US07681245B2
A database record controls a license to use a computational component. An input receives an order identifier associated with an order related to a computational component and an interface retrieves order information associated with the identifier. The order information comprises at least one material code. A material code mapping agent compares the material code with at least one material code mapping table to identify corresponding computational component information associated with the material code. In another configuration, a transaction record includes first information associated with the order, the order relates to at least a first computational component and/or feature thereof, a configuration file includes second information different from the first information, the configuration file relates to at least one telecommunication switch/server, and a configuration file processing agent compares some of the first information with some of the second information to form a system record having both first and second information.
US07681243B2
A method and apparatus for processing digital rights managements (DRM) contents having advertisement (AD) contents attached thereto in a DRM system are disclosed. When DRM contents including AD contents are selected by a DRM device, a rights issuer (RI) receives the AD contents and the DRM contents from a contents issuer (CI), generates a multipart contents format file, and downloads it to the DRM device. Then, the DRM device decodes the downloaded multipart contents format file to check whether the multipart contents format file includes AD contents-attached DRM contents, and if so, the DRM device reproduces the AD contents to use the DRM contents free of cost. Thus, the DRM contents can be provided to a user by using the AD contents without causing a burden of a charge.
US07681229B1
Techniques are provided for proxy authentication. A proxy includes a first port, a second port, and a secure port; each port processing a different service. Requests received on the first and second ports which require authentication are redirected to the secure port. The secure port processes an authentication router service. The authentication router service forwards requests for authentication to selective authentication services. The authentication services authenticate the requests over the secure port.
US07681220B2
Television users may record abstracts of programs that they desire and program providers may access the recorded program abstracts from time to time so as to provide the program content that matches the requested program. In one embodiment, the user may select a TV program (or movie) that is not currently available and then at a time subsequent thereto that program is made available to the user, either privately, or over the public network. In another embodiment, users of the system may record program requests. Program providers may then access these requests from time to time and provide the requested program, even if the program had not been available at the time the request was initially posted.
US07681217B2
A video information system which displays or records broadcast video information records an operation history of the video information system, and, when video information is newly reproduced and displayed or newly recorded, generates user presence information from the operation history and program information of broadcast video information and selects video information to be displayed or recorded based on the user preference information.
US07681214B2
Outer code covered synchronous code division multiple access for cable modem (CM) channels. Outer pseudo-noise (PN) code is employed, along with orthogonal codes (OCs), to spread CM signals thereby mitigating inter-code-interference (ICI) effects caused by residual multi-path propagation within CM communication systems. The added and implemented PN sequences have relatively good autocorrelation properties (when compared to the autocorrelation properties of the OCs) that mask the possible bad autocorrelation and/or cross-correlation properties of the OCs. This outer-code covered PN coding, along with the OC coding, enables much better performance in the presence of residual multi-path. The PN code's added complexity is very minimal as the PN may use the same chip rate of the orthogonal code while providing for better performance in the presence of residual multi-path components. In doing so, a relatively higher system capacity for data throughput may be realized while providing very limited added complexity to the system.
US07681205B2
Disclosed is a driver managing method using a driver managing apparatus for managing a driver corresponding to an output device connected through a network. The driver managing apparatus monitors change in a network environment including the presence or absence of a connection to the network and detects the output device connected to the network when the connection to the network has been confirmed, and installs the driver corresponding to the detected output device.
US07681203B2
In mobile computing and context awareness in mobile ad-hoc networks, node connectivity is unpredictably time-varying. A middleware entity solves the problem of automatically executing a user-defined set of actions, collected in a user profile, upon detection of events such as an attachment of a mobile terminal to the ad-hoc network, changes of the underlying network topology, the moving of mobile terminals into the physical proximity of further mobile terminals, the presence of services and/or of users within the network, and a detachment of a mobile terminal from the ad-hoc network. Thereby, the actions are invocations of services hosted on the mobile terminal or other mobile terminals interconnected via the ad-hoc network. The aforementioned profiles are stored on mobile terminals (e.g. PDAs, mobile phones, etc.) or on fixed or mobile customer-edge devices such as television sets, home gateways, etc. Also envisioned is the deployment of a distributed database holding the profiles.
US07681197B1
A method of managing nested monitor locks in a computer program is provided for an application having at least a first thread and a second thread wherein a non-synchronized procedure is processed by the application. The first thread executes an outer software module while the second thread executes an inner software module. A processing state of the second thread code is preserved before the second thread is configured to release an outer monitor of the outer software module. The first thread acquires the outer monitor of the outer software module so that actions may be completed. Upon completion of actions by the first thread, the outer monitor of the outer software module is released. The processing state of the second thread is restored, such that, actions of the second thread are allowed to be completed.
US07681195B2
A computing resource allocation system allocates hardware and software resources among employees, based upon a combination of the employee level, job function, and demonstrated workstation performance within the context of the job requirements of the employee and usage patterns of the computing resource. The system collects various performance data for computing resources. A set of policy rules is applied to the collected performance data and processed by the present system. Consequently, the present system automatically identifies and prioritizes employees in need of technology upgrades and replacements based on business needs and available resources. Performance data of a computing resource is captured and transmitted to a central collection agency. From the performance data, the present system determines when partial upgrades, such as memory additions or faster adapters are appropriate based on system performance or errors. In addition, the present system determines when a computing resource experiences continuous performance problems.
US07681193B2
A method, an apparatus, and computer instructions are provided for providing alternative installation structures for deployment of software applications. A set of requirements for software modules to be deployed are detected. Based on the hosting requirement, the present invention determines a set of candidate software modules by comparing the hosting requirements to capabilities of software modules in a software registry. Non-hosting requirements are cascaded for validation at a corresponding level. The present invention exposes software modules based on their supported requirement types and filters candidate hosting software modules based on options defined in the non-hosting requirements. Finally, a list of options with a list of candidate software modules is presented for user selection.
US07681188B1
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates locked prefetch scheduling in general cyclic regions of a computer program. The system operates by first receiving a source code for the computer program and compiling the source code into intermediate code. The system then performs a trace detection on the intermediate code. Next, the system inserts prefetch instructions and corresponding locks into the intermediate code. Finally, the system generates executable code from the intermediate code, wherein a lock for a given prefetch instruction prevents subsequent prefetches from being issued until the data value returns for the given prefetch instruction.
US07681185B2
System(s) and/or method(s) (“tools”) are described that enable multiple executable ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) packages to be built based on a single template. The tools also enable multiple executable ETL packages to be altered by altering a single template and/or set of data parameters. In some embodiments the tools provide many types of templates that are capable, once instantiated with data parameters, of performing many different types of processes useful in extracting, transforming, and/or loading data from databases to a data warehouse. In so doing, the tools can help users to more easily, accurately, and/or robustly build ETL packages.
US07681181B2
A method and apparatus are provided for providing custom product support for a computer program based on levels of execution instability. The execution of a software program is monitored over a period of time to determine the execution stability of the program. Based upon the monitoring and upon one or more threshold levels of instability, the execution stability of the program is categorized. Based upon the categorization, custom program support may be provided for a user of the computer system executing the program. For instance, based on the categorization free or reduced fee product support may be provided.
US07681179B2
A system and method is provided that facilitates the administration of an application in accordance with the present invention. The system includes a resource identifier that identifies resources associated with the application and a manifest that logs the resources. An aggregator is provided that aggregates a subset of the resources into the manifest to facilitate administration of the application. The aggregator can be provided by a user interface and/or an automated builder. A graphical user interface is also provided to facilitate deployment, creation and enumeration of the application.
US07681174B2
A method for generating program code used to describe relationships between a plurality of function names and a plurality of control codes of a device. The method comprises receiving the relationships between the plurality of function names and the plurality of control codes, detecting if one of the function names corresponds to more than one control code and if one of the control codes corresponds to a plurality of function names. Program code is generated to describe the relationships if there are no multiple mappings between the control codes and the function names. A warning message is generated if there is function name corresponding to more than one control code or a control code corresponds to more than one function name.
US07681166B2
An embodiment performs dummy fill in a design layout to achieve a target density that is within a narrow range of target densities. During operation, the system can receive a design layout that includes a region whose density is not within a desired range of target densities. Next, the system can receive a set of dummy-fill cells which can be used to place a dummy-fill array to fill an arbitrarily sized rectangle. The set of dummy-fill cells may contain assist features and optical proximity corrections which cause the dummy shapes to print properly regardless of the size of the dummy-fill array. The system may then determine a polygon in the design layout to fill with dummy-fill cells. Next, the system may fracture the polygon into a set of rectangles. The system may use the set of dummy-fill cells to place a dummy-fill array that fills a rectangle.
US07681159B2
A system and a method for detecting a defect, capable of extracting a defect occurring depending on finishing accuracy required for circuit operation are provided. The system includes a timing analyzer for extracting a critical path in which a high accuracy is required for a signal transmission operation as compared with other portions based on circuit design data, a critical path extractor for comparing the circuit design data with layout design data on a pattern and for extracting graphical data including the critical path extracted by the timing analyzer, an inspection recipe creator for deciding a portion to be inspected, based on coordinate information on the graphical data including the critical path extracted by the critical path extractor, and an SEM defect review apparatus for acquiring an image of the decided portion to be inspected on a wafer according to an inspection recipe created by the inspection recipe creator.
US07681158B2
Systems and methods for determining delay budget allocations for circuit elements. One embodiment comprises a method including defining timing edges and corresponding timing paths in an integrated circuit design, and determining delay budget allocations for each of the edges based on required arrival time and design slack (S,T) pairs associated with the different timing paths. The required arrival time is a maximum time when associated with forward paths, and a minimum time when associated with backward paths. (S,T) pairs associated with some timing paths are discarded (i.e., the corresponding timing paths are trimmed) to reduce the complexity of the delay budget allocation computations. Remaining (S,T) pairs are used to determine scaling factors for significant timing paths through the edges. The smallest of the scaling factors for each edge can be multiplied by an initial delay associated with the edge to produce a delay budget allocation associated with the edge.
US07681149B2
User interface systems and methods are disclosed. The user interfaces include at least one focus pointer that allow a user to quickly access the elements contained in a plurality of folders. A fixed focus pointer selects one of a plurality of elements of a main folder in response to interaction of a user. A moveable focus pointer scrolls through a plurality of elements of the first subfolder to select a second subfolder in response to interaction of a user. The user interface may include additional folders and focus pointers.
US07681137B2
A display apparatus and a control method are provided in which a size menu item is changed, when the menu item is directed by a user. A display apparatus includes a user input part; a menu generator generating a user menu including at least one or more items; a display part displayed with the user menu generated from the menu generator; and a controller controlling the menu generator so that a size of a directed item according to an operation of the user input part among the items of the user menu displayed at the display part is reduced into a predetermined size and then is returned to an original size.
US07681130B1
A method for displaying graphically interconnected network fabrics on a graphical user interface. The method disclosed herein is a view manager that identifies fabrics (e.g., storage area networks) in a network system and then displays graphical representations of the fabrics within a graphical user interface. In this manner, the fabric representations are displayed in respective regions of the graphical user interface such that the pixels of each fabric representation do not overlap. Graphical interconnections are displayed between network fabrics to represent the relationship and connectivity between the fabrics. Additionally, the view manager displays the physical and virtual components or resources (e.g., host computers, switch devices, storage devices) that make up the network fabrics as graphical objects within the fabric representations. In order to show the relationship and connectivity between the resource objects, the view manager also displays graphical interconnections that flow between the resources.
US07681114B2
A method whereby dynamic, interactive, two or more dimensional media can be assembled and delivered where the need for pre-packaged binary content files and pre-compiled content is eliminated by using a markup language, a standard URI to identify local and/or remote media resources within a markup text, a standard protocol to retrieve the resource, a parser to load resources from the native format and a markup language to define behavior and where dynamic, interactive, n-dimensional media is achieved by using a markup language, connecting or embedding content into a local or remote data source, dragging-and-dropping markup text into a content provider application, updating content using a form, establishing a two-way connection between content and one or more data sources such that changing to the data source(s) and seeing the results propagate to the scene changing the content and seeing the results propagate to the data source(s) and using a markup language to issue commands, configure interaction, and create behavior.
US07681113B2
An information recording medium has recorded thereon a plurality of sets of still image information to be continuously played back in the form called a slide show audio information to be played back in synchronization with the still image information. Also recorded on the information recording medium is playback control information for playing back the audio information in synchronization with the sets of still image information. When the still image information sets are sequentially played back, the audio information is played back in synchronization with the still image information according to the playback control information. The playback control information includes audio repeat information for controlling the repetition of the audio information. The repeated playback of the audio information is controlled according to the audio repeat information.
US07681112B1
Systems and techniques to facilitate reuse of page components. In general, the techniques includes: generating multiple components of a markup language document to be rendered, the multiple components being derived from one or more information sources, designating the multiple components in the markup language document using a recognized identifier of document sections, and adding reuse information to the designated components of the markup language document so that the reuse information is readable with the components but not revealed when the markup language document is rendered, the reuse information specifying how the components may be repurposed via access to the one or more information sources. The techniques further include: rendering multiple components of a presentation, and in response to a selection of one or more components in the presentation, using reuse information contained in the one or more components to facilitate repurposing of the one or more components.
US07681107B2
A semiconductor having an internal memory of the present invention comprises a first memory copying and holding a data held in a storage device; a second memory holding a check code of the data held in the first memory, and being constantly supplied with a source voltage not lower than a data-holding-guarantee voltage; a data check unit detecting error in the data held by the first memory based on the check code; and reloading units copying only the data corresponded to the block having a data error detected therein by the data check unit, from the storage device to the first memory, to make it possible to detect any error in the data held in the first memory to thereby guarantee the data, and to lower the source voltage to be supplied to the first memory.
US07681105B1
The present invention provides a distributed clustering method to allow multiple active instances of consistency management processes that apply the same encoding scheme to be cooperative and function collectively. The techniques described herein facilitate an efficient method to apply an erasure encoding and decoding scheme across dispersed data stores that receive constant updates. The technique can be applied on many forms of distributed persistent data stores to provide failure resiliency and to maintain data consistency and correctness.
US07681104B1
An efficient method to apply an erasure encoding and decoding scheme across dispersed data stores that receive constant updates. A data store is a persistent memory for storing a data block. Such data stores include, without limitation, a group of disks, a group of disk arrays, or the like. An encoding process applies a sequencing method to assign a sequence number to each data and checksum block as they are modified and updated onto their data stores. The method preferably uses the sequence number to identify data set consistency. The sequencing method allows for self-healing of each individual data store, and it maintains data consistency and correctness within a data block and among a group of data blocks. The inventive technique can be applied on many forms of distributed persistent data stores to provide failure resiliency and to maintain data consistency and correctness.
US07681099B2
An integrated circuit (1600) includes a debug module (1602) and a clock generator (1610). The debug module (1602) is configured to receive a test pattern and provide a mode signal based on the test pattern. The clock generator (1610) includes a first clock input configured to receive a first clock signal, a second clock input configured to receive a second clock signal, and a mode input configured to receive the mode signal. The first and second clock signals are out of phase and have the same clock frequency. The clock generator (1610) is configured to provide a generated clock signal whose effective frequency is based on the first and second clock signals and the mode signal.
US07681098B2
Systems and methods for improved fault coverage of logic built-in-self-tests (LBISTs) in integrated circuits (ICs) by determining weighting and/or seed values to be used in generating pseudorandom test bit patterns for each channel to optimize fault coverage. In one embodiment, a method includes generating a pseudorandom sequence of bits, applying a weighting value to the sequence, propagating the weighted sequence through one or more levels of logic, and capturing the resulting data. Metrics are then applied to the captured data to determine the suitability or optimality of the weighting value, and an optimal weighting value is selected. This may be performed for a plurality of trial values for each of a number of channels to obtain a set of weighting values for the different LBIST channels. The method may also include determining a seed value for the pseudorandom bit pattern generator.
US07681087B2
A computer-readable medium is configured to receive a report processing request at a hierarchical report processor. The hierarchical report processor includes a parent process and at least one child process executing on a single processing unit, and is configured to process the report processing request as a task on the single processing unit.
US07681085B2
Described is a technology by which software instrumentation data collected during software program usage sessions is analyzed to identify potential problems with software program usage, such as based on frequency of problem occurrence during the usage sessions. Reliability metrics may be calculated from the information. Failure data additionally collected during the usage sessions may be accessed to derive details that correspond to the potential problems. In one example, the information may be analyzed to determine which alerts and/or asserts occurred most often, and/or to determine a relationship between user interface control operations (e.g., clicks and usage of commands) and alerts or asserts.
US07681084B2
During trace recording, on-chip trace export mechanisms may schedule output from multiple sources out of order of execution. This makes the exact arrival of trace information in the receiver imprecise. Time of the day or time stamp information may be placed in the trace stream itself to assure correct timing, and represented as a control word. This may be done periodically or at the first empty slot after some period has elapsed.
US07681078B2
A method for operating a processor in data processing system comprises: asserting a debug control signal to cause the processor to enter a debug operating mode; initializing a plurality of shared processor resources with debug configuration information, wherein the plurality of shared processor resources are shared between a normal operating mode and the debug operating mode; executing instructions with the processor while in the debug operating mode; re-initializing the processor in response to a reset event; and preventing the reset event from re-initializing a predetermined portion of the debug configuration information in the plurality of shared processor resources. This allows processor debugging through reset events without losing the debug information.
US07681076B1
A method and an apparatus to perform fast log replay have been disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes preloading a buffer with data based on a catalog in response to a failure of a storage server and replaying a log as the buffer is being preloaded, wherein replaying the log comprises re-executing a set of modifying operations previously logged in a local non-volatile storage device in the storage server using the data preloaded.
US07681073B2
An arbitration mechanism is provided for arbitrating between redundant controllers having outputs electrically connected together and provided as input to at least one device under control. The arbitration mechanism includes logic for automatically determining which controller of the redundant controllers is active controller, and a hardware output interlock for the redundant controllers to ensure that output controlled by only the active controller is enabled as input to the at least one device. The arbitration mechanism also includes logic for monitoring the active controller for failure, and upon detection of failure, for automatically switching active control to another controller of the redundant controllers transparent to the at least one device.
US07681070B2
Replacement data for updating data recorded on an information storage medium is recorded in an area for logical overwrite (LOW) replacement; replacement data for replacing a defect generated on the medium is recorded in an area for defect replacement; and, if a defect is generated in an original block recorded in a predetermined area of the medium during a read-modify-write (RMW) process for a LOW for at least partial data of an original block, a replacement block replacing the original block is recorded in the area for LOW replacement and a defect list (DFL) entry including location information of the original block and location information of the replacement block is generated to indicate the replacement state.
US07681059B2
A sleep/awake circuit includes an infrared receiving/sending module, a micro-control circuit, and a bus control circuit. The micro-control circuit sends a command signal to the infrared receiving/sending module at predetermined intervals. The infrared receiving/sending module detects the presence or absence of a user and then sends a signal back to the micro-control circuit indicating a result. According to the result, the micro-control circuit exchanges data and clock signals with the bus control circuit. The bus control circuit then sends control signals to the computer to control sleep/awake states of the computer.
US07681058B2
In standby mode, memory contents are saved to a hard disk. After AC power has been removed by disconnecting the AC plug, when the AC power is restored the data saved on the hard disk is automatically restored into memory to set the power-saving mode back to the standby mode. When the power is turned on next, quick resumption from standby mode can be accomplished.
US07681056B2
Dynamic power management in a processor design is presented. A pipeline stage's stall detection logic detects a stall condition, and sends a signal to idle detection logic to gate off the pipeline's register clocks. The stall detection logic also monitors a downstream pipeline stage's stall condition, and instructs the idle detection logic to gate off the pipeline stage's registers when the downstream pipeline stage is in a stall condition as well. In addition, when the pipeline stage's stall detection logic detects a stall condition, either from the downstream pipeline stage or from its own pipeline units, the pipeline stage's stall detection logic informs an upstream pipeline stage to gate off its clocks and thus, conserve more power.
US07681054B2
Processing system performance is improved while meeting power management constraints in a processing system by using activity factor headroom estimation. The method and system estimate the power consumption of the system from a model that relates measured activities at a present operating point to power consumption for any available operating point of one or more processors in the system. The method then chooses the operating point(s) with the highest performance among the available operating points that will still meet budgetary constraints or specific thresholds of power consumption. The budgetary constraints or specific thresholds may be dynamically adjusted, and the method will update the operating point(s) to maintain safe operation and maximize performance. The method provides the best performance for the executing workload while ensuring safe operation.
US07681051B2
A method of transitioning a port in a communication system from an active state to a standby state includes the steps of transmitting a signal to transition the port to the standby state, and, upon transmission of the signal to transition the port to the standby state, transitioning the port from the active state into the standby state without entering a suspended state. The port may be a physical layer interface port and the communication system may be an IEEE 1394-compliant communication system.
US07681050B2
A device (e.g., mobile device) and method are described herein that can protect data stored in a rewritable openly accessible memory from replay attacks by using an integrity key and an encryption key to en/decrypt the data, integrity protect the data via a MAC calculation, and verify the data.
US07681046B1
A system with secure cryptographic capabilities using a hardware specific digital secret.
US07681043B1
Systems and methods that may configure features or functions of a device, such as a set top box, for example, using a chip are provided. The chip may include a processor and a memory array. The memory array may include a non-volatile memory and may be in communications with the processor. The non-volatile memory may include a set of mode control bits, each mode control bit being one-time programmable. The device features may be securely programmed via the set of mode control bits of the non-volatile memory that may be programmed during a programming cycle and may not be modified further after the completion of the programming cycle.
US07681034B1
Techniques for securing electronic data and keeping the electronic data secured at all times are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a client module in a client machine is configured to provide access control to secured documents that may be located in a local store, another computer machine or somewhere over a data network. The client module includes a document-securing module configured to operate in a path through which a document being accessed is caused to pass so that the document can be examined or detected for the security nature. If the document is secured, the document-securing module obtains a user or group key to decrypt security information in the secured document for access rules therein. If a user accessing the document is determined to have the access privilege to the secured document, a file key is retrieved from the security information and a cipher module is activated to decrypt the encrypted data portion with the file key. Likewise, if a document is to be secured, the cipher module encrypts clear data from the document to create the encrypted data portion. The document-securing module integrates proper or desired security information with the encrypted data portion to produce the secured document.
US07681031B2
Briefly, a method and apparatus to authenticate messages according to a message authentication code provided with a frame over a transport layer of a communication channel.
US07681029B1
The invention concerns a device and a method for controlling a portable object life cycle, in particular a smart card, the life cycle being determined by successive state transitions, which states determine the services offered by the object. The object includes a processing unit, program storage units and data storage units, each storage unit having a content defining a plurality of configurations. The device controls the transition from a first state to a second state of the object and, preferably triggers actions when the transition crossover from one state to another occurs or when a transition crossover request is denied. The actions are dependent on the type of transitions implied in the requests for state transition crossover applied to the object.
US07681028B2
A set-top terminal and related methods is provided that, in one embodiment, comprises a memory with proactive reboot logic and a processor configured with the proactive reboot logic to detect an indication of a critical condition associated with the set-top terminal, determine based on a current status of resources in the set-top terminal if a current time provides an opportunity for a reboot of the set-top terminal in a manner that reduces user intrusiveness, and effect a rebooting of the set-top terminal if the current time provides the opportunity, otherwise postponing the reboot.
US07681011B1
A SAN management agent performs range based partitioning according to subranges of a set of storage devices. Partitions expressed as a range of storage objects (e.g. storage devices), based on device Ids, rather than static partition labels, allows the partitions to dynamically change to suit a current SAN configuration and number of storage devices in the storage arrays. Typically, management information is in the form of updates to a particular storage object. Accordingly, each update record in an update set is attributable to a device ID of the storage object to which it pertains. Identification of partitions by a range of storage devices allows the update records to be indexed, or grouped, to a particular partition without persisting a fixed partition ID with the data. The device ID range defines a partition that remains a logical quantity which may change upon SAN reconfiguration by avoiding persisting a fixed partition ID to the update records.
US07681010B2
Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for managing a file system. The apparatus of managing file system including a user input unit that an input value corresponding to a predetermined data is input, a data storage unit comprising several data blocks having a predetermined size able to store the data, and a information storage unit that stores data information about the data stored in the data block, and a control unit that stores data corresponding to the input value in an empty space of each data block by using the stored data information.
US07681009B2
A command is received to perform an update operation on a first component of code contained in a plurality of memory blocks in a memory. It is determined whether or not the update operation requires additional space, beyond that which is already allocated to the first component, to complete the operation. A first memory block is located on which to perform the operation if the update operation requires additional space. A second memory block is located, through utilization of a database, to perform the operation if the update operation does not require additional space. The update operation is performed.
US07681006B2
An integrated circuit memory device is designed for high speed data access and for compatibility with existing memory systems. An address strobe signal is used to latch a first address. During a burst access cycle the address is incremented internal to the device with additional address strobe transitions. A new memory address is only required at the beginning of each burst access. Read/Write commands are issued once per burst access eliminating the need to toggle the Read/Write control line at the device cycle frequency. Transitions of the Read/Write control line during a burst access will terminate the burst access, reset the burst length counter and initialize the device for another burst access. The device is compatible with existing Extended Data Out DRAM device pinouts, Fast Page Mode and Extended Data Out Single In-Line Memory Module pinouts, and other memory circuit designs. Additionally, a DRAM is provided having both pipelined and burst Extended Data Out modes of operation and the ability to switch between them.
US07681003B2
An adapter includes registers, a local context table, and logic that allows copying hardware context structures from a first location in memory to a second location in memory while the computer system continues to run. The local context table in the adapter is loaded with a desired block of context entries from the first location in memory. Values in the registers cause the adapter to write this desired block of context entries to the second location in memory in a way that does not inhibit the operation of the computer system.
US07681000B2
A system for protecting supervisor mode data from user code in a register window architecture of a processor is provided. The system, when transitioning from supervisor mode to user mode, setting at least one invalid window bit in the invalid window mask of the architecture additional to the invalid window bit set for the reserved window of the invalid window mask. The additional bit is set for a transition window between supervisor and user data windows.
US07680998B1
A backup is performed by a client at a time when a backup server is unable to process the backup. The client maintains a cache including a root tag vector and hash entries. The client begins a backup by writing the root tag vector to a journal file and breaking files into pieces. For each piece, the client performs a hash and compares the resulting hash to entries in the cache. If the hash does not match any entries, the client records a request in the journal file to add the corresponding piece of data to an archive. After completing the backup, the journal file can be sent to the server. Before processing the journal file, the server validates the root tag vector. If the root tag vector is valid, the server processes each of the requests to add data. Otherwise, the server discards the journal file.
US07680996B2
At the beginning of an online backup operation, the backup software system creates a snapshot of source data storage. The snapshot includes a watch-list used for identifying blocks of a source storage which are watched by snapshot management means for update. If a block included into the watch-list was requested for update, the snapshot management means preserve original contents of that block in a retention container for the purpose of temporary store. The retention container includes a set of temporal stores dedicated for transient storing of blocks until they are backed up. Backed up blocks can be operatively excluded from the snapshot so that unchanged blocks are excluded from the watch-list and updated blocks are removed from the retention container.
US07680991B2
A system and method for correlated analysis of wasted space and capacity efficiency in complex storage infrastructures are provided. The system and method of the illustrative embodiments bring together wasted space data from all areas and components of the storage infrastructure into a single set of reports correlating information from these various sources in the storage infrastructure. In addition, correlated analysis of this collected information is performed with regard to wasted space. Logical storage devices of the storage infrastructure which are unused by host systems may be identified and appropriate corrective actions may be automatically taken. Moreover, automated recommendations and other automated corrective actions may be taken based upon the correlated analysis of the correlated data collected from the various components of the storage infrastructure.
US07680990B2
Atomic sixteen-byte memory accesses are provided in a 64-bit system in which eight of the bytes are stored in a 64-bit general-purpose register and eight of the bytes are stored in a 64-bit special-purpose register. A 16-byte load instruction transfers the low eight bytes to an explicitly specified general-purpose register, while the high eight bytes are transferred to the special-purpose register. Likewise, a 16-byte store instruction transfers data from a general-purpose register and the special-purpose register. Also provided is an 8-byte compare conditioning a 16-byte exchange semaphore instruction that can be used to accelerate algorithms that use multiple processors to simultaneously read and update large databases.
US07680987B1
A technique involves providing access to shared data based on enhanced standard virtual memory mechanisms. Once data from a shared area of memory is moved into primary memory of a first computerized device from a second computerized device, the first computerized device can retain that data in order to shorten the latency of subsequent accesses. Such a technique can be configured to handle shared data at the sub-page-granular level using sparse virtual pages to minimize memory access contention and thus improve the likelihood of quick re-hits. Furthermore, such a technique can be conveniently accomplished through an enhancement to a common page fault handler of an operating system and utilizing atomic remote access support from a standard communications protocol thus alleviating the need to employ more costly and complicated solutions such as inflexible hardware implementations or independent programs that could pose additional design burdens and reliability concerns.
US07680982B2
In a data storage subsystem with disk storage and a pair of clusters, one set of DASD fast write data is in cache of one cluster and in non-volatile data storage of the other. In response to a failover of one of the pair of clusters to a local cluster, the local cluster converts the DASD fast write data in local cache to converted fast write data to prioritize the converted data for destaging to disk storage. In response to failure to destage, the local cluster allocates local non-volatile storage tracks and emulates a host adapter to store the converted fast write data by the local non-volatile storage, reconverting the converted fast write data of the non-volatile storage to local DASD fast write data stored in the local non-volatile storage and stored in the local cache storage.
US07680980B2
An image forming apparatus includes a scanner, a hard disk drive in which a region at which data is stored is divided into a plurality of regions by partitions, a pointer setting unit in which a first pointer for storing image data generated on the basis of an image read by the scanner at one region of the plurality of regions, and a plurality of second pointers which are provided so as to correspond to the regions other than the region in order to store data other than the image data at regions other than the region are set, and a pointer replacing unit configured to replace the first pointer with one pointer of the plurality of second pointers in predetermined timings.
US07680972B2
A system and method is provided for improved interrupt handling via a micro interrupt handler. Upon an interrupt signal being sent to a processor running a task, a first part of the running task is stored to system memory via direct memory access. A micro interrupt handler is read from the system memory to begin handling the interrupt signal. A second part of the running task is stored to system memory via direct memory access. The micro interrupt handler is executed and read and the previous running task is read from direct memory access and restored. Long lag times for interrupt processing and inefficiencies in processor queues are avoided.
US07680960B2
A method for interworking between a first signaling network and a second signaling network is provided. The first signaling network includes a first signaling point and a signaling transfer point, and the second signaling network includes a second signaling point, the first signaling network is connected with the second signaling network via an interworking point. The method includes: receiving by the interworking point a first signaling point TransFer Prohibited message from the first signaling network; detecting all the links between the interworking point and the first signaling network, if there is any interworking link, dropping the TransFer Prohibited message; otherwise, transmitting a Signaling Unavailable message to the second signaling point. This invention also provides an interworking point of signaling networks and a communication system. In this invention, TFP message in narrowband MTP3 protocol and DUNA message the broadband M3UA protocol are combined for informing the route state.
US07680959B2
A peer-to-peer (P2P) network for providing real time media recommendations is provided. The media recommendations may be song recommendations or video recommendations. Each time a media presentation is played by a peer device, the peer device provides a recommendation identifying the media presentation to other peer devices in the P2P network. A peer device having received recommendations from the other peer devices in the P2P network then programmatically, or automatically, selects a next media presentation to play from the media presentations recently played by the other peer devices and one or more locally stored media presentations. If the selected media presentation is not stored locally by the peer device, the peer device may obtain the selected media presentation from a subscription based service enabling streaming or download of the selected media presentation, an e-commerce service enabling purchase and download of the selected media presentation, or another peer device.
US07680955B2
Disclosed is a self-cleansing intrusion tolerance-domain name systems system comprising at least three DNS servers, at least four storage systems accessible by the DNS servers, a communications link, a message transfer mechanism, and a self-cleansing mechanism. The storage systems include at least three online storage systems and at least one offline storage system. The communications link can connect the DNS servers with the storage systems, as well as connect the DNS servers with a local area network, which can connect the DNS servers with an external network. The message transfer mechanism can rotate the DNS servers into a plurality of roles, including a primary role, a secondary role, a designated role, and a self-cleansing role. The self-cleansing mechanism can be used to perform the self-cleansing role.
US07680950B1
A system and method related to efficiently searching for an object in a network including a plurality of realms, e.g., a plurality of local area networks (LANs). The method may ensure that nodes within a LAN are able to locate objects within that LAN using only computing resources on the local LAN. Thus, expensive WAN transfers may be avoided where possible. The system may also scale to many nodes. Nodes may not be required to know about every other node in the system. Mechanisms for re-distributing object location information among nodes as nodes are added to and removed from the system are also described.
US07680944B1
A low latency peripheral device sharing system has a host computer with an operating system, a kernel memory buffer, applications, device specific drivers, and a peripheral server driver. The server driver intercepts function calls invoking the local serial ports, and passes standard serial data from the application to a local area network. A device server on the local area network reads the data using a hybrid read block (semi-blocking read), and writes the data to the FIFO registers of the serial device and the remaining data to a queue for the serial device. Finally, the device server times the serial data and returns an intercharacter interval timer flag to the host computer to terminate a read operation.
US07680941B2
The present invention provides software developers with the capability to create applications that can access information online and offline without having to program such capabilities into their applications. An application can gather information from various remote data sources via a network or other communication means, and still have access to all or a portion of that information when the computing device running the application is no longer connected to the network. In one embodiment, a client manages information access, caching and synchronization for the application. When connected, information accessed is stored in a local data store on (or near) the computing device. When disconnected, requests are run against the local data store instead of the remote data source. When reconnected, information is synchronized between the local data store and the remote data source.
US07680930B2
A security infrastructure and methods are presented that inhibit the ability of a malicious node from disrupting the normal operations of a peer-to-peer network. The methods of the invention allow both secure and insecure identities to be used by nodes by making them self-verifying. When necessary or opportunistic, ID ownership is validated by piggybacking the validation on existing messages. The probability of connecting initially to a malicious node is reduced by randomly selecting to which node to connect. Further, information from malicious nodes is identified and can be disregarded by maintaining information about prior communications that will require a future response. Denial of service attacks are inhibited by allowing the node to disregard requests when its resource utilization exceeds a predetermined limit. The ability for a malicious node to remove a valid node is reduced by requiring that revocation certificates be signed by the node to be removed.
US07680929B1
Determining the operating system of a target computer is disclosed. Subject information describing one or more attributes of the target computer is received. Reference information describing one or more attributes of a reference is received. The subject information is compared with the reference information. A score associated with the comparison is determined.
US07680924B2
A method and system for providing system event notifications to clients such as applications. Clients register for notification of one or more types of events with a registration mechanism, and a System Event Notification Service, (SENS), receives system event information and fires event notifications in response thereto. A distribution mechanism selectively communicates the fired event to each client registered for notification thereof based on the type of event. Events include network events, for which the service monitors the connectivity state of the machine, including whether a connection is established or lost, the type of connection (LAN/WAN) and bandwidth information. To monitor a LAN state, the service caches outgoing and incoming network information including errors and packet counts and statistically evaluates this cached information against current information to determine whether the connection is established or lost. The service also determines if a destination (IP address or name) is reachable, by periodically polling destinations. Other system event notifications may be fired, including logon or logoff operations and power management events.
US07680922B2
A method and apparatus for assessing a communications' network adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) is presented. The apparatus includes a arrival curve parameter derivation and arrival curve parameter reporting means. A arrival curve parameter generator may be implemented either in hardware for a predefined response in fitting arrival curves to cumulative content arrival variations, or in software for flexibility in the content traffic considered for assessment. The arrival curve generator may be associated with a physical port, a line card, or a network node. Arrival curve parameters defining arrival curves are employed by a Network Management System (NMS) in conjunction with communications network node and communications network service curves in performing SLA conformance assessments. The advantages are derived from a distributed content traffic characterization in terms of arrival curves, a reduced resource overhead in conveying arrival curve parameters without sacrificing SLA assessment thoroughness.
US07680910B2
A method for automatically registering the runtime environment and related component applications with an application gateway when transferring the applications from a first wireless device to a second wireless device is provided. Applications installed on the first wireless device are registered with an application gateway, which maintains a registration list of identification information for all registered wireless devices and applications installed thereon. A back-up is created of the applications and registration information for the runtime environment installed on the first wireless device for transfer to a second wireless device. An application container of the second wireless device determining installation and communicating to the application gateway identification information regarding the second wireless device and the restored applications. The application gateway registers the second wireless device by updating the registration list with the identification information for the second wireless device and the applications installed thereon.
US07680905B1
A user selects one or more storage area network resources for purposes of viewing respective configuration information. Based on a respective selection by the user, a management control system determines whether it maintains corresponding configuration information associated with the selected one or more resources. If so, the management control system generates a respective configuration view for the user to view respective configuration information associated with the selected one or more resources. If not, the management control system identifies a remote server that manages the selected one or more resources and communicates with the remote server to convey a configuration view generated by the remote server through the management control system to the user for viewing on a display screen. Thus, the management control system can either serve the requested configuration information to a client or act as a proxy for retrieving and serving the requested configuration information to the user.
US07680901B2
A Web site, through the use of a Rules Engine, determines an expertise level of a User for one or more topics on a Web page. The Rules Engine may analyze User related data, such as the search term used by the User to find the Web site, the past products purchased by the User, the path through the Web site taken by the User, the usage history by the User on the Web site, the demographics of the User and/or the self declared expertise level of the User, to determine an expertise level of the User for the topics on the Web page. A Display Engine may customize a Web page based on the expertise levels of a User so that topics on the Web page are presented in a manner most appropriate for the User. An Email Engine may be used to customize emails to the User so that topics in the email are presented in manner most appropriate for the User. A Support Entity Engine may also be used to route an incoming support inquiries from a User to an appropriate technical support person for the User.
US07680893B2
A method, system and computer program product that creates a transport dictionary, which links preferential terms and definitions to the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) of an outgoing electronic mail (email). Prior to sending a message, users are provided the option of transporting words or acronyms unique to the dictionary of the sender and recipient, which have been utilized in the outgoing email message. Linking dictionary preferences to the outgoing email provides clarity to terms utilized in the email message and decreases the amount of time a responder has to spend skipping, adding, or defining terms that are unique to the incoming MUA dictionary.
US07680892B2
A system for monitoring email and website behavior of an email recipient is provided. According to one exemplary embodiment, the system includes a mail enhancement server and a logging server. The mail enhancement server is configured to intercept all outgoing emails from a mail server. The mail enhancement server then modifies each outgoing email to include a tracking code. The tracking code is embedded in an image call which in turn is also inserted into the outgoing email. If the outgoing email contains hyperlinks, each hyperlink is also modified to include the tracking code. The tracking code is uniquely associated with the outgoing email. The image call (and the tracking code) is used to detect when the recipient of the outgoing email has opened that email. The tracking code, when embedded in a hyperlink, is also used to monitor whether the recipient has opened the email and/or clicked through on one or more of the hyperlinks in the email. The logging server associates a cookie with the recipient of the outgoing email. When the logging server receives an image call, the corresponding image and the cookie are concurrently delivered to the recipient. The cookie is used to monitor the behavior of the recipient at a website, regardless of how the recipient arrives at that website, be it through a click-through from the email or otherwise. The logging server is configured to capture and store relevant information relating to the outgoing email thereby allowing the sender of the outgoing email and the recipient to be linked and the behavior of the recipient to be monitored via the tracking code, the image call and the cookie.
US07680881B2
A method is provided for associating content objects with a database wherein the content objects are accessible over a network communication medium by a user. The method includes: receiving a suggestion for a new content object for addition to the database; approving the suggested content object; generating a list of information users desiring the approved content object; compelling an information provider to provide the desired content object based at least in part on demand identified by the generated list; and making the generated content object available to the database.
US07680875B1
Markers are established in a data object to provide a means to refer to specified parts of the object. Each marker is established within the object by giving the location and length of the part of the object that is to be marked. The marker continues to mark that part of the object as changes are made elsewhere in the object. As data is received into the cache computer it is stored in a sequence of buffers. A plurality of filters, all executing concurrently, search for different interesting string in the object. Each filter finds its interesting strings and marks them using the markers. The result of filtering data of the object is a marker attribute table identifying each of the markers by the offset and length of the interesting strings located by the filters. Vend time is the time at which the object is streamed out of the cache to a client computer. Before the data is vended, a User Data Filter (UDF) executes a call function which sets up a string substitution table. The substitution table has entries for substitution, including the offset at which to make the substitution and the string to be substituted into the streaming object. A byte counter tracks the outgoing data stream of the object, and whenever the byte count matches an offset of a marker, the length entry in the marker attribute table determines the length of an omitted string, and the substitute string is placed in the outgoing data stream.
US07680873B2
Methods and apparatus for efficient complex long multiplication and covariance matrix implementation
Efficient computation of complex long multiplication results and an efficient calculation of a covariance matrix are described. A parallel array VLIW digital signal processor is employed along with specialized complex long multiplication instructions and communication operations between the processing elements which are overlapped with computation to provide very high performance operation. Successive iterations of a loop of tightly packed VLIWs may be used allowing the complex multiplication pipeline hardware to be efficiently used.
US07680871B2
Function properties may be approximated using an expander graph. For example, an approximate average of a function may be determined by randomly exploring an expander graph. Values of the function are associated with vertices of the expander graph. The expander graph is randomly explored by traversing edges and encountering vertices. The exploration may comprise a crawl, a walk, and so forth. An approximate average of the function is determined based on the function values that are associated with encountered vertices.
US07680869B2
An interpolation filter for interpolating a digital signal includes a cascade of template filters, each having an identical template transfer function A(z), which is arranged to receive and filter an input sequence representing the digital signal sampled at an input sampling rate. Ancillary circuitry is coupled to the cascade so as to produce first and second phase outputs. A multiplexer is arranged to multiplex the phase outputs in order to generate an output sequence having an output sampling rate equal to twice the input sampling rate.
US07680866B2
An object-oriented system for managing relational numerical data includes a relation interface that provides access to a relation and its attributes and tuples, where an attribute is a data item with a numeric value and a relation is a set of n-tuples of attribute values, where the relation interface maintains its tuples in a fixed order and is adapted to selecting subsets of attributes and/or tuples where a new relation interface instance is created, an iterator interface for iterating over the tuples of a relation, where the iterator is adapted to acquiring the tuple attribute data as data is being accessed, and a notification interface for notifying other classes whenever changes occur in a relation interface instance.
US07680859B2
A computer implemented method of generating an ordered list of geographical locations having similarities in preselected categories relative to a first geographical location.
US07680851B2
A method and system for introducing spam into a search engine for testing purposes is provided. An active spam testing system receives from a tester a specification of spam that is to be introduced into the search engine for testing purposes. The testing system may then generate auxiliary data structures for storing indications of the spam that is to be introduced. A search engine has original data structures that may include a content index and a link data structure. The testing system stores the indications of the spam in the auxiliary data structures so that use of the search engine for non-testing purposes is not affected. When the search engine is used for testing purposes, the search engine generates search results based on a combination of the original data structures and the auxiliary data structures.
US07680845B2
A contents delivery system including a network player and plural network servers. When the network player transmits a contents acquisition requirement to one of the network servers, the network server detects a CPU load, and when the CPU load is judged to exceed a CPU load threshold, the network server judges whether contents which the network player requires to acquire were copied to any of network server. When the contents are judged to have been copied, the network server obtains from a HDD not only a contents URI corresponding to the copied contents but also a server ID corresponding to the network server in which the contents were copied and subsequently transmits the contents URI and the server ID to the network player. The network player a contents acquisition requirement to obtain contents, which corresponds to the contents URI, to the network server, which corresponds to the server ID.
US07680842B2
In one embodiment, a user or client device is connected to a distributed file system comprised of one or more physical nodes. The data on each of the physical nodes store metadata about files and directories within the file system. Some of the embodiments permit a user to take a snapshot of data stored on the file system. The snapshot may include a single file, a single directory, a plurality of files within a directory, a plurality of directories, a path on the file system that includes nested files and subdirectories, or more than one path on the file system that each includes nested files and directories. In one embodiment, the metadata comprises mini-snapshots for directories representing a path from the root of the file system to the root of the snapshot. The mini-snapshots serve as stand-ins for portions of the file system which are not included in the snapshot, but which permit access to the snapshot data in an intuitive way.
US07680810B2
The subject invention provides a unique system and method that facilitates creating a summary page of content associated with disparate sources of data. For example, a user can select one or more regions of one or more disparate web pages for which he/she desires updated information over a length of time. The selected regions can be identified and then marked for monitoring via a web crawler. The web crawler can analyze the relevant web pages, and in particular, only the selected regions to determine if any of the corresponding content have changed. Changes to other non-selected content can be ignored. The desired changes can be extracted and included on the summary page to mitigate the number of times a user must revisit individual web pages to see what if any changes have occurred since the previous visit.
US07680806B2
An apparatus and method for reducing overflow in a hash table lookup mechanism that moves entries from full or nearly full buckets in one hash table to less full buckets of another hash table. The number of bucket overflows caused by hashing input addresses can be reduced.
US07680803B2
Methods and apparatus for providing an open content interface from importing EH&S data. The invention provides a computer-implemented method that includes: receiving a first input specifying a substance described in a database of an EH&S system; identifying product data available for the substance, the identifying being based on information stored in a first XML file; generating and displaying a data tree that indicates the product data available for the substance, wherein information stored in the first XML file is used to generate the data tree; receiving a second input selecting which of the product data is to be imported to the database of the EH&S system; retrieving the product data from second XML file that includes the product data; using mapping information stored in a third XML file to map the product data retrieved into a data format supported by the EH&S system; and storing the mapped product data.
US07680800B2
When a data object is sent from one application to another, the marshaling code includes type information with transmission of the data object. When the data object is converted to the transmission format, type information for the data object is added to the transmission format element. The unmarshaling code uses the type information to obtain schema information for converting the transmission format element back to the data element.
US07680799B2
A distributed computing system conforms to a multi-level, hierarchical organizational model. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system in accordance with the organization model. The model includes four distinct levels: fabric, domains, tiers and nodes that provide for the logical abstraction and containment of the physical components as well as system and service application software of the enterprise. A user, such as a system administrator, interacts with the control nodes to logically define the hierarchical organization of distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem having one or more rule engines that provide autonomic control of the application nodes in accordance with a set of one or more rules.
US07680797B1
A preferred system for providing data access comprises an application program interface configured to delegate a request to at least one service providers also included in the system. The service providers may include a synchronization manager configured to maintain, based upon the request, data consistency between a first server containing the service providers and a second server and a cache manager configured to cache, based upon the request, a portion of a database query. In addition, the service providers may include a pre-fetch service configured to anticipate a database query, perform the anticipated query, and cache the results of the anticipated query, and a security manager configured to determine a restriction on the request based upon a role of a user associated with the request.
US07680795B2
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to data processing systems and more particularly to high availability data processing systems. A primary server may share a storage device with one or more clone systems. Each clone generally replicates the state of the primary server, but relies on the same disk-based storage as the primary server. Thus, the clone systems may provide a shadow of the primary server, ready to take over should the primary server fail. The clone systems may access a log file that includes entries reflecting the actions performed by the primary system. The primary server may flush entries from a log buffer maintained on the primary server to a log file stored on the shared disk-based storage. The primary server may also send a log sequence number to the clone systems, and the clone systems periodically transmit a log sequence number back to the primary server indicating how far through the log file a clone system has progressed.
US07680794B2
New lock modes are based on the concept of neighborhoods and are applied to spaces in indexes. The new lock modes include a Read, or shared, neighborhood (Snei) lock mode and a Write neighborhood (Xnei) that enhance concurrency among non-serializable transactions.
US07680785B2
Different URLs that actually reference the same web page or other web resource are detected and that information is used to only download one instance of a web page or web resource from a web site. All web pages or web resources downloaded from a web server are compared to identify which are substantially identical. Once identical web pages or web resources with different URLs are found, the different URLs are then analyzed to identify what portions of the URL are essential for identifying a particular web page or web resource, and what portions are irrelevant. Once this has been done for each set of substantially identical web pages or web resources (also referred to as an “equivalence class” herein), these per-equivalence-class rules are generalized to trans-equivalence-class rules. There are two rule-learning steps: step (1), where it is learned for each equivalence class what portions of the URLs in that class are relevant for selecting the page and what portions are not; and step (2), where the per-equivalence-class rules constructed during step (1) are generalized to rules that cover many equivalence classes. Once a rule is determined, it is applied to the class of web pages or web resources to identify errors. If there are no errors, the rule is activated and is then used by the web crawler for future crawling to avoid the download of duplicative web pages or web resources.
US07680783B2
Systems and methods are described that permit a user to configure an identification strategy at run time to facilitate user input of data. The identification strategy may include a parsing grammar and a search algorithm. The parsing grammar may be used to parse user input, and the search algorithm may be used to search a database for the user input. A configuring user may configure the parsing grammar at run time to accept data in a customized form to suit the user's input style. The search algorithm may be configured accordingly as well.
US07680774B2
A control system for enabling user access of data records stored in a relational database in an object oriented way has a first object model representing a class mapped to a table in the relational database, a second object model representing a query object modeled after the first object model according to the same modeling framework, a software parser for reading the information contained in the first and second object models, a model generator for building a representative model from aggregated information from the first and second models, and a code generator for scanning the representative model and generating the appropriate application code for each node in the representative model. The system is characterized in that a user supplies the input parameters for accessing the records desired from the database into a text receptacle of the second object model and executes the model causing subsequent application code-generation processing that drives the access to the records in the ordered manner, the records served as an object or objects to a user program from which such records were retrieved in a fashion requested and interpretable by the user program.
US07680764B2
Populating an XML index is parallelized, providing both inter-document and intra-document parallelism, by using multiple pull-type parser processes to parse respective XML documents in parallel and to call respective ‘instances’ of the function that generates the index entries based on parsed XML node information. The function is configured to operate according to a cursor-type interface model, whereby each function instance can operate on one node at a time in a controlled pull manner rather than in an uncontrolled streaming manner. Hence, the index load procedure flow can be in the control of an application or routine, via the pull parsers, rather than in the control of a serial stream-based parser.
US07680759B1
An application includes a variety of metadata and operations that may process the metadata. Selective portions of the metadata are identified and various combinations of available operations are automatically generated for the selective metadata. Each generated operation is then individually validated for syntax and semantics, without actually executing the operation.
US07680756B2
A presentation configuration system may receive metadata from multiple users utilizing tax preparation applications. The metadata may be tags or labels of interview segments of the tax preparation applications. The presentation configuration system may create community defined presentation structures from the metadata such that the community defined presentation structure includes an organization of interview segments within a tax preparation application. The community defined presentation structure may indicate how interview segments of a tax preparation application should be presented to a user. Furthermore, a tax preparation application may provide a user (e.g., a taxpayer) with multiple options corresponding to community defined presentation structures. The tax preparation application may receive a selection of one of the options from the user. Thus, the tax preparation application may present the tax preparation interview segments of the tax preparation application to the user according to the community defined presentation structure indicated by the option selected.
US07680744B2
Method for interdependently validating a digital content package and a corresponding digital license
A method is disclosed for a device to interdependently validate a digital content package having a piece of digital content in an encrypted form, and a corresponding digital license for rendering the digital content. A first key is derived from a source available to the device, and a first digital signature is obtained from the digital content package. The first key is applied to the first digital signature to validate the first digital signature and the digital content package. A second key is derived based on the first digital signature, and a second digital signature is obtained from the license. The second key is applied to the second digital signature to validate the second digital signature and the license.
US07680742B1
A system and method controls access to hardware and software functions by employing a codified electronic license that does not generally require application code modification. In response to customer purchases, highly configurable XML licenses containing lists of allowable CLI commands are generated, digitally signed, and transmitted to various customer systems over a network. The customer systems authenticate the licenses, extract the CLI command lists, and register the specified commands with a command processor internal to the customers' systems. Only registered commands are allowed to execute, preventing unlicensed hardware and software from operating on the system.
US07680732B1
A system and method for initiating and processing banking deposits. In a preferred embodiment, the system is maintained by a financial institution such as a bank and the bank's customers access the system through the Internet. The system provides a Graphical User Interface that allows the customers to view the bank's current rates for a plurality of currencies and a plurality of time periods. The customer selects the desired rate on the interface and the system automatically generates a deal ticket that is presented to the customer. The customer submits the deal ticket for trading. A confirmation of the trade occurs online and real time. The system has further utilities for the customers to view archives of previous deals, establish profiles and preferences and chat with bank representatives. The system further includes state of the art security in order to ensure the safety and confidentiality of the banking transactions.
US07680726B2
A bartering system implements barters between a plurality of parties each having one or more classes of items available for barter. Preferably, barter orders are created by designating a selected quantity of a first class of items to be bartered, designating a date range for transferring title of the first class items to be bartered, designating a barter value of the first class of items to be bartered, and designating a second class of items to be acquired. Barter orders are posted via the Internet to a barter database and may be displayed via the Internet. Posted barter orders whose first class of items match the second class of items of a barterer's order are preferably displayed. Posted barter orders from the display are selected to effectuate a barter transaction which combines a barterer's barter order with the selected posted order(s).
US07680724B2
Tools for trading and monitoring a commodity on an electronic exchange using a graphical user interface and a user input device. The tools will aid the trader in determining the status, trends in the market, and the trader's position in the market.
US07680717B2
A portfolio-analysis tool receives data that describe an actual portfolio. It computes from those data the returns or other performance measures of hypothetical portfolios whose holdings are drawn from the assets that the actual portfolio held during some period. Among the purposes of doing so is to detect biases made in investment-portfolio actions of the type taken, for instance, to accommodate cash inflows and withdrawals. For that purpose, differences between the hypothetical portfolio and the actual portfolio are so made as to offset portfolio actions identified by finding differences between the weights that positions actually exhibit and the weights they would result from return only. Returns for the hypothetical portfolio are computed by calculating an offset return incrementally, one such offset at a time, and then computing the hypothetical portfolio's return as the sum of quantities proportional to the offset return and that of the actual portfolio.
US07680716B1
A method, program product and system for interim allocation of excess funds in a control operating account in an intermediary bank prior to actual distribution to aggregated accounts, the method comprising: (a) monitoring the control operating account during an interim period prior to the distribution to determine for each of a plurality of the clients whether the funds held in the control operating account by that client exceeds a predetermined amount; (b) reallocating, for at least one of the clients that has been determined to have an amount of funds that exceed the predetermined amount in the control operating account, the amount of the funds listed in an electronic database for the one client in the control operating account by at least a second amount to reduce the funds held in the control operating account by the one client to at or below the predetermined amount; (c) allocating at least funds equal to or in excess of the second amount from the one or more destination aggregated accounts of the respective different deposit institutions to or among one or more eligible clients in the control operating account; and (d) distributing or having distributed to the one or more destination aggregated accounts in the different deposit institutions the funds in the control operating account.
US07680713B2
System and method regarding controlling a computer system and computing directed to constant dollar instruments. The method can include providing a computer system including a computer connected to an input device and to an output device; operating a computer program, at the computer, that facilitates: receiving, at the input means, input information; determining, from the input information, an infill index; receiving, at the input device, input financial product information; processing, at the computer, the input financial product information with the infill index to produce data corresponding to a constant dollar financial instrument; and outputting the data at the output device.
US07680710B2
A self-service terminal (10) having a user interface (14) and a surcharge application (54) for levying a surcharge on transactions is described. The terminal may be an ATM. The surcharge application (54) is operable to vary the rate of surcharge applied according to a predetermined criterion. The predetermined criterion may be based on the time at which a transaction is executed at the terminal, or upon the usage of the terminal prior to executing a transaction.
US07680701B2
Methods, articles of manufacture, and systems for providing access to a grid computing environment. In one environment, requests include resource specific criteria used to identify a particular grid resource to perform the request. In another embodiment, a request includes a queue criterion used to identify one of a plurality of queues on which the request is placed.
US07680697B2
A method of searching for a seller of a product. The method comprises the steps of: indicating a product; indicating a geographical search location; and searching for a seller of the product that is located within a search distance of the geographical search location.
US07680690B1
A methodology for customers seeking to purchase a meal from a food service vendor such as a restaurant, a cafeteria, or a vending machine, by ordering a food preparation based upon menu-selections. In addition to receiving ordered food, customers receive suggestions for optionally modifying their food orders based upon nutritional benefits and other criteria. Either during real-time customer-ordering or during post-ordering, a food-service vendor presents a customer suggestions specific to a pending tentative or completed order, wherein the customer may enjoy purported nutritional benefits by electing to follow these suggestions and thereby modify the tentative order into a corresponding completed order. Alternatively, the customer may elect to ignore these suggestions, but may nonetheless decide to effect such food-ordering modifications during subsequent visits. The food selection criteria implemented by a food service vendor is independent of individual customer identity and preferences, and are flexible and readily adaptable to accommodate changes such as a food service vendor's marketing strategy, customer-food preferences, discoveries pertaining to nutrition and consequent good health; and may be adapted to a plethora of food service environments. The preferred embodiment contemplates a restaurant environment in which customers typically approach a food-ordering counter and interface with both a menu display and with order-taking personnel. Other embodiments implicate kiosks, vending machines, remote access devices, and locally and remotely-accessed networked computers, wherein customers interact with automated computer-driven devices instead of or in addition to wait-staff or other food service personnel.
US07680686B2
The present invention relates to business to business market price control and management systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for generating price modeling and optimization modules in a business to business market setting wherein price changes are optimized to achieve desired business results.
US07680680B2
Methods and systems for providing claims data to a liability assesment program are provided. In one embodiment, data regarding a vehicle accident may be provided to a liability assessment program via a graphical user interface. The data may include information regarding one or more vehicles in the accident and an assessment of the vehicle accident. The data may be stored in a memory associated with the liability assessment program.
US07680677B2
The present invention relates to systems and methods for intellectual property asset selection and protection. In an embodiment, an intellectual property selection system receives from an innovator an innovation submission describing an innovation. An intellectual property protection system receives at least a portion of the innovation submission and manages obtaining an intellectual property legal right related to the innovation. An intellectual property asset management system receives and stores at least one of an innovation description and an intellectual property legal right description, where the innovation description is based at least in part on the at least a portion of the innovation submission and the intellectual property legal right description is based at least in part on the intellectual property legal right.
US07680675B1
The potential validity of complaints, including those relating to intellectual property rights, may be automatically determined. In one implementation, whether a complaint is determined to be valid is based on a history of complaints of the complaining party.
US07680657B2
Possible segmentations for an audio signal are scored based on distortions for feature vectors of the audio signal and the total number of segments in the segmentation. The scores are used to select a segmentation and the selected segmentation is used to identify a starting point and an ending point for a speech signal in the audio signal.
US07680655B2
A method and apparatus are provided for determining the quality of a speech transmission, including temporal clipping, delay and jitter, using a carefully constructed test signal (300) and digital signal processing techniques. The test signal that is to be transmitted through a speech transmission system (100) is created (700). Then the test signal is transmitted through the speech transmission system such that the speech transmission system creates an output signal that corresponds to the input signal, as modified by the speech transmission system (702). The test signal includes multiple segments (500) of speech signals interleaved with periods of silence. The periods of silence vary in duration according to a predefined pattern. Each segment of speech signals includes multiple predefined speech samples or symbols (400, 402, 404, 406, 408, 410, 412, 414) interleaved with a plurality of silence gaps. The speech samples have a common period of duration, but the silence gaps do not. The output signal from the speech transmission system is preferably recorded (704) and analyzed to determine its quality, including temporal clipping (706). This analysis preferably includes comparing the output signal with a reference signal derived from the test signal using a cross correlation function. A processor (114) coupled to memory (116) records and analyzes the output signal.
US07680652B2
A signal enhancement system improves the understandability of speech or other audio signals. The system reinforces selected parts of the signal, may attenuate selected parts of the signal, and may increase SNR. The system includes delay logic, an adaptive filter, and signal reinforcement logic. The adaptive filter may track one or more fundamental frequencies in the input signal and outputs a filtered signal. The filtered signal may approximately reproduce the input signal approximately delayed by an integer multiple of the signal's fundamental frequencies. The reinforcement logic combines the input signal and the filtered signal output to produce an enhanced signal output.
US07680650B2
A very low bit rate communication system. In preferred embodiments, an off-the-shelf module is adapted to convert a speaker's voice to text. A processor is provided to separate the text into individual words. The processor is programmed with a dictionary which provides pre-assigned specific 14-bit numeric values to each word in the dictionary (words used more frequently may be assigned shorter codes). The processor creates a numeric stream from 14-bit numeric values and this numeric stream is then transmitted to a receiver. Typical speech contains 4 words/second, so bit rates as low as 50 bits/second may be achieved with this technique. At the receiving end, the stream of received 14-bit numeric values, representing the speaker's words, are looked up in a dictionary identical to that at the transmitting end and the text of the words reconstructed. Text-to-speech techniques common to the industry are then used to regenerate the speech.
US07680645B2
Described is a technology by which software program feature usage is located within a sequence of commands collected during program usage sessions. For example, feature generally corresponds to a series of commands, such as copy and paste. A visual modeling component is controlled via drag-and-drop operations to describe a feature model, which is then compiled by a compiler into a finite state machine. Noise models may be used to exclude any command in the sequence that is irrelevant to the feature usage. A recognition process uses the finite state machine to locate program feature usage within the sequence of recorded commands by matching command sub-sequences corresponding to the feature model via the state machine. An analyzer may then use the located matches to provide an analysis report on feature usage.
US07680640B2
Systems and methods for utilizing finite difference simulation results to compute streamline trajectories, which may be used to analyze the results with other streamline techniques.
US07680634B2
A system and appertaining algorithm provide a cutting and shaping of the hearing aid shell using an Ellipsoidal Line Cut that increases the speed of detailing operations and enables a creation of more cosmetically appealing shells. A contour algorithm determines a projected contour on the bottom cut plane that corresponds in shape to a portion of the line cut plane contour, and a merger algorithm defines a line cut surface between the portion of the line cut plane contour and the projected contour. An elimination algorithm eliminates parts of the new hearing aid shell design that extend beyond boundaries defined by the original hearing aid shell design.
US07680633B2
A computed design of a composite camera having multiple digital imaging devices is generated automatically in accordance with the following process. A target volume to be captured by the composite camera and a target resolution for capturing the target volume are obtained. A representation of a view frustum of each of a plurality of digital imaging devices is generated based on at least one characteristic of each device. The digital imaging devices are organized based on the view frusta. A set of digital imaging devices is selected from the organized digital imaging devices, where the view frusta of the set of digital imaging devices substantially covers the target volume with at least the target resolution. The set of digital imaging devices are positioned based on each device's physical characteristics. A computed design of the composite camera that includes digital imaging devices held in position by a mechanical fixture is generated.
US07680631B2
A system for analyzing linear data is provided. The system comprises a datastore of linear data correlated by distance; a library of functions that may be performed on the linear data; computer executable code stored on a computer readable medium for performing an analysis of the sets of linear data based on the functions in the library.
US07680627B2
A most recent value of data fetched from a plant facility is temporarily stored and extracted and then stored in a plant history data table. On another front, a monitoring point for monitoring a plant error is registered in response to an operator request. A monitoring point is used as a key to select and register a main variable point having a strong correlation from the plant history data table. A statistical upper/lower limit function is defined on the basis of time-series plant data of monitoring points and main variable points. By referring to information in a table in which a limit value function is stored, the limit value is periodically matched with the content of a plant-data most-recent-value table. If the most recent value is outside the limit range, deviation information is stored in a determination result table. If a new plant error occurs, an error signal and the content of the determination result table is outputted and displayed.
US07680624B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that performs a real-time root-cause-analysis for a degradation event associated with a component under test. During operation, the system monitors a telemetry signal collected from the component, and while doing so, attempts to detect an anomaly in the telemetry signal. If an anomaly is detected in the telemetry signal, the system performs a failure analysis on the telemetry signal in real-time while the telemetry signal is degrading. Next, the system identifies a failure mechanism for the component based on the failure analysis.
US07680610B2
In a prediction of abrasion characteristic of a tire, a characteristic curve of a tire axis force generated on a tire rotation axis at the slip ratio applied to the tire and changed depending upon the slip ratio is acquired. From the characteristic curve, values of tire dynamic element parameters determining the characteristic curve are derived based on a tire dynamic model constituted by the tire dynamic element parameters. Furthermore, a tire sliding amount based on a sliding region, the sliding region and an adhesive region formed on the contact patch of the tire at the applied slip ratio are calculated by applying the values of the tire dynamic element parameters to the model. Lastly, an abrasion characteristic of a tread part of the tire at the applied slip ratio is predicted by using the tire sliding amount with abrasion characteristic data of a tread rubber of the tread part. According to the prediction results, a tire is designed and produced.
US07680608B2
The invention relates to a method of determining a spatial distribution of magnetic particles in an examination area, in which a magnetic field is generated which has a first part-region having a relatively low magnetic field strength and a second part-region having a relatively high magnetic field strength. The position of the two part-regions is changed, as a result of which the magnetization in the examination area changes, and real measured values which depend on the change in magnetization are recorded. A dependence distribution which depends on a spatial distribution of magnetic particles is then determined such that a sum which comprises as summands a) the difference of the real measured values from fictitious measured values which are determined by applying a transfer function to the dependence distribution, and b) the product of a regularization parameter and of a regularization value which is determined by applying the regularization functional to the dependence distribution, is minimized. Finally, the spatial distribution of magnetic particles is determined by means of the determined dependence distribution.
US07680607B1
A System and Method for Gas Recognition by Analysis of Bispectrum Functions is based on the Higher-Order Spectral analysis of time series measurements of resistance fluctuations in Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors, such as Taguchi-type sensors. A two-dimensional contour plot module of the bispectrum function is treated as a pattern. These patterns include information about the analyte(s) whereby characteristics of the gas can be identified.
US07680606B2
A two-step alignment method for temporally aligning LC-MS data files representative of three-dimensional chromatographic surfaces is disclosed. The method includes a pre-alignment step whereby the data files are roughly aligned using a transformation-based correlation analysis of base peak information. The pre-aligned files are used as input to a full alignment step, in which a correlation matrix is computed from the full MS scan information, and an optimal path is traced through the resultant correlation matrix to identify corresponding scan numbers. The use of the pre-alignment step substantially reduces the computational expense of the full alignment step and improves the accuracy and reliability of the alignment.
US07680599B1
An explosive device detection system includes sensors and base station that detect and report on suspected Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) or landmine emplacement activity within a geographic area. When disposed within a geographic area, each sensor forms part of a wireless communications network which allows communication among neighboring sensors. As a sensor detects activity in its proximity, such as activity that indicates emplacement of an IED, the sensor transmits a reporting signal through the network to the base station. The neighboring sensors receive and transmit the reporting signal in a sequential manner toward the base station. Because the reporting signal takes multiple hops toward the base station, the sensors do not require large amounts of power to transmit the signal. Furthermore, the detection system allows detection of IED emplacement within the geographic area as the activity occurs. As a result, the base station can direct mobile response units to take immediate responsive action to prevent detonation of the IED's.
US07680598B2
When an in-link type of in-link attribute data is a tunnel, a system controller specifies the positions of both ends of a tunnel on the basis of a annotation true position shape of the in-link attribute data, and generates annotation data for displaying a tunnel symbol for each of the specified both ends.
US07680595B2
A vehicle with a positional tracking unit traverses a specific route while collecting actual route data that includes position data indicative of the actual route followed. The actual route data (including the position data) is stored as optimal route data for that specific route. Once the optimal route is defined and stored, future positional data (i.e., actual route data) collected during subsequent vehicle traversal of that specific route can be compared to the optimal route data. Whenever subsequently collected actual route data represents an improvement, as determined by one or more predefined criteria, the actual route data replaces the previously obtained optimal route data. Exception reports can be automatically generated by comparing the optimal route data to subsequently collected actual route data to determine when a deviation has occurred.
US07680584B2
A method of operating an internal combustion engine with direct gasoline injection and controlled self-ignition, wherein the internal combustion engine includes a combustion chamber, at least one intake valve and at least one exhaust valve each having an adjustable opening time. The method includes compressing an ignitable gas mixture that contains residual gas in the combustion chamber during a compression stroke, where the gas mixture self ignites, and altering step-wise over multiple combustion cycles at least one of a residual gas volume and a point of injection time to an interim value other than a value assigned to a target load during a load transfer from an initial load to the target load.
US07680583B2
A system and method for identifying the cylinders having the lowest (“weakest”) and highest (“strongest”) Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) utilizes engine speed derivative and/or higher order derivative values typically available in an engine control module by virtue of the need to detect misfire. A delta parameter is calculated that is indicative of the difference between the engine speed derivatives and/or higher order derivatives for the “weakest” and the “strongest” cylinders. Control action is then taken to balance the cylinders, based on the delta parameter, by first increasing torque for the “weakest” cylinder, by at least one increasing spark advance, increasing fuel, decreasing dilution (EGR) or slowing decay of fuel control on cold start. Once the weakest cylinder has been balanced, the control action is then directed to increasing torque of the new “weakest” cylinder.
US07680582B2
There is provided an idling rotation speed control apparatus that can reduce the development man-hours and the cost and that enables operation during a trolling cruise to be readily performed. The idling rotation speed control apparatus includes an engine rotation speed detection means, an engine temperature detection means, an engine idling driving state detection means, an engine load detection means, an intake air amount adjusting means for adjusting an amount of intake air during an idling state, and an ECU for controlling the intake air amount adjusting means during idling driving. The ECU includes a basic torque ratio calculation function for calculating a ratio of torque to be generated, to engine maximal torque, that is necessary for making the engine steadily operate at a target rotation speed during idling driving; a target torque ratio calculation function for correcting the basic torque ratio, in accordance with a difference between a target rotation speed and an engine rotation speed, and calculating a target torque ratio; a target air amount calculation function for calculating an air amount necessary for generating the target torque ratio; and an intake air amount adjusting function for controlling the intake air amount adjusting means, based on the calculated air amount.
US07680580B2
Apparatus and method for air/fuel ratio control for smoothening variation of air/fuel ratio among a plurality of cylinders of an internal combustion engine including a sensor for measuring output of the internal combustion engine. A device calculates a correlation function of each cylinder by taking cross-correlation of values measured by the sensor and a reference signal for each cylinder. A device then calculates a smoothing target value which is common for all of the cylinders. Cylinder controllers produce control input to the respective cylinders such that the correlation function converges to the smoothing target value.
US07680578B2
A system 10 for determining high accuracy gradient information includes linearization means 20, a sum unit 45, and state space model and observer means 50 for calculating a road gradient χRoad. The linearization means 20 includes an air resistance calculation unit 30 and a rolling resistance calculation unit 40. The means 50 includes a state space model 60 and a state space observer 70. The sum unit 45 determines a total sum wheel force ΣFLij of wheel forces FLij. The linearization means 20 calculates an air resistance force FW and a rolling resistance force FR based on a vehicle velocity vCoG using approximation equations, calculates a linearized total sum force FSum by subtracting the air resistance force FW and the rolling resistance force FR from the wheel forces FLij, and inputs the linealized total sum force FSum to the state space model and observer means 50.
US07680565B2
A method of determining variations in operating characteristics of a mechanical system having a rotatory mode of operation and bearing balls entrained within a bearing balls recirculation system. There are provided the steps of first monitoring operating impulses generated by the mechanical system during a first interval of operation; first analyzing the operating impulses obtained during the first interval to determine the intensity and frequency of the operating impulses; first correlating the operating impulses obtained during the first interval to corresponding angular positions of the rotatory mode of operation; and first producing a first record of the intensity and frequency of the operating impulses obtained during the first interval correlated to the corresponding angular positions of the mechanical system. The health of bearing balls within the recirculation system is determined by monitoring the vibration characteristic of the recirculation system, which is correlatable to the specific bearing balls.
US07680563B2
A control method which quickly adjusts a plasma processing apparatus to a desired pressure regardless of gas type, gas flow rate or target pressure simply by optimizing constants. The plasma processing apparatus includes: gas supply means which supplies processing gas to a low pressure processing chamber; plasma generating means which supplies electromagnetic energy to the processing gas in the low pressure processing chamber and generates plasma; exhaust means which exhausts gas in the low pressure processing chamber; gas pressure measuring means which measures gas pressure in the low pressure processing chamber; exhaust speed adjusting means which adjusts exhaust speed of gas to be exhausted by the exhaust means; and an arithmetic and control unit calculates an exhaust speed to make the gas pressure measured by the pressure measuring means equal to a target value, and controls the exhaust speed adjusting means according to the calculation result.
US07680549B2
A device for diagnosing operation of an industrial process control or monitoring system includes an input configured to receive an input related to a process signal. A first statistical parameter module provides a first statistical parameter output related to a statistical parameter of the process signal. A filter provides a filter output related to a filtered value of the process signal. A second statistical parameter module provides a second statistical parameter output related to a statistical parameter of the filter output. A diagnostic module diagnoses operation of the industrial process based upon the first and second statistical parameters.
US07680548B2
The future of the utility industry will be defined by how its leaders can transform the grid from a “passive” network of cables, wires, poles, and other hardware to a self-aware and fully controllable grid system—an Intelligent Grid System (IGS). We will discuss a novel set of design guidelines for utilities (and other industries) to build their own Open Intelligent Grid System with the lowest possible risk and cost, while achieving the architectural criteria, technical features and functions required. We will discuss how to avoid the dead ends to which limited design and architecture can lead, and we will lay out the design solutions that will overcome the business and technical challenges posed by an array of technology products and business imperatives. Using IGIN (Intelligent Grid Interface Node), one can integrate or connect hybrid networks for different purposes, such as power electric industry, telecommunication, computer network, and Internet.
US07680544B1
A lead for connecting to a pacing and/or defibrillation power source is disclosed herein. The lead includes a lead tubular body, a connector for connecting the lead to the power source, and a strain-flex relief assembly joining the lead tubular body to the connector assembly and including a helical multi-strand cable conductor configuration.
US07680531B2
One or more fetal heart component signals in one example are separated from heart signal information obtained from a pregnant female based on singular value decomposition.
US07680520B2
The present invention relates to systems and methods for a implementing an optimized power conservation communication protocol, wherein the communication link is flexible and the power consumption characteristics are optimized. One facet of the system's flexibility relates to the system's ability to negotiate device control roles associated with a polling communication link. Also, once the device control roles are in place and the communication link is established, the system selectively implements a number of polling protocols for a multitude of applications that need a low power consumption. In some embodiments the system maintains a communication link with a reduced frequency polling protocol. This type of communication link maintains efficient power consumption characteristics, as well as, connection times that are faster than establishing a communication link between disconnected devices.
US07680512B2
A method of using a mobile device to print onto a print medium, the method comprising the steps of: (a) determining print data; (b) determining a first orientation of a print medium inserted into the mobile device; and (c) modifying a second orientation of the print data prior to printing onto the print medium, to take into account the first orientation.
US07680511B2
A system for (and a method of) selectively establishing communication with at least one wireless device associated with a single telephone number serving as a virtual office extension is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a wireless connect unit in communication with an enterprise private branch exchange (PBX) network. The wireless connect unit preferably serves as a gateway between the PBX and one or more remote communication devices, including at least one wireless device, associated with a virtual extension telephone number. The remote wireless device can be used as a standard PBX office telephone for both inbound and outbound telephone calls. Thus, features of the PBX network (e.g., voice mail, direct extension dialing, corporate calling plan, etc.) are available to the remote wireless device even though it is not physically connected to the PBX. When the system receives an incoming call, it can route the call to a remote wireless device associated with a virtual extension, or to combination of devices simultaneously, or as desired by the user.
US07680491B2
The method and system allowing for one mobile phone number (MSISDN) to be associated with a plurality of wireless devices is described.
US07680474B2
Digital mixers which permit mixing of asynchronous signals are constructed of Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic elements. The logic elements may include an RSFQ non-destructive readout cell (NDRO), an RSFQ D flip-flop, an RSFQ XOR circuit, and an RSFQ T flip-flop. A binary tree arrangement of T flip-flops can be used to provide in-phase and quadrature phase-divided replicas of a reference signal. The mixing elements can be either an XOR circuit, a dual port NDRO circuit functioning as a multiplexer or an RS type NDRO functioning as an AND gate. The RSFQ logic elements utilize Josephson junctions which operate in superconducting temperature domains.
US07680472B2
A device for receiving a RF signal over multiple channels, a receiver incorporating the device, a method of providing digital calibration values for a digitally-tunable resonant circuit of the device, and a method of processing an RF signal. In one embodiment the device includes: (1) a low-noise amplifier having a digitally-tunable resonant circuit, (2) a memory configured to store digital calibration values particular to the device and (3) a time-constant controller coupled to the low-noise amplifier and configured to retrieve from the memory at least one of the digital calibration values as a function of a channel to be received and, based on the at least one, to cause the digitally-tunable resonant circuit to provide a time-constant corresponding to the channel to be received.
US07680469B2
An electronic device power management system, comprising a plurality of wireless transmitters and receivers and a power management module configured to selectively adjust the operational status of at least one of the plurality of wireless transmitters and receivers based on a signal indicative of at least one characteristic of a wireless network to which the electronic device is associated.
US07680463B2
A method and an arrangement for testing a radio device without radiation losses are provided. The arrangement comprises a waveguide closed at both its ends and comprising a holder arranged to hold the radio device at least partly inside the waveguide in such a manner that the radiating part of the radio device remaining outside the waveguide is entirely inside the holder. The arrangement also comprises at least one coupling inside the waveguide for transmission and reception of a radio-frequency signal.
US07680459B2
An RF transmission system comprises an RF transmitter receiving a base band media signal and generating a broadcast signal on a broadcast frequency. The broadcast frequency may be one of a plurality of transmission frequencies within a frequency band. A radio data control module periodically performs an interference detection measurement to determine whether an interfering signal from a remote transmitter exists at the broadcast frequency. An open frequency is selected if an interfering signal from a remote transmitter exists at the broadcast frequency. The open frequency may be one of the plurality of transmission frequencies wherein RF interference is within predetermined acceptance criteria. The RF transmission system transmits an identification of the open frequency on the broadcast frequency and, following such transmission, switches the broadcast frequency to such open frequency.
US07680455B2
Methods and systems for choosing at least one signal path are disclosed. Aspects of the method may include determining a signal quality metric for each of a plurality of signal paths, modifying the signal quality metric for each of the plurality of signal paths, and selecting at least one signal path based on at least one modified signal quality metric. At least one of the signal paths may be cycled through and the signal quality metric may be biased and/or increased and/or decreased for each of the plurality of signal paths by a fixed amount and/or by a predetermined amount. The signal quality metric may also be dynamically changed for each of the plurality of signal paths.
US07680452B2
A booster capable of preventing itself from adversely influencing a base station. This booster comprises a plurality of downstream signal amplifying parts (111-1 to 111-4) and a plurality of upstream signal amplifying parts (112-1 to 112-4). A received signal analyzing part (116) analyzes the perch channel information of a signal received from a base station to generate analysis information. When the analysis information shows that the reception quality of the received signal is below a threshold value, halt control parts (118,124) halts the operations of those ones of the downstream signal amplifying parts (111-1 to 111-4) and upstream signal amplifying parts (112-1 to 112-4) that are related to that analysis information. When the analysis information shows that a path-loss value or a base station interference power is above a threshold value, the halt control parts (118,124) may halt the operations of those ones of the downstream signal amplifying parts (111-1 to 111-4) and upstream signal amplifying parts (112-1 to 112-4) that are related to that analysis information.
US07680451B2
A method for providing a motion signal with a sound signal using an existing sound signal encoding format. The method comprises providing the motion signal, providing the sound signal, inserting the motion signal in an available data field provided in the existing encoding algorithm, encoding the sound signal with the inserted motion signal according to the existing encoding algorithm to generate an encoded bitstream sound signal and providing the encoded bitstream sound signal comprising the motion signal and the sound signal.
US07680446B2
An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a charging member, an electrostatic latent image forming member, a developing member, a transferring member, and a cleaning device. The cleaning device includes a cleaning brush contacting with a photosensitive member to remove residual toner on the surface of the photosensitive member and a lubricant supplying brush contacting with the photosensitive member to supply a lubricant to the surface of the photosensitive member. The lubricant supplying brush is configured to change an amount of the lubricant supplied to the surface of the photosensitive member depending on a linear speed of the photosensitive member.
US07680443B2
Developing device including an advance impeding member and an image forming apparatus using the same
A developing device is provided with which the increase in torque of a supply roller, unevenness of image density, and wear to the supply roller caused by the formation of an aggregated block of toner in the gap between the supply roller and the opposing side wall of a supply developer holding chamber can be suppressed. This developing device comprises a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image supported on a photoconductive member, a supply developer holding chamber for holding toner to be supplied to the developing roller, a supply roller for supplying the toner supported on the peripheral face thereof to the developing roller, a hopper that is disposed above the supply developer holding chamber and used to hold toner for replenishing the supply developer holding chamber, and a communication opening for allowing the hopper to communicate with the supply agent holding chamber, wherein a canopy member is provided directly above the gap to impede the advance of the toner on the supply roller into the gap between the supply roller and the opposing side wall of the supply developer holding chamber.
US07680439B2
The present invention is generally directed to composite materials or charge rolls comprising a sleeved foam charge roll where the sleeve is interference-fit over the foam core, and methods of constructing them. The foam core can be made with an outer diameter larger than that of the sleeve inner diameter. The sleeve can be interference fit over the foam core to provide a functional charge roll. In some embodiments the charge roll can be used in an image forming apparatus including, but not limited to, an electrophotography system, an electrophotographic copying machine, and a laser printer.
US07680416B2
A wavelength division multiplexed-passive optical network includes an optical line terminal for generating downstream optical signals of discrete wavelengths and for receiving upstream optical signals of discrete wavelengths, a remote node, coupled to the optical line terminal, a wavelength division unit settled to reflect a predetermined wavelength, and a plurality of optical network units. Each optical network unit has an optical source which is oscillated in a multi-mode and is self-injection locked by the predetermined wavelength provided thereto, thereby to generate the upstream optical signal in a single mode to be provided to the remote node.
US07680411B2
Imaging optical systems of imaging units of a multi-focus camera are set to form respective focal planes in a shooting space at different distances from the multi-focus camera. Front depths of field of the imaging optical systems are set to be so deep that they reach the adjacent focal planes that are arranged on the camera side of the respective focal planes. Focal lengths and magnifications of the imaging optical systems are so defined that images of any subjects of the same size are taken in the same size regardless of where the subjects are located in the shooting space.
US07680409B2
A camera system includes a camera body having an in-body motor; an interchangeable lens having an in-lens motor, the interchangeable lens being detachable from the camera body; a focusing mechanism for moving a focusing lens group provided in the interchangeable lens in an optical axis direction thereof; a rotational force transmission device which transmits a rotational force of the in-body motor to the focusing mechanism to perform an AF operation in a state where the interchangeable lens is attached to the camera body; an auto-focusing mechanism for driving the focusing mechanism to perform an AF operation by the in-lens motor, independently from the in-body motor; and a one-way clutch which allows transmission of a rotational force of the in-body motor to the in-lens motor while preventing a rotational force of the in-lens motor from being transmitted to the in-body motor.
US07680398B2
The recording apparatus of the present invention includes: a file generating section for receiving video data and audio data and generating a video data file and an audio data file; a dividing section for dividing the video data file into a plurality of video data elements and dividing the audio data file into a plurality of audio data elements, an arranging section for arranging data such that the video data elements and the audio data elements are recorded within a predetermined recording unit; and a recording section for recording the arranged data on an information recording medium.
US07680393B2
A content editing assistance system includes a mark generator for generating electronic mark data relating to content data; a take-metadata generator for generating a take-metadata file based on the electronic mark data generated for each take; a manager for managing the content data and the take-metadata file relating to the content data as separate files; a list generator for generating electronic-mark-list data based on the take-metadata file; and an editor for editing the electronic-mark-list data.
US07680389B2
A light transceiver module is designed for electronic devices. It forms an electric connection with the electric connector of the electronic device. The light transceiver module contains a base, a light-emitting device for providing optical signals, a light-receiving device for receiving optical signals, and a main circuit board. The base supports the light-emitting device, the light-receiving device, and the main circuit board. The main circuit board has a pluggable electric connector for connections with the electric connector of the electronic device. The light transceiver module can be used to simplify and optimize the devices using it.
US07680382B2
At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to a method for fabricating a three-dimensional photonic crystal. In the method for fabricating the three-dimensional photonic crystal, a plurality of layers can be defined as one unit, and the total thickness of the one unit can be controlled such that an average layer-thickness of the plurality of layers in the one unit is about equal to the ideal layer-thickness so that a photonic band-gap occurs in a desired wavelength region.
US07680362B2
According to one embodiment, an optical filter has a polarization rotator and two instances of an optical bandpass filter (OBPF). The first instance of the OBPF processes a TE-polarized component of an optical input signal to produce a first filtered signal. The polarization rotator then transforms the TE polarization of the first filtered signal into the TM polarization. The polarization rotator also transforms the polarization of a TM-polarized component of the optical input signal into the TE polarization. The second instance of the OBPF processes the resulting TE-polarized signal to produce a second filtered signal. The first and second filtered signals having TM and TE polarizations, respectively, are then combined to produce a filtered output signal.
US07680348B2
A system and method for compressing digital images is provided. The method includes receiving an input image having a dimension d and a target dimension constraint dt, and determining a number of resolution levels R for generating an image having corresponding dimension dr. The difference between dr and dt is less than the difference between dr and the corresponding dimension of an image compressed at the next or the previous resolution level. The method additionally includes determining the scale factor S as a function of R and the dimension d of the input image, and scaling the input image in accordance with the scale factor S. The method further includes compressing the scaled input image with the R resolution levels for producing a compressed image including a lowest resolution image. The lowest resolution image has a corresponding dimension that is substantially the same as dt.
US07680339B2
When the edge magnitude of an image-block of interest is larger than both that of the image-block of interest after movement and that of an image-block which neighbors the image-block of interest in the moving direction (S7110, S7120), the edge magnitude and direction of the image-block of interest are updated to those of the image-block of interest after movement (step S7130).
US07680330B2
Methods and an apparatuses for automatically recognizing and/or verifying objects in a digital image are presented. In one example, a method automatically recognizes objects in digital image data by detecting an object of interest in input digital image data, obtaining a normalized object of interest, assigning texton representations of the normalized object of interest to produce a first a texton array, and determining a similarity between the texton representations and previously determined texton representations of at least one other object. In another example, an apparatus for automatically recognizing objects in digital image data is presented, which includes an image processing control-operably coupled to memory and functional processing units for controlling recognition processing, where the functional processing units further include an object detection unit, a normalizing unit, a texton generation unit, and a similarity unit.
US07680327B2
The invention is a method and apparatus for improving image-processing applications. Embodiments of the invention provide methods for preserving computation results and offer intermediary computation steps to allow the processing of images at any location to take advantage of previously processed image areas. The preferred embodiment offers a method for building a median filter that significantly improves the processing speed over basic techniques. By building a histogram hierarchy, image data statistics are added and subtracted using a multiplicity of histograms from the histogram hierarchy, where each histogram describes an image area. Furthermore, a histogram hierarchy is built using multiple layers, each layer defining a level of statistical resolution.
US07680322B2
Printed material for stereoscopic viewing is fabricated by creating images for the left eye and the right eye IL1 and IR1 for stereoscopic viewing, performing correction processing to remove perspective of images in the IL1 and IR1 at a base surface, creating images for the left eye and the right eye IL2 and IR2, and performing anaglyph processing or the like, based on the IL2 and IR2. An image IL for the left eye is created by rendering a projection of each point of a graphic object onto a base surface BS in a projection direction linking a viewpoint position for the left eye VPL to each point of the graphic object OB, and an IMAGE IR FOR THE RIGHT EYE is created by rendering a projection of each point of the graphic object onto the base surface BS in a projection direction linking a viewpoint position for the right eye VPL to each point of the graphic object OB. Printed material for stereoscopic viewing is fabricated by anaglyph processing or the like, based on the IL and IR.
US07680319B2
A method for the non-destructive testing of an element for a nuclear reactor having the steps of: a) acquiring a radiographic digital image of at least one area in element, b) creating a reference image through the digital processing of the image obtained, and c) comparing the image obtained, processed if necessary, with the reference image to detect the presence of defects.
US07680310B2
Calibrating the dose response of an image acquisition device comprises comparing a first self-calibration curve to a second self-calibration curve to determine the relationship between the curves; modifying an acquired image based on the at least one difference; and applying an initial calibration to the acquired image, whereby the dose response of the image acquisition device is calibrated.
US07680309B2
A method is provided for simultaneously implementing an image preprocessing and storing of presentation states during a running image transfer by sending acquired image data, which may be in a low resolution format, to an image processing station where processing descriptions associated with the acquired image are assigned to the image data and stored along with the acquired image data in an image storage database for future access.
US07680299B2
In masquerading determination processing, a masquerading determination unit reads image data representing an image of an identification target on which a striped pattern is projected from an image storage unit to extract the striped pattern appearing in a face region of the image represented by the read image data. Subsequently, the masquerading determination unit determines whether a stripe in the face region in the image is a straight line or not. When the stripe is a straight line, because the identification target is a plane object such as a photograph or an image display device so that it can be determined that the target is at least not a person himself, the masquerading determination unit determines that the target masquerades. On the other hand, unless the stripe is a straight line, because the identification target has a solid configuration having three-dimensional irregularities to have a possibility of being a person himself, the unit determines that the target might not masquerade.
US07680292B2
A receiver module for a personal listening device to be fitted in the ear, on the ear, near the ear, or behind the ear, the receiver module having a movable armature, the receiver module comprises a motor assembly and a housing defining a chamber, the housing is made from a material that is corrosion resistant and is biocompatible to human skin contact. The receiver module further comprises at least one motor assembly directly disposed in the chamber. Optionally a communication link adapted to couple or decouple with the motor assembly. At least a portion of the communication link is disposed in the housing.
US07680291B2
For a method to operate a hearing device, a signal is recorded by at least one of several source units (S1, . . . , Sn). Furthermore, at least one of the recorded signals is classified into one or several predefined sound classes, characteristics of the source unit (S1, . . . , Sn), which records the signal, being taken into account during the classification. Finally, a hearing program is selected in the hearing device according to the classification result.
US07680290B2
A sound reproducing apparatus for providing an optimal virtual sound source and a sound reproducing method therefor are provided. The sound reproducing apparatus includes a virtual sound signal generation unit for generating more than one virtual sound signal corresponding to locations and the number of target virtual sound sources on the basis of more than one inputted sound signal, and a virtual sound signal downmix unit for downmixing said more than one virtual sound signal to virtual sound signal outputs corresponding to a predetermined number of output channels. The number and locations of diversely variable virtual sound sources are provided, thereby obtaining an effect of providing an optimal virtual sound source adaptively depending on each different environment.
US07680284B2
The present invention is related to an apparatus and a method for controlling operations of low sound output in an audio system. Embodiments of an apparatus and a method for controlling an operation of an audio woofer in a machine provided with an audio system such as a portable computer can operate using at least one or more information of an audio data type, an audio signal, an audio channel number and a power source. Therefore, it is possible to accurately select and listen to an audio of a high-pass component only by stopping operations of a low-pass component for an audio as reproduced. In addition, embodiments of the present invention can extend a time for using a battery by controlling operations of a woofer, when using the battery power.
US07680279B2
An image control apparatus in an image display system applies scrambling only to image data which requires content protection and notifies to a display apparatus which pixel or pixels are scrambled. Alternatively, when a plurality of windows are displayed at the same time, the image control apparatus scrambles each window individually using a different key, and notifies to the display apparatus which scramble is applied to each pixel.
US07680276B2
A secure storage device with the external dimensions of a PCMCIA card, for securing digital camera data at the acquisition stage. Original digital camera data is saved in the memory of the secure storage device which has the capability of performing one or more security functions, including encryption, creation of an authentication file, adding data to the image data such as fingerprinting, and adding secure annotations such as separate data included in an image-header. The device prepares original authentication data from original digital camera data, and encrypts and stores both the original authentication data and the original image data. The use of the device includes downloading the original image data to a first computer, and encrypted original authentication data to a second computer. The second computer can be programmed with software whereby the encrypted original authentication data can be decrypted by a user having a key. The software then allows the user to prepare corresponding second authentication data from second image data of questionable authenticity. If the second authentication data is the same as the original authentication data, the questionable second image data is deemed to be an accurate copy of the original image data.
US07680266B2
The present invention describes a system and method for general parameter estimation using adaptive processing that provides a performance that significantly exceeds existing reduced-rank schemes using reduced computational resources with greater flexibility. The adaptive processing is accomplished by calculating a reduced-rank approximation of an observation data vector using an adaptive decimation and interpolation scheme. The new scheme employs a time-varying interpolator finite impulse response (FIR) filter at the front-end followed by a decimation structure that processes the data according to the decimation pattern that minimizes the squared norm of the error signal and by a reduced-rank FIR filter. According to the present invention, the number of elements for estimation is substantially reduced, resulting in considerable computational savings and very fast convergence performance for tracking dynamic signals. The current invention is aimed at communications and signal processing applications such as equalization, interference suppression of CDMA systems, echo cancellation and beamforming with antenna arrays. Amongst other promising areas for the deployment of the present technique, we also envisage biomedical engineering, control systems, radar and sonar, seismology, remote sensing and instrumentation.
US07680265B2
An echo canceller circuit (200) and method performs cascaded echo cancellation and noise suppression in a non-interfering manner. The echo canceller circuit (200) includes pre-noise suppression logic (210), echo canceller coefficient logic (218), noise suppression logic (212) and an echo canceller filter (216). The pre-noise suppression logic (210) receives pre-echo canceller uplink data (64) and downlink data (52), and in response produces pre-noise suppression uplink data (224). The echo canceller coefficient logic (218) receives the pre-noise suppression uplink data (224) and the pre-echo canceller uplink data (64), and in response produces filter coefficient data (226). The noise suppression logic (212) receives the pre-noise suppression uplink data (224), and in response produces noise suppressed uplink data (228). The echo canceller filter (216) receives the noise suppressed uplink data (228) and the filter coefficient data (226) and in response produces final uplink data (230).
US07680264B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for recording media communication. An exemplary method comprises the steps of: receiving an incoming call from a calling phone; routing the incoming call to a called phone in a contact center; transmitting voice communications associated with the incoming call via the calling phone through a conference bridge; duplicating the voice communications via the conference bridge; transmitting the duplicated voice communications via the conference bridge; and recording the duplicated voice communications.
US07680259B2
A rule-based intelligent call forwarding system is provided that typically includes a central office, a service control point, and an internet call routing system. The central office typically triggers a query responsive to receiving a call request. The service control point, which is coupled to the central office, receives the query, and triggers an internet call routing query. The internet call routing system, which is coupled to the service control point, typically receives the internet call routing query, determines presence of the called party with respect to a registered communication device, parses rules associated with the called party, and terminates the call request responsive to the rules parsing and presence determination. Methods and other systems are also provided.
US07680254B2
A health monitor subsystem detects and responds to faults within a geographically disperse voice messaging system. The health monitor subsystem comprises agent, manager, interface, and common processes. The agent process monitors a respective voice messaging system component operative on the host. The manager process monitors and manages detected faults on the host. The interface process exposes a status responsive to the host. The common process monitors and manages a platform of hosts. The health monitor subsystem enables monitoring at the component, host, and platform levels.
US07680241B2
A computed tomography reconstruction method includes concurrently emitting radiation from at least two x-ray sources (14), switching the output state of each of the at least two x-ray sources (14) within a plurality of respective cross scatter sampling intervals (50, 52, 54, 56) and detecting with a corresponding one of the sets of detectors (24) cross scatter radiation emitted by the other at least two x-ray sources (14), wherein the cross scatter sampling intervals are angularly spaced over a plurality of frames to allow the at least two x-ray sources (14) to concurrently emit radiation throughout at least one frame, deriving scatter correction data for each set of detectors (24) from corresponding cross scatter samples, scatter correcting the projection data with corresponding scatter correction data, and reconstructing the scatter corrected projection data to generate at least one image.
US07680239B2
A low power consumption shift register which inputs a CK signal with a low voltage with almost no effect of variation in characteristics of transistors. In the invention, an input portion of an inverter is set at a threshold voltage thereof and a CK signal is inputted to the input portion of the inverter through a capacitor means. In this manner, the CK signal is amplified, which is sent to the shift register. That is, by obtaining the threshold potential of the inverter, the shift register which operates with almost no effect of variation in characteristics of transistors can be provided. A level shifter of the CK signal is generated from an output pulse of the shift register, therefore, the low power consumption shift register having the level shifter which flows a shoot-through current for a short period can be provided.
US07680227B2
A method and system for filter calibration using fractional-N frequency synthesized signals are presented. The method may include generating an Local Oscillator (LO) signal by a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) circuit within a chip. A reference signal may be generated based on the generated LO signal and a synthesizer control signal. A frequency response for a filter circuit integrated within the chip may be calibrated by adjusting parameters associated with the filter circuit based on the generated LO signal. The system may include a single-chip multi-band RF receiver that enables generation of a LO signal by a PLL circuit within the single-chip, and enables calibration of a frequency response for a filter circuit integrated within the chip. A reference signal may be generated based on the generated LO signal and a synthesizer control signal. The frequency response may be calibrated by adjusting the filter based on the generated reference signal.
US07680223B2
A method for detecting a positioning signal includes (a) correlating a segment of a received positioning signal with a reference signal of a selected code phase and frequency to obtain a correlation value, (b) if the correlation value is less than a predetermined minimum, assigning the correlation value to the predetermined minimum, and (c) accumulating the correlation value in a sum of correlation values obtained using other segments of the received positioning signal. In addition, the correlation value may be reduced by a predetermined value, which is preferably an expected mean value for a noise component in the segment of the received positioning signal.
US07680204B2
A method is provided for convolutive coding for the transmission of space-time block codes according to the technique termed Golden Code, in a wireless communication network comprising at least a plurality of transmit antennas. The Golden Code coding is associated with a trellis coded modulation, and the necessary partitioning to the trellis is produced such that, for each partitioning step, a set Γ∞ is multiplied by at least one element β from the set Bk (k>1) of elements of Az such that: Bk={X∈Az and |Det(X)|2=2k}, the set Γ∞, termed “infinite Golden Code”, being a principal ideal of the ring Az as defined by the Golden Code technique.
US07680193B2
The invention provides a method for storing video signals at a first rate and reading the stored video signals at a second rate. According to an embodiment of the method, the video signals to be stored are compressed. The compressed video signals are stored in a memory at a first rate. The compressed video signals a read from the memory into a buffer at the first rate. The video signals stored in the buffer are read from the buffer at a second rate such that the video signals are decompressed.
US07680188B2
A method and apparatus for coding an image includes calculation of motion vectors of vertices of a patch in an image being encoded and transmitting information of horizontal and vertical components of the motion vectors of the vertices and information specifying that values of the horizontal and vertical components of a motion vector for each pixel in the patch are integral multiples of 1/d of a distance between adjacent pixels, where d is an integer not less than 2.
US07680184B2
A video encoding method comprises selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations each including a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture, generating a prediction picture signal in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination, generating a predictive error signal representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal, and encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination.
US07680177B2
A multipath wireless communication is processed to recover a transmitted data signal without performing a direct matrix inversion (DMI). First, the multipath wireless communication is received. Then HHH and HHH values associated with the multipath wireless communication are determined. Weights based on HHH and HHH associated with the received data signal may then be determined and used to recover the transmitted data signal from the received multipath wireless communication.
US07680174B2
A forward link power control mechanism measures the reverse link power control bits which are transmitted on the forward traffic channel. At the remote station, the reverse link power control bits from multiples base stations or multiple signal paths are measured, combined, and filtered to yield an improved measurement of the forward link signal quality. The reverse link power control bits which are deemed unreliable are omitted from use in the power control loop. The remote station generates a set of forward link power control bit in accordance with the measurements and transmits these bits to all base stations in communication with the remote station. Each base station adjusts its gain of the forward traffic channel in accordance to its measurement of the forward link power control bit.
US07680155B2
Program clock references in first and second MPEG data streams are re-stamped in accordance with delays introduced into the first and second MPEG data streams. Accordingly, the program clock references in the first MPEG data stream are re-stamped according to a variable delay in the first MPEG data stream, and the program clock references in the second MPEG data stream are re-stamped according to a variable delay in the second MPEG data stream. The re-stamped program clock references in the second MPEG data stream are corrected according to a fixed delay in the second MPEG data stream. The first and second MPEG data streams are multiplexed, and the multiplexed first and second MPEG data streams are transmitted and received.
US07680150B2
An arrangement avoids contention on a communication medium among devices including at least a transmitter and a receiver. The arrangement involves a first portion configured to instruct a receiver to indicate that the communication medium is busy for a time period substantially longer than an actual frame transmission period being sent from the transmitter to the receiver, and a second portion configured to prohibit the receiver from transmitting on the communication medium during the time period.
US07680149B2
A communication method between the units of a distributed base station system, characterized by comprising: at the transmitting end, mapping a CPRI link to a GFP-T frame; encapsulating the GFP-T frame into SDH virtual containers to form a STM-N frame; and transmitting the STM-N frame via a SDH line, and at the receiving end, receiving the STM-N frame transmitted via the SDH line; separating the SDH virtual containers from the STM-N frame; extracting the GFP-T frame from the SDH virtual containers; reproducing the CPRI link from the GFP-T frame.
US07680147B2
A method of transmitting data packets, where randomness is added to the schedule. Universal broadcast schedules using encoding and randomization techniques are also discussed, together with optimal randomized schedules and an approximation algorithm for finding near-optimal schedules.
US07680146B1
An integrated circuit comprises a physical layer interface that is implemented by the integrated circuit, that is associated with a network device, and that communicates with an external device via a medium. A first serializer interface implemented by the integrated circuit communicates with the physical layer interface and with a second serializer interface associated with a medium access controller. The first serializer interface communicates with the second serializer interface at a predetermined data transmission rate that is independent of a negotiated transmission rate between the network device and the external device.
US07680137B2
A process for transmitting asynchronous data packets includes a step of starting a packeting operation. After receiving a message from a message composition module, the process interrupts the packeting operation based on the message. A packet formed during the packeting operation prior to the interrupting step is transmitted. The steps are repeated so as to transmit a plurality of packets.
US07680130B2
In a method for finding a resource and a service conducted in each of relay node relaying a frame, a search table is maintained to register more than one node providing a resource or a service, when an access request including an identification identifying the resource or the service, which the node stops providing, is received, a next transfer node is switched from the node, which stops providing the resource or the service, to an available node providing the resource or the service identified by the identification, by searching for the search table by the identification.
US07680127B2
An environment dependent network connection switching setting system and method thereof is provided, wherein the network connection is interrupted due to changes of the network environment of the user, the system is utilized to automatically detect a set of optimal current network setting parameters based on the network setting parameters previously set by the user, and proceed with network connection based on the optimal current network setting parameters, thus facilitating and expediting network connection in the changing network environments.
US07680111B2
Disclosed is a communication method using the mobile IPv6 in the NAT-PT environment, and a recording medium storing the method. An NAT-PT (Network Address Translation-Protocol Translation) box as a substitute for an IPv4 node in the communication method performs an RR (Return Routability) process and a BU (Binding Update) process with an IPv6 node to allow data communication between the IPv4 node and the IPv6 node. Therefore, mobility support using the mobile IPv6 is provided in the network with the mixed IPv4 and IPv6.
US07680110B2
A communication device configured to receive a first packet from a first network including a virtual network, and to transmit a second packet to a second network, the communication device including: a receiver section configured to receive the first packet from the first network; a converter section configured to convert a second destination address of the first packet to the first destination address of the second packet using identifying information of the virtual network; a selector configured to select a security parameter based at least in part on the first destination address of the second packet; an encryption section configured to encrypt the second packet based on the security parameter; and a transmitter section configured to multicast the encrypted second packet to the second network.
US07680105B2
A communication device such as a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gateway multiplexes data intended for multiple voice connections within a single IP packet. If it is known in advance that packets for multiple connections between a given Originating Exchange (OEX) and Terminating Exchange (TEX) will travel between the Originating Gateway and Terminating Gateway, voice samples are multiplexed into the same VoIP packet. This “cell multiplexing” is accomplished by adding a cell header field to each cell payload portion. The cell header field indicates at least a connection identifier, so that the terminating gateway can route the payload to the correct TEX trunk. The scheme permits greatly improved efficiency in the carrying of VoIP traffic, especially where efficient voice coders are used.
US07680102B2
Method and system for connecting manipulation equipment between operator's premises and the internet
Traffic passing between remote terminals and corporate intranets through an access server provider network can encounter security and addressing problems. Intercepting and manipulating this traffic can overcome these, as well as other problems. For such traffic that is being transported over a plurality of Network Based Tunnels (NBT), this manipulation can be performed by manipulation equipment that may reside in the access server provider's network between an Access Gateway (AGW) and a Border Gateway (BGW). The manipulation equipment may manipulate received NBT packets by parsing the original packet that is encapsulated in the NBT packet, manipulating the original packet and reconstructing the NBT packet with the manipulated data of the original packet.
US07680098B2
Techniques are disclosed for determining, for each candidate communication medium, the availability of one or more telecommunications endpoint users for participating in a communication session of interest (i.e., either new or existing) via the evaluated medium. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, an availability manager determines the availability based on (i) one or more discrete rules, or (ii) one or more continuous functions, or both. The continuous functions are specified with respect to the time that has elapsed since a previous session, the time remaining in an active session, and the expected duration of a new session. Once it has determined the availability of one or more participants in the communication session, the availability manager of the illustrative embodiment transmits one or more signals to a call-processing server, which then sets up the participants on the session via the appropriate communication medium such as voice, instant messaging, and so forth.
US07680094B2
In a method for aligning a plurality of physical channels for uplink transmission two or more physical channels may be aligned based on a timing offset so that the two channels are transmitted in the uplink at a time instant different than a time of uplink transmission for a third physical channel. Accordingly, the two physical channels may be code multiplexed with additional physical channels other than the third physical channel to generate a code-multiplexed signal to be used for uplink transmission. The timing offset information may be assigned to the user from a base station, for example, in order to align the two physical channels. Accordingly, an increase in peak-to-average power ratio my be avoided and/or reduced if multiplexing the two physical channels with other physical channels for uplink transmission.
US07680093B2
A Forward Supplemental Channel (F-SCH) serving sector for a packet data call to a mobile terminal in a CDMA network is dynamically selected by monitoring radio channel conditions at potential F-SCH serving sectors. The sector loading at the potential F-SCH serving sectors is also monitored. A new F-SCH serving sector is then selected based on the sector loading and the channel condition measurements. Radio channel conditions may be monitored by PPSMM and/or CQI reports from the mobile terminal, monitoring the transmit power on the F-FCH of sectors in the mobile terminal's active set, and monitoring the transmit power on the F-SCH of the current serving sector. The new F-SCH serving sector may be determined by estimating sector loading of each potential sector at each possible data rate, and selecting the sector offering the highest data rate and lowest loading at that rate.
US07680089B2
Dynamic channel assignment and connectivity maintenance in wireless networks may involve switching channels while maintaining connectivity in wireless ad hoc networks. In a described implementation, a wireless network may be separated into two or more respective virtual wireless networks with respective wireless node subsets operating on respective channels. Connectivity may nevertheless be maintained when a wireless node on one channel is to send a communication to another wireless node on another wireless channel. In another described implementation, monitored network information may be shared among wireless nodes by broadcast.
US07680077B1
A system and method for controlling channel access in a communications system is disclosed. The method and system include providing a data packet to communications queue and determining the priority of the data packet. The method and system also generate a channel occupancy statistic. The channel occupancy statistic is based on the level of activity on a communications channel during a predetermined period. The method and system also compare the channel occupancy statistic to a predetermined threshold. The threshold is based on the priority.
US07680073B2
A method for routing messages having a routing indicator across linked master/slave configured piconets. At each master node, a routing table is stored and at each hop a receiving master node performs a reception algorithm on the routing indicator, the result enabling the receiving node to identify a target node and whether that node is local to the receiving piconet or a node accessible through a piconet with which the receiving piconet is linked. In the latter instance, the receiving node performs a transmission rule on the result to generate a new routing indicator replacing the routing indicator, which is then transmitted with the message to the identified piconet.
US07680068B1
A system for optimizing an ad-hoc network. The system includes a plurality of nodes, wherein each node includes a computer implemented application configured to determine whether the present node is a link node such that the present node is the only node connecting at least one pair of nodes in the ad-hoc network, determine a connection number for the present node, wherein the connection number is the number of pairs of nodes connected by the present node not including pairs of nodes connected by link nodes, and determine whether the present node should be classified as an artery node based on the link node and connection number classifications.
US07680066B2
A method for protecting a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) includes: capturing specific protocol packets at an XDSL port by hardware of an XDSL single service board; and sending the captured specific protocol packets to a CPU of the XDSL single service board; determining whether the traffic amount of the specific protocol packets in a time unit exceeds a predefined threshold, if the traffic amount does not exceed the predefined threshold, submitting the specific protocol packets to a CPU of the host; otherwise stopping submitting the specific protocol packets to the CPU of the host. The method and the XDSL single service board provided by embodiments of the present invention need not manually set Media Access Control (MAC) address or maximum MAC address learning number for each XDSL port, which cuts down the maintenance workload, and on the other hand, reduces the loss of important protocol packets and lowers the load of the CPU.
US07680065B2
A system and method allowing control of VoIP communications by configuring a Network Address Translator (NAT) is provided. In a first NAT configuration, such a port-restricted NAT, peer-to-peer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications are permitted between a VoIP originator and a receiver. In a second NAT configuration, such as a symmetrical NAT, peer-to-peer communications are not possible without further cooperation of the NAT. In this manner, an entity that has control of the NAT, such as an ISP, is able to have a degree of control over traffic using network resources such as bandwidth.
US07680064B2
A wireless communication apparatus includes a transmitter and a receiver, and determines a modulation and error correction coding scheme used by the transmitter. The apparatus estimates a degree of channel variation, transmits, by the transmitter, a first frame for requesting response information necessary to select the modulation and error correction coding scheme, measures a response time between a instant when the transmitter transmits the first frame and an instant when the receiver receives a second frame including the response information, determines a threshold value of the response time for determining reliability of the response information, based on the degree of channel variation, and determines the modulation and error correction coding scheme selected based on the response information included in the second frame received by the receiver in the response time shorter than the threshold value.
US07680057B2
A data transmission method etc. is provided. At a transmitting side, if a frame contains transmission data, frame data containing the transmission data and a calculated error-detecting code is generated. If the frame contains no transmission data, frame data containing neither transmission data nor an error-detecting code is generated. At a receiving side, one or more final bit positions of the frame data are assumed in the frame, transmission data and an error-detecting code are assumed in the frame, and the error-detecting code of the assumed transmission data is calculated. If there is a position where the assumed error-detecting code matches the error-detecting code calculated based on the assumed transmission data, it is decided that the position is the final bit position. Otherwise, it is decided that the frame contains no transmission data or that the received frame data contains an error.
US07680051B2
In one embodiment, a method can include: (i) pre-configuring a stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) association; (ii) receiving a transmission control protocol (TCP) packet in a network device, where the TCP packet is intended for a destination node; (iii) encapsulating the TCP packet into an SCTP payload; and (iv) transmitting the SCTP payload across a wide area network (WAN).
US07680044B2
In a peer-to-peer network, one or more congestion events are defined that imply congestion on the network. In addition, one or more non-congestion events are defined that imply a lack of congestion on the network. When a node detects the occurrence of one or more of the defined congestion events, the node increases the spacing of connectionless protocol (e.g., UDP) packets that are sent by the node. When a node detects the occurrence of one or more of the defined non-congestion events, the node decreases the spacing of connectionless protocol packets that are sent by the node.
US07680039B2
Apparatus, systems, methods, and articles described generally herein may receive a first packet marked with a congestion indicator (CI). Upon receipt of the CI, a load-balancing operation may be performed among a plurality of physical links upstream from a point of congestion to alleviate the congestion. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US07680032B1
A bi-directional line switched mesh includes at least one bi-directional line switched ring (BLSR) sharing a common section with a partial bi-directional line switched ring (PBLSR). The partial bi-directional line switched ring has no working traffic along the common section, but may utilize the protection bandwidth associated with the common section of the BLSR in the event of a span failure of the PBLSR. Both electrical and optical PBLSR networks are also disclosed including methods of operating the asymmetrical ring nodes having unconfigured working ports (spans).
US07680029B2
A recovery-path request message control block generates, sends, and receives a recovery-path request message containing failure location information and recovery-path setup information. A label assignment message control block generates, sends, and receives a label assignment message. A setup label information generation block generates setup label information. A recovery-path label table management block constructs and manages a recovery-path label table. A failure detection block detects the location of a failure. A failure notification message transfer block transfers a failure notification message containing failure location information. A recovery-path establishment block establishes a recovery-path by comparing failure location information contained in a failure notification message and failure location information contained in a recovery-path label table and by selecting setup label information corresponding to matching failure location information.
US07680023B2
Latency information is used for coding of additional information in a record medium. This additional information which gets embossed in the record medium might be used for verification purposes in that only storage media with the correct latency information are judged to be authentic or might be decoded in a proper way. This technique is applicable to record media, recordable record media, an emulator for recordable or non-recordable record media, a method for producing recordable or non-recordable record media, a method for verifying recordable or non-recordable record media, a record medium writing device for producing recordable or non-recordable record media, and a record medium accessing device for verifying recordable or non-recordable record media.
US07680020B2
A disc-shaped information recording medium includes a laminate of recording layers on and from which an information signal can be optically recorded and reproduced from one side of the medium. Data areas are provided in the recording layers, respectively. The information signal can be recorded on and reproduced from the data areas while a laser beam emitted from an optical pickup is applied to the data areas. Optical recording test areas are provided in the recording layers, respectively. A test signal can be recorded on and reproduced from the optical recording test areas to decide optimum power values of the laser beam for signal recording. The test areas are out of overlap as viewed in a direction of propagation of the laser beam.
US07680015B2
A polarizing beam splitter for separating an upstream beam from a downstream beam according to the polarization of an incident beam is provided between first and second light sources emitting laser beams at respective wavelength and an objective lens. A phase plate for providing a phase difference to a beam incident on the polarizing beam splitter is provided between the polarizing beam splitter and the light sources. A portion of the laser beam incident on the polarizing beam splitter is reflected by the polarizing beam splitter and caused to be incident on a photo-detecting unit, so as to prevent an unnecessary portion of the laser beam is incident on the photo-detecting unit. According to the invention, the laser beam is used efficiently and the cost of fabricating an optical disk apparatus is reduced by eliminating a need for a gain controlling circuit in the photo-detecting unit.
US07680013B2
Provided is a spatial light modulator SLM and a photodetector element CMOS sensor are placed on the same chip, and the alignment thereof and a relay lens system are eliminated, whereby an optical system is reduced in cost and made compact. Specifically, provided is an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus for recording information by allowing information light and reference light to interfere with each other and reproducing the information using the reference light including: a light source; a spatial light modulator for generating at least an information light with respect to a light beam from the light source; an objective lens for irradiating a recording medium with the light beam from the spatial light modulator; and a photodetector element for receiving a reproduction light from the recording medium, in which the spatial light modulator and the photodetector element are formed on the same semiconductor substrate.
US07679993B2
A method of characterizing a fractured reservoir in a field includes measuring seismic reflection coefficient of the fractured reservoir as a function of angle of incidence and azimuth, predicting seismic reflection coefficient of the fractured reservoir as a function of angle of incidence and azimuth using an elastic stiffness tensor and an elastic compliance tensor of the fractured reservoir, determining components of an excess compliance tensor due to the presence of fractures in the fractured reservoir by matching the predicted seismic reflection coefficient to the measured seismic reflection coefficient, and characterizing one or more properties of the fractured reservoir using the excess compliance tensor.
US07679975B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of memory areas. Each of the memory areas includes a normal cell array and a redundancy cell array for repairing defective cells generated in the normal cell array such that the semiconductor memory device is usable even when memory arrays include defective cells. A size of a redundancy cell array of a first memory area is greater than a size of the redundancy cell arrays of the other memory areas.
US07679973B2
A register file is often used within integrated circuitry to temporarily hold data. Sometimes this data needs to be retained within the register file for a period of time, such as when there is a stall operation. Conventional register files have utilized a hold multiplexor to perform such a stall operation. The multiplexor however inserts a delay that is undesirable in high performance integrated circuitry. The multiplexor is replaced with a tri-state inverter coupled to the global bit line of the register file, which minimizes this additional delay from the register file data access time.
US07679968B2
Structures, methods, and systems for enhanced erasing operation for non-volatile memory are disclosed. In one embodiment, a semiconductor device which comprises a memory cell array having a plurality of non-volatile memory cells, a negative voltage generating circuit for applying a negative voltage to a word line of the memory cell array during an erasing operation of the memory cell array, and a positive voltage generating circuit for applying a positive voltage to a well of the memory cell array when the negative voltage reaches a predetermined voltage.
US07679953B2
A memory system includes phase change memory cells. A control module causes one of the phase change memory cells to be written using a write parameter, causes a resistance value of the one of the phase change memory cells to be read back, adjusts the write parameter, and causes the writing, reading and adjusting to be repeated until the resistance value is within a predetermined range of a target resistance value.
US07679952B2
In an example embodiment, an electronic circuit comprises a memory matrix with rows and columns of memory cells. First row conductors are provided for each of the rows. Second row conductors correspond to pairs of rows, each successive row forming a respective pair with a preceding one of the rows, so that each pair overlaps with one row of the next pair. Column conductors are provided for each of the columns. Each of the memory cells comprises an access transistor, a node and a first and a second resistive memory element. The access transistor has a control electrode coupled to the first row conductor of the row of the memory cell, a main current channel coupled between the column conductor for the column of the memory cell and the node. The first and second the resistive memory element are coupled between the node and the second row conductors for the pairs of rows to which the memory cell belongs.
US07679932B2
A housing mechanism (100) includes a main body (60) and a shield/cap (70). The main body accommodates an inner interface and defines a port (63) therein. The port is configured for allowing an outer interface to be inserted into the main body and for thereby engaging the outer interface with the inner interface. The shield is located near the port and is selectably rotatably positionable between a first position, in which the shield covers the port, and a second position, in which the shield does not cover the port. The first position and the second position cooperate to form an angle therebetween.
US07679921B2
A security enclosure and method of forming the security enclosure. The security enclosure includes an electronic assembly, an extension, and a tamper respondent wrap. The extension has a first end inserted in the assembly and a second end having at least one bonding pad thereon. The tamper respondent wrap at least partially surrounds the assembly. The wrap has a bonding pad. The bonding pad of the extension is secured to the bonding pad of the wrap. The tamper respondent wrap includes a plurality of layers. A plurality of electrically conductive lines or a plurality of electrically conductive ink traces exist within each layer of the wrap.
US07679918B2
Disclosed is a printed circuit board (PCB) comprising at least one light emitting diode (LED) element and a PCB body. The LED comprises a heat sink, a light emitting body and two base feet, each base foot comprising a support portion for supporting the light emitting body, an engaging portion and a connecting portion for connecting the support portion to the engaging portion, and the heat sink is disposed under the support portion. The PCB body comprises a first recess portion for disposing the heat sink to increase heat dissipation of the heat sink and two second recess portions for receiving the engaging portions of the base feet to increase heat dissipation of the base feet.
US07679916B2
A system for extracting heat from an electronic device is provided. The system includes heat dissipation means positioned within a printed circuit board to form an in-board heat sink structure and a fluid heat transfer medium disposed in the heat dissipation means. The medium circulates through the heat dissipation means carrying heat away from the electronic device.
US07679915B2
There is provided a motor control apparatus in which a size of the apparatus can easily be reduced, a work for aligning a power semiconductor module with a substrate can be eliminated and an assembling property can be enhanced.In a motor control apparatus in which a power semiconductor module adhering to a heat sink is mounted on a first substrate, a spacer is provided between the heat sink and the substrate and the power semiconductor module is disposed in the spacer. Moreover, an edge part of a hole has such a structure as to block a space between a terminal protruded from a side portion of the power semiconductor module and the heat sink.
US07679910B2
A miniaturized liquid cooling device (200) includes a heat absorber (20), a heat dissipater (30), a droplet generator (40) driving a working fluid circulating between the heat absorber and the heat dissipater, and a plurality of tubes (50) connecting the heat absorber, the heat dissipater and the droplet generator with each other. The droplet generator includes a bottom electrode plate (42), a top electrode plate (44) hermetically covering the bottom electrode plate, a fluid channel (425) formed between and a plurality of control electrodes (422) disposed between the top electrode plate and the bottom electrode plate. The control electrodes are arranged between an inlet (481) and an outlet (491) of the droplet generator. Voltages are regularly applied across the control electrodes so as to generate a plurality of fluid droplets (D) and drive the fluid droplets to move from the inlet towards the outlet of the droplet generator.
US07679906B2
An external AC power adapter. The adapter includes a housing which, in one embodiment, defines an air inlet compartment, an air outlet compartment and a partially sealed electronics compartment containing electrical components for converting an AC input to a DC output. A blower generates an airflow within the electronics compartment for cooling the electrical components in the electronics compartment. Barriers are located in the air inlet compartment and the air outlet compartment to prevent liquid from entering the electronics compartment.
US07679900B2
A computer enclosure for mounting a disk drive bracket includes a chassis for receiving the disk drive bracket, and an extending plate releasably positioned and aligned at an end of the chassis. One portion of the disk drive bracket is fixed on the chassis, and the other portion is fixed on the extending plate. The disk drive bracket is completely mounted on the chassis and the extending plate.
US07679895B2
A device comprising a cavity adapted to house a removable, electronic storage device. The device also comprises a data connector adapted to blind-mate with the storage device. The data connector is lubricated.
US07679892B2
A supporting device for a display apparatus having a simplified configuration and an ease in manufacture with reduced manufacturing costs, and a display apparatus having the same. The supporting device includes a first supporting member coupled to a body of the display apparatus and defining therein a bore having an opened bottom, a second supporting member having a connecting portion to be inserted into the bore, an outer surface of the connecting portion being configured to correspond to the bore, a base to support the second supporting member, a connecting shaft to rotatably connect the first supporting member with the connecting portion and having both ends fixed to the first supporting member, and a friction structure provided between an outer surface of the connecting shaft and the connecting portion.
US07679891B2
A panel instrument to be mounted in a panel board, including: a main body having an outside dimension applicable to a first and a second panel instrument size standards; a display provided on one end of the main body and having an area that occupies a part of a front face of the panel board and is applicable to the first panel instrument size standard; a front panel mounted on a front face of the display; and a rear panel for holding the display with the front panel, wherein the rear panel has: first mounting holes that are provided on one diagonal line of the rear panel and correspond to a mounting hole standard applicable to the second panel instrument size standard; and second mounting holes that are provided on the other diagonal line and correspond to a mounting hole standard applicable to a third panel instrument size standard.
US07679889B2
A display apparatus includes: a thin plate display device having an image display surface and a back surface; a front cover that covers an outer area and end surfaces of the display surface of the display device; and a back surface cover mounted so as to cover the back surface, the cover being divided into a plurality of parts, wherein a projecting or recessed part is provided at a plurality of places on the front cover facing the end surfaces, a recessed or projecting part is provided that is fit into the projecting or recessed part facing thereto, on the back surface cover, and a slide mechanism part is provided in which the back surface cover is formed to move in parallel along the back surface of the display device and the fitting is achieved by the parallel motion.
US07679888B2
A modular container (2) for a flat display panel (3) has a mounting shelf (55) for the panel and power means (48) for selectively raising and lowering the mounting shelf and vertical channels (108) or geared tracks in the container positioned to receive side edges of the panel and adjustable laterally to accommodate panels of different widths. A modular container for a flat display panel has a mounting shelf for the panel and power means for selectively raising and lowering the mounting shelf and remotely controlled power means (32, 76), for moving said container with respect to a seated or recumbent person.
US07679883B2
Disclosed is an ultracapacitor having electrodes containing mineral microtubules, an electrolyte between the electrodes, and a separator in the electrolyte to provide electrical insulation between the electrodes, while allowing ion flow within the electrolyte. The electrodes may be formed from a paste containing microtubules, a conductive polymer containing mineral microtubules, or an aerogel containing the mineral microtubules. The mineral microtubules may be filled with carbon, a pseudocapacitance material, or a magnetoresistive material. The mineral microtubules may also be coated with a photoconductive material.
US07679876B2
A system capable of limiting a current through a load and a method thereof. The system comprises a current sensor, a determination circuit, and a current mirror circuit. The current sensor, coupled to the load, produces a current indication indicating the current. The determination circuit, coupled to the current sensor, generates a short-circuit signal when the current exceeds a predetermined threshold. The current mirror circuit, coupled to a voltage source, the current sensor and the determination circuit, comprises a current mirror and a bypass path, delivers a mirrored current from the current mirror to the load upon receiving the short-circuit signal, and passes the current from the voltage source through the bypass path to the load in the absence of the short-circuit signal.
US07679874B2
In one embodiment, the bulk input voltage is used to form a reference signal that is used for controlling a switching power supply system to operate in a power overload operating mode.
US07679873B2
A method of preventing deep discharge of the battery pack (1′) with series-connected cell groups (2a, 2b) by polarity reversal of an individual weakest cell (3), includes a difference measurement step which is repeated over time for detecting an event indicative of a probable reversal of polarity in which the change over time of the voltage difference between two cell groups (2a, 2b) having identical numbers of cells is checked to determine if the change in the voltage difference has exceeded an amount corresponding to a difference threshold value which reliably distinguishes a fast polarity reversal of an individual weakest cell (3) in exactly one cell group (2a, 2b) from the slow fluctuation of the voltage difference between two cell groups (2a, 2b) during an ordinary discharge characteristic curve without polarity reversal of an individual weakest cell (3); and a battery pack (1′) and a battery-powered hand-held power tool (7) with a monitoring circuit (5′) for implementing the method.
US07679868B2
A ground faulty interrupting function is returned to a normal standby state in a short time after a movable contact (8) tripped in detecting electrical leak is returned to a closed position. A tripping coil (10) which moves the contact (8) provided on an output line (2) to a shutdown position is included. A current transformer (12) is provided on a downstream of the contact (8). A circuit (20) energizes the coil (10) when the leak current are detected. A reset signal forming circuit (22) outputs a reset signal to the gate signal forming circuit (20) when the contact (8) is returned to a connection position. The circuit (20) obtains power from the upstream side of the contact (8). LED (16) is lit when the contact (8) is at the shutdown position, and LED (16) end display when the contact (8) is returned to the normal position.
US07679867B2
A magnetic flux coupling-type superconducting current limiter is capable of protecting lines more effectively by winding reactors of a primary coil and a secondary coil in series in the structure where the primary coil and the secondary coils are wound in parallel in the conventional magnetic flux-lock type current limiter to increase a linked flux generated from an iron core. An electric conducting current which rapidly increases when a fault occurs is divided into the secondary coil and a superconducting coil to decrease a load on the superconducting element and it is opened more rapidly than the existing superconducting current limiter during a quench time such that it better limits a fault current.
US07679861B2
A pole layer incorporates a track width defining portion and a wide portion. The track width defining portion has an end face that is located in the medium facing surface and that defines the track width. The maximum width of the wide portion is greater than the track width and equal to or greater than the length of the wide portion taken in the direction orthogonal to the medium facing surface. When the coil is generating no magnetic field, in the end face of the track width defining portion, there exist first and second regions in which the directions of components of magnetization orthogonal to the medium facing surface are opposite.
US07679860B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a magnetic film capable of providing a higher saturation magnetic flux density as compared with the conventional one, a process of forming the magnetic film, a thin film magnetic head that makes use of the magnetic film, and a magnetic disk drive having this thin film magnetic head. In one embodiment, a magnetic film contains Co, Ni, and Fe, and its composition is such that 10≦Co<20 wt %, 0≦Ni≦2 wt %, and 80
US07679859B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus that allows a mounting space for an electric signal wiring to be sufficiently secured relative to a circuit board and the circuit board to be secured stably to the case. In one embodiment, a case having a built-in head disk assembly includes board fixing bodies disposed in a protruding condition at two of four corners thereof. Protruding ends of the board fixing bodies include fit grooves. A circuit board for drivingly controlling the head disk assembly is fitted into the fit grooves in the board fixing bodies.
US07679857B2
In a system and method for a non-contact measurement of the fly height of a slider above a magnetic data storage medium using electrostatic force, a slider with a read/write head flies over a magnetic data storage medium. A series of distinct voltages are applied between the slider and the magnetic data storage medium, and corresponding read-back signals are recorded. Using the recorded read-back signals, coefficients for an empirical curve-fit equation are calculated. The coefficients are normalized and converted into a fly height measurement.
US07679846B2
A lens driving device according to the present invention includes a mounting base; a collimation lens that is engaged with the mounting base and movable in optical axis directions; and a driving source that moves the collimation lens in the optical axis directions, and the mounting base includes a fulcrum section with which, when the driving device is mounted on a base, a pitch angle and a roll angle of the driving device are adjusted with respect to the base and the optical axis.
US07679841B2
An optical system for taking image comprises three lens elements with refractive power, wherein a first lens element with positive refractive power includes at least one aspheric surface, a second lens element with negative refractive power, and a third lens element with negative refractive power includes at least one aspheric surface, which are mounted orderly from the object side to the image side. By such arrangements, the volume of the lens assembly can be reduced, and can obtain high resolution.
US07679838B2
A zoom lens includes a first lens unit having a negative refractive power and a second lens unit having a positive refractive power, which are arranged in order from the object side to the image side. The zoom lens performs zooming by changing a distance between the lens units. The first lens unit includes a compound optical element including a lens element and a resin layer having optical characteristics different from optical characteristics of the lens element, the resin layer being laminated on the lens element. An Abbe number νdg of a material of the lens element, an Abbe number νdj of a material of the resin layer, and an anomalous partial dispersion ratio ΔθgFj of the material of the resin layer are adequately set.
US07679836B2
A zoom lens system that performs zooming by moving lens units includes, in the following order from an object side towards image side, a first lens unit having positive refractive power and movable along a locus convex towards the image side during zooming from a wide-angle end to telephoto end, a second lens unit having negative refractive power, an aperture stop movable independently of the lens units, and third and fourth lens units having positive refractive powers. The following conditions are satisfied: −0.6
US07679831B2
Projection objectives of micro-lithographic projection exposure apparatuses, as well as related methods and components, are disclosed.
US07679829B2
At least three incoming light beams (10a-c) are combined partly combined into a null beam and partly into fringe tracking beams. The relative phase difference between the incoming beams (10a-c) is controlled so that a phase relationship between in the null beam corresponds to destructive interference of the main beam components in the null beam. In the fringe tracker beams this leads at least partly to constructive interference between the main beam components, with an intensity that depends on the phase differences. Measurements of the intensities of the fringe tracker beams are used to control the relative phase differences of the incoming beams (10a-c) to realize destructive interference of the main components in the null beam. To form the null beam successively more of the light beams are combined into the null beam in a series of beam combiners (14a, 14 b). Part of the light is split from the incoming light beams into the fringe tracking beams, said splitting occurring at least partly between a start and end of said series (14a, 14b) or at said start.
US07679823B2
A reflective screen which can reflect high contrast images even in a bright environment and can reflect images with superior image color reproducibility, in particular, images substantially free from color change of the images, even when the screen is observed from an oblique direction. The reflective screen 6 uses a multilayer optical film consisting of at least two kinds of alternately laminated transparent dielectric thin films selectively reflecting lights of specific wavelength regions as a reflecting layer 2, and the reflecting layer 2 has a light reflecting property for light in the wavelength regions of blue, green, red, and 670 to 730 nm, and shows average reflectances for lights of the wavelength regions higher than the average reflectance for light in the visible wavelength region other than lights of the wavelength regions, respectively.
US07679811B2
A miniature deformable mirror includes an upper portion, a lower portion, and a spacer. The upper portion includes a frame, an organic thin film, and a reflecting layer. The organic thin film is used as a deformed element and is supported by the frame. The reflecting layer is disposed on the organic thin film used for reflecting incident light. The lower portion includes a conductive substrate. The conductive layer is disposed on the substrate and is used for conducting the driving voltage. The spacer is sandwiched between the upper portion and the lower portion. While voltages are applied, electrostatic forces are generated to deform the organic thin film and reflecting layer. Therefore, a miniature deformable mirror with continuously variable focuses is realized.
US07679805B2
A quantum well modulator configured to absorb or transmit light depending on an applied voltage is provided according to various embodiments. The quantum well modulator may include a substrate, a p-type and n-type semiconductor layers as well as a quantum well layer, each of which are deposited above the substrate. The substrate may be configured to filter light incident thereon, wherein the substrate does not include a reflective surface. The flip-chip quantum well modulator may be configured to substantially absorb light received through the substrate when a first voltage is applied. The flip-chip quantum well modulator may be configured to substantially transmit light received through the substrate when a second voltage is applied.
US07679802B2
Optical scanners are configured so a principal ray of an incident beam from a light source device to a deflector and a principal ray of a scanning beam from the deflector to a scanned surface travel on the opposite sides of an optical axis of an optical element(s) wherein entrance and exit surfaces of the optical element(s) are both concave toward the deflector in the sub-scanning section. Embodiments may beneficially separate the scanning beam from ghost light and/or be incorporated in image forming apparatuses.
US07679801B2
An optical deflector is disclosed that includes a rotary shaft; plural rotary polygon mirrors laminated in an axis direction of the rotary shaft, the rotary polygon mirrors having reflection surfaces and the reflection surfaces of one rotary polygon mirror and those of another rotary polygon mirror facing in different directions; and a joining section provided between the rotary polygon mirrors. In the optical deflector, the joining section is integrally formed with at least one of the rotary polygon mirrors.
US07679800B2
A laser treatment apparatus is provided which is capable of irradiating a laser beam to the position where a TFT is to be formed over the entire surface of a large substrate to achieve the crystallization, thereby forming a crystalline semiconductor film having a large grain diameter with high throughput. A laser treatment apparatus includes a laser oscillation device, a lens for converging a laser beam, such as a collimator lens or a cylindrical lens, a fixed mirror for altering an optical path for a laser beam, a first movable mirror for radially scanning a laser beam in a two-dimensional direction, and an fθ lens for keeping a scanning speed constant in the case of laser beam scanning. These structural components are collectively regarded as one optical system. A laser treatment apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has a structure in which five such optical systems are placed. The number of optical systems is not limited; any number of optical systems is allowed as long as a means for supplying a plurality of laser beams is provided.
US07679796B2
To provide an image processing apparatus that does not cause missing of characters in a case where a monochrome copy is made by reading a color original document even when the base and characters thereon have the same reflectance as long as they have different hues.An image processing apparatus of the invention includes a background color specifying portion 54D that specifies a background color using RGB signals outputted from a scanner portion 120, a hue determination portion 54C that determines the hue of a pixel of interest, and a monochrome signal generation processing portion 55 that generates a monochrome signal using any one of the RGB signals according to a specification result of the background color specifying portion and a determination result of the hue determination portion.
US07679795B2
There are provided an image processing apparatus and method thereof which, in a case where drawing data represented by an RGB space satisfies a predetermined condition, perform a compensation of color that converts a pixel value of image data in an MCYK color space into a predetermined value, and in accordance with information for designating whether or not to use color conversion for each respective object included in the drawing commands, select whether to perform normal conversion processing for converting the drawing data of the RGB color space into a pixel value in the MCYK space or to perform color compensation conversion processing, and convert the pixel data from RGB to MCYK.
US07679783B2
In accordance with the present invention, a system and method are described for producing pure gray tones on a multi-color document output device that includes a system for operating on device independent color data having at least three color components, which color data corresponds to one or more associated electronic documents. The system and method function to extract grayscale data from such a device independent color data description, which grayscale corresponds to a rendering and a single color space. Such resultant data, inclusive of a color data portion and a grayscale portion, is thus completed in device independent form.
US07679781B2
A color image processing apparatus includes: a minimum value selection unit that selects a minimum value of an input gray level values; a first calculation unit that calculates a generation amount of black; a second calculation unit that calculates an UCR amount which is a value relevant to the minimum value; a third calculation unit that outputs a correction coefficient value which is a value relevant to the minimum value; a subtraction unit that subtracts the UCR amount from each of the input gray level values to generate output; a multiplication unit that multiply the output of the subtraction unit by the correction coefficient value; a significant bit selection unit that selects a significant bit of a multiplication result; and a gray level correction unit that makes a gray level correction to the generation amount of black and the output of the multiplication unit.
US07679774B2
In a method and system for display screen-aided generation of an electronic document from rasterized image data in an application computer, the image data are filed in at least one electronic storage. A first group of rasterized image data are provided stored page-by-page and a second group of rasterized overlay image data are provided in a relationship associated such that one page is associated with at least one overlay or one overlay is associated with at least one page. In a first display screen region, symbols of the first group are displayed per page in an ordered structure. In a second display screen region, image data of the first group are displayed. The document is generated an editor computer program loaded on the application computer from the rasterized image data and the rasterized overlay image data.
US07679768B2
An image processing apparatus enables efficient use of an image memory area according to processing contents set by a user. A CPU searches destinations set sequentially, and makes for each destination an image area information generating decision for searching for a destination that generates an image a printer section possibly output. After completing the image area information generating decision for all the destinations, the CPU decides whether the image area information is to be generated or not in the end. When it decides that the image area information is to be generated, it sets a compression rate of a compression expansion circuit of an image compression expansion section at a higher value, and simultaneously enables the output of the image area data buffer. When it decides that the image area information is not to be generated, it sets the compression rate of the compression expansion circuit of the image compression expansion section at a lower value, and simultaneously disables the output of the image area data buffer.
US07679767B2
A printing system is provided which includes a first printer; a second printer; and a print instruction unit. The first and second printers execute printing on the basis of print data. The first printer and the print instruction unit are connected so that data can be transmitted. The first printer and the second printer are connected so that data can be transmitted.
US07679762B2
The present invention is a printer having a plurality of paper feed cassettes, a function, when recording sheets of paper are exhausted in any of the paper feed cassettes, for detecting exhaustion of sheets of paper, and a function, when sheets of paper in an identified paper feed cassette are exhausted, for automatically switching the paper feed destination when there are sheets of paper of the same size in another paper feed cassette and the printer has a function, when judging an occurrence of exhaustion of sheets of paper, for notifying a user of it beforehand.
US07679761B2
A digital multifunction device is provided with RAM having a virtual drive area. The digital multifunction device enables a personal computer connected to and capable of communicating with the digital multifunction device via a USB interface to recognize this virtual drive area as an external storage device. When the personal computer writes image data to the virtual drive area, the digital multifunction device selectively executes one of an image forming process, fax transmitting process, and mail transmitting process based on the type of folder in which the image data is written. Accordingly, image data in a first folder is printed on recording paper, or image data in a second folder is transmitted to an external facsimile machine.
US07679759B2
A mechanism for performing tab paper printing and test printing by simple operation is provided. A printer performs a print process with an image formation position unshifted in the test printing and a print process with the image formation position shifted in the tab paper printing. In case of performing the tab paper printing after the test printing, the printing is performed by using print data already held in the printer or a host computer. It structured to enable to output to a plain paper a print result in which a decoration is added only to a tab position correspondence portion, enable to change its decoration method, and enable easy discrimination of the position. By the above structure, a user can easily correct the position of the content intended to be printed on a tab, and costs necessary for the tab paper used in the test can be reduced.
US07679755B1
Optical filters tunable for both center wavelength and bandwidth, having applications such as in astronomy, remote sensing, laser spectroscopy, and other laser-based sensing applications, using Michelson interferometers or Mach-Zehnder interferometers modified with Gires-Tournois interferometers (“GTIs”) are disclosed. A GTI nominally has unity magnitude reflectance as a function of wavelength and has a phase response based on its resonator characteristics. Replacing the end mirrors of a Michelson interferometer or the fold mirrors of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with GTIs results in both high visibility throughput as well as the ability to tune the phase response characteristics to change the width of the bandpass/notch filters. A range of bandpass/bandreject optical filter modes, including a Fabry-Perot (“FP”) mode, a wideband, low-ripple FP mode, a narrowband notch/bandpass mode, and a wideband notch/bandpass mode, are all tunable and wavelength addressable.
US07679753B2
Passively biased fiber-optic Sagnac interferometric sensor architecture, for gyroscope and current sensor in particular, is disclosed. One embodiment uses a 3×3 coupler entirely made of circular polarization maintaining fiber that serves as a beam splitter and meanwhile a passive bias. An alternative is to use a 3×3 hybrid coupler consisting of two linear polarization maintaining fibers and one conventional single-mode fiber, with the former two connected in a common interferometric sensor circuitry, and with the latter one cut short at both ends to form matched terminations. Still another alternative is an integral unit of Faraday rotator, whose central part is a fiber-optic magneto-optic 45° rotator, with a “zero to fast” fiber-optic quarter wave plate attached to one side, and a “fast to zero” fiber-optic quarter wave plate to the other. Advantages of passive bias are simplicity in construction, no need of manual adjustment and operational stability.
US07679744B2
The invention provides a Stokes parameter measurement device and Stokes parameter measurement method that enable high-precision measurement. The Stokes parameter measurement device comprises a polarization splitting device which comprises an optical element formed of a birefringent crystal material and which, by means of the optical element, splits signal light to be measured into a plurality of polarized light beams and adjusts the polarization state of one or more among the plurality of polarized light beams, and a light-receiving portion for performing photoelectric conversion of an optical component of the signal light split by and emitted from the polarization splitting device.
US07679742B2
The present invention relates to a method, system and apparatus for continuously monitoring variations in the size of particles present in a fluid on a real time basis. The method comprises of passing one or more optical signal through the fluid such as engine oil. The variation (attenuation or enhancement) in the intensity of the optical signal is continuously measured with respect to time. In an embodiment, the method, system and apparatus of the present invention enable monitoring of the amount, size and onset of particle agglomeration using single or multiple wavelengths as interrogating optical signal(s). An exemplary embodiment is provided for monitoring of the amount, size and onset of soot particle agglomeration in engine oil using single or multiple wavelengths as interrogating optical signal(s).
US07679736B1
A pellicle correction factor is determined by comparing a first measurement of a reference photomask alone with a second measurement of that reference photomask through a reference pellicle protecting the mask layers of the photomask. A number of pellicle correction factors may be determined for different type pellicles and made accessible in pellicle correction factor lookup table of the system or supplied on a separate data storage medium. Raw Reflectance and/or Transmittance measurement data of a generic photomask through a generic pellicle is consecutively corrected for the measurement distorting effects of that pellicle by applying a matching one of the previously determined pellicle correction factors. The pellicle correction factor is preferably an attenuation signature across a predetermined measurement irradiation spectrum.
US07679730B2
An image pickup device disposed in a predetermined position relative to a surface of a strained silicon wafer photographs the surface of the strained silicon wafer in a plurality of rotation angle positions on photographing conditions under which bright lines appearing on the surface of the strained silicon wafer can be photographed, in an environment where a light source device illuminates the surface of the strained silicon wafer which is rotating. A composite image in a predetermined angle position is generated from surface images of the strained silicon wafer in a plurality of rotation angle positions obtained by the image pickup device.
US07679727B2
Disclosed are a method and a system for determining the position of a receiver unit. According to said method, modulated radiation is generated by at least one radiation projector, and a number of reference points, from among which reference points lying within a detection range of the receiver unit are detected, are projected by means of said modulated radiation. Positional data, particularly location data and/or orientation data, is derived for the receiver unit from the radiation of said reference points.
US07679722B2
Reticle management systems and methods. The system comprises at least one reticle and at least one cabinet with an inert gas environment. The cabinet comprises a plurality of storage spaces. When the reticle is put in a storage space, the cabinet identifies the reticle and the storage space occupied thereby. The cabinet provides inert gas to the reticle. The storage information of the reticle in the cabinet and/or an inert gas status of the reticle are provided to a query system and a dispatch system for reticle location query and lot dispatching.
US07679705B2
A liquid crystal display device includes an array substrate and a counter-substrate, a liquid crystal layer which is held between the array substrate and counter-substrate and includes a transmissive display part and a reflective display part which neighbor each other via a boundary, an alignment state of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer being controlled by an application voltage from the array substrate and counter-substrate in the transmissive display part and the reflective display part, and control means for making an alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules, which are present near the boundary in the reflective display part, substantially match an alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules which are present near the boundary in the transmissive display part.
US07679703B2
A liquid crystal display device according to the present invention includes: a vertical alignment liquid crystal layer; first and second electrodes arranged on one surface of first and second substrates to face the liquid crystal layer; and first and second alignment films arranged on the first and second electrodes, respectively, in contact with the liquid crystal layer. The first alignment film has been subjected to an optical alignment treatment by obliquely irradiating a first alignment film material, having a photosensitive wavelength within the wavelength range of 250 nm to 380 nm, with light including the photosensitive wavelength. The device further includes: a metal layer arranged between the first alignment film and the first substrate; and a first resin layer arranged between the metal layer and the first alignment film. The first resin layer has an optical property that attenuates the intensity of light, which has been incident on the first resin layer and then reflected from the metal layer, to 60% or less at the photosensitive wavelength.
US07679701B2
A component has a substrate (1) made of a transparent material, for example glass. On this layer (1), there is a linear polarizer (2) on which there is a layer (3) of a photo-oriented polymer network (PPN)(-LPP) which is oriented in locally varying fashion via its surface which covers the substrate. The layer (3) is adjoined by an anisotropic layer (4) of cross-linked liquid-crystal monomers. This layer (4) then has a molecular arrangement whose orientation is defined by the underlying orientation layer (3). The layer (4) will have been photocross-linked by exposure to a suitable wavelength of light, with the result that the molecular orientation defined by the PPN layer (3) is fixed. The element, denoted as a whole by 7, can then be used as an optical component which is protected against forgery, it being possible for the orientation pattern of the liquid-crystal layer or the optical information stored therein to be made visible by means of an external polarizer (5), for example.
US07679692B2
A stereoscopic image display device including a light source and a light controller for selectively transmitting or blocking light provided by the light source. The light controller includes a first substrate, and first and second electrodes alternatively formed on the first substrate along a first direction. The first and second electrodes are spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval. The first and second electrodes are electrically connected, respectively, to first and second connection electrodes. The light controller also includes a second substrate which is substantially parallel to the first substrate, and third and fourth electrodes alternately formed on the second substrate along a second direction. The third and fourth electrodes are spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval. The third and forth electrodes are electrically connected, respectively, to third and fourth connection electrodes.
US07679691B2
The present invention prevents a moiré generated by the interference of two liquid crystal display panels in a display device capable of performing a three-dimensional display using two liquid crystal display panels. By arranging an upper lens array and a lower lens array between an upper liquid crystal display panel and a lower liquid crystal display panel, a moiré and smearing of an image can be prevented. Due to such a constitution, lowering of brightness and contrast can be suppressed.
US07679688B2
A wireless TV system includes a base station including a wireless signal processor to process a predetermined video signal into a wireless signal, and a transmitter to transmit the wireless signal from the wireless signal processor; and a wireless TV comprising a receiver to receive the wireless signal from the transmitter, an LCD displaying a picture based on the wireless signal, a backlight unit to illuminate the LCD, a battery to supply power, an inverter to supply the power from the battery to the backlight unit, and a controller to determine whether a wireless communication state is normal or abnormal based on the received wireless signal and to control the inverter to lower a brightness level of the LCD into a predetermined brightness level when the wireless communication state is abnormal.
US07679684B2
During adjustment of a white balance, images having different white balances are displayed respectively on a plurality of regions on the screen 201 of the display 200, based on the red video signal Rout, the green video signal Gout and the blue video signal Bout output from the gamma correction device 30. After that, an user selects any of the plurality of regions by comparing the plurality of images having the different white balances displayed on the regions A to I on the screen 201 of the display 200 and pressing a touch panel on the screen 201. The image on the selected region is displayed on the entire screen 201 of the display 200, based on the red video signal Rout, the green video signal Gout and the blue video signal Bout output from the gamma correction device 30.
US07679678B2
An improvement information generating unit (11) generates a plurality of types of improvement information for improving the image quality of an image (broadcast image) broadcast as a program. An integrating unit (12) embeds one or more of the plurality of types of improvement information generated by the improvement information generating unit (11) into the broadcast image, thus integrating the improvement information with the broadcast image, and outputs an integrated signal. The integrated signal is transmitted via a transmitting unit (13). Thus, images of various image qualities are provided.
US07679675B2
The present invention relates to a data conversion apparatus and a learning device in which an image can be converted into a higher-quality image. A class-tap generating circuit (2) and a predictive-tap generating circuit (3) generate, from an SD image, a predictive tap used for determining the HD pixel of a specified block of an HD image. A classification circuit (4) classifies the HD pixel of the specified block based on the class tap. A coefficient RAM (7) obtains a tap coefficient for the class of the HD pixel of the specified block from tap coefficients obtained by learning the relationship between supervisor data and learner data for each class of at least one class by giving a predetermined constraint condition to the supervisor data. A predictive-computation circuit (8) and a decoding circuit (9) determine the HD pixel of the specified block by using the tap coefficient and the predictive tap.
US07679662B2
Disclosed herein is a solid-state imaging element which includes a plurality of drive signal inputs, a plurality of bus lines, and a plurality of vertical transfer register electrodes. In the solid-state imaging element, a charge accumulated in light-receiving elements in a pixel region is vertically transferred by the drive signals input to the electrodes. Each of the electrodes has a contact part connected to the second contact and having a width smaller than a width of the electrodes in the pixel region, and a blank region is formed between predetermined adjacent two of the contact parts so that a width of the blank region is larger than a distance between respective two of the contact parts other than the predetermined adjacent two of the contact parts. The first contact is disposed on the blank region.
US07679649B2
Methods for the deployment of an image servicing platform over a mobile wireless network are described. A mobile multimedia service controller (MMSC) includes a video gateway that is capable of transcoding among different video formats supported by an imaging service platform. The MMSC can be connected over a network to a download server that provides updates to a transcoder application and a video image application.
US07679647B2
A sensor mounting system for enabling image stabilization in a digital camera is described. An electronic array light sensor is moved in relation to other parts of the camera in response to camera motion. In one embodiment, the sensor is moved by at least one linear motor having a ferrofluid in a gap of the linear motor. Other aspects of the system are described, including methods of heat sinking the sensor, a suspension system, methods of compensating for an effect of temperature on the ferrofluid, and a compact magnet configuration for forming the linear motor and providing feedback as to the position of the sensor.
US07679639B2
A system for enhancing eye gaze in a telepresence system includes a plurality of local cameras coupled to at least one local display. Each local camera is directed to at least one respective local user section and operable to generate an image of the respective local user section. The system also includes a plurality of remote displays. Each remote display is operable to reproduce the local video image of the local user section. Within the system the plurality of remote displays and the plurality of local cameras are aligned such that when a first local user within a local user section looks at a target at least one remote display is operable to reproduce the local video image of the first user section comprising the first local user such that the eye gaze of the reproduced image of the first local user is directed approximately at a corresponding target.
US07679633B2
A method of facilitating focusing of a multi-function digital media drive, is such as to generate two or more error signals each indicative of a focus of an energy beam by an optical arrangement onto first and second different recording layers of a digital medium in the drive, the first recording layers being covered with a protective, energy beam transparent substrate. A selected on of the error signal is used to determine a focus correction.
US07679628B2
The present invention discloses a control apparatus. This control apparatus has a modulation circuit, and a control circuit for setting up an amplitude setting signal and/or a pulse width setting signal to be used in the modulation circuit, on the basis of characteristic data representative of characteristics of an input image signal, the amplitude setting signal and/or the pulse width setting signal being used for setting up an amplitude and/or a time width of a pulse signal to be output from the modulation circuit in accordance with a gradient gradation value of the image signal, wherein the modulation circuit is a circuit which uses the time width setting signal and/or the amplitude setting signal as a reference signal for setting up the time width and amplitude of the pulse signal in correspondence with the gradient.
US07679623B2
A computer of an image processing device executing an image processing program displays, on a display device, a virtual three-dimensional space where there are a plurality of objects. The computer varies a size of a collision detection region defined for a predetermined object so that the size repeatedly increases and decreases over time, while the predetermined object is moving. Then, based on the collision detection region, it is determined whether or not the predetermined object and another object are in contact with each other. The computer displays, on the display device, a predetermined effect being inflicted on the object determined to be in contact with the predetermined object.
US07679621B2
An object recognition apparatus in an embodiment includes an image input unit, an object detection unit, a diffuse reflection image generation unit, an object model storage unit, a difference image generation unit, a weight calculation unit, a weighted Gaussian filter application unit, a filter processing unit, and an identification unit. A weight to be assigned to a weighted Gaussian filter is determined in view of variations in lighting conditions and reflection components of pixels of an input image.
US07679614B2
Provided are a color display driving principle obtained while taking into account a difference in eye sensitivity to the flickering of differently colored lights, a TFT liquid crystal display module structure that is adequate for this method, and a double-panel projection type display device.The count of the G (green) color data that can be written is increased compared with the count for the other primary colors, or the display period for green can be extended. The repetitive unit is set to R, G, B and G, so that a satisfactory refresh rate can be set for the important color G. Therefore, the overall refresh frequency and the power consumed by the display device can be reduced without deterioration of the display quality, and requests for the time response speeds by the display device can be reduced.
US07679610B2
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device (5) having an integrated touchscreen includes a probe light source (80) behind the liquid crystal (LC) layer (20) for transmitting a probe signal. The device further includes a probe light sensor (90) behind the LC layer for sensing the probe signal. An external optical path is provided whereby the probe signal traverses from the probe light source, across the touchscreen surface (1), and toward the probe light sensor. By sensing interruptions in the probe signal traversing the external optical path, using the probe light sensor, the LCD device is capable of detecting user contact with the touchscreen surface.
US07679608B2
The touch panel has a light-transmissive upper substrate, a light-transmissive lower substrate, and a bonding layer. The lower surface of the upper substrate is formed thereon with an upper conductive layer. The top surface of the lower substrate is formed thereon with a lower conductive layer facing the upper conductive layer with an air gap. The bonding layer is formed on at least one of inner edges of the lower surface of the upper substrate and the top surface of the lower substrate, and additionally has an open groove communicating with the air gap. The makeup provides a touch panel reliably operable with a simple structure.
US07679605B2
An optical computer mouse has a support structure that can be moved across a surface. An illumination source that illuminates a region of the surface is coupled to the support structure. An imaging system in the mouse includes an optical sensor array that receives light from the illuminated region of the work surface and an image processor that receives data from the optical sensor array. The optical computer mouse may be switched between a navigation mode of operation, in which the image processor detects motion of the optical computer mouse over the work surface, and a barcode reading mode of operation, in which the image processor senses a barcode as the optical computer mouse is moved across a barcode.
US07679604B2
A handheld computing device is introduced comprising a motion detection sensor(s) and a motion control agent. The motion detection sensor(s) detect motion of the computing device in one or more of six (6) fields of motion and generate an indication of such motion. The motion control agent, responsive to the indications of motion received from the motion sensors, generate control signals to modify, one or more of the operating state and/or the displayed content of the computing device based, at least in part, on the received indications.
US07679600B2
A pointing device having a moveable puck that moves in a predetermined field of motion by applying a lateral force thereto is disclosed. A first linear spring is attached to the puck, the first spring applying a first force to the puck at each location in the field of motion. A second linear spring is also attached to the puck, the second spring applying a second force to the puck at each location in the field of motion. The first and second springs return the puck to a predetermined location in the field of motion when the lateral force is not applied to the puck. The first linear spring is folded around a bending point and attached to a portion of the pointing device that is stationary with respect to the puck.
US07679598B2
An image display device includes a pair of transparent substrates, a liquid crystal composition and at least two types of color filters disposed between the pair of substrates, at least two types of light sources, and a light source controller. Each of the light sources generating peak wavelengths of at least two colors, wherein the peak wavelengths are different from one another. The light source controller switches on and off the light sources in time sequence within one frame period.
US07679592B2
An LCD device operated by a remote controller comprises: an LCD unit having a display electrode supplied with voltage based on a video signal and a counter-electrode supplied with counter-electrode voltage; a remote control receiver for receiving a flicker adjustment control signal from the remote controller; a microcomputer for outputting a flicker voltage control signal based on the flicker adjustment control signal; a counter-electrode voltage control unit for generating a flicker adjustment voltage whose value varies according to the flicker voltage control signal, and outputting a DC counter-electrode voltage based on the flicker adjustment voltage; and a DC-AC converter for converting the DC counter-electrode voltage to AC voltage to be applied to the counter-electrode. An operator (human) can make flicker adjustment at a position on the front side of, and if necessary distanced from, the LCD device where the operator can directly and easily view an image on the LCD.
US07679576B2
An improved antenna arrangement comprises at least a dipole-shaped radiator arrangement with the associated carrying device and/or balancing device and the associated dipole and/or radiator halves as well as the reflector or the part reflector or the reflector frame which are formed from a common part, and the material of this common part is electrically conductive or is provided with an electrically conductive surface or surface layer if it consists of a dielectric material.
US07679564B2
The present invention provides a multi-band antenna to which the arrangement of Koch fractal antenna is applied. The multi-band antenna is designed in triangular shape whose area is smaller than the general antenna structure. By using the arrangement of Koch fractal antenna, the area of the inverted-F dual-band antenna can be reduced efficiently, so as to enhance more usability.
US07679559B2
A wide-angle null-fill antenna with no null in the depression angle range, an omni antenna using the same, and radio communication equipment. A null-fill antenna comprises a first antenna array including antenna elements arranged with a prescribed point as the center, and a second antenna array having amplitude characteristics substantially equal to those of the antenna elements forming the first antenna array. The first antenna array is excited so that the excitation amplitude distribution is to have symmetry with respect to the prescribed point, while the excitation phase distribution is to have point symmetry with respect to the prescribed point. The phase center of the first antenna array is substantially coincident with that of the second antenna array.
US07679558B2
A terminal device includes a plurality of search channel sections which search for a positioning satellite, a candidate reception frequency calculation section which calculates a candidate reception frequency of a first acquisition target satellite by causing the search channel sections to perform the correlation accumulation process for a first accumulation time, a candidate frequency confirmation section which confirms reliability of the candidate reception frequency by causing the search channel sections to perform the correlation accumulation process for a second accumulation time longer than the first accumulation time, a final frequency calculation section which calculates a final frequency by causing the search channel sections to perform the correlation accumulation process for a third accumulation time longer than the second accumulation time, and a first difference calculation section which calculates a difference between an estimated synchronization frequency corresponding to each first acquisition target satellite and the final frequency.
US07679556B2
A method of determining a GPS position fix. The method includes: (i) sampling received GPS signals and storing those samples; (ii) conducting preliminary processing of those GPS signal samples to determine the likelihood of being able to obtain a position fix during later, final processing of those GPS signal samples; and (iii) after step (ii), conducting final processing of those GPS signal samples to obtain a position fix.
US07679554B1
A method and apparatus for improving differential navigation accuracy uses time transfer over a two-way communications link. The communications link transmits an overall time offset between a differential reference station and a remote user. A differential navigation position solution is modified at the remote user with the overall time offset to improve the differential navigation accuracy. A first time offset between a first communications device and a first navigation receiver at the remote user is determined. A second time offset between the first communications device at the remote user and a second communications device at the differential reference station is determined. A third time offset between the second communications device and a second navigation receiver at the differential reference station is determined. An overall time offset from the first time offset, the second time offset, and the third time offset is computed and used to improve the differential navigation accuracy.
US07679553B1
Adjusting the GPS fix frequency of a wireless device is described. For example, a computer-implemented method according to one embodiment comprises: attempting GPS fix operations on a wireless device according to a first schedule; detecting one or more unsuccessful GPS fix operations; determining whether a location identified by a previous successful GPS fix operation is at or within a specified range from a first specified location; if the location identified by the previous successful GPS fix operation is at or within a specified range from a first specified location, then adjusting the wireless device to perform GPS fix operations according to a second schedule; and if the location identified by the previous successful GPS fix operation is not at or within a specified range from a first specified location, then adjusting the wireless device to perform GPS fix operations according to a third schedule.
US07679539B2
A randomized thermometer-coding digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for the reduction of harmonic distortion due to non-ideal circuit mismatch is presented. The present invention introduces a new dynamic element matching technique that contains three properties of randomization, consecutive selection and less element switching activity to achieve good spurious-free dynamic range and small maximum output error. The topology uses a bank of 1-bit DAC elements, whose outputs are summed to produce a multi-level analog output. The binary digital input is encoded to be thermometer code. During a randomization period, the thermometer code is barrel-shifted to a specific starting position where the position is generated randomly. Thus, the DAC noise is randomized with less element switching activity and consecutive selection.
US07679527B2
A method of automated parking assistance. A logic unit reads identification information from a transponder attached to a vehicle and determines the current position of the vehicle by measuring distances between the transponder and multiple stationary sensor devices. A pre-defined parking location is stored by pressing a single button. If the current position of the vehicle is not equal to the pre-defined parking location when the vehicle subsequently approaches, the logic unit determines one or more directions in which the current position of the vehicle must be adjusted to reduce the distance between the current position of the vehicle and the pre-defined parking location. A display device displays one or more guidance signals corresponding to the one or more directions in which the current position of the vehicle must be adjusted. If the current position of the vehicle is equal to the pre-defined parking location, a stop signal is displayed.
US07679524B2
The invention relates to a remote control for issuing commands to a remote-controlled device in a wireless manner. In said remote control, an assignment mode can run prior to start-up. The remote control also comprises a rechargeable battery for supplying power. The remote-controlled device is equipped with a docking point for the remote control, to which the latter can be temporarily fixed.
US07679520B2
A point-of-care computer system is provided, including a display positioned in a point-of-care location.
US07679517B2
An identifying apparatus which can identify objects having electronic identification devices (EIDs). The identifying apparatus includes multiple EID readers positioned in a spaced apart relationship to define multiple pathways so that EIDs carried by the objects can pass in a single file through any one of the multiple pathways. Each EID reader is adapted to read any EID as the objects pass through any one of the pathways. Each EID carried by an object is recorded only once irrespective of the number of times an EID reader reads an EID.
US07679514B2
A multi-mode RFID tag includes a power generating and signal detection module, a baseband processing module, a transmit section, a configurable coupling circuit, and an antenna section. In near field mode, the configurable coupling circuit is operable to couple the transmit section to a coil or inductor in the configurable coupling circuit to transmit an outbound transmit signal using electromagnetic or inductive coupling to an RFID reader. In far field mode, the configurable coupling circuit is operable to couple the transmit section to the antenna section, and the multi-mode RFID tag then utilizes a back-scattering RF technology to transmit the outbound transmit signal to RFID readers.
US07679506B1
A method of communicating a geographically targeted emergency alert message is disclosed. The invention employs a method of using an emergency alert message, wherein the message directs end users to take appropriate action like evacuating an identified geographic area. The invention further employs a method of using a geographic area message, the message being based on a particular geographic area within which all persons should receive the emergency alert message. An emergency alert enabled device that receives both the emergency alert message and the geographic area message is also used in the invention. The emergency alert enabled device is used to determine whether it is located within the geographic area of concern, and if so, presents the emergency alert message to the end user.
US07679498B2
An imaging system for a vehicle includes an imaging sensor and a control. The imaging sensor is operable to capture an image of a scene occurring exteriorly of the vehicle. The control is responsive to the imaging sensor. The imaging system may be associated with a side object detection system, a lane change assist system, a lane departure warning system, a monitoring system, a passive steering system and/or the like. The control may be operable to process a reduced image data set more than other image data, which are representative of areas of the captured image outside of a target zone, to detect objects present within the target zone.
US07679487B1
A system and method for electronically displaying real-time data pertaining to scores and wagering information of live sporting activities includes a score board with electronically adaptable cells displaying alphanumeric values. The cells are grouped into corresponding columns and rows associated with unique predetermined parameters, and are displayed in a central region of the score board. Data input ports are formed about a periphery of the score board for establishing an internet connection. A mechanism displays real-time data pertaining to sports scores and sports wagering activities within the cells such that the real-time data is categorized into a plurality of groups based upon the predetermined parameters so that the real-time data is easily read and understood by the user.
US07679485B2
A multilayer positive temperature coefficient thermistor that has semiconductor ceramic layers containing a BaTiO3-based ceramic material as a primary component, and at least one element selected from the group consisting of Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Y, Ho, Er, and Tm as a semiconductor dopant in the range of 0.1 to 0.5 molar parts with respect to 100 molar parts of Ti. The ratio of the Ba site to the Ti site is in the range of 0.998 to 1.006. Accordingly, even when the semiconductor ceramic layers have a low actual-measured sintered density in the range of 65% to 90% of a theoretical sintered density, a multilayer positive temperature coefficient thermistor having a sufficiently high rate of resistance change and a high rising coefficient of resistance at the Curie temperature or more can be realized.
US07679483B2
A core for a reactor includes: a plurality of core members, each of which has a convexly curved side face that serves as a bonding face; and a gap plate that is interposed between the curved side faces of the core members and that is bonded to the curved side faces. The gap plate includes a flat plate and a plurality of projections which project from each face of the plate and each of which has a tip end that contacts the curved side face. The projections are formed at positions near the outer edges of the plate, which are distant from the center of the plate at which no projection is formed, and which are at equal distances from the center of the plate.
US07679478B2
A switching device for selectively switching electrical power from an electrical power source to a load circuit comprises a housing. An electromechanical actuator is in the housing. A fixed contact is fixedly mounted in the housing. A contact arm is pivotally mounted in the housing. The contact arm carries a movable contact and has a lever. The contact arm is operatively connected to the actuator to be selectively positioned thereby for selectively electrically contacting the moveable contact with the fixed contact. A rotational actuator is rotationally mounted to the housing. The rotational actuator includes a leg proximate the lever so that rotational movement of the rotational actuator pivotally moves the contact arm to override the electromechanical actuator.
US07679476B2
A polarized electromagnetic relay including an electromagnet assembly, a contact section insulated from the electromagnet assembly, and a force transfer member disposed between the electromagnetic assembly and the contact section. The electromagnet assembly includes an electromagnet, an armature driven by the electromagnet, and a permanent magnet carried on the armature. The armature includes first and second electrically conductive plate elements holding the permanent magnet therebetween in a direction of magnetization of the permanent magnet and disposed to orient the direction of magnetization in parallel with the center axis of the coil. The armature is arranged linearly movably in a direction parallel with the center axis in a state where a part of the first electrically conductive plate element is inserted into a space between the outer peripheral region of the iron core head portion and the distal end region of the yoke major portion.
US07679469B2
The impulse generator comprises a nonlinear transmission line capable of obtaining an impulse with a small half value width and a large amplitude, in which a plurality of transmission line units having a unit line unit and a diode are connected in series, a pulse generator connected to the transmission terminal of the nonlinear transmission line, and a bias-dependent element connected to the reception terminal of the nonlinear line, wherein the anode of the diode of the transmission line unit is connected to the transmission line and the cathode is connected to the ground, and one end of the bias-dependent element is connected to the reception terminal of the transmission line and the other end is biased to a negative potential.
US07679467B2
A voltage controlled oscillator which performs an oscillating operation at a frequency corresponding to a control voltage, includes a voltage-current converter circuit which converts the control voltage to a control current corresponding to a voltage value thereof, and a ring oscillator through which an operating current corresponding to the control current generated by the voltage-current converter circuit is caused to flow, and which oscillates at a frequency corresponding to a current value thereof. The voltage-current converter circuit has a voltage-voltage converting circuit which inputs the control voltage therein and converts the same to a control current corresponding to the voltage value thereof, and an offset current generating circuit which adds a constant current to the control current.
US07679466B1
Disclosed herein is a timing device that includes a resonator device to generate a resonator output signal at a frequency offset from a desired frequency, a counter configured to generate an extraction signal in accordance with the frequency offset, and a timing signal generator configured to track time with a count based on the resonator output signal and modified by the extraction signal downward to reach the desired frequency.
US07679465B2
The present invention relates to an oscillator circuit having a resonant element, an active element, a feedback loop, and an additional loop comprising a phase shifting element.
US07679463B2
Exemplary embodiments of the invention provide a reference harmonic oscillator integrated circuit having three or more terminals, with systems and methods for calibrating the harmonic oscillator to a selected first frequency using a limited number of terminals. An exemplary apparatus comprises: a reference harmonic oscillator, a first terminal to receive a supply voltage, a second terminal to receive a ground potential, a third terminal to provide an output signal having an output frequency, and may also include a fourth terminal. One of the first, second, third or fourth terminals is further adapted for input of a calibration of the first frequency. The exemplary apparatus may enter calibration and testing modes in response to various commands such as a calibration mode signal, and may also be configured through one of the terminals for output frequency selection, spread-spectrum output, and output voltage levels.
US07679461B2
The invention discloses a varactor device (100) for improved temperature stability, comprising a first varactor (160) connected to a decoupling network (150). The device further comprises a voltage stabilizer (110), said stabilizer comprising a capacitor (140) and a temperature dependent capacitor (130), and in that the stabilizer comprises means for connection to a DC-feed (120). Suitably, the decoupling network (150) is connected in parallel to the first varactor (160), and the capacitor (140) of the voltage stabilizer (110) is connected in parallel to the decoupling network (150), the temperature dependent capacitor (130) of the voltage stabilizer (110) being connected in series to the diode of the voltage stabilizer (110).
US07679453B2
A phase-locked method includes: generating a selection signal according to a detection result of a phase/frequency detector (PFD) of a phase-locked loop (PLL); generating a plurality of oscillation signals according to at least a first oscillation signal generated by the PLL, wherein the plurality of oscillation signals respectively correspond to a plurality of phases; and from the plurality of oscillation signals, selecting an oscillation signal as an output signal of the PLL according to the selection signal.
US07679451B2
A power supply device for driving an amplifier includes a power generator for providing a first voltage for a first power reception end of the amplifier, a power conversion unit coupled to the power generator, for converting the first voltage into a second voltage, a charge pump coupled between the power conversion unit and a second power reception end of the amplifier, for generating a third voltage for the amplifier according to the second voltage, and a control unit coupled to the power conversion unit, for controlling the power conversion unit, so as to adjust the second voltage to make the third voltage equal to a specific multiple of the first voltage.
US07679447B2
This variable gain amplifier is provided with an operational amplifier. The non-inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier is connected to a reference potential. A feedback resistor is connected between the output terminal and inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier. An input resistor is inserted between the inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier and the input terminal of the variable gain amplifier circuit. An adjustment resistor is connected between the inversion input terminal of the operational amplifier and the reference potential. The resistance value of the adjustment resistor is controlled in such a way as to maintain constant against the resistance value change a combined resistance value in its parallel connection with the input resistor when changing the resistance value of the input resistor.
US07679437B2
A circuit arrangement and method for improving load regulation in an amplifier (e.g., LDO amplifier) uses a feedback circuit including a parallely connected feedback resistance Rf and a noise reduction feedback capacitance Cf, wherein an external capacitance has equivalent series resistance (ESR). The circuit arrangement includes a resistance Resr in the amplifier output, a junction point of the feedback resistance Rf and the feedback capacitor Cf being connected to a negative input of the LDO amplifier. Additionally, the circuit arrangement might include a resistance Rintentional in between Cf and Rf. The circuit arrangement provides good load regulation and better stability without increase in power/area. The arrangement supports external feedback mode providing design flexibility without compromising amplifier-stability, which provides high output current drive capability or enables driving heavy output capacitance. In a preferred form the invention includes split feedback including AC feedback and DC feedback.
US07679431B2
Low flicker noise mixer and buffer. This design employs some native metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) (e.g., having no threshold voltage) within a passive mixer whose gates are driven using clock signals. These native MOSFETs maybe biased at one half of the power supply voltage to provide a lower noise figure. A cooperatively operating buffer employs appropriately places MOSFETs and resistors to ensure the desired gain. Relatively larger valued resistors can be employed to provide for higher voltage gain, and this can sometimes be accompanied with using a higher than typical power supply voltage. Source followers serve as output buffers and also ensure the required output DC voltage level as well. It is also noted that this design can be implemented using n-channel metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (N-MOSFETs) of p-channel metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (P-MOSFETs).
US07679430B2
A single pump stage of a multi-stage charge pump couples a first low-voltage NMOS transistor in series with a first low-voltage PMOS transistor between charge transfer capacitors. A second low-voltage NMOS transistor is coupled between the gate and the source of the first NMOS transistor. A second low-voltage PMOS transistor is coupled between the gate and the source of the first PMOS transistor. Respective boost voltages are applied to gates of the first NMOS transistor and the second PMOS transistor to minimize threshold voltage losses. A stabilizing capacitor is connected between the first NMOS transistor and the second PMOS transistor.
US07679419B2
A first transistor of a level shifter provides conductivity between a reference voltage and a node of the level shifter to hold a state of the level shifter output. When an input signal of the level shifter switches, additional transistors assist in reducing the conductivity of the first transistor. This enhances the ability of the level shifter to change the state of the output in response to the change in the input signal, thereby improving the writeability of the level shifter.
US07679415B2
The present invention discloses a sense amplifier control circuit which controls the sense amplifier. A sense amplifier control circuit comprises a voltage comparing unit outputting delay control signals having a value corresponding to each of divided voltages obtained by dividing a potential of a power supply voltage and a pull-up control signal generating unit outputting an overdrive control signal and a pull-up control signal by an active signal and changing an enable pulse width of the overdrive control signal in response to the delay control signals, whereby it is possible to reduce current consumption caused by unnecessary overdrive operation and prevent a potential drop of the power supply voltage and thus provide operational stability of the semiconductor memory device by providing the overdrive control signal of which the enable pulse width is controlled in response to the potential of the power supply voltage.
US07679414B1
Aspects of the disclosure provide a fine tunable digital delay circuit that can be applied in a high frequency digital circuit. Further, the digital delay circuit can utilize a level restoring technique to enable a wide tunable delay range. The delay circuit can include a delay element configured to receive an input signal at an input node and output a controlled signal having a controlled rise time and a controlled fall time at a controlled node, a first plurality of transistors configured to bias a supply node of the delay element to govern the controlled rise time of the controlled signal, and a second plurality of transistors configured to bias a ground node of the delay element to govern the controlled fall time of the controlled signal. The delay circuit can further include a restoring circuit configured to charge or discharge the controlled node.
US07679406B2
In a comparator, a differential amplifier has a pair of transistors receiving a signal to be compared for differential amplification, and a current mirror load circuit for outputting a differential output signal in accordance with the relationship in magnitude of the signal to be compared. A latch circuit has inversion amplifiers for amplifying the differential output signal. One inversion amplifier has its input interconnected to an output of the other inversion amplifier and vice versa. The comparator still further includes a transistor for equalizing signals of the differential amplifier, a transistor for enabling the inversion amplifiers to be active, and a constant current source for reducing a current flowing from a supply voltage to the ground when the inversion amplifiers are active.
US07679401B1
Some embodiments of the invention provide a configurable integrated circuit (“IC”). The configurable IC includes a set of configurable logic circuits for configurably performing a set of functions. The configurable IC also includes a set of configurable routing circuits for routing signals to and from the configurable circuits. During several operational cycles of the configurable IC, a set of data registers are defined by the configurable routing circuits. These data registers may be used wherever a flip-flop can be used.
US07679390B2
Provided is a test apparatus that tests a DUT, which includes a driver that outputs a test signal to the DUT, a first transmission path that electrically connects the driver and the DUT, a first FET switch provided on the first transmission path to connect or disconnect the driver and the DUT to or from each other, and a capacitance compensator that detects an output signal from the DUT, and charges or discharges a capacitive component of the first FET switch based on the detected output signal.
US07679387B2
Probes 4a and 4b having irregularities formed in leading end portions thereof are brought into contact with an electrode P of a device D, which is a target object to be inspected, at a predetermined probe pressure so that a mechanical damage is applied to an insulating film O on the electrode P. As a result, an electrical resistance value between the electrode P and the probes 4a and 4b is reduced to a first predetermined value or less. Subsequently, a fritting is performed to apply an electrical damage to the insulating film O on the electrode P so that the electrical resistance value between the electrode P and the probes 4a and 4b is set to be a second predetermined value or less which is smaller than the first predetermined value.
US07679374B2
Method for determining loading of a filter. The filter has a first dielectric constant. The filter becomes loaded with contaminant material that has a second dielectric constant. The filter, such as a diesel particulate filter, is contained within a metallic enclosure forming a microwave cavity. The method includes establishing microwave energy in the cavity and monitoring changes in the cavity microwave response, the changes being related to filter loading.
US07679370B2
A controller having discrete driver circuitry for driving an electrical load and a method are provided. The controller includes a microprocessor having ports configurable to operate as inputs or outputs. The controller also includes discrete driver circuitry connected to ports of the microprocessor. The discrete driver circuitry is configured to apply electrical power to drive an electrical load. The controller further has logic for configuring the ports of the microprocessor as an output to enable on/off of the output signal that drives the electrical loads, and further for configuring the ports of the microprocessor as an input to receive feedback signals from the discrete driver circuitry. The feedback signals are processed to detect fault conditions.
US07679361B2
A compact position sensor with high operational reliability is provided. This sensor has a tubular detection coil, a magnetic core movable in the detection coil, a drive circuit for the detection coil, a signal processing circuit for converting a change in impedance of the detection coil into an electric signal, and a guide means for guiding a movement of the magnetic core in the detection coil. The guide means has a guide portion connected to the magnetic core and a support portion for slidably supporting the guide portion. The magnetic core can be smoothly displaced in the detection coil without contacting an inner surface of the detection coil by a sliding movement of the guide portion relative to the support portion.
US07679360B2
An increment sensor assembly inquires an microcontroller as to the last known increment when a vehicle is started. The last known increment data is used to rotate the sensor backward to reach a lower mechanical stop position or forward to reach an upper mechanical stop position. A timer tracks the sensor to ensure that one of the known stop positions is reached within a predetermined time period or performs a system check to determine what error has occurred. Once the sensor reaches one of the known stop positions an increment counter is reset and the sensor assembly begins normal operation.
US07679355B2
The present invention determines the resonant frequency of a sensor by adjusting the phase and frequency of an energizing signal until the frequency of the energizing signal matches the resonant frequency of the sensor. The system energizes the sensor with a low duty cycle, gated burst of RF energy having a predetermined frequency or set of frequencies and a predetermined amplitude. The energizing signal is coupled to the sensor via magnetic coupling and induces a current in the sensor which oscillates at the resonant frequency of the sensor. The system receives the ring down response of the sensor via magnetic coupling and determines the resonant frequency of the sensor, which is used to calculate the measured physical parameter. The system uses a pair of phase locked loops to adjust the phase and the frequency of the energizing signal.
US07679351B2
A voltage generation unit generates a driving voltage for driving an LED. A first feedback path feeds back a voltage according to a voltage at one end of the LED. A second feedback path feeds back a voltage according to a voltage at the other end of the LED. A current driving circuit is provided on a path on which the voltage generation unit drives the LED. A control circuit controls the voltage generation unit so that one of first and second feedback voltages fed back by the first and second feedback paths, respectively is closer to a predetermined reference voltage.
US07679350B2
A switch-mode DC/DC converter (101) and linear low drop out (LIDO) DC/DC regulator (105) are connected in parallel to drive a single load Both regulators share a common voltage reference, feedback network (103), input supply and output such that the regulated voltage is identical during each mode of operation. During heavy loads the switch-mode regulator (107) is in operation and the linear regulator is disabled for the highest efficiency possible. Conversely at light loads the linear regulator is in operation with the switch-mode regulator (107) disabled, also maximizing the efficiency. Each regulator senses load current (131) to automatically transition between the appropriate voltage regulators at fixed load current levels. The presented invention also includes a make before break transition scheme of the voltage regulators (103) to minimize the voltage transients.
US07679345B1
A digital linear voltage regulator includes a comparator, a finite state machine, and a current digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The comparator is preferably coupled to receive a reference voltage and an operating voltage supplied to a dynamic load. The comparator generates, during a clock cycle, a binary output based on a comparison between reference and operating voltages. The finite state machine (FSM) is coupled to receive at least one control signal that indicates a target operating state for the digital linear voltage regulator. The FSM receives the binary output from the comparator and generates a digital word, during a clock cycle, based on the target operating state of the digital linear voltage regulator and on the binary output. The current DAC is coupled to the FSM, receives the digital word and delivers current at the desired voltage to the dynamic load.
US07679344B2
An integrated circuit die includes a microprocessor and a control circuit to control elements of a voltage regulator to supply power to the microprocessor.
US07679339B2
A switching power supply includes input terminals, which receive a first voltage, and a switching converter stage, provided with a first switching device. The power supply further includes a second switching device, connected between the input terminals and the switching converter stage, and an activation device, associated with the second switching device for controlling the second switching device so as to limit a second voltage applied to the switching converter stage.
US07679335B1
A battery charger includes one or more channels for independently charging one or more batteries at different current levels. The battery charger also includes multiple modes for each channel for charging a battery with a continuous current or a pulse current. The battery charger supplies charging current by holding the voltage at a set value.
US07679328B2
A charged state detecting apparatus for a secondary battery is provided, which can suppress deterioration in the accuracy of detecting a charged state, such as an SOC, the deterioration being caused by variation of a polarization state of a battery. The charged state detecting apparatus stabilizes an amount of polarization of the battery, stops power generation upon confirmation of the stabilization of the polarization amount, and sufficiently alters the current of the battery to sample a required number of data pairs of voltage and current of the battery. Using these data pairs, the charged state detecting apparatus detects a charged state, such as the SOC, of the battery.
US07679324B2
A communication circuit is used for transmitting data between a plurality of devices which have non-common ground voltages. The communication circuit comprises a plurality of transmitting input nodes coupled to the devices, respectively, a transmitting current path, a plurality of receiving output nodes coupled to the devices, respectively, and a receiving current path. The transmitting current path is coupled to the transmitting input nodes. The current through the transmitting current path is varied according to the input signal of the transmitting input nodes. The receiving current path is coupled to the receiving output nodes. The current through the receiving current path is varied according to the current of the transmitting current path such that data is transmitted from the transmitting input nodes to the receiving output nodes.
US07679322B1
An accessory for a portable electronic device, such as a digital music player, includes a set of device controls for controlling the portable electronic device. The accessory includes a microprocessor and a memory that contains function codes corresponding to the functions selected by the controls. In response to user manipulation of the controls, the accessory sends the function codes to the portable electronic device that cause the device to perform the requested function. Preferably, the accessory is a charger is adapted to be inserted into for a 12-volt car auxiliary power outlet and has the controls on the protruding face of the charger body. The accessory may also include an FM transmitter for transmitting an audio signal received from the portable electronic device to the car stereo.
US07679321B2
A power circuit is disclosed which is connected to a power source supplying different currents. The power circuit supplying driving power from the power source to a load includes a switching unit configured to switch the driving power supplied to the load in response to an external switching signal.
US07679318B2
Battery side terminals disposed on the first and second battery devices are arranged at the same places at front surfaces with respect to lower surfaces and side surfaces. On the front surface of a case of the second battery device, there are formed engaging recessed parts. Positions close to the lower surface of the engaging recessed parts are formed as flat surfaces parallel to a upper surface and the lower surface. The dimensions from the lower surface of the case to flat surfaces and the dimension from the lower surface of the case of the first battery device to an upper surface are configured to be the same. Accordingly, it is possible to provide an advantageous battery device that allows the use of battery devices having various capacities and improves the ease of use.
US07679306B2
A closed loop control system for controlling an actuator operating on a moveable member, includes a control device controlling operation of the actuator, a sensor responsive to a condition such as loading of the moveable member as it is moved by the actuator and adapted to generate a corresponding feedback control signal SL, and a damping device having a damping effect on the response of the actuator to the feedback control signal, the damping effect being varied in accordance with the movement of the moveable member so as to vary the response of the actuator. The damping effect is increased in the region of stationary states to render the system more stable, and reduced therebetween to make the system more responsive at increased speeds, and thereby more conformal to a required performance profile. The position or velocity of the moveable member can be used to control the damping effect, or a timer can be used to control the damping effect.
US07679305B2
The invention relates to a method for temperature limitation according to the current and/or voltage, for an actuating device (10) associated with an electric motor (M), especially a fan regulator (12) of a motor vehicle, the temperature limitation being carried out according to at least one operating parameter of the motor (M). The invention also relates to a corresponding device (1) and a fan regulator (12).
US07679301B2
A movable barrier operator having a motor controller (10) and motor (11) that control selective movement of a movable barrier (12) also has an obstacle detector (14) that utilizes an automatically determined excess force threshold value to permit reliable detection of an obstacle under a wide variety of operational circumstances, including changing physical circumstances, aging components, temperature variations, and motor runtime. In a preferred embodiment, a characteristic force value for the system is frequently updated as a function of actual measured force requirements (and further compensated, pursuant to various embodiments, with respect to other conditions such as temperature and motor runtime). This characteristic force value is then utilized to determine the excess force threshold value.
US07679295B1
A driver for a white LED string or a display is provided. The driver includes a boost converter that is arranged to provide an output voltage from a source voltage. Also, the driver includes a sense resistor that is coupled between the output voltage and a feedback voltage. The sense resistor is coupled in series with the white LED string or the display. Further, the boost converter uses the sense voltage across the sense resistor to regulate the output voltage. In one embodiment, the boost converter includes a level shifter that converts the sense voltage into a comparison signal that is referenced to ground. In another embodiment, the converter employs a reference voltage that is referenced to the output voltage.
US07679288B2
A plasma display panel that includes a first substrate affixed to a second substrate, a plurality of discharge cells arranged between the first and the second substrates to define a display area, an exhaust aperture included in at least one of the first and the second substrates, frit arranged around the exhaust aperture, an application area of the frit being on a side of the exhaust aperture closest to the display area being less than an application area of the frit on a side of the exhaust aperture furthest from the display area and an exhaust tube attached, via said frit, to the at least one of the first and the second substrates to communicate with said exhaust aperture. The application area of the frit is skewed so as to minimize the occurrence of a stain in a portion of the display area near the exhaust aperture.
US07679287B2
Provided is a plasma display apparatus. The plasma display apparatus includes an upper substrate, a plurality of first electrodes and second electrodes formed over the upper substrate, a lower substrate disposed facing the upper substrate, and a plurality of third electrodes formed over the lower substrate. At least one of the plurality of first electrodes and second electrodes is formed as one layer, and the first electrodes or the second electrodes are sequentially formed in at least one portion.
US07679282B2
An organic electroluminescent device, includes: a substrate; a hole-injecting electrode (anode) coated over the substrate; a hole injection layer coated over the anode; a hole transporting layer coated over the hole injection layer; a polymer based light emitting layer, coated over the hole transporting layer; a small molecule based light emitting layer, thermally evaporated over the polymer based light emitting layer; and an electron-injecting electrode (cathode) deposited over the electroluminescent polymer layer.
US07679273B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are related to an apparatus and method for providing a strain tolerant electrode, comprising: an upper layer; a lower layer; with the potential for a plurality of compliant members providing electrical communication between the upper layer and the lower layer; and wherein a surface of the upper layer is in direct contact with a surface of the lower layer to provide an electrical path between the upper layer and the lower layer.
US07679256B2
A rotary electric machine capable of effectively utilizing both end faces of a rotor in the rotating axis direction by suppressing magnetic saturation comprises a stator having axial parts (31) and (32) and a radial part. The axial part (31) comprises cores (311) to (314) and coils (321) to (324), and the axial part (32) comprises cores (312) to (315) and coils (322) to (325). The radial part comprises cores (332) to (337) and coils (352) to (357). The width of each of the cores (311) to (315) in the circumferential direction is twice the width of each of the cores (332) to (337) in the circumferential direction. The number of windings of each of the coils (321) to (325) is equal to the number of windings of each of the coils (352) to (357).
US07679251B2
A stepping motor is disclosed which is capable of obtaining desired driving torque without sacrificing magnetic properties of a magnet with respect to a stator, reducing inertia mass of a rotor by decreasing a use amount of a magnet material, and thereby, can enhance driving performance including control responsiveness. In a stepping motor in which a plurality of stators (20A, 20B) around which coils (21) are wound are placed in an axial direction of a motor shaft (31), a rotor (30) is rotatably provided with a space at inner periphery sides of these stators (20A, 20B), the motor shaft (31) is placed in a center of the rotor (30), and the rotor (30) includes a rotor body (33) placed at an outer periphery of the motor shaft and a cylindrical magnet (32) integrally provided on an outer periphery of the rotor body and magnetized to form multipoles in a circumferential direction, the stepping motor is characterized in that the cylindrical magnet (32) has at least its inner peripheral surface bulged inward in a diameter direction so that a portion corresponding to a central portion in the above described axial direction of each of the coils (21) becomes thicker than the other portions.
US07679240B2
A vibration motor having an eccentric weight 20 includes a tubular metal holder frame 30 with a flat bottom part 31 and a wall surface 32, the flat bottom part 31 having an inner projection 31f with a bottom-up recess part W, the upper wall surface 32 being domed; a pair of external terminal pieces 14 and 15 attached to a plastic end cap 13, wherein the plastic end cap 13 has spacer projections 13b and 13c inserted between the motor case 11 and the flat bottom part 31.
US07679226B2
Synchronous linear motor with non-contacting scanning of the toothed structure of the secondary part
The aim of the invention is the equipping of a synchronous linear motor with a non-permanently-magnetic secondary part with a simple positional measuring system. Said aim is achieved, whereby the tooth structure of the toothed rack-shaped non-permanently-magnetic secondary part (S) varies with position in the direction of movement (B). Furthermore, the synchronous linear motor can be provided with absolute and incremental positional measuring systems, such that the coarse resolution of the absolute measuring system can be supplemented by the fine resolution of the incremental system.
US07679223B2
An electronic circuit includes a primary wide bandgap bipolar power switching device configured to supply a load current in response to a control signal applied to a control terminal thereof, and a driver device configured to generate the control signal. At least one of the primary switching device or the driver device may include an optically triggered switching device. A discrete wide bandgap semiconductor device includes a primary bipolar device stage configured to switch between a conducting state and a nonconducting state upon application of a control current, and a bipolar driver stage configured to generate the control current and to supply the control current to the primary bipolar device stage. At least one of the primary bipolar device stage and the bipolar driver stage may include an optically triggered wide bandgap switching device.
US07679211B2
The disclosed embodiments include an electrical disconnect system and method for a vehicle having a high voltage electrical system. In one embodiment, the system includes a service disconnect base being electrically coupled to the electrical system. A service disconnect plug is attachable to the service disconnect base and has a resistive device integrally formed therein. Current within the electrical system flows through the service disconnect base and the service disconnect plug when the service disconnect plug is connected to the service disconnect base. The current is limited to a current level no greater than a predetermined current level.
US07679209B2
An electrical energy generating system converts wind power to electrical power with a wind deflecting structure that divides wind impinging on the structure into two separate accelerated flow paths. One or more turbines are positioned in proximity to the wind deflecting structure such that a portion of the vanes of the turbine is placed within one of the accelerated flow paths. An energy converter is coupled to the turbine that converts rotary motion of the turbine into electricity.
US07679206B1
A wind power apparatus utilizing an anchor which is rotatably fixed to a surface. A chute attaches to the anchor and is provided with a chamber. A restrictor is located in the chamber to concentrate the wind within an annular area of the chute and direct it to a power generator via one or more nozzles. The power generator is then used to produce electricity, move an object, and the like.
US07679205B1
A method and apparatus are provided for converting electromagnetic radiation directly into electricity. The method aligns a plurality of ferromagnetic nanocrystals to produce an aggregate magnetic field; utilizes an electrical coil in the aggregate magnetic field; and alternately directs and removes radiant energy from the ferromagnetic nanocrystals such that the aggregate magnetic field decays and regenerates to produce a current in the electrical coil. The apparatus includes either a distribution or a stackup of ferro-magnetic nanocrystals and an electrical coil, the combination of the nanocrystals and the electrical coil operating with energy derived from the source of radiant energy.
US07679203B2
A method of forming a thermoelectric device may include forming a plurality of islands of thermoelectric material on a deposition substrate. The plurality of islands of thermoelectric material may be bonded to a header substrate so that the plurality of islands are between the deposition substrate and the header substrate. More particularly, the islands of thermoelectric material may be epitaxial islands of thermoelectric material having crystal structures aligned with a crystal structure of the deposition substrate. Related structures are also discussed.
US07679194B2
Disclosed is a method of fabricating a semiconductor memory device including the step of irradiating ultraviolet rays on a metal interconnection at a bonding pad part, so that the metal interconnection can be prevented from being corroded because of a corrodent element in the process of erasing charges stored in a charge storage part. An oxide coating film is formed on the surface of the metal interconnection at the bonding pad part, and ultraviolet rays are irradiated onto the oxide coating film for erasing of charges from the floating gate.
US07679190B2
A raised solder-mask-defined (SMD) pad configured for receiving a solder ball on a laminate electronic circuit board and a method of creating the raised SMD pad on a laminate electronic circuit board. The method may comprise forming a base bump, covering the base bump with a conductive bump layer and layering a surrounding material over an extended edge of the conductive bump layer. The surrounding material is patterned to expose a pad face and of a portion of the sides of the conductive bump layer, such that the pad face is disposed above the surface of the surrounding material. The surrounding material may be patterned by a photolithography operation or alternatively, a laser-drill operation.
US07679189B2
A display device includes a drive circuit chip, and a substrate on which the drive circuit chip is mounted. The drive circuit chip includes a semiconductor substrate, an insulation layer, a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer formed of metal between the semiconductor substrate and the insulation layer, and a first bump and a second bump formed over the insulation layer. The first bump is superposed with the first conductive layer, and a profile of the first bump in plan view is within a profile of the first conductive layer in plan view. The second bump is superposed with the second conductive layer, and a profile of the second pump in plan view is beyond a profile of the second conductive layer in plan view.
US07679171B2
A sensor isolation system including a sensor, a package for the sensor, and a compliant interposer disposed between the sensor and the package and interconnecting the sensor to the package to isolate the sensor from thermal and mechanical stresses and yet at the same time providing a physical interconnect between the sensor and the package.
US07679165B2
A light emitting diode includes a substrate tilted toward first and second directions simultaneously, a first cladding layer formed with a semiconductor material of a first conductive type on the substrate, an active layer formed on the first cladding layer, and a second cladding layer formed with a semiconductor material of a second conductive type on the active layer, wherein concavo-convexes are formed on the interfaces of the first cladding layer, the second cladding layer, and the active layer, and the (100) substrate is a III-V or a IV-IV group semiconductor substrate, and has a crystal orientation such that a (100) plane of the (100) substrate is inclined 2 to 20° toward the [0-1-1] direction and 1 to 8° toward the [0-11] direction.
US07679158B2
A thermal deformation preventing layer is located between a recording photoconductive layer, which contains a-Se as a principal constituent, and a crystallization preventing layer, which is constituted of an a-Se layer containing at least one kind of element selected from the group consisting of As, Sb, and Bi. The thermal deformation preventing layer is constituted of an a-Se layer containing at least one kind of specific substance selected from the group consisting of a metal fluoride, a metal oxide, SiOx, and GeOx, where x represents a number satisfying 0.5≦x≦1.5.
US07679154B2
In a method for manufacturing a semiconductor component having a semiconductor substrate, a flat, porous diaphragm layer and a cavity underneath the porous diaphragm layer are produced to form unsupported structures for a component. In a first approach, the semiconductor substrate may receive a doping in the diaphragm region that is different from that of the cavity. This permits different pore sizes and/or porosities to be produced, which is used in producing the cavity for improved etching gas transport. Also, mesopores may be produced in the diaphragm region and nanopores may be produced as an auxiliary structure in what is to become the cavity region.
US07679140B2
Provided is a strained SOI structure and a method of manufacturing the strained SOI structure. The strained SOI structure includes an insulating substrate, a SiO2 layer formed on the insulating substrate, and a strained silicon layer formed on the SiO2 layer.
US07679137B2
A method of fabricating self-aligned gate trench utilizing TTO poly spacer is disclosed. A semiconductor substrate having thereon a pad oxide layer and pad nitride layer is provided. A plurality of trench capacitors are embedded in a memory array region of the semiconductor substrate. Each of the trench capacitors has a trench top oxide (TTO) that extrudes from a main surface of the semiconductor substrate. Poly spacers are formed on two opposite sides of the extruding TTO and are used, after oxidized, as an etching hard mask for etching a recessed gate trench in close proximity to the trench capacitor.
US07679136B2
The on-resistance of a semiconductor device having a power transistor with a trench gate structure is reduced. A power MIS-FET with a trench gate structure is so formed that the relation expressed as 0≦b≦a holds, where a is the distance between an end of an interlayer insulating layer over the upper face of a semiconductor region for source and the end (position on the periphery of a trench) of the upper face of the semiconductor region for source farther from the gate electrode; and b is the length of the overlap between the interlayer insulating layer and the upper face of the semiconductor region for source. (b is the distance between the position of the end of the interlayer insulating layer over the upper face of the semiconductor region for source and position on the periphery of a trench). As a result, the area of contact between source pads and the semiconductor regions for source is increased, and further the distance between the source pads and a channel forming region can be shortened. Therefore, the on-resistance of the power MIS-FET with a trench gate structure can be reduced.
US07679132B2
A silicon carbide semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate containing silicon carbide, a semiconductor layer formed over the semiconductor substrate, and a plurality of well regions formed on a front surface side of a cell forming area set to the semiconductor layer. The device further includes source layers formed on the front surface side lying within the well regions, an outer peripheral insulating film thick in thickness, which is formed over the semiconductor layer in an outer peripheral area surrounding the cell forming area, a gate oxide film formed over the front surface of the semiconductor layer in the cell forming area, and a gate electrode layer formed so as to extend from above the gate oxide film to above the outer peripheral insulating film.
US07679126B2
A non-volatile memory device (e.g., a split gate type device) and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The memory device includes an active region on a semiconductor substrate, a pair of floating gates above the active region, a charge storage insulation layer between each floating gate and the active region, a pair of wordlines over the active region and partially overlapping the floating gates, respectively, and a gate insulation film between each wordline and the active region. The method may prevent or reduce the incidence of conductive stringers on the active region between the floating gates, to thereby improve reliability of the memory devices and avoid the active region resistance from being increased due to the stringer.
US07679122B2
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of source regions and drain regions disposed on a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device also includes a plurality of word lines disposed on the semiconductor substrate between the source regions and the drain regions. The semiconductor device also includes a conductive line disposed on the semiconductor substrate parallel to the word lines. The semiconductor device also includes a plurality of bit lines connected to the drain regions and crossing over the word lines. The semiconductor device also includes a plurality of source strapping lines crossing over the plurality of word lines, the plurality of source strapping lines being connected to at least one of the plurality of source regions and the conductive line. The semiconductor device also includes a ground line connected to the conductive line.
US07679119B2
A single-poly electrically erasable/programmable CMOS logic memory cell for mobile applications includes a CMOS inverter that share a single polysilicon floating gate, and an enhanced control capacitor including a control gate capacitor and an optional isolated P-well (IPW) capacitor formed below the control gate capacitor. The control gate capacitor includes a polysilicon control gate that is interdigitated with the floating gate and serves as a capacitor plate to induce Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) injection or Band-to-Band Tunneling (BBT) to both program and erase the floating gate. The IPW capacitor is provided in the otherwise unused space below the control gate capacitor by a IPW that is separated from the control/floating gates by a dielectric layer and is electrically connected to the control gate. Both F-N injection and BBT program/erase are performed at 5V or less.
US07679118B2
A memory device, system and fabrication method relating to a vertical memory cell including a semiconducting pillar extending outwardly from an integrally connected semiconductor substrate are disclosed. A first source/drain region is formed in the substrate and a body region and a second source/drain region are formed within the pillar. A first gate is coupled to a first side of the pillar for coupling the first and second source/drain regions together when activated. The vertical memory cell also includes a storage capacitor formed on an extended end of the semiconducting pillar and electrically coupled to the second source/drain region.
US07679115B2
A controlling method of an image sensor is disclosed. The method includes: measuring a first output voltage of a drive transistor, a gate of which is combined to a floating diffusion region, after a predetermined integration time; resetting the floating diffusion region by turning on a reset transistor connected between the floating diffusion region and a power supply group; measuring a reference voltage outputted from the drive transistor; transferring electric charges generated in a photo diode by sensing light inputted from the outside to the floating diffusion region by turning on a transfer transistor connected to the photo diode; and measuring a second output voltage of the drive transistor; wherein an image is generated by using a voltage difference between the first output voltage and the reference voltage, and a voltage difference between the second output voltage and the reference voltage.
US07679110B2
Methods of producing electrochemical transistor devices are provided, wherein a solidified electrolyte is arranged in direct contact with at least a portion of an organic material having the ability to electrochemically altering its electrical conductivity through change of redox state thereof, such that a current between a source contact and a drain contact of the transistor is controllable by way of a voltage applied to a gate electrode. A electrochemical transistor device is also provided, wherein an ion isolative material is provided between a solidified electrolyte and an organic material having ability to electrochemically altering its redox state, such that a transistor channel of the transistor is defined thereby.
US07679103B2
An integrated circuit arrangement includes a Shockley diode or a thyristor. An inner region of the diode or of the thyristor is completely or partially shielded during the implantation of a p-type well. This gives rise to a Shockley diode or a thyristor having improved electrical properties, in particular with regard to the use as an ESD protection element.
US07679100B2
A housing for an electromagnetic radiation emitting optoelectronic component is specified. The housing comprises a housing base body provided with a recess in which at least one chip mounting surface is disposed. At least one outer surface of the housing base body, disposed on an emission side of the housing and adjoining the recess, is provided with a baffle layer suitable for screening an electromagnetic radiation. An electromagnetic radiation emitting component provided with such a housing and a method of making a corresponding housing or component are also specified.
US07679098B2
Edge-emitting light source and method for fabricating an edge-emitting light source. The edge-emitting light source includes a photonic crystal having at least one waveguide region. An edge-emitting semiconductor structure having a light emitting active layer is incorporated within the at least one waveguide region. Light emitted by the edge-emitting semiconductor structure and within the bandgap of the photonic crystal is confined within the waveguide region and guided out of the photonic crystal through the waveguide region.
US07679095B2
An optoelectric composite substrate includes a substrate, a light emitting element positioned on the substrate, and a lens mold positioned on the light emitting element and contacting at least a part of the substrate, wherein the lens mold includes a lens element, the lens element positions so as to overlap an emitting surface of the light emitting element, and a distance between the light emitting element and the lens element is greater than a range of a Fresnel region of the light emitting element.
US07679094B2
An oxynitride-based fluorescent material is formed of what results from substituting Eu for part of M of a general formula 2MO.Si3N4, wherein M denotes one or more elements selected from among Be, Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba. The oxynitride-based fluorescent material can be produced by a method comprising mixing an oxide of Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba or Eu, or a compound of Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba or Eu enabled by heating to form an oxide, and silicon nitride or a compound enabled by heating to form silicon nitride to obtain a mixture and firing the mixture in a vacuum or a non-oxidizing atmosphere at 1200 to 1900° C.
US07679089B2
An organic light emitting display provided according to the invention maintains light emission efficiency and elongates its lifetime by radiating heat generated from organic light emitting elements to the outside of an encapsulated area. In the organic light emitting display, a part of a cathode is extended to the outside of the encapsulated area of a main substrate to form a radiation section integrally with the cathode. Heat generated from organic light emitting elements is diffused and radiated from the radiation section so that the heat can be discharged therefrom.
US07679080B2
A functional molecular device displaying its functions under the action of an electrical field is provided. A Louis base molecule, exhibiting positive dielectric constant anisotropy or exhibiting dipole moment along the long-axis direction of the Louis base molecule, is arrayed in the form of a pendant on an electrically conductive linear or film-shaped principal-axis molecule of a conjugated system, via a metal ion capable of acting as a Louis acid. The resulting structure is changed in conformation on application of an electrical field to exhibit its function. The electrically conductive linear or film-shaped principal-axis molecule and the Louis base molecule form a complex with the metal ion. On application of the electrical field, the Louis base molecule performs a swinging movement or a seesaw movement to switch the electrical conductivity of the principal-axis molecule. This molecule exhibits electrical characteristics which may be reversed depending on whether or not the molecule has been subjected to electrical field processing. A molecular device having a function equivalent to one of CMOS may be produced from one and the same material.
US07679068B2
A method of obtaining a deflection aberration correcting voltage. The method includes writing predetermined patterns at a plurality of focus height positions such that a dose is used as a variable. Dimensional variations of width sizes of the predetermined patterns written at the plurality of focus height positions such that the dose is used as the variable are measured. Further, effective resolutions of the written predetermined patterns are calculated by using the dimensional variations. The method further includes, on the basis of a focus height position at which a minimum effective resolution of the predetermined patterns is obtained, calculating a correcting voltage to correct deflection aberration and outputting the correcting voltage. The correcting voltage is used when a charged particle beam is deflected.
US07679063B2
A method of and apparatus for identifying the presence of thin photocatalytic (PCAT) coatings on glass surfaces. An apparatus is disclosed that can determine whether a PCAT coating (which may comprise titanium dioxide, for example) having a thickness of less than about 100 Å is present on the surface of a substrate such as glass. The apparatus may measure the reflectance of electromagnetic energy (such as light energy) at the surface of a substrate using energy at selected wavelengths or wavelength ranges. The apparatus may determine reflectance values for PCAT coated surfaces of any thickness, as well as for uncoated surfaces.
US07679060B2
An improved nanophosphor scintillator liquid comprises nanophosphor particles in a liquid matrix. The nanophosphor particles are optionally surface modified with an organic ligand. The surface modified nanophosphor particle is essentially surface charge neutral, thereby preventing agglomeration of the nanophosphor particles during dispersion in a liquid scintillator matrix. The improved nanophosphor scintillator liquid may be used in any conventional liquid scintillator application, including in a radiation detector.
US07679051B2
A system and method for separating ions in an ion mixture, such as a plasma in space. The ion mixture enters an electrostatic analyzer, whose ion path has at least two sections. A first section applies a DC voltage to the ions, and a next section applies an RF frequency voltage to the ions. Appropriate DC and RF voltages are applied, such that at least a portion of the lower mass ions are absorbed into the RF section of the analyzer. The heaver ions are transmitted out of the ion path and are readily available for further analysis.
US07679044B2
An optical sensor includes a photoelectric converter to receive external light and to output a photocurrent signal according to the illuminance of the external light. A current-to-voltage converter converts the photocurrent signal output from the photoelectric converter to a voltage signal. A voltage amplifier amplifies the voltage signal. A current amplifier outputs a current signal corresponding to the voltage signal amplified by the voltage amplifier. Each of the photoelectric converter, current-to-voltage converter, voltage amplifier and current amplifier includes at least one thin-film transistor.
US07679040B2
An optical control device includes a semiconductor laser that generates a light according to a drive current, a light amount detecting unit that detects a light amount of the light generated by the semiconductor laser; and a controller that controls the drive current to adjust the light amount to a target value by referring to a referring number of detection results of the light amount by the light amount detecting unit. The referring number at a time when the controller starts the drive current flowing is smaller than the referring number after the detection result of the light amount reaches a predetermined value.
US07679038B2
An optical phase microscope using rotating-¼ wavelength plate with pinhole in the center position and Fourier transformed lens is provided. The optical phase microscope comprises an optical image generator that acquires images for a specimen to be observed, an object plane onto which light beams of the images acquired from the optical image generator are projected, a first transform lens that performs primary Fourier transformation on the light beams passing through the object plane, a ¼ wavelength plate with pinhole at the center position that is positioned to be spaced by a focal distance of the first transform lens from the first transform lens, a secondary transform lens that performs secondary Fourier transformation on the light beams passing through the ¼ wavelength plate, and a phase image generator including a photo detector on which the images of the light beams subjected to the secondary Fourier transformation is focused.
US07679034B2
The power-supplying member comprises: a first rod-shaped member connected to at least one of a heating resistor and an electrode; a second rod-shaped member connected to a power supply; and a thermal-function member, which is disposed between the first rod-shaped member and the second rod-shaped member, and which has a smaller axial cross section area and a larger surface area as compared to the first and second rod-shaped members.
US07679032B2
A soldering or a desoldering tool includes a replaceable tip with a recess adapted to receive a portion of a temperature sensor to measure the temperature of the tip. Positioning the temperature sensor within the tip allows the temperature to be quickly measured so that the temperature near the tip may be more accurately monitored and controlled. The temperature sensor may be also integrated with the heater near the tip such that the temperature sensor is between the tip and the heater and near both of them so that the temperature of the tip is substantially that of the temperature of the heater. A sleeve may enclose the temperature sensor and the heater with a portion of the temperature sensor extending out from the foreward end of the sleeve. The replaceable tip may also have a bore adapted to receive a head protruding from the foreward end of the sleeve to couple the tip at a predetermined orientation with respect to the sleeve. The combination of bore and head allows the replaceable tip to be coupled with the sleeve in a consistent manner so that the temperature of the replacement tips can be measured accurately and dependably.
US07679029B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for shaping laser light as a line beam for interaction with a film that may have an imperfect, non-planar surface. The system may include a beam stop that defines an edge; a sensor that measures a distance between a selected point on a surface of the film and a reference plane and generates a signal representative of the measured distance; and an actuator coupled to the beam stop and responsive to the signal to move a portion of beam stop edge. Movement of the beam stop edge portion shifts a corresponding portion of the focused line beam in a direction normal to the reference plane to produce a line beam that more closely conforms to the surface profile of the film.
US07679019B2
An electrical switching system, preferably a medium-voltage switching system, has a power switch or load switch, a disconnecting switch, and a grounding switch configured as a vacuum switching chamber. Low separation distance lengths and a more compact construction of a switching system is achieved by means of a housing in which the disconnecting switch, configured as a vacuum switching chamber, the grounding switch, and the power switch or load switch are disposed, and in which a central switch is disposed, with which the vacuum switching chambers of disconnecting switch and grounding switch can be mechanically activated. Electrical connections between connector contacts of power switch or load switch, disconnecting switch, and grounding switch can be produced.
US07679010B2
An input apparatus for a multimedia device, said input apparatus comprising: a rotator wheel having an upper planar surface that is substantially annular in shape and exposed in order that the upper planar surface may be accessed by a user of the multimedia device; means for detecting rotational movement of the rotator wheel about an axis perpendicular to the upper planar surface of the rotator wheel; and select means activated when a pressure is applied to the upper surface of the rotator wheel in a direction substantially parallel to an axis perpendicular to the upper planar surface of the rotator wheel.
US07678996B2
A high heat-resistance resin composition, the high heat-resistance resin composition being thermally treated at 150° C. for 100 hours, wherein a heat absorption amount of the high heat-resistance resin composition which is measured at a melting point thereof by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) is equal to or less than 45 J/g before thermal treatment, an increasing rate of the heat absorption amount of the high heat-resistance resin composition which is measured at a melting point thereof after the thermal treatment by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) is equal to or less than 20% as compared to that before the thermal treatment, and a degree of extensibility thereof is equal to or more than 200% after the thermal treatment.
US07678989B2
An electronic keyboard that includes a plurality of keys including a first key. The keyboard further includes a key support supporting the first key for movement between a rest position and a depressed position. The keyboard also includes a first key return spring configured to apply a return force to the first key to bias the first key toward the rest position. In the keyboard, the first key return spring is configured such that the return force has a substantially constant magnitude throughout the movement of the first key between the rest position and the depressed position.
US07678988B2
Sounds in different frequency range are generated from the rear, top and/or front face of the musical tone apparatus, sounds are generated and spread in all directions around the musical tone apparatus, and the tones sound very realistically acoustic. Vibration of the sound board does not resonate, tones generated from the sound board are not changed unintentionally, and tones of real acoustic musical instruments are realized. Vibration from the sound board is not directly transferred to the whole musical tone apparatus, by means of not allowing the sound board to touch the body of the musical tone apparatus and of pressing and fixing the soundboard to the attachment component with the thickness of the attachment component compressed.
US07678979B1
A magnetic resonance modulator system for acoustic stringed musical instruments having a plurality of magnets. The resonance modulation is a function of the plurality of weights and locations of placement of magnets on the instrument. The attachment of the resonance modulator to the instrument and its infinite adjustability is achieved by using the attractive magnetic forces of the magnets to hold them in place through a vibrating component of the instrument, in any position on the instrument, making any location adjustment and consequent resonance or tonal adjustment quick and easy.
US07678972B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the corn variety designated CV932089. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CV932089, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CV932089 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to corn seeds and plants produced by crossing plants of variety CV932089 with plants of another variety, such as another inbred line. The invention further relates to the inbred and hybrid genetic complements of plants of variety CV932089.
US07678971B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH627005. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH627005, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH627005 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH627005.
US07678970B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH954175. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH954175, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH954175 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH954175.
US07678968B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH719138. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH719138, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH719138 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH719138.
US07678962B2
The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 0330739. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 0330739. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 0330739 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 0330739 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US07678960B2
The present invention is directed to plants that display an improved oil quantity phenotype or an improved meal quality phenotype due to altered expression of an HIO nucleic acid. The invention is further directed to methods of generating plants with an improved oil quantity phenotype or improved meal quality phenotype.
US07678949B2
A process for the manufacture of CF3CH═CHF and/or CF3CF═CH2 is disclosed. The process involves (a) reacting HF and chlorine and at least one halopropene of the formula CX3CCI═CCIX (where each X is independently F or Cl) to produce a product including both CF3CCI2CCIF2 and CF3CCIFCCI2F; (b) reacting CF3CCI2CCIF2 and CF3CCIFCCI2F produced in (a) with hydrogen to produce a product including both CF3CH2CHF2 and CF3CHFCH2F; (c) dehydrofluorinating CF3CH2CHF2 and CF3CHFCH2F produced in (b) to produce a product including both CF3CH═CHF and CF3CF═CH2; and (d) recovering CF3CH═CHF and/or CF3CF═CH2 from the product produced in (c). In (a), both CF3CCI2CCIF2 and CF3CCIFCCI2F are produced in the presence of a chlorofluorination catalyst consisting of (i) compositions comprising a crystalline alpha-chromium oxide where at least 0.05 atom % of the chromium atoms in the alpha-chromium oxide lattice are replaced by copper, and (ii) compositions of (i) which have been treated with a fluorinating agent.
US07678933B2
The present invention provides a novel mononuclear transition metal compound, a novel binuclear transition metal compound, a novel organic amine or phosphorous compound, and a method for preparing the same. The mononuclear transition metal compound according to the present invention is configured such that a cyclopentadienyl group and an amido or phosphorous group are bridged via a phenylene bridge. The binuclear transition metal compound according to the present invention is configured such that the two bridged mononuclear transition metal compounds configured such that a cyclopentadienyl group and an amido or phosphorous group are bridged via a phenylene bridge are linked via a bridging group located at the phenylene bridge. According to the present invention, the mononuclear transition metal compound, the binuclear transition metal compound, the organic amine or phosphorous compound can be prepared in a simple manner by using suzuki-coupling reaction with a high yield.
US07678932B2
A process is described in which an unsaturated fat is reacted with ethylene in a metathesis reaction in the presence of at least one non-aqueous ionic liquid to produce both an olefinic fraction and a composition of monoalcohol or polyol esters.Particular application to an oleic sunflower seed oil, an oleic rapeseed oil or to a mixture of monoalcohol esters of said oils, the process producing both an olefinic fraction and a monoalcohol or glycerol esters composition generally having more than half of its chains constituted by unsaturated C10 chains.
US07678926B2
The present invention is directed to novel indole derivatives, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in the treatment of disorders and conditions modulated by the androgen receptor.
US07678925B2
The present invention relates to processes of producing glutamic acid compounds, for example, monatin, which are useful as, for example, production intermediates for sweetener or pharmaceutical products.
US07678924B2
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of compounds of formula I wherein R1 is C1-C4haloalkyl; R2 is C1-C6alkyl and R3 is methyl or ethyl, by reaction of compounds of formula II wherein the substituents are as defined for formula I, with compounds of formula III wherein R3 is as defined for formula I and n is 0 or 1.
US07678921B2
The present invention relates to the preparation of the (S)-(−)-amlodipine and (R)-(+)-amlodipine by means of enantiomeric separation of racemic amlodipine mixture, in which, L- or D-tartaric acid is used as resolution agent, and organic solvent containing 2-butanone is used as solvent. The 2-butanone used in the present invention has the advantage of low boiling point, low toxicity, litter pollution, and the method is suitable for large-scaled production.
US07678905B2
The present invention is directed to novel substituted aminotetrahydropyrans of structural formula I which are inhibitors of the dipeptidyl peptidase-IV enzyme and which are useful in the treatment or prevention of diseases in which the dipeptidyl peptidase-IV enzyme is involved, such as diabetes and particularly Type 2 diabetes. The invention is also directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and the use of these compounds and compositions in the prevention or treatment of such diseases in which the dipeptidyl peptidase-IV enzyme is involved.
US07678899B2
A mixture of phthalocyanine dyes of Formula (1) and salts thereof: wherein M is Cu or Ni; Pc represents a phthalocyanine nucleus; L is, for example, C1-20 alkylene; R1, R2, R3 and R4 independently are H or optionally substituted C1-4alkyl; R5 is H or an optionally substituted hydrocarbyl; or R4 and R5 together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached represent an optionally substituted aliphatic or aromatic ring system; x, y and z are each 0.1 to 3.8 where the sum of (x+y+z) is 4; and the substituents, represented by x, y and z, are attached only to a β-position on the phthalocyanine ring. This mixture can be used to make inks suitable for use in an ink jet printer.
US07678891B2
Antibodies that bind to CCX-CKR2 and methods of their use are provided.
US07678888B2
The present invention provides oxygenated hemoglobins in powdered form and methods of preparing a powdered form of a protein, such as hemoglobin, which comprise (a) mixing a solution of the protein with inulin, and optimally with a reducing sugar such as glucose or tagatose, and (b) drying the mixture. Also provided are blood substitutes formed from reconstituted powdered hemoglobins, and methods of treatment using the blood substitutes.
US07678887B2
The present invention describes a newly discovered polynucleotide encoding a protein involved in the cell signaling cascade, called RET16, cloned, isolated and identified from TNF-alpha stimulated human microvascular endothelial cells, as well as mouse and rat RET16 orthologs thereof. Also described are the RET16 polypeptide sequence, expression vectors, host cells, agonists, antagonists, antisense molecules, and antibodies related to the polynucleotide and/or polypeptide of the present invention. Methods for screening for modulators, particularly inhibitors, of the human RET16 protein, and use of the RET16 polynucleotide and polypeptide for therapeutics and diagnostics are described.
US07678850B2
A pigment dispersion useful for forming coating compositions containing dispersed pigment, a carrier solvent and an aminated macromonomer dispersant (binder) is disclosed. The aminated macromonomer dispersant is preferably prepared by the reaction of terminally unsaturated macromonomers synthesized by cobalt-catalyzed chain transfer free radical polymerizations of methacrylic monomers with monomeric or oligomeric amines.
US07678845B2
A pigment dispersion includes a pigment and a block copolymer having ionic aromatic monomers. The pigment dispersions can be used for manufacturing inkjet inks and for the coating of colored layers. A process for preparing the pigment dispersion is also disclosed.
US07678836B2
An ophthalmic solution comprising a polyethoxylated glyceride in the range of 0.001 to about 10 percent by weight and a buffer agent. These solutions impart surprising comfort and wearability to contact lenses. At the same time the solutions provide good preservative capacity and do not increase protein deposit.
US07678832B2
Disclosed herein are compositions comprising a compound represented by structural formula (I): 2 g of which is reconstitutable in 10 mL of a water in less than 10 minutes, and methods for preparing these compositions. Also disclosed are compositions comprising a compound represented by structural formula (I) and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, wherein the molar ratio of said compound to said excipient is from 1:20 to 1:1, and methods for preparing these compositions.
US07678830B2
Novel tricyclic-bis-enone derivatives (TBEs) as well as the process for the preparation of such TBEs are provided. Also provided are methods for prevention and/or treatment of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotropic lateral sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and all other diseases whose pathogenesis is believed to involve excessive production of either nitric oxide (NO) or prostaglandins or the overexpression of iNOS or COX-2 genes or gene products. Further, methods for the synthesis of the TBE compounds of the invention utilize cheap commercially available reagents and are highly cost effective and amenable to scale-up. Additional high efficiency synthetic methods that utilize novel intermediates as well as the synthesis of these intermediates are also provided. Furthermore, the invention also provides methods for designing novel and water-soluble TBEs.
US07678828B2
A method for the manufacture of a sterile intravenous or intramuscular formulation of artesunic acid and the formulation are the subject of this invention. First the artesunic acid powder is sterilized with ethylene oxide and placed into a sterile container. The contained sterilized powder is then dissolved in sterile sodium phosphate buffered solution to produce an injectable intravenous or intramuscular formulation. The sodium phosphate dissolves and dilutes the artesunic acid powder without caking or frothing resulting in an improved drug product. The invention also relates to the formulation and a method of treating a patient with either uncomplicated or severe and complicated malaria.
US07678821B2
Disclosed herein are pharmaceutical compositions comprising combinations of tolterodine, an antimuscarinic agent, and pilocarpine, a compound that causes stimulation of salivary glands. Also disclosed are methods of treating a patient suffering from overactive bladder comprising administering to the patient said pharmaceutical composition.
US07678819B2
The invention relates to radiolabeled compounds and their use in methods of imaging amyloid deposits, as well as to methods of their manufacture. The invention also relates to compounds for inhibiting the aggregation of amyloid proteins that form amyloid deposits, methods for delivering therapeutic agents to amyloid deposits, as well as methods of making compounds that inhibit the aggregation of amyloid proteins.
US07678818B2
Compounds of formula I processes for their preparation, their use as pharmaceuticals and to pharmaceutical compositions comprising them.
US07678812B2
This invention is directed to vanilloid receptor VR1 ligands. More particularly, this invention relates to β-aminotetralin-derived ureas that are potent antagonists or agonists of VR1 which are useful for the treatment and prevention of inflammatory and other pain conditions in mammals.
US07678811B2
This invention relates to urea compounds containing a pyridine, quinoline, or isoquinoline functionality which is oxidized at the nitrogen heteroatom and which are useful in the treatment of (i) raf mediated diseases, for example, cancer, (ii) p38 mediated diseases such as inflammation and osteoporosis, and (iii) VEGF mediated diseases such as angogenesis disorders.
US07678810B2
A thiazolylimidazole derivative represented by the formula or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and an ALK5 inhibitor, an therapeutic agent for alopecia or a hair growth agent having the above as an active ingredient, wherein: X1 and X2 are different from each other and represent a sulfur atom or a carbon atom; R1 represents a phenyl group; a substituted phenyl group; a phenyl group condensed with a hetero aromatic ring; a pyridyl group; or a pyridyl group condensed with a hetero aromatic ring; R2 represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms substituted with 1 to 5 halogen atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an alkanoyl group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, or a hydroxyalkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, A represents a group which is represented by the formula. The present invention provides an inhibitory substance against ALK5 which is a TGF-β type I receptor and provides a hair growth stimulant or a hair growth agent based on its novel activities.
US07678808B2
The instant disclosure describes methods for treating diseases and conditions of the central and peripheral nervous system by stimulating or increasing neurogenesis. The disclosure includes compositions and methods based on use of a 5HTR agent, optionally in combination with one or more other neurogenic agents, to stimulate or activate the formation of new nerve cells.
US07678806B2
The present invention is concerned with novel spiro-piperidine derivatives as V1a receptor antagonists, their manufacture, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use as medicaments. The active compounds of the present invention are useful in the prevention and/or treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders and other diseases.In particular, the present invention is concerned with compounds of the general formula (I) wherein R1 to R5, R5′, X, Y and A are as defined in the specification.
US07678802B2
The present invention relates to compounds useful as inhibitors of voltage-gated sodium channels and calcium channels. The invention also provides pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising the compounds of the invention and methods of using the compositions in the treatment of various disorders.
US07678798B2
The present invention relates to compounds of Formula I: wherein variable substituents are defined herein, that modulate the activity of or bind to chemokine receptors such as CCR5. In some embodiments, the compounds of the invention are selective for CCR5. The compounds can be used, for example, to treat diseases associated with chemokine receptor expression or activity such as inflammatory diseases, immune diseases and viral infections.
US07678795B2
Compounds of formula as well as pharmaceutically acceptable salts and esters thereof, wherein R1 to R4 have the significance given in claim 1 can be used in the form of pharmaceutical compositions.
US07678787B2
This invention provides pyrrolobenzodiazepine pyridine carboxamides selected from those of Formula (1), which act as follicle stimulating hormone receptor antagonists. The invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions and methods of treatment utilizing the compounds of Formulae (1) and (2).
US07678784B2
There is provided a series of oxime-containing macrocyclic acyl guanidines of Formula (I) or a stereoisomer; or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, n and X as defined herein, their pharmaceutical compositions and methods of use. These novel compounds inhibit the processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) by β-secretase and, more specifically, inhibit the production of Aβ-peptide. The present disclosure is directed to compounds useful in the treatment of neurological disorders related to β-amyloid production, such as Alzheimer's disease and other conditions affected by anti-amyloid activity.
US07678782B2
Disclosed are methods for providing enhanced systemic blood concentrations of orally delivered drugs that are incompletely translocated across the intestinal wall of an animal. Also disclosed are methods for the sustained release of drugs, whether poorly or readily bioavailable via oral delivery to animals. Still further, disclosed are compounds and pharmaceutical compositions that are used in such methods.
US07678779B2
The present invention provides methods of administering amifostine, WR-1065, or a combination thereof, to patients receiving radiation therapy or chemotherapy in a manner that significantly reduces or decreases the adverse or undesirable side-effects of the compounds as compared with conventional intravenous administration.
US07678774B2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome is treated with a natural human alpha interferon, a dsRNA or both natural human alpha interferon and a dsRNA.
US07678771B2
The invention describes compounds, compositions, and methods of using the same comprising a chemical moiety covalently attached to amphetamine. These compounds and compositions are useful for reducing or preventing abuse and overdose of amphetamine. These compounds and compositions find particular use in providing an abuse-resistant alternative treatment for certain disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), ADD, narcolepsy, and obesity. Oral bioavailability of amphetamine is maintained at therapeutically useful doses. At higher doses bioavailability is substantially reduced, thereby providing a method of reducing oral abuse liability. Further, compounds and compositions of the invention decrease the bioavailability of amphetamine by parenteral routes, such as intravenous or intranasal administration, further limiting their abuse liability.
US07678770B2
The invention describes compounds, compositions, and methods of using the same comprising a chemical moiety covalently attached to amphetamine. These compounds and compositions are useful for reducing or preventing abuse and overdose of amphetamine. These compounds and compositions find particular use in providing an abuse-resistant alternative treatment for certain disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), ADD, narcolepsy, and obesity. Oral bioavailability of amphetamine is maintained at therapeutically useful doses. At higher doses bioavailability is substantially reduced, thereby providing a method of reducing oral abuse liability. Further, compounds and compositions of the invention decrease the bioavailability of amphetamine by parenteral routes, such as intravenous or intranasal administration, further limiting their abuse liability.
US07678768B2
The present invention concerns a physiologically active composition which contains an enzymatically hydrolysed collagen as the active component I and at least one component of the non-vitamin type having anti-oxidative and/or anti-inflammatory properties as the active component II. Collagen of animal origin that is soluble in cold water comes into particular consideration as component I and a fermentation broth or a plant extract comes into particular consideration as component II. This composition which is designed in particular as a food supplement or functional food can be used to prevent inflammatory and/or degenerative symptoms in particular with a chronic course such as for example arthritis and arthroses or to successfully treat these symptoms. The claimed composition can be used above all by professional, leisure and recreational athletes who suffer in particular from strained joint functions.
US07678759B2
The present invention provides fusion proteins for the detection and treatment of neuroectodermal tumors. Previous work demonstrated that chlorotoxin is specific for glial-derived or meningioma-derived tumor cells. The current invention has extended the use of chlorotoxin-cytotoxin fusion proteins to treat the whole class neuroectodermal tumors such as gliomas, meningiomas, ependymonas, medulloblastomas, neuroblastomas, gangliomas, pheochromocytomas, melanomas, PPNET's, small cell carcinoma of the lung, Ewing's sarcoma, and metastatic tumors in the brain. Also, diagnostic methods are provided for screening neoplastic neuroectodermal tumors.
US07678748B2
The present invention is directed to novel compounds which possess unique organoleptic properties containing the following general formula: wherein R and R′ each independently represents hydrogen or a C1-C7 moiety, and the use of these compounds as fragrance materials to enhance fragrance formulations in perfumes, toilet waters, colognes, fabric care products, personal products, and the like.
US07678747B2
A lubricating oil composition comprising (a) a major amount of a base oil of lubricating viscosity and (b) a minor deposit-inhibiting effective amount of a reaction product prepared by transesterifying at least one glycerol ester and at least one non-glycerol polyol ester is provided. Methods for its use are also provided.
US07678742B2
Of the many methods provided herein, the present invention provides a method comprising: providing a drill-in fluid that comprises an aqueous base fluid, a viscosifier, a relative permeability modifier fluid loss control additive, and a degradable bridging agent comprising a degradable material capable of undergoing an irreversible degradation downhole; placing the drill-in fluid in a subterranean formation; and allowing the relative permeability modifier fluid loss control additive to reduce fluid loss from the drill-in fluid to the subterranean formation. Another example is a method of degrading a filter cake in a subterranean formation comprising: providing a filter cake produced by a drill-in fluid that comprises an aqueous base fluid, a viscosifier, a relative permeability modifier fluid loss control additive, and a degradable bridging agent comprising a degradable material capable of undergoing an irreversible degradation downhole; and allowing the degradable bridging agent to degrade.
US07678741B2
A dehydration step provides a good storage stability to clethodium formulation. A herbicidal composition comprising clethodim as an active ingredient, wherein the content of water in the herbicidal composition is less than approximately 0.20% by weight provides a good storage stability of the clethodim in the composition.
US07678737B2
A dewatering promoter which comprises a mixture of (A) a fine wood flour activated by a mechanochemical treatment and (B) a highly active cellulose fiber or a product formed by a grinding treatment of the mixture; and a method for producing the dewatering promoter which comprises adding the highly active cellulose fiber to the wood flour, in a ratio of more than 10% relative to the total mass of the wood flour and the highly active cellulose fiber, and subjecting the resultant mixture to a grinding treatment for at least 30 minutes. The above dewatering promoter can be produced at a low cost, and allows the reduction of the cost required for waste water treatments such as the disposal of a great amount of sludge.
US07678736B1
A composition for decontaminating a highly toxic material, wherein the composition includes a modified reactive sorbent comprising a reactive sorbent in combination with a sufficient amount of an organic solvent to saturate the pores of the reactive sorbent to yield a non-slurry, free flowing mixture. The present invention is further directed to a method for making such compositions and method for decontaminating surfaces using such compositions.
US07678728B2
A highly dispersed, unsupported, electrocatalyst made of pyrolyzed porphyries and a method for synthesizing the same. The disclosed synthesis procedure allows for optimization of pore size and therefore transport properties. Compounds suitable for use include transition metal N4-chelates such as, but not necessarily limited to, N4-chelates containing different metal centers including Co, Fe, Mn, Ni, Ru, Cu, etc., and other N4-chelates such as porphyrin, phthalocyanies, and structures based on their pyro products.
US07678725B2
A polycrystalline body includes aluminum oxide, magnesium oxide, zirconium oxide, and lutetium oxide. The lutetium oxide is present in an amount of at least 10 ppm of the weight of the ceramic body, and the magnesium and zirconium oxides are present at a molar ratio of from 0.5:1 to 3:1.
US07678723B2
Sintered, spherical composite pellets or particles comprising alumina fines, at least one of clay and bauxite and optionally a sintering aid, are described, along with a process for their manufacture. The use of such pellets in hydraulic fracturing of subterranean formations and in grinding is also described.
US07678719B2
The present invention relates to a method for forming a bi-layered carpet underlay. More particularly, the method includes bonding a layer of non-woven fibers and a layer of re-bonded foam particles together to form the bi-layered carpet underlay. The layers of the carpet underlay can be bonded together with the use of adhesives, by heating a surface of one or both layers to a soft bondable state for lamination between the layers, by applying a film having adhesive surfaces between the layers, or by other suitable bonding means. The bi-layered carpet underlay combines the soft cushioning resilience of foam with the high durability bridging ability of fiber to provide a carpet underlay that maintains its height or thickness and firmness, while imparting softness and cushioning effects over an extended period of wear.
US07678717B2
Fabric layers and composite articles that incorporate graphite-containing coatings that do not stain are provided. A fabric layer for use as a flame and heat blocking component of an upholstered article includes intumescent graphite particles that are configured to swell and char in the presence of flame so as to form a barrier to flame, hot gases and heat for a predetermined period of time. The graphite particles have a size greater than about 150 microns which prevents the particles from being drawn to a surface of an upholstered article during sewing and quilting operations.
US07678712B2
The invention concerns a method for applying a surface modification agent composition for organosilicate glass dielectric films. More particularly, the invention pertains to a method for treating a silicate or organosilicate dielectric film on a substrate, which film either comprises silanol moieties or has had at least some previously present carbon containing moieties removed therefrom. The treatment adds carbon containing moieties to the film and/or seals surface pores of the film, when the film is porous.
US07678709B1
A deposition method modulates the reaction rate and thickness of highly conformal dielectric films deposited by forming a saturated catalytic layer on the surface and then exposing the surface to silicon-containing precursor gas and a reaction modulator, which may accelerate or quench the reaction. The modulator may be added before, after, or during exposure of the silicon-containing precursor gas. The film thickness after one cycle of deposition may be increased up to 20 times or decreased up to 20 times.
US07678707B1
Carbon nanotube apparatus, and methods of carbon nanotube modification, include carbon nanotubes having locally modified properties with the positioning of the modifications being controlled. More specifically, the positioning of nanotubes on a substrate with a deposited substance, and partially vaporizing part of the deposited substance etches the nanotubes. The modifications of the carbon nanotubes determine the electrical properties of the apparatus and applications such as a transistor or Shockley diode. Other applications of the above mentioned apparatus include a nanolaboratory that assists in study of merged quantum states between nanosystems and a macroscopic host system.
US07678705B2
An apparatus to perform semiconductor processing includes a process chamber; a plasma generator for generating a plasma in the process chamber; and a helical ribbon electrode coupled to the output of the plasma generator.
US07678703B2
A production method of a semiconductor device including: producing a polishing composition containing zirconium oxide sol; and planarizing a substrate having an uneven surface with said polishing composition, wherein the polishing composition containing zirconium oxide is produced by the steps comprising: baking at a temperature ranging from 400 to 1000° C., a zirconium compound having d50 (where d50 represents a particle diameter meaning that the number of particles having this particle diameter or less is 50% of the total number of particles) of zirconium compound particles of 5 to 25 μm and d99 (where d99 represents a particle diameter meaning that the number of particles having this particle diameter or less is 99% of the total number of particles) of zirconium compound particles of 60 μm or less, wherein d50 and d99 are measured by measuring a slurry of the zirconium compound by a laser diffractometry; and wet-grinding a powder of zirconium oxide obtained in the above baking in an aqueous medium until d50 of zirconium oxide particles becomes 80 to 150 nm and d99 of zirconium oxide particles becomes 150 to 500 nm, wherein d50 and d99 are measured by measuring a slurry of the zirconium compound by a laser diffractometry.
US07678700B2
The inventive method comprises chemically-mechanically polishing a substrate comprising at least one layer of silicon carbide with a polishing composition comprising a liquid carrier, an abrasive, and an oxidizing agent.
US07678698B2
A semiconductor device has at least two tensile stressor layers that are cured with UV radiation. A second tensile stressor layer is formed after a first stressor layer. In some examples, the tensile stressor layers include silicon nitride and hydrogen. In some examples, the second tensile stressor layer has a greater shrinkage percentage due to the curing than the first tensile stressor layer. In one form, the second tensile stressor layer after the curing exerts a greater tensile stress than the first tensile stressor layer. The tensile stressors layers are utilized to improve carrier mobility in an N-channel transistor and thus enhance transistor performance. In one form a single group of overlying tensile stressor layers is provided with each layer being increasingly thicker and having increasingly more hydrogen prior to being cured. In other embodiments multiple overlying groups are formed, each group having a similar repeating depth and hydrogen profile.
US07678697B2
A substrate on which a pattern is formed by a discharged functional liquid, includes a coating region coated with the functional liquid, and banks formed to enclose the coating region, wherein a difference between a contact angle of the functional liquid with respect to the coating region and a contact angle of the functional liquid with respect to the bank is above 40°.
US07678684B2
Interconnections are formed over an interlayer insulating film which covers MISFETQ1 formed on the principal surface of a semiconductor substrate, while dummy interconnections are disposed in a region spaced from such interconnections. Dummy interconnections are disposed also in a scribing area. Dummy interconnections are not formed at the peripheries of a bonding pad and a marker. In addition, a gate electrode of a MISFET and a dummy gate interconnection formed of the same layer are disposed. Furthermore, dummy regions are disposed in a shallow trench element-isolation region. After such dummy members are disposed, an insulating film is planarized by the CMP method.
US07678683B2
An integrated circuit and a method of manufacturing the integrated circuit, the method including: (a) providing a substrate; (b) forming a copper diffusion barrier layer on the substrate; (c) forming a dielectric layer on a top surface of the copper diffusion barrier layer; (d) forming a copper damascene or dual damascene wire in the dielectric layer, a top surface of the copper damascene or dual damascene wire coplanar with a top surface of the dielectric layer; (e) forming a first capping layer on the top surface of the wire and the top surface of the dielectric layer; (f) after step (e) performing one or more characterization procedures in relation to said integrated circuit; and (g) after step (e) forming a second capping layer on a top surface of the first capping layer.
US07678680B2
A semiconductor device that includes an electrode of one material and a conductive material of lower resistivity formed over the electrode and a process for fabricating the semiconductor device.
US07678679B2
A growth material that grows selectively on the vertical sidewalls of a vertical device forms sidewall spacers on substantially vertical sidewalls of the vertical device that is disposed on a horizontal substrate surface of a semiconductor substrate. A spacer-like seed liner may be provided on the vertical sidewalls of the vertical device to control selective growth. The vertical device may be a gate electrode of a field effect transistor (FET). With selectively grown sidewall spacers, heavily doped contact regions of the FET may be precisely spaced apart from the gate electrode. The distance of the heavily doped contact regions to the gate electrode does not depend from the height of the gate electrode. Distances of more than 150 nm between the heavily doped contact region and the gate electrode may be achieved so as to facilitate the formation of, for example, DMOS devices.
US07678678B2
An embodiment includes a process of forming a gate stack that acts to resist the redeposition to the semiconductive substrate of mobilized metal such as from a metal gate electrode. An embodiment also relates to a system that achieves the process. An embodiment also relates to a gate stack structure that provides a composition that resists the redeposition of metal during processing and field use.
US07678675B2
Exemplary embodiments provide triple-gate semiconductor devices isolated by reverse STI structures and methodologies for their manufacture. In an exemplary process, stacked layers including a form layer over a dielectric layer can be formed over a semiconductor substrate. One or more trenches can be formed by etching through the stacked layers. The one or more trenches can be filled by an active area material to form one or more active areas, which can be isolated by remaining portions of the dielectric layer. Bodies of the active area material can be exposed by removing the form layer. One or more triple-gate devices can then be formed on the exposed active area material. The exemplary triple-gate semiconductor devices can control the dimensions for the active areas and provide less isolation spacing between the active areas, which optimizes manufacturing efficiency and device integration quality.
US07678665B2
A method for imparting stress to the channel region of a transistor is provided. In accordance with the method, a semiconductor layer (307) is provided which has a dielectric layer (305) disposed beneath it. A trench (319) is created which extends through the semiconductor layer and into the dielectric layer, and the trench is backfilled with a stressor material (320), thereby forming a trench isolation structure. A channel region (326) is defined in the semiconductor layer adjacent to the trench isolation structure.
US07678664B2
According to a fabrication method for an element isolation structure section, that is, STI, of the present invention, by differing the etching rate of material to be embedded in a narrow-width, that is, a small area trench section (first trench section) formed in a small isolation area, from the etching rate of a material to be embedded in a wide-width (plane shape of larger area) trench section (second trench section) formed in a large isolation area, in the etching step, dishing (recessing) that inevitably occurs in a CMP step can be reduced. Therefore, a STI having a higher level of flatness can be formed. As a result, by simple steps, deterioration of the electrical characteristics of elements that are element-isolated by STI can be reduced. That is to say, not only STI having excellent electrical characteristics, but also a semiconductor device provided with such STI, can be provided at a good level of production yield.Moreover, according to the fabrication method for STI of the present invention, since excellent in-plane uniformity can be achieved, further miniaturization of the semiconductor device fabrication process can be supported.
