US08967087B2
An animal leash such as, for example, for dogs, may include an elongated flexible sleeve having a proximal end and a distal end. The proximal end of the sleeve is configured to be held by a hand of a user and includes an opening for accessing an interior pocket of the sleeve. A rigid rod may be removably received within the interior pocket of the flexible sleeve through the opening to optionally make the animal leash rigid for training and/or controlling an animal (e.g., a dog) releasably attached to the leash. An attachment portion may be coupled at or near the distal end of the sleeve and may be configured to be releasably attached to a collar or harness on the animal.
US08967082B2
A plasma processing apparatus 31 includes a processing chamber 32; a gas supply unit 33 for supplying a plasma processing gas into a processing chamber 32; a mounting table 34 configured to hold the target substrate W thereon; a plasma generating device 39 configured to generate plasma within the processing chamber 32; and a gas supply device 61. The gas supply device 61 includes a head unit 62 configured to move between a first position above the mounting table 34 and a second position different from the first position and to supply a gas, and the head unit 62 is configured to supply a film forming gas to a small-volume region formed between the mounting table 34 and the head unit 62 when the head unit 62 is positioned at the first position and to adsorb the film forming gas on the target substrate W.
US08967081B2
Device for treating substrates, comprising a changer having controlled pressure and temperature, a substrate support which is provided in the chamber, the chamber comprising a gas inlet for carrying out a vapor phase deposition, and an upper wall of the chamber provided with a plurality of first channels connected to a first inlet and a plurality of second channels connected to a second inlet, the first and second channels opening into the chamber and being regularly distributed in the upper wall, a heating element provided above the upper wall and a gas discharge ring provided between the upper wall and the substrate support, the upper wall begin electrically conductive and insulated relative to the substrate support so as to be able to apply a voltage between the upper wall and the substrate support.
US08967077B2
A system and method for photo-grafting a coating polymer onto the surface of a medical device are provided. The system comprises a plurality of stations including a novel grafting station. The system and method of the invention are both time- and resource-efficient. The system includes several stations, each station including a dipping tank. The system allows for the automated, semi-automated, or manual dipping of medical devices into the dipping tanks in a specified order, as desired, wherein at least one of the stations is a grafting station for photo-grafting the coating polymer onto the surface of the medical device. The system is modular, which allows for modification of the process as required, depending on the needs of the user. The system may comprise stations for incorporating an antimicrobial agent into the coating, and/or for rendering the coating lubricious.
US08967074B2
The present disclosure provides a device for preventing the fouling of a liquid dispensing nozzle. The end of the dispensing nozzle is placed In a hollow interior of a band carrying the same solvents that are dispensed by the nozzle. The solvent on the band evaporates into a gap between the ring and the dispensing nozzle, thus providing a vapor sheath or environment that helps to prevent the fouling of the dispensing nozzle.
US08967072B2
A retractable flagpole assembly includes a retractable flagpole, a top pivot holder rotatably capped on the top rod of the retractable flagpole and provided with a hanging lug for securing an inner top end of a flag, an end block spaced below the lower pivot holder and provided with a hanging lug for securing an inner bottom end of the flag, a link coupled between the top pivot holder and the end block, and a lower pivot holder rotatably sleeved onto the retractable flagpole and axially movable along the link and lockable to the end block.
US08967068B2
The disclosure reduces vertical movement of a floating offshore platform by including a centralized open keel plate coupled to the hull that allows water below and above the keel plate. As the floating platform moves vertically, the keel plate separates the water and causes drag on the platform. The water moving vertically with the plate also increases the dynamic mass. The drag results in less vertical movement of the offshore platform without the need to extend legs of the platform to gain an equivalent reduction in vertical movement. The added dynamic mass increases the natural period of the vertical motion away from the wave excitation period to minimize the wave driven motion. The keel plate generally is above or at the same level of the keel, and therefore would not reduce the clearance between the seabed and the keel of the hull at the quayside.
US08967060B2
A sewing machine includes a frame portion, a lid member, and a control portion. The lid member is attached to the frame portion such that the lid member can open and close. The control portion is configured to control a movement speed of the lid member depending on an aperture of the lid member.
US08967059B2
An emissions recycling system is used on a vehicle towing an agricultural implement to enrich the fertility of the soil. The system includes an exhaust collector for collecting exhaust emissions from the internal combustion engine of the towing vehicle and an exhaust distribution system for injecting at least a portion of the exhaust emissions collected by the exhaust collector into the ground worked by the ground working tools of the agricultural implement. Fertility of the soil is enriched by bioactivity within the soil's micro flora which consumes the greenhouse gas and emissions.
US08967051B2
Aspects of the invention provide a transport system powered by short block Linear Synchronous Motors (LSMs). The use of short blocks allows vehicles to move under precise control even when they are in close proximity to each other. The design allows the vehicles to be propelled and guided while negotiating sharp turns and negotiating merge and diverge switches. A coreless LSM can be used to create propulsive force without attractive force so as to allow a relatively high drag vehicle suspension, such as a vehicle sliding on a smooth surface. Further aspects of the invention provide a switching member that is selectively moveable relative to a guideway in order to change a magnetic force acting on the vehicle transverse to a direction of motion of the vehicle.
US08967042B2
A printing apparatus for manufacturing a spacer includes a printing plate and a printing roller. The printing plate has a plurality of receiving recesses formed thereon. The receiving recess has a generally elliptical shape. The receiving recesses are infiltrated with a plurality of beads. The printing roller transfers the beads onto its outer surface by rolling over the receiving recesses, and transfers the beads from its outer surface onto an external substrate. Thus, the spacers may maintain a distance between the first and second substrates stably, so that press characteristics may be enhanced and smear defects occurring when the display panel is pressed may be prevented.
US08967041B2
The invention relates to a device for aligning containers (1) comprising at least one detection system (7). In order to be able to apply identically orientated and aligned labels even to containers without embossings, the invention proposes that at least one detection system (7) is configured as a cover detection system (7) and is disposed so that a closure element (4) disposed on the container (1) can be detected.
US08967028B2
A sheet cutting device includes a cutter holder, a moving unit, and a guide member. The cutter holder accommodates a cutter. The cutter has opposed blades opposing each other to cut a sheet of recording media fed along a sheet feed path of a feed guide plate unit. The moving unit holds the cutter holder and is movable in a sheet width direction perpendicular to a sheet feed direction in which the sheet is fed along the sheet feed path. The guide member is disposed along the sheet width direction to guide the moving unit in the sheet width direction. The cutter holder partially overlaps with the feed guide plate unit in a thickness direction of the sheet perpendicular to both the sheet width direction and the sheet feed direction.
US08967027B2
A table tool includes a table which carries a power tool. The table includes table base and a table top. The table top includes a central table top portion fixed to the table base. The central table top portion of the table top includes a left perimeter, a right perimeter, and a rear perimeter. A first table top extension is configured to be selectively coupled to the table on the left perimeter, and the right perimeter of the central table top portion with the first table top extension slideable relative to the central table top portion. A second table top extension is configured to be selectively coupled to the left perimeter, the right perimeter, and the rear perimeter of the central table top portion with the second table top extension fixed relative to the central table top portion.
US08967025B2
An optical fiber feeding mechanism of a scrap collector includes a lower roller and an upper roller for advancing an optical fiber scrap cut out by an optical fiber cutter into a scrap receptacle, and further includes a roller holding member. In a state in which the lower roller and the upper roller are not actuated, the roller holding member forms a clearance enough to keep the lower roller and the upper roller from holding an optical fiber therebetween. After the optical fiber cutter cuts the optical fiber, the roller holding member lowers the upper roller toward the lower roller in accordance with the rotation of the upper roller so that the optical fiber may be held by and between the lower roller and the upper roller.
US08967019B2
A control knob has a body and a lock mechanism. The lock mechanism acts as a safety mechanism or safeguard by biasing the knob in a locked position, thereby preventing the knob from engaging a control stem or other structure on, for example, an appliance. This prevents the knob from inadvertent rotation which may power-on an appliance, or cause a change in a current setting of an appliance which, in certain instances, may have dangerous repercussions.
US08967014B2
A manual control device includes an actuation member which is supported on a switching rod for pivoting about at least one actuation member pivot axis which extends perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the switching rod. Furthermore, the switching rod is movably supported relative to a base member of the manual control device about or along a plurality of switching rod movement axes, there being provided restoring means, by means of which the actuation member which has been redirected out of a rest position about the actuation member pivot axis can be restored to the rest position. The restoring means have at least two resilient elements which are active counter to redirection of the actuation member from the rest position about the actuation member pivot axis and which are arranged radially opposite each other relative to the longitudinal axis of the switching rod.
US08967011B2
A gear structure is configured to support vertical motion of an electric pop-up monitor. More specifically, a double rack gear structure is configured to support a pop-up monitor. The rack gear structure includes an outer gear and an inner gear. The outer gear is coupled at a side of the monitor frame to operate integrally with the monitor frame, and enables the vertical motion of the monitor frame with an ascending or descending motion. The inner gear is received inside the outer gear. The inner gear performs an ascending or descending motion simultaneously with the outer gear, and supports forward and rearward or right and left shaking, which occurs in the outer gear, by maximizing a portion overlapping with the outer gear when the outer gear has ascended to the maximum.
US08967004B2
An engine starter includes a gear assembly including a pinion gear. The engine starter further comprises an electric motor including an armature coupled to the gear assembly and configured to drive the gear assembly and the pinion gear. The armature includes a core member defining a central cavity extending in an axial direction within the core member. An armature shaft extends from the central cavity. A clutch arrangement is positioned in the central cavity. The clutch arrangement is configured to releasably couple the core member and the armature shaft.
US08967002B2
A sensor (200) includes a sensor element (10), a tubular metallic shell (138), and a tubular mounting member (180) rotatable relative to the metallic shell. The metallic shell has a body (138a) and a flange (138f) provided forward of the mounting member and projecting radially outward beyond the radially inner surface of the mounting member. Further, the radially outer surface of the body and the rearward-oriented surface of the flange are connected by a slant surface (138t). The mounting member is such that a forward-oriented surface (180a) and a radially inner surface (180b) meet at a corner (180e). When a threaded portion (180s) of the mounting member is threadingly engaged with a mounting hole (300h) of a mount body (300), a forward-oriented surface (138f1) of the flange comes into contact with a mounting surface (300r) of the mount body, and the corner comes into contact with the slant surface.
US08966999B2
One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for generating a linearized pressure sensor pattern for a pressure sensor. Force may be applied to a pressure sensor sample, comprising the pressure sensor without conductors. A patch, comprising an area of contact between a top and bottom surface of the sensor sample, can be measured, which corresponds to the applied force. Patch measurements can be made for respective applied force intervals, resulting in one or more indications of applied force, respectively corresponding to an indication of a patch measurement. The linearized pressure sensor pattern can be generated using the one or more force indications and corresponding patch measurement indications.
US08966995B2
Disclosed aspects relate to a flow meter comprising a flow target arranged to be disposed in a fluid flow path in a conduit; a beam coupled to the flow target and arranged to extend outside of the conduit; a sensor having a moveable sensor part coupled to the beam at a position which in use is outside of the conduit, and a static sensor part, wherein displacement of the moveable sensor part with respect to the static sensor part generates a signal. In use, fluid flow acting on the flow target causes displacement of the moveable sensor part, thereby generating a signal which is representative of the fluid flow rate.
US08966990B2
A micro electro mechanical system device has a first subassembly having sensor element including a coupler, and a second subassembly including a comb drive. The comb drive having stator plates and rotor plates and the coupler configured to displace the rotor plates relative to the stator plates providing a variable capacitance dependent on the displacement of the rotor plate.
US08966988B2
Ultra-miniature surface-mountable optical pressure sensor is constructed on an optical fiber. The sensor design utilizes an angled fiber tip which steers the optical axis of the optic fiber by 90°. The optical cavity is formed on the sidewall of the optic fiber. The optical cavity may be covered with a polymer-metal composite diaphragm to operate as a pressure transducer, Alternatively, a polymer-filled cavity may be constructed which does not need a reflective diaphragm. The sensor exhibits a sufficient linearity over the broad pressure range with a high sensitivity. The sensitivity of the sensor may he tuned by controlling the thickness of the diaphragm. Methods of batch production of uniform device-to-device optical pressure sensors of co-axial and cross-axial configurations are presented.
US08966984B2
An apparatus testing axle shafts including i) at least one ultrasonic probe to analyze, in a selected angular sector, selected portions of a wall exhibiting known variable internal and external radius profiles of a tubular axle shaft and thus acquire analysis data, ii) a controller to determine, as a function of the profiles and possible loading and environment of the shaft, at least one first and at least one second selected site on the external or internal surface of the wall where each probe is to be placed manually, to analyze at least one first and at least one second selected portion of the wall respectively in at least one first and at least one second selected angular sector oriented in first and second opposing longitudinal or transverse directions, and thus acquiring analysis data for various relative angular positions of the shaft in relation to the probe, and iii) a processor to create from these acquired analysis data maps representing the transverse or longitudinal orientations and the positions of indications of echoes within the wall.
US08966979B2
A method of measuring the thickness of any deposit of material (28) on an inner wall (12) of a structure (14). The method comprises: (a) causing vibrations in the structure; (b) detecting said vibrations in the structure; (c) determining a resonance frequency of the structure based on the detected vibrations; and (d) determining the thickness of any deposit of material on the inner wall of the structure based on the determined resonance frequency.
US08966975B2
A crash sensor assembly including a printed circuit board and a crash sensor mounted on the printed circuit board, At least one connector pin is mounted to the printed circuit board so as to permit external electrical communication with the crash sensor. A first insert molded soft inner layer of material partially covers the printed circuit board and covers the crash sensor, and a second overmolded hard outer layer of material covers the first soft inner layer of material and bonded thereto and rigidly contacts the printed circuit board.
US08966971B2
The present disclosure relates to a fluid measuring system for use in a vehicle engine. The engine includes a fluid return channel through which a tube is inserted. The fluid measuring system also includes a dipstick that can be inserted in the tube. One end of the dipstick is in fluid communication with a fluid reservoir and is configured to indicate the fluid level of the engine. The tube can be composed of an elastic material.
US08966963B2
A glow plug includes: a heater power-conduction shaft that supplies power to a heater; a pressure detection element that is provided in an axial-direction end portion of the heater power-conduction shaft and converts pressure that the heater power-conduction shaft receives in the axial direction into an electrical signal; a first insulation member that surrounds an outer periphery of the pressure detection element with respect to the axis, and allows a signal output terminal of the pressure detection element to protrude toward an outer peripheral side of the axis; a power supply wire that is provided on an outer peripheral side of the first insulation member with respect to the axis, and is connected to the heater power-conduction shaft to supply power to the heater; a signal processing circuit that is provided on an outer peripheral side of the power supply wire with respect to the axis, and is connected to the signal output terminal to process an electrical signal of the pressure detection element; and a second insulation member that is provided between the power supply wire and the signal processing circuit, and insulates the signal processing circuit from the power supply wire.
US08966962B2
As a measurement table (10), an object provided with a flat surface (11) having an area on which all wheels of a vehicle can be mounted at the same time and a front wheel mounting table (12) which is disposed in front of the flat surface (11) and is lifted by a step of a predetermined height is used, a wheel position detector (8) which is capable of detecting a front wheel position and a rear wheel position of a vehicle to be measured is provided, a computation processing device (3) is provided with anterior-posterior displacement calculation means, an inter-axle distance calculation means (21), a vehicle inclination calculation means (22), a front wheel axle load calculation means (23A), a rear wheel axle load calculation means (23B), an anterior-posterior gravity center position calculation means (24), a storage means (32), an anterior-posterior gravity center displacement calculation means (25), and a vehicle gravity center height position calculation means (26), and from a gravity center displacement which is calculated from anterior-posterior gravity center position information calculated on the flat surface (11) and anterior-posterior gravity center position information in the state in which front wheels are mounted on the front wheel mounting table (12) and a vehicle inclination which is calculated by the vehicle inclination calculation means (22), the position of the height of the center of gravity of the vehicle to be measured is calculated.
US08966950B2
A method of reinforcing a part formed from a sheet metal panel that has a predetermined area that requires reinforcement by forming a grid pattern of V-shaped channels in the predetermined area. The grid pattern may be formed by wire electrodes in an electro-hydraulic forming tool having a one-sided die. Alternatively, the grid pattern may be formed by a plurality of electrodes that are arranged in an array that is aligned in at least two directions on the opposite side of the part from the one-sided die.
US08966942B2
An electronic transducer comprises a knitted structure extendible in two dimensions defined by its courses and wales. An electro-conductive yarn (4) defines at least one single course in the structure adjacent non-conductive yarns (2), and is to be part of a circuit providing an indication of an electrical characteristic of the yarn. When unextended in either direction, successive loops of the stitches including the electro-conductive yarn are in engagement. Extension of the structure in the course direction separate loops forming the stitches, and extension in the wale direction urges the loops together. The structure can be used in methods of registering extension of the structure in either or both of the course and wale directions.
US08966937B2
A process and to an apparatus for the generation and separation of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide is provided.
US08966934B2
A refrigeration system using CO2 as a refrigerant includes a receiver having a liquid outlet connected to expansion valves, which are connected to evaporators, which are connected to the suction side of the compressor. The receiver includes a second gas outlet connected to a second pressure reduction device, to reduce the energy consumption in CO2 cooling systems and to protect the compressors against liquid CO2 by heating the suction gas. The second pressure reduction device is connected by tubing to a first heat exchanging device, which is integrated in the receiver, so that gas that is evaporated in the top of a receiver can be used for cooling the liquid part of the same receiver.
US08966931B2
A refrigerator is provided. The refrigerator includes: an icemaker case on a door; an icemaker door on the icemaker case, the icemaker door being rotatable; a holding part on the icemaker case; and a lever assembly. The lever assembly is coupled to the icemaker door to be rotatable in order to engage or disengage with the holding part.
US08966927B2
An output unit of a refrigeration device having a niche with a rear wall, which is provided with a cover, and a method of installing the output unit. The cover includes a dish-shaped section, which is curved inward into the niche and bounded by opposite edge sections, which are connected with a niche frame. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the edge sections at front supporting surfaces of the niche frame are held in contact in an installation end position, wherein the dish-shaped section is pulled by fastening means against the rear wall of the niche. By these means, it is ensured that the narrowest or most uniform gap possible between the cover and the place of installation is guaranteed and, in addition, fastening means are not visible to the user.
US08966922B2
A cooling apparatus and method are provided for cooling an electronic subsystem of an electronics rack. The cooling apparatus includes a local cooling station, which has a liquid-to-air heat exchanger and ducting for directing a cooling airflow across the heat exchanger. A cooling subsystem is associated with the electronic subsystem of the rack, and includes either a housing facilitating immersion cooling of electronic components of the electronic subsystem, or one or more liquid-cooled structures providing conductive cooling to the electronic components of the electronic subsystem. A coolant loop couples the cooling subsystem to the liquid-to-air heat exchanger of the local cooling station. In operation, heat is transferred via circulating coolant from the electronic subsystem and rejected in the liquid-to-air heat exchanger of the local cooling station to the cooling airflow passing across the liquid-to-air heat exchanger. In one embodiment, the cooling airflow is outdoor air.
US08966911B2
A turbofan gas turbine engine is provided having a unique power off-take shaft and gear system. Other gas turbine engine types are also contemplated herein. Two power off-takes are provided, one each for the low pressure spool and high pressure spool. The power off-takes extend across a core flow path of the turbofan engine between the low and high pressure shafts to a fan frame of the turbofan. A drive gear is provided near the front end of the high pressure shaft, and another drive gear is provided on the low pressure shaft near the drive gear for the high pressure shaft. Both gears are located in a sump of the gas turbine engine. The power off-take shafts are coupled to the drive gears. Two power devices are coupled to the power off-take shafts and are located in the fan frame. The power devices can be electric generators or motors.
US08966897B2
An internal combustion engine having an air intake section (2) which has an air intake line (3), having an exhaust section (4) which has an exhaust line (5), and having at least one exhaust-gas turbocharger (6) which has a compressor (7) in the air intake line (3) and a turbine (8) arranged in the exhaust line (5), characterized by a controllable bypass arrangement (9) which has an air supply line (10) which, as viewed in the flow direction (R) of the intake air, opens into the air intake line (3) down-stream of the compressor (7).
US08966893B2
Methods of applying sensible coatings with at least one spatially-varying characteristic to shape memory alloy actuators, particularly actuators comprising linear elements such as wires strips or cables, are disclosed. Such coatings enable the positions of the linear shape memory alloy elements to be sensed using magnetic, capacitive and optical sensors and so, in conjunction with a controller, enable operation of such actuators under proportional control.
US08966889B2
A hydraulic actuator includes an energy recuperation device which harvests the energy generated from the stroking of a shock absorber. The energy recuperation device can function in a passive energy recovery mode for the shock absorber or an active mode for the shock absorber. The energy that is generated by the energy recuperation device can be stored as fluid pressure or it can be converted to another form of energy such as electrical energy.
US08966886B2
An exhaust apparatus for an internal combustion engine wherein an on-off gate valve and a driving source therefor are not required for each bypass pipe. The exhaust apparatus includes a plurality of exhaust pipes extending independently from each other individually from a plurality of exhaust ports. Bypass paths communicate the exhaust pipes with each other in a region wherein the exhaust pipes are independent of each other. The bypass paths are opened or closed to control an exhaust characteristic. A plurality of bypass paths are provided and a bypass joining section at which the bypass paths are joined so as to be positioned in parallel to and in the neighborhood with each other is provided. At the bypass joining section, a single on-off valve that opens and closes the bypass paths simultaneously, and a single actuator for driving the on-off valve to open and close are provided.
US08966882B2
A vehicle includes an engine, an exhaust system having a particulate filter which removes soot from the exhaust stream, a sensor, and a controller. The sensor measures instantaneous differential pressure across the filter. The controller executes a method to selectively enable or disable execution of an efficiency diagnostic of the filter as a function of a learned differential pressure offset value. The controller may also compare the differential pressure to a calibrated threshold and execute a control action when the differential pressure falls within an allowable range of the threshold. This may include applying the differential pressure offset value and enabling execution of the diagnostic using measurements from the zeroed sensor. Another control action may be executed when the measured differential pressure is not within the allowable range of the threshold, including disabling the execution of the diagnostic and setting a diagnostic code indicating that the sensor may be faulty.
US08966879B1
An acoustic resonance igniter uses gas expanding through a nozzle to form a sonic, or under-expanded supersonic, jet directed against the opening of a blind resonance cavity in a central body, setting up a high-frequency sonic resonance which heats the gas within the cavity. A pintle extends coaxially with the nozzle and injects liquid propellant into the jet. The liquid propellant ignites with the heated gas within the resonance cavity forming combustion gases. The combustion gases flow through openings in a flange which supports the resonance cavity into a combustion chamber in the same direction as the gas jet flows. The liquid propellant is injected from within the support flange in the direction of combustion gas flow to film cool the combustion chamber wall and the flange and the central body supported by the flange. The acoustic resonance igniter may form a rocket engine ignition torch or a RCS thruster.
US08966878B2
A compressor compresses air to produce compressed air. A mixture of fuel and the compressed air is combusted in a combustor to produce combustion gas. The combustion gas is supplied to a turbine to obtain rotational power. High-temperature gas accumulated in a space partitioned by an exhaust-side bearing portion that rotatably supports a turbine shaft and an exhaust diffuser is discharged through an exhaust gas passage. The high-temperature gas is sucked into the exhaust gas passage by exhaust gas flowing in the exhaust diffuser.
US08966877B2
An annular combustor and a method for operating a gas turbine engine over a power demand range facilitate combustion in a lean direct ignition (LDI) mode over an extended range of operating fuel air ratios. The flow primary combustion air admitted into the primary combustion zone is varied in response to power demand from a maximum air flow rate of high power demand to a minimum flow air rate of low power demand, while the flow of dilution air into a quench zone downstream of the primary combustion zone is increased from a minimum air flow rate at high power demand to a maximum air flow rate at low power demand.
US08966873B2
A yarn-producing apparatus for an air spinning machine, which is used for producing a yarn from a fiber strand with the assistance of an air flow, has a spinning tip with an inlet opening surrounded by the outer surface of the spinning tip, in the area of which a yarn is able to be produced with the assistance of the air flow. The yarn-producing apparatus has an internal inset with a draw-off conduit adjacent to the inlet opening for the yarn and several air outlets branching off on the side from the draw-off conduit, such that an air flow introduced counter to the direction of spinning (S) in the draw-off conduit can escape in part through the air outlets and in part through the inlet opening. In addition, a spinning unit with a corresponding yarn-producing apparatus is provided.
US08966870B2
A vehicle such as a riding lawn mower may have at least one electric drive motor configured to drive at least one wheel, at least one electric blade motor configured to drive at least one cutting blade, and a battery module connected to the drive and blade motors. According to some embodiments, a method of controlling the vehicle may include: operating the blade motor according to a blade target speed; monitoring a blade current load for the blade motor; comparing the blade current load to a light load low threshold for the blade motor; and if the blade current load is less than the light load low threshold, decreasing the blade target speed.
US08966857B2
A saddle hanger for connecting at least one bracing member to a truss chord includes a base having a first end portion for receiving a bracing member and an adjacent portion for receiving a truss chord. A projecting element extends from a transverse edge of the base portion, and has a width narrower than the transverse dimension of the hanger base. A plurality of flanges extends upward from side edges of the base and defines with the base a channel for receiving one of the truss chord and bracing member. The saddle hanger can be formed from a stamped metal blank, with portions of the saddle hanger being nested in side-by-side relation to minimize the amount of material used.
US08966856B2
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for reinforcing adjacent parallel spaced apart wooden structural members wherein each of the structural members has opposed first and second edges. The apparatus comprises a rigid member being sized to extend between the first edge of a first structural member and the second edge of an adjacent second structural member. The apparatus further comprising first and second sockets connected to first and second ends of the rigid member each sized to receive and edge of one of the structural members therein. The method comprises engaging the first socket around the first edge of the first structural member and locating a second structural member with the second edge of the second structural member within a second socket. The method may also comprise rotating the rigid member between the first and second structural members until the first and second sockets are engaged around diagonally opposed edges the structural members.
US08966853B2
A fastening system for floor panels, which has profiles on small faces of the panels. Opposite retaining profiles match so that similar panels can be interlinked. The panels have opposite first retaining profiles configured so on a panel in first line, a new panel can be locked in second line by attaching the new panel to the installed panel at an angle relative to the installed panel and then swiveling it down into the plane of the installed panel. The panel has opposite second retaining elements that have corresponding hook elements. A hook connection can be established by a hook element of the new panel and hook element of a panel already installed in second line by swiveling the new panel. Every hook connection is associated with an additional locking element that prevents the release of the hook connection in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the installed panels.
US08966846B1
A reinforced mine ventilation seal anchored with steel dowels into the strata of a mine passageway. The seal has a pair of metal mats formed of vertical and horizontal elongated reinforcing members that are sandwiched between a row of dowels set into the floor and ceiling of the passageway and extending into the passageway. The metal mats and the dowels are encased in a structural material such as concrete to form a seal which is capable of bidirectionally withstanding an overpressure due to an explosion. The dowels provide shear reinforcement and the metal mats provide flexural strength.
US08966843B2
The wall serves for separating the inside of a building from the outside. According to a first aspect, the wall has a water vapor diffusion resistance of at most 20 meters, wherein the heat transfer coefficient amounts to at most 1.5 W/(m2·K), and the moisture storage capacity amounts to at least 2 kg/m2. According to a second aspect, the wall has a bearing layer (10) as well as an outer layer (9) and an inner layer (11), which include moisture-buffering materials.
US08966838B2
The present invention relates particularly to photovoltaic systems for use in photovoltaically generating electrical energy. One aspect of the invention is a photovoltaic roofing system disposed on a roof deck. The photovoltaic roofing system includes one or more photovoltaic elements contiguously disposed on the roof deck, the contiguously-disposed photovoltaic elements defining a photovoltaic area; a plurality of roofing elements disposed adjacent the contiguously-disposed photovoltaic elements, along their side edges; side flashing disposed along the side edges of the contiguously-disposed photovoltaic elements, the side flashing having a cross-sectional shape comprising a vertically-extending feature and a flange extending from each lateral side at the bottom of the vertically-extending feature, with the flange facing the photovoltaic area being at least partially disposed between a photovoltaic element and the roof deck, and the flange facing away from the photovoltaic area being at least partially disposed between a roofing element and the roof deck.
US08966832B1
A protective shelter includes an enclosure having at least a floor, at least one sidewall coupled to the floor, a protected opening in the at least one sidewall, and a roof coupled to the at least one sidewall. The protective shelter includes a plurality of attachment fixtures each coupled to at least one of a set including the sidewall and the roof and a plurality of recesses at the at least one sidewall. Each of the plurality of recesses is sized to receive therein an anchoring assembly coupled to one of the plurality of attachment fixtures and couplable to a respective anchoring device on an underlying substrate.
US08966828B1
A shed with a wall assembly movable along a path defined by a pair of floor rail assemblies cooperatively aligned with a deployable outer rail assembly to provide access to the items stored in the shed. A pair of wheel assemblies is interiorly mounted to the side walls of the wall assembly to support the latter. A handle is provided to pull shed housing. Legs mounted to the underside of a floor assembly keep the latter at a spaced apart relationship with respect to a supporting surface.
US08966826B2
The door handle device of a vehicle is provided with: a handle base disposed along the rear surface of a door panel; and an operation handle that is coupled to the handle base. The handle base has hook-shaped pressing portions that ride on a protruding portion provided to the oppossed side edges along the sliding direction of a mounting opening provided to the door panel accompanying a sliding operation along the door panel; a panel-abutting portion that sandwiches the door panel in cooperation with the hook-shaped pressing portions; and an elastic locking piece that restricts the rearwards motion of the handle base by resilient locking to the center of a rear end edge of the mounting opening, and restricts removal of the hook-shaped pressing portions from the protruding portion.
US08966819B1
A vertical planter having an exterior fastener allowing the planter to be hung on a wall. The planter may be free standing or may be stacked one atop another. The planter comprises front and back mateable portions, base receptacle and top plate. The front portion has a plurality of tangently projecting plant receptacles and a pair of spaced apart sides terminating in a rail-like edge. The back portion extends into a pair of sides terminating in channels for seating respective front portion side edges. The base receptacle forms a seat for the front and back portions. The base receptacle back wall is folded forming a catch that matingly engages a back portion transverse crossbar. The top plate has a plurality of apertures, enabling water to pass into the vertical planter cavity with the plate positioned on a ledge of the front and back portions forming a support when stacking planters.
US08966815B1
The present invention is a method for growing and distributing living food crops to an intended recipient prior to harvesting that includes the utilization of a production unit to grow the food crops and a transportation cart to efficiently deliver the production units. This method prevents critical losses of nutritional content resulting from extended periods of non-consumption subsequent to harvesting. Additionally, the foods created and distributed by this method have increased aesthetic appeal to the consumer and enhanced natural taste. The novel method includes planting and growing the desired food crops in production units, transporting the production units, using a novel transportation cart, to an intended recipient once the crop reaches a predetermined ripeness, and mounting the production units at a recipient desired location. The food crops remain in the production units until ready for use, purchase, or consumption, at which point the food crops are harvested.
US08966812B2
A climb-up pitfall trap for attracting and capturing bed bugs and the like comprises a rough exterior surface, a precipice, a smooth interior surface and sensory lures. The sensory lures include heat, carbon dioxide and/or a lure composition. The lure composition comprises a combination of (a) L-lactic acid, and (b) a fatty acid from the group consisting of (1) propionic acid, (2) butyric acid, and (3) valeric acid. The lure composition may also comprise (c) octenol. A method for attracting and capturing bed bugs and the like uses the climb-up pitfall trap in a bed bug infested environment.
US08966810B2
Fish lure includes a flexible body having a forward body having maximum width and weight tapering to an aft body having reduced width and height; and a swimming tail portion flexibly connected to the aft body, wherein the swimming tail is flared, wherein the tail increases in width and height toward a tail tip as compared with the aft body portion, and a central channel groove generally parallel to a long axis of the lure, the long axis being normal to both width and height of the lure, the channel groove extending to the tail tip and maintaining a smaller width dimension as compared to adjacent flared portions of the tail, wherein water flow across the tail is guided through the channel groove and across the flared portions of the tail to provide vertically-balanced water flow across the tail and to produce a uniform horizontal swimming movement of the tail.
US08966802B1
A trigger assembly has a sear with a stop surface engageable with a reciprocating component for holding the reciprocating component in a cocked configuration. The sear also has a sear cam engageable with a lever movably mounted within the assembly. A trigger is movable into and out of engagement with the lever. Pulling the trigger moves it out of engagement with the lever and releases the sear. A trigger return pendulum has a trigger cam engageable with the trigger, a lever cam engageable with the lever, and a head cam follower engageable with the reciprocating component. Motion of the reciprocating component acting through the head cam follower of the trigger return pendulum forces the lever cam into engagement with the lever and the trigger cam into engagement with the trigger to return the lever and the trigger to a configuration of engagement between the trigger and the lever.
US08966801B1
A modular shotgun magazine including an upper portion and a lower portion that are interchangeable with other upper and lower portions. The upper portion includes a first interior, and upper opening, a lower opening, and a lower flange. The lower portion includes a second interior with an upper opening and an upper flange. The upper flange of the lower portion is connected to the lower flange of the upper portion so that the first and second interiors form a cavity. A fastening mechanism selectively connects the upper portion to the lower portion. The upper portion of the modular magazine may be connected to various lower portions having different shell capacities. The lower portion of the modular magazine may be connected to different upper portions that are configured to mate with a receiver of different shotguns.
US08966797B2
A firearm safety system and method is described herein. The system may include a tracking system, a smart firearm and/or a smart magazine, and a smart tracking unit. The tracking system is in communication with satellites that monitor specific locations, a smart firearm and a portable electronic device. The tracking system includes an internal geographical database of specific monitored locations. The smart firearm includes a microprocessor and a receiver. The motor operates in response to a signal received, which may indicate that the firearm is approaching a no gun safety zone, whereby the signal causes the microprocessor to operate the automatic safety lock to prevent the apparatus from operating. The receiver monitors signals and receives location data from the satellites. The method of operating a smart firearm includes receiving a signal at the at least one receiver and responding to the signal by locking the automatic safety lock.
US08966794B2
A tray unit having a tray that is open at the top and a card holder mounted to the outer peripheral face of the tray. The tray has a bottom face, an outer peripheral wall that rises upward from the outer peripheral part of the bottom face, and a flange extending from the upper face side of the outer peripheral wall in the outer peripheral direction. The card holder has a card insertion portion along the outer peripheral wall of the tray and to the outside of the outer peripheral wall, and to which a card is removably inserted, and a guide portion that is provided at the upper part of the card insertion portion and has formed thereon a sloped face that increases in height from the outer peripheral wall of the tray in the outer peripheral direction of the tray.
US08966788B2
A set of podiatric articles each of which is placeable into a respective one of a pair of shoes. Each article includes: an arch area with a cross-sectional profile; and a heel area having a depth D and a concave shape that provides a round recess that is adapted to accept a heel. The arch areas of the respective articles of the set share a same cross-sectional profile. The heel areas of the respective articles of the set have different depths D so that the heel is differently suspended from a bottom of the heel area. The arch area and the heel area are adapted, configured and cooperate to suspend the heel within the heel area so that the heel is not in contact with the article and a calcaneal spur of the heel is spacedly disposed from a bottom of the recess of the heel area.
US08966778B2
A removable reusable attachment tool having at least one magnetic component; an adhesive coating at least one surface of said at least one magnetic component, and a reusable writing component having a first surface securely affixed to said at least one surface of said at least one magnetic component by using said adhesive coating and a writing surface.
US08966773B2
A power tool includes a tool operable to work on a workpiece, a drive mechanism coupled to the tool and operable to move the tool, and a housing defining an interior. The drive mechanism is disposed within the interior. A handle has a first end and a second end. The first end is fixed to the housing and the second end is spaced apart from the housing to define a gap therebetween. An insert is fixedly attached to the housing and the second end to fill the gap. The insert is more flexible then the handle and the housing.
US08966770B2
A cutting apparatus includes a handle frame, a cutting blade, and a blade rotation arrangement. The cutting blade has a first blade portion and a second blade portion. The blade rotation arrangement includes a pivot, a securing frame and an actuation member. The cutting blade is arranged to rotate between a first position and a second position, wherein in the first position, the first blade portion is extended out of the receiving cavity while the second blade portion is received in the receiving cavity, wherein in the second position, the second blade portion is extended out of the receiving cavity while the first blade portion is received in the receiving cavity. The securing frame is mounted in the receiving cavity for reinforcing the cutting blade when the cutting blade move between and at the first position and the second position.
US08966765B2
The present invention is directed to a medical boom with articulated arms and a base cabinet designed to accommodate modular equipment and utility racks that include video processing, computer, and electronic, and other utility equipment that can be easy inserted and removed from the base cabinet, as well as a method of manufacturing and using the same. The boom includes a stationary base that is configured to be installed into an operating room and one or more boom arms supported by the stationary base and configured to extend over an operating table in the operating room. The structural base includes one or more bays configured to receive a modular rack of electrical equipment. In various embodiments, the structural base cabinet further incorporates wiring to connect the equipment installed in the modular racks to video monitors and other equipment mounted on the articulated booms. The modular racks are preconfigured with a variety of electronic equipment such as computers, video processors and the like. The modular racks are installed in the base cabinet subsequent to the cabinet's structural installation in the operating room and may be readily removed or replaced at a later time.
US08966754B2
Methods for reducing stress on composite structures involving providing a primary composite structure having a circumference, providing at least one mounting flange operably connected to the primary composite structure about the circumference to form a joint, and providing a secondary structure operably connected to the primary composite structure at the mounting flange such that when stresses on the primary composite structure exceed a maximum capacity level delamination or separation of the mounting flange from the primary structure occurs at the joint, and the secondary structure remains operably connected to the mounting flange.
US08966753B2
A method for mounting a wind turbine blade to a wind turbine hub by use of a crane boom is provided. An orientation of the blade is kept substantially horizontal when the blade is lifted off the ground and mounted to the rotor hub. Control wires, which connect the blade via the crane boom to a winch arrangement, are used for keeping the blade orientation substantially horizontal in addition to at least one bearing wire for bearing the blade weight.
US08966751B2
An MMC cylinder liner comprises an inner tubular portion and an outer tubular portion. The inner tubular portion includes a metal matrix composite formed of a compact impregnated with an Al—Si alloy wherein the compact is made of a reinforcing material. The outer tubular portion is formed of the Al—Si alloy. The Si concentration of the Al—Si alloy impregnated into the compact of the inner tubular portion is different from the Si concentration of the Al—Si alloy of the outer tubular portion.
US08966743B2
A device for changing the electrode of an electrode-holder tool of a welding device, with a first part configured to house an electrode-holder tool and including means to prevent the electrode-holder tool from moving, and a second part installed around the first part and covering the part of the electrode protruding outside the first part, where the second part can be separated from the first part by sliding along the electrode, and is able to rotate relative to the fixed part when it surrounds it, and where the second part is configured to tighten or untighten the mandrel and to attach the electrode and the second part, enabling it to be removed from the mandrel when the first part and the second part are separated.
US08966742B2
A method of producing a stator winding for a stator of an electrical machine includes positioning a phase winding segment of the stator winding in a same plane in a serpentine manner in a first direction (X) and in a shape of a wave in a second direction (Y) transverse to the first direction. The method includes bending regions (A, B, C) of the phase winding segment toward one another along a folding line to form a lap winding including positioning regions (C) parallel to each other connected by regions (B) where the regions (B) cross the at least one folding line (108). The phase winding is formed with a continuous wire.
US08966738B2
A screw assembly for operatively connecting a first component to a second component is provided such that the first and the second components are separated by a clearance when operatively connected by the assembly. The assembly includes a screw member defining a screw opening and a linking member defining a link opening. A fastener is configured to transfer a driving torque to the linking member when the fastener is rotatably driven into the link opening. A threaded portion of the fastener is configured to engage with the link opening. The linking member is configured to transfer the driving torque to the screw member, thereby moving the screw member until a second screw end of the screw member contacts a mounting face of the second component. The fastener may be configured to pass through the linking member and enter a second cavity in the second component.
US08966734B2
Methods of joining a magnesium substrate to a second substrate are provided. A region of the magnesium substrate and a region of the second substrate are aligned to provide an overlap. A region of the overlap is deformed to provide a joint. A polymeric material is disposed in the joint to secure together the magnesium substrate and the second substrate. The joining of the magnesium substrate and the second substrate is facilitated by using a die in various aspects.
US08966728B2
A station for cutting a barb suture is provided. The barb cutting station includes a suture transport assembly for supporting a first suture, a first knife assembly for forming barbs on the first suture, and a first clamp and position assembly for approximating the at least first suture towards the at least first knife assembly. The barb cutting station may further include at least a first suture cutting mechanism configured for severing the at least first suture when a defect is detected. The station may also include at least a first visual inspection assembly configured for detecting defective barbs.
US08966717B2
A safety cord connector for a window blind includes a first half shell and a second half shell combined with the first half shell in such a way that a positioning protrusion extending from an inner surface of the second half shell is inserted into a positioning notch formed on an inner surface of the first half shell so as hold the first and second half shells together. When an external force exceeding the engaging force between the positioning protrusion and the positioning notch exerts between the first and second half shells, the positioning protrusion will separate away from the positioning notch to enable the combined first and second half shells to be split from each other so as to enhance safety in use.
US08966712B1
A door operator includes an installation box, an operating mechanism, a pneumatic apparatus and a moveable sleeve. The installation box has a housing and a lid. The housing has an assembling space and an opening communicating with the assembling space; the lid is mounted in the opening and covers the assembling space. The operating mechanism is rotatably mounted in the installation box and has a gear. The pneumatic apparatus is installed in the assembling space and has a cylinder and a piston rod. The moveable sleeve is movably mounted on the cylinder and connected with the piston rod and engaged with the gear of the operating mechanism. Because a rotation axis of the gear and a central axis of the moveable sleeve are perpendicular to each other, the volume of the installation box can be reduced.
US08966711B2
A cleaner head for a surface treating appliance includes a main body, a front conduit, and a rear conduit. The front conduit includes a front section connected to the main body for rotation relative thereto about a first axis extending rearwardly from the main body and centrally through the front section, a rear elbow section and at least one first connector. The rear conduit includes a front elbow section into which the rear elbow section of the front conduit is inserted, a rear section and at least one second connector connected to said at least one first connector to enable the rear conduit to pivot relative to the front conduit about a second axis which is orthogonal to the first axis and which lies outside a fluid flow path passing through the front conduit and the rear conduit.
US08966703B1
An improved shock absorbing tool utilizing a push and pull action to absorb the reciprocation movement of the tool. A forward blade member has a wedge head and a shaft connected to a proximal end of the head. An insert is press-fitted within a handgrip, wherein the insert receives the shaft of the forward blade member. A rear blade member has a sleeve with a wedge blade and connected to a proximal end of the sleeve and extends downwardly away from the sleeve. The sleeve surrounds a portion of the shaft of the forward blade member. The coil spring surrounds a portion of the shaft of the forward blade member and located between the proximal end of the head and rests within the sleeve for absorbing the impact force of the reciprocation movement the forward blade member and the rear blade member. The O-ring is placed between the proximal end of the head and the upper end of the coil spring to further absorbs the impact force of the forward and rear blade members.
US08966702B1
A sponge cleaning apparatus for cleaning sharp-edged objects, such as the blades of knives and other cutlery apparatus. The present invention is a sponge cleaning device of an essentially unitary structure having an overall parabolic U shape, and having a protective, armored layer, wherein the protective armored layer has a varying thickness which provides varying rigidity for facilitating a gripping hold on the cutlery while being cleaned. The present sponge apparatus can readily receive the sharp edge of an item of cutlery in a substantially enclosing manner due to the more flexible distal ends, while simultaneously providing safety from any sharp edges of cutlery due to increased rigidity, so as to effectively provide cleaning of said sharp edged surfaces while being frictionally slid in a generally translational motion. The present invention further provides enhanced ergonomic features providing finger guides as well as an array of gripping members for facilitating safety and frictional engagement of the sponge apparatus when in use.
US08966694B2
There is provided an electric toothbrush with which teeth can be brushed in a relaxed pose while imperfect brushing is suppressed.In an electric toothbrush including: a body portion that is gripped by a hand during toothbrushing; and a brush component serving as an intraoral insertion portion inserted in a mouth cavity during the toothbrushing, the brush component including a brush at a leading end thereof, the brush component is inclined onto a rear surface side of the brush from the leading end toward the body portion, and a leading end portion of the brush component is located in a vicinity of an extended line (alternate long and short dash line) of a virtual line that connects centroids of sectional shapes perpendicular to a longitudinal direction in the body portion.
US08966693B2
A floor cleaning machine is provided that includes a chassis that supports at least one cleaning element and a fluid collection assembly for pooling and retaining cleaning fluids proximate to the at least one cleaning element. A floor cleaning machine is provided that includes a cleaning fluid dispersion apparatus and a cleaning fluid collection assembly for efficiently dispensing fluid on a surface for cleaning the surface, and collecting the dispensed fluid to maximize the cleaning capacity of the fluid and extend the time of a cleaning cycle.
US08966678B2
A lift apparatus used for lifting and moving a person or object. The apparatus has a frame, wheels, a lift mechanism, a lift rod, an overhead support arm movable to a laterally extended position on a selected side of the apparatus, a rotatable head, a collar that is vertically movable along the head, an outrigger support with a bar pivotably affixed to the base frame and rotatable to the selected side of the apparatus, and an locking mechanism for retaining the bar on the side of the apparatus. A hanger on the overhead arm supports a load. A control system controls the lift mechanism. When the bar extends onto the selected side of the apparatus and the collar is in a predetermined vertical position along the head, the control system activates the lift mechanism and the overhead support arm is rotatable only to the selected side of the lift apparatus.
US08966676B2
According to an aspect of the invention, a toilet apparatus includes a toilet, a bowl configured to receive solid waste being formed in the toilet, the bowl being hydrophilic; a spray unit configured to spray at least one selected from water and hypochlorous acid water onto a surface of the bowl; a detection unit configured to detect a state of use of the toilet; and a control unit configured to spray at least one selected from the water and the hypochlorous acid water from the spray unit before the use and to spray the hypochlorous acid water from the spray unit after the use. The cleanliness of the bowl surface of a toilet can be maintained by suppressing the affixation of solid waste and the propagation of bacteria caused by oil.
US08966672B2
A low profile protective helmet having an outer shell and an interior surface that is immediately adjacent the top of the wearer's head while the helmet is being worn. The interior surface includes a plurality of fasteners that are connectable to a prior art suspension liner. Each of the fasteners is disposed between first and second rib members. Each rib member is a raised ridge in the interior surface that restricts the side-to-side movement of the suspension liner's integral head straps by the retaining action of the rib members as the integral head straps are attached to each fastener.
US08966668B2
Lightweight and flexible personal protective padding systems for the protection of joints, bones and muscles, where one embodiment includes a hard outer shell structure as shielding, a gas filled compartment or bladder to stabilize the system and absorb and disperse impact energy and/or a web structure suspended across opposed peripheral edges of the outer shell and between the shell and user's body to absorb energy and to provide ventilation. Hybrid structures include both the bladder and web structure.
US08966665B2
A bib and corresponding mounting clip are disclosed. A bib body may include one or more of an upper reinforcement member, a plurality of body reinforcement members, and a plurality of pocket reinforcement members. The upper reinforcement facilitates having the bib body be suspended from the mounting clip at a single location or region. The plurality of body reinforcement members allows the bib body to be shaped to “funnel” food particles and the like, for instance into a pocket incorporated by the bib body. The plurality of pocket reinforcement members may be used to retain such a pocket in an open configuration.
US08966663B2
A protective sports glove including a vent opening and an arched panel extending upward and over the vent opening. The glove can include a breathable material that extends across the vent opening to provide improved air flow to and from the interior of the glove. The arched panel can arch above the vent opening, and optional breathable material, so as to form a void under the panel, thereby providing impact protection to the wearer's hand while still enabling air to circulate through the vent opening to the wearer's hand. The arched panel can be configured to flex or bend when the hand is brought back toward the wearer's wrist or forearm, yet provide resistance to that backward movement to eliminate and/or reduce the overextension of the hand and wrist.
US08966662B2
An apparatus comprises a gauze layer comprising a gauze material, a first area, a gauze first side and a gauze second side. The gauze first side is configured to at least contact and cover a user's eyelid area where the gauze material mitigates irritation of the user's skin. A paper layer comprises a paper material, a paper first side and a paper second side. The paper first side comprises an adhesive area being configured to extend beyond the first area for removably joining to the user's skin. A tape layer comprises an opaque flexible material, a third area, a tape first side and a tape second side. The tape first side comprises an adhesive. The third area is at least as large as the first area. The gauze layer, the paper layer and the tape layer are combined to form a sleep mask.
US08973161B2
A control-based approach is provided for achieving accurate indentation quantification in broadband and in-liquid nanomechanical property measurements using atomic force microscope (AFM). Accurate indentation measurement is desirable for probe-based material property characterization because the force applied and the indentation generated are the fundamental physical variables that are measured in the characterization process. Large measurement errors, however, occur when the measurement frequency range becomes large (i.e., broadband), or the indentation is measured in liquid on soft materials. Such large measurement errors are generated due to the inability of the conventional method to account for the convolution of the instrument dynamics with the viscoelastic response of the soft sample when the measurement frequency becomes large, and the random-like thermal drift and the distributive hydrodynamic force effects when measuring the indentation in liquid.
US08973158B2
An isolation execution environment provides an application with limited resources to execute an application. The application may require access to secured resources associated with a particular trust level that are outside of the isolation execution environment. A trust activation engine determines the trust level associated with a request for a resource and operates differently based on the trust level. A broker process may be used to execute components providing access to resources having a partial trust level in an execution environment that is separate from the isolation execution environment.
US08973154B2
Some embodiments provide a method for authenticating a user to access computing resources that uses transient event data regarding previous interactions of the user with the computing resources. The method receives a notification that a user is unable to provide a correct user identifier and password. The method generates authentication questions for the remote user using the transient event data. The authentication questions are presented to the user. The method authenticates the user based on answers to the password recovery questions. The user may be a remote user and the computing resources are a set of application servers to which the user has forgotten a password. The computing resources may be a portable device that the user wishes to access remotely in order to delete data from the portable device.
US08973152B2
A vehicle black box technique guarantees the integrity of vehicle data stored in a black box in real time by forming input data streams as block data and performing a signature using a signing key and nested hashing. Each vehicle black box includes a reliable unique signing key supporting a non-repudiation function. An error correction function is provided by a unique algorithm for generating integrity verification data even when an error occurs from the vehicle data.
US08973142B2
According to one embodiment, a method for setting a trap to detect that an intruder has compromised a client end station (CES) in an attempt to gain unauthorized access to enterprise data provided by a server is described. The method includes causing a honey token to be placed on the CES secluded within a configuration repository, wherein the honey token is metadata and/or instructions indicating how applications can seemingly access the enterprise data but that is actually invalid, and the honey token is placed on the CES and not on the server. The method also includes causing attribute values to be installed on a security gateway for a security rule causing the security gateway to monitor network traffic for attempted use of the honey token, and to generate an alert when a set of one or more packets that include the honey token are received.
US08973133B1
A computer-implemented method for detecting abnormal behavior of networked devices may include identifying a purpose-built device expected to have a predictable pattern of behavior on a network, determining a baseline pattern of behavior of the purpose-built device, monitoring the network to detect a behavior of the purpose-built device and comparing the behavior to the baseline pattern of behavior of the purpose-built device in order to determine that the behavior may be an abnormal behavior. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US08973129B2
In a vehicle communication network, some vehicles may be used by attackers to send false information to other vehicles which may jeopardize the safety of other vehicles. Vehicles should be able to detect malicious communications activities and to mitigate the impact of malicious vehicles by evicting (eliminating) suspected malicious vehicles from the system. Evicting a vehicle is to ignore the messages sent from the vehicle for a specified time period. Voting and sacrifice principles are combined using a mathematical model based on the “Mafia Game”. The Mafia Game model focuses on the relative size of the group of attackers within a neighborhood necessary to dominate the entire network in the neighborhood (i.e., to eventually evict all the innocent vehicles).
US08973121B2
A system and a method for visiting a third party application through a cloud platform are disclosed. The method includes: receiving a cloud platform account and cloud platform password information inputted by a user; searching a stored binding information mapping table according to a third party application selected by the user to obtain the third party application and obtain access information not comprising cleartext password corresponding to the cloud platform account information, and transmitting the access information to the third party application server; and receiving authentication succeed information returned by the third party application server. According to the present disclosure, complexity of user's operations may be reduced when the user logs on frequently and security level of the user for visiting the third party application may be improved.
US08973111B2
A method for secure electronic transaction over a computer network, comprising: at a trusted relationship profile server computer: storing a unique identity of a trusted computing unit; generating a confirmation message regarding the unique identity of the trusted computing unit in response to a request from the trusted computing unit; at a security proxy server computer: storing real credentials and local credentials of a customer in a secure vault; receiving the confirmation message and permitting a login process to be performed with the security proxy server using the local credentials, provided the confirmation message is valid; and replacing the local credentials submitted in the login process with the real credentials. A corresponding system for secure electronic transactions is also provided.
US08973093B2
A method of executing a virtualized application able to run in a virtualized environment. The virtualized application includes application software and the virtualized environment. The application software includes a license monitor to search for a software license while monitoring an execution policy set by a software provider when software is installed or executed. The virtualized environment includes an environment monitor to monitor an execution environment provided to the application software by the virtualized environment. Therefore, it is possible to prevent software able to run in a virtualized environment from being freely copied without any limitations by the execution policy provided by the software provider.
US08973078B2
A system and method for establishing communication between an information processing apparatus and a communication device which are capable of communicating with each other in a plurality of communication modes. The method includes receiving at least one request from the communication device at the information processing apparatus, and transmitting at least one response to the at least one request, the at least one response being transmitted from the information processing apparatus to the communication device when the information processing apparatus is in a first communication mode, and not transmitting at least one response when the information processing apparatus is in a second communication mode.
US08973074B2
Method and system for isochronous communication between audio/video (AV) devices. One implementation comprises establishing isochronous connection between a source AV device and a destination AV device. Each AV device includes multiple I/O ports for connecting the AV device to another AV device via a communication link comprising multiple communication lanes. The isochronous connection is established by determining end-to-end temporal and spatial lane availability between the source AV device and the destination AV device to support a target date rate. Communication resources are allocated on the available lanes based on the target date rate for isochronous communication between the source AV device and the destination AV device.
US08973070B2
A wireless communication system is enhanced to allow for low-latency channel surfing and to enable a user to quickly see the content carried over a selected channel while searching channels for desired content. The techniques for reducing the channel change latency may be implemented in a transmitter, receiver, or in a combination of transmitter and receiver. The wireless communication system is optionally a DVB-H communication system. The transmitter may generate and transmit one or more auxiliary channels, where each auxiliary channel contains reduced resolution content corresponding to one or more channels. The receiver may process the one or more auxiliary channels to present the reduced resolution content while processing the full resolution channel for display. The receiver caches portions of content from one or more non-selected channels and presents the cached content when the channel is selected while concurrently searching and processing the full resolution channel content.
US08973069B2
A system and method may be provided that allows users to store, retrieve, and manipulate on-demand media content and data stored on a remote server network in an on-demand media delivery system. More particularly, the system may allow a user to access his or her on-demand media account from user equipment in different locations as long as the current user equipment can communicate with a remote server that stores user-specific information. The system upon user selection may freeze the delivery of on-demand media at a particular point and allow the user to resume the media at a later time from some other network location in system. Users may upload personal images or files to an on-demand delivery server for later retrieval and display. Users may be permitted to assign access rights to the uploaded files.
US08973059B2
The present invention concerns an apparatus for protecting a satellite reception system from strong terrestrial signals. A high Q tunable trap is used to help reject strong ATSC signals or other signals that may be present on the input coaxial cable of a satellite receiver that operates in a single-wire multi-switch (SWM) environment.
US08973054B2
An apparatus, method and data structure for generating at least one table in a broadcast environment, are provided. The apparatus includes a generator to generate an event information table (EIT) and an extended text table (ETT). The ETT has program guide information for an n-hour span and has a transmission interval. The ETT has a transmission interval and program description information according to the EIT. The transmission interval of the EIT is shorter than the transmission interval of the ETT.
US08973046B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an Internet Protocol Television system having a controller to create a template defining a format of presentation of an webpage or HTML page using an iTV or IPTV application system, receive a request for the page from a subscriber of the iTV or IPTV system. The system can access application system subscriber data for the subscriber and a presentation of the page is dynamically adapted according to the application system subscriber data. In one alternative at, the page can be dynamically adapted by changing in content or by changing a look and feel of an HTML page or webpage. In another alternative, the webpage or HTML page can be dynamically adapted by modifying graphic user interface elements based on the application system subscriber data. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08973031B2
A method and apparatus are provided for receiving a broadcast comprising a plurality of program channels and generating a playback stream using at least one of a buffered program channel and stored indexed content (e.g., commercials, programs, songs) for insertion. Control data controls which receivers insert which indexed content and when the indexed content is inserted into a received program channel, allowing for playback of songs from playlists, tiered subscription services, and sponsorship of broadcast program channels to provide market-directed content to selected receivers and listeners. Buffer management operations prevent uncontrolled buffer growth and commercial content avoidance through rapid channel changes.
US08973027B2
An interactive information distribution system for providing secure distribution of video-on-demand content. The interactive information distribution system includes at least one programming source for storing at least one partially encrypted video program, and a distribution center including a remote server. The remote server stores the at least one partially encrypted video program received from the at least one programming source. The remote server also processes the partially encrypted video program corresponding to a subscriber requested video program to produce a fully encrypted video program. A subscriber-side distribution network, coupled to the distribution center, causes transmission of the fully encrypted video program to the requesting subscriber.
US08973013B2
An approach for composing an analytic solution is provided. After associating descriptive schemas with web services and web-based applets, a set of input data sources is enumerated for selection. A desired output type is received. Based on the descriptive schemas that specify required inputs and outputs of the web services and web-based applets, combinations of web services and web-based applets are generated. The generated combinations achieve a result of the desired output type from one of the enumerated input data sources. Each combination is derived from available web services and web-based applets. The combinations include one or more workflows that provide an analytic solution. A workflow whose result satisfies the business objective may be saved. Steps in a workflow may be iteratively refined to generate a workflow whose result satisfies the business objective.
US08973010B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to techniques for providing an environment for the efficient execution of recognition tasks. A novel environment is provided which automatically and efficiently executes a recognition program on as many computer processors as available. This program, deconstructed into separate tasks, may be executed by constructing a dependency network from known inputs and outputs of the tasks, applying project planning methods for scheduling these tasks into multiple processing threads, and dynamically assigning tasks within these threads to processors. Therefore, an efficient schedule of tasks to complete a recognition program can be created and executed automatically, for any type of recognition problem. The system will not only allow for the ability to leverage multiple processors for efficiently generating variable and customizable automatically created schedules, but will also still maintain the flexibility to use serial programming in recognition algorithms for individual objects, properties, or features.
US08973004B2
A system and method for transactional memory using read-write locks is disclosed. Each of a plurality of shared memory areas is associated with a respective read-write lock, which includes a read-lock portion indicating whether any thread has a read-lock for read-only access to the memory area and a write-lock portion indicating whether any thread has a write-lock for write access to the memory area. A thread executing a group of memory access operations as an atomic transaction acquires the proper read or write permissions before performing a memory operation. To perform a read access, the thread attempts to obtain the corresponding read-lock and succeeds if no other thread holds a write-lock for the memory area. To perform a write-access, the thread attempts to obtain the corresponding write-lock and succeeds if no other thread holds a write-lock or read-lock for the memory area.
US08972997B2
A system for organizing messages related to tasks in a distributed application is disclosed. The system includes a work-list creator to create a work list of the top-level work items to be accomplished in performing a task. Work-item processors are distributed in the system. The work-item processors process the top-level work item included in a task and also append additional work items to the work list. A work-list scheduler invokes the work-item processors so local work-item processors are invoked prior to remote work-item processors.
US08972992B2
A system that displays performance data for a computing environment. During operation, the system determines performance states for a plurality of entities that comprise the computing environment based on values of a performance metric for the entities. Next, the system displays the computing environment as a tree comprising nodes representing the plurality of entities and edges representing parent-child relationships between the plurality of entities. Then, for each parent node in the tree, the system determines counts of one or more performance states for descendants of the parent node in the tree. Finally, the system displays a graphical representation of the determined counts while displaying the parent node. In some embodiments, displaying the graphical representation of the determined counts includes displaying a circular ring comprising visually distinct sections associated with different performance states, wherein the visually distinct sections are sized proportionately with the determined counts for the associated performance states.
US08972991B2
The present invention is directed to making a guest operating system aware of the topology of the subset of host resources currently assigned to it. At virtual machine boot time a Static Resource Affinity Table (SRAT) will be used by the virtualizer to group guest physical memory and guest virtual processors into virtual nodes. Thereafter, in one embodiment, the host physical memory behind a virtual node can be changed by the virtualizer as necessary, and the virtualizer will provide physical processors appropriate for the virtual processors in that node.
US08972987B2
Software is managed in a virtual desktop environment by discovering virtual appliances contained in the virtual desktop environment, and for each virtual appliance discovering the virtual machines belonging to the virtual appliance. Software is further managed by discovering the standalone virtual machines comprised in the virtual desktop environment, and for each discovered virtual machine, introspecting each virtual machine to detect non-virtual applications and virtualized applications running in the virtual machine. For each detected application, identification is made of the operating system on which the application is running.
US08972979B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to post-install configuration of virtual appliances in a virtual machine. A packaging and distribution format is provided with two tools to support the configuration of the virtual machine. The first tool is employed to support configuration of the virtual machine, and employs an activation script during a boot operation. The second tool is employed by a call from the first tool. The second tool configures a virtual application in communication with the virtual machine with use of a configuration script. The configuration script is separate from the activation script and disassociated from an image binary of the virtual machine. The disassociation of the configuration script from the activation script supports changes to the configuration script without affecting the image binary.
US08972963B2
A method of automating patching of a computer system includes determining whether a computer patch is available for a computer system of a customer, determining a patch management policy of the customer, determining a patch window of the customer based on the determined patch management policy, and directing application of the computer patch to the computer system at the determined patch window.
US08972957B2
Thermal-aware source code compilation including: receiving, by a compiler, an identification of a target computing system, the identification of the target computing system specifying temperature sensors that measure temperature of a memory module; compiling the source code into an executable application including inserting in the executable application computer program instructions for thermal-aware execution, the computer program instructions, when executed on the target computing system, carry out the steps of: retrieving temperature measurements of one or more of the target computing system's temperature sensors; determining, in real-time in dependence upon the temperature measurements, whether a memory module is overheated; if a memory module is overheated, entering a thermal-aware execution state including, for each memory allocation in the executable application, allocating memory on a different memory module than the overheated memory module; and upon the temperature sensors indicating the memory module is no longer overheated, exiting the thermal-aware execution state.
US08972955B2
An expression can be evaluated in a remote debugging environment with one single round trip across the network. An expression evaluator on a local machine can compile the expression into a language-independent intermediate language (IL) that encodes all the information needed to evaluate the expression in the absence of a symbol table. The IL can include instructions that manipulate state inside the debuggee process, as well as logical operations needed to process the information. The IL language can be turing complete so that any computation needed to determine the state to read and write and how the information gathered is to be combined can be performed. The IL can be sent to the remote computer and can be interpreted on the remote computer. The IL can be interpreted on the remote computer using a stack based mechanism, without the need to access symbolic information on the local computer.
US08972953B2
A remote debug session for a server group is provided. A server group including multiple servers that perform workload sharing receives a request to debug code executed at the server group. The code is executed on behalf of a client of a database associated with the server group. One of the servers of the group initiates a debugging session and establishes a communication connection with the client. The one server maintains the connection open with the client for the duration of the debugging session. Subsequent requests related to the debug session can be handled in a number of ways by the server group, and all communication to the client about processing the requests is through the connection by the one server.
US08972946B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to test case maintenance for user interfaces. In one embodiment, user source and test cases are linked for test case maintenance. A link is determined to have been created between a user interface and at least one test script. The test script includes a set of test instructions. The user interface includes a set of user interface elements. Each test instruction is run against the user interface. Mapping information for each test instruction is generated. A change is determined to have occurred in at least one of the user interface and the test script. In response to a change having occurred to the user interface, at least one test instruction affected by the change is identified. In response to a change having occurred to the test script, at least one user interface element affected by the change to the test script is identified.
US08972939B1
Mechanisms for the publication of web content are disclosed. Various stages can be used in a general publishing framework in moving content to publication. For instance, a development stage for the content can be used, where the development stage allows entities, such as developers, to code any materials associated with the content. Also, a testing stage can be used in order to test content developed in the development stage. Once these two stages are complete, a staging stage can be used for storing the content, and a production stage can be used for the actual publication of the content. Moreover, various interfaces can be used to allow entities to make requests to submit content and to log the state of such content in the framework. Lastly, various entities can collaborate on the publication of web content using the framework.
US08972938B2
A method that includes: running a set of functional tests over a computer code; determining, for each code element of the computer code, which functional test covered it, to yield a tests-elements coverage map; associating portions of the computer code with corresponding design portions or requirements derived from a design document or a requirements document respectively, associated with the computer code, to yield a design/requirements-code tracing map; deriving, from the tests-code coverage map and the design/requirements-code tracing map, a design/requirements-tests coverage map, exhibiting coverage of the computer code by the functional tests, in terms of the design or the requirements, wherein at least one of the running, the determining, the associating, and the deriving is executed by at least one processor.
US08972937B2
Systems, articles of manufacture, and methods for managing distributed parallel builds comprising identifying one or more software components in a software project; determining a build configuration for each software component, wherein the build configuration includes a mapping from each software component to a set of build servers, the set selected on an optimizing factor including capability; and building each software component using the mapped set of build servers in the corresponding build configuration, wherein the building includes compiling one or more source files associated with each software component to one or more object files, by distributing the one or more source files to one or more compilation machines.
US08972927B2
A system for providing modeled components is described. An example system comprises a request detector, an entity component, a style component, and a property module. The request detector may be configured to receive requests to create modeled components. The entity builder may be configured to create entities associated with models. The styles designer may be configured to create style components. A style component defines a user interface to be applied to a property of an entity in a modeled component. The property module may be configured to associate a style component with one or more properties of one or more entities.
US08972925B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for tracking development and distribution of software applications. In general, one innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of: identifying a software application available from a software application distribution system; retrieving at least image data from an image file, which is associated with the software application, from the software application distribution system without retrieving the software application; detecting a watermark in the image data; and storing information associating the detected watermark with the software application distribution system from which the identified software application is available.
US08972924B2
A method for changing, by using a computer, an arrangement of strings that are arranged along an inner periphery of a graphic and partially overlap one another is offered. The computer arranges the strings in a radial pattern from a reference point determined within the graphic, determines whether overlapping strings are present, and moves the reference point in a direction to separate from the overlapping strings when the computer determines that the overlapping strings are present.
US08972914B2
Coexistence of multiple types of verification components in a single verification framework is provided. Particularly, the coexistence of proprietary e verification components in an open verification methodology framework is provided.
US08972910B1
A method includes generating one or more routes usable for implementing a conductive path of an integrated circuit. A corresponding cost function value for the one or more routes is calculated according to a first cost function, including adjusting the corresponding cost function value based on whether the corresponding route is at least partially assigned to be formed in a conductive layer by a first patterning process or a second patterning process. The integrated circuit has electrical devices and the conductive layer, and the conductive layer has a first set of conductive lines formed by the first patterning process and a second set of conductive lines formed by the second patterning process. The first set of conductive lines has a unit resistance less than that of the second set of conductive lines. The conductive path electrically connects two of the electrical devices of the integrated circuit.
US08972909B1
The present disclosure relates to a method of performing an optical proximity correction (OPC) procedure that provides for a high degree of freedom by using an approximation design layer. In some embodiments, the method is performed by forming an integrated chip (IC) design having an original design layer with one or more original design shapes. An approximation design layer, which is different from the original design layer, is generated from the original design layer. The approximation design layer is a design layer that has been adjusted to remove features that may cause optical proximity correction (OPC) problems. An optical proximity correction (OPC) procedure is then performed on the approximation design layer. By performing the OPC procedure on the approximation design layer rather than on the original design layer, characteristics of the OPC procedure can be improved.
US08972906B1
A system and method for coordinating screen saver initiation and functionality. The system comprises at least one client station, each of the at least one client station having a screen saver module associated therewith; and a central control station in communication with each of the at least one client station over a network, the central control station having a screen saver control module for controlling each of the screen saver modules associated with the at least one client station.
US08972902B2
One embodiment of the invention includes a method for executing and interpreting gesture inputs in a gesture recognition interface system. The method includes detecting and translating a first sub-gesture into a first device input that defines a given reference associated with a portion of displayed visual content. The method also includes detecting and translating a second sub-gesture into a second device input that defines an execution command for the portion of the displayed visual content to which the given reference refers.
US08972899B2
Exemplary systems and methods for visualization of data analysis are provided. In various embodiments, a method comprises accessing a database, analyzing the database to identify clusters of data, generating an interactive visualization comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges wherein a first node of the plurality of nodes represents a cluster and an edge of the plurality of edges represents an intersection of nodes of the plurality of nodes, selecting and dragging the first node in response to a user action, and reorienting the interactive visualization in response to the user action of selecting and dragging the first node.
US08972897B2
A method, system and program product for assisting a presentation owner in creating and presenting information to audience users in a virtual 3D cyclorama-like environment. A presentation object tool provides behavior in the cyclorama object to assist the presentation owner in resolving graphic objects into the cyclorama and in placing information onto the graphic objects. The presenter object tool also provides behavior in the graphic objects to allow the presentation owner to expand a graphic object into a larger viewing size, to increment and decrement the placement of graphic objects within the cyclorama's presentation space, and to place an expanded graphic object into a home viewing position for presentation to audience users.
US08972894B2
Users of a social networking system post questions for other users to answer. Questions are automatically tagged based on keywords extracted from text within the posted questions as well as user-selected tags. Users also browse questions asked by other users on the social networking system using an interface that displays questions by topics and sub-topics. Answers may be voted on and sorted by social information related to the browsing user. Affinities for tags are recorded based on users' interactions with the question and answer service. Affinities for tags may also be used to target questions to other users and sort answers.
US08972889B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided a display processing apparatus, including: a display unit configured to display an image, the display unit having a screen on which the image is displayed; an input module configured to receive a first manipulation and a second manipulation, the first manipulation being a trace manipulation performed on the screen to define a tracing locus on the image being displayed, the second manipulation being different from the first manipulation; and a display controller configured to control the display unit to enlargedly display the image in a given range, upon simultaneously receiving the first manipulation and the second manipulation through the input module, the given range being determined based on the tracing locus.
US08972872B2
Associating a semantic service description (SSD) with a service, wherein the SSD comprises a semantic description of the service, including a semantic description of a parameter of the service, according to a computer interpretable language, and, as a service grounding, a mapping between the computer interpretable language expressing the SSD and an interface, including an interface parameter, of the service. A dynamic composition of a task based upon a user selection of a plurality of known services is supported and a dynamic association of the task with a user interface of an application is supported, based upon associating the task with the user selection of a UI object, a UI display screen, and a UI event for the application.
US08972871B2
A graphical object is rendered to a pixel buffer, such that a software application executing on a computing device displays the contents of the pixel buffer via a user interface. An invisible element is created and positioned under the cursor in response to detecting that the cursor is positioned over the feature being displayed via the user interface. The software application automatically repositions the invisible element in accordance with a movement of the cursor. A change in the position of the invisible element is determined, and the graphical object is repositioned within the pixel buffer in accordance with the change in the position of the invisible element.
US08972868B2
The subject matter disclosed herein provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for task decomposition of a task of a workflow. In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include selecting, for decomposition, a task from a workflow including a plurality of tasks; indicating whether one or more portions of information associated with the decomposed task are restricted; and providing, to another user interface, the decomposed task including the one or more restricted portions. The received command is executed at the database. Related systems, apparatus, methods, and/or articles are also described.
US08972856B2
A method for modifying a document at a client-side application is disclosed. The method involves receiving a user-requested document at a client-side application from a server; querying a database by the client-side application with entities in the user-requested document, where at least one entity is associated with entity information stored in the database; in response to querying the database, receiving the entity information associated with the at least one entity at the client-side application; modifying the user-requested document at the client-side application to obtain a modified document, where modifying the document comprises adding the entity information or a link to the entity information associated with the at least one entity; and displaying the modified document with the client-side application.
US08972855B2
A method and apparatus for providing case restoration in a communication network are disclosed. For example, the method obtains one or more content sources from one or more information feeds, and extracts textual information from the one or more content sources obtained from the one or more information feeds. The method then creates or updates a capitalization model based on the textual information.
US08972851B2
The present invention concerns a method and device for coding or decoding a structured document, for example an XML document, using a structure-describing file of the XML Schema type.The method comprises a step of configuring an encoder or decoder including the obtaining of data describing a document structure model and their storage in the form of recordings, and a step of calculating a number of items, referred to as “possible items”, able to succeed, according to the structure model, an item of said model, said number of possible items being stored in a recording associated with said item. In order to facilitate calculations, the recordings comprise the minimum and maximum numbers of occurrences of the item defined by the structure model.
US08972848B2
Methods, systems and program products for renewing documents relating to an agreement between two entities. Content from an existing document is extracted, the existing document having been created from component documents. A selection of one or more updated component documents is received. An updated document is then generated based on the extracted content from the received document and the received selection of one or more updated component documents, wherein the updated document defines a revised agreement between the two entities.
US08972828B1
A method of error mitigation for transferring packets over a chip-to-chip data interconnect using a high speed interconnect protocol, the method including grouping a pre-selected number of high speed interconnect protocol words to form a protection frame, adding at least one additional error protection bit to each word in the group, adding a synchronization bit to each word, using the synchronization bit in a first word in each frame for synchronization of the protection frame and detecting and correcting a single bit error in the protection frame using the additional error protection bits, thereby reducing packet drop when the frames are transferred over the high speed data interconnect.
US08972824B1
Apparatus and methods provide relatively low uncorrectable bit error rates, low write amplification, long life, fast and efficient retrieval, and efficient storage density such that a solid-state drive (SSD) can be implemented using relatively inexpensive MLC Flash for an enterprise storage application.
US08972815B1
Approaches for recovery of media datagrams are disclosed. Media datagrams, row forward error correction (FEC) datagrams, and column FEC datagrams are received. The media datagrams are logically arranged in rows and columns, each row and column having a corresponding FEC datagram. First, second, and third bitmaps are constructed to respectively indicate availability of media datagrams, row FEC datagrams, and column FEC datagrams. A recoverable media datagram is located in the plurality of media datagrams and is recovered. In response to recovering a datagram using a row FEC datagram, the column having the datagram is checked using the bitmaps to determine if another datagram in the column is recoverable. In response to recovering a datagram using a column FEC datagram, the row having the recovered media datagram is checked to determine if another datagram in the row is recoverable.
US08972803B2
Methods and apparatuses for fault detection in a component associated with an application programming interface platform are provided. In an embodiment, the component is determined to have been invoked to process a transaction. A forward progress counter is monitored to determine whether the component is processing the transaction, wherein the forward progress counter increments at determined intervals when the component is processing the transaction. A test transaction is executed for the component when a determination is made that the forward progress counter has not incremented for a threshold fault period. A fault alarm indicator is generated based on the determination that the forward progress counter has not incremented for the threshold fault period.
US08972802B2
A method, system and computer program product for providing high availability to a hybrid application server environment containing non-Java® containers. Each hybrid application server in the cluster includes a Java® container and a non-Java® container hosting Java® and non-Java® applications, respectively. Upon detecting the non-Java® container becoming unavailable (failing), an object, such as an MBean, identifies and deactivates those Java® application(s) that are dependent on the non-Java® application(s) deployed in the unavailable non-Java® container using dependency information stored in an application framework. The deactivated Java® application(s) are marked as being unavailable. A routing agent continues to send requests to those Java® application(s) that are not marked as being unavailable within that hybrid application server containing the unavailable non-Java® container. As a result of not deactivating the entire hybrid application server containing the unavailable non-Java® container, unimpacted applications continue to service requests thereby optimally using the resources.
US08972801B2
A technique for motivating lazy RCU callbacks under out-of-memory conditions. In response to detecting an actual or potential OOM condition, non-lazy callback processing is performed for all processors whose RCU callback lists are non-empty due to at least one callback permitting lazy callback processing being present.
US08972798B2
A network device is configured to receive information from a plurality of device. The network device is configured to further analyze the information and determine that a performance or fault issue exists relating to operation of a device. The network device is configured to further send first information to a user device. The user device is to receive an instruction on eliminating the performance or fault issue. The network device is configured to further receive second information to resolve the performance of fault issue relating to the operation of the device; and send a notification to resolve the performance or fault issue relating to the operation of the device.
US08972789B2
A diagnostic system provides identification of symptoms in a distributed network and an engine for providing recommended rectification of error sources that correspond to the symptoms. The distributed network may be accessed for current statistics. Symptoms may be identified that correspond to the current statistics. A recommended course of action for the distributed network may be provided based on a predetermined list of courses of actions that correspond to rectifying the performance in the error sources.
US08972784B2
A programmable operating time period of at least one software unit is changed to a settable operating time period. Furthermore, a testing system for validating the system and for setting the at least one settable operating time period is provided. Furthermore, the system is tested using the testing system, wherein the testing includes varying the at least one settable operating time period for detecting synchronization errors of the system. Thus, a test of a system including software units for synchronization errors is enabled by the targeted change of operating time period.
US08972783B2
Methods and arrangements for detecting and diagnosing system outages. A system outage is ascertained and aberrant user activities are categorized, as possible contributors to the system outage, based on system impact. User activities and system impact are learned, and user activities and system impact are compared against predetermined rules. A system outage alert is generated, and a user activity responsible for the system outage is displayed.
US08972778B2
A method that includes identifying a failure indication for a first data storage device that is a member of a first RAID group within a storage array. The method further can include, via a processor external to the storage array, identifying a virtual drive that is defined to include at least one logical storage volume defined in a second RAID group. The virtual drive can be provisioned to serve as a virtual hot spare within the first RAID group to replace the first data storage device.
US08972772B2
Systems and methods are disclosed herein for a replicated duplex computer system. The system includes a triplet of network elements, which each maintain a clock signal, and a monitor at each network element for monitoring incoming clock signals. Each network element interfaces with a fault containment region (FCR). The system provides the ability to transition to a duplex system if one of the fault containment regions fails. The three network elements are able to send their clock signals to the other network elements and receive their own clock signal and clock signals from the other elements. The monitors are configured to detect discrepancies in the clock signals of the network elements. If a monitor determines that an FCR has failed, each network element is reconfigured so that the FTPP system operates in a duplex mode without the faulty FCR by replacing the clock signal from the faulty element with its own clock signal.
US08972759B2
Various embodiments of methods and systems for adaptive thermal management techniques implemented in a portable computing device (“PCD”) are disclosed. Notably, in many PCDs, temperature thresholds associated with various components in the PCD such as, but not limited to, die junction temperatures, package on package (“PoP”) memory temperatures and the “touch temperature” of the external surfaces of the device itself limits the extent to which the performance capabilities of the PCD can be exploited. It is an advantage of the various embodiments of methods and systems for adaptive thermal management that, when a temperature threshold is violated, the performance of the PCD is sacrificed only as much and for as long as necessary to clear the violation before authorizing the thermally aggressive processing component(s) to return to a maximum operating power.
US08972756B2
Provided herein is a computer implemented system for managing power supply for an electronic device. The system includes computer a learning component that is trained and constructs models according to usage patterns of the electronic device, a component providing a first phase of model building relating to usage of the electronic device; and a forecasting component that employs the learning component and models to generate predictions relating to usage of the electronic device.
US08972754B2
A computer device and frequency adjusting method for central processing unit are provided. The computer device including a CPU, a voltage regulator module, a clock generator, a power-on module, a chip set and an embedded controller. The power-on module activates the voltage regulator module, the clock generator and the CPU respectively. The voltage regulator module provides the operating voltage of the CPU. The clock generator provides the operating clock of the CPU. Before the CPU is activated, the embedded controller adjusts the operating clock and the operating voltage provided from the clock generator and the voltage regulator module the CPU, the CPU performs overclocking/downclocking directly by using the adjusted operating clock and the adjusted operating voltage after the CPU is activated.
US08972749B2
A method of securely storing data in a memory on a computer including a processor is provided. The method includes receiving unencrypted data; randomly selecting a key, wherein the key is a character of an alphabet of a data type of the unencrypted data; creating partially encrypted data by encrypting the unencrypted data by randomly mapping each character of the alphabet of the data type of the unencrypted data to a character of an alphabet of a data type of encrypted data, except each character of the unencrypted data matching the key is not encrypted; and storing the partially encrypted data in the memory.
US08972747B2
In a method for managing information comprising a reference name of an atomic unit listed in a document serialization, a new name for the atomic unit reference name is generated and occurrences of the atomic unit reference name in the document serialization are replaced with the new name for the atomic unit to conceal the atomic unit reference name. In addition, a map file containing a map file entry for each of a plurality of workflow participants is generated, in which each of the map file entries includes the new name and an access key to access the atomic unit.
US08972746B2
A technique to enable secure application and data integrity within a computer system. In one embodiment, one or more secure enclaves are established in which an application and data may be stored and executed.
US08972740B2
The systems and methods described herein relate to secure extranets which utilize certificate authentication to mediate access, transactions, and user tracking. Such extranets may be employed to provide an interface accessible over a network, such as the Internet, capable of authenticating and recording transactions for business, medical, or other purposes.
US08972726B1
Various embodiments of a system and method for digital rights management using a secure end-to-end protocol with embedded encryption keys are described. A DRM framework may implement a secure end-to-end protocol configured to protect messages sent between trusted endpoints by encrypting and decrypting the messages within software applications executing on each trusted endpoint. An encryption key embedded within a binary representation of a DRM client may be used by the DRM client to encrypt and decrypt messages sent over the secure protocol. The DRM client may request authentication using the secure protocol and receive an authentication token used by the DRM client to acquire a license to view protected content. The encryption key may be chosen from a pool of encryption keys and embedded in the DRM client during the software build process for the DRM client. The secure protocol may be designed according to Representational State Transfer guidelines.
US08972725B2
A framework for handling a secure interaction between components in a cloud infrastructure system that wish to transfer information between each other during processing of a customer's subscription order is described. The framework orders the security zones of components based on security levels and protects the transfer of information between components in security zones with different security levels. The assignment of a component to a security zone is based upon the sensitivity of the data handled by the components, the sensitivity of functions performed by the component, and the like.
US08972721B2
A system and method for remote device registration, to monitor and meter the injection of keying or other confidential information onto a device, is provided. A producer who utilizes one or more separate manufacturers, operates a remote module that communicates over forward and backward channels with a local module at the manufacturer. Encrypted data transmissions are sent by producer to the manufacturer and are decrypted to obtain sensitive data used in the devices. As data transmissions are decrypted, credits from a credit pool are depleted and can be replenished by the producer through credit instructions. As distribution images are decrypted, usage records are created and eventually concatenated, and sent as usage reports back to the producer, to enable the producer to monitor and meter production at the manufacturer.
US08972710B2
The present disclosure includes systems and techniques relating to booting to a network storage target. In general, in one implementation, a bus-to-network device driver is loaded during a machine boot, where the bus-to-network device driver is capable of sending machine bus commands over a network, providing access to the network for a network device driver, and distinguishing between received responses to the machine bus commands and other network traffic corresponding to the network device driver. Loading of the bus-to-network device driver can occur in response to an operating system load of bus drivers. For example, the bus-to-network device driver can be an iSCSI driver, and the operating system load of bus drivers can be the operating system load of SCSI drivers.
US08972697B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for using an index array and finite state machine for scatter/gather operations. Embodiment of apparatus may comprise: decode logic to decode a scatter/gather instruction and generate a set of micro-operations, and an index array to hold a set of indices and a corresponding set of mask elements. A finite state machine facilitates the gather operation. Address generation logic generates an address from an index of the set of indices for at least each of the corresponding mask elements having a first value. An address is accessed to load a corresponding data element if the mask element had the first value. The data element is written at an in-register position in a destination vector register according to a respective in-register position the index. Values of corresponding mask elements are changed from the first value to a second value responsive to completion of their respective loads.
US08972694B1
A write operation writes first data to a target logical address range included in a first logical address range of a virtually provisioned device. It is determined that physical storage is not allocated for the target logical address range. First processing is performed to allocate a first portion of physical storage having a first corresponding logical address subrange that includes the target logical address range. The first portion is allocated from a physical device included in a first storage tier. The first processing includes selecting the first storage tier from multiple storage tiers in accordance with selection criteria including metrics characterizing an expected workload or level of activity for the first corresponding logical address subrange of the virtually provisioned device. Mapping information is updated to indicate that the first corresponding logical address subrange of the virtually provisioned device maps to the first portion of physical storage.
US08972684B2
A dispersed storage device manages deletion of data objects stored within a dispersed storage network by receiving a data delete request to delete a data object stored throughout a set of dispersed storage units within a dispersed network memory of the dispersed storage network, determining a deletion policy for the data object and selectively generating and transmitting, based on the deletion policy, a delete command to the set of dispersed storage units.
US08972667B2
A device with an interconnect having a plurality of memory controllers for connecting the plurality of memory controllers. Each memory controller of the plurality of memory controllers is coupled to an allocated memory for storing data. Further, each memory controller of the plurality of memory controllers has one accelerator of a plurality of accelerators for mutually exchanging data over the interconnect.
US08972665B2
Embodiments of the disclosure include selectively powering up a cache set of a multi-set associative cache by receiving an instruction fetch address and determining that the instruction fetch address corresponds to one of a plurality of entries of a content addressable memory. Based on determining that the instruction fetch address corresponds to one of a plurality of entries of a content addressable memory a cache set of the multi-set associative cache that contains a cache line referenced by the instruction fetch address is identified and only powering up a subset of cache. Based on the identified cache set not being powered up, selectively powering up the identified cache set of the multi-set associative cache and transmitting one or more instructions stored in the cache line referenced by the instruction fetch address to a processor.
US08972654B2
A mechanism is provided for tape writing of small transactions. A first file is written as a plurality of fixed-length data sets (DS), the DS number of the final DS in the plurality of DS is stored in memory as #N(DS#N) and the WP number as #M(WP#M), and the final first file and the second file in the DS following the final DS(DS#N, WP#M) containing the first file are packed and written in sequential DS units, and are stored as DS#N, DS#N+1, etc, and WP#M+1 in sequential order in DS containing the second file. The remaining first, second, or third file is packed and DS#N with WP#M is overwritten as DS#N with WP#M+2, and the remaining #N in the DS numbers of the second file and the third file in the subsequent DS are written as DS#N+1, N+2, etc. with WP#M+2, and the DS#N, #N+1, #N+2, etc. with WP+M+2 are stored.
US08972652B2
A method of reducing read errors in a non-volatile memory device that result from bit-line or word-line disturb conditions generated by erase operations includes selecting a subset of a memory array for refresh after each erase operation. A pointer to the refresh target section is updated as part of the method to direct the refresh operation to the appropriate subset of the memory array. Refresh may be performed subsequent to an erase operation or concurrently therewith. By distributing the time consumed by refresh operations over many erase operations so the relative refresh time for any one erase becomes small.
US08972642B2
Systems and method for reducing interrupt latency time in a multi-threaded processor. A first interrupt controller is coupled to the multi-threaded processor. A second interrupt controller is configured to communicate a first interrupt and a first vector identifier to the first interrupt controller, wherein the first interrupt controller is configured to process the first interrupt and the first vector identifier and send the processed interrupt to a thread in the multi-threaded processor. Logic is configured to determine when the multi-threaded processor is ready to receive a second interrupt. A dedicated line is used to communicate an indication to the second interrupt controller that the multi-threaded processor is ready to receive the second interrupt.
US08972638B2
When transmitting serial data from a master device to a slave device, it is possible to promptly detect a communication error if any occurs. Serial data transmitted from the master device to the slave device has two or more continuous bytes of dummy data having an identical structure. When the slave device recognizes the dummy data, communication error processing is executed. Assume that the serial data is shifted by an affect of a noise. In this case, “a text end control code (ETX)” is also shifted and the serial data cannot be recognized and no data reception end process is executed. However, during a period after this, a part of the first dummy data and a part of the second dummy data are received and one dummy data is recognized. Thus, the slave device can promptly execute the communication error processing.
US08972636B2
A memory interface chip is disclosed and includes a data output unit and a control module, wherein the data output module receives data from an external source. The data output unit can be selectively connected to different memory structures. The data output unit includes a first output channel and a second output channel, wherein the channels respectively generate a first output signal and a second output signal based on the data received. The control module selectively closes off the first output channel or the second output channel based on the memory architecture of the memory connected to the data output unit.
US08972632B2
Methods and apparatus to transfer data between a first device and a second device, is disclosed. An apparatus according to various embodiments may comprise a first device and a second device. The first device may comprise at least one first non-differential transmitter coupled to a first channel, at least one second non-differential transmitter coupled to a second channel, and at least one differential receiver to receive a data bit and its complement on the first and second channels in parallel. The second device may comprise at least one first non-differential receiver coupled to the first channel, at least one second non-differential receiver coupled to the second channel, and at least one differential transmitter to transmit a data bit and its complement on the first and second channels in parallel.
US08972626B2
A content reproducing device includes: an input unit connected to a source side via a content transmission channel for transmitting a content and a control signal transmission channel for transmitting an address representing a physical connection relation of a device; an output unit connected to a sink side via a content transmission channel for transmitting a content and a control signal transmission channel for transmitting an address representing a physical connection relation of a device; and a switch provided between the input and output units and assuming one of a first connection state of connecting between the input and output units and a second connection state of connecting the input unit and a content reproducing unit, the device acquiring the address at the sink side in the first connection state, and setting the acquired address as the address provided to the source side in the second connection state.
US08972625B2
An electronic apparatus includes a plurality of interfaces and a host determination controller. To the plurality of interfaces, a plurality of host candidate devices are individually connected. The plurality of host candidate devices are each capable of serving as a host device that performs control. The host determination controller is configured to determine, based on a reception signal received from one of the plurality of host candidate devices, a predetermined host candidate device serving as a transmission source of the reception signal to be a host device, and to control a disconnection and a connection of at least one of the plurality of interfaces, the at least one of the plurality of interfaces corresponding to at least one of the other host candidate devices.
US08972619B2
In a processing system including a processing apparatus, an input/output apparatus and communication apparatuses, the communication apparatus includes: a first instructing unit that issues a configuration change instruction in accordance with set configuration information to the processing apparatus and the input/output apparatus; and a first setting unit that, when an operation change completion notification corresponding to the configuration change instruction is received, sets the configuration information in accordance with a state established after a configuration change, and each of the processing apparatus and the input/output apparatus includes: a second setting unit that sets the configuration information in accordance with the configuration change instruction received from the communication apparatus; a second instructing unit that issues an operation change instruction in accordance with the set configuration information; and a notifying unit that, when the operation change is completed, issues an operation change completion notification to the communication apparatus.
US08972617B2
A method for configuring computer operational parameters comprising detecting with at least one processor at least one peripheral device in communication with the at least one processor; receiving, with the at least one processor from at least one of a plurality of communication ports constructed and arranged to interface with the at least one peripheral device, data about the at least one peripheral device, the data comprising at least one location of the at least one peripheral device; identifying with the at least one processor at least one profile associated with the peripheral device data; and adjusting at least one operational parameter based on the at least one profile.
US08972616B2
A method of prioritizing data transmissions between a SCSI initiator and a SCSI target in a network system with DCB enabled switches. The method includes a switch controller detecting a SCSI set priority response transmitted via a first pair of switch ports from a SCSI target to a SCSI initiator, which communicate SCSI messaging and transmit I/O data via the first pair of switch ports. In response to detecting the SCSI set priority response, the priority data established by the SCSI target is retrieved and, based on the retrieved priority data, the switch controller autonomously sets the DCB priority for the first pair of switch ports to a first DCB priority value correlated to the retrieved priority data. Transmission of the I/O data between the SCSI initiator and the SCSI target is supported with a priority of the first pair of switch ports set to the first DCB priority value.
US08972613B2
There is provided a system and a method for increasing input/output (“I/O”) throughput in a data storage system. More specifically, in one embodiment, there is provided a method comprising determining an owning controller associated with each of a plurality of storage units of a storage system, receiving an I/O transaction for one of the plurality of storage units, determining if the I/O transaction is a read transaction, and selecting a path to the owning controller associated with the storage unit if the I/O transaction is a read transaction.
US08972606B2
A protocol for communicating with the timing facility used in a data processing network to provide synchronization is provided via the execution of a machine instruction that accepts a plurality of commands. The interaction is provided through the use of message request blocks and their associated message response blocks. In this way timing parameters may be determined, modified and communicated. This makes it much easier for multiple servers or nodes in a data processing network to exist as a coordinated timing network and to thus more cooperatively operate on the larger yet identical data files.
US08972603B1
Techniques are described for providing managed computer networks. In some situations, the techniques include managing communications for computing nodes of a managed computer network by automatically determining to separate a particular outgoing packet or other outgoing communication from a source computing node into multiple parts (e.g., multiple packets) to be independently sent using two or more alternative network paths between the sending computing node and the destination for the communication. For example, a manager module associated with the source computing node may automatically determine to encode the outgoing communication into a dynamically determined quantity of multiple parts (e.g., by using a configurable erasure code), such as based on current information about available alternative paths, and another manager module associated with the destination may receive at least some of the multiple parts and decode them into the original outgoing communication, which is then provided to the destination.
US08972601B2
Described is a technology by which additional network communications capacity is provided to an oversubscribed base network where needed, through the use of dynamically provisioned communications links referred to as flyways. A controller detects a need for additional network communications capacity between two network machines, e.g., between two racks of servers with top-of-rack switches. The controller configures flyway mechanisms (e.g., one per rack) to carry at least some of the network traffic between the machines of the racks and thereby provide the additional network communications capacity. The flyway mechanisms may be based on any wireless or wired technologies, including 60 GHz technology, optical links, 802.11n or wired commodity switches.
US08972600B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and apparatuses for a fault resilient collaborative media serving array comprising a plurality of nodes. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method for creating a fault resilient collaborative media serving array where the array nodes do not share memory, the serving of a content file is accomplished by the collaborative efforts of many nodes in the array, and where there is no fixed allocation of sessions to nodes.
US08972599B2
The present invention is related to a host system for full customization of functional process logic in an integrated system having multiple nodes, each node being independent of other nodes in said system, said system capable of handling standard markup language data. The system has functional process logic that uses one of agents and agent management services approach and a payload processor approach. Each unit of functional process logic is a service, multiple services are grouped together to form an agent, and incoming standard markup language data is processed as a document object method and system for facilitating the integration of a plurality of dissimilar systems by allowing networks of integration framework installations and/or other compatible B2B servers to inter-operate across corporate enterprise boundaries to integrate the disparate systems operating within each corporate enterprise. In the payload processor approach the functional process logic units are tied to predefined elements within the incoming standard markup language data document and processed used an event based model. The functional process logic uses a web-based scripting language which allows for remote administration and customization of the functional process logic. The API of the host system is in code accessible to the web-based scripting language used.
US08972596B2
A system for effecting communications among a plurality of devices situated in a plurality of domains employing differing operating protocols; the system including: (a) at least one topology agent situated in a source domain of the domains and configured for effecting operation of the system among the domains; (b) at least one negotiator agent situated between the source domain and a respective other domain and configured for selective coupling with a respective topology agent; the at least one negotiator agent implementing quality of service parameters provided by the respective topology agent to convey communications from the source domain to the other domain; and (c) a plurality of proxy agents; at least one proxy agent being situated in each respective other domain and configured for implementing quality of service policies received from the respective negotiator agent to effect the communications within the respective other domain.
US08972594B2
Protocol architecture for wiring media streams and specifying mixing behavior in a multipoint control unit. The protocol provides the capability to expose the core mixing algorithms to modification for mixing media without dealing with the functionality of the mixer itself (e.g., ports and IP specifics). The protocol facilitates the wiring of input media streams to output media streams by changing the mixing behavior via changes to the mixing algorithms using the protocol. The protocol operates based on a schema that includes controls related to route, wire, and filter for the mixer input and mixer output.
US08972590B2
A security software comprises administrative module for configuring access levels and creating types of accounts and application server for domain filtering by checking against friendly and unfriendly inbound, outbound and exception lists. Hard filtering either approves, terminates requests or re-routes request without the user's knowledge. Soft filtering passes disapproved requests and sends an e-mail alert to authorized recipients. Content filtering includes checking a content of a requested document against a friendly, unfriendly list and exception list. Hard filtering passes or rejects the requested document. Soft filtering passes the requested document or rejects or approves by highlighting its content. Options include e-mail filtering that checks subject, sender's address and domain against an unfriendly, friendly and exception list. e-mail alert for hard filtering, inbound privacy shield, a pop up blocker, the application server acts as proxy server with proxy chaining capabilities and an encryption function can encrypt part of e-mail message.
US08972587B1
A system and media are provided for applying a policy associated with a content provider to handle an error message received from the content provider in response to a request from a user device. An error reply from the content provider in response to the request from the user device is received at a gateway, A reply to the user device is generated based on the error reply. The reply to the user device includes an indication of one or more user-agent measures for the user device to take. The user-agent measures are selected from: (A) updating a durable resource identifier to point to a new location for a resource, (B) updating a service identifier to point to a new provider of the service, (C) modifying an existing caching policy for the content provider, and (D) retrying the request at a specified future time.
US08972585B2
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, there is provided a method for splitting a load of monitoring a peer to peer network. The method has a first node in the peer to peer network receiving information reported by a second node in the peer to peer network, including information concerning which nodes are connected to the second node. The method further has the first node connecting to nodes different from the nodes that are connected to the second node using the received information. The method still further has the first node reporting information, including information concerning which nodes are connected to the first node, such that the second node also has access to the reported information, thereby splitting the load of monitoring the peer to peer network among the first and second nodes.
US08972582B2
A method (and corresponding equipment) for use in reauthentication—after a first, full authentication by a first authentication server (23a)—of a communication session involving the exchange of information between a terminal (21) and a server (24), the method including: a step (11) in which the first authentication server (23a) and other authentication servers (23b) are each assigned a respective unique realm name; and a step (13) in which during authentication between the terminal and the first authentication server (23a), the first authentication server (23a) transmits to the terminal (21) a reauthentication identity including the unique realm name assigned to the first authentication server. Then, later, during reauthentication, to make possible that the reauthentication is performed by the same authentication server (23a) as performed the full authentication—i.e. by the first authentication server (23a)—the reauthentication identity is included in a request for reauthentication.
US08972579B2
A method of assigning resources of a computer duster with resource sharing according to objectives. The method includes monitoring resources of each of a plurality of cloud nodes, providing information descriptive of the cloud node resources, receiving a reservation, determining whether resources are available to satisfy the reservation and any other pending reservations, if resources are available, using a rapid search to determine resource assignments for the reservation and any other pending reservations according to one or more objectives, and allocating resources according to the resource assignments.
US08972571B2
The system and method for correlating network identities and addresses described herein may include a log correlation engine distributed on a network that identifies relationships between certain network identities and Internet Protocol (IP) and Ethernet addresses in the network. In particular, the log correlation engine may analyze various event logs that describe activity in a network to learn relationships between network identities and network addresses and generate alerts in response to discovering changes in the learned relationships. For example, the log correlation engine may identify authentication events described in the logs to map network identities to IP addresses, and may further analyze the logs to map the IP addresses to Ethernet addresses. Thus, the log correlation engine may discover new and changed relationships between the network identities, the IP addresses, and the Ethernet addresses.
US08972565B1
A first set of data including a first tracking identifier for a first webpage component and a destination address for the first webpage component is accessed. A second set of data that includes an address for retrieving a second webpage component, is accessed. The address includes a second tracking identifier. Whether the second tracking identifier is the same as the first tracking identifier is determined. The second webpage component is associated with the destination address when the second tracking identifier is the same as the first tracking identifier.
US08972560B2
Cloud computing platforms having computer-readable media that perform methods to shape virtual machine communication traffic. The cloud computing platform includes virtual machines and a controller. The controller limits the traffic associated with the virtual machines to enable the virtual machines to achieve desired communication rates, especially when a network servicing the virtual machines is congested. The controller may drop communication messages associated with the virtual machines based on a drop probability evaluated for the virtual machines.
US08972559B2
Methods, systems, and products provide alerts to a communications device. Sports scores may be associated to alerts, ringtones, and filenames. As communications are processed, a sports score may determine an alert.
US08972554B2
Methods and apparatus are disclosed to measure mobile broadband market share. A disclosed example method involves receiving first information indicative of a first network interface device used at a first time, receiving second information indicative of a first Internet protocol (IP) address used at the first time, and identifying an instance of mobile broadband data card Internet access when the first network interface device is a broadband data card and the first IP address is associated with a first broadband Internet service provider (ISP).
US08972552B2
A management apparatus characterized by comprising: management means for managing a connection parameter associated with a second network which is newly formed by a communication apparatus connected to a first network and is different from the first network; and notification means for, upon receiving a request from another communication apparatus connected to the first network, notifying the request source communication apparatus of the connection parameter associated with the second network, which is managed by the management means.
US08972551B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for prioritizing service requests. A service request destined for processing by a service provider is obtained in at least one computing device. The service provider is configured to provide a service. The service request includes at least one client-specified parameter indicating a priority of the service request. A load associated with the service is determined. The service request is prioritized for an initial processing stage of the service provider when the load meets at least one threshold. The prioritizing for the initial processing stage is based at least in part on the at least one client-specified parameter. The service request is prioritized for an additional processing stage of the service provider when the load meets the at least one threshold. The prioritizing for the additional processing stage is based at least in part on the at least one client-specified parameter and a result of the initial processing stage.
US08972540B2
Disclosed are methods for extracting and using information about an entity that has a presence in a number of information domains. The entity has separate identifiers in each of several domains. Various techniques are described that bind together the identifiers of the entity across the domains. The results of the binding are provided to an interested party that can review information extracted about the entity's behavior in the multiple domains. The interested party is not given access to information that would compromise the confidentiality of the entity. A trusted broker has access to information about the behavior of the entity in the several domains. The broker analyzes that information and provides the analysis to the interested party, again without compromising the confidentiality of the entity. An “incentivizer” works with the broker to extract from the domains information that would be useful in binding together the different identifiers of the entity.
US08972538B2
An integrated hybrid system is provided. The hybrid system includes compute components of different types and architectures that are integrated and managed by a single point of control to provide federation and the presentation of the compute components as a single logical computing platform.
US08972537B2
According to some aspects as described herein, a user may purchase or otherwise be provided with an accelerated service for selected software applications, devices, and/or ports to experience a high level of communication. The accelerated service may be created, for example, by using a dedicated network data flow such that the user's customer premise equipment (CPE) network access device may put priority traffic in a different upstream data flow than the commonly shared flow, which may involve tagging the traffic upstream to the network with a priority indicator such as a flow identifier. Based on similar factors, the user may also control local priority of data received downstream from the network for distribution to one or more local devices.
US08972536B2
Provided are systems and methods for secure provisioning of consumer network services. For example, there is a broadband modem for secure provisioning of a network service, where the broadband modem includes a controller having an embedded memory. The controller is configured to enable an unmanaged interface of the broadband modem, to establish a subscription interface link over the enabled unmanaged interface, and to download, over the subscription interface link, a subscriber firmware enabling a managed interface corresponding to the network service. Power cycling the broadband modem erases the downloaded subscriber firmware and disables the managed interface.
US08972535B2
A system for automatic configuration of computers on a network is disclosed. In a first aspect a storage area network is disclosed. The network comprises at least one controller; and a plurality of clients coupled to the at least one controller. The network includes a storage device coupled to the at least one controller and the plurality of clients. The controller upon attachment to the network registers itself and notifies the plurality of clients. The plurality of clients then interrogates the controller. Each of the plurality of clients updates its configuration based upon the interrogation.In a second aspect, a method for configuration of computers in a network is disclosed. The method comprises registering at least one controller upon attachment to the network and notifying a plurality of clients by the at least one controller. The method includes interrogating the at least one controller by each of the plurality of clients. The plurality of clients are updated based upon the interrogation.
US08972534B2
An arrangement permitting a user for example in a internet point or using a different profile in the same machine can connect to a web server to download and install local client software such as a java application or a browser plug-in the first time he accesses to this service from that browser in order to customize his environment. Once authenticated, he can choose the personalization to be performed in whatever application installed and eligible to be user customizable. For example he can replicate in the system his browser settings (favorites, cookies, forms etc) or word templates as a clone of environment setting of his personal machine. The customization can depend on pre-defined profiles to allow the user customization of a subset of settings, for example only browser settings. Models of different operating environments are defined and called upon to enable interactions with different client devices.
US08972532B2
In certain embodiments, a method for providing hardware configuration management for one or more heterogeneous computers utilizing a LAN controller with imbedded remote management capabilities technology comprises receiving an initiation request from a LAN controller. A list of FPACL vendors is then obtained from the LAN controller. The LAN controller is configured according to the predetermined requirements of the FPACL vendors. The LAN controller may be configured according to the predetermined requirements of non-FPACL vendors. The list of non-FPACL vendors and the received FPACL vendors along with the corresponding predetermined requirements for proper configuration may be stored on a central server or on a plurality of devices accessible to the central server. Connection to the LAN controller may be through a network. An exemplare LAN controller is an INTEL® AMT device.
US08972530B2
A content delivery network (CDN) service provider extends a content delivery network to gather information on atomically identifiable web clients (called “user agents”) as such computer-implemented entities interact with the CDN across different domains being managed by the CDN service provider. The data system tracks user agents, preferably via cookies, although one or more passive techniques may be used. A user agent may be a cookie-able device having a cookie store. As the user agent navigates across sites, a CDN-specific unique identifier used by the system to correlate user agents is generated. Preferably, the unique identifier is stored as an encrypted cookie. The unique identifier represents one user agent (and, thus, one cookie-able device's store). The system tracks user agent behavior on and across customer sites that are served by the CDN, and these behaviors are classified into identifiable “segments” that may be used to create a profile.
US08972526B2
According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a method for providing product information to an individual, the method comprising receiving, at a router, a single request for information, the request associated with at least one product, transmitting, by the router, the single request for information to each one of a plurality of store servers, receiving, by the router from the plurality of store servers, a plurality of responses, each one of the plurality of responses including information associated with the at least one product, compiling the plurality of responses into a single request, and transmitting the single request to the individual.
US08972523B2
A device receives, from a user device and via a first device, a first request for content, and determines whether the content is stored in memory. The device identifies first other requests for the content, received via the first device over a time period, and second other requests for the content, received via a second device over the time period, when the content is stored in the memory. The device identifies a first quantity of the first other requests and a second quantity of the second other requests, and determines whether the first quantity or the second quantity is greater than a threshold. The device transmits the content, to the user device and via the first device, when the first quantity is not greater than the threshold, and transmits, to the second device, an instruction to store the content when the second quantity is greater than the threshold.
US08972511B2
In some embodiments, a non-transitory processor-readable medium includes code that causes a processor to receive, at a compliance device, a message from a source communication device addressed to a destination communication device. The code causes the processor to analyze at a context engine, the content of the message to determine a first risk level associated with a preference of an organization. The code further causes the processor to analyze at a regulatory engine, the content of the message to determine a second risk level associated with a regulatory standard of a specific industry and to define a composite risk level based on the first risk level and the second risk level. The code further causes the processor to send a notification to an administrator if the composite risk level satisfies a criterion, and to send the message to the destination communication device irrespective of the composite risk level.
US08972507B1
An agent-assisted and directed web-channel customer care apparatus, method, and computer program is provided to receive, from a first device, an inbound message via an inbound messaging channel and create a web session utilizing a web session server. Session identification is received from the web session server and a unique identifier is transmitted to the first device in order for a second device to connect to an agent device via a web session. Communications is simultaneously maintained with the first and second device via the inbound messaging channel and the web session.
US08972503B2
Systems and methods are provided for at least partially automating content generation of blog entries chronicling an entity's interaction with a multiuser environment. The same may combine automatic data generation with user-generated and/or user-edited or created narrative. The systems and methods may be employed for automatically generating and publishing descriptions, such as posting blog articles. In one implementation, a system automatically posts blog articles with automatic screenshots and automatically-generated descriptive copy of events that occur within a video game, such as in a massive multiplayer online role-playing game.
US08972501B2
Systems and methods for the transmission of content are provided. A user group is defined and a group data structure corresponding to the user group is stored. An item of content is received and stored as a child data structure of a parent data structure of the group data structure. In response to this storage, the item of content is automatically transmitted to all other users of the user group.
US08972497B2
In one example a method includes: selecting, by a computing device, a message description that indicates a pre-defined operator is associated with a message data field; receiving, by the computing device, information associated with the message data field; responsive to determining that the information indicates the message data field does not include data, determining, by the computing device, whether to include, in a second message that is associated with the message description, a data value for the message data field of the second message based on the pre-defined operator that is associated with the message data field, wherein the data value is stored by the computing device and is associated with the message data field.
US08972494B2
A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for scheduling calendaring entries within the context of an instant messaging client. The instant messaging client receives input from a user to schedule an instant messaging chat session with one or more invitees, wherein the one or more invitees are selected from a list of contacts in the instant messaging client. The instant messaging client provides a scheduling interface to the user, wherein the scheduling interface allows the user to define properties for the instant messaging chat session. Responsive to receiving user input defining the instant messaging chat session, an entry is created in the user's calendaring system to form a scheduled instant messaging chat session, wherein the entry is based on the properties defined in the scheduling interface.
US08972493B2
Aspects of the present invention include using a single network identifier for delivering multiple versions of a content object. In some embodiments, a plurality of versions of the content object are created and associated with the single network identifier. When an edge server in a CDN receives a request for the content object, the edge server queries a policy server for a preferred version of the content object to deliver to an end user.
US08972492B2
An image processing apparatus connected to a Web server and including a Web browser for displaying an operation screen provided by the Web server and a processing unit that, when requested to execute image processing by the Web server based on access from the Web browser, executes the requested image processing, where it is determined, depending on a destination of access by the Web browser, whether or not to supply information about the image processing apparatus to the destination of access, and if it is determined that the information about the image processing apparatus should be supplied, the information about the image processing apparatus is supplied to the destination of access made by the Web browser.
US08972487B2
Various embodiments of systems and methods for automated test framework for testing enterprise services consumer technologies are described. According to one aspect, an enterprise service client is generated based on the WSDL document of an enterprise service. The generation of the client includes generation of source code files and other client artifacts. The client artifacts are compiled and the client is configured to connect to the server system hosting the enterprise service. Real test data is loaded into a non-persistent memory and executed against the server system of the enterprise system. If no exception occurs, the test call is assumed successful. If the test calls to this enterprise service are successful, the service is marked as compatible with the different clients that performed the test calls.
US08972471B2
An arithmetic module is provided, including a first adder, a first shifter coupled to the first adder, a multiplier coupled to the first shifter for receiving an external coefficient signal, a digit alignment unit coupled to the multiplier, a second adder coupled to the digit alignment unit, and a second shifter coupled to the second adder. The arithmetic module reduces the overall computation time effectively, as compared with a scalar processor, by employing a serial data connection design, and also significantly reduces power consumption of the digital signal processor by requiring fewer input and output ends than those of a multi-issue processor.
US08972464B2
A file operations engine is provided that manages many user interactions with their files via a computer system. The operation engine may provide a user with the option to keep both files that have a file name conflict. It may further permit the user to rename a file involved with a file name conflict. The operations engine may also automatically rename one of the files of a file name conflict by appending a character to a root of the filename. The character may include the lowest integer available for the root in a destination for the files. The operations engine may provide the option to keep both files as part of a pre-calculation of potential errors for a requested operation. The operations engine may place file name conflicts in an error queue and permit the user to select an option to keep both files after the conflict is encountered.
US08972463B2
A computer implemented method for functional integration of metadata for a plurality of databases, includes: creating a single set of classes and instances for the classes for metadata of at least one relational data schema and at least one non-relational data schema for the plurality of databases; defining semantic relationships between the instances based on the structural information in the relational data schema and the non-relational data schema for the plurality of databases; associating the semantic relationships with a property class; creating a single set of triples for the semantic relationships between the instances; storing the single set of triples in a file; and using the set of triples stored in the file to navigate between the plurality of databases to formulate a response to a query.
US08972461B2
Content is dynamically assembled at the edge of the Internet, preferably on content delivery network (CDN) edge servers. A content provider leverages an “edge side include” (ESI) markup language that is used to define Web page fragments for dynamic assembly at the edge. Dynamic assembly improves site performance by caching objects that comprise dynamically-generated pages at the edge of the Internet, close to the end user. Instead of being assembled by an application/web server in a centralized data center, the application/web server sends a page template and content fragments to a CDN edge server where the page is assembled. Each content fragment can have its own cacheability profile to manage the “freshness” of the content. Once a user requests a page, the edge server examines its cache for the included fragments and assembles the page on-the-fly.
US08972458B2
A computer-implemented method for managing comment data generated when interacting with a page module is disclosed. At least one comment data being expressed by a user when interacting with the page module is detected and analyzed identify a context for the comment data. If the comment data is identified to be associate with a context, tagging the comment data with a context association, and if the comment data is not associated with a context then maintaining the comment data associated only with the page module. The comment data is then populated in the other page modules that were identified to have a context association with the comment data. The populating enables display presentation of the comment data made at the page module at the one or more page modules having the context association.
US08972456B2
Various embodiments of systems and methods for analyzing software-usage information are described herein. Traffic numbers are obtained from data stored in a database using measurement objects that are associated with one or more keys. The measurement objects output the traffic numbers and the one or more keys are related to elements of the data. Identifiers and categories are assigned to the measurement objects. The categories represent attributes of a software product. A data structure comprising the identifiers, the traffic numbers, and the categories is generated and stored. The stored data structure and a header comprising one or more fields are used to generate a report.
US08972454B2
A screen capture application captures image data by receiving a signal defining a display area for which image data is to be captured, accessing metadata relating to components within the defined display area, and, for components within the display area, storing an image of the component and storing associated position data. The screen capture application may store positional relationships between the components within the defined display area, the positional relationships including ordering of the components relative to each other. The screen capture application may store the components as a plurality of layers within a layered image file. The screen capture application may store the component images in respective files and store the position data in a control file. The control file may include details of the respective component image files.
US08972435B2
Query suggestions are generated based on a Breadth-First-Search having a configurable decaying radius. A computer system receives an initial set of semantically similar queries. The computer system expands the set to include related terms. The set of related terms is included in the initial set. The expansion process is repeated for each query or related term in the set. The radius may be reduced for each subsequent related term added to the query. The process may stop when the radius reaches a specified threshold, e.g., a predetermined number of queries or terms for the set is reached. The set includes the related terms and search queries. The set may be used for, among other things, suggesting related terms to a researcher, improving search engine performance, or selecting appropriate advertisements.
US08972424B2
A system and related method for the electronic processing of text onto a two-dimensional coordinate system to analyze the attitudinal mindset associated with the text. The system and related method may also be employed to generate text based on a desired attitudinal mindset to impart. The system includes a computer system embodying functions that enable a user to analyze the text. The system includes one or more functions to parse attitudinal words and objective words and associate two-dimensional coordinates with the subjective words. The system further includes one or more functions for mapping the associated two-dimensional coordinates to show the geographic locations of each attitudinal word of the text in relation to each other attitudinal word of the text. The system decomposes attitudinal words into attitudinal equivalence and reference category and enables the generation of a report of the mindset associated with the analyzed text.
US08972419B2
In an item selecting apparatus performing a selection of an item to be recommended for each user, it is performed to calculate, with respect to each usage registration of an item by a user, an elapsed value as a difference between a time point of creating the item or staring providing of the item and a predetermined time point, acquire a usage characteristics of each user based on the elapsed value and calculate a freshness value representing a degree of freshness about each item. Further, using correspondence rules of different characteristics corresponding to the usage item on the correspondence rule corresponding to the usage characteristics of each user, calculate a priority of the item for each user, based on the novelty index and performing a selection of the item.
US08972417B2
Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems and machine readable medium for recommending an out-of-network communication by determining a set of potential recommended members of a social networking service based upon one or more recommendation criteria. In some examples the recommendation criteria may include: a profile similarity to a previous target of an out-of-network communication, a degree of correspondence between an interest and intent of the sending member, and a likelihood of response.
US08972410B2
Provided are, among other things, systems, methods and techniques for identifying related objects in a computer database. In one representative implementation: (a) a feature vector that describes an existing object is obtained; (b) comparison scores are generated between the feature vector and various sample vectors; (c) a set that includes at least one designated vector is identified from among the sample vectors by evaluating the generated comparison scores; (d) a computer database is searched for matches between label(s) for the designated vector(s) and labels for representative vectors for other objects represented in the computer database; and (e) at least one related object is identified based on the identified match(es).
US08972405B1
A system is provided for managing data sets in a cloud processing and/or federated environment. In an embodiment, the system described herein may be used in connection with cloud processing of big data sets. The term “big data,” as used herein, may be generally defined to describe data sets so large and complex that they become difficult to work with using on-hand database management tools. The system described herein enables the persistent storage of semantic technology statements for big data sets for processing in a cloud processing and/or federated environment.
US08972403B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to organizing data records in a relational database. An aspect of the invention includes creating index items for a plurality of data records. Each index item includes a counter and the creating results in a plurality of counters. The numerical values of counters in corresponding index items are updated for data records in the plurality of data records that are subjected to random access. The plurality of data records are reorganized based upon the numerical values of the plurality of counters.
US08972401B2
Defeating click-through cloaking includes retrieving a search results page to set a browser variable, inserting a link to a page into the search results page and clicking through to the page using the inserted link. Investigating cloaking includes providing script associated with a suspected spam URL, modifying the script to de-obfuscate the script and executing the modified script to reveal cloaking logic associated with the script.
US08972395B1
A computer-implemented method is provided for enabling Internet users to interact with a graphical search interface by: generating a multi-dimensional search space having a plurality of vertices, based on the initial and related search parameters, wherein each vertex is populated with and represents one of the initial or related search parameters; generating a matrix of hyperlinks within the multi-dimensional search space, each hyperlink having coordinates within the search space defining a relevance of the hyperlink to each of the initial and related search parameters; displaying a graphical interface projecting the multi-dimensional search space, along with user elements by which the user may adjust a relative weight of one or more of the initial and related search parameters by interacting with one or more of the hyperlinks; and displaying a plurality of search results automatically updated in real time based on the user-adjusted weights of the initial and related search parameters.
US08972387B2
Provided are techniques to search for an entity in an entity resolution system. Search input comprising one or more attribute values of one or more attribute types is received. A resolution search is performed to generate a search result set comprising one or more entities and zero or more generic attribute values for generating additional entities. In response to determining that the resolution search generated at least two generic attribute values, one or more query searches are performed for a unique generic group by generic attribute type to identify the additional entities, wherein the unique generic group comprises a subset of the search input and includes at least two generic attribute types; the identified additional entities are combined with the entities in the search result set; and the search result set is returned.
US08972384B2
Architecture that inserts one or more label items in search result entries. In addition to the typical search result caption (title, snippet, and link), the architecture includes the label component of one or more of the label items in the result entry. The number and type of label annotations are based on the query. When a particular label item is selected (e.g., hover, mouse click), a presentation component (e.g., expansion object, pop-up window) launches proximate to a label item in response to interaction with the label item and presents additional information from the target webpage. The additional information can include an action and data related to the search result entry and the target webpage. The data can be obtained from a data source other than the target webpage.
US08972376B1
Techniques for optimized web domains classification based on progressive crawling with clustering are disclosed. In some embodiments, optimized web domains classification based on progressive crawling with clustering includes crawling a domain (e.g., a web site domain) to collect data for a subset of pages (e.g., web pages) of a corpus of content associated with the domain; classifying each of the crawled pages into one or more category clusters, in which the category clusters represent a content categorization of the corpus of content associated with the domain (e.g., a URL content categorization for the domain, host of that domain, and/or directory of that domain); and determining which of the one or more category clusters to publish for the domain.
US08972371B2
A local search engine geographically indexes information for searching by identifying a geocoded web page of a web site and identifying at least one geocodable web page of the web site. The system identifies a geocode contained within content of the geocoded web page of the web site. The geocode indicates a physical location of an entity associated with the web site. The system indexes content of the geocoded web page and content of the geocodable web page. The indexing including associating the geocode contained within content of the geocoded web page to the indexed content of the geocoded web page and the geocodable web page to allow geographical searching of the content of the web pages.
US08972365B2
A storage system having a plurality of storages. The each of the storages include a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor executes a process including transmitting an update request for data which is commonly stored in the plurality of storages according to a predetermined transmission order indicating a path to transfer the update request. The process includes updating data when receiving an update request from another storage. The process includes changing the predetermined transmission order to a transmission order in which one or more storages included in the path are excluded according to the number of times the update request for the data is received.
US08972359B2
A method and apparatus for compression of complex data signals within a telecommunications base station. The method includes representing a sample of a complex value discrete time signal using 2(L−N)−S mantissa bits and 2N+S exponent bits to realize peak output signal to noise ratios over a wider dynamic range compared to a conventional L-bit uniform quantization format. The increases in dynamic range and peak output SNR is achieved without increasing the average number of data bits per sample and with relatively simple computational effort.
US08972350B2
Selective tuple versioning is used on a file system providing file system snapshots using selective tuple versioning for maintaining the state of the file system. The selective tuple versioning works by adding a snapshot table to associate with a file system table by storing a timestamp and a snapshot identification (ID) relating to a snapshot created for preserving past nodes in the file system.
US08972338B2
A log file contains operation records, each operation record is of a certain type, and each operation record is associated with a transaction. A plurality of operation records is read from the log file into a record store. Records of the plurality of operation records of each operation record type are sampled at a predefined sampling rate. Operation records in the plurality of operations records are identified that are associated with completed transactions of which the sampled operation records are associated. The identified operation records are then extracted from the record store into a data store.
US08972337B1
A bloom filter is generated for efficient query processing for unsorted data in a column of a columnar database. Bloom filters represented as bitmaps are generated for data blocks storing data for a column of a columnar database table. An indication of a query directed toward the column is received and the bloom filter for each data block is examined to determine which ones of the data blocks do not need to be read in order to service the query for the select data. Data is then read from the data blocks storing data for the column excepting the ones which do not need to be read.
US08972336B2
A system and method for mapping columns from a source file to a target file. The header for each source column is evaluated heuristically to see if the header matches a predefined entity. The contents of a group of cells in the source column are evaluated probabilistically to determine a probability that the cell contents correspond to at least one of the predefined entities. A score is assigned to the likelihood that the column corresponds to one or more predefined entities. If the score meets a threshold, then the correspondence between the source column and one or more predefined entities is mapped. If the score fails to meets the threshold, then the correspondence between the source column and one or more undefined entities is mapped. Finally, each source column is transformed into a target column in accord with the map.
US08972335B2
A system and method of extracting information from electronic data sources that includes generating a list of file names containing the information to be extracted. Each file name in the list is read into memory, the file that corresponds to the file name is read into memory, and the information is extracted from the file by executing a series of programming instructions. The information is saved to an extracted file, and one or more file names in the list is identified to correspond to an extracted file.
US08972333B2
Embodiments of the invention may help improve the accuracy of individually tailored prognoses in dealing with individual patient prognoses for cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and/or other diseases. Alternate embodiments of the invention may be useful in improving the accuracy of predictions in a variety of other contexts and fields. A method according to various embodiments of the invention includes generating a univariate impact reflecting index (UIRI) based on an indicator, the indicator having a monotonic relationship to a focal conclusion, wherein the UIRI spaces subscales of the indicator according to a magnitude of impact of the indicator to the focal conclusion.
US08972320B2
Smart containers are disclosed. A system for managing content comprises an interface to receive an operation associated with an instance of a smart container. The smart container comprises a logical structure configure using a definition to manage associated content. The system for managing content comprises a processor configured to determine whether the operation is allowable based at least in part on a policy; and in the event that the operation is allowable, perform the operation. A memory is coupled to the processor and is configured to provide the processor with instructions.
US08972311B2
A platform to facilitate transferring spectrum rights is provided that includes a database to ascertain information regarding available spectrum for use in wireless communications. A request for spectrum use from an entity needing spectrum may be matched with available spectrum. This matching comprises determining a pattern in user requests overtime to optimize spectrum allocation. The Cloud Spectrum Services (CSS) process allows entities to access spectrum they would otherwise not have; it allows the end user to complete their download during congested periods while maintaining high service quality; and it allows the holder of rental spectrum to receive compensation for an otherwise idle asset.
US08972302B2
Unique identification information is prerecorded on a disc. The identification information is registered to a server along with user's license when he or she buys the disc. When an terminal unit reproduces data from the disc, identification information is read and transmitted to the server through the Internet. The server creates a key that controls to reproduce data from the disc in accordance with the license identified by the identification information and transmits the key to the terminal unit along with the user's license information for the disc. The terminal unit controls to reproduce contents of the disc in accordance with key and license information transmitted from the server. The license for each disc is managed in accordance with the identification information. Thus, different services can be provided for individual discs.
US08972297B2
The systems and methods described herein allow greater access to a banking platform via a mobile device. The customer can initiate a financial transaction using a mobile device, a bank can inform the customer of the nearest financial transaction terminal to perform that service, and the customer can complete that financial transaction at the financial transaction terminal using the mobile device as a user interface. While conventional systems may use a mobile device to transmit payment information at a point of sale terminal of a brick-and-mortar merchant, the embodiments described herein can allow a customer to conduct a transaction at a financial transaction terminal using the mobile device to initiate a transaction at a location away from a financial transaction terminal, to locate the nearest financial transaction terminal providing the required services, and as a user interface while communicating with the financial transaction terminal.
US08972293B2
Apparatus and methods for auditing a transaction record are provided. The transaction record may correspond to a credit card transaction. The auditing may include identifying a surcharge violation. The surcharge violation may be an unlawful surcharge. The auditing may identify patterns of double surcharging. Transaction-level auditing may include ensuring that a surcharge is returned upon a product return. A mobile wallet application may allow consumers to access and/or report merchant surcharge compliance activity. Functionality may include surcharge receipt scanning for use in crosschecking authenticity of a consumer report. Additional crosscheck functionality provided by geographic location support. Embodiments may include a registry for merchants that certify their surcharge calculations.
US08972292B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for annotating financial transactions. For example, one embodiment of the invention provides a financial institution's computer apparatus having a memory communicably coupled to a processor. In one embodiment, the memory device includes information regarding a plurality of bank accounts stored therein, and the processing device is configured to receive an indication of a transaction involving a first bank account stored in the memory device, send a request for ancillary information about the transaction to a party associated with the first bank account, receive ancillary information, such as a photograph of a product purchased in the transaction, from the party associated with the first bank account, and associate, in the memory device, the received ancillary information with the transaction.
US08972287B1
A system and method for aggregating demand is provided. At least one seller may sponsor a deal room to aggregate selling goods/services from a plurality of buyers. The demand aggregation system can include a dashboard for allowing the at least one seller to set up DealRooms, price curves, offers, products, customers, and/or customer groups, for example. The dashboard can include a plurality of wizards for configuring such information. The demand aggregation system can also include seller displays for notifying buyers of changes in prices relative to ship dates and times of order. The demand aggregation system can also include a predictive modeling and reporting function. An algorithm is employed to utilize product information to post a probability chart on a product price point.
US08972283B2
A wearable mobile scanner system processes a retail store purchase in a convenient, time efficient and reliable manner. The wearable mobile scanner system includes a forearm portion and a hand portion. The forearm portion comprises a main body member and at least one strap member and is adapted to secure the forearm portion upon a user's forearm. The hand portion comprises a central forehand member, a palm member, and a forefinger aperture, wherein the hand portion is aligned with the forearm portion and wherein the hand portion is adapted to receive a hand of the user. A trigger member is located on the forefinger aperture in communication with a USB scanner input device mounted on the central forehand member of the hand portion. A system integrated therein enables store level real-time inventory management and a fully functioning mobile POS for selling merchandise throughout the store and beyond its walls.
US08972275B2
Methods for optimizing social media are disclosed. Such methods may include identifying at least one keyword utilized for at least one webpage, identifying social media correspondence referencing the at least one keyword, analyzing content collected from the social media to determine a frequency of references to the at least one keyword and generating at least one report including information based on the analysis. The report may include recommendations for optimizing social media by, for example, purchasing paid posts or links on a social media website. Systems for performing the methods are also disclosed.
US08972266B2
A speaker intent analysis system and method for validating the truthfulness and intent of a plurality of participants' responses to questions. A computer stores, retrieves, and transmits a series of questions to be answered audibly by participants. The participants' answers are received by a data processor. The data processor analyzes and records the participants' speech parameters for determining the likelihood of dishonesty. In addition to analyzing participants' speech parameters for distinguishing stress or other abnormality, the processor may be equipped with voice recognition software to screen responses that while not dishonest, are indicative of possible malfeasance on the part of the participants. Once the responses are analyzed, the processor produces an output that is indicative of the participant's credibility. The output may be sent to proper parties and/or devices such as a web page, computer, e-mail, PDA, pager, database, report, etc. for appropriate action.
US08972264B2
A method and apparatus for utterance verification are provided for verifying a recognized vocabulary output from speech recognition. The apparatus for utterance verification includes a reference score accumulator, a verification score generator and a decision device. A log-likelihood score obtained from speech recognition is processed by taking a logarithm of the value of the probability of one of feature vectors of an input speech conditioned on one of states of each model vocabulary. A verification score is generated based on the processed result. The verification score is compared with a predetermined threshold value so as to reject or accept the recognized vocabulary.
US08972261B2
A computer-implemented system and method for voice transcription error reduction is provided. Speech utterances are obtained from a voice stream and each speech utterance is associated with a transcribed value and a confidence score. Those utterances with transcription values associated with lower confidence scores are identified as questionable utterances. One of the questionable utterances is selected from the voice stream. A predetermined number of questionable utterances from other voice streams and having transcribed values similar to the transcribed value of the selected questionable utterance are identified as a pool of related utterances. A further transcribed value is received for each of a plurality of the questionable utterances in the pool of related utterances. A transcribed message is generated for the voice stream using those transcribed values with higher confidence scores and the further transcribed value for the selected questionable utterance.
US08972260B2
In accordance with one embodiment, a method of generating language models for speech recognition includes identifying a plurality of utterances in training data corresponding to speech, generating a frequency count of each utterance in the plurality of utterances, generating a high-frequency plurality of utterances from the plurality of utterances having a frequency that exceeds a predetermined frequency threshold, generating a low-frequency plurality of utterances from the plurality of utterances having a frequency that is below the predetermined frequency threshold, generating a grammar-based language model using the high-frequency plurality of utterances as training data, and generating a statistical language model using the low-frequency plurality of utterances as training data.
US08972259B2
A method and system for teaching non-lexical speech effects includes delexicalizing a first speech segment to provide a first prosodic speech signal and data indicative of the first prosodic speech signal is stored in a computer memory. The first speech segment is audibly played to a language student and the student is prompted to recite the speech segment. The speech uttered by the student in response to the prompt, is recorded.
US08972245B2
Provided are techniques for text prediction using environment hints. A list of words is received, wherein each word in the list of words has an associated weight. For at least one word in the list of words, an environment weight is obtained from an environment dictionary. The associated weight of the at least one word is updated using the obtained environment weight. The words in the list of words are ordered based on the updated, associated weight of each of the words.
US08972235B2
Apparatus and methods for simulation of bore hole fractures are disclosed. A device for simulating a fracture in a subterranean formation comprises a housing, an inlet for directing a sample fluid to the housing, and a first disk and a second disk positioned within the housing. The second disk is movable relative to the first disk to form an adjustable gap between the first disk and the second disk and the sample fluid flows through the adjustable gap. A common collector receives at least a portion of the sample fluid that flows through at least one of the first disk and the second disk.
US08972231B2
A reservoir prediction system is disclosed that uses a kernel-based ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) capable of representing non-Gaussian random fields characterized by multi-point geostatistics. The EnKF uses only the covariance and cross-covariance between the random fields (to be updated) and observations, thereby only preserving two-point statistics. The kernel-based EnKF allows the creation of nonlinear generalizations of linear algorithms that can be exclusively written in terms of dot products. By deriving the EnKF in a high-dimensional feature space implicitly defined using kernels, both the Kalman gain and update equations are nonlinearized, thus providing a completely general nonlinear set of EnKF equations, the nonlinearity being controlled by the kernel. By choosing high order polynomial kernels, multi-point statistics and therefore geological realism of the updated random fields can be preserved.
US08972228B2
Techniques for evaluating cardiac electrical dyssynchrony are described. In some examples, an activation time is determined for each of a plurality of torso-surface potential signals. The dispersion or sequence of these activation times may be analyzed or presented to provide variety of indications of the electrical dyssynchrony of the heart of the patient. In some examples, the locations of the electrodes of the set of electrodes, and thus the locations at which the torso-surface potential signals were sensed, may be projected on the surface of a model torso that includes a model heart. The inverse problem of electrocardiography may be solved to determine electrical activation times for regions of the model heart based on the torso-surface potential signals sensed from the patient.
US08972227B2
The present system and method for simulating particles and waves is useful for calculations involving nuclear and full spectrum radiation transport, quantum particle transport, plasma transport and charged particle transport. The invention provides a mechanism for creating accurate invariants for embedding in general three-dimensional problems and describes means by which a series of simple single collision interaction finite elements can be extended to formulate a complex multi-collision finite element.
US08972204B2
Sensing particular gases in a mixture uses precise modulated heating. Sensor relative responses are compared at different temperatures and compared with known relative responses to identify gases and concentrations. Heater current sensors provide feedback control and microprocessor inputs. A processor controls complex impedances and varied frequencies in the sensors. Sensor responses at varied complex impedances and at varied frequencies are compared with known responses at those impedances and frequencies to determine existence and concentration of particular gases. Heater and sensor buses are separate or combined.
US08972200B2
The present subject matter discloses a system and a method for compression of genomic data. In one embodiment, the method for compression of genomic data includes obtaining modified genomic data from genomic data based at least in part on intermediary data identified from the genomic data. In one implementation, the modified genomic data includes a plurality of primary characters. The genomic data may then be modified to generate one or more most-frequent character files based at least on a most-frequent character and a second most-frequent character from among the plurality of primary characters. Further, based at least on the one or more most-frequent character files and the modified genomic data, a least-frequent characters file may be created from the modified genomic data.
US08972193B2
A method of estimating a parameter of a formation contacting a borehole with an instrument that includes a mandrel and a pad includes providing a measurement voltage to the pad; applying a biasing voltage to the mandrel while the measurement voltage is applied to the pad; measuring a received current during at least a portion of time the measurement voltage is provided; and estimating the parameter based on the received current.
US08972187B1
For a segment of a route, a navigation data gathering system and method may progressively increment the precision of data analysis in proportion to the number of people actively on a route segment. Navigation data may be anonymized to preclude the possibility of correlating navigation data with personal data to track users or infer private information. Further, the system or method may determine if information for a route segment can be used at all based on the number of users of that segment. If the number of users does not exceed a threshold, the information collected on that route may not be used for other purposes. Thus, the system and method may use navigation data related to a busy section of an interstate highway at the level of precision with which the data is gathered, but reduce the level of precision of data available for a rarely used road segment.
US08972181B2
A system and method for providing fluent interaction between connectivity applications, personal information management applications and navigation applications. The present invention enables a user to launch navigation application directly from a “Contacts” application. This invention also enables the same result to be achieved in reverse, enabling direct access from a navigation application to contact information, eliminating the need for the user to manually access and enter information.
US08972180B1
A mobile device operable in multiple navigation modes and includes navigation devices, a mode selection module, and a power management module. The navigation devices provide respective data associated with at least one of movement, a position, and a location of the mobile device. Each of the navigation devices is individually operable in an active mode and at least one of an inactive mode and a sleep mode. The mode selection module receives the respective data and selects one of the navigation modes based on the data received from one of the navigation devices. Each of the navigation modes corresponds to different ones of the navigation devices operating in the active mode. The power management module, based on the selected one of the navigation modes, transitions the navigation devices between the active mode and the at least one of the inactive mode and the sleep mode.
US08972178B2
Techniques are disclosed for reporting occupied and unoccupied parking spaces are disclosed. The techniques include determining that a mobile computing device has entered a parking area and determining whether the mobile computing device has entered a pedestrian mode. The pedestrian mode is indicative of a user of the mobile computing device parking a vehicle and exiting the vehicle. When the mobile computing device has entered the pedestrian mode, the technique includes determining a first location of the mobile computing device at a first time corresponding to the mobile computing device entering the pedestrian mode, and providing an occupied notification to a remote computing device, the occupied notification including the first location and indicating that a parking spot corresponding to the first location is occupied. Techniques are further disclosed for reporting unoccupied parking spaces to the mobile computing device.
US08972174B2
A method for providing navigation information, a machine-readable storage medium, a mobile terminal and a server are provided. The method includes generating a preview image captured by a camera and location information of the mobile terminal; transmitting the preview image and location information to a server, receiving, from the server, route guide information generated based on the preview image and the location information, and displaying the route guide information to a user.
US08972171B1
Systems and methods provide a route and turn-by-turn directions based on estimates of current and future traffic along the route. A client device may request turn-by-turn directions between an initial and a final location. A server may identify a plurality of routes between the locations. Each route of the plurality of routes may be divided into route segments. For each route segment of a particular route, the server may estimate a travel time. The travel time may be based on estimated vehicle volume data generated from information received from other vehicles. The server may estimate a total travel time for the particular route. The server may repeat this estimate for each of the plurality of routes between the locations and select the route with the lowest estimated travel time. Based on the selected route, the server may generate turn-by-turn directions and transmit the directions to the client device for display.
US08972168B2
Embodiments for determining a route a consumer takes while traversing a retail store are disclosed. The embodiments include determining a store location of a retail store and a map corresponding to the layout of the retail store, receiving waypoint data including a plurality of positions within the map corresponding timestamps, determining a route in response to the waypoint data, and providing the route and the map for display.
US08972162B1
Described herein are devices, systems, and methods for managing the power consumption of an automotive vehicle, and thereby for optimizing the power consumption of the vehicle. The devices and systems for managing the power consumption of the vehicle typically include power management logic that can calculate an applied power for the vehicle engine based on information provided from the external environment of the vehicle, the operational status of the vehicle, one or more command inputs from a driver, and one or more operational parameters of the vehicle.
US08972159B2
Systems, methods, software, and apparatuses for coordinating traffic proximate to a potential conflict zone, such as a roadway intersection, where travel conflicts, such as crossing traffic, can arise. Coordination involves forming an ad-hoc network in a region containing the conflict zone using, for example, vehicle-to-vehicle communications and developing a dynamic traffic control plan based on information about vehicles approaching the conflict zone. Instructions based on the dynamic traffic control plan are communicated to devices aboard vehicles in the ad-hoc network, which display one or more virtual traffic signals to the operators of the vehicles and/or control the vehicles in accordance with the dynamic traffic control plan.
US08972157B2
A stop control system for an internal combustion engine, which is capable of restarting the engine automatically stopped, in optimum timing, thereby making it possible to positively prevent occurrence of fogging of window glass of a vehicle compartment and improve fuel economy. The engine is connected to a compressor of an air conditioner. According to the stop control system, during idle stop, window glass temperature is calculated, and according to the calculated window glass temperature, limit humidity below which fogging of the window glass does not occur is set. When determining compartment humidity becomes equal to or higher than the limit humidity, the idle stop is terminated and the engine is restarted. When the weather is rainy or snowy, the determining compartment humidity is corrected. When vehicle compartment temperature is not lower than a first predetermined temperature, the window glass temperature is corrected.
US08972151B2
Disclosed herein is a two-cycle engine that includes an exhaust port which is opened and closed at one end portion in a longitudinal direction of a cylinder; a scavenging port which is opened and closed at the other end portion in the longitudinal direction of the cylinder; and a fuel injection port which injects a fuel into the cylinder provided between the exhaust port and the scavenging port, wherein the fuel begins to be injected in a state in which at least any one of the exhaust port and the scavenging port is opened.
US08972149B2
A control system for a machine is disclosed. The control system may have an engine configured to combust a mixture of fuel and air and generate a mechanical power output and a flow of exhaust, and a sensor configured to generate a signal indicative of the machine moving between zones having different air characteristics. The control system may also have a controller in communication with the engine and the sensor. The controller may be configured to selectively adjust operation of the engine based on the signal in an amount related to the air characteristics.
US08972147B2
When employing an adaptive cruise-with-braking (ACB) system to control host vehicle braking reaction distance, a plurality of trigger conditions (e.g., environmental parameters) are monitored. If one or more of the monitored parameters exceeds a predefined threshold, a trigger event is detected, and at least one of a braking reaction distance (BRD) and a following distance limit shape (FDLS) are adjusted. The BRD and FDLS adjustments may be predefined according to the type and/or magnitude of the trigger event. Trigger events may be weighted or prioritized such that higher priority trigger event types correspond to larger BRD reductions, etc. Monitored trigger conditions may include adverse weather, dangerous road terrain or topography, high traffic density, erratic forward vehicle behavior, and the like.
US08972143B2
A data communication system for a vehicle includes an interface gateway device that is configured to be communicatively coupled with a data acquisition module and a client module. The interface gateway device is further configured to receive a value of a data parameter related to operation of the vehicle from the data acquisition module and to communicate the value to the client module for performing a function for the vehicle. The interface gateway device also is configured to determine when either of the data acquisition module or the client module is communicatively coupled with the interface gateway device and to implement respective communication configurations associated with the data acquisition module or the client module to receive the value of the data parameter from the data acquisition module or communicate the value of the data parameter to the client module.
US08972141B2
A method to control braking of an aircraft on a landing runway including: selecting a dummy runway state corresponding to a level of adhesion of wheels of the aircraft to a runway which is lower, over an entire speed range of the aircraft while braking on a runway, than an adhesion level of the wheels of the aircraft to the landing runway; calculating a set point of a deceleration value for the aircraft on the landing runway based on the landing runway for the selected dummy runway state, wherein the calculated set point corresponds to maximum braking value of the aircraft, and controlling the braking of the aircraft using the set point.
US08972140B2
A disc brake apparatus, in which, at the time of a parking brake release operation, a control unit configured to control driving of an electric motor drives the electric motor so as to cause a piston holding mechanism to stop holding a piston, detects separation of a brake pad from a disk, and then stops driving the electric motor after driving the electric motor by a predetermined amount based on a current value of the electric motor.
US08972139B2
A control system that performs control of an electric motor is described. The control system may include a rotating body inertia torque computing unit that uses a rotational state of a vehicle wheel when braking is applied to the wheel to calculate an inertia torque of rotating bodies residing within a span behind the wheel, among members that rotate by the driving force of the electric motor. The control system also may include a controller that performs control of the electric motor to cancel the inertia torque of the rotating bodies based on the calculation result from the rotating body inertia torque computing unit.
US08972136B2
Discloses is a method of controlling a four-wheel drive vehicle equipped with a torque distribution device capable of changing a torque distribution amount for secondary driven wheels according to an input current to be applied thereto. This method comprises the steps of: applying, to the torque distribution device, a current value corresponding to a target torque distribution amount; and, performing a current changing control for increasing and reducing the input current to the torque distribution device. The step of performing a current changing control includes causing the input current to the torque distribution device to be temporarily increased to a value greater than the current value corresponding to the target torque distribution amount, and then returned to the current value corresponding to the target torque distribution amount, and repeating the temporary increasing of the input current at least at intervals of a predetermined time.
US08972130B2
An ECU determines whether or not there is an abnormality (shift pattern abnormality) in a combination of shift signals provided from a shift position sensor. After occurrence of the shift pattern abnormality is determined, ECU determines whether or not a first condition that a shift pattern has changed into a normal pattern of a drive range, a second condition that a brake is ON and a vehicle is in a stop state is satisfied, and a third condition that an accelerator is OFF are satisfied. When occurrence of the shift pattern abnormality is determined, ECU stops generation of driving force of the vehicle and prohibits switching to the drive range. When ECU determines that the above-mentioned first to third conditions are satisfied after occurrence of the shift pattern abnormality is determined, ECU switches the shift range to the drive range indicated by the shift pattern.
US08972126B2
A method for control of a vehicle gearbox which is automatically controlled by a control system. The control system's choice of transmission ratio is influenceable by the vehicle's driver. The control system chooses an initial transmission ratio for moving off stationary. The method includes determining a first initial transmission ratio by using the control system, and determining a second initial transmission ratio indicated by the vehicle driver. The gearbox is set to the second initial transmission ratio indicated by the driver when the second ratio is higher than the first initial transmission ratio determined by the control system.
US08972124B2
A work vehicle includes an engine, an idling stop execution portion, a determination portion, a counting portion, and an idling stop time period adjustment portion. The engine can rotate in a first idling state and a second idling state in which the engine rotates at the number of rotations higher than a prescribed number of rotations. The idling stop execution portion performs an idling stop operation for stopping the engine. The determination portion determines whether or not stop has been made from the second idling state. The counting portion counts the number of times of stop of the engine from the second idling state. An idling stop time period adjustment portion makes a prescribed time period of the second idling state longer than a current time period, when the number of times of stop of the engine is equal to or greater than the prescribed number of times.
US08972118B2
A method of and a control unit arranged for controlling an internal combustion engine connected to a torque converter arranged to operate in a torque converter mode or a lock up mode are provided. The method includes determining whether the torque converter mode or the lock up mode is presently in operation and selecting to control an engine speed (N) in dependence of an operator input when the torque converter mode is present, and selecting to control an engine output power and/or engine output torque in dependence of operator input to the accelerator unit when the lock up mode is present.
US08972117B2
A vehicular light distribution control system (100) controls a light distribution of headlights (3). The control system includes the following parts. The vehicle detecting part (10) detects an anterior vehicle driving in front of an occupants vehicle. The unirradiated region setting part (12) sets a region where the anterior vehicle detected by the vehicle detecting part (10) exists as an unirradiated region. The vehicle motion estimating part (13) estimates an ensuing motion of the anterior vehicle detected by the vehicle detecting part (10). The unirradiated region adjusting part (14) adjusts a size of the unirradiated region set by the unirradiated region setting part (12) depending on an estimated result 15 of the vehicle motion estimating part (13).
US08972115B1
A motor driven power steering (MDPS) may include: a vehicle speed sensor configured to sense vehicle speed; a temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature of a power pack; a current sensor configured to sense an amount of current applied to the MDPS; a storage unit configured to store a thermal resistance value based on the vehicle speed with respect to the temperature of the power pack; and a control unit configured to calculate an estimated temperature by reflecting the thermal resistance value based on the vehicle speed with respect to the temperature of the power pack and the current amount applied to the MDPS into a temperature estimation function, and drive a motor according to the calculated estimated temperature.
US08972108B2
A method and an apparatus for controlling a semi-active suspension system (1) for motorcycles are described. According to the present invention, the damping forces applied to controllable force generators (2, 3), such as controllable shock absorbers, provided to the front and the rear semi-active suspensions of a motorcycle are jointly controlled. In particular, the pitch velocity (Vp) of the suspended mass (Ms) is taken into account so as to jointly control the front and rear suspension systems of a motorcycle. The present invention allows the optimization of the global adherence of the motorcycle to the road surface and of the driving and the travelling comfort of the vehicle.
US08972104B2
An electrical control unit, or ECU, for a vehicle actuation system is described. The electrical control unit determines a current consumption of a current controlled actuator and comprises an input to receive an input signal from the current controlled actuator, an adder to add a bias signal to the input signal, an amplifier to generate an amplified signal by amplifying the signal output by the adder, a subtractor to subtract a signal representative of the bias signal from the amplified signal, and a determining unit to determine the current consumption from the signal output by the subtractor.
US08972102B2
A golf ball tracking system comprising at least one golf ball including an RFID device, wherein the RFID device contains golf ball information, such as a unique identifier. The system includes an RFID reader capable of reading the golf ball information from the RFID device. A positioning system, such as GPS, is associated with the reader and is capable of determining the location of the reader. A computer is interconnected with the RFID reader and the positioning system that is capable of receiving the golf ball information from the reader and location information from the positioning system. The computer is operative to record the golf ball information and associated location information. The system may further comprise a plurality of readers separated by at least one blocker that is made of metal screen.
US08972100B2
A system, method, and computer-readable medium to facilitate treatment of a damaged vehicle by gathering crash information, estimating an extent of vehicle damage, and requesting transport of the damaged vehicle from the crash site to a treatment facility.
US08972092B2
In an apparatus for controlling an unmanned autonomous operating vehicle having an electric motor supplied with power from a battery for operating an operating machine, and magnetic sensors for detecting intensity of a magnetic field of an area wire and controlled to run about in an operating area defined by the area wire through wheels driven by the prime movers to perform an operation using the operating machine and to return to a charging device installed on the area wire so as to charge the battery, there is provided with a turn-back portion formed by bending the area wire at an appropriate position and again bending the area wire to return in a same direction with a predetermined space so as to divide the operating area into a plurality of parts and vehicle running is controlled to be prohibited from going across the turn-back portion.
US08972088B2
A vehicle control system to control operation of a vehicle includes a powertrain system operable according to a plurality of operating modes that drive the vehicle. A sensor is mounted to the vehicle to detect a quality of air surrounding the vehicle. A vehicle control module is configured to select an operating mode of the powertrain system. The operating mode is selected to reduce at least one emission exhausted from the vehicle that contributes to a low air quality measure by the sensor.
US08972087B2
A vehicle control system includes: a controller that configured to obtain an index on the basis of a running condition of a vehicle and that configured to vary a running characteristic of the vehicle on the basis of the index, wherein the controller is configured to relatively delay a variation in the index in response to a variation in the running condition when the variation in the index decreases quickness of a behavior of the vehicle as compared with when the variation in the index increases the quickness of the behavior of the vehicle, and to correct the running characteristic on the basis of the index so that energy efficiency of a driving force source of the vehicle varies within a predetermined range depending on control over power output from the driving force source.
US08972076B2
A driving assistance apparatus that assists driving of a vehicle, includes: a vehicle speed sensor; a communication unit that obtains traffic light information relating to a change in a display condition of a traffic light disposed in an advancement direction of the vehicle; a position calculation unit that calculates relative position information between the vehicle and a traffic light location where the traffic light is disposed; and a passage assistance control unit. The passage assistance control unit detects an operating condition of the vehicle at an intersection location before the traffic light, calculates a corrected vehicle speed on the basis of the operating condition and a current vehicle speed, and determines whether or not the vehicle is permitted to pass through the traffic light location on the basis of the corrected vehicle speed, the relative position information between the vehicle and the traffic light location, and the traffic light information.
US08972065B2
The current application is directed to an intelligent control system that includes intelligent thermostats and remote servers that spread call-home events over time to avoid large peak computational and communications loads on intelligent-control-system servers. The spreading of call-home vents over time is effected by use of call-home splay values pseudorandomly generated for intelligent thermostats.
US08972059B2
In an automatic operation system including: a positioning robot having a holding tool and an inertial sensor at a tip end portion of an arm thereof; a working robot having an operation tool at a tip end portion of an arm thereof; and a robot control device, a positioning correcting method of the present invention includes: conveying and positioning the holding tool, which holds a work, by the positioning robot at a positioning reference position of the holding tool corresponding to an operation position of the work; detecting a displacement amount of the holding tool from the positioning reference position by the robot control device based on an inertial force of the inertial sensor when the working robot carries out a predetermined operation with respect to the work; and correcting based on the detected displacement amount the positioning reference position of the holding tool to a position of the holding tool before the holding tool is displaced.
US08972057B1
A method of automatic path planning for at least one robot within a confined configuration space, the robot including an arm having a plurality of joints and an end effector coupled to the arm. The method includes entering a plurality of process points into a computer, each process point being a location wherein the arm is to be positioned to perform a task, calculating one or more inverse kinematic solutions for each process point, clustering the inverse kinematic solutions into a set of clusters, and generating collision free paths between the clusters in the confined configuration space.
US08972055B1
Methods and systems for selecting a velocity profile for controlling a robotic device are provided. An example method includes receiving via an interface a selection of a robotic device to control, and receiving via the interface a request to modify a velocity profile of the robotic device. The velocity profile may include information associated with changes in velocity of the robotic device over time. The method may further include receiving a selected velocity profile, receiving an input via the interface, and determining a velocity command based on the selected velocity profile and the input. In this manner, changes in velocity of the robotic device may be filtered according to a velocity profile selected via the interface.
US08972049B2
A method for rapidly and accurately dispensing a predetermined number of discrete items, the method comprising: operating a conveyor to transport multiple items towards an imaging device, wherein the items are arranged in a single layer and at least some of the items are transported in parallel; operating the imaging device to continuously capture images of an area immediately below an end of the conveyor, so that items falling off the conveyor are recorded in the images while in trajectory; processing the images in real time, to continuously determine the number of falling items; stopping the conveyor before the number of falling items has reached the predetermined number, while continuing to determine the number of falling items until items cease to fall off the conveyor innertially; and automatically dispensing an additional amount of items, to complete the predetermined number of items.
US08972045B1
In an infrastructure that uses a mobile order fulfillment system, robotic drive units may be dispatched and instructed to bring inventory holders to a workstation where at least one of the inventory holders is packed and prepared for shipment. The robotic drive units are then instructed to move the prepared inventory holder to a transport vehicle such as a truck. Fiducial marks may be removably placed within the transport vehicle to aid navigation of the robotic drive units. At a destination facility, additional robotic drive units may be instructed to move the inventory holders from the truck and place the inventory holders at appropriate storage locations.
US08972040B2
An optimum cutting feed rate of a machine tool is calculated at the outset and a tool path as well as the optimum cutting feed rate calculated is directly output to a driving unit of the machine tool. A relative movement between the work and a tool is made to occur along the tool path at the optimum cutting feed rate for each part of the tool path. To this end, a control system includes a CL data generating unit 32, a CL data memory 33, a driving capability data memory 34, a cutting feed rate data generation unit 35, a cutting feed rate data memory 36, and a controller 42.
US08972036B2
Only a wafer for QC check may be transferred and a production wafer may prevent from being transferred into an assigned process chamber whose QC check is not completed after a maintenance task, and the production wafer may be processed the assigned process chamber after the completion of the QC check. The wafer for QC check is transferred while inhibiting a transfer of the production wafer into the assigned process chamber, and the production wafer is transferred into each of the process chambers of the plurality except the assigned process chamber.
US08972023B2
Apparatus and methods for detecting lead migration through the use of measured artifactual data about the tissue in the vicinity of the lead.
US08972013B2
An implantable medical system includes an implantable medical device (IMD) and an electrode coupleable to the IMD. The electrode is operative to deliver a first electrical signal from the IMD to a neural structure. The system includes a sensor coupleable to the IMD. The sensor is operative to sense a physiological parameter. The physiological parameter may include at least one of a neurotransmitter parameter, a neurotransmitter breakdown product parameter, a neuropeptide parameter, a norepinephrine parameter, a glucocorticoid (GC) parameter, a neuromodulator parameter, a neuromodulator breakdown product parameter, an amino acid parameter, and a hormone parameter. The IMD includes a controller operative to change a parameter of the first electrical signal based upon at least one sensed physiological parameter to generate a second electrical signal and to apply the second electrical signal to the neural structure.
US08972010B2
The present invention generally relates to implantable medical devices, such as pacemakers, and, in particular, to a method and an implantable medical device capable of detecting the presence of noise caused by external noise sources. Voltages and/or impedances are measured over one or several electrode configurations. Based on the measured voltages and/or impedances, noise parameters are calculated, which are compared with reference values to detect the presence of noise. In another aspect of the invention, at least two different electrode configurations with different noise pick-up areas are used in the measurement. Relations between the noise parameters of the at least two vectors are calculated and compared with reference relations to detect the presence of noise.
US08971994B2
A method for displaying a position of a medical device, such as a catheter, during insertion thereof into a patient. In one example embodiment, the method includes obtaining a first set of detected position data relating to a location marker, such as a permanent magnet, then determining a possible first position thereof. A first confidence level relating to a match between the first set of detected position data and a first set of predicted position data is assigned. A determination is made whether the first confidence level meets or exceeds a first threshold. If the first confidence level meets or exceeds the first threshold, a determination is then made whether the first position of the location marker is within a first detection zone. If the first position of the location marker is within the first detection zone, the first position of the location marker is displayed.
US08971990B2
Nonlinear elastography systems and methods are provided. The elastography system includes a data acquisition module, such as an imaging device, and associated system control circuitry. The data acquisition module is configured to acquire various data, such as displacement and/or force data, from a material. A nonlinear transfer function is applied to the acquired data to generate information about the material's stiffness. In one implementation, a map representative of the material's stiffness is generated.
US08971985B2
What is disclosed is a system and method for estimating minute ventilation by analyzing distortions in reflections of structured illumination patterns captured in a video of a thoracic region of a subject of interest being monitored for respiratory function. Measurement readings can be acquired in a few seconds under a diverse set of lighting conditions and provide a non-contact approach to patient respiratory function that is particularly useful for infant care in an intensive care unit (ICU), sleep studies, and can aid in the early detection of sudden deterioration of physiological conditions due to detectable changes in chest volume. The systems and methods disclosed herein provide an effective tool for non-contact minute ventilation estimation and respiratory function analysis.
US08971981B2
Disclosed is an assembly for use with a portable therapeutic device. The assembly includes a mounting housing securable to skin of a patient, and a cannula subcutaneously insertable through a passageway provided within the housing. The cannula is configured to be inserted subsequent to securing of the housing to the skin of the patient.
US08971973B2
A device includes a device body comprising a user input interface for receiving user inputs, a member slidably engaged with the device body and slidable from a first position to a second position, and at least one processor configured, under the control of machine-readable code to detect incidences of user inputs via the user input interface, to detect the sliding of the member from the first position to the second position, and to be responsive to detecting a composite user input comprising a sliding of the member from the first position to the second position while a user input is incident via the user input interface to cause a first operation to be performed.
US08971972B2
Object of the invention is to provide a wireless communication terminal having power saving control function that does not affect performance during high-speed communication. The wireless communication terminal comprises a processor that has a power saving control function for reducing the operating clock under a predetermined condition; and a wireless communication unit capable of carrying out communication at a high or low data communication rate wherein, when communication is carried out at the high data communication rate such as HSDPA, the power saving control function of the processor is turned off and the switching of the operating clock to the low clock is prohibited.
US08971971B2
A mobile wireless communications device may include a portable device housing, wireless communications circuitry carried by the portable device housing, and a self-contained rechargeable battery pack carried by the portable housing for powering the wireless communications circuitry. The self-contained rechargeable battery pack may include a battery casing, at least one internal battery cell carried within the battery casing, internal battery circuitry carried within the battery casing, and at least one internal filter element carried within the battery casing and coupled to the internal battery circuitry.
US08971968B2
A method includes determining by a sensor of a mobile device that a first ambient sound level represents a quiet context for the mobile device, providing a audio signal to a speaker of the mobile device in response to determining that the first ambient sound level represents a quiet context, determining, by the sensor, that a second ambient sound level represents a first noisy context for the mobile device, wherein the second ambient sound level is louder than the first ambient sound level, modifying the audio signal into a beam forming audio signal in response to determining that the second ambient sound level represents the first noisy context, and providing the beam forming audio signal to the speaker.
US08971958B2
A portable personal medical device, e.g., a wearable insulin pump, is provided with a web server and is controllable over a network by a browser equipped client, thereby enabling comprehensive and comfortable control, operation and/or configuration of the device.
US08971955B2
Certain embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for communicating by a multi-mode mobile station (MS) with first and second networks via first and second radio access technologies (RATs). The method generally includes measuring a time offset between frames of the first RAT and frames of the second RAT while maintaining a connection with the first network via the first RAT, sending a request to a base station of the first network to establish scan periods during which the MS may switch to the second network to monitor for paging messages, and switching to the second network to monitor for paging messages during a scan period without terminating the connection with the first network. The first RAT may comprise, for example, WiMAX, while the second RAT may comprise, for example, CDMA.
US08971953B2
In a method for dialing phone numbers using a portable communication device, the device includes a keypad including numeric keys and an LED driver. Each of the numeric keys is equipped with a first color LED light and a second color LED light. The LED driver drives the first LED light under each of the numeric keys to emit a first color light. The LED driver turns off the first LED light under the numeric key and turns on the second LED light under the numeric key to emit a second color light according to an LED control signal. The LED driver further turns off the second LED light and turns on the first LED light to emit the first color light when the digit input from the keypad is in a digital group.
US08971952B2
A second radio base station (1B) receives, from a first radio base station (1A), both interference information for each of a plurality of resource blocks and a traffic amount ratio. Then, the second radio base station (1B) corrects, based on the received traffic amount ratio, the also received interference information for each resource block. Further, the second radio base station (1B) controls, based on the interference information as corrected for each resource block, the transmission power of a radio terminal (2B).
US08971936B2
The present invention is directed to multimodal communications means for transmitting signals representing physiological, performance, and contextual information associated with a subject. In an exemplary embodiment, the multimodal communications means includes multiple radio subsystems (or modes) that enable connection to an external monitoring device to be acquired in a wide range of settings where a single radio mode would be ineffective. Additionally, combining the multimodal communications means of the invention with real-time data-processing allows the communications functionality to be engaged only when data determined to be relevant to the user is identified.
US08971925B2
A method for processing a product identifying code. The product identifying code that identifies a product is received from a wireless device. A location of the wireless device is received. An item that comprises information pertaining to the product is obtained. The obtained item is transmitted to the wireless device. The information pertaining to the product includes a name of each establishment of a plurality of establishments from which the product is available and informational selected from the group consisting of a contact address for each establishment, driving instructions to each establishment, a price of the product at each establishment, a geocoded location of one establishment of the plurality of establishments relative to the location of the wireless device, descriptive information specific to the product, and combinations thereof.
US08971907B2
A method in a user equipment for arranging a Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH, transmission to a network node in a telecommunications system is provided. The PUCCH transmission comprises control information for downlink transmissions. The control information is Reed-Müller, RM, encoded using at least two RM codewords and transmitted using Alamouti encoded transmit diversity over at least two antenna ports. The control information comprises a first bit sequence and a second bit sequence. The user equipment arranges the first bit sequence and the second bit sequence, such that at least two bits from the first bit sequence and second bit sequence, that subsequently are Alamouti encoded together, originates from the same RM codeword of the at least two RM codewords. This is performed in order to enable control information encoded using one RM codeword to be processed independently from control information encoded using another RM codeword at the network node.
US08971906B2
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus is a first BS. The apparatus determines a first channel between a second BS and a first UE served by a third BS, determines a second channel between the first base station and the first UE, and determines a first direction vector to be used by the second base station for sending a data transmission. The apparatus transmits a set of resource blocks to a second UE served by the first base station with a second direction vector determined based on the first channel, the second channel, and the first direction vector to be used by the second base station.
US08971905B2
The invention discloses a method for performing assignment for a call. The method includes: if a user initiates a call, assigning a target bearer for the call and obtaining an identifier of the target bearer; determining at least one target base station according to the identifier of the target bearer and an identifier of a base station accessed by the user, wherein the coverage of the target bearer of the at least one target base station overlaps with the coverage of a bearer, on which the call is initiated, of the base station accessed by the user, and obtaining identifier of the at least one target base station; and sending the identifier of the target bearer and the identifier of the at least one target base station to the user. The invention is capable of improving the success rate of the assignment.
US08971899B2
The invention relates to a method for determining a path between a first radio station and an access point of a radio communications system, whereby the radio communications system comprises additional radio stations. A frequency band subdivided into a number of subbands is used in order to communicate between, the radio stations. At least one subband for communicating is assigned to each radio station. The path extends over one or more of the additional radio stations so that information between the first radio station and the access point can be transmitted over the path. The path is at least partially determined by a radio installation apparatus on request of the first radio station. The radio installation additionally transmits, to at least a portion of the radio stations of the path, respective path identification information, subband information and radio station identification information.
US08971897B2
A centralized-control base station connected to a first transceiving unit and a second transceiving unit includes a first signal quality obtaining unit configured to obtain both uplink signal quality from a mobile station to the first transceiving unit and downlink signal quality from the first transceiving unit to the mobile station; a second signal quality obtaining unit configured to obtain both uplink signal quality from the mobile station to the second transceiving unit and downlink signal quality from the second transceiving unit to the mobile station; and a control unit configured to allow downlink data to be transmitted from the first transceiving unit, downlink feedback information to be received by the second transceiving unit, uplink data to be received by the second transceiving unit, and uplink feedback information to be transmitted from the first transceiving unit, when the downlink signal quality from the first transceiving unit to the mobile station is better than the downlink signal quality from the second transceiving unit to the mobile station and the uplink signal quality from the mobile station to the second transceiving unit is better than the uplink signal quality from the mobile station to the first transceiving unit.
US08971887B2
Examples of the invention allow a content service provider to utilize one or more overlapping wireless networks in a given area to efficiently and cost effectively deliver content and services to a mobile device contained within a terminal. Examples of the invention analyze the characteristics of each wireless network such as cost, latency, security, and bandwidth, the terminal capabilities, and the requested service to determine the most efficient manner to deliver services over one or more wireless networks in a given area. In addition, the service provider re-analyzes the efficiency of service delivery when the mobile device enters a new mobile area. Therefore, sustaining efficient content and service download throughout delivery.
US08971880B2
It is described a method of sending an association level indication to neighboring base stations by a serving base station to indicate to the neighbor base station to report a particular ranging parameter set corresponding to the association level indication for a user equipment requesting scanning of neighbor base stations. According to an embodiment, the ranging parameters of the ranging parameter set are provided to the user equipment in single message or are provided in two or more messages, e.g. in the case of network assisted association reporting.
US08971879B2
A mobile communication method comprises a step in which a first radio base station, finds another radio base station provided in a particular user network when provided in the particular user network; a step in which the first radio base station and the other radio base station found thereby constitutes a group; a step in which a number of mobile stations that can be connected to the group at the same time is decided; and a step in which the number of mobile stations connected at the same time to the first radio base station and other radio base station belonging to the group is restricted based on the decided number of mobile stations that can be connected at the same time.
US08971874B2
Test systems for characterizing devices under test (DUTs) are provided. A test system for testing a DUT in a shunt configuration may include a signal generator and a matching network that is coupled between the signal generator and the DUT and that is optimized to apply desired voltage/current stress to the DUT with reduced source power. The matching network may be configured to provide matching and desired stress levels at two or more frequency bands. In another suitable embodiment, a test system for testing a DUT in a series configuration may include a signal generator, an input matching network coupled between the DUT and a first terminal of the DUT, and an output matching network coupled between the DUT and a second terminal of the DUT. The input and output matching network may be optimized to apply desired voltage/current stress to the DUT with reduced source power.
US08971872B2
An alternative access point for M2ME's is provided by introducing an extended M2ME, a M2ME/Femto, which is able to operate as a Femto cell in addition to operating as an M2ME is provided. The M2ME/Femto is configured to recognize a connectivity disruption in a conventional wireless connection to a home operator and to respond to such a disruption by providing for an alternative, fixed connection between the M2ME/Femto and the home operator. A M2ME configured to access the M2ME/Femto when required due to a connectivity disruption and a node of a home operator configured to set up an alternative fixed connection between the M2ME/Femto and the node when required due to a connectivity disruption at the wireless connection is also provided.
US08971858B2
A method of transmitting contact information to an approved mobile communication device includes receiving an input representative of desired contact information located on a first web page and an input representative of the identity of a desired mobile communication device. The method also includes saving information representative of the desired contact information in a contact information database. The method also includes determining whether the desired mobile communication device is an approved device and transmitting to the desired mobile communication device information representative of a notification to send the information representative of the desired contact information. The method also includes receiving an input from the desired mobile communication device information representative of an acceptance to receive the information representative of the desired contact information, and transmitting to the desired mobile communication device information representative of the desired contact information.
US08971852B2
An apparatus for performing communication by a dual network terminal is disclosed. The dual network terminal is a dual network and dual standby terminal, and the apparatus includes a 3G wireless communication subsystem, a 2G wireless communication subsystem and an identity identification module. The 2G wireless communication subsystem is connected with the identity identification module and the 3G wireless communication subsystem respectively, the 3G wireless communication subsystem is connected with the 2G wireless communication subsystem, and the 3G wireless communication subsystem and the 2G wireless communication subsystem include one virtual identity identification card administration module respectively. A method for performing communication by a dual network terminal is further disclosed, including: the 2G wireless communication subsystem reading information in the identity identification card in the identity identification module, storing the information in its own first virtual identity identification card administration module, and communicating with the 2G network by using the information.
US08971851B2
Methods, systems, and computer programs for performing key agreement operations in a communication system are described. In some aspects, a wireless network operator receives a mobile device identifier and accesses a secret key associated with the mobile device. A message authentication code function is evaluated based on the secret key to produce an output value. A session key and a challenge value are obtained based on the output value. In some aspects, a mobile device accesses a secret key in response to receiving the challenge value from the wireless network operator. A message authentication code function is evaluated based on the secret key to produce an output value. A response value and a session key are obtained based on the output value. The response value is transmitted to the wireless network operator.
US08971844B2
A charging monitoring method includes triggering a quota monitoring procedure for a consumption amount of an international roaming subscriber when it is determined that a service request is specific to the international roaming subscriber. The quota monitoring procedure is performed in a charging network element of an intelligent network system. The method also includes monitoring the consumption amount of the international roaming subscriber through the quota monitoring procedure to determine whether the consumption amount reaches a preset quota. If the consumption amount reaches the preset quota, the method includes rejecting the service request according to a rejection instruction returned by the charging network element. If the consumption amount does not reach the preset quota, the method includes approving the service request according to an approval instruction returned by the charging network element.
US08971838B2
A method of performing a switching procedure of an eCall device from a first state of activity to a second state of activity whereby details of the switching procedure are preferably stored in a report file. The report file is preferably stored in a storage unit which can be part of a database. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an eCall device being adapted for performing a switching procedure from a first state of activity to a second state of activity and relates to a backend unit being adapted for supporting a switching procedure of an eCall device from a first state of activity to a second state of activity. Beyond the present invention relates to an eCall system being adapted for performing a switching procedure of an eCall device from a first state of activity to a second state of activity.
US08971836B2
Disclosed is a method of adjusting the receive frequency of a radio frequency (RF) receiver die (4), the RF receiver die (4) comprising a mixer (8) with an associated local oscillator (10) and a first low-noise amplifier (6) arranged to operate over a first frequency range, the method comprising affixing a second low-noise amplifier (40) arranged to operate over a second frequency range to the RF receiver die (4).
US08971831B2
The present disclosure relates to a front-end system for a radio device, the front-end system comprising a low-noise amplifier (LNA), arranged for receiving a radio frequency input signal (RFIN) and arranged for outputting an amplified radio frequency signal (RFOUT), wherein the low-noise amplifier comprises a first differential amplifier, and a mixer (MIX), arranged for down-converting the amplified radio signal (RFOUT) provided by the low-noise amplifier (LNA) to a baseband signal (BB), by multiplying the amplified radio signal (RFOUT) with a local oscillator (LO) frequency tone, said low-noise amplifier (LNA) and said mixer (MIX) being inductively coupled.
US08971824B2
A radio frequency unit and an integrated antenna are provided. The radio frequency unit includes a duplexer, a power amplifier circuit board, and a transceiver circuit board. The duplexer connects to the power amplifier circuit board and the transceiver circuit board. The power amplifier circuit board connects to the transceiver circuit board. The power amplifier circuit board and the transceiver circuit board are respectively located at two end portions of the duplexer. The power amplifier circuit board and the transceiver circuit board are projected onto the same plane along a direction being vertical to the power amplifier circuit board with their projections on the same plane non-overlapped each other.
US08971821B2
A test system may include a wireless test chamber with metal walls lined with pyramidal absorbers. A trapdoor may be provided in a wall opening to accommodate a robotic arm. The robotic arm may have grippers that grip a device under test or a support structure that is supporting a device under test. The robotic arm may move the device under test to a docking station for automatic battery charging during testing. When it is desired to perform wireless tests on a device under test, the robotic arm may move the device under test through the trapdoor into an interior portion of the test chamber. A turntable and movable test antenna may be used to rotate the device under test while varying angular orientations between test antenna and device under test. Emitted radiation levels can be measured using a liquid filled phantom and test probe on a robotic arm.
US08971818B2
A method for partitioning a communications network includes selecting, by a controller, a starting communications controller for a first region in the communications network according to an interference level. The method also includes including, by the controller, a first neighboring communications controller in the first region if an average inter-cell interference level of the starting communications controller and the first neighboring communications controller exceeds a first threshold and closing the first region if the average inter-cell interference level of the starting communications controller and the first neighboring communications controller fails to exceed the first threshold. The method further includes storing information about the first region in a memory.
US08971817B2
To appropriately effect a coordination with a plurality of communication parties that perform a millimeter wave communication.Transmission and reception beams of the respective terminal stations are directed to an access point, a valid communication link based on the second communication method is utilized as a link for a high speed data transmission between the access point and the respective terminal stations. Of course, the communication link based on the first communication method between the access point and the respective terminal stations is valid and is utilized as a link for the coordination. As the transmission and reception beams are not directed between the terminal stations, the communication link based on the second communication method is invalid, but the valid communication link based on the first communication method can be utilized as the link for the coordination.
US08971807B2
The present invention relates to a system and method for improving directed connectable advertising in a low energy Bluetooth device. The host on the Bluetooth device configures an advertisement interval length, an advertisement window length, and a number of attempts. The advertisement window length is equal to or shorter than the advertisement interval length, which may be less than 1.28 seconds. Next, advertising packets are transmitted for the length of the advertising window on three advertising channels. Packets are transmitted consecutively, with no more than a 3.75 millisecond delay between packets, until the end of the advertisements window. After transmitting, a link layer of the Bluetooth device decrements the number of attempts. Once all attempts have been exhausted, the advertisements end. Otherwise, the link layer waits for the end of the advertisement interval. The link layer generates a pseudorandom delay between 0 and 10 milliseconds, and waits for this time to pass before initiating another advertisement interval with transmission during the advertisement window. If a connection is made at any point, the advertisement may be ended.
US08971803B2
A wireless media player and a related system and methodology are disclosed. One aspect of the wireless media player system pertains to a virtual connector system, apparatus, and method for the automatic establishment of wireless connectivity with other electronic devices. In one embodiment, the media player device employs the use of integrated Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to exchange communication settings, media capability, and other parameters with an external device that also has integrated RFID technology. The automatic exchange of settings and other information via a proximity-based RFID data exchange allows a media player to quickly establish a secure communication link with another device via a commonly supported wireless protocol such as Ultra Wideband (UWB) or Bluetooth. Another aspect of the media player system pertains to a method of using the captured media capability of the connecting device to customize certain menu options and software parameters in the media player.
US08971797B2
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system and method for acquiring signal received from satellite vehicles (SVs) in a satellite navigation system. In one example, although claimed subject matter is not so limited, information processed in acquiring a signal from a first SV may be used in acquiring a signal from a second SV.
US08971794B2
In some examples, a method of transmitting data in a radio communication system is described. The method can include dividing data intended for a communication receive node into a high priority code stream and a low priority code stream. The method can also include transmitting the high priority code stream to the communication receive node and a relay node. The method can also include transmitting the low priority code stream to the communication receive node. The relay node may be configured to receive, amplify and forward the high priority code stream to the communication receive node. The communication receive node may be configured to receive the high priority code stream substantially during first time intervals and may be further configured to receive both the low priority code stream and the amplified high priority code stream substantially during second time intervals interleaved with the first time intervals.
US08971783B2
A fixing device includes an irradiation section that irradiates a recording medium with light, the recording medium having thereon an image formed by an image forming material to be fixed by absorbing light and being transported along a transporting path, and a preventing member that is provided with a first hole that allows the light to pass therethrough, and prevents the image forming material irradiated with the light from adhering to the irradiation section.
US08971782B2
Fixing device, image forming apparatus incorporating same, and method for heating fixing rotary body
A fixing device includes an induction heater constructed of an exciting coil, a first pair of degaussing coils, and a second pair of degaussing coils. A controller turns off the exciting coil while the controller turns on one of the first pair of degaussing coils and the second pair of degaussing coils and at the same time turns off the other one of the first pair of degaussing coils and the second pair of degaussing coils, and then turns on the exciting coil for an extra time period corresponding to reserved power not supplied to the exciting coil while the exciting coil is turned off.
US08971767B2
A charge applying member includes a conductive roller and a shaft. The conductive roller includes a first region in contact with a member to be charged and facing an image forming region of the member to be charged and a second region next to a longitudinal end of the first region and facing a region of the member to be charged outside the image forming region and is configured to apply a charge to the member to be charged. The shaft formed of a metallic material inserted into the conductive roller and configured to be given a voltage from a power supply. A region plated with a metal having a lower ionization tendency than the shaft is formed as a plated region on a surface portion of the shaft corresponding to the first and second regions and a non-plated region is formed on a surface portion of the shaft corresponding to the second region.
US08971760B2
A process cartridge is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing roller, a drum unit containing the drum, a developing unit containing the roller and being movable so the roller contacts and is spaced from the drum, and a first force receiver receiving a force from a main-assembly first force applier by movement of a door from open to closed positions when mounting the cartridge and a second force receiver movable from a stand-by position by movement of the first force receiver by a force received from the first force applier. The second force receiver takes a projected position receiving a force from the second force applier to move the developing unit so the roller moves out of contact with the drum, the projected position being higher than the stand-by position.
US08971751B2
A piezoelectric transducer driver configured to drive a piezoelectric transducer for converting an inputted alternating-current voltage, includes: a drive circuit configured to generate the alternating-current voltage to be inputted into the piezoelectric transducer; a frequency controller configured to control a frequency of the alternating-current voltage as a drive frequency to be applied to the piezoelectric transducer; and a pulse generation circuit configured to generate a drive pulse having a switching frequency corresponding to the drive frequency, and to output the drive pulse to the drive circuit. The drive circuit includes a switching element configured to generate the alternating-current voltage by executing a switching operation corresponding to a pulse width of the drive pulse, and the pulse generation circuit changes the pulse width depending on the switching frequency.
US08971749B2
An optical sensor is disclosed. The optical sensor includes an irradiating system which irradiates a linearly polarized light; a first photodetecting system including a first photodetector which is arranged on an optical path of a light which is specularly reflected from a subject; a second photodetecting system including an optical element which is arranged on an optical path of a light which is diffuse reflected from the subject within an incident face in the subject and which separates a linearly polarized component in a second polarizing direction which is orthogonal to a first polarizing direction and a second photodetector which receives a light separated by the optical element, wherein an angle of taking in the light in the first photodetector and an angle of taking in the light in the second photodetector are mutually different.
US08971743B2
An image forming apparatus including a latent image bearing member, a charger, a latent image forming device, a developing device, and a transfer device is provided. The transfer device is adapted to transfer a toner image formed on the latent image bearing member onto an intermediate transfer member or a recording medium by action of a transfer elected field in a transfer position where the latent image bearing member faces the transfer device. When a non-charged portion of the latent image bearing member that has not been charged to a predetermined potential by the charger passes through the transfer position, a strength of the transfer electric field is lowered than that in transferring the toner image.
US08971742B2
Provided is an image forming apparatus which enables control to change a longitudinal magnification of an image transferred on a sheet in a sheet conveyance direction by changing a rotation speed of a second transfer section while prohibiting misalignment of transfer without requiring a changing time of the longitudinal magnification which causes the decreasing of productivity.
US08971737B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a first conductive member, a bias application device, and a control portion, and performs image formation on a surface of the image bearing member while making the image bearing member rotate. The image forming apparatus is capable of executing a heating-up mode in which, at the time of non-image formation, in a state where the image bearing member is made to rotate at a velocity lower than that used at the time of image formation, an alternating current bias having a frequency higher than that used at the time of image formation and a peak-to-peak value twice or more as large as a discharge start voltage between the first conductive member and the image bearing member is applied to the first conductive member to cause a surface of the image bearing member to be heated up.
US08971736B2
A collection device including: an accommodation part configured to accommodate therein collected adhering substance; and a detection part configured to detect an amount of the adhering substance in the accommodation part and including, a moving member configured to move from a first position to a second position, the accommodation part being capable of accommodating therein the adhering substance when the moving member is arranged at the first position and being full of the adhering substance when the moving member is in the second position, and a restraining member configured to restrain the moving member from moving from the first position to the second position when the moving member is arranged at the first position, and restrain the moving member from moving from the second position to the first position when the moving member is arranged at the second position.
US08971723B2
A method is provided for detecting the skew between parallel light signals generated from a serial data stream. The method can be used with polarization multiplexed signal, as well as with wavelength division multiplexed signals, spatial division multiplexed signals, phase modulated signals, or intensity modulated signals. The method can be used with direct detection schemes as well as with coherent detection schemes. The method is provided with: imprinting dips between a fixed number of transmitted symbols of the parallel signals; detecting an electrical signal related to the dips for each parallel signal; and comparing the electrical signals in delay.
US08971717B1
An optical system has an optical emitter that transmits an optical signal through an optical fiber. An optical detector detects light from the fiber and provides an analog signal indicative of such light. A crosstalk cancellation element is configured to receive an electrical signal from the optical emitter and to adjust such signal in order to form a cancellation signal that models the optical and/or electrical crosstalk affecting the analog signal. The cancellation signal is subtracted from the analog signal thereby removing optical and/or electrical crosstalk from the analog signal.
US08971711B2
The present invention discloses a method for assigning and processing a label in an optical network. The method includes: learning that a label switched path is required to be established in an optical network; generating a label, in which the label is used for indicating that a first optical channel data unit is multiplexed to a second optical channel data unit; the label includes a tributary slot type indication field that is used for indicating a tributary slot type of the second optical channel data unit, and the label further includes a tributary slot assignment indication field that is used for indicating a tributary slot occupied in the second optical channel data unit into which the first optical channel data unit is multiplexed; and sending the label to a node on the label switched path by a signaling message of GMPLS.
US08971696B2
A rotational shake compensation calculation unit in an image capturing apparatus calculates rotational shake produced by apparatus rotation about an axis orthogonal to an optical axis of an imaging optical system, thereby calculating a compensation amount for image shake. A translational shake compensation calculation unit calculates a compensation amount for image shake resulting from translational shake produced in a travel direction of the apparatus along a direction orthogonal to an optical axis of the optical system. An estimating device estimates translational shake using a vibration model. A translational shake compensation amount calculation unit calculates a translation shake compensation amount based on the estimation amount and varies the translation shake compensation amount in response to the compensation range of the shake compensation unit of the focal distance of the optical system. The compensation amounts for translational shake and rotational shakes are combined, thereby controlling shake compensation unit driving.
US08971695B2
A heater is provided with a heater core having a source of thermal energy in a heat exchange relationship with a heat exchanger. A fan moves air through the heater core from an air inlet to an air outlet. The heater core is thermally insulated by an air jacket from an exterior case.
US08971692B2
An information processing device includes an API (Application Programming Interface) only for reading/writing of an offset value, which is data providing disparity to a graphics image to generate an image for the left eye and an image for the right eye from the original image, arranged to store the offset value in an internal storage region that is a storage region inside of a reproducer configured to reproduce images, and to read out the offset value stored in the internal storage region.
US08971683B2
A multimode optical fiber includes: (i) a graded index glass core having a radius R1 in the range of 20 microns to 50 microns, a maximum relative refractive index Δ1MAX in the range between 0.5% and 3%; a graded index having a profile with (a) by an alpha (α) parameter wherein 1.9≦α≦2.2, and (b) a deviation from the alpha profile in at least one region of the core, such that the difference in the refractive index delta of the core from that determined by the core alpha value, at the radius R1 is less than 0.001, and (ii) a cladding surrounding and in contact with the core, wherein the fiber has an bandwidth greater than 5000 MHz-km at a wavelength λ where λ≧800 nm.
US08971679B2
An apparatus for passive alignment of optical devices comprises a substrate including a trench in a top surface thereof, where the trench has a first end positioned at an edge of the substrate and a second end positioned at an interior region of the substrate, and a lens disposed on the top surface of the substrate adjacent to the second end of the trench. The apparatus further includes a top holder having a longitudinal indentation in a bottom surface thereof for mounting an optical fiber. The longitudinal indentation is sized to fit a top portion of the optical fiber such that a bottom portion of the optical fiber extends below the bottom surface of the top holder when the optical fiber is mounted therein. One or both of the substrate and the top holder include one or more spacer features configured for three-dimensional (3D) alignment of the lens with the optical fiber when the top holder is brought into contact with the substrate.
US08971676B1
A chip package includes an optical integrated circuit (such as a hybrid integrated circuit) and an integrated circuit that are adjacent to each other on the same side of a substrate in the chip package. The integrated circuit includes electrical circuits, such as memory or a processor, and the optical integrated circuit communicates optical signals with very high bandwidth. In addition, an input/output (I/O) integrated circuit is coupled to the optical integrated circuit between the substrate and the optical integrated circuit. This I/O integrated circuit includes high-speed I/O circuits and energy-efficient driver and receiver circuits and communicates with optical devices on the optical integrated circuit. By integrating the optical integrated circuit, the integrated circuit and the I/O integrated circuit in close proximity, the chip package may facilitate improved performance compared to chip packages with electrical interconnects.
US08971664B2
A method for generating a super-resolution image from at least two input images, represented by digital samples. The super-resolution image having a final resolution higher than an initial resolution of one of at least two input images. The method including obtaining, for each input image of the at least two input images, a distortion model to register the input image on a reference grid at the final resolution. The method including warping each input image into a warped image according to the distortion model. Computing warped coordinates respectively for digital samples of the input image. Wherein, the contribution of each digital sample of the input image to the warped image is weighted. The weight applied to each digital sample depending on the warped coordinates of the digital sample. Combining the warped images in order to generate a combined warped image having the final resolution.
US08971645B1
A system, apparatus, and method for video categorization using heterogeneous signals are disclosed. One aspect of the disclosed embodiments is a method for categorizing a plurality of video streams. The method includes determining a plurality of features of at least some of the plurality of video streams, determining a category of a first video stream of the plurality of video stream based on its plurality of features, identifying, using a processor, a relationship between the first video stream and a second video stream of the plurality of videos, the relationship having an associated weight, and updating, using the processor, the category of the first video stream based on a first message determined using the associated weight.
US08971640B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for graphical overlay object translation. One of the methods includes receiving a first plurality of first feature points, each first feature point being associated with a plurality of feature descriptors and a respective location on the first digital image. The method includes receiving a second plurality of second feature points, each second feature point being associated with a plurality of feature descriptors and a respective location on the second digital image. The method includes determining the translation offset for the second digital image from the first digital image by matching locations of the first feature points with locations of the second feature points without regard to the feature descriptors.
US08971639B2
Examples disclosed herein relate to creating an image collage in a semantic theme based shape. For example, a processor may determine a semantic theme associated with an image collection, select a shape associated with the semantic theme, and create a collage of at least a subset of the image collection in the selected shape. The processor may output the created collage.
US08971636B2
Disclosed is an image creating device including a first obtaining unit which obtains an image including a face, a first extraction unit which extracts a face component image relating to main components of the face in the image and a direction of the face, a second obtaining unit which obtains a face contour image associated to the face in the image and a second extraction unit which extracts a direction of a face contour in the face contour image. The image creating device further includes a converting unit which converts at least one of the face component image and the face contour image based on the both directions of the face and the face contour and a creating unit which creates a portrait image by using at least one of the face component image and the face contour image being converted by the converting unit.
US08971633B2
An apparatus, a content retrieval method and a program facilitate recognizing content details of a moving image by displaying a retrieval result for each of a plurality of images. A metadata extracting unit extracts metadata of a representative image from content supplied from a content input unit and stores the metadata in a metadata database. An image feature quantity extracting unit extracts image feature quantity from content and stores it in an image feature quantity database while extracting image feature quantity from a retrieval image. A retrieving unit compares the image feature quantity of the retrieval image with the image feature quantity stored in the image feature quantity database and specifies a still image which is similar to the retrieval image. An output unit reads metadata of the content, generates display data necessary for performing timeline displaying, and generates display data for displaying a retrieval result on a timeline.
US08971626B1
Systems, articles of manufacture, and methods for generating an equalized image using properties of the two-dimensional Weibull distribution.
US08971625B2
According to various embodiments, a dolly zoom effect is generated using light field image data. The dolly zoom effect simulates an in-camera technique wherein a camera moves toward or away from the subject in such a way that the subject is kept at the same size throughout the effect. The effect causes the relative size of foreground background elements to change while foreground elements such as the subject remain the same size. By varying a parameter while projecting the light field image, the size of each object in the projection image scales depending on its relative depth as compared with the depth of the target subject, thus simulating the dolly zoom effect without any need to physically move the camera.
US08971619B2
A method and device for extracting color features, relating to the field of image processing includes converting an original image into sub-images corresponding to channels in a color space, dividing the sub-images into a plurality of cells with identical size, and calculating the color histograms of each of the plurality of cells. A cell and neighboring cells thereof are defined as the effective scope of the cell, and a feature vector of the cell is determined according to a degree of similarity of the color histograms of every two neighboring cells in the effective scope. The feature vectors of the cells in the sub-images are concatenated to obtain feature vectors of the sub-images, and a feature vector of the original image is obtained according to the feature vectors of the sub-images.
US08971615B2
An invention is disclosed for classifying a graphic—e.g. as text or non-text. In embodiments, machine learning is used to generate a solution for classifying graphics of a graphic based on providing the machine learning system a plurality of graphics that are already classified. The way to determine a classification is then used by a remote presentation session server to classify tiles of frames to be transmitted to a client in a remote presentation session. The server encodes the tiles based on their classifications and transmits the encoded tiles to the client.
US08971609B2
Embodiments herein exploit the optical sectioning capability of reflectance confocal microscopy to non-invasively survey the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ), noting the irregularities associated with malignancy. Methods are provided to aid a clinician in diagnosing melanoma through pattern recognition to extract pertinent diagnostic information from large 3D confocal images. Identifying the combination of pagetoid melanocytes and DEJ breakdown increases the accuracy of detection. A method may be used to process a 3D confocal volume of images taken by a clinician of a suspicious lesion and deduce the depth location z of the first reflective surface (FRS) at each x-y position. This FRS is where the most superficial melanin resides. In this manner, the stratum corneum and epidermis are digitally stripped and no longer distract the clinician from the more diagnostically relevant pigmented cell network. The FRS is putatively either the DEJ for benign nevi or the depth of a pagetoid melanocyte at x,y above the DEJ. Thus by creating a 3D surface plot of the FRS for each lateral x,y point, the presence of pagetoid cells is identified by a discreet jump in the FRS above the level of the DEJ. The DEJ map may also be used to determine if breakdown of the DEJ is occurring.
US08971606B2
A method is provided for automatic identification of the contours of at least one portion of a predefined bone on the basis of a plurality of images representing parallel sections through a measurement volume including the portion of bone and which are obtained by a medical imaging technique. The method includes: a step of obtaining at least one shape of closed contour in at least one of the filtered images; a step of associating with each of the shapes a tag selected within a predefined bone-related nomenclature; a step of classifying the shapes so as to form at least one group of shapes delimiting a common volume isolated in space; a step of selecting the shapes of the group of target shapes.
US08971592B2
A method is described for determining eye location on a frontal face digital image in order to validate the frontal face as such and determine points of reference. The method consists of the following steps: obtain a frontal face digital image that is W pixels wide and H pixels high in grayscale, where the top left vertex of the digital image is considered to be the reference source; detect each eye, starting from a search subimage of the frontal face digital image, delivering approximate coordinates if both eyes have been detected, or an arbitrary predetermined value to indicate no eye detection; locate the iris of each eye, if both eyes have been detected, starting from the approximate coordinates, validating the frontal face digital image by delivering eye positions; or, validate the frontal face digital image if one or both eyes have not been detected by submitting a search subimage defined by an area resulting from centering a square of area L in the original image, where L=0.8×W, delivering coordinates for the eyes.
US08971591B2
A server determines a plurality of faceprints representing a plurality of users to be recognized at a client device. Each faceprint contains a number of reference images for a given user that are used to recognize facial images of the user detecting in media captured at the client device. The faceprints delivered to the client device are determined for the client device based on the users likely to be detected in images captured at the client device. The reference images with a given faceprint delivered to the client device are selected by the server based on their recognition value in identifying the users likely to be detected in images captured at the client device.
US08971588B2
A system and method for contactless handprint capture is disclosed that includes an image capture device to capture whole handprint images of a subject hand at each of a plurality of different focal distances, with the image capture device including an imaging camera and an electro-optics arrangement having a plurality of light modulating elements and polarization sensitive optical elements having differing optical path lengths based on polarization states. A control system is coupled to the image capture device to cause the device to capture the handprint images at each of the different focal distances, with each handprint image having a depth-of-focus that overlaps with a depth-of-focus of handprint images at adjacent focal distances such that redundant handprint image data is captured. The control system registers each handprint image with positional data and creates a composite handprint image from the handprint images captured at the different focal distances.
US08971582B2
An improved system and method for capturing and uploading pertinent information related to a motor vehicle that is accurate, simple to use, and may be implemented on a wide-array of mobile devices in a cost-effective manner. Methods are also disclosed for users of the mobile devices to send identifying information to a database, where the identifying information is compared to other motor vehicle identifying information located the database.
US08971580B2
An invention for identifying a spatial location of an event within video image data is provided. Disclosed are embodiments for generating trajectory data of a trajectory of an object for a plurality of pixel regions of an area of interest within video image data, the generating comprising: identifying one or more pixel regions from the plurality of pixel regions containing trajectory data; performing a multi-point neighborhood scan within the one or more pixel regions from the plurality of pixel regions containing trajectory data; and generating a transition chain code based on the multi-point neighborhood scan. Embodiments further generate a set of compressed spatial representations of the trajectory data of the trajectory of the object for an event based on the transition chain code, and generate a lossless contour code of the trajectory data of the trajectory of the object for the event based on the transition chain code.
US08971574B2
A method of performing facial recognition and tracking of an image captured by an electronic device includes: utilizing a camera of the electronic device to capture an image including at least a face; displaying the image on a display screen of the electronic device; determining a degree of orientation of the electronic device; and adjusting an orientation of scanning lines used to scan the image for performing face detection so that the orientation of the scanning lines corresponds to the orientation of the electronic device.
US08971573B2
A method for tracking a moving vehicle includes detecting the vehicle by acquiring a series of temporal related image frames. In an initial frame, the detecting includes locating a reference feature representative of a vehicle. The method further includes setting the reference feature as a full-size template. The method includes tracking the vehicle by searching a current frame for features matching the full-size template and at least one scaled template. The tracking further includes setting as an updated template one of the full-size and scaled templates closest matching the feature. The method includes repeating the tracking using the updated template for each next frame in the series.
US08971567B2
The present disclosures relates generally to digital watermarking and data hiding. One claim recites a smartphone comprising: a camera to capture video of a display that is rendering video, in which the video comprises a first watermark signal embedded in a first portion of the data, a second watermark signal embedded in a second portion of the data, and a third watermark signal embedded in a third portion of the data, in which at least two of the first watermark signal, second watermark signal and third watermark signal are inversely related to one another; electronic memory for buffering data representing captured video; one or more electronic processors programmed for: applying a first perspective distortion to the data representing the captured video to yield first perspective distorted video; and analyzing the first perspective distorted video to detect digital watermarking, in which a second perspective distortion is applied to the data representing the captured video to yield second perspective distorted video when the analyzing does not detect digital watermarking, and then performing analyzing the second perspective distorted video to detect digital watermarking. Of course, other claims are provided too.
US08971551B2
In some embodiments, a virtual bass generation method including steps of: performing harmonic transposition on low frequency components of an input audio signal (typically, bass frequency components expected to be inaudible during playback of the input audio signal using an expected speaker or speaker set) to generate transposed data indicative of harmonics (which are expected to be audible during playback, using the expected speaker(s), of an enhanced version of the input audio which includes the harmonics); generating an enhancement signal in response to the transposed data; and generating an enhanced audio signal by combining (e.g., mixing) the enhancement signal with the input audio signal. Other aspects are systems (e.g., programmed processors) and devices (e.g., devices having physically-limited bass reproduction capabilities, such as, for example, a notebook, tablet, mobile phone, or other device with small speakers) configured to perform any embodiment of the method.
US08971550B2
A signal processing device includes: a detection unit generating a digital detection signal corresponding to motion of a diaphragm of a speaker to output the digital detection signal; a gain adjustment unit generating a digital feedback signal by multiplying the outputted digital detection signal by again coefficient to output the generated digital feedback signal; a combining unit combining the outputted digital feedback signal with a digital audio signal; a storage unit storing plural gain coefficients; and a control unit performing control so that a given gain coefficient is selected from the plural gain coefficients and that the selected gain coefficient is used for the multiplication.
US08971544B2
A method for adjusting the performance of an electroacoustic transducer includes receiving, by gain adjustment circuit, a displacement signal corresponding to a relative motion between a magnetic structure of the electroacoustic transducer and a voice coil of the electroacoustic transducer. The method includes detecting, by the gain adjustment circuit, a displacement signal value of the displacement signal as one of meeting or exceeding a displacement signal threshold. The method includes modifying, by the gain adjustment circuit, a loop gain of an active noise reduction loop associated with the electroacoustic transducer when the displacement signal value of the displacement signal one of meets or exceeds the displacement signal threshold.
US08971535B2
A key manager provides a way to separate out the management of encryption keys and policies from application domains. The key manager may create cipher objects that may be used by the domains to perform encryption or decryption, without exposing the keys or encryption/decryption algorithms to the domains. A master key managed by the key manager may be used to encrypt and decrypt the domain keys that are stored under the control of the key manager. The key manager supports the rekeying of both the master key and the domain keys based on policy. Multiple versions of domain keys may be supported, allowing domains to access data encrypted with a previous version of a domain key after a rekeying.
US08971527B2
A device having a physical unclonable function includes an integrated circuit and a phase change memory embedded in the integrated circuit and including a plurality of cells, where the phase change memory is set in a manner that creates a phase variation over the plurality of cells, and where the phase variation comprises the physical unclonable function. In another embodiment, a device having a physical unclonable function includes a phase change memory embedded in the device and comprising a plurality of cells, where the phase change memory is set in a manner that creates a phase variation over the plurality of cells, and where the phase variation comprises the physical unclonable function, and a measurement circuit for extracting the physical unclonable function from the phase change memory.
US08971523B2
A method of echo cancellation, particularly for use in high definition applications, splits an input signal and reference signal into M single-sided sub-band. The subbanded signals are downsampled at a downsampling rate N, where N≦M, adaptively filtered, and recombined to produce an output signal. The sub-bands are preferably oversampled such that N
US08971517B2
Embodiments are disclosed herein for processing agent interactions. In a particular embodiment, a method provides receiving interaction data describing states and transitions between states within interaction sessions. The method further provides identifying business processes based on the interaction data and identifying instances of the business processes. The method further provides storing the instances and generating a model from the instances.
US08971516B1
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a system, method, or computer program product for providing a unified representation of all customer relationships with an entity. This representation focuses on customer products in arrears that are to be recovered. The invention presents automatic communication history tracking to aid in providing an overarching view of all customer relationships to a representative. This automatic communication history tracking monitors all communications, manual or automatic, incoming or outgoing. The tracking monitors the date, time, disposition, and the like of all customer communications. As such, the invention allows the representative to make decision and take appropriate actions immediately based on the entire relationship, including customer communication history. The invention takes this information and incorporates it with all of the customer's relationships and external factors to provide a holistic customer service experience for a customer with accounts in arrears.
US08971514B2
A system may include a failed route avoidance device. The failed route avoidance device may receive a notification that a record, of a call that failed to be extended to a contact agent in a customer network, is inserted into a failed call list; determine whether an identifier for the contact agent associated with the call is to be placed in an avoidance list based on a response code that a network element sends, to a call router that received the call, when the a connection from the call at the call router to the contact agent fails to be established; generate an avoidance record when the failed route avoidance device determines that the identifier for the contact agent is to be placed in the avoidance list; and send the avoidance record to a configuration device that inserts the avoidance record into the avoidance list.
US08971512B1
A method and apparatus are disclosed of transmitting live event notification information to a user device. One example method may include retrieving event user preference information from an event user database based on prestored user preferences. The method may also include transmitting an initial event notification message to an end user communication device based on the event user preference information to notify the end user of an upcoming event and receiving a response message from the end user communication device indicating a current availability of the end user. The user device may receive notification information via more than one communication channel and respond in a number of different ways.
US08971509B2
A system for processing phone calls comprising a network of servers in communication with telephonic communication devices, and software stored on and executable by the servers, the software being configured to receive inputs from a user, generate an ordered set of PBX Feature definitions executable by the server network in a distributed fashion to perform respective PBX Feature tasks related to telephone calls, and write the PBX Feature definitions to a distributed database system that is accessible by the servers. The ordered set may evaluate the current state of a phone call, and each PBX feature definition may perform a respective task responsive to the evaluated state. Each PBX Feature definition is executable to define and store a new state of the phone call. Each PBX Feature definition generated by the software is configured to be combined with any other PBX Feature definition generable by the software.
US08971503B1
A system and method are provided for operating a call order center, comprising: obtaining voice training data for a call center service representative (CCSR) for phrases associated with an ordering process or products associated with the call order center; receiving customer call for an order by the CCSR on a telephone; activating a voice recognition system that accesses the CCSR voice training data via a switch; during a telephone call, issuing commands and providing data by the CCSR associated with the order to the voice recognition system that are translated and entered into an ordering system by the voice recognition system; and deactivating the voice recognition system via the switch. A role can be assigned to or deassigned from an employee based on their location relative to a particular location point within a work area.
US08971501B2
A system and method assists an emergency medical dispatcher in responding to emergency calls by generating a determinant level code. A computer implemented method to determine Code Hierarchy Bias generates a determinant level sub-code that can be stored and analyzed with the determinant level code to determine the nature of Code Hierarchy Bias, to reveal hidden signs, symptoms, and conditions, to improve the accuracy and usefulness of determinant level codes, and to tailor emergency medical response structure for a more efficient use of emergency response personnel and resources.
US08971495B2
An imaging system can include an imaging capturing portion, an image processing unit, a main power supply and a supplemental power supply. The image capturing portion can include a source that emits an emission signal towards a target to be imaged, and a receiver that receives the emission signal emitted by the source. The image processing unit can receive the received emission signal from the imaging capturing portion and generate image data based on the received emission signal. The main power supply can be coupled to the imaging capturing portion and the imaging processing unit for providing operational power thereto. The supplemental power supply can be coupled to the main power supply and the imaging processing unit. The supplemental power supply can be charged by the main power supply in a first mode and provide operational power to the imaging processing unit in a second mode.
US08971493B2
A medical imaging system adaptively acquires anatomical images using a shape adaptive collimator including multiple different portions of X-ray absorbent material automatically adjustable to alter the dimensions of a spatial cross section of an X-ray beam of radiation into a non-rectangular shape, in response to a control signal. The synchronization processor provides a heart rate related synchronization signal derived from a patient cardiac function related parameter. The synchronization signal enables adaptive variation in timing of image acquisition within an individual heart cycle and between successive heart cycles of each individual image frame of multiple sequential image frames. The X-ray image acquisition device uses the shape adaptive collimator for acquiring anatomical images of the region of interest with reduced patient X-ray exposure in response to the synchronization signal. A display processor presents resultant images.
US08971490B2
An image guided treatment is performed to treat a target. To perform the image guided treatment, measurement data indicative of target motion is acquired. A timing of one or more x-ray images is determined based on the measurement data. Treatment may be performed on the target using the position of the target.
US08971487B2
A mobile scanning system and methods for inspecting contents of a container. Multiple detector plates are arrayed along an arcuate member coupled to a conveyance with wheels, capable of road travel. A source generates high-energy penetrating radiation that irradiates each of the detector plates from a single position. The arcuate member is disposed, during the course of operation of the system, in a vertical plane. The system has one actuator for rotating the arcuate member about a horizontal pivot into a horizontal plane, and a second actuator for further rotating the arcuate member, once rotated into the horizontal plane, about a vertical pivot, so that the arcuate member is contained, for purposes of transport, entirely within a volume defined by a rectangular prism that does not extend horizontally outward from the conveyance beyond any of its wheels.
US08971485B2
A drive-through scanning system comprises a radiation generating system arranged to generate radiation at two different energy levels and direct the radiation towards a scanning volume, detectors arranged to detect the radiation after it has passed through the scanning volume, and a controller arranged to identify a part of a vehicle within the scanning volume, to allocate the part of the vehicle to one of several categories, and to control the radiation generating system and to select one or more of the energy levels depending on the category to which the part of the vehicle is allocated.
US08971482B2
An apparatus for imaging an object comprising: an imaging device configured to image the object while the object is supported on a support, the support comprising a base for positioning on a surface, wherein the object and the support are stationary relative to the surface, and further wherein the imaging device is adapted to move relative to the surface, and hence relative to the object and to the support, during imaging; the imaging device comprising a housing having a bottom notch sized to accommodate the base of the support, whereby to allow the base of the support to extend into the housing during imaging.
US08971476B2
A zirconium alloy nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding has an inner Zr substrate surface (10), an outer volume of protective material (22), and an integrated middle volume (20) of zirconium oxide, zirconium and protective material, where the protective material is applied by impaction at a velocity greater than 340 meters/second to provide the integrated middle volume (20) resulting in structural integrity for the cladding.
US08971471B2
A decoder includes a buffer configured to incrementally transport a synchronous data stream through a path of the decoder. A control circuit is configured to control a depth parameter associated with the buffer and to provide a substantially predictable delay of the synchronous data stream through the path of the decoder.
US08971461B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate integrating a list-sphere decoding design in a multiple input-multiple output (MIMO wireless communication environment. According to various aspects, optimal rank selection and CQI computation for an optimal rank can be performed in conjunction with a non-linear receiver, such as a maximum life (ML) MMSE receiver, a non-linear receiver with a list-sphere decoder, and the like. Optimal rank selection can be performed using a maximum rank selection protocol, a channel capacity-based protocol, or any other suitable protocol that facilitates rank selection, and CQI information can be generated based in part on effective SNRs determined with regard to a selected optimal rank.
US08971444B2
A receiver may comprise a complex mixer for converting the modulated signal to a complex modulated signal comprising a first in-phase component and a first quadrature component. The receiver may further comprise a digital demodulator. The digital demodulator may comprise at least one processor circuit programmed for applying a phase differencer for generating an output function in terms of a phase difference of the complex modulated signal. Applying the phase differencer may comprise converting the first in-phase component to a function of a phase difference of the first in-phase component expressed in digital time, and converting the first quadrature component to a function of the phase difference of the first quadrature component expressed in digital time. The at least one processor circuit of the digital demodulator may also be programmed for applying a four quadrant inverse tangent to the output function to generate the information signal.
US08971438B2
Systems, methods, and devices for simplified beamforming are provided. In one aspect, a plurality of signals from a signal transmitter are received over a wireless network on one or more receive antennas. One or more phase differences are then determined that maximize a signal to noise ratio of the plurality of received signals. Data representing the one or more phase differences is then transmitted to the signal transmitter.
US08971432B2
A transmission method for transmitting a first modulated signal and a second modulated signal in the same frequency at the same time. Each signal has been modulated according to a different modulation scheme. The transmission method applies precoding on both signals using a fixed precoding matrix, applies different power change to each signal, and regularly changes the phase of at least one of the signals, thereby improving received data signal quality for a reception device.
US08971429B2
Systems, apparatus and methods for determining a cyclic shift diversity (CSD) mode are presented. Examples use two different autocorrelations to determine a current CSD mode. Specifically, a delay-based autocorrelation and a cyclic shift-based autocorrelation are each computed then compared to each other, for example, by taking a difference of the two autocorrelations. A multipath signal leads to similar autocorrelations, where as a signal with a CSD mode enabled leads to dissimilar autocorrelations. By examining the number of peaks in the delay-based autocorrelation or the autocorrelation difference, a current CSD mode may be determined.
US08971424B2
A method for a receiver to estimate phase of a carrier wave, including receiving a carrier wave carrying pilot symbols and data symbols extending between the pilot symbols, determining phase of the carrier wave at received pilot symbols, and interpolating the phase of the carrier wave at points between pilot symbols based, at least in part, on an estimated phase of demodulated data symbols. Apparatus for estimate phase of a carrier wave, including a unit for determining phase of the carrier wave at received pilot symbols, and a unit for interpolating the phase of the carrier wave at points between pilot symbols based, at least in part, on an estimated phase of demodulated data symbols. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
US08971420B2
A method and system for sequentially reorganizing signals received on a set of sensors, including a network of aerials or sensors, a high-precision clock, controlling a sequencer and suitable for accurately pacing the switching and acquisition times between each aerial, the sequencer is suitable for controlling an antenna switch, an the antenna switch linked to a single-channel radiofrequency receive module, an acquisition card, and a processing model.
US08971411B2
When a block (MB22) of which motion vector is referred to in the direct mode contains a plurality of motion vectors, 2 motion vectors MV23 and MV24, which are used for inter picture prediction of a current picture (P23) to be coded, are determined by scaling a value obtained from averaging the plurality of motion vectors or selecting one of the plurality of the motion vectors.
US08971390B2
A communication device includes an application data interface, a first communication layer and a physical media interface. The first communication layer includes a first entity configured to process application data and a second entity configured to process operations, administrations and maintenance data. The communication device further includes a switching device. In a first power mode, the switching device couples the application data interface to the first entity of the first communication layer. In a second power mode, the switching device couples the application data interface to the second entity of the first communication layer.
US08971389B2
Provided is a millimeter wavelength range transceiver device which can improve phase noise characteristics and which can also independently calibrate each respective local oscillator of a transmission unit and a reception unit. This millimeter wavelength range transceiver device comprises a transmission unit (10), a reception unit (20), and a reference frequency signal generator (30). The transmission unit (10) comprises a transmission-use local oscillator (11) comprising an injection-locked oscillator, a transmission-use mixer (12) for mixing the signal from the transmission-use local oscillator and a transmission baseband signal, and a transmission-use amplifier (13) for amplifying the signal from the transmission-use mixer to a transmission-use antenna (15). The reception unit (20) comprises a reception-use amplifier (25) for amplifying a signal from a reception-use antenna (24), a reception-use local oscillator (22) comprising an injection-locked oscillator, and a reception-use mixer (23) for mixing the signal from the reception-use local oscillator and the signal from the reception-use amplifier in order to output a reception baseband signal. A reference frequency signal generator (30) injects a reference frequency signal into the transmission-and-reception-use local oscillators (11 and 22).
US08971383B2
Systems and methods for generating a CDMA signal s(t) comprising N components involves assigning to each of the N components one unique spreading sequence an selected from a set of M spreading sequences with M≧N, modulating the symbols dn of each component on the assigned unique spreading sequence an, and combining the N symbols dn each being spread with its own unique spreading sequence an to a CDMA signal s(t). The assigned spreading sequences an are selected such that all selected pairs within the set of N spreading sequences are orthogonal or very close to be orthogonal so that cross-correlation components between all spreading sequences an are close to zero or zero.
US08971357B2
An exemplary technique is provided for synchronizing master and slave clocks of a packet-switched network. The network contains at least two equipments that are connected to one another via an aggregated connection made up of at least two links and that are located between the master and slave clocks to enable them to transmit synchronization packets to one another using a timestamp protocol. The technique includes (a) obtaining a distribution of the synchronization packets in at least one subset of the links that transport these synchronization packets, and (b) transmitting to the slave clock first information representative of that distribution, second information representative of timestamps associated with the synchronization packets, and third information representative of packet transmission times over the at least one subset of links, to synchronize the slave clock to the master clock as a function of at least the first, second, and third information transmitted.
US08971349B2
A method and device for performing contention resolution between a mobile communication terminal and a base station. The method according to an embodiment includes initiating a random access procedure by a medium access control (MAC) layer of the mobile communication terminal, including starting a contention resolution timer; and stopping the contention resolution timer and determining that the random access procedure was successfully completed upon receipt from the base station of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission addressed to a cell-radio network temporary identity (C-RNTI) of the mobile communication terminal and containing a UL grant.
US08971347B2
There is provided a method of configuring the downlink component carrier between one or more linkage methods for PHICH reception on User Equipment (UE), which is configured for carrier aggregation, over a mobile communication network. This method includes (a) providing an indicator, and (b) determining whether the PHICH carrier linkage should be dynamic linkage or cell specific, based on the value of the indicator.
US08971341B2
An application gateway including application service programming logically positioned on a user premises side of a network demarcation forming an edge of the wide area network at a user premises can provide managed services to a user and one or more endpoint devices associated with the application gateway. The application gateway can be controlled remotely by the application service provider through a service management center and configured to execute an application service provided from the application service provider. The application gateway executes the application service at the user premises independent of application services executing on the application service provider's network. An application service logic manager can communicate with an application service enforcement manager to verify that the request conforms with policy and usage rules associated with the application service in order to authorize execution of the application service on the application gateway, either directly or through endpoint devices.
US08971334B2
A method and system is implemented in a network node that functions as a controller for a domain in a split architecture network. The domain comprises a plurality of flow switches, where the plurality of flow switches implement a data plane for the split architecture network and the controller implements a control plane for the split architecture network that is remote from the data plane. The method and system configure the plurality of flow switches to efficiently handle each type of broadcast packet in the domain of the split architecture network without flooding the domain with the broadcast packets to thereby reduce a number of broadcast packets forwarded within the domain.
US08971331B2
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program for selecting one or more radio communication schemes for an end-to-end connection. Peers of the end-to-end connection negotiate (304), during establishment or operation of the end-to-end transport connection, about at least one transmission parameter of the end-to-end transport connection. Then, the peers select (306), amongst a plurality of wireless communication schemes supported by the wireless end-device, at least one wireless communication scheme capable of complying with the negotiated transmission parameters and, thus, available for use in the end-to-end transport connection.
US08971328B2
A hierarchical distributed routing architecture including at least three levels, or layers, for receiving, processing and forwarding data packets between network components is provided. The core level router components receive an incoming packet from a network component and identify a distribution level router component based on processing a subset of the destination address associated with the received packet. The distribution level router components that receiving a forwarded packet and identify a transit level router component based a second processing of at least a subset of the destination address associated with the received packet. The transit level router components receive the forwarded packet and forward the packet to a respective network. The mapping, or other assignment, of portions of the FIB associated with the distributed routing environment is managed by a router management component.
US08971327B2
A device for connecting base station(s) to a cellular label switched network in a cellular network. The cellular network includes: base station(s), the connecting device(s); cellular label switched network(s); and service area(s). The base station(s) communicates with mobile terminals using wireless technology. The wireless technology uses a protocol layer architecture that includes at least one of the following: a wireless physical layer; a wireless medium access control protocol layer; a radio link control layer; and a network layer. The connecting device(s) include: a first interface to connect to the base station(s); a second interface to connect to cellular label switched network(s); and a label forwarding layer that: forwards packets between base station(s) and cellular label switched network(s); attaches label(s) to packets and removes label(s) from packets. A service area divided into a multitude of cells through which mobile terminals can move through and communicate with base station(s).
US08971318B2
A multistage relay communication system 100 includes a trunk network 1 and branch networks 2 (2a, 2b), each of which includes one or more communication apparatuses 4. The communication apparatus 4 can switch between a trunk mode to operate in the trunk network 1 and a branch mode to operate in the branch network 2. In the trunk network 1, the communication apparatus 4 carries out fixing of a communication path and redundancy of data based on a path table in order to achieve real-timeness and a data arrival rate. Meanwhile, in the branch network 2, when a communication failure occurs, the communication apparatus 4 autonomously searches for a communication path and constructs a path table, in order to at least secure a data arrival rate even if real-timeness is impaired within an allowable range.
US08971315B2
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone calls at an information handling system are managed based upon data transfer allocations associated with an information handling system wireless wide area network (WWAN) account to reduce data transfer overages at the WWAN account. If data transfer associated with a WWAN account approaches an allocation threshold, VoIP telephone calls associated with the information handling system that would use WWAN data transfer are instead configured to proceed through a WWAN telephone call with a WWAN telephone number that does not use data transfer.
US08971314B2
An SS7-based call protocol conversion gateway that translates between circuit-switched SS7 protocols and session initiation protocol (SIP) oriented protocol, allowing an E911 call initiated over a switched network to be routed by a VoIP network. The SS7-based call protocol conversion gateway provides a PSAP with MSAG quality (street address) information about a VoIP dual mode phone user without the need for a wireless carrier to invest in building out an entire VoIP core. Thus, wireless carriers may continue signaling the way they are today, i.e., using the J-STD-036 standard for CDMA and GSM in North America, yet see benefits of a VoIP network core, i.e., provision of MSAG quality location data to a PSAP.
US08971306B1
A method of operating an access point includes storing, for each of a plurality of channels, a corresponding first value and second value. A first channel is selected according to a channel polling scheme. A first beacon is transmitted over the first channel to announce commencement of communication over the first channel. Subsequent to the first beacon but prior to a second beacon, data is exchanged with a wireless client over the first channel. The method includes, in response to a first time period based on the first value corresponding to the first channel expiring, transmitting the second beacon over the first channel to announce conclusion of communication over the first channel. The method includes, in response to a second time period based on the second value corresponding to the first channel expiring, transmitting a third beacon over the first channel to announce commencement of communication over the first channel.
US08971305B2
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate scrambling of downlink reference signals utilizing a pseudo-random sequence (PRS) corresponding to a primary synchronization code (PSC) and secondary synchronization code (SSC) combination. Utilization of the combination allows for orthogonal sequencing to be removed from the scrambling. This can be beneficial, for example, where resources required for orthogonalizing the reference signal outweigh the benefit of utilizing the orthogonal sequences. In such scenarios, selective scrambling can be utilized such that the orthogonal sequence or instead the PSC/SSC combination can be provided to leverage advantages of both mechanisms in the given scenarios.
US08971303B2
A channel sounding method in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system is provided. The method, performed by a transmitter, includes transmitting a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame to a receiver to initiate a channel sounding procedure; transmitting a null data packet (NDP) to the receiver and receiving a feedback frame. The feedback frame includes a plurality of segment frames and a channel feedback report. The channel feedback report is split into a plurality of feedback segments. Each of the plurality of feedback segments is respectively included in each of the plurality of segment frames. The each of the plurality of segment frames includes a first-segment subfield indicating whether the each of the plurality of feedback segment included is a first segment and a remaining-segment subfield indicating the number of remaining feedback segments.
US08971296B2
A wireless communication terminal apparatus wherein even when a SC-FDMA signal is divided into a plurality of clusters and the plurality of clusters are then mapped to respective discontinuous frequency bands (when C-SC-FDMA is used), the improvement effect of system throughput can be maintained, while the user throughput can be improved. In the apparatus, a DFT unit (210) subjects a symbol sequence of time domain to a DFT process, thereby generating signals of frequency domain. A setting unit (211) divides the signals input from the DFT unit (210) into a plurality of clusters according to a cluster pattern that is in accordance with an MCS set, an encoding size, or the number of Ranks occurring during MIMO transmissions, which is indicated in those signals input, and then maps the plurality of clusters to the respective ones of a plurality of discontinuous frequency resources, thereby setting a constellation of the plurality of clusters in the frequency domain.
US08971287B2
A method performs wireless communication between a motor vehicle and at least one other communication partner, especially a further motor vehicle and/or a stationary communication partner. A predetermined transmission frequency is used via which the motor vehicle and/or the communication partner transmit a communication-partner-specific identification signal cyclically between transmission breaks.
US08971284B2
The present invention reduces the amount of control information for specifying the transmission method for simultaneously transmitting the uplink data and the reception quality information as well as the uplink data and the ACK/NACK, reduces delay occurring in changing the transmission method, and realizes the mapping of the uplink data and the reception quality information and that of the uplink data and the ACK/NACK, in compliance with modulation scheme and coding rate of the uplink data specified by the base station apparatus. In the mobile communication system where the base station apparatus allocates, to the mobile station apparatus, resources wherein the base station apparatus transmits, to the mobile station apparatus, control information for specifying a transmission format for the mobile station apparatus to transmit information using the uplink, while the mobile station apparatus simultaneously transmits, to the base station apparatus, the uplink data and the reception quality information based on the specified transmission format in case of having received the control information from the base station apparatus.
US08971282B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for allocating a pool of shared Internet bandwidth. One of the methods includes providing a first communications channel having a first bandwidth, the first bandwidth being shared by a first group of first users, providing a second communications channel having a second bandwidth different than the first bandwidth, the second bandwidth being shared by a second group of second users, detecting that at least one first data connection for a particular first user in the first group has satisfied a first predetermined condition, and moving, based on the detecting, the at least one first data connection for the particular first user from the first communications channel to the second communications channel.
US08971279B2
A method and apparatus for performing semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) deactivation in a wireless mobile communication system are disclosed. A base station (BS) transmits a downlink control channel to a user equipment (UE), and deactivates the SPS when a binary field indicating resource allocation information contained in the downlink control channel is entirely filled with ‘1’.
US08971277B2
In a wireless communication system for performing wireless communication using a white space, a receiving station includes an interference suppression processing part which performs processing to reduce interference which is received by the signal transmitted from a transmitting station at a frequency of the white space, a receiving quality estimation part which estimates communication quality of the communication using the frequency of the white space based on the signal processed by the interference suppression processing part, and a receiving quality informing part which transmits to the transmitting station the communication quality information estimated by the receiving quality estimation part.
US08971275B2
A base station transmits a first unicast control message configuring transmission parameters of a first carrier for a wireless device. The base station transmits at least one second unicast message configuring measurement parameters of a second carrier. The measurement configuration comprises a first and a second measurement subframe allocation bitmap for the second carrier. The base station receives first and second channel state information from the wireless device. The base station transmits data packets to the wireless device. The data packets are encoded and modulated based on the first and second channel state information.
US08971269B2
A method for an SS to perform network entry in a multi-carrier wireless environment that has a primary carrier and at least one secondary carrier associated with a BS, the method comprising: a. sensing a carrier in an area serviced by the BS; b. determining if the carrier is a primary carrier or a secondary carrier; and c. performing the network entry if the determining establishes that the sensed carrier is a primary carrier and not a secondary carrier.
US08971265B2
In a communication system including a mobile station that transmits a data signal and a plurality of base stations receiving the data signal transmitted by the mobile station, the communication system includes: as the base stations, at least, one first base station having a first signal detector detecting the data signal transmitted by the mobile station; and, at least, one second base station having a second signal detector that detects the data signal received by the station per se, using the detection result which the first base station has detected from the data signal transmitted by the mobile station. As a result, it is possible to provide a communication system and the like capable of providing good transmission characteristics in the uplink cooperative communication without addition of CPs having a longer length than usual.
US08971263B2
A method manages bearers over a first wireless link between a self-backhauled base station and a base station, where the self-backhauled base station serves one or more user equipments (UEs) via one or more second wireless links in a network. The method is implemented at the self-backhauled base station and includes identifying changes in numbers and/or characteristics of UE bearers multiplexed onto a backhaul bearer associated with the first wireless link. The method further includes dynamically reconfiguring resources allocated to the backhaul beare.
US08971254B2
A network node is disclosed that communicates with a user equipment node in a communications system. The network node repetitively transmits first uplink transmission power control, TPC, commands on a first physical channel with a first channel configuration while repetitively transmitting second uplink TPC commands on a second physical channel with a second channel configuration. The first and second uplink TPC commands control uplink transmission power from the user equipment node to the network node. Related user equipment nodes and methods are disclosed.
US08971241B2
Techniques for supporting operation of relay stations in wireless communication systems are described. In an aspect, a bitmap may be sent by a base station and/or a relay station to identify subframes of at least two types in multiple radio frames. For example, the bitmap may indicate whether each subframe covered by the bitmap is of a first type or a second type. UEs may use the bitmap to control their operation. For example, a UE may perform channel estimation or measurement for the subframes of the first type and may skip channel estimation and measurement for the subframes of the second type. In another aspect, a base station may transmit data and/or control information on resources not used by a relay station to transmit a reference signal. This may avoid interference to the reference signal from the relay station, which may improve performance for UEs communicating with the relay station.
US08971240B2
Method and apparatus for performing radio link timer management in a wireless communications network
A method and apparatus for performing radio link timer (RLT) management in a wireless network. The method and apparatus examine the frame error rates (FERS) associated with decoded speech or data frames and determine how many speech or data frames are unacceptable. If the number of speech or data frames that is unacceptable exceeds a preset threshold value, a determination is made that the call should be released. This process is performed in both the uplink and downlink directions and determinations as to whether the call should be released are made by the mobile station (MS), the base station system (BSS) or mobile switching center (MSC) for the downlink direction and by the base station system (BSS) for the uplink direction. If a determination is made that the number of unacceptable speech or data frames exceeds the preset threshold, the call is released.
US08971239B2
A mobile device includes: multiple interfaces that are configured to support a various access technology such as 3G or Wi-Fi etc. A public land mobile network (PLMN) selector that generates a list for each of the PLMN networks that provide coverage to the mobile device. A PLMN selection policy parameter that is set to True or False to allow or prohibit the selection of PLMN networks by the mobile device based on the generated list where the generated list includes information as to different access technologies and selection priorities supported on the PLMN access networks providing coverage to the mobile device. In particular, when the PLMN selection policy parameter is set to True, multiple PLMN registrations are allowed; and when the A PLMN selection policy parameter is set to False, multiple PLMN registrations are prohibited.
US08971238B2
A method for controlling a wireless router and a wireless router includes: detecting whether the wireless router has a connection with a terminal; and if the wireless router has no connection with any terminal, turning off the wireless router. By using the method for controlling a wireless router and the wireless router provided in embodiments of the present invention, whether the wireless router has a connection with a terminal may be detected; and the wireless router is turned off when the wireless router has no connection with any terminal. In this way, the wireless router may be automatically turned off in an idle state, which saves energy resources and avoids unnecessary consumption.
US08971235B2
Wireless sinks, such as displays, may receive wirelessly transmitted audio/video information in clone mode. In one embodiment, the same audio/video stream may be provided to a plurality of sinks daisy chained from a wireless receiver.
US08971223B2
Systems and methods for saving power by a personal area network (PAN) coordinator are described herein. A PAN coordinator is provided to form a wireless PAN with one or more devices. Further, the PAN coordinator enters a sleep state to save power. The wireless PAN is available when the PAN coordinator enters an active state.
US08971217B2
Aspects of the present invention are directed at sending a data item from a sending client to a receiving client. In accordance with one embodiment, a method provides controls for generating an audio-based command to send a data item from a sending client to a receiving client. More specifically, the method includes receiving an audio stream at the sending client from a sending party. As the audio stream is being received, a determination is made regarding whether a command to send a data item to the receiving client was received. If a command to send a data item is included in the audio stream, the method identifies the data item that is the object of the command and then transmits the data item to the receiving client over the network.
US08971210B1
A configurable network adapter has N analog front ends, each generating a receiver output and a transmitter input. In a first mode of operation, the analog front end receiver outputs are coupled to a MIMO equalizer, which is coupled to an outer receiver and to a first MAC input, with the first MAC having an output coupled to an outer transmitter, a MIMO modulator, and to the analog front end transmitter inputs. In a second mode of operation, one or more of the analog front ends is directed to a SISO modulator fed by a second outer transmitter coupled to a second MAC transmitter output. An associated one or more of the analog front end receivers is coupled to a SISO equalizer, and thereafter to an outer receiver and to the second lower MAC, thereby providing a first mode for a single MIMO adapter and a second mode for a MIMO plus independent PAN interface.
US08971201B2
A time-frequency resource allocation planner for planning allocation of time-frequency resources to sustain communication links from a common transmitter (TX) to multiple receivers (RX1, . . . , RXK) in a wireless OFDMA communication system includes a resource block selector configured to select a set (RBS) of time-frequency resource blocks (RB) for transmission of one packet for each communication link. A communication link quality measure provider is configured to determine a gain-to-interference-plus-noise ratio measure (Gk) for each communication link. A transmit power and transmit rate estimator, connected to the resource block selector and the communication link quality measure provider, is configured to jointly estimate, within the selected set of time-frequency resource blocks, transmit power (Pk) and transmit rate (Rk) of the packets as functions of determined gain-to-interference-plus-noise ratio measures, to at least approximately minimize expected transmitter energy consumption.
US08971198B2
The present invention is directed to a method of controlling a communications link and apparatus configured to perform this method. This invention is particularly related to but in no way limited to MIMO (multiple inputs multiple outputs) wireless communications systems. The method comprises the steps of determining at the receiver the quality of the communications link and based on this, selecting a group of transmission parameters and an element from this group. These selections are then communicated to the transmitter. The transmission parameter may be the transmission configuration such as the modulation and coding scheme. The invention minimises the required feedback signalling from the receiver to the transmitter by exploiting temporal correlation of the parameter being controlled, whilst allowing rapid selection of the parameter.
US08971196B2
Network traffic information from multiple sources, at multiple time scales, and at multiple levels of detail are integrated so that users may more easily identify relevant network information. The network monitoring system stores and manipulates low-level and higher-level network traffic data separately to enable efficient data collection and storage. Packet traffic data is collected, stored, and analyzed at multiple locations. The network monitoring locations communicate summary and aggregate data to central modules, which combine this data to provide an end-to-end description of network traffic at coarser time scales. The network monitoring system enables users to zoom in on high-level, coarse time scale network performance data to one or more lower levels of network performance data at finer time scales. When high-level network performance data of interest is selected, corresponding low-level network performance data is retrieved from the appropriate distributed network monitoring locations to provide additional detailed information.
US08971195B2
In one embodiment, an originating node in a full-mesh computer network receives a trigger to determine integrity of the full-mesh network's data-paths. The originating node determines an ordered list of nodes in the full-mesh computer network. The originating node then sends echo requests to each non-originating node of the ordered list. The originating node may later receive consolidated echo responses from at least some non-originating nodes to which an echo request was sent. Each consolidated echo response indicates a response from the respective non-originating node, and any responses to subsequent echo requests sent by that particular non-originating node to subsequent nodes. The originating node may then use these responses to determine a connectivity status of the full-mesh computer network.
US08971194B2
Techniques for adaptively controlling wireless transition timers associated with wireless transition states in relation to use of applications by user equipment (UE) are presented herein. A UE can include a transition management component (TMC) that can adaptively control wireless transition timers associated with wireless states based on application type, session content, or other factors. The TMC monitors data flow associated with an application and, for a current or subsequent communication session, controls the length of wireless transition timers and switching between wireless states to improve UE, application, and/or network performance while maintaining QOE for the user. The TMC can access a timer look-up table that maps wireless transition timers to application type, content type, user behavior, or other factors. The TMC also can desirably control maintaining persistence or always-on connections by controlling switching between wireless states using the adapted wireless transition timers.
US08971185B1
One or more computer readable media, methods and systems that allow phone calls involving a mobile telephone to be to be conducted using VOIP technology with header compression of the voice packets and dynamically adjustable tiered subscriber service. A dynamic, tiered-subscriber service allows the bandwidth allotted to users subscribing to different levels of service to be adjusted between sessions to accommodate changing network conditions. Header compression involves compressing the voice packet header into a reduced number of bites. Embodiments of the present invention enable simultaneous header compression and dynamic tiered-subscriber service through a new call flow set up that includes a new policy. The new policy is given preference over the other installed policies and includes new attribute value pairs that enables both header compression and dynamic bandwidth adjustments.
US08971179B2
A communication management apparatus that manages transmission of data in a network in which plural communication nodes are connected via a transmission line in a ring shape, the apparatus including: a network-presence checking unit that transmits a network-presence-check frame in broadcast and generates network connection information indicating a connection state among the connection nodes from a received network-presence-check acknowledge frame, a token-circulation-order determining unit that determines token circulation order; a setup processing unit that performs setup processing for notifying each of the communication nodes of a token circulation destination; a data-frame-communication processing unit that performs transmission and reception of a data frame using a token frame; and a line-connection managing unit that disables, when the network has a ring configuration, any one of ports of any one of the communication nodes to prevent a connection state of the network from becoming a ring shape.
US08971178B1
A transmitter beamforming technique for use in a MIMO wireless communication system determines (i) a partial description of a reverse channel without determining a full dimensional description of the reverse channel and (ii) a partial description of a forward channel without determining a full dimensional description of the forward channel. A correction matrix is developed from the partial description of the reverse channel and a partial description of the forward channel. The correction matrix is used to process signals to be transmitted via the forward channel, and a steering matrix is used to perform beamforming in the forward channel.
US08971173B1
In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a first controller configured to be operatively coupled within a network having a set of network nodes, a forwarding gateway and a configuration entity. The first controller is configured to manage session state and node state associated with the set of network nodes independent of the forwarding gateway. The first controller is configured to fail over to a second controller when the first controller fails, without the forwarding gateway failing over and without the configuration entity failing over.
US08971171B2
A transmission system for transmitting data over a channel in the form of a digital signal comprising bits of data, the system comprising an encoder for encoding the data prior to transmission, the encoder producing coding in the form of an overhead, and a decoder for decoding the data after transmission, characterised in that a first portion only of the data is encoded, the second portion remaining uncoded, the system further comprising a partitioner for partitioning the overhead from the uncoded data portion of the signal, after the first portion data has been encoded.
US08971166B1
A method and terminal apparatus are described for performing channel interleaving at a terminal in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication system. A number of columns C of an interleaver matrix are assigned as a number of symbols for transmitting data per subframe (Nsymb). A number of rows R of the interleaver matrix is defined as H · L · log 2 Q C , where H is a number of modulation symbols per layer, L is a number of layers and Q is a modulation order. Input vector sequences are written into entries of the interleaver matrix, row by row. Each of the entries has a size of L·log2 Q bits. Output bit sequences are generated by reading out the entries of the interleaver matrix, column by column. The output bit sequences are modulated by a unit of log2 Q bits, to generate modulation symbols. The modulation symbols are mapped to the L layers, and transmitted by using the L layers.
US08971154B2
A method and apparatus for synchronizing a system time in an electronic device are provided. The method may include: when the electronic device is executing a boot process, disabling an external time obtaining function of the electronic device for obtaining an external reference time, obtaining an internal clock time from an internal clock unit of the electronic device and synchronizing a system time of the electronic device with the internal clock time; and when the electronic device has completed the boot process, enabling the external time obtaining function to obtain the external reference time.
US08971148B2
A first exemplary aspect of the present invention is a word line selection circuit where address decode signals composed of a power supply voltage and a first voltage lower than a ground voltage are input, and that a word line selection signal composed of the first voltage and a second voltage higher than the power supply voltage is output not via a level shift circuit according to the address decode signals.
US08971146B2
In one embodiment, a memory includes a plurality of bit lines and a write driver for driving a driven bit line selected from the plurality of bit lines during a write operation. The write driver is coupled to an internal node. A first stage clamping circuit is operable to clamp the internal node to a clamping voltage if the write operation is not enabled and is further operable to unclamp the internal node during the write operation. The memory further includes a multiplexer for selectively coupling the driven bit line to the internal node. A second stage clamping circuit is operable to clamp the plurality of bit lines to a clamping voltage if the write operation is not enabled and is further operable to unclamp the driven bit line during the write operation.
US08971138B2
A method of screening complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor CMOS integrated circuits, such as integrated circuits including CMOS static random access memory (SRAM) cells, for n-channel transistors susceptible to transistor characteristic shifts over operating time. For the example of SRAM cells formed of cross-coupled CMOS inverters, static noise margin and writeability (Vtrip) screens are provided. Each of the n-channel transistors in the CMOS SRAM cells are formed within p-wells that are isolated from p-type semiconductor material in peripheral circuitry of the memory and other functions in the integrated circuit. Forward and reverse body node bias voltages are applied to the isolated p-wells of the SRAM cells under test to determine whether such operations as read disturb, or write cycles, disrupt the cells under such bias. Cells that are vulnerable to threshold voltage shift over time can thus be identified.
US08971135B2
A semiconductor memory device includes an input/output circuit configured to receive an address and data from an exterior, and a peripheral circuit configured to receive the address through the input/output circuit and generate a chip selection signal based on the address. The input/output circuit may include a control pad circuit configured to apply or block at least one data strobe signal in response to the chip selection signal, and one or more input/output pad circuits configured to transfer the data to the peripheral circuits in response to the at least one data strobe signal.
US08971127B2
A method of charging a floating gate in a nonvolatile memory cell comprises bringing a substrate channel within the memory cell to a first voltage, bringing a control gate to a programming voltage, and floating the substrate channel voltage while the control gate is at the programming voltage. Memory devices include state machines or controllers operable to perform the described method, and operation of such a state machine, memory device, and information handling system are described.
US08971120B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes memory cells, word lines, a driver circuit, and a control circuit. The memory cells are stacked above a semiconductor substrate, and each includes a charge accumulation layer and control gate. The word lines are coupled to the control gates. The driver circuit repeats a programming operation to write data in a memory cell coupled to a selected word line. In the programming operation, a first voltage is applied to the selected word line, a second voltage to a first unselected word line, and a third voltage to a second unselected word line. The control circuit steps up the first voltage and steps down the second voltage in repeating the programming.
US08971112B2
Method of programming a multi-level memory cell may include transferring one or more values between an auxiliary latch of the multi-level memory cell and a most significant bit (MSB) latch of the multi-level memory cell and/or between the auxiliary latch and a least significant bit (LSB) latch of the multi-level memory cell while programming the multi-level memory cell.
US08971110B2
A method is provided for programming a multi-level cell flash memory device. The programming method includes programming a first memory cell of the multi-level call flash memory device to one of first through i-th program states, wherein i is a positive integer, by applying a first program pulse to the first memory cell in a first type programming operation, and programming a second memory cell to one of i+1-th through j-th program states, wherein j is an integer equal to or greater than three, by applying a second program pulse to the second memory cell in a second type programming operation. At least one of a second step voltage, a second bit-line forcing voltage and a second verification operation of the second type programming operation is different from a first step voltage, a first bit-line forcing voltage, and a first verification operation of the first type programming operation, respectively.
US08971105B2
Subject matter disclosed herein relates to memory operations regarding changing an order of program bits to be programmed into a memory array.
US08971104B2
A resistive memory array is programmed such that particular adjacent pairs of memory cells along a bit line having a back-to-back relationship are programmed together. The memory cells having the back-to-back relationship share a continuous chalcogenide material and a SiN material.
US08971102B2
The present disclosure concerns a method for writing to a MRAM cell comprising a magnetic tunnel junction formed from a storage layer having a storage magnetization; a reference layer having a reference magnetization; and a tunnel barrier layer included between the sense and storage layers; and a current line electrically connected to said magnetic tunnel junction; the method comprising: passing a heating current in the magnetic tunnel junction for heating the magnetic tunnel junction; passing a field current for switching the storage magnetization in a written direction in accordance with the polarity of the field current. The magnitude of the heating current is such that it acts as a spin polarized current and can adjust the storage magnetization; and the polarity of the heating current is such as to adjust the storage magnetization substantially towards said written direction.
US08971098B1
A latch-based array includes a plurality of columns and rows. Each column comprises a plurality of slave latches that all latch in parallel a master-latched data output from the column's master latch during normal operation. In a fault-testing mode of operation, one of the slaves in the column latches an inverted version of the master-latched data output while the remaining slave latches in the column latch the master-latched data output. In this fashion, the slave latches are decorrelated in a single write operation.
US08971096B2
A multiport bitcell including a pair of cross-coupled inverters is provided with increased write speed and enhanced operating voltage range by the selective isolation of a first one of the cross-coupled inverters from a power supply and ground during a write operation. The write operation occurs through a write port that includes a transmission gate configured to couple a first node driven by the first cross-coupled inverter to a write bit line. A remaining second cross-coupled inverter in the bitcell is configured to drive a second node that couples to a plurality of read ports.
US08971095B2
A write circuit in a memory array includes a global data line, a switching circuit, and a first local data line coupled with the switching circuit and with a first plurality of memory cells. The global data line is configured to receive data to be written to the memory cell from outside of the memory array. The switching circuit is configured to electrically couple the global data line with the first local data line to transfer the data to be written to a memory cell of the first plurality of memory cells to the first local data line. The memory cell of the first plurality of memory cells is configured to receive data on the first local data line.
US08971093B2
According to one embodiment, a memory device includes a semiconductor layer connected between a first conductive line and one end of a third conductive line, resistance change elements connected between second conductive lines and the third conductive line respectively, a select FET having a select gate electrode, and using the semiconductor layer as a channel, and a control circuit executing a write/erase of at least one of the resistance change elements, and executing a recovering operation which adjusts a threshold voltage shift of the select FET after the write/erase.
US08971088B1
A method for programming a non-volatile memory device includes providing an as-fabricated state-change device having an aluminum doped zinc oxide material first electrode, a p++ polysilicon material second electrode, and a zinc oxide (ZnO) material state-change material there between. A first amplitude bias voltage is applied to the first electrode of the as-fabricated state-change device causing the ZnO material to change form an as-fabricated state to a first state. A second amplitude bias voltage having an opposite polarity having an amplitude similar to the first amplitude is applied to cause the ZnO to change from the first state to a second state substantially similar as the as-fabricated state. A third amplitude bias voltage having a same polarity to the first bias voltage and having an amplitude dissimilar to the first bias voltage is applied to cause the ZnO to change from the second state to a third state.
US08971084B2
A semiconductor memory cell includes a set of circuit structures, each having column input/output circuits. The semiconductor memory cell further includes a set of replicas corresponding to the column input/output circuits. The set of replicas are non-functional and fills an empty space next to the column input/output circuits and hence, provides context protection for the column input/output circuits.
US08971082B2
A power conditioning unit for delivering power from a power source to a mains utility supply, the power conditioning unit comprising a plurality of input terminals for connecting to the power source, a plurality of output terminals for connecting to the mains utility supply, a voltage increasing converter connected to the input terminals, a voltage reducing converter connected to the voltage increasing converter and a dc-to-ac converter connected to the voltage reducing converter and to the output terminals.
US08971080B2
A circuit arrangement includes a rectifier circuit having a first and a second load terminal, a first semiconductor device having a load path and a control terminal and a plurality of n, with n>1, second semiconductor devices, each having a load path between a first load terminal and a second load terminal and a control terminal. The second semiconductor devices have their load paths connected in series and connected in series to the load path of the first semiconductor device. The series circuit with the first semiconductor device and the second semiconductor devices are connected between the load terminals of the rectifier circuit. Each of the second semiconductor devices has its control terminal connected to the load terminal of one of the other second semiconductor devices. One of the second semiconductor devices has its control terminal connected to one of the load terminals of the first semiconductor device.
US08971079B2
An inverter device includes an inverter circuit, a control circuit, a first drive circuit, a second drive circuit, first and second photocouplers, and a signal switching part. The signal switching part directly transmits the first and second signals outputted from the first photocoupler and the second photocoupler to the corresponding first and second drive circuits respectively when at least one of the first and second signals is an OFF command.
US08971072B2
An electromagnetic connector is disclosed that is configured to form a first magnetic circuit portion comprising a first core member and a first coil disposed of the first core member. The electromagnetic connector is configured to mate with a second electromagnetic connector, where the second electromagnetic connector is configured to form a second magnetic circuit portion comprising a second core member and a second coil disposed of the second core member. The first core member and the second core member are configured to couple the first coil to the second coil with a magnetic circuit formed from the first magnetic circuit portion and the second magnetic circuit portion when the electromagnetic connector is mated with the second electromagnetic connector. The magnetic circuit is configured to induce a signal in the first coil when the second coil is energized.
US08971069B2
In one embodiment, an input capacitor balancing circuit for a power supply is provided. The circuit includes an input capacitance operable to filter input power for the power supply. The input capacitance has a first capacitor and a second capacitor coupled in series between an input voltage and a first node. A voltage divider circuit is coupled to the input voltage and operable to generate a divided voltage therefrom. A buffer circuit is operable to receive the divided voltage and, if the first capacitor and the second capacitor are not balanced, to provide current to the input capacitance to balance the first capacitor and the second capacitor.
US08971064B2
An electricity generating installation includes an electricity generation unit of a gas turbine, steam turbine or combined-cycle type, wherein the electricity generation unit is coupled to a generator and is connected to a distribution network, an energy storage unit configured to store kinetic energy and electrical energy, and a standby electricity generation unit. The installation further includes a controller configured to manage the operation of the energy storage unit and configured to manage the connection of the energy storage unit to the electricity generation unit and to the network. The controller receives a series of information originating from the network, the energy storage unit, the electricity generation unit and a network operator in order to control the generation of electricity to be delivered to the network and to auxiliary systems of the installation from the energy storage unit.
US08971058B2
A high-efficiency high step-up ratio direct current converter with an interleaved soft-switching mechanism is provided. The direct current converter includes a voltage-multiplier circuit and an active clamping circuit. The voltage-multiplier circuit includes two isolating transformers, two main switches disposed on a primary side of the two isolating transformers, four diodes disposed on a secondary side of the two isolating transformers and four capacitors disposed on the secondary side of two isolating transformers, configured to boost a voltage of a direct-current power to a desired voltage value. The active clamping circuit, electrically connected to the voltage-multiplier circuit, includes two active clamp switches and a clamp capacitor to lower a voltage surge of the two main switches so that the two main switches and the two active clamp switches can be soft switched on.
US08971055B2
A circuit breaker includes a housing, a rigid circuit board, and a flexible circuit board. The rigid circuit board is enclosed within the housing and has a main surface for supporting an electronic component. The flexible circuit board has a first end that is directly attached to an edge of the rigid circuit board.
US08971048B2
An electronics package comprising a plurality of mutually parallel, vertically spaced circuit boards of generally circular configuration and electrically connected by a flex circuit comprising a trunk extending circumferentially around the circuit boards and having a branch extending to each circuit board. An electronics package precursor structure and a method of configuring the electronics package from the precursor structure is also disclosed.
US08971046B2
A junction box is affixed to, and electrically coupled with, a solar panel. The junction box is configured to releaseably engage and disengage accessory modules, thereby allowing accessory modules to be replaced or exchanged easily. Accessory modules are electrically coupled with other accessory modules in the solar panel string. The furthest downstream accessory module is connected to a wire harness, which is connected to a central combiner box.
US08971043B2
Described embodiments include a portable electronic device. The device includes a shell housing components of the portable electronic device having a heat-generating component. The device includes a heat-rejection element located at an exterior surface of the shell. The heat-rejection element is configured to reject heat received from the heat-generating component into an environment in thermal contact with the heat-rejection element. The device includes a controllable thermal coupler configured to regulate heat transfer to the heat-rejection element. The device includes an activity monitor configured to infer a user touch to the shell in response to a detected activity of the portable electronic device. The device includes a thermal manager configured to regulate heat transfer by the controllable thermal coupler to the heat-rejection element in response to the inferred user touch.
