy of the base disk image, and determining that the patch is applied to a portion of the base disk image corresponding to the unmodified portion of the base disk image. The delta file is applied to the patched copy of the base disk image.
US08464237B1
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for compiling a computer program. During operation, the system receives one or more source code files associated with a computer program at a compiler. Next, the system starts a linker which links object files into an executable program. The system then compiles the one or more source code files into one or more object files. Upon creating each object file, the system sends the object file to the linker without waiting to create the remaining object files.
US08464226B2
A mechanism for providing automatic interoperation between native objects created in a single language computing environment and objects created in external virtual machines and foreign class systems is discussed. Embodiments of the present invention provides a class definition syntax for objects created in the single language computing environment that provides the ability to directly subclass external classes and implement external interfaces. One embodiment of the present invention also permits a foreign object system to instantiate native objects and to create foreign subclasses of native classes. More specifically, one embodiment of the present invention provides bidirectional mapping between metadata associated with objects created with each of a plurality of different types of foreign object systems and metadata created in a form supported by the single language computing environment.
US08464221B2
A system and method for identifying a root cause of a wait in a computer system are provided. Given the identity of a thread of interest and time window, a longest wait period for the thread of interest within the time window is identified. The longest wait period is used as a starting node to generate a ready tree by walking backwards through the data in a system trace to construct a tree of readying events that ready threads for running on a processor. A potentially anomalous chain of events is automatically identified and highlighted in the ready tree. A visualization of the ready tree is presented to a user so that the user can explore the events in the tree and annotate the automatically generated tree to aid in problem diagnosis.
US08464220B2
A web server 2 capable of performing a test of a web application comprises: a web application processing section 22 that performs processing for POST data received from a client 1 and, based on the processing result, generates a document to be transmitted to the client 1; and a test processing section 21 that embeds a test program for automatically transmitting the POST data from the client 1 to the web server 2 in the document to allow the client 1 to execute the test program when the test of a web application is performed.
US08464218B2
A configuration method of a method port arrangement for robot software component includes: generating a requester method port module and a provider method port module; generating a requester method module and a provider method module depending on application of a method module to be generated in the component; registering the requester method module in the requester method port module and the provider method module in the provider method port module; and registering, in a method port management module, the requester method port module and the provider method port module where the requester method module and the provider method module have been registered. The method further includes establishing the requester method port module to be operated by interconnecting the requester method port module and the provider method port module; and executing input and output operations to/from the requester method port or the provider method port depending on application of the component.
US08464204B1
A code verification tool verifies that code generated from a model represents all of the functionality of the model and does not contain any unintended functionality. The code verification tool may receive for examination a model or an intermediate representation (IR) of the model and the generated code or an intermediate representation of the generated code. The code verification tool may create further intermediate representations of the model and/or the generated code in order to compare the functionality presented in both.
US08464196B1
A system and method are provided for establishing an automated routing environment in an electronic design automation (EDA) work flow for the routing of a circuit design. A user may merely specify a flow via pattern, a flow via location, and a start and end terminal and thereby, the auto router or path finder will automatically find the least-cost paths between each of the start terminals through at least one intermediate via of the flow via and ending at an end terminal. Upon successful routing of all needed terminals, an at least partially routed circuit design may be output.
US08464193B1
A marker layer is placed in regions of a design layout in which an image slope is less than a critical image slope or a perimeter to area ratio is less than a critical perimeter to area ratio. Multiple optical proximity correction (OPC) can be generated by grouping subsets of process conditions at which error mean and/or error root-mean-square (RMS) exceed threshold values. Regions marked with the marker layer are processed with a rigorous OPC employing at least one non-standard resist model, while unmarked regions of the layout are processes with a standard OPC program that is less rigorous than the at least one non-standard resist model. Additionally, number of edges and areal image contrast can be compared among layout clips to determine threshold values for the number of edges and the areal image contrast, which can be employed to determine if multiple OPC is needed for each layout clip.
US08464176B2
Aspects of the present invention are directed to the stacking of visual items, and their subsequent expansion, or unstacking. Upon selection of a stack, that stack expands into the individual visual items making up that stack. Further aspects of the present invention are directed to expanding a stack in different ways depending upon the circumstances. Further aspects of the present invention are directed to providing a hot area associated with, and potentially disposed around, a stack. Selection by the user of the hot area results in selection of the associated stack. The stack may itself be considered a single item that is itself selectable. After the stack is expanded, then the individual visual items making up the original stack are each individually selectable. However, when stacked, the individual items may not be selectable except as a complete stack.
US08464154B2
There is provided herein a system and method for producing a single audio recording from multiple recordings of the same event. In the preferred embodiment, the instant invention will automatically analyze and visually time-align each of the individual source takes, so that the takes containing the same content are positioned beneath each other. This will make it possible for the user to quickly survey, evaluate, and edit different takes of the same event. The instant invention will automatically keep track of the source material presented in by the visual display and will transfer content selected by the sound engineer from a source to a destination location to create the single audio recording.
US08464153B2
A first input is received in an animation creation application having a user interface showing a virtual-space area for first objects, and a timeline area for second objects representing events. To generate the first input, a user presses and holds an input control while a cursor is over one of the first or second objects. It is determined whether the input control is held for at least a predefined duration. If so, a copy of the object is assigned to the cursor, and the copy is subsequently pasted at another location in the user interface upon the input control ceasing to be held after the cursor is moved to the other location. If the input control does not remain held for at least the predefined duration the copy of the object is not assigned to the cursor.
US08464149B2
A hand-held electronic device with a keyboard, thumbwheel, display and associated software is optimized for use of the device with the thumbs. The associated software has a plurality of features to optimize efficient use of the limited keyboard space and encourage the use of the device by thumb-based data entry through the thumbwheel and/or through a combination of minimal number of keystrokes. Software features include international character scrolling, and auto-capitalization. The keys on the device keyboard are optimally shaped and configured for thumb-based input. In addition, the thumbwheel is inclined between the front and a side edge of the device so as to be reachable by either the thumb or index finger of the user's hand at the side edge of the device.
US08464144B2
A layout error detection method includes the following steps, reading a layout file, in which the layout file includes a plurality of elements and a plurality of coordinates, and each element is corresponding to one coordinate; reading a record table, in which the record table includes an identification column, a coordinate column, and a flag column; scanning the layout file to obtain an error detection result, in which the error detection result is corresponding to an identification data and a coordinate data; searching the identification column of the record table to judge whether the identification column has the same identifier according to the identification data, and when a judgment result is false, writing the identification data and the coordinate data of the error detection result, setting a flag value to logic 0, and marking the error detection result; and scanning the layout file repeatedly until all the elements are scanned.
US08464142B2
In one embodiment, an LDPC decoder has a controller and an extrinsic log-likelihood (LLR) value generator. The extrinsic LLR value generator is selectively configurable to operate in either (i) a non-averaging mode that updates extrinsic LLR values without averaging or (ii) an averaging mode that updates extrinsic LLR values using averaging. Initially, the extrinsic LLR value generator is configured to generate non-averaged extrinsic LLR values, and the decoder attempts to recover an LDPC-encoded codeword using the non-averaged extrinsic LLR values. If the decoder is unable to recover the correct codeword, then (i) the controller selects the averaging mode, (ii) the extrinsic LLR value generator is configured to generate average extrinsic LLR values, and (iii) the decoder attempts to recover the correct codeword using the average extrinsic LLR values. Averaging the extrinsic LLR values may slow down the propagation of erroneous messages that lead the decoder to convergence on trapping sets.
US08464139B2
A receiving device in a communication system that separates one frame of information bits into plural blocks, performs turbo encoding of the information bits of each block and transmits the result, and decodes the encoded information bits, where the receiving device includes plural decoders number of which is less than the number of blocks per frame. Each decoder performs a decoding process on encoded information bits of each block that have been expressed by likelihood, when a condition for stopping decoding is met, executes the decoding process of encoded information bits of another block for which decoding has not yet been performed. When the condition for stopping decoding has been met for all blocks before the number of times decoding has been performed for each decoder reaches a preset maximum number of repetitions, the decoding results of all the blocks are serially combined, an error detection process is executed.
US08464135B2
A structure, and corresponding operating techniques, are presented for the internal controller to memory circuit interface for memory systems such a flash memory card or other similarly structured devices. The interface between the controller circuit and memory circuit (or circuits) includes a feedback process where the amount of error that arises due to controller-memory transfers is monitored and the transfer characteristics (such as clock rate, drive strength, etc.) can be modified accordingly. For example, in addition to transferring a set of data, the transmitting side also generates and transmits a corresponding hash value for the set of data. When the set of data is received on the other side, a hash value is also generated there and compared to the received hash value to determine if these was transmission error. If there is no error, the transfer rate could, for example, be increased, while if there were error, it could be decreased.
US08464131B2
To read memory cells that have been programmed to store an ECC codeword, with each cell storing a respective plurality of bits of the codeword, a respective value of an operational parameter such as a threshold voltage of each cell is measured. Each bit is assigned a respective metric, such as a LLR estimate of the bit, based at least in part on the respective value of the operational parameter of the bit's cell. The metrics are decoded with reference both to the ECC and to mutual constraints of the metrics within each cell that are independent of the ECC.
US08464130B2
An error correction module is disclosed whereby two bit cells are used to store a bit of information in a redundant manner so that a redundant error correction module can correct a sporadic data error at one of the two bits.
US08464123B2
A plurality of information bits are encoded using a parity-check matrix that is equivalent to a modular code matrix. The modular code matrix is a diagonal sub-matrix structure immediately above a connection layer that includes a plurality of diverse connection layer sub-matrices, all but at most one of which are below corresponding diagonal matrix structure sub-matrices. The information bits are assembled with a plurality of parity bits produced by the encoding to provide a codeword that is exported to a medium. Preferably, all the diagonal matrix structure sub-matrices are identical. Preferably, some of the parity bits are computed using only diagonal matrix structure sub-matrices.
US08464117B2
A system for scan testing various clock domains of an integrated circuit includes a clock gate control unit and clock gating cells. The clock gating cells receive a single test clock signal provided externally through one package pin of the integrated circuit. The clock gate control unit provides clock gate control signals to the clock gating cells. The clock gating cells generate time-staggered clock signals based on the clock gate control signals.
US08464110B2
A process of selecting alternative test circuitry within an integrated circuit enables a test access port. Scan test instruction data is loaded into an instruction register of a test access port TAP, the instruction data including information for selecting the alternative test circuitry. An Update-IR instruction update operation is performed at the end of the loading to output scan test control signals from the instruction register. A lockout signal is changed to an active state to disable the test access port and enable scan test circuits.
US08464108B2
Scan distributor, collector, and controller circuitry connect to the functional inputs and outputs of core circuitry on integrated circuits to provide testing through those functional inputs and outputs. Multiplexer and demultiplexer circuits select between the scan circuitry and the functional inputs and outputs. The core circuitry can also be provided with built-in scan distributor, collector, and controller circuitry to avoid having to add it external of the core circuitry. With appropriately placed built-in scan distributor and collector circuits, connecting together the functional inputs and outputs of the core circuitry also connects together the scan distributor and collector circuitry in each core. This can provide a hierarchy of scan circuitry and reduce the need for separate test interconnects and multiplexers.
US08464106B2
A solid-state mass storage device and method of anticipating a failure of the mass storage device resulting from a memory device of the mass storage device reaching a write endurance limit. A procedure is then initiated to back up data to a second mass storage device prior to failure. The method includes assigning at least a first memory block of the memory device as a wear indicator, using other memory blocks of the memory device as data blocks for data storage, performing program/erase (P/E) cycles and wear leveling on the data blocks, subjecting the wear indicator to more P/E cycles than the data blocks, performing integrity checks and monitoring the bit error rate of the wear indicator, and taking corrective action if the bit error rate increases, including the initiation of the backup procedure and generating a request to replace the device.
US08464093B1
A memory array comprises N+1 memory elements. N memory elements store data and one or more error check bits respectively derived from the stored data. A separate N+1 memory element stores parity bits generated from the data stored in the N memory elements. These parity bits are stored in. To recover from data errors, data in each N memory element are first checked using their respective error check bits. If faulty data are detected in one of the N memory elements, an exclusive-or operation is performed involving data in the remaining N−1 memory elements and parity bits in the N+1 memory element. This recovers the faulty data in the one memory element.
US08464089B2
A tracing apparatus for tracing operational information that is output from a plurality of processing units in relation to data processing operations, the tracing apparatus comprising for each of the processing units: a counting unit configured to obtain and output a counter value for the corresponding processing unit, the counter value obtained by counting clock signals that are input to the processing unit at an operating frequency thereof; a counter value conversion unit configured to obtain and output a converted counter value for the corresponding processing unit, the converted counter value obtained by converting the counter value based on the assumption that the processing unit has a given reference operating frequency; and an adding unit configured to acquire an operational information set from the corresponding processing unit, and to add the converted counter value to the operational information set.
US08464082B2
A management apparatus which manages plural information processors, manages information indicating at least one of the information processors, belonging to a first group and at least one of the information processors, belonging to a second group; stores first and second schedule information respectively corresponding to the first and second groups, each schedule information indicating a schedule of a power mode to be set on each information processor belonging to the corresponding group; instructs to change over the power mode based on the first or second schedule information; determines, if the power mode indicated by the first schedule information is different from that indicated by the second schedule information, which of the power modes is to be set with priority; and controls so that the power mode determined to be set with priority is set on the information processor belonging to both the first group and the second group.
US08464078B2
A system comprises an AC/DC adapter having a connector. The system also comprises a portable computer that receives said connector. The portable computer comprising a delay circuit coupled to a power transistor that is coupled in parallel with a resistor. The delay circuit causes the power transistor to activate following a time delay after current from the adapter begins to flow through the resistor. As a result of a user beginning to remove the connector from the portable computer, a control transistor is activated to reset the delay circuit.
US08464070B2
Provided is an apparatus to transmit and receive data, and a method thereof. A data transmission apparatus may generate a first cryptogram and a second cryptogram by encrypting a message authentication code to be transmitted, using a plurality of encryption keys, and may transmit the generated first cryptogram and the second cryptogram to a data reception apparatus.
US08464067B2
A method for enabling limitation of service access where a service provider offers at least one service and a user possesses multiple different digital identities that can be used to invoke or register with the service, wherein the user agrees on a secret with a third party entity, assigns counter values to different digital identities used to invoke or register with a service, and requests the service by applying an encryption algorithm on the secret and the counter value assigned to the digital identity employed for the service request, and the third party entity receives the first verification value, applies the encryption algorithm to reconstruct the employed counter value, and provides information on whether the reconstructed counter value exceeds a limit.
US08464066B1
A system and method for storing segments of multimedia data with other users. A user selects a segment of data from the multimedia data by activating a user interface control. Prior to sharing the data segment, however, permission to share a data segment from such multimedia is determined based on various types of metadata. In another embodiment, data segments may be shared in accordance with an affiliate program under which affiliate users may earn benefits for sharing data segments with others.
US08464062B2
Embodiments of the systems, devices, and methods described herein generally facilitate the secure transmittal of security parameters. In accordance with at least one embodiment, a representation of first data comprising a password is generated at the first computing device as an audio signal. The audio signal is transmitted from the first computing device to the second computing device. The password is determined from the audio signal at the second computing device. A key exchange is performed between the first computing device and the second computing device wherein a key is derived at each of the first and second computing devices. In at least one embodiment, one or more security parameters (e.g. one or more public keys) are exchanged between the first and second computing devices, and techniques for securing the exchange of security parameters or authenticating exchanged security parameters are generally disclosed herein.
US08464046B1
A system and method are provided for establishing and administering an online secure data sharing network for use in emergency situations wherein a patient is unconscious or otherwise unable to communicate. The network enables first responders to identify victims and reach next-of-kin, and to provide emergency medical data at the crash scene, the emergency data having previously been authorized for access by the patient. The network includes an emergency medical data registry in which a person can elect to participate, by validating and authenticating their identity and consenting to securely provide emergency medical data on themselves and, if applicable, their children. The emergency medical data can only be viewed by a licensed emergency healthcare worker.
US08464043B2
Provided is a migration system considering security authentication levels and data protection strength levels of the both security devices between which data is migrated. A first terminal includes a mechanism for protecting data by a private key in the public key method held by TPM, and a second terminal includes a key in the private key method encrypted by the private key in the public key method held by TPM and a mechanism for protecting the data by the key. A Migration Authority holds a security policy table describing a security policy and judges whether data movement from the first terminal to the second terminal is enabled according to the security policy table.
US08464038B2
Methods and apparatus for implementing modes of operation of computing device are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a mode-selection input device having a first state and a second state. The example apparatus also includes firmware operably coupled with the mode-selection input device. In the example apparatus, when the mode-selection input device is in the first state, the firmware is configured to cause the computing device to operate in a first mode of operation, a user mode. In the example apparatus, when the mode-selection input device is in the second state, the firmware is configured to cause the computing device to operate in second mode of operation, a developer mode.
US08464035B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor having a core with decode logic to decode an instruction prescribing an identification of a location to be monitored and a timer value, and a timer coupled to the decode logic to perform a count with respect to the timer value. The processor may further include a power management unit coupled to the core to determine a type of a low power state based at least in part on the timer value and cause the processor to enter the low power state responsive to the determination. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08464033B2
Methods and systems thereof for exception handling are described. An event to be handled is identified during execution of a code sequence. A bit is set to indicate that handling of the event is to be deferred. An exception corresponding to the event is generated if the bit is set.
US08464028B2
In one embodiment, a processor comprises a redirect unit configured to detect a match of an instruction pointer (IP) in an IP redirect table, the IP corresponding to a guest instruction that the processor has intercepted, wherein the guest is executed under control of a virtual machine monitor (VMM), and wherein the redirect unit is configured to redirect instruction fetching by the processor to a routine identified in the IP redirect table instead of exiting to the VMM in response to the intercept of the guest instruction.
US08464022B2
One or more embodiments provides a shadow page table used by a virtualization software wherein at least a portion of the shadow page table shares computer memory with a guest page table used by a guest operating system (OS) and wherein the virtualization software provides a mapping of guest OS physical pages to machine pages.
US08464021B2
Systems and/or methods that facilitate logical block address (LBA) to physical block address (PBA) translations associated with a memory component(s) are presented. The disclosed subject matter employs an optimized block address (BA) component that can facilitate caching the LBA to PBA translations within a memory controller component based in part on a predetermined optimization criteria to facilitate improving the access of data associated with the memory component. The predetermined optimization criteria can relate to a length of time since an LBA has been accessed, a number of times the LBA has been access, a data size of data related to an LBA, and/or other factors. The LBA to PBA translations can be utilized to facilitate accessing the LBA and/or associated data using the cached translation, instead of performing various functions to determine the translation.
US08464020B2
In a memory system including a host device and one or more nonvolatile memory devices, the host device reads, from a nonvolatile memory device connected in the system, a boot code used to operate a CPU of the host device before the CPU is activated. The boot code reading process is required to be performed with a simple method. A host device (2) transmits a first symbol including a synchronous code to a nonvolatile memory device (1). The nonvolatile memory device (1) receives the first symbol from the host device (2), and transmits a first symbol that is identical to the received first symbol to the host device (2), and then transmits a boot code to the host device (2). In this manner, the host device (2) reads a boot code from the nonvolatile memory device 1 with a simple method.
US08464015B2
Predetermined information is received from an external device and when receiving the information, an area in which the data stored in the first memory shall be erased is determined corresponding to a battery residual quantity of a power supply unit of the arithmetic processing device, and a data erasing process is controlled and executed with respect to the thus-determined area.
US08464013B2
A method and apparatus for constructing a memory-based database service platform, in which database can be on-loaded and off-loaded or unloaded as needed, and can reserve schedule and size of memory and other resources, including CPUs, network, backup, mirroring and recovery recourses. With the service platform, multiple different types of databases can be chosen by specifying data storage type and data operation interfaces, such as Relational Database (RDB), Biometric Database (BDB), Time Series Database (TDB), Data Driven Database (DDDB) and File-based Database (FDB) etc. Database types can be chosen either by user directly or by platform automatically or semi-automatically based on data types and data operation characteristics.
US08464007B2
Various embodiments include fault tolerant memory apparatus, methods, and systems, including a memory manager for supplying read and write requests to a memory device having a plurality of addressable memory locations. The memory manager includes a plurality of banks. Each bank includes a bank queue for storing read and write requests. The memory manager also includes a request arbiter connected to the plurality of banks. The request arbiter removes read and write requests from the bank queues for presentation to the memory device. The request arbiter includes a read phase of operation and a write phase of operation, wherein the request arbiter preferentially selects read requests for servicing during the read phase of operation and preferentially selects write requests for servicing during the write phase of operation.
US08464003B2
Exemplary embodiments provide a technique to manage object based tier to improve allocation of media to unallocated area. In one embodiment, a method of allocating an area of a logical volume to an unallocated area of a virtual volume for a write command comprises: calculating an object location of an object based on the write command and an object allocation information, the write command containing a virtual volume name and a virtual volume address of a virtual volume; selecting a tier from a plurality of tiers based on the calculated object location and an object and tier definition information; selecting a media type from a plurality of media types based on the selected tier and a tier and media definition information; and selecting a logical volume from a plurality of logical volumes based on the virtual volume specified by the write command, the object allocation information, a pool information, and the selected media type.
US08464001B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing the number of affirmatively associated cache lines related to the different sets of a data cache unit. A tag look-up unit implements two thresholds, which may be configurable thresholds, to manage the number of cache lines related to a given set that store dirty data or are reserved for in-flight read requests. If the number of affirmatively associated cache lines in a given set is equal to a maximum threshold, the tag look-up unit stalls future requests that require an available cache line within that set to be affirmatively associated. To reduce the number of stalled requests, the tag look-up unit transmits a high priority clean notification to a frame buffer logic when the number of affirmatively associated cache lines in a given set approaches the maximum threshold. The frame buffer logic then processes requests associated with that set preemptively.
US08463985B2
Constrained coding to reduce floating gate coupling in non-volatile memories including a method for storing data. The method includes receiving write data to be written to a flash memory device, selecting a codeword in response to the write data, and writing the codeword to the flash memory device. The codeword is selected to reduce floating gate coupling in the flash memory device by preventing specified symbol patterns from occurring in the codeword.
US08463978B2
A computer for charging an electronic device includes a computer, a power supply module, a motherboard and a USB interface module. The power supply module outputs electrical power when the computer is powered down. The USB interface module includes a USB interface and a switch. The USB interface is connected to the power supply and the motherboard and capable of charging the electronic device. The switch is set between the USB interface and the motherboard and controls a communication between the motherboard and the electronic device.
US08463972B2
In some embodiments, the invention involves a dynamic interrupt route discovery method with local APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) retriggering to accommodate architectures that are not PC/AT compatible. In a low power mobile device, General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins are dynamically allocated and IRQs are retriggered by a GPIO driver to multiplex the requests to an appropriate device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08463969B2
Methods and arrangements to extend message signal interrupt (MSI) transactions with additional data to reduce the latency associated with servicing interrupts included in the transactions are contemplated. Some embodiments may comprise a chipset that transmits the MSI to a processor to service the interrupt. The chipset may identify that a transaction is an extended MSI transaction by determining that the MSI has more than a four bytes. In several embodiments, the chipset may validate the MSI by determining that the MSI comprises at least six bytes and, in further embodiments, by determining that the extended MSI has a valid signature byte. Another embodiment comprises a processor to receive the extended MSI transaction and store the data to service the corresponding interrupt(s) in a low latency buffer. The processor may then service the interrupt(s) based upon the data when the processor becomes available.
US08463968B2
According to one embodiment, a computer system is disclosed. The computer system includes a flash memory device, a serial peripheral interface (SPI) coupled to the flash memory device, a network controller coupled to the SPI; and a chipset coupled to the SPI. The chipset includes an arbiter to arbitrate between the network controller and the chipset for control of the SPI to access the flash memory device.
US08463964B2
The invention provides, in some aspects, a process, environmental, manufacturing, industrial or other such control system (hereinafter, “control system”) with enhanced, real-time change tracking. The system includes one or more configurable elements (e.g., field devices), a change tracking system that records of changes to those configurable elements (e.g., for compliance reporting, etc.) and a change detection system that responds to detected changes in configuration of those element(s) by inferring an identity of a person and/or device responsible for a change, the time of the change, and/or the reason for the change. This is unlike prior art systems, in which that such information must be specified, e.g., in a data entry form filled-in by the field engineer, operator or other who is making the change.
US08463961B2
There is provided video switching circuitry for use in a KVM switch and similar devices. Video signal switching circuitry can supply video signals from a one of a plurality of video sources connected to the circuit to a display device connected to the circuit. The high data signalling rate signals are converted into a greater number of lower data signalling rate signals for switching by a bus architecture. Also provided are video display systems in which analogue and digital video signals are switched synchronously to allow them to be displayed on common or separate display devices. Also described is a high-resolution monitor digital video data switching device.
US08463956B2
In a data transfer control apparatus, a transfer start address and a transfer size are acquired from a peripheral circuit. A command is issued in response to an activation signal from the peripheral circuit. When data transfer is performed between the main memory unit and the peripheral circuit, completion of issuance of all of commands corresponding to the transfer start address and transfer size is detected. The transfer size is retained until the end of data transfer. A next command is issued prior to completion of data transfer for one command, and a next activation signal is received upon detection of completion of issuance of all of the commands corresponding to the one transfer start address and transfer size. Next transfer start address and transfer size are acquired upon detection of completion of issuance of all of the commands corresponding to the one transfer start address and transfer size.
US08463953B2
A system comprising multiple devices that are operable when servicing a device-under service is described. A data acquisition (DAQ) device and a scanner device of the system are operable to acquire data from the device-under-service and to transmit the acquired data to a display device of the system. The DAQ device can operate in a local-control mode in which selection of DAQ mode for the DAQ device is carried out at the DAQ device. The DAQ device can operate in a remote-control mode in which selection of a DAQ mode for the DAQ device is carried out at the display device. The multiple devices may communicate with each other via one or more wireless network via one or more air interface protocols. Each device of the system may operate as a stand-alone device or in combination with multiple devices of the system.
US08463949B2
Each communication path between controllers and a plurality of storage devices has a plurality of expanders coupled in series. In order to shorten the time during which the communication path is not used for I/O, either (A) the length of time for which I/O suppression is set for the communication path is shortened, or (B) the overall time it takes for processing other than I/O processing is shortened. In the (A), a determination as to whether or not the coupling between the expanders has been disconnected is made for the I/O-suppressed communication path, and in a case where the result of this determination is negative, a discover process is carried out after releasing the I/O suppression with respect to this communication path. In the (B), the number of command issue times of updating routing control information of the expander is reduced.
US08463948B1
Techniques for determining an identifier for a volume of memory in a memory device of a computer system. In an embodiment, the memory device detects an indication of an initialization event of the computer system and receives command information after the detecting of the indication. In certain embodiments, the memory device stores an identifier value for association with the volume of memory, wherein the storing is based on whether the received command information specifies that the volume of memory is to be assigned an identifier.
US08463941B1
Protocol acceleration is performed between clients and servers over a network wherein transport connections are established between clients/servers and/or their proxies for acceleration of traffic that uses certain protocols. A first transport connection for a first application protocol and a second transport connection for a second application protocol can be made between two proxies, wherein a client-side proxy is in communication with a client and a server-side proxy is in communication with a server, and the proxies use information from message payloads flowing between the client device and the server device over the first transport connection for acceleration of traffic over the second transport connection. Examples of transport protocols include a file server protocol and a storage access protocol. Cross-protocol acceleration can be expanded so that information obtained for one client on one protocol can be used to accelerate traffic for another client with the same or different protocol.
US08463928B2
Incoming data streams are managed by receiving a data stream on at least one network interface card (NIC) and performing operations on the data stream using a first process running several first threads for each network interface card and at least one group of second multiple processes each with an optional group of second threads. The first process and the one or more groups of second multiple processes are independent and communicate via the shared memory. The first threads for each network interface card are different than the group of second threads. The system includes at least one network interface card that receives a data stream, a first processor that runs a first process that uses a plurality of first threads for each network interface card and a second processor that runs at least one group of second multiple processes each with an optional group of second threads. The first process and the one or more groups of second multiple processes are independent and communicate via the shared memory.
US08463917B2
A communications system and method, an information processing apparatus and method, an information management apparatus and method, a recording medium and a program make it possible to efficiently and comfortably make use of contents, which are stored in one server, from a plurality of devices connected via a network. In a case in which the playing of content is stopped, bookmark information including a time stamp representing the stopped position of the content is stored in association with predetermined identification information. The bookmark information is available for various apparatuses transmitting the identification information. When playing the content from a position designated by the information from a predetermined apparatus, the time stamp included in the bookmark information is referred to and the playing of the content from the stopped position is started. The present invention can be applied to various apparatuses such as a personal computer, audio equipment, a PDA, a mobile phone and the like.
US08463915B1
In order to access a web site, for example one identified by a domain name, a client device must determine the network location, or IP address, of the webs site. In one example, the corresponding IP address of the domain name has been stored locally at the client device but has expired. The client device may send a request to network location of the expired IP address while concurrently sending a request to a domain name server for updated IP address information. If the updated IP address received from the server is the same as the expired IP address, the client device may request the web site information from the previously established connection. If the updated IP address is not the same as the expired IP address, the client device may abort the connection with the expired IP address and establish a new connection with the updated IP address.
US08463913B2
In one embodiment, a scheme is disclosed for facilitating responding to a request in a network environment including IMS. A component associated with a recipient is configured to receive an incoming message from a sender, wherein the incoming message is substantially free of an indication of acceptance by the sender of a body of a particular content type. A component associated with the recipient is configured to provide an outgoing message including at least one body of the particular content type.
US08463912B2
A method and system that uses a thin client solution in a mobile network is disclosed. The thin client is not required to be equipped with an execution environment; rather, the client is used as a display device for applications that run on remote servers. Applications such as E-mail client, browser and others execute on a remotely located server, but use the client as a display and input device. The client is equipped with a speech input device, which receives speech input and transmits it to the server for interpretation or recognition at the server. Because bandwidth is limited, a method of combining requests that are transmitted and received between the client and one or more servers is contemplated, which method results in a reduction of traffic between the client and the server(s). The server, which runs applications that are used and accessed by a user via the client, maintains application state on the server. Thus, when a user turns “off” the client device, the server may still maintain the state of the applications the user executed at the server. When the client reestablishes connection with the server, the user's prior state may be restored.
US08463909B1
A method, computer readable medium, and apparatus for managing server resources includes receiving at a traffic management device one or more requests in a message based protocol. The traffic management device determines a difference between a level of utilization of resources maintained by a server that handles the one or more received requests and a threshold level of utilization of resources that can be maintained by the server; and randomly delays the one or more requests based upon the determined difference.
US08463900B2
Embodiments of the invention provide power savings via performing application workload consolidation to servers using off-peak values for application workload demand. Embodiments of the invention are designed to achieve significant power savings while containing performance risk associated with server consolidation.
US08463897B2
Systems and methods to emulate user network activity to change the profiling of users of the network are disclosed. A method includes monitoring network activity corresponding to a particular user. The method includes automatically generating emulated user network activity when a usage pattern is detected in the monitored network activity. The emulated user network activity may be detectable by a user tracking engine as the network activity of the particular user and the user tracking engine may attempt to profile the emulated user activity.
US08463895B2
To predict edges in a non-cumulative graph, based on a sequence of non-cumulative previous occurrences of the graph, the sequence of non-cumulative previous occurrences of the graph is obtained, and topological properties of each of the previous occurrences of the graph are extracted. Topological similarities between each of the previous occurrences of the graph are computed based on the topological properties. The edges of the graph are predicted by computing a score for each possible edge of the graph, based upon the topological similarities.
US08463891B2
A multicast broadcast service (MBS) management method, device, and system are provided, so that a service/content provision server is enabled to manage an MBS operated by the service/content provision server itself. The method includes: a universal service interface (USI) receives a management operation request message from a service/content provision server; the management operation request message is sent to a multicast and broadcast service (MCBCS) server/controller to enable the MCBCS server/controller to perform corresponding operations according to the management operation request message. The device includes a first receiving module and a second receiving module. Another device includes a receiving module and a request processing module. The system includes an MCBCS server/controller and a USI connected to the MCBCS server/controller in a communication mode.
US08463888B1
Computer-readable storage media and methods are described in relation to management, control, and distribution of automated identification technology (AIT) information and data associated with sensors and tags utilized for asset identification and tracking. The method includes generating a gateway for at least one of read and write access to deployed identification sensors and tags associated with a set of assets, the sensors and tags incorporating a plurality of disparate native solution formats, providing data storage and management with hierarchical functionality in a common data format for information passing through the generated gateway, the information related to the assets as provided by the deployed identification sensors and tags, executing a service framework for data delivery to and from the deployed sensors and tags via a publish and subscribe middleware service layer that provides access to the gateway through a common middleware interface, and providing a user interface through which commands to the common middleware interface are generated.
US08463887B2
The present application is directed towards systems and methods for providing connection surge protection to one or more servers by an intermediary multi-core system. A packet processing engine of a multi-core device deployed as an intermediary between a plurality of clients and one or more servers determines an estimated number of total pending requests received by all packet processing engines based on a value of a local counter of received requests, the total number of pending requests received by all other packet processing engines at a last predetermined interval, and a rate of change of the total number of pending requests received by all other packet processing engines multiplied by the time since the last predetermined interval. The packet processing engine applies a surge protection policy to received pending requests responsive to the determined estimated number of total pending requests.
US08463884B2
Embodiments related to synchronizing a state of a mobile device with a state stored of a mobile device application server are disclosed. One embodiment provides a method of synchronizing a state on a mobile device and a state on a mobile device application server comprising receiving a state change at the application server that changes a state relative to a state stored on one or more mobile devices, and storing the state change. Next, the method comprises receiving a request from a mobile device for information regarding any state changes that have occurred, sending a response notifying the mobile device of the state change, receiving from the mobile device an application manifest that gives a current state of the mobile device, updating the application manifest to form an updated application manifest that reflects the state change, and sending the updated application manifest to the mobile device.
US08463877B1
A system, method and computer-readable medium for request routing based on content popularity information are provided. A client computer transmits a request for content from a content provider. The content provider utilizes executable code, such as translation request code, for facilitating request routing utilizing popularity information. The translation request code, may direct a client computing device to request further translation request code and/or translation information. Thereafter, the client issues a DNS query with the translated information including popularity information. The content delivery network service provider can then either resolve the DNS query with an IP address of a cache component or transmit another alternative resource identifier that will resolve to the content delivery network service provider. The process can repeat until a DNS nameserver resolves a DNS query from the client computing device.
US08463875B2
A method for synchronized playback of media players, including selecting, by each of a plurality of media players, a multimedia file to be played, monitoring, by each of the plurality of media players, the environment for an external trigger, and upon detection of the external trigger, playing, by each of the plurality of media players, the selected multimedia file.
US08463874B2
A web server transmits an identifier related to a web page to a log linking server when the formed web page is transmitted to a web browser, inserts an operation log acquiring function operated by the web browser and at least a portion of the identifier to the web page to be transmitted to the web browser. The web browser requests the web page to the web server, and forms and preserves an operation log on the web page by executing the operation log acquiring function inserted to the received web page. The log linking server preserves the received identifier, requests the operation log of the web page related to the identifier selected by an interface of an external reproducing device to the web browser, and collects and reproduces the operation log.
US08463872B2
A family center system and method is provided that allows receiving from a registered family member a family message intended for other registered family members and determines, based on a set of rules, to which of other registered family members to push the family message, mode of transport by which to push the family message, and the schedule according to which to push the family message. A technique involving a tile is provided that allows displaying a unified view of information onto a plurality of registered devices, regardless of device platform and/or communications network. The system and method provides a variety of services to registered family members and allows third party application plug-in for offering third party services. The system and method receives a SMS message and stores such message as a family message for subsequent access or family message treatment.
US08463871B1
A method, system and computer program product for backing up client's data on remote data storage. A client-server infrastructure having multiple clients connected to the backup server is provided. There are two data storages devices connected to the server: data files repository and user data configurations repository. The data files repository contains copies of all data items (i.e., files) that had been stored by each client. The data files repository also contains a hash table with hash values corresponding to data items stored in the data repository. The file attributes corresponding to the data item are stored in the user data configurations repository. Further validation of files having identical hashes is performed on the client using file attributes. Backup of duplicate files is avoided.
US08463868B2
An information processor such as a personal computer is provided. A terminal is operably linked to the information processor to check out or to check in content to/from the terminal. A device driver detects that a portable device is connected to the information processor and when the device driver detects that the portable device is connected to the information processor, a start-up program reads contents-related data from the portable device and starts up a display/operation instruction program to provide a display corresponding to the data accessed from the terminal.
US08463866B2
Device, system, and method of accessing storage. For example, a server includes: a Solid-State Drive (SSD) to store data; a memory mapper to map at least a portion of a storage space of the SSD into a memory space of the server; and a network adapter to receive a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) read command incoming from a client device, to map one or more parameters of the SCSI read command into an area of the memory space of the server from which data is requested to be read by the client device, said area corresponding to a storage area of the SSD, and to issue a Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) write command to copy data directly to the client device from said area of the memory space corresponding to the SSD.
US08463855B2
A system and method for packaging electronic messages for delivery to a communication device is provided. Where the electronic message comprises at least one quoted parent message, the quoted parent message is identified by means of delimiters within the body of the electronic message, and the quoted message thus identified is replaced with an identifying instruction referring to an identifier corresponding to a previously received message comprising the quoted parent message. The edited electronic message is then transmitted to a recipient device, which uses the identifying instruction to reconstruct the original message by querying a data store using the identifier to locate a copy of the quoted parent message. If no quoted parent message is found, a request is issued by the recipient device to transmit a full version of the original electronic message.
US08463849B2
A method and apparatus for providing broadcast content by an adaptive streaming service and a system using the same are provided, in which a content transmission server configures and transmits a manifest file including a content IDentifier (ID), and a client device receives the manifest file, determines whether the content ID included in the manifest file is identical to an ID of user-requested content for recording, and records a content segment received from a content providing server, if the content ID included in the manifest file is identical to the ID of the user-requested content.
US08463847B2
A computer system for rendering user-specified image products wherein a programmed processor executes a plurality of user-interactive tasks relating to the image product and at least some of the interactive tasks specify a portion of the image product. A change probability of further changes to the image product specified by at least one of the plurality of user-interactive tasks is stored. The programmed processor determines if the change probability is below a predetermined threshold and renders the portion of the image product corresponding to the portion defined by the user-interactive task.
US08463838B1
A windowed optical calculation architecture and process that efficiently performs high speed multi-element multiply and accumulates on a digital data stream. A data point from a digital data stream is impressed onto an optical source to create an optical value. The optical value is split into a number of branches equaling the number of elements used in the calculation. In each branch, the optical value is modulated to reflect the coefficients in the calculation. Then, depending upon the branch, the optical value is delayed depending on its position in the calculation, with optical values at the beginning of the calculation being delayed longer than optical values at the end of the calculation. The outputs from the branches are coupled together to perform an optical sum, and passed to detection/analog-digital conversion circuitry to convert the optical result to a digital result.
US08463837B2
A method and apparatus for performing bi-linear interpolation and motion compensation including multiply-add operations and byte shuffle operations on packed data in a processor. In one embodiment, two or more lines of 2n+1 content byte elements may be shuffled to generate a first and second packed data respectively including at least a first and a second 4n byte elements including 2n−1 duplicated elements. A third packed data including sums of products is generated from the first packed data and packed byte coefficients by a multiply-add instruction. A fourth packed data including sums of products is generated from the second packed data and elements and packed byte coefficients by another multiply-add instruction. Corresponding sums of products of the third and fourth packed data are then summed, and may be rounded and averaged.
US08463827B2
Embodiments are directed towards identifying auto-folder tags for messages by using a combinational optimization approach of bi-clustering folder names and features of messages based on relationship strengths. The combinational optimization approach of bi-clustering, generally, groups a plurality of folder names and a plurality of features into one or more metafolders to optimize a cost. The cost is based on an aggregate of cut relationship strengths, where a cut results when a relationship folder name and feature are grouped in separate metafolders. Furthermore, the plurality of folder names and the plurality of features are obtained by monitoring actions of a plurality of users, where the folder names are user generated folder names and features are from a plurality of messages. The metafolders may be used to tag new user messages with an auto-folder tag.
US08463826B2
Systems and methods are provided for performing incremental garbage collection for non-volatile memories (“NVMs”), such as flash memory. In some embodiments, an electronic device including the NVM may perform incremental garbage collection to free up and erase a programmed block of the NVM. The programmed block may include valid data and invalid data, and the electronic device may be configured to copy the valid data from the programmed block to an erased block in portions. In between programming each portion of the valid data to the erased block, the electronic device can program host data to the erased block. This way, the electronic device can stagger the garbage collection operations and prevent a user from having to experience one long garbage collection operation.
US08463825B1
A data storage system is disclosed, including: a first storage device of a first storage device type, a second storage device of a second storage device type, and a processor configured to implement a hybrid file system configured to store each of a plurality of data values in at least a corresponding primary location, which for a given data value may be in either the first storage device or the second storage device; wherein the hybrid file system is configured to use a first access approach optimized based on a first access attribute of the first storage device type to interact with the first storage device and a second access approach optimized based on a second access attribute of the second storage device type to interact with the second storage device. Reading data is disclosed, including: determining that a storage location on a first tier storage from which a requested data was written back to a second tier storage has not been reclaimed by a garbage collection associated with the first tier storage, and retrieving the data from the storage location on the first tier storage.
US08463824B2
Techniques are described for effecting data aggregation in a network. Event notifications are received from a plurality of content sites on the network. Each event notification indicates occurrence of an event associated with a corresponding one of the content sites. Each event corresponds to a change to content associated with the corresponding content site. In response to each event notification, event metadata are generated. The event metadata include a time stamp for the event and change data corresponding to the change to the content. The event metadata are indexed in a plurality of databases with reference to a plurality of index metrics including the time stamp. The indexing of the event metadata for each event occurs within days, hours, or even minutes of receipt of the corresponding event notification thereby enabling retrieving of the changes to the content from the plurality of databases using any of the index metrics in near real time.
US08463819B2
A centralized enterprise security and provisioning policy framework is described. Enterprise wide security and provisioning is stored in a hierarchical fashion in a centralized LDAP based Directory server. Each policy and user maps directly to a unique entry in the directory. Policy entries can be created at specific administrative points in the Directory Information Tree instead of having to duplicate these policies as attributes of every user entry in the directory. The policies can be classified into provisioning, authentication, and authorization policies.
US08463815B1
Systems and methods for controlling access to objects within a file system utilizing data associated with those objects are disclosed. More specifically, in one embodiment access controls pertaining to a user may be specified in terms of tags which may be associated with an object, and a user's access to objects may be controlled based upon these tags. These tags may reflect the content of the object, or a grouping, category or another type of classification of the object and may be determined through the processing of the object. In particular, in one embodiment, metadata associated with an object may be classified and associated with classification tags associated with those classifications. A user's access to objects may then be specified through a set of classification tags, where the user may access objects associated with those classification tags.
US08463812B2
Provided are an apparatus for providing a social network service using the relationship of ontology and a method thereof. The apparatus includes: an ontology storage unit storing social ontology defining relationship information between a user and a social network subscriber, service ontology defining position and relationship information of services, and tag ontology defining tag information related to information included in the social ontology and the service ontology; when a service request is inputted from the user, an ontology analysis unit retrieving a tag corresponding to the user's current position and the service request factor by using the relationship of the ontologies stored in the ontology storage unit; a service processing unit extracting the corresponding service on the basis of the retrieved tag information; and a service providing unit providing the user with the extracted service.
US08463811B2
A computer-implemented method, system, and article of manufacture for determining a set of correlated data among heterogeneous computer applications. The method includes providing a computer system having software modules, receiving statistics on data relating to a first event and a second event, generating a confidence score for an attribute set, where the attribute set includes an attribute from the first event data and an attribute from the second event data, and selecting the attribute set as a set of correlated data if the confidence score is within a threshold value.
US08463809B2
In executing query distributed processing in a computer system having a plurality of computers, a query and a sliding window are inherited between different computers. If a tuple having a new principal key value is detected when a query is to be executed, a relevant individual query and a relevant sliding window are inherited between computers, and further a sliding window of a relevant common query is inherited between computers.
US08463803B2
A server runs a software program controlling a system and is connected to the Internet to communicate with one or more advertising agencies. A client of the agencies has a home location with a server connected to the Internet for communication with the server and the agencies. The client can have branches that are connected to the Internet for communication with the server and the Client Home and, in some circumstances, with the agencies. Also connected to the Internet are Media parties representing any and all types of advertising display parties such as radio, television, print, billboard, etc. The media parties also could be brokers that place the advertising with various media outlets.
US08463800B2
Regular expressions used for searching for patterns in captured objects can be grouped into attributes. Such attributes can be associated with captured objects using tags stored in a database. In one embodiment, the present invention includes capturing an object being transmitted over a network, and determining that a regular expression appears in the object, the regular expression belonging to a group of one or more regular expressions associated with an attribute. If a regular expression associated with the attribute is found in the object, then an attribute field of a tag containing metadata related to the captured object is set to indicate the presence of the attribute in the captured object. The presence of the attribute in the captured object can now be determined from the tag, which can be stored in a database.
US08463797B2
An apparatus, system, and method for measuring the similarity of diverse binary objects, such as files, is disclosed. The method comprises determining a plurality of digital signatures in each of a plurality of dissimilar objects, for each digital signature, accessing a location in a store which has object identifiers for each object which also exhibits at least one instance of the digital signature, writing into the store the object identifiers of all the objects which have the corresponding pattern and the number of times the pattern is found, and making a list of all the objects which share a pattern found in each object. Analyzing the list determines the degree of similarity of a particular object with each of a plurality of diverse binary objects.
US08463796B1
A system and associated methods for providing electronically noted items are disclosed. The noting application includes a communication module, a determination module, a ranking module and a presentation module. The communication module receives a request for electronically noted items from a first user and user identification data identifying the first user. The determination module determines one or more second users related to the first user based at least in part on the user identification data. The determination module retrieves a first set of two or more electronically noted items marked by the one or more second users. The ranking module ranks the first set of two or more electronically noted items to generate a second set of two or more electronically noted items. The presentation module provides for display the second set of two or more electronically noted items to the first user.
US08463795B2
Relevant items are selected from personalized items included in a variety of social networking system feeds based on a relevance threshold. Content included in the received items is observed to facilitate grouping the items. Items satisfying a grouping criteria are grouped based on the content of the items. Items are then scored based on relevance factors, such as whether an item is included in the group or an indication of interest level associated with items in a group. Scored items meeting a relevance threshold are selected for display in an aggregated social feed in a content region of a page.
US08463786B2
Keyword extraction technique embodiments are presented which extract topically related keywords from a set of topically related documents. In one general embodiment, this keyword extraction involves first accessing a set of topically related documents. A number of candidate keywords are then identified from the set of related documents. A weighted keyword candidate-document matrix is formed using these candidate keywords, and it is partitioned into multiple groups of keyword candidates. Dense clusters of keyword candidates whose density exceeds a prescribed density threshold are then identified in each of the groups of keyword candidates. Finally, the keyword candidates associated with each dense cluster are designated as topically related keywords.
US08463781B1
A method for pre-fetching database records from a database includes identifying an index record containing index entries that identify those database records. This information is then retrieved from the index entries and used to pre-fetch the database records.
US08463778B2
A computer-implemented method is provided for ranking files from an Internet search. In one embodiment, the method comprises sorting search result items based on a first clickthru popularity and a second clickthru popularity. The first clickthru popularity may be derived from clickthrus that occurred during a first time period. The second clickthru popularity may be derived from clickthrus that occurred during a second time period that is different from the first time period.
US08463777B2
Based on a content attribute serving as a coordinate axis of which the setting input is performed from an operation input unit, and the content identifier of a content of interest, a metadata storage unit is searched to select one or multiple other contents relating to the content of interest. The strength of relationship between each of the selected other contents and the content of interest is calculated based on the content attribute set as a coordinate axis, and information indicating correlation. The layout relations of other contents with the content of interest as the origin are calculated based on the content attribute serving as a coordinate axis, and the calculated strength of relationship. The display image of each of the other contents is disposed in accordance with the calculated layout relations.
US08463772B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on one or more computer storage devices, for determining a distance importance factor for a search query, region or both. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a query from a client computing device and obtaining search results responsive to the query. A distance importance factor for the query is obtained that indicates the importance of proximity of a search result location to a query location. The search result location is a geographic location associated with a search result and the query location is a geographic location associated with the query. For each search result, based on the distance importance factor and on the proximity of the search result location to the query location, a proximity value is determined. The proximity values for the search results are provided to a ranking module configured to rank the search results.
US08463770B1
Various embodiments of a system and method for conditioning search results are described. The system and method for conditioning search results may include a search result conditioning component. The search result conditioning component may be configured to determine a search result group including multiple search results each corresponding to an item offered for sale; such search results may be results of a search query. The search result conditioning component may be configure to modify the search result group by removing one or more search results from the search result group in response to determining that a measure of similarity between the one or more search results and other search results of the search result group is greater than a requisite measure of similarity (e.g., a threshold). The search result conditioning component may be configured to output the modified search result group.
US08463760B2
A method of extending features provided by a test case management (TCM) application, includes, in response to user input defining a date range and specifying at least one test target, generating a test report based on test data generated via the TCM application during the defined date range, wherein the test report is indicative of one or more test status indicators relative to the test target(s).
US08463751B2
A system and method are provided for performing storage operations relating to a first secondary copy of electronic data. A storage policy or storage preferences may dictate that a replication copy should be used in storage operations performed to a particular client, sub-client, data, media or other item. Based on the storage policy, when a new client, sub-client, data, media or other item is received, a media agent determines whether there is a replication copy of the item. In the absence of a replication copy, one may be created. Information regarding the replication copy and its corresponding first secondary copy may be stored in a database. To optimize use of system resources, storage operations relating to the first secondary copy may be performed using the replication copy instead of the first secondary copy.
US08463740B2
A system described herein includes a receiver component that receives a computing event with respect to a file stored in a data repository of a personal computing device. An assignor component automatically assigns a uniform resource identifier to the file responsive to the receiver component receiving the computing event with respect to the file, wherein at least a portion of content of the file is reviewable by way of a web browser through utilization of the uniform resource identifier.
US08463731B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for translating user interaction with a touchscreen into text are provided. In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving information characterizing a first user interaction with a touchscreen; receiving information characterizing a second user interaction with the touchscreen; assigning a probability to each of two or more interpretations of a combination of the first user interaction and the second user interaction, each of the interpretations construing the combination as a different pair of characters, each of the probabilities embodying a likelihood that the first user interaction and the second user interaction represent the respective pair of characters; using the two or more interpretations to search a collection of data for objects that are each identifiable by one of the two or more interpretations; and outputting identifiers of at least some of the objects.
US08463730B1
A solution for rapid evaluation of numerically large complex rules governing network and application transactions includes, at a network device, receiving network transaction record comprising a plurality of elements that characterize a network transaction, creating a hash of a result of concatenating the plurality of elements, and if the hash is found in a hash table comprising, for each network transaction rule, a hash of the plurality of elements comprising the rule, blocking the network transaction or alerting a network user that a prohibited transaction has occurred.
US08463729B2
Mixed integer programs (MIP) are solved by constructing and solving associated linear programming (LP) relaxation problems. The LP relaxations are iteratively constructed through the introduction of cutting planes that are derived using one solution of an LP, then filtered based on an alternative solution to the LP. The LP relaxation is constructed, and its alternate solution is derived, to efficiently converge to a solution for the MIP.
US08463725B2
A method is provided for analyzing a piece of multimedia content including a time series of elementary entities, in order to check whether or not the piece of multimedia content includes at least one piece of reference content referenced in a content base. The method includes, for at least one elementary entity of the multimedia content and selected according to a predetermined selection rule, or current elementary entity: allocating a plausibility probability to each elementary entity of a set of current candidate elementary entities; allocating a transition probability between the current candidate elementary entity or entities and at least one previous candidate elementary entity; allocating an identification probability of at least one scenario including a time series of candidate elementary entities; deciding the recognition of one of the reference content and/or carrying on the analysis using a subsequent elementary entity of the piece of multimedia content.
US08463723B2
An electronic synapse device is provided. One embodiment of the invention includes a metastable switching synaptic device. Changing conductance of the metastable switching synaptic device occurs by receiving opposite signed first and second voltage pulses at the metastable switching synaptic device where magnitude of the first voltage pulse and the second voltage pulse each are below a switching voltage magnitude threshold. A magnitude difference between the first voltage pulse and the second voltage pulse exceeds the switching voltage magnitude threshold by an amount, wherein the amount is a function of a relative timing between the first voltage pulse and the second voltage pulse.
US08463715B1
A computer system and method for managing access to a resume database. For each skill or experience-related phrase in a resume, the system computes a term of experience based on an experience range associated with a contextual use of the phrase in the resume. The term of experience for a phrase that occurs multiple times in the resume is the summation of the term of experience for each occurrence of the phrase associated with a different contextual use. The system stores each phrase and the term of experience in a parsed resume. The resume database also stores job descriptions that include required phrases and a required term of experience for each required phrase. The job descriptions also store a required level of education or field of specialization, and a required salary range. A recruiter searches the resume database to find matching resumes that satisfy a job description.
US08463711B2
Apparatus and method for secure transactions between gaming machines and portable devices are described. The secure transactions may include a transfer of an amount of an indicia of credit with a cash value from the portable device to the gaming machine or a transfer of an amount of an indicia of credit with a cash value from the gaming machine to the portable device. A logic device, separate from a master gaming controller on the gaming machine and placed in the gaming machine, may be operable to authenticate a portable device, such as a smart card, and authorize transactions involving transfers of indicia of credit between the portable device and the gaming machine. The logic device may be operable to send authentication information relating to the portable device to a remote host where a value amount of transactions involving the portable device authorized by the logic device may be higher when the logic device and the remote host authenticate the portable device as opposed to when the portable is only authenticated by the logic device.
US08463709B2
A system for providing users with an indication of files that are protected or licensed while a user is executing within the embedded partition set forth. The system enables users to quickly boot into an embedded environment and have an indication of all of their media files, whether the content is accessible via the embedded environment or the content is protected or licensed content stored within another partition. Thus, the user receives an indication that the protected or licensed content is still on their computer and that the user cannot access the protected or licensed content via the embedded environment.
US08463705B2
Embodiments of the invention broadly contemplate systems, methods, apparatuses and program products that leverage the mobile web, especially the spoken (telecom) web, to handle transactions. According to embodiments of the invention, in essence, a mobile device such as a phone is used as a terminal, remote authentication is employed, and a challenge response using a per transaction audio based code is used as a confirmation. Embodiments of the invention also provide further protection against repudiation, and greater trust in the transaction, by employing witnesses.
US08463704B2
A computer receives information about a debit account controlled by a third-party issuer, a user owing the account and instructions for managing the account after a specified trigger date. Operating according the instructions, an unknown remaining balance in the account may be exhausted after the trigger date has passed, using a sequence of charges responsive to the initial balance, to the last charge amount completed or attempted, and to whether or not the last charge amount is accepted. In the alternative, or in addition, the account may be managed to convert the remaining balance to a non-monetary coupon (e.g., “virtual currency”) for use in an online computer game or the like, after the trigger date.
US08463703B1
Methods and systems for generating customer incentive awards involve receiving, using a processor coupled to memory, information regarding a balance of a deposit account, such as a savings account, of at least one customer for determination of an award amount related to a loan account of the customer. Using the processor, the award amount may be computed based on at least in part on the balance of the deposit account and at least in part on an interest rate of the loan account of the customer. Thereafter, likewise using the processor, the award amount may be applied to an account designated by the customer, such as a mortgage loan account of the customer.
US08463699B2
Preferred embodiments of the invention include a new and innovative method and system of determining a profit score for an individual policy, which score may be used to evaluate the desirability of offering or renewing individual insurance policies. The present invention also may be applied to determine the profitability of aggregate books of business, which may be offered by individual insurance agents or agencies, whether captive or independent.
US08463698B2
According to some embodiments, supplemental information about a consumer is determined, the consumer being associated with a first level of credit availability. One of a plurality of potential credit migration paths may then be selected for the consumer based on the supplemental information. Each potential credit migration path may, for example, begin at the first level of credit availability, include a plurality of intermediate credit products, and end at a level of credit availability higher than the first level. An offer for an intermediate credit product may then be transmitted to the consumer based on the selected credit migration path.
US08463696B2
A trading system includes: a first set of two or more functions and a second set of two or more functions, wherein each of the functions in the first set and the second set includes a variable that is of a common variable type, wherein the value of the variable that is of the common variable type in the first set of functions and the value of the variable that is of the common variable type in the second set of functions may be different at a given point in time; and a function editing mechanism through which the value of the variable that is of the common variable type in the first set of functions may be edited for each of the functions in the first set of functions without affecting the value of the variable that is of the common variable type in the second set of functions.
US08463692B2
A method and system to facilitate on-line trading is presented. An example system, in one embodiment, comprises a web page scanner, a trading control generator, an event detector, and a trading ticket generator. The web page scanner may be configured to scan a web page in order to detect security symbol information. The trading control generator may be configured to present a trading control to associate visually the trading control with the detected security symbol information, the trading control to access a trading service. The event detector may be configured to detect an event associated with the trading control, so that the trading ticket generator receives a request to launch a trading ticket associated with the security symbol information. A trading ticket may be then utilized by a user for submitting a security order using the trading service.
US08463687B2
A system for and method of providing a forward contract with an upside return and the possibility of early valuation are presented. The prices of the underlying financial instruments are allowed to float to a limited extent. Moreover, the party taking the short position is allowed to cash out early, without having to unwind the entire contract. The contact may be used, for example, by a corporation that wishes to raise capital using equity instruments.
US08463683B2
There is provided a data processing system and method for valuing a bundle of constructs that may individually fail, in case of a separation event causing the bundle of constructs to separate a failing construct from the bundle. A present value determination unit applies a predefined model to determine a present value of the bundle of constructs after having separated the failing construct from the bundle. Further, a static value determination unit determines a static value by reducing a static base number each time a separation event occurs. Furthermore, a calculation unit calculates a value of the bundle of constructs based on the determined present value and the determined static value. The calculation unit is adapted to calculate a sum of the determined present value and the determined static value. In an embodiment, the bundle of constructs is a basket of credit default swaps.
US08463682B1
A method and apparatus for automatically evaluating financing plans are presented. In one embodiment, a method for automatically evaluating financing plans comprises receiving an input message comprising base data; selecting one of a plurality of financing plans in accordance with the base data and data defining the plurality of financing plans; determining values of one or more terms associated with the selected financing plan; and generating an output message including the determined values of the one or more terms.
US08463680B2
A system and method for enhancing financial institution revenue through acceleration of debit processing is provided. The method includes modeling the processing of account debit transactions, identifying ways to accelerate the processing of the account debit transactions and accelerating the account debit transactions. In a further embodiment, account debit transaction processing is accelerated from beginning on what has traditionally been referred to as Day 0 to beginning on some day before Day 0.
US08463677B2
The present invention contemplates a variety of improved methods and systems for providing an experience platform, as well as sentio or experience codecs, and experience agents for supporting the experience platform. The experience platform may be provided by a service provider to enable an experience provider to compose and direct a participant experience. The service provider monetizes the experience by charging the experience provider and/or the participants for services. The participant experience can involve one or more experience participants. The experience provider can create an experience with a variety of dimensions and features. As will be appreciated, the following description provides one paradigm for understanding the multi-dimensional experience available to the participants. There are many suitable ways of describing, characterizing and implementing the experience platform contemplated herein.
US08463670B2
In a method for automatically tracking time, a computer receives a user identification. The computer automatically starts a first task, based on the received user identification. The computer records a start time for the first task. The computer monitors a state of the first task. The computer automatically records an end time for the first task in response to determining that the state of the first task has changed.
US08463650B2
Disclosed are systems and methods to initiate electronic payments using wireless network broadcasts. For example, a purchaser may purchase goods and/or services offered by a merchant by checking out (initiating a payment transaction for the goods and/or services) via a cash register or a point of sale terminal at the merchant. When a purchase amount or total for a particular purchase is calculated, a payment request message may be broadcasted publicly on a wireless network where the merchant and an electronic device operated by the purchaser may participate as network nodes. The electronic device may receive the broadcasted payment request message and may display an interface or visual indication that includes information associated with the payment request message such that the purchaser interact with the interface or visual indication to initiate a payment transaction to purchase the goods and/or services associated with the particular purchase.
US08463646B2
The system enables one to securely recycle an electronic device in a publicly accessible location. In particular, the embodiment described may be used by a mobile phone owner to submit his/her mobile phone for recycling via an electronic kiosk and receive compensation in some form. The compensation might be dispersed via cash, voucher, credit or debit card, or other magnetic or electronic transaction methods.
US08463645B1
A method and system for rewarding anonymous patrons of an anonymous loyalty program is disclosed herein. The anonymous loyalty program only uses an identification generated on a mobile communication device for all transactions by the member. The member does not need to disclose his or her phone number to participate in the anonymous loyalty program although the member's mobile communication device is used for all of the transactions.
US08463637B2
A computer implemented method, system and/or computer program product automatically allocate resources to functional areas of an enterprise activity environment. A skill level of a resource is determined for multiple functional areas. A unique ramp-up index is associated with each of the multiple functional areas. An affinity index is associated with each of the multiple functional areas, wherein the affinity index is based on a level of productivity drop of other resources in a specific functional area if the resource is assigned to another functional area. Expected resource and skill level requirements of a project are identified, and a cohesion index is defined. The cohesion index measures the disruption that may result from adding the resource to or removing the resource from a functional area. The resource is automatically allocated to one or more functional areas based on the unique ramp-up index, the cohesion index, and the affinity index associated with a particular functional area in view of the expected resource and skill level requirements.
US08463635B1
An elevator device having a computer system associated therewith for determining a risk of failure in the elevator device and for determining an inspection schedule to mitigate the risk. The computer system includes a module for determining an acceptable risk score, a module for determining an inspection schedule based on said risk score, a module for determining an increase in risk score proportional to a time elapsed since an expected inspection in the inspection schedule if the expected inspection has been missed, a module for determining a tolerance within the inspection schedule based on the increased risk, and a module for specifying an inspection schedule and an inspection tolerance based on the determined schedule and the determined tolerance.
US08463628B1
Methods and systems for facilitating subscription rights sales, typically in the form of season ticket sales, between buyers and sellers. Ticket holders are provided with the ability to identify selected tickets and to flexibly and easily establish criteria under which they will entertain offers to sell these tickets. Ticket holders may thus monetize unused tickets, under favorable conditions, based upon individual offers and without the requirement of a definite commitment to sell. Concomitantly, buyers are provided access to a large base of potentially available tickets, which might not otherwise be available for sale. Buyers may assemble offers based upon seller criteria and, in some instances, useful historical information. The invention facilitates the buyer/seller interaction by publishing available ticket information in useful formats, collecting and providing buyer offers which meet seller criteria to sellers for consideration, facilitating communications and negotiations between buyers and sellers, and facilitating the actual purchase and sale of tickets.
US08463622B2
Systems and methods are described relating to accepting user input relating to a plurality of health service option selection factors; presenting a plurality of choices for at least one of the health service option selection factors; and presenting at least one outcome output based on a selection of at least one of the plurality of choices for at least one of the health service option selection factors.
US08463614B2
An audio encoding method and a corresponding decoding method are provided. Accordingly, the pre-echo effect of the audio transient signal is eliminated and the distortion of the transient signal is mitigated. The technical solution includes performing time-domain processing on an input audio transient signal; dividing sampling points x1,x2, . . . , xN of an input frame into L segments; calculating an energy Ei for each segment; calculating an average energy E0 for each segment of the input frame; calculating a multiplying parameter λi corresponding to each segment by virtue of λi=r(bitrate)*E0/Ei; multiplying the sampling points of all the segments of the input frame by corresponding multiplying parameter λi, obtaining the processed sampling points x1′,x2′, . . . , xN′; and sending the multiplying parameter λi to a code stream for transportation; performing time-frequency transformation and coding on the processed sampling points x1′,x2′, . . . , xN′ and outputting to the code stream.
US08463610B1
The present invention relates to a low-power speech recognition system. In one embodiment, the speech recognition system is implemented in hardware and includes a backend search engine that operates to recognize words based on senone scores provided by an acoustic scoring stage. The backend search engine includes a scoring engine, a transition engine, and a language model engine. For a frame of sampled speech, the scoring engine reads active acoustic unit models from external memory, updates the active acoustic unit models based on corresponding senone scores received from an acoustic scoring stage, and writes the active acoustic unit models back to the external memory. The scoring engine enters a low-power state until processing for a next frame of sampled speech is to begin. The transition stage identifies any completed words, and the language model engine processes completed words to identify words that are likely to follow in a subsequent frame.
US08463604B2
A method, system and program for encoding speech. The method comprises: receiving an input signal representing a property of speech; quantizing the input signal, thus generating a quantized output signal; prior to the quantization, supplying a version of the input signal to a first noise shaping filter having a first set of filter coefficients, thus generating a first filtered signal based on that version of the input signal and the first set of filter coefficients; following the quantization, supplying a version of the quantized output signal to a second noise shaping filter having a second set of filter coefficients different than said first set, thus generating a second filter signal based on that version of the quantized output signal and the second set of filter coefficients; performing a noise shaping operation to control a frequency spectrum of a noise effect in the quantized output signal caused by the quantization, wherein the noise shaping operation is performed based on both the first and second filtered signals; and transmitting the quantized output signal in an encoded signal.
US08463603B2
MDCT or FFT-based audio coding algorithms often have the problem named here spectral pre-echoes when coding an energy attack signal. This invention presents several possibilities to avoid the spectral pre-echoes existing in decoded signal segment before the energy attack point. The spectral envelope before the attack point can be improved by performing spectrum smoothing, replacing the segment of having spectral pre-echoes or filtering the segment with a combined filter obtained by doing LPC analysis.
US08463602B2
There is disclosed an encoding device capable of improving similarity between the high frequency band spectrum of the original signal and a new spectrum to be generated while realizing a low bit rate when encoding a wide-band signal spectrum. The encoding device has sub-band amplitude calculation units (122, 128) for calculating the amplitude of the respective sub-bands for the high frequency band spectrum obtained from the wide-band signal. A search unit (124) and a gain codebook (125) select some sub-bands from a plurality of sub-bands and only the gain of the selected sub-bands is subjected to encoding. An interpolation unit (126) expresses the gain of the sub-band not selected, by mutually interpolating the selected gains.
US08463598B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which data from web documents are partitioned into a training corpus and a development corpus are provided. First word probabilities for words are determined for the training corpus, and second word probabilities for the words are determined for the development corpus. Uncertainty values based on the word probabilities for the training corpus and the development corpus are compared, and new words are identified based on the comparison.
US08463580B2
Systems and methods for performing quantity takeoff computations from computer aided design drawings
One or more embodiments of the invention set forth methods for performing quantity takeoff computations from computer aided design (CAD) drawings. The user initiates the quantity takeoff of an instance of a drawing object by manually selecting one or more geometries that visually represent the instance. The quantity takeoff engine identifies or creates a takeoff object that is associated with the drawing object. A takeoff object may include the dimension of geometry to quantify, the object parameter to be quantified, and the takeoff calculations to be performed. The takeoff measurement tool quantifies the instance and adds markup information to the CAD drawings to represent the determined quantity. Subsequently, the quantity takeoff engine performs takeoff calculations and adds the quantity and cost information to a takeoff report representing all previous selected instances. Advantageously, these techniques allow the user to incrementally create takeoff reports without making any manual measurements.
US08463578B2
A hardware based utilization metering device, and a corresponding method are used in a computer system having one or more central processor units (CPUs) to provide a measure of CPU utilization. The device includes a state indicator coupled to a CPU. The state indicator receives an indication when the CPU is in a first state, which may be a busy state. A counter coupled to the state indicator and coupled to a system clock, receives a measure of system time from the system clock and receives data related to the indication when the CPU is in the first state, and generates a counter value indicative of time the CPU is in the first state. A data usage provider coupled to the counter maintains a non-volatile value of the counter value.
US08463577B2
The present inventions, in one aspect, are directed to a portable activity monitoring device having a physical size/shape that is adapted to couple to the user's body, a plurality of sensors including: (i) an altitude sensor to detect a change in altitude and to generate data which is representative of the change in altitude, and (ii) a first motion sensor to detect motion and to generate data which is representative of motion. A user interface having a display. Processing circuitry detects a user input using data from one or more of the plurality of sensors, and calculates data which is representative of a number of stairs or flights of stairs traversed by the user using the data which is representative of the change in altitude.
US08463569B2
A method of determining the heading of an excavator at a worksite uses a magnetic field sensor, mounted on the excavator, inclinometers that provide an indication of the pitch and roll of the excavator, a gyroscopic sensor that senses the rotational rate of the excavator about the Z axis of the magnetic field sensor, and a processor circuit, having an associated memory. A calibration table of data is created and stored using the gyroscopic sensor as the excavator is rotated at a uniform velocity. The sensed indications of the magnetic field from the coordinate reference frame of the sensor are transformed to the local level plane coordinate reference frame using the outputs from the inclinometers.
US08463563B2
A battery management system and a driving method thereof are disclosed, which may detect a short battery cell capable of causing short among a plurality of battery cells during a parking period of a vehicle. The battery management system includes a sensing unit for measuring a cell voltage and a cell current of each of a plurality of battery cells and an MCU for measuring an SOC of each of the battery cells to control charge and discharge by utilizing the cell voltage and the cell current of each of the battery cells. The MCU measures a first SOC of each of the battery cells in a key-off state and a second SOC of each of the battery cells in a key-on state after the key-off state. The MCU utilizes the first SOC, the second SOC, and a time period between the first and second SOCs to determine a short battery cell among the plurality of battery cells.
US08463562B2
Provided is an abnormality detecting device for detecting an abnormality of electric storage devices such as a battery pack. Comparators (140-1) to (140-n) detect a time when a voltage reaches a prescribed voltage, for each block of a battery pack (100). A judging section (160) detects a current at a time when the voltage reaches the prescribed voltage, and a representative current value is calculated for each block. The deviation of the representative current value of each block is compared with the threshold value, and when the deviation is large, it is judged that there are abnormalities such as short-circuiting, minute short-circuiting, IR (internal resistance) increase, capacitance reduction, and the like.
US08463559B2
Method for operating a measuring point having a base unit and a sensor unit, wherein the latter couples via a pluggable connector coupling with the base unit; the base unit serves for energy supply of the sensor unit, for data exchange with the sensor unit and for communication with a process monitoring installation, wherein the base unit includes: A first element of the pluggable connector coupling; a first microprocessor sensor data conditioning for communication with the process monitoring installation; a first data memory for saving measuring-point-specific data; wherein the sensor unit has a primary sensor and a sensor head; the primary sensor includes a transducer, which outputs a measured variable dependent signal; wherein the sensor head includes: A circuit for conditioning the transducer signals with an A/D converter and a second microprocessor for measurement signal processing, a second data memory for sensor data; a program memory which contains a firmware; and an interface with a second element of the pluggable connector coupling; wherein a software module is transmitted from the base unit to the sensor unit and is stored in the program memory of the sensor unit, for enabling supplementary functions for primary sensor monitoring.
US08463555B2
Systems, methods, and analytical approaches for short read sequence assembly and for the detection of insertions and deletions (indels) in a reference genome. A method suitable for software implementation is presented in which indels may be readily identified in a computationally efficient manner.
US08463554B2
Determining relative relationship includes receiving recombinable deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) information of a first user and recombinable DNA information of a second user, determining, based at least in part on the recombinable DNA information of the first user and recombinable DNA information of the second user, a predicted degree of relationship between the first user and the second user, and in the event that the expected degree of relationship between the first user and the second user at least meets the threshold, notifying at least the first user about a relative relationship with the second user.
US08463549B1
A method for geosteering during directional drilling of a wellbore including a processor, a data storage, and client devices in communication with the processor through a network. The processor can receive data from directional drilling equipment and can present that data to users in an executive dashboard. Users can send data and/or commands to the directional drilling equipment. The executive dashboard can present a portion of interest in a stratigraphic cross section for user identification of the drill bit in the stratigraphic cross section, formations in the stratigraphic cross section, and other formation data. The method can be used to identify a projected path for the drill bit, import data, compute wellbore profiles and stratigraphic cross sections, plot actual drilling paths, overlay the actual drilling path onto the projected path, and present control buttons to the user.
US08463548B2
An apparatus is provided for assessing the location of a drill bit underground. The apparatus includes an acoustic sound generator that is driven by the drilling mud supplied to the drill bit. The sound generator a characteristic string of pulses, which may be termed a signature or key. The key is repeated over and over. Monitors (i.e., sensors) at the surface listen for this key. The key is distorted by the inconstant angular velocity of the drill bit. Thus the observed data do not precisely match the key. On the basis of numerical algorithms, a digitally revised reference signal or key, is identified to map the known reference key onto the best fitting observed data. The correction factors are then applied to map the modified reference key onto the data observed at other sensors of an array of sensors mounted on the surface. By determining the phase shift and travel time of the signals at the various sensors, and having determined the speed of wave propagation in the geological media, the position of the bit, or a fairly close approximation thereof, may be obtained. The correction factors applied to the reference key may also tend to permit the actual rotational speed of the drill bit to be determined.
US08463544B2
A navigation apparatus allows an input of either a formal street name text string or only a body street name text string as an input of a street name from a touch panel when a destination address search is performed by using a house number, a street name and a city name. Then, a control unit searches for streets that have the same text string in the formal street name as an inputted text string, and displays a list of streets by the body street name on a display unit. When one of the streets in the list is selected, a destination search for searching for a place that includes as an address the selected street, the text string inputted as the street name, and the city name inputted before or after street name selection is performed.
US08463539B2
A navigation apparatus acquires, through an antenna and a receiver, external information such as traffic information or the like, and a control unit in the navigation apparatus acquires validity time information from the external information. If the validity time information includes a standard time that represents a current time, the standard time together with a relative time or period information in the validity time information is used for determining whether a valid period has passed. If the validity time information does not include the standard time representing the current time, the lapse of the valid period is determined based on the standard time generated by a standard time generator and one of the relative time and the period information in the validity time information. Then, the external information is invalidated by deleting the information from an information storage if it is determined that the valid period has passed.
US08463526B2
In a method for detecting a periodically pulsing operating parameter of an internal combustion engine (10), a measured quantity of the periodically pulsing operating parameter of the internal combustion engine (10) is detected in order to generate a periodically pulsing measurement signal. The measurement signal in the time range having a fixed time increment is discretized, and so, in each case, a number of discrete measured values is obtained for one period of the measurement signal that corresponds to the number of time increments in the period. A mean value over the period of the measurement signal is determined by calculating a mean of the discrete measured values. For at least one of the discrete measured values, an approximation of the course of the measurement signal over the assigned time increment is carried out using a polynomial.
US08463523B2
An inverted pendulum type vehicle includes a loaded mode in which an object to be transported is loaded on a boarding unit, and a non-loaded state mode in which the object to be transported is not loaded thereon. When traveling velocities of a representative point of the vehicle in a steady-state, in which tilt errors θbe_x_s, θbe_y_s between actual tilt angles of a boarding unit and desired tilt angles thereof are maintained, constant are Vb_x_stb, Vb_y_stb, a traveling motion of a traveling motion unit is controlled such that at least a ratio of a magnitude of Vb_x_stb with respect to a magnitude of θbe_x_s becomes a smaller ratio in the non-loaded state mode than in the loaded state mode. Such inverted pendulum type vehicle is difficult to move in the non-loaded state mode, and is easy to move in the loaded mode.
US08463515B2
A powertrain includes a torque generative device and a torque converter having an impeller, a turbine and a torque converter clutch. A method to control torque converter slip includes monitoring a reference slip and a turbine speed of the torque converter, determining a turbine torque based upon the reference slip and the turbine speed, determining a feed forward torque converter clutch pressure command based upon the turbine torque, a torque generative device torque, and a TCC gain, and controlling the torque converter clutch based upon the feed forward torque converter clutch pressure command.
US08463506B2
Provided is a rear wheel toe angle control system that can prevent the impairment of the tracking performance of the electric actuator and enable the rear wheel toe angle control system to ensure the stability of the vehicle even when the electric actuator for steering the rear wheel according to the operating condition of the vehicle is subjected to an axial force. An ECU (12) serving as a rear wheel toe angle control unit for variably controlling the rear wheel toe angle (δr) of the motor vehicle (V) by using an electric actuator (11) is provided with a duty ratio correcting unit (25) that corrects the target duty ratio (Dtgt) for achieving the target rear wheel toe angle (δrtgt) according to the load condition of the electric actuator (11) that depends on the lateral acceleration (Gy) of the motor vehicle (V).
US08463505B2
In a computer-aided detection of the jamming of an object, wherein, when adjusting a component of a motor vehicle using an adjusting drive (6), measurement values related to the adjusting force (F) are compared to a prescribed threshold value (FR), initiating a slowdown, stop, or reversing of the adjusting motion when said value is reached. A spring rate correcting term characterizing the rigidity of the object is determined for correcting the relationship between the adjusting force (F) and the threshold value (FR), and is considered in the comparison.
US08463504B2
An adaptive front lighting system for performing highway and urban district modes of front lights is provided, which includes a leveling actuator rotating a light source of front lights of a vehicle in upward and downward directions, and a control unit judging a driving state of the vehicle as either of a highway driving state and an urban district driving state in accordance with a driving condition of the vehicle and determining a degree of rotation of the light source performed by the leveling actuator in accordance with a result of judgment. The driving condition includes at least one of a vehicle speed, external illumination, and frequency of vehicle stops.
US08463500B2
A method of operating a restraint system comprises deploying an airbag in response to a pre-crash sensing system prior to collision in a first stage and controlling an inflation of the airbag in a second stage in response to acceleration signals of the vehicle.
US08463499B2
Disclosed is a method of controlling a vehicle safely and stably. The method involves determining whether the vehicle is moving forward or backward without a TCU or a specific sensor for detecting whether the vehicle is moving forward or backward. The method further involves controlling at least one apparatus of the vehicle for controlling the wheels based on the determination.
US08463496B2
An electronic controller for a sub-system of an air management system including an area conversion module and a sub-system area control module. The area conversion module includes inputs for a bleed output pressure set point, a bleed output pressure measurement, a sub-system parameter set point, a sub-system parameter measurement, and a sub-system output pressure measurement; and sub-modules for calculating an area set point and an area measurement. The sub-modules generate the area set point as a function of the engine bleed output pressure set point, the sub-system parameter set point, and the sub-system output pressure measurement; and the area measurement as a function of the bleed output pressure measurement, the sub-system parameter measurement, and the sub-system output pressure measurement. The sub-system area control module generates a control output for the sub-system as a function of the calculated area set point and the calculated area measurement.
US08463493B2
A method of powertrain thermal control in a vehicle having grille airflow shutters. The method comprises the steps of: detecting vehicle operating conditions including at least a temperature condition for an engine cooling loop and engine load; pumping engine coolant through the engine cooling loop including pumping the engine coolant through a radiator under all temperature conditions of the engine cooling loop; and adjusting the grille airflow shutters relative to a grille to selectively block a portion, none or all airflow through the grille to thereby control airflow through the radiator based upon the detected vehicle operating conditions.
US08463485B2
A method is provided for enhancing service diagnostics utilizing service repair data of previously serviced vehicles. Service repair data of previously serviced vehicles is obtained from a memory storage device. The service data is compiled into a service diagnostic code dataset and a service labor code dataset. The service diagnostic code dataset and service labor code dataset are categorized into an electronic data table. Respective combinations are formed in the electronic data table. An aggregate count is determined for each respective combination in the electronic data table. Either of a respective diagnostic code or a respective service labor code is identified having a correlation with more than one of either service diagnostic codes or service labor codes. At least one of a service repair procedure used to repair the vehicle or a respective service diagnostic code used to identify the fault is modified in response to analyzing the respective combinations.
US08463484B2
A theft deterrent apparatus is used in a marine vessel which includes a propulsion device. The theft deterrent apparatus includes an authentication unit, a fault detection unit arranged to detect a fault of the authentication unit, and an operation control unit arranged to control operation of the propulsion device. When the authentication unit is normal, the operation control unit controls the operation of the propulsion device in accordance with an authentication result of the authentication unit. When a fault has occurred in the authentication unit, the operation control unit controls the operation of the propulsion device without referring to the authentication result of the authentication unit. When the authentication unit is normal, the operation control unit sets an operation mode of the propulsion device to an ordinary operation mode under a condition of success of authentication by the authentication unit and prohibits the operation of the propulsion device if the authentication by the authentication unit does not succeed. When a fault has occurred in the authentication unit, the operation control unit sets the operation mode of the propulsion device to an emergency operation mode in which a predetermined restriction is applied with respect to the ordinary operation mode.
US08463483B2
Methods and systems are provided for monitoring an electrical system of a vehicle. Data pertaining to the electrical system is obtained. Calculation modules are performed using the data to generate intermediate determinations. An aggregate calculation module is performed using each of the intermediate determinations to generate an aggregate determination pertaining to the electrical system. Redundant intermediate calculations are performed using the data to generate redundant intermediate determinations. Each of the redundant intermediate determinations is used for comparison with a respective intermediate determination.
US08463481B2
A dual mode battery charging system and method of use are provided for use in an electric vehicle. The system utilizes at least two user selectable, charging operational modes. In a first operational mode, a state of charge circuit powers on the engine/generator system whenever the battery state of charge falls below a first level and until the battery state of charge reaches a second level, where the second level is higher than the first level. In a second operational mode, the state of charge circuit powers on the engine/generator system whenever the battery state of charge falls below a third level and until the battery state of charge reaches the second level, where the third level is lower than both the first and second levels.
US08463480B2
A dual mode battery charging system and method of use are provided for use in an electric vehicle. The system utilizes at least two user selectable, charging operational modes. In a first operational mode, a state of charge circuit cycles an engine/generator system on/off between a first level and a second level, where the second level is higher than the first level. In a second operational mode, the state of charge circuit cycles the engine/generator system on/off between a third level and a fourth level. After the fourth state of charge has been reached once, the state of charge circuit cycles the engine/generator system on/off between a fifth level and the fourth level, where the fifth level is higher than the third level and lower than the fourth level, and where the fourth level is lower than both the first and second levels.
US08463478B2
A hybrid drive apparatus has a first drive unit, a second drive unit, and a clutch by way of which the first drive unit and the second drive unit can be coupled. A method for controlling the hybrid drive apparatus includes decoupling the first drive unit and the second drive unit from each other, and operating the first drive unit at a no-load operating point. A first torque of the first drive unit is determined at the no-load operating point. The first and second drive units are coupled by way of the clutch. The first drive unit is then motored by the second drive unit at an operating point which corresponds to the no-load operating point. A second torque is determined, which is produced by the second drive unit, in order to motor the first drive unit at the operating point. Finally, a control of at least one of the drive units is adapted based on the difference between the first torque and the second torque.
US08463477B2
A method and a system are described for controlling an electrical machine in a drivetrain of a motor vehicle, the electrical machine being used as a drive unit for the motor vehicle. A pilot control unit determines a pilot control torque as a function of a predefined target torque of the electrical machine, the pilot control unit having a transfer function that corresponds to an oscillation component of a transfer function, ascertained in model-supported fashion for the overall drivetrain, that describes a dependence of a rotation speed of the electrical machine on a torque with which the electrical machine is operated. A control unit for the electrical machine determines a corrected target torque for the electrical machine by superimposing the pilot control torque on the predefined target torque and controlling the electrical machine as a function of the corrected target torque.
US08463474B2
Methods and systems are provided for motor torque control for hybrid vehicles having a motor and a communications bus. The motor torque is controlled using a first motor torque capacity if the communications bus is healthy. The motor torque is controlled using a second motor torque capacity if the communications bus is unhealthy. The first motor torque capacity has a first absolute value. The second motor torque capacity has a second absolute value that is less than the first absolute value.
US08463472B2
A charge monitoring apparatus is mountable on or connectable to a vehicle which uses electrical power supplied from a battery on the vehicle for traveling. The charge monitoring apparatus includes a vehicle ID holding portion that holds vehicle-side identification information which is uniquely allocated to each specific vehicle, a power-line communicating portion that performs a power line communication with an extravehicular apparatus through a power supply line which supplies the electric power from the external power supply equipment to the battery, a vehicle-side information storing portion that stores information produced in the vehicle, and a communication controlling portion that, in the power line communication, transmits the vehicle-side identification information held in the vehicle ID holding portion to the extravehicular apparatus, and if predetermined condition is satisfied, the communication controlling portion transmits the information stored in the vehicle-side information storing portion to the extravehicular apparatus.
US08463471B2
A driving force controlling apparatus for a vehicle including an electric generator and a motor for driving a wheel other than a driving wheel, with electric power from the electric generator, includes a requested electric power computing means that computes requested electric power required for operation of the motor. Target output of the electric generator is set based on the requested electric power and maximum output that the electric generator can output stably. The driving force controlling apparatus for a vehicle including the motor for driving a wheel other than a driving wheel driven by an engine, with electric power from the electric generator, enables the electric generator to stably output electric power.
US08463468B2
A method of a flight management system (FMS) of an aircraft for computing flight time from an equi-distance point (EDP to a reference point for an emergency landing of the aircraft includes receiving at least two reference points for landing the aircraft upon an occurrence of an emergency and determining a remaining flight path for the aircraft based on a current location of the aircraft and a flight plan serviced by the FMS. Further, the method includes generating the EDP for the aircraft by locating a point in the remaining flight path, and calculating an expected flight time of the aircraft from the EDP to each of the at least two reference points based on a plurality of factors affecting the flight time of the aircraft.
US08463456B2
A mechanism is provided for minimizing system power in a data processing system. A management control unit determines whether a convergence has been reached in the data processing system. If convergence fails to be reached, the management control unit determines whether a maximum fan flag is set to indicate that a fan is operating at a maximum speed. Responsive to the maximum fan flag failing to be set, a thermal threshold of the data processing system is either increased or decreased and thereby a fan speed of the data processing system is either increased or decreased based on whether the system power of the data processing system has either increased or decreased and based on whether a temperature of the data processing system has either increased or decreased. Thus, a new thermal threshold and a new fan speed are formed. The process is then repeated until convergence has been met.
US08463452B2
Disclosed is an apparatus for analyzing time-base electrical load characteristics of an electrical appliance on a micro-grid, to identify the type of the appliance and to monitor its utility usage and operational condition. The apparatus has a signal conditioner; a signature engine; an ID-engine; and a database. A system manager provides control and external communications. The signal conditioner receives load character input signals, and generates a conditioned signal containing the load's electrical characteristics and sends the signal to the signature engine. The signature engine generates a signature signal based on the conditioned signal. The ID-engine takes the signature signal, analyzes it in view of signature ID criteria stored in the database to identify the type of the attached electrical appliance, and stores the identity in the database. The database can be utilized to identify the type of other appliances and to monitor their utility usage and operational condition.
US08463450B2
An aggregated management system for managing a commodity, such as electricity or gas, is disclosed. The system includes: a plurality of commodity resources; an availability calculator; a resource aggregator, wherein each resource, depending on availability data from the availability calculator, is aggregated to represent an aggregated resource; a resource controller, wherein each commodity resource, depending on availability, is selectively operated by the resource controller in response to a resource instruction; and an interlace to provide information regarding the aggregated resource and receive resource instructions regarding the aggregated resource for the resource controller.
US08463449B2
A system, method, and apparatus for integrating distributed energy sources, energy storage, and balance of system components into a single device with systems and control for monitoring, measuring, and conserving power generated on the premise. A data processing gateway, hybrid inverter/converter and charge controller provide flexibility in the multi-voltages, output capacities, and photovoltaic array sizes coupled to the apparatus and system. The system and apparatus may be used in various commercial and residential applications. A user may store energy provided by one or more alternate energy sources coupled to an energy storage module. The system provides a compact enclosure that fits within a utility workspace and enclosures that can be mechanically coupled together, placed in parallel or in a series. A method, computer implemented apparatus, computer readable medium, computer implemented method and a system for monitoring energy consumption, selling energy back to a utility company and peak shaving are also provided.
US08463440B2
A robot includes: an arm; a driving source that pivots the arm; an angle sensor that detects a pivot angle and outputs pivot angle information; an inertia sensor that is attached to the arm and outputs inertial force information; a control command generating unit that outputs a control command defining rotational operation of the arm; a control conversion determining unit that determines whether the inertial force information is used when the driving source is controlled; and an arm operation control unit that performs a first control based on the control command, the pivot angle information, and the inertial force information, if the control conversion determining unit determines that the inertial force information should be used, and performs a second control based on the control command and the pivot angle information, if the control conversion determining unit determines that the inertial force information should not be used.
US08463437B2
A robot that is capable of traveling while moving an object such that the object and the robot itself will not step out of a predetermined area is provided. If a traveling requirement that the robot and the object remain within a pathway area is not met, then an action scheme of the robot is corrected so as to meet the traveling requirement. Then, the robot travels while moving the object according to the corrected action scheme, thus enabling the robot to travel while moving the object such that both the object and the robot do not step out of the pathway area.
US08463435B2
A robot system with a robot that has a camera and a remote control station that can connect to the robot. The connection can include a plurality of privileges. The system further includes a server that controls which privileges are provided to the remote control station. The privileges may include the ability to control the robot, joint in a multi-cast session and the reception of audio/video from the robot. The privileges can be established and edited through a manager control station. The server may contain a database that defines groups of remote control station that can be connected to groups of robots. The database can be edited to vary the stations and robots within a group. The system may also allow for connectivity between a remote control station at a user programmable time window.
US08463425B2
A storage rack with a multiplicity of stacked supports for supporting containers transferable by means of an automatic storage/retrieval device, featuring at least one access opening for storage/retrieval of containers and including a computer in which information as to the stored articles is saved, at least one digital camera being provided imaging the articles held in the containers and the digital image information being saved in the computer for display by means of a display means, has in addition assigned to a display means a pointer device by means of which the article to be retrieved is selectable from the digital image information.
US08463424B2
A method of displaying a map on a wireless communications device includes steps of determining a current position of the wireless communications device, determining address information corresponding to the current position of the wireless communications device, and presenting the address information to a user of the device. The address information can be displayed onscreen as a pair of odd and even numbers representing the street addresses on each side of the street at the current position of the device. The street addresses can be determined by interpolating the address from an address range for the path segment along which the device is traveling. Alternatively, where specific addresses have been stored in association with coordinates, the closest address can be determined. This technology facilitates navigation by presenting street numbers corresponding to the real-time position of the device.
US08463421B2
The present invention provides a method of drilling a hole in a workpiece in order to control breakthrough of the workpiece comprising the steps of: a) initiating contact between a drill bit of a drill unit and the workpiece; b) operating the drill unit to rotate the drill bit to drill the workpiece; c) during drilling of the workpiece measuring the force, F and torque, T, experienced by the drill bit; d) calculating a variable F′, based on the measured force, F, representing the rate of change of F; e) calculating a variable, T′ based on the measured torque, T, representing the rate of change of T; f) calculating a variable F″ representing the rate of change of F′; g) calculating a variable T″ representing the rate of change of T″; h) detecting the onset of breakout of the workpiece by use of the variables F′, F″, T′ and T″; i) thereby controlling the speed of rotation of the drill bit during breakthrough of the workpiece to control the degree of breakout of the drill bit from the workpiece. A drilling system is also disclosed.
US08463419B2
System and method for automated semiconductor manufacturing is provided. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a system for automated semiconductor wafer manufacturing includes a smart overlay control (SOC) database having empirical alignment data related to overlay alignment, and a simulation module communicatively coupled to the SOC database, the simulation module determining a simulated overlay alignment of a wafer on the plurality of photolithography tools in a tool bank based on the empirical alignment data stored in the SOC database. The system also includes a dispatch module communicatively coupled to the SOC database and the simulation module, the dispatch module controlling the dispatch of a wafer to one of a plurality of photolithography tools in a tool bank based at least in part on the simulated overlay alignment.
US08463417B2
A method performed by one or more computer processors imports data from a machinery monitoring system into a control system. The machinery monitoring system is a system that measures machine measurement parameters of a machine, and the control system is a system that controls processes in which the machine performs a function. The method includes accessing a first knowledge base containing information about communicating with the machinery monitoring system, and accessing a second knowledge base containing information about communicating with the control system. The method also includes extracting configuration information from the machinery monitoring system via a communication bus. Information is entered by a user for use in creating an import configuration file, which file is used in preparing the control system to receive data from the machinery monitoring system. The entering of information is performed via a user interface operatively connected to the one or more computer processors. Based on the information accessed from the first and second knowledge bases, the configuration information extracted from the machinery monitoring system, and the information entered by the user, the import configuration file is created for use in preparing the control system to receive data from the machinery monitoring system. Data from the machinery monitoring system may then be transferred into the control system based on the import configuration file.
US08463415B2
A lot processing start determining method includes: storing, in a memory, processing conditions of each lot in a first substrate vessel and a maximum usable number of dummy substrates in a second substrate vessel; counting the used number the dummy substrates in the second substrate vessel; and calculating the number of dummy substrates required to process all substrates of a next lot in the first substrate vessel based on the processing conditions of each lot which are stored in the memory, adding the calculated number of the dummy substrates of the next lot to the counted used number of the dummy substrates, and determining whether the added value exceeds the maximum usable number of the dummy substrates stored in the memory. The method further includes prohibiting start of processing the next lot when the added value is determined to exceed the maximum usable number of the dummy substrate.
US08463410B2
The invention relates to a method and a control device for moving a machine element of an automation machine by dividing an overall movement of the machine element into separately controlled first and a second movement sections extending in a common direction. Desired values for the first and second movement sections are monitored for compliance with a predefined movement constraint. If the first and/or second desired values fail to comply with the predefined movement constraint, the first movement component and/or the second movement component are changed in an iterative process until the changed first and/or second desired values are in compliance with the predefined movement constraint. The changed first and/or second desired values are stored as new first and/or second desired values for moving the machine element. The method and control device prevent overloading of the drive shafts of an automation machine having redundant kinematics.
US08463399B2
The various embodiments disclosed herein relate to medical electrical leads. More specifically, certain embodiments relate to leads having one or more drug-eluting components that are overmolded or otherwise positioned on the lead. Other embodiments relate to leads having one or more patterned surfaces, including some leads with one or more patterned surfaces over which one or more drug-eluting components are positioned. Further implementations relate to leads having one or more overmolded patterned surfaces, including some embodiments in which the overmolded surfaces contain at least one drug-eluting component.
US08463395B2
In a method and apparatus for supplying wireless energy to a medical device (100) implanted in a patient, wireless energy is transmitted from an external energy source (104) located outside a patient and is received by an internal energy receiver (102) located inside the patient, for directly or indirectly supplying received energy to the medical device. An energy balance is determined between the energy received by the internal energy receiver and the energy used for the medical device, and the transmission of wireless energy is then controlled based on the determined energy balance. The energy balance thus provides an accurate indication of the correct amount of energy needed, which is sufficient to operate the medical device properly, but without causing undue temperature rise.
US08463372B2
A method and an apparatus for monitoring a sedated patient, the method comprising the steps of providing a skin conductance signal measured at an area of the patient's skin, establishing the existence of at least one fluctuation peak in the skin conductance signal through a time interval, providing a width value of said fluctuation peak in the skin conductance signal through said time interval, and comparing the width value with a reference value. If said width value is larger than the reference value, an output signal is provided which indicates the state of awakening in the patient. If the width value is less than the reference value, an output signal is provided which indicates the state of pain in the patient.
US08463369B2
Systems, devices, structures, and methods are provided to present a visual display based on data from an implantable medical device. The display includes a chart showing the frequency of a detected type of arrhythmia over a predetermined period of time.
US08463358B2
A method for MRI imaging to obtain information about a local physiochemical parameter after administration to a patient of a contrast agent including at least one non-responsive contrast enhancing entity that does not occur naturally in a human body and at least one responsive contrast enhancing entity attached to or mixed with the non-responsive contrast enhancing entity. By using such non-responsive contrast enhancing entities, a value for the physicochemical parameter can be obtained by acquiring only three images, providing a method which will be easier to apply in a clinical routine, since it will be faster and less sensitive to motion or flow artifacts.
US08463350B2
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for measuring an analyte in a host. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for transcutaneous measurement of glucose in a host.
US08463347B2
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for analyzing and normalizing signals, such as PPG signals, for use in patent monitoring. The PPG signal may be detected using a continuous non-invasive blood pressure monitoring system and the normalized signals may be used to determine whether a recalibration of the system should be performed.
US08463345B2
A medical device for monitoring of oxygen saturation includes an optical sensor adapted for positioning adjacent to a tissue volume. The optical sensor has a light emitting portion capable of emitting light at a plurality of wavelengths and a light detecting portion capable of generating an electrical output signal corresponding to light incident on the detecting portion. A control module coupled to the optical sensor controls the light emitted by the light emitting portion. A monitoring module receives the output signal from the light detecting portion and computes a volume-independent measure of oxygen saturation in the volume of tissue using the output signal.
US08463342B2
Superconducting rf is limited by a wide range of failure mechanisms inherent in the typical manufacture methods. This invention provides a method for fabricating superconducting rf structures comprising coating the structures with single atomic-layer thick films of alternating chemical composition. Also provided is a cavity defining the invented laminate structure.
US08463341B2
The invention relates to a superconducting element joint comprising a joint between two superconducting elements comprising at least one direct SC-SC transition joint. By the invention an improved superconducting element joint may be obtained.The invention also relates to a process for providing such superconducting element joint and a superconducting cable system comprising such superconducting element joint.
US08463337B2
A sliding module with a scratch prevention device for a sliding-type portable terminal, including a body housing, a sliding housing, a main member provided in the body housing, a sliding member provided in the sliding housing and coupled such that the sliding member may slidingly move in the main body, a guide member provided on each of both ends of the main member, and a guide rail provided on each of both ends of the sliding member and slidingly movably coupled to the guide member so that the guide rail may be guided. The sliding module includes a scratch prevention portion provided on a part where the guide member and the guide rail contact each other, and at least one auxiliary scratch prevention portions provided crossing each other on a part where the guide member and the sliding housing contact each other.
US08463329B2
A method of controlling a portable electronic device that has a touch screen display includes providing a graphical user interface on a touch screen display, detecting a touch event at a first location on the touch screen display, providing a navigation indicator in the graphical user interface in response to detecting the touch event at the first location, and in response to detecting movement of the touch event from the first location to a second location while touch contact is maintained on the touch screen display, changing the position of the navigation indicator in the graphical user interface by a distance that is greater than a distance of movement of the touch event on the touch screen display, a direction of change of position of the navigation indicator is based on a direction of movement of the touch event on the touch screen display.
US08463325B2
A system and method for providing calling feature icons in a user interface that allow users to determine with ease the status of different calling features, and in respect of at least one embodiment, to identify with ease the communication lines associated with calling features that have been enabled (and/or disabled) on the mobile device. In example embodiments, for each calling feature, at most one general calling feature icon associated with the respective calling feature is displayed in a general calling feature icon display field of a call screen if the respective calling feature applies to at least one of a plurality of communication lines accessible at the mobile device. In some embodiments, line-specific calling feature icons may also be displayed in an active line data display field and/or a line selection menu.
US08463323B2
An antenna device, a wireless cellular network, and a method of capacity expansion are provided. The antenna device includes: a contact element adapted to connect a base station to receive input signals from the base station; an amplitude and phase allocating element adapted to allocate the input signals received by the contact element according to designed amplitudes and phases; an antenna element comprising an array of antennas comprising an even number of columns, and adapted to receive and transmit the input signals allocated with the amplitudes and phases. An array of antennas comprising an even number of columns has been adopted, and a feed network construction of the antenna system has been improved, so that through adjusting amplitudes and phases of original signals from a base station, a smooth capacity expansion of the network can be achieved without adjusting antenna directivities, thus reducing the workload and complexity for capacity expansion.
US08463309B2
Systems and methods for selecting data rates at which to transmit data over a primary uplink in the presence of one or more secondary uplink channels. One embodiment comprises a method including determining probabilities associated with numbers of attempted transmissions of data, determining the number of times pending data transmissions have been attempted, determining probabilities associated with the data transmissions, and allocating power for transmission of the data in a succeeding frame based upon the associated probabilities. In one embodiment, a highest supportable data rate for a primary uplink is initially selected. Then, power is allocated for a minimum set of channels on the primary uplink. Then, power is allocated for pending data transmissions on the secondary uplink. A maximum power level for the transceiver is then adjusted to account for the allocated power, and the highest supportable data rate for the primary uplink is recomputed.
US08463308B2
Methods for coordinating power usage and link adaptation in wireless communications are described. Terminals and/or access points (APs) may attempt to modify terminals' transmit power in relation to a desired communication data transfer rate. Link adoption may also be used in conjunction with the described methods.
US08463307B1
An originating mobile station seeks to establish a push-to-talk (PTT) communication session with a destination mobile station. To do this, the originating mobile station transmits a first request message that requests the PTT session. Before receiving a predefined indication that the requested PTT session has been accepted, the originating mobile station transmits a first continuation message that includes first session description information to facilitate establishment of the PTT session. A PTT server receives the first request message and, before receiving the first continuation message, transmits to the destination mobile station a second request message that requests the PTT session. The PTT server then transmits a second continuation message that includes second session description information. The destination mobile station receives the second request message and, before receiving the second continuation message, transmits an acceptance message indicating acceptance of the requested PTT session.
US08463303B2
A mobile communication terminal and a method for outputting a short message thereof are provided. The mobile communication terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a short message interpretation unit which extracts a phone number of a sender from a header of a short message, a short message processing unit which obtains an image mapped to the extracted phone number and generates a screen on which the image is combined with the text of the short message, a mapping unit which maps the image to the phone number of the sender, a storage unit which stores the phone number of the sender and the image and an output unit which outputs the screen.
US08463299B1
A tool for displaying a current location of a mobile computing device on a map displayed on the mobile computing device, the mobile computing device containing a GPS unit. A mobile computing device scans a bar code printed on an external paper map. The mobile computing device then sends a request to a server for a digital version of the map that corresponds to the bar code. Then, the mobile computing device receives the digital version of the map and calculates the current location of the mobile computing device, as determined from the GPS unit. The mobile computing device then displays the digital version of the map and the current location of the mobile computing device on the displayed map.
US08463297B2
A method for use in controlling a mobile device's access to one or more wireless communications networks (WCNs) with an overlaid wireless location system (WLS) includes monitoring a set of one or more predefined signaling links of at least one WCN, and detecting an event associated with the mobile device. Next, using a low-accuracy location function of the WLS, the system determines that the mobile device is within a defined area of interest and is potentially within a defined quiet zone. Next, using a high-accuracy location function of the WLS, the system determines a precise geographic location of the mobile device and based thereon confirms that the mobile device is within the quiet zone or at least within an area of ambiguity around the quiet zone. Finally, the mobile device's access to the wireless communications network is limited, e.g., according to a pre-defined rule established by the carrier. This approach allows finer definition of the fenced area while also minimizing the load on the high-accuracy location function. The proximity threshold is preferably based on the accuracy of the underlying location technology.
US08463296B2
System(s) and method(s) are provided to route traffic and signaling between a set of networked femto access points (APs) and enable location-based services. A femto AP in the set of femto APs is functionally linked to a routing platform that manages traffic and signaling, and is functionally connected to a controller component that relays data and control to a femto network platform. Routing platform can exchange signaling with one or more femto APs to enable, at least in part, location-based services based at least in part on identifier(s) for a femto AP, access privileges, or time-of-flight measurements that assess propagation timing between a mobile device and a femto AP. Routing platform can supply timing configuration to enable predetermined spatial resolution of location estimates. Location estimates can be recorded and conveyed to a consumer layer.
US08463295B1
Methods and systems for generating location-aware group recommendations are discussed. For example, a method can include operations for receiving a group recommendation request, accessing user profile data associated with members of the group, and generating a group recommendation. The group recommendation request can be received at a network-based system and include identification of a first and second user as well as information identifying a current location associated with the first and second users. Accessing the user profile information can include accessing user profile information for both the first and second users. The group recommendation can be generated based on the current location data and a combination of at least a portion of the user profile data from the first and second users.
US08463294B2
A mobile communications device with a wireless module and a controller module is provided. The wireless module performs wireless transmissions and receptions to and from a service network. The controller module receives a positioning information request indicating a plurality of desired positioning information elements from the service network via the wireless module, and determines whether some or all of the desired positioning information elements are not supported. Also, the controller module transmits only a positioning information response indicating the unsupported positioning information elements to the service network via the wireless module, in response to some or all of the desired positioning information elements not being supported.
US08463288B2
Exemplary methods, systems and components enable detection and/or monitoring and/or control of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure of target body-related portions of a user operating a telecommunication device. In some embodiments a risk-assessment output is provided based on a safety threshold or predetermined intrusion level of EMR exposure.
US08463274B2
The present invention relates a resource allocation method and a resource allocation device. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a resource allocation method of a wireless communication system includes: allocating a resource to a first base station; determining whether or not a second cell that is smaller than a first cell is provided in a first cell region managed by the first base station; reducing the resource allocated to the first base station when the second cell is provided; and allocating resources remaining after reducing the resource to a second base station that manages the second cell.
US08463263B2
In a radio communications system, the identity of user equipment is provided upon receiving an access node a first message from at least one user equipment of a plurality of user equipment, where the first message includes information relating to the at least one user equipment. An identity for the at least one user equipment is generated by the access node based upon the information received. A second message that includes the identity is transmitted by the access node to the at least one user equipment, where a payload size for the identity is constant.
US08463251B2
The present invention provides a system and method of modifying policy settings in a network having a plurality of subscriber devices. An embodiment includes a plurality of base stations, each capable of wirelessly transmitting across a geographic region and a server. A cell-phone, capable of roaming between regions, is operable to establish a wireless link with the base stations and through the base stations, with the server. The network contains a communication policy determining from which other communication devices a subscriber device can receive voice calls. The communication policy is updated, by the server, based on requests from the subscriber devices. Once a request is received from a subscriber device, the determination whether to update the communication policy can be based on a record of rejections respective to the caller requested to be blocked. Alternatively, the communication policy can be updated according to a trust policy maintained on the server respective to the subscriber device making the request; the trust policy represents the procedure to follow when a request is received from that subscriber device.
US08463226B2
Apparatus are provided for amplifier circuits and related receiver systems. An amplifier circuit includes a first common-source amplification stage and a second common-source amplification stage. The input of the second common-source amplification stage is coupled to the output of the first common-source amplification stage such that the first common-source amplification stage generates a first amplified signal, and the second common-source amplification stage generates a second amplified signal based on the first amplified signal. The first common-source amplification stage is coupled to a first node and the second common-source amplification stage is coupled to a second node, wherein the common-source amplification stages are configured such that a current between the first node and the second node flows in series through the common-source amplification stages.
US08463220B2
A system for receiving digital audio data may include a diversity-receiving unit. The diversity-receiving unit may include at least two antennas and at least one receiving channel, which can be switched from one antenna to another antenna. To reduce audible disturbances in the receiving channel, a dropout concealment may be carried out when disturbances in the received audio signal occur. The dropout concealment may use intact audio signal parts before the disturbance and/or after the disturbance to synthesize the concealment signal. The receiving channel may be switched to another antenna as a function of whether the dropout concealment is activated.
US08463214B2
An antenna diversity system having a non-interrupt function is provided. The antenna diversity system includes: a plurality of antennas, a plurality of radio frequency (RF) circuits, and a signal processing unit. The RF circuits are respectively coupled to the antennas, wherein each RF circuit is utilized for operating in one of a plurality of channels. The signal processing unit is coupled to the RF circuits, and utilized for determining whether a signal quality value of at least one of the antennas lower than a threshold to generate a determining result, and determining whether to change the channel of at least one of the RF circuits according to the determining result, so as to make at least two of the RF circuits operating in a same channel of the channels.
US08463208B2
Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to transmission techniques that result in power savings relative to previous solutions. These techniques often transmit a signal-of-interest by using two paths, namely, a transmission path (which includes a power amplifier) and a control path. The signal-of-interest is evaluated in “fast-track” fashion on the control path, such that the control path can “tune” a DC supply signal provided to the power amplifier. Thus, when a delayed version of the signal-of-interest is provided over the transmission path to the power amplifier, the DC supply signal provided to the power amplifier helps ensure that the power amplifier has “just enough” DC supply to ensure reliable operation without dissipating excess power. In this way, the techniques disclosed herein help to reduce power consumption in transmitters, thereby potentially helping to extend battery life and reduce undesired heating for users.
US08463204B2
In order to maintain isolation of signals within a multiport amplifier of a communications satellite and to reduce cross-talk components, by monitoring communications signals passing through the multiport amplifier, output signals of the multiport amplifier are sensed and downconverted to baseband, and applied to an emulator mechanism of the multiport amplifier. The emulator mechanism comprises a reverse matrix of the multiport amplifier, which recovers the input signals of the multiport amplifier together with cross-talk components, and a digital signal processor which carries out a frequency analysis of the cross-talk components by means of an FFT, and employs a digital model of the multiport amplifier to determine the state of the multiport amplifier which gives rise to such cross-talk components. The digital signal processor may be located at a ground station to which communication is made via a telemetry link.
US08463202B2
To provide a power amplifier circuit which is capable of reducing a phase error of an output signal in a case where an amplitude of an input signal is relatively small, as well as a transmitter and a wireless communication device using the same. A constant envelope signal generation circuit (20) converts an input signal (Si) having envelope variation into a first constant envelope signal (Sd1) and a second constant envelope signal (Sd2) having the same amplitude and different phases, and outputs the signals. A first amplifier (11) amplifies the first constant envelope signal (Sd1). A second amplifier (12) amplifies the second constant envelope signal (Sd2). An output adder (13) outputs an amplified output signal having envelope variation based on the amplified signals output from the first amplifier (11) and the second amplifier (12). An amplitude control circuit (reference potential control circuit (45)) controls the amplitude of the first constant envelope signal (Sd1) and the second constant envelope signal (Sd2) based on the amplitude of the input signal (Si).
US08463201B2
An apparatus and method for removing a transmission leakage signal from a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader are provided. The apparatus includes a removing unit having a device of a large impedance and a phase shifter capable of a wide range phase change with respect to a leakage signal, thereby optimally removing the transmission leakage signal irrespective of a change in the frequency characteristics and a change in the length of a cable.
US08463196B2
A method of decoding in a wireless receiver, a wireless transmission from a predefined user, the method comprising: receiving a wireless transmission signal (r(m)); determining a one or more interfering spreading codes (si(m)) contributing to the received wireless transmission signal (r(m)); estimating a one or more interferer symbols ({circumflex over (b)}i(m)) from the received wireless transmission signal (r(m)) and the or each interfering spreading codes (si(m)); calculating a one or more scaling factors (Pi(m)) at which the or each of the interferer symbols ({circumflex over (b)}i(m)) was originally transmitted; simulating an interference signal i(m) in the received wireless transmission signal (r(m)); removing the simulated interference signal i(m) from the received wireless transmission signal (r(m)) to produce a processed wireless signal (o(m)); and estimating a one or more symbols {circumflex over (b)}(m) transmitted by the predefined user in the processed wireless signal (o(m)).
US08463193B2
A calibration apparatus for calibrating a communications terminal comprises a data store arranged to store amplifier unspecific power control data, and a processing resource arranged to receive a first indication of a first desired output power level and a second indication of a second desired output power level. The processing resource retrieves from the data store a first amplifier unspecific value associated with the first desired output power level and a second amplifier unspecific value associated with the second desired output power level. An amplifier is operably coupled to the processing resource and arranged to generate a first output signal and a second output signal corresponding to the first and second retrieved values. The processing resource is arranged to receive a first measured value and a second measured value. Also, the processing resource is arranged to support an interpolator for performing an interpolation using the first and second measured values.
US08463192B2
A system and a method for measuring characteristics of a mobile device are provided. The mobile device includes an antenna connection pad connected to an antenna, a Radio Frequency (RF) unit connected to the antenna connection pad for transmitting RF signals through the antenna and for receiving RF signals through the antenna, a switch coupled between the antenna connection pad and the RF unit for operating according to an electrical signal and a contact pad connected to a measuring cable and located between the switch and the RF unit.
US08463186B2
A communications device includes a processor and Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry that includes a communications module. An electromagnet is connected to the communications module and the processor. The electromagnet is configured to couple magnetically to a second communications device having a magnetic sensor and to transmit from the electromagnet to the magnetic sensor electromagnet pulses containing data regarding a wireless communications protocol. The processor and communications module are configured to establish a wireless communications connection with the second communications device.
US08463182B2
Methods for pairing devices to a group are disclosed. The methods include initiating a plurality of wireless device for communication with a base computing system. Then, receiving signals indicative of setting of each of the plurality of wireless devices in pairing mode. The method then detects a physical tap between two or more of the plurality of wireless devices. The physical tap setting a pairing of the wireless devices to a group for communication with the base computing system. The devices in the group being managed in a database to associate capabilities of the wireless devices to components of a multimedia feed being used by the group.
US08463181B2
A communication apparatus is provided. The communication apparatus comprises an external memory device and a communication unit. The external memory device stores software functions corresponding to a predetermined application profile of the wireless communication system. The communication unit comprises: a radio transceiver module transceiving radio frequency wireless signals and converting the radio frequency wireless signals to or from baseband signals; a baseband module converting the baseband signals to or from digital signals and processing the digital signals; an internal memory device storing a firmware programmed for controlling the radio transceiver module, the baseband module, and performing a physical layer protocol and a data link layer protocol of the wireless communication system; and a microprocessor accessing the software functions via an interface and executing the firmware and the software functions when implementing the predetermined application profile.
US08463179B2
A repeater system is disclosed including a dual-fed donor patch antenna with a first microstrip antenna probe and a second microstrip antenna probe, phase shifting circuitry connected to the first microstrip antenna probe and the second microstrip antenna probe, wherein the phase shifting circuitry is configured to receive an input signal, supply a first signal to the first microstrip antenna probe, and supply a second signal to the second microstrip antenna probe using the input signal such that the first signal and the second signal are approximately 180 degrees out of phase with respect to each other. The repeater system also includes a coverage antenna (either a patch antenna or dipole antenna) and a housing connecting the dual-fed donor patch antenna and the coverage antenna. The housing is disposed to serve as a ground plane for the donor patch antenna and the coverage antenna.
US08463174B2
A system for generating a sequence of learning objects comprising an e-Learning course is provided. The system can include one or more processors and a memory unit for electronically storing data comprising a plurality of learning objects. The system further can include a sequence builder configured to execute on the at least one processor. The sequence builder, more particularly, can be configured to generate a sequence comprising at least a portion of the plurality of learning objects based upon a measurable user relevancy and/or a measurable query relevancy of each learning object contained in the sequence.
US08463172B2
A cleaning device, including, a first blade to slidably contact with a surface of an image carrier to which a toner including an external additive adheres, a second blade to slidably contact with the surface of the image carrier and to be provided downstream of the first blade in a rotation direction of the image carrier, and a lubricant applying mechanism section to apply a lubricant to the surface of the image carrier, wherein hardness of the first blade is equal to or more than hardness of the second blade.
US08463171B2
To provide a fixing solution for fixing fine resin particles to a recording medium, the fixing solution including: a diluent which contains water; a foaming agent which allows the fixing solution to be in the form of foam; and a solid plasticizer which is solid at normal temperature and soluble in the diluent, and which softens or swells at least part of the fine resin particles while dissolved in the diluent.
US08463169B2
A fixing device includes a fixing roller and a pressure roller. The fixing roller and the pressure roller each have an elastic layer formed between a core bar and a release layer, which release layer serves as a surface of the fixing roller and the pressure roller. The pressure roller has a lower Asker-C hardness than that of the fixing roller, and has a greater micro rubber hardness than that of the fixing roller. This prevents the surface of the pressure roller from deteriorating in a short period of time.
US08463160B2
An image forming apparatus includes a housing, developing units disposed in parallel with each other in the housing and including an image carrier, and a toner carrier to supply toner to the image carrier. Toner cartridges that correspond to a respective developing unit when each of the toner cartridges is attached to the housing are configured to be attached to the housing. Each toner cartridge includes a first containing unit configured to contain toner. The apparatus also includes a belt unit disposed to oppose the image carriers and a collecting unit to contact a surface of the belt to collect waste toner. A first toner cartridge includes a second containing unit configured to contain waste toner collected by the collecting unit. Each of the toner cartridges other than the first toner cartridge does not include a second containing unit.
US08463151B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming section which performs image formation according to execution of a job, a storage section which can store two or more jobs, a display section to perform display, and a control section by which the operations of the image forming section and the display section are controlled, and the job is stored and managed in the storage section, and which performs these two or more jobs in a prescribed order. According to the setting conditions and the operating state of each of jobs, before and after the job, in the execution order, this control section creates guidance and displays this guidance on the display section. According to, or referring to, the guidance, the user is guided to perform processes. Working efficiency is enhanced because the operator knows easily a process or timing required in order to operate without stopping print operation.
US08463147B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member bearing an image; a transfer member having the image transferred thereto from the image bearing member; a correction-image-formation control unit that causes, on the transfer member, a bias correction image to be formed based on an uncorrected bias and a first parameter-correction image to be formed immediately behind the bias correction image based on the uncorrected bias and an uncorrected image-formation parameter; a bias correcting unit obtaining a corrected bias by correcting the uncorrected bias based on the bias correction image; a bias determining unit for determining whether the corrected bias is within a predetermined range defined based on the uncorrected bias; and a parameter correcting unit obtaining, if the corrected bias is within the predetermined range, a corrected image-formation parameter by correcting the uncorrected image-formation parameter based on the first parameter-correction image.
US08463142B2
A method, an apparatus, and a system for feedback control of a coherent receiver are provided. The method for feedback control of the coherent receiver includes: obtaining a feedback control quantity according to a digital signal converted by an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC); and adjusting a signal amplitude output by a Transimpedance Amplifier (TIA) and a direct current component of an offset T device according to the feedback control quantity, until an analog signal input into the ADC is in a sampling range of the ADC, where the TIA is serially connected to the offset T device and then is connected to the ADC. Present invention has the following advantages: enabling the analog signal to adapt to the ADC sampling best, maximizing an effective information quantity sampled by the ADC and better supporting subsequent processing of a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) unit, thereby improving a coherent receiving performance.
US08463141B2
A digital version of both amplitude and phase of at least one generic polarization component of a received optical signal is developed using dual-polarization direct differential detection with digital signal processing. The received signal is split into orthogonal polarization components, each of which is split into three copies. For each orthogonal polarization component a) an intensity profile is conventionally obtained using a copy and b) phase information is obtained by supplying each remaining copy to a respective one of a pair of optical delay interferometers having orthogonal phase offsets, followed by respective balanced intensity detectors. The outputs the balanced intensity detectors and the intensity profiles are converted into digital representations and used to develop, via signal processing, the optical field information of at least one generic polarization component of the received optical signal. Compensation of impairments, such as PMD, is realized through further processing.
US08463138B2
Provided is a multi-value optical transmitter in which a DC bias may be controlled to be stabilized so as to obtain stable optical transmission signal quality in multi-value modulation using a dual-electrode MZ modulator. The multi-value optical transmitter includes: D/A converters for performing D/A conversion on first and second modulation data which are set based on an input data series, so as to generate a first and a second multi-value signal, respectively; a dual-electrode MZ modulator including phase modulators for modulating light from a light source based on the first multi-value signal and the second multi-value signal, so as to combine optical signals from the phase modulators to output the optical multi-value signal; an optical output power monitor for detecting average power of the optical multi-value signal; and a DC bias control unit for controlling a DC bias for the dual-electrode MZ modulator, so as to maximize the average power.
US08463137B2
A system and method are provided for controlling the transmission of RF signals that are to be carried as optical signals over an optical fiber network. Operationally, the optical signals are transmitted as “bursts” in accordance with a standard protocol. For the present invention, transmission control requires an ON/OFF control that incorporates a time delay. Specifically, a “burst” of signals (RF/optical) is initiated when power in the RF input signal passes a predetermined threshold. After an established turn-on time that is set by the time delay, the ON/OFF control activates a laser diode for transmission of the “burst.” Further, the present invention provides control for constant optical output power from the laser diode. Importantly, the laser diode is OFF when a “burst” is not being transmitted.
US08463134B2
Provided is an apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving data in a visible light communication system, the apparatus including a visible light communication (VLC) transceiver for converting a visible light signal received from a counterpart into an electrical signal and outputting the electrical signal, by using a light receiving device during a reception operation, and converting an electrical signal containing information into a visible light signal and transmitting the visible light signal to the counterpart, by using a light emitting device during a transmission operation, a VLC controller comprising a visible frame engine (VFE) for generating a visible frame and outputting the visible frame to the VLC transceiver, in which the VFE generates the visible frame for transmission to a counterpart during non-transmission of respective frames for communication at a sender and a receiver in order to provide visibility to a communication link, and a host controller for controlling the VLC controller and transmitting and receiving data to and from the VLC controller.
US08463132B2
A semiconductor device with an integrated optical transmitter and optical receiver is disclosed that can be used in an optical subassembly. The device may include a substrate, a first component, an optical filter, and a second component, wherein the first component comprises an optical transmitter and the second component comprises an optical receiver, or vice versa. The first component can be configured to emit (or be sensitive to) a first optical signal having a first wavelength while the second component can be configured to be sensitive to (or emit) a second optical signal having a second wavelength. The optical filter can be configured to allow transmission therethrough of optical signals having the first wavelength while blocking optical signals having the second wavelength.
US08463128B2
A method of translating raw formatted IR codes to discrete formatted IR codes. A raw formatted IR message representing an IR code can be detected. The IR message can include a raw formatted device ID including a first series of IR pulses and a raw formatted command ID including a second series of IR pulses. The IR message can be encoded into a definition that defines the first and second series of pulses contained in the IR message. Encoded data corresponding to the device ID and the command ID can be identified. The encoded data corresponding to the device ID can be matched to a particular device to identify a discrete formatted device ID. The encoded data corresponding to the command ID can be matched to a particular command to identify a discrete formatted command ID. The discrete formatted device ID and the discrete formatted command ID can be stored.
US08463122B2
A method and apparatus for performing a path based quality check for a specified bit rate in a wavelength division multiplexing optical network is described. According to one embodiment of the invention, a method selects from a database one of the available paths as a currently selected path. The database stores a representation of the available paths from an access node of the optical network to other access nodes of the optical network. The method further determines a cumulative noise, cumulative chromatic dispersion, and a maximum allowable chromatic dispersion for the currently selected path. In addition, the method determines whether the currently selected path passes the path based quality check based on whether the cumulative noise is less than the maximum allowable noise at a specific bit rate and whether the chromatic dispersion is less than the maximum allowable chromatic dispersion at the specified bit rate.
US08463119B2
An image pickup apparatus that is capable of reducing variation in the color temperature of a subject in a taken image and capable of shooting a more suitable image. The image pickup apparatus can shoot with emitting a light emitting unit. A color temperature acquisition unit acquires information about a color temperature of a light illuminating a subject. An emission control unit controls emission of the light emitting unit. The emission control unit determines emission light amount of the light emitting unit based on a color temperature difference between a color temperature of an illumination light of the light emitting unit and a color temperature based on the information acquired by the color temperature information acquisition unit.
US08463114B2
The present invention relates to an evaporator device for volatile substances, preferably usable in vehicles, which is activated by the movement of the device, whereby the device will begin to evaporate a volatile substance when the user is in the vehicle. The device comprises a casing, a diffuser, and at least one movement sensor, the diffuser being operable by the sensor.
US08463107B2
On a BD-ROM, there is recorded is a digital stream into which video and audio streams are multiplexed. The video stream is composed of a plurality of pictures that together represent video. The graphics stream includes a PES packet storing state control information (ICS) and PES packets containing graphics data (ODSs). The graphics data constructs an interactive display. The state control information defines the control so as to change the states of buttons presented on the interactive display according to the reproduction proceeding and user operations.The ICS is attached with a PTS showing the display timing of a picture to be synchronized with the interactive display. The ODS is attached with a PTS showing the timing for decoding the graphics data. The timing shown in the ODS is prior to the display timing.
US08463100B2
The present invention is embodied in a system for synchronizing a mobile device with video output by a video output device. In one embodiment, the system comprises a data reader, a remote control, and a router. The data reader is configured to be connected to a video output device for reading digital codes associated with video or audio signals output by the video output device. The remote control has a user input mechanism and is configured to transmit an activation signal to the data reader after activation of the user input mechanism. The router is configured to be connected to a wide area network for transmitting data from the data reader to a remote data server. The router is also configured to establish a local data connection between the data reader and a mobile device. The data reader, after receiving an activation signal from the remote control, is further configured to transmit data indicative of a digital code or series of digital codes read by the data reader to the remote data server via the router. Additionally, the data reader, after receiving a request signal from the mobile device, is further configured to transmit data indicative of a digital code or series of digital codes read by the data reader to the mobile device via the router.
US08463095B2
Cables have dielectric armor with an armor profile that resembles conventional metal armored cable. The dielectric armor provides additional crush and impact resistance for the optical fibers and/or fiber optic assembly therein. The armored cables recover substantially from deformation caused by crush loads. Additionally, the armored fiber optic assemblies can have any suitable flame and/or smoke rating for meeting the requirements of the intended space.
US08463094B2
A chiral optical fiber polarizer is provided that is capable of being fabricated in-line along a conventional polarization maintaining fiber having external structural element(s), positioned between two optical fiber portions, and includes a modified central portion with altered fiber cladding interface elements on each side thereof. The modified central portion includes at least one diameter reduced sub-section that allows a light signal to propagate simultaneously in the core and in at least one external structure element, and at least one diameter expanded sub-section that allows the light signal to propagate substantially in the core, where the modified central portion is configured to be operable to serve as a polarizer for light signals with linear polarization components.
US08463082B2
An electrooptic element includes an optical waveguide layer made from a ferroelectric material and having a polarization inverted region of a predetermined shape having an optical incidence face and an optical exit face, and an upper electrode layer and a lower electrode layer formed on a top face and a bottom face of the optical waveguide layer, respectively, in which the ferroelectric material is magnesium-oxide-doped lithium niobate, and at least one of the optical incidence face and the optical exit face of the optical waveguide layer is formed in parallel with a crystal face of the ferroelectric material.
US08463071B2
Over the past few years there has been a dramatic proliferation of digital cameras, and it has become increasingly easy to share large numbers of photographs with many other people. These trends have contributed to the availability of large databases of photographs. Effectively organizing, browsing, and visualizing such .seas. of images, as well as finding a particular image, can be difficult tasks. In this paper, we demonstrate that knowledge of where images were taken and where they were pointed makes it possible to visualize large sets of photographs in powerful, intuitive new ways. We present and evaluate a set of novel tools that use location and orientation information, derived semi-automatically using structure from motion, to enhance the experience of exploring such large collections of images.
US08463064B2
Captured image data is inputted, and a type of light source in capturing the image data is determined. Then a recovery file corresponding to the determination result and the uncertainty of the determination result is set, and a recovery process for the image data is performed using the set recovery filter.
US08463046B2
There is provided a beta-shape, which is a compact structure for topology among spheres defining a blending surface of a sphere set. There is also provided a method of constructing the beta-shape, comprising: acquiring a Voronoi diagram of spheres; searching for partially accessible Voronoi edges; and obtaining faces of the beta-shape from the partially accessible Voronoi edges. Further, there is provided a method of utilizing the beta-shape to recognize pockets, which comprises the steps of acquiring the beta-shapes, and recognizing the pockets from the beta-shapes.
US08463040B2
A method for locating tables in documents includes defining a plurality of tiles for a document, for each tile, determining a horizontal profile and a vertical profile, determining the location of lines by means of gradients of the horizontal profiles and the vertical profiles, selecting from the lines, the lines that are persistent, determining a rectangle in at least one corner of the document based on the persistent lines, and applying heuristics in order to accept or reject a determined rectangle as a table of the document. An apparatus for automatically locating a table in a document applies the method for locating tables in documents.
US08463035B2
A spectrally mosaiced digital image is provided with missing color data imputed for each pixel. Circuitry is provided that is configured to perform at least a portion of the calculations related to demosaicing a high dynamic range image.
US08463034B2
A tone conversion unit, when performing tone conversion on an image signal, performs the tone conversion so as to provide a more appropriate tone to a feature area such as a face extracted from the image signal. Specifically, a correction coefficient calculation unit performs multi-resolution decomposition on a specific signal with the extracted feature area, and sets all pixels of low-frequency component to 1, while setting high-frequency components considered to include noise to 0, so as to calculate a correction coefficient. Then, a correction coefficient processing unit performs a processing of multiplying the correction coefficient to the image signal similarly performed with multi-resolution decomposition.
US08463028B2
An apparatus includes a reading unit configured to read image data, a recognition unit configured to recognize a color of a handwritten portion designating a region in the image data and to recognize processing associated with the color of the handwritten portion, a display unit configured to display the recognized color and a content of the processing associated with the color, and a changing unit configured to change an association between the recognized color and the recognized content of the processing.
US08463024B1
In an embodiment, a method determines a three-dimensional model from a plurality of images taken of a geographic region by one or more cameras from different perspectives. The method includes determining, using a first stereo reconstruction technique: (i) a plurality of three-dimensional candidate surface points from the plurality of images, and (ii) which of the images in the plurality of images view each of the plurality of candidate surface points. The method also includes identifying an empty space between each of the plurality of candidate surface points and each camera model for the respective images determined to view the candidate surface point. The method further includes for each of a plurality of pairs of images from the plurality of images, determining, using a second stereo reconstruction technique, a surface estimate for the pair of images. The method also includes merging the surface estimates to identify a final surface.
US08463023B2
Enhanced input using flashing electromagnetic radiation, in which first and second images of an object are accessed. The first image being captured while the object is illuminated with projected electromagnetic radiation, and the second image being captured while the projected electromagnetic radiation is extinguished. A position of the object relative to the screen based on comparing the first and second images is determined. An application is controlled based on the determined position.
US08463002B2
Provided are a rolled fingerprint acquisition apparatus and method for automatically detecting the start and end of registration and synthesis to acquire an accurate fingerprint. The rolled fingerprint acquisition apparatus compares at least one of fingerprint characteristic information and the amount of variation between the fingerprint characteristic information to reference fingerprint characteristic information to determine whether to start or end registration and synthesis, wherein the fingerprint characteristic information is information about fingerprints included in rolled fingerprint frames that are sequentially acquired, and registers and synthesizes the rolled fingerprint frames according to the result of the determination.
US08462987B2
Coherent motion regions extend in time as well as space, enforcing consistency in detected objects over long time periods and making the algorithm robust to noisy or short point tracks. As a result of enforcing the constraint that selected coherent motion regions contain disjoint sets of tracks defined in a three-dimensional space including a time dimension. An algorithm operates directly on raw, unconditioned low-level feature point tracks, and minimizes a global measure of the coherent motion regions. At least one discrete moving object is identified in a time series of video images based on the trajectory similarity factors, which is a measure of a maximum distance between a pair of feature point tracks.
US08462985B2
A video evaluation apparatus and video evaluation method capable of appropriately evaluating a video including of a plurality of frame images, using an objective standard. A reference characteristic, which is a predetermined spatio-temporal frequency characteristic about a video, is stored, and a video characteristic analyzer calculates a spatio-temporal frequency characteristic of a target video including a plurality of frame images. Then a video evaluation determiner calculates an evaluated value of the target video, based on a relative relation between the calculated spatio-temporal frequency characteristic and the stored reference characteristic.
US08462976B2
A voice conference system has a first voice-conference device having a speaker directed toward a first conferee and a second speaker directed toward a second conferee in one talk session room, and a second voice-conference device having a speaker directed to a third conferee and a fourth speaker directed toward a fourth conferee in another talk session room. When the first conferee talks, voice collecting beam signals picked up by microphones of the one voice conference device in excess of a predetermined threshold value are selected. The one voice conference device acquires voice collecting direction information, and then transmits voice communication data containing the voice collecting beam signal and the acquired voice collecting direction information to the another voice conference device, which acquires the voice collecting direction information from the received voice communication data, and emits the voice of the first conferee from the first speaker.
US08462975B2
An electroacoustical apparatus and method is described that alters the output properties of an audio device to improve the sound properties for both hearing impaired and normal hearing listeners. The device includes a coil element of specific design and may incorporate digital signal processing techniques to modify audio signal output. The electrical device and method of processing provides for the beneficial alteration of sound waves to an audio signal, and further modification of the audio signal to provide for improved loudness and clarity characteristics. The improved characteristics provide for greater intelligibility of the audio signal to persons with hearing impairments and to persons with normal hearing.
US08462968B2
A mobile communication device that is compliant with the Hearing Aid Compliance Act. The device includes a coil and circuitry that can couple, through electromagnetic induction, the output of an audio codec of the device to a hearing aid. The coil and circuitry can also be used to charge the battery of the device. The coil and circuitry can further be used, through electromagnetic induction, to transfer energy from the battery of the device to the battery of the hearing aid to charge the battery of the hearing aid.
US08462961B1
Methods for communicating with a speaker connected to a network. The method can include generating a service request that includes speaker identification, a first password, and an action indicator that specifies a requested service; sending the service request to the speaker from the device; verifying the first password included in the service request; and performing the requested service if the first password is verified.
US08462960B2
A signal processing system and related method are disclosed. The signal processing system includes a signal processing module, powered by a low supply voltage, for processing signals; and an interface module, coupled to the signal processing module, powered by a high supply voltage, for outputting signals generated from the signal processing module; wherein the interface module comprises a plurality of high-voltage functional blocks integrated therein, and each of the functional blocks is configured to perform a predetermined interface functionality. In this way, the bill-of-material (BOM) cost can be reduced.
US08462953B2
A communication system for transmitting data of a first mobile station to a second mobile station includes a base station and a relay device. The base station is utilized for configuring an uplink and a downlink of the data to correspond to a first connection ID and a second connection ID respectively and for transmitting a traffic encryption key to the first and second mobile stations so that the first and second mobile stations share the traffic encryption key. The relay device is coupled to the base station and the first and second mobile stations via wireless communication, and utilized for receiving the data encrypted by the traffic encryption key and transferring the data of the first mobile station to the second mobile station according to the first and second connection IDs without going via the base station.
US08462952B2
A method includes receiving a communication from a management domain associated with managing a cellular communication network. The method also includes determining whether the communication corresponds to a polling signal from the management domain, and generating a first ping for transmission to a data center associated with managing virtual private networks (VPNs) in the cellular network in response to determining that the received signal corresponds to the polling signal. The method may further include generating a second ping for transmission via an encrypted path in the cellular communication network in response to determining that the received signal corresponds to the polling signal and that data is ready to be transmitted via the encrypted path. The first ping and the second ping may be used to ensure that cellular connections through the cellular communication network are operating properly.
US08462951B2
Systems and methods for generating OFDM signals are provided in which sub-carrier usage is selected and/or remapped in various manners. For example, in some embodiments remapping using a security sequence is employed; in other embodiments, decoy sub-carriers are employed; in other embodiments, mask sub-carriers are used to cover jammed portions of a channel.
US08462949B2
Methods and apparatus for displaying visual content on a display such that the content is comprehensible only to an authorized user for a visual display system such as a computer, a television, a video player, a public display system (including but not limited to a movie theater), a mobile phone, an automated teller machine (ATM), voting booths, kiosks, security screening workstations, tactical displays and other systems where information is displayed for viewing.
US08462947B2
A method of operating a node for performing handover between access networks wherein a user has authenticated for network access in a first access network. The method comprises receiving from a home network a first session key and a temporary identifier allocated to the user for the duration of a communication session. The identifier is mapped to the first session key, and the mapped identifier and key are stored at the node. A second session key is derived from the first session key and the second session key is sent to an access network, and the identifier sent to a user terminal. When the user subsequently moves to a second access network, the node receives the identifier from the user terminal. The node then retrieves the first session key mapped to the received identifier, derives a third session key and sends the third session key to the second access network.
US08462944B2
A potential bias in the generation of a private key is avoided by selecting the key and comparing it against the system parameters. If a predetermined condition is attained it is accepted. If not it is rejected and a new key is generated.
US08462937B2
One embodiment of a power supply apparatus includes a first switcher coupled to provide VOUT from a VSUPPLY. A cascaded second switcher is coupled to provide a subscriber line interface circuit target VBAT from VOUT, wherein the first switcher is placed in one of an active mode and an inactive mode in accordance with a function of VSUPPLY and VBAT, wherein in the active mode VOUT VSUPPLY ≥ 1 , wherein in the inactive mode VOUT≈VSUPPLY.
US08462932B2
The disclosed embodiments include a method of determining a particular communications device to signal in order to contact a user associated with an organization. The method includes storing a plurality of device locations in memory. Each device location is associated with a facility of the organization and is also associated with one of a plurality of communications devices. The method includes receiving a current location of a wireless device associated with the user, comparing the received current location and one or more of the device locations, and determining the distance between the current location and the one or more of the device. The method involves selecting the particular communications device to signal from the plurality of communications devices in response to the determined distance. A ring signal is sent to the particular communications device in order to contact the user associated with the organization.
US08462931B2
It is recognized in the disclosed technique that the way impairments on a conference call are diagnosed and handled in the prior art can sometimes be as distracting as the impairments themselves. The disclosed technique attempts to address some of the disadvantages in the prior art by monitoring the signal path quality on a conference call and, based on the quality of the signals received, performing one or more actions that are intended to minimize distractions while handling the impairments. In particular, in accordance with the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the technique performs a multi-threshold evaluation of media signals that are received at a conferencing server. If a measure of the impairment being considered exceeds a first threshold, but not a higher second threshold, then a first set of actions is taken to handle the impairment. If the measure exceeds the second threshold, then a more-extreme second set of actions is taken.
US08462930B2
A method for controlled display on a telephone, the method constituted of: downloading a display portion from a first network to the telephone; detecting a call instance; displaying on the telephone the downloaded display portion responsive to the detected call instance; in the event the data communication module is in communication with the first network, requesting, via the data communication module, a new display portion from the first network; and in the event the data communication module is not in communication with the first network, creating a time stamp and storing the time stamp on a memory of the telephone.
US08462927B2
A networking system and method for assisting a user. The system includes a call center with a plurality of representatives. The user establishes communication with one of the representatives and communicates a problem to the representative. The representative enters the problem into a database including a plurality of affiliates and affiliate information. The database identifies an assistance category and prioritizes a list of affiliates as a function of the affiliate information, the assistance category and the user's information. The representative and the user then select one of the affiliates, and the representative sends the user's information to the selected affiliate. After the referral, the representative follows up with the user to ensure that the service provided by the affiliate was satisfactory.
US08462913B2
A radiation detecting apparatus includes a collimator and a detector, the collimator having a material for blocking radiation and a region that is a sector of an annulus or multiple regions in a configuration in the shape of a sector of an annulus for allowing transmission of the radiation. The detector is spaced a distance from the collimator such that when a radiation source and sample crystal material are positioned at suitable positions, the radiation is collimated by the collimator and contacts the sample a predetermined distance from the detector at multiple of locations corresponding to the region or regions of the collimator. The Bragg diffracted radiation from the crystal material at two or more and preferably all of the locations overlap at the detector.
US08462901B2
A receiver is configured for canceling intra-cell and inter-cell interference in coded, multiple-access, spread-spectrum transmissions that propagate through frequency-selective communication channels. The receiver employs iterative symbol-estimate weighting, subtractive cancellation with a stabilizing step-size, and mixed-decision symbol estimate. Receiver embodiments may be implemented explicitly in software of programmed hardware, or implicitly in standard Rake-based hardware either within the Rake (i.e., at the finger level) or outside the Rake (i.e., at the user of subchannel symbol level).
US08462900B2
An OFDM demodulation unit 13 transforms transmission signals in the time domain into demodulation vectors Y in the frequency domain; an equalization unit 14 estimates channel response vectors H′ based on the demodulation vectors Y, and calculates equalization vectors X′ by equalizing the demodulation vectors Y based on the estimated channel response vectors H′; and an interference removal unit 15 calculates error component vectors indicating error components pertaining to ISI and ICI related to the demodulation vectors Y, based on the equalization vectors X′ and the channel response vectors H′, generates demodulation vectors Y′ by removing the error component vectors from the demodulation vectors Y, and outputs the generated demodulation vectors Y′.
US08462897B1
A non-linear detector for detecting signals with signal-dependent noise is disclosed. The detector may choose a data sequence that maximizes the conditional probability of detecting the channel data. Since the channel may be time-varying and the precise channel characteristics may be unknown, the detector may adapt one or more branch metric parameters before sending the parameters to a loading block. In the loading block, the branch metric parameters may be normalized and part of the branch metric may be pre-computed to reduce the complexity of the detector. The loading block may then provide the branch metric parameters and any pre-computation to the detector. The detector may then calculate the branch metric associated with the input signal and output the channel data.
US08462892B2
The noise-constrained diffusion least mean square method for estimation in adaptive networks is based on the Least Mean Squares (LMS) algorithm. The method uses a variable step size in which the step-size variation rule results directly from the noise constraint.
US08462879B2
Systems and methods for increasing communications bandwidth using non-orthogonal polarizations are provided herein. Under one aspect, a method of transmitting M independent signals, where M is at least 3, includes receiving the M signals from respective sources; at a transmitter polarization module, obtaining first and second linear combinations of the M signals; providing the first and second linear combinations to first and second input ports of a transmitter antenna; and transmitting with the transmitter antenna the first linear combination at a first polarization and the second linear combination at a second polarization orthogonal to the first polarization. The method may further include receiving at a receiver antenna the first linear combination at the first polarization, and the second linear combination at the second polarization; obtaining at receiver circuitry the M signals based on the received first and second linear combinations; and outputting the M signals on respective output ports.
US08462877B2
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving multimedia broadcast/multicast data. The method includes the steps of: receiving a check report returned from a receiver, determining whether the check report indicates there are both basic layer and enhanced layer data errors and if yes, exchanging the last two bits of the enhanced layer and the first two bits of the basic layer and modulating the data with a second constellation map and then transmitting the data; otherwise determining whether the check report indicates there is only the basic layer error, and modulating and transmitting the data according to the result of determination. The beneficial effects of the present invention are that the retransmission efficiency can be improved and the ratio of receiving the data correctly by the users at the cell center and at the cell border during the first retransmission is improved.
US08462876B2
A wireless communications handset configured to receive a multipath spread spectrum signal comprises a first antenna and a second antenna. A first receiver is coupled to the first antenna and a second receiver is coupled to the second antenna. A delay device is coupled to the first receiver and delays the portion of the multipath signal received by the first antenna. The delayed signal and the in-phase portion of the signal are then combined in a combining device. A despreader coupled to the combining devices generates a magnitude value of the combined signal. The current magnitude value is then compared to one or more previous magnitude values to determine if the delay should be increased or decreased. A comparison device outputs a comparison signal based on the current and previous magnitude values and provides the comparison signal to the delay device to adjust the delay appropriately.
US08462872B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for inserting data symbols and pilot symbols in an OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) transmission resource utilizing frequency hopping patterns for the data symbols and/or the pilot symbols. Data symbols and pilot symbols are allocated for down link (base station to mobile station) and up link (mobile station to base station) transmission resources in a two-dimensional time-frequency pattern. For each antenna of a MIMO-OFDM (multiple input multiple output OFDM) communication system, pilot symbols are inserted in a scattered pattern in time-frequency and data symbols are inserted in an identical frequency-hopping pattern in time-frequency as that of other antennas.
US08462870B2
A transmitter includes a mapping unit that maps first information data to a first layer and maps second information data a part of which is duplicative of and a part of which is different from the first information data to a second layer, a coding unit that generates transmission data by performing error detection coding and error correction coding on the first and second information data, and a transmitting unit that transmits the transmission data from the antennas corresponding to the respective layers. A receiver includes a reception processing unit that separates received data into layer data, a decoding unit that generates a soft-decision value for each of the layers, a combining unit that combines soft-decision values corresponding to information data mapped to the plurality of layers in duplicate, and a deciding unit that performs hard-decision on the layer data using a soft-decision value.
US08462854B2
A method of reconstructing a sequence of video data in a receiving device after the video sequence has been transmitted in encoded form over a network, the encoded video sequence comprising containers of encoded video data, wherein the method includes the following steps: determining (809) containers of encoded video data affected by data losses during their transmission over the network, determining (813) the time that would be necessary for decoding said containers of encoded video data affected by data losses if they had not been affected by data losses, allocating (819, 820, 821) the time thus determined to reconstructing video data of the sequence.
US08462853B2
A method of decoding a video signal on a decoding apparatus includes receiving prediction mode information, interpolating information and a residual of a current block, reconstructing an interpolating pixel using the interpolating information and a neighbor block, and reconstructing the current block using the interpolating pixel, the prediction mode information and the residual, wherein the interpolating information is generated based on a location of the current block. High reconstruction rate can be obtained by improving the related art method having limited intra prediction modes available for a current block located on a boundary area of a picture in encoding in a manner of reconstructing and using an interpolating pixel based on interpolating information.
US08462852B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products that can be used to determine a search range (SR) when performing motion estimation at, for example, a video encoder or decoder. Determining a motion vector for a current block during motion estimation may involve searching within a search window that may reside in a reference frame, or in a previously decoded block that spatially or temporally neighbors the current block. Such a search seeks a motion vector that minimizes a metric, such as a sum of absolute differences between corresponding blocks of reference frames. A motion vector that minimizes such a metric may be a good candidate for use in motion estimation. The search may become more efficient if a search range is determined such that the extent of the search is bounded. A search range may be determined at the block level or at the picture level.
US08462850B2
Motion estimation in video compressions systems. A programmable motion estimator may be used to estimate a motion vector for a macroblock in a current frame by searching for a matching macroblock in a previous frame. A controller may be used to program the motion estimator to perform a particular search.
US08462849B2
A video coding system includes a prediction module configured to perform multi-reference picture sub-pixel motion estimation. Reference pictures are selected for the sub-pixel motion estimation based on full-pixel motion estimation. A cost function is used to select the reference pictures from one or more groups of reference pictures for a block in a macroblock. The cost is based on full-pixel motion estimation errors and a predicted motion vector for the block. The selected reference pictures are used for sub-pixel motion estimation to get the final motion vector for each block.
US08462846B2
The invention provides a method for performing intra-prediction. A target pixel is selected from a plurality of pixels of a current block. A first intra-prediction mode of a left block and a second intra-prediction mode of an up block are then determined. A first prediction value of the target pixel is calculated according to the first intra-prediction mode. A second prediction value of the target pixel is calculated according to the second intra-prediction mode. The first prediction value and the second prediction value are then weighted-averaged to obtain a weighted-average prediction value as an intra-prediction value of the target pixel.
US08462841B2
A video processing device (150) includes a bitstream accelerator module (106) and a video processing engine (108). The bitstream accelerator module (106) has an input for receiving a stream of encoded video data, and an output adapted to be coupled to a memory (112) for storing partially decoded video data. The bitstream accelerator module (106) partially decodes the stream of encoded video data according to a selected one of a plurality of video formats to provide the partially decoded video data. The video processing engine (108) has input adapted to be coupled to the memory (112) for reading the partially decoded video data, and an output for providing decoded video data.
US08462840B2
A digital-to-time converter for generating a first and a second output signal separated by a predetermined delay includes first and second periodic signal generators, respectively, generating a first and a second periodic signal, a periodic signal synchronizer detecting a phase difference between the first and the second periodic signals, and first and second output pulse generators, respectively, starting a count of the first and the second periodic signals when a phase of the first periodic signal coincides with a phase of the second periodic signal. When a first value is counted, the first output pulse generator outputs a pulse as the first output signal, and when a second value is counted, the second output pulse generator outputs a pulse as the second output signal.
US08462839B2
In one embodiment, a receiver has a reference generator and a main equalizer. The reference generator equalizes a received signal using one or more pilot reference signals. Then, the reference generator decodes one or more predetermined data channels of the equalized signal, makes hard decisions on the data of each decoded channel, and regenerates the original coding sequence of each decoded channel. The main equalizer uses each re-encoded channel as an additional reference signal along with one or more pilot signals to equalize a time-delayed version of the received signal. In alternative embodiments, the receiver might also have a step-size generator which selects optimum step sizes from a look-up table based on the number of re-encoded channels and the power of those channels. The step size is then used by the main equalizer along with the re-encoded channels to equalize the time-delayed received signal.
US08462838B2
Various example embodiments are disclosed. According to one example embodiment, a small form factor pluggable (SFP or SFP+) module may include an equalizer and a logic controller. The equalizer may be configured to receive data, provide signal information to a logic controller based on the received data, equalize the data based on equalization instructions received from the logic controller, and transmit the equalized data. The logic controller may be configured to transmit the signal information received from the equalizer receive programming instructions provide the equalization instructions to the equalizer based on the programming instructions, receive control inputs associated with the data, and provide status outputs based on the control inputs and the programming instructions. The SFP or SFP+ module may be configured to plug into a small form factor (SFF) host connector.
US08462829B2
A method of wireless communication in a lossy environment entails generating a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) code string that includes a pseudo-noise (PN) sequence followed by instances of shifted PN sequences, where the shifted PN sequences are produced in response to the content of the message. The PN sequence includes a plurality of chips arranged in a first order, and each of the shifted PN sequences includes the plurality of chips arranged in another order. A beacon signal modulated by the DSSS code string is transmitted from a transceiver and received at a receiver within the communication system. Correlation peaks are formed at the receiver, where each correlation peak is associated with one of the PN sequences or one of the shifted PN sequences. Shift values are determined from the correlation peaks and the shift values are decoded to produce the message at the receiver.
US08462825B2
A method of stabilizing a carrier envelope phase of laser pulses generated with a laser device, comprising the steps of generating laser pulses with a seed laser unit, amplifying the laser pulses with an amplifier unit, generating an amplifier output signal derived from the laser pulses amplified with the amplifier unit, and controlling the carrier envelope phase of the laser pulses with an amplifier loop based on the amplifier output signal, wherein the controlling step comprises a step of adjusting an optical path of the amplifier unit in dependence on the amplifier output signal, wherein the adjusting step comprises introducing a dispersive material into the optical path of the amplifier unit. Furthermore, a stabilizing device for stabilizing a carrier envelope phase of laser pulses and a laser device including at least one stabilizing device are described.
US08462824B2
Phase-matched high-order harmonic generation of soft and hard X-rays is accomplished using infrared driving lasers in a high-pressure non-linear medium. The pressure of the non-linear medium is increased to multi-atmospheres and a mid-IR (or higher) laser device provides the driving pulse. Based on this scaling, also a general method for global optimization of the flux of phase-matched high-order harmonic generation at a desired wavelength is designed.
US08462817B2
Embodiments addressing MAC processing for efficient use of high throughput systems are disclosed. In one aspect, a protocol stack is disclosed comprising one or more of the following: an adaptation layer, a data link control layer, a physical layer, and a layer manager. In another aspect, physical layer feedback is used for adaptation layer processing. In one embodiment, physical layer feedback is used for segmentation. In another embodiment, physical layer feedback is used for multicast mapping onto one or more unicast channels. In another aspect, a data unit for transmission from a first station to a second station comprises zero or more complete sub-data units, zero or one partial sub-data units from a prior transmission, and zero or one partial sub-data units to fill the data unit. In one embodiment, a pointer may be used to indicate the location of any complete sub-data units.
US08462806B2
A method for selecting a transmission path from a source mesh point (MP) to a destination MP in a mesh network is provided. The source MP broadcasts a frame comprising a path request (PREQ) element. According to a power management state of an intermediate MP that receives the frame, the PREQ element comprises power management mode consideration information for controlling forwarding the received PREQ element for the destination MP. A transmission delay due to delay of data requested to be transmitted in real time at the MP operating in the PSM can be prevented.
US08462804B2
A system manages a buffer having a group of entries. The system receives information relating to a read request for a memory. The system determines whether an entry in the buffer contains valid information. If the entry is determined to contain valid information, the system transmits the information in the entry in an error message. The system may then store the received information in the entry. In another implementation, the system stores data in one of the entries of the buffer, removes an address corresponding to the one entry from an address list, and starts a timer associated with the one entry. The system also determines whether the timer has exceeded a predetermined value, transferring the data from the one entry when the timer has exceeded the predetermined value, and adds the address back to the address list.
US08462802B2
A network device receives traffic associated with a network of intermediate network devices and user devices, classifies the received traffic, and allocates the classified traffic to traffic queues. The network device also schedules particular queued traffic, provided in the traffic queues and bound for particular intermediate network devices, using a hybrid weighted round robin (WRR) scheduler where the hybrid WRR scheduler schedules the particular queued traffic according to one of a 1-level WRR schedule, a 1.5 level WRR schedule, or a 2-level WRR schedule. The network device further provides the particular queued traffic to the particular intermediate network devices based on the scheduling of the hybrid WRR scheduler.
US08462798B2
An apparatus and a method are provided for multiplexing different sessions using the same authorized contexts for media. The method includes distinguishing different control plane sessions by a user equipment, and identifying media flows of a same application among the different control plane sessions by the user equipment by setting a service identifier. The method further includes sending the service identifier by the user equipment to a call state control function including a policy decision function, and authorizing quality of service for a user plane context by the policy decision function. Furthermore, the method includes enabling, by the policy decision function based on the service identifier, the different control plane sessions with media flows of the same application to share the same user plane context with the authorized quality of service to multiplex the different control plane sessions with media flows of the same application.
US08462796B2
Method for exchanging information among digital units in a distributed system, with digital units being defined by at least a master node and slave nodes, involves transferring information references from a master node to slave nodes, the information references being sampled with sampling time corresponding to a cycle time period defined by a clock value of the master node. The method also involves estimating the number of the information references sampled arrived to the slave node from the master nodes during a periodic reference time interval, and using the number to recalculate the master clock value, so that the slave nodes are able to reconstruct master node information references during a following reference time interval.
US08462793B2
A system for strategic management and communication of data in machine environments includes at least one communication module for communicating data with an off-board system, the communication module being disposed in a machine environment and adapted for use with one or more communication methods. The system also includes a data interpreter communicatively coupled to the at least one communication module. The data interpreter is configured to communicate operation data associated with a machine, the operation data including a plurality of operational aspects associated with at least a portion the machine. The data interpreter prioritizes each of the plurality of operational aspects in a communication queue associated with the data interpreter. The data interpreter is also configured to select a communication method for each of the plurality of operational aspects based on a priority associated with a respective operational aspect and transmit each of the operational aspects to the off-board system via the selected communication method.
US08462785B2
A mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) network system having a private network and a mobile Internet Protocol (IP) terminal processing method thereof are provided. A private access control router performs an initial access procedure for a WiMax terminal requesting initial access. When a mobile IP address is set in the WiMax terminal, a mobile IP registration procedure for the WiMax terminal is performed according to a mobile IP standard. When the WiMax terminal is a local subscriber WiMax terminal, a virtual IP address for accessing the private network mapped to the mobile IP address is registered in an IP mapping table. A single private access control router can process a local intranet service and a public Core Network (CN) service without an additional access control router and a local subscriber WiMax terminal can receive simultaneously the local intranet service and the public CN service without any special operation.
US08462779B2
A frame transfer apparatus includes a plurality of ports for transmitting and receiving frames which include transmitting source information and transmitting destination information. The apparatus further includes a processing unit to store information which relates the transmitting source information included in the received frame and port information of a port which receives the received frame, a frame transmitting unit to transmit the received frame via a port that is identified by the port information which corresponds to the transmitting destination information included in the received frame and is extracted from the information stored by the processing unit, and a learning information erasing unit to erase the information stored by the processing unit for every predetermined time.
US08462766B2
A method for diffusing channel timing among a plurality of subscriber units operating in TDMA Direct Mode, wherein the method includes: receiving, from a second one of the subscriber units operating in the TDMA Direct Mode, a first message; determining first channel timing from the received message; determining whether the received first channel timing is correct, wherein the determining is based at least on comparing a generation of the first subscriber unit with a generation of the second subscriber unit; when the received first channel timing is correct, starting a random delay; upon expiration of the random delay, transmitting a first forced propagation message to propagate the first channel timing to at least a third one of the subscriber units operating in the TDMA Direct Mode and having a higher generation than the generations of the first and the second subscriber units.
US08462765B2
Certain embodiments provide methods and apparatus for adjusting timing in an SDMA system. One method for adjusting the timing of packet transmissions in a wireless communications system, that may be performed by an access point, includes receiving ranging signals from a plurality of wireless network nodes, determining timing adjustment information for adjusting starting timing of packet transmissions from the wireless network nodes based on the ranging signals, and communicating the timing adjustment information to the wireless network nodes.
US08462761B2
A method and apparatus for adaptively obtaining bandwidth requests in a broadband wireless communication system. The method and apparatus includes dynamically varying technique combinations enabling a plurality of users to efficiently request bandwidth from a shared base station. A user may “piggyback” a new bandwidth request upon, or set a “poll-me bit” within, presently allocated bandwidth. A base station may poll users, individually or in groups, by allocating unrequested bandwidth for new requests. Polling may respond to a “poll-me bit,” and/or it may be adaptively periodic at a rate based on communication status parameters, such as recent communication activity and connection QoS levels Group polling permits a possibility of collisions. Polling policies may be established for dynamically varying user groups, or may be determined for each user. Dynamic selection of appropriate polling techniques makes use of efficiency benefits associated with each technique.
US08462743B2
A relay node receives from user equipments UE CQI reports which give a CQI value per radio band resource RBR, from which are aggregated across the RBRs and/or aggregated per UE across that UE's RBR values. The relay node reports an indication of the average to its controlling access node (eNodeB), either explicitly or implicitly (e.g., a gain applied to the CQI of the downlink between the relay and access nodes). The relay node also checks the UEs' buffer status (actual or predicted) and reports either periodically or based on an underflow/overflow occurrence. For periodic reports, each UE buffer experiencing the overrun/underrun is reported.
US08462741B2
Techniques for controlling the transmit power of a user equipment (UE) using multiple antennas for uplink transmission are described. In one design, the UE receives at least one transmit power control (TPC) command for the multiple antennas. The UE adjusts the transmit power for each antenna based on the TPC command(s). In one design, the UE receives a single TPC command for all antennas and adjusts the transmit power for each antenna based on this TPC command. All antennas may then have equal transmit power. In another design, the UE receives multiple TPC commands for multiple antenna groups, one TPC command for each antenna group. Each antenna group may include one antenna or more than one antenna. The UE adjusts the transmit power for each antenna group based on the TPC command for that antenna group. All antennas in each antenna group may have equal transmit power.
US08462731B2
A neighbor cell monitoring method and apparatus for a dual-standby mobile terminal is provided to reduce unnecessary power consumption by controlling one of two communication units to operate in an idle state while the other performs neighbor cell monitoring. A neighbor cell monitoring method for multi-standby mobile terminal includes acquiring a neighbor's cell information through neighbor cell monitoring by operation of a master unit; performing cell tracking by the master unit and a slave unit independently; executing, when a cell change event is detected by the master unit, the cell change event using the neighbor cell information by the master unit; and transmitting, when a cell change event is detected by the slave unit, from the neighbor cell information from the master unit to the slave unit and executing the cell change event using the neighbor cell information by the slave unit.
US08462721B2
In an embodiment, a radio base station is provided. The radio base station may include: a receiver configured to receive, via a pre-determined radio resource, a Random Access Preamble from a mobile radio terminal; a load determiner configured to determine whether a load situation which fulfills a pre-determined criterion is present for at least one communication resource of the radio base station; a Random Access Response message generator configured to generate, based on the determination of the load determiner, a Random Access Response message including controlling information for controlling access to the pre-determined radio resource and recipient information indicating whether a recipient of the Random Access Response message is to apply the controlling information; and a sender configured to send the Random Access Response message in response to the received Random Access Preamble to the mobile radio terminal.
US08462714B2
A base station communicating using multiple antennas includes a direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation unit configured to estimate a direction of arrival based on a signal from a mobile station and to output direction-of-arrival information regarding the estimated direction of arrival; a DOA information multiplexing unit configured to multiplex the direction-of-arrival information from the direction-of-arrival estimation unit with a shared data channel to be transmitted to the mobile station; and an antenna weight multiplying unit configured to multiply a signal to be transmitted to the mobile station and including the shared data channel multiplexed with the direction-of-arrival information by antenna weights obtained based on the direction-of-arrival information from the direction-of-arrival estimation unit.
US08462712B2
A base station device includes: a re-synchronization factor detector that detects an uplink re-synchronization factor of a mobile station device; a data controller that generates, when the re-synchronization factor detector detects the uplink re-synchronization factor, data in which information indicative of an uplink synchronization request addressed to the mobile station device is set to a region on a radio frame to which parameters to be used for synchronous communication with the mobile station device are to be set; and a transmitter that transmits data generated by the data controller.
US08462711B2
A base station apparatus in a mobile communications system which uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for downlink is disclosed. The base station includes a unit which generates a first signal; a unit which generates a second signal; a unit which multiplexes the first signal and the second signal to map the multiplexed signals to a sub-carrier to generate a transmit symbol; and a mapping determining unit which determines a position of mapping the second signal to the sub-carrier, wherein the mapping determining unit determines the mapping position based on a cell ID or cell group ID, and a mapping pattern defined with a sequence having two-stage structure.
US08462709B2
Embodiments for bandwidth allocation methods, detecting interference with other systems, and/or redeploying in alternate bandwidth are described. Higher bandwidth channels may be deployed at channel boundaries (410), which are a subset of those for lower bandwidth channels (310), and may be restricted from overlapping. Interference may be detected (930) on primary, secondary, or a combination of channels, and may be detected in response to energy measurements (910) of the various channels. When interference is detected, a higher bandwidth Basic Service Set (BSS)(100) may be relocated to an alternate channel, or may have its bandwidth reduced to avoid interference. Interference may be detected based on energy measured on the primary or secondary channel, and/or a difference between the two. An FFT (1010) may be used in energy measurement in either or both of the primary and secondary channels. Stations may also monitor messages from alternate systems to make channel allocation decisions. Various other aspects are also presented.
US08462702B2
Multimedia application data formats often use data packets and may contain packetized hierarchical layers with a base layer (BL) and one or more enhancement layers (EL). Packets that comprise variable length coded data typically provide padding bits, which can be used for adding checksum information. The checksum information refers to both, the decoded base layer and decoded enhancement layer packet data, and is used for detecting synchronization loss between the layers. Though the packets provide different individual amounts of padding bits, this variable amount of bits per packet is sufficient for adding check-sum information for synchronization related purposes. This allows e.g. out-of-sync detection even if the enhancement layer encoding provides no overhead information for synchronization, in particular no packet headers and no packet synchronization words.
US08462700B2
There is provided a terminal device or the like which can prevent a user from fall in trouble with an unknown third person when the user executes a network game or the like over a computer communication network. As terminal devices establish a connection in an ad-hoc mode, individual unique identification information thereof are exchanged and a communication for a game is carried out, the terminal devices saves the unique identification information of the communication counterparty. When the terminal devices establish a connection in an infrastructure mode, introduction requests each specifying the saved unique identification information are transmitted to a server device, the server device transmits introduction responses each informing an address of the terminal device to the terminal devices which have transmitted an introduction request specifying the unique identification information of the communication counterparty, and the terminal devices carry out a communication for the game.
US08462698B2
A method is provided for searching a route of a mobile node in a short-range communication environment. A first router to which a mobile node belongs acquires a unique address of the mobile node for communication with the mobile node. The first router determines whether the mobile node travels during communication. When the mobile node travels, the first router broadcasts the unique address of the mobile node to one or more neighboring routers and determines whether the one or more neighboring routers include the mobile node. If a second router, which is one of the one or more neighboring routers, includes the mobile node, the second router performs communication using the unique address without an additional address acquisition process.
US08462693B2
A method of enabling wireless data transfer to an electronic device having a transceiver structured to interact in a first mode with a first wireless network and in a second mode with a second wireless network, including repeatedly powering up the transceiver and enabling the second mode to await receipt of a second beacon signal through the second wireless network, receiving an instance of the second beacon signal with an indication of availability of data to be transferred to the electronic device through the first wireless network, and in response to the receiving of the instance of the second beacon signal with the indication of availability of the data, enabling the first mode to receive the data through the first wireless network.
US08462690B2
An apparatus and a method for data retransmission in a multihop relay wireless communication system are provided. The retransmission method includes determining whether an error is detected in data received from an upper node; generating a message indicative of the data error; and sending the message to the upper node at a time that is not appointed with the upper node. Therefore, it is possible to reduce a retransmission delay time that occurs during synchronous retransmission.
US08462685B2
A radio communication apparatus, including a communication control part that controls direct communication or relay communication via a base station with other radio communication apparatuses, a data generation part that generates a mode transition notification to notify the other radio communication apparatuses, which are targets of the direct communication, of a transition to a power thrifty mode or a switching request, notification to request switching from the direct communication to the relay communication via the base station, and the mode transition notification to the base station, and a mode control part that causes the transition of an operation mode to the power thrifty mode after all responses to the mode transition notification and the switching request notification are received.
US08462683B2
A hybrid expansion unit includes at least one digital communication interface adapted to communicate first and second sets of N-bit words of digitized spectrum with an upstream device. The hybrid expansion unit further includes at least one analog communication interface adapted to communicate first and second sets of bands of analog spectrum with a downstream device. The hybrid expansion unit is adapted to convert between the first set of N-bit words of digitized spectrum and the first set of bands of analog spectrum. The hybrid expansion unit is further adapted to convert between the second set of N-bit words of digitized spectrum and the second set of bands of analog spectrum. The first set of bands of analog spectrum occupy a first frequency range and the second set of bands of analog spectrum occupy a second frequency range. The first frequency range and the second frequency range do not overlap.
US08462681B2
Disclosed is a method and apparatus to continuously transmit high bandwidth, real-time data, on a communications network (e.g., wired, wireless, and a combination of wired and wireless segments). A control computing device uses user or application requirements to dynamically adjust the throughput of the system to match the bandwidth of the communications network being used, so that data latency is minimized. An operator can visualize the instantaneous characteristic of the link and, if necessary, make a tradeoff between the latency and resolution of the data to help maintain the real-time nature of the system and better utilize the available network resources. Automated control strategies have also been implemented into the system to enable dynamic adjustments of the system throughput to minimize latency while maximizing data resolution. Several applications have been cited in which latency minimization techniques can be employed for enhanced dynamic performance.
US08462678B2
A system and method for operating a wireless medical device interrogation network is provided. Data exchange sessions are transacted with a wireless medical device over a plurality of interrogation points that each cover different zones of interrogation. State regarding interim data packets exchanged during each data exchange session is maintained and is accessible by each of the interrogation points. Frequency agile switching between the interrogation points and the wireless medical device during a wireless data exchange session is supported.
US08462673B2
A system and method for mapping a combined frequency division duplexing (FDD) Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)/Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) downlink subframe for use with half-duplex and full-duplex terminals in a communication system. Embodiments of the downlink subframe vary Forward Error Correction (FEC) types for a given modulation scheme as well as support the implementation of a smart antennae at a base station in the communication system. Embodiments of the system are also used in a TDD communication system to support the implementation of smart antennae. A scheduling algorithm allows TDM and TDMA portions of a downlink to efficiently co-exist in the same downlink subframe and simultaneously support full and half-duplex terminals.
US08462671B2
A cellular telecommunications terminal having a full-duplex mode of operation and a half-duplex mode of operation, including a first cellular transmitter and a first cellular receiver operable, when the terminal is in the full-duplex mode, to transmit and receive at the same time and operable, when the terminal is in the half-duplex mode, to transmit and receive at different times and not at the same time; and a switching control for changing the mode of operation of the terminal while operating in the full-duplex mode from the full-duplex mode to the half-duplex mode.
US08462670B2
A method of establishing a phone conversation between an initiator's device and a destination device and an Internet based communication system. The method comprises the steps of instructing one or more internal private branch exchange (PBX) telephone network/s to initiate separate calls to the initiator's device and the destination device respectively using existing termination option/s of the PBX network/s over an Internet network based system; and bridging of the two separate calls to establish a phone conversation between the initiator's device and the destination device.
US08462664B2
In one embodiment, two neighboring nodes adjacent to each end-point node of a domain may be associated with a “dual” (a logical structure). A first of the two neighboring nodes may be placed into a first family (and group) of the dual, while a second of the two neighboring nodes may be placed into an opposing second family (and group). Augmentations may then be performed, recursively merging and connecting the duals and/or groups, as well as connecting unplaced nodes to particular duals, families, and groups, according to forced augmentations and/or unforced augmentations where no forced augmentations exist. In the end, it may be determined whether the domain supports dual plane topologies based on whether a solution having one resultant dual with a single group in each opposing family is reached from the recursive augmentations.
US08462663B2
The physical position of a movable node in a network is determined by sending a broadcast message from the movable node repeated through a path comprising at least a first node, a second node, and a third node, wherein the first, second, and third nodes have known locations. The movable node receives the broadcast message from the first, second, and third nodes, and measures the time from sending the repeated broadcast message to the time the broadcast message is received from each of the first, second, and third nodes. The movable node determines the distance from the movable node to the first, second, and third network nodes by using at least a known turnaround time and known message propagation velocity, such that the position of the movable node is determined.
US08462657B2
A user equipment (UE) is disclosed. The UE includes a processor configured to begin channel quality indicator (CQI) transmissions using an assigned periodic CQI reporting resource before the start of the on-duration of a discontinuous reception (DRX) operation mode.
US08462655B2
A method for acquiring a multi-cell specific message in a wireless communication system includes receiving a downlink preamble, receiving the multi-cell specific message weighted with the downlink preamble, and decoding the weighted multi-cell specific message by using the received downlink preamble. Accordingly, since a preamble is used to transmit a multi-cell specific message, there is no need to transmit an additional signal in order to estimate a channel of the multi-cell specific message. In addition, a user equipment can acquire the multi-cell specific message by simply performing decoding.
US08462648B2
A management device is used in an access network including a plurality of data connections between end user devices and an aggregation transceiver device where the connections are aggregated for onward connection through the access network. The access network stores a plurality of different profiles, each of which specifies a set of values for a plurality of parameters associated with each data connection. The device applies one of the stored profiles to each connection, and receives a notification in the event of one of a predetermined set of notifiable events occurring on the connection. It is determined if more than a predetermined number of notifications are received within a predetermined period for a respective connection and, in the event of such a determination being made, a different one of the profiles is caused to be applied to the connection.
US08462647B2
A mobile device receives a radio frequency (RF) signal comprising a primary synchronization sequence (PSS) and a secondary synchronization sequence (SSS). The mobile device performs multiple frequency hypothesis (MFH) testing via multiple MFH branches. A SSS decoding and a PSS correlation process are performed, respectively, per MFH branch. The SSS decoding may be performed according to corresponding PSS detection. Cell-specific information such as cell ID information and/or Cyclic Prefix (CP) length is acquired per MFH branch based on corresponding PSS detection and SSS decoding. Subsequently, the mobile device selects a particular MFH branch with a maximum PSS correlation peak over the entire MFH branches. The cell-specific information from the selected MFH branch is utilized for communications within a corresponding cell if the information is detected consistently. The mobile device compares cell ID information and/or CP length information over the remaining MFH branches for consistency check.
US08462646B2
A method for characterizing interference in a radio communication system including a plurality of radio transceiver stations configured to communicate with user equipment, includes: measuring, by user equipment in radio communication with a serving transceiver station, quantities indicative of interference from interfering transceiver stations; sending the measured quantities to the serving transceiver station; associating at least one codebook with the serving transceiver station, the codebook including a number of codewords each representing a respective quantized interference situation in an area covered by the serving transceiver station; and identifying in the codebook a codeword representative of the quantities measured by the user equipment.
US08462645B1
Enhanced features and functionality of a radio station website, and offline advertising operations are disclosed to improve listener interactions, provide improved services to users, and enable more effective radio or television-based advertising.
US08462643B2
A multiple-access MIMO WLAN system that employs MIMO, OFDM, and TDD. The system (1) uses a channel structure with a number of configurable transport channels, (2) supports multiple rates and transmission modes, which are configurable based on channel conditions and user terminal capabilities, (3) employs a pilot structure with several types of pilot (e.g., beacon, MIMO, steered reference, and carrier pilots) for different functions, (4) implements rate, timing, and power control loops for proper system operation, and (5) employs random access for system access by the user terminals, fast acknowledgment, and quick resource assignments. Calibration may be performed to account for differences in the frequency responses of transmit/receive chains at the access point and user terminals. The spatial processing may then be simplified by taking advantage of the reciprocal nature of the downlink and uplink and the calibration.
US08462642B2
A method for analyzing Internet telephone quality and interference has developed that two-way voice and video quality between IP phones and a measurement instrument measures in real time along the actual communication path using loopback functions of the IP phones. When interference is detected, the interference source location is identified by checking whether the interference has occurred in the internal section of the IP phones or in the IP network section on the basis of loopback results of the IP phones and ping and trace route analysis in a section-based manner.
US08462641B2
An advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) enabled device, program product and communication system. An AMI enabled device is described that includes a power failure detection system that constructs a power loss message in response to a detected loss of power and a communication system for transmitting messages over a network. The communications system includes: a prioritization system for prioritizing the power loss message as a high priority message, and a queuing system that ensures that the power loss message is transmitted ahead of all low priority messages.
US08462624B2
A network stack includes a packet loss analyzer that distinguishes between packet losses due to congestion and due to lossyness of network connections. The loss analyzer observes the packet loss patterns for comparison with a packet loss model. The packet loss model may be based on a Forward Error Correction (FEC) system. The loss analyzer determines if lost packets could have been recovered by a receiving network device, if FEC had been used. If the lost packets could have been corrected by FEC, the loss analyzer assumes that no network congestion exists and that the packet loss comes from the lossy aspects of the network, such as radio interference for wireless networks. If the loss analyzer determines that some of the lost packet could not have been recovered by the receiving network device, the loss analyzer assumes that network congestion causes these packet losses and reduces the data rate.
US08462612B2
An interleaving method (2) and an interleaver (9) for frequency interleaving data symbols. The data symbols are for allocation to carriers in a set of NFFT carriers of a module for multiplexing and modulation by orthogonal functions in a multicarrier transmitter device (3). A block of Npm successive data symbols is interleaved in application of an interleaving law that varies over time for a given transmission mode of the transmitter device, where Npm is less than or equal to NFFT.
US08462610B1
A base station transmits radio resource control message(s) to a wireless device configuring second carrier(s). Each of the second carrier(s) is assigned to a carrier group in a plurality of carrier groups comprising a first carrier group and at least one second carrier group. The control message(s) comprise parameters. If parameters comprise a carrier group index for the second carrier, the wireless device assigns the second carrier to one of the at least one second carrier group identified by the carrier group index. Otherwise, the wireless device assigns the second carrier to the first carrier group.
US08462607B1
Disclosed herein is an optical disc having an information area situated between an internal edge and an external edge of the optical disc. The optical disc includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a recording layer, a reflecting layer and a number of surface structures. The second substrate is disposed over the second substrate, the recording layer and the reflecting layer are disposed between the two substrates, and the reflecting layer is disposed between the first substrate and the recording layer. The surface structures are discontinuously disposed on the surface of the second substrate.
US08462599B2
Provided is a recording apparatus including a self-excited oscillation semiconductor laser that has a double quantum well separate confinement heterostructure and includes a saturable absorber section to which a negative bias voltage is applied and a gain section into which a gain current is injected, an optical separation unit, an objective lens, a light reception element, a pulse detection unit, a reference signal generation unit, a phase comparison unit, a recording signal generation unit, and a control unit.
US08462596B2
When performing recording/reproduction of information for a given recording layer of an optical disc having three recording layers, influences of reflected light from other recording layers are reduced or removed, thus making it possible to obtain a more stable RF signal or focus error signal.An optical pickup device includes a light source, a collimator lens, an objective lens, a photodetector, and a light shielding member. Among the recording layers of the optical disc, a first layer and a second layer adjoining each other are disposed in the order of the first layer and second layer from near the objective lens. The light shielding member is disposed at a position satisfying the condition d>d1 to block a part of reflected light from the second layer when light is converged on the first layer, where d is an optical path length from the photodetector to the light shielding member; and d1 is a distance from the photodetector to a position at which reflected light from the second layer becomes focused between the collimator lens and the photodetector.
US08462594B1
A thermally-assisted magnetic recording head includes a medium facing surface, a magnetic pole, a waveguide including a core and a cladding, and a plasmon generator. The magnetic pole is located forward of the core in the direction of travel of a magnetic recording medium. The plasmon generator is disposed between the core and the magnetic pole. The core has an evanescent light generating surface facing toward the plasmon generator. The plasmon generator has a front end face located in the medium facing surface, a flat surface facing toward the'evanescent light generating surface, and first and second side surfaces that are at a distance from each other and are located farther from the evanescent light generating surface than is the flat surface.
US08462589B2
A seismic system has a plurality of seismic sources. Each of the seismic sources includes a reaction mass movable with respect to a geological structure and includes an actuator moving the reaction mass. The movement of the reaction mass emits a source signal as seismic energy into the geological structure. In the system, each of the source signals is generated from a base vibratory signal segmented into a plurality of segments, where the base vibratory signal sweeps from an initial frequency to a final frequency. Each of the segments has a partition of sweep frequencies different from the other segments. Each of the source signals has a distinguishing arrangement of the segments different from the other source signals.
US08462584B2
A method and apparatus for determining an effective cross-sectional area of a borehole including one or more sources for generating tube or Stoneley waves in the borehole; receivers for measuring amplitudes of the waves; and means to relate said measured amplitudes to said effective cross-sectional area or related parameters.
US08462577B2
The present disclosure relates to the fabrication of non-volatile memory devices. In at least one embodiment, a single transistor may be used to drive each address line, either a wordline or a bitline. Both an inhibit voltage and a selection voltage may be driven through these single transistor devices, which may be achieved with the introduction of odd and even designations for the address lines. In one operating embodiment, a selected address line may be driven to a selection voltage, and the address lines of the odd or even designation which is the same as the selected address line are allowed to float. The address lines of the odd or even designation with is different from the selected address lines are driven to an inhibit voltage, wherein adjacent floating address lines may act as shielding lines to the selected address line.
US08462574B2
A high-density dynamic memory device with compact sense amplifier circuit is described. The memory device achieves high density through the use of a compact sense amplifier circuit that employs a single transistor to sense stored dynamic data. Functionality of the device is enabled by an architecture and method of operation that support a compact sense amplifier circuit. Enabling techniques include sequential sensing of memory columns, a two-pass write operation, a two-step refresh operation, a reference scheme that uses reference data stored in regular memory cells, and the application of digital signal processing to determine sensed data and cancel crosstalk noise.
US08462573B2
A semiconductor memory device, including: a memory cell connected to a first bitline and associated with a second bitline; a sense amplifier, including a first input/output node and a second input/output node; and an isolator connected to the bitlines and to the input/output nodes, the isolator being configured to carry out bitline isolation during a refresh operation of the memory cell, where the bitline isolation includes electrically disconnecting the first bitline from the first input/output node and electrically disconnecting the second bitline from the second input/output node, followed by: electrically re-connecting the first bitline to the first input/output node while the second bitline remains electrically disconnected from the second input/output node.
US08462563B2
A semiconductor device includes: a plurality of word lines; a word line driver; a first detection circuit; and a control circuit. The plurality of word lines is connected to gates of a plurality of memory cell transistors, respectively. The word line driver supplies one of a selection voltage and a non-selection voltage to each of the plurality of word lines. The first detection circuit detects a first current flowing into the word line driver through a wiring supplying the selection voltage when the selection voltage is supplied to one of the plurality of word lines through the word line driver. The control circuit detects abnormality of the plurality of word lines and the word line driver based on the first current.
US08462561B2
A burst read control circuit acts as an interface to allow a burst-read capable device to execute burst reads from a page-mode capable memory device. The burst read control circuit coordinates burst read requests from the burst-read capable device and subsequent responses from the page-mode capable memory device by accessing subsequent and contiguous memory locations of the page-mode capable memory device.
US08462557B2
Methods of operating dual-gate memory cells having asymmetric band-gap tunnel insulators using direct tunneling. The asymmetric band-gap tunnel insulators allow for low voltage direct tunneling programming and efficient erase with holes and/or electrons, while maintaining high charge blocking barriers and deep carrier trapping sites for good charge retention.
US08462556B1
A localized trapping multi-level memory cell operating method includes the following steps. First, a localized trapping memory cell with the initial threshold voltage of approximately 2.5V is provided. Next, an erasing operation is performed to obtain a negative threshold level having uniform charge distribution along the channel region. Taking into account the over-erasure issue in the erasing operation, a programming operation is performed to precisely adjust the threshold voltage to a predetermined level of −2V to −1V. Then, with this negative voltage as a new initial state, a corresponding programming operation is performed and electrons are locally injected into the storage layer. By controlling the quantity of injected electrons, the MLC storage is achieved.
US08462555B2
In a nonvolatile memory device and operating method thereof, data programmed into a second memory cell is sensed and a first memory cell adjacent the second memory cell is read in accordance with the data sensed from the second memory cell.
US08462548B2
A method for programming a non-volatile memory array comprising a plurality of memory cells. Each cell is adapted to store a lower and an upper page of data. The method: programs the lower page of predetermined memory cells with first predetermined data and the upper page with second predetermined data. One of the lower page or the upper page of the predetermined memory cells is reprogrammed with the first or second predetermined data, respectively.
US08462545B2
In accordance with some embodiments, a phase change memory may be formed in which the thermal conductivity in the region outside the programmed volume of phase change material is reduced. This may reduce the power consumption of the resulting phase change memory. The reduction in power consumption may be achieved by forming distinct layers of phase change material that have little or no mixing between them outside the programmed volume. For example, in one embodiment, a diffusion barrier layer may be maintained between the two distinct phase change layers. In another embodiment, a face centered cubic chalcogenide structure may be utilized.
US08462542B2
A solid-state memory in which write assist circuitry is implemented within each memory cell. Each memory cell includes a storage element, such as a pair of cross-coupled inverters, that is connected in series with a pair of power switch transistors between a power supply node and ground. One of the power switch transistors is gated by a word line indicating selection of the row containing the cell, and the other is gated by a column select signal indicating selection of the column containing the cell in a write cycle. Upon a write to the cell, both power switch transistors are turned off, removing bias from the inverter that assists its change of state in a write operation. In other embodiments, a single power switch transistor gated by either a word line or a column select signal may be used.
US08462534B2
A memory module includes: an ODT circuit on a memory device and including pull-up and pull-down resistors connected between pull-up and pull-down transistors. A data masking (DM) pad is provided in a tap region of the module board. A current leakage monitoring unit is also provided and receives a ground state signal from the DM pad and a bit configuration signal from the memory device and disables the pull-up transistors to cut off a current path between the pull-up resistors of the ODT circuit and the DM pad during a ODT enable mode.
US08462533B2
According to one embodiment, a system for retaining M bits of state data of an integrated circuit during power down includes M serially coupled scan flip flops divided into M/N groups, where the M scan flip flops are able to save/restore the M bits of state data. Each group contains a merged scan flip flop coupled to a series of scan flip flops. The merged scan flip flop in each of the groups is coupled to a respective read port of a memory unit, and a final scan flip flop in each of the groups is coupled to a respective write port of the memory unit. The system enables the memory unit to save the M bits of state data in N clock cycles. Each merged scan flip flop has a read select input that enables restoring of the state data into the M scan flip flops in N clock cycles.
US08462517B2
An improved a mobile electronic device (10) is disclosed. The mobile electronic device (10) includes: a housing (12) including a display assembly (14) and a cover assembly (16), the display assembly (14) being complementarily configured to be partially received in the cover assembly (16), to define an enclosure (18) for electrical components; a gasket (20) located between the display assembly (14) and the cover assembly (16); and a sacrificial retention structure (22) including a plurality of connectors (24) configured to interconnect the cover assembly (16) with the display assembly (14). Advantageously, this structure allows: disassembly and reassembly of the housing (12), in the event of rework, enhanced water and dust resistance and a simple and secure snap-connected housing (12).
US08462492B2
A sliding module includes a first section, a second section, a sliding plate, a rotary plate, a connecting rod, and at least one elastic member. The sliding plate is fixed to the first section. The rotary plate is rotatably connected to the second section, and the sliding plate is slidably connected to the rotary plate. The connecting rod is connected to the first section and the second section. One end of the at least one elastic member is fixed to the rotary plate, the other end of the at least one elastic member is fixed to the sliding plate. When the sliding plate and the first section slide relative to the second section, the connecting rod rotates the rotary plate relative to the second section, causing the first section to move and rotate relative to the second section into a tilted orientation.
US08462489B2
Provided is a case for a portable communication device having a sliding module portion to avoid a folded (or wrinkled) portion, which may be generated when a case provided on the exterior of the portable communication device is folded or unfolded by rotation. To this end, a case for a portable communication device including a main body, a folder, and a hinge device for rotatably coupling the main body with the folder, includes a case portion for covering the exterior of the portable communication device, and a sliding module portion provided on the case portion, the sliding module portion unfolding a folded portion of the case portion generated when the folder is folded or unfolded by rotation, by sliding movement.
US08462479B2
A surge protection device with an internal circuitry that protects a premise device from a surge input that arises from a transient event, e.g., a lightning strike. The internal circuitry can comprise a surge path that includes windings, e.g., inductors, and in one embodiment the surge path comprises a first winding and a second winding that is coupled in series to the first winding. The internal circuitry can also comprise a blocking element that is positioned relative to the surge path so that the blocking element receives the surge input before the premise device, wherein the blocking element can be selected so as to isolate the premise device from the surge input.
US08462473B2
For adaptive electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, an integrated circuit device having an adaptive electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, has an external connection pin to be protected from ESD; an external ground connection pin; an adaptive electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit having: an ESD protection N-metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistor having drain connected to the external connection pin and a source and bulk connected to ground; a resistor coupled between a gate of the NMOS transistor and ground; a first PMOS transistor having a source coupled to a gate of the NMOS transistor and a drain connected to ground; a first capacitor having a first terminal connected to the external connection pin and a second terminal that is coupled with the gate of the NMOS transistor, wherein the first capacitor within the adaptive ESD protection circuit is the only capacitor connected to the external connection pin.
US08462472B1
An electric safety circuit for use with an electric receptacle includes a relay and contacts in which power from a mains is supplied through the contacts to the receptacle only when the contacts are closed; a transistor for controlling the relay to open or close the contacts; an enabling device for supplying an enabling signal to the transistor to close the contacts when a plug of an electrically connected device is inserted into the receptacle, the electrically connected device is turned on, and there is no electrical contact by a person with the power supplied to the electrically connected device; and a disabling device for supplying a disabling signal to the transistor to open the contacts when there is electrical contact by a person with the power supplied to the electrically connected device.
US08462466B2
A disk drive comprising a disk, and a head actuated over the disk, the head comprising a read element and a write element. The disk drive further comprises a preamp and an interconnect comprising a first transmission line and a second transmission line coupling the head to the preamp. A compensation network is disclosed operable to compensate for an impedance discontinuity in the first and second transmission lines, the compensation network comprising a first trace and a second trace connected in parallel with the first and second transmission lines, wherein a shape of the first and second traces varies to form at least a first capacitor.
US08462454B1
In a disk storage system, the disk may include a full null servo position error signal (“PES”) wedge, followed by a data wedge, and then a short null servo PES wedge. To improve the accuracy with which information read from the short null servo PES wedge can be used to help keep the read head centered over the information track being read, the short null servo PES wedge may include a calibration field. Information read from the calibration field can be used to compensate the subsequently read PES information in the short wedge for possible sampling phase error that may have accumulated since the full null servo PES wedge was read. This type of short null servo PES wedge also has other possible uses.
US08462451B2
A lens barrel includes a first cylinder, a second cylinder configured to rotate around an optical axis relative to the first cylinder and to move a lens holding frame holding a lens in an optical axis direction, a force unit arranged outside of the second cylinder, a force relay member arranged outside of the second cylinder and configured to contact the force unit, a first roller fixed to the force relay unit and configured to contact a first surface of the second cylinder, and to transmit a force to the first surface of the second cylinder, the force being applied by the force unit and relayed by the force relay unit; and a second roller fixed to the first cylinder, and configured to contact a second surface inside of the second cylinder, and to restrict a movement of the second cylinder in the optical axis direction by the force.
US08462447B2
A lens optical system including, in a sequence from an object to an imaging device on which an image of the object is formed; a first lens having a a positive refractive power; a second lens having negative refractive power; a third lens having a a positive refractive power; and a fourth lens having a negative refractive power and an incident surface facing the object is concave and an exit surface facing the imaging device has an inflection point.
US08462443B2
A high-performance zoom lens system which is compact and has a wide view angle at a wide-angle limit and a high zooming ratio in a balanced manner, in order from an object side to an image side, comprising a first lens unit having positive optical power, a second lens unit having negative optical power, a third lens unit having positive optical power, and a fourth lens unit having positive optical power, wherein the first lens unit is composed of at most two lens elements, the second lens unit is composed of two lens elements, the third lens unit is composed of three lens elements, in order from the object side to the image side, including an object side lens element having positive optical power, a lens element having negative optical power, and an image side lens element having positive optical power, and the conditions: fT/fW>6.0 and ωW≧30 (fT: a focal length of the entire system at a telephoto limit, fW: a focal length of the entire system at a wide-angle limit, ωW: a half view angle at a wide-angle limit) are satisfied; an imaging device; and a camera are provided.
US08462439B2
A compact F-theta lens suitable for precise mapping and aerial photography has an F# of not more than 4.5 and a full field of view of 60° (high quality field over) 53°. The lens is near-telecentric to less than 6°, apochromatic from 450 nm to 650 nm, and athermal from −15° C. to +40° C. Embodiments have a focal plane diameter of 104 mm and are compatible for use with a CMOS 1.8 gigapixel multiple FPA. In some embodiments the focal length is 101 mm and the back working distance is more than 10 mm. In embodiments the lens includes three groups of optical elements, with an aperture located between the first and second groups. In some of these embodiments, the first group has at least three elements, while the second and third groups have four and three elements respectively, and the diameter of the first two groups, including housing, is less than 65 mm.
US08462429B2
An optical combiner 100 includes: fibers for propagation of pumping light 20 configured to propagate pumping light; a fiber for propagation of laser light 10 configured to propagate laser light having a longer wavelength than the pumping light; and a large area fiber 30 having a core 31 and a clad 32 and configured to propagate laser light and pumping light, in which one end surface of the fiber for propagation of laser light 10 and one end surface of the large area fiber 30 are fused, one end surfaces of the fibers for propagation of pumping light 20 and the one end surface of the large area fiber 30 are fused, and the fiber for propagation of laser light 10 and the fibers for propagation of pumping light 20 are not fused to each other.
US08462421B2
A projection apparatus comprising a light source for emitting incident light and a mirror device that includes a plurality of mirror elements each guiding the incident light to the ON position towards a projection light path under pulse width modulation (PWM) control corresponding to one frame or sub-frame or to the OFF state so as not to guide the incident light to a projection path. The light source is turned off outside the period in which the mirror element with the maximum brightness is in the ON state.
US08462416B2
A micro-shutter includes a reflective layer, a shutter, and a first actuator. The reflective layer includes a plurality of first openings transmitting a portion of external light, and reflecting the remaining portion of the external light. The shutter includes a plurality of second openings corresponding to the first openings to transmit the portion of the external light. The first actuator is provided at one side of the shutter and includes at least three electrodes. The first actuator adjusts an overlap area between the first openings and the second openings according to a level of a voltage applied to the actuator electrodes.
US08462414B2
A micromechanical component includes: a mirror element with a reflective surface on a first outer side of the mirror element, which is designed in such a way that a first potential is applied to a first electrode surface on a second outer side of the mirror element opposite from the first outer side; a counterelectrode situated adjacent to the second outer side of the mirror element and which is designed in such a way that a second potential is applied to a second electrode surface of the counterelectrode; and a voltage control unit configured to apply a temporally varying voltage signal between the first electrode surface and the second electrode surface.
US08462412B2
An optical scanner includes a light source, an optical splitter which splits light from the light source into a plurality of light beams, an input optical element on which the light beams split by the optical splitter are incident, a driver which generates a voltage signal, an optical deflector which comprises at least two deflector portions formed close to each other on a same substrate and individually supplied with an electric action of the driver so as to capture and deflect the incident light beams using the electric action, and an output optical element which emits the deflected light beams to an image plane, wherein the optical scanner is configured to scan the image plane with the light beams by adjusting the voltage signal of the driver.
US08462398B2
An image scanning device includes a housing, a scanning carriage, and a first guide groove and a second guide groove. The housing includes a bottom chassis and a side wall member, and defines a document tray. A scanning carriage is movably arranged in the housing. The first guide groove and the second guide groove are arranged at the side wall members of the housing, and guide the scanning carriage in a scanning direction.
US08462394B2
Systems and methods are described that facilitate determining an original document format for a scanned document by analyzing a bitmap thereof. Text objects are extracted from the document, binarized, and segmented to identify text. Page orientation and text size are used to distinguish between a slideshow-type document, and a word processing or spreadsheet-type document. To further distinguish between the word processing and spreadsheet types, text column structure and count is analyzed.
US08462391B2
A method for producing a pseudo-stochastic master surface for producing a cover or jacket of a cylinder for contacting printing material, includes providing the master surface with a pseudo-stochastic distribution of microsurfaces. The master surface is produced on the basis of a digital master in a jacket preliminary stage and serves for a preferably galvanic production of a microstructured cover, in which structure elevations correlate with the microsurfaces. The pseudo-stochastic distribution helps to avoid disruptive discernible effects, for example the moiré effect and helps to construct the microstructuring in a targeted manner. A master surface, a method for producing a cylinder cover, a cylinder cover, a machine for processing printing material, a method for producing printed products and a method for microstamping printed products, are also provided.
US08462387B2
Multi-valued image data stored in an input image buffer are read out for each time of scans, and the color space conversion and image distribution are performed to read multi-valued image data. The binarized result is sent to the print buffer and at the same time, is accumulated as the print information to execute processing of reflecting it to the image distribution processing of the next pass. It is possible to appropriately restrict the density fluctuation due to the print position shift between planes without providing pixels where dots are overlapped and printed more than necessary. With this, by accumulating the multi-valued image data at the stage of RGB in the input image buffer to read out data stored in input image buffer for executing processing, a capacity required for input image buffer does not change even if the number of the ink colors provided on the printing apparatus increases.
US08462382B2
An image forming apparatus including: an image forming section to form an image on a single side or both sides of a paper sheet based on job information of a job; and a control section to combine a registration image for judging misregistration of front and back images with each of front and back sample images of the job to allow the image forming section to form front and back combined images on the front and the back of the paper sheet, respectively, on which the front and back sample images are to be formed, respectively, when the image forming section forms the sample images at a preset sample print timing.
US08462381B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, by correcting the measurement positions of each line block with a reference line block serving as a reference point, the effect of disruption of the read image lattice caused by the image reading apparatus can be diminished, whereby the effect of paper deformation can be reduced, making highly accurate dot position measurement possible.
US08462380B2
This invention generally relates to accurately measuring image geometries in-line within a printing system. One or more two-dimensional array sensors may be located adjacent to a sheet of media printed with a predefined array of indicia marks so that the sensor field of view is contained within the plane of sheet transport. As the sheet is transported by the sensor, the sensors continuously record the locations of the indicia marks within its field of view. The spatial frequency of the indicia marks is arranged so that at least two indicia marks are within the field of view of the sensor at any instant for each of the process and cross-process directions. The two-dimensional array sensor can thus measure the absolute spacing between adjacent local indicia marks within the precision of the sensor construction. The cumulative spacing along each direction may then calculated to determine the overall dimensions of the indicia marks array. A measurement procedure is also provided to accurately measure image geometries, even in the presence of significant sheet velocity variations.
US08462371B1
Systems, methods, and computer program products are presented for creating and distributing a document of a particular type, where the document is based on variable content and/or variable layout. In one embodiment, a four-step is process is used. First, the document is specified. The document can be specified anywhere, regardless of the location of the user's office or the destination address of the document. In one embodiment, the document is specified using a client device (e.g., a computer running a web browser) that is attached to a network (e.g., the Internet). Second, the specification is transmitted to a production facility based on the destination address. Third, the document is produced at the facility. Finally, the produced document is delivered to the destination address.
US08462367B2
A printer portal including a network connection arranged to transfer user voice command input and printer portal output, a telephony system arranged to receive user voice command input and generate printer portal output via the network connection, a printing device arranged to print information responsive to the telephony system based on the user voice command input, and an access module arranged to control user access to portions of the printer portal is described. The printer portal stores location information about the printer portal. A method for printing information at a printer portal is described. A user voice command input is received at a printer portal. The printer portal analyzes the command input using a telephony system. Information is printed at the printer portal if the command input includes a print request to print information at the printer portal.
US08462365B2
An image forming apparatus includes: a combining unit configured to combine a document image and a coded image; a setting determining unit configured to determine whether a setting for combining a document image including a previously combined coded image and an other coded image is made when a reproduction of the document image is instructed; and a prohibiting unit configured to prohibit the combining unit from combining the document image including the previously combined coded image and the other coded image according to the setting when the result of the determination indicates that the setting is made.
US08462359B2
A position measuring device includes a plurality of concave marks, a light source portion, a light receiving portion, and a concave portion measuring portion. The concave marks are formed on an external wall of an object to be a measuring target. Each of the plurality of the concave marks includes a plurality of concave portions disposed on a concentric circle with a preset concave mark central position to be a center of the concentric circle. The concave portions are provided so that densities of the concave portions become lower as distances from the concave mark central position become longer in each of the concave marks. The light source portion irradiates the object with an irradiating light. The light receiving portion receives a reflected light from the object, the refracted light being originated from the irradiating light. The concave portion measuring portion measures each three-dimensional position of the concave marks.
US08462352B2
A surface inspection tool 110 measures scattering light intensity of scattering light generated by irradiated irradiation light in association with a measurement coordinate on a wafer 200 with patterns and inspects the surface roughness of the wafer 200. The surface inspection tool includes a controller 250 which extracts measurement coordinate of the measured scattering light intensity that is equal to or more than a lower limit threshold L, sets an inspection range 406 of the surface roughness inspection in a partial layout 405a of a part of the whole layout 401 of the pattern corresponding to the periphery of the extracted measurement coordinate, and obtains the surface roughness in the inspection range 406.
US08462350B2
Improved methods and systems for inspection imaging for holographic or interferometric semiconductor test and evaluation through all phases of device development and manufacture. Specifically, systems and methods are disclosed for extending the range of optical holographic interferometric inspection for testing and evaluating microelectronic devices and determining the interplay of electromagnetic signals and dynamic stresses to the semiconductor material are provided in which an enhanced imaging method provides continuous and varying the magnification of the optical holographic interferometric images over a plurality of interleaved optical pathways and imaging devices. Analysis of one or more holographic interference patterns displays internal and external stresses and the various effects of such stresses upon the operating characteristics of features within the features, interior structures or within the internal surfaces of the semiconductor device at any stage of development or manufacture.
US08462339B2
The invention encompasses analyzers and analyzer systems that include a single molecule analyzer, methods of using the analyzer and analyzer systems to analyze samples, either for single molecules or for molecular complexes. The single molecule uses electromagnetic radiation that is translated through the sample to detect the presence or absence of a single molecule. The single molecule analyzer provided herein is useful for diagnostics because the analyzer detects single molecules with zero carryover between samples.
US08462330B2
A method and apparatus for detecting defects are provided for detecting defects or foreign matter on an object to be inspected. The apparatus includes a movable stage for mounting a specimen, an illumination system for irradiating a circuit pattern with light from an inclined direction, and an image-forming optical system for forming an image of an irradiated detection area on a detector from the upward and oblique directions. With this arrangement, diffracted light and scattered light caused on the circuit pattern through the illumination by the illumination system is collected. A spatial filter is provided on a Fourier transform surface for blocking the diffracted light from a linear part of the circuit pattern. The scattered and reflected light received by the detector is converted into an electrical signal. The converted electrical signal of one chip is compared with that of the other adjacent chip.
US08462326B2
The invention discloses the Schlieren type ultrasonic wave observer system. The invention states optics interference by the ultrasonic wave sound field after perturbation the medium, and combines to make the interference penetration optical projection the image, the goal lies in the observation ordinary naked eye blind ultrasonic wave sound field distribution. Characteristic of the invention using the spectroscope and the reflector combination, as well as microcontroller precise time delay control, might formerly be limited under the 4F optical field length limit to enhance largely the field of vision the several fold.
US08462325B2
The present invention relates to light sensors for measuring light characteristics. In particular, the present invention relates to a light directionality sensor that is capable of measuring light characteristics such as the light direction, light collimation, and light distribution. According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a light directionality sensor comprising a photo-sensor (2), comprising a plurality of photo-sensitive elements (3), and a plurality of light-absorbing light selecting structures (1) arranged on the photo-sensor so as to form an array of light-absorbing light selecting structures. In the array of light-absorbing light selecting structures, a succession of at least some of the light-absorbing light selecting structures has varying structural characteristics. The varying structural characteristics is achieved by each individual structure of the succession being formed such that it allows light within a different angle interval with respect to the array to be sensed. Further, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for forming a light sensor according to the first aspect of the present invention.
US08462324B2
A system for monitoring an optical cable includes a cable having monitor fibers solely for monitoring cable status. The monitor fibers may be fibers selected from optical fibers having a higher mechanical sensitivity to mechanical stresses than other fibers in the cable, which may attenuate earlier than the other fibers in the event of cable degradation. The monitor fibers may be in communication with a transmitter and receiver, for transmitting and receiving a monitor signal. The receiver may be in communication with an alarm, the alarm being operative to send an alert signal when an increased attenuation is detected from the monitor signal, the increased attenuation being indicative of the status of the optical cable.
US08462318B2
Distance-measuring system with correction function includes calibrating object, transflective plate, and distance-measuring device. Distance-measuring device has a first known distance and a second known distance respectively between calibrating object and transflective plate. Transflective plate is disposed between calibrating object and distance-measuring device. Distance-measuring device includes light emitting device for emitting a detecting light with lighting-error angle, image sensor with sensing-error angle, and parameter calculating circuit. First part of detecting light passes transflective plate and is reflected by calibrating object and becomes first reflecting light emitting to first imaging location of image sensor while second part of detecting light is reflected by transflective plate and becomes second reflecting light emitting to second imaging location of image sensor. Parameter-calculating circuit calculates lighting-error angle and sensing-error angle according to first and second known distances, and first and second imaging locations.
US08462316B2
An apparatus which illuminates an original by an illumination optical system and projects a pattern of the original onto a substrate. The apparatus includes a measuring device configured to measure the light intensity distribution, a detector configured to detect a total light quantity on the pupil plane, and a controller configured to determine a light quantity, to be detected when a target light intensity distribution is formed on the pupil plane, as a target light quantity based on the measured light intensity distribution and the detected total light quantity, and to control the adjusting mechanism so that the detected total light quantity becomes the target light quantity. The illumination optical system includes an adjusting mechanism configured to adjust a light intensity distribution on a pupil plane of the projection optical system.
US08462312B2
In a single or multiple stage lithography apparatus, a table provides a confining surface to a liquid supply system during, for example, substrate table exchange and/or substrate loading and unloading. In an embodiment, the table has a sensor to make a measurement of the projection beam during, for example, substrate table exchange and/or substrate loading and unloading.
US08462303B2
A liquid crystal display device includes liquid crystals which are sandwiched between a first substrate and a second substrate, wherein on the first substrate is provided, a thin-film transistor, a drain electrode line to which a video signal is applied, a gate electrode line to which a gate signal is applied, a pixel electrode and a common electrode consisting of transparent conductive films, a first insulating layer formed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode, a and second insulating layer formed between the common electrode and the first substrate, wherein on the second substrate is provided, a color filter which includes a plurality of coloring layers of different colors, the coloring layers having different light transmittances, wherein a common line consisting of a metal to which a common voltage is applied, the common line being formed between the first substrate and the second insulating layer.
