US09693546B2

A termite extermination method of the present invention includes putting a termite extermination device 1 at a termite habitat. The termite extermination device 1 includes an exterminating agent housing 3 that is at least partially formed of a moisture-proof film 12 and houses an exterminating agent 13 in an interior of the exterminating agent housing 3. The moisture-proof film 12 includes a laminate having a paper layer and a metal layer laminated one upon another. At least the paper layer is subjected to a rugging process. The laminate is disposed in the exterminating agent housing 3 so that the paper layer serves as an outermost surface.
US09693533B2

A scooping pan having a rear dumping feature that can be configured to scoop up general refuse, pet refuse, urine clumps, etc. from the ground, a litter box, etc. The scooping pan can optionally include one or more openings or slots that enable litter to pass through the openings or slots when the pet refuse, urine clumps, etc. are removed from the litter box. The rear of the scooping pan includes an openable flap that enables the general refuse, pet refuse, urine clumps, etc. in the scooping pan to be dumped out of the rear of the scooping pan.
US09693524B1

A novel maize variety designated PH25Y1 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant comprise crossing maize variety PH25Y1 with another maize plant are provided. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into PH25Y1 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby are provided. Hybrid maize seed, plants or plant parts are produced by crossing the variety PH25Y1 or a locus conversion of PH25Y1 with another maize variety.
US09693513B2

A novel maize variety designated X08F032XR and seed, plants and plant parts thereof are produced by crossing inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant by crossing hybrid maize variety X08F032XR with another maize plant are disclosed. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X08F032XR through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X08F032XR, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X08F032XR. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X08F032XR.
US09693510B2

Some embodiments provide irrigation valve control apparatuses comprising: multiple terminals coupled with a multi-wire path; a first charge storage circuitry electrically coupled with at least one of the multiple terminals, wherein the first charge storage circuitry is configured to be charged by a voltage on the multi-wire path; a control circuitry configured to determine the voltage on the multi-wire path; and a boost circuitry controlled by the control circuitry, wherein the control circuitry in response to determining that the voltage on the multi-wire path is below a threshold activates the boost circuitry to increase a voltage stored by the first charge storage circuitry.
US09693509B2

Biodegradable mulch of the type used in various agricultural applications is made by multi-layer extrusion from a mixture of two compostable biodegradable polymers that comply with the EN13432 standard and that include potato starch, a black masterbatch and biodegradable recycled polymers. The mulch self-degrades in a short period of time, becoming a compostable material that enriches the soil, avoiding the collecting and cleaning tasks that are necessary in conventional mulches.
US09693508B2

A structure (20) for growing plants comprises an array (22) of containers (24), for example intermodal shipping containers, each having a floor (28) and an open end (30), and being arranged in a plurality of stacked rows (32), each row comprising a plurality of containers. The array defines a space (34) bounded on its sides by the open ends of the containers. Each container holds a plant-growing apparatus (26) of the type having a plurality of rotatable plant-growing modules (52) in which plants grow radially inwardly toward a light source (56) inside the module. The structure (20) includes means (58, 60) for moving the modules along a path within each container and means (74) for removing the modules from the containers and for placing the modules into the containers. The array of containers and the bounded space are covered by a flexible fabric (50) or rigid dome (48).
US09693498B2

A seed-double eliminator and planting unit for a seeding machine have an aperture in a seed-carrying surface of a metering member of the seeding machine. A paddle is included on the metering member, the paddle extending away from the seed-carrying surface toward a seed path. At least one seed-double projection is included on the metering member between the aperture and the paddle, the at least one seed-double projection preventing retention on the metering member of at least one seed of a seed double pair.
US09699945B2

There is provided a component mounting method for fitting a component including downwardly-extending insertion pins on a substrate by sucking the component by a suction nozzle and moving the suction nozzle such that the insertion pins of the sucked component are inserted into pin insertion holes formed in a substrate. The component mounting method includes: positioning the insertion pins and the pin insertion holes, and then pushing the component against the substrate by the suction nozzle, thereby fitting the component on the substrate such that the insertion pins are inserted into the pin insertion holes; and pushing again the component against the substrate after the component is fitted on the substrate, so as to push the insertion pins into the pin insertion holes.
US09699943B2

A display apparatus includes a display panel including a display surface that displays an image and a rear surface that faces the display surface, a cover panel attached to the rear surface of the display panel, the cover panel including a center portion and an edge portion surrounding the center portion, the center portion having a thickness greater than a thickness of the edge portion, and a reinforcing member in an overlapping relationship with the edge portion of the cover panel, the reinforcing member facing the display panel such that the cover panel is between the reinforcing member and the display panel.
US09699936B1

A cable assembly for organizing and managing multiple electrical cables connected to rack-mounted electronics equipment includes a pair of individually movable cable carriers, each comprising a pair of slider arms slideably disposed in corresponding slider arm guide channels connected to the vertical rails of an equipment rack, a crossbar connected between the slider arms, and a plurality of cable clips carried on the crossbar. The cable clips each comprise a plurality of parallel slots for securely capturing and holding cables in parallel order aligned with corresponding I/O ports on the electronics equipment. The slider arm guides have a plurality of detents and the slider arms have a releasable latch that cooperates with the detents to enable the cable carrier to be moved vertically for easy access to the electronics for maintenance.
US09699924B2

A display mount for an electronic display. The mount includes a support bracket adapted to be secured to a wall or similar structure, and a display bracket adapted to be secured to an electronic display. The support bracket includes a plurality of pairs of angled slots, each pair of angled slots having a different angle than the other pairs. The slots receive fasteners which secure the support bracket to the wall, as well as provide a means for adjusting the tilt of the bracket so as to ensure the bracket is level. The display bracket is attachable to a display, and a structure adapted to cooperate with a corresponding structure on the support bracket to hang the display from the support bracket.
US09699921B2

A multi-layer wiring board that has stacked therein a first printed wiring bases on at least one surface of which a wiring pattern is formed and in which a conductive paste via is formed, that includes an electronic component terminal and a board terminal whose terminal pitch differs from that of the electronic component terminal, and that has an electronic component installed thereon via the electronic component terminal, wherein a second wiring base whose wiring pitch is smaller than that of the first wiring base is built in to a lower portion of an installing portion of the electronic component via the first wiring base, and the second wiring base is connected to the electronic component terminal via the conductive paste via of the first wiring base, has formed on both surfaces thereof a pattern that enlarges the terminal pitch from the electronic component terminal to the board terminal, and includes a via that connects the pattern of the both surfaces.
US09699916B2

A method of manufacturing a wiring substrate according to the present invention includes a step of forming a wiring layer including connection terminals on a first insulating layer; a step of forming a second insulating layer on the wiring layer and on the first insulating layer; a step of forming electrically insulative dummy portions separated from the wiring layer on the first insulating layer through patterning of the second insulating layer; a step of forming a third insulating layer on the wiring layer, on the dummy portions, and on the first insulating layer; and a step of forming openings in the third insulating layer for exposing the connection terminals in such a manner that upper end portions of the connection terminals protrude from the third insulating layer, and lower end portions of the connection terminals are embedded in the third insulating layer.
US09699915B2

In accordance with an embodiment, a method for manufacturing an electric circuit that includes providing a support having a first region, the first region having a first conductor that has a first sidewall and a second conductor that has a second sidewall, wherein the first conductor is electrically isolated from the second conductor is provided. A distance between the first sidewall and the second sidewall is increased using a technique such as stamping, etching, or trimming. A first circuit element is coupled to the first conductor and encapsulated in a mold compound. In accordance with another embodiment, an electric circuit includes a support having interconnect with sidewalls wherein notches extend from one or more of the sidewalls into the interconnect. A circuit element is coupled to the interconnect by a bonding agent and protected by a protective structure.
US09699910B2

A circuit structure is provided, which includes a plurality of conductive posts, and a plurality of first and second conductive pads formed on two opposite end surfaces of the conductive posts, respectively. A length of each of the first conductive pads is greater than a width of the first conductive pad so as to reduce an occupation area of the first conductive pad along the width and increase a distance between adjacent first conductive pads, thereby increasing the wiring density and meeting the wiring demand.
US09699906B2

A high density region for a low density circuit. At least a first liquid dielectric layer is deposited on the first surface of a first circuitry layer. The dielectric layer is imaged to create plurality of first recesses. Surfaces of the first recesses are plated electro-lessly with a conductive material to form first conductive structures electrically coupled to, and extending generally perpendicular to, the first circuitry layer. A plating resist is applied. A conductive material is electro-plated to the first conductive structure to substantially fill the first recesses, and the plating resist is removed.
US09699903B2

A method and apparatus are provided for implementing simultaneously connecting of multiple devices in a multi-tiered, multi-directional, enhanced tolerance system with mechanical support structures. A main system planar assembly and an elevated planar assembly share a direct connection provided by a plurality of connectors with no cables. A mechanical support bracket is attached to a top surface of the main system planar assembly positioning and supporting the elevated planar assembly spaced appropriately for accurately connecting respective connectors with respective chassis connectors. The elevated planar assembly includes a stiffening component to facilitate proper spacing between upper and lower levels of respective connectors and tool-less insertion and extraction of the elevated planar assembly.
US09699902B1

A printed circuit board is formed from a plurality of thinner PCBs stacked on top of each other with an intermediate metal interconnect material selectively positioned between adjacent PCBs. The metal interconnect material is selectively positioned on surface contact points of correspondingly aligned plated through holes on the adjacent printed circuit boards. The stacked printed circuit boards and intermediate metal interconnect material are laminated, thereby sintering the metal interconnect material and the surface contact points of the plated through holes to form electrical interconnects between plated through holes on adjacent printed circuit boards. The metal interconnect material is preferably the same as the plating material used to plate the through holes, such as copper.
US09699897B2

One or more techniques or systems for mitigating peeling associated with a pad, such as a pad of a semiconductor, are provided herein. In some embodiments, a pad structure for mitigating peeling comprises a bond region located above a first region. In some embodiments, a first inter-layer dielectric region associated with the first region is formed in an inter-layer region under the pad. Additionally, a first inter-metal dielectric region associated with the first region is formed in an inter-metal region under the inter-layer region. In some embodiments, the first inter-metal region is formed under the first inter-layer region. In this manner, peeling associated with the pad structure is mitigated, at least because the first inter-metal dielectric region comprises dielectric material and the first inter-layer dielectric region comprises dielectric material, thus forming a dielectric-dielectric interface between the first inter-metal dielectric region and the inter-layer dielectric region.
US09699896B2

A substrate includes a first pattern on which terminals are formed; a second pattern on which terminals are formed; and a third pattern on which terminals are formed. A distance between a first pair of terminals which are configured by one terminal of the first pattern and one terminal of the second pattern is equal to a distance between a second pair of terminals which are configured by another terminal of the first pattern and one terminal of the third pattern, and a distance between a third pair of terminals which are configured by another of the terminals of the third pattern and another of the terminals of the second pattern is equal to a distance between a fourth pair of terminals which are configured by the other of the terminal of the third pattern and the other of the terminal of the first pattern.
US09699894B2

Disclosed herein is a deformation sensing flexible substrate using a pattern formed of a conductive material. The deformation sensing flexible substrate, using the pattern formed of the conductive material, includes a flexible substrate; and conductive patterns in which conductors including a conductive material are arranged and formed to be contactable and non-contact to each other based on deformation of the flexible substrate.
US09699890B2

Second display means front parts, each including an immersion liquid surface level display for a coating liquid for moisture prevention and a lead-free display mark, are formed respectively in upper portions on a left side and a right side that are opposite sides having the one side interposed therebetween. A first display means front part including a board management document number, which defines a material for solder, is formed in a lower portion of the printed circuit board. A lead-free display mark (PBF) is not buried in or mixed with a large number of circuit information displays in the board, and a detailed management number is described in a reduced size to conserve space. Thus, the important lead-free display mark can be displayed with large character marks that also serve to manage a liquid surface.
US09699887B2

A circuit board includes a substrate, a first ground electrode group, and a first pair of signal electrodes. The first ground electrode group includes a plurality of first ground electrodes, where each of the plurality of the first ground electrodes is disposed at a corresponding one of vertexes of a first rectangular area in a surface of the substrate. the first pair of signal electrodes is disposed in the first rectangular area and is arranged in a first direction parallel to a side of the first rectangular area.
US09699882B2

A linear proton accelerator includes a plurality of accelerator components arranged after one another, and a proton source and a plurality of accelerating units. The accelerator further includes a reticular support structure for supporting the accelerator components. The support structure is shaped as a prism with a polygonal cross-section, and has a plurality of side faces joining opposite ends of the prism. The support structure is arranged concentrically with respect to the accelerator components.
US09699879B2

An apparatus and method sinters or partially sinters green pellets in a selected temperature range to make proppant particles as the green pellets pass between an electrical arc and a gas flowing in the vortex path and exit an underflow of a vessel. The vessel has an overflow disposed in a first end, an underflow disposed in a second end, a middle portion having a circular cross-section disposed between the first end and the second end, and a tangential inlet proximate to the first end such that a gas from the tangential inlet flows along a vortex path from the first end to the second end of the vessel. A first electrode extends through the overflow and a second electrode extends through the underflow. The electrodes are used to create the open electrical arc. One or more feed tubes extend through the overflow proximate to the first electrode.
US09699878B2

In detecting the unignited state of plasma based on a reflected wave, false detection during a normal plasma ignition time is prevented so as to detect the unignited state during plasma abnormality. When a pulse output is supplied to a plasma load by pulse driving from an RF power source, the unignited state of plasma abnormality is detected on the basis of the continuous state of the reflected wave, whereby a total reflected wave generated in the unignited state during plasma abnormality is detected in distinction from the reflected wave generated in the normal ignited state. With this configuration, in detecting the unignited state by comparing a peak value of the reflected wave with a threshold, it is possible to prevent that a reflected wave generated in the normal ignited state is erroneously detected as the total reflected wave that is generated in the abnormal unignited state.
US09699872B2

A control system for wirelessly switching lamps over short distances includes a mobile device, a lamp control switch and a controlled lamp. A user holds the mobile device to approach or depart from the lamp control switch and continuously transmit a wireless signal according to a communication protocol. The lamp control switch receives the wireless signal according to the communication protocol and turns on or off a corresponding controlled lamp according to signal intensity of the wireless signal. The control system is operated when users travel among different environments. When users get close to the lamp control switch, the lamp control switch drives the controlled lamp to turn on or off, and when users depart from the lamp control switch, the lamp control switch automatically turns off the controlled lamp, thereby ensuring operational convenience, energy conservation and carbon reduction.
US09699869B2

The invention provides a plurality of individually addressable radio frequency (RF) modules, any of which can be installed with any electrical device such as an ambient condition sensor or an ambient condition modifier. A prime example would be a light fixture, whether with or without a dimmable light source efficient dimming and integrated smart sensor networking related to the lighting system itself or to other systems such as parking monitors, fire alarm monitors or security alarm monitors. Independent control processing in each lighting fixture or electrical device allows a multiplicity of sensors to be locally employed and their data to control local conditions or communicate to adjoining fixtures and electrical devices and thereby control larger portions of the lighting system network or network to several unrelated systems.
US09699859B1

An automated fitness coaching device is presented, comprising: a light emitting diode (LED); a set of one or more sensors configured to obtain motion data samples; one or more processors coupled to the LED and the set of one or more sensors; wherein the one or more processors are configured to: obtain an indication of a color configuration; and cause a control signal to be sent to the LED to cause the LED to emit a color according to the color configuration.
US09699858B2

Techniques presented herein are directed to the coordinated network-based control of the color capabilities of multi-color fixtures. A network device is connected to multi-color light fixtures each comprising a local processor and a plurality of color light emitters. The network device receives data inputs from one or more data sources and uses the data inputs to identify a color informational display for presentation across a plurality of the multi-color light fixtures. The network device generates messages encoding light control settings for each of the plurality of multi-color light fixtures enabling each multi-color light fixture to present a spatial or temporal segment of the color informational display and sends the messages to the plurality of light fixtures. Execution of instructions embedded in the messages by the local processors results in the creation of the color informational display across the plurality of multi-color light fixtures.
US09699850B1

A power circuit for an LED lighting device including an AC power supply, a dimmer and a control circuit is provided. The control circuit includes a filtering unit configured to filter a voltage signal coming from the dimmer and a rectifying unit configured to receive the signal outputted from the filtering unit and rectify the signal to a DC signal. The control circuit also includes a transformer unit connected to the rectifying unit. Further, the control circuit includes a dimmer phase detection unit configured to sample the rectified voltage signal at point K and convert the voltage signal to a low voltage pulse signal and a flyback conversion unit configured to receive the pulse signal outputted by the dimmer phase detection unit and adjust a current flowed through the transformer unit and a first transistor to control the output current to the LED lighting device.
US09699849B2

A phase control dimming LED driver is able to achieve complete stabilization of both TRIAC and trailing edge dimmers by using a large inductor to limit the inrush normally associated with the switching on of the TRIAC during each half cycle. Such a large inductor is not normally used because when a trailing edge dimmer is applied, a damaging voltage surge known as “ring up” can be generated when the trailing edge dimmer switch turns off. In this invention the inductor is placed after the input rectifier bridge and equipped with a diode and resistor which allow the energy in the inductor at the moment when a trailing edge dimmer switches off to be harmlessly dissipated.
US09699846B2

A biasing and driving circuit for an electric load, having an input adapted to receive an a.c. input voltage and an output adapted to supply a d.c. output voltage, comprising: a voltage-regulator device, having a feedback input terminal configured to receive a sensing voltage that is a function of a supply current that flows through the electric load and regulating, on the basis of the sensing voltage received, the supply current; a resistive sensing element, operatively coupled to the feedback input, configured to receive the supply current and generate the sensing voltage as a function of the supply current; a resistor coupled to the feedback input; and an auxiliary biasing circuit adapted to receive the a.c. input voltage and inject through the resistor an a.c. auxiliary biasing current that varies in a way inversely proportional to the input voltage.
US09699837B2

A driver port that provides selectable output currents based on connections thereto, and a driver including the same, is provided. A plurality of shunt resistors are connected in series between a negative output of a driver and a ground. A driver port having a plurality of connection points is provided, each respective connection point connected to a different connection between two of the plurality of shunt resistors. A load including one or more solid state light sources is capable of being connected between one of the connection points of the driver port and a positive output of the driver.
US09699831B2

An apparatus and method for providing an Access Point (AP) function of a portable terminal are provided. The apparatus includes an AP function unit for performing the AP function by using the portable terminal in an environment where an AP is not present, and a controller for, if there is a terminal to be connected to the AP, performing connection to the terminal directly without having to perform a process of inputting password information of the AP.
US09699823B2

A method and apparatus for performing a random access (RA) procedure in a wireless communication system is provided. A user equipment (UE) establishes connection with a first node and a second node, and transmits an RA preamble to the second node. If a number of RA preamble transmissions reaches a maximum number, the UE stops uplink (UL) transmission of all cells in a group to which the second node belongs, and transmits an indication indicating that transmission of the RA preamble has failed to the first node.
US09699821B2

A storage part stores the history of a failure in connection to the other communication device. A searching part performs search for the other communication device. A connection availability determination part performs determination whether or not to connect to the other communication device found in the search on the basis of the history. A connection control part causes the searching part to perform the search again in a case where it is determined not to connect. On the other hand, in a case where it is determined to connect, the connection control part executes a connection process of connecting to the other communication device and, when the connection process fails, the connection control part performs update of the history and causes the searching part to perform the search again.
US09699818B2

A monitoring system comprises a storage device monitor and a communication device. The storage device monitor is powered by an energy storage device (e.g., battery or fuel cell) to which the storage device monitor is attached. The communication device is mounted on an industrial vehicle or battery charger. A load is electrically connected to the communication device that is external to and independent from the storage device monitor. In operation, the communication device transmits an encoded message to the load. A controller of the storage device monitor detects the encoded message by sensing changes in a characteristic of the energy storage device that occur responsive to the communication device transmitting the encoded message to the load. The controller of the storage device monitor converts the encoded message into a discovery parameter, and pairs with the communication device across a wireless network based upon the discovery parameter.
US09699804B2

At least one example embodiment discloses a system including a network element configured to transmit downlink control channel information to a user equipment (UE) using a first bandwidth, the first bandwidth being at least a portion of a long term evolution (LTE) bandwidth, transmit a preamble to the UE using a second bandwidth, the second bandwidth being a bandwidth excluding the LTE bandwidth, and the preamble indicating a scheduled data transmission, and transmit data to the UE using the second bandwidth in accordance with the downlink control channel information and the preamble.
US09699801B2

An apparatus has a first communication module that is compatible with a first wireless communication technology, and a second communication module that is compatible with a second, different, wireless communication technology. Transmissions by each communication module may contribute to interference at the other communication module. In one example, a Block Acknowledgement Request is transmitted by the apparatus during a downlink period of the second communication module so that the Block Acknowledgement transmitted in response is received during the downlink period. In another example, the apparatus calculates a maximum size of A-MPDU to receive and notifies an access point of that maximum size. In a further example, the apparatus, having notified an access point of operation in a power save mode, polls the access point for buffered frames at the start of a downlink period of the second communication module.
US09699797B2

A method for providing access feedback when a User Equipment, UE, with an established a connection over multiple accesses towards a Gateway, GW, initiates a set-up of a new service for a service session. The method comprises a step where the GW or a Policy and Charging Rules Function, PCRF, initiates a Quality of Service, QoS, resource reservation as a response of the set-up of the new service initiated by the UE. The GW or the PCRF in the QoS resource reservation selects a first access as present access.The method is particularly characterized in a step where the UE rejects said first access as present access and sends a reject message to the GW, wherein the GW or the PCRF as a result of the reject message initiates a new QoS resource reservation selecting a second access as present access.
US09699791B2

A method for transmitting a reference signal by a base station to a user equipment in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes transmitting the reference signal to the user equipment according to a first pattern corresponding to a first speed section, and if movement speed of the user equipment is changed to a second speed section from the first speed section, transmitting the reference signal to the user equipment according to a second pattern corresponding to the second speed section, wherein, if the second speed section is a higher-speed section than the first speed section, the second pattern includes the first pattern.
US09699788B2

There is provided a communication device including: a first radio communication unit capable of radio communication in accordance with a first communication method; and a second radio communication unit capable of radio communication in accordance with a second communication method using a higher frequency band than the first communication method, wherein the first radio communication unit transmits an instruction signal instructing to learn a beam directionality to another communication device, and the second radio communication unit transmits a beam reference signal used for learning a beam directionality to said another communication device after completion of transmission of the instruction signal by the first radio communication unit and before reception of a response signal to the instruction signal.
US09699786B2

The present invention relates to wireless networks and more specifically to a method and apparatus for integrating spectrum data from a plurality of autonomous radio agents with a cloud-based data fusion and computing element that enables network self-organization and adaptive control of dynamic frequency selection in 802.11 ac/n and LTE-U networks. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a cloud intelligence engine communicatively coupled to a plurality of multi-channel DFS masters that is configured to receive spectral information from the plurality of multi-channel DFS masters, integrate the spectral information with other spectral information to generate integrated spectral information, and determine communication channels for the plurality of multi-channel DFS masters based at least on the integrated spectral information.
US09699773B2

The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for allocating control channel candidates, which relate to the communications field, and can allocate control channel candidates at different aggregation levels to K ePDCCH sets and reduce complexity of blind detection performed by a UE. The method includes: determining K sets for transmitting a control channel, where each set in the K sets includes at least one physical resource block pair; and allocating control channel candidates at each aggregation level to at least one set in the K sets according to at least one of aggregation levels supported by the control channel to be transmitted, the number of control channel candidates corresponding to each aggregation level, the K sets for transmitting the control channel, and types of the sets.
US09699769B2

The present application discloses a method, an apparatus and a system for exchanging common E-RGCH information. The method includes: receiving a common E-RGCH information message of a cell managed by a second RNC, where the common E-RGCH information message is sent by the second RNC; selecting a candidate common E-RGCH receiving neighboring cell set for the UE, where the candidate common E-RGCH receiving neighboring cell set includes a neighboring cell with an available common E-RGCH feature and the neighboring cell is determined according to common E-RGCH information message sent by the second RNC; and sending common E-RGCH configuration parameter information of each cell in the candidate common E-RGCH receiving neighboring cell set to the UE.
US09699759B1

Aspects of the disclosure provide a method for detecting false movement of a device. The method includes receiving acceleration signals from a 3-axis accelerometer of a mobile device that are indicative of a movement of the mobile device over a window of time. The acceleration signals can include a first signal, a second signal, and a third signal corresponding to three axes of the 3-axis accelerometer. The method further includes calculating a standard deviation (SD) value for each of the acceleration signals over the window of time, determining whether the movement of the mobile device is a false movement that does not substantially change a geographic location of the mobile device based on the calculated SD values, and when the movement of the mobile device is not a false movement, triggering a location updating process for the mobile device.
US09699756B2

A mobile communication device collects and reports location data associated with itself and with mobile communication devices within a proximity. The mobile communication device determines its location and detects the presence of another communication device located within the proximity of the mobile communication device. The mobile communication device determines a location of the other mobile communication device. The mobile communication device reports its location and the location of the other mobile communication device.
US09699753B1

A test apparatus for testing a base station of a wireless communication system, comprises a downlink port, which receives a downlink signal from the base station, an uplink port, which emits an uplink signal to the base station, a signal processing unit, which is coupled to the downlink port and analyzes the downlink signal for timing information and generates a timing synchronization signal based on the downlink signal, and a signal generator, which is coupled to the signal processing unit and the uplink port and generates a predetermined signal frame and emits the generated predetermined signal frame based on the synchronization signal via the uplink port to the base station.
US09699750B2

Provided is a synchronization establishment method capable of reducing the time required to establish synchronization in a slave station without putting an unnecessary load on a master station. In the synchronization establishment method, a one-second cycle of a message is divided into 100 time slots including slot “0” to slot “99”; ten slots including slot “90” to slot “99” as some of the slots are allocated to a fast synchronization establishment mode; and, in the fast synchronization establishment mode, messages such as Sync2, Delay_Req, and Delay_Resp are transmitted and received between the master station and the slave station so that the slave station establishes synchronization.
US09699749B2

One embodiment of the present invention is a device-to-device (D2D) communication method. According to said method, a first terminal performs D2D communication with a second terminal in a wireless communication system, and comprises the steps of: receiving a first signal from the second terminal; and transmitting a second signal based on the received first signal to a third terminal. The first signal and the second signal are used in acquiring synchronization related to the D2D communication in each of the first terminal and the third terminal.
US09699745B2

A radio communication system includes a user device, base stations, and a communication control device. The communication control device generates and reports, to the user device, selection information that is used to select base stations with which the user device should maintain synchronization. The user device selects, based on the selection information, base stations with which the user device should maintain synchronization. The user device reports, to the communication control device, identifiers of the selected base stations and received levels of radio waves transmitted from the base stations corresponding to the identifiers. The user device maintains synchronization with each of the selected base stations.
US09699742B2

In a method for a transmission point to transmit a downlink signal to a user equipment in a wireless communication system, the method includes determining transmission power of first resource elements for data transmission of an OFDM symbol which does not include a Cell specific Reference Signal (CRS) and transmission power of second resource elements for data transmission of an OFDM symbol which includes the CRS, wherein a first parameter related to the determination of the transmission power of the first resource elements and a second parameter related to the determination of the transmission power of the second resource elements are determined by one of a first configuration and a second configuration, and wherein the first configuration and the second configuration are selectively applied according to one or more of a subframe and a transmission mode.
US09699725B1

A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include determining that a periodic timer for a user equipment (UE) is about to expire; communicating to an application service, prior to expiration of the periodic timer for the UE, an indication associated with an availability of the UE to receive data from the application service; and communicating the data from the application service to the UE upon receiving the indication. In some cases, the method can include registering, by the application service, to receive the indication from a Mobility Management Entity (MME) or a serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) support node (SGSN), wherein the registering is performed via a service capability exposure function (SCEF) in communication with the MME or the SGSN and the application service.
US09699722B2

A wireless access point is described. The wireless access point includes a processor, memory and instructions stored in the memory. The wireless access point receives a sleep state command from a central controller. The central controller transmits the sleep state command based on movement of an electronic device in relation to one or more wireless access points located within a wireless network. The wireless access point enters a sleep state for a sleep period. The wireless access point transitions to an active state upon expiration of the sleep period.
US09699721B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing efficient and reliable communication for wireless devices, e.g., machine type communication devices, in a cellular communications network. In one embodiment, a node of a cellular communications network is configured to select a device-anchor base station for a wireless device from candidate device-anchor base stations, where the candidate device-anchor base stations are wireless devices that satisfy one or more predefined criteria for serving as a candidate device-anchor base station and establish a connection between the wireless device and the device-anchor base station for the wireless device such that data transmissions between the wireless device and a base station of the cellular communications network are via the device-anchor base station. In this manner, communication between the wireless device and the base station is assisted by the device-anchor base station.
US09699718B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure propose a method for domain selection in a multimode UE. The domain selection method may be used to select domains for short message service (SMS) and/or voice service when the UE has camped on a packet switched (PS) network such as LTE. The proposed domain selection method may take into account UE capabilities, home operator preferences, visited operator preferences, visited network capabilities, and user settings.
US09699712B2

Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate communicating PSC split information regarding neighboring cells. The PSC split information can be transmitted in one or more overhead messages selected based on network deployment. Where macro cells and femto cells provide PSC split information, which can be a PSC range for related cells, PSC list, etc., the information can be transmitted in a low priority overhead message since it can be obtained at a source cell. Where only femto cells or closed subscriber group (CSG) cells provide PSC split information, the information can be transmitted in a higher priority more frequently transmitted message. In this regard, the information is available at target cells since not all devices can access CSG cells. Thus, by providing the PSC split information in a more frequently transmitted message, devices can retrieve the PSC split information early on in communications to lower power consumption.
US09699710B2

A method and user equipment (UE) are provided for receiving system information in a wireless communication system. The UE receives, from a base station, a master information block (MIB) indicating that the base station broadcasts a first system information block type 1 (SIB1) for a specific type of UE. The UE receives the first SIB1 for the specific type of UE when the MIB indicates that the base station broadcasts the first SIB1 for the specific type of UE, and receives a first set of at least one system information block (SIB) from the base station based on the first SIB1. The first set of at least one SIB is scheduled within a first bandwidth that is smaller than a second bandwidth for a second set of at least one SIB.
US09699707B2

According to an embodiment, a calculation method is for performing calculation on a wireless network including multiple terminals and multiple base stations. The method includes calculating a first probability with which a first base station and a second terminal are capable of connection with (h−1) hops, h being a finite integer equal to or larger than 2, and a first terminal and the second terminal are capable of direct connection with each other, by using a probability with which the first terminal and the second terminal are capable of direct connection with each other and a probability with which the second terminal and the first base station are capable of direct connection with each other; and calculating a second probability with which the first terminal is capable of connection with at least one of the base stations with h hops by using the first probability.
US09699700B2

Dynamic cell resource management in wireless networking. By way of example, user terminal access parameters can be dynamically modified based on changing load conditions at one or more cells of a wireless network. For instance, resource capacity of a wireless network cell can be monitored over time to identify a potential resource overload condition. If such a condition occurs, a load management algorithm can be executed that progressively restricts or de-restricts user terminal access parameters based on changing load conditions. In particular aspects, the load management algorithm can analyze relative cell load of neighboring cells to implement coordinated load sharing. By dynamically modifying user access parameters, traffic can be directed toward or away from cells operating at low or high capacity, respectively.
US09699690B2

Example embodiments presented herein are directed towards a base station (401), and corresponding method therein, for obtaining a carrier aggregation compatibility report comprising a subset of a total number of frequency band and/or frequency band combinations supported by a wireless device. Example embodiments presented herein are also directed towards a wireless device (501), and corresponding method therein, for providing a carrier aggregation compatibility report comprising a subset of the total number of frequency bands and/or frequency band combinations supported by the wireless device.
US09699685B1

In certain aspects, an apparatus for wireless communication comprises an interface configured to receive reports from wireless nodes, wherein each of the reports includes an indication of a battery life of a respective one of the wireless nodes. The apparatus also comprises a processing system configured to determine a schedule for communication based on the reported battery lives of the wireless nodes. The interface is further configured to output data for transmission to the wireless nodes based on the schedule or to output signals for transmission to the wireless nodes based on the schedule, each of the signals instructing a respective one of the wireless nodes to transmit data to the apparatus.
US09699683B1

Disclosed are techniques for detecting earliest arriving downlink signal peaks over all transmit diversity paths received at a same point in time. In an aspect, a wireless mobile device receives a wireless signal comprised of signals transmitted from a plurality of cells each providing a plurality of transmit diversity paths, calculates a channel energy response (CER) vector for each of the plurality of transmit diversity paths of each of the plurality of cells, constructs an overlaid CER vector for each of the plurality of cells, wherein the overlaid CER vector for a cell comprises an overlay of each CER vector of the plurality of transmit diversity paths of the cell, and determines an earliest arrival path of each of the plurality of cells based on the overlaid CER vector for that cell.
US09699678B2

Small anechoic chambers for evaluating a wireless device under test (DUT) are characterized by a set of antennas to which a test signal is applied and for which excitation coefficients are applied such that the test signal approximates a single plane wave or a preselected superposition of plane waves in the near field of the antennas. The test-equipment antennas in the chamber may be as close as one wavelength from the boundary of a test zone in which the DUT is disposed. Hence, the test zone can be in the near field of the test-equipment antennas and the test zone can be less than a wavelength from the chamber walls. Consequently, it is possible to perform tests in a small anechoic chamber that previously required a large anechoic chamber, e.g., advanced spatial channel-model tests and antenna-pattern measurements.
US09699677B2

Aspects of the present disclosures are directed to outer loop power control (OLPC) mechanisms that can achieve or realize the desired block error rate (BLER) performance in a wireless network that supports frame early termination (FET) utilizing multiple decoding attempts during the same transmit time interval.
US09699676B2

In order to support generation of network statistics, a policy controller (30) of a mobile network may be provided with a network statistics generator (32) and with an interface (Ni) to a network intelligence function (60). The network statistics generator (32) may use these interfaces of the policy controller (30) for obtaining information needed to generate the network statistics. In addition, the network statistics generator (32) may also use information which is locally available at the policy controller (30). In other words, the policy controller (30) or one or more other nodes may act as sources of information for generating the network statistics. The network statistics generator (32) may select types of information to be used for compiling a certain network statistic and also suitably select nodes to be used as sources of information for obtaining these types of information. This may for example be accomplished on the basis of a request received from the network intelligence function (60).
US09699673B1

A subscriber management system for maintaining active communication sessions during subscriber maintenance activities is provided. The system can delay detaching mobile devices from the mobile network when there are active communication sessions that are associated with subscriber management maintenance activities or customer care activities in order to avoid disrupting the subscriber experience. The system can delay deleting the subscriber information until the active sessions have ended, which will allow the customer care activities to continue uninterrupted. In an embodiment, the subscriber management system can determine whether to detach the active communication session based on the priority of the session, such as whether it is real-time, or with a customer care element of the mobile network.
US09699672B2

The present disclosure provides a method for establishing a correspondence between a sector of a base station and an antenna, a base station, and an antenna. The base station (or the antenna) generates a modulation signal, and a radio frequency port corresponding to the antenna (or the base station) can receive the modulation signal. Then, the base station determines that there is a correspondence between a radio frequency port that is on the base station side and that sends the modulation signal and a radio frequency port that is on the antenna side and that receives the modulation signal. Therefore, the base station establishes a correspondence between a sector and the antenna, which is highly efficient and highly accurate in comparison with a manual recording manner.
US09699668B2

A method in which a User Equipment (UE) measures a downlink signal in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes receiving information about a Beam Direction Pattern (BDP) of the downlink signal and measuring the downlink signal based on the information about the BDP. The information about the BDP includes an index of a subframe in which the downlink signal is to be transmitted using a specific BDP and includes an identifier (ID) of the specific BDP. The BDP of the downlink signal is switched according to the subframe index based on the information about the BDP.
US09699664B2

A method, computer-readable storage device and apparatus for locating a source of a communication impairment are disclosed. For example, the method detects the communication impairment, performs a sweep to locate a direction of the source of the communication impairment, wherein the sweep is performed in response to the detecting the communication impairment at the endpoint device, and generates a null in the direction of the source of the communication impairment.
US09699663B1

A Spectrum Sharing System (SSS) is a system and method which allows Radio Frequency (RF) wireless mobile and fixed devices to operate in the 3100-3650 MHz frequency band while simultaneously protecting radar operations from interference. The SSS includes equipment which utilizes spectrum sensing, GPS data, and database technology to provide a solution by which mobile and fixed wireless devices can be allowed use of the 3100-3650 MHz frequency band and share same spectrum with radar systems. The spectrum sharing action is only possible when radar emissions are not detected within the licensed service in the 3100-3650 MHz spectrum, and SSS has determined that geographical area of interest is not occupied by radar systems.
US09699658B2

A control method and an apparatus for network admission, which can control network admission of a wireless termination point (WTP) in a condition that a live network is not upgraded. In the method, an access controller (AC) that has a network admission control function receives a join request packet from a WTP and establishes a Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points (CAPWAP) connection with the WTP. If the CAPWAP connection between the AC and the WTP is successfully established, the AC enables permission of the WTP. In another control method for network admission disclosed in the present application, an AC receives a join request packet from a WTP and establishes a CAPWAP connection with the WTP. A network admission end enables permission of the WTP according to a result from the AC that the connection between the AC and the WTP is successfully established.
US09699657B2

Methods and devices for NFC-tap file encryption, decryption and access via Near Field Communication (NFC) are disclosed. A user can select an unencrypted file stored in a computing device for encryption. Upon encryption, the file name of the selected file and the encryption key used to encrypt the selected file are transmitted to an NFC-enabled wireless device for storage. The user can select an encrypted file stored in the computing device for access. As the user taps the computing device with the wireless device, the file name of the selected file is transmitted to the wireless device, which in turn transmits a decryption key for decrypting the selected file to the computing device. The computing device decrypts the selected file with the decryption key. The user can now access the decrypted file.
US09699652B2

A first partner connected to a channel collects samples of a physical variable on the basis of a time-variable property of the channel; stores a first array of at least bivalent elements; stores a second array of at least bivalent elements, each element in the second array corresponding to a remaining element in the first array and representing a first state if the sample, to which the remaining element in the first array corresponds, is outside a limit range and representing a second state if the sample is within the limit range; receives a parity check bit from the second partner; subjects elements in the first array to a parity check using the parity check bit; and, if the parity check fails, determines a checked element in the first array whose corresponding element in the second array represents the second state, and inverts the determined element in the first array.
US09699647B2

A method and system for delivering content to a plurality of devices is provided. In one embodiment, the method may be for delivering content elements of one or more presentations to a device configured to communicate via a wireless data network, wherein the content elements include static content elements, dynamic content elements, and on-demand content elements. The method may comprise delivering to the device, data, such as compilation data, of the content elements included in the one or more presentations; delivering the static content elements to the device via the wireless data network during one or more time periods of increased available wireless data network capacity; delivering the dynamic content elements to the device via the wireless data network substantially according to a schedule; and delivering the on-demand content elements to the device via the wireless data network substantially immediately after a user request for an on-demand content element.
US09699641B2

A method and apparatus for supporting uplink (UL) protocol changes includes reconfiguring a medium access control (MAC) protocol. A hybrid automatic repeat request (HARM) process is flushed, and a MAC-e/es reset is performed.
US09699640B2

A pairing apparatus includes first and second wireless devices, each of which has a docking mechanism for docking the wireless devices with each other, wherein each of the wireless devices includes a pairing request detecting unit to detect a request for pairing, a docking detecting unit to detect docking of the wireless devices, and a pairing setting unit to perform a pairing setting process for pairing the wireless devices, in response to the request for pairing, wherein a check is made as to whether the wireless devices are in a docked state at both a time of the pressing of the pairing button and a time of the releasing of the pairing button, and the request for pairing is made from one of the wireless devices to the other upon a result of the check indicating that the wireless devices are in the docked state at both of the times.
US09699639B2

Disconnection from a network is easily recognized.A plurality of information processing devices connected over a network is disclosed. The network is built through wireless communication of the plurality of information processing devices. The plurality of information processing devices includes at least a first information processing device and a second information processing device. A detection unit of the first information processing device is configured to detect the second information processing device that is disconnected from the network. A control unit of the first information processing device is configured to output first information about the detected second information processing device as disconnection information.
US09699634B2

A system and method for tracking a person is presented. A system includes an electronic device to be carried by a person that is used to notify one or more remote users that the person is to begin a journey from a starting point to a remote point. The electronic device can detect that the person has not moved for a predetermined time period a predetermined distance. When this happens, the electronic device sends non-movement messages to the one or more remote users informing them that the person has not move for a predetermined time period a predetermined distance. The electronic device provides a warning message that the non-movement messages will be sent and sends them if there was no response to the warning message.
US09699630B2

A method, system, and terminal for providing a communication service function are provided herein. A system for supporting a communication service, includes: a receiver side terminal that provides a communication service list including communication service items, in response to a call connection request message; and a transmitter side terminal that transmits the call connection request message to the receiver side terminal, receives the communication service list provided from the receiver side terminal, and displays the received communication service list.
US09699620B2

One embodiment provides an apparatus. The apparatus includes a device. The device includes at least one transceiver. The device further includes transceiver selection logic to determine whether each of the at least one transceiver complies with transceiver regulations associated with a location of the device.
US09699616B2

A mobile electronic device includes a detector unit configured to detect a position and an orientation of the mobile electronic device and a control unit. The control unit monitors the orientation of the mobile electronic device for a predetermined period when the control unit detects a change of the orientation of the mobile electronic device from a former orientation. The control unit determines that a corner is detected when the mobile electronic device does not return to the former orientation within the predetermined period, and determines that the corner is not detected when the mobile electronic device returns to the former orientation within the predetermined period.
US09699614B2

Disclosed herein are a positioning environment analysis apparatus, and a method and system for predicting location determination performance of a terminal. The presented system includes one or more collection devices for acquiring collected data that includes information about positioning resources for respective points, an LBS platform including a collection server for receiving the collected data from the one or more collection devices, and arranging and storing the collected data in a DB, and a positioning DB creation device for analyzing and processing the positioning resource information and creating a positioning DB to be used for location determination, and a positioning environment analysis apparatus for loading environment analysis data from one or more of the collection server, the positioning DB, and a user terminal, and evaluating and predicting, based on the environment analysis data, location determination performance values for respective points in a service area, for respective positioning resources.
US09699608B2

In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising a receiver configured to receive a measurement instruction comprising an indication of a first frequency, and at least one processing core configured to suppress causing sending of a proximity indication relating to a closed subscriber group cell operating substantially on at least the first frequency. In some embodiments, sending of redundant proximity indications may thus be avoided.
US09699607B2

Methods for determining a LOB of one or more user equipment (UE) in a wireless system employing Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) is described. TDOA techniques are based on estimating the difference in the arrival times of reference signals from multiple receivers or from multiple emitters to a receiver. A particular value of the time difference estimate defines a hyperbola between the two receivers on which the handset may exist. When the distance between the receiving antennas is small relative to the distance of the emitter source (the handset) being located, then the TDOA is equivalent to the angle between the baseline of the sensors (receivers antennas) and the incident RF energy from the emitter. If the angle between the baseline and true North is known, then the line of bearing (LOB) and/or angle of arrival (AoA), can be utilized to determine the location of the UE.
US09699606B1

Disclosed are approaches for using overlapping geo-fences to confirm delivery of a shipment. A first client computing device and a second client computing device may be in data communication with a server computing device. The server computing device may receive a delivery notification from the first client computing device. The server computing device may receive from the first client computing device a first position and a second position from the second client computing device. The server computing device may then determine that the second position is within a predefined distance of the first position or vice versa. Finally, the server computing device may generate a delivery confirmation in response to a first determination that the second position is within a predefined distance of the first position and a second determination that the first position is within a predefined distance of the second position.
US09699585B2

A multi-channel decoder for generating a binaural signal from a downmix signal using upmix rule information on an energy-error introducing upmix rule for calculating a gain factor based on the upmix rule information and characteristics of head related transfer function based filters corresponding to upmix channels. The one or more gain factors are used by a filter processor for filtering the downmix signal so that an energy corrected binaural signal having a left binaural channel and a right binaural channel is obtained.
US09699584B2

An apparatus for generating one or more audio output channels is provided. The apparatus includes a parameter processor for calculating output channel mixing information and a downmix processor for generating the one or more audio output channels. The downmix processor is configured to receive an audio transport signal including one or more audio transport channels, wherein two or more audio object signals are mixed within the audio transport signal, and wherein the number of the one or more audio transport channels is smaller than the number of the two or more audio object signals. The audio transport signal depends on a first mixing rule and on a second mixing rule. The first mixing rule indicates how to mix the two or more audio object signals to obtain a plurality of premixed channels. Moreover, the second mixing rule indicates how to mix the plurality of premixed channels.
US09699553B2

The disclosure includes a system and method for sonically customizing an audio reproduction device. The system includes a processor and a memory storing instructions that when executed cause the system to determine an application environment associated with an audio reproduction device associated with a user; determine one or more sound profiles based on the application environment; provide the one or more sound profiles to the user; receive a selection of a first sound profile from the one or more sound profiles; and generate tuning data based on the first sound profile, the tuning data configured to sonically customize the audio reproduction device.
US09699549B2

Accordingly, the present disclosure is directed to an audio capturing enhancement method and an audio capturing system using the same method. The audio capturing system includes at least but not limited to two microphones for recording an audio data, an amplifier coupled to the at least two microphones for adjusting the audio data by applying automatic gain control (AGC) in order to generate a gain adjusted data that is within a predefined level, and a processing circuit coupled to the amplifier for calculating a linear predictive coding (LPC) residue of the gain adjusted data, determining from the LPC residue a first source at a first direction relative to the at least two microphones based on time different of arrival (TDOA), and attenuating any source at a second direction that is outside of a predefined direction.
US09699546B2

This application relates to earbuds configured with one or more biometric sensors. At least one of the biometric sensors is configured to be pressed up against a portion of the tragus for making biometric measurements. In some embodiments, the housing of the earbud can be symmetric so that the earbud can be worn interchangeably in either a left or a right ear of a user. In such an embodiment, the earbud can include a sensor and circuitry configured to determine and alter operation of the earbud in accordance to which ear the earbud is determined to be positioned within.
US09699542B2

A headset driver circuit is described which comprises a connector interface. The connector interface comprises a first terminal, a second terminal and a third terminal for establishing respective electrical connections to a first speaker, a microphone and a common ground node of a headphone, earphone or headset, respectively. A first power amplifier is coupled to the first terminal to supply a first audio output signal to the first speaker of the headset. A first switch arrangement comprises a first ground switch is configured for selectively connecting and disconnecting the second terminal and a ground node of the headset driver circuit. The headset driver circuit further comprises a second ground switch configured for selectively connecting and disconnecting the third terminal and the ground node. The headset driver circuit also comprises a differential preamplifier, e.g. a microphone preamplifier, configured to generate a microphone output voltage where the differential preamplifier comprises a first signal input coupled to the second terminal and a second signal input coupled to the third terminal of the connector interface. An error suppression circuit is configured to sense or sample a noise or error voltage at the second terminal when ground connected or the third terminal when ground connected. The error suppression circuit is further configured to add the sensed or sampled noise or error voltage to a predetermined DC bias voltage and generate an error compensated DC bias voltage for the ungrounded one of the second and third terminals of the connector interface.
US09699538B2

A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) microphone device is provided in the present disclosure. The MEMS microphone device includes a circuit board, an electromagnetic shielding cover mounted on the circuit board to define an accommodating space, electronic components received in the accommodating space and electrically connected to the circuit board, and a metal shielding member disposed between the electronic components and the electromagnetic shielding cover. The electromagnetic shielding cover has an inner surface and an outer surface; and at least one of the inner surface and the outer surface is provided with a first metal shielding layer. At least one of the electromagnetic shielding cover and the metal shielding member is electrically connected to the circuit board.
US09699528B2

A system and method for communicating biofeedback to a user through a wearable device that includes collecting physiological data of at least one physiological property of a user; processing the physiological data into at least one biosignal; monitoring the at least one biosignal for a feedback activation condition; and upon satisfying a feedback activation condition, delivering haptic feedback.
US09699523B1

The present invention includes systems and methods for providing video clips. One or more users may set one or more parameters for automatically creating one or more video clips of an event. One or more sources may provide event information used to trigger video clip creation. An advertisement may be inserted into one or more created video clips. Each video clip may be associated with metadata and downloaded by a user device user, wherein metadata may identify one or more parameters associated with the video clip.
US09699511B2

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus with improved operatability. With the information processing apparatus in which the user is capable of watching a television program and connecting to the Internet, the index panel 1 shows channel buttons 2 to be operated to select a desired program, a site button 71 to be operated to make an access to site A available on the Internet and a site button 72 to be operated to make an access to site B on the Internet. The present invention allows the user to watch a television program and can be applied to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, which can be connected to the Internet.
US09699509B2

A data processing system includes a first virtual machine, a second virtual machine, a switching unit, an external data processing device, and a video output unit. The first virtual machine performs video processing on input processing data. The second virtual machine transmits/receives the processing data to/from an outside. The switching unit switches an input destination of the processing data from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine. The external data processing device receives the processing data transmitted from the second virtual machine, performs the video processing on the processing data, and transmits the processing data to the second virtual machine. The video output unit outputs, to a video output device, the processing data on which the video processing has been performed by the first virtual machine, and outputs, to the video output device, the processing data that the second virtual machine has received.
US09699506B2

A method of providing communications services to customer premise equipment (CPE) coupled to a television. The method includes operating a network element as a communications terminal server, the network element being part of a communications network. The network element receives from the CPE a request to initiate communications with a diagnostic system coupled to the communications network. The network element accesses a communications application executing on a communications server coupled to the communications network and pushes a communications interface to the CPE. The network element receives message information from the CPE and routes the message information to the communications server to initiate delivery of a message to the diagnostic system.
US09699498B2

A method of receiving and processing a broadcast signal including a Non-Real Time (NRT) service and a broadcast receiver are disclosed herein. A method of processing a Non-Real Time (NRT) service in a broadcast receiver, the method comprises receiving and processing first signaling information including content access information and second signaling information including content detail information, receiving and processing third signaling information including content update information, receiving and storing a content including at least one file through NRT based on the first signaling information and the second signaling information, identifying update availability of the content based on the content update information included in the third signaling information, and receiving at least one file included in the content by accessing a File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) session transmitting the content when the update is available.
US09699493B1

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for causing a stunt switcher to run a snipe-overlay video effect (DVE). An example method involves (i) selecting a first log-entry from a traffic log, the first log-entry corresponding to a snipe-overlay DVE, to a snipe video, and to a start time; (ii) selecting a second log-entry from the traffic log, the second log-entry corresponding to a video component (VC) and the start time; (iii) causing the VC to start being channeled through the stunt switcher proximate the start time; (iv) making a determination that a threshold time-period has passed since the start time; and (v) responsive to making the determination (a) causing the snipe video to be sent to the stunt switcher, and (b) causing the stunt switcher to run the snipe-overlay DVE, thereby overlaying the snipe video on the VC as the VC is being channeled through the stunt switcher.
US09699491B1

A method of setting controls on a digital communication device operated by an end user participant in a digital content event provided from a digital communication network includes operating a tracking control in the digital communication network to track activity of the digital communication device in a context of the digital content event; operating a timer in conjunction with the activity to form a time-stamped set of ranking controls; attenuating the time-stamped set of ranking controls according to an elapsed time; applying the time-stamped set of ranking controls and content inputs from a digital content manager to operate a ranking control and digital filter to generate a control interface for the digital communication device, the control interface comprising a plurality of individually operable controls; and configuring the digital communication device with the control interface.
US09699485B2

In particular embodiments a social networking system may receive authorization from a first user of a social-networking system to control at least in part one or more functions of a set-top box (STB) of the first user, determine one or more social actions of one or more second users of the social-networking system, determine one or more instructions for the STB of the first user based at least in part on the social actions, and provide the instructions for the STB of the first user. The social-networking system includes a graph having a plurality of nodes and edges connecting the nodes.
US09699483B2

Inter-color image prediction is based on multi-channel multiple regression (MMR) models. Image prediction is applied to the efficient coding of images and video signals of high dynamic range. MMR models may include first order parameters, second order parameters, and cross-pixel parameters. MMR models using extension parameters incorporating neighbor pixel relations are also presented. Using minimum means-square error criteria, closed form solutions for the prediction parameters are presented for a variety of MMR models.
US09699478B2

An inverse transform method and apparatus for a video codec are disclosed. The inverse transformer can include: a first inverse transform unit configured to perform an inverse transform operation on an even column portion of a 2n×2n block or an n×n block sharing inverse transform coefficients; and a second inverse transform unit configured to store coefficients according to a first input mode and a second input mode and configured to select coefficients according to input mode and multiply the selected coefficients with an input value to perform an inverse transform of an odd column portion of a 2n×2n block or an n×n block.
US09699464B2

Techniques related to adaptive bitrate streaming for wireless video are discussed. Such techniques may include determining candidate bitrates for encoding segments of a source video. A minimum of the candidate bitrates may be selected and a segment of the source video may be encoded based on the selected encoding bitrate. The encoded bitstream may be transmitted wirelessly from a transmitting device to a receiving device, which may decode the bitstream and present the decoded video to a user.
US09699458B2

The present invention provides an image encoding/decoding technique that is capable of achieving the higher compression efficiency. An image encoding method comprises: an intra prediction step which performs intra prediction on a block basis to generate a predicted image; a subtraction step which calculates the difference in prediction between the predicted image generated by the intra prediction step and an original image; a frequency conversion step which performs frequency conversion processing for the difference in prediction; a quantization step which subjects the output of the frequency conversion step to quantization processing; and a variable-length encoding step which subjects the output of the quantization step to variable-length encoding processing; wherein the intra prediction encoding step predicts a target pixel to be encoded by use of pixel values of two reference pixels between which the target pixel to be encoded is located.
US09699455B2

A moving picture coding apparatus includes a motion compensation coding unit for deciding a coding mode for coding a current block to be coded and for generating predictive image data based on the coding mode, and includes a direct mode enable/disable judgment unit for judging whether or not scaling processing can be performed when the coding mode decided by the motion compensation coding unit is a temporal direct mode. When it is judged that the scaling processing cannot be performed, the motion compensation coding unit performs motion compensation either by using another coding mode or without the scaling processing.
US09699453B1

Embodiments of a method and apparatus for video enhancement are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the method includes accessing a first frame of the video. The first frame can include pixel data with intensity values within one of a number of non-overlapping ranges of intensity values. The method can further include compressing the intensity values of the first pixel data to generate non-linearly compressed (NLC) pixel data such that the intensity values are compressed into smaller ranges of intensity values. The method can further include upsampling the NLC pixel data based on an upsampling ratio. The method can further include decompressing the intensity values of the upsampled pixel data by reassigning intensity values of the upsampled pixel data to intensity values in the original intensity value ranges. Other example methods, systems, and apparatuses are described.
US09699452B2

Systems, methods, and instrumentalities are disclosed relating to intra prediction of a video signal based on mode-dependent subsampling. A block of coefficients associated with a first sub block of a video block, one or more blocks of coefficients associated with one or more remaining sub blocks of the video block, and an indication of a prediction mode for the video block may be received. One or more interpolating techniques, a predicted first sub block, and the predicted sub blocks of the one or more remaining sub blocks may be determined. A reconstructed first sub block and one or more reconstructed remaining sub blocks may be generated. A reconstructed video block may be formed based on the prediction mode, the reconstructed first sub block, and the one or more reconstructed remaining sub blocks.
US09699443B2

The disclosure provides a stereoscopic image display device, including: multiple display units, the multiple display units being arranged in rows and columns, a first black matrix being disposed between adjacent rows of display units, and a second black matrix being disposed between adjacent columns of display units. The stereoscopic image display device also includes a lens sheet disposed corresponding to the multiple display units, the lens sheet being formed by multiple lined up half-cylinder lenses, and, in an X-direction, a cycle length of the half-cylinder lenses in the lens sheet being a positive even multiple of a cycle length of the display units. In the display device, X coordinate values of the multiple display units do not repeat periodically within one cycle of the lens sheet. The stereoscopic image display device according to the disclosure can solve a problem of black and white stripes, thereby improving the display effect.
US09699439B2

A method for transmitting a three-dimensional (3D) caption signal and caption display method are disclosed to three-dimensionally display caption text such that it fits a 3D image in a 3D display device. 3D caption box configuration information and caption text are generated to display a 3D caption within a 3D image, and the 3D caption box configuration information and the caption text are inserted into a video picture header region to code the image signal, and then, the image signal is transmitted. In the caption display method, a broadcast signal including a 3D image signal is received, and 3D caption box configuration information and caption text included in the broadcast signal are acquired. A caption image including 3D caption text disposed within a 3D caption box is then generated based on the 3D caption box configuration information and the caption text, and displayed.
US09699429B2

There are provided an apparatus and a method which generate an RGB image having less color noise and fewer false colors by inputting an RGBW image. The apparatus has an image sensor having an RGBW array, and an image processing unit which performs image processing by inputting a sensor image formed of an RGBW pixel signal output from the image sensor. The image sensor has a periodic array of a unit composition formed of each RGBW pixel, and has an array in which composition ratios of each RGB pixel within the unit composition are adapted to be the same as each other. The image processing unit converts a pixel array of the sensor image formed of the RGBW pixel signal, and performs at least either array conversion processing for generating an RGB array image or signal processing for generating each RGB image signal in which all RGB pixel values are set for each pixel position of the sensor image.
US09699428B2

This disclosure pertains to systems, methods, and computer readable media for performing lens shading correction (LSC) operations that modulate gains based on scene lux level and lens focus distance. These gains compensate for both color lens shading (i.e., the deviation between R, G, and B channels) and vignetting (i.e., the drop off in pixel intensity around the edges of an image). As scene illuminance increases, the sensor captures more signal from the actual scene, and the lens shading effects begin to appear. To deal with the situation, the lens shading gains are configured to adaptively ‘scale down’ when scene lux approaches zero and ‘scale up’ when scene lux changes from near zero to become larger. The lens shading gain may also be modulated based on the focus distance. For optical systems without zoom, the inventors have discovered that the amount of lens shading fall off changes as focus distance changes.
US09699427B2

An imaging device 10 according to an aspect of the present invention includes: an image generation section 100 that generates a moving image; a filter acquisition section 105 that acquires a restoration filter corresponding to a transfer function for the point distribution of an optical system; an aperture value detection section 110 that detects an aperture value of the optical system; a restoration processing determination section 115 that determines whether or not the aperture value detected by the aperture value detection section 110 is equal to or greater than a small-aperture-blurring reference aperture value; and a restoration processing execution section 120 that executes the restoration processing on the moving image through the restoration filter, in case where the restoration processing determination section 115 determines that the aperture value detected by the aperture value detection section 110 is equal to or greater than the small-aperture-blurring reference aperture value.
US09699425B2

A wearable projection apparatus and a projection method are provided, and the projection method comprises: acquiring color distribution information and brightness distribution information of a plurality of regions of a hand; determining modified color output parameters according to the acquired color distribution information of the regions of the hand and preset standard color information, and determining modified brightness output parameters according to the acquired brightness distribution information of the regions of the hand; controlling a projection module to output an image according to the determined color output parameters and the determined brightness output parameters. With the wearable projection apparatus and the projection method provided by embodiments of the present invention, an image projected by the wearable projection apparatus on the hand can have relatively higher uniformity in color and brightness.
US09699422B2

Techniques and optically excited light-emitting devices based on phosphors are provided to use phosphor materials which absorb excitation light to emit visible light and include a composite phosphor material including two or more different transition metal compounds that, under optical excitation of the excitation light, emit visible light at spectrally close but different spectral wavelengths or bands that spectrally overlap to produce a desired color.
US09699420B2

A door regulation apparatus positions a door mounted in a freely rotatably state in a vehicle body at a reference position in a gap/step measuring process, makes a step of a preset portion of the door to zero, and includes: i) a frame installed outside of a vehicle body transfer line; ii) a moving member reciprocating in the frame through a driving unit; iii) a clamping unit installed in the moving member vacuum adsorbs a skin surface of the door; iv) a sensor installed in the clamping unit senses a vacuum pressure operating at the skin surface; v) a vision photographing unit installed in the moving member photographs a preset portion of the door; and iv) a control unit analyzes and processes a sensing signal from the sensor and vision data that acquires from the vision photographing unit to control the driving unit.
US09699401B1

A disclosed encounter monitoring method includes: receiving an alert from an encounter monitoring application executing on a first user's personal communications device; responsive to said alert, determining a location of the first user's personal communications device and proximity for personal communications devices of other users of the encounter monitoring application to the location; automatically sending to the personal communications devices of one or more users nearest to the location a request to approach the location and observe; collecting and storing a streamed recording from the first user's personal communications device and any streamed recordings from the personal communications devices of users complying with said request; associating encounter information with each recording, said encounter information including at least date, time, location, and any identified participants; grouping together those recordings relating to a common encounter; processing grouped encounter recordings and associated encounter information to associate each encounter with any participants that are official representatives of a government or institution; compiling, from the encounter information, incident statistics for at least one of: an official representative, a department, a jurisdiction, or a state; and reporting said incident statistics in tangible form to the first user.
US09699398B2

A pixel circuit comprising a photodiode, a floating diffusion, a transfer gate for electrically connecting the photodiode to the floating diffusion, and a charge storage device, wherein the charge storage device comprises an electrode which is at least partly overlaying the photodiode, and which is configured and adapted to be driven so as to influence the total capacitance of the pixel.
US09699390B2

A controlling method, suitable for a first camera unit and a second camera unit, is disclosed herein. The controlling method include following steps. The first camera unit is triggered to generate a first media data by shooting a first image or recording a first video. In response to the first media data is generated, the second camera unit is automatically triggered to generate a second media data by shooting a second image or recording a second video. The first media data and the second media data are configured to be integrated into a third media data.
US09699389B2

An image displaying apparatus comprises, an operation input detector for detecting a touch operation on a display screen of a display, an image position selection section for selecting position of part of an image that has been displayed on the display, an image identification section for recognizing an image region that has been selected based on image position that has been selected by the image position selection section, and a touch operation that has been detected by the operation input detector, as a main subject image region, and a special image processing section for applying special effect image processing to a region other than at least part of the main subject image region that has been selected, wherein the special image processing section varies the special effect processing intensity in accordance with a touch operation that has been detected by the operation input detector.
US09699388B2

The present invention provides a method, apparatus and system for providing reproducible digital imagery products from captured image content and for the color correction of the reproducible digital imagery products. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a log video signal comprising at least density values for the contrast levels of the original image content for enabling a quantitative assessment of the image content information for providing repeatable and reproducible values from which a cinematographer/director of photography could order the color correction or adjustment of the image content in a reproducible manner understood device by a color correction specialist or “timer”.
US09699383B2

An image processing apparatus having a photographing space and an image processing space, comprising a first display unit disposed in the photographing space that displays a course selection screen, a shooting unit that acquires shot images of a user as an object, a second display unit disposed in the image processing space, the second display displaying an adjustment screen for adjusting an identification photograph image which is any one shot image to a user having selected a first course and finished shooting and displaying an editing screen for editing the shot images without displaying the adjustment screen to a user having selected a second course and finished shooting, an adjusting unit that adjusts the identification photograph image according to a user operation to the adjusting screen, and an editing unit that edits the shot images to creates edited images according to a user operation to the editing screen.
US09699382B2

An optical image stabilizer includes a motion sensor configured to sense a movement of a camera, and a controller configured to move a lens module based on the movement of the camera. The optical image stabilizer enters a standby mode based on an OIS turn-off command being received from a host, in response to the camera being turned off or a camera function being executed in a background during a stage in which an optical image stabilization (OIS) operation is performed. A portion of the functional blocks of the optical image stabilizer is turned off when a lens control is not performed even when the optical image stabilizer is being operated, thereby decreasing power consumption. Functional blocks as small as possible may be operated when the optical image stabilizer is not operated to decrease power consumption in a smartphone or a camera in which the optical image stabilizer is embedded.
US09699381B2

A digital photographing system may include a lens unit detecting an image of a subject, and a first processor performing an image compensation data generation process and an optical compensation process in parallel. The optical compensation process may be a process of selectively controlling a movement of the lens unit based on motion data corresponding to a motion of a camera module. The image compensation data generation process may be a process of generating image compensation data corresponding to the image.
US09699373B2

Method of and systems for providing point of interest (POI) information on a mobile device is described. The method of providing point of interest (POI) information on a mobile device including a non-transitory computer readable medium including a program, a processor, and a computer executable program code includes: initiating capture of a real-time image by a camera module of a mobile device; determining location information of the mobile device; sending the location information to a server; receiving POI information from the server, wherein the POI information relates to at least one object near the mobile device and currently appearing in the real-time image; and displaying the POI information, superimposed on the real-time image, on the mobile device.
US09699360B2

A camera housing includes an integrated expansion module for providing expanded functionality to a camera (e.g., a display screen). Different embodiments of the housing include different expansion modules for adding a variety of features to the camera when the camera is placed in the housing. Thus, a user may modify features of a camera by swapping the housing. Furthermore, a user may add a feature to an existing camera without needing to purchase a new camera.
US09699353B2

According to an embodiment, an image reading device includes a photoelectric conversion unit, a white reference plate, a rotation unit, and a control unit. The photoelectric conversion unit includes an image reading sensor which converts light from an imaging position into image data. The white reference plate has a reading range which is a white reference value. The rotation unit rotates the photoelectric conversion unit so as to come to an angle at which a plurality of portions in the reading range of the white reference plate become imaging positions. The control unit sets a white reference value using a plurality of pixels on the white reference plate which are read using the photoelectric conversion unit which is rotated using the rotation unit.
US09699343B2

An information processing apparatus includes a sensor unit that senses a person within a first distance from the information processing apparatus and a second distance set to be closer to the information processing apparatus than the first distance, and a shifting unit that sets the information processing apparatus to a first mode when the person is sensed within the first distance by the sensor unit, and shifts the information processing apparatus from the first mode to a second mode that consumes power less than in the first mode after the predetermined time has elapsed, the predetermined time being a time starting once the person is no longer sensed within the second distance by the sensor unit.
US09699339B2

An image forming apparatus, including a reading device and a controller to control the reading device to execute a reading operation, is provided. The controller in the reading operation executes a leading edge detecting process, wherein a leading edge of an original sheet is detected from image data acquired through the reading device; a trailing edge detecting process, wherein a trailing edge of the original sheet is detected from the image data acquired through the reading device; a determining process, wherein one of the leading edge and the trailing edge to be used to correct the image data acquired through the reading device is determined based on conditions of the detected leading edge and the trailing edge; and a correcting process, wherein the image data is corrected by use of the determined one of the leading edge and the trailing edge determined in the determining process.
US09699336B2

A function setting device includes a first operator and a second operator. The first operator is operated for selecting one function item from among plural function items forming a first menu and for setting the selected function item and for then selecting one function value from among plural function values of the set function item forming a second menu and for setting the selected function value, the second menu being provided for each function item. One function item is assigned to the second operator. The second operator sets the selection of the assigned function item when the second operator is operated for the first time and selects one function value from among plural function values of the set function item forming the second menu every time the second operator is operated for a subsequent time.
US09699330B2

A multi function peripheral (MFP) receives a setting of destination information from a user (FIG. 6). Each time the MFP reads a predetermined number of documents, the MFP repeats a series of steps of establishing a communication session with a destination (S1006), transmitting image data (S1007), and ending the communication session with the destination (S1008). Thereby, the MFP transmits image data to a plurality of destinations (S1001 to S1011).
US09699327B2

An image reading apparatus that can, even when foreign matter exists on an original platen glass, determine a position less affected by the foreign matter, as an image reading position. In the image reading apparatus, an original is conveyed to a reading area on the original platen glass, and a reading unit reads the original at a reading position within the reading area. Image data is read at a plurality of candidate reading positions within the reading area in a state where the original is not conveyed, and foreign matter adhering to the candidate reading positions is detected. The number of pieces and the size of each piece of the detected foreign matter are measured, and a reading position for reading the original is determined from the plurality of candidate reading positions using a result of the measurement.
US09699321B2

In an apparatus and method, one method example has the steps of: placing a call from a calling terminal to a called terminal in a cable telecommunication network, and communicating with a ring back application; initiating a new call by the ring back application to the called terminal via a call management server; ringing the called terminal by the call management server and providing an indication of the ringing to the ring back application; and sending, by the ring back application, a predetermined ring back signal to the calling terminal. Upon answer by the called party, the ring back application informs the calling party end device of the called party's address, and upon receiving the acknowledgement from the calling party's end-device it stops the predetermined ring back signal and informs the called party end device to cut thru the bearer path to the calling party's device. Finally, upon call termination by one of the parties, the application facilitates the tear down of the call by relaying the appropriate messages between the equipment involved in the call between the calling and called parties.
US09699318B2

This invention relates to telecommunications, and in particular, to a Rich Communication Suite (RCS) and RCS-e (“e” for enhanced) messaging infrastructure within a network without the need to deploy an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core within the network.
US09699313B1

A system, method, and computer readable medium for contact center call routing by agent attribute, that comprises, detecting a caller voice attribute, sampling at least one agent voice attribute, storing the at least one agent voice attribute, matching the detected caller voice attribute to the stored voice attribute of the at least one agent, and routing a call based upon the matched agent voice attribute to the detected caller voice attribute.
US09699306B2

A first component of a service is provided via a first communications mode by an automated agent to a requester who is a recipient of the first component. After the first component is provided, a record of the first component is provided from a memory controlled by a provider of the service and via a second communications mode selected by the requester. The record is an editable electronic first record of the first component that can be edited by the requester independent of a provider of the service to update the first record. Electronic edits to the electronic first record of the first component are accepted via the second communications mode selected by the requester. A second component is provided to the requester in accordance with the edited electronic first record of the first component.
US09699302B1

A system, method and non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when read by a processor perform receiving a telephony connection request, determining addressing information regarding the telephony connection request, the addressing information including at least routing information or a phone number, determining traffic information regarding the telephony connection request based on the addressing information, the traffic information including previous telephony connection requests, sending a reply in response to the telephony connection request, wherein: forwarding the telephony connection request to an intended recipient would result in a system response, and the reply differs from the system response.
US09699301B1

Methods, devices and systems support focused driving, working, and studying without distraction. A method of operating a mobile phone includes setting the phone into a driving focused mode and keeping the phone in the driving focused mode while the phone is moving, wherein in the focused mode certain features of the mobile phone are modified or at least partially disabled. A method also includes setting one or more computer devices, including mobile phones, into a focused mode to prevent usage of and distraction by the devices.
US09699293B2

Embodiments disclose a base of a cordless digital telephone set and a cordless digital telephone set. In the base of a cordless digital telephone set, a subscriber circuit module and a Bluetooth module can establish, under control of a main control module, a communications channel for direct interconnection, thereby reducing workload of the main control module, and optimizing a transmission path of voice data. The base of a cordless digital telephone set in embodiments of the present invention includes a switch module. When receiving a first control signal that is sent by the main control module, the switch module connects a communication data output pin of the subscriber line interface circuit module to a communication data input pin of the Bluetooth module; and connects a communication data input pin of the subscriber line interface circuit module to a communication data output pin of the Bluetooth module.
US09699284B2

There is presented a method that includes (a) receiving, from a server, data that indicates an intensity of interactions between a user and each of a first contact of the user and a second contact of the user, where the interactions include (i) communications conducted by way of a first device of the user, and (ii) communications conducted by way of a second device of the user, (b) calculating a first score for the first contact and a second score for the second contact, based on the intensity of interactions, (c) determining a first size for a first image that represents the first contact based on the first score, and a second size for a second image that represents the second contact based on the second score, and (d) presenting on a display, the first image having the first size and the second image having the second size.
US09699276B2

A data distribution method and system and a data receiving apparatus are disclosed. The method includes: receiving in parallel data request messages that are sent separately from at least two data receive ends, the data request message including a field for describing requested data; and returning in parallel data corresponding to the fields for describing requested data to data receive ends with the fields for describing requested data that are valid. Non-state of a data transmit end and exclusive file update of a data receive end ensure that an infinite quantity of data receive ends can be supported to update simultaneously, and further breaks through a bottle neck of point to point serial transmission that is always performed according to a data transmission protocol, which becomes a one-to-many parallel application layer data transmission method.
US09699269B2

In general, embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to techniques for configuring a mobile device according to detection of one or more peripheral devices in an environment using short-range wireless communication. In one example, a method includes, receiving, by a computing device that communicates with a peripheral device using short-range wireless communication, a unique identifier of the peripheral device. If the computing device recognizes the unique identifier of the peripheral device, the computing device may determine a configuration operation based on the unique identifier that changes a current operating state of at least one application executing on the computing device to a different operating state. If the computing device does not recognize the unique identifier of the peripheral device, the computing device may send a lookup request to a network resource external to the computing device that requests data specifying the configuration operation for the computing device.
US09699267B2

In an information processing system, a speculative DL content information acceptor 324 accepts identification information of content selected by a server. A list generator generates a speculative DL list of the accepted content identification information. Based on the speculative DL list, a DL processor sets the time of start of download of content data and downloads the content data at the set time.
US09699258B2

Among other disclosures, a method may include collecting historical communication data and personal data relating to a portion of a plurality of communications, a sender of one or more of the communications or one or more recipients of the communications. The method may include depositing the collected data into a repository of historical communication data and personal data. The method may include presenting one or more items in the repository on a mobile device, in response to user behavior.
US09699254B2

A computer system comprising: a server on which an application operates; and a storage system that stores data used by the application, the server including an operating system for controlling the server, the operating system including a cache driver for controlling a cache, the cache driver storing access management information for managing the number of accesses to a partial storage area of a volume provided by the storage system, and the cache driver being configured to: manage the number of accesses to the partial storage area of the volume by using the first access management information; replace the storage area to which the number of accesses is to be managed based on a predetermined replacement algorithm; and control arrangement of data in the server cache based on the first access management information.
US09699251B2

A method for providing load balancing to a client node external to a clustered environment for storage management, includes deploying a lightweight load balancing component at the client node, receiving I/O requests issued by virtual machines hosted at the client node by the lightweight load balancing component, performing a hashing algorithm on content of the I/O requests by the lightweight load balancing component to identify one or more controller virtual machines at the clustered environment for handling the I/O requests and dynamically distributing the I/O requests from the lightweight load balancing component to the one or more controller virtual machines at the clustered environment for storage management.
US09699248B2

Sharing a desktop screen is implemented on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) web server using variable interval GET and POST requests. Connection to a web server bypasses firewall or shared IP limitations. In the described HTTP/HTTPS only solution, an existing web server is used to allow one or more clients to view a remote computer's screen and control it (remoting). The web server can act as an intermediary to enable one computer to “take control” of a second computer by enabling the first computer (a client) to view the desktop session of the second computer (a host) and enable the first computer to act as master for input device input (e.g., keyboard input, mouse input, stylus input, etc.) for the second computer.
US09699246B2

File management machines, computer readable media, and methods of file management, are provided. An exemplary file management machine includes a file management server configured to receive or retrieve user files through an electronic communication/computer network to provide categorical organization and establishment of albums. The file management server can also function to create member user and visitor accounts. The visitor accounts can be provided individual custom access by the member user to provide individualized tailored access to a subset of the files uploaded by the member user. The visitor accounts can be used as to gather information about the file unknown to the member user.
US09699240B2

Provided is a content uploading method performed by a user terminal so as to upload content to a server. The content uploading includes operations of selecting a plurality of contents; generating an associated parameter indicating an association relationship between the plurality of contents; and uploading the plurality of contents comprising the associated parameter to the server.
US09699237B2

A system provides a media relay for real-time communications (“RTC”). The system receives, by a signaling server, a first signaling message from a first client including one or more first candidate transport addresses of the first client. The system generates a modified first signaling message by inserting a transport address of a relay server into the first signaling message, and transmits the modified first signaling message to a second client. Then, the system receives a second signaling message from the second client including one or more second candidate transport addresses of the second client. The system generates a modified second signaling message by inserting the transport address of the relay server into the second signaling message, and transmits the modified second signaling message to the first client.
US09699233B1

According to one embodiment, in response to a request to transfer a data set from a source system to a target system over a network, an adaptive performance control (APC) controller allocates a plurality of data streams for transferring the data set. The APC controller activates one or more data streams from the allocated data streams to transfer the data set from the source system to the target system. The APC controller monitors an overall throughput of the activated data streams assigned to transfer the data set from the source system to the target system. The APC controller dynamically adjusts a number of the activated data streams based on the monitored overall throughput of the activated data streams, such that a maximum overall throughput of the activated data streams is reached while maintaining a minimum number of the activated data streams.
US09699223B2

Rerouting apparatus for rerouting data including multimedia data. The apparatus is for association with electronic equipment and allows for routing the data to a device regarded as the most convenie t for playing the media. The apparatus comprises an announcer device for indicating to surrounding equipment that associated equipment is available for rerouting, thereby to enable receipt of rerouted communications therefrom, and a scout device for scanning surroundings of the associated equipment to find out about compatible equipment in the vicinity, thereby to reroute communications thereto. The apparatus may be attached to any device having data processing capability, to enable rerouting of data and communications therebetween.
US09699221B2

Telecommunications network components configured to manage a handover of a communication session, e.g., an emergency communication session, of user equipment are described herein. A core network device may transmit respective handover queries to a plurality of anchoring network devices following a handover request from user equipment. Each anchoring network device can provide a respective indication of whether the emergency communication session is being proxied by that anchoring network device. The core network device may transmit an invitation message to an anchoring network device in response to a positive indication from that anchoring network device. An anchoring network device may store in a memory an address of the anchoring network device in association with an address of the user equipment. The core network device may retrieve from memory the address of the anchoring network device and transmit an invitation message to the anchoring network device using the retrieved address.
US09699218B1

A method and system for improving deployment of a security compliance framework is provided. The method includes deploying a data store that includes an authoritative source of information comprising configuration and operational management requirements associated with IT devices. A component comprising an interface for an authoritative source configured to provide authentication and authorization for access to servers of the IT devices is deployed and configured to enable authentication and privilege management for access to deployed and configured authoritative source components. An API interface and compliance framework management components are deployed and configured and message transfer agent API endpoint components of the compliance framework are identified. In response, operation of the compliance framework is enabled with respect to the data store, the authoritative source components, the API interface, the compliance framework management components, and the API endpoint components.
US09699198B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for retrieving a content collection over a network. During operation, the system determines additional information associated with the piece of content that is needed for consumption of the content collection; generates a plurality of Interests, which includes at least one Interest for a catalog of the content collection and at least one Interest for the additional information; and forwards, concurrently, the plurality of Interests, thereby facilitating parallel retrieval of the content collection and the additional information.
US09699197B2

A sender uses a double-write protocol to pass data to a recipient using a dead drop network architecture. The sender sends, to a dead drop domain, a data payload to store at the dead drop domain, and receives payload access information corresponding to a payload dead drop where the payload data is stored. The sender sends, to the dead drop domain, one or more instances of metadata including the payload access information to store at the dead drop domain, and receives metadata access information corresponding to one or more metadata dead drops where the metadata is stored. The sender provides the metadata access information to one or more recipients. A recipient uses the metadata access information to read the corresponding metadata dead drop. The recipient then uses the payload access information from the metadata to read the payload dead drop and receive the payload data.
US09699191B1

The disclosed computer-implemented method for controlling content for child browser users may include (1) identifying one or more indicators that a browser session user is a child, (2) calculating a session score indicating a likelihood that the browser session user is a child, (3) determining, based at least in part on the session score being above a threshold, that the browser session user is a child and therefore content controls should apply to a browser session of the child, and (4) initiating one or more content control actions. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09699190B2

The present invention relates to the field of the connection to a secure remote service from a terminal and notably of the establishment of a connection between the secure remote service and a security device connected to the terminal. A security device including a security element is connected to the terminal via a physical or virtual local network. When trying to access a secure remote service, a software module is automatically downloaded onto the terminal, without requiring particular rights, from the secure remote service for the discovery and the interaction with the security device. In this way, it is not necessary to install drivers or other specific software in order to enable the use of the secure element when trying to access a secure remote service.
US09699188B2

A method for transmitting and receiving a message for Downloadable-Conditional Access System (D-CAS) or Downloadable-Digital Rights Management (D-DRM) in Moving Picture Experts Group Media Transport (MMT) is provided. The method includes, upon receiving Composition Information (CI) from an MMT server, acquiring signaling information for D-CAS or D-DRM, which is included in the CI, acquiring, from the signaling information, an address of a server from which software of D-CAS or D-DRM is downloadable, generating a request for the software based on the signaling information, and sending the request for the software to the server address.
US09699182B2

Electrocardiogram, better known as ECG or EKG, is a method used to measure and record the electrical potential generated by the heart on the skin. ECG data is unique to a user and can be used for authentication systems such as access or financial cards or for granting access to computing devices such as mobile devices. Electrode contact on a card or device are used to received ECG data which is processed to extract features of the ECG which are compared to a template for a user.
US09699175B2

A method for protecting stored account data from unauthorized access includes receiving data elements corresponding to an account of a user, identifying a plurality of signals in the data elements, and determining a signal value for each of the signals. The signals correspond to various characteristics of the account. The method also includes assigning a plurality of weights (according to various criteria) to at least a subset of the signal values to yield a set of weighted signal values, and using the set of weighted signal values to assign an account value to the account. The method further includes using the account value to select a security-related action or a storage-related action that corresponds to the account value, and instructing data storage facilities from which the data elements were received to automatically implement the selected security related action or the selected storage-related action.
US09699172B2

A method for managing the installation of an application on an electronic device is disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes seeking the authenticity of a second signature using the public authentication key of a certificate, the certificate being authenticated if at least one of the second sub-signatures is considered authentic during implementation of the search.
US09699170B2

A framework, which conforms to the OAuth standard, involves a generic OAuth authorization server that can be used by multiple resource servers in order to ensure that access to resources stored on those resource servers is limited to access to which the resource owner consents. Each resource server registers, with the OAuth authorization server, metadata for that resource server, indicating scopes that are recognized by the resource server. The OAuth authorization server refers to this metadata when requesting consent from a resource owner on behalf of a client application, so that the consent will be of an appropriate scope. The OAuth authorization server refers to this metadata when constructing an access token to provide to the client application for use in accessing the resources on the resource server. The OAuth authorization server uses this metadata to map issued access tokens to the scopes to which those access tokens grant access.
US09699165B2

Some embodiments set forth systems and methods enabling a first network to use the resources of various second networks in order to localize delivery of the first network content from the various second networks in a secure manner. Some embodiments provide a token-based authentication scheme to ensure that any configured content access restrictions are effectuated at the first network and any of the second networks providing localized content delivery for the first network. The scheme involves a two phase user authentication, wherein the user is separately authenticated at the first network and the redirected to second network using either the same or different set of access restrictions. The first network exchanges a first encryption key with content providers for encrypting/decrypting the first access restriction and a second encryption key with a second network for encrypting/decrypting the second access restriction.
US09699161B2

A system and method including: receiving, from a client device, an authorization request originating from an authorization module of an application executing on the client device, where the authorization request includes an identifier identifying the client device; causing transmission, based on the identifier, of a verification message to the client device, where the verification message includes a verification code; receiving a confirmation of the verification code from the authorization module of the application executing on the client device; authenticating the application based on the receiving the confirmation of the verification code; determining that the client device identified by the identifier corresponds to a user account including secure user data associated with a user; and transmitting a unique token verifying that the application is authorized to sign into the user account, where: the unique token uniquely identifies the user account to the application, and the secure user data is not shared with the application.
US09699147B2

Disclosed is a method for encrypting a digital file, comprising the following steps: generating, when a user requests to download a specified digital file, a key, according to inherent information of the user, inherent information of a client terminal used by the user, and inherent information of the specified digital file; encrypting the specified digital file according to the key that has been generated; and performing decryption according to the key and a corresponding decryption procedure, after an encrypted digital file is downloaded at the client terminal used by the user. The technical solution allows dynamic generation of one key each time the digital file is downloaded, thereby truly realizing “one user, one machine, and one copy of the digital file.”
US09699146B1

A request is received by a provider network from a requestor for data associated with a customer of the provider network. The data is not stored at the provider network, and the request includes a first encryption key. The provider network verifies that the requestor is authorized to request data from the customer of the multi provider network. The provider network sends information pertaining to the requested data to the customer. The provider network also sends the identity of the requestor and the first encryption key. The provider network sends, to the requestor, data that is encrypted, and a decryption key for decrypting the encrypted data.
US09699138B2

Methods and systems for redirecting client requests are provided. According to one embodiment, a system includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions. A request is received from a client capable of communicating via multiple supported communication formats. The request is capable of being serviced by multiple servers each of which are configured to communicate via a different communication format. A server is selected from the multiple servers based on a traffic management policy. The traffic management policy is based on (i) different communication formats available via the multiple servers and (ii) performance expected to be provided to the client as a result of using each of the different communication formats. The client is then redirected to the selected server.
US09699137B2

Examples disclosed herein relate to naming of cloud components. The examples enable generating, for a first node of a cloud infrastructure comprising a plurality of nodes, a first node name associated with a first fixed Internet Protocol (IP) address that is assigned to the first node, the first node name identifying the cloud infrastructure and a first control plane to which the first node belongs; generating, for a second node of the cloud infrastructure, a second node name associated with a second fixed IP address that is assigned to the second node, the second node name identifying the cloud infrastructure and a second control plane to which the second node belongs; and causing information related to the cloud infrastructure to be published to the plurality of nodes of the cloud infrastructure, the information related to the cloud infrastructure comprising the first node name and the second node name.
US09699136B2

Techniques are disclosed for dynamically determining or learning hostnames. According to embodiments described herein, a solicitation message is received at a first network device. Based on the solicitation message, a hostname is determined for a second network device that sent the solicitation message. A first network address is also determined for the second network device that sent the solicitation message. A mapping between the hostname and the first network address is stored at the first network device.
US09699125B2

A method and apparatus for a non-revealing do-not-contact list system in which a do-not-contact list of one-way hashed consumer contact information is provided to a set of one or more entities. The set of entities determine whether certain consumers wish to be contacted with the do-not-contact list without discovering actual consumer contact information.
US09699124B2

Methods, devices, and systems are provided that determine required communications features to be used in a communication session and provide participants of the communication session with an identification of the required communications features. When a communication device used by the participant does not include one of the required communications features, the user is provided access to those features, based on compatibility. When a communication device is found to be compatible, the communication device accesses the features by running communications applications having the required communications features.
US09699120B2

Disclosed example methods for network switch control include accessing link characteristics for a plurality of network switches. The disclosed example methods also include comparing the link characteristics for the plurality of network switches with resource characteristics associated with a data processing function to determine a first one of the network switches on which to execute the data processing function. The disclosed example methods also include scheduling data processing function to be executed by the first one of the network switches.
US09699117B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a packet processor and a device management module. During operation, the packet processor constructs a notification message containing a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) Routing Bridge (RBridge) identifier associated with a Fiber Channel router. The device management module operates in conjunction with the packet processor and terminates TRILL forwarding for a received TRILL packet with the RBridge identifier as an egress RBridge identifier.
US09699105B2

Methods and systems presented herein provide for self-routing multicast. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, using a switch controller, a multicast data stream join request from a source in a network, and creating, using the switch controller, a multipath identifier (ID) for a multicast data stream. Moreover, the method includes creating, using the switch controller, path identifiers (IDs) for intermediate switches in the network based on a local network topology database. Each path ID is associated with an output port bitmap. The method also includes transmitting, using the switch controller, the multipath ID and a path ID to a source of the multicast data stream, the path ID corresponding to the source of the multicast join request. Also, the multipath ID and the path ID are configured to allow the source of the multicast data stream to determine an output port mapping for a packet.
US09699101B2

A switch device includes a receiving buffer, a switching processing unit, a determining unit, a generating unit, and a transmitting unit. The receiving buffer receives a data packet from a communication device. The switching processing unit stores the data packet received by the receiving buffer to one of a plurality of output queues provided for respective transmission ports based on the destination. The determining unit determines whether the amount of data in the output queues is equal to or more than a predetermined threshold. If the determining unit determines that the amount of data in any one of the output queues is equal to or more than the predetermined threshold, the generating unit generates a notifying packet for notifying that congestion has occurred. The transmitting unit transmits the notifying packet generated by the generating unit to another switch device.
US09699097B2

A network system includes a transmitting/receiving apparatus, a plurality of switches, and a network control apparatus. The switch includes a first packet transmission control unit and a second packet transmission control unit. The network system includes a first packet transmission control area according to the first packet transmission control unit, and a second packet transmission control area according to the second packet transmission control unit. A switch in the first packet transmission control area includes a first storage unit which stores a plurality of pieces of first rule information informed from the network control apparatus, applies a mask to a predetermined position of header information of an input packet according to the number of the plurality of pieces of first rule information, and controls the input packet according to the first rule information selected from the first storage unit based on the header information after masking.
US09699095B2

Communication apparatus includes multiple ports for connection to a packet data network. A memory contains, for each port, a respective first, fixed headroom allocation to hold packets received from the network through the port and to contain a shared headroom buffer, which is available to be shared among a plurality of the ports. Flow-control logic allocates to each of the ports, within the shared headroom buffer, a respective second, variable headroom allocation, which varies responsively to fill levels of the respective first headroom allocation and of the shared headroom buffer, thereby defining, for each of the ports, a respective total headroom allocation comprising the respective first and second headroom allocations. The logic is configured to apply flow-control operations in response to the packets received from the network through each port responsively to a total fill level of the respective total headroom allocation of the port.
US09699093B2

In one embodiment, a system includes a device and first and second processors. The first and second processors are configured to access first information. The first information includes a first parameter and a second parameter. The first parameter is associated with a position of the device relative to the first processor. The second parameter is associated with a position of the device relative to the second processor. The system is configured to access second information associated with a virtual machine. The virtual machine is configured to run on a host operating system. The virtual machine includes a guest operating system configured to communicate with the device. The system is also configured to automatically select the first processor based at least on the first information and the second information and to associate the virtual machine with the first processor in response to automatically selecting the first processor.
US09699086B2

Methods and apparatus for multiple user uplink are provided. In one aspect, a method for wireless communication includes generating a first wireless message granting permission for a first station to transmit during a transmission opportunity, generating a second wireless message granting permission for a second station to transmit during the transmission opportunity; and transmitting the first wireless message to the first station at least partially concurrently with transmission of the second wireless message to the second station.
US09699085B2

The present disclosure describes a distributed, advertisement-based, solution for scheduling virtual resources in cloud infrastructures such as the OpenStack. The scheduling algorithm distributes the scheduling requirements and host state feasibility checks to the individual hosts in the datacenter, which can periodically send a summarized advertisement to the scheduler controller listing the number of instances of different type(s) of virtual resources that a particular host can support. The scheduler controller, thus no longer has to compute and maintain individual host states, and the scheduling problem is reduced to selecting the feasible advertisements that satisfy a given request. The solution can be extended to a scenario of multiple scheduler controllers using the same distributed, advertisement-based, approach.
US09699081B2

Methods, apparatuses, and systems are described related to generating and using a user equipment (UE) location distribution in a wireless communication network. In embodiments, an evolved Node B (eNB) may determine an angle of arrival (AoA) and a timing advance (Tadv) for individual UEs of a plurality of UEs that are in a connected mode with the eNB. The eNB may assign the individual UEs to one of a plurality of bins to generate a UE location distribution. Individual bins of the plurality of bins may correspond to a range of values for the AoA and a range of values for the Tadv to indicate a physical location of the corresponding UEs. The eNB may transmit the UE location distribution to a network management entity, which may adjust one or more parameters of the eNB, based on the UE location distribution, using a capacity and coverage optimization (CCO) function.
US09699077B2

The application provides a method for determining a packet forwarding path, a network device acquires device information of the network device and interface information of the network device, so that the network device can send the device information of the network device and the interface information of the network device to a control device by using an IGP, so that the control device determines a packet forwarding path from the network device to the control device according to the device information of the network device and the interface information of the network device. Each network device that sends device information and interface information of the network device by using an IGP does not need to compute a packet forwarding path from the network device to a corresponding control device; therefore, decreasing a processing burden of the network device.
US09699072B2

A method of packet handling in an information centric networking (ICN) network is provided. The method may include receiving an interest packet at an incoming interface of a network device. The interest packet may include a pending interest table (PIT) update indicator. After a determination that the PIT update indicator signifies aggregation, the method may include adding the incoming interface to a PIT entry associated with the interest packet. The method may also include determining whether the outgoing interface is in a set of requesting interfaces of the PIT entry. After a determination that the outgoing interface is in the set of requesting interfaces, the method may include removing the outgoing interface from the PIT entry and updating the PIT update indicator based on the PIT entry.
US09699071B2

A system, controller and method having centrally optimized coding for a source routed forwarding based multicast network. The network comprises a plurality of nodes configured to transfer data packets to one another via a plurality of links. A controller is configured to control each of the nodes, and is configured to control forwarding of the data packets by establishing a header for each flow. The header defines a path for the flow of the data packets from a source to multiple destinations, wherein the length of the header is a function of the nodes and the branches in the path. The multicast path is represented as a header that consists of codewords representing interfaces, links and instructions. Some of the codewords are assigned different lengths in order to reduce the size of the header. Other codewords have a fixed size comprising a bit field.
US09699066B2

A system and a method for providing conversational learning is implemented in a network environment. An exemplary method includes receiving a subnet route advertisement that includes an attribute that triggers glean behavior for routing decisions; and installing a subnet entry in a Forwarding Information Base/Adjacency (FIB/ADJ) table. The subnet entry includes a subnet associated with the subnet route advertisement and a corresponding glean adjacency. The corresponding glean adjacency is configured to trigger installation of a host entry associated with a host in an active conversation in a network.
US09699064B2

Techniques are disclosed for re-construction and tracking of a forwarding state of a network device in communication with a network controller in a Software Defined Network (SDN). The techniques include receiving control messages, where the control messages are messages transmitted from a network controller to a network device. The techniques further includes extracting a subset of control messages from the control messages, where each control message from the subset of control messages caused a change in a forwarding state of the network device; generating, based on the extracted subset of control messages, a directed graph, wherein the directed graph is representative of the forwarding state of the network device; and causing the directed graph to be displayed on a display device.
US09699057B2

A system and method for handling packets includes receiving the packets at a layer 3 handler in a network device, determining whether the packets are diagnostic packets by examining bit patterns of the packets, determining whether an application in the network device can handle the diagnostic packets when the packets are the diagnostic packets, delivering the diagnostic packets to the application for handling when the application in the network device can handle the diagnostic packets, receiving response packets from the application, and transmitting the response packets. In some embodiments, the bit patterns include a reserved bit of an IP header that is set to one when the packets are the diagnostic packets. In some embodiments, application packets and the diagnostic packets include a same source IP address, a same destination IP address, a same source port, and a same destination port.
US09699050B2

A method and an apparatus for learning an online state of a terminal are provided. In the embodiments of the present invention, when an online state of a terminal needs to be reported to a network side, the terminal sends a first message to a core network management entity, where the first message includes first indication information, so that the core network management entity sends the first indication information to a proxy server, and thereby the proxy server learns an online state of an application on the terminal, so as to avoid that an online state, of the application on the terminal, saved in the proxy server is incorrect.
US09699048B2

A computing system includes: an inter-device interface configured to receive receiver signal for communicating serving content contemporaneously with interference signal; a communication unit, coupled to the inter-device interface, configured to: determine interference communication scheme for representing the interference signal included in the receiver signal, and generate channel feedback information based on the interference communication scheme.A method of operation of a computing system includes generating an interference-based feedback mechanism with a control unit based on a negative feedback count, a serving metric set, a negative feedback count, or a combination thereof for controlling the channel feedback information.
US09699044B2

A computer-implemented method to processes issue data in a system. A plurality of issue reports are received from respective reporting entities, each issue report being in respect of a system issue which requires a response activity. The issue reports are parsed to obtain priority criterion data relating to at least one priority criterion. The priority criterion is unrelated to the dates and/or times of the issue reports and may include visibility data, severity data, exposure data, and performance data relating to past performance of a reporting entity or a reported entity. The reported issues are then prioritized for order of response based at least partially on the associated criterion data.
US09699042B2

Systems and methods of classifying sessions are disclosed. A particular method monitors user activity at one or more servers accessible via a network and capturing event entries in an activity log for user activity that is detected. The event entries include descriptive information regarding a user action, a client identifier and a session identifier. The method also includes attempting to classify sessions associated with a plurality of event entries of the activity log as legitimate use or illegitimate use of resources of the one or more servers. The method further includes identifying unclassified sessions. The method also includes determining a count of a number of unclassified sessions associated with a particular client identifier and determining a total number of sessions associated with the particular client identifier. The method further includes classifying the unclassified sessions as legitimate use or illegitimate use of the resources of the one or more servers.
US09699040B2

Methods and systems are described for remotely monitoring a plurality of distributed remote storage devices. An example computer implemented method includes locally collecting monitoring data for one of the plurality of distributed remote storage devices, and periodically sending at least one of an aggregate of the locally recorded monitoring data and a summary of the locally recorded monitoring data to a remote location. The remote location includes at least one of another one of the plurality of distributed remote storage devices, at least one central server, and a set of the plurality of distributed remote storage devices.
US09699035B1

Techniques are described for determining the topology of an optical network. A computing device receives a message on a data communication network after a first device in an optical network receives an optical pulse pattern on an optical fiber in the optical network. The computing device generates topology data using the message. The topology data indicates that a second device is physically connected in the optical network to the first device when the received optical pulse pattern matches an optical pulse pattern sent by the second device.
US09699034B2

A secure virtual network platform connects two or more subnets in different or separate network domains. The secure virtual network can use the under layer physical networks in various domains as an IP forwarding fabric without changing any existing firewalls, security settings, or network topology. A first type of connection across the virtual network involves connecting server groups. A second type of connection across the virtual network involves connecting a server group to a physical network. A third type of connection across the virtual network involves connecting a physical network to another physical network.
US09699033B2

A system for negotiating Ethernet link settings between interconnected nodes in a network having an Ethernet protocol stack that includes a PCS sub-layer with an auto-negotiation function. The system comprises connecting an intermediate device coupled between two network nodes via optical or copper interfaces, with the link settings between each node and the connected intermediate device being the same, thereby bypassing the auto-negotiation of the PCS sub-layer in the intermediate device. The intermediate device may transparently send negotiation messages from each node to the other during the link negotiation phase without interacting with those messages. Instead of the intermediate device, a single form pluggable (SFP) device may be connected between the two network nodes via optical or copper interfaces on the network side and via an SFP slot on the device side.
US09699017B1

A storage client and a quorum-based distributed storage system may implement dynamic utilization of bandwidth for a quorum-based distributed storage system. An update at a storage client may be received, and storage nodes of a protection group may be sent a write request indicating the update. In some embodiment, storage nodes that receive the write request may determine whether other storage nodes have not received the update and send the write request to be completed at those other storage nodes. In some embodiments, if a latency threshold is exceeded other storage nodes in the protection group not previously sent the write request may be identified and sent the write request. Based on acknowledgements received from storage nodes in the distributed storage system, it may be determined whether a write quorum requirement is met for a write request.
US09699014B2

This disclosure is directed towards techniques and methods of suppressing the effect of modulated clock jitter in a digital to analog conversion (DAC) circuit of a polar modulator in a transceiver. A phase locked loop (PLL) in a modulator circuit may introduce a deterministic jitter in DAC generated pulses which may lead to amplitude variations in the DAC generated pulses. The clock jitter may change the duty cycle of the input amplitude to the DAC which may result in a variation of the output of the DAC generated pulse. A digital pre-distortion or digital multiplier circuit may be introduced before the DAC circuit to increase or decrease the DAC amplitude to compensate for the pulse width modulation.
US09699011B1

A device includes a frequency offset (FO) estimation circuit and a frequency offset compensation circuit coupled with the frequency offset estimation circuit. The frequency offset compensation circuit is configured to (i) receive a continuous phase modulation (CPM) signal, (ii) receive, from the FO estimation circuit, an uncompensated frequency offset for a wth sampling window of the CPM signal, (iii) generate a frequency offset compensation value for a w+1st sampling window of the CPM signal based on the uncompensated frequency offset for the wth sampling window, (iv) adjust the CPM signal in the w+1st sampling window based on the frequency offset compensation value, and (v) provide the adjusted CPM signal to a filter.
US09699007B2

Circuits, devices, methods for decision feedback equalization are described. A decision feedback circuit can include a plurality of decision feedback equalizer (DFE) branches, each DFE branch including: a pre-computation stage for generating a set of tap-adjusted inputs, each tap-adjusted input corresponding to a possible value of a previous output for the same DFE branch; and a decision feedback stage including a multiplexer circuit for selecting at least one output from the set of tap-adjusted inputs based on tap-adjusted inputs from other DFE branches. For at least a first DFE branch of the plurality of DFE branches, at least one selection line for the multiplexer circuit in the decision feedback stage of at least the first DFE branch of the plurality of DFE branches is an intermediate value from a multiplexer circuit for a second DFE branch of the plurality of DFE branches.
US09699001B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a virtual network module and a forwarding module. The virtual network module includes a global virtual local area network (VLAN) tag in a packet. The global VLAN tag is mapped to an edge VLAN tag in the packet and is associated with a datacenter domain. The datacenter domain indicates a set of ports associated with a datacenter. The forwarding module identifies an egress edge port for the packet based on the global VLAN tag.
US09699000B2

Aspects of a method and system for utilizing a 10/100/1 G/10 GBase-T PHY device for single channel and shared channel networks are provided. In this regard, at least one switching element may be utilized to configure an Ethernet over twisted pair PHY device for communication over a single and/or shared channel. The switching element may enable switching between a transmitter being coupled to a shared channel and a receiver being coupled to a shared channel. Additionally, the switching elements may be based on whether the transmitter is connected to a standard 10/100/1 G/10 GBase-T network, or to a single and/or shared channel network, for example. In this manner, the configured PHY device may remain compatible with existing Ethernet networks. The PHY device may be configured externally and/or internally. The polarity of transmitted and/or received data may be configured based on a polarity of data received from a shared channel.
US09698988B2

A security control platform receives a virtual machine starting request message that is from user equipment and forwarded by a management platform, where the virtual machine starting request message includes an identifier of a virtual machine that needs to be enabled and user information; invokes a third-party trusted platform to determine that the virtual machine starting request message is initiated by the user equipment according to an instruction of an authorized user; and performs authentication on the user information, and based on successful authentication, invokes the third-party trusted platform to decapsulate the virtual machine that needs to be enabled. It is ensured that other user equipment (including the management platform) cannot obtain a key of the third-party trusted platform, which enhances security of management control on the virtual machine, and thereby enhances security of a cloud computing platform.
US09698985B2

A method in a first entity for authenticating itself to a second entity by proving to the second entity that it is in possession of a full secret without sending the full secret to the second entity, the method comprising: receiving in the first entity an input from a user, the full secret having been divided into at least a first factor and a second factor and the input relating to the second factor of the full secret; reconstructing in the first entity the full secret from at least the first factor and the input; and carrying out a calculation in the first entity using the reconstructed full secret and sending the results of the calculation to the second entity, wherein the results provide an input to a pairing calculation in the second entity.
US09698974B2

The invention relates to a method for creating a set of asymmetrical cryptographic key pairs, wherein the set of key pairs has a first key pair (K1) and a second key pair (K2), wherein the first key pair is formed by a first private (G1) and a first public key (O1) and the second key pair is formed by a second private (G2) and a second public key (O2), wherein a first cipher (C_G2_O1) is allocated to the first and second key pair, wherein the first cipher is formed by an encryption of the second private key (G2) with the first public key (O1), having the following steps: adding a third asymmetrical cryptographic key pair (K3) to the set of key pairs, wherein the third key pair is formed by a third private (G3) and a third public key (O3); creating a second cipher (C_G3_O1) by encrypting the third private key (G3) with the first public key (O1); storing the second cipher (212; 186), wherein the set of key pairs has a directed graph structure.
US09698943B2

The invention relates to a receiving unit in a wireless communication network comprising a processing unit being configured to generate Automatic Repeat request (ARQ) feed-back messages for acknowledgement or negative acknowledgement of received data units in a wireless communication channel. In order to avoid signalling overhead, it is proposed that said processing unit is further configured to delay the generation of Automatic Repeat request (ARQ) feedback messages until the processing unit has recognized irregularities in the data transmission or until the number (C) of delayed Automatic Repeat request (ARQ) feedback messages has reached a threshold value.
US09698941B2

Systems and methods for decoding block and concatenated codes are provided. These include advanced iterative decoding techniques based on belief propagation algorithms, with particular advantages when applied to codes having higher density parity check matrices such as iterative soft-input soft-output and list decoding of convolutional codes, Reed-Solomon codes and BCH codes. Improvements are also provided for performing channel state information estimation including the use of optimum filter lengths based on channel selectivity and adaptive decision-directed channel estimation. These improvements enhance the performance of various communication systems and consumer electronics. Particular improvements are also provided for decoding HD radio signals, satellite radio signals, digital audio broadcasting (DAB) signals, digital audio broadcasting plus (DAB+) signals, digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H) signals, digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) signals, world space system signals, terrestrial-digital multimedia broadcasting (T-DMB) signals, and China mobile multimedia broadcasting (CMMB) signals. These and other improvements enhance the decoding of different digital signals.
US09698940B2

In various embodiments, a computer-implemented method for optimized data transfer utilizing optimized code table signaling is disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving, by a processor, a digital bit stream and transforming, by the processor, the digital bit stream to an encoded digital bit stream. The encoded digital bit stream comprises at least one of a gateway channel, a composite channel, or a data channel, and any combination thereof. The computer-implemented method further comprises providing, by the processor, the encoded digital bit stream to a transmission system for transmission and establishing, by the processor, signal integrity by utilizing pre-coordinated, pre-distributed information to limit the transmission to an intended sender-receiver pair. The intended sender-receiver pair comprises the pre-coordinated, pre-distributed information.
US09698936B2

The embodiments of the present invention disclose a configuration method, system and device for an uplink channel. The method includes: The terminal achieve the information the network side device sending of carrying uplink transmission mode, and use the transmission mode transfer uplink signal; the terminal obtains the channel quality information according to the uplink transmission mode; the channel quality information the terminal obtained report to the network side device, as well as enables the network side device configures the uplink channel according to the channel quality information. The present invention performs the configuration of uplink channels in multicarrier transmission.
US09698926B2

The present invention generally relates to methods and apparatus for precision time transfer wherein the inherent packet delay variation and possible asymmetry introduced in networks is avoided or mitigated. In one embodiment, the timing functions of a master device may be placed closer to a slave device using a Remote Time-Stamp Generator, located in the network between the master and the slave, and whose time reference serves as a proxy for the time reference of the master. Time-of-traversal of packets at the remote time-stamp generator may be used as proxies for the time-of-departure and the time-of-arrival of certain messages at the master. Such proxy times may be used to synchronize the slave with the master, particularly if the master and the Remote Time-Stamp Generator are both synchronized with a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) source.
US09698920B2

An apparatus comprises a receiver receiving wireless transmission of a real radio system from at least one base station of a radio system as a function of reception direction. The transmission comprises predetermined data. The apparatus comprises also a processing unit that forms taps of a delay profile on the basis of comparison between the data that is received and corresponding predetermined data. The processing unit estimates direction for the taps of the delay profile on the basis of a reception direction of the transmission, and forms radio channel data by associating the taps of the delay profile with the estimated direction. The radio channel data is for a radio channel model of a MIMO emulation in an OTA chamber having a plurality of antennas around a test zone where a device-under-test may be placed.
US09698908B2

Light-based communication (LCom) techniques are disclosed for decoding LCom signals using a sub-raster line sampling process. In accordance with an embodiment, a system is provided that is configured to sub-sample each raster line to capture data at a much faster sampling rate, which in turn allows for longer LCom messages and faster response time. The sub-sampling of the raster lines can be carried out in a rolling shutter mode. Without such sub-sampling of the raster lines, decoding the LCom signals may be effectively limited by the raster line frequency, given that the raster line sampling rate is tied to the horizontal resolution of the camera. However, by sub-sampling the raster lines as provided herein, the sampling rate can be a combination of horizontal and vertical pixels which represents a substantial improvement over standard raster line based rolling shutter modes.
US09698906B2

An apparatus for transmitting information using a visible light includes at least three light emitting devices, each being installed based on a predetermined interval and direction, and a data transmitting unit to transmit data by controlling the at least three light emitting devices.
US09698902B2

An optical transmission system includes: a first optical transmission device configured to transmit measurement light to an optical transmission line on a first direction; and a second optical transmission device configured, when an optical transmission characteristic is measured, to loop-back the measurement light received from the first optical transmission device through an optical transmission line on the first direction and to transmit the measurement light to the first optical transmission device through an optical transmission line on a second direction, wherein, when the optical transmission characteristic is measured, the first optical transmission device receives the measurement light loop-backed by the second optical transmission device and measures the optical transmission characteristic between the first optical transmission device and the second optical transmission device.
US09698889B2

A technology that is operable to schedule data transfer for a multiple user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) communications network is disclosed. In one embodiment, an enhanced node B (eNode B) is configured with circuitry configured to receive a sounding signal from each of a plurality of user equipment (UEs). One or more major paths of the sounding signals from each of the plurality of UEs are determined. An angle of arrival (AoA) is determined that is associated with each of the one or more major paths. The plurality of UEs are grouped into one or more candidate MU-MIMO sets using the AoAs associated with each of the one or more major paths. Data transmissions are scheduled for one or more of the candidate UEs of the candidate MU-MIMO set on one or more of the major paths of each of the candidate UEs.
US09698886B2

In a mobile communication system that supports downlink multi-antenna transmission, a base station managing a cell receives beamforming control information fed back from each of a plurality of beamforming target terminals connected to the cell, and null steering control information fed back from a null steering target terminal. When there exists no beamforming target terminal that feeds back the beamforming control information that coincides with the null steering control information, the base station selects, as a pair terminal, a beamforming target terminal that feeds back the beamforming control information containing a predefined rank indicator.
US09698883B2

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors, causes performance of operations. One of these operations comprises transmitting, from a first device to a second device, a first plurality of frames using a first polarization configuration for a first antenna corresponding to the first device. Based on feedback information associated with the first plurality of frames, a second polarization configuration, which is different than the first polarization configuration, is selected for transmitting a second plurality of frames. Thereafter, the second plurality of frames is transmitted from the first device to the second device using the second polarization configuration for the first antenna.
US09698882B2

A telecommunications system is provided that is controllably operable as a sectorized antenna system and as an omnidirectional antenna system without requiring hardware reconfiguration. The telecommunications system includes a phase correlation measurement unit that can be between a sectorized antenna sub-system and a remotely located RF source site. The phase correlation measurement unit can be coupled to the RF source site over at least one feed line. The phase correlation measurement unit can output signals for controlling a phase shifter at the RF source site for phase shifting downlink signals and for causing operation of the sectorized antenna sub-system as an omnidirectional antenna sub-system. In a sectorized operation mode, the phase correlation measurement unit and the phase shifter can be inactivated.
US09698875B2

A communication device may establish at least one type of connection among a first type of connection and a second type of connection which are according to a particular protocol defined in an NFC standard based on a current state of the communication device and a current state of an external device. The first type of connection may be a connection in which the communication device operates as a server and the external device operates as a client. The second type of connection may be a connection in which the communication device operates as a client and the external device operates as a server. The communication device may communicate the target data with the external device by using the established connection. The contents of the communication may be different in response to which type of connection is established.
US09698860B2

A method for tuning an analog self-interference canceller includes detecting a tuning trigger, calculating a set of tuning parameters (the tuning parameters including complex weights for a set of taps of the analog self-interference canceller) in response to the tuning trigger, and applying the set of tuning parameters based on component calibration data.
US09698856B2

A method and a device for selecting a radio in an electronic device with a hybrid radio function. The method includes detecting an entrance to a hybrid radio function; determining a default radio mode to be executed as a default in response to a preconfigured mode determination condition; and receiving and reproducing a radio broadcast in a radio mode corresponding to the determined default radio mode. The present disclosure can be applied to various other embodiments based on the aforementioned embodiment.
US09698841B2

Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer readable media are disclosed for associating a radio frequency identification tag with a participant. In one embodiment, a method is provided for associating an unassociated RF location tag with a participant. The method may include determining an unassociated RF location tag to be associated with the participant, receiving sensor derived data from one or more sensors, determining an identity of the particular participant using the sensor derived data, and associating the identity of the particular participant with the unassociated RF location tag.
US09698838B1

A receiver system includes a blocker detector circuit configured to receive a radio frequency (RF) input signal and detect an existence of a blocker therein, and further configured to output a blocker detection signal indicative of the existence of the blocker. The receiver system further includes a configurable receiver circuit configured to receive the RF input signal and the blocker detection signal, and selectively configure the configurable receiver circuit between a first mode wherein the configurable receiver circuit exhibits first linearity characteristics, and a second mode wherein the configurable receiver circuit exhibits second, different linearity characteristics based on the blocker detection signal.
US09698835B2

A method for carrying data on a live host signal, comprising the steps of: varying timing in a host signal in response to data to be encoded, wherein variations in timing are smaller than a sampling period for detection and capture of the digital signal receiving the live host signal; sensing pulse timing variations in the received live host signal by comparison to a reference signal; and determining information in the sensed timing variations.
US09698826B2

A bit interleaver, a bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) device and a bit interleaving method are disclosed herein. The bit interleaver includes a first memory, a processor, and a second memory. The first memory stores a low-density parity check (LDPC) codeword having a length of 16200 and a code rate of 4/15. The processor generates an interleaved codeword by interleaving the LDPC codeword on a bit group basis. The size of the bit group corresponds to a parallel factor of the LDPC codeword. The second memory provides the interleaved codeword to a modulator for 256-symbol mapping.
US09698819B1

A method for generating Huffman codewords to encode a dataset includes selecting a Huffman tree type from a plurality of different Huffman tree types. Each of the Huffman tree types specifies a different range of codeword length in a Huffman tree. A Huffman tree of the selected type is produced by: determining a number of nodes available to be allocated as leaves in each level of the Huffman tree accounting for allocation of leaves in each level of the Huffman tree; allocating nodes to be leaves such that the number of nodes allocated in a given level of the Huffman tree is constrained to be no more than the number of nodes available to be allocated in the given level; and assigning the leaves to symbols of the dataset based an assignment strategy selected from a plurality of assignment strategies to produce symbol codeword information.
US09698813B2

An input buffer for an ADC is provided. The input buffer includes a receiving circuit and an impedance circuit. The receiving circuit is coupled between a power supply and a sample-and-hold circuit of the ADC, and receives an analog input signal and generating an analog signal. The impedance circuit is coupled to the receiving circuit, and selectively provides a variable impedance. When the sample-and-hold circuit of the ADC is operated in a first phase, the impedance circuit provides a small impedance, and when the sample-and-hold circuit of the ADC is operated in a second phase, the impedance circuit provides a large impedance.
US09698810B2

A method, computer-readable storage medium, and signal processing apparatus for processing a plurality of input signals. The method includes receiving or generating a first intermediate signal and a second intermediate signal. The first and second intermediate signals are output to a signal analog-to-digital converter having a predetermined sampling frequency.
US09698806B2

Methods and systems are provided for dynamic power switching in current-steering digital-to-analog converters (DACs). A DAC circuit may be configured to apply digital-to-analog conversions based on current steering, and to particularly incorporate use of dynamic power switching during conversions. The DAC circuit may comprise a main section, which may connect a main supply voltage to a main current source. The main section may comprise a positive-side branch and a negative-side branch, which may be configured to steer positive-side and negative-side currents, such as in a differential manner, to effectuate the conversions. The dynamic power switching may be applied, for example, via a secondary section connecting a main current source in the DAC circuit to a secondary supply voltage. The secondary supply voltage may be configured such that it may be less than the main supply voltage used in driving the current steering in the DAC circuit.
US09698803B1

In one aspect a system is provided. The system a plurality of flash compare modules to output a set of unordered output signals based on an analog input signal; a plurality of device selection modules that receive the unordered output signals and generate ordered signals representing the analog input; and a temperature and voltage compensation module for receiving one or more of temperature and voltage signals from at least a temperature and voltage sensor module that senses one or more of temperature and voltage values that are used to compensate for changes in output signals caused by changes in one or more of die temperature and core voltage.
US09698797B1

Techniques are disclosed relating to feedback-controlled oscillators (e.g., phase-locked loops) arranged in two or more levels. In some embodiments, in a relatively higher-frequency mode, a first level feedback-controlled oscillator provides reference signals to one or more second level feedback-controlled oscillators that in turn generate output clock signals to clock sequential circuitry. In some embodiments, in a relatively lower-frequency mode, the first level feedback-controlled oscillator bypasses the second level feedback-controlled oscillators and provides output clock signals directly to sequential circuitry (without using any intervening feedback-controlled oscillators).
US09698794B1

Systems and methods for coalescing regions on a virtualized programmable logic device are provided. A first function is configured on a first subregion on the virtualized programmable logic device. The first subregion may border an unused subregion on the programmable logic device. The first function operated on the first subregion is migrated to a second function operated on a second subregion on the virtualized programmable logic device by mapping a first set of bits configuring the first subregion to a second set of bits configuring the second subregion for the second function. The first subregion is then released from the first function. The second function is configured to perform a same task with the first function, and the first subregion and the unused subregion together form a larger unused subregion on the virtualized programmable logic device. Similarly, multiple subregions can be migrated and vacated to form a larger available region.
US09698793B1

A method for upgrading a programmable logic device (PLD) in a network element is provided. The method includes writing PLD configuration data to a nonvolatile memory and directing a signal control device external to the PLD to hold system control signals in the network element at a predefined state irrespective of direction by the PLD. The method includes loading the PLD configuration data from the nonvolatile memory into a PLD configuration memory in the PLD, while the signal control device holds the system control signals at the predefined values. The method includes directing the signal control device to release the holding the system control signals, so that the PLD directs the system control signals, responsive to completion of the loading the PLD configuration data into the PLD configuration memory. A network element is also provided.
US09698792B1

An electronic device includes multiple functional logic modules each having a corresponding settling time, a clock generator element, and multiple memory elements. The clock generator element generates multiple clock signals having clock periods of a common duration. Each clock signal has a first clock transition and a second clock transition during each clock period, and a latest second clock transition of the clock signals in a particular clock period precedes an earliest first clock transition in a subsequent clock period by the settling time. Each memory element is clocked by a respective one of the clock signals, and each memory element includes an input latch clocked on a first clock transition of the respective one of the clock signals, and an output latch clocked on a second clock transition of the respective one of the clock signals.
US09698791B2

A forwarding plane comprising a scalable array of field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices, a memory bank, FPGA data and transport network ports, and an array interconnect. The scalable array is configured to execute a networking application source code partitioned as computing elements executed by the FPGA devices with a uniform global memory address space. The memory bank includes an allocated portion of the FPGA devices addressable by the address space. The ports are coupled to data networks and include ingress ports configured to receive traffic and egress ports configured to transmit traffic. The array interconnect is configured to forward the traffic from the ingress ports to the egress ports, choose cell sizes of data cells that encapsulate payload data units of the traffic, control latency between the FPGA devices based on the chosen cell sizes; and enable utilization of the memory bank for buffering of the traffic.
US09698784B1

Systems and methods are described for a contention-free single-wire latch controller that includes first and second bidirectional signal pins (e.g., the L and R pins in the FIGS), a latch enable output pin (or signal), E, and a decision element (such as a NAND or a NOR gate). A first driving transistor may be coupled between the first bidirectional signal pin and a power rail. A second driving transistor may be coupled between the second bidirectional signal pin and the power rail. A first half-latch may be coupled to the first bidirectional signal pin. A second half-latch may be coupled to the second bidirectional signal pin.
US09698782B1

A circuit includes a data input in communication with a first transistor stack; a first capacitor having a first capacitance and in communication with a power supply via a first transistor of the first transistor stack, wherein the first transistor is configured to charge the first capacitor in response to the data input receiving a signal corresponding to a first binary value; a data output node coupled between the first transistor stack and a transmission line having a second capacitance; and wherein the first capacitor is coupled between the data output node and a second transistor of the first transistor stack, further wherein the second transistor is configured to discharge the first capacitor to the data output node in response to the data input receiving a signal corresponding to a second binary value.
US09698779B2

Methods for reconfiguring an ASIC at runtime without using voltage over scaling. A functional criticality of a set of logic in the ASIC is identified. Then, the set of logic are classified into a set of regions based on the functional criticality, each region of the set of regions having a target error threshold. Further, each region is power gated at runtime based on the functional criticality such that the target error threshold is achieved without using voltage over scaling.
US09698777B1

An apparatus includes a keyboard and circuitry. The keyboard includes at least an interface line and a key. The key is configured to connect the interface line to first and second different capacitances when positioned in first and second positions, respectively. The circuitry is connected to the interface line and is configured to detect whether the key is in the first position or in the second position, by sensing electrical current flowing on the interface line in response to a stimulation waveform.
US09698764B2

Described is an apparatus of a quadrature divider. The apparatus is independent of a jam latch, and is for generating a quadrature clock. The apparatus comprises: a first selection unit controllable by a clock signal, the first selection unit to directly or indirectly generate a first phase of the quadrature clock; a third selection unit controllable by the clock signal, the third selection unit to receive the first phase of the quadrature clock, the third selection unit to directly or indirectly generate a third phase of the quadrature clock, wherein the first selection unit to receive the third phase of the quadrature clock.
US09698759B2

An approach to time domain filtering uses a passive charge sharing approach to implement an infinite impulse response filter. Delayed samples of an input signal are stored as charges on capacitors of a first array of capacitors, and delayed samples of the output signal are stored as charges on capacitors of a second array of capacitors. Outputs are determined by passively coupling capacitors of the first and second arrays to one another, and determining the output according to a total charge on the coupled capacitors. In some examples, a gain is applied to the total charge prior to storing the output on the second array of capacitors. In some examples, a charge scaling circuit is applied to the charges stored on the arrays prior to coupling capacitors to form the output.
US09698752B2

Embodiments of resonator circuits and modulating resonators and are described generally herein. One or more acoustic wave resonators may be coupled in series or parallel to generate tunable filters. One or more acoustic wave resonances may be modulated by one or more capacitors or tunable capacitors. One or more acoustic wave modules may also be switchable in a filter. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09698751B2

RF multiplexer circuitry includes a first signal path coupled between a first intermediate node and a common node, a second signal path coupled between a second intermediate node and the common node, first resonator circuitry coupled between the first signal path and ground, and second resonator circuitry coupled between the second signal path and ground. The first resonator circuitry is configured to allow signals within a first frequency pass band to pass between the first intermediate node and the common node, while attenuating signals outside of the first frequency pass band. The first resonator circuitry includes a first LC resonator. The second resonator circuitry is configured to allow signals within a second frequency pass band to pass between the second intermediate node and the common node, while attenuating signals outside of the second frequency pass band.
US09698749B2

An impedance matching device is presented. The device includes an input terminal configured to receive a radio frequency signal, and an output terminal configured to couple to an amplifier. The device includes an impedance prematch network coupled to the input terminal and the output terminal. The impedance prematch network includes a first inductor, such as a first wire bond. The device includes a resonator structure including a second inductor, such as a wire bond, inductively coupled to the first inductor.
US09698739B2

Aspects of this disclosure relate to systems and methods of performing dynamic impedance tuning. Certain aspects may be performed by or include a dynamic impedance matching network. The dynamic impedance matching network can determine a desired output power for a power amplifier, true power information for the power amplifier, and an output power delivered to a load by the power amplifier. In addition, the dynamic impedance matching network can determine whether the output power satisfies the true power information. Responsive to this determination, the dynamic impedance matching network may modify a load line impedance for the power amplifier using an impedance tuning network.
US09698732B2

A controller may be configured to sequentially apply a plurality of switch configurations of a power converter in order to operate the power converter as a differential output converter to switch a polarity of the output voltage, such that: during a charging phase of the power converter, a power inductor is coupled between one of a first terminal and a second terminal of the power source and one of a first terminal and a second terminal of the output load, during a transfer phase of the power converter, at least one of the plurality of switches is activated in order to couple the power inductor between the second terminal of the power source and one of the first terminal of the output load and the second terminal of the output load, wherein the output voltage is a differential voltage between the first terminal and the second terminal.
US09698730B2

The exemplary embodiments include methods, computer readable media, and devices for calibrating a non-linear power detector of a radio frequency device based upon measurements of the non-linear power detector output and the associated power amplifier output level, and a set of data points that characterize a nominal non-linear power detector. The set of data points that characterize the nominal non-linear power detector is stored in a calibration system memory as nominal power detector output data. The measured non-linear power detector outputs, power amplifier output levels, and the nominal power detector output data is used to determine a power detector error function that characterizes the difference between the response of the non-linear power detector and the nominal non-linear power detector. The power detector error function and the nominal power detector output data are used to develop a calibrated power detector output data set that is stored in the non-linear power detector.
US09698714B2

A method for implementing asynchronous operation of a permanent magnet motor (PMM) by detecting asynchronous operation of the PMM and creating cyclic variations in the PMM output using the asynchronous operation of the PMM. In another embodiment, an apparatus that comprises a microcontroller that obtains computer executable instructions stored on a non-transitory medium that when executed by the microcontroller causes the apparatus to determine that a rotor shaft within a PMM is rotationally restricted and to vary a plurality of frequencies and a plurality of amplitude currents supplied to the monitor to produce a reverse impact on a downhole tool coupled to the PMM.
US09698712B2

An inverter apparatus includes an inverter circuit, a capacitor, and a control unit. In the first control mode, the control unit shifts a phase of at least one of PWM signals of three phases such that a time period during which polarities of output voltages of three phases are the same is shorter in the first control mode than the time period in the second control mode; and controls the inverter circuit so as to supply a direct current to the three-phase AC motor as a d-axis current by outputting the PWM signals of three phases, each having a phase after the phase shift processing. In the second control mode, the control unit controls the inverter circuit so as to supply an alternating current to the three-phase AC motor by outputting the PWM signals of three phases, each having a phase before the phase shift processing.
US09698709B2

A motor driving device includes an inverter circuit having switching elements; and a control device controlling the switching of the switching elements. The control device sets a carrier frequency to f1 when a two-phase modulation scheme is selected, and sets the carrier frequency to f0, which is half of the carrier frequency f1, when a three-phase modulation scheme is selected. Thereby, the frequency of the secondary component of a current flowing in a filter circuit of when selecting the three-phase modulation scheme may be deviated from the resonance frequency of the filter circuit. Accordingly, the current ripple generated in the filter circuit may be reduced even when selectively switching the modulation scheme for the PWM modulation among a plurality of modulation schemes.
US09698708B2

Techniques and systems are disclosed for locomoting fuel-free nanomotors in a fluid. In one aspect of the disclosed technology, a system for locomoting fuel-free nanomotors can include an electrically-driven nanowire diode formed of two or more segments of different electrically conducting materials, a fluid container, and a mechanism that produces an electric field to drive the nanowire diode to locomote in the fluid. In another aspect, a system for locomoting fuel-free nanomotors can include a magnetically-propelled multi-segment nanowire motor formed of a magnetic segment and a flexible joint segment, a fluid container, and a mechanism that generates and controls a magnetic field to drive the multi-segment nanowire motor to locomote in the fluid. The disclosed fuel-free nanomotors can obviate fuel requirements and can be implemented for practical in vitro and in vivo biomedical applications.
US09698701B2

A power module packaging structure includes a first conducting layer, a first insulating layer, a second conducting layer, a first power device, and a first controlling device. The first insulating layer is disposed above the first conducting layer. The second conducting layer is disposed above the first insulating layer. The first power device is disposed on the first conducting layer. The first controlling device is disposed on the second conducting layer and used for controlling the first power device. The first conducting layer, the second conducting layer, the first power device, and the first controlling device form a loop. A direction of a current which flows through the first conducting layer in the loop is opposite to a direction of a current which flows through the second conducting layer in the loop.
US09698697B2

A storage (80) stores a first drooping characteristic of a rated current Ioc1, and a second drooping characteristic of an allowable current value Ico2 that is greater than the rated current value Ioc1. A controller (70) is configured to select a drooping characteristic stored in the storage (80) in accordance with the current value detected by an output current detector (50) and a mask condition, and perform droop control.
US09698692B2

A multi-phase interleaved converter includes n sub-circuits of phases, a current controller and a balancing controller. The n sub-circuits of phases have inputs connected in parallel and outputs connected in parallel in order to convert a direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) input voltage of one level into a DC or AC output voltage of another level. The current controller receives a current control command and a phase current value of a particular sub-circuit of a particular phase among the n sub-circuits of the respective phases to output a control signal for controlling the particular sub-circuit of the particular phase. The balancing controller receives phase current values of the n sub-circuits of the respective phases and receives a control signal output from the current controller to adjust the duty ratios of control signals applied to the other sub-circuits.
US09698690B2

In one embodiment, a method of controlling a converter can include: (i) when first and fourth switches are on, and second and third switches are off, generating an on time signal according to an input voltage and a stable output voltage of the converter; (ii) generating an off time signal according to the input voltage and the stable output voltage of the converter; (iii) generating a reference time voltage according to a reference current signal and a reference voltage signal; and (iv) controlling the first, second, third, and fourth switches based on whether the on time signal is activated to indicate that the converter is operating in a buck mode, the off time signal is activated to indicate that the converter is operating in a boost mode, or the reference time signal is activated to indicate that the converter is operating in a buck-boost mode.
US09698677B2

In one embodiment, a brownout recovery circuit configured for a switch power supply circuit with a first switch, can include: (i) an under-voltage detection circuit that activates a detection signal when a bootstrap capacitor is not in an under-voltage state, and deactivates the detection signal when the bootstrap capacitor is in the under-voltage state; (ii) a logic circuit that generates a first control signal according to a main control signal from the switch power supply circuit and a second switch state; (iii) a first control circuit that generates a first switch signal according to the detection signal, and controls the first switch thereby; and (iv) a second control circuit that receives the first control signal, and generates a second switch signal to control the second switch thereby.
US09698674B1

A DC-DC converter includes a plurality of switches configured to be in a first charging mode until current through an inductor reaches a first current threshold to thereby indicate an end of the first charging mode. Responsive to the end of the first charging mode the DC-DC converter is configured to operate in a second charging mode for a time period ΔT in which a first side of the inductor is coupled to an input voltage and a second side of the inductor is coupled to a load. Responsive to the end of the time period ΔT, the DC-DC converter operates in a discharge mode until current through the inductor reaches its minimum.
US09698673B2

A method for controlling an electronic circuit by means of the first, second and third operating parameters, comprises: determining a range of variation of the third parameter for each value of the first parameter by varying the second parameter, said ranges being different; determining a target value of the third parameter; if the target value is within one of the ranges, operating the electronic circuit by setting the third parameter to the target value; and in the opposite case, selecting the two ranges framing the target value and operating the electronic circuit by consecutively bringing the third parameter into each one of the selected ranges.
US09698666B2

A power supply and a gate driver includes a power switching element to control current, a control circuit to output a control signal for opening or closing of the power switching element, and a gate drive circuit to open or close the power switching element in accordance with the control signal. The gate drive circuit includes a first inductive circuit connected to a supply voltage source, and a second inductive circuit connected to an input stage of the power switching element, and transfers electrical energy stored in the input stage of the power switching element, using the first and second inductive circuits. Accordingly, electrical energy supplied to the input stage of the power switching element during an ON state of the power switching element is again recovered during an OFF state of the power switching element.
US09698648B2

Recesses and projections that extend in an axial direction are formed on an outer-circumferential surface of a molded resin body. The recesses are provided on portions where are extended outward from the winding and are on the outer circumferential surface. In addition, further recesses and projections that extend in a radial direction are formed on an axial-direction end surface of the molded resin body. The further recesses are provided on portions of the axial-direction end surface that are aligned in the axial direction with the winding.
US09698647B2

According to an embodiment of the invention, an electric machine is provided. The machine includes a support structure and a stator secured to the support structure. The machine also includes a rotor rotatably scoured to the support structure. The rotor defines a wall of the rotor. The machine also includes a sensor secured to the support structure and adapted to cooperate with the wall of the rotor to sense the position of the rotor relative to that of the stator.
US09698643B2

A stator winding of a rotary electric machine includes windings for each pole of each phase being configured by a single layer lap wound coil. The single layer lap-wound coil includes combination coils each configured by two or more divided unit coils of the same phase being disposed one over the other in a radial direction inside slots of a stator core. The combination coils each comprise a first-row unit coil and a second-row unit coil disposed in a radially inner side of the stator core with respect to the first-row unit coil. A turns count of the first-row unit coil equals a turns count of the second-row unit coil. A count of lead wires of the first-row unit coil differs from a count of lead wires of the second-row unit coil.
US09698638B2

A cooling system for an electric machine is provided. The cooling system includes an airflow diverter feature configured to provide even distribution of airflow to the electric machine. The airflow diverter feature includes a circular disk mounted to the housing of the electric machine. The disk defines a plurality of vents forming an axial air passage. A plurality of radial air passages are in fluid communication with the axial air passage. The airflow diverter feature defines at least one inlet and at least one outlet. The inlet comprises at least one interior choke and the outlet comprises at least one exhaust choke. The interior choke and the exhaust choke are sized to control a rate of air flow through the radial air passages.
US09698637B2

A rotating portion of a motor includes a magnet, a yoke, and a hub. An upper portion of the yoke is fixed to the hub. The yoke includes a first inner circumferential surface radially opposite to an outer circumferential surface of the magnet with a first gap intervening therebetween, and a second inner circumferential surface radially opposite to the outer circumferential surface of the magnet with a second gap intervening therebetween below the first inner circumferential surface. The second inner circumferential surface is parallel or substantially parallel to the outer circumferential surface of the magnet, and is located radially outward of the first inner circumferential surface. An adhesive is provided in at least a portion of the first gap. No adhesive is provided in at least a lower axial end portion of the second gap.
US09698627B2

The invention includes; a sealed housing made of a plastic or metal material; a conductive plate made of a copper material, positioned in the center of the housing, and respectively connected to power lines so as to accumulate magnetic energy generated in an internal polymer-clay nanocomposite; a base insulation plate having insulation characteristics so as to fix the conductive plate; electric wires which are power lines for transmitting the magnetic energy stored on the conductive plate to the outside; the polymer-clay nano composite filled in the bottom portion of the housing such that the conductive plate is submerged therein; an upper ceramic layer coated on the inner wall of the housing so as to promote the magnetic interaction of a ceramic compound in the upper space portion of the polymer-clay nano composite.
US09698619B2

A device for collecting energy has a moving conducting body and with capacitive plates at the edge. When an incoming wave is incident upon the energy collection device, currents are induced on the moving conducting body, in turn having charges accumulated at the capacitive plates that are attached to the edge of the moving conducting body. As the accumulated charges move along with the conducting body, time-varying magnetic field is produced nearby, from which power is collected by various energy collection devices such as inductive and capacitive coupling devices. It is also possible to collect the energy by putting touch brushes on the charge-stored capacitive plates directly. Also the accumulated charges and consequently the amount of collected power are enhanced by applying the external magnetic field to the moving conducting body.
US09698616B2

Systems and methods for restoring service within electrical power systems are disclosed. The methods may include identifying a restoration path for an outage area within a power system, selecting a mobile energy resource connection site that is electrically connected to the restoration path and/or the outage area, sending power injection requests to a plurality of mobile energy resources, at least some of which may be proximate the connection site, receiving power injection acceptances from participating ones of the plurality of mobile energy resources, and implementing the restoration path. The systems may include a processor and a computer readable storage medium having a plurality of machine-readable instructions embodied thereon and configured for execution by the processor to carry out the method.
US09698613B2

A non-limiting example charging stand comprises a main body that includes an outer side member and the inner side member. The inner side member has an inserting portion for inserting a portable game apparatus. The inserting portion is set with a depth that hides a portion of a hinge but does not hide a cover constituting a part of a housing of the portable game apparatus when inserting the folded portable game apparatus in a vertical orientation. Accordingly, when viewing the portable game apparatus inserted in the charging stand from the front, it is possible to see a color, a pattern or an image of character that is applied to the cover. At this time, a color, a pattern or an image of character that is applied to an outer circumference surface (front) of the charging stand can be also seen.
US09698594B2

Components can be damaged if they are exposed to excess voltages. A device is disclosed herein which can be placed in series with a component and a node that may be exposed to high voltages. If the voltage becomes too high, the device can autonomously switch into a relatively high impedance state, thereby protecting the other components.
US09698590B1

The personal electrical injury protection device includes a first wireless transmitter, a first receiver, and a second receiver. The first wireless transmitter is adapted to be worn on an end user. The first wireless transmitter is in wired connection with at least one electrical sensor. The at least one electrical sensor is adapted to be attached to a limb of said end user, and is able to detect a change in voltage, and upon doing so shall signal the first receiver. The first receiver is in wireless communication with the first transmitter, and includes a speaker, and at least one light. The second receiver is adapted to turn off the main circuit breaker in order to stop electricity to be transmitted to all applicable circuits, and of which an end user has come into contact.
US09698573B2

A method for making an extruded insulator for a spark plug in a manner that minimizes pores, relics and/or other defects in the insulator microstructure so that the overall dielectric strength or performance of the insulator is improved. The method may be used to manufacture an extruded insulator that avoids many of the drawbacks associated with such defects, but also has a stepped internal bore for receiving a center electrode. In one embodiment, the method uses a multi-phase extrusion process to extrude a ceramic paste around an elongated arbor and form an extruded section, and then removes the arbor from the extruded section to reveal a stepped internal bore.
US09698569B2

To improve characteristics of a semiconductor device (semiconductor laser), an active layer waveguide (AWG) comprised of InP is formed over an exposed part of a surface of a substrate having an off angle ranging from 0.5° to 1.0° in a [1-1-1] direction from a (100) plane to extend in the [0-1-1] direction. A cover layer comprised of p-type InP is formed over the AWG with a V/III ratio of 2000 or more. Thereby, it is possible to obtain excellent multiple quantum wells (MQWs) by reducing a film thickness variation of the AWG. Moreover, the cover layer having side faces where a (0-11) plane almost perpendicular to a substrate surface mainly appears can be formed. A sectional shape of a lamination part of the cover layer and the AWG becomes an approximately rectangular shape. Therefore, an electrification region can be enlarged and it is possible to reduce a resistance of the semiconductor device.
US09698567B2

A wavelength-selectable laser device providing spatially-selectable wavelength(s) may be used to select one or more wavelengths for lasing in a tunable transmitter or transceiver, for example, in a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical system such as a WDM passive optical network (PON). The wavelength-selectable laser device uses a dispersive optical element, such as a diffraction grating, to disperse light emitted from a laser emitter and to direct different wavelengths of the light toward a reflector at different spatial positions such that the wavelengths may be selected by allowing light to be reflected from selected spatial position(s) back into the laser emitter. Thus, the reflected light with a wavelength at the selected spatial position(s) is allowed to complete the laser cavity.
US09698565B1

A diode control device include a first terminal for receiving a first power supply voltage and a second terminal for receiving a second power supply voltage. A circuit of the diode control device applies a regulated voltage on the anode of the diode in response to a control voltage. The control voltage is equal to a preset voltage when a reference voltage is less than or equal to zero. Conversely, when the reference voltage is greater than zero, the control voltage is equal to the sum of the present voltage and a difference between cathode voltage of the diode and the reference voltage.
US09698560B2

A laser ignition system, in particular for an internal combustion engine, including a vertical emitter and a laser-active crystal, the laser-active crystal being doped in at least some areas using ytterbium, the ytterbium-doped area having a length of 200 μm to 7000 μm. The monolithic laser is based on a YAG or LuAG host crystal having 3 differently doped areas: a laser-active ytterbium-doped area, an undoped area which determines the resonator length and therefore the pulse duration, and a chromium-doped or vanadium-doped area for the passive Q-switch. The resonator is delimited by 2 mirrors.
US09698559B2

The invention relates to scanning pulsed laser systems for optical imaging. Coherent dual scanning laser systems (CDSL) are disclosed and some applications thereof. Various alternatives for implementation are illustrated, including highly integrated configurations. In at least one embodiment a coherent dual scanning laser system (CDSL) includes two passively modelocked fiber oscillators. The oscillators are configured to operate at slightly different repetition rates, such that a difference δfr in repetition rates is small compared to the values fr1 and fr2 of the repetition rates of the oscillators. The CDSL system also includes a non-linear frequency conversion section optically connected to each oscillator. The section includes a non-linear optical element generating a frequency converted spectral output having a spectral bandwidth and a frequency comb comprising harmonics of the oscillator repetition rates. A CDSL may be arranged in an imaging system for one or more of optical imaging, microscopy, micro-spectroscopy and/or THz imaging.
US09698558B2

A method of pumping an optical resonator includes directing light generated by a pumping light at the optical resonator, exciting a propagating surface state of the optical resonator at an interface of the optical resonator, and changing a propagating frequency of the light proximate the interface, where the changed frequency corresponds to a propagation frequency of the surface state. The optical resonator includes a photonic crystal and a material, where the interface is formed between the photonic crystal and the material.
US09698553B2

A crimping die includes a first die for constraining the wire crimping portion by a concave die surface shaped in conformity with the wire crimping portion, and a second die including a convex die surface paired with the concave die surface. A width of a recess on the concave die surface and that of a projection on the convex die surface are equal to an outer diameter of the wire crimping portion. The wire crimping portion is pressed by the concave die surface of the first die and the convex die surface of the second die, whereby the wire crimping portion and the wire inserted into the cylindrical interior of the wire crimping portion are crimped and fixed.
US09698542B1

An assembly and method of plural conductive slots sharing an overheating destructive fixing element is disclosed, including a first conductive element, a second conductive element and an overheating destructive fixing element. The first conductive element includes a front end, a rear end, plural conductive slots, a connection portion and a contact portion. The conductive slots include a front end conductive slot and a rear end conductive slot, between which a control section is defined. The connection portion is disposed on the control section, and the contact portion connects the connection portion. The second conductive element contacts the contact portion by the overheating destructive fixing element, allowing the plural conductive slots to share the overheating destructive fixing element. Furthermore, when any one conductive slot reaches each own limiting working temperature respectively, the overheating destructive fixing element is destructed by reaching a pre-determined temperature.
US09698538B2

Ribbon assembly includes first and second contact modules that each include signal and ground contacts that are configured to engage electrical contacts of a corresponding mating connector. The ribbon assembly also including a plurality of cables that are coupled to and extend between the first and second contact modules. The cables electrically couple the signal and ground contacts of the first contact module to the signal and ground contacts, respectively, of the second contact module. The cables extend parallel to one another and are coplanar at the first contact module and at the second contact module. The ribbon assembly also includes a cable organizer that is coupled to the plurality of cables at a location between and separate from the first and second contact modules. The cables extend parallel to one another and are coplanar as the cables extend through the cable organizer.
US09698537B2

A mating connector, that includes a mating ground portion, includes a holding member, a contact, a shell and a ground member. The holding member is formed of an insulating body defining a connection space, the contact has a contact point which is held by the holding member to be positioned in the connection space, the shell covers, at least in part, the holding member in a plane perpendicular to a front-rear direction, and the ground member is electrically connected with the shell and has a base portion positioned between the holding member and the shell. A ground spring extends from the base portion and a ground contact point to be connected to the mating ground portion, and has first, second and third springs. The third spring is inward of the second spring, and supports the ground contact point to project into the connection space.
US09698533B1

A composite connector comprises a housing, a position-limiting structure, a first type terminal, and a second type terminal. The housing is disposed on a system board, and a first oblique slot is disposed on one sidewall of the housing. The position-limiting structure is movably disposed in the housing, and the position-limiting structure and the sidewall of the housing have one of and the other of a first moving structure and the first oblique slot, respectively. The first type terminal and the second type terminal are disposed at different depths of the housing. Thereby, the space utilization of the system board is enhanced, the advantage of reducing the volume of the electronic product is achieved, and the switching operation can be more stable and less easy to fail when the connecting interfaces are switched.
US09698524B1

Embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus, a system, and a method of manufacturer for a magnetic, self-retracting, auto-aligning electrical connector. The apparatus includes a first conductor and a first magnet configured to magnetically couple with a second magnet, wherein magnetic coupling causes a change in a magnetic field of a magnetically coupled combination of the first magnet and the second magnet and wherein the change in the magnetic field causes electrical coupling of the first conductor and a second conductor. The system includes a first connector comprising a first magnet and a first conductor and a second connector comprising a second magnet and a second conductor, wherein magnetic coupling causes a change in a magnetic field of a magnetically coupled combination of the first magnet and the second magnet and wherein the change in the magnetic field causes electrical coupling of the first conductor and the second conductor.
US09698522B2

A strain relief element for a cable. The strain relief element has a clamping collar in form of an at least partially closing ring for clamping the cable sheathing arranged in a clamping opening of the ring. The clamping collar having first and second half-ring clamping elements with a partial clamping opening each and hinged together through a first hinge. The clamping opening being defined by the two half-ring clamping elements folded towards each other and fixed with a clamping force executed by a clamping element. The strain relief element has a fixing collar means in form of an at least partially closing ring for fixing a corrugated tube surrounding the cable arranged in a fixing opening of the ring, the fixing collar having first and second half-ring fixing elements with a partial fixing opening each and hinged together through a second hinge.
US09698520B2

A shrouded connector and associated methods of manufacture are provided. The shrouded connector includes an insulating shroud which includes at least one ventilation passageway which communicates an internal cavity of the insulating shroud with an annular space of the insulating shroud, the annular space adjacent an exterior of the insulating shroud.
US09698519B2

An electronic device includes a housing including an outer surface and an inner surface, the housing including an opening through which the outer surface and the inner surface communicate with each other. The external connection terminal also includes a female connector including a receiver configured to receive at least a part of a male connector inserted externally, the female connector including a conducting portion located to face the inner surface of the housing and electrically connectable to the male connector through the opening, and a seal located around the opening and located obliquely with respect to a direction in which the male connector is received.
US09698516B2

One aspect of the present disclosure is directed to a connector. The connector includes a top cover, a connecting plate, and a base. The top cover includes a top cover body and a first arc member. A first end of the first arc member is arranged on a side surface of the top cover body. A removable thin plate is arranged inside the first arc member. The connecting plate includes a connection section and a protruding section. The top cover body and the base are engaged and connected to form a cavity. The connection section is arranged inside the cavity. The connection section is connected to the base. A first end of the protruding section is connected to the connection section and a second end of the protruding section protrudes from the base.
US09698515B2

A port of a computing system includes a connector movable between a recessed position and an extended position. The connector is extended from the recessed position to the extended position in response to a plug.
US09698513B1

A force biased spring probe pin assembly includes a barrel member having a barrel wall defining an elongate internal cavity with a lower end and an upper end. The assembly also includes a first plunger member reciprocally mounted in the internal cavity proximate the lower end of the internal cavity. A spring member is positioned in the internal cavity between the plunger member and the second end of the internal cavity. Three or more conductive bearings are positioned in the internal cavity in contact with the first plunger member and the spring member. A force biased spring probe pin assembly includes a barrel member having a barrel wall defining an elongate internal cavity with a lower end and an upper end. The assembly also includes a first plunger member reciprocally mounted in the internal cavity proximate the lower end of the internal cavity and a second plunger member reciprocally mounted in the internal cavity proximate the upper end of the internal cavity. A spring member is positioned in the internal cavity between the first plunger member and the second plunger member. Three or more conductive bearings are positioned in the internal cavity in contact with the first plunger member and the spring member.
US09698511B2

An electric contact for preventing a terminal of an electrical part and the electric contact from sticking to each other after a continuity test to improve the durability of the electric contact; and a socket for electrical part using the electric contact. In the electric contact according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a foundation layer composed primarily of Ni, a surface layer composed primarily of Pd and Ag, and an outermost layer composed primarily of Sn or Au are formed on a surface of an electrically-conductive base material.
US09698503B2

A part (11) of a conducting bar (5) for an electrical apparatus, such as a terminal block, the part (11) of the conductive bar (5) comprising a first planar portion extending along an extension direction (15) of the part (11) of the conducting bar (5), a second planar portion (23) extending along the extension direction (15), the extension plane (25) of the second portion (23) being transversal to the extension plane (21) of the first portion. The part (11) has a first cutout along a first contour arranged in the first portion and a second cutout along a second contour arranged in the first portion.
US09698502B2

A coaxial plug connection having a coaxial plug connector and a counter plug connector. The coaxial plug connector having an inner conductor, an outer conductor which surrounds the inner conductor, and a bayonet nut which is arranged so as to be rotatable relative to the outer conductor and which forms a locking groove for accommodating a projection of a counter plug connector. The locking groove is disposed in the form of a helical groove and the bayonet nut has first and second bayonet nut parts that each form one side of the helical groove, wherein the bayonet nut parts can be displaced relatively to each other in longitudinal axial direction of the coaxial plug connector in order to clamp the projection of the counter plug connector in the helical groove, and wherein the bayonet nut parts can be fixed in position relative to each other by a fixing element.
US09698500B2

A joint sleeve is proposed for connecting busbar sections, each having connectable contacts. In an embodiment, the sleeve includes—a non-magnetic case defining butt ends occluded with non-magnetic flanges each having a hole securing the respective busbar section therein,—a fire-resistant coating covering the case,—an electrically insulated supporting tube disposed within the case and defining a chamber therein, enclosing the connectable contacts,—a grounding screen mounted on the supporting tube, and—a fire-resistant layer disposed between the case and the screen capable of thermal expansion upon heating thereof, thereby improving fire-resistance. Instead of the fire-resistant layer, another embodiment includes an annular air chamber formed between the case and the supporting tube, while the annular chamber is in communication with hollows, and the supporting tube is closed by another pair of flanges with holes securing the respective busbar sections. The sleeve allows for improving fire-safety of power consuming facilities.
US09698491B2

A multi-panel antenna system may be disassembled and packaged into a container with substantially smaller dimensions than the assembled antenna system. The antenna system may include two or more reflector panels, such that a respective reflector panel can include a curved surface that may form a portion of a parabolic reflector, and can include an inter-panel fastener operable to align a side surface of the respective reflector panel with a side surface of another reflector panel. The antenna system may also include a mounting assembly that may be used to fasten a convex side of the two or more reflector panels to a surface external to the antenna system, and a feed assembly that may be attached to the mounting assembly.
US09698481B2

A first radiating electrode of a split ring resonator type is formed on a side face of a substrate of a rectangular cuboid antenna device so as to be at a right angle to a ground electrode surface, a second radiating electrode is provided on a top surface of the substrate, the first radiating electrode and the second radiating electrode are capacitively coupled, and the resonance frequency of the first radiating electrode and second radiating electrode are configured to be approximately in symmetry with the central frequency of the used frequency.
US09698478B2

An electronically-controlled steerable beam antenna with suppressed parasitic scattering includes a feed line defining an axis x; and first and second arrays of electronically-controlled switchable scatters distributed along the axis x, each of the scatterers in the first and second arrays being switchable between a high state and a low state to scatter an electromagnetic wave propagating through the transmission line so as to form a steerable antenna beam. Each of the scatters of the second array is configured to be 180°-phase-shifted relative to a corresponding scatter of the first array. The switchable scatterers of the first and second arrays are configured into high states and low states relative to each other so as to suppress parasitic scattering of the electromagnetic wave without suppressing the steerable antenna beam.
US09698474B2

The invention concerns a helical antenna comprising a shape of revolution and a plurality of radiating strands helically wound around the shape of revolution, characterized in that each radiating strand is defined by a repetition of a fractal pattern comprising segments formed by a sinusoidal curve.
US09698473B2

An antenna device that is built inside a hollow body fixed to a vehicle comprises a composite antenna element that has an antenna length corresponding to a first frequency band and is bent so as to also function as a capacitive antenna corresponding to a second frequency band and to improve an antenna effective capacitance and that is disposed in a substantially planar manner. The composite antenna element is disposed such that a planar direction thereof is inclined toward a vertical-direction side with respect to a metal body of the vehicle, and is offset-disposed to a left or right side in the hollow body with respect to a vehicle traveling direction, and is grounded in a metal portion of the vehicle near a position where the composite antenna element is disposed.
US09698463B2

A power divider including an input port receiving an electrical power input, a coupled port transmitting a portion of the power input, and a transmitted port transferring a remaining portion of the power input from the input port. A first conductor produces an electrical field and electrically connects the input port to the transmitted port. And, a second conductor, disposed within electrical field of the first conductor, electrically connects to the coupled port, the second conductor. The first and second conductors are configured to be variably spaced to vary the coupling factor between the input and transmitted portions of the input power.
US09698460B2

Provided is a signal transmission device including a high-frequency signal waveguide that transmits a high-frequency signal emitted from an electronic device. When the electronic device is arranged close to the high-frequency signal waveguide, the high-frequency signal is transmitted via the high-frequency signal waveguide.
US09698448B2

An electrochemical cell includes a high voltage cathode configured to operate at 1.5 volts or greater; an anode including Mg0; and an electrolyte including an ether solvent and a magnesium salt; wherein: a concentration of the magnesium salt in the ether is 1 M or greater.
US09698444B2

A nonaqueous electrolyte composition includes an electrolyte salt, a nonaqueous solvent, a matrix polymer, and a ceramic powder, wherein the ceramic powder has an average particle size of 0.1 to 2.5 μm and a BET specific surface area of 0.5 to 11 m2/g.
US09698443B2

In at least one of principal surfaces of the electrolyte sheet for a solid oxide fuel cell of the present invention, (1) a burr height [ΔH (0-3)] in a first zone is 100 μm or less, as measured by irradiating the principal surface of the sheet with a laser beam at a pitch of 0.01 mm using a laser optical three-dimensional shape measurement device, the first zone being a zone extending between a peripheral edge of the sheet and a position 3 mm inside the peripheral edge, and (2) a ratio [ΔH (0.61-3)/ΔH (0-0.6)] of a burr height [ΔH (0.61-3)] in a third zone to a burr height [ΔH (0-0.6)] in a second zone is 0.5 or more and 2.0 or less, as calculated from the burr heights measured by irradiating the principal surface of the sheet with a laser beam at a pitch of 0.01 mm using the laser optical three-dimensional shape measurement device, the second zone being a zone extending between the peripheral edge of the sheet and a position 0.6 mm inside the peripheral edge, and the third zone being a zone extending between a position 0.61 mm inside the peripheral edge of the sheet and the position 3 mm inside the peripheral edge.
US09698434B2

A heater includes a fuel cell stack assembly disposed within a heater housing and includes a plurality of fuel cells which convert chemical energy from a fuel into heat and electricity through a chemical reaction with an oxidizing agent. A combustor disposed within the heater housing receives an anode exhaust and a cathode exhaust from the fuel cell stack assembly and combusts a mixture of the anode exhaust and the cathode exhaust to produce a heated combustor exhaust. The combustor includes a combustor exhaust outlet for discharging the heated combustor exhaust into the heater housing. A baffle disposed around the fuel cell stack assembly and the combustor defines a heat transfer channel radially between the heater housing and the baffle. A flow director in fluid communication with the combustor exhaust outlet and the heat transfer channel communicates the heated combustor exhaust to the heat transfer channel.
US09698430B2

A lithium-lanthanum-titanium oxide sintered material has a lithium ion conductivity 3.0×10−4 Scm−1 or more at a measuring temperature of 27° C., the material is described by one of general formulas (1-a)LaxLi2-3xTiO3-aSrTiO3, (1-a)LaxLi2-3xTiO3-aLa0.5K0.5TiO3, LaxLi2-3xTi1-aMaO3-a, and Srx-1.5aLaaLi1.5-2xTi0.5Ta0.5O3 (0.55≦x≦0.59, 0≦a≦0.2, M=at least one of Al, Fe and Ga), and concentration of S is 1500 ppm or less. The material is obtained by sintering raw material powder mixture having S content amount of 2000 ppm or less in the entirety of raw material powders for mixture, that is, titanium raw material, lithium raw material, and lanthanum raw material.
US09698424B2

A cathode unit for a battery, in which the cathode includes a viscoelastic, and a polymeric gel former selected from the group of natural polysaccharides having a proportion of carboxylate or carboxylic acid groups of greater than or equal to 0.5 and less than or equal to 2.0 in relation to the number of monomer units. Also described is a method for manufacturing the cathode units and the use of a battery including the cathode unit according to the invention for power supply.
US09698417B2

A lithium-free mixed titanium and niobium oxide, including at least one trivalent metal M, and having a molar ratio Nb/Ti greater than 2, said oxide being selected from the group including the material of formula (I) and the material of formula (II): MxTi1−2xNb2+xO7±δ  (I) where 0
US09698411B2

According to one embodiment, there is provided an electrode for battery which includes a current collector and an active material layer provided on the current collector. The active material layer contains particles of a lithium titanate compound having a spinel structure and a basic polymer. Here, the basic polymer is coating at least a part of the surface of the particles of the lithium titanate compound.
US09698410B2

Provided are novel electrode material composite structures containing high capacity active materials formed into porous base structures. The structures also include shells that encapsulate these porous base structures. During lithiation of the active material, the shell mechanically constrains the porous base structure. The shell allows lithium ions to pass through but prevents electrolyte solvents from interacting with the encapsulated active material. In certain embodiments, the shell contains carbon, while the porous base structure contains silicon. Although silicon tends to swell during lithiation, the porosity of the base structure and/or void spaces inside the shell helps to accommodate this additional volume within the shell without breaking it or substantially increasing the overall size of the composite structure. This allows integration of the composite structures into various types of battery electrodes and cycling high capacity active materials without damaging the electrodes' internal structures and deteriorating cycling characteristics of batteries.
US09698406B2

An electrode assembly and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The electrode assembly includes an electrode stack including at least one anode, at least one cathode, and at least one separation film and a plurality of cathode tabs and a plurality of anode tabs for electrically connecting the electrode stack. In this case, the electrode tabs are arranged to allow the electrode tabs having the same polarity to be electrically connected to one another while a portion of the electrode tabs having the same polarity are arranged so as not to overlap one another on the same plane.
US09698398B2

Disclosed is a secondary battery module including: a plurality of unit cells, at least one or more unit cells among the plurality of unit cells being stacked so as to be in surface contact with each other; and an adhesive pad disposed between contact surfaces of the stacked unit cells. The adhesive pad enhances adhesion between the unit cells to prevent electrical sparks or short-circuiting. Therefore, the secondary battery module is stable and reliable in operation performance and electrical properties.
US09698395B2

An energy storage apparatus includes one or more energy storage devices and an outer housing that houses the one or more energy storage devices. The outer housing includes a communication part defining a passageway allowing communication between an interior and an exterior of the outer housing, and the communication part includes a functional membrane that allows passage of gas and prohibits passage of liquid.
US09698385B2

The disclosed OLED display panel includes: an OLED unit, including one or more pixel light-emitting units, wherein light emitted from the pixel light-emitting units is transmitted in a first area; a rotatable optical component, arranged on a transmission path of the light emitted from the pixel light-emitting units, wherein the light emitted from the pixel light-emitting units is transmitted onto the optical component and then reflected by the same, and light reflected by the optical component, when the optical component is rotated, is projected onto a second area within a predetermine period, wherein the second area is larger than the first area; and a light-transmitting display substrate, arranged on a transmission path of the light reflected by the optical component and arranged corresponding to the second area.
US09698383B2

The present invention provides an organic light emitting diode display panel and a display device, and relates to the field of display technology, which can solve the problem that the display contrast of an existing organic light emitting diode display panel and an existing display device is reduced due to the reflection of ambient light. In the organic light emitting diode display panel and the display device of the present invention, a light gathering unit and a light absorption layer matched with each other are arranged in pixel defining regions, so that the incident ambient light can be gathered by the light gathering unit to the light absorption layer and absorbed by the light absorption layer, to reduce ambient light outgoing from the display panel due to reflection, and increase the contrast of the display panel.
US09698379B2

Provided are an encapsulating film, an electronic device and a method of manufacturing the same. An encapsulating film having excellent moisture blocking property, handleability, workability and durability and a structure including a diode encapsulated with the encapsulating film may be provided.
US09698359B2

Platinum and palladium complexes are disclosed that can be useful as narrow band phosphorescent emitters. Also disclosed are methods for preparing and using the platinum and palladium complexes.
US09698356B2

In an aspect, an organic compound and an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) including the same are provided.
US09698350B2

The disclosure relates to a light emitting diode. The light emitting diode includes a first semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second semiconductor layer, a first electrode, a second electrode and a nanotube film. The first semiconductor layer, the active layer, and the second semiconductor layer are stacked with each other in that order. The first electrode is electrically connected with the second semiconductor layer. The second electrode is electrically connected with the first semiconductor layer. The nanotube film is located on one of the first semiconductor layer, the active layer and the second semiconductor layer. The nanotube film comprises a number of nanotubes orderly arranged and combined with each other by ionic bonds.
US09698349B2

A polymer of an embodiment includes a recurring unit containing at least one bivalent group selected from among a formula (1), a formula (2), a formula (3), and a formula (4). Z1 indicates carbon having an R1 group, nitrogen, or the like. Z2 indicates oxygen, sulfur, selenium, nitrogen having an R2 group, or the like. The R1 and R2 groups indicate hydrogen, a substituted or unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group, a substituted or unsubstituted heteroaryl group, or the like, X indicates oxygen, sulfur, selenium, or the like.
US09698348B2

The present invention relates to polymers comprising one or more (repeating) unit(s) of the formula (I), wherein Y is a group of formula (II); and their use as IR absorber, organic semiconductor in organic devices, especially in organic photovoltaics and photodiodes, or in a device containing a diode and/or an organic field effect transistor. The polymers according to the invention can have excellent solubility in organic solvents 10 and excellent film-forming properties. In addition, high efficiency of energy conversion, excellent field-effect mobility, good on/off current ratios and/or excellent stability can be observed, when the polymers according to the invention are used in organic field effect transistors, organic photovoltaics and photodiodes.
US09698343B2

A method of forming a ferroelectric memory cell. The method comprises forming an electrode material exhibiting a desired dominant crystallographic orientation. A hafnium-based material is formed over the electrode material and the hafnium-based material is crystallized to induce formation of a ferroelectric material having a desired crystallographic orientation. Additional methods are also described, as are semiconductor device structures including the ferroelectric material.
US09698332B2

A hybrid device (80) comprises, in a first zone (91), at least one thermoelectric element (3) allowing an electric current to be generated from a temperature gradient applied between two of its active faces (4a, 4p). The device (80) further comprises a first circuit (1) able to allow the circulation of a first fluid, and a second circuit (2) able to allow the circulation of a second fluid of a temperature lower than that of the first fluid so as to create the gradient. The device (80) also comprises a second zone (92) so as to allow an exchange of heat between the second fluid and the first fluid. The device (80) is designed so that the first fluid passes through it by travelling in a single direction, referred to as first direction (L), wherein the first zone (91) and the second zone (92) are situated in series in the first direction (L).
US09698326B2

An optoelectronic semiconductor component including an optoelectronic semiconductor chip having a first surface, wherein the first surface is a radiation emission surface of the optoelectronic semiconductor chip, the semiconductor chip is embedded in a mold body, the first surface is elevated with respect to a top side of the mold body, and a reflective layer is arranged on the top side of the mold body.
US09698322B2

A lighting device comprises a solid state light emitter on a circuit board, and an optic held in place relative to the first circuit board, a voltage drop across the emitter at least 60 volts. A lighting device comprises a solid state light emitter on a first circuit board, an optic held in place relative to the first circuit board, and a non-isolated power supply. A lighting device comprises a solid state light emitter on a first circuit board, and a flame-rated optic held in place relative to the first circuit board. An optic, comprising a translucent region, a first dimension not larger than about 10 mm, a second dimension not larger than 15 mm. A flame-rated optic comprising a translucent region, structure configured to hold the optic in place relative to a circuit board. Methods of making lighting devices.
US09698319B2

A light emitting diode (LED) package according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a base including a first lead terminal and a second lead terminal, an LED chip disposed on the base, a housing disposed on the base, the housing having a cavity in which the LED chip is disposed, and an encapsulation member having a side surface contacting the housing. The first lead terminal and the second lead terminal each have a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, and have an unbent form, respectively. The second surface is exposed to the outside of the LED package.
US09698316B2

A method for producing a laterally structured phosphor layer and an optoelectronic component comprising such a phosphor layer are disclosed. In an embodiment the method includes providing a carrier having a first electrically conductive layer at a carrier top side, applying an insulation layer to the first electrically conductive layer and a second electrically conductive layer to the insulation layer, etching the second electrically conductive layer and the insulation layer, wherein the first electrically conductive layer is maintained as a continuous layer. The method further includes applying a voltage to the first electrically conductive layer and electrophoretically coating the first electrically conductive layer with a first material, and applying a voltage to the second electrically conductive layer and electrophoretically coating the second electrically conductive layer with a second material.
US09698310B2

The present invention provides a method for producing a semiconductor device exhibiting the improved emission efficiency by reducing a strain between a p-contact layer and a transparent electrode. A transparent electrode made of IZO (Zinc-doped Indium Oxide) was formed on a p-type contact layer by vapor deposition or sputtering. Subsequently, a p-type cladding layer and a p-type contact layer were p-type activated and a transparent electrode was crystallized by indirect resistance heating. This heat treatment was performed under a reduced pressure at a temperature of 700° C. Next, microwave heating was performed for three to thirty minutes at a temperature of 100° C. to 350° C. by microwave irradiation with a frequency of 5.8 GHz in a nitrogen atmosphere. This reduced a strain of the transparent electrode, and improved the conductivity or translucency of the transparent electrode.
US09698308B2

The disclosed technology provides micro-assembled micro-LED displays and lighting elements using arrays of micro-LEDs that are too small (e.g., micro-LEDs with a width or diameter of 10 μm to 50 μm), numerous, or fragile to assemble by conventional means. The disclosed technology provides for micro-LED displays and lighting elements assembled using micro-transfer printing technology. The micro-LEDs can be prepared on a native substrate and printed to a display substrate (e.g., plastic, metal, glass, or other materials), thereby obviating the manufacture of the micro-LEDs on the display substrate. In certain embodiments, the display substrate is transparent and/or flexible.
US09698305B2

A high voltage LED flip chip includes two or more regions; a Mesa-platform, the Mesa-platform in each region has a first groove; a first electrode located on the Mesa-platform, an area between the first electrodes in two adjacent regions forms a second groove; a first insulation layer covering the Mesa-platforms and the first electrodes, the first insulation layer fills the second groove and partially fills the first groove, and a part of the first groove which is not filled forms a third groove; a fourth groove formed in the first insulation layer, the fourth groove exposes a surface of the first electrode; and an interconnection electrode, the interconnection electrode comprises a first portion connecting the first semiconductor layer through the third groove in a particular region with the first electrode through the fourth groove in another region adjacent to the particular region. The LED formed has improved performance.
US09698304B2

A lighting system includes a lighting unit comprising at least one lighting device, a sensing unit configured to measure at least one of atmospheric temperature and humidity, a controlling unit configured to compare the at least one of the temperature and the humidity measured by the sensor unit with set values and determine a color temperature of the lighting unit as a result of the comparison, and a driving unit configured to drive to the lighting unit to have the determined color temperature.
US09698303B2

A light-emitting device is disclosed. The light-emitting diode device includes a substrate, comprising an upper surface, a lower surface and a plurality of side surfaces; and a semiconductor stack formed on the upper surface of the substrate; wherein the plurality of side surfaces comprises: a first region, adjacent to the upper surface and having a first surface roughness; a second region, comprising one or a plurality of textured areas substantially parallel to the upper surface and/or the lower surface in a side view, wherein the textured area is composed of a plurality of textured stripes and has a second surface roughness; and a third region, having a third surface roughness and being between the first region and the second region, and/or between the plurality of textured areas; wherein the first surface roughness is smaller than the second surface roughness, and the third surface roughness is smaller than the first surface roughness.
US09698284B2

An optoelectronic device including at least one of a solar device, a semiconductor device, and an electronic device. The device includes a semiconductor unit. A plurality of metal fingers is disposed on a surface of the semiconductor unit for electrical conduction. Each of the metal fingers corresponds to a section of the optoelectronic device. A plurality of pad areas is available for connection to a bus bar, wherein each of the metal fingers is connected to a corresponding pad area for forming an electrical contact. The optoelectronic device includes a bad section, wherein the bad section is associated with a compromised metal finger and a compromised pad area. A dielectric spot coating is disposed above the compromised pad area to electrically isolate the bad section.
US09698279B2

Provided is a thin film transistor including an active layer including a first silicon active layer, a second silicon active layer, and an oxide active layer in a space between the first silicon active layer and the second silicon active layer, a gate electrode on the active layer with a gate insulating layer disposed therebetween, and a source electrode and a drain electrode with an interlayer insulating layer disposed between the gate electrode and the source and drain electrodes, the source and drain electrodes being in contact with the first silicon active layer and the second silicon active layer, respectively.
US09698272B1

According to one embodiment, a transistor includes a first electrode, a second electrode, a current path between the first and second electrodes, the current path including an oxide semiconductor layer, a control terminal which controls an on/off action of the current path, an insulating layer between the control terminal and the oxide semiconductor layer, a first oxide layer between the first electrode and the oxide semiconductor layer, the first oxide layer being different from the oxide semiconductor layer, and a second oxide layer between the second electrode and the oxide semiconductor layer, the second oxide layer being different from the oxide semiconductor layer.
US09698268B2

Methods of forming a semiconductor device are provided. A method of forming a semiconductor device includes forming a semiconductor layer on a fin, where the fin and the semiconductor layer include first and second semiconductor materials, respectively. Moreover, the method includes defining first and second active fins that include the second semiconductor material, by removing at least a portion of the fin. Related semiconductor devices are also provided.
US09698261B2

The present disclosure relates to a vertical transistor device having rectangular vertical channel bars extending between a source region and a drain region, and an associated method of formation. In some embodiments, the vertical transistor device has a source region disposed over a semiconductor substrate. A channel region with one or more vertical channel bars is disposed over the source region. The one or more vertical channel bars have a bottom surface abutting the source region that has a rectangular shape (i.e., a shape with four sides, with adjacent sides of different length, and four right angles). A gate region is located over the source region at a position abutting the vertical channel bars, and a drain region is disposed over the gate region and the vertical channel bars. The rectangular shape of the vertical channel bars provides for a vertical device having good performance and cell area density.
US09698254B1

This disclosure describes a method of making a tunnel barrier-based electronic device, in which the tunnel barrier and transport channel are made of the same material—graphene. A homoepitaxial tunnel barrier/transport device is created using a monolayer chemically modified graphene sheet as a tunnel barrier on another monolayer graphene sheet. This device displays enhanced spintronic properties over heteroepitaxial devices and is the first to use graphene as both the tunnel barrier and channel.
US09698247B2

A semiconductor arrangement is produced by providing a semiconductor carrier of a second conduction type and epitaxially growing a first semiconductor zone of a first conduction type on the carrier. The first semiconductor zone includes a semiconductor base material doped with first and second dopants which are made of different substances which are both different from the semiconductor base material. The first dopant is electrically active and causes a doping of the first conduction type in the semiconductor base material, and causes a decrease or an increase of a lattice constant of the first semiconductor zone. The second dopant causes one or both of hardening of the first semiconductor zone and an increase of the lattice constant of the first semiconductor zone if the first dopant causes a decrease, or a decrease of the lattice constant of the first semiconductor zone if the first dopant causes an increase.
US09698239B2

In one example, a method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a mandrel comprising silicon. Sidewalls of the silicon are orientated normal to the <111> direction of the silicon. A nanowire is grown directly on at least one of the sidewalls of the silicon and is formed from a material selected from Groups III-V. Only one end of the nanowire directly contacts the silicon.
US09698235B2

The present invention provides a field-effect transistor having an accumulation-layer-operation type field-effect transistor that includes a semiconductor layer in which a source region, a channel region, and a drain region that have either an N-type or P-type conductivity in common are formed, and a gate electrode disposed adjacent to the channel region via a gate insulating film, wherein the gate insulating film is made of a dielectric having a change gradient of a relative dielectric constant in which the relative dielectric constant changes to decrease according to the magnitude of a gate voltage applied to the gate electrode.
US09698230B2

A semiconductor device includes a source and drain on a substrate; a first and second gate on the source, and the second gate and a third gate on the drain; a source contact over the source and between the first and second gates, the source contact including first and second portions, the first portion in contact with the source and extending between the first and second gates, and the second portion contacting the first portion and extending over the first and second gates; and a drain contact formed over the drain and between the second and third gates, the drain contact including first and second portions, the first portion contacting the drain, extending between second and third gates, and recessed with respect to the first portion of the source contact, and the second portion in contact with the first portion and extending between and over the second and third gates.
US09698228B2

Disclosed is a transistor device. The transistor device includes a plurality of field structures which define a plurality of semiconductor mesa regions in a semiconductor body, and each of which comprises a field electrode and a field electrode dielectric; a plurality of gate structures in each semiconductor mesa region, wherein each gate structure comprises a gate electrode and a gate dielectric, and is arranged in a trench of the semiconductor mesa region; a plurality of body regions, a plurality of source regions, and a drift region. Each body region adjoins the gate dielectric of at least one of the plurality of gate structures, and is located between one of the plurality of source regions and the drift region.
US09698226B1

Semiconductor device fabrication method and structures are provided having a substrate structure which includes a silicon layer at an upper portion. The silicon layer is recessed in a first region of the substrate structure and remains unrecessed in a second region of the substrate structure. A protective layer having a first germanium concentration is formed above the recessed silicon layer in the first region, which extends along a sidewall of the unrecessed silicon layer of the second region. A semiconductor layer having a second germanium concentration is disposed above the protective layer in the first region of the substrate structure, where the first germanium concentration of the protective layer inhibits lateral diffusion of the second germanium concentration from the semiconductor layer in the first region into the unrecessed silicon layer in the second region of the substrate structure.
US09698215B2

A metal-insulator-metal capacitor is provided in a replacement metal gate module having a gate cap formed on a gate. The capacitor includes a first electrode formed within a portion of the gate using a metal forming the gate. The first electrode has a horizontal component and a stack rising from at least a portion of the horizontal component. The capacitor further includes an insulator formed within a recess. The recess is formed to have a lower portion and walls rising from edges of the lower portion. The lower portion is formed on a different portion of the horizontal component than the stack. The walls are formed adjacent to a sidewall of the stack and a portion of the gate cap. The capacitor also includes a second electrode formed within the recess and on the insulator.
US09698212B2

A method includes forming an insulating carrier substrate, forming a shallow trench isolation region within the insulating carrier substrate, and forming a plurality of gate recesses on the shallow trench isolation region. The plurality of gate recesses is formed by forming a plurality of dummy gates on the shallow trench isolation region and etching the plurality of dummy gates. The method further includes depositing a metal resistor layer within the plurality of gate recesses.
US09698203B2

An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display is disclosed. In one aspect, the display includes a substrate and a display layer formed over the substrate and including a pixel area and a non-pixel area. The display also includes an upper thin layer formed over the display layer, wherein the upper thin layer comprises at least first and second conductive layers and a dielectric layer formed between the first and second conductive layers, wherein the second conductive layer is closer to the substrate than the first conductive layer, and wherein the first and second conductive layers are patterned as a touch electrode. The display further includes a light absorbing member at least partially overlapping the non-pixel area and not overlapping the pixel area.
US09698198B2

Provided is a memory device, including a memory element on a substrate; a protection insulating pattern covering a side surface of the memory element and exposing a top surface of the memory element; an upper mold layer on the protection insulating pattern; and a bit line on and connected to the memory element, the bit line extending in a first direction, the protection insulating pattern including a first protection insulating pattern covering a lower side surface of the memory element; and a second protection insulating pattern covering an upper side surface of the memory element and including a different material from the first protection insulating pattern.
US09698197B2

A high-voltage flip LED chip and a manufacturing method thereof. In the high-voltage flip LED chip, a P-N electrode connecting metal block is filled into an isolation trench between two adjacent chip units and is respectively filled into a first electrode hole of one chip unit and a second electrode hole of the other chip unit to serially connect the two adjacent chips. Since the chip units are interconnected by adopting large-area metal and the metal is filled into the isolation trench, not only can the high luminous efficiency of the chip be guaranteed, but also the high reliability and excellent current spreading between the units are guaranteed, the process stability can be improved, and the rate of non-defective products and the product reliability are improved; since the isolation trenches between the chip units adopt an ODR design, the reflectivity of reflectors at the trenches can be improved and the absorption by electrodes is reduced; and since the chip has large-area spacing-controllable P and N electrodes, the heat dissipating capability of the chip is guaranteed to be good and simultaneously the packaging difficulty is reduced.
US09698196B2

A demodulation pixel improves the charge transport speed and sensitivity by exploiting two effects of charge transport in silicon in order to achieve the before-mentioned optimization. The first one is a transport method based on the CCD gate principle. However, this is not limited to CCD technology, but can be realized also in CMOS technology. The charge transport in a surface or even a buried channel close to the surface is highly efficient in terms of speed, sensitivity and low trapping noise. In addition, by activating a majority carrier current flowing through the substrate, another drift field is generated below the depleted CCD channel. This drift field is located deeply in the substrate, acting as an efficient separator for deeply photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Thus, another large amount of minority carriers is transported to the diffusion nodes at high speed and detected.
US09698194B2

A method for fabricating a signal-separating CFA includes forming a multi-height CFA on a substrate. The multi-height CFA includes a plurality of tall spectral filters and a plurality of short spectral filters. Each of the tall spectral filters is taller than each of the short spectral filters. The method also includes disposing a spectral-blocking layer on the multi-height CFA, and planarizing the spectral-blocking layer to expose a top surface of each of the plurality of tall spectral filters.
US09698173B2

A thin film transistor (TFT) device is provided. The TFT device includes a first conductive layer including a gate electrode and a connection pad. The TFT device further includes a first dielectric layer covering the gate electrode, and a semiconductor layer disposed on the dielectric layer and overlapping the gate electrode. The TFT device further includes a second dielectric layer disposed on the semiconductor layer and the first dielectric layer so as to expose first and second portions of the semiconductor layer and the connection pad. The TFT device further includes a second conductive layer which includes a source electrode portion covering the first portion of the semiconductor layer; a pixel electrode portion extending to the source electrode portion; a drain electrode portion covering the second portion of the semiconductor layer; and an interconnection portion disposed on the connection pad and extending to the drain electrode portion.
US09698172B2

The present invention provides a TFT substrate structure, comprising a Switching TFT and a Driving TFT, and the Switching TFT comprises a first active layer, and the Driving TFT comprises a second active layer, and the first active layer and the second active layer are made by the same or different materials and the electrical properties of the Switching TFT and the Driving TFT are different. According to the different functions of the different TFTs, the present invention employs different working structures for the Switching TFT and the Driving TFT to respectively implement deposition and photolithography, and employs different materials for the active layers of the Switching TFT and the Driving TFT to differentiate the electrical properties of different TFTs in the TFT substrate. Accordingly, the accurate control to the OLED with lowest cost can be realized.
US09698169B2

An object is at least one of a longer data retention period of a memory circuit, a reduction in power consumption, a smaller circuit area, and an increase in the number of times written data can be read to one data writing operation. The memory circuit has a first field-effect transistor, a second field-effect transistor, and a rectifier element including a pair of current terminals. A data signal is input to one of a source and a drain of the first field-effect transistor. A gate of the second field-effect transistor is electrically connected to the other of the source and the drain of the first field-effect transistor. One of the pair of current terminals of the rectifier element is electrically connected to a source or a drain of the second field-effect transistor.
US09698157B2

A microstructure body according to an embodiment includes a stacked body. The stacked body includes a plurality of unit structure bodies stacked periodically along a first direction. A configuration of an end portion of the stacked body in a second direction is a stairstep configuration including terraces formed every unit structure body. The second direction intersects the first direction. A first distance in a third direction between end edges of two of the unit structure bodies facing the third direction is shorter than a second distance in the second direction between end edges of the two of the unit structure bodies facing the second direction. The third direction intersects both the first direction and the second direction.
US09698135B2

A method for forming a package structure is provided. The method includes forming a plurality of conductive columns over a carrier substrate and forming an interfacial layer over sidewalls and tops of the conductive columns. The method also includes disposing a semiconductor die over a planar portion of the interfacial layer. The method further includes forming a molding compound to partially or completely encapsulate the semiconductor die, the conductive columns, and the interfacial layer such that the molding compound is in direct contact with the interfacial layer.
US09698128B2

An LED module includes a substrate having a main surface and a rear surface located opposite the main surface, a main surface electrode located on the main surface, a plurality of penetration electrodes connected to the main surface electrode and extending through the substrate, three or more LED chips arranged on the main surface electrode along a first direction, and a case arranged on the main surface to surround the main surface electrode. The LED chips include at least one LED chip that can emit red light, at least one LED chip that can emit green light and at least one LED chip that can emit blue light.
US09698127B2

An integrated device die and package is disclosed. The integrated device die includes a unitary body. The unitary body can have an upper portion comprising one or more active components. The upper portion can have first and second opposing lateral sides defining at least a portion of a periphery of the upper portion such that an upper surface of the upper portion is disposed between upper edges of the first and second opposing lateral sides. The unitary body can also have a lower portion monolithically formed with the upper portion. The lower portion can comprise a pedestal extending downwardly from the upper portion. The pedestal can be laterally inset from lower edges of the first and second opposing lateral sides. The pedestal can include a distal end portion configured to couple to a carrier.
US09698122B2

A semiconductor package structure and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The semiconductor package structure has a substrate and a die stack of n die(s), wherein n≧1. The substrate has a first side, a second side and an opening extending from the first side to the second side. The die stack is disposed in the opening. The thickness of the substrate is substantially the same as the thickness of the die stack.
US09698120B2

A package process is provided. An adhesive layer is disposed on a carrier board and then plural first semiconductor devices are disposed on the adhesive layer. A first molding compound formed on the carrier board covers the sidewalls of the first semiconductor devices and fills the gaps between the first semiconductor devices so as to form a chip array board constructed by the first semiconductor devices and the first molding compound. Next, plural second semiconductor devices are flip-chip bonded to the first semiconductor devices respectively. Then, a second molding compound formed on the chip array board at least covers the sidewalls of the second semiconductor devices and fills the gaps between the second semiconductor devices. Subsequently, the chip array board is separated from the adhesive layer. Then, the first and the second molding compound are cut along the gaps between the second semiconductor devices.
US09698118B2

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for attaching the integrated circuit (IC) packages to printed circuit boards (PCBs) to form smooth solder joints. A polymer flux may be provided in the process to mount an IC package to a PCB. The polymer flux may be provided on connectors of the IC package, or provided on PCB contact pad and/or pre-solder of the PCB. When the IC package is mounted onto the PCB, the polymer flux may cover a part of the connector, and may extend to cover a surface of the molding compound on the IC package. The polymer flux may completely cover the connector as well. The polymer flux delivers a fluxing component that facilitates smooth solder joint formation as well as a polymer component that offers added device protection by encapsulating individual connectors. The polymer component may be an epoxy.
US09698112B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor chip having a wire and a passivation film formed on the outermost surface with an opening partially exposing the wire. A resin layer is stacked on the semiconductor chip and provided with a through-hole in a position opposed to a portion of the wire facing the opening. A pad is formed on a peripheral portion of the through-hole in the resin layer and in the through-hole so that an external connection terminal is arranged on the surface thereof. The peripheral portion of the resin layer is formed more thickly than the remaining portion of the resin layer other than the peripheral portion.
US09698094B2

A wiring board includes: an insulating layer; and a wiring layer including: an upper surface; a lower surface opposite to the upper surface; and a side surface between the upper surface and the lower surface, wherein the upper surface of the wiring layer is exposed from the insulating layer, and the side surface and the lower surface of the wiring layer are embedded in the insulating layer. A recess portion is formed in an outer edge portion of the upper surface of the wiring layer, and the recess portion is filled with the insulating layer.
US09698087B2

A semiconductor device includes a quadrilateral package with a first pair of opposed sides and a second pair of opposed sides. Both sides of the first pair of opposed sides are provided with electrical contact leads. Only one side of the second pair of opposed sides is provided with electrical contact leads. The side of the second pair of opposed sides without electrical contact leads is a leadless side. That side is not a molded side of the package, but rather is defined by a cut surface.
US09698082B2

A semiconductor device according to the present invention, having an Au-based solder layer (3) sandwiched between a semiconductor element (1) and a Cu substrate (2) made mainly of Cu, in which the semiconductor device includes: a dense metal film (23) which is arranged between the Cu substrate (2) and the Au-based solder layer (3), and has fine slits (24) patterned to have a predetermined shape in a plan view; and fine structures (4) with dumbbell-like cross section, which have Cu and Au as main elements, and are each buried in the Cu substrate (2), the Au-based solder layer (3), and the fine slits (24) of the dense metal film (23).
US09698073B2

In a plasma processing step in a method of manufacturing an element chip in which a plurality of element chips are manufactured by dividing a substrate, which has a plurality of element regions, the substrate is divided into element chips by exposing the substrate to first plasma. In a protection film forming step of forming a protection film covering a side surface and a second surface by exposing the element chips to second plasma of which raw material gas is mixed gas of carbon fluoride and helium, protection film forming conditions are set such that a thickness of a second protection film of the second surface is greater than a thickness of a first protection film of the side surface.
US09698067B2

A spacer system for a semiconductor switching device which is formed as a spacer ring and a plurality of insulating elements and supporting elements are arranged in an alternating manner around a circumference of the spacer ring. The insulating element includes a recess receiving a cathode gate connector element. The supporting element includes a projection receiving a spring system for clamping while assembling the switching device. The switching device includes a substrate, a cathode pole piece, an anode pole piece, strain buffer plates and a gate ring. Further connector elements, are electrically connecting the cathode pole piece and the gate ring of the semiconductor switching device to an external circuit unit. The space between the connector elements is minimized in order to reduce the gate circuit impedance, thus enabling an increased maximum turn-off current and further allowing for the use of larger semiconductor switching devices for high power applications.
US09698059B2

The present invention provides a semiconductor device and a method of forming the same. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a first transistor and a second transistor. The first transistor and the second transistor are disposed on the substrate. The first transistor includes a first channel and a first work function layer. The second transistor includes a second channel and a second work function layer, where the first channel and the second channel include different dopants, and the second work function layer and the first work function layer have a same conductive type and different thicknesses.
US09698053B2

This work provides a new approach for epitaxial liftoff. Instead of using a sacrificial layer that is selectively etched chemically, the sacrificial layer selectively absorbs light that is not absorbed by other parts of the structure. Under sufficiently intense illumination with such light, the sacrificial layer is mechanically weakened, melted and/or destroyed, thereby enabling epitaxial liftoff. The perimeter of the semiconductor region to be released is defined (partially or completely) by lateral patterning, and the part to be released is also adhered to a support member prior to laser irradiation. The end result is a semiconductor region removed from its substrate and adhered to the support member.
US09698051B2

A semiconductor chip including through silicon vias (TSVs), wherein the TSVs may be prevented from bending and the method of fabricating the semiconductor chip may be simplified, and a method of fabricating the semiconductor chip. The semiconductor chip includes a silicon substrate having a first surface and a second surface; a plurality of TSVs which penetrate the silicon substrate and protrude above the second surface of the silicon substrate; a polymer pattern layer which is formed on the second surface of the silicon substrate, surrounds side surfaces of the protruding portion of each of the TSVs, and comprises a flat first portion and a second portion protruding above the first portion; and a plated pad which is formed on the polymer pattern layer and covers a portion of each of the TSVs exposed from the polymer pattern layer.
US09698048B2

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a first material layer over a substrate, forming a middle layer over the first material layer, forming a first hard mask (HM) layer over the middle layer, forming a second HM layer over the first HM layer, forming a first trench in the second HM layer that extends into the first HM layer, forming a second trench in the second HM layer, The second trench is parallel to the first trench. The method also includes forming a first hole feature in the middle layer within the first trench by using the second HM layer and the first HM layer as a mask and forming a second hole feature in the middle layer within the second trench by using the second HM layer as a mask.
US09698029B2

A method and device for processing wafer-shaped articles includes a spin chuck for holding and rotating a wafer-shaped article about a rotation axis, and at least one dispenser for dispensing a fluid onto at least one surface of a wafer-shaped article. A collector surrounds the spin chuck for collecting process fluids, with at least two collector levels for separately collecting fluids in different collector levels. Each collector level comprises an exhaust gas collecting chamber leading to a respective exhaust gas conduit. At least one of the exhaust gas conduits comprises a valve mechanism that reciprocally restricts exhaust gas flow from its associated exhaust gas conduit while opening the exhaust gas conduit to an ambient environment outside the collector, and vice-versa.
US09698018B1

A method of introducing self-aligned dopants in semiconductor fins and the resulting device are provided. Embodiments include providing semiconductor fins on first and second portions of a substrate; forming a BSG layer on side surfaces of the semiconductor fins on the first portion of the substrate; forming a first SiN layer on the BSG layer; forming a high quality oxide layer over an upper surface of the substrate, the first SiN layer and side surfaces of the semiconductor fins on the second portion of the substrate; forming a PSG layer over the high quality oxide layer on the second portion of the substrate and side surfaces of the semiconductor fins on the second portion of the substrate; and forming a second SiN layer over the high quality oxide layer and the PSG layer.
US09698017B2

A manufacturing method of a semiconductor device is provided by forming a trench in a surface of a SiC substrate, positioning a protective substrate to cover the trench, and annealing the SiC substrate and the protective substrate.
US09698009B2

Methods of depositing a film comprising positioning a plurality of substrates on a substrate support in a processing chamber having a plurality of processing regions, each processing region separated from an adjacent region by a gas curtain. Alternating exposure to first reactive gases, purge gases, second reactive gases, and purge gas in at least one of the processing regions to deposit a film.
US09698008B2

An object is to provide a deposition method in which a gallium oxide film is formed by a DC sputtering method. Another object is to provide a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device using a gallium oxide film as an insulating layer such as a gate insulating layer of a transistor. An insulating film is formed by a DC sputtering method or a pulsed DC sputtering method, using an oxide target including gallium oxide (also referred to as GaOX). The oxide target includes GaOX, and X is less than 1.5, preferably more than or equal to 0.01 and less than or equal to 0.5, further preferably more than or equal to 0.1 and less than or equal to 0.2. The oxide target has conductivity, and sputtering is performed in an oxygen gas atmosphere or a mixed atmosphere of an oxygen gas and a rare gas such as argon.
US09697996B2

A method of mass spectrometry is disclosed comprising: performing a survey scan of a plurality of different types of parent or precursor ions, wherein the survey scan comprises analyzing the ion mobilities of the ions and mass analyzing the ions; determining the charge states of parent or precursor ions analyzed in the survey scan based on their determined combinations of ion mobility and mass to charge ratio; selecting a parent or precursor ion for fragmentation or reaction; and fragmenting or reacting the selected ion, wherein the fragmentation or reaction conditions are selected from a plurality of different fragmentation or reaction conditions based upon the determined charge state of the selected ion.
US09697995B2

A method for analyzing a mixture of components includes forming precursor ions from the components, alternately causing the precursor ions to pass to and to by-pass a fragmentation device, to form product ions from the precursor ions that pass to the device and to form substantially fewer product ions from precursor ions that by-pass the device, and obtaining mass spectra from product ions received from the device and from precursor ions that by-passed the device. An apparatus for analyzing a sample includes an ion source for forming precursor ions from the components of the sample, a fragmentation device for forming product ions from the precursor ions, a by-pass device disposed upstream of the fragmentation device for switchable by-pass of the fragmentation device, and a mass analyzer.
US09697991B2

An RF matching network includes a control circuit configured to instruct at least one EVC to alter its variable capacitance, the alteration of the variable capacitance causing the matching network to achieve a preliminary match state, the preliminary match state having an associated first reflection parameter value at an RF source output; and upon the achievement of the preliminary match state, instruct an RF source to alter a variable RF source frequency, the alteration of the variable RF source frequency causing achievement of a final match state, the final match state having an associated second reflection parameter value at the RF source output; wherein the second reflection parameter value is less than the first reflection parameter value.
US09697980B2

A radiation generating apparatus includes a radiation generation tube including an electron emitting source having an electron emitting member, a transmission type target, a tubular backward shielding member having an electron passing hole facing the target layer at one end, located at the electron emitting source side of the transmission type target, and connected to the periphery of the base member. The radiation generating apparatus further includes a collimator having an opening for defining an angle for extracting the radiation at the opposite side of the electron emitting source side of the transmission type target, and an adjusting device connected to the collimator, and configured to vary an opening diameter of the opening, wherein the target layer has a portion separated from a connection portion of the base member and the backward shielding member at the periphery.
US09697979B2

A microwave wave generator device with oscillating virtual cathode, with axial geometry, includes at least one first reflector positioned in a cylindrical waveguide downstream of a thin anode, positioned at the entrance of the cylindrical waveguide, between a cathode and the cylindrical waveguide. The device further includes a tight magnetic ring of width (LM) along the longitudinal axis (z), positioned externally around the cylindrical waveguide, between the thin anode and the first reflector.
US09697967B2

A rotary knob assembly capable of up-and-down motion is provided. The rotary knob assembly includes a lower case with an oil damper; a rotary sleeve rotatably disposed in the lower case with a connecting hole; a slide cam that moves linearly with respect to the lower case with a pair of cam grooves and a sleeve hole; an elastic member disposed between the slide cam and the lower case; an up-and-down moving sleeve that moves up and down with respect to the rotary sleeve with a pair of up-and-down cams inserted in the pair of cam grooves of the slide cam; a rotary knob that is rotatably connected to the up-and-down moving sleeve; and an upper case connected to the lower case to limit vertical movement of the rotary knob, wherein a moving speed of the slide cam is controlled by the oil damper.
US09697963B2

The invention relates to an on-load tap-changer (1) having a switching tube (15), an energy accumulator (13) for adjusting a switch position of the switching tube (15), a detector (200) for detecting a switch position of the on-load tap-changer (1), and an on-load tap-changer mechanism (100). The switching tube (15) and the detector (200) are both mechanically coupled to the energy accumulator (13) via the on-load tap-changer mechanism (100).
US09697957B2

An integrable electrochemical capacitor and methods for manufacturing the same are disclosed. The electrochemical capacitor comprises a first electrode comprising a first rigid piece having a first porous portion, a second electrode comprising a second rigid piece having a second porous portion, and an electrolyte in contact with the first porous portion and the second porous portion. The structure allows the electrochemical capacitor to be manufactured without a separator film between the electrodes and is compatible with semiconductor manufacturing technologies. The electrochemical capacitor can also be manufactured within a SOI layer 8.
US09697941B2

A display device includes a display panel, an accommodation member configured to accommodate the display panel therein and to fold or unfolded the display panel along one direction, and a magnetic force generating member coupled to the accommodation member, the magnetic force generating member being configured to magnetized when current flows, and to generate a magnetic force in a first state in which the display panel is unfolded.
US09697930B2

An oxide superconductor wire includes: a tape-shaped oxide superconductor laminate that is formed by providing an intermediate layer on a front surface side of a metal tape-shaped substrate, providing an oxide superconductor layer on the intermediate layer, and providing a protective layer on the oxide superconductor layer; and a coating member that includes a metal tape and a low melting point metal layer, in which the metal tape has a wider width than that of the oxide superconductor laminate and covers the protective layer surface of the oxide superconductor laminate, both side surfaces of the oxide superconductor laminate, and both end portions of a substrate back surface side in a width direction thereof, and both end portions of the metal tape in a width direction thereof are provided to cover both the end portions of the substrate back surface.
US09697925B2

The present invention related to an electrical element (100, 101, 102) including an electrically conductive element (3, 5, 10, 31, 32, 51), characterized in that the electrical element also includes a first layer (1) of a polymer material with electrical conductivity gradient obtained from a polymer composition including at least one polymer and conductive carbonaceous fillers.
US09697912B2

A first switch is closed to initialize a circuit by charging a capacitance of the circuit. A second switch is closed to initialize an amplifier in unity-gain configuration. The amplifier is capacitively coupled to the circuit. The first switch and the second switch are then opened to detect a leakage current of the circuit by detecting a change in an output voltage of the amplifier.
US09697908B1

Various implementations described herein may refer to and may be directed to non-discharging read-only memory cells. For instance, in one implementation, an integrated circuit may include a read-only memory (ROM) array including a plurality of ROM cells arranged into a column, where the column is disposed proximate to a bit line and to a reference voltage line. The plurality of ROM cells arranged into the column may include a plurality of non-discharging ROM cells positioned adjacently to one another, where each non-discharging ROM cell has a source terminal, a drain terminal, or both coupled to at least one adjacent non-discharging ROM cell. In addition, the plurality of non-discharging ROM cells may be coupled to the bit line using two or fewer connections.
US09697906B2

A controlling block for a non-volatile memory device including a switching element coupling a bit-line with the corresponding page buffer, includes: a look-up table configured to store a plurality of address zones; and a matching logic configured to match one address zone among the plurality of address zones based on an inputted row address and generate a bias voltage, based on the address zone, to the switching element for reading operation of the non-volatile memory, wherein the plurality of address zones are defined by grouping word-lines having a I-V characteristic which differs for a current value different from a prefixed value.
US09697905B2

A method performed at a data storage device includes adjusting a first read voltage and a second read voltage to form sets of read voltages. First representations of data are read from a logical page in the non-volatile memory according to the sets of read voltages. The first representations of the data correspond to multiple values of the first read voltage and the second read voltage. The first representations of the data are stored in a memory and second representations of the data are generated based on the first representations. A value of the first read voltage is selected based on syndrome weights corresponding to the second representations.
US09697899B1

Described are apparatuses, methods and storage media associated with performing deflate decompression using multiple parallel content addressable memory cells.
US09697894B2

A method may include applying a first current through the memory element and a first selection component. The memory element and the first selection component may be located along a memory line. The method may also include measuring a first potential difference across the memory line. The method may further include applying a second current through a second selection component, wherein the second selection component is located along a dummy line, and measuring a second potential difference across the dummy line. The method may additionally include determining the resistance of the memory element based on the first potential difference and the second potential difference. The first selection component may be activated and the second selection component may be deactivated to apply the first current. The first selection component may be deactivated and the second selection component may be activated to apply the second current.
US09697891B2

A sense amplifier circuit includes a power node having a power node voltage at a power voltage level, a bit line having a bit line voltage, a sense amplifier output, an NMOS transistor and a PMOS transistor coupled in series between the power node and the bit line, and a logic gate configured to generate a sense amplifier output voltage at the sense amplifier output based on the bit line voltage. The NMOS transistor is configured to operate in a sub-threshold region to maintain the bit line voltage at a first level and operate in a region above the sub-threshold region to maintain the bit line voltage at a second level, and the first level is between the second level and the power voltage level.
US09697884B2

Described are memory modules that support different error detection and correction (EDC) schemes in both single- and multiple-module memory systems. The memory modules are width configurable, and support the different EDC schemes for relatively wide and narrow module data widths. Data buffers on the modules support the half-width and full-width modes, and also support time-division-multiplexing to access additional memory components on each module in support of enhanced EDC.
US09697882B1

A ferroelectric memory and a method for operating a ferroelectric memory are disclosed. The ferroelectric memory includes a ferroelectric memory cell having a ferroelectric capacitor characterized by a maximum remanent charge, Qmax. A write circuit receives a data value having more than two states for storage in the ferroelectric capacitor. The write circuit measures Qmax for the ferroelectric capacitor, determines a charge that is a fraction of the measured Qmax to be stored in the ferroelectric capacitor, the fraction being determined by the data value. The write circuit causes a charge equal to the fraction times Qmax to be stored in the ferroelectric capacitor. A read circuit determines a value stored in the ferroelectric capacitor by measuring a charge stored in the ferroelectric capacitor, measuring Qmax for the ferroelectric capacitor, and determining the data value from the measured charge and the measured Qmax.
US09697877B2

A compute memory system can include a memory array and a controller that generates N-ary weighted (e.g., binary weighted) access pulses for a set of word lines during a single read operation. This multi-row read generates a charge on a bit line representing a word stored in a column of the memory array. The compute memory system further includes an embedded analog signal processor stage through which voltages from bit lines can be processed in the analog domain. Data is written into the memory array in a manner that stores words in columns instead of the traditional row configuration.
US09697870B2

A first video preview corresponding to a first video program is played back. When it is time to transition from playing back the first video preview to playing back a second video preview corresponding to a second video program, the transition is made from playing back the first video preview to playing back the second video preview. The transition can be made by sliding the first video preview off a display while sliding the second video preview onto the display. Additionally, metadata associated with the first video program can be displayed for an amount of time before playback of the first video preview ceases, and metadata associated with the second video program can be displayed for an amount of time after playback of the second video preview begins.
US09697862B2

A disk-shaped glass substrate for a magnetic-disk glass substrate includes an outer circumference having a roundness of 1.3 μm or less. A first reference circle is obtained with a least squares method from a first outline corresponding to a shape of a lap around the outer circumference. A second reference circle is obtained with a least squares method from a second outline obtained by performing low-pass filtering using a period in which the number of peaks per lap is 150 as a cut-off value on the first outline. A ratio of the second peak count value defined by the number of peaks of the second outline that project outward in a radial direction from the second reference circle to the first peak count value defined by the number of peaks of the first outline that project outward in a radial direction from the first reference circle is 0.2 or less.
US09697859B1

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) medium includes a substrate, a bi-layer, a heat-sink layer, and a magnetic-recording layer. The bi-layer includes a seed layer disposed on the substrate, and a thermal-transport-control layer (TTCL) disposed on seed layer. The heat-sink layer is disposed on the TTCL; and the magnetic-recording layer is disposed on the heat-sink layer. The bi-layer is configured to enable use of a 50% thinner heat-sink layer that allows use of a reduced operating current of a laser in HAMR write operations while maintaining about the same write performance parameters as a HAMR medium that includes a thermal-barrier layer (TBL) and twice as thick heat-sink layer. A HAMR data-storage device that incorporates the HAMR medium within a HAMR disk, and a method for making the HAMR medium are also described.
US09697847B2

An acoustic signal processing system and method. In accordance with an embodiment, the acoustic signal processing system includes an adaptive filter that filters a signal from a frequency band reservation module and generates a filter signal that is received by a subtractor. The subtractor generates an error signal that is used by a double-talk indicator module to generate a control signal that indicates the presence of double-talk.
US09697838B2

An apparatus for generating a representation of a bandwidth-extended signal on the basis of an input signal representation includes a phase vocoder configured to obtain values of a spectral domain representation of a first patch of the bandwidth-extended signal on the basis of the input signal representation. The apparatus also includes a value copier configured to copy a set of values of the spectral domain representation of the first patch, which values are provided by the phase vocoder, to obtain a set of values of a spectral domain representation of a second patch, wherein the second patch is associated with higher frequencies than the first patch. The apparatus is configured to obtain the representation of the bandwidth-extended signal using the values of the spectral domain representation of the first patch and the values of the spectral domain representation of the second patch.
US09697832B2

A speech recognition apparatus includes: a sound collection unit that collects a sound signal; a sound source localization unit that calculates a spatial spectrum from the sound signal that is collected by the sound collection unit and uses the calculated spatial spectrum to perform sound source localization; a speech zone determination unit that determines a zone in which a power of the spatial spectrum that is calculated by the sound source localization unit exceeds a predetermined threshold value based on a vehicle state; and a speech recognition unit that performs speech recognition with respect to a sound signal of the zone determined by the speech zone determination unit.
US09697829B1

Methods, computer program products, and systems are described for receiving, by a speech recognition engine, audio data that encodes an utterance and determining, by the speech recognition engine, that a transcription of the utterance includes one or more keywords associated with a command, and a pronoun. In addition, the methods, computer program products, and systems described herein pertain to transmitting a disambiguation request to an application, wherein the disambiguation request identifies the pronoun, receiving, by the speech recognition engine, a response to the disambiguation request, wherein the response references an item of content identified by the application, and generating, by the speech recognition engine, the command using the keywords and the response.
US09697824B1

Voice command recognition with dialect translation is disclosed. User voice input can be translated to a standard voice pattern using a dialect translation unit. A control command can then be generated based on the translated user voice input. In certain embodiments, the voice command recognition system with dialect translation can be implemented in a driving apparatus. In those embodiments, various control commands to control the driving apparatus can be generated by a user with a dialect input. The generated voice control commands for the driving apparatus can include starting the driving apparatus, turning on/off A/C unit, controlling the A/C unit, turning on/off entertainment system, controlling the entertainment system, turning on/off certain safety features, turning on/off certain driving features, adjusting seat, adjusting steering wheel, taking a picture of surroundings and/or any other control commands that can control various functions of the driving apparatus.
US09697819B2

The present invention provides a method for building a speech feature library, as well as a method, an apparatus, a device and corresponding non-volatile, non-transitory computer readable storage media for speech synthesis. Because the speech feature library used in the present invention saves at least one context corresponding to each piece of personalized textual information and at least one piece of textual information semantically identical to the personalized textual information, when performing speech synthesis, even if the provided textual information is not personalized textual information corresponding to the desired personalized speech, personalized textual information semantically identical to the textual information to be subject to speech synthesis may be first found in the speech feature library to thereby achieve personalized speech synthesis, such that use of the personalized speech will not be restricted by aging, sickness, and death of a person.
US09697815B2

To provide an effect circuit that can give round-shaped distortion effect to a music signal.An effect circuit 1 includes a input resistor R2 that is connected to a negative input terminal of an operational amplifier U1, a feedback resistor VR1 that is provided between a positive input terminal of the operational amplifier U1 and an output terminal of the operational amplifier U1, zener diodes D1 and D2 in each of which cathodes are connected and that are provided in parallel with the feedback resistor VR1, and diodes D3 and D4 that are connected in parallel so that each cathode and each anode are connected and are provided between cathodes of the zener diodes D1 and D2.
US09697808B1

Provided is a foldable stringed having a rotating neck in which the fret board in the folded position is opposite the rear face and the mechanism employs a flexible cable system under variable tension.
US09697800B2

The present invention relates to latency determination for wearable display devices. In particular, the invention is particularly useful with regards to virtual reality (VR) headsets, augmented reality (AR) headsets or head mounted displays (HMD). It is an object to provide a system and method for determining application latency for a wearable display device. It is a further object of to provide a hardware independent system and method for determining application latency between a computing device and a wearable display device. With hardware independent systems and methods, different hardware, e.g. different wearable display devices, can be benchmarked and compared to each other accurately.
US09697795B2

The present disclosure discloses a video processing device and method, the device comprising a dual matrix selecting module and a dual channel color data processing module. Due to the use of the dual channel color data processing module, two groups, i.e. an odd group and an even group, of pixel data can be processed simultaneously within one clock period. Since two dithering matrices are used when two adjacent frames of images are displayed, the structure is simple, and the processing speed is high. The present disclosure uses the algorithm period of two frame cycle for dithering in time and uses the dithering matrix of 2*2 for dithering in space, so as to achieve the effect of dithering 8 bit video data using 6 bit display data. Moreover, due to the use of two dithering matrices, the display performance of the display can be improved, two groups, i.e. an odd group and an even group, of pixel data are processed simultaneously within one clock, which reduces the working frequency of the circuit.
US09697793B2

In an exemplary flat display apparatus and control circuit and method for controlling the flat display apparatus, the flat display apparatus includes a plurality of gate driving units, each of which controls the operation of a scan line in the flat display apparatus. The flat display apparatus provides a first gate high level voltage signal and a second gate high level voltage signal to the gate driving units such that the first and second gate high level voltage signals are used as voltage signals transmitted to corresponding scan lines. The first and second gate high level voltage signals respectively include a falling edge with a slope. Duration time of the falling edge of the first gate high level voltage signal is longer than that of the falling edge of the second gate high level voltage signal.
US09697788B2

A liquid crystal display device includes a pixel portion, a selection signal output circuit which outputs a selection signal in the first operation mode and stops outputting the selection signal in a second operation mode, a pixel data signal output circuit which generates and outputs a pixel data signal, and a backlight unit including a cold cathode fluorescent lamp. The pixel portion includes: a transistor which includes a gate electrode supplied with a selection signal and a source electrode and a drain electrode one of which is supplied with a pixel data signal in a first operation mode and which remains off in a second operation mode; a first electrode electrically connected to the other of the source electrode and the drain electrode of the transistor; a second electrode; and a liquid crystal. The transistor includes an oxide semiconductor layer in which a channel is formed.
US09697780B2

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes: a data source, for generating a N-bit pixel data, N being a positive integer; a digital gamma correction unit, coupled to the data source, for performing digital gamma correction on the pixel data to generate a (N+M)-bit digital gamma correction pixel data, M being a positive integer; an image dithering unit, coupled to the digital gamma correction unit, for performing image dithering on the digital gamma correction pixel data to generate a (N+M−K)-bit dithering compensation pixel data, K being a positive integer; and a converter, coupled to the image dithering unit, for converting the dithering compensation pixel data into an output image. A bit number of the converter is lower than a bit number of the digital gamma correction unit.
US09697776B2

An organic light emitting display device includes a storage area, a degradation compensator, and a display driver. The storage area stores accumulated data for a plurality of pixels. The degradation compensator determines degrees of degradation of the pixels based on the accumulated data, selects a flat up mode or a flat down mode, selects a reference pixel based on the selected mode, generates ratios of a maximum emission brightness of the reference pixel to a maximum emission brightness of the pixels as first coefficients, and generates modulated data for the pixels using the first coefficients and margin ratios. The panel driver transforms the modulated data to data voltages for the pixels, adds the modulated data to the accumulated data, and stores the accumulated data in the storage area.
US09697760B2

The invention provides a pixel structure and a display method thereof, and a display device including the pixel structure. The pixel structure comprises first pixel units and second pixel units which are sequentially arranged in staggered positions, wherein the first pixel unit comprises a first sub-pixel and a second sub-pixel arranged in an oblique line, and the second pixel unit comprises a third sub-pixel and a fourth sub-pixel arranged in an oblique line, and wherein the first sub-pixel and the third sub-pixel have different basic colors, and the second sub-pixel and the fourth sub-pixel have the same basic color.
US09697758B2

A display device that suppresses electric power consumption and displays an image with excellent quality is to be realized. A host control section (30) in accordance with an aspect of the present invention is a control device for a display device (1), said control device includes: an image determining section (35) for determining whether or not grayscale levels of a plurality of pixels in an image fall within a first range which consists of intermediate grayscale levels; and a driving changing section (36) for changing, according to a result of the determining carried out by the image determining section (35), a refresh rate of the display device (1).
US09697756B2

A timing controller includes a display mode detection circuit configured to detect an image display mode of a display panel based on a plurality of first image data signals that are output in synchronization with a first clock signal having a first frequency, and to selectively activate at least one clock signal generation selected among a plurality of clock signal generators based on the detected image display mode, the clock signal generators configured to generate a second clock signal having a second frequency, respectively when activated by the display mode detection circuit, and to apply the second clock signal to a plurality of signal converting circuits, respectively, and the signal converting circuits configured to convert the first image data signals into a plurality of second image data signals that are output in synchronization with the second clock signal.
US09697755B1

The invention discloses a freely combinable tension fabric popup display, the tension fabric popup display includes an exhibit grid frame, and aluminum grooved straight rods. The eight sides on the two planes of the exhibit grid frame are connected to the aluminum grooved straight rods. A popup display with a preset size and shape is provided by combining a plurality of tension fabric popup displays as needed. The aluminum grooved straight rods for the adjacent tension fabric popup displays are locked by a plurality of fasteners. The display before or after the combination is formed by inserting the silicon strips at the edges of the display into the grooves of grooved straight rods. The tension fabric popup displays of the invention can be combined freely to form various shapes, which are seamlessly attached by the fasteners.
US09697753B2

A main body of a label holder is made of an opaque material and includes a main panel having a top end, a bottom end and a plurality of bends that define the main panel into a plurality of sections. The sections include a first substantially vertical section having a front facing surface that is spaced behind a front facing surface of a second substantially vertical section by a depth of a substantially horizontal section. A sign sleeve is at least partially made of a transparent material and is coupled to the front facing surface of the first substantially vertical section. The sign sleeve is located between the front facing surface of the first substantially vertical section and a plane that is in alignment with the front facing surface of the second substantially vertical section.
US09697749B2

Patient simulator systems for teaching patient care are provided. In some instances, the patient simulator systems include a patient body comprising one or more simulated body portions. Generally, the patient simulator systems of the present disclosure provide physiological modeling. In one embodiment, the patient simulator includes a maternal simulator comprising a maternal circulatory model, a maternal cardiac ischemia model, and a maternal respiratory model and a fetal simulator comprising a fetal circulatory model, a fetal cardiac ischemia model, and a fetal central nervous system model. A controller in communication with the maternal and fetal simulators coordinates parameters of the maternal circulatory model, the maternal cardiac ischemia model, the maternal respiratory model, the fetal circulatory model, the fetal cardiac ischemia model, and the fetal central nervous system model to simulate physiological characteristics of a natural mother and fetus. Methods of utilizing the patient simulator systems are also provided.
US09697748B1

A dental implant two-piece fixture mount has an implant fixture-mount base portion at its distal end and a snap-on, separate, separable top piece at its proximal end.
US09697747B2

Mathematical teaching aids (100) and a method of enhancing the mathematical perception skills of a target person, preferably of practicing abductive reasoning, which teaching aids (100) include a number of teaching tiles (102), each of the teaching tiles (102) having at least one mark (104), wherein at least two teaching tiles (102), when combined, together form an identifiable pattern via the marks (104).
US09697743B2

A data collection system for surfing which includes a data collection device mounted on the upper torso of the surfer or on the surf board. The device includes a clock, GPS unit, three dimensional accelerometers, three dimensional gyroscopes, and a microprocessor and data store for processing the signals from the GPS unit, three dimensional accelerometers and three dimensional gyroscopes. The microprocessor is programmed to identify and collect signal data to derive information identifying one or more parameters including number of waves passed up, power of each wave, size and frequency of the waves, time when a wave is caught, number of paddles required to catch a wave, time between catching the wave and the surfer standing up, distance travelled and speed during ride, time when rider exits the wave, acceleration during each manoeuvre during the ride, g force and speed during turns.
US09697738B2

Provided is a simulator device of a sailing boat including: a fixed structure, configured to support the simulator device on the ground, a support structure configured to firmly support the sailing boat, a rotatable connection means of the support structure to the fixed structure, configured to allow the rotation of the support structure around a substantially vertical axis and with respect to the fixed structure, and a tilting connection means of the support structure to the fixed structure, configured to allow the rotation or tilting of the support structure around a longitudinal axis, perpendicular to the vertical axis, wherein the tilting support includes an articulated quadrilateral including two lower hinges connected to a lower non-tilting element, two upper hinges connected to an upper tilting element, rods which connect said lower hinges to said upper hinges in an intersecting manner, and elastic contrast means of the tilting of said articulated quadrilateral.
US09697735B2

The device comprises: a first image capture means (7) for image capturing a host vehicle vicinity; a sonar (12) which senses an object in the host vehicle vicinity; a second image capture means (14) for image capturing the left front corner of the host vehicle; an image compositing means for forming a bird's-eye image on the basis of the images which are captured with the first image capture means (7) and the second image capture means (14); and a control means (5) for controlling a switch of a display of a display means (13). The control means (5) establishes the display switch condition of the display means (13) on the basis of the travel state of the host vehicle when the sonar (12) senses the object and the travel state of the host vehicle when the sonar (12) does not sense the object.
US09697731B2

Precision traffic flow indication may involve receiving device data over a period of time representing a plurality traffic flow readings associated with a road involving a plurality of subsections. Calculating traffic flows and determining road subsections having similar traffic flows may also be involved. Also, indicating a different traffic flow level for a first subsection and a second subsection of road may be involved.
US09697726B2

Apparatus and method for detecting the presence of a mobile device in a room, the apparatus having a device control unit for controlling a target device, a mobile device for controlling a target device, a signal source for emitting a pilot signal, a signal receiver for receiving a room signal caused by the pilot signal, the signal receiver arranged in the vicinity of the mobile device and outputting a measurement signal in response to the room signal, a signal control unit for controlling the signal source, the signal control unit controlling the signal source based on an actual value signal obtained from the measurement signal in such a manner that the actual value signal approaches a predefinable target value signal over time, and the device control unit configured to control the target device by means of the mobile device on the basis of whether the approach has taken place.
US09697721B1

Across the planet, the fear of physical attacks is experienced daily by millions of men and women, especially those walking or running alone in secluded areas. In many instances, attacks start from behind, exploiting a weakness in our forward-facing vision system. To address this, the present inventor devised, among other things, a rear-facing clip-on sensor that attaches to the back of a user, detecting rear-approaching objects or persons, and vibrating or beeping to alert the user. In some embodiments, the clip-on sensor includes a digital camera and a wireless transceiver to communicate with a smartphone or smartwatch, not only allowing the smartphone or smartwatch to alert the user via audible, visible, and/or tactile (haptic) alarms, but also to send SOS signals and real-time audio and/or video signals to designated persons or security services.
US09697709B2

Apparatus and systems using merchandise activity sensors for increasing the awareness of interactivity with merchandise on retail store displays (shelves, peg hooks, merchandise pushers, and other Point of Purchase displays) in order to facilitate more effective customer service, reduce theft and to provide additional analysis data related to merchandise/shopper interaction.
US09697708B2

Tracking device embodiments, comprising: portable housing with a locking mechanism; band latched about a wrist; tampering detection device to detect tampering with the band, comprising: power source; latch configured to latch one end of the band within the housing; a shape memory material component connected to the latch; an electrical circuit for controlling the power source to heat the shape memory material component to cause the shape memory material component to change from a first length/shape to a second length/shape during supply of power to perform a locking function; a timer; two-way network communication device; a tracking element; tampering signal generation circuit. In embodiments, a tamper resistant container cap, comprises: cap housing releasably lockable to an open end of a container and a locking mechanism using a shape memory material component.
US09697706B2

Disclosed examples include methods and circuits to drive a haptic actuator, in which a single input signal from a host device has a first state representing a command to drive the actuator and a second state representing a command to stop the actuator. A control circuit provides a drive control signal to a driver circuit to drive the haptic actuator in response to the control signal transitioning to the first state, and to stop the haptic actuator in response to the control signal transitioning to the second state. A timer circuit places the circuit in a low power mode a predetermined time after the control signal transitions to the second state, or the control circuit places the circuit in the low power mode in response to a feedback signal indicating that the actuator has reached a stopped condition.
US09697703B2

A capsule is provided that aligns with at least one light source. The capsule includes a rim having its opaqueness interrupted to as to form at least four transparent portions. The capsule is capable of being oriented according to at least two positions: a first position in which two of the at least four portions, simultaneously let through light coming from the at least one light source; and a second position in which the rim blocks light coming from the at least one light source.
US09697697B2

“n” cards of a first hand may be dealt. None to all of the n cards may be discarded. When card(s) are discarded, card(s) may be drawn to complete the first hand to have n cards to form a final first hand. The final first hand may be duplicated to a second hand of n cards, or card(s) may be selected from the final first hand to duplicate to a second hand and additional card(s) drawn to have n cards. None to all of the n cards of the second hand may be discarded. When card(s) are discarded, card(s) may be drawn to complete the second hand to have n cards to form a final second hand. A determination of whether the final first and second hands are winning hands may be made.
US09697695B2

A wagering system and method may include a processor that filters bet types available for placement of a bet by a user according to user-input betting criteria, and that presents the filtered bet types that satisfy the criteria in a user interface via which the user may place a bet of one of the presented bet types. The user may input particular criteria to customize the available results of the bet filter as desired. The system may output an identification of a surest bet. The system may provide a slider control for input of a desired payout amount or odds, or range thereof, as criteria according to which the system filters bet types.
US09697693B2

A gaming device that does not employ pay lines is provided, and has a playfield that is subdivided into a plurality of groups. The configuration of the groups could be done manually by the player, or at random, and changes for each game. At least one key group is used to define key symbols that must be repeated at other groups for a winning combination of symbols to occur.
US09697692B2

A gaming system includes a bonus server and an initial gaming machine having a processor. The bonus server is configured to transmit an initial token including a first parameter relating to the gaming system. The processor of the initial gaming machine is configured to receive the initial token. The processor is further configured to translate a plurality of parameters relating to the gaming system to a plurality of translated values. The plurality of parameters includes the first parameter. The processor is further configured to sum the plurality of translated values to an accumulated value. The processor is configured to receive a random number and determine a bonus game outcome based on a comparison of the random number and the accumulated value. The processor is further configured to transmit a quantity of scatter tokens to the bonus server, where the quantity is determined based on a value of the random number.
US09697691B2

A game play on an electronically based system utilizes symbol collection outcomes along paylines to determine winning events in a virtual game. Even when the symbols used in the virtual game comprise or consist of playing cards displaying conventional ranks, suits and symbols, winning outcomes are determined only by accumulation of sets of symbols, without regard to linear order (straights and straight flushes) and random symbols within a suit (flushes). Accumulated symbols in an at least five symbols display game event as pairs, trips (three-of-a-kind), two pairs, full houses (three of one symbol plus two of a different symbol), four-of-a-kind and five-of-a-kind are determined to be winning events, while a flush, straight and even straight flushes may be or are required to be ignored. Optional and even preferred additional events are used in a draw poker variant (with playing card symbols or non-playing card symbols are used in an accumulated symbol gaming event).
US09697687B2

A gaming system includes: a reader configured to read chip identification information which identifies a chip used in a casino; a writer configured to write validity information, betting information, and information about whether the chip is received from a cashier or from a dealer into chip information based on the chip identification information; and a determination unit configured to determine the validity, the betting state, and the source based on the chip information, wherein the writer is configured to update the validity information from invalid to valid when the chip is handed from the cashier or the dealer to a player and vice versa, to update the betting information as being betted when the chip is placed on a betting area and vice versa.
US09697686B2

Disclosed is a computer-implemented method for displaying the total count and value of casino chips stored by a casino dealer during dealing. The method comprises receiving transmissions representative of the reception of casino chips within a groove of a dealer tray, keeping count of the number of chips within the groove at any given time by keeping count of the number of transmissions received, aggregating the values of the individual chips within the groove at any given time and displaying the count and the aggregated value of the chips on a display panel located on the dealer tray.
US09697679B2

A gaming machine having a liftable monitor is provided, wherein the cabinet has a receiving space defined therein, and the cabinet is formed with at least one opening communicating with the receiving space; a display unit is mounted to the cabinet by a pivoting device for closing the opening. Each rotary shaft of the pivoting device respectively and pivotally connects to an interior of the cabinet and the display unit, and at least one supporting arm pivotally connects between the cabinet and the display unit, such that the display unit is movable supported and secured by the rotary shafts and the supporting arm to allow the display unit to be lifted and rotated relative to the cabinet for opening/closing the opening.
US09697676B2

Disclosed is a method of displaying augmented reality gaming information associated with a player card using mobile device in an augmented reality gaming system. In one embodiment, the method includes: enabling a user to view a live image of a player card through a display of a mobile device; acquiring player identification information from the player card; sending the player identification information via a network to a server; retrieving player specific information from the server using the mobile device; and displaying the player specific information in conjunction with the player card when viewing the player card through the display of the mobile device using augmented reality.
US09697672B2

According to one aspect of the invention, a gaming system and method for providing passive participation in at least one wagering game are disclosed. Funds are received to obtain a period of eligibility for an award associated with the wagering game. An entertainment layer having a plurality of features is conducted in response to receiving the wager. A separate gaming layer includes the wagering game. A gaming machine having a display and a player input device is in communication with the entertainment layer and the gaming layer. At least one feature of the entertainment layer is conducted during the period of eligibility. The entertainment layer is operable in response to at least one input from the player input device. Information regarding the wagering game is presented on the gaming machine.
US09697662B2

An activate signal is sent out from a remote controller via a first channel. An authorization process is activated after the activate signal is received by an access control terminal. A control signal is sent out from the remote controller via a second channel to the access control terminal. The access control terminal is unlocked if the control signal received by the access control terminal is verified by the authorization process to be consistent with a predetermined rule. The first channel is different from the second channel.
US09697661B1

A wireless access control system may include a remote access wireless communications device and a lock assembly to be mounted on a door. The lock assembly may include a lock, a door position sensor, interior and exterior directional antennas, lock wireless communications circuitry, and a lock controller. The lock controller determine whether the lock is manually unlocked, determine when the door is closed after being opened based upon the door position sensor, and determine whether the remote access wireless device is in an interior or an exterior based upon the directional antennas. The lock controller may also switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the exterior, and not switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the interior.
US09697658B1

A wireless access control system may include a remote access wireless communications device and a lock assembly to be mounted on a door. The lock assembly may include a lock, a door position sensor, interior and exterior directional antennas, lock wireless communications circuitry, a touch sensor, and a lock controller. The lock controller may be configured to unlock the lock based upon the touch sensor, determine when the door is closed after being opened based upon the door position sensor, determine whether the remote access wireless device is in an interior or an exterior based upon the directional antennas, switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the interior, and not switch the lock to the locked position when the door is closed and when the remote access wireless device is in the exterior.
US09697649B1

This application describes, in part, system and methods for controlling access to a device, application or service available through a device. In some implementations, an access request may be received and a three-dimensional representation of an object presented on a display of the device that allows a user to provide a three-dimensional input pattern. The input pattern may traverse multiple surface areas of the graphical representation of the three-dimensional object and in some instances the graphical representation of the object may rotate as the input pattern is received. The input pattern may then be verified and access to the device either granted or denied.
US09697647B2

A method of blending at least one virtual construction jobsite object and at least one real construction jobsite object in a dynamic augmented reality scene of a construction jobsite includes several steps. One step involves capturing a depth map image via a depth sensing device, and capturing a red, green, and blue (RGB) image via an RGB image-capturing device. Another step involves registering the depth map image and the RGB image to a common coordinate system. Yet another step involves projecting the at least one virtual construction jobsite object in a scene of the construction jobsite with the use of geographical information system (GIS) data, computer-aided design (CAD) data, or both types of data, to generate the augmented reality scene of the construction jobsite. And yet another step involves removing hidden surfaces of the at least one virtual construction jobsite object in the augmented reality scene.
US09697644B2

A method for determining solar access at a position includes: obtaining an image of a horizon that includes a skyline; determining the azimuth orientation and the inclination of the obtained image; and determining solar access based on the skyline within the obtained image, the measured azimuth orientation and inclination of the obtained image, and a position associated with the image of the horizon. Other features and embodiments relating to solar access measurement are disclosed.
US09697629B1

Embodiments disclosed herein can match a virtual display configuration to a physical display configuration. A method may include receiving from a physical device a physical device display configuration; generating a list of display configurations compatible with the physical display configuration, the generating a list including determining best matches of display geometries, aspect ratio, and density; providing the list to the physical device; and implementing a selected member of the list as a virtual device display on the physical device.
US09697628B2

A system receives a page request for a requested document, where the requested document specifies a set of first images as being presentable within the requested document. In response to the received page request, the system modifies the requested document and generates a modified document. The modified document specifies a second image that is to be generated based on the set of first images. The system generates the second image, based on the set of first images, and provides the modified document and access to the second image. The second image is an aggregation of the first images, which are represented within the second image as sprites to be rendered with the modified document. The modified document may use these sprites by specifying regions within the second image as being presentable within the modified document, where these regions correspond to the first images.
US09697625B2

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for efficient real-time ink stroke smoothing, trajectory prediction, and GPU-leveraged rendering of ink stroke input. First and second ink points are received and an active Bézier approximation is computed based thereupon. Sequentially later in time that the first and second ink points, a third ink point is received. It is determined whether the third ink point adequately fits the active Bézier approximation. Where it is determined that the third ink point adequately fits, an updated active Bézier approximation is computed that includes the first, second and third ink points. Where it is determined that the third ink point fails to adequately fit, a different new Bézier approximation is computed that includes the third ink point but not the first and second ink points. Leveraging a GPU, a smoothed ink stroke based upon the Bézier approximation(s) is rendered.
US09697624B2

An image processing apparatus and a radiation tomography apparatus capable of acquiring a tomographic image of high visibility are provided. The image processing apparatus initially generates a map m showing an extending direction of a linear structural object seen in an original image P0. Then, the apparatus generates an extrapolated image P1 by adding the area positioned at the side section of the original image P0 to the side section so as to extend the linear structural object seen in the side section by referring to the map m. By adding the side section to the original image P0 while shifting the pattern of the side section so as to extend the linear structural object seen in the side section of the image, the subject image can be naturally compensated. After this operation, by generating the tomographic image D, a tomographic image D having improved visibility can be generated.
US09697622B2

The present disclosure belongs to the field of computer technologies and discloses an interface adjustment method, apparatus, and terminal. The method includes: capturing a current image by an image capture device of the terminal; analyzing current ambient brightness according to the current image; and adjusting display of an interface on the terminal according to the current ambient brightness. According to the present disclosure, current ambient brightness is obtained by capturing a current image and analyzing the current image, thereby implementing interface adjustment. Such approach solves the problem that an existing interface adjustment method can only be used in a smart TV having a light sensor, and any terminal having an image capture function can adjust an interface by sensing light.
US09697616B2

A method, system and apparatus for image capture, analysis and transmission are provided. A link aggregation method involves identifying controller network ports to a source connected to the same subnetwork; producing packets associating corresponding controller network ports selected by the source CPU for substantially uniform selection; and transmitting the packets to their corresponding network ports. An image analysis method involves producing by a camera an indication whether a region of an image differs by a threshold extent from a corresponding region of a reference image; transmitting the indication and image data to a controller via a communications network; and storing at the controller the image data and the indication in association therewith. The controller may perform operations according to positive indications. A transmission method involves receiving user input in respect of a video stream and transmitting, in accordance with the user input, selected data packets of selected image frames thereof.
US09697615B2

A method, system and apparatus for image capture, analysis and transmission are provided. A link aggregation method involves identifying controller network ports to a source connected to the same subnetwork; producing packets associating corresponding controller network ports selected by the source CPU for substantially uniform selection; and transmitting the packets to their corresponding network ports. An image analysis method involves producing by a camera an indication whether a region of an image differs by a threshold extent from a corresponding region of a reference image; transmitting the indication and image data to a controller via a communications network; and storing at the controller the image data and the indication in association therewith. The controller may perform operations according to positive indications. A transmission method involves receiving user input in respect of a video stream and transmitting, in accordance with the user input, selected data packets of selected image frames thereof.
US09697608B1

A computing device can be configured to analyze information, such as frames captured in a video by a camera in the computing device, to determine locations of objects in captured frames using a scene-based tracking approach without individually having to track the identified objects across the captured frames. The computing device can track scenes, a global planar surface, across newly captured frames and the changes to (or transformation) the scene can be used to determine updated locations for objects that were identified in previously captured frames. Changes to the scene between frames can be measured using various techniques for estimating homographies. An updated location for the particular object in the currently captured frame can be determined by adjusting the location of the object, as determined in the previously captured frame, with respect to the transformation of the scene between the previously captured frame and the currently captured frame.
US09697592B1

The present invention provides a method for converting a low dynamic range (LDR) image to a high dynamic range (HDR) image, including obtaining an input LDR image; and in an HDR image database, selecting one or more HDR images that match the input LDR image as candidate images. Further, the candidate images are warped according to a spatial correspondence between the candidate images and the input LDR image. The input LDR image is decomposed to an illumination component and a texture component. The illumination component and the texture component are reconstructed respectively based on the warped candidate images. The reconstructed illumination component and the reconstructed texture component are combined to produce an output HDR image.
US09697589B2

Provided is a signal processing apparatus, including an input unit into which first image data and second image data are input, the first image data and the second image data being obtained by capturing a predetermined subject with an imaging unit and having mutually different states of blurring; a distance information calculation unit that calculates first distance information in accordance with a position in a depth direction of the subject based on the first image data and the second image data; and a distance information correction unit that calculates second distance information by performing, on the first distance information, processing to correct a deviation of the blurring caused by a mismatch between an image-forming plane of the subject and an imaging plane of the imaging unit.
US09697587B2

Techniques and architectures for video stabilization can transform a shaky video to a steady-looking video. A path smoothing process can generate an optimized camera path for video stabilization. With a large smoothing kernel, a path smoothing process can remove both high frequency jitters and low frequency bounces, and at the same time can preserve discontinuous camera motions (such as quick panning or scene transition) to avoid excessive cropping or geometry distortion. A sliding window based implementation includes a path smoothing process that can be used for real-time video stabilization.
US09697585B2

A method and an apparatus for displaying a statistical chart. The method includes determining whether a screen rotation event of switching from portrait-orientation display to landscape-orientation display is received. The method further includes obtaining additional to-be-shown data added during switch from a portrait-orientation-display drawing area to a landscape-orientation-display drawing area if yes, and drawing the landscape-orientation-display drawing area. The method further includes displaying a statistical chart in the drawn landscape-orientation-display drawing area, where the additional to-be-shown data is shown in the statistical chart. A statistical chart fills a drawing area in a landscape-orientation state.
US09697584B1

An apparatus for multi-stage super-resolution is described herein. The apparatus includes a personalized dictionary, a plurality of super-resolution stages, and a reference merger. Each of the plurality of super-resolution stages correspond to at least one personalized dictionary, and the personalized dictionary is applied to an input image that is sparse-coded to generate a reconstructed image. The reference merger is to merge the reconstructed image and the input image to generate a super-resolved image for each stage.
US09697577B2

The present inventive subject matter provides systems, methods, software, and data structures for patent mapping, storage, and searching. Some such embodiments include mapping patent documents, claims, and claim limitations. Some further embodiments provide for searching a universe of patent documents by patent document, claim, limitation, class, element, or concept.
US09697567B2

The present invention provides systems and methods for tracking obligations incurred between individuals. The method may include receiving a request from a first party, where the request includes an expense incurred by the first party for the benefit of a second party. The method may also include providing a notice of the request to the second party and receiving an acceptance from the second party to assume an obligation associated with the expense. The method may further include associating the obligation with the second party and associating a benefit with the first party. The obligation and/or benefit may be substantially equal in value to the expense. The method may additionally include interfacing with a social network service to provide the social network service with information about the obligation and/or the benefit.
US09697566B2

A method for providing information about an auction for a plurality of assets is provided. A plurality of assets that is made to be available during an auction is identified. Each of the plurality of assets includes an auction state. During the auction, a matrix interface is displayed. The matrix interface includes a plurality of entries, where each entry identifies a corresponding asset and the auction state of that asset. The auction state of one or more assets is dynamically updated during the auction.
US09697555B2

One form of the present invention contemplates a unique system for creating a customized bank card by a consumer/user based on instructions from a remote terminal. Other forms of the present invention contemplate unique apparatuses, systems, devices, hardware, software, methods, and combinations of these for creating customized bank cards.
US09697554B2

One variation of a method for quoting manufacture of a part during construction of a virtual model of the part within a computer-aided drafting engine includes: receiving a quote file specifying a current manufacturing schedule and a pricing structure for a manufacturing facility; at a first time, in response to insertion of a first three-dimensional virtual geometry into the virtual model, calculating a manufacturing quote for the part based on the first three-dimensional virtual geometry and the quote file; displaying the manufacturing quote; at a second time succeeding the first time, in response to insertion of a second three-dimensional virtual geometry into the virtual model, updating the manufacturing quote based on the second three-dimensional virtual geometry and the quote file; and, at a third time succeeding the second time, submitting a form of the virtual model to the manufacturing facility for manufacture of the part.
US09697552B2

Methods and systems are provided for social shopping on a network-based marketplace. The method receives, over a network at a social shopping platform, a request from a user in a first community of users. The social shopping platform includes multiple network-based marketplaces respectively associated with communities that include the first community of users that is associated with a first network-based marketplace. The method identifies the first network-based marketplace from the network-based marketplaces based on the request. The request is for an activity associated with the first network-based marketplace. The first network-based marketplace is used by the first community of users to transact items of a single domain that is of interest to the first community of users. The method updates a listing reputation score based on the activity associated with the first network-based marketplace and a user reputation score based on the listing reputation score.
US09697545B1

Some embodiments provide a service monitor that operates on a number of different mobile devices to track and monitor services that an application is using. The service monitor of some embodiments includes a service call wrapper to intercept a request made by the application to access the service and capture data relating to the service request. The service monitor then sends the captured data to a performance monitoring server in order to present, based on the captured data and other captured data from other mobile devices, a set of performance reports relating to the performance of the service as used by the same application across a number of mobile devices.
US09697540B2

A system and method automatically report electronically recorded golf scores and other information to a golfer during or upon completion of a round of golf. A golfer operates a mobile terminal during play of a round of golf. The mobile terminal displays at least an electronic score card on its display. The mobile terminal may optionally display other information, such as advertisements, that may be of interest to the golfer. During play, the mobile terminal receives inputs from the golfer to record the golfer's scores. Other inputs may include selection of a displayed advertisement or purchase of a displayed product or service. Once the scores have been entered, the mobile terminal wirelessly transmits the scores and/or other information to a central server via a wireless subsystem. The scores and/or other information are then automatically communicated from the server to an email account and/or personal web portal account of the golfer.
US09697539B2

Various presence detection techniques are disclosed. In some embodiments, a system comprises a signal generator configured to generate a signal that includes a plurality of selected frequencies that are selected from among a set of candidate frequencies, wherein inclusion or exclusion of each candidate frequency in the signal encodes a bit of information and wherein the encoded information comprises a store identifier that identifies a retail store; and a transmitter configured to transmit the signal within the retail store; wherein presence of a device in the retail store is determined in response to reception of the signal at the device and extraction of the store identifier from the received signal by decoding the received signal.
US09697535B2

A system and method in a virtual universe (VU) system for identifying spam avatars based upon the avatars' multimedia characteristics may have a table that stores multimedia characteristics of known spam avatars. It further may have an analysis unit that compares the multimedia characteristics of avatars against the multimedia characteristics of known spam avatars to determine if the avatar has known spam avatar characteristics. It may further have a scoring system to calculate a spam score based upon the similarities of the comparison and identifying the avatar as a spam avatar based upon the calculated spam score. It may further compare the calculated spam score with a spam score threshold wherein the avatar is identified as a spam avatar if the calculated spam score is equal to or greater than the calculated spam score. Multimedia characteristics include graphics, audio, movement, interactivity, voice, etc.
US09697525B1

A mobile computerized apparatus for use with a roadside assistance program to assist in identifying a service provider, such as a tow truck, is disclosed. The apparatus transmits relevant information to a remote server. The server in turn provides information about a plurality of service providers available to service the vehicle.
US09697524B1

Systems and methods for providing services to customers in response to customer requests received through one or more channels are disclosed. The present invention provides for a central fulfillment hub in which all requests from banking customers may be processed by applying a library of policies to systematically resolve the customer requests or engage resources necessary to resolve such requests. Resources, data, and other information compartmentalized in individual business unit systems may be dynamically retrieved as necessary to fulfill the customer request and such retrieval is completed prior to any processing of the customer request for resolution. The disclosed fulfillment system, thus, may open a request, prefetch the necessary information, take steps to resolve the request, and close the request accordingly in a dynamic and efficient manner on a request-by-request basis.
US09697522B2

Methods and apparatuses for interactive device operation are disclosed. In one example, a method for user device operation includes retrieving from a user device memory a user device identifying data, dialing a remote computing device having an interactive voice response (IVR) system, and transmitting the user device identifying data to the remote computing device. The method includes outputting one or more voice messages from the interactive voice response system to a user of the user device, the one or more voice messages associated with a usage of the user device. The method further includes transmitting a user action to the remote computing device made responsive to the one or more voice messages.
US09697518B2

Data can be protected in mobile and payment environments through various tokenization operations. A mobile device can tokenize communication data based on device information and session information associated with the mobile device. A payment terminal can tokenize payment information received at the payment terminal during a transaction based on transaction information associated with the transaction. Payment data tokenized first a first set of token tables and according to a first set of tokenization parameters by a first payment entity can be detokenized or re-tokenized with a second set of token tables and according to a second set of tokenization parameters. Payment information can be tokenized and sent to a mobile device as a token card based on one or more selected use rules, and a user can request a transaction based on the token card. The transaction can be authorized if the transaction satisfies the selected use rules.
US09697508B1

Existing infrastructure for processing credit card transactions at point-of-sale (POS) devices is leveraged to provide secure and convenient payment with a mobile device. A mobile transaction infrastructure that is integrated with the credit card interchange network receives information from the mobile device and passes this information to a gateway provider or a payment processor. By combining information from both the mobile device and the POS device, this backend infrastructure can uniquely identify a transaction and appropriately charge an account associated with the user of the mobile device. The transaction may be matched with the mobile device be based on location, time, transaction charge, and/or other factors.
US09697505B2

Arrangements relate to processing financial transactions on an automated teller machine (ATM). An ATM identifier can be presented on a display of the ATM. An ATM identifier confirmation can be received from a mobile computing device. Responsive to determining that the ATM identifier confirmation matches the identifier presented on the display of the ATM, a customer authentication or a transaction request can be received from the mobile computing device. Responsive to verifying the customer authentication or the transaction request, the transaction request can be processed.
US09697499B1

While consuming digital content, a user may highlight a portion considered relevant or of interest. When this user highlight corresponds with an existing highlight created by other users in a community of users, a highlight match indicator is presented to the user. This indicator provides a positive reinforcement to the user that they have serendipitously highlighted a portion which others in the community of users found relevant.
US09697496B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products are for processing damage survey information associated with a disaster event. According to one aspect, a method for processing damage survey information associated with a disaster event includes in response to the disaster event, receiving, at a disaster recovery system (DRS), the damage survey information. In some embodiments, the damage survey information includes an area of impact that defines an area in which at least one physical plant was damaged in the disaster event and a physical plant type identifier (PPTI) for each physical plant damaged in the disaster event. Each PPTI identifies a physical plant type of a plurality of physical plant types. The method also includes analyzing the damage survey information to determine to which of a plurality of disaster recovery dispatch units (DRDUs) the DRS should route the damage survey information and routing the damage survey information to the appropriate DRDUs.
US09697494B2

In a user-interactive method and system, a display application for enhancing user interaction over a network is provided. The method includes receiving preference information from a first user, the preference information indicating at least one type of image the first user wishes to view. In response to a network interaction being established between at least the first user and a second user, the method further includes retrieving a plurality of images associated with the second user based on the preference information. The method further includes displaying the plurality of images based on the preference information.
US09697488B1

Various embodiments of a system and method for generating predictions for unit allocation in a materials processing network are described. Various embodiments may include a capacity planner for defining a model including, for each of a plurality of discrete periods of time, a corresponding representation of a materials processing network including materials handling facilities, constraints associated with ones of the materials handling facilities, and logic for determining efficient flows of materials within the materials processing network during that discrete period of time. In order to determine efficient flows of materials within the materials processing network for a particular period of time, the capacity planner may determine the discrete periods of time corresponding to representations of the model required to determine the one or more efficient flows, and evaluate the logic of the those representations without evaluating logic of representations of the model corresponding to other discrete periods of time.
US09697487B2

Systems and methods for verifying and monitoring employees are provided. Employees call-in to the system at scheduled times. If an employee misses a scheduled call-in, an alert can be generated. An employer notification process can generate the alert, notifying a supervisor of the employee's missed call. The alert can include the employee's name, the location of the employee, and the time he/she was supposed to call. Such systems and methods can be used to verify that a worker is at the proper location at the proper time and awake and alert during the entire time period that he/she is supposed to be working.
US09697485B2

Systems and methods are provided for the organization, management, and graphical display of multiple logically related entities. In some embodiments, the systems and methods provide the real-time display of status and location information for a fleet of tracked vehicles. In some embodiments, the systems and methods permit the automatic clustering of assets based on a user's view of an underlying map. In some embodiments, the assets are vehicles that are a part of a managed fleet. In some embodiments, the assets are logically arranged into clusters of like assets. In some embodiments, the clusters provide graphical indications of status or class information of their underlying assets.
US09697483B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure include methods and systems for tracking and reporting environmental impact and agricultural-producer information. In an example embodiment, a method comprises receiving first data associated with an impact on groundwater pollution or surface water pollution, the impact on the groundwater pollution or the surface water pollution resulting from a production of an agricultural product, the groundwater pollution or the surface water pollution comprising a contaminant of at least one of an inorganic or organic pollutant, the first data being received from a single representative sampling location; receiving second data associated with the impact on the groundwater pollution and the surface water pollution from at least one of a plurality of representative sampling locations; generating a benchmark percentage-based result based on the first or second data; calculating comparative data using the benchmark percentage-based result and at least some of the first or second data; and reporting the benchmark percentage-based result and the comparative data to a user.
US09697478B2

A system and method is disclosed for generating targeted e-mails based on individual subject behavior and interests, as determined by an application's website browsing behavior, online and offline purchases, ratings, and other implicit and explicit indications of subject preferences and interests. The subject's behavior data is collected directly from the subject's client browser or from the application's own information and used to generate profiles of the subjects that will be sent e-mails and the objects that will be recommended. Targeted content is generated by matching subject and object profiles in combination with any subject segmentation filters that the application provides. The e-mail targeting is optimized by measuring subject response to targeted e-mails and adjusting recommendation strategies used to generate subsequent recommendations. The system has application in personalization, behavioral targeting, Internet retailing, affiliate marketing, and online advertising, to name but a few applications.
US09697472B2

Disclosed in some examples are systems, methods, and machine readable mediums which allow for the automatic creation of a skills hierarchy. The skills hierarchy comprises an organization of a standardized list of skills into a hierarchy that describes category relationships between the skills in the hierarchy. The category relationships may include no relationships, parent relationships, and child relationships. A skill may be considered a parent of another skill if the parent skill describes a broader category of skill that includes the child. Other relationships such as grandparent (e.g., a parent's parent), great-grandparent, grandchild, great grandchild and so on may be defined inferentially as well. In some examples, the constructed hierarchy may be organized with broader skills at higher levels and narrower skills at lower levels.
US09697465B2

Disclosed are techniques (300, 500, 600) and apparatuses (102, 700) for drawing an inference using multiple sensors. These techniques and apparatuses enable a computing device to choose (302) a set of sensors that are capable of providing information for an inference, invoke (304) the chosen set of sensors to provide the information, receive (306) the information from at least a subset of the chosen sensors, and draw (308), based on the received information, the inference. In some cases, the set of sensors are chosen such that time or resources of the computing device can be conserved.
US09697464B2

The present invention is a method of solving the decision, for example, testing if, given a finite number of transformations which can be applied to a finite number of elements, the corresponding n-generated discrete object has a hamiltonian cycle and/or path, searching, for example, obtaining the explicit construction of one several or all the hamiltonian cycles and or paths of the given input, counting, for example, obtaining an upper bound of the number of Hamiltonian cycles and/or paths of the given input and optimization, for example, selecting one of several hamiltonian cycles and/or paths solutions according to an specified criterion, versions of the hamiltonian traversal (cycle and/or path) problem in class of combinatorial discrete objects.
US09697463B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for computing a layer output for a convolutional neural network layer, the method comprising: receiving the layer input, the layer input comprising a plurality of activation inputs, the plurality of activation inputs represented as a multi-dimensional matrix comprising a plurality of depth levels, each depth level being a respective matrix of distinct activation inputs from the plurality of activation inputs; sending each respective kernel matrix structure to a distinct cell along a first dimension of the systolic array; for each depth level, sending the respective matrix of distinct activation inputs to a distinct cell along a second dimension of the systolic array; causing the systolic array to generate an accumulated output from the respective matrices sent to the cells; and generating the layer output from the accumulated output.
US09697454B2

A payment card (e.g., credit and/or debit card) or other card or device (e.g., mobile telephone) is provided with a magnetic emulator operable to communicate data to a magnetic stripe read-head. User interfaces are provided in a number of different configurations in order to achieve a number of different functionalities.
US09697450B1

A magnetic stripe data transmission (MST) driver and a method for driving the MST are disclosed. The MST driver is configured to transmit magnetic strip data comprising of streams of pulses. The MST driver comprises a pair of high side switches and a pair of low side switches. The pair of high side switches comprises a first switch and a second switch. The pair of low side switches comprises a third switch and a fourth switch. The first, second, third and fourth switches are arranged in a full bridge type configuration connected across a voltage source and a ground. An inductive coil is connected across outputs of the full bridge type configuration of the switches. The MST driver includes a switch driver configured to drive the pair of low side switches and the pair of high side switches under current slope control using pulse width modulation. The driven load current has a rising portion and a falling portion through the inductive coil in a forward direction or in a reverse direction with programmable load current rising and falling slopes to induce a recognizable back electromagnetic force at a receiver emulating the magnetic strip data during the load current rising and falling portions and to reduce power loss during time periods without signal transmission.
US09697448B2

Techniques for making electronic cards that can be displayed on a mobile phone. The techniques permit making an electronic card based on an arbitrary SMS message and making an electronic card (eCard) that corresponds to a pre-existing non-electronic privilege card such as a loyalty card. In the latter case, the system on which the card is being made obtains information about the user and the issuer and uses the information to determine whether to issue the eCard and also to make use validity information which is associated with the card and is used to determine the validity of the card as it is used.
US09697446B2

The present invention relates to a set of security documents. Each security document within the set having an optical code, notably a barcode, which is neither connected nor coupled to any electronic chip that may be carried by the security document. The optical code on each security document within the set encodes the same information for the same optical reader. Each security document having different respective electromagnetic signature, these signatures being unique to each of the security documents.
US09697445B2

An image forming apparatus includes a control unit that generates a valid region signal corresponding to the length of a paper sheet of a regular size in the conveyance direction thereof, and performs control to form an image on the paper sheet based on the valid region signal, wherein, when an image is formed on a long paper sheet having a longer length than the paper sheet of the regular size, the control unit generates the valid region signal in each channel, performs control for generating the next valid region signal in a period during which the valid region signal is not generated in any of the channels, generates a continuous valid region signal corresponding to the long paper sheet by combining the valid region signals in the channels, and performs control to form an image by reading out image data based on the continuous valid region signal.
US09697438B2

Image description and image recognizable method, it contain (a) It obtain an image which possess plural pixels. (b) It determines a starting position in the image. (c) In the image, From the starting point along the trajectory of the former spiral aggregation makes a pixel sampling, and the pixel on the trajectory rank to the former spiral aggregation. (d) the angle increases with the increase of the variance, it forming a the angle of the latter spiral aggregation. From the starting point along a trajectory of the former spiral aggregation makes the pixel sample, and the pixel on the trajectory rank to the former spiral aggregation. (e) It decides how many frequencies the angle variation increase, and repeatedly performs the step (d). After obtaining a plurality of the latter spiral aggregation, the pixel corresponds to the value. (f) It ranks the former spiral aggregation and the latter spiral aggregation. Then, spiral aggregation map will be formed and recorded the every value of the pixel.
US09697433B1

Features are disclosed for classifying pixels included in a digital image. Distance information from a pixel to structural reference points, such as skeletal joints, is generated. The distance information is then applied to a pixel classifier to identify one or more classifications for the pixel.
US09697429B2

An example disclosed method includes receiving an image containing shelf edge content displayed on a shelf edge; determining a location of the shelf edge content and an apparent orientation of the shelf edge content; determining, based on the location of the shelf edge content and the apparent orientation of the shelf edge content, a region in the image corresponding to the shelf edge; and providing an output based on the image that identifies the region in the image corresponding to the shelf edge.
US09697422B2

According to one embodiment, an electronic device includes a stroke manager and a controller. The stroke manager is configured to store on a storage medium handwritten documents including stroke data items corresponding to strokes. The controller is configured to acquire a result of a search. The search includes least one of a character-string search and a handwriting search. The search is based on a value associated with an aspect ratio of a first stroke group.
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