US07694345B2
A method of authorizing use of a computer program only able to be used when an authorized message is received from an authorizing system. The method includes providing an authorization system, making a request to use a computer program, signalling the request to the authorization system, the authorization system recording the use of the computer program and providing the authorization message to the computer program upon receipt of the authorization message the computer program may be used.
US07694342B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing and protecting electronic content and applications. Applications, content, and/or users can be given credentials by one or more credentialing authorities upon satisfaction of a set of requirements. Rights management software/hardware is used to attach and detect these credentials, and to enforce rules that indicate how content and applications may be used if certain credentials are present or absent. In one embodiment an application may condition access to a piece of electronic content upon the content's possession of a credential from a first entity, while the content may condition access upon the application's possession of a credential from a second entity and/or the user's possession of a credential from a third entity. Use of credentials in this manner enables a wide variety of relatively complex and flexible control arrangements to be put in place and enforced with relatively simple rights management technology.
US07694338B1
A method and system are provided for centralizing services subscribed to by customers of a service provider for detecting attacks at the customer-end of a communications network. A signal diverter is installed in a signal path carrying inbound communication signals common to subscribed customers and a portion of the collective inbound signals for each customer is diverted to a detection apparatus. Finally, based on parameters for each subscribed customer, a determination is made as to if a subscribed customer is experiencing an attack.
US07694337B2
A machine-actionable memory comprises one or more machine-actionable records arranged according to a data structure. Such a data structure may include links that respectively map between a remediation, at least one action, and at least two vulnerabilities. A method of selecting a remediation, that is appropriate to a vulnerability which is present on a machine to be remediated, may include: providing a machine-actionable memory as mentioned above; and indexing into the memory using: a given vulnerability identifier to determine (A) at least one of a remediation mapped thereto and (B) at least one action mapped to the given vulnerability identifier; and/or a given remediation to determine at least two vulnerabilities mapped thereto.
US07694336B2
An apparatus and method for authenticating users on a data processing system is implemented. The present invention provides for aggregating authenticated identities and related authorization information. A security context created in response to a first user logon is saved in response to a second logon. A composite or aggregate security context is created based on the identity passed in the second logon. Access may then be granted (or denied) based on the current, aggregated security context. Upon logout of the user based on the second identity, the aggregate security context is destroyed, and the security context reverts to the context previously saved.
US07694335B1
A server is configured for preventing flood attacks by a client having sent a request, by dynamically generating a challenge to be performed by the client before the server will perform any work for the client. The challenge includes a dynamically generated computational request and a dynamically generated secure cookie. The server generates a first hash result based on hashing a first random number, having a prescribed length, with a second random number having a dynamically selected length. A secure cookie is generated based on hashing the first hash result with a prescribed secure key known only by the server, and a unique identifier for the request such as the client network address with a time stamp. The challenge requires the client to determine the second random number based on the first random number and the hash result. The server validates the challenge results using the secure cookie.
US07694331B2
A wireless communication device is implemented with a smart card module to secure the transmission of sensitive or confidential information. The user of the device must request permission to activate an application on the smart card module from a remote source. After this first level of security is satisfied, the application on the smart card module enables the user to scan data via a machine-readable medium in order to make a data request to the remote source. If a second level authorization is met in regard to the data request, the remote source will transmit the requested sensitive or confidential information to the user to view and/or update.
US07694309B2
An object model comprises a data store and a plurality of event framework information objects. The data store including a plurality of event information objects each defining server event information for a respective one of a plurality of unique events exhibited by a server during operation. The plurality of event framework information objects each define event framework characteristics for a respective one of a plurality of event frameworks implemented in the server. At least one of the event framework information objects reference a common one of the event information objects for enabling server event information defined by the common one of the event information objects to be viewed using the respective one of the event frameworks corresponding thereto. Each one of the event framework information objects define event framework unification rules under which unification of event framework views provided in accordance with each one of the event framework information objects is facilitated.
US07694308B1
A system for representing the state of an enterprise software architecture is disclosed. The system comprises a datastore that contains a plurality of attributes of applications and of interfaces, including a state attribute. The system also comprises a plurality of stencils operable to define a graphic. The stencils are each associated with a script: that links back to the datastore, an application stencil operable to define an application graphic and associated with an application stencil script and an interface stencil operable to define an interface graphic and associated with an interface stencil. The system also comprises a template operable to define a drawing of an enterprise software architecture using the stencils.
US07694304B2
Mechanisms for dynamically configuring the resources of a virtual multiprocessor are provided. An apparatus to configure resources for virtual processing elements in a virtual multiprocessor is provided. The apparatus includes a virtual multiprocessor context, virtual processing element contexts, and configuration logic. The virtual multiprocessor context, prescribes the resources, and controls a configuration state of the virtual multiprocessor. The virtual processing element contexts each exclusively correspond to a virtual processing element. The virtual processing element contexts each have first logic, for prescribing whether the virtual processing element is permitted to configure the resources; and second logic, for prescribing a subset of the resources that is allocated to the virtual processing element. The configuration logic detects whether the virtual processing element is permitted to configure the resources, updates the virtual multiprocessor context to direct the virtual multiprocessor enter the configuration state, and configures the resources by updating a prescribed virtual processing element context.
US07694291B2
A build optimization tool analyzes builds of software/firmware to determine the ordering of code objects in first and second code versions for an electronic client device such as a cellular phone, personal digital assistant, or pager. The build optimization tool produces information for use by a software linker to link the code objects of the second code version in a more optimal order for the production of updating information used in the electronic client device for updating the software/firmware of the electronic client device.
US07694288B2
The invention provides a method of processing a sequence of operands to produce compiled code for a target data processor, the method comprising the steps of: automatically analysing a source code to produce a fist representation of that code in single static assignment form; transforming the first representation into a second representation by unlooping Φ nodes within the single static assignment form so as to create code suitable for tree pattern matching to be performed thereon; performing tree pattern matching on the second representation of the code; and re-looping the Φ nodes.
US07694285B2
Systems and methods that enhance expressibility in a programming language (e.g., Visual Basic) via relaxation of artificial restrictions and extension of delegates associated therewith, without changing the runtime infrastructure. A stub is employed that can replace an impermissible expression in the programming language, to leverage the existing permissible expressions.
US07694281B2
A first potential hot trace of a program is determined. A second potential hot trace of the program is determined. A common path from the first potential hot trace and the second potential hot trace is selected as the selected hot trace of the program.
US07694264B2
A routing block using a switch with a pulsed serial link. An input of a routing block is supplied with an information signal. The routing block has multiple outputs. The information signal includes a first edge and a second edge on a single line. The first and second edges are separated by a time period. One of the first and second edges represents information conveyed by the signal. The other one of the first and second edges provides timing information. The information signal controls the routing block to select one of the multiple outputs and the transferring the signal to said selected one of said multiple outputs. Depending on the number of bits of information transmitted in each pulse and the number of switches controlled by the control information, the decoded control data will include at least one bit outputted serially to a control signal generator block.
US07694263B2
A method of wiring data transmission lines between a CPU including CPU data pins identified by a set of pin numbers and a DRAM including DRAM data pins also identified by the set of pin numbers, the method including connecting the CPU data pins to the DRAM data pins with data transmission lines including unit-bit data transmission lines so that the unit-bit data transmission lines do not cross each other and without matching the pin numbers of the CPU data pins to the pin numbers of the DRAM data pins.
US07694243B2
A system for protecting a weak device operating in micro-electronic circuit and a design structure including the system embodied in a machine readable medium are disclosed. The system includes a high voltage power supply from high voltage overstressing prevents the weak device from failing during power-up, power-down, and when a low voltage power supply in a multiple power supply system is absent. The system further includes a low voltage power supply detection circuit configured to detect circuit power-up, circuit power-down, and when the low voltage power supply is absent, and generate a control signal upon detection. The system further includes a controlled current mirror device configured to provide a trickle current to maintain a conduction channel in the weak device in response to the control signal received from the low voltage power supply detection circuit during circuit power-up, circuit power-down, and when the low voltage power supply is absent.
US07694233B1
A graphical user interface provides a display of multiple items of information in a manner such that the user can comprehend the relationship of various items to one another over a wide span. At least some information containers are allocated a reduced amount of area in which to be viewed by the user. At least one container continues to be displayed in full view. In one embodiment, the containers are displayed in an overlapping arrangement. In a column view, the column containing the object that was last clicked upon, and the column showing the contents of the selected object, can be displayed in full view. The other columns may be only partially visible, due to the overlapping arrangement. When the user moves a cursor over a container with a reduced viewing area, the display changes to show that container in full view.
US07694229B2
A method of specifying a visual style for a set of graphical components is provided for use on a computer system having a graphical operating environment. The method includes providing a schema file of available graphical components for which a visual style can be created. In the schema file, each component is defined by a unique class name. The method further includes selecting graphical components from the schema file that are desired to have a defined visual style. Properties are then assigned to these selected components according to the desired visual style, and pairs of selected graphical components and corresponding assigned properties for the defined visual style together are grouped together in a class data file that defines the overall appearance for the defined visual style.
US07694228B2
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for conducting a conference amongst remote participants. During the conference an object from a library of digital objects is communicated to a participant communications device via a distributed computing network. During the conference the library of digital objects is downloaded to the participant communications device. During the conference a synchronization command is communicated from a host communications device to the participant communications device. The synchronization instructs the participant communications device to present another object from the library of digital objects. A synchronization acknowledgment is received from the participant communications device and confirms a successful presentation of the object on the participant communications device.
US07694227B2
Resource links also known as Unified Resource Links (URL's), bookmarks, hyperlinks etc. located in a category hierarchy. The resource links are used to navigate on the world wide web, on a local machine, on the internet, or on an intranet. A method of assessing a users competence in a category in the category structure comprising the steps of analysing the users interaction with the resource links placed in the hierarchy table for that category and extracting a competence level for the user in that category.
US07694225B1
Some embodiments of the invention provide a computerized method for creating a scene selection from a marker for a multi-image content. The method allows identification of a multi-image content. The multi-image content includes several markers. Each marker represents an image of the multi-image content. The markers are identified to generate several scenes. Each generated scene is referenced to its corresponding marker from which it is identified.
US07694223B2
A method for recording a sequence of user actions made when interfacing with objects associated with an executable code is provided. In this method, a selection of a level of detail to record when user actions enable interfacing with the objects associated with the executable code is enabled. Subsequently, the sequence of user actions is recorded. The recorded sequence of user actions is defined by the selected level of detail. Thereafter, the recorded sequence of user actions is parsed by applying rules that enable the generation of a defined number of data types. The data types are capable of being utilized by an application that is designed to generate information that is related to one or more of the data types.
US07694222B2
A user-friendly technique is described for assisting users to compose original documents, such as essays, research papers, literary papers, historical papers, memoranda, and the like. Interactive software provides document-specific active assistance with creating, researching, writing, editing, and finalizing documents. Such assistance may take the form of providing document specific guides, automatically generating and inserting content, and/or checking for document specific errors.
US07694213B2
A video content creating apparatus includes a computer. The computer registers photographic image data input from a photographic input device and meta-information set in relation to the data in a database. After retrieving photographs based on the meta-information, the apparatus selects the photographs to be used for a reminiscence video and decides the reproduction order of the photographs. After registering a BGM playlist, the apparatus reproduces the photographs and BGM for creating the reminiscence video. If there are any regions, the apparatus displays the regions on a monitor while aligning them in sequence according to the meta-information on them. Upon completion of generation (rendering) of a series of reminiscence video contents, the apparatus creates the reminiscence video by saving the rendering results in Flash movie format, for example.
US07694208B2
Methods and apparatuses for correcting errors in a data stream are described herein. In one aspect, the error correction process is operable to correct errors in at least two separate types of data streams, each of which utilizes a distinct error correction scheme. The error correction process utilizes Reed-Solomon code and Error Detection Code (EDC) in combination for error correction. The process comprises using a Reed-Solomon code to identify errors in a plurality of data blocks and attempting to correct the errors. An EDC map is then generated, wherein the EDC map identifies the location of the errors within the corresponding data blocks which includes errors that are not corrected by the Reed-Solomon code.
US07694206B2
A reception apparatus, method and a program using the reception method are provided to prevent degradation of reception quality due to interference. In a reception apparatus, an ADC samples data rIq[k] and rQq[k]. Based on the sampled data, a level detector finds an interference evaluation value Cc[l] for each OFDM symbol by counting the number of times one of the data rIq[k]q and rQq[kq] is clipped to the maximum output range of the ADC. When the interference evaluation value Cc[l] is greater than or equal to an interference decision value thc, a weighting control section corrects a soft-decision value wl,m,n by multiplying it by a weighting factor γc so as to decrease contribution of an error correction code to decoding.
US07694200B2
An integrated circuit and a method of built-in self test in the integrated circuit employ an offset control node and offset capabilities with the integrated circuit in order to communicate and distribute a built-in self-test signal. The built-in self-test signal can emulate signals internal to the integrated circuit during normal operation, and/or the built-in self-test signal can have other signal characteristics representative of signals other than those signals internal to the integrated circuit during normal operation.
US07694196B2
The present invention is generally related to integrated circuit devices, and more particularly, to methods and systems of a multi-chip package (MCP) containing a self-diagnostic scheme for detecting errors in the MCP. The MCP generally comprises a controller, at least one volatile memory chip having error detection logic, at least one non-volatile memory chip, and at least one fail signature register for storing fail signature data related to memory errors detected in the MCP. The controller can poll the fail signature register for fail signature data related to memory errors stored therein. Upon detection of fail signature data, the controller can store the fail signature data on a fail signature register located on a non-volatile memory.
US07694193B2
Systems and methods for implementing a stride value for memory are provided. One embodiment includes a system comprising a plurality of memory modules configured to store interleaved data in a plurality of memory storage units according to a predetermined interleave. The plurality of memory storage units can be defined by a memory range of consecutive addresses. The system also comprises a memory test device configured to access a portion of the plurality of memory storage units in a sequence that repeats according to a programmable stride value.
US07694191B1
A self healing file system is designed for proactive detection and containment of faults, errors, and corruptions, in order to enable in place (online) and non-intrusive recovery. For proactive fault detection, the file system maintains certain per-block metadata of each file system block. The per-block metadata includes a redundancy check, and for file system data blocks, an inode identifier, and an offset of the file system data block in the file including the file system data block. The redundancy check is used to detect and mark bad file system blocks. The inode identifier and offset is used for validating connectivity of the file system blocks to the inodes, and for tracing bad blocks to files that contain the bad blocks.
US07694186B2
A method for actuating a system on chip (SOC) includes the following steps. First, determine whether the SOC is connected to a computer system via a communication connection. If no, determine whether a non-volatile memory of the SOC has an initial flag signal. If yes, read correction information stored in the non-volatile memory in response to the initial flag signal and set a corresponding first register of the SOC according to the correction information.
US07694184B2
User input defines transmission filter rules to be met when sending an error report to a support provider. User input also defines collection filter rules to be met when including failure data within an error report. Error reports corresponding to crash failures at clients are filtered with the transmission filter rules to determine which of the error reports to send to the support provider, and each error report to be sent to the support provider is further filtered to remove any failure data that fails to satisfy the collection filter rules. Each error report that satisfies the transmission filter rules, along with the failure data satisfying the collection filter rules, is sent to the support provider for analysis. Standard and or custom failure responses corresponding to the failures at the clients may be retrieved and sent to the clients in accordance with the collection filter rules.
US07694177B2
Disclosed is system and method for mirroring data from a primary data storage system on a mirroring data storage system. According to some embodiments to the present invention, prior to resynchronization of a data unit on the mirroring system with corresponding data on a primary unit, a consistent snap-shot of the data unit to be resynchronized is taken. According to some embodiments of the present invention, the snap-shop may be discarded upon completion of resynchronization.
US07694171B2
A method for recovering errors on a multiple disk system. The method including the steps of (a) determining a location and type for one or more errors in a plurality of blocks on the multiple disk system, (B) determining a current error of the one or more errors that is closest to a start of the plurality of blocks, (C) recovering data for the current error using data read from drives other than the drive containing the current error and (D) determining whether any further errors are present on the drive that contained the current error.
US07694169B2
Disclosed is a method of restoring a client device following failure of the client device, the client being connectable to a network comprising a server device. The method comprises saving to the server device a configuration state of the client device, the saved configuration state comprising client network interface configuration information, and a file of the client device. The method further comprises, following failure of the client computer, recording on a medium bootable on the client device program instructions for configuring the client device according to the saved configuration state, booting the client device from the bootable medium, configuring a network interface of the client device in accordance with the program instructions and the saved configuration state and restoring the file to the client device by copying over the network.
US07694166B1
A clustered storage server detects an offline condition in another storage server in the cluster and executes a cluster takeover procedure which includes taking control of the storage system associated with the offline storage server, and merging a local control-of-service policy with a control-of-service policy associated with the offline storage server.
US07694162B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates reducing static power consumption of a processor. During operation, the system receives a signal indicating that instruction execution within the processor is to be temporarily halted. In response to this signal, the system halts an instruction-processing portion of the processor, and reduces the voltage supplied to the instruction-processing portion of the processor. Full voltage is maintained to a remaining portion of the processor, so that the remaining portion of the processor can continue to operate while the instruction-processing portion of the processor is in reduced power mode.
US07694159B2
An embodiment of a method for remotely controlling power consumption of at least one server, including providing remote control to an administrator over a power state of at least one server, building an instruction command and encoding it into a suitable format for transport over a data network from an administration terminal to the at least one server, and interpreting the command and executing the command by the at least one server without powering down the at least one server.
US07694153B2
A computer or other electronic device uses a cryptographic capability and hardware identifier to verify a provisioning packet for changing the mode of operation of the device or a licensed component. A secure memory stores the provisioning packet for future reference. A sequence number may be used to limit replay attacks. An exemplary use is conversion of a computer from metered use during a subscription period to unlimited use when the subscription terms have been satisfied.
US07694146B2
A method embodied in a daemon resident on a server provides for notification of a client when a new session is initiated with respect to the client's private account. Assuming that a user is able to log onto the server and gain access to the client's account, the daemon checks if the client has requested notification and if so, formats e-mail alerts and distributes them to requested e-mail addresses on, for instance, local computers, cell phones, PDA and other receivers of e-mail traffic. Should the client discover, by receiving one of these e-mails that an impostor client has gained access to the client's account, the daemon is able to close down the sessions selected by the client and cancel the current password in favor of a temporary new password available only to the client.
US07694141B2
Extended authenticated key exchange with key confirmation is described. In one aspect, and before computing session keys to exchange information securely between an initiator and a responder, each party of the initiator and the responder, confirms whether the other party has received corresponding information to generate a valid session key. If either party determines that the other respective party has not received the corresponding information, the party terminates the extended authenticated key exchange with key confirmation protocol. Otherwise, when a party determines that the other party has received the corresponding information, the party generates a respective session key. In this manner, when both parties confirm that the other party has received the appropriate information for session key generation, both parties are assured that information can be exchanged between the parties securely using the session keys.
US07694138B2
A method and an apparatus are disclosed that enable an enhanced, interactive voice response (IVR) system to securely authenticate a user at a telecommunications terminal, without some of the disadvantages in the prior art. In particular, after the user at the telecommunications terminal requests access to a resource, the controlling IVR system of the illustrative embodiment issues a random challenge sequence to the user, along with interspersed “camouflage elements” and one or more directions as to how to respond. The user is then free to speak a returned sequence that answers the combined challenge sequence and interspersed camouflage elements; as a result, an eavesdropper overhearing the user hears what sounds like a random number or string. In short, the technique of the illustrative embodiment uses a challenge-response exchange of a substitution cipher interspersed with camouflage elements.
US07694135B2
A service is provided to allow a user, such as an API or web service, Internet input, or software or hardware client to perform a search on any one or multiple Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and/or other protocol addresses accessible via a public or private network to establish a report in a summary and/or detailed format on the trustworthiness of the address.
US07694129B2
Systems and methods for processing textual messages which are integrated with one or more digital attachments is described. These systems and methods are useful in the electronic filing and processing of, for example, image data, and of textual data associated with the image data. One particular application of these systems and methods would be for the electronic filing and processing of dental x-rays with patient claim forms.
US07694126B2
According to the present invention, techniques, including a method and system, for restoring and/or validating data and/or associated signature log entries are provided. One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for validating a restored message, having an entry generated in a signature log for a message, where the entry includes cryptographic information associated with the message. Next, when said message is lost, the restored message is generated responsive to a request; and the restored message is validated using the signature log. In another embodiment a method for validating a selected log entry by using a signature log having a plurality of recorded log entries is provided. The method includes: computing a cryptographic value for the selected log entry; and determining if the cryptographic value is part of another recorded log entry.
US07694122B2
An electronic device and a booting method thereof are provided, wherein the method includes the steps of copying the boot image from the first non-volatile memory to the internal RAM when a booting operation of the electronic device begins, setting a stack pointer in the internal RAM by executing a control code to set the stack pointer among control codes of the boot image, and activating the main memory by executing a control code to initialize the main memory controller and activate the main memory among the control codes of the boot image, the control code to initialize the main memory controller and activate the main memory using the stack pointer. Accordingly, since the control code to initialize the main memory controller to activate the main memory is written in a high-level programming language instead of assembly language, the display device can be driven before the main memory is activated.
US07694103B1
Using memory is disclosed. A block of memory is obtained from a memory allocator. A first location in the block of memory is sub-allocated to a first block based backup and/or restoration related task. An indication is received that the first location is available to be sub-allocated to a subsequent block based backup and/or restoration related task, if any.
US07694097B2
A system and method for managing an electronic storage volume is described. The method includes assigning a threshold to a constrained storage space to define a first state in which an amount of data stored in the constrained storage space exceeds the threshold and a second state in which the amount of data stored in the confined storage space does not exceed the threshold. The method also includes comparing the amount of data to be stored in the constrained storage space and the threshold, and performing a predefined action if the comparison indicates that the amount data to be in the confined storage space would cause a transition between the first state and the second state.
US07694080B2
A method and apparatus for providing a low power mode for a processor while maintaining snoop throughput are disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a cache, a processor, and a frequency controller. The frequency controller is to operate the apparatus in a low power mode in which the operating frequency of the cache is higher than the operating frequency of the processor.
US07694071B1
A disk drive capable of being configured into a plurality of data storage zones, wherein some of the zones have different performance characteristics than other zones; a method for performing such a zoning configuration; and, a host device utilizing such a disk drive. The disk drive comprises a disk having a plurality of sectors for storing data, a head for reading and writing the data, and a disk drive controller for controlling the head, wherein the plurality of the sectors are organized into the plurality of zones. In one embodiment of the present invention, the performance characteristics of the zones are dictated by configuration settings in the disk drive controller. The configuration settings may include settings for a plurality of parameters. In some embodiments of the present invention, the plurality of parameters comprises a CCT (command completion time) parameter, a Write Verify parameter, a Write Continuous parameter, a Read Continuous parameter, and an Error Re-allocation parameter. In other embodiments of the present invention, the configuration settings may also include a group of addresses associated with each zone.
US07694064B2
In an embodiment, a multi-processor computer system includes multiple cells, where a cell may include one or more processors and memory resources. The system may further include a global crossbar network and multiple cell-to-global-crossbar connectors, to connect the multiple cells with the global crossbar network. In an embodiment, the system further includes at least one cell-to-cell connector, to directly connect at least one pair of the multiple cells. In another embodiment, the system further includes one or more local crossbar networks, multiple cell-to-local-crossbar connectors, and local input/output backplanes connected to the one or more local crossbar networks.
US07694055B2
Interrupts are directed to currently idle processors. Which of a number of processors of a computing system that are currently idle is determined. An interrupt is received and directed to one of the currently idle processors for processing. Determining which processors are currently idle can be accomplished by monitoring each processor to determine whether it has entered an idle state. When a processor has entered an idle state, it is thus determined that the processor is currently idle. Where just one processor is currently idle, an interrupt is directed to this processor. Where more than one processor is currently idle, one of these processors is selected to which to deliver an interrupt, such as in a round-robin manner. Where no processor is currently idle, then one of the processors is selected to which to deliver an interrupt.
US07694053B2
A method of determining a source of data received over a two-wire master-slave communication bus includes monitoring with a slave assembly a plurality of clock signals each generated by a master device and determining the source of data received over the two-wire master-slave communication bus based on the monitored clock signals. Examples of suitable slave assemblies and systems for performing the method are also disclosed.
US07694048B2
An apparatus for the remote wireless control of a printer appliance includes a remote control handset and a wireless receiver for connection to the appliance. The remote control unit is adapted to transmit data and control codes to the receiver. The receiver is responsive to the data and control codes to control the appliance to print the data. The remote control unit includes a reader for a storage medium for printing the data, or a cable or wireless interface to an image acquisition device such as a digital video or still camera.
US07694044B2
Machine-readable media, methods, and apparatus are described to recover from stream under-run and/or over-run conditions. In some embodiments, an audio controller may discard any partial sample block of the stream.
US07694037B2
Provided are an information processing apparatus and a command multiplicity control method that enable easy and proper control of command multiplicity assigned to each host. The information processing apparatus, which executes processing in accordance with a command sent from each of plural hosts, dynamically determines each host's command multiplicity with respect to the information processing apparatus in accordance with command issue frequency of each host, and sets the determined multiplicity for the host. Accordingly, an information processing apparatus that enables easy and proper control of the command multiplicity assigned to each host can be realized.
US07694036B2
A system and product for a DMA controller with multi-dimensional line-walking functionality is presented. A processor includes an intelligent DMA controller, which loads a line description that corresponds to a shape or line. The intelligent DMA controller moves through a memory map and retrieves data based upon the line description that includes a major step and a minor step. In turn, the intelligent DMA controller retrieves data from the shared memory without assistance from its corresponding processor. In one embodiment, the intelligent DMA controller may analyze a line using the rate of change along its minor axes in conjunction with locations where the line intersects subspaces and store array spans of contiguous memory along the line's major axis.
US07694032B2
An apparatus and method for controlling a USB operation, whereby the USB operation can be controlled without unplugging a USB cable while maintaining a charge state from a host device. The USB apparatus includes a USB connector to which a USB cable connected to a host device is connected, and a switching unit to switch to one of a first operation mode, in which data communication with the host device is enabled, and a second operation mode, in which an operation depending on a user input is enabled and data communication with the host device is disabled, by controlling power lines and data lines of the USB cable via the USB connector, wherein power can be charged from the host device in both the first operation mode and the second operation mode. Accordingly, a user can switch a USB operation mode without unplugging the USB cable.
US07694017B2
In a wireless network in which an addressing server allocates an IP address, there are provided an IP address acquisition method, a communication apparatus and a roaming method whereby a terminal can automatically acquire an IP address from the addressing server. An IP address acquisition method for acquiring an IP address for a terminal 14 from a addressing server 18 comprises the steps of: providing the terminal 14 with a temporary IP address in a case that a first communication apparatus 10 is not capable of connecting with a second communication apparatus 12 when the first communication apparatus 10 receives an IP address request message from the terminal 14; discarding the temporary IP address from the terminal 14 when it becomes possible to connect with the second communication apparatus 12 and a communication path is established; and acquiring an IP address for the terminal 14 from the addressing server 18 via the communication path.
US07694015B2
With respect to a communication operation between networks having no connection permission, a connection control apparatus calculates a communicatable detour communication path from a connection policy database, and in such a case that a communication operation can be carried out between these networks having no connection permission, the connection control apparatus permits the communication operation via a detour communication path after authentication.
US07694014B2
A method, system and computer program product for dynamically modifying target server specifications to improve the success rate of client requests in a data network. A client's initial request is transmitted by a client router to a dynamically updating target server, based on information in a client's routing table. A Dynamic Server Specifications (DSS) utility automatically revises one or more target specifications of a client's request that is not initially fulfilled. The DSS utility then initiates the transmission of the modified request to an alternate server. If the request to the alternate server is also not fulfilled, the DSS utility may further modify the request to target an arbitrary server in order to download a current routing table. When the client receives a current routing table, the initial request is revised based on the current routing information, with full constraints re-established, and forwarded to the relevant target server.
US07694013B2
Streaming to a terminal by using a duplicating switch to receive a stream of data units, using the duplicating switch to store content from the stream, using the duplicating switch to generate a second stream that incorporates the content that was stored and address information corresponding to more than one terminal whose addressing information was not part of the first stream, and using the duplicating switch to make the second stream of data units available to two or more terminals.
US07694012B1
A method of and system for routing data includes passing a data request to a primary data source, encountering a type of error in accessing the requested data from the primary data source, and selecting one of a plurality of alternate data sources based on the type of error encountered.
US07693998B2
The invention deploys a message-based data transport platform, in which a communication engine controls the delivery of server or other backup data or other large quantity data to a remote site based on message objects as fundamental units. Data sessions from one or more servers or other data sources may be buffered over established pipes for delivery to a remote data host which likewise contains messaging control. Relatively large message units may wait for communication over the channel in a queue, and be released when prior messaging is complete. Completion port or other polling or other mechanisms may indicate that connections have become open for use. In embodiments the message objects may be signed, or encrypted to safeguard against alteration or unauthorized viewing. The communication engine may rely upon TCP or other underlying transport mechanisms to effect lower level transmission.
US07693996B2
A service level management (SLM) system where the system learns the structure of a web application, monitors the operation of the application, and controls the processing of incoming requests to achieve optimal performance as defined in a service level agreement (SLA). The system is operative for example in enterprise web applications and in enterprise data centers that deploy web applications and optimally is capable of controlling and maintaining a level of service of web applications.
US07693990B2
A multifunction device includes: a control command receiving section for receiving a control command from a control device; a criterion storage section for storing criterion in which command type information indicating control command types is associated with information indicating whether an authentication process is necessary or not; a command type determining section for determining whether the authentication process is necessary or not for the control command received by the control command receiving section; an access key checking section for performing the authentication process by matching the access key with an authentication key stored in advance, the access key checking section performing the authentication process if the access key checking section determines that the authentication process is necessary; and an Web service layer for executing a process as instructed by the control command, the Web service layer performing the process if the access key checking section that authentication is successful, or if the command type determining section determines that the authentication process is not necessary. This makes it possible to attain a multifunction device with a high security and with an ability to perform a process with a workload that is reduced as much as possible.
US07693989B2
A communication device is connected with a wide area network (WAN) and a local area network (LAN) and includes a recording unit that performs predetermined processing in accordance with a request, that comes in through the WAN or the LAN. A controller of a communication module of the communication device determines whether a request came in through the WAN or the LAN. When the request comes in through the WAN, the controller demands an acceptance/rejection determination as to the performance of the request from a user of the communication device. When the performance of the requested operation is accepted, the controller performs the processing according to the request that came in through the WAN.
US07693983B1
A system for providing application redeployment mappings using filtered resource usage data includes a meter agent and an optimizer. The meter agent may be configured to collect measurements quantifying usage of one or more source resources by one or more applications. In response to a specification of a set of constraints associated with a deployment of one or more applications to a target execution environment, the optimizer may be configured to obtain a filtered aggregation of the measurements collected by the meter agent, and use the filtered aggregation to generate a mapping of at least one application to one or more target resources of the target execution environment in accordance with the set of constraints. The optimizer may implement a mathematical model to generate the mapping based on a determination of an optimum value of an objective function.
US07693978B2
An audio codec uses one or more access points to broadcast or unicast a performance to a mobile digital media device that is registered and therefore is authorized to receive the performance. Prior to receiving, the mobile digital media device is authenticated by replying to an RFID query from one or more access points. If the mobile digital media device is registered, a secure key is sent to the mobile digital media device. The mobile digital media device uses the secure key to decrypt music being broadcasted or unicasted to receive the distribution of the live performances in the music venue.
US07693977B2
Systems and methods are described herein to virtualize functions and decentralize services in a flat-graph network of client devices. Other embodiments include apparatus and systems of devices comprising virtual node modules to perform a variety of service functions. Further embodiments include methods for overlaying service functions on flat-graph network of client devices.
US07693976B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for granular management of network resources by accessing network device resources through associated references. In one embodiment, the references are group names, and one or more resources (i.e., a resource collection) within each network device in a telecommunications network may be linked with one or more group names. Group names (or other types of references) may then be used to limit a user's access to particular network device resources. That is, a user may only have access to those resources associated with group names to which the user has access. Over time, network device resources may be associated or disassociated with particular group names. As a result, group names provide users with dynamic access to network device resources. In one embodiment, the groups to which a user has access are defined within a user profile associated with the user. Grouping network device resources, therefore, allows for a granular view of each network device in the network by limiting a user's access to those resources corresponding to group names listed in their user profile. As one example, grouping may allow for customer network management—that is a customer's view is limited to only those network device resources for which they have subscribed.
US07693969B2
A program distributing apparatus is connected to a program distributing server and a plurality of terminals via a network, and distributes a program to be embedded into the terminals and the apparatus to the terminals. The apparatus includes a fetching unit that fetches the program from the program distributing server on behalf of the terminals, and a distributing unit that distributes fetched program to the terminals.
US07693956B2
Associated query parameters of queries of query answer web pages of a plurality of websites corresponding to a set of search criteria are identified and reconciled. Proxy web page specifications comprising the queries and their associated query parameters are created, and submitted for processing by a search engine to create a plurality of indices to effectively index the dynamic query answer web pages. For associated query parameters to be posted to the websites, the associated query parameters for pre-filling the forms are pre-stored at a proxy server, and the corresponding queries included in the indices, modified to address the proxy servers. During operation, on receipt of the search criteria from a client, the search engine returns a search answer web page including the indices that effectively indexes the dynamic query answer web pages. In alternate embodiment, the effective indices may be automatically selected
US07693953B2
A system and method are described for interfacing a wireless device with a plurality of web services including social networking web services. For example, a system according to one embodiment of the invention comprises a system for interfacing a wireless device with a plurality of web services comprising a web service proxy having an API to allow other modules to interface with the web service proxy; a plurality of web services adapters interfaced with the web services proxy through the API, each one of the web services adapters configured to communicate with a particular web service using the specific communication formats required by that web service; wherein the web services adapters and the web services proxy convert between the communication formats employed to communicate with each of the web services and a wireless communication format, the wireless communication format being a different format than the communication formats required by each of the web services, thereby enabling bi-directional communication between the wireless device and the plurality of web services.
US07693945B1
A method for indicating probability of spam for email comprises tracking network traffic characteristics for the email, and comparing the tracked characteristics for the email to characteristics for email from trusted or known spam sources.
US07693944B2
Enabling a recipient to control presentation of an audio identifier informing the recipient of an arrival of a digital communication from a sender in a communication session includes receiving a digital communication from a sender directed to a recipient. A sender-designated first audio identifier or sender-related information that identifies the sender to the recipient is accessed upon arrival of the digital communication. The first audio identifier or sender-related information is presented to the recipient contemporaneous with receipt of the digital communication. The recipient is able to specify, upon presentation of the first audio identifier or sender-related information, whether to enable subsequent presentation of the first audio identifier prior to or concurrent with receipt of a future digital communication from the sender.
US07693941B2
A method and apparatus are generally disclosed for presenting predictively and graphically administering a networked system in a time dimension. According to one aspect of the present application, a method is disclosed for presenting a projected status of at least one network system component. The method comprises identifying a present reference time and defining a status time associated with at least one network system component. The status time is future time relative to the reference time. The method also comprises identifying the network system component for presentation. The method further comprises determining a projected status associated with the network system component as of the status time. A representation of the projected status of the network system component is output for presentation. The outputting of the representation includes displaying a three-dimensional depiction of the network system component.
US07693926B2
A system to process multiplier X and multiplicand Y may include multiplication of a least-significant bit of X and a least-significant w bits of Y to generate a least-significant w bits of product Z. The system may further include determination of whether a least-significant bit of product Z is 1, addition of a least-significant w bits of modulus M to the least-significant w bits of product Z if the least-significant bit of product Z is 1, multiplication of the least-significant bit of X and bits 2w-1:w of Y to generate bits 2w-1:w of product Z, and addition of bits 2w-1:w of modulus M to bits 2w-1:w of product Z if the least-significant bit of product Z is 1. Multiplying the least-significant bit of X and bits 2w-1:w of Y may occur at least partially contemporaneously with multiplying the least-significant bit of X and the least-significant w bits of Y, determining if the least-significant bit of product Z is 1, and adding the least-significant w bits of modulus M to the least-significant w bits of product Z if the least-significant bit of product Z is 1.
US07693925B2
Embodiments of apparatuses and methods for multiplicand shifting in a linear systolic array modular multiplier are disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes two processing elements of a linear systolic array. One processing element includes multiplication logic, multiplicand shift logic, an adder, modulus logic, and modulus shift logic. The multiplication logic is to multiply a word of the multiplicand and a bit of the multiplier to generate a product. The multiplicand shift logic is to shift the word of the multiplicand. The adder is to add the product to a first running sum to generate a second running sum. The modulus logic is to conditionally add a word of a modulus and the second running sum. The modulus shift logic is to shift the word of the modulus. The next processing element includes logic to multiply the shifted word of the multiplicand and the next bit of the multiplier.
US07693920B2
A recycle-free directory entry system and method thereof applicable in a file system are provided. The file system uses one or more directory entries to record a unique file/directory name. The recycle-free directory entry method consists of plural directory entries stored in a storage device with a plurality of sectors, each sector only recording all directory entries corresponding to a unique file/directory. Each directory entry has a directory name field, a directory attribute field and a reserve field. The directory name field records a filename of a related file/directory. The directory attribute field records an attribute of the related file/directory. The reserve field records an identity byte, which indicates that all directory entries corresponding to the related file/directory are exclusively recorded in a single sector.
US07693919B2
An eager reference-counting garbage collection system performs a static analysis on the intermediate representation of a program. The system then uses liveness information to inject eager reference-counting updates into the program. Through the use of the liveness information, reference-counting decrements can be made earlier in execution than in traditional reference-counting schemes, freeing up memory more efficiently. Additionally, a reference-counting subsumption optimization tool identifies redundant reference-counting updates and removes them, lowering the number of garbage collection update calls and improving execution throughput. Reference-counting subsumption can also be used as a throughput enhancer in traditional reference-counting schemes that maintain up-to-date tallies of references from the stack.
US07693918B2
A system and method for generating a schema for a database is provided. The schema is based, at least in part, upon three main tables: object types, objects, and, associations. Through these three base tables, the system facilitates rapid prototyping of schema associated with database(s). The schema is extensible since associations between objects, objects and object types are not hard-coded and can be dynamically updated by modifying the appropriate entry(ies) in one or more of these three base tables. Thus, through these three tables, an extensible, flexible framework for generating and/or dynamically modifying the schema is provided.The system includes an input component that receives information associated with a requested database prototype. The system further includes a schema generation component that generates a schema based, at least in part, upon the information received by the input component.
US07693912B2
By varying the levels of detail associated with items in an ordered collection of information, items may be organized in a way to emphasize details about item of current interest. Displaying varying levels of detail about items in an ordered collection of information involves determining a focus, and based on their relative location to the focus adding additional detail to other items displayed from the collection of information. For instance, a user browsing a web search results list typically only sees a few essential details such as the name, link, and brief abstract about each item in the list. Providing the user with varying levels of detail about each item in the list helps them decide to where they want to navigate.
US07693888B2
A data management system with data stored in multiple disparate formats in synchronized stores, method of synchronizing the data and recovering from synchronization failures and program product therefor. Data changes in one data store are cached in a universal format in an active synchronizer and forwarded to a second store from the universal format cache. Standby synchronizers provide failover handling by identifying synchronization failures and self-selecting a replacement synchronizer to serve as the active synchronizer.
US07693884B2
The invention relates to a method and data processing system of managing a storage system, wherein the storage system comprises a first storage space and a second storage space, wherein the first storage space comprises a plurality of files, wherein for each file of said plurality of files at least one attribute is specified, and wherein a policy is assigned to each attribute. The method comprises the steps of determining a policy-specific probability distribution for each policy and of determining a policy-specific probability for each file by use of the policy-specific probability distribution. The method further comprises the step of determining a total probability for each file by use of each policy-specific probability and of moving each file of the plurality of files having a total probability equal to 1 from the first storage space to the second storage space. The method further comprises the step of moving files of the plurality of files having a total probability between 0 to 1 if the storage space used on the first storage space reaches a high threshold value until a low threshold value is reached, wherein the low threshold value and the high threshold value are predetermined.
US07693881B2
Methods, computer readable medium and systems are provided for moving data objects from a first storage location to a second storage location. One or more data objects may be selected having an identifier from a first storage location. The ID may be stored in a second lock object. Systems and methods consistent with the invention may determine whether the ID is stored successfully, and upon a successful storage, may store the ID in a first lock object. The data object is stored at a second storage location and the data object is deleted from the first storage location. After the ID has been stored in a first lock object, the ID is then deleted from the second lock object.
US07693860B2
The present invention generally relates to new and improved embodiments of methods and systems for capturing and providing arbitrarily rich data to be stored or manipulated within a spreadsheet. In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for creating spreadsheet metadata comprises receiving an item in a spreadsheet, receiving item metadata about the item, and associating the item metadata with the item to create spreadsheet metadata.
US07693853B2
A method for retrieving a desired postal address from a plurality of postal addresses. The invention can feature receiving input data having input terms for finding the desired postal address from a first database of postal addresses where each postal address is formed of a plurality of postal address elements, searching a dictionary for entries in the dictionary corresponding to the input terms, determining that each entry in the dictionary that corresponds to the input terms corresponds to postal address elements of one or more postal addresses in the first database, and outputting data representing the desired postal address. The desired postal address is found in the first database if an address in that database has postal address elements that correspond with each of the entries of the dictionary that corresponds to one or more of the input terms.
US07693849B2
Provided are a method, system, and program for processing a request for an object from a user. Layout information for the requested object is accessed, wherein the layout information delineates fields in the object. A determination is made from access control information as to whether the user is authorized to access the fields indicated in the layout information. The data from the object in one field which the user is not authorized to access is masked. The fields from the object are generated into a formatted object formatted according to the layout information, wherein the masked data is presented unintelligible to the user.
US07693844B1
A system, method and carrier medium for configuring processing relationships among entities of a Financial Service Organization (FSO). The system, method and carrier medium may be used for processing and reporting FSO business data including transactional data. A business structure, which may include the processing relationship between various entities of the FSO, may be defined. A processing relationship configuration program may be used to create a processing relationship structure. A node may be created and uniquely defined to represent an FSO physical entity and/or an FSO function. Nodes structures may be defined to correspond to the processing relationship structure within an FSO. A node number may uniquely identify a node instance in the processing relationship structure. An FSO database table may be used to store the a processing relationship structure information. FSO transactions, such as executing a report, may be generated based on the defined processing relationship structure.
US07693835B2
A client apparatus for utilizing services by executing service programs includes a policy holding unit, a verification unit, a verification result holding unit, and a verification result notification unit. The policy holding unit holds a service-specific verification policy pre-checked by a device verification apparatus. The verification unit verifies an operation and configuration of the client apparatus itself by using the verification policy when the service program is executed. The verification result notification unit notifies the verification result to the device verification apparatus, which requests the verification result.
US07693833B2
A system and method are provided to receive a search query from a user, typically via a web browser, the Internet, and a web server. A search engine obtains a set of potential search results based on the search query. For each Internet domain or web site mentioned in the search results, a set of data sources is accessed to obtain information concerning the legitimacy of the business associated with the Internet domain or web site. The legitimacy information is used to reorder or to change or to augment the appearance or presentation of the search result for the Internet domain or web site. The processed search results are returned to the user.
US07693831B2
Data context techniques are described. In an implementation, a method includes determining, by each of a plurality of nodes, whether an item of data contained in a respective node matches one or more items referenced by a context that is broadcast to the plurality of nodes. When the determining results in a match, an indication is emitted by the respective node that identifies a particular one of the items reference by the context.
US07693830B2
A programmable search engine system is programmable by a variety of different entities, such as client devices and vertical content sites to customize search results for users. Context files store instructions for controlling the operations of the programmable search engine. The contest files are processed by various context processors, which use the instructions therein to provide various pre-processing, post-processing, and search engine control operations.
US07693821B2
A system and method for executing semijoin reductions on outer join operations are presented. Tuple lists are created based on a query. A sequence of semijoin reduction steps are performed, where each semijoin reduction step either switches one tuple list, or reduces all tuple lists at one relation. Virtual connector pairs are inserted into the tuple lists, and then all tuple lists are centralized at a common host. The join results are assembled at the common host, and negative row IDs are substituted. From the join result, the query result is retrieved by projecting to the requested attributes.
US07693819B2
Each record added to a database is assigned an identifier, for example, based on or at the time the record is added to the database. A database server receives a request for a first group of records that satisfy a condition, and searches and sorts on the basis of the identifier field all records in the database that satisfy the condition, to create an ordered set of records. The server sends the first group of records from the ordered set, in response to the request, and also sends a starting point in the ordered set from which to begin to send a second group of records from the ordered set that satisfy the condition.
US07693811B2
A computer-implemented method, apparatus, and computer-usable program code to generate unique identifiers for a logically partitioned and/or virtualized data processing system. A number of computing entities supported by the data processing system are identified to form a number of identified entities. A set of unique identifiers is generated based upon the number of identified entities. A unique identifier from the set of unique identifiers is assigned to a logical computing entity during operation of the data processing system.
US07693800B2
A method for printing indicia on mailpieces at an increased average speed. The system includes: a postal scale for determining a postage amount for a mail piece; a printer; and a postage meter responsive to the postal scale to control the printer to print an indicium representative of the postage amount. The postage meter further includes: a programmable controller; a secure mechanism for accounting for postage amounts expended; and an indicia generator. The programmable controller is programmed in accordance with the method of the present invention to: respond to a first signal from the postal scale to generate an indicium representative of the last used amount; and, if the determined postage amount equals the last used amount, respond to a second signal representative of the determined postage amount to print the indicium representative of the last used postage amount; and, if the determined postage amount is not equal to the last used postage amount, respond to the second signal to delete the indicium representative of the last used postage amount; generate an indicium representative of the determined postage amount; and print the indicium representative of the determined postage amount on the mail piece.
US07693799B2
Provided is a wireless communication terminal for mobile commerce that can suspend events during Radio Frequency (RF) payment, and a method thereof. The terminal for mobile commerce can secure integrity of the mobile commerce by suspending events generated during the RF payment of a mobile commerce. The terminal includes: a storage for storing a pre-established authentication number; a keypad for receiving a mobile commerce request and an authentication number; a controller for requesting authentication for the mobile commerce to an authenticator in response to the mobile commerce request, analyzing an authentication response message from the authenticator; and the authenticator for authenticating the mobile commerce; an RF antenna for transmitting/receiving an RF signal for a function of the mobile commerce under the control of the controller; and a display for displaying the mobile commerce process.
US07693795B2
Disclosed is a digital work protection system enabling a content distributor to flexibly define usage patterns of content permitted for users. The system is composed of a recording device and a playback device. The recording device acquires a digital work, range information showing a permission range within which the digital work is permitted to be used, and a subrange key for each subrange, generates an encryption key using all the acquired subrange keys, encrypts the digital work based on the encryption key to generate encryption information, and writes the encryption information and the range information to a recording medium. The playback device reads the range information and the encrypted information from the recording medium, acquires a subrange key for each subrange, generates a decryption key using all the acquired subrange keys, decrypts the encrypted information based on the decryption key to generate a digital work, and plays the digital work.
US07693775B2
A computerized system and method for placing orders for financial instruments with an exchange or alternative trading system is provided. In accordance with this embodiment, updated order book information is received from each of a plurality of trade execution entities. An order for a first financial instrument of the plurality of financial instruments is received from a first user. The order includes a first price per unit component, and a first unit quantity. The first unit quantity includes a disclosed liquidity quantity and an undisclosed liquidity quantity. The order, including the disclosed liquidity quantity and the undisclosed liquidity quantity, is sent to a first one of the plurality of trade execution entities for execution. A reciprocal order for the first financial instrument that does not require that the trade execution entity be the first one of the trade execution entities is received from a second user. The reciprocal order includes a second price per unit component, and a second unit quantity, and the first and second price per unit components have overlapping values. As a function of (1) the price per unit value and the disclosed liquidity quantity for the first financial instrument in the updated order book information, and (2) the first price per unit component and the first undisclosed liquidity quantity, the reciprocal order is sent to one of the plurality of trade execution entities.
US07693768B2
A method and system for reducing the time it takes for a trader to place a trade when electronically trading on an exchange, thus increasing the likelihood that the trader will have orders filled at desirable prices and quantities. The “Mercury” display and trading method of the present invention ensure fast and accurate execution of trades by displaying market depth on a vertical or horizontal plane, which fluctuates logically up or down, left or right across the plane as the market prices fluctuates. This allows the trader to trade quickly and efficiently.
US07693760B1
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that implements a tax service that is configurable for local jurisdictions by an expert in the field, such as a tax professional, who may have little or no knowledge of computer programming. The system operates by receiving a request from a subscriber, wherein servicing the request involves calculating taxes for one or more local jurisdictions. Tax rules for a local jurisdiction can be fed into a tax rule base that is used by a tax engine that is configured to use these externally specified rules in performing tax computations. Next, the system uses the tax engine to calculate taxes for each local jurisdiction, and subsequently uses the results of the calculations in servicing the request.
US07693757B2
A mobile inventory robot system generates an inventory map of a store and a product database when a mobile inventory robot is manually navigated through the store to identify items on shelves, a location for each of the items on the shelves, and a barcode for each of the items. The system performs inventory of the items by navigating through the store via the inventory map, capturing a shelf image, decoding a product barcode from the captured shelf image, retrieving a product image for the decoded product barcode from the product database, segmenting the captured shelf image to detect an image of an item on the shelves, determining whether the detected image matches the retrieved image and, if not, setting an out-of-stock flag for an the item.
US07693756B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer-implemented method for determining absorption costs for transfers between a plurality of cost groups of a business operation. In one embodiment, a processing sequence for the plurality of cost groups is determined. For iteration (n) where n>1, a periodic moving average cost of a transferable item is then calculated for each of the plurality of cost groups according to the processing sequence, where the transferable item is to be transferred between the plurality of cost groups. A difference between the periodic moving average cost calculated in iteration (n) for each of the plurality of cost groups and a periodic moving average cost calculated in iteration (n−1) for each of the plurality of cost groups is then calculated. The steps of calculating the periodic moving average cost and calculating the difference are then repeated until the difference is within a specified tolerance.
US07693751B2
The method for electronically vertically integrating a consumer, retailer and wholesaler of diamonds (or jewelry) includes maintaining a diamond inventory database which lists common characteristics, wholesale price and retail price. In the retail facility or space, the consumer electronically searches the diamond database and is presented with record displays of diamonds within the scope of the search and the retail price. A retailer's computer can mimic the consumer search and display the wholesale price. This tracking and a sales alarm trigger facilitates a face-to-face sale of the diamond. An alarm issues when the consumer's search exceeds certain predetermined parameters. A computer readable medium and an information processing system are included.
US07693748B1
A system and method for aggregating demand is provided. At least one seller may sponsor a deal room to aggregate selling goods/services from a plurality of buyers. The demand aggregation system can include a dashboard for allowing the at least one seller to set up DealRooms, price curves, offers, products, customers, and/or customer groups, for example. The dashboard can include a plurality of wizards for configuring such information. The demand aggregation system can also include seller displays for notifying buyers of changes in prices relative to ship dates and times of order. The demand aggregation system can also include a predictive modeling and reporting function. An algorithm is employed to utilize product information to post a probability chart on a product price point.
US07693746B2
A musical contents system comprises a contents providing server comprising a connecting unit that connects to a communication network, and a contents storage unit that stores musical contents in a storage area corresponding to a user of an electronic musical device; and an electronic musical device comprising a connecting unit that connects to the contents providing server via the communication network, an accessing unit that accesses to the contents storage unit via the communication network, and a contents operating unit that performs an operation to the musical contents stored in the contents storage area corresponding to the user. The musical contents purchased or created by the user can be stored in a data center; therefore, convenience of using the musical contents is improved and the cost is decreased or cut off.
US07693741B2
Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for providing communications services. One method receives a request for communications service. The request for communications service originates from a client communications device, and the request for communications service is communicated to a service provider of a communications network. A preferred scenario of segmentation, dispersion, and assemblage of electronic data is dynamically ascertained to fulfill the request. The method then bills for the communications service.
US07693739B2
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for collecting data concerning a supply chain, for performing statistical analysis on the collected data to facilitate identification of anomalies or inefficiencies in the process, and for communicating results of such statistical analysis to those responsible for the supply chain. A method for performing statistical analysis on monitored aspect of a product supply chain involves storing, in memory accessible to processor, first data reflecting first monitored aspect of a first shipment of first item occurring in the supply chain, and storing, in memory accessible to the processor, second data reflecting second monitored aspect of a second shipment of second item occurring in the supply chain. The processor is used to automatically generate report reflecting statistical analysis of the first and second data.
US07693728B2
A system and method for the efficient administration of health care plans, particularly as to the reduction and/or elimination of avoidable medical costs for select individuals who participate in the plan, is disclosed. Existing health care data is processed to determine an indication as to the relative desirability of an intervention in a plan participant's health care regimen. The data is also processed to determine the status of one or more flags, each of which potentially indicates the relative desirability of an intervention in a plan participant's health care regimen. A predictive model is used to determine the status of a flag relating to the likelihood of an insurance plan participant making a disability claim within a certain period of time. The information relating to desirability of an intervention in a plan participant's health care regimen, as well as a plan participant's medical information and claim history, is presented to case managers and/or health care providers in a user-friendly format.
US07693718B2
A method of updating an application in a processing system, the aforesaid method comprising the steps of: (a) starting operation of a first version of an application in the aforesaid processing system; (b) starting operation of a second version of the aforesaid application in the aforesaid processing system; and (c) incrementally reallocating processing system resources from the aforesaid first version of the aforesaid application to a second version of the aforesaid application, such that at most one application selected from the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application operates at full capacity at any time, and such that at least one of the aforesaid first version and the aforesaid second version of the aforesaid application is operating at all times.
US07693713B2
Speech models are trained using one or more of three different training systems. They include competitive training which reduces a distance between a recognized result and a true result, data boosting which divides and weights training data, and asymmetric training which trains different model components differently.
US07693709B2
Techniques and tools for reordering of spectral coefficients in encoding and decoding are described herein. For certain types and patterns of content, coefficient reordering reduces redundancy that is due to periodic patterns in the spectral coefficients, making subsequent entropy encoding more efficient. For example, an audio encoder receives spectral coefficients logically organized along one dimension such as frequency, reorders at least some of the spectral coefficients, and entropy encodes the spectral coefficients after the reordering. Or, an audio decoder receives entropy encoded information for such spectral coefficients, entropy decodes the information, and reverses reordering of at least some of the spectral coefficients.
US07693707B2
A voice and musical tone coding apparatus is provided that can perform high-quality coding by executing vector quantization taking the characteristics of human hearing into consideration. In this voice and musical tone coding apparatus, a quadrature transformation processing section (201) converts a voice and musical tone signal from time components to frequency components. An auditory masking characteristic value calculation section (203) finds an auditory masking characteristic value from a voice and musical tone signal. A vector quantization section (202) performs vector quantization changing a calculation method of a distance between a code vector found from a preset codebook and a frequency component based on an auditory masking characteristic value.
US07693706B2
A method for generating an encoded audio signal, and a method for processing the same during the multi-channel audio coding are disclosed. The present invention provides the method for generating an encoded audio signal comprising: generating basic spatial information including basic configuration information requisite for a multi-channel audio coding process and basic data corresponding to the basic configuration information; and generating extension spatial information including extension configuration information selectively required for the multi-channel audio coding process and extension data corresponding to the extension configuration information.
US07693700B1
Circuits, methods, and apparatus for including interconnect parasitics without greatly increasing circuit simulation complexity and run times. Interconnect paths are reduced to one of a number of simplified topologies based on path width, length, or other parameters. The input drive waveform is similarly approximated. A grid array is formed in advance, where each point in the grid array corresponds to a set of values relating to a path topology, input waveform, and resulting output waveform. The simplified interconnect path and input waveform are mapped into a set of parameters which corresponds to a location in the predetermined grid array. The output waveform is determined by interpolating output waveforms from gridpoints surrounding the location.
US07693696B2
A method for welding includes providing a pair of substrates with no gap between them. The welding process uses lasers that are moveable through a locus of points relative to the substrates and each other to weld the substrate together. The moveable lasers assist in controlling a formation of a weld keyhole that assists in expelling gases that develop during the welding process.
US07693678B2
Methods and apparatuses to measure temperatures of integrated circuits are disclosed. New circuit arrangements for measuring temperature using various types of integrated circuit sensor elements are discussed. Embodiments comprise methods and apparatuses arranged to measure temperature based upon current leakage rates of different integrated circuit sensor elements. The methods and apparatuses generally involve using a pulse module to generate a charge for the integrated circuit elements. In these method and apparatus embodiments, one or more elements form a decay module to sense when the voltage decays to a threshold value. The method and apparatus embodiments may also have a module to calculate or infer a temperature from the rate of the voltage decay.
US07693675B2
Methods of confidential data sharing and mutual authentication between a sensor node and a router are established, and data in the sensor node is protected from a physical attack. Sensor node issuing processing is performed on a sensor node having a tamper resistant device. The sensor node issuing processing is processing in which data and a function that are deactivated are loaded in the tamper resistant device of the sensor node from the time of manufacture of the sensor node to the time the sensor node reaches a system that runs the sensor node. Activation data is used to activate the deactivated data and function. The activation data is shared between stages of the issuing processing with the use of a data management system.
US07693673B2
An apparatus and methods for identifying a defect and/or an operating characteristic of a system being monitored (and/or one or more of the system's components) are described. In an embodiment, orthogonally related data monitored by two or more detectors may be fused to determine whether a component of a system is defective and/or malfunctioning. Additionally or alternatively, data from a first detector may be determined to be accurate using non-orthogonally related data outputted by a second detector. Both types of determinations may be made with minimal or no false indications, which lowers the cost of operating the system being monitored. Embodiments of the invention may also be configured to forecast and/or prevent accidents and/or damage to the system being monitored by predicting whether a defect and/or a malfunction will occur.
US07693668B2
A system for determining airtime of a moving sportsman includes at least one accelerometer for detecting vibration or acceleration of the sportsman. A processor in communication with the at least one accelerometer processing signals from the accelerometer to determine free-fall. A pressure sensor may be used to determine change in altitude and the processor may process signals from the pressure sensor with the accelerometer signals to determine airtime and drop distance during free-fall. A method for determining airtime of a moving sportsman includes processing data from one or more accelerometers attached to the sportsman, to determine when the sportsman is in free-fall, and determining a time period corresponding to the free-fall.
US07693666B2
The present invention provides, in a first aspect, a method, system, and program product for controlling chemical reactions in a digital microfluidic system that include logically partitioning cells of a digital microfluidic system array into a plurality of virtual components wherein at least one of the virtual components is capable of handling droplets of reactants associated with distinct chemical reactions concurrently. In a second aspect, a respective next cell is determined for each of a plurality of chemical droplets in the digital microfluidic system array, which may include droplets of reactants associated with distinct chemical reactions. In another aspect, a method, system, and program product for controlling chemical reactions in a digital microfluidic system in accordance with the present invention induce a chemical droplet of the plurality of chemical droplets in the digital microfluidic system array to move to the respective next cell determined for the chemical droplet.
US07693664B2
The invention relates to a method of judging the thermostability of a protein, comprising the steps of calculating an analytical value specific to a test protein by a principal component analysis based on the amino acid composition of the protein calculated from the data of the amino acid sequence of the protein or the nucleotide sequence of the gene and comparing the analytical value with an analytical value of a protein which is retained by a thermostable organism and corresponds to the test protein, and further relates to a program for allowing a computer to execute processing for judging the thermostability of a protein by the method, and a computer readable recording medium having recorded the program thereon.
US07693658B2
A navigation apparatus includes a display control unit that displays a roadmap by using road data and an intersection arrangement at an intersection by using the intersection arrangement data. The intersection arrangement data include intersection coordinate data containing coordinate information corresponding to an intersection as well as display data used to display an intersection arrangement at an intersection. When approaching a specific intersection on the roadmap, the display control unit makes a decision as to whether or not the intersection coordinate data include coordinate information corresponding to coordinate information for the specific intersection on the roadmap, and if the intersection coordinate data are determined to include coordinate information corresponding to the coordinate information for the specific intersection, the display control unit judges that the road data and the intersection arrangement data match up, and displays the intersection arrangement at the specific intersection by using the intersection arrangement data.
US07693657B2
A navigation device displays predicted traffic information downloaded from a server device and statistical traffic information stored in a storage unit, on the same screen. Both information items may be displayed in such a manner that at least a part of them is overlaid (a superimposed display). The predicted traffic information may be superimposed on the statistical traffic information. When traffic information of the same time band of the same object (link, mesh area) exists in both the information items, one thereof may be selected to be displayed.
US07693652B2
A unique routing system and method that facilitates adjusting waypoint locations to optimize a cost function and presenting more relevant contextual advertisements based in part on the waypoint locations. The system and method involve examining waypoint locations including a start, end, and any in-between waypoint to determine whether they are reachable or routable according to the preferred mode of transportation. Adjustments can be made to one or more of the waypoint locations in order to accommodate this mode of transportation in view of a given cost function. Adjustments can be made that optimize the cost function to minimize overall costs. Multi-modal routing can be initiated as well to configure a route using the selected or adjusted waypoints and multiple modes of transportation in order to optimize the cost function. Adjustments and the selection of contextual advertisements can be based on user intention and several other route related factors.
US07693633B2
A data system for work machines is disclosed. The data system has a first communication device associated with a first work machine, and a second communication device associated with a second work machine. The data system also has an offboard system in communication with the first and second communication devices. The offboard system is configured to request a first data transmission from the first work machine in response to a second data transmission being received from the second work machine.
US07693632B2
A motorcycle is provided with a fork-like wheel carrier, on the lower end of which a front wheel is supported, a handlebar by which the wheel carrier can be steered in a steering direction to the left or the right during travel, and a transmission unit by which the handlebar is coupled to the wheel carrier. The transmission unit is provided for transmitting steering forces, introduced into the handlebar, to the wheel carrier and bringing same into a corresponding steering position. The wheel carrier is mounted so as to be pivotable with respect to the handlebar, such that for a specified steering position, the wheel carrier can be moved, at least over a certain range, relative to the handlebar in the steering direction.
US07693630B1
A snow melting system for heating a vehicle to melt snow and ice from an exterior of the vehicle includes a vehicle. A power supply is positioned in the vehicle. Each of a plurality of heating elements extends through a portion of an exterior surface of the vehicle. Each of the heating elements is electrically coupled to the power supply. The power supply supplies power to the heating elements to heat the heating elements to melt ice and snow from the exterior surface of the vehicle.
US07693627B2
A tire steer condition detection and notification apparatus calculates a tire steer angle based on a steering wheel operation when a parked condition of a vehicle is detected, and provides a notification (i.e., warning) regarding a tire steer condition when the tire steer angle is equal to or greater than a predetermined angle. Further, when the vehicle is determined to be in the parked condition and has a predicted travel course diverted away from a road shape based on the tire steer angle at the time, the tire steer condition detection apparatus provides a notification (i.e., warning) regarding the tire steer condition.
US07693622B2
A technique for downloading data from a processor unit, such as an inverter control computer associated with a locomotive control system. When the software for the inverter control computer is originally built, a programmer assigns an ID number to all of the possible instrumentation signals that can be downloaded from the inverter control computer. From the complete list of the instrumentation signals, the programmer defines a default set of the instrumentation signals that are downloaded. If a user wishes to change the instrumentation signals that can be downloaded, then the user provides a command signal to the inverter control computer that changes the set of ID numbers of the instrumentation signals to be downloaded.
US07693621B1
Systems and methods of the present disclosure are used to determine and display arrival, approach, and departure information on a display device in an aircraft, such as a moving map on a multi-function display. An arrival, approach, and/or departure may be received by a flight computer such that the arrival, approach, and/or departure information may be determined based on related approach procedures. Adjustments to navigational instruments may also be made. A pilot may then use the arrival, approach, and/or departure information to safely fly the arrival, approach and/or departure.
US07693616B2
Methods and systems are provided for redundancy management of a fly-by-wire avionics system. A control module for producing a control signal is provided comprising a common processing partition for receiving a flight input signal and at least one first mode input signal, a first processing partition coupled to the common processing partition and configured to receive the first mode input signals and flight input signal from the common processing partition, and a second processing partition coupled to the common processing partition. The first processing partition produces a first mode output signal in response to one of the first mode input signals and flight input signal. The second processing partition generates a second mode signal in response to the flight input signal when the first processing partition fails. The common processing partition produces the control signal in response to one of the first mode output signal and second mode signal.
US07693613B2
In distance maps used in order to facilitate the navigation of craft such as an aircraft, the distances estimated take into account obstacles to be circumvented but not the maneuverability of the craft. The adaptation route required by the craft in order to take the right direction is not taken into account so that certain distance estimates for accessible points located in the neighborhood of the craft are unrealistic. In order to make a distance map more realistic, it is proposed that an obstacle of concave shape associated with the craft be added behind the position of the craft, forcing the estimations of distances to be circumvented an area that is inaccessible to the craft for reasons of maneuverability.
US07693606B2
A flow control system comprises a flow sensor, a valve controller, a signal processor, a control processor and an interface. The flow sensor generates a sensor signal characterizing a flow rate. The valve controller controls the flow rate as a function of a control output. The signal processor converts the sensor signal into a flow signal characterizing the flow rate as a function of time, and the control processor generates the control output as a function of a setpoint and the flow signals. The interface receives an input representative of the setpoint, transmits a flow output representative of the flow signals, and transmits a diagnostic output directly indicative of an operational condition of the flow control system.
US07693604B2
The robot comprises: —a controller (C), including power modules (22) for supplying the motors (10) of the arm (A) of the robot (R), a CPU unit (26), for calculation and processing and connection means (52, B), between the arm (A), the power modules (22) and the CPU unit (26). The connection means (52, B) comprise a single functional bus (B) which connects a control unit (30), associated with the CPU unit (26), firstly to the power modules (22) and, also, to the digital interfaces (14) with the sensors (12) of the arms (A). Said interfaces (14) are either integrated with the arm (A) or located in the immediate vicinity thereof.
US07693599B2
A knitting method is provided to knit a knitted fabric to the desired shape with sufficient pull down force acting to the knitted fabric without being piled up, when performing the bind off process after flechage knitting.The knitting method is related to knitting a knitted fabric of performing a bind off process after flechage knitting by using a flat knitting having at least a pair of front and back needle beds extending in a transverse direction and disposed opposite to each other in a cross direction, at least either of which is capable of being racked in the transverse direction so that loops can be transferred between the front and back needle beds.In knitting of narrowing a knitting width with flechage knitting, knitting a predetermined number of courses with flechage knitting by feeding a yarn from a flechage knitting yarn feeder, and binding off at least one loop held on a knitting needle without forming a stitch at the end of the knitting width by feeding a yarn from a bind off process yarn feeder different from the flechage knitting yarn feeder, and knitting steps are repeated.
US07693590B2
A system and method for providing notification when a state of a monitored system persists for a specified period of time utilizing distributed monitoring devices is disclosed. It is first detected, utilizing a monitoring device, that a monitored system is in a specified state. A timer within the monitoring device is initiated in response to detecting that the monitored system is in the specified state. The monitored system is monitored, utilizing the monitoring device, to determine whether the monitored system remains in the specified state. If the monitored system remains in the specified state for a specified period of time, notification is transmitted from the monitoring device to a client device via a network.
US07693589B2
A method is presented for representing anomalies to a process. These anomalies are represented in an anti-pattern, which depicts non-productive emergent information that describes activities that are detrimental to the progress of the process. The anti-pattern includes visually-coded areas that describe how severe the detrimental activities are to the process when combined. After the anti-pattern is created for the process, new non-productive emergent information for a current process is mapped onto the anti-pattern in the form of data patterns represented as visual fences. Appropriate steps are then taken to address the new non-productive emergent information, depending on the visually-coded area to which the new non-productive emergent information is mapped.
US07693576B1
A feedthrough assembly for use with implantable medical devices having a shield structure, the feedthrough assembly engaging with the remainder of the associated implantable medical device to form a seal with the medical device to inhibit unwanted gas, liquid, or solid exchange into or from the device. One or more feedthrough wires extend through the feedthrough assembly to facilitate transceiving of the electrical signals with one or more implantable patient leads. The feedthrough assembly is connected to a mechanical support which houses one or more filtering capacitors that are configured to filter and remove undesired frequencies from the electrical signals received via the feedthrough wires before the signals reach the electrical circuitry inside the implantable medical device.
US07693570B2
A fixture such as a local receiver coil is secured to the patient support of a magnetic resonance imaging system so that the fixture remains in position relative to the support even when the support is in a vertical orientation. The positioning apparatus is arranged to allow adjustment of the fixture position, but to limit such adjustment so that the fixture cannot interfere with the poles or other elements defining the patient-receiving gap of the magnet during movement of the patient support.
US07693566B2
The subject invention overcomes the problem of electrical interference in signals taken during an MRI procedure by using a long cable and a unity gain buffer amplifier near the patient, with a low output impedance to drive the cable and thus greatly reduce the capacitively coupled interference. Passive low pass filtering is incorporated prior to the buffer amplifier to attenuate high frequency interference from the MRI system. Since the buffer amplifier requires no digital signals and does not emit high frequency signals, it does not interfere with the MRI system.
US07693564B2
A system, method and apparatus for performing a facial approximation is described. The system includes an acquisition subsystem and a facial approximation algorithm. The method includes the steps of acquiring models of known skulls and a model of a questioned skull, comparing the models of the known skulls with the model of the questioned skull, and removing variation in the facial structure of the questioned skull due to skeletal variation between the known skulls and the questioned skull. The apparatus includes a bony structure software component, a bony structure warping software component, and a soft tissue software component.
US07693554B2
A method for operating a data storage medium when changing from an operating mode to a directly subsequent power-saving quiescent mode, where the operating mode effects a transmission delay for the last item of information which is to be transmitted, so that immediately after the last item of information which is to be transmitted has been transmitted the quiescent mode is activated and the maximum permissible power consumption is observed.
US07693547B2
Mobile communication terminal, and core module and function module for mobile communication terminal
A mobile communication terminal 10 is assembled by a user incorporating an arbitrary desired function module 31, 32, 33 into a core module 20. When assembling the terminal, it is not possible for the core module 20 to know what type of function module is being incorporated in advance, but it is possible to ascertain the type of function module that has been incorporated by using identification information notified to the connection module control means of the core module 20 via the core module communication processing section of the function module 31, 32, 33 and the inter-module communication processing section of the core module 20. The core module 20 therefore implements a function appropriate to the users needs by appropriately controlling that function module. Therefore, it is possible to make effective use of resources, as well as reducing the burden placed on a user when upgrading or adding functions, to meet the diverse needs of the user.
US07693544B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system, method, and apparatus of receiving signals of a plurality of communication services. The apparatus may include, for example, a plurality of multimode receivers to receive signals of a plurality of wireless communication services, wherein the number of the plurality of communication services is equal to or greater than the number of the plurality of multimode receivers; and a controller to control a receive mode of the plurality of receivers. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07693542B2
A wireless handset is provided with enhanced features and capabilities. The wireless handset may be embodied as a full-featured handset that is capable of operating either within a wireless network (such as a cellular or PCS network) or in a direct handset-to-handset communication mode that is independent of the wireless network. Alternatively, the wireless handset may be embodied as a special purpose handset, that is capable of simply operating in a direct handset-to-handset communication mode. The wireless handset may additionally include features for supporting and enhancing direct communication between handsets. Such features may include a find feature that permits a user to determine which objects, including other wireless handset users, are located within a predetermined operating range of the wireless handset. A memorize feature may also be provided to permit handsets and other objects exchange information by wireless transmission.
US07693536B2
An exemplary method for a communication network according to the present invention includes detecting movement of a mobile station, and modifying a control for the communication network based on the detection of the movement. In an exemplary embodiment, a transmit power control may be increased or decreased based the movement of the mobile station which is detected. Further, the network may determine a base station among plurality of base stations which provides the best communication path, taking into account a movement state of the mobile station. Accordingly, a stable hand over process may be realized, providing favorable communication quality and minimizing the occurrence of disconnection of the mobile terminal from a base station.
US07693524B2
The radio access network for allowing to construct a system abundant in scalability in a W-CDMA mobile communication system. A RNC in the radio access network is physically separated into a C plane control equipment for controlling signaling and a U plane control equipment for processing user data, where the user data is transferred between a mobile terminal and a host device via only the U plane control equipment and a control signal is terminated by the U plane control equipment and the C plane control equipment. This allows a system abundant in scalability to be constructed, and even in the case of soft handover across the C plane control equipments, also enables the continuous use of the same U plane control equipment, thereby eliminating the conventional connection path for connecting between RNCs and preventing delay due to passing through the RNCs.
US07693515B2
A method for providing a background image on a display of a mobile telephone, whereby the data of one or more background images are stored in at least one memory accessible for the mobile telephone, comprises an automatic selection of a background image to be displayed, a retrieving of the data of the automatically selected background image from the memory, and a displaying of the retrieved background image on the display of the mobile telephone.
US07693513B2
Embodiments of methods and apparatus for transferring service flow context are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US07693510B2
The invention relates to a system for controlling communication between user terminals using a telecommunications network. One embodiment includes an interface between a real-time charging control system for controlling usage of network resources during such usage and a group communications control node which is capable of controlling group communications sessions. Improved real-time charging control mechanisms can be implemented to account for usage of group communications services, for example where charging for an entire group communications session may be applied to a selected single party. Charging for a group communications session may be conducted with the flexibility of being able to charge according to the number of participants without having to transmit separate charging control signals from each participant's leg of the session to the real-time charging control system, thus reducing the signaling load in the network.
US07693509B2
When an incoming voice call is detected, a mobile phone 100 judges whether an application that coordinates multicast service and unicast communication is running. If the application is not running, the user is notified of incoming voice calls. On the other hand, if in an application running state, priority mode setting information 1041 is referenced and data cell priority mode is judged. If judged to be in data call priority mode, data communication is continued without notifying the user of the reception of incoming voice calls. On the other hand, if judged to be in voice call priority mode, the user is notified of incoming voice calls.
US07693504B2
The invention relates to a method for reduction of the power consumption of a mobile data memory with a non-contact data transmission by means of a read/write device. According to the invention, the mobile data memory, containing at least one energy store and user, is supplied, at least during a cyclic inactive idle mode, with a first clock frequency from a first oscillator and, for data receipt at least during a cyclic request time, with a second higher clock frequency from a second oscillator. The second clock frequency is determined above all for data modulation of a received signal, obtained from the reception antenna or from a combined transmission/reception antenna on the mobile data memory. The invention further relates to a mobile data memory and an identification system with at least one read/write device and one mobile data memory. The advantage of requiring no battery exchange during the life of the mobile data memory is thus conferred.
US07693490B2
A method and apparatus is disclosed for performing a multi-equalization of a transmitted signal on a channel having varying characteristics comprising equalizing the transmitted signal using a plurality of setting defining a plurality of equalizing functions to provide a corresponding plurality of symbol signal, synchronizing each of the plurality of symbol signals to provide a plurality of synchronized signals, selecting at least one of the plurality of synchronized signals according to at least one transmission performance criterion and providing the selected one of the plurality of synchronized signals.
US07693486B2
A system for managing the simultaneous operation of a plurality of radio modems in a single wireless communication device (WCD). The multiradio control may be integrated into a WCD as a subsystem responsible for scheduling wireless communications by temporarily enabling or disabling a plurality of radio modems. The multiradio control system may include a plurality of distributed control components, some or all of which are coupled to a dedicated radio interface. The radio interface is dedicated to quickly conveying delay sensitive information to and from the distributed control components. This information may be requested by any or all of the distributed control components, or provided by any or all of the radio modems if a change occurs during operation.
US07693482B2
A dual mode device (110) comprising a communications block (120) and a satellite positioning block (130), each comprising respective Base Band (BB) blocks (123, 132) and crystals or frequency sources (122, 1312). The communications crystal (122) provides a cellular clock signal (FS1) to the satellite positioning block (130), which monitors the difference in the frequencies the crystals produce (FS1, FS2), using Vernier interpolation to gain a resolution greater than one clock cycle. The positioning crystal (1312) is used independent of the cellular crystal to demodulate satellite signals. The positioning BB (132) tracks the demodulated satellite signals compensating any errors caused by the positioning crystal signals (FS2) to the demodulation, using the information resulting from the monitoring. The communications crystal is capable to network based calibration and the positioning BB can compensate for the fluctuation thus caused in the cellular clock signal (FS1).
US07693476B2
An image forming apparatus includes a charger, a developing device, a cleaning device, a protective-agent bar, and a brush. The charger uniformly charges an image carrier. The developing device develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier to obtain a toner image as a visual image. The cleaning device removes toner remaining on the surface of the image carrier from which the toner image has been transferred onto a transfer material. The protective-agent bar contains a protective agent. The brush comes in contact with the protective-agent bar and the image carrier while rotating such that the protective agent adheres thereto and is supplied to the image carrier in an irregular form.
US07693474B2
A fixing member having a toner releasing layer superior in toner releasability and a fixing apparatus provided with the fixing member are provided. The toner releasing layer is composed of fluororubber having an ether linkage in its molecule and a polysiloxane-type surface-active agent having a polyether structure.
US07693465B2
An image forming apparatus and process cartridge which uses a two-component developer comprising a toner and a carrier. By using toner and carrier having a small-particle size, deterioration of the toner fluidity over time can be avoided, and further by maintaining stable toner charge even in a low-humidity environment, stable high-quality image formation can be achieved. The occurrence of adherence of carrier to the solid portions of the toner image is reduced in addition to the occurrence of adherence of carrier to the edge portions, and image abnormalities, toner scattering and the like are prevented.
US07693453B2
An image forming apparatus having excellent cleaning property for an electrophotographic photoreceptor and capable of forming a high-quality, high-resolution image. A surface free energy (γ) of a photoreceptor (2), which is provided in the image forming apparatus (1), is set to 20 to 35 mN/m. A volume average diameter of toner particles included in a developer stored in a developing unit (29) to develop an electrostatic latent image and form a toner image is set to 4-7 μm When γ of the photoreceptor (2) is set to within a small range as the particle size of toner is reduced, even small-particle-size toner having increased specific surface area and largely affected by a inter-molecular force is limited in adhesion to the surface of the photoreceptor (2) to provide a good cleaning property and a high-quality image can be formed.
US07693448B1
A remanufactured laser printer toner cartridge having a foam gasket seal with the transverse edge of the inner periphery extending from a longitudinal edge at an acute angle, preferably about 22 degrees, which angled edge prevents post testing excess toner from building up into a roll and jamming at the exit port as the remanufactured cartridge's pull strip is pulled when making the cartridge ready to install into the printer, and minimizes the likelihood that the gasket will be pulled off of the cartridge hopper section and jam the pull seal exit port as the pull seal is removed from the cartridge.
US07693439B2
A fixing device includes a pair of rotating members, a heater, a detector, a calculator, a pulse width modulation circuit, and a controller. In at least one embodiment, the pair of rotating members is configured to fix a toner image on a recording medium. The heater is configured to heat at least one of the pair of rotating members to a process temperature when driven with an alternating current. The detector is configured to detect the process temperature. The calculator is configured to calculate an amount of heat to adjust the process temperature to a reference temperature. The pulse width modulation circuit is configured to generate a drive signal having a pulse width modulation cycle divided into first and second off times and an on time inserted therebetween. The controller is configured to control operation of the heater according to the drive signal.
US07693438B2
An image transfer device to accurately measure a resistance of a printing medium or a transfer belt, an image forming apparatus having the image transfer device, and a method of measuring the resistance of the printing medium. The image transfer device includes a conveyance unit, to which a reference voltage or current is applied, and which includes a first roller having variations of resistance along a circumferential direction, and a second roller to support the first roller, a transfer roller spaced apart from the first roller by a distance corresponding to at least the circumference of the first roller to transfer a developer agent of a photosensitive drum onto a printing medium, and a controller to measure resistance of the printing medium by detecting electric current or voltage difference between the first and the second rollers, and to supply the transfer roller with a transfer voltage or a current according to the detected resistance of the printing medium.
US07693437B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member having a photosensitive layer; toner image forming means for forming a detection toner image not to be formed on a recording material on the image bearing member; detecting means for optically detecting the detection toner image; control means for controlling a toner image forming condition of the toner image forming means on the basis of a result of detection of the detecting means; a transfer member for electrostatically transferring a toner image from the image bearing member onto a transfer material at a transfer region; constant voltage control means for providing a constant voltage applied to the transfer member; and voltage applying means for applying to the transfer member, when the detection toner image passes the transfer region, a predetermined voltage, controlled by the voltage control means, which has the same polarity as a charge polarity of toner.
US07693431B2
An image forming apparatus which is capable of performing a failsafe image forming operation even when a memory device of a replaceable unit mounted thereon is faulty. A controller of the image forming apparatus determines whether or not a memory tag of a toner cartridge is faulty. If the memory tag is determined to be faulty, the controller causes image adjustment to be executed.
US07693426B2
System and techniques for transmitting information from a remote information source use a reflector for reflecting a laser beam or other light source back to its originating location. A reflector coupled to an information source receives a laser beam from a laser source. A movement of at least one surface of the reflector is controlled to modulate the laser beam, and the modulated laser beam is reflected toward the laser source. The modulated laser beam can be received by a receiver at or near the laser source to detect and decode data embedded in the modulated laser beam.
US07693425B2
A system and method for dispersion compensation of an optical signal in a hybrid network includes generating optical traffic in a first set of one or more channels, wherein the traffic in the first set of channels is modulated using a first modulation technique. Optical traffic is generated in a second set of one or more channels, wherein the traffic in the second set of channels is modulated using a second modulation technique. An optical dispersion pre-compensation is applied to the second set of channels. The first set of channels and the second set of channels are combined to form an optical signal, and the optical signal is transmitted over an optical network.
US07693423B2
The relative launch power of signals at an add/drop node transponder is controlled to maximize available power. Known values of signal bandwidth and likely noise in the signal path, for example, derived from the system manager, are used to control the launch power into the optical amplifier, in order to optimize the launch power accordingly.
US07693416B2
In a case that a cleaning mode is designated, it is determined whether or not a lens unit is attached to a camera main body. If it is determined that the lens unit is not attached to the camera main body, a quick return mirror is moved upward and a shutter is opened, and a photoelectric conversion device, or a cover glass or an optical filter of the photoelectric conversion device is vibrated, thereby foreign substances attached to the photoelectric conversion device and the like are removed.
US07693381B2
An optical device which includes a GI-type photonic crystal slab which includes: a first member which has a distribution of refractive indexes reduced in both directions from an optical axis of incident light as to a first direction vertical to the optical axis; and a second member periodically placed in substance among the first members as to a second direction different from the first direction, wherein the distribution of refractive indexes of the first member which relates to the first direction, a thickness which relates to the first direction of the GI-type photonic crystal slab, a wavelength of the incident light and an incident end beam spot radius ω1 which relates to the first direction inside an incident end of the GI-type photonic crystal slab entered by the light of the incident light are determined to have the incident light substantially confined inside the GI-type photonic crystal slab as to the first direction.
US07693380B2
An optical transmission line includes a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber connected to the first optical fiber. The first optical fiber includes a core region formed at a center of the fiber and a cladding region formed around the core region. The cladding region includes air holes formed in a triangular lattice around the core region. The first optical fiber has a negative wavelength dispersion and a dispersion per slope of −200 nm to −50 nm at a wavelength of 1050 nm. The second optical fiber has a positive wavelength dispersion and the dispersion per slope of −800 nm to −50 nm at the wavelength of 1050 nm.
US07693378B2
A holey fiber has a core region, a cladding region surrounding the core region, air holes arranged around the core region, and a connection section extending from at least one end portion of the holey fiber. A refractive index of the core region in the connection section is higher than a refractive index of the cladding region without air holes in the connection section.
US07693370B2
An optical component including at least one optical supergrating is provided. The optical supergrating includes a quantized refractive index profile adapted to exhibit a finite plurality of refractive indexes; which in turn are adapted to generate a reflectance spectrum in at least one spectral band corresponding to a Fourier transformed analog refractive index profile.
US07693364B2
A tunable optical filter comprises an optical switch having a single first optical port and a plurality of second optical ports; a plurality of band pass filters, each one of the band pass filters optically coupled to a respective second optical port; and an optical multiplexer having a plurality of inputs and a single output, each input optically coupled to a respective band pass filter, wherein the optical switch delivers a plurality of optical channels to a selected one of the band pass filters, the selected band pass filter transmitting a single selected optical channel to an input of the optical multiplexer. Alternatively, the multiplexer may be substituted by a second optical switch. Optionally, the band pass filters may reflect other channels back to the plurality of second optical ports.
US07693360B2
On the back surface of a transparent plate having a light extracting part for outputting lights to the outside, an electrode for wiring, and an electrode for an electromagnetic shield, an optical device is flip-chip mounted right under the light extracting part, an a driver IC is flip-chip mounted at a desired position with metal bumps. When currents driving the optical device flow from the driver IC according to an electric logical signal from the outside, an optical signal is emitted from the optical device, and is output to the outside through the light extracting part. The light extracting part may be provided with a light coupling material or an optical axis converter.
US07693348B2
A method of registering and vertically aligning multiply-layered images into a mosaic is described. The method comprises performing an iterative process of vertical alignment of layers into a mosaic using a series of defined alignment correspondence pairs and global registration of images in a layer using a series of defined registration correspondence points and then redefining the identified alignment correspondence pairs and/or registration correspondence points until a satisfactory result is obtained. Optionally, an initial global registration of each layer could be performed initially before commencing the alignment process. The quality of the result could be determined using a least squares error minimization or other technique.
US07693336B2
A method and apparatus for determining if an optical disk originated from a valid source, the method and apparatus scanning one major surface of the optical disk for mechanical surface imperfections, storing the locations of the surface imperfections relative to a datum, comparing a parameter of each of the locations of the surface imperfections with corresponding parameters of a master disk of known source for determining if the disk originated from the source from which the master disk originated.
US07693322B2
There are described methods and apparatus for assessing foams generated from liquids. Existing methods are slow and labor intensive. The new methods involve generating foams from liquids and optically obtaining information to enable parameters relating to the generated foam to be measured. Although single samples of liquids may be processed the methods are particularly suited to processing multiple samples to obtain data relating to foams at a high rate. The apparatus includes automated handling equipment to enable samples to be moved between workstations and relative to associated optical equipment that is used to obtain information relating to the foams.
US07693317B2
A method and system are provided to report the findings of an expert's analysis of image data. The method and system are based on a reporting system that forms the basis of an image management system that can efficiently and systematically generate image reports, facilitate data entry into searchable databases for data mining, and expedite billing and collections for the expert's services. The expert identifies a significant finding on an image and attaches a location:description code to the location of that finding in order to create a significant finding and an entry into a database. Further descriptions of that finding, such as dimensional measurements, audio descriptions, 3D rendered snapshots, etc., may be automatically appended to the finding as secondary attributes of the finding within the database. At the end of the expert's evaluation of the image(s), the system sorts the findings in the database and presents the findings by prioritized categories. The expert edits and approves a multimedia report, which may be delivered to an Internet server for immediate access, archived in the database, sent by automated voice, fax or e-mail to an end-user, or any combination thereof.
US07693314B2
A finger sensing device may include a finger sensing area to receive a user's finger moved in a sliding motion, and a controller cooperating with the finger sensing area for generating successive image samples at least some of which are separated by different time intervals. The controller may generate finger movement signals based upon the successive image samples and the different time intervals. The controller may generate a plurality of repeating groups of ratio-metrically related image samples based upon the different time intervals. The reduced number of image samples may provide greater processing efficiency and reduced power consumption.
US07693313B2
An identification card includes a fingerprint sensor, an antenna, a dual-mode radio frequency modulator connected to the antenna and digital circuitry having memory to store a digital word, the digital word including a representation of a fingerprint initially scanned by the fingerprint sensor to identify an individual associated with the identification card. The identification card further includes a control processor connected to the digital circuitry and the radio frequency modulator to communicate a signal to the antenna indicative of a successful match between the fingerprint initially scanned by the fingerprint sensor and newly scanned fingerprint. With such an arrangement, a technique is provided biometrically authenticating the identity of an individual passing through a checkpoint without requiring the individual to stop or exit a vehicle and eliminates the need for a central database of biometric data on individuals.
US07693310B2
A moving object recognition apparatus includes: a feature image extraction unit that extracts feature image portions for enabling the moving object to be determined from the moving image; a position detection unit that detects position information of the moving object in time series from the moving image, the position information based on which the feature image portion is extracted; a determination unit that determines identity of the feature image portions extracted from the moving object; and a track information retention unit that retains the time-series position information linked to the moving object having the feature image portion having the identity based on the determination.
US07693307B2
The invention relates to an iris recognition method, comprising the steps of acquiring an image of at least one eye of a user in an infrared spectrum, and of processing said image to extract therefrom identification characteristics from the iris as defined by an outer boundary in the eye, the method comprising the steps of: acquiring an image of the eye in a visible spectrum substantially simultaneously with acquiring the image of the eye in the infrared spectrum; and prior to processing the infrared image, determining the outer boundary of the iris from the image in the visible spectrum. The invention also provides iris recognition apparatus.
US07693301B2
A known face guided imaging method applied for an electronic imaging device uses the scale of a known face sensed in a previous frame to define a scale range of a searching window, which adds a scale constraint into the searching window so as to search a current frame horizontally and vertically in the searching window to perform a face searching loop for a face. The invention simply sends a corresponding image patch within the scale range to a face detector for the face detection, and the searching space is constrained in a small group of scale ranges without the need of detecting the whole image of various different scales within the scale range, and thus the invention effectively reduces the huge quantity of computing values required for the detection process and greatly enhances the speed and efficiency of the face detection.
US07693298B2
An image processing system includes a plurality of MFPs (Multi Function Peripheral) connected to a network, and each of the plurality of MFPs is provided with an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) to store registered user information associating user identification information for identifying a user and personal information related to that user, and when the user identification information is inputted, it determines whether the personal information associated with the user identification information is stored in the HDD or not, and if the personal information is stored, the personal information is read from the HDD, and if the personal information is not stored, it transmits a personal information transmission request including the user identification information to another MFP, and receives the personal information from the MFP that stores the registered user information including the user identification information, and controls a prescribed apparatus operation based on the read or received personal information.
US07693297B2
Method determining lookup table (“LUT”) for embedding watermark. For each quantization cell, calculating probabilities that signal point falls into cell. Selecting cell by probabilities. Setting LUT value to watermark value with largest probability, subject to run constraint. For remaining cells, repeating selecting and setting steps. Other method determining quantization ensemble by calculating probability density function for signal points where the watermark value to be embedded. Distortion and robustness functions are formulated. Given robustness or distortion is selected. Functions optimized, and ensemble of quantizers determined with parameters that comply. Other method quantizing in association with lossy compression. Strength of compression determined. Adapting strength of watermark with strength of compression by a mapping. Other method selecting points for embedding watermark. Determine threshold between large and small signal points using statistical method. Select signal points for embedding according to threshold. Also, processors, computer programs, and systems.
US07693295B2
A system for securing headphone transducers is provided. In one aspect of the present invention, the system comprises a first transducer device having a first mechanical housing, which has an outer surface and an inner surface. A first coupling device is affixed to the outer surface of the first mechanical housing of the first transducer device. A second transducer device has a second mechanical housing, which has an outer surface and an inner surface. A second coupling device is affixed to the outer surface of the second mechanical housing of the second transducer device. The first coupling device is coupled to the second coupling device when in close proximity to each other, such that the inner surfaces of the first and second mechanical devices are opposed to each other.
US07693276B2
A method of determining residue-echo threshold for the trans-hybrid echo path of a loop start (LS) trunk line, comprising the steps of estimating the impulse response of the trans-hybrid echo path, passing a speech-like signal through the LS trunk circuit and collecting the echo signal. The collected echo signal is compared to the convolution of the speech-like signal with the estimated impulse response. The difference between the convolution result and the collected echo signal is the residue echo, which represents the effect of nonlinearity. With different levels of excitation signal, a curve of residue echo power level against input signal level is obtained, and the distortion characteristics are derived from this curve.
US07693270B2
A method and communication network for providing a subscriber with a blend of services of the communication network delivered to the subscriber through a telephone and services delivered to the subscriber through a TV delivery system in communication with the network. Upon receipt of a message from a calling party, a service broker function may be configured to execute service package information associated with services of the TV delivery system subscription to include obtaining and delivering caller ID information of the calling party. The service broker function may be configured to alter the message request to generate a modified message request in respect to information affecting alerting of the subscriber's phone. The modified message is sent to the subscriber's phone so that, while information of the calling party is displayed on the TV delivery system, alerting of the phone is modified.
US07693268B2
Apparatus and methods for creating a composite data source having a common data representation from disparate sources of voice data. Data transmission links are established to heterogeneous messaging data sources, requests for voice data is sent using data access protocols, the voice data is received, and a set of voice data transformation rules are selectively applied to the voice data to transform the data into a common data representation. The common data representation can also be used as a source for reporting and graphical displays to monitor the operational aspects of the sources of voice data.
US07693241B2
A rake receiver finger assignor is configured to assign a rake receiver finger to a time offset between identified signal path time offsets in accordance with a concentration of identified signal paths from a transmitter to a rake receiver. In accordance with the exemplary embodiment, a number of identified signal paths having time offsets within a time window are observed to determine the concentration of signal paths identified by a path searcher. If the number of identified signal paths indicates a concentrated distribution of signal paths such as during a fat path condition, at least one rake finger is assigned between at a time offset between two identified signal paths.
US07693235B2
A concatenated coding scheme, using an outer coder, interleaver, and the inner coder inherent in an FQPSK signal to form a coded FQPSK signal. The inner coder is modified to enable interative decoding of the outer code.
US07693228B2
A general architecture scheme to perform channel estimation on orthogonal transmissions for any number of transmitting antennas present. Generally, the channel estimation is applicable for wireless communications in a MIMO system.
US07693227B2
A method of estimating a channel length (304) in a wireless receiver is disclosed. The receiver receives a signal (122) from a remote transmitter. The receiver selects a plurality (K) of different candidate channel lengths and determines a respective criterion value (402) of the signal for each of the plurality of different candidate channel lengths. The receiver selects a channel length (410) from the plurality of different candidate channel lengths in response to the respective criterion value (404).
US07693220B2
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting video information, in which a bitstream is formed comprising a set of frames comprising macroblocks. At least one switching frame is formed into the bitstream, macroblocks of the switching frame are arranged into a first and a second group of macroblocks, each macroblock of the first group of macroblocks are encoded by a first encoding method to provide a switching point for continuing the transmission of video information with another bitstream formed from the video information; and macroblocks of the second group of macroblocks are encoded by another encoding method. Errors in transmission of video information are reduced by forming at least one SP-encoded frame by predictively encoding the macroblocks; replacing part of the SP-encoded macroblocks with intra encoded blocks; and transmitting the encoded frame containing both predictively and intra encoded macroblocks instead of the SP-encoded frame.
US07693219B2
A fast motion estimation system that determines a reference macroblock or sub-block combination within a reference frame for a current macroblock in a current frame includes a memory, a reference macroblock search circuit, a sub-block combination search circuit, and a comparator circuit. The reference macroblock search circuit determines a motion vector, multiple difference values, and a cost value for each macroblock within the reference frame according to a fast motion estimation search pattern, and stores the motion vector and the difference values in the memory. The sub-block combination search circuit searches the motion vector and the difference values in the memory for determining a corresponding one of multiple lowest cost sub-block combinations for each of multiple sub-block motion modes. The comparator circuit determines a lowest cost macroblock and selects from among the lowest cost macroblock and the lowest cost sub-block combinations to determine the reference macroblock.
US07693209B2
A simple and efficient method is provided for frequency offset fine estimation. The method comprises: subtracting the QPSK modulation phase of a synchronization code from its received phase to generate the phase drift, and then computing the frequency offset based on the phase drift.
US07693208B2
The method is used for limiting the power of a transmission-end signal (xn) compiled from a plurality of differently spread-coded signals. In this context, it is assumed that the quantity of spread codes used for the differently spread-coded signals is known as code engagement information (Cch,SF,k; 80). First, correction spread codes are selected by virtue of the engagement information (Cch,SF,k; 80) being evaluated. On the basis of the selected correction codes, a spread-coded correction signal (y′n) is formed which is overlaid with the compiled signal (xn).
US07693204B2
A surface-emitting laser device is disclosed that includes a substrate connected to a heat sink; a first reflective layer formed of a semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector on the substrate; a first cavity spacer layer formed in contact with the first reflective layer; an active layer formed in contact with the first cavity spacer layer; a second cavity spacer layer formed in contact with the active layer; and a second reflective layer formed of a semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector in contact with the second cavity spacer layer. The first cavity spacer layer includes a semiconductor material having a thermal conductivity greater than the thermal conductivity of a semiconductor material forming the second cavity spacer layer.
US07693199B2
A laser diode capable of operating at high temperature by preventing carrier overflow is provided. A laser diode includes an AlGaInP-based laminate configuration including at least a lower cladding layer, an active layer and an upper cladding layer in this order, wherein the AlGaInP-based laminate configuration receives a larger compressive stress than 2200 ppm from a stress source.
US07693198B2
A laser device including a gain medium that has a gain, a waveguide for propagating an electromagnetic wave, and a resonant structure comprised of the waveguide. The gain medium extends in the propagation direction, and is sandwiched, at the top and bottom surfaces in the thickness direction thereof, between a first cladding and a second cladding of negative dielectric constant media. The gain medium is provided with a lateral structure adjacent to at least one of the side surfaces thereof in the width direction perpendicular to the propagation direction and the thickness direction. The lateral structure includes a positive dielectric constant medium which is sandwiched, at its top and bottom surfaces in the thickness direction thereof, between the negative dielectric constant media. The waveguide is comprised of the gain medium, the lateral structure, the first cladding and the second cladding.
US07693191B2
An apparatus (200) and method (300) for receiving a communications signal. A spread spectrum signal demodulator (210) is adapted to demodulate a packet header (110) of a data packet (102) that is communicated by a wireless communications signal. The packet header (110) is modulated with a spread spectrum technique and the spread spectrum signal demodulator (210) produces a packet header detection signal (220) representing a successful detection of a predefined packet header value. A non-spread spectrum signal demodulator (212) is communicatively coupled to the spread spectrum signal demodulator (210) and demodulates, in response to the packet header detection signal (220), a non-spread spectrum modulated data payload within the data packet. A data output select (234) produces demodulated data produced by either one or both the spread spectrum signal demodulator (210) and the non-spread spectrum signal demodulator (212).
US07693190B2
In one embodiment, a system includes a video mixer coupled with an audio mixer for exchange of information that includes a first set of delay values respecting input audio streams received by the audio mixer from a plurality of source endpoints, and output audio streams sent from the audio mixer to a plurality of destination endpoints. The information further including a second set of delay values respecting the corresponding input video streams. The audio mixer calculates end-to-end video delays, and the video mixer calculates end-to-end audio delays. The audio mixer delays the output audio streams to equalize the end-to-end audio and video delays in the event that the end-to-end audio delays are less than the end-to-end video delays, and the video mixer delays the output video streams to equalize the end-to-end audio and video delays in the event that the end-to-end video delays are less than the end-to-end audio delays.
US07693185B1
A method and apparatus for the computerized management of a digital ecosystems through the creation and management of intelligent information packets that enable computerized management of the creation, flow, and use of electronic and optically scanned paper documents. An XML packet is structured to combine document data, comprising electronic or optically scanned documents, with rules, work-flow controls, audit capability, and signature controls. Tamper proofing ensures validity of information, such as legal documents, that requires proof and tracking of official origin, approval, or status.
US07693169B2
A line unit holds in its active table data a number that indicates which flooding setting table is to be made active. An input frame forwarding unit embeds the number in an internal frame header of a frame that is to be output. As the number is embedded before the frame is forwarded to each line unit via a backboard, the output destination for the same frame is determined by a common active flooding setting table. Thus, frame destruction or duplication is prevented.
US07693162B2
The communique system for cellular communication networks operates with existing cellular communication networks to provide communique communication services to subscribers. The communique can be unidirectional (broadcast) or bidirectional (interactive) in nature and the extent of the communique can be network-wide broadcast or narrowcast, where one or more cells and/or cell sectors are grouped to cover a predetermined geographic area or demographic population or subscriber interest group to transmit information to subscribers who populate the target audience for the narrowcast transmissions. The said communique system can dynamically allocate the available bandwidth to thereby serve subscribers with more control channel(s) and/or control channel bandwidth and/or communication channels and/or communication channels of greater bandwidth as the need presents itself. The dynamic bandwidth allocation can simultaneously occur in multiple domains: time, code, and frequency. The content of these transmissions can be multi-media in nature and comprising a combination of various forms of media.
US07693159B2
Rerouting of packet exchanges by a mobile terminal is controlled so as to be optimized on a real time basis to prevent network resources from being wasted by redundant routing. In an initial state a route of data from a mobile communication terminal M to a CN 8, which is a communication partner, is a route R5. Then, an access router (AR) 72 acquires the number of hops of data received from the CN 8 by the mobile communication terminal M. As the mobile communication terminal M now performs a handover to under the command of the AR 73, the route will change to a route R9. Then the AR 73 detects that the route becomes redundant by the fact that the number of hops acquired after the shift is greater than the pre-shift number of hops received from the AR 72, and invokes control to reroute to a route R7, which provides the optimal routing.
US07693149B2
A programmable packet switching controller has a packet buffer, a pattern match module, a programmable packet classification engine and an application engine. The packet buffer stores inbound packets, and includes a header data extractor to extract header data from the inbound packets and to store the extracted header data in a header data cache. The header data extractor also generates a header data cache index and provides it to the packet classification engine for it to retrieve the extracted header data. The packet classification engine has a decision tree-based classification logic for classifying a packet. Each of the leaves of the tree represents a packet classification. The packet classification engine uses the header data cache index to retrieve the header data to perform multiple header checks, starting at a root of the tree and traversing branches until a leaf has been reached. The application engine has a number of programmable sub-engines arrayed in a pipelined architecture. The packet classification engine provides start indicators based on the packet classification to the programmable sub-engines to identify application programs to be executed. The sub-engines includes a source lookup engine, a destination lookup engine and a disposition engine, which are used to make a disposition decision for the inbound packets in a processing pipeline. The pattern match module is used to compare the packet to a pre-defined pattern in order to provide a disposition recommendation.
US07693147B2
Methods and systems for communicating information between a narrowband circuit and a broadband circuit for conserving bandwidth while monitoring gas turbine combustion dynamics are provided. The method includes receiving a stream of data through the narrowband circuit, splitting the stream of data into a plurality of data packets, and transmitting each of the data packets to a predetermined list of sockets through the broadband circuit. The system includes a narrowband network segment communicatively coupled to a broadband network segment, and a data network split/relay device communicatively coupled to the broadband network segment programmed to receive a stream of data from a server communicatively coupled to the narrowband segment.
US07693143B2
The routing method for wireless transport service comprises a step of receiving a unicast frame from an associated client; determining whether a destination of the unicast frame is locally associated. A wireless node delivers the unicast frame to a final destination if positive, otherwise, determining whether an associated transport device of a destination can be determined. The WITnet header is added and the associated transport device of the destination is put in an auxiliary address field if positive, otherwise, the next step is performed to add the WITnet header and put an address of a default edge device in the auxiliary address field. The next step is setting a tunnel frame flag, and then delivering the unicast frame to a next-hop toward the auxiliary address.
US07693138B2
Certain aspects of a method and system for transparent transmission control protocol (TCP) offload with best effort direct placement of incoming traffic are disclosed. Aspects of a method may include collecting TCP segments in a network interface card (NIC) processor without transferring state information to a host processor every time a TCP segment is received. When an event occurs that terminates the collection of TCP segments, the NIC processor may generate a new aggregated TCP segment based on the collected TCP segments. If a placement sequence number corresponding to the generated new TCP segment for the particular network flow is received before the TCP segment is received, the generated new TCP segment may be transferred directly from the memory to the user buffer instead of transferring the data to a kernel buffer, which would require further copy by the host stack from kernel buffer to user buffer.
US07693131B2
A communication system provides PSTN access to a user device coupled to a packet network over a packet connection. The user device exchanges telephony signaling and telephony communications in an analog format with an analog telephone, exchanges the telephony signaling and the telephony communications in the packet format over the packet connection, and exchanges Internet communications over the packet connection. A service node exchanges the telephony signaling in the packet format with the user device, processes the telephony signaling to select a PSTN connection, transfers a control message indicating the PSTN connection, and exchanges the telephony signaling in a PSTN format with the PSTN. An interworking unit receives the control message, and in response, exchanges the telephony communications in the packet format with the user device and exchanges the telephony communications in the PSTN format with the selected PSTN connection.
US07693125B2
A method of supporting a hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (OFDMA) radio access system is disclosed. Preferably, the method comprises receiving a downlink data frame comprising a data map information element and a data burst comprising a plurality of layers, wherein each layer is encoded with a corresponding channel encoder, and wherein the data map information element is configured to support multiple antennas to achieve space time transmit diversity by providing control information associated with each one of the plurality of layers, wherein the control information comprises allocation of acknowledgement status channels corresponding to the plurality of layers, and transmitting in an uplink data frame a plurality of acknowledgement status, each acknowledgement status being associated with whether a corresponding layer of the plurality of layers is properly decoded.
US07693122B2
A wireless network with distributed medium access control allows establishing of a virtual channel between a source node and a destination node via at least one intermediate node. The virtual channel may be established for the entire duration of a communication between the source node and the destination node, and, to establish the virtual channel, a request handler can transmit a virtual channel request, requesting an allocation of transmission resources for the virtual channel. Based on the virtual channel request, a virtual channel confirmation can be generated by the destination node and can be returned to the source node, indicating an allocation of the resources for the virtual channel. A communication handler can then transmit data from the source node to the destination node using the available transmission resources.
US07693120B2
A method of managing an ad hoc communications network of wireless devices or nodes. The network is connected if all nodes can communicate with each other and otherwise partitioned. Partitions are identified by recursively applying a connectivity function to a connectivity matrix representative of the network. The number of times the connectivity function is recursively applied is determined by the network diameter. If the result of the recursive application is a unity matrix, the network is connected; otherwise it is disconnected. Also, if the network diameter exceeds a selected maximum length, the network may be voluntarily partitioned into connected sub-networks by recursively applying the connectivity function a lesser number of times to the connectivity matrix. The lesser number of times is determined by the selected maximum length or maximum allowable number of hops.
US07693113B2
A hermetian of a system response matrix is to be determined. Spreading codes, channel specific multipliers and channel impulse responses are provided. The channel code specific multipliers have real and imaginary values. Channel codes being a combination of a real spreading code, a complex scrambling code and a sign of the channel code specific multiplier. Real and imaginary components of an approximate hermetian of the system response matrix are determined. The channel code specific multipliers are applied to the real and imaginary components of a result of the convolutions to derive the hermetian of the system response matrix.
US07693103B2
A system and method for automatically performing a channel selection procedure in a wireless network includes a forward transmitter that embeds an identifier into forward data that is transmitted over a forward link. A forward receiver then receives the forward data on the forward link, and removes the identifier from the forward data. A reverse transmitter receives the identifier from the forward receiver, and embeds the identifier into reverse data that is transmitted over a reverse link on a selected reverse channel chosen from among a plurality of available reverse channels. A reverse receiver then searches the reverse channels to identify the selected reverse channel containing reverse data with the identifier embedded. The reverse receiver may then utilize the reverse data received over the identified reverse channel.
US07693099B2
In a method of wireless communication, signaling information in a received signal may be detected using a detection parameter. The detection parameter may be determined based on at least one of a probability of false alarm and a target probability of false alarm. Another method may detect signaling information using an estimated transmission probability value for a subsequent time instant that is determined based on an estimated transmission probability value for a current time instant. The detection parameter may also be determined from the estimated probability of transmission values.
US07693093B2
A handover method for a wireless mobile network including interconnected mobile nodes having time varying connectivity includes determining Quality of Service (QoS) resources of each potential routing path between a mobile node and a correspondent node. The method also includes pre-allocating the QoS resources along at least one potential routing path in advance before initiating a handover of a data flow to be transmitted from the mobile node to the correspondent node via a selected routing path. In addition, the method includes redirecting the data flow to a routing path with best available QoS capabilities as the selected routing path and, in case of sufficient QoS capabilities, reserving the determined QoS resources for the data flow to be transmitted via the selected routing path.
US07693089B2
A system and method for performing an upgrade in a communication network comprising network elements coupled together to form one or more circuits are disclosed. In one embodiment, the upgrade is generated at a node in communication with the circuits and the method generally comprises providing a list of circuits or spans available for the upgrade and receiving input from a user identifying at least one circuit to be upgraded or at least one span for the upgraded circuit and a type of upgrade to be performed. The method further comprises automatically performing the upgrade.
US07693086B2
A data transfer control device includes: an interface circuit to which data of which one data unit is K bits is input through an interface bus; and a link controller which generates a packet transmitted through a serial bus. The link controller includes: a data formatter which generates (N×I)-byte packed data containing M pieces of (K+L)-bit data obtained by adding L bits of dummy data to the K-bit data, the data formatter generating the packed data in which L and M are variably set corresponding to K; and a packet generation circuit which generates a packet in which the packed data is inserted in a data field.
US07693085B2
An apparatus and method for informing a coordinator of the particular characteristics of a periodic traffic source are disclosed. A station that generates a periodic traffic stream encodes the temporal period and temporal offset of the traffic stream within a quality-of-service (QoS) traffic specification, and transmits the traffic specification with a poll request. The coordinator, upon receiving a polling request, processes the associated traffic specification and, via appropriate decoding logic, determines whether the requesting station generates periodic traffic, and if so, the temporal period and temporal offset of the traffic stream. The coordinator subsequently can establish, based on the temporal period and temporal offset, a polling schedule that minimizes the delay between (i) the station generating a frame, and (ii) the station transmitting the frame (and thus the destination receiving the frame).
US07693084B2
Concurrent testing of NAT connections using different timeout values to compute a keep-alive value for the NAT device. Computation of the approximate timeout value is accomplished concurrently over multiple test connections within about a time equivalent to the actual NAT timeout value. The architecture validates the computation of the approximate timeout value by distinguishing NAT connection failure from external failure using a control connection. Moreover, computation of the keep-alive value is performed only once for a given NAT device rather than being an on-going process for that NAT device. When one of the test connections fails, it is determined that the NAT timeout value is less than the test timeout value associated with the failed test connection. Accordingly, a smaller test timeout value is then selected as the keep-alive value for keep-alive processing of the NAT device.
US07693079B2
A method for proactively managing a fault in a video and data network is provided. The method includes collecting network correlation data for the fault. Additionally, a physical connectivity test of the video and data network is automatically performed. Physical connectivity data from the physical connectivity test is collected. Also, a virtual connectivity test of the video and data network is automatically performed. Virtual connectivity data from the virtual connectivity test is collected. The network correlation data, physical connectivity data, and virtual connectivity data is then correlated based on the fault. Once the correlation is performed, a defined resolution procedure for resolving the fault using the correlated network correlation data, physical connectivity data, and virtual connectivity data is provided.
US07693077B2
Disclosed is a method for estimating an available bandwidth of a network. A plurality of periodic time-stamp packets are transmitted to a receiving-party communication apparatus, which is connected to the network, through the network at a currently-set test transmission rate, and then a changing tendency of transmission delay time differences between the time-stamp packets is checked on the basis of reception times at which the receiving-party communication apparatus have received the respective time-stamp packets. When the transmission delay time differences are located outside a stable range and show a tendency to increase, the test transmission rate is set to a decreased value and the time-stamp packets are repeatedly transmitted at the decreased rate and when the transmission delay time differences are located outside the stable range and show a tendency to decrease, the test transmission rate is set to be an increased value and the time-stamp packets are repeatedly transmitted at the increased rate. A test transmission rate is determined as the available bandwidth when the transmission delay time differences are within the stable range.
US07693070B2
A method, apparatus and computer readable medium for transmitting at least one packet across a network destined for reception by at least one network endpoint. A plurality of packets is processed sequentially from a queue to be sent to at least one network endpoint. At least a first packet from the plurality of packets is transmitted to the network endpoint. The at least first packet transmitted to the network endpoint is determined to not have been acknowledged. A first retry packet associated with the at least first packet is transmitted to the at least one network endpoint. Transmission of packets other than the first retry packet is suspended to the network endpoint. The first retry packet is determined to have been acknowledged by the at least one network endpoint. Transmission of remaining packets in the plurality of packets to the at least one network endpoint is resumed.
US07693057B2
A method and network element for marking data packets to be transmitted in a packet switched network with a priority information I, the packets being treated in the network according to the priority information I. The priority information I is calculated based on a required bit rate BSIO. The priority information I may be additionally calculated based on a nominal bit rate NBR and on a momentary bit rate MBR, such that a terminal device used with the network element is able to inform the network element in advance about the required bit rate.
US07693054B2
A method for implementing resources reservation in an access configuration mode in an NGN, including: when a subscriber accesses a network, an NAAF sending a resources request message to a resources mediation PDF; after receiving the resources request message, the resources mediation PDF making an admission decision according to network operator policy rules and availability of resources, send an admission installation command to a BGF, setting and keeping the corresponding admission decision parameters information in the BGF. Thus, the BGF performs packet forwarding operations as classifying, marking, shaping, and discarding on the user traffic entering the network according to the admission decision information so as to ensure the QoS class required by the user. Therefore, an applicable solution for implementing resources reservation in the access configuration mode in the NGN is provided.
US07693051B2
A system and method to control congestion in a multihopping wireless communication network (100). The system and method distribute the congestion information back to the ingress points (106) and traffic source nodes (102, 106, 107) in the network (100) through the actual route of the data flow that contributes to the congestion. The system and method therefore avoid bottleneck points (102-5) in the network (100) to reduce congestion. The system and method can be used for packet-based, route-based or flow-based traffic shaping in a multihop wireless network (100) employing different media access control (MAC) and routing layer protocols. Moreover, the system and method is capable of distributing congestion and service differentiation information between different interfaces in the network (100).
US07693047B2
A novel fast reroute (FRR) technique is provided for quickly and efficiently rerouting selected types of network traffic in response to a node or link failure at the edge of a computer network. According to the technique, the network includes first and second edge devices that function as “FRR mates,” such that network traffic originally destined for one FRR mate may be quickly rerouted to the other without having to wait for conventional network convergence. When an edge device receives rerouted packets originally destined for its FRR mate, the device responds by forwarding only those rerouted packets matching the selected traffic types; rerouted packets that do not match the selected traffic types are dropped or otherwise discarded. The first and second edge devices may be statically configured as FRR mates, e.g., by a network administrator, or they may be configured to automatically detect their compatibility as FRR mates.
US07693037B2
A method and system for adapting an effective spreading sequence in a wire-line or a wireless communication system using direct sequence spreading system is described. A station of the communication system determines a state of a communication channel, represented by, e.g., an impulse response, a step response, or any other characteristic known to one skilled in the art. The station determines the channel state by measurements of a received signal or by receiving a feedback signal comprising an information enabling the station to determine the plurality of linearly related phases The station then determines a plurality of linearly related phases in accordance with the state of the communication channel, and then applies at least one of the plurality of linearly related phases to at least one sample of the effective spreading sequence.
US07693035B2
In an OFDM receiving apparatus for receiving a signal that has undergone Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and applying FFT processing to the receive signal to demodulate transmit data, an OFDM symbol comprising a fixed number of items of sample data is extracted from a receive signal, a position at which FFT processing of the OFDM symbol starts is shifted based upon the state of multipath and FFT processing is executed from the position to which the shift has been made. For example, a channel estimation value is obtained from result of FFT processing of known data contained in the receive signal, a multipath delay profile is obtained by applying FFT processing to this channel estimation value, and the position at which the FFT processing begins is decided based upon the position of a path for which power is maximized among the delay profiles.
US07693034B2
A circuit for converting frequency domain information to time domain information includes an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform circuit having a length of N coefficients. The Inverse Fast Fourier Transform circuit is adapted to receive input data of length N coefficients and generate output data of length N coefficients that are circularly shifted by m coefficients. The circuit also includes Cyclical Prefix Insertion circuit adapted to insert a cyclical prefix of length m. The Cyclical Prefix Insertion circuit includes a first switch, connected to the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform circuit, a buffer, having an input connected to the first switch and an output, the buffer having a length m, and a second switch, coupled to the first switch and to the buffer. The first and second switches selectively couple the output of the buffer and the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform circuit to an output of the second switch. The buffer is reduced to length m.
US07693028B2
An apparatus for detecting a probe position error includes a position error extracting unit extracting probe position errors from signals detected by a probe; a position error adding unit calculating the probe position errors in units of a predetermined time; and a signal processing unit storing a past probe position error calculated by the position error extracting unit and generating a probe position error by processing the past probe position error and a current probe position error. An apparatus for tracking data includes a scanner moving a data storage medium; a probe detecting the signals from a data storage medium; an error detector detecting probe position errors in a half-period of an error extracting signal by applying the error extracting signal used to extract the probe position errors to the signal detected by the probe; and a compensator compensating for the probe position errors detected by the error detector.
US07693026B2
The present invention provides a first light source (21) that emits light of a first wavelength, that at least either records onto or reproduces information from an information recording medium (30), a light source (22) that emits light of a second wavelength that records onto or reproduces information from an information recording medium (33), a light source (23) that emits light of a third wavelength that records onto or reproduces information from an information recording medium (23), focusing means, an optical element (28) that passes light of the first wavelength and diffracts light of the second and third wavelengths, wherein the optical element (28) is an optical element in which grooves are formed in a substrate, wherein the expression: 380 nm≦(n−1)×d≦420 nm is satisfied, where n is a refractive index of the substrate at a wavelength of 400 nm, and d (nm) is a depth per step of the grooves, and wherein the grooves are formed in two steps of depth d and depth 2d.
US07693023B2
A method and apparatus to record data on an optical recording medium include generating a recording waveform having an erase pattern comprising a multi-pulse having a high level which is higher than an erase power level and a low level which is lower than the erase power level. A power level of a leading one of the multi-pulse of the erase pattern and a power level between an end of the erase pattern and a start point of a leading pulse of a recording pattern are controlled to be the low level and the high level, respectively, the high level and the high level, respectively, the high level and the low level, respectively, or the low level and the low level, respectively.
US07693021B2
A first data-recorded region is formed in one of multiple recording layers of a rewritable optical disc before a second data-recorded region is formed therein. A first on-disc position is related to an innermost position within the second data-recorded region. Information is reproduced from a recording management area of the disc. A second on-disc position is derived from the reproduced information. The second on-disc position is in substantial coincidence with an outermost position within the first data-recorded region. The first on-disc position and the second on-disc position are compared to decide whether an unused portion is present in or absent from a region therebetween. When the unused portion is present, padding data is recorded thereon. The second on-disc position is updated into substantial coincidence with an outermost position within the second data-recorded region. The information in the recording management area is updated to reflect the updated second on-disc position.
US07693020B2
An optical disk device includes: an objective lens for focusing an optical beam on a recording layer of an optical disk; a converging lens for converging the reflected optical beam reflected on the recording layer; first and second light receiving units disposed at positions spaced ahead and behind at equal distances from the focal point of the reflected optical beam converged by the converging lens; and a focused recording layer discriminating unit for deciding, on the basis of the output signal of the first light receiving unit and the output signal of the second light receiving unit, the positional relation in a two-layer optical disk between a focused recording layer, on which the optical beam is focused, and a defocused recording layer, on which the optical beam is not focused, thereby to discriminate the focused recording layer on the basis of the decision result.
US07693018B2
A system controller of an optical disk recording and reproducing device writes test data in a test writable area of a loaded optical disk if it is an unused disk and calculates a maximum amplitude value of an RF signal at an inner radius. Then, it calculates the maximum amplitude value of a tracking error signal at the inner radius and further calculates the maximum amplitude value of the tracking error signal at the outer radius. After that, it calculates a primary approximate expression about a tilt from the maximum amplitude value of the tracking error signal at the inner radius and the maximum amplitude value of the tracking error signal at the outer radius. It further offsets the primary approximate expression by a difference between the tilt values that is obtained by subtracting the maximum amplitude value of the tracking error signal at the inner radius from the maximum amplitude value of the RF signal at the inner radius. As a result, a tilt control is performed in accordance with the RF signal of the virtual maximum amplitude value that is obtained by adding the difference between the tilt values to the primary approximate expression.
US07693016B2
There are provided an optical recording method, an optical recording apparatus, a one-chip CPU device, and a computer program. Reference data corresponding to a recording condition of a first recording layer, a physical characteristic value correlated with the recording condition, and a physical characteristic value correlated with a recording condition of a second recording layer are extracted from a data table in a memory, and the recording condition of the extracted reference data is set as a recording condition of a recording medium as an information recording target. When no correlated reference data exists, the closest reference data are extracted from the data table, and a recording pulse condition suitable for recording information on the second recording layer of an optical disk as the information recording target is extracted on the basis of the correlation between the recording condition of the reference data and the physical characteristic value.
US07693012B2
The invention provides an apparatus for demodulating an Address In Pre-groove (ADIP) symbol. The ADIP symbol is carried by a wobble signal of an optical disk and comprises a series of ADIP bits permuted according to one of a plurality of permutation patterns to make up the ADIP symbol. A wobble extraction module extracts the wobble signal from the optical disk. A reference wobble generator generates a reference wobble with the same frequency and phase as a fundamental frequency and phase of a positive wobble cycle of the wobble signal. A waveform difference measurement module then measures a difference between the wobble signal and the reference wobble to obtain a series of difference measurement values respectively corresponding to the ADIP bits. A pattern matching module then compares probabilities of the permutation of the ADIP bits agreeing with each of the permutation patterns according to the difference measurement values to determine the ADIP symbol.
US07693005B2
A seismic streamer includes a jacket covering an exterior of the streamer, at least one strength member extending along the length of and disposed inside the jacket, at least one seismic sensor mounted in a sensor spacer affixed to the at least one strength member, and a void filler made from a material introduced into the jacket in liquid form and undergoing state change thereafter. The jacket includes an inner layer in contact with and having adhesiveness to the void filler, and an outer layer disposed over the outer layer and having substantially no adhesiveness.
US07693001B2
A Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) having a split write control is described. The SRAM includes bit, write, and write-word lines. Each memory cell within the SRAM includes a delay which is coupled to a dedicated write-word line. When a cell is not being written, its delay receives a delay signal on its associated write-word line, which increases the response time of the cell. When a cell is to be written, however, its delay receives a bypass signal on its associated write-word line, which decreases the response time of the SRAM cell.
US07692998B2
A power-up/power-down detecting circuit may include a power detecting circuit, a selecting circuit, and a determining circuit. The power detecting circuit may generate a plurality of detection signals based on a plurality of sensing signals corresponding to currents flowing through a plurality of function blocks. The selecting circuit may generate a plurality of selection signals. The determining circuit may generate a power-up completion signal and a power-down completion signal. A semiconductor device having the power-up/power-down detecting circuit may determine in real time the power-up time and the power-down time.
US07692996B2
A method, apparatus and system are disclosed for sensing and reporting voltage levels in a semiconductor device. One such voltage sensor and reporting device is configured to sense and compare a reference voltage and an operating voltage. In one or more embodiments the voltage sensor is also configured to generate an alarm signal if the difference between the operating voltage and the reference voltage indicates the operating voltage is outside of a normal operating range.
US07692995B2
A redundancy program circuit and methods thereof. The redundancy program circuit may include a master fuse circuit with a master fuse outputting an operation enable signal to indicate a master fuse operating status, at least one control fuse circuit including at least one control fuse, the at least one control fuse circuit outputting an operating status signal for the at least one control fuse and a multiplexing unit configured to multiplex decoding address signal bits based on at least one of the operating status signal and the operation enable signal.
US07692990B2
A circuit for accessing a memory cell includes a local bitline and a local sense amplifier having a plurality of transistors. The local bitline may be connect the memory cell and the sense amplifier. A first global bitline may be connected to a first one of the plurality of transistors. A second global bitline may be connected to a second one of the plurality of transistors. A secondary sense amplifier may be connected to the first and second global bitlines. A design structure embodied in a machine readable medium used in a design process, includes such a circuit for accessing a memory cell.
US07692988B2
A semiconductor device (DRAM) according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of pairs of digit lines (digit True, Not) connected to a memory cell, a common signal line pair (main I/O True, Not) connected to the plurality of pairs of digit lines in common, a main I/O equalizer performing precharge of the common signal line pair, and a control circuit determining whether the precharge operation is continued irrespective of a signal level of a mask signal input from an outside.
US07692982B2
A semiconductor memory apparatus having a write training function includes a storage unit that stores write data or read data output from a memory cell block and outputs data according to an output control signal, and a control unit that controls the output control signal to be generated at different timings according to whether or not a write training signal is activated.
US07692972B1
A split-gate memory cell, includes an n-channel split-gate non-volatile memory transistor having a source, a drain, a select gate over a thin oxide, and a control gate over a non-volatile gate material and separated from the select gate by a gap. A p-channel pull-up transistor has a drain coupled to the drain of the split-gate non-volatile memory transistor, a source coupled to a bit line, and a gate. A switch transistor has first and second source/drain diffusions, and a gate coupled to the drains of the split-gate non-volatile memory transistor and the p-channel pull-up transistor. An inverter has an input coupled to the second source/drain diffusion of the switch transistor, and an output. A p-channel level-restoring transistor has a source coupled to a supply potential, a drain coupled to the first source/drain diffusion of the switch transistor and a gate coupled to the output of the inverter.
US07692971B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, devices, modules, and systems for programming multilevel non-volatile multilevel memory cells. One method includes increasing a threshold voltage (Vt) for each of a number of memory cells until the Vt reaches a verify voltage (VFY) corresponding to a program state among a number of program states. The method includes determining whether the Vt of each of the cells has reached a pre-verify voltage (PVFY) associated with the program state, selectively biasing bit lines coupled to those cells whose Vt has reached the PVFY, adjusting the PVFY to a different level, and selectively biasing bit lines coupled to cells whose Vt has reached the adjusted PVFY, wherein the PVFY and the adjusted PVFY are less than the VFY.
US07692969B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having a plurality of electrically rewritable nonvolatile memory cells connected in series together includes a select gate transistor connected in series to the serial combination of memory cells. A certain one of the memory cells which is located adjacent to the select gets transistor is for use as a dummy cell. This dummy cell is not used for data storage. During data erasing, the dummy cell is applied with the same bias voltage as that for the other memory cell.
US07692968B2
An operation method of a non-volatile memory is provided. The operation method is that a reading operation is performed to a selected nitride-based memory cell, a first positive voltage is applied to a word line adjacent to one side of the selected memory cell and a second positive voltage is applied to another word line adjacent to the other side of the selected memory cell. The operation method of this present invention not only can reduce a coupling interference issue but also can obtain a wider operation window.
US07692954B2
A nonvolatile static random access memory (SRAM) device includes a pair of cross-coupled, complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters configured as a storage cell for a bit of data and a pair of magnetic spin transfer devices coupled to opposing sides of the storage cell. The magnetic spin transfer devices are configured to retain the storage cell data therein following removal of power to the SRAM device, and are further configured to initialize the storage cell with the retained data upon application of power to the SRAM device.
US07692942B2
A semiconductor memory that includes a row decoder part, a first cell array placed on either side of the row decoder part, a second cell array placed on the other side of the row decoder part, and a wiring layer that short-circuits word lines corresponding to a specified row address on the first cell array with word lines corresponding to a specified row address on the second cell array.
US07692939B2
In a control circuit for powering up a switching power supply into a powered output bus, the control circuit is built such that before a turning-on of the switching power supply the controller reference is the slave that follows the bus voltage which is the master. At the moment when the converter is turned on, the master/slave relationship changes such that after the turning-on of the switching power supply the output voltage of the switching power supply is the slave that follows the controller reference. Hence, the status of the output level is memorized by the voltage loop prior to start-up of the converter such that the conflict between the soft-starting voltage loop of the converter and the pre-biased output is minimized.
US07692930B2
A primary memory board is disclosed. The primary memory board comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) having a front side and a back side, a plurality of DIMM surface mount connectors, and at least one component. The plurality of DIMM surface mount connectors are mounted on the front side of the PCB. The at least one component is mounted on the back side of the PCB and is positioned opposite the location of at least one of the plurality of DIMM surface mount connectors mounted on the front side of the PCB.
US07692917B2
A transforming device includes: a body; a movable element movable between a storage position and a separate position, wherein the movable element is accommodated in the body when the movable element is disposed at the storage position, and wherein the movable element is separated from the body when the movable element is disposed at the separate position; a pushing element for pushing the movable element from the storage position to the separate position; and a pair of magnets. One magnet is disposed in the body, and the other magnet is disposed in the movable element. The pair of magnets generates auxiliary force for pushing the movable element from the storage position to the separate position.
US07692908B2
Circuits and methods for protecting polarity-sensitive components, such as light emitting diodes, electrolytic capacitors or integrated circuits, operating from a DC current source including a DC motor, an inductor or relay having a positive terminal and a negative terminal for receiving current from the current source, a protection diode connected parallel with the positive and negative terminals of the motor in a reverse bias configuration, at least one polarity-sensitive component connected in parallel with the protection diode and the DC motor, and a polarity protection transistor connected either between the nominally positive current source terminal and the positive motor terminal, or between the nominally negative current source terminal and the negative motor terminal.
US07692907B2
A circuit capable of providing electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, the circuit comprising a first set of power rails comprising a first high power rail and a first low power rail, a first interface circuit between the first set of power rails, the first interface circuit having at least one gate electrode, a first ESD device comprising a terminal coupled to the at least one gate electrode of the first interface circuit, and a second ESD device comprising a terminal coupled to the at least one gate electrode of the first interface circuit, the first ESD device and the second ESD device being configured to maintain a voltage level at the at least one gate electrode of the first interface circuit at approximately a ground level when ESD occurs.
US07692902B2
A TMR device comprising an antiferromagnetic layer made of an antiferromagnetic material containing Mn, a magnetization fixed layer made of a ferromagnetic material, a tunnel barrier layer made of a dielectric material, and a magnetization free layer made of a ferromagnetic material. An insulator material layer is inserted in the magnetization fixed layer at a distance from the antiferromagnetic material layer and the tunnel barrier layer. One material can be expressed by NX, where X is a first element selected from the group consisting of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon; and N is a second element, provided that the bonding energy between the first and the second elements is higher than the bonding energy between manganese and the first element. A second material can be expressed by MX, where M is an element selected from the group consisting of titanium, tantalum, vanadium, aluminum, europium, and scandium; and X is an element selected from the group consisting of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. The tunnel magnetoresistance effect device suppresses the diffusion of Mn from the Mn based alloy constituting the antiferromagnetic material layer even after heat treatment is performed.
US07692899B2
A head suspension prevents a read element from electrostatic discharge damage without employing a static electricity remover or without increasing the number of manufacturing processes. The head suspension has a load beam to apply load to a head that writes and reads data to and from a hard disk, a flexure made of a conductive thin substrate attached to the load beam and supporting the head, an insulating base layer made of flexible resin and formed on the substrate of the flexure, write wires and read wires connected to the head and formed on the insulating base layer, and an insulating cover layer covering the write and read wires on the insulating base layer. The insulating cover layer is made of slightly conductive flexible resin.
US07692892B2
An enclosure system includes a motor assembly that has a motor magnet and at least one motor coil. The enclosure system also includes a base coupled to the motor assembly. The base includes a first portion that includes a non-magnetic material and a second portion that includes a magnetic material. The first portion of the base is in closer proximity to the motor magnet than the second portion of the base.
US07692889B2
Systems and methods are disclosed that can be used to control an output signal, such as for controlling a heater for a hard disk drive. A system can include a pre-driver configured to provide a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal to an output system in response to a control signal and a feedback signal, the output system being configured to provide an output signal for driving a load, the pre-driver comprising a modulator that provides the PWM signal in response to the control signal and a filtered feedback signal. A low pass filter is configured to receive a feedback signal with a voltage corresponding to a voltage of the output signal, wherein the low pass filter provides the filtered feedback signal that controls a frequency of the PWM signal to the modulator, the low pass filter having a bulk driven operational transconductance amplifier.
US07692888B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for fly height detection. The apparatus includes an actuator configured to induce vibrations in a glide head that is configured to detect physical asperities on a disk surface. The apparatus may also include a second end of the suspension arm coupled with the glide head and a sensor module that is configured to communicate with a control module in response to the glide head coming in contact with at least one physical asperity. The system includes the apparatus, a disk having a surface comprising physical asperities, and a head gimbal assembly configured to calibrate a fly height margin for the disk. The method includes inducing vibrations in a glide head, detecting physical asperities on a disk surface, and communicating with a control module in response to the glide head coming in contact with at least one physical asperity.
US07692883B2
The present invention provides an optical element fixing structure, an optical element fixing body, an optical element and an optical element holder which make tightening with a fixing screw unnecessary, prevents thereby a decrease in performance, such as the generation of strain in the optical element such as a crystal, and can improve the mounting accuracy. The optical element fixing structure 10 includes an optical element 6 and an optical element holder 1 to fix and mount the optical element 6. The optical element 6 has one or multiple slits 8 as strain and stress absorbing means in the thickness direction in the end part thereof, and the optical element holder 1 has depressing means 3 to fix the optical element 6 by depressing at least one of the front surface and the back surface of the optical element 6 outside the slit 8.
US07692882B2
A laser diode assembly and a tens assembly associated with a pre-scan unit for use in a laser printer are presented. Further presented is a laser diode/collimation lens apparatus. Each of the laser diode assembly, the lens assembly and the laser diode/collimation lens apparatus includes a mounting bracket comprising a compressible section.
US07692875B2
An optical pickup according to the present invention includes a plurality of light sources for emitting a plurality of light beams including first and second light beams of respectively different wavelengths, an objective lens for converging the plurality of light beams, and a grating structure shaped axisymmetrically with respect to the optical axis of the objective lens. Pth-order diffracted light (where p is a non-zero integer) which is formed from the first light beam (e.g. blue) by the grating structure is converged on an information layer of an optical disk (e.g. a BD) corresponding to the first light beam, owing to the converging actions of the objective lens and grating structure. Moreover, qth-order diffracted light (where q is a non-zero integer such that q≠p) which is formed from the second light beam (e.g. red or infrared) by the grating structure is converged on an information layer of an optical disk (e.g. a DVD or CD) corresponding to the second light beam, owing to the converging actions of the objective lens and the grating structure. Thus, by appropriately using diffracted light of different orders, it becomes possible to perform convergence on optical disks of different wavelengths and base thicknesses, with reduced spherical aberration.
US07692873B2
A lens-controlling device controls a first lens unit which moves for zooming and a second lens unit which moves for correcting the displacement of an image plane caused by zooming and for focusing. The lens-controlling device includes a memory which stores data for obtaining target-position information representing a target position to which the second lens unit is to be moved, the target position corresponding to a position to which the first lens unit is moved from a current position and a controller which generates the target-position information on the basis of the data and controls the movement of the second lens unit on the basis of position information of the first lens unit and the target-position information.
US07692872B2
A zoom lens comprises, in order from its object side, a first lens group of positive refracting power, a second lens group of negative refracting power, and a third lens group of positive refracting power located on an image side with respect to the second lens group. Upon zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end, the spacing between the first lens group and the second lens group grows wider at the telephoto end than at the wide-angle end, and the spacing between the second lens group and the third lens group becomes narrower at the telephoto end than at the wide-angle end. The first lens group comprises a negative lens and a positive lens, and the number of the negative lens in the first lens group is only one. At least one positive lens in the first lens group satisfies the following conditions (1) and (2): 1.80
US07692868B2
Projection objectives, as well as related components, systems and methods, are disclosed. In general, a projection objective is configured to image radiation from an object plane to an image plane. A projection objective can include a plurality of optical elements along the optical axis. The plurality of optical elements can include a group of optical elements and a last optical element which is closest to the image plane, and a positioning device configured to move the last optical element relative to the image plane. Typically, a projection objective is configured to be used in a microlithography projection exposure machine.
US07692863B2
A zoom lens system comprising a plurality of lens units each composed of at least one lens element, wherein an interval between at least any two lens units among the lens units is changed so that an optical image of an object is formed with a continuously variable magnification, a first lens unit arranged on the most object side among the lens units includes a lens element having a reflecting surface for bending a light beam from the object, and any one of the lens units, any one of the lens elements, or alternatively a plurality of adjacent lens elements that constitute one lens unit move in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis; an imaging device including the zoom lens system; and a camera employing the imaging device.
US07692860B2
A wire grid polarizer includes a substrate adapted to transmit predetermined wavelengths of light, a plurality of dielectric wires extending parallel to one another along a first direction on the substrate, the dielectric wires including a dielectric material adapted to transmit the predetermined wavelengths of light, and a plurality of metal wires extending along the first direction between the dielectric wires, wherein sidewalls of the metal wires include portions in contact with sidewalls of the dielectric wires and portions not in contact with the sidewalls of the dielectric wires.
US07692857B2
The present invention serves to vary and adjust the transmitted light illumination in microscopes, particularly with respect to the numerous, different illumination situations. The device, according to the invention comprises modules for darkfield illumination, brightfield illumination, and/or diffuse illumination and/or for adapting the object field in which an illumination unit can be selectively coupled to different modules and in which actuators are provided for implementing the adjustments within the modules and for producing the desired connections, these actuators being operated by means of operating elements of a control unit. The adjustments within the modules and the implemented connections are detected and are stored in the control unit so as to be reproducible. The proposed solution makes possible a broad application by means of an ergonomic arrangement of the operating elements and adjusting and/or changing the illumination situations in a simple and reproducible manner.
US07692854B2
A regenerative amplifier includes a gain-medium that is optically pumped by CW radiation. The amplifier has primary resonator for amplifying pulses. The primary resonator has an optical switch for opening and closing the primary resonator. The amplifier has a secondary resonator that includes the gain-medium and a selectively variable attenuator, but not the optical switch. The optical switch and the variable attenuator are cooperatively controlled in response to repeated trigger-signals such that the amplifier delivers corresponding amplified pulses each having about the same energy independent of repetition frequency of the signals below some predetermined value.
US07692844B2
Improvements in an interferometric modulator that has a cavity defined by two walls.
US07692839B2
In various embodiments of the invention, an anti-stiction coating is formed on at least one surface of an interior cavity of a MEMS device. Particular embodiments provide an anti-stiction on one or mirror surfaces of an interferometric light modulation device, also known as an iMoD in some embodiments. In other embodiments, an interferometric light modulation device is encapsulated within a package and the anti-stiction coating is applied after the package is fabricated. In one embodiment, one or more orifices are defined in the package, e.g., in a seal, a substrate or a backplate and the anti-stiction coating material is supplied into the interior of the package via the orifice(s). In one embodiment, the anti-stiction coating material includes a self-aligned (or self-assembled) monolayer. In yet another embodiment, the anti-stiction layer coating can be incorporated into a release process where a sacrificial layer of an interferometric light modulation device is etched away with the use of a gas.
US07692838B2
A deformable mirror formed out of two layers of a nanolaminate foil attached to a stiff substrate is introduced. Deformation is provided by an electrostatic force between two of the layers. The internal stiffness of the structure allows for high-spatial-frequency shapes. The nanolaminate foil of the present invention allows for a high-quality mirror surface. The device achieves high precision in the vertical direction by using foils with accurately controlled thicknesses, but does not require high precision in the lateral dimensions, allowing such mirrors to be fabricated using crude lithography techniques. Such techniques allow structures up to about the meter scale to be fabricated.
US07692831B2
No scheme for calculating a color obtained by mixing two spot colors (composite spot color) has been established yet. Hence, an image processing apparatus of this invention includes a spectral database which stores spectral data of spot colors and mixed colors of the spot colors. Upon rendering, a mixed color region of spot colors is detected. A colorimetry table of the spectral DB which corresponds to a combination of the spot colors of the mixed color region is selected with reference to a combination table of the spectral DB. Spectral data corresponding to a mixed color is obtained from the colorimetry table on the basis of the density values of the spot colors of the mixed color region, and the obtained spectral data is supplied to rendering processing.
US07692825B2
A sheet supplying apparatus, comprising a sheet accommodating portion which accommodates stacked recording sheets such that the recording sheets are supported by a support surface thereof; a sheet supplying arm which is supported by a frame such that the sheet supplying arm is pivotable about a first axis line, and which is biased toward the support surface of the sheet accommodating portion; a sheet supplying roller which is supported by an end portion of the sheet supplying arm such that the sheet supplying roller is rotatable about a second axis line parallel to the first axis line, and which is pressed on the uppermost recording sheet, so that when the sheet-supply roller is rotated, the uppermost recording sheet is supplied from the sheet accommodating portion; a receiving portion which is provided in the support surface and which is covered by the recording sheets and is opened when a trailing end of the last recording sheet passes over the receiving portion; and a moving device including a detecting portion which is supported by the recording sheets and which moves, when the trailing end of the last recording sheet passes over the receiving portion, into the receiving portion, and further including a detection-movement converting device which converts the movement of the detecting portion into the receiving portion, into the pivotal movement of the sheet supplying arm about the first axis line in a direction to move the sheet supplying roller away from the support surface of the sheet accommodating portion.
US07692823B2
An image reading apparatus having an automatic original document feeding apparatus that sequentially feeds plural original documents, which includes an original document reading section that reads an original document fed by the automatic original document feeding apparatus, an image data generation section that, on the basis of a reading output from the original document reading section, generates real image data and preview image data corresponding to the original document, and a display that, on the basis of the preview image data generated by the image data generation section, displays a preview image corresponding to the original document.
US07692821B2
An image processing apparatus transfers scan image data acquired by a document reader to an editing apparatus and receives print data based on the scan image data from the editing apparatus. The apparatus includes a first generator generating first attribute data from the scan image data and a second generator generating second attribute data based on the print data received from the editing apparatus. The first and second attribute data indicate an image attribute constituting the scan image data and an image attribute constituting print image data generated based on the print data, respectively. The image processing apparatus further includes a third generator generating third attribute data for each of the pixels constituting the print image data based on attribute information of the corresponding pixel in the first and second attribute data.
US07692811B2
A printed material is read to provide an image data thereof. The printed material includes an image of an original, and an additional image not recognized or hard to be recognized with naked eyes. The additional image is to be visualized when an image is formed based on the image data with an image forming apparatus. Further, the printed material includes and a code which represents information. When the code is detected in the image data, a stamp image is synthesized with the image data based on the detected code. Then, the image data synthesized with the stamp image is provided. For example, an image is printed based on the image data.
US07692810B2
When a user transmits data from a PC to the outside, log information can be accumulated in a composite machine connected via network to the PC and an unnecessary data outflow due to the data transmission can be prevented. In the PC, a transmission acceptance portion accepts from a user an operation for transmitting data to the outside of network and a data transfer portion transfers outside transmission data defined as a transmission target by the transmission acceptance portion to the composite machine via the network without transmitting directly to the outside. In the image forming apparatus (composite machine, etc.), a data reception portion receives the outside transmission data transmitted from the PC via the network, which are transmitted to the outside by a data transmission portion, and a log accumulation portion accumulates log information of the outside transmission data.
US07692804B2
An image forming apparatus operates in a first image formation mode for forming an image on an image bearing member by using developer under a first predetermined image forming condition and a second image formation mode for forming an image on an image bearing member by using developer under a second image forming condition which is different from the first predetermined image forming condition. The apparatus is set so that the amount of consumption of developer for forming an image in the second image formation mode is smaller than the amount of consumption used for forming an identical image in the first image formation mode. The apparatus includes a storing device for storing information for setting the second image forming condition corresponding to a plurality of levels of the amount of usage of the image bearing member, and a controller for changing the second image forming condition in the second image formation mode depending on the amount of usage of the image bearing member and information stored in the storing device.
US07692794B2
Provided are an optical detection apparatus, a microfluidic system including the same, and an optical detection method. The optical detection apparatus including: at least one light emission unit which emits light of a predetermined wavelength band; at least one light receiving unit which is disposed such that the light receiving unit receives the light emitted from the light emission unit and generates an electrical signal according to the intensity of the light received, wherein the number of light receiving units is the same as the number of light emission units; a rotation operating unit which rotates a disk-type microfluidic apparatus comprising at least one detection chamber in which a sample is to be loaded such that the detection chamber is disposed in a light pathway between the light emission unit and the light receiving unit; and a processor which measures a property of the sample contained in the detection chamber using the electrical signal generated by the light receiving unit.
US07692777B1
The invention is directed to an optical clinometer comprising a housing or vessel with a transparent liquid which forms a liquid horizon and which is suitable for changing the direction of at least one optical beam bundle depending on inclination. At least one light source is provided for illuminating at least one structure or for generating at least one light point or light spot. An optical device is responsible for imaging the at least one structure or the at least one light point or light spot through the liquid and by of total reflection at the surface of the liquid on photoelectric sensor elements of at least one line-shaped or surface-shaped sensor arrangement, wherein the optical device for imaging the structure or the light point or light spot is arranged on the underside of the bottom of the housing or are a component part of this bottom, and the optical device is formed of an individual optical element which couples light in and out and images the structure or the light point or light spot.
US07692772B2
A laser distance measuring apparatus which measures a turnaround time after emitting a laser beam outputted from a laser diode to a target until receiving the laser beam reflected by the target by a light receiving module via a band-pass filter to calculate a distance to the target, includes temperature control module for adjusting a temperature of the laser diode; level detecting module for detecting a level of the reflected laser beam received via the band-pass filter; main control module for outputting a temperature control signal to the temperature control module so that the level is kept in a predetermined range.
US07692771B2
A lithographic apparatus is disclosed that has a template holder configured to hold an imprint template, a substrate table arranged to receive a substrate, a radiation output arranged to illuminate a part of the imprint template, and a detector configured to detect radiation scattered from an interface between the imprint template and imprintable material provided on the substrate.
US07692768B2
Methods and apparatus for shielding a reticle within an illumination system are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a blind arrangement for shielding an object such as a reticle includes a coil assembly which has at least one coil, an air supply that supplies air, and a first blind portion. The first blind portion includes at least one magnet and is not in physical contact with the coil. The first blind portion is supported at a distance from the coil by the air, and the coil assembly cooperates with the magnet to cause the first blind portion to move. The first blind portion shields the object when the first blind portion is in a first position.
US07692759B2
A polarization grating comprising a polarization sensitive photo-alignment layer (2) and a liquid crystal composition (3) arranged on said photo-alignment layer is provided. An alignment pattern, corresponding to the polarization pattern of a hologram, is recorded in the photo-alignment layer, and the liquid crystal composition is aligned on the photo-alignment layer. As the origin for the alignment of the liquid crystal composition is a polarization hologram recorded in a photo-alignment layer, an essentially defect-free pattern can be obtained with this approach.
US07692757B2
A liquid crystal over silicon light modulator may include a trenched cover glass. The trenched cover glass enables the provision of regions between adjacent dice on the wafer level. These regions facilitate sealing of the individual modulators and dicing of the individual modulators from the overall wafer. In some embodiments this may reduce contamination of the liquid crystal with the sealing material and losses at the dicing stage.
US07692755B2
A liquid crystal display device including two substrates, with a pixel electrode formed on one substrate and an opposite electrode formed on the other substrate. The device also includes an alignment film formed on the opposite electrode, a protrusion formed between the opposite electrode and the alignment film, spherical spacers, liquid crystal, and an alignment film protrusion formed by the alignment film in an area corresponding to the protrusion, such that the protrusion causes the alignment film protrusion to protrude toward the liquid crystal. The alignment film protrusion is recessed on a side opposite one of the substrates and regulates an alignment direction of the liquid crystal contacting it. Further, the alignment film protrusion includes a recessed portion, within an outer surface thereof, within which at least one spherical spacer is seated, whereby the recessed portion reduces compressive stress exerted on the substrates by the spherical spacer seated therein.
US07692754B2
A liquid crystal display device includes lower and upper substrates facing each other; signal lines disposed on the lower substrate, a conducting sealant, including conductive balls, applied between the lower substrate and the upper substrate, and a static electricity guiding line formed in an area on the lower substrate where the conductive sealant overlaps the signal lines.
US07692747B2
A liquid crystal display device of an in-plane switching mode comprises at least an optically anisotropic member and a liquid crystal cell disposed between a pair of polarizers having absorption axes disposed approximately perpendicularly to each other, wherein nz>nx>ny (nx: a refractive index (n) in the direction of the in-plane slow axis; ny: n in the in-plane direction perpendicular to the above direction; nz: n in the direction of thickness, each at 550 nm); the optically anisotropic member comprises a layer comprising a material having a negative value of intrinsic birefringence; and the in-plane slow axis of the optically anisotropic member is approximately parallel or perpendicular to the absorption axis of a polarizer closer to the member. The antireflection property, scratch resistance and durability are excellent, the angle of field is wide, and uniform display of images with great contrast can be achieved at any angle of observation.
US07692743B2
The transflective LCD panel has many scan lines, data lines, and common electrodes, in which each data line includes a first data line section and a second data line section, and each common electrode has at least one first common electrode section. The scan lines and the second data line sections are made of a first conductive layer; and the first data line sections and the common electrodes are made of a second conductive layer. The first common electrode sections and the corresponding pixel electrodes are overlapped, thus providing the storage capacitance.
US07692736B2
A liquid crystal display device eliminating an uneven display, which is a D-STN type liquid crystal display device having a compensation cell and a liquid crystal cell for display wherein a difference between the average thicknesses of at least two adjacent glass substrates among glass substrates existing in the compensation cell and the liquid crystal cell for display is 4 μm or more, and preferably not more than 50 μm.
US07692735B2
There is disclosed a display device having a display panel which is prevented from being scratched if an optical member such as a diffusive plate located behind the display panel swings. The display device has the display panel, an array of light sources disposed behind the display panel, and the optical member disposed between the display panel and the array of light sources. The distance between a first end of the optical member and the display panel is set greater than the distance between a second end of the optical member and the display panel, the second end being opposite to the first end.
US07692732B2
The present invention prevents the corrosion of a printed circuit board which is connected to a lower side of a display panel in a liquid crystal display panel. In a display device which includes a display panel and a frame member which supports an outer peripheral portion of a display screen of a display panel, a water absorbing member is adhered to a surface of the frame member which faces the display panel in an opposed manner.
US07692724B2
A method and an apparatus to synchronize an audio signal and a video signal. The method includes: displaying video on a screen that corresponds to an audio signal including a high frequency component having a predetermined pattern inserted therein to indicate when a scene change occurs in a video signal, detecting a scene change in the displayed video and detecting the high frequency component having the predetermined pattern in the audio signal, calculating a time difference between a time when the scene change is detected in the displayed video and a time when the high frequency component having the predetermined pattern is detected in the audio signal, and controlling delay times of the audio signal and the video signal according to the calculated time difference. Accordingly, the audio signal and the video signal can be automatically synchronized without performing a separate measuring operation.
US07692723B2
A method, apparatus and system for signal modulation. A plurality of pixels are selected in a pattern such that a first pixel group of the plurality of pixels is unpaired with a second pixel group of the plurality of pixels throughout the pattern in a portion of a video signal. The intensity of the plurality of the pixels is altered at a constant magnitude in the portion of the video signal pursuant to the pattern in a substantially invisible way.
US07692720B2
A solid-state imaging device, comprises: a semiconductor substrate having a first surface; a solid-state imaging element in the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, the solid-state imaging element comprising a light-receiving region; a light-transmission member having a second surface and a third surface, the second surface being opposite to the third surface, wherein the light-transmission member and the first surface of the semiconductor substrate define a gap between the second surface of the light-transmission member and an outer surface of the light-receiving region; and an external connection terminal connected to the solid-state imaging element, wherein a distance between the outer surface of the light-receiving region and the third surface of the light-transmission member is 0.5 mm or more.
US07692719B2
Disclosed is a closed circuit television that allows a focus and a focal distance of a lens located inside a camera body to be adjusted in the outside, without disassembling the camera body.
US07692718B1
A video camera light shield for use with a video camera which has an adjustable hood component covering the LCD monitor and lens of a video camera, wherein the hood component is a two-section hood component adjustably slidable front to rear, with a two-piece front plate attached to the two-piece hood component which is adjustably side to side to adjust the light shield to more effectively fit to a variety of different video camera styles and sizes for best performance results.
US07692716B2
An electronic camera includes: an electrical charge storage-type image-capturing element that stores an electrical charge by receiving subject light; a shielding member that allows the subject light to pass to the image-capturing element or blocks the subject light to the image-capturing element; an electromagnetic actuator used to drive the shielding member at least in a closing direction; a storage control device that starts an electrical charge storage at the image-capturing element after a time point at which the shielding member is detected to be in an open state allowing the subject light to pass and ends the electrical charge storage once a preset length of exposure time elapses; and a shield control device that outputs an instruction for driving the shielding member in the closing direction to the electromagnetic actuator before the electrical charge storage ends.
US07692715B2
A digital camera according to the present invention includes a device to set up a plurality of exposure conditions, a device to obtain a plurality of imaging data imaged in accordance with the plurality of exposure conditions set by the plurality exposure conditions set up device, and a device to compare a sharpness based on the plurality of imaging data obtained by the plurality of imaging data obtaining device, and a shake of the camera or a blur of a subject is determined corresponding to the comparison result of the sharpness comparison device.
US07692710B2
A solid-state imaging device comprises: a solid-state imaging element comprising a solid-state imaging element body; a first substrate one end face of which is bonded to and integrated with one end face of a solid-state imaging element substrate of the solid-state imaging element, the first substrate comprising on its one surface an electrode for establishing electrical contact with a bonding wire led from a pad provided on one surface of the solid-state imaging element, a frame that seals the solid-state imaging element so as to surround outer peripheral surfaces of the solid-state imaging element substrate excluding its the one end face; and a sealing resin portion that covers a region extending from a portion including the electrode on the one surface of the first substrate to a portion including the pad on the one surface of the solid-state imaging element.
US07692704B2
An imaging apparatus includes a pixel unit having a photoelectric conversion section and an amplifying device for amplifying a signal from the photoelectric conversion section and outputting the signal, a reading unit having a first mode in which a signal obtained by resetting an input section of the amplifying device is sampled a plurality of times via the amplifying device and a second mode in which a photoelectric conversion signal generated in the photoelectric conversion section is sampled a plurality of times via the amplifying device; a mixing unit for generating a first mixing signal by mixing the signals that are sampled in the first mode, outputting the first mixing signal, generating a second mixing signal by mixing the signals that are sampled in the second mode, and outputting the second mixing signal; and a difference processing unit for performing difference processing between the first mixing signal and the second mixing signal.
US07692697B2
An iris color correction apparatus has a skin color identification section which identifies the skin color of a photographed person in an inputted image, a skin correction color calculation section which obtains a skin correction color that is an iris color of said person that should be shown in said image based on the skin color identified by said skin color identification section, an original iris color calculation section which obtains an original iris color that is a representative color of a peripheral region of the iris of said photographed person from the color of pixels included in the peripheral region, a correction reference color setting section which acquires said obtained skin correction color and original iris color, and sets one of the skin correction color and the original iris color to be a correction reference color when correction is carried out, and a correction section which corrects the iris color of said photographed person based on said correction reference color.
US07692696B2
A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film comprises an apparatus for capturing digital images and a flash unit for providing illumination during image capture. The system has a portrait mode for generating an image of a foreground object against a blurred background, the portrait mode being operable to capture first, second and third images (A, B and C) of nominally the same scene. One of the first and second images (A, B) is taken with flash and the other is taken without flash, and the third image (C) is blurred compared to the first and second images. The portrait mode is further operable to determine foreground and background regions of the scene using the first and second images (A, B), and to substitute the blurred background of the third image (C) for the background of an in-focus image of the scene. In one embodiment the in-focus image is one of the first and second images. In another embodiment the in-focus image is a fourth image.
US07692694B2
A digital camera is disclosed to reduce shutter lag and improved accuracy in exposure. The digital camera includes an image pickup lens optical system, an iris, an image pickup device, a hold/gain control circuit, a luminance level detector, an exposure control circuit, a device control circuit and so forth. The exposure control circuit discriminates based on a luminance level supplied thereto from the luminance level detector whether or not appropriate exposure is performed. Then, based on a result of the discrimination, the exposure control circuit arithmetically operates three values of the numerical aperture of the iris, the shutter speed of an electronic shutter of the image pickup device and the gain of the hold/gain control circuit which are necessary to perform appropriate exposure. The exposure control circuit arithmetically operates iris control data, electronic shutter control data and gain control data necessary for the arithmetically operated exposure amounts to be individually reflected on the iris, the electronic shutter of the image pickup device and the hold/gain control circuit.
US07692692B2
An imaging apparatus includes an image pickup device having a two-dimensionally arrayed pixel structure, an A/D converter which converts analog signals from the respective pixels into digital data signals, and a DSP 30 which performs signal processing for the data signals. The DSP 30 includes an image data storage 32 which stores the data signals in units of data signal sequences corresponding to pixel lines, a mask processor 34 which sets an integer n not less than 2 as a dilation coefficient and performs mask processing to dilate image components in the image data to n×n, and a data storing controller 37 which sets n calculation memory regions in which n data signal sequences corresponding to n pixel lines are stored, in the storage 32, according to the dilation coefficient n. Thereby, an imaging apparatus capable of acquiring an image with excellent visibility even under conditions of a low illuminance, etc., is realized.
US07692682B2
Some embodiments provide an architecture for establishing multi-participant video conferences. This architecture has a central distributor that receives video images from two or more participants. From the received images, the central distributor generates composite images that the central distributor transmits back to the participants. Each composite image includes a set of sub images, where each sub image belongs to one participant. In some embodiments, the central distributor saves network bandwidth by removing each particular participant's image from the composite image that the central distributor sends to the particular participant. In some embodiments, images received from each participant are arranged in the composite in a non-interleaved manner. For instance, in some embodiments, the composite image includes at most one sub-image for each participant, and no two sub-images are interleaved.
US07692678B2
A laser light control device for an image forming apparatus designed to improve the auto power control (APC) accuracy and to reduce the control time. A multifunctional optical element has a plurality of different optical characteristics. A detecting unit is adapted to detect laser light from the semiconductor laser. A control unit is adapted to perform control of the write start position of the laser light in the main scanning direction and control of the quantity of the laser light by detecting the laser light by means of the detecting unit after passage of the laser light through the multifunctional optical element.
US07692673B2
A display device including plural pixels, plural scan lines for applying scan signals to the pixels, plural first data lines for transmitting first data currents to the pixels, a scan driver for outputting the scan signals, a demultiplexer including plural demultiplexing circuits for demultiplexing second data currents into the first data currents, and for transmitting the first data currents to the plural first data lines, and a data driver for transmitting the second data currents. A demultiplexing circuit demultiplexes one of the second data currents into at least two first data currents, and transmits them to at least two first data lines. The number of the at least two first data lines is an integer multiple of the number of sub-pixels in each pixel. A display device and a demultiplexer having a simple structure data driver, where a stationary pattern due to demultiplexing is reduced or eliminated, can be provided.
US07692667B2
A handheld computer is provided that includes a first module and at least a second module. The first module includes a processor and a display. The second module is slideably coupled to the first module so that it functions as a sliding cover that may effectively change the visible area of the underlying display. The handheld computer includes a sensing device coupled to the processor. The sensing device provides information to the processor regarding the relative position of the first module with respect to the second module. The information provided may be used to reconfigure the visual output of the display or to select a macro command presented on the display.
US07692659B1
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for improving graphics rendering efficiency by processing pixels in a compressed format whenever possible within a multi-sampling graphics pipeline. Each geometric primitive is rasterized into fragments, corresponding to screen space pixels covered at least partially by the geometric primitive. Fragment coverage represents the pixel area covered by the geometric primitive and determines the weighted contribution of a fragment color to the corresponding screen space pixel. Samples associated with a given fragment are called sibling samples and have the same color value. The property of sibling samples having the same color value is exploited to compress and process multiple samples, thereby reducing the size of the associated logic and the amount of data written to and read from the frame buffer.
US07692655B2
Apparatus and methods of generating a curved baseline for a map labeling include receiving a polyline P={p1,p2, . . . ,pn} of n points, generating a supporting polyline Q={q1,q2, . . . , qm} (m≧n) of m points at an expected distance d between polyline P and a curved base line L. A predetermined number of B-Spline points is generated based upon supporting polyline Q. The B-Spline points are then connected to form a curved baseline L for displaying a label.
US07692650B2
A method of and a system for displaying volumetric multi-energy CT images are disclosed, wherein a CT image, a Z image, and a label image from an automatic explosive detection are provided, are disclosed. The method comprises generating an index image through a nonlinear transformation of the CT image, the Z image, and the label image, rotating and coloring the index image as desired, and rendering and displaying the rotated and colored image.
US07692647B2
Real-time rendering of realistic rain is described. In one aspect, image samples of real rain and associated information are automatically modeled in real-time to generate synthetic rain particles in view of respective scene radiances of target video content frames. The synthetic rain particles are rendered in real-time using pre-computed radiance transfer with uniform random distribution across respective frames of the target video content.
US07692638B2
Normalization of the built-in DC offset error in each analog channel is disclosed to reduce image distortion in multi-event (multi-touch or multi-hover) sensor panels. By eliminating the component-dependent offset error from each analog channel, each analog channel will generate approximately the same output value for a given dynamic input signal. Normalization can include “phantom row” compensation, which involves measuring the static output value of each analog channel when no stimulus is applied to any row of a multi-event sensor panel, and subtracting this value out of any subsequent output value generated by the analog channel. Normalization can also include DAC offset compensation, which involves setting the offset compensation voltage of each analog channel to some fraction of its normal value, measuring the output of the analog channel over temperature, determining a temperature coefficient, and adjusting any subsequent output value generated by the analog channel to account for this drift.
US07692637B2
A user input device for controlling the movement of a cursor in a graphical user interface (GUI) includes a touch sensitive surface arranged to provide a pre-defined number of touch sensitive surface areas substantially continuous with one another each of which is associated with a corresponding pre-defined functionality. Touching contact with the given surface area causes the cursor to move in the corresponding direction or to stop. The speed of the cursor is controlled by the touching contact which may be a sliding, tapping, pressure or other suitable contact.
US07692628B2
A user interface for multimedia centers advantageously utilizes hand-held inertial-sensing user input devices to select channels and quickly navigate the dense menus of options. Extensive use of the high resolution and bandwidth of such user input devices is combined with strategies to avoid unintentional inputs and with dense and intuitive interactive graphical displays.
US07692627B2
Disclosed is a unique system and method that facilitates cursor control based in part on computer vision activated by a capacitive touch sensor. When turned on, user hand gestures or movements can be tracked by a monitoring component and those movements can be converted in real-time to control or drive cursor movements and/or position on a user interface. The system comprises a monitoring component or camera that can be activated by touch or pressure applied to a capacitive touch sensor. A circuit within the sensor determines when the user is touching a button (e.g., on keyboard or mouse) that activates the monitoring component and cursor control mechanism. Thus, intentional hand movements by the user can readily be determined.
US07692619B2
A scan driver and an organic light emitting display (OLED) for selectively performing progressive scanning and interlaced scanning. The scan driver includes a plurality of scan units. A scan unit generates an odd-number scan signal or an even-number scan signal and includes a flip-flop and a scan signal generator. The scan signal generator performs a logical operation on output signals from the flip-flop and a mode selection signal, and outputs a signal. A logical operation can be performed on the output signal of the scan unit and an impulse signal to form a scan signal and an emission control signal. The OLED, which selectively performs the progressive scanning and the interlaced scanning in response to a mode selection signal, includes an emission driver for outputting an emission control signal and a program driver for outputting a scan signal and a boost signal.
US07692617B2
Gate-driving circuitry of a thin film transistor array panel is formed on the same plane as a display area of the transistor array panel. The gate-driving circuitry includes driving circuitry and signal lines having apertures. Thus, a sufficient amount of light, even though illuminated from the thin film transistor array panel side, can reach a photosetting sealant overlapping at least in part the gate-driving circuitry. The thin film transistor array panel and the counter panel are put together air-tight and moisture-tight. Consequently, the gate-driving circuitry can avoid corrosion by moisture introduced from outside. Gate-driving circuitry malfunctions can also be reduced.
US07692616B2
A liquid crystal display apparatus includes a liquid crystal panel having a matrix of pixels, a control circuit, and a temperature sensor. The temperature sensor directly or indirectly detects a temperature of the liquid crystal panel. The control circuit reverses a polarity of a voltage applied to each pixel at a time interval variable with the detected temperature, while keeping a field frequency constant. The time interval is a positive integer multiple of the reciprocal of a field frequency, i.e., a positive integer multiple of a field period. When the temperature of the liquid crystal layer is low, the control circuit reverses the polarity of the voltage at a longer time interval. In contrast, when the temperature of the liquid crystal layer is high, the control circuit reverses the polarity of the voltage at a shorter time interval.
US07692614B2
A display device including: pixels disposed where scanning lines and signal lines intersect, wherein each of the pixels includes a pixel electrode, a switching element, and a storage circuit interposed between the pixel electrode and the switching element for storing data to be written in the pixel electrode; and a pair of alternating voltage power lines having a first alternating voltage power line and a second alternating voltage power line for applying alternating voltages varying in polarities opposite to each other, to the storage circuit, wherein the storage circuit includes a first transistor pair of a first NMOS transistor and a first PMOS transistor connecting in series while bridging the paired alternating voltage power lines, and a second transistor pair of second NMOS transistor and a second PMOS transistor connected in series while bridging the paired alternating voltage power lines. The transistors have specific interconnections.
US07692598B1
Time domain radar signals are transmitted and received from vee dipole antennas on circuit boards. The antennas are formed by spaced deposited copper pads and discrete surface mount resistors soldered between the copper pads. The antenna feed-points are connected directly to adjacent transmitting and receiving circuits on the same printed circuit board. Traces are printed on a middle layer of a strip of printed circuit board. Vias connect ground planes on opposite sides. Artifacts are reduced, and signal properties are controlled.
US07692589B2
An antenna device is disclosed that includes: an element member; a ground member; and an adhesive through which the element member and the ground member are held in a predetermined positional relationship and affixed to a mounting object.
US07692583B2
A GPS position-measuring device includes a altitude-information memory for storing altitude information of a moving object, a combination determining unit for determining GPS-satellite combinations from GPS satellites that can be tracked, a position measuring unit for measuring a GPS based or GPS derived three-dimensional position of the moving object for each GPS-satellite combination, and a difference extracting unit for determining a difference in altitude between GPS derived altitude information contained in the measured GPS related three-dimensional position and the altitude information supplied from the altitude-information memory. The GPS position-measuring device further includes a position determining unit for comparing the extracted difference in altitude with a threshold value, selecting a GPS-satellite combination with which the difference in altitude is less than or equal to the threshold value, and determining a measurement position of the moving object based on the GPS derived three-dimensional position of the selected GPS-satellite combination.
US07692577B2
The disclosure relates to method and apparatus for geolocation determination. In one embodiment, the disclosure relates to a method for detecting an erroneous satellite measurement by a receiver, including the steps of (a) determining an approximate location of the receiver; (b) for each of a plurality of satellites from which the receiver receives a signal: (i) determining a range difference between an expected range between the receiver and the satellite and a measured range between the receiver and the satellite; (ii) determining a median value of the range differences; (iii) determining an offset value between the range difference and the median value; (iv) comparing the offset value with a predetermined threshold to thereby detect an erroneous satellite measurement.
US07692565B2
An electronic device is described. The electronic device includes a first integrated circuit (IC) and a second integrated circuit (IC). The electronic device also includes a multiplexer configured to multiplex a parallel data signal into a serial data signal, and a transmitter configured to transmit the serial data signal from the first IC to the second IC. The electronic device further includes a receiver configured to receive the serial data signal. The receiver includes a clamp circuit configured to clamp the voltage swing of an analog node within a determined range. The clamp also helps to extend the bandwidth of the receiver.
US07692562B1
A computerized system for representing a digital media using both a bit stream and an associated metadata includes a codec configured to encode the digital media to the bit stream. The codec is further configured to generate a metadata representation stream of the bit stream that encapsulates information embedded in the bit stream and at least one type of media-related information. The system also includes a manager configured to assure synchronization between the bit stream and the metadata representation stream during streaming of the bit stream and the metadata representation stream.
US07692554B2
A sound generating device for invalid apparatus as herein defined comprises a monitoring circuit and an audible output device for outputting an audible indication corresponding to the status and/or relative proximity of the in use apparatus monitored by the monitoring circuit. Body soaking apparatus, a seat, a handle, and invalid apparatus having such a sound generating device are also provided.
US07692553B2
An integrated leak detection system for a rotating union provides improved leak detection and user convenience. In an embodiment of the invention, the system provides a leak detection sensor located within the union, and in an embodiment of the invention the detection sensor is located beyond a back-up seal system. In an embodiment of the invention, the sensor and processing electronics are integral to the union housing. In yet another embodiment of the invention, the detection sensor is substantially symmetrically configured to detect leakage into a protected area regardless of orientation of the union. In an embodiment of the invention, the fluid being conveyed is electrically conductive and the detection sensor comprises an electrical conductivity sensor.
US07692552B2
A method for enhancing driver safety through body position monitoring with remote sensors, and furnishing feedback in response to vehicle motion, driver activities, and external driving conditions, wherein the method includes: monitoring and characterizing signals from at least one sensor mounted on the body of a driver; monitoring and characterizing signals from at least one vehicle mounted sensor; determining driver activity based on disambiguating the signals from the driver and vehicle mounted sensors; providing feedback to the driver based on the determined driver activity, vehicle motion, and external driving conditions; and wherein the feedback is employed to modify driver behavior and enhance driver safety.
US07692545B2
There is a problem related to radio wave interference, e.g. the shade of radio wave of a radio IC tag, when a plurality of radio IC tags are present in a region of electromagnetic wave. When a plurality of antennas each having a large area are present in the vicinity of the radio IC tag, the radio IC tag easily receives the affect of an antenna conductor. In a plurality of radio IC tags present in a radio wave area, width of the antenna conductor of the radio IC tag is set at 1.0 mm or less. Furthermore, in order to realize an antenna conductor having a small width, an IC tag chip of both side electrode structure having electrodes on the front surface and rear surface of a chip is sandwiched between antennas.
US07692541B1
This is a container breach detection system wherein a piece of material is affixed across the outside surface of container doors. When the container doors are opened, the strip will rip and cannot be repaired satisfactorily, thereby making detection of a breach much easier and much more cost effective. The material is meant to be disposable.
US07692532B2
A system and method for monitoring and characterizing various sources of RF interference within an RFID environment, and for adjusting the operational characteristics of an array of RFID readers within the system based on these interference characterizations. The system examines the received transmissions from readers in the network by controlling a calibration cycle or while they are operating as interrogators to determine interference parameters, and to verify the operation of the readers in the array. The system also examines outside sources of interference, and signal dependent interference. The interference characterization can also be estimated from a combination of calculations and co-monitoring.
US07692530B2
A method and apparatus for detecting and tracking an object within a defined area, and determining its position, status, movement and identity therein, includes interrogating the defined area to communicate with an information device associated with an object and transmit information received to a master controller unit, which determines the object's presence, position, status, movement and identity within the defined area. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.
US07692528B2
A rotary electronic component is capable of preventing misalignment of another component placed in its hollow portion and maintaining the quality of an electronic device on which to mount the rotary electronic component. The rotary electronic component has an approximately annular shape with a hollow portion. The other component placed inside the hollow portion is positioned by the positioning member formed inside the hollow portion.
US07692527B2
A common mode choke coil is provided with first and second coil conductors that are magnetically coupled to each other, a third coil conductor that is electrically connected in series to the first coil conductor and substantially not magnetically coupled to the first coil conductor, a fourth coil conductor that is electrically connected in series to the second coil conductor and substantially not magnetically coupled to the second coil conductor, a first contact conductor for connecting the third coil conductor with the inner end of the first coil conductor, and a second contact conductor for connecting the fourth coil conductor with the inner end of the second coil conductor. The third coil conductor and the fourth coil conductor are substantially not magnetically coupled, and are in a linear symmetrical relationship based on a prescribed center line.
US07692523B2
A multi-voltage power transformer for the high-voltage electricity transmission network, has a compact design and has different selectable voltage levels at the input and/or output.
US07692521B1
Problems with the short lifetime of MEMS devices, low actuation forces, contaminant build-up on contacts, etc. are minimized by a MEMS device with an improved cantilever design that enables high force while maintaining large gaps. The improved cantilever design both allows for high force and fast switching while minimizing damage to contacts. The improved design can be fabricated on one or two substrates, which are bonded together with a seal ring to provide a packaged MEMS device.
US07692507B2
A plurality of RF signals are generated with the RF signals synchronized with each other with high accuracy. Transmission data of the multiple channels are modulated, the modulated data of the channels are added to produce composite data and the composite data is stored in a data storage device. In the modulation process, the carrier frequencies are different from each other. The composite data comprises the data of the channels modulated in the frequency division multiplexing manner. The composite data is converted into an analog composite signal by a D/A converter and this analog signal is upconverted to an RF frequency by a frequency conversion circuit. A signal separation circuit produces two channel signals from the RF frequency signal. A signal output circuit generates the output signals having desired frequencies and signal levels.
US07692504B2
An nth-order oscillator system for providing a resonating signal, a method of generating a resonating signal and a communications system. In one embodiment, the nth-order oscillator system, n being greater than two, includes (1) an amplifier configured to provide an intermediate signal and (2) a feedback loop including an nth-order complex LC tank and configured to generate the resonating signal by feeding back a complex-filtered form of the intermediate signal to the amplifier.
US07692502B2
The invention relates to a method for controlling an oscillatory system with the aid of at least one measured variable by the detection of at least one oscillation component (Sx(t)) over time (t) in the form of at least one measured variable. According to said method a control variable (δu) for controlling the oscillatory system is determined from the sum of the weighted differences of the delayed oscillation component, which has been delayed at least twice by different delay times (τ1>O, τ2>0) if there is one measured variable and the respective non-delayed oscillation component and if there are several measured variables the sum of the weighted differences of the delayed oscillation components (Si(t−τi)), which have been respectively delayed at least once by a specific delay time (τi>0) and their respective non-delayed oscillation components (Si(t)) according to the relationship δu=a1S1(t) b1S1(t−τ1)+ . . . +anSn(t)−bnSn(t−τn), wherein a1, . . . , an and b1, . . . , bn are weighting factors for the oscillation components S1, . . . , Sn of the measured variables.
US07692501B2
A stream of data may flow over a fiber or other medium without any accompanying clock signal. The receiving device may then be required to process this data synchronously. Embodiments describe clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits which may sample a data signal at a plurality of sampling points to partition a clock cycle into four phase regions P1, P2, P3, and P4 which may be represented on a phase plane being divided into four quadrants. A relative phase between a data signal transition edge and a clock phase may be represented by a phasor on the phase plane. The clock phase and frequency may be adjusted by determining the instantaneous location of the phasor and the direction of phasor rotation in the phase plane.
US07692487B2
A switching amplifier includes first and second output terminals that may be connected to a load. A pulse-width modulator receiving an input signal to obtain respective positive and negative values of the input signal. The modulator is connected to first and second switching circuits. The first switching circuit applies a plurality of pulses to the first output terminal that, in response to the positive samples, have a constant frequency and are pulse-width modulated, and, in response to the negative samples, have a varying frequency and a constant width. Similarly, the second switching circuit applies a plurality of pulses to the second output terminal that, in response to the negative samples, have a constant frequency and are pulse-width modulated, and, in response to the positive samples, have a varying frequency and a constant width. The varying phase of the constant width pulses disperses RF interference across a wider spectrum.
US07692477B1
A control circuit for substrate potential regulation for an integrated circuit device. The control circuit includes a current source configured to generate a reference current. A variable resistor is coupled to the current source. The variable resistor is configured to receive the reference current and generate a reference voltage at a node between the current source and the variable resistor. The reference voltage controls the operation of a substrate potential regulation circuit coupled to the node.
US07692470B2
A level conversion circuit according to the present invention comprises: a first transistor having a gate thereof grounded, for inputting the input voltage to a source thereof and outputting an output voltage from a drain thereof; a second transistor having a drain thereof to which a power supply voltage is applied, for inputting the output voltage outputted from the drain of the first transistor to a gate thereof and outputting, from a source thereof, the output voltage determined by the power supply voltage; a level shift circuit for inputting the output voltage outputted from the source of the second transistor to an input end thereof and outputting, from an output end thereof, a voltage whose level is shifted by a predetermined amount; and a resistance inserted between the output end of the level shift circuit and a ground. Thus, it becomes possible to reduce a current Ii flowing to the gate of the first transistor to a level close to zero.
US07692467B2
Capacitive decoupling circuits and methods of making the same are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of manufacturing is provided that includes providing a semiconductor chip with a first power rail for a first no-load bias level and a ground rail. A first voltage divider is electrically coupled between the first power rail and the ground rail and has a midpoint node. A first pair of capacitors is electrically coupled between the first power rail, the midpoint node and the ground rail to provide capacitive decoupling for power delivered to the first power rail. A second power rail has a second no-load bias less than the first no-load bias. A second pair of capacitors is electrically coupled between the ground rail and the second power rail to provide capacitive decoupling for power delivered to the second power rail.
US07692465B2
In a method for generating a PWM-signal to drive the power transistors of a half-bridge of a converter with the aid of a digital circuit, a digital reference value is compared to the counter content of a digital counting ramp, and a logic state of the PWM-signal is dependent upon whether the reference value is greater than the counter content of the counting ramp. In this context, at least two counters count counter contents of the counting ramp following one another in alternation, and the logic state of the PWM-signal is dependent upon whether the reference value is greater than the counter contents of counting ramps of each of the at least two counters.
US07692463B2
In one aspect of the invention, a method of reducing intersymbol interference on a signal line is disclosed. A state machine records previous bits that were transmitted over the line. If the bit on the line has been static for several clock cycles, the slew rate will be increased to facilitate correct reading of the bit for the next clock cycle. If the bit on the line has been dynamic for the previous bits, the slew rate will be a lower slew rate to avoid crosstalk between neighboring lines.
US07692454B2
A signal conversion circuit 2 comprises a differential amplifier portion 10 and a source follower portion 20. When differential voltage signals INp and INn are input to a first input terminal 5 and second input terminal 6 respectively, operations occurs either in a mode in which only the differential amplifier portion 10 operates, or a mode in which both the differential amplifier portion 10 and the source follower portion 20 operate, or a mode in which only the source follower portion 20 operates, according to the levels of the differential voltage signals INp and INn. The differential amplifier portion 10 and source follower portion 20 have fewer components compared with a circuit comprising two differential amplifier circuits. By this means, the circuit area can be reduced, and in addition current consumption can be reduced. Also, because the source follower portion 20 performs non-inverting amplification of the differential voltage signals INp and INn, high-speed operation is possible.
US07692451B2
A pulse generation section generates a pulse which is at H-level for the predetermined period of time from the timing of the input signal DATA changing to L-level. A main output section outputs a signal of L-level with transistors P1, N1, and N2 turned ON, while the pulse generation section outputs a pulse. When the pulse falls, the transistors P1 and N1 are turned OFF, and a potential of an output node is held at L-level by resistors of a L-level holding section.
US07692445B2
In an output buffer circuit including Inverter 1 to Inverter 3, Delay Circuit 1 to Delay Circuit 3 for delaying an input signal for a specific time, Buffer 1 to Buffer 3, and a function for transmitting a logic signal to a transmission path and in accordance with an amount of signal attenuation in the transmission path, creating at a transmission side a waveform including four or more kinds of signal voltages, the preemphasis amount is made variable and the ON resistance Rs of the buffer is made constant. Selector circuit 1 to Selector circuit 3 are situated before the buffers, the inverter, capable of selecting through selector logic a signal to be inputted to the buffer, inverts a data signal, and the preemphasis amount and the number of preemphasis taps are adjusted through a selection signal for the selector logic.
US07692442B2
The present invention discloses an apparatus for detecting a current flowing from a first node to a second node. One or more MOS devices are serially coupled between the first and second nodes. Each of the MOS devices has its body connected to its source and its gate connected to its drain for providing each MOS device with a voltage difference between its gate and its source that is lower than a threshold voltage of the same, such that a voltage difference measured between the first and second nodes responds to a change of the current exponentially.
US07692438B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a probe which can provide stable electrical conduction to an electrode of an object to be measured even when it is miniaturized. A probe 100 comprises a columnar contact part 110 which can come in contact with an electrode 10 of an object to be measured almost perpendicularly, and a base end (not shown) connected to the contact part 110, the contact part 110 comprises a base part 111 and an expansion part 111a bonded to an end of the base part 111 in a width direction, and the expansion part 111a is formed of a material having a thermal expansion coefficient higher than that of the base part 111.
US07692434B2
A probe needle 20 includes a cantilever 21, a column 22 and a tip 23. The column 22 is cantilevered from an end of the cantilever 21. The tip 23 is formed on a top end of the column 22. The column 22 is formed so as to be longer than the tip 23. The heights of the column 22 and tip 23 are chosen so that their sum is twice or more than twice the width of the columnar 22.
US07692425B2
The present invention provides a system and method for parallel imaging that performs auto-calibrating reconstructions with a 2D (for 2D imaging) or 3D kernel (for 3D imaging) that exploits the computational efficiencies available when operating in certain data “domains” or “spaces”. The reconstruction process of multi-coil data is separated into a “training phase” and an “application phase” in which reconstruction weights are applied to acquired data to synthesize (replace) missing data. The choice of data space, i.e., k-space, hybrid space, or image space, in which each step occurs is independently optimized to reduce total reconstruction time for a given imaging application. As such, the invention retains the image quality benefits of using a 2D k-space kernel without the computational burden of applying a 2D k-space convolution kernel.
US07692423B2
A method for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is provided. A magnetic resonance excitation is provided. A magnetic field is read out through k-space using winders, wherein some of the winders overlap for a length of the winders. Readout data from overlapping lengths of winders is used to estimate motion. The readout may use a two dimensional discrete Fourier transform acquisition.
US07692420B2
The current in a conductor is measured by exploiting the Faraday effect in a sensing fiber. The light returning from the sensing fiber is split into at least two parts, at least one of which is analyzed by a first circular analyzer for generating a first signal. A second part may e.g. be analyzed by a second circular analyzer, and a third part may be analyzed by a linear analyzer. By combining the signals obtained in this way, the current induced phase delay in the returning light can be measured efficiently and accurately.
US07692419B1
A system and method for enhanced frequency measurement. Embodiments provide an effective mechanism for reducing error associated with frequency measurements by amplifying the frequency of the signal fed to the frequency counter, thereby increasing the number of counts and reducing the error associated with each frequency measurement. Reductions in error enable the gate time for the frequency counter to be reduced, thereby increasing efficiency and cost-savings. After accessing the counts provided for the amplified frequency, the original frequency before amplification may be determined by reducing the amplified frequency (e.g., represented by the accessed counts) by the amount by which the original frequency was amplified. Embodiments provide an effective and efficient mechanism for automatically determining the amount of amplification for a given signal based upon its frequency and a maximum frequency of at least one of the frequency amplification component and the frequency counter.
US07692416B2
A voltage up and down synchronization and rectification type DC-DC converter goes up and down an input voltage using an inductor. The voltage up and down synchronization and rectification type DC-DC converter comprises a voltage up and down use rectification circuit including a pair of PMOS and NMOS transistors connected in parallel to each other.
US07692413B2
A power control system comprises a prime mover and a generator driven by the prime mover. A control device is coupled with the prime mover and the generator wherein the control device ascertains a power level of the generator and varies an output power of the prime mover according to the power level. The control device measures a duty cycle of a generator output power controller to ascertain the generator power level and generates a signal to a prime mover controller so that the generator duty cycle remains within a pre-determined range. The power control system may include a transmission wherein the control device operation may be conditioned on a state of the transmission. The power control system may include a speed converter coupled with the prime mover wherein the control device converts a speed of the prime mover according to the generator power level. The control device may operate to control an output power of the generator concurrently with controlling the output power of the prime mover.
US07692412B2
A charging control apparatus is adapted to control an alternator which is operable to generate a voltage to charge a battery which is operable to supply the voltage to an electric component. An interface is connected to the alternator, the battery, and the electric component and operable to input and output a signal therebetween. A microcomputer is connected to the inter face and operable to execute a gradual change process in which a generating voltage of the alternator is gradually changed to a target generating voltage of the alternator and a sudden change process in which the generating voltage is suddenly changed to the target generating voltage. The microcomputer is operable to detect a using status of the electric component based on the signal. The microcomputer is operable to judge whether the gradual change process is required or the sudden change process is required based on the detected using status. The microcomputer executes the sudden change process when the microcomputer judges that the sudden change process is required. The microcomputer executes the gradual change process when the microcomputer judges that the gradual change process is required.
US07692407B2
A technology for charging the battery of a terminal device with efficiency. In a wireless game controller, a charge control unit supplies electric power from an external power supply to a battery. A communication management unit receives a drive request signal to a vibrating motor. A motor control unit supplies a drive current to the vibrating motor in accordance with the drive request signal. The charge control unit performs charge control for the battery in a first mode when the communication management unit does not receive the drive request signal, and performs charge control for the battery in a second mode when the communication management unit does receive the drive request signal. The charge control unit performs the charge control for the battery in the first mode using a charging current higher than that in the second mode.
US07692406B2
A circuit is provided for controlling a battery-charger device with a closed-loop architecture. The circuit includes sensing means for sensing an operative quantity of the device, control means, and driving means. The control means alternately controls the sensing means to track the operative quantity during a tracking phase and to hold the operative quantity during a holding phase. The driving means provides a regulation signal that regulates the operative quantity based on a comparison between the operative quantity sensed by the sensing means and a reference value. The control means causes the driving means to hold the regulation signal during at least part of each of the holding phases. Also provided is a method of controlling a battery-charger device with a closed-loop architecture.
US07692397B2
The aim of the invention is to provide a speed control method for reducing current ripple and speed ripple at constant dynamics behavior while reducing the hardware required to a minimum. For this purpose, a control signal, especially a speed deviation (ev) is divided up into at least two signal portions (evhi and evlo). Every one of the at least two signal portions (evhi and evlo) is processed in a different manner. The low-order portion (evlo) can be smoothed by means of a low-pass filter (F). In an adder (Sum6) mounted downstream thereof the differently processed signal portions are then added up for further control.
US07692396B2
An electromotive furniture drive for adjusting at least one movable component of a piece of furniture, has at least one electric motor for adjusting the movable component, at least one operating device with switching elements for actuating the electric motor, at least one control unit for controlling the at least one electric motor as a function of the operating device, and at least one power supply unit. At least one analyzing device has at least one actuating element for checking the function of the at least one electric motor, the at least one control unit, the at least one operating device and of the at least one power supply unit, and has at least one signaling element.
US07692392B2
A discharge lamp controlling apparatus includes a detector for detecting a discharge condition of a discharge lamp; a frequency changing unit for gradually changing a frequency of a voltage to be applied to the discharge lamp until the discharge condition reaches a predetermined lighting condition; and a voltage controller for controlling the voltage to be applied to the discharge lamp on the basis of the frequency changed by the frequency changing unit.
US07692371B2
The present invention relates to an electrode for a source of field emitting electrons and a lighting panel and a lighting apparatus thereof. A plurality of conductive emitters made from a combination of an electrical emitting source material and an electrical conductive material is formed on a cathode plate. Therefore, the conductive emitter can be a cathode, a gate and a field emitting electric source as well to simplify the structure and the process, and improve the brightness and uniformity thereof.
US07692368B2
A multilayer component includes a ceramic base body and at least one internal electrode in the ceramic base body. The at least one internal electrode includes holes, and is made of a material having a liquidus temperature that differs from a sintering temperature of the ceramic base body. The ceramic base body is sinterable such that formation of holes in the at least one internal electrode occurs during sintering.
US07692359B2
A driving apparatus comprises: an electromechanical conversion element that expands and contracts in an extending direction of a given fiducial line; a driving shaft that is fixed to one end of the electromechanical conversion element in the extending direction; a driven body that is frictionally engaged with the driving shaft; a holder that holds, through an adhesive, the electromechanical conversion element from lateral sides with respect to the extending direction; and a flange member that is provided on the driving shaft between (i) a moving region of the driven body on the driving shaft and (ii) the electromechanical conversion element.
US07692338B2
A power transmission cable with easy laying, reduced heat invasion and enhanced efficiency. The cable comprises an inner pipe 105 encasing a refrigerant passage 101, a superconducting member 102 and an electrically insulating portion 103; an outer pipe 106; a vacuum adiabatic insulating section 104 between the inner and outer pipes; an inner pipe support ring disposed between the inner and outer pipes so that it is slidable along the outer side of the inner pipe; an outer pipe support ring fixed to the inner side of the outer pipe; and a support member which is disposed between the inner and outer pipe support rings.
US07692334B2
A photovoltaic system includes a solar module having at least one solar cell. In order to reduce the power loss of the solar module when a solar module is in shade or is defective, a semiconductor switching element is connected in parallel with the solar module and drive electronics block the semiconductor switching element when the solar module is generating power and otherwise switch the semiconductor switching element to low impedance in order to bridge the solar module.
US07692329B2
Current sharing scheme based on input power and/or the power efficiency for a power stage with multiple phases and/or paralleled modules is described. According to the scheme, duty cycles of different phases/modules may be adaptively adjusted until the minimum input power and/or the maximum power efficiency is achieved. For certain input voltages, the minimum input power exists at the minimum total input current. Thus, input power and/or the input current may be used as an indicator of the maximized power efficiency of the power stage and hence be used to track the optimal current sharing ratio among the multiple phases/modules.
US07692325B2
In a wind power generation system, an AC input of a unit for coping with system faults is connected to an excitation converter and a DC port of the unit for coping with system faults is connected to a DC port of a converter through resistors. A plurality of energy consumptive circuits each constructed of a resistor and switching units are provided for the DC port of the unit for coping with system faults.
US07692318B2
Better semiconductor encapsulation is achieved with a liquid epoxy resin composition comprising (A) a liquid epoxy resin, (B) a curing agent containing at least 5 wt % of an aromatic amine compound, (C) a microencapsulated catalyst containing a phenolic hydroxy-bearing benzoic acid derivative, and optionally, (D) an inorganic filler.
US07692313B2
A substrate with reduced substrate warpage and a semiconductor package utilizing the substrate are revealed. The substrate primarily comprises a core where a wiring layer and a first solder mask are formed on one surface of the core, and a second solder mask and a die-attaching layer are formed on the other surface of the core. The first solder mask has a thickness difference with respect to the second solder mask in a manner to reduce the warpage of the substrate caused by thermal stresses due to temperature differences can be well under control. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the substrate can be lower without adding extra stiffeners to achieve substrate warpage control during semiconductor packaging processes.
US07692303B2
A semiconductor device includes: a P-type semiconductor layer formed in a surface region of a semiconductor substrate; a first gate insulating film formed on the P-type semiconductor layer; a first gate electrode; and a first source region and a first drain region formed in the P-type semiconductor layer to interpose a region under the first gate electrode in a direction of gate length. The first gate electrode includes: a first silicide film formed on the first gate insulating film and containing nickel silicide having a first composition ratio of nickel to silicon as a main component; a conductive film formed on the first silicide film; and a second silicide film formed on the conductive film and containing nickel silicide having a second composition ratio of nickel to silicon as a main component. The second composition ratio is larger than the first composition ratio.
US07692302B2
A System In Package (SIP) semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing a SIP device. A TiSiN film may be used as a diffusion barrier film for metal wiring in a SIP semiconductor device. A TiSiN film may provide relatively good step coverage in a relatively easy formation process, which may maximize reliability of a semiconductor device.
US07692300B2
In a printed circuit board, a semiconductor including plural power supply terminals and a semiconductor chip is mounted onto a mounting surface of a printed wiring board, and a bypass capacitor for reducting a power ground noise is provided. Another bypass capacitor, which is connected to the bypass capacitor only within an IC chip is provided to inhibit the power ground noise from causing not only a variation in timing of the IC chip and a malfunction thereof but also a malfunction of another IC chip and the generation of an EMI noise in a case where the power ground noise propagates to a power supply side.
US07692296B2
A semiconductor device is provided with connection reliability between a bump electrode and a substrate electrode. An elastic modulus of an adhesive material used to electrically connect a metal bump and an interconnect pattern, and sealing the circuit surface of an LSI chip, after thermosetting is Ea; an elastic modulus of an insulating material of a packaging substrate surface layer after thermosetting is Eb; an elastic modulus of a core material, if used, is Ec, and the following rational expression is satisfied at normal temperature or a thermal contact bonding temperature of the adhesive material: at least Ea
US07692294B2
A semiconductor device with a structure having superior heat sink characteristics. A first heat sink member is located over a wiring board by using an adhesive material. A semiconductor element is stuck over the first heat sink member by using an adhesive material. The semiconductor element and electrodes located over the wiring board are connected by wires. A second heat sink member which covers the semiconductor element and the wires is joined to the first heat sink member by using a conductive adhesive material. The inside and outside of the second heat sink member are sealed by resin except a flat top thereof. By doing so, the semiconductor device is fabricated. Heat which is generated in the semiconductor element and which is transmitted to the first heat sink member is released from an edge portion of the first heat sink member. In addition, the heat which is generated in the semiconductor element and which is transmitted to the first heat sink member is transmitted to the conductive adhesive material and the second heat sink member and is released from the flat top of the second heat sink member.
US07692292B2
A first container member (9, 109, 212) mounting an electronic device (71, 171, 261) thereon and a second container member (2, 102, 202) are bonded with an adhesive (3, 103) or a metal layer (103, 251). Thus an inner space (90, 190, 211) is formed and the electronic device can be closed in the inner space at a low temperature. In the case the adhesive is used, an exposed surface of the adhesive is coated with a metal film (4) to improve the closeness of the inner space. Further, an electronic device (261, 272) may be mounted on the second container member so as to increase the electronic device arrangement density in a packaged electronic device.
US07692282B2
A first semiconductor element is mounted on a base plate, and is in a sealed state by the periphery thereof being covered by an insulation member, and the upper surface thereof being covered by an upper insulation film. An upper wiring layer formed on the upper insulation film, and the lower wiring layer formed below the base plate via lower insulation films are connected by conductors. A second semiconductor element is mounted exposed, being connected to the lower wiring layer.
US07692269B2
A vertical organic transistor and a method for fabricating the same are provided, wherein an emitter, a grid with openings and a collector are sequentially arranged above a substrate. Two organic semiconductor layers are interposed respectively between the emitter and the grid with openings and between the grid with openings and the collector. The channel length is simply decided by the thickness of the organic semiconductor layers. The collector current depends on the space-charge-limited current contributed by the potential difference between the emitter and the openings of the grid. And the grid voltage can thus effectively control the collector current. Further, the fabrication process of the vertical organic transistor of the present invention is simple and exempt from using the photolithographic process.
US07692264B2
A semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. A gate insulating film is formed under a vacuum condition to prevent deterioration of reliability of the device due to degradation of a gate insulating material and to have stable operating characteristics. The semiconductor device includes an element isolating film formed at element isolating regions of a semiconductor substrate, which is divided into active regions and the element isolating regions; a gate insulating film having openings with a designated width formed at the active regions of the semiconductor substrate; gate electrodes formed on the gate insulating film; and lightly doped drain regions and source/drain impurity regions formed in the surface of the semiconductor substrate at both sides of the gate electrodes.
US07692241B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate and a super junction structure on the substrate. The super junction structure is constructed with p-type and n-type column regions that are alternately arranged. A p-type channel layer is formed to a surface of the super junction structure. A trench gate structure is formed to the n-type column region. An n+-type source region is formed to a surface of the channel layer near the trench structure. A p+-type region is formed to the surface of the channel layer between adjacent n+-type source regions. A p-type body region is formed in the channel layer between adjacent trench gate structures and in contact with the p+-type region. Avalanche current is caused to flow from the body region to a source electrode via the p+-type region without passing through the n+-type source region.
US07692239B2
A MIS-type semiconductor device has reduced ON-resistance by securing an overlapping area between the gate electrode and the drift region, and has low switching losses by reducing the feedback capacitance. The MIS-type semiconductor device includes a p-type base region, an n-type drift region, a p+-type stopper region in the base region, a gate insulation film on the base region, a gate electrode on the gate insulation film, an oxide film on the drift region, a field plate on the oxide film, and a source electrode. The position (P) of the impurity concentration peak in base region is located more closely to the drift region. The oxide film is thinner on the side of the gate electrode. The field plate is connected electrically to the source electrode, the spacing (dg) between the gate insulation film and the stopper region is 2.5 μm or narrower, and the minimum spacing (x) between the drain region and the stopper region is 5.6 μm or narrower. The minimum thickness of the oxide film is equal to or larger than the thickness of the gate insulation film and equal to or smaller than the ratio Vb/Ec of the breakdown voltage Vb to the critical dielectric breakdown strength of silicon Ec. The drift region can be formed of first and second drift regions, with the first drift region being more heavily doped. The gate electrode and the drift region can be buried.
US07692236B1
A multiple dual bit integrated circuit system is provided that includes forming first address lines in a semiconductor substrate and forming a charge-trapping layer over the semiconductor substrate. A semiconductor layer is formed over the charge-trapping layer and second address lines are formed in the semiconductor layer to form a plurality of dual bit locations.
US07692227B2
A semiconductor device has an electrode pad, a capacitor and a substrate. The substrate has a given area on which the electrode pad and the capacitor are arranged. The electrode pad and the capacitor are arranged on the substrate so that each of at least two sides of the capacitor and each of at least two sides of the electrode pad is adjacent to each other at a given interval. The capacitor has a connecting side that connects the two sides of the capacitor and faces to the electrode pad. Outside angles of the capacitor formed by the connecting side and the two sides of the capacitor are more than 90 degrees.
US07692223B2
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor device of the present invention includes the steps of forming a stacked body in which a semiconductor film, a gate insulating film, and a first conductive film are sequentially stacked over a substrate; selectively removing the stacked body to form a plurality of island-shaped stacked bodies; forming an insulating film to cover the plurality of island-shaped stacked bodies; removing a part of the insulating film to expose a surface of the first conductive film, such that a surface of the first conductive film almost coextensive with a height of the insulating film; forming a second conductive film over the first conductive film and a left part of the insulating film; forming a resist over the second conductive film; selectively removing the first conductive film and the second conductive film using the resist as a mask.
US07692215B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to mixed-scale electronic interfaces, included in integrated circuits and other electronic devices, that provide for dense electrical interconnection between microscale features of a predominantly microscale or submicroscale layer and nanoscale features of a predominantly nanoscale layer. The predominantly nanoscale layer, in one embodiment of the present invention, comprises a tessellated pattern of submicroscale or microscale pads densely interconnected by nanowire junctions between sets of parallel, closely spaced nanowire bundles. The predominantly submicroscale or microscale layer includes pins positioned complementarily to the submicroscale or microscale pads in the predominantly nanoscale layer. Pins can be configured according to any periodic tiling of the microscale layer.
US07692214B2
A semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor substrate; an IGBT cell; and a diode cell. The substrate includes a first layer on a first surface, second and third layers adjacently arranged on a second surface of the substrate and a fourth layer between the first layer and the second and third layers. The first layer provides a drift layer of the IGBT cell and the diode cell. The second layer provides a collector layer of the IGBT cell. The third layer provides one electrode connection layer of the diode cell. A resistivity ρ1 and a thickness L1 of the first layer, a resistivity ρ2 and a thickness L2 of the fourth layer, and a half of a minimum width W2 of the second layer on a substrate plane have a relationship of (ρ1/ρ2)×(L1·L2/W22)<1.6.
US07692211B1
A gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) device has a lower portion, an upper portion and a lid. The lower portion has a lower base region of a first conductivity type, and a lower emitter region of a second conductivity type disposed at or from a lower surface of the lower base region. A lower junction is formed between the lower base region and the lower emitter region. The upper portion has an upper base region of the second conductivity type, and upper emitter regions of the first conductivity type disposed at or from an upper surface of the upper base region. An upper-lower junction is formed between the lower base region and the upper base region, and upper junctions are formed between the upper base region and the upper emitter regions. The upper base region and upper emitter regions form an upper base surface with first conductive contacts to the upper base region alternating with second conductive contacts to the upper emitter regions. The lid has a layer of insulator with upper and lower surfaces. Upper metal stripes extend along the upper surface of the insulator, and lower metal stripes extend along the lower surface of the insulator. The upper and lower metal stripes are connected together by vias that extend through the insulator. One set of the lower metal stripes contacts the first conductive contacts, but not the second conductive contacts. Another set of the lower metal stripes contacts the second conductive contacts, but not the first conductive contacts.
US07692208B2
The disclosed subject matter includes a semiconductor optical device with a stable optical characteristic, an excellent radiant efficiency, and a high mounting reliability. A casing can be configured with a concaved-shaped cavity that includes an opening and a bottom portion. Each of one end portions of first/second lead frame electrodes 3a, 3b can be exposed on the bottom portion. The first one end portion can include an optical chip mounted thereon, and the second one end portion can be connected to another electrode of the optical chip via a bonding wire. The first lead frame electrode extends from an outside surface substantially perpendicular to the bottom portion and is bent in a direction towards the opening. The second lead frame electrode extends from an outside surface of the casing that is opposite to the outside surface from which the first electrode extends. Various physical configurations of the electrodes are disclosed.
US07692202B2
A semiconductor structure with active zones, such as light diodes or photodiodes, including a substrate (SUB) with at least two active zones (AZ1-AZn), each of which emits or absorbs a radiation of differing wavelength. According to the invention, a multi-wavelength diode may be achieved, in which a first (lower) active zone (AZ1) is grown on a surface of the substrate (SUB), with one or several further active zones (AZ1-Azn) epitaxially grown one on the other and the active zones (AZ1-AZn) are serially connected from the lower active zone (AZ1) to an upper active zone (AZn), by means of tunnel diodes (TD1-TDn), serving as low-impedance resistors.
US07692198B2
A device 100 comprising a substrate 115 having crystal-support-structures 110 thereon, and a III-V crystal 210. The III-V crystal is on a single contact region 140 of one of the crystal-support-structures. An area of the contact region is no more than about 50 percent of a surface area 320 of the III-V crystal.
US07692195B2
An active-matrix device includes a substrate; a plurality of pixel electrodes provided on a first surface of the substrate; a plurality of switching elements provided to correspond to each of the pixel electrodes, each of the switching elements including a fixed electrode connected to the each pixel electrode, a movable electrode mainly made of silicon and displaceably provided so as to contact with and separate from the fixed electrode, and a driving electrode provided to oppose the movable electrode via an electrostatic gap; a first wiring connected to the movable electrode; and a second wiring connected to the driving electrode, wherein a voltage is applied between the movable electrode and the driving electrode to generate an electrostatic attraction between the movable electrode and the driving electrode so as to displace the movable electrode such that the movable electrode contacts with the fixed electrode to electrically connect the first wiring to the pixel electrode.
US07692190B2
The semiconductor device has a fuse and a fuse opening created above the fuse. The fuse is divided into a plurality of lines at a crossing portion where the fuse crosses with an edge of the fuse opening. The plurality of divided lines of the fuse 101 are in parallel with each other and in perpendicular to the edge of the fuse opening.
US07692187B2
The present invention encompasses an organic field-effect transistor comprising an n-type organic semiconductor formed of a fullerene derivative having a fluorinated alkyl group which is expressed by the following chemical formula (wherein at least any one of R1, R2 and R3 is a perfluoro alkyl group or a partially-fluorinated semifluoro alkyl group each having a carbon number of 1 to 20), and a field-effect transistor production method comprising forming an organic semiconductor layer using the fullerene derivative by a solution process, and subjecting the organic semiconductor layer to a heat treatment in an atmosphere containing nitrogen or argon or in vacuum to provide enhanced characteristics to the organic semiconductor layer. The present invention makes it possible to form an organic semiconductor layer by a solution process and provide an organic field-effect transistor excellent in electron mobility and on-off ratio and capable of operating even in an ambient air atmosphere.
US07692186B2
To provide a light emitting device high in reliability with a pixel portion having high definition with a large screen. According to a light emitting device of the present invention, on an insulator (24) provided between pixel electrodes, an auxiliary electrode (21) made of a metal film is formed, whereby a conductive layer (20) made of a transparent conductive film in contact with the auxiliary electrode can be made low in resistance and thin. Also, the auxiliary electrode (21) is used to achieve connection with an electrode on a lower layer, whereby the electrode can be led out with the transparent conductive film formed on an EL layer. Further, a protective film (32) made of a film containing hydrogen and a silicon nitride film which are laminated is formed, whereby high reliability can be achieved.
US07692166B2
An exposure apparatus which draws a pattern on a substrate with a charged particle beam is disclosed. The exposure apparatus includes a detector which detects a charged particle beam, a deflector which deflects the charged particle beam to scan the substrate or the detector with the charged particle beam, and a controller which controls the deflector to scan each of a plurality of scanning ranges on the detector with the charged particle beam, and calculates, on the basis of the charged particle beam amount detected by the detector upon scanning the plurality of scanning ranges, the intensity distribution of the charged particle beam which strikes the detector.
US07692163B2
A charged particle beam apparatus includes a column, the column having: a charged particle beam source which generates a charged particle beam to apply a charged particle beam to the surface of a substrate, a position where the charged particle beam is irradiated to the substrate being a beam position; and a gas mechanism provided in proximity to the substrate to supply a gas to the surface of the substrate, the gas mechanism having an opening which permits passage of the charged particle beam, a gas supply opening which locally injects the gas to the vicinity of the beam position, and a gas exhaust opening which exhausts the injected gas in the vicinity of the beam position to exhaust the gas.
US07692155B2
Disclosed herein is a method of determining a characteristic of radiation detected by a radiation detector via a multiple-pixel event having a plurality of radiation interactions. The method includes determining a cathode-to-anode signal ratio for a selected interaction of the plurality of radiation interactions based on electron drift time data for the selected interaction, and determining the radiation characteristic for the multiple-pixel event based on both the cathode-to-anode signal ratio and the electron drift time data. In some embodiments, the method further includes determining a correction factor for the radiation characteristic based on an interaction depth of the plurality of radiation interactions, a lateral distance between the selected interaction and a further interaction of the plurality of radiation interactions, and the lateral positioning of the plurality of radiation interactions.
US07692146B2
This detector comprises an assembly of elementary sensors capable of detecting said radiation. This assembly comprises at least two separate detection areas, a first detection area comprising elementary sensors having a first thermal time constant and a second detection area comprising elementary sensors having a second thermal time constant which is different to said first thermal time constant.
US07692143B2
A method of operating a mass spectrometer having an elongated rod set and a set of auxiliary electrodes is provided, the rod set having an entrance end and an exit end and a longitudinal axis. The method comprises a) admitting ions into the entrance end of the rod set; b) trapping at least some of the ions in the rod set by producing a barrier field at an exit member adjacent to the exit end of the rod set and by producing an RF field between the rods of the rod set; and, c) providing an auxiliary AC excitement voltage to the set of auxiliary electrodes to energize a first group of ions of a selected mass to charge.
US07692139B2
A system for ion beam neutralization includes a beamguide configured to transport an ion beam through a dipole field, a first array of magnets and a second array of magnets configured to generate a multi-cusp magnetic field, the first array of magnets being on a first side of the ion beam path and the second array of magnets being on a second side of the ion beam path. The system may further include a charged particle source having one or more apertures configured to inject charged particles into the ion beam. The system may furthermore align the one or more apertures with at least one of the first array of magnets and the second array of magnets to align the injected charged particles from the charged particle source with one or more magnetic regions for an effective charged particle diffusion into the ion beam.
US07692131B2
An imaging system, methodology, and various applications are provided to facilitate optical imaging performance. The system contains a sensor having one or more receptors and an image transfer medium to scale the sensor and receptors in accordance with resolvable characteristics of the medium, and as defined with certain ratios. A computer, memory, and/or display associated with the sensor provides storage and/or display of information relating to output from the receptors to produce and/or process an image, wherein a plurality of illumination sources can also be utilized in conjunction with the image transfer medium. The image transfer medium can be configured as a k-space filter that correlates projected receptor size to a diffraction-limited spot associated with the image transfer medium, wherein the projected receptor size can be unit-mapped within a certain ratio to the size of the diffraction-limited spot, both in the object plane.
US07692123B2
A manufacturing machine manufactures a heat-source rod having a rod-like extrusion-molded article made from a combustible material with axial grooves in the cylindrical surface thereof and a heat-insulating web enveloping the article, and is provided with a apparatus 10 for spouting water to the web W in the process of the web W being fed to a wrapping section 4. The spout apparatus 10 includes an air vibrator 12 with a vibrating rod 34, and a flexible nozzle 36 attached to the rod 34 to extend across the rod 34 and supplied with water from a rate regulating pump 42. While the web W is being fed, the end of the nozzle 36 spouts water to the web W, reciprocating widthways relative to the web W due to vibration of the rod 34, and the water spouted dissolves a binder used in the web W to bind heat-insulating fiber, thereby forming a wet band H, where the wet band H has a waveform continuing along the longitudinal direction of the web W and provides a adhesive region for bonding the article.
US07692120B2
A transport robot including a release-side high radiation ratio portion and a receive-side high radiation ratio portion that face each other. Heat in a substrate conducted to a base portion due to thermal conduction is released as radiant heat from the release-side high radiation ratio portion, and the radiant heat is absorbed by the receive-side high radiation ratio portion. The receive-side high radiation ratio portion is formed on a heat-receiving plate that is thermally connected to a vacuum chamber so that radiant heat absorbed by the receive-side high radiation ratio portion is transferred to the vacuum chamber. As a result, even in the case where the high-temperature substrate is transported in a vacuum atmosphere, heat from the substrate is not accumulated in a transport system, and the transport system hardly reaches a high temperature.
US07692117B2
A gripping device is disclosed for a set of pinch rollers used in a wire feeder that supplies a welding operation with a consumable welding wire. The welding wire passes between the pinch rollers whereby the pinch rollers engage the wire with a gripping force and incrementally rotate to control the outflow of the wire to the welding operation. The gripping device has a first member which is displaceable relative to a second member and a spring mechanism extending between the first and second members which has at least a first and a second spring modulus. The spring mechanism produces the gripping force as the first and the second members are displaced toward one another. The gripper urges one roller of the set of pinch rollers toward the other roller of the set to engage the wire and to apply the gripping force. By including a spring with a first and second spring modulus, the gripper can apply a first range of gripping forces with the force produced by the first spring modulus and a second range of gripping forces with the force produced by the second spring modulus.
US07692111B1
A distinctive structure, such as an illuminating structure is provided. The illuminating structure includes an illuminating element that is placed in an opening of a surrounding area. The opening includes a curved side wall of a particular radius to reflect any light that emanates from the illuminating element so that the reflected light is viewable from the illuminating structure.
US07692109B2
A lever switch is provided, in which an arrangement of a push button is fixed with respect to an operation of a rotary ring to realize improvement in operation. A lever switch includes: a first shaft projecting from a base of a control means of a mobile unit; a plurality of push buttons provided at a distal end of the first shaft; a fixing-supporting part which fixes and supports a plurality of the push buttons for preventing a plurality of the push buttons from rotating relatively to the first shaft; and a rotary ring which is provided in the middle of the first shaft and is rotatable separately from a plurality of the push buttons, wherein when the rotary ring is operated, the rotary ring is rotated around the first shaft on a condition that a plurality of the push buttons are fixed and supported being prevented from rotating.
US07692101B2
A model and method are provided for lowering device jitter by controlling the stackup of PCB planes so as to minimize inductance between a FPGA and PCB voltage planes for critical core voltages within the FPGA. Furthermore, a model and method are provided for lowering jitter by controlling the stackup of package substrate planes so as to minimize inductance between a die and substrate voltage planes for critical core voltages within the die.
US07692097B2
A connector with a dip-molded housing and a method for forming a twist-on wire connector with a dip-molded housing. To dip-mold a covering or housing on a twist-on wire connector either a mandrel carrying a twist-on wire coil, a mandrel having the a shape of a spiral coil or a twist-on wire connector are dipped into a bath of an in situ solidfiable dip-moldable material such as liquid plastic. The dip-moldable solidified material solidifies to form a dip-molded shell on the wire connector.
US07692091B2
The present invention provides a motor driven by shape memory alloys for use in a variety of applications. In the disclosed embodiment, the motor is used to drive a photovoltaic panel so that the panel may remain in appropriate alignment with the sun throughout the day. In such a configuration, the motor assembly relies upon the intrinsic properties of shape memory alloys, in conjunction with a spring assembly, in order to generate sufficient torque in order to rotate the photovoltaic panel. In order to control the orientation of the panel, the system relies upon a sun tracking mechanism which includes an analog sensor circuit, a plurality of phototransistors and a power source. Accordingly, the device is able to rotate the photovoltaic panel in discrete and precise increments as the day progresses.
US07692090B2
An electronic musical performance instrument that provides a user with a wide array of creative choices of operating systems, sound synthesis applications, user interfaces (including those emulating the interface of a conventional musical instrument and electronic control interfaces), supporting infrastructure components such as MIDI cards, sound cards, storage devices thus providing the performance artist with greater and deeper creative flexibility.
US07692083B2
A drum having a resonant chamber for producing a range of sounds and at least one device for allowing the sound so produced to be altered, which includes a plurality of internal snares which can be brought into contact with the internal surface of the external surface of the resonant chamber which is struck by the player. The drum may also include a bass drum stick mounted within the chamber and adapted for movement to be able to selectively strike the inner surface of the drum which is struck by the player. The bass drum stick may include a pedal, or other device, operable by the player and external to the drum for effecting movement of the bass drum stick.
US07692082B2
A drum is formed using a drum shell having openings at both ends thereof, across which drumheads are stretched under tension. At least one air hole is formed at a prescribed position of the exterior surface of the drum shell, allowing air flow to occur between the inside and the outside of the drum shell. At least one tone color change member, which is composed of cloth and rubber sheets, is attached to the interior wall of the drum shell in connection with the air hole; hence, the air hole is closed by the tone color change member. Thus, it is possible to appropriately change the tone color of drum sound without substantially changing the size of the drum, which can be designed similar to any types of conventionally known drums.
US07692080B1
The invention is a novel fret wire for use on the fingerboards of stringed instruments. The fret wire has a crown of any usable shape for contact with strings, as usual, but is distinguished by the structure of the tang affixed to the crown. The tang comprises bending notches that extend nearly through the height of the tang that allow the fret wire to more easily bend to shape of a contoured fret board. Tang elements formed by the notches embody random roughness or elongated striations to hold the fret wire securely in the grooves of a fret board.
US07692068B2
Compositions and methods for conferring pesticidal activity to bacteria, plants, plant cells, tissues and seeds are provided. Compositions comprising a coding sequence for a delta-endotoxin polypeptide are provided. The coding sequences can be used in DNA constructs or expression cassettes for transformation and expression in plants and bacteria. Compositions also comprise transformed bacteria, plants, plant cells, tissues, and seeds. In particular, isolated delta-endotoxin nucleic acid molecules are provided. Additionally, amino acid sequences corresponding to the polynucleotides are encompassed. In particular, the present invention provides for isolated nucleic acid molecules comprising nucleotide sequences encoding the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:2, or the nucleotide sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:1, as well as variants thereof.
US07692061B2
The invention provides isolated cellulose synthase nucleic acids and their encoded proteins. The present invention provides methods and compositions relating to altering cellulose synthase concentration and/or composition of plants. The invention further provides recombinant expression cassettes, host cells, and transgenic plants.
US07692059B2
Methods for generating and using novel overexpression activity alleles of a gene in any organism, especially Drosophilia, are provided. Such alleles may be utilized in screening assays, and used to generate dominant-negative forms of bacterial toxins.
US07692048B2
The present invention provides a method for producing a fluorine-containing halide, comprising reacting a fluorine-containing sulfonyl halide or fluorine-containing disulfonyl chloride with a metal halide or metal component in the present or absence of a solvent. In accordance with the present invention, a fluorine-containing bromide, fluorine-containing iodide or fluorine-containing chloride can be readily produced in high yield at low cost, using an industrially advantageous process.
US07692032B2
The present invention relates to a thermal conductive silicone composition containing a siloxane which contains a hydrolytic group represented by the formula (1): where R1 is a group containing an alkoxysilyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, R2 is a siloxy represented by the following formula (2) or a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 6 to 18 carbon atoms, X is a divalent hydrocarbon group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, a and b are integers of 1 or more, c is an integer of 0 or more, the sum of a+b+c is an integer of 4 or more, R3 is a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms or a hydrogen atom, provided that R3s may be the same as or different from each other; R4 is a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms, Y is a group selected from a methyl group, a vinyl group and R1, and d is an integer of 2 to 500.
US07692021B2
Disclosed herein are NPN-type low molecular aromatic ring compounds, organic semiconductor layers formed from such compounds that exhibit improved electrical stability and methods of forming such layers using solution-based processes, for example, spin coating processes performed at or near room temperature. These NPN-type compounds may be used, either singly or in combination, for fabricating organic semiconductor layers in electronic devices. The NPN-type aromatic ring compounds according to example embodiments may be deposited as a solution on a range of substrates to form a coating film that is then subjected to a thermal treatment to form a semiconductor thin film across large substrate surfaces that exhibits reduced leakage currents relative to conventional PNP-type organic semiconductor materials, thus improving the electrical properties of the resulting devices.
US07692020B2
The invention relates to a process for the preparation of pyridylcarboxylic amides and esters I, Formula (I) wherein Hal, X and R1 have the meanings given in claim 1, which comprises the following steps: (a) heating a mixture consisting essentially of trichloromethylpyridine II, Formula (II), wherein Hal has the meaning given, and 1.0 to 1.5 equivalents of concentrated sulfuric acid, characterized in that the trichloromethylpyridine II in a liquid form is added to the concentrated sulfuric acid at a temperature from 110° C. to 160° C.; and (b) reacting the intermediate product obtained in step (a) with an amine or alcohol III, HXR1, wherein X and R1 have the meaning given, optionally in the presence of a solvent and/or a base.
US07692015B2
The present invention relates to a novel and economical process for preparing (S,S)-2,8-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]nonane, a valuable intermediate used for constructing quinolone and naphthyridine derivatives having antibacterial effectiveness, e.g. moxifloxacin and its enantiomer.
US07692014B2
The present invention is directed to compounds of formula (I), and pharmaceutically acceptable salts and solvates thereof, their synthesis, and their use as modulators or inhibitors of the human immunodeficiency virus (“HIV”) integrase enzyme.
US07692007B2
The invention relates to a process for the preparation of onium salts having a low chloride content by reaction of an onium chloride with an acid, where the hydrochloric acid forming is removed by azeotropic distillation by coordination to an organic solvent which forms an azeotropic mixture with water.
US07692002B2
The present invention relates to a metal complex of the general formula M(L)n, wherein each L is independently selected and represents a ligand and at least one L is vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) or a derivative thereof bound through the nitrogen atom of its cyanide group to M, which is an element selected from the transition metals, thus, forming a M-NC-[Co] moiety with [Co] representing vitamin B12 without cyanide and wherein n is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6. The complex can be prepared by mixing a precursor molecule with vitamin B12. The metal complexes can be used for radiodiagnostics, chemotherapy and radionuclide therapy.
US07691996B2
This invention relates to antisense oligonucleotides that target mRNAs in cells as substrates for the cellular enzyme RNase H and thereby cause specific degradation of the targeted mRNA. The oligonucleotides have three components: an RNase H activating region, a complementary region and 3′ and 5′ ends. The invention optimizes each of the components to resist intracellular nucleases, to increase hybridization to target mRNA, to specifically inactivate target mRNA in cells, and to decrease cytotoxicity.
US07691991B2
The present invention provides DNA molecules that constitute fragments of the genome of a plant, and polypeptides encoded thereby. The DNA molecules are useful for specifying a gene product in cells, either as a promoter or as a protein coding sequence or as an UTR or as a 3′ termination sequence, and are also useful in controlling the behavior of a gene in the chromosome, in controlling the expression of a gene or as tools for genetic mapping, recognizing or isolating identical or related DNA fragments, or identification of a particular individual organism, or for clustering of a group of organisms with a common trait.
US07691975B2
The present invention relates to a complex between interferon-β and polyethylene glycol, which has high biological activity, and to a method for producing the complex at high efficiency. Namely, the present invention relates to a method for producing an interferon-β complex comprising binding interferon-β to polyethylene glycol in the presence of at least one additive selected from the group consisting of oligosaccharides having 5 or less sugar units, monosaccharides, their corresponding sugar alcohols, and C2-6 polyhydric alcohols, and to an interferon-β complex produced by the method, which has polyethylene glycol specifically bound with lysine located at the 19th or 134th position in the amino acid sequence of interferon-β.
US07691972B2
The present invention relates to a crystal structure of house dust mite allergen proDer p 1, the three-dimensional structure of proDer p 1 and the use of the three-dimensional structure to design a mutant of a protein belonging to the papain-like cysteine proteases.
US07691956B2
This invention is directed to processes of making polymer in the presence of a hydrofluorocarbon or perfluorocarbon and recovering the polymer. The processes provided enable polymerization processes to be practiced with minimal fouling in the reaction system, and to the recovery of the hydrofluorocarbon and other hydrocarbons such as hydrocarbons for reuse in the process or hydrocarbon by-products from the polymerization process. The invention is particularly beneficial in the production of ethylene based polymers using bulky ligand metallocene-type catalyst systems.
US07691950B2
A composition comprises a polyester-polycarbonate polymer comprising isophthalate-terephthalate-resorcinol ester units and carbonate units, a first polyester comprising repeating units derived from cyclohexane dicarboxylic acid or a chemical equivalent thereof, and a C2-8 aliphatic diol or a chemical equivalent thereof, and a second polyester comprising units derived from isophthalic and/or terephthalic acid and a chemical equivalent thereof, and a C2-8 aliphatic diol or a chemical equivalent thereof. The composition can be extruded into pellets that are clear and colorless. The composition can further be molded into articles having a percent haze value less than or equal to 10 percent, and total luminous transmittance value of greater than or equal to 70 percent, measured in accordance with ASTM D1003-00. Also disclosed is a method for forming the compositions, and articles prepared therefrom.
US07691949B2
Bioabsorbable compounds which include a polyalkylene oxide backbone with two or more isocyanate substituents are useful as one component adhesives. Absorbable compositions useful as a two component adhesive contain a) a polyethylene oxide having two or more amine substituents with b) a bioabsorbable diisocyanate compound, or alternatively contain a) a polyethylene oxide having two or more isocyanate substituents with b) a bioabsorbable diamine compound, or, alternatively contain a) a bioabsorbable diisocyanate compound and b) a bioabsorbable diamine compound.
US07691946B2
Biopolymeric hydrogel precursors are prepared by means of a ring-opening polymerization of epoxidized vegetable oils, followed by chemical hydrolysis. The recovered hydrogels having properties similar to Pluronic® type surfactants would have a plurality of end-use applications, including use as food additives and pharmaceutical ingredients. This invention provides the potential for an enhanced market for vegetable oils, and particularly for soybean oil.
US07691933B2
An aqueous pigment paste free from binders and grinding resins, comprising based on its overall amount (A) from 15 to 40% by weight of at least one metal pigment, especially an aluminum pigment, (B) from 0.45 to 0.75% by weight of at least one non-associative thickener comprising at least one methacrylate copolymer based on C1-C6 alkyl(meth)acrylate and (meth)acrylic acid, (C) from 0.1 to 0.4% by weight of at least one organic amine, (D) from 0.5 to 8% by weight of at least one nonionic surfactant, and (E) at least 50% by weight of water; its use for preparing aqueous coating materials, and processes for the preparation.
US07691929B2
The present invention is directed a method of flame retarding a polymeric substrate using a specific group of azo and peroxide derivatives as flame retardants, to flame retardant compositions as well as to novel azo compounds usable as flame retarding compounds.
US07691920B2
An ink jet ink includes an ink vehicle, wherein the ink vehicle includes at least one wax monomer functionalized to include in the chain at least one reactive group curable upon exposure to radiation. The reactive group is preferably curable via cationic or free radical polymerization. In a preferred embodiment, the ink vehicle includes a wax monomer having a structure: wherein C represents a cationically curable group and R represents a radically curable group. The inks may be used to form an image by jetting the ink onto a transfuse member surface, increasing the viscosity of the ink upon the transfuse member surface, subsequently transferring the ink from the transfuse member surface to an image receiving substrate, and exposing the ink to radiation following the transfer to the image receiving substrate to effect reaction of the at least one reactive group.
US07691916B2
This invention includes a wettable biomedical device containing a high molecular weight hydrophilic polymer and a hydroxyl-functionalized silicone-containing monomer.
US07691915B2
Disclosed is a photosensitive resin composition. The composition comprises [A] an alkali-soluble resin, [B] a photoactive compound and [C] a solvent. The alkali-soluble resin is a copolymer including at least one structural unit with an aziridine group. The composition exhibits good storage stability, high sensitivity, high UV transmittance, high residual film ratio, improved coating uniformity and excellent pattern-forming properties. Further disclosed is an organic insulating film formed using the composition. The organic insulating film has excellent resistance to solvents and chemicals.
US07691913B2
Rigid polyurethane foams are made using a polyol component that includes toluene diamine-initiated polyols containing specified levels of oxyethylene groups. Foams made from these polyols have low k-factors and excellent demold expansion values.
US07691904B2
The present invention is directed to water-soluble derivatives of 2,6-diisopropylphenol (Propofol). The compounds act as prodrugs of 2,6-diisopropylphenol and metabolize rapidly to Propofol thereby providing an alternative to the water-insoluble 2,6-diisopropylphenol. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds, methods of induction and maintenance of anesthesia or sedation as well as methods of treating neurodegenerative diseases utilizing pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and methods of preparing them are also disclosed.
US07691897B2
Agent for the depletion of an unwanted protein population from the plasma of a subject, which agent comprises a plurality of ligands covalently co-linked so as to form a complex with a plurality of the proteins in the presence thereof, wherein at least two of the ligands are the same or different and are capable of being bound by ligand binding sites present on the proteins, wherein the agent is a non-proteinaceous agent other than a D-proline of the formula wherein R is the group R1 is hydrogen or halogen; X is —(CH2)n—; —CH(R2)(CH2)n—; —CH2O(CH2)n—; —CH2NH—; benzyl, —C(R2)═CH—; —CH2CH(OH)—; or thiazol-2,5-diyl; Y is —S—S—; —(CH2)n—; —O—; —NH—; —N(R2)—; —CH═CH—; —NHC(O)NH—;—N(R2)C(O)N(R2)—; —N[CH2C6H3(OCH3)2]—; —N(CH2C6H5)—; —N(CH2C6H5)C(O)N(CH2C6H5)—; —N(alkoxyalkyl)-; N(cycloalkyl-methyl)-; 2,6-pyridyl; 2,5-furanyl; 2,5-thienyl; 1,2-cyclohexyl; 1,3-cyclohexyl; 1,4-cyclohexyl; 1,2-naphthyl; 1,4-naphthyl; 1,5-naphthyl; 1,6-naphthyl; biphenylen; or 1,2-phenylen, 1,3-phenylen and 1,4-phenylen, wherein the phenylen groups are optionally substituted by 1-4 substituents, selected from halogen, lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, hydroxy, carboxy, —COO-lower alkyl, nitrilo, 5-tetrazol, (2-carboxylic acid pyrrolidin-1-yl)-2-oxo-ethoxy, N-hydroxycarbamimidoyl, 5-oxo[1,2,4]oxadiazolyl, 2-oxo-[1,2,3,5]oxathiadiazolyl, 5-thioxo[1,2,4]oxadiazolyl and 5-tert-butylsulfanyl-[1,2,4]oxadiazolyl; X′ is —(CH2)n—; —(CH2)nCH(R2)—; —(CH2)nOCH2—; —NHCH2—; benzyl, —CH═C(R2)—; —CH(OH)CH2; or thiazol-2,5-diyl; R2 is lower alkyl, lower alkoxy or benzyl and n is 0-3, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or mono- or diester thereof.
US07691896B2
Disclosed herein are analogs of Salinosporamide A, having the Formula I as follows: Like Salinosporamide A, the compounds of the present invention will inhibit the proteasome, an intracellular enzyme complex that destroys proteins the cell no longer needs. Without the proteasome, proteins would build up and clog cellular machinery. Fast-growing cancer cells make especially heavy use of the proteasome, so thwarting its action is a compelling drug strategy.
US07691891B2
The present invention relates to novel diphenylurea derivatives useful as chloride channel blockers. In other aspects the invention relates to the use of these compounds in a method for therapy, and to pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds of the invention.
US07691888B2
The present invention encompasses compounds of the general formula (1) in which R1 to R3 are defined as in claim 1, which are suitable for treating diseases which are characterized by excessive or anomalous cell proliferation, and their use for producing a pharmaceutical having the abovementioned properties.
US07691887B2
The present invention provides a method for the treatment or prevention of conditions which can be ameliorated by Smo antagonism, which method comprises administration to a patient in need thereof of an effective amount of a compound of formula I or a composition comprising a compound of formula I: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof; wherein: 2 of X, Y and Z represent nitrogen atoms, and the other represents an oxygen atom; R1 and R2 are taken together with the atom to which they are attached and represent a cyclobutyl ring, optionally substituted with 1-2 fluorine atoms, and R3 represents hydrogen or a fluorine atom; or R1 represents methyl, R2 represents methyl or a fluorine atom and R3 represents a fluorine atom.
US07691877B2
The present invention relates to immune response modifiers of formula (I), which act selectively through agonism, of Toll-Like Receptors (TLRs), uses thereof, processes for the preparation thereof, intermediates used in the preparation thereof and compositions containing said inhibitors. These inhibitors have utility in a variety of therapeutic areas including the treatment of infectious disease such as Hepatitis (e.g. HCV, HBV), genetically related viral infection and cancer.
US07691869B2
The present invention provides compounds of the formula wherein R1 and R2 have meaning as defined herein in the specification. The compounds of formula (I) are adenosine A2A receptor antagonists and, thus, may be employed for the treatment of conditions and diseases mediated by the adenosine A2A receptor activity. Such conditions include, but are not limited to, diseases of the central nervous system such as depression, cognitive function diseases and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, senile dementia as in Alzheimer's disease or psychoses and stroke. The compounds of the present invention may also be employed for the treatment of attention related disorders such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), extra pyramidal syndrome, e.g., dystonia, akathisia, pseudoparkinsonism and tardive dyskinesia, and disorders of abnormal movement such as restless leg syndrome (RLS) and periodic limb movement in sleep (PLMS); cirrhosis, and fibrosis and fatty liver; dermal fibrosis in diseases such as scleroderma; and the mitigation of addictive behavior. In particular, the compounds of the present invention may be employed to improve motor-impairment due to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
US07691863B2
The present invention relates to compounds of the formula wherein R1 to R4 are as defined in the description and claims, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The compounds are useful for the treatment and/or prophylaxis of diseases which are associated with the modulation of CB2 receptors.
US07691853B2
This invention describes novel pyrazole compounds of formula IV: wherein Ring D is a 5-7 membered monocyclic ring or 8-10 membered bicyclic ring selected from aryl, heteroaryl, heterocyclyl or carbocyclyl; Rx and Ry are independently selected from T—R3, or taken together with their intervening atoms to form a fused, unsaturated or partially unsaturated, 5-8 membered ring having 1-3 ring heteroatoms selected from oxygen, sulfur, or nitrogen; and R2, R2′, T, and R3 are as described in the specification. The compounds are useful as protein kinase inhibitors, especially as inhibitors of aurora-2 and GSK-3, for treating diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
US07691842B2
The present invention provides a compound of formula I, pharmaceutical compositions and the use thereof for the treatment of bacterial infection or disease in a patient in need thereof, wherein one of A and B denotes hydrogen and the other an optionally substituted fused tricyclic heteroaryl group; and X is O.
US07691841B2
Compounds of formula I in free or salt form, wherein Ar, X, Y and T have the meanings as indicated in the specification, are useful for treating a condition mediated by CCR-3, particularly an inflammatory or allergic condition such as an inflammatory or obstructive airways disease. Pharmaceutical compositions that contain the compounds and processes for preparing the compounds are also described.
US07691840B2
The present invention provides analogs of benzoquinone-containing ansamycins and uses thereof for treating and modulating disorders associated with hyperproliferation, such as cancer. The present invention provides analogs of benzoquinone-containing ansamycins where the benzoquinone is reduced to a hydroquinone and trapped by reaction with a suitable acid, preferably ones that increase the solubility and air stability of the resulting 17-ammonium hydroquinone ansamycin analog.
US07691836B2
The subject invention provides a compound according to Formula I, wherein each of the substituents is given the definition as set forth in the specification and claims, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt and/or hydrate form and/or prodrug thereof.
US07691835B2
The invention provides methods to treating conditions such as prostate cancer, or for ameliorating one or more symptoms associated with prostate cancer, or for agents that modulate the biological activity of the androgen receptor. The invention also provides methods and compositions suitable for therapeutic applications.
US07691830B2
Methods of treating a subject suffering from a disorder in a mucosal tissue, such as interstitial cystitis; cancer in a mucous membrane such as bladder or vaginal cancer; Crohn's disease; inflammatory bowel disease or colitis, by administering a medicament containing a sulfated chitinous polymer administered topically are described. Pharmaceutical compositions containing the sulfate chitinous polymer are also disclosed.
US07691822B2
The present invention provides a method for the treatment of interferon resistant tumors through the use of recombinant vectors encoding interferon species. In particular it is noted that interferon species provided by recombinant vectors possesses properties not associated with the recombinantly produced interferon proteins. The present invention further provides compositions useful in the treatment of interferon resistant tumors using recombinant vectors encoding interferons.
US07691821B2
The instant invention teaches the inhibition of SHIP expression, or function, for the increased efficacy of autologous stem cell transplants. In another embodiment, interference with SHIP function can be used to temporarily expand and mobilize the hematopoietic stem cell compartment to assist with leukapheresis, to promote hematopoietic recovery after myeloablation treatments, to deplete target stem cell clones (such a leukemic clones and other tumor stem cell types), and to deplete, or damage, the repopulating ability of the endogenous hematopoietic stem cell pool in order to allow transplanted hematopoietic stem cells to better home and engraft and to promote in vivo expansion and mobilization of other organ-specific stem cell populations (e.g., mesenchymal, mammary).
US07691820B2
Patients suffering from cancer are treated by being administered a compound represented by the following formula: wherein each R individually is H or an aliphatic or aromatic acyl group; A is selected from the group consisting of wherein X is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, fluorine, alkoxy, alkyl, haloalkyl, alkenyl, haloalkenyl, alkynyl, amino, monoalkylamino, dialkylamino, cyano and nitro. The above compounds also inhibit DNA replication in mammalian cells.
US07691818B2
New peptidomimetic inhibitors of retroviral proteases are in particular for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease. These inhibitors include as the core structure a new diamiriodiol isostere of the dipeptide Phe-Pro having four stereogenic centers. The inhibitors have been shown to inhibit HIV-protease and can therefore be usefully employed as antivirals for post-exposure prophylaxis and as a therapy for viral infections by a retrovirus, in particular HIV. The syntheses processes of the isosteres and inhibitors are also described.
US07691817B2
Systems and methods are described providing therapeutic preparations of tachykinins, and more specifically sialokinins, for treating various types of abnormal cellular proliferation conditions in regions of tissue associated with the body of a patient. The sialokinins may be isolated and purified from natural or bioengineered sources, or may be synthesized, and may be combined into, with, or on an implant for local elution or otherwise as a powder mixed in a carrier vehicle for injection delivery. Tumors, warts, and restenosis are abnormal cellular proliferation conditions treated by therapeutic doses of sialokinin. Size of the tissue structure to be treated is used to determine the therapeutic dose of sialokinin. The sialokinins are either locally or systemically delivered at therapeutic doses for the desired effect. Implants such as stents are coated with sialokinins for local elution at the site of injury or tissue otherwise vulnerable to harmful conditions treated by the sialokinin.
US07691815B2
This invention relates to a general methodology for efficient creation of trimeric soluble receptors for therapeutic applications. The process involves gene fusion between a soluble receptor with a ligand binding domain and a trimerization tag from the C-propeptide domain of pro-collagen, which is capable of self-assembly into a covalently linked trimer. Using both in vitro bioassays and an in vivo mouse model for collagen-induced arthritis (CIA), we show that the homotrimeric soluble TNF receptor produced with such method is a more potent blocker than dimeric TNF receptor decoys in inhibiting TNF-α mediated inflammatory diseases.
US07691814B2
Novel osteogenic compositions and methods are provided. In a broad aspect, the composition comprises either a first amino acid sequence which is capable of being phosphorylated by CAMK2; or a nucleic acid sequence encoding the first amino acid sequence; or a combination thereof. Optionally, the first amino acid sequence may further comprise a second amino acid sequence which is capable of binding the Smurf1 protein. Further, the composition may comprise a BMP protein and/or an agent capable of decreasing an amount or an activity of CAMK2. The compositions of the instant invention may be incorporated into an implant or delivered via a catheter.
US07691809B2
The method of the present invention provides a novel use of lactoferrin to modulate the molecular events during development of age-related disorders in humans. More specifically, the present invention is directed to the use of lactoferrin to treat or prevent autoimmune, neurodegenerative and immune hypersensitivity disorders, and its use for the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment or prevention of such conditions.
US07691808B2
Disclosed herein are compositions and methods for the treatment or prevention of neurological disorders. Also disclosed are compositions and methods for the treatment or prevention of skin pathologies. The invention further discloses compositions and methods for the modulation of acetylcholine receptor activity. Antibodies generated against SLURP-1 and related proteins are also included.
US07691803B1
The present invention a method of improving, enhancing or modifying a fragrance formulation through the addition of an olfactory acceptable amount of a compound of formula: wherein R is absent, hydrogen or methyl; R1, R2, and R3 are independently hydrogen or methyl; and the broken lines represent independently single or double bonds, with the proviso that when R1, R2, and R3 are hydrogen, R is methyl.
US07691802B2
Novel compounds of formula I and their use in flavour and fragrance compositions. R1 to R13 have the meaning as described in the specification.
US07691800B2
The present invention generally relates to a cleaning agent for a spray gun and a method and apparatus for cleaning the spray gun, and more specifically, to the agent and method of use thereof for cleaning a water-based spray gun using a novel cleaning agent comprising a solvent of n-butanol, a solvent of n-propanol, a surfactant of ethoxylated nonylphenol, and water. The cleaning agent may also be used under specific pH conditions and an emulsifier or a foam suppressor may be used. What is also contemplated is the use of a spray gun having smooth interior and exterior surfaces. The method contemplates the contacting of the cleaning agent with the spray gun, the recovering of the cleaning agent, the separating of the cleaning agent and the reuse of the cleaning agent. What is also contemplated is the use of the cleaning agent in an automatic washing apparatus and the use of the cleaning agent as part of a fluid supply to an automated spray gun to clean the spray gun access.
US07691798B1
A polymer coating applied to a load bearing or contact surface of objects such as skis and snowboards is provided. The polymer coating is a drag reducing, water soluble long chain polymer such as polyethylene oxide. The polymer coating is applied to the contact surface of the object and dissolves into the thin layer of water that forms between the contact surface and a water-containing surface over which the object is passed. The polymer readily dissolves in the thin water layer, decreasing the friction between the contact surface of the ski or snowboard and the surface of the snow or ice.
US07691788B2
Compositions and methods of using same are described for negating asphaltene deposition in a formation, wellbore, near wellbore region, and production tubing. Compositions of the invention comprise an asphaltene solvent and a viscosity reducing agent, the asphaltene solvent and viscosity reducing agent present in a ratio so as to substantially reduce viscosity of an asphaltene-containing material while substantially negating deposition of asphaltenes either in a reservoir, in production tubing, or both when mixed or otherwise contacting the asphaltene-containing material. Methods of the invention comprise forcing a composition comprising an asphaltene solvent and a viscosity reducing agent to contact an asphaltene-containing hydrocarbon in an underground geologic formation, and producing from the formation a production composition comprising at least some of the treatment composition and at least some of the asphaltene-containing hydrocarbon under conditions sufficient to substantially negate deposition of asphaltenes in the formation.
US07691786B2
The present invention relates to a method of preparing an oxide superconducting film, the method includes reacting a metal acetate containing metal M selected from the group consisting of lanthanum, neodymium and samarium with fluorocarboxylic acid having not less than three carbon atoms, reacting barium acetate with fluorocarboxylic acid having two carbon atoms, reacting copper acetate with fluorocarboxylic acid having not less than two carbon atoms, respectively, followed by refining reaction products, dissolving the reaction products in methanol such that a molar ratio of the metal M, barium and copper is 1:2:3 to prepare a coating solution, and coating a substrate with the coating solution to form a gel film, followed by calcining and firing the gel film to prepare an oxide superconducting film.
US07691775B2
A catalyst is disclosed herein. The catalyst includes a reducible oxide support and at least one noble metal fixed on the reducible oxide support. The noble metal(s) is loaded on the support at a substantially constant temperature and pH.
US07691773B2
The invention provides and a highly-dispersed supported catalyst that has a reduced average particle size of catalytic metal particles and is also supported by a porous support material. A method of preparing a supported catalyst that can reduce the average particle size of catalytic metal particles supported by a support material includes first mixing a charged support material with a solution containing a polymer electrolyte having a charge opposite to that of the support material to adsorb the polymer electrolyte on the support material. Next, the support material having the polymer electrolyte adsorbed thereon is mixed with a solution containing a catalytic metal precursor ion having a charge opposite to that of the polymer electrolyte to adsorb the catalytic metal precursor ion on the support material having the polymer electrolyte adsorbed on it. Finally, the catalytic metal precursor ion adsorbed on the support material having the polymer electrolyte adsorbed thereon is reduced to a catalytic metal in a reducing solution.
US07691766B2
The invention is concerned with a material which shows low absorption for UV radiation having a wavelength below 250 nm, low birefringence, high chemical resistance and high radiation resistance and which is therefore particularly usable for making optical components for microlithography. According to the invention the material consists of synthetically produced quartz crystallites which form a polycrystalline structure and have a mean grain size in the range between 500 nm and 30 μm. The method according to the invention for making a blank from the material comprises providing granules consisting of synthetically produced quartz crystals having a mean grain size in the range between 500 nm and 30 μm, and sintering the granules to obtain a blank of polycrystalline quartz.
US07691758B2
A method of forming an insulating film according to one embodiment of the present invention, which is a method of forming an insulating film for use in a semiconductor device, performs thermal oxidation of a tantalum nitride film at a temperature range of 200 to 400 degrees centigrade by a wet oxidation process, whereby a tantalum oxide film is formed as the insulating film.
US07691757B2
Methods are provided for pulsed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of complex nitrides, such as ternary metal nitrides. Pulses of metal halide precursors are separated from one another and nitrogen-containing precursor is provided during the metal halide precursor pulses as well as between the metal halide precursor pulses. Two different metal halide precursors can be provided in simultaneous pulses, alternatingly, or in a variety of sequences. The nitrogen-containing precursor, such as ammonia, can be provided in pulses simultaneously with the metal halide precursors and between the metal halide precursors, or continuously throughout the deposition. Temperatures can be kept between about 300° C. and about 700° C.
US07691749B2
Methods for depositing a tungsten nitride layer are described. The methods form a tungsten nitride layer using a carefully controlled deposition technique such as pulsed nucleation layer (PNL). Initially, a tungsten layer is formed on a substrate surface. The tungsten layer is then exposed to a nitriding agent to form a tungsten nitride layer. Methods of forming relatively thick layers of involve repeated cycles of contact with reducing agent, tungsten precursor and nitriding agent. In some cases, the cycle may also include contact with a dopant precursor such as phosphine or arsine.
US07691745B1
A semiconductor device has a substrate and an encapsulation area on a first surface of the substrate. A first plurality of metal lands is on the first surface of the substrate around a periphery of the encapsulation area. Solder mask coverers portions of the first plurality of metal lands closest to the encapsulation area. Remaining portions of the first plurality of metal lands are exposed areas having no solder mask.
US07691740B2
The semiconductor device fabrication method according the present invention having, forming an interlayer dielectric film containing carbon above a semiconductor substrate, forming a protective film on that portion of the interlayer dielectric film, which is close to the surface and in which the carbon concentration is low, forming a trench by selectively removing a desired region of the interlayer dielectric film and protective film, such that the region extends from the surface of the protective film to the bottom surface of the interlayer dielectric film, supplying carbon to the interface between the interlayer dielectric film and protective film, and forming a conductive layer by burying a conductive material in the trench.
US07691737B2
A method of deprocessing a semiconductor structure is provided. The method involves removing one or more interlevel dielectric layers and one or more metal components from a frontside of the semiconductor structure. By removing the interlevel dielectric layer and the metal component, the exposed portion of the semiconductor structure can be subjected to an inspection for defects and/or other characteristics by using an inspection tool. The inspection can aid in defect reduction strategies, among other things, when applied to new technology ramp, monitoring of baseline wafer starts, customer returns, etc.
US07691730B2
Methods and apparatus provide for contacting respective first surfaces of a plurality of donor semiconductor wafers with a glass substrate; bonding the first surfaces of the plurality of donor semiconductor wafers to the glass substrate using electrolysis; separating the plurality of donor semiconductor wafers from the glass substrate leaving respective exfoliation layers bonded to the glass substrate; and depositing a further semiconductor layer on exposed surfaces of the exfoliation layers to augment a thickness of the exfoliation layers.
US07691729B2
A method for producing a nitride semiconductor laser light source is provided. The nitride semiconductor laser light source has a nitride semiconductor laser chip, a stem for mounting the laser chip thereon, and a cap for covering the laser chip. The laser chip is encapsulated in a sealed container composed of the stem and the cap. The method for producing this nitride semiconductor, laser light source has a cleaning step of cleaning the surface of the laser chip, the stem, or the cap. In the cleaning step, the laser chip, the stem, or the cap is exposed with ozone or an excited oxygen atom, or baked by heat. The method also has, after the cleaning step, a capping step of encapsulating the laser chip in the sealed container composed of the stem and the cap. During the capping step, the cleaned surface of the laser chip, the stem, or the cap is kept clean. This method provides a long-life nitride semiconductor laser light source the light emission intensity of which is not easily reduced after a long period of use.
US07691723B2
An approach where items of different temperatures are bonded to each other such that upon cooling down they contract in size resulting in zero residual stress between the bonded items at an ambient temperature. If materials of the bonded items have different thermal expansion coefficients and the items are put together at different bonding temperatures, then they may have insignificant residual stress upon cooling down to the ambient temperature (e.g., room temperature) because the different ranges of the temperature drops compensate for the different contractions.
US07691722B2
An oxide layer is formed over a substrate having a smaller isolation trench and a large isolation trench. A nitride layer is formed over the oxide layer such that it completely fills the smaller isolation trench and lines the larger isolation trench. The nitride layer is etched back to form a recess in the nitride layer in the smaller isolation trench while at least a portion of the nitride layer lining the larger isolation trench is completely removed. A layer of HDP oxide is deposited over the substrate, completely filling the smaller and larger isolation trenches. The HDP oxide layer is planarized to the upper surface of the substrate. The deeper larger isolation trench may be formed by performing an etching step after the nitride layer has been etched back, prior to depositing HDP oxide.
US07691721B2
Provided is a method for manufacturing a flash memory device, in which an oxidation process is carried out on the disclosed top surface of a semiconductor substrate to form a surface oxide film in the form of bird's beak with an appropriate width before conducting an etching process for trench. Thus, the present invention prevents the effect of thinning tunnel oxide film while reducing a critical dimension of an active region. And, it is possible to assure a normal cell operation by the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling effect owing to preventing the thinning tunnel oxide film.
US07691716B2
The present invention provides a “subcollector-less” silicon-on-insulator (SOI) bipolar junction transistor (BJT) that has no impurity-doped subcollector. Instead, the inventive vertical SOI BJT uses a back gate-induced, majority carrier accumulation layer as the subcollector when it operates. The SOI substrate is biased such that the accumulation layer is formed at the bottom of the first semiconductor layer. The advantage of such a device is its CMOS-like process. Therefore, the integration scheme can be simplified and the manufacturing cost can be significantly reduced. The present invention also provides a method of fabricating BJTs on selected areas of a very thin BOX using a conventional SOI starting wafer with a thick BOX. The reduced BOX thickness underneath the bipolar devices allows for a significantly reduced substrate bias compatible with the CMOS to be applied while maintaining the advantages of a thick BOX underneath the CMOS. A back-gated CMOS device is also provided.
US07691712B2
Semiconductor device structures and fabrication methods for field effect transistors in which a gate electrode is provided with an air gap or void disposed adjacent to a sidewall of the gate electrode. The void may be bounded by a dielectric spacer proximate to the sidewall of the gate electrode and a dielectric layer having a spaced relationship with the dielectric spacer. The methods of the invention involve the use of a temporary spacer consisting of a sacrificial material supplied adjacent to the sidewall of the gate electrode, which is removed after the dielectric layer is formed.
