US07861313B2
The present invention relates to an information managing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program in which unauthorized use of content can be prevented. A ripping module 91 of a client 1 retrieves the content recorded on a CD 81. In the client 1, a content ID for identifying the content and a unique ID unique to the client 1 are generated, and these IDs are added to the content retrieved by the ripping module 91. A usage right containing the usage conditions of the content, etc., is generated and saved. The usage right includes information indicating that an apparatus (client) having the same ID to the unique ID added to the content is only allowed to play back the content. The present invention is applicable to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer.
US07861307B2
A method executed on a server for unlocking digital content includes receiving a message corresponding to a request to access digital content embodied in digital readable form, associated with an electronic representation of a publication, sending a test that is based on the user having physical possession of the publication; receiving and evaluating an answer to the test to determine whether the correct answer was received; and if the answer was correct, providing access to the digital content associated with the electronic representation of the publication.
US07861301B2
An apparatus, and a computer program are provided for securing transmitted text. Once text has been produced by an application, the potential exists for an unintended third party to obtain sensitive data transmitted over computer networks. However, a parsing function can then operate either on an individual computer or on a network to scan text at an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Layer 1 to assist in the prevention of sensitive data transmission. By utilizing the parsing function, text can be scanned for potentially sensitive data by using a variety of techniques, such as a learning algorithm. The sensitive data can then be verified by a user, bypassed, or autostripped.
US07861297B2
The invention introduces a system and method for reducing security threats from untrusted code. The invention can be configured to generate counterfeit component files for every component that is not approved for a particular application. If the untrusted code requests to have the application load a component that the application is not approved to load, the application can load the counterfeit component file that corresponds to the requested component.
US07861292B2
Ingress filtering has been adopted by the IETF as a methodology for preventing denial of service congestive attacks that spoof the source address in packets that are addressed to host server victims. Unless universally adopted by all ISPs on the Internet, however, a packet's source address cannot be totally trusted to be its actual source address. To take advantage of benefits of ingress filtering as it is gradually deployed by ISPs around the Internet, differentiated classes of service are used to transport packets whose source address can be trusted and packets whose source address cannot be trusted. A packet received by an access or edge router at an ISP that supports ingress filtering and has a source address that is properly associated with port on which it is received is forwarded in a privileged class of service and are dropped otherwise. A packet received by access or edge router at an ISP that does not support ingress filtering and whose source address cannot therefore be trusted is transported in an unprivileged class of service. At an intermediate exchange router within an intermediate ISP, where ISPs exchange packets, a packet received from an ISP that doesn't support ingress filtering is forwarded using the unprivileged class of service while a packet received from an ISP that does support ingress filtering is forwarded using the same class of service in which it is already marked.
US07861288B2
An address allocated to a user by an authentication server is used as an IP address of a packet which is transmitted from a user terminal, preventing an illicit use if the IP address were eavesdropped. An authentication server 100 performs an authentication of a user based on a user authentication information which is transmitted from the user terminal, and upon a successful authentication, allocates an address to the user terminal, and issues a ticket containing the address to be returned to the user terminal. The user terminal sets up the address contained in the ticket as a source address, and transmits the ticket to the application server 300, requesting a session to be established. After verifying that the ticket is authentic, the server 300 stores the ticket and establishes a session with the user terminal. The user terminal transmits a service request packet containing the source address to the server 300 utilizing the session. If the source address coincides with the address contained in the stored ticket, the server 300 provides a service to the user.
US07861286B2
A system and method for providing identity protection services. According to an embodiment, a validation server receives over a network a response from a credential associated with a user, the credential response provided by the user in order to authenticate the user to one of a plurality of sites on the network that accepts the credential as a factor for authentication, the validation server verifies the credential response on behalf of the one network site, a fraud detection server receives over the network information in connection with a transaction associated with the user at the one network site, and the fraud detection server evaluates the transaction information for suspicious activity based at least in part on information provided to the fraud detection server in connection with one or more transactions at one or more sites on the network other than the one network site.
US07861281B2
A system and method transfers information relating to quality or standards of an organization from a server to a wireless handheld computing device and from the wireless handheld computing device to the server in real-time or near real-time. Each member of an organization can have the same policies and procedures as soon as any of the policies and procedures are updated. The inventive system can allow an organization to also measure compliance and conformance with the distributed policies and procedures. With the handheld computing devices, each member of an organization can complete tests that are closely tied to the distributed policies and procedures. The results of these tests can be transmitted in real-time or near real-time from the handheld computing devices to a central computer server so that an organization can track current performance of all its members relative to the policies and procedures and relative to each other.
US07861280B2
An application information table (AIT) includes a set of application information which is associated with a particular broadcast application. The set of application information includes a first data field indicating whether the data broadcast application is a program-bound application. A digital broadcast transmitter transmits a digital broadcast signal including the application information table (AIT) to a digital broadcast receiver, which then reads the first data field included in the set of application information to determine a program binding status of the data broadcast application.
US07861274B2
A method of operating a communications system storing assets for later transmission, is disclosed. The assets have respective expiration dates beyond which a right to transmit expires. The method comprises checking an expiration date of an asset and deleting the asset from storage based, at least in part, on the expiration date, a predetermined period of time added to or subtracted from the expiration date and/or whether the asset has been selected for later viewing. The predetermined period of time may provide a grace period for completing viewing of a selected asset by a user, either after or before the expiration date, depending on the rights to the asset granted by the source of the asset. The period of time may depend on a playtime of the asset and may be added to the expiration date only if the asset has been selected for viewing. Systems are also disclosed.
US07861268B2
A method of processing a broadcast signal in a television receiver and a television receiver using the same are provided, by which contiguous packets of a transport stream can be selectively blocked in reproduction. The television receiver includes a decoder for decoding a broadcast signal constructed as a transport stream of at least one packet; a flag setting unit for setting in response to a control signal at least one blocking flag identifying at least one contiguous section of the transport stream, the at least one blocking flag being located in at least one unused field of the decoded transport stream; a controller for outputting the control signal to the flag setting unit according to a user selection signal input; and a storage medium for storing the decoded transport stream in which the at least one blocking flag is set.
US07861265B2
A digital broadcast receiver includes a memory for obtaining and storing electronic program guide information about programs to be broadcast and progress information showing the progress of an program which is being broadcast in each channel, a display device such as a television screen, and a controller for allowing the display device to display the electronic program guide together with the progress information corresponding to the electronic program guide information by reading the progress information from the memory.
US07861261B2
In accordance with the present invention, a media content management application that allows a user to customize, assemble, distribute, and track one or more versions of media content based on semantic criteria is provided.
US07861251B2
A method of generating keys for object(s) in a Web Services arrangement, includes determining if an object has a defined first key and if the object has a defined first key, providing that defined first key for the object and if the object does not have a defined first key, providing a second key for the object.
US07861247B1
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for assigning resources to an application component. One embodiment of the present invention includes identifying an application component, and determining available resources of a networked computing system for running the application component. Additionally, the embodiment includes determining required resources for the application component, assigning a subset of available resources for the application component taking into account the required resources of the application component, the available resources, and one or more operator policies. These operator policies generally include preferences of operators, administrators, users, or the like, and could also include business rules. Additionally, the embodiment includes associating the application component with the subset of available resources.
US07861235B2
Disclosed is a program control device for managing cache information and generating an optimum linker option to thereby improve use efficiency of a cache memory. A cache line information generating section is formed which, when a target program is loaded into a main memory, generates cache line information. Therefore, the cache line information having memory address information and symbolic information in a function of the target program in a cache line can be displayed with cache performance information. Accordingly, functions causing a cache conflict can be easily specified and rearranged by a linker option so as not to share the same cache line. As a result, the cache misses can be reduced.
US07861231B2
A method and system to identifying the use of dangling pointers in software instrumentation irrespective of the location of the pointer in the memory. The main memory is preferably segmented into three parts defined as a first memory, a version segment and a pointer version segment. By use of the version segment and pointer version stored in the pointer version segment, checksum are made on a pointer version with a version on dereferencing a pointer in the first memory to identify references to a dangling pointer on negative determination. Identified dangling pointer may be reported to the end user.
US07861227B2
An automated software class specification validation tool automatically determines, for functions defined in a function definition section of a class specification, whether the function is properly declared throughout one or more other sections of the same class specification. Further, it can be determined whether variables, i.e., attributes, parameters, and local variables, associated with respective functions in the function definition section are properly specified throughout one or more other sections of the same class specification. The functions and variables that are validated include attributes and functions that are specified for structures and nested classes defined in a defined type section of the class specification. The validation tool is accessible over a network via a web page, and results of the validation process are also displayed on a web page.
US07861221B2
A method for the generation of a source code for a computer program for the execution or simulation of a complex process in which a multiplicity of subjects communicate with one another. In this method, the processes are described, the description of the processes is stored in a process file, and with the aid of the process file a source code for a computer program is generated, with a separate source code file being generated for each subject. Through the provision of a source code file for each subject, a complex process may be easily and therefore automatically split into several sub-programs, the source code files, which may be generated automatically. In this way it is possible to generate automatically a computer program for a very complex process. A further benefit of the method according to the invention is that it may be executed after automatic generation, i.e. it may be validated by an execution immediately after generation.
US07861211B2
Aspects of the present invention may be seen in a system and method for speeding up the processing of update packages by an update agent, by implementing at least a portion of the update agent in hardware. In an embodiment of the present invention, the update agent in hardware may process executable instructions in parallel.
US07861207B2
A method of performing a resolution enhancement technique such as OPC on an initial layout description involves fragmenting a polygon that represents a feature to be created into a number of edge fragments. One or more of the edge fragments is assigned an initial simulation site at which the image intensity is calculated. Upon calculation of the image intensity, the position and/or number of initial simulation sites is varied. New calculations are made of the image intensity with the revised placement or number of simulation sites in order to calculate an OPC correction for the edge fragment. In other embodiments, fragmentation of a polygon is adjusted based on the image intensities calculated at the simulation sites. In one embodiment, the image intensity gradient vector calculated at the initial simulation sites is used to adjust the simulation sites and/or fragmentation of the polygon.
US07861200B2
A method of characterizing a device under test (DUT) includes determining a goal function associated with a setup and hold time for the DUT. A minimum value for the goal function is determined by iteratively adjusting setup and hold times for input data to the DUT, and determining whether the DUT performs according to specifications. The minimum goal function value will reflect minimum setup and hold time values based on weights associated with the goal function. This allows the minimum setup and hold times for the DUT to be characterized with a small number of binary searches, improving the speed of the characterization process.
US07861195B2
The present invention generates model scenarios of semiconductor chip design and uses interpolation and Monte Carlo, with random number generation inputs, techniques to iteratively assess the models for a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of design space, and evaluation under projected manufacturing conditions. This evaluation information is then incorporated into design rules in order to improve yield.
US07861188B2
An electrical switch apparatus including a movement sensitive form is disclosed. The apparatus includes a housing, a motion sensor and a processing unit, where motion on, near or about the motion sensor is translated into output commands adapted for list scrolling, where the list can be arranged in a hierarchy such as menus or for changing a value of an attribute of a electrical device under the control of the switch.
US07861186B2
Techniques provide for the dynamic display of a page-oriented information asset using an audio output mode. Pluralities of elements in the page-oriented information asset are determined based on chapters, sections, paragraphs, sentences, words and the like. The elements are rendered to an audio output mode. Optionally selectable representations of the elements are also determined and output using a 3-dimension-like rendering to a visual output mode. The 3-dimension-like rendering of the visual representations of the elements shows how the current element relates to the other elements and its location within the page-oriented information asset. The 3-dimension-like rendering provides visual orientation or context within the page-oriented information asset. The visual representations of the elements are optionally selectable as spatial context indicators providing direct navigation control to support reading, browsing and information retrieval tasks within the page-oriented information asset. Speech input is also optionally recognized as a direct navigation control.
US07861185B1
A system and method for dynamically determining quantity for risk management are described. According to one example embodiment, as a trader positions an order icon at a desired price or price-derivative value on a graphical interface, an order quantity for the order is dynamically determined based on the order price and a selected risk management formula. A trader can change the price or the price-related value for one or more orders by moving the order icons relative to a price axis on a graphical interface. In such an embodiment, the initially calculated order quantity for each order will be dynamically recalculated based on the modified orders for the trading strategy.
US07861184B2
The method for managing menu functions in a mobile station includes the steps of executing menu edition, selecting menu items the user uses frequently in the executed menu edition, to set up a menu, executing the menu, and displaying the menu of the selected menu items at first. The basic menu inclusive of all menu items the mobile station provides is selected as a last menu item of the mode menu displayed at first so that the user can access to menu items other than the menu items of preference. By providing easy mode menu with menu items the user or manufacturer of the mobile station uses frequently in advance, and displaying on a display window at first, the user is permitted a quick and easy access to a desired menu item without going through many steps of menus for using the desired menu item.
US07861179B2
A user selection interface system comprises one or more circular selectors linked to selectable characteristics, and a display linked to the selectors, for display of an image which corresponds to the selected characteristics. The interface is typically linked to a database comprising stored image and other information which corresponds to the selectable characteristics, whereby an image that corresponds to an item which meets a selected characteristic is retrieved and displayed. Information other than the image which corresponds to the selectable characteristics may also be retrieved and displayed. In some embodiments, the stored images comprise a single image, which matches all the selected characteristics. In alternate embodiments, the displayed image comprises a composite image that is based upon stored images which correspond to different selected characteristics. In some embodiments, the user selection interface comprises a graphic user interface. In alternate embodiments, the user selection interface comprises a mechanical interface. Some preferred embodiments of the user selection interface provide links for merchandising functions, such as for ordering, purchasing, inventories, and/or shipping.
US07861177B2
Techniques are provided that are useful in generating a software configuration program that makes the configuration process simpler and more efficient. The techniques are especially useful in configuring a software application that is complex and may involve multiple steps to configure the application properly. The techniques provide both a design-time software tool that is used to design the software configuration program and a run-time software tool that is used to manage and control the execution of the software configuration program.
US07861176B2
The present disclosure relates generally to digital conferencing. A chat server causes a chat user interface to appear as a popup window hovering over a web page. In response to a first event, the chat server causes the chat user interface to appear as part of the web page.
US07861167B2
Dynamically configuring an application program at run-time via one or more extension objects. The invention software implements a framework with one or more extension objects providing functionality to an application program and an application manager for integrating the functionality with the application program during execution of the application program. The framework of the invention also formulates and routes application messages between extensible objects of one application program and extensible objects of other application programs implementing a similar, dynamically extensible application program framework. On receipt of messages or notifications, the framework of the receiving application program facilitates the discovery of the intended recipient extension object and routes the message accordingly.
US07861155B2
A method and system for publishing a message using a page builder tool is disclosed. The page builder tool is for providing a web page and linking the web page to a searchable database. The method and system include providing a message caching agent, a message cache and a message publishing agent. The message caching agent receives the message and provides the message to the message cache. The message publishing agent is coupled to the message cache and the page builder tool. The message publishing agent retrieves the message from the message cache and allows the message to be published on a web browser through the page builder tool in response to a request from the web browser.
US07861153B2
A document construction and management system is described. In one embodiment, documents are assembled by combining one or more modules. In one embodiment, the modules are combined according to one or more construction rules. The modules can be provided to a number of subscribers, each subscriber having one or more users. Access to each of the modules can be controlled on a subscriber basis and/or on a user basis based on different users or user classes. When new modules or new versions of an existing module are added to the database of available modules, access to the new module or version can be restricted until the new modules or versions have been reviewed and accepted. During the review period, the previous version of the module is made available to users for construction of documents. In one embodiment, one or more access rules are used to control which modules are available to which users. In one embodiment, search rules are provided to facilitate searching for a desired module.
US07861142B2
Four ECC blocks are recorded in a burst cutting area of an optical disc. Each ECC block is constituted by a BCA content code of 1 byte, content data length of 1 byte, and content data of 14 bytes. Of the BCA content data, the leading 6 bits are used for application ID and the remaining 2 bits are used for block number. Disc ID is stored in the content data. Since the four ECC blocks exist, the optical disc can be managed individually by four applications at the maximum. Thus it becomes possible to manage the same optical disc by a plurality of applications.
US07861139B2
Methods, apparatus, systems, and data structures may operate to generate or store error correction data for each of a plurality of sectors of a page except for a particular sector in the page and combining a block management data with the particular sector to generate a modified sector. Additionally, various methods, apparatus, systems, and data structures may operate to generate or store error correction data for the modified sector and combining the plurality of sectors, the error correction data for each of the plurality of sectors other than the particular page, and the block management data and the error correction data for the modified sector.
US07861136B2
According to one embodiment, an error correction parity bit sequence is generated for a data sequence obtained by adding a dummy symbol of a specific pattern to a digital information sequence modulated to convert into a form satisfying the request of a reproducing system. If the parity bit sequence meets the request of the reproducing system, the modulated digital information sequence excluding the dummy symbol and the parity bit sequence are output in such a manner that the information sequence and parity bit sequence correspond to each other. If the parity bit sequence does not meet the request of the reproducing system, a dummy symbol of another pattern is added to the modulated digital information sequence, thereby generating an error correction parity bit sequence.
US07861134B2
Methods and systems of low density parity check coded (LDPCC) coding are disclosed herein in which a set of LDPC codes ensure reliable transmission for channels in which modulation symbols may undergo attenuation in a random fashion. Methods and systems of LDPC coding disclosed herein include choosing a code blocklength and concatenating codewords into which a data packet can be encoded. To optimize the coding scheme, first, codeword shortening is performed to ensure an integer number of codewords for a desired packet length. The codewords may then be punctured or repeated to ensure an integer number of channel symbols per codeword. Shortening and puncturing repetition methods are implemented to yield minimum overhead while keeping the effective coding rate low.
US07861133B2
A digital demodulating apparatus comprises circuit elements constituting a tuner that performs channel select processing to an interleaved received signal, and a demodulator that demodulates the received signal; a deinterleaving section that deinterleaves the interleaved received signal; an error correcting section that corrects errors in the received signal deinterleaved by the deinterleaving section; and a circuit element controlling section that controls an operation of at least one of the circuit elements. The circuit element controlling section estimates the quantity of hypothetical errors in the received signal caused by a control of a circuit element. The circuit element controlling section judges from the estimated quantity of hypothetical errors whether the error correcting section can correct errors in the received signal caused by the control of the circuit element. The circuit element controlling section controls the circuit element so as to decrease the quantity of errors in the received signal caused by the control of the circuit element, when the circuit element controlling section decided that the error correcting section can not correct the errors in the received signal.
US07861128B1
A scan element with self scan-mode toggle is described. In an example, the scan element is configured to automatically switch between a capture mode and a scan mode. In the capture mode, data is captured from logic under test. In the scan mode, the captured data is scanned out for testing. The scan elements each include a shift register that serves a dual purpose of providing control for determining when the scan element is to switch from the capture mode and the scan mode, as well as providing a location to store captured data.
US07861126B2
An implementation-efficient, multiple-counter value hardware performance counter is disclosed. A hardware counter of one embodiment includes a memory array and a hardware incrementer. The array stores counter values that are indexable by an index constructed based at least on the number of events to which the counter values correspond. The index may be constructed as a concatenation of a number of bits binarily representing the number of events, and a number of bits binarily representing the number of qualifiers to the events. The incrementer reads the counter values from the array, increments the counter values, and writes the resulting counter values back into the array. The array may be divided into banks over which the counter values are stored, where each bank has a separate instance of the incrementer. Each bank may have a separate instance of the index that indexes only those counters stored in the bank.
US07861119B1
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media provide for updating a firmware image during a debugging sequence using a firmware debugger application without re-flashing each updated firmware image on a non-volatile memory device. Embodiments include a debugger application operating on a host computer system and a debugger driver located within a firmware image undergoing the debugging sequence on a target computer system. The debugger application and debugger driver may communicate and transfer data between one another. Upon detecting an error in a firmware image, the debugger driver notifies the debugger application. The debugger application sends an updated firmware image to the debugger driver on the target computer system. The debugger driver loads the updated firmware image and passes control to an entry point of the updated firmware image for continued debugging from the new entry point.
US07861118B2
An apparatus, method and computer-readable medium provide for detecting and filtering potential race conditions. In one example, potential race conditions may be detected by determining overlap of memory accesses (e.g., read, write). Potential race conditions may be filtered as potentially benign or harmful race conditions using, for example, heuristics, comparison of output states from execution of instructions or operations in differing sequences or identifying of associated output bugs corresponding to the execution of operations in different sequences.
US07861113B2
A storage controller that operates under elevated temperature conditions includes a memory, a memory controller, and a CPU that detects a temperature of the memory controller has exceeded a threshold while operating at a first frequency and responsively places the memory into self-refresh mode, reduces the memory controller frequency to a second frequency, and then takes the memory out of self-refresh mode. The clock frequency of a bus bridge or communications link circuit may also be reduced when their temperatures exceed a threshold. The bus bridge may deny access to requestors of access to the memory while the frequency is being reduced. Message transfers on a communications link between redundant storage controllers in a system may be suspended while the link frequency is being reduced. Finally, the system may fail over to one controller while the other controller reduces the frequencies and then fail back.
US07861112B2
Provided is a storage apparatus that can dramatically shorten the time for recovery from a fault in a storage device. In a storage apparatus provided with one or more storage devices and a method for controlling the storage apparatus, when a fault occurs in the storage device, whether or not the fault is a predetermined specific fault is judged, and the storage device is rebooted if the fault is the predetermined specific fault. As a result, recovery from the fault can be achieved in a dramatically shorter amount of time than the time required for replacement of the storage device. Accordingly, the time for recovery from the fault in the storage device can be shortened dramatically.
US07861106B2
When errors arise in a computing system that has plural modules, this invention corrects those errors. In the first instance, the invention excludes the computing system itself, but receives error messages from the plural modules of that system—along plural receiving connections, respectively. Plural sending connections return corrective responses to plural modules of that system, respectively. In a second instance, the invention further incorporates that system. The invention is hierarchical: plural levels or tiers of apparatus and function are present—a first (typically uppermost) one directly serving that system as described above, and others (lower) that analogously serve the first tier of the invention—and then also the subsequent tiers, in a cascading or nested fashion, down to preferably a bottom-level tier supporting all the upper ones. Each level preferably controls power interruption and restoration to higher levels. Ideally the hierarchy is in the form of a “system on chip”.
US07861099B2
A method and apparatus for user activity-based dynamic power management and policy creation for mobile platforms are described. In one embodiment, the method includes the monitoring of one or more sensor values of a mobile platform device to gather sensor activity data. Once the sensor activity data is gathered, the user state may be predicted according to the gathered user activity and an updated user state model. In one embodiment, the user state model is updated according to the sensor activity data. In one embodiment, a switch occurs from the present power management policy to a new power management policy if the new user state differs from a present user state by a predetermined amount. In one embodiment, at least one time-out parameter of a selected power management policy may be adjusted to comply with a predicted user state. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07861088B1
A system and method can verifiably record a voice communication between participants of the voice communication by connecting a first participant to a verifying service provider, connecting between the verifying service and at least one additional participant, recording the voice communication between the first participant and the at least one additional participant to provide a recorded voice communication and secure time-stamping the recorded voice communication to provide a verifiable recorded voice communication. Switch data, such as telephone numbers for the participants and date and time information for the voice communication, can be appended to the recorded voice communication. The participants may input identification data, such as digital signatures, that can be associated with the recorded voice communication and the recorded voice communication can be digitally signed using the digital signatures input by the participants.
US07861083B2
A security system in which wireless transmitting security devices use a hybrid or dual encoding methodology, wherein a first part of a data message is encoded in a return-to-zero (RZ) format and a second part of the data message is encoded in a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) format, thereby increasing error detection and correction. In a first aspect of the invention, status information is included in the first part of the message and redundant status information is included in the second part of the message. In a second aspect of the invention, message sequence information is included in the second part of the message to avoid processing of stale or out-of-sequence messages.
US07861080B2
A packet communication system for effectively using network resources and for improving network operability. A transmission security policy database specifies the omission of header information attached when a transmission packet is capsulated, as a transmission security policy. A header-information omitting section omits the header information of the capsulated transmission packet. A packet transmission processing section adds a security header and a header for tunnel communication to the packet from which the header information has been omitted and transmits the packet. A receiving security policy database specifies that the header information has been omitted, as a receiving security policy. A header-information recovering section searches the receiving security policy database for a security policy for a received packet, and when recognizing that the received packet is a target packet from which the header information has been omitted, recovers the header information.
US07861078B2
Communicating keys between network devices on a network using asymmetric cryptographic techniques, for which asymmetric keys may be derived from a single (same) password. Knowledge or partial knowledge of the password may be the only information shared between parties prior to execution of a key exchange, and may be the only criteria by which one party will base trust in the other. A first network device may encrypt a key using a password-based key derived from a password, and authenticate a second device based on the second network device's ability to decrypt the encrypted key using a key derived from the same password. Knowledge of the password may be conveyed by the second device to the first device—a session key may be generated as a function of the decrypted key, and a function of this session key may be communicated from the second device to the first device.
US07861067B1
The present invention utilizes an asynchronous pipeline cycle to facilitate increased average pipeline processing speed. Present invention adjustable cycle pipeline systems and methods minimize “stalls” in execution stages that would otherwise be required to compensate for differences in execution periods. In one embodiment, an adjustable cycle pipeline system includes a fetch stage, a decode stage, an execution stage, and a write stage. The fetch stage fetches information associated with an operation. The decode stage decodes the instructions including determining an instruction execution period. The execution stage executes instructions in accordance with the execution period and the write stage writes the results. In one exemplary implementation the instruction execution period corresponds to a particular number execution sub-clock cycles and the decode stage includes a decode operation timetable for indicating a period of time to complete execution of an operation. The sub-clock controls operations of the execution stage.
US07861059B2
A method and system are provided for programming a plurality of memory devices arranged in parallel. In one embodiment of the present invention, the plurality of memory devices comprises first and second memory devices, and the method comprises providing successively the first address to the first memory device and the second address to the second memory device. The first address refers to a first group of storage locations in the first memory device and the second address refers to a second group of storage locations in the second memory device. The method then proceeds to load in parallel a string of data to the first and second memory devices so that the string of data is written simultaneously to the first group of storage locations in the first memory device and to the second group of storage locations in the second memory device.
US07861054B2
A storage controller is realized in which validity/invalidity of functions is settable in a unit of logical division in conformity with logical division of logical groups control is performed such that operation has the influence upon only the inside of a range defined by resource groups of logical division and an Inband I/F for accessing functions is made to match with the logical division. Further, access control cooperative with information on the user side (information of server, user and application) is realized by causing a management server to manage information in the storage controller and user information.
US07861050B2
Described herein are systems and methods for multiplexing pipelined data for backup operations. Various data streams are combined such as by multiplexing by a multiplexing module. The multiplexing module combines the data from the various data streams received by receiver module(s) into a single stream of chunks. The multiplexing module may combine data from multiple archive files into a single chunk. Additional modules perform other operations on the chunks of data to be transported such as encryption, compression, etc. The data chunks are transmitted via a transport channel to a receive pipeline that includes a second receiver module and other modules. The data chunks are then stored in a backup medium. The chunks are later retrieved and separated such as by demultiplexing for restoring to a client or for further storage as auxiliary copies of the separated data streams or archive files.
US07861046B2
A memory apparatus and method of operation therefore includes control by a memory controller which, in one embodiment, is configured to configure a host sector application flag table in the memory array, the flag table associating each flag value with an address in the memory array where information associated with that flag value is stored. In a second embodiment the controller is configured to (a) write at least one page of information to the memory, each page having a plurality of sectors, each of the at least one pages including a page header having a flag value associated with information written to the page, and (b) configure an exception block in memory, the exception block including exception entries, each exception entry having at least an exception flag value and address information identifying an address range in the memory array to which the exception flag value applies.
US07861042B2
A processor of an apparatus in an example upon a failure of an earlier attempt to directly acquire ownership of an access coordinator for a resource shared with one or more additional processors, locally determines an amount to delay a later attempt to directly acquire ownership of the access coordinator. Upon a failure of the later and/or a subsequent attempt to directly acquire ownership of the access coordinator the processor would enter into an indirect waiting arrangement for ownership of the access coordinator.
US07861041B2
A cache memory system includes a cache memory and a block replacement controller. The cache memory may include a plurality of sets, each set including a plurality of block storage locations. The block replacement controller may maintain a separate count value corresponding to each set of the cache memory. The separate count value points to an eligible block storage location within the given set to store replacement data. The block replacement controller may maintain for each of at least some of the block storage locations, an associated recent access bit indicative of whether the corresponding block storage location was recently accessed. In addition, the block replacement controller may store the replacement data within the eligible block storage location pointed to by the separate count value depending upon whether a particular recent access bit indicates that the eligible block storage location was recently accessed.
US07861037B2
A portable flash memory storage device such as a memory card can configure a host device upon insertion. The configuration may specify applications or other sequences of operations to be executed by the host upon insertion of the card. Files on the card may be associated with an appropriate application and then automatically opened with the appropriate application. A secure configuration may override a more freely modifiable configuration in certain embodiments.
US07861027B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes an apparatus having an adapter to communicate according to a personal computer (PC) protocol and a second protocol. A first interface coupled to the adapter is to perform address translation and ordering of transactions received from upstream of the adapter. The first interface is coupled in turn via one or more physical units to heterogeneous resources, each of which includes an intellectual property (IP) core and a shim, where the shim is to implement a header of the PC protocol for the IP core to enable its incorporation into the apparatus without modification. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07861026B2
A signal relay device for accessing an external memory is provided. The signal relay device includes a bus arbiter and a burst access engine. The bus arbiter performs bus arbitration among main masters on a bus. The burst access engine exchanges signals with the bus arbiter and an external memory controller. The signal relay device facilitates data transfer of large groups of read/write commands between the main masters and the external memory controller.
US07861014B2
A memory system is provided that supports partial cache line read operations to a memory module to reduce read data traffic on a memory channel. The memory system comprises a memory hub device integrated in the memory module and a set of memory devices coupled to the memory hub device. The memory hub comprises burst logic integrated in the memory hub device. The burst logic determines an amount of read data to be transmitted from the set of memory devices and generates a burst length field corresponding to the amount of read data. The memory hub also comprises a memory hub controller integrated in the memory hub device. The memory hub controller controls the amount of read data that is transmitted using the burst length field. The memory hub device transmits the amount of read data that is equal to or less than a conventional data burst amount of data.
US07861011B2
A system and method for determining media to be exported out of a media library is described. In some examples, the system determines a media component to be exported, determines the media component is in the media library for a specific process, and exports the media component after the process is completed.
US07861008B2
A method and apparatus for intelligently routing and managing audio signals within an electronic device is disclosed. The routing is responsive to a set of logical and physical policies which are stored in data tables which can be updated as needed.
US07861003B2
A method includes receiving an instruction associated with a definition of an alarm condition and modifying a session controller associated with a Session over Internet Protocol (SoIP) network based on the alarm condition. The session controller can be modified when the alarm condition, which is defined based on session data, is changed from satisfied to unsatisfied or unsatisfied to satisfied. The modifying of the session controller is associated with a set of connections that includes more than zero connections.
US07860996B2
The present disclosure relates to playback of video/audio streaming media data with seamless advertisement insertion. A content player monitors playback of the media stream and determines a location to insert an advertisement. The content player pauses downloads of the media stream and begins downloading the advertisement while the media stream continues to be rendered. The advertisement is, consequently, loaded prior to a start time and allows for an instantaneous rendering at an advertisement insertion point in the media stream.
US07860992B2
A data transmitter (10) divides incoming data for transmission into data blocks and passes them in frame transmission order to a radio link stage (16) via a serial frame buffer (14). The buffer (14) holds the data frames until the radio link stage (16) is able to transmit them. The incoming data has associated with it various parameters. The radio link stage (16) has allocated to it radio link resources. The parameters and resources, which change independently of each other from time to time, are supplied to a controller (18) which calculates high and low buffer levels therefrom. The controller (18) controls the passing of the data frames through the frame buffer (14) to maintain the number of frames in the buffer at any instant of time at a level between the calculated high and low levels.
US07860989B2
In a computerized system, a sending computer system and recipient computer system exchange an interchange format message in a resource-efficient manner. For example, a transformation writer at the sending computer system selects and transforms only one or few of a plurality of units of the message at the time. The transformed message units are then streamed to the recipient computer system in accordance with a relevant transformation standard, such as the canonicalization standard in the case of XML messages. A transformation reader at the recipient computer system transforms the messages using a buffer big enough for received message units, and passes the transformed units to a file. Thus, the transformation writer acts as a stream writer to pass a message, and the transformation reader acts as a stream reader at the recipient computer system.
US07860984B2
Disclosed is a method for transmitting CAN messages via a CAN bus in a communication system including several network nodes with at least one respective CAN controller. According to the method, the authorization of a network mode to send a CAN message is arbitrated, an arbitration decision being made in a higher protocol layer than the transmission of the CAN message, and the CAN message is already sent by the transmitting network node, the latter providing a dominant level in the ACK field of the message. A network node which receives the CAN message does not generate a dominant level in the ACK field and does not send a complete error frame.
US07860982B2
Verification of Internet connectivity using multiple prior connection attempts to Internet destination(s). The Internet destinations may be destinations that have high reliability and that do not easily have intermediating systems that might deny a connection request. Such an Internet destination might be, for example, root Domain Name Server (DNS) servers. Connection attempt results are obtained by for at least some of the connection attempts, tracking which resulted in success and failure. Internet connectivity is then verified based on the collective results, rather than relying on any one single connection attempt. In one embodiment, the frequency of the connection attempts may depend on a current state of the Internet connection.
US07860974B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for providing stateful favorites. A client creates a stateful favorite by sending a request for a reduced state of a stateful application session to a server. The client receives the reduced state from the server and stores the reduced state as a portion of the stateful favorite.
US07860970B2
Secure initialization for detecting intrusions is disclosed. The secure initialization includes storing a behavior profile associated with an application, and reading the stored behavior profile that is cryptographically protected. The method further includes monitoring execution of the application during a bootstrapping phase of an intrusion detection system, according to the stored behavior profile. If the behavior of the application does not conform to the behavior profile, a message is issued indicating that the application is not conforming to the behavior profile. The behavior profile can be generated by a developer of the intrusion detection system, a developer of the application, and/or a third party developer. Additionally, the behavior profile is generated by executing the system on a reference computer system or by heuristic determination.
US07860969B2
A data processing system-implemented method can be used to better track a user's movements between network addresses. The method can comprise sending a frame identifier and a requested (current) network address at a first time. The method can also comprise finding a record including the frame identifier that has a prior network address and a time prior to the current time. The method can further comprise generating an entry for a table that includes the frame identifier, the current network address, the prior network address, and time. A server computer or a client computer can generate the entry. Improved accountability and improved user profile accuracy can be obtained with the method. A data processing system readable medium can comprise code that includes instructions for carrying out the method.
US07860968B2
A service repository is used to store at least one service in association with service metadata describing service requirements of the service. The service repository also may store one or more platform-specific service executables. A service mapper is used to determine device metadata associated with each of a plurality of devices, where the device metadata provides device characteristics of the devices. The service mapper may thus map the service to a selected device of the plurality of devices for deployment thereon, based on a matching of corresponding elements of the service requirements and the device characteristics. The service mapper also may re-map the service between devices to maintain a quality and reliability of the service.
US07860967B2
The present invention consists of a general purpose, software-controlled central processor (CP) augmented by a set of task specific, specialized peripheral processors (PPs). The central processor accomplishes its functions with the support of the PPs. Peripheral processors may include but are not limited to a packet parser, which provides the central processor with a numerical summary of the packet format; a packet deconstructor, which extracts designated fields from the packet the positions of which are determined by the central processor according to the packet format; a search engine, which is supplied a lookup index by and returns its results to the central processor; and a packet editor which modifies the packet as determined by the central processor using (in part) information returned from other peripherals. At each step in the use of this network processor system, the central processor has an opportunity to intervene and modify the handling of the packet based on its interpretation of PP results. The programmable nature of the CP and the PPs provides the system with flexibility and adaptability: rather than having to modify a circuit or system design in an ASIC or other hardware, new packet processing applications may be accommodated through the development of new software and its deployment in the central and/or peripheral processors.
US07860966B2
A system for use with electric equipment includes a first input/output (I/O) device configured to couple to the electric equipment, a monitor coupled to the first I/O device and configured to determine information regarding the electric equipment, a second I/O device configured to communicate with a communication network, a memory that stores a computer-executable program configured to be executed by a computer to provide a computer interface for providing indicia of the information regarding the electric equipment, the computer interface being in a format that is distinct from a network browser format, and an interface-provisioning device configured to convey the computer-executable program toward the computer via the second input/output device and the communication network.
US07860963B2
A service communication control system includes a user terminal connected to a user network. The service communication control system also includes communication gateway, a management server, and an application server connected to a communication carrier network. The communication using a communication protocol dedicated for the application service is performed between the user terminal and the application server through the communication gateway as a substitute. Thus, the user terminal need not be aware of the protocol.
US07860959B1
A technique maintains configurations of an intermediate node in a version control system. Entities within the intermediate node are represented by objects. Each object is associated with a state. Each object is distinct from other objects in the intermediate node, thus enabling the state of an object to be changed, without affecting other objects. Versions of the objects' states are maintained in the version control system. The version control system is configured to maintain one or more versions of state associated with the objects. A configuration of the intermediate node is defined by labeling a version of objects saved in the version control system. A configuration is applied to the intermediate node by acquiring the states of objects associated with the configuration from the version control system and configuring the intermediate node's entities represented by the objects in accordance with the acquired states.
US07860956B2
A method, system, and computer program product for transferring selected open browser tabs from a host computer to a client computer. The method includes copying a selected number of hyperlink addresses from a plurality of hyperlink addresses associated with a plurality of selected open browser tabs in a first browser of the host computer. A hyperlink import module of the client computer is activated for transferring the copied hyperlink addresses from the host computer. Before the transfer can occur, the client computer is authenticated. After authentication, the user of the client computer selects a subset of the copied hyperlink addresses from the host computer. Only the subset of the copied hyperlink addresses is transferred from the host computer to the client computer. The client user opens the subset of the copied hyperlink addresses in a second browser of the client computer for displaying.
US07860955B2
The present invention is related to a method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling devices comprising connecting an external manager to a communication protocol, connecting a first device to the external manager, assigning an IP address to said first device publishing a second IP address from the first device, connecting a second device to said first device such that it obtains the said second IP address, publishing a third IP address from said second device.
US07860952B2
The present invention relates to service and maintenance solutions for programmable and/or reconfigurable modules (CM1, . . . , CMn), which are included in the nodes of a communications network (140). The module (CM1) contains a first digital storage unit (M1), which holds information pertaining to the accomplishment of a primary function of the module. A secondary function of the module involves control of the primary function. The module has an optical bi-directional interface (Iw) towards the first digital storage unit. Data in the first digital storage unit may be read out (D0) and may also be updated (Di) by the portable software carrier unit via the optical bi-directional interface. Data read-out as well as data updating may be accomplished independently of the primary function. Preferably, an access module (A) controls the bi-directional interface in response to an authorization signal (SA) from an authorization unit (120, 121, 122, 123).
US07860951B2
A customizable client application capable of running on all seven classes of Internet-enabled personal cellular telecommunications devices whose Internet browser launching capabilities range from being Class 0 non Internet-enabled to Class 6 automatic Internet browser launching. The client application facilitates minimum subscriber intervention for Internet session initiation from an Internet session option of an interactive display message.
US07860948B2
The invention addresses the field of mobile communications. It relates to a method, network node and computer program for management of cached information within a hierarchical structure. The basic approach is to provide an intelligent mechanism for more dynamic management of the cached contents. In particular it provides a solution for a more efficient utilisation of the storage resources in a caching architecture by caching a single cached copy of the same content on each path from a client to the original source in the hierarchical architecture. This basically means that the cached information is placed as high up the hierarchy as necessary, but that the mechanism is enhanced with the capability to also move the cached information down the hierarchy in case the content is mainly used on a regular base by hosts connected to a part of the hierarchical architecture. The dynamics of the proposed solution foresees also to replicate a cached content to more then one part of the hierarchical architecture.
US07860938B2
Provided are an agent platform, a multi agent system, and a message transmitting/receiving method thereof. The message transmitting/receiving method for a multi agent platform including a first agent platform for managing at least one of a first agent and a second agent and at least one of a second agent platform for managing at least one of a third agent, includes: receiving a plurality of messages from the first agent at the first agent platform; assigning a priority to the received message according to a message type of the message at the first agent platform; and transmitting the message to the second agent or the second agent platform according to the priority.
US07860937B2
A service sends rich content messages including text and photos between any mobile device and potentially across a heterogeneous network. Furthermore, to enhance the user experience, content can be delivered based on personal preferences and device display capabilities.
US07860936B1
A parental control system is used to verify the identity of parents, based on children's instant messaging aliases. A plurality of verified parental accounts is maintained, each of which includes the identity of the parents and their children, including the children's instant messaging aliases. When a first child wishes to electronically communicate with a second child, s/he makes a request which includes the second child's alias. The parental accounts are searched for the second child's alias. If the alias is not found, instant messaging between the children is not allowed. If an account containing the alias is found, an identity verification request is transmitted, disclosing the identity of the first child's parents, and requesting reciprocal identity verification. Only if the second child's parents disclose their identity is the instant messaging between the children permitted.
US07860935B2
Conditional communication settings may be defined by a user of a communications device to be transmitted with a communication to a receiving device, where the receiving device may be restricted from performing a user-specified type of communication operations with a user-specified contact until the conditional communication settings are satisfied. The conditional communication settings may include a condition value setting, which may be a task to be performed by a recipient, a date and/or time, a location, an operation to be performed by a third party contact, or other suitable criterion. The receiving device may detect whether such condition value setting has been satisfied. Unless the condition value setting has been satisfied, the receiving device may be prevented from performing the user-specified type of communication operation with the user-specified contact.
US07860915B2
A method for detecting a pattern from an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) in an integrated circuit. The method includes the steps of: generating an output from an ALU; bitwise comparing the ALU output to a pattern to produce a first output; inverting the pattern and comparing the ALU output with the inverted pattern to produce a second output; bitwise masking the first and second outputs using a mask of a plurality of masks to produce third and fourth output bits; combining the third and fourth output bits to produce first and a second output comparison bits; and storing the first and second output comparison bits in a memory.
US07860906B2
Per-segment overflow ranges. One method includes acts for handling overflows of a mark stack. A reference to an object is accessed. The object is processed by attempting to place references to other objects referenced in the object onto a mark stack. An overflow condition of the mark stack is detected. A range in a segment is defined which includes the object that caused the overflow condition. The range is assigned on a per segment basis such that the range is defined to only include addresses in a single segment.
US07860901B2
The present invention provides a system and method for enabling the dynamic generation of user interface components. The dynamically-generated user interface components are based on templates and mappings that can be predefined through interaction with a user interface.
US07860897B2
A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture are provided to optimize the time and effort required to locate all data on a given entity that may span multiple data nodes in a distributed environment. For example, embodiments of the invention may be used to locate nodes within the distributed environment that store electronic healthcare records. A poll request from a first node to a second node may include electronic records existence data indicating data nodes known to have, or not have, records related to a given individual. This information is used to minimize the number of nodes that need to be polled to arrive at the complete aggregation of patient records that exist within a given set of nodes.
US07860886B2
A strategy is described for responding to a user's query based on a consideration of the user's intent in entering the query. The user's intent, in turn, is determined by examining prior query-related behavior of a population of users.
US07860885B2
A system is provided to detect email spam. During operation, the system receives an email, extracts a set of keywords from the email body, and constructs a first search query based a keyword extracted from the email body. The system further constructs a second search query based on the keyword in the first query and one additional word which pertains to a known spam word or to the subject of the email. Next, the system receives a first number of hits and a second number of hits in response to the first and second search queries, respectively. The system then determines whether the email is spam based on the first number and the second number. The system can also perform Website filtering using inference detection which is based on search results received in response to search queries formulated with keywords extracted from Websites.
US07860881B2
The subject disclosure pertains to data parsing with patterns or regular expressions. A mechanism is provided for annotating a regular expression with additional information regarding data extraction such as output fields and mapping of the output fields to sub-sections of matched data. A parser can utilize the annotation information to facilitate mapping and transfer of at least a portion of pattern matched data from a source to a destination. The disclosed systems and methods thus enable data to be exacted while it is being matched.
US07860877B2
A reconfigurable web-browser compatible data query system. The invention provides an XML platform enabling web-based forms that query data modeled by data schemas. This platform comprises a collection of query form controls, an annotation scheme for attaching these controls to the data schema, a compiler for creating a web-browser-compatible representation of the query form, and a run-time engine for constructing queries against the data and rendering query results.
US07860876B2
A peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing system is provided with an enhanced search method for a client computer therein. The method includes masking at least one term in a multi-term query entered into a client computer of the P2P system to obtain a masked query and routing the masked query to a plurality of server computers. The masked query is compared to a file descriptor of server files in each of the plurality of server computers to identify a plurality of matching server files. The server computers return to the client computer as search results the file descriptor and a mathematical identifier for each of the plurality of matching server files. The server computer may return to the client computer only a subset of the plurality of the matching server files. Enhanced P2P file searching accuracy is provided.
US07860868B2
A system for the entry of medical notes, wherein the medical notes, after submission, are stored is non-editable form and are locked in a database for historical archival. In one scenario, the entered medical notes are editable and can be deleted for a pre-set time period, wherein, after the expiration of the pre-set time period, the entered medical notes are stored is non-editable form and are locked in a database for historical archival. Filters can be used to categorize and render the stored medical notes based on a set of categories.
US07860867B2
An information managing system includes a parameter setting unit for setting a parameter representative of an attribute of a user and information to be retrieved, and an information relevance space generator for generating an information relevance space representative of information indicating a relevance between the user and the information to be retrieved, based on the parameter set by the parameter setting unit.
US07860863B2
Provided are techniques for optimizing the processing of hierarchical data. A linear processing graph is received, wherein the linear processing graph includes a plurality of operators, wherein each operator in the plurality is connected to at least one other operator by an arc, wherein hierarchical data flows on arcs, wherein the operators read and replace identified subregions within the hierarchical data flowing into the operators on the arcs, and wherein the operators do not modify the hierarchical data outside of these identified subregions. For each operator in the linear processing graph, a minimal set of dependent upstream operators on which that operator depends is found by examining how the identified subregions are created in the linear processing graph through obtaining a set of operators on which that operator depends, by analyzing dependencies carried by a set of vector nodes of the hierarchical data in an input schema of the operator, and, for each of the vector nodes, by analyzing an associated set of scalar nodes, wherein finding the minimum set of operators includes taking into consideration data preservation characteristics of the plurality of operators and taking into consideration structural-order preservation characteristics of the plurality of operators. The linear processing graph is rewritten to create a new graph that expresses dependencies based on the minimal set of dependent upstream operators for each operator.
US07860859B2
Techniques for determining search query information for an advertising campaign and communicating the search query information to a sponsor of the advertising campaign are described. The techniques include receiving, from a sponsor of the advertisement, a request for search query information relating to the advertisement having been presented by a search service, identifying previously executed search queries submitted by users of the search service, wherein search results of the identified search queries have been presented with the advertisement to one or more users of the search service, compiling search query information, the search query information including ad performance data associated with the advertisement for the identified search queries, and providing the sponsor with the compiled search query information. A user interface may be generated to receive user input of selection criteria and provide an interface to search query information.
US07860856B2
A computer implemented method for matching paint on a vehicle, having the steps of receiving in a central computer, from a remote terminal, vehicle identifying information relating to a specific vehicle and a first set of paint color data from a portion of the body of the vehicle. The central computer includes a processor, an electronic storage means in which a database is stored. The database includes vehicle identifying information for a plurality of vehicles, paint color data associated with respective vehicle identifying information, and paint formulations associated with paint color data. A first process by software in the computer determines a first best match paint formulation which relates submitted vehicle identifying information and submitted paint data to a paint formulation. The software in the computer determines a first best match paint formulation which is transmitted to the remote terminal. The central computer receives a second set of paint color data from the remote terminal representing a surface of the specific vehicle painted with the first best paint formulation and compares by a second process the second paint color data to the first paint color data so as to establish accuracy data. The accuracy data is applied to the first process so as to be implemented in subsequent paint formulation identifications.
US07860848B2
A system may include creation a first database object associated with a primary key and a first delta ID m, association of a first pointer with the first database object, creation of a data structure associating the first pointer with a first index m, a second index m and a delta object map, determination of a request from a transaction to change a database object associated with the first pointer, incrementing of the first index of the data structure, creation of a second database object associated with the primary key and a second delta ID m+1, the second database object being associated with a change to the first database object, and modification of the delta object map to indicate the second database object.
US07860847B2
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed for handling exceptions in sequential statements that are executed in parallel. A transactional memory system is provided with a contention manager. The contention manager is responsible for managing exceptions that occur within statements that were designed to be executed in an original sequential order, and that were transformed into ordered transactions for speculative execution in parallel. The contention manager ensures that any exceptions that are thrown from one or more speculatively executed blocks while the statements are being executed speculatively in parallel are handled in the original sequential order.
US07860826B2
Systems and methods for synchronization including the use of a global equivalency identification datum or set of datum. A universally unique identification datum may be associated with each independently created associated data set. In some embodiments, a synchronization server software element may be responsible for maintaining synchronization for a plurality of clients, including software elements or devices. A record believed to be new by the software elements may verify that the record is actually new. In some embodiments, verification of the record's newness involves assuming that the local ID is a global identification datum and comparing that datum to the all the sets of datum that the Sync-Server knows about. The synchronization server software element may use a table to hold information for all of the records known to that element. In some embodiments these records may have been deleted in the past.
US07860820B1
Disclosed herein are embodiments of a system and method for the provisioning of dynamically generated content. One embodiment can interface a content delivery system and a content management system at the fragment level. Depending upon how a page is organized, a fragment may refer to a block within the page, a portion of the page, or a content item presented on the page. When a content item is updated and published onto the content management system, one embodiment of the invention can operate to track dependencies of managed pages and invalidate/validate fragment(s) affected by the change(s) accordingly. The updated fragment(s) may then be dynamically assembled on-the-fly or on-demand. The updated fragment(s) may or may not be cached. In this way, changes made to a piece of content can be reflected in all pages which utilize this content almost simultaneously with the changes to the content itself.
US07860818B2
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for determining and utilizing case-based ranking methods, such as methods for machine condition monitoring. Specifically, the present invention provides a method for identifying and prioritizing labeled data. The method allows a monitored system to be associated with a calibrated and ordered set of states. Further, in machine condition monitoring, the machine condition is associated with the entire set of states in a particular order with one or more relevance zero-points. That is, a ranked set of calibrated data describing machine conditions is augmented with an annotation indicating a cut-off between relevant and non-relevant data.
US07860808B2
A system and method that optimizes use of renewable energy sources using modern satellites and telemetry to reduce the impact of renewable energy limitations. Location data corresponding to the device is retrieved using GPS technology and a GPS receiver which is located proximate to the device. Renewable energy generators are identified and include generation parameters that indicate the efficiency and output of the devices. Environmental energy factors are retrieved based upon the location data. The amount of available renewable energy is calculated based upon the environmental factors and the renewable energy generation parameters corresponding to each of the renewable energy generators. A travel plan that contains the user's travel intentions can be used. The travel plan indicates future location data as well as device idle time. Collected energy can fuel batteries and can also be used to provide hydrogen to a hydrogen fuel cell.
US07860807B2
A Web page creation support system includes a customer terminal unit (300), a Web page creation support server (100) which is accessible from the customer terminal unit (300) via a network, and a creator terminal unit (400) for performing a Web page creation job. The Web page creation support server (100) controls Web page information of the customer terminal unit (300) in relation to template information. The server can cause the creator terminal unit (400) to create the Web page information in response to a creation request from the customer terminal unit (300) in accordance with the template information, thereby providing an environment in which Web page creation can be easily carried out on the network.
US07860799B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for providing media content delivery audit and verification services are disclosed. In one example, a monitoring system analyzes messages associated with communications in a wireless communications network. The monitoring system identifies, from the messages, messages that are associated with the request for or delivery of media content to a wireless communications device via the network. Copies of the messages relating to media content delivery are generated, correlated, and analyzed in order to provide a network operator with information that may be used to verify media content delivery transactions and associated revenues.
US07860790B2
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for automatically migrating a consumer from one prepaid financial account to another prepaid financial account based on preset trigger criteria. A prepaid payment device, such as a payroll card, may be issued to the consumer and associated with a prepaid financial account. The prepaid financial account may include a profile for the consumer. The issuer of the prepaid payment device may monitor the account activity and set trigger criteria that control when the consumer is automatically migrated from the current prepaid financial account and which type of new account the consumer is migrated into.
US07860788B2
Evaluating a real estate transaction based on preliminary data about the transaction. An evaluation system employs a transaction evaluator software module that can receive input about a customer and a type of financial product. The transaction evaluator software module also has access to a variety of data sources defining parameters for the investing institution. When the transaction evaluator receives input for a customer, it retrieves the relevant parameters for investing and performs a series of calculations to determine the likelihood that the customer's transaction will be approved. The results of the calculations can be displayed to the user in a graphical format for a range of transaction values. The graphical presentation of the calculations assists the user in determining whether to proceed with the transaction.
US07860781B1
In one embodiment of the present methods and systems, in a servicing entity, a computer-assisted method is provided for managing commercial mortgages. The method includes storing information associated with a plurality of mortgages in a data model; allowing a plurality of participants to access the mortgage information to enable shared servicing of the plurality of mortgages; storing a set of business rules in a database, the set of business rules being configured for application to the mortgage information, the database being operatively associated with the data model; and, allowing the plurality of participants to access the mortgage information from origination of the plurality of mortgages to disposition of the plurality of mortgages. System and computer-readable media embodiments associated with the present method embodiments are also provided.
US07860771B2
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to methods and systems for securitization of certificates of deposit. In addition, the present invention relates to a corresponding security itself (e.g., a security associated with one or more certificates of deposit). As such, in one embodiment, the present invention creates a more or less standard investment instrument (i.e. the funding certificate) by pooling the CDs to back the instument—thus, the net effect is the replacement of non-marketable instrument provided by financial institutions (i.e. the CD) with negotiable securities issued in the public capital markets (i.e. the funding certificate).
US07860768B2
Systems and techniques for implementing an exception handling framework are described. An exception register is configured to store multiple error messages and rules comprising instructions for responding to the error messages. An exception handler in communication with first and second process components is configured to: detect an error message generated by at least one of the first and second process components; determine that the error message is stored in the exception register; and respond according to a rule corresponding to the error message. The rule uses information pertaining to a business scenario being implemented in conjunction with the first and second process components, and the business scenario is at least partially unavailable to at least one of the first and second process components.
US07860760B2
A business method and policy set that links fields from data sources distributed across multiple servers and owned by multiple users into a single data supply chain that that enables real time actions upon achievement of threshold conditions.
US07860756B2
When device information is transmitted from a DVD recorder to a server, the server transmits selectable function information that is selectable in the DVD recorder side to the DVD recorder. If a reproducing function for MP3, for example, is selected from the selectable function information, the DVD recorder transmits information of reproducing function for MP3 to the server. The server transmits amount billed for the reproducing function for MP3 and the like to the DVD recorder. A user makes the DVD recorder transmit a password when the user approves the amount billed. If the server judges that the password is correct, the server transmits a firmware related to the reproducing function for MP3 to the DVD recorder, then the DVD recorder rewrites an existing firmware that is stored in a flash memory to a firmware on which the firmware related to reproducing function for MP3 is added.
US07860755B2
Methods of the present invention allow for rating eCommerce transactions. An exemplary method for rating an eCommerce transaction may comprise the steps of identifying a plurality of data indicating the trustworthiness of a Hosting Provider, a Merchant, and/or a Customer, collecting the data, and generating a Transaction Trust Rating for an eCommerce transaction, with the Transaction Trust Rating being based upon the collected data. The Transaction Trust Rating may be stored in a Repository accessible to Internet users. A Transaction Trust Rating Indicator (indicative of the Transaction Trust Rating) also may be provided to the Hosting Provider, Merchant, and/or Customer and may take the form of a certificate for display on a webpage, a change in color of an address bar on a browser, and/or an alphanumeric ranking.
US07860754B2
An improved system and method is provided for optimizing the reserve price and allocation of web page placements in an online keyword auction using generalized trade reduction. To do so, a generalized trade reduction engine may be provided to convert an implementation of an online keyword auction into a double-sided auction that may optimize the reserve price and allocation of web page placements to maximize revenue. An online keyword auction may be converted into a double-sided market by turning every bidder in the auction into a buyer and every web page placement into a virtual seller. The allocation of buyers and sellers may be divided into disjoint procurement sets and the generalized trade reduction engine may add or remove procurement sets in iterations until conditions of competition among remaining traders may be fulfilled to optimize the reserve price and allocation of web page placements to maximize revenue.
US07860750B2
An order fulfillment tool may indicate fulfillability information for a plurality of open orders and receive user input specifying one or more orders for potential fulfillment. In response, the order fulfillment tool may indicate revised fulfillability information for orders not specified for potential fulfillment according to the effects on a current inventory if the specified orders were fulfilled. The order fulfillment tool may also recommend orders for potential fulfillment according to user-specified order fulfillment criteria and indicate revised fulfillability information for orders not recommended for potential fulfillment. Such an order fulfillment tool may also receive user input specifying fulfillment levels for individual items of orders and update fulfillability information for other orders according to the effect of the individual fulfillment levels.
US07860745B2
A credit card signature inspection system includes a card-sliding device and a credit card server. The card-sliding device produces a signature authentication request including credit card data and produces a bill to be signed. The credit card server includes a credit card database pre-stored with data of credit cards. Data of each credit card corresponds to an authentication signature of a credit card holder. The credit card server receives the signature authentication request and searches the credit card database based on the credit card data in the signature authentication request to produce an authentication signature corresponding to the credit card data. The authentication signature is transferred to the card-sliding device and displayed on the card-sliding device to check whether the authentication signature on the card-sliding device corresponds to the signature of the consumer for the bill, so as to determine whether to approve the proceeding of the transaction.
US07860742B1
An improved method of marketing is disclosed in which in which a particular marketing website logo is displayed during a television commercial, following which consumers who viewed the commercial can log onto the marketing website and participate in an interactive online contest which will increase awareness of the advertised product or service and thereby reinforce the offline television advertising seen by the consumers. The marketing website offers incentives to consumers who view television commercials and in response log onto the site, so that when consumers view a television commercial which displays the marketing website logo, they will immediately associate the logo with the marketing website and with the opportunity to either obtain something desirable or, more particularly, the opportunity to win a substantial prize at no cost to them. Thus, there exists an incentive which many consumers will find highly desirable, making them highly motivated to move to the second phase of the commercial, which thus extends far beyond the brief seconds of the actual television commercial in further increasing advertised product awareness and reinforcing the television commercial itself.
US07860734B2
A system and method is provided for quoting reinsurance. A web server receives electronic requests for reinsurance quotations and authenticates users generating the requests. An application server connects with the web server to formulate the quotation based upon the requests. A database connects with the application server and stores the quotation and other data (e.g., actuarial tables) used to generate the quotation. The electronic requests may include a selection of a preexisting quote within the database. A profitability analysis engine may analyze profits of the quotation, so that the customer users further receive profitability information associated with the quotation.
US07860732B2
A method and apparatus for providing a Medicare Part D Pharmacy Benefits Calculator. A user inputs data for prescriptions to be purchased by a prospective insured for a plan period. The prescription data includes a quantity, a days supply, and a number of fills. The data for each prescription the user enters is used to calculate anticipated out-of-pocket costs for the prescriptions for one or more pharmacy benefits plans available to the prospective insured. The cost data is presented to the user in a way that illustrates how out-of-pocket costs will vary over the course of a plan period. The user may view costs for alternative drugs and alternatives sources of drugs. The user may vary and expand the presentation of the cost data to better understand the available plan benefits. The invention helps prospective insureds decide among alternative Medicare Part D pharmacy benefits plans offered by one or more insurance companies.
US07860730B1
The system distributes workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy resources that are connected by a computer network. Work orders are queued at each pharmacy resource and redistributed based on existing workload distribution, capacity of pharmacy resources, and/or product demand.
US07860726B2
A method for improving communication in the delivery of healthcare services is described. Also disclosed is a method of improving the area of Pre-Service operations. The method may utilize the ePackages described herein.
US07860707B2
A computer-implemented method is disclosed for improving the accuracy of a directory assistance system. The method includes constructing a prefix tree based on a collection of alphabetically organized words. The prefix tree is utilized as a basis for generating splitting rules for a compound word included in an index associated with the directory assistance system. A language model check and a pronunciation check are conducted in order to determine which of the generated splitting rules are mostly likely correct. The compound word is split into word components based on the most likely correct rule or rules. The word components are incorporated into a data set associated with the directory assistance system, such as into a recognition grammar and/or the index.
US07860703B2
A timing-control method of a hardware-simulating program can be applied to a software platform for facilitating control program development. The hardware-simulating program can be recorded in any suitable recording medium and defines therein a plurality of simulating elements which are automatically synchronized at intervals by setting specified time points as aligning points. The specified time points are set with adjustable intervals. By adjusting an interval between adjacent specified time points, the simulating speed between the adjacent specified time points can be changed to comply with practical requirements.
US07860692B2
When an integrated displacement amount of the particles constituting a contact candidate pair is equal to or more than ¼ (one-quarter) cell or more, likelihood becomes high that the particles of the contact candidate particle pair, which was not in contact with each other, would come into contact with each other. Then, in such high likelihood, data relating to contact candidate particle pairs are updated. With this arrangement, even if contact candidate particle pair data updating is decimated and part of contact determination is accordingly omitted to increase a computing speed of the contact determination, accuracy of simulation will not be reduced. Thus, according to the present invention, the computing speed of the contact determination can be increased without lowering the accuracy of simulation.
US07860691B2
Tools and techniques for creating and editing a master block definition for a dynamic block, and manipulating a block instantiation of a dynamic block are described. One or more data structures that can be used to implement a dynamic block feature are described.
US07860685B2
Methods for processing spectra are disclosed. The method includes obtaining a plurality of spectra, each spectrum in the plurality of spectra comprising a signal including a signal strength as a function of time-of-flight, mass-to-charge ratio, or a value derived from time-of-flight or mass-to-charge ratio. Then, a signal cluster is formed by clustering signals from the plurality of spectra with time-of-flights, mass-to-charge ratios, or values derived from time-of-flights or mass-to-charge ratios that are within a window that is defined using an expected signal width value.
US07860684B2
Advanced spaceport information management methods and systems are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes coupling a test system to the payload and transmitting one or more test signals that emulate an anticipated condition from the test system to the payload. One or more responsive signals are received from the payload into the test system and are analyzed to determine whether one or more of the responsive signals comprises an anomalous signal. At least one of the steps of transmitting, receiving, analyzing and determining includes transmitting at least one of the test signals and the responsive signals via a communications link from a payload processing facility to a remotely located facility. In one particular embodiment, the communications link is an Internet link from a payload processing facility to a remotely located facility (e.g. a launch facility, university, etc.).
US07860683B2
The invention relates to a device (1) for state monitoring in hydrostatic displacement units (2), in particular in axial piston machines (3) operated as a pump or as a motor. The device (1) comprises an acquisition unit (4) with a multiplicity of sensors (5) which are attached to the hydrostatic displacement unit (2) and serve to acquire monitoring data (6) and operating data (7), and an evaluating unit (8) which has a device (9) for analysing the monitoring data in the frequency range and a device (10) for analysing the monitoring data in the time range. A diagnostic unit (11) with an output unit (13) is connected to the evaluating unit (8).
US07860681B1
Combination is disclosed for deriving and displaying the full complement of nine dynamic parameters associated with a mechanical motion transmission system; the parameters comprise: (1) angular displacement, (2) angular velocity, (3) angular acceleration, (4) moment of force (i.e. torque), (5) kinetic energy, (6) work, (7) power, (8) momentum and (9) impulse. Quasi-instantaneous, absolute measurements are derived from elapsed-time measurements between successive sensing of fixed, equal, position events such as electric pulses generated by an incremental shaft encoder. The parameters are displayed on the X and Y axes of a Cartesian or other suitable graph where the X-axis (i.e. the independent axis) indicates the angular displacement of the encoder expressed as a succession of fixed, equal position events in the units of radians. The Y-axis (i.e. the dependent axis) indicates the absolute value of the parameters.
US07860677B2
Systems and associated apparatus, methods, and computer program products, relate to a small, portable diagnostic instrument for checking the correct operation of a gas metering system that include a gas meter, an electronic corrector, and a junction there between. Some embodiments may use calibrated sensors to check the operation of a rotary or other positive displacement type gas meter or turbine meter. For example, reference sensors may be temporarily applied to monitor gas temperature and pressure, as well as the motion of a flow-responsive element (e.g., impellers, turbine, or diaphragm) in the gas meter. Measured volume signals from the gas meter system may be compared to reference volume signals determined from the reference sensors to check operation of the junction, and/or the electronic corrector. Some embodiments may detect other failure mechanisms, such as bearing-related problems in the gas meter, for example.
US07860675B2
The present invention has an object of realizing a defect inspection estimated at high accuracy by preparing a reference image that reflects the change of the blur with time from a sampled image and design data. The present invention comprises a point spread function estimating section 23 for estimating a point spread function from an observation image and design information, a convolution image generating section 31 for generating a convolution image by convoluting the point spread function relative to the design information and a reference image generating section 33 for generating a reference image from the convolution image obtained by the convolution image generating section. binary image relative to “chromium on quartz glass”.
US07860664B2
A system and method for structural health monitoring (SHM) of a physical structure, such as an aircraft component. The system may comprise a central data acquisition module and a plurality of wireless, self-contained sensor wafers bonded to a surface of the physical structure. The central data acquisition module and the sensor wafers may be communicably coupled in a hierarchical order. If any of the sensor wafers detects a structural fault, it may be stored in a memory of the central data acquisition module for retrieval by maintenance personnel. If one or more of the sensor wafers malfunctions, the central data acquisition module may reconfigure the hierarchical order in which the sensor wafers communicate to exclude the malfunctioning sensor wafer or wafers. The sensor wafers may include a sensor, circuitry, a wireless antenna, and a power source.
US07860658B2
Provided is a method for mapping traits in organisms, in particular in plants. The method comprises a) providing a population of SDR-0 organisms, in particular plants, that each arise from one member of a population of unreduced cells resulting from second division restitution, in particular a population of unreduced spores; b) producing SDR-1 progeny populations of each of these SDR-0 organisms; c) phenotyping the SDR-1 progeny populations to identify segregating traits within each SDR-1 progeny population; d) if segregating progeny are present in a SDR-1 progeny population, genotyping the corresponding SDR-0 organism and comparing the genotype thereof with the genotype of the other SDR-0 organisms to identify heterozygous chromosomal regions associated with the occurrence of the segregating trait identified in the SDR-1 progeny population.
US07860656B2
The present invention is drawn to a new diagnosis method for detecting the extent of hepatic steatosis in a patient, in particular in a patient who suffers from a disease involving hepatic steatosis, or who already had a positive diagnosis test of liver fibrosis and/or presence of liver necroinflammatory lesions, by using the serum concentration of easily detectable biological markers. The invention is also drawn to diagnosis kits for the implementation of the method.
US07860653B2
An obstacle avoidance control apparatus is provided with an obstacle detecting section, a first obstacle proximity distance prediction section, a second obstacle avoidance direction determining section, a target vehicle body slip angle setting section and a vehicle behavior controlling section. The obstacle detecting section detects preceding obstacles. The first obstacle proximity distance prediction section predicts a closest proximity distance between the host vehicle and a first (closest) obstacle. The second obstacle avoidance direction determining section determines a second obstacle avoidance direction to avoid the second obstacle. The target vehicle body slip angle setting section sets a target vehicle body slip angle, such that the host vehicle faces further inward of the turning direction as the proximity distance increases. The vehicle behavior controlling section controls the host vehicle so that an actual vehicle body slip angle coincides with the target vehicle body slip angle at the time of closest proximity.
US07860652B2
The present invention discloses a lane detecting apparatus mounted on a vehicle including a camera for obtaining an image of a lane marking drawn on a road, a candidate line selecting part for selecting one or more candidate lines having edge information no less than an edge threshold from the image obtained by the camera, and a car pool lane determining part for determining whether the difference in the number of the candidate lines between the left side of the vehicle and the right side of the vehicle is no less than a predetermined value. When the difference is no less than the predetermined value, the lane detecting apparatus transfers to a car pool lane detection mode in which the candidate line selecting part detects the one or more candidate lines in accordance with a threshold that is less than the edge threshold.
US07860650B2
A navigation device with power saving mechanism and method thereof are provided. The navigation device includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, a first processing unit, a second processing unit and a sound playing unit. The GPS receiver produces a longitude-latitude information by receiving a satellite signal from the GPS. The first processing unit switches from a first mode to a second mode according to a control signal. Then, the first processing unit is disabled after switching. When the second processing unit is enabled, a direction information and a distance information are generated by comparing the longitude-latitude information with a destination information. The sound playing unit selects two frequencies among a plurality of navigation frequencies according to the direction information and the distance information, and plays the tone signals which are comprised of the two frequencies in sequence.
US07860645B2
The telematics service providing system generates a path from the departure point to the destination based on traffic information, generates guidance information for each guidance point where a turn to a direction that is different from the current progress direction of the client is needed on the generated path, clips a vicinity map covering a predetermined area with reference to the guidance point from the total map to generate a guidance point vicinity map, converts the generated guidance point vicinity map into a format displayable by the client, and provides the converted map to the client terminal. Accordingly, confusion caused by complex crossroads or paths that need consecutive and same direction turns may be prevented, the client terminal may not need a memory for storing large-volume geographic information data, and the client may not additionally need to upgrade the geographic information data.
US07860639B2
The invention relates to a road traffic control method and corresponding traffic facilities. The method includes: setting roads mounted or vehicles mounted devices for controlling queens passing; setting associated traffic facilities which assist controlling queens; guiding, including and controlling to vehicle flows in various directions by the above devices and facilities; arranging the vehicle queens into sequential array at the same time or by turns in roads and crosses according to preset procedure. By the method, the vehicle flows can pass continuously or non-continuously without crossing or with less crossing in multi-driveway road. The invention has small investment, wide application and can greatly improve the cross passing ability.
US07860629B2
This invention relates to a method for controlling a motor vehicle drivetrain system which has a drivetrain as well as a combustion engine for driving this drivetrain and an electronic engine control unit as well as an electronic transmission control unit, whereby, if the electronic transmission control unit fails or when the electronic engine control unit loses communication with the electronic transmission control unit, the permissible engine torque of the combustion engine is limited, as well as a safety system for a motor vehicle by means of which the method is controlled, as well as a motor vehicle with such a safety system.
US07860626B2
Heads-up display arrangements for vehicles including a seat in which an occupant sits, a system for forming an image of text and/or graphics in a field of view of the occupant, a determination arrangement for determining a position of the occupant (or a part thereof) and an adjustment system for adjusting the seat based on the occupant's determined position to thereby change the orientation of the occupant relative to the image. Change of the orientation of the occupant relative to the image may entail adjusting the seat and/or adjusting the image forming system, which is often a heads-up display system. Adjustment of the seat may involve moving the seat forward or backward and/or up or down, or any other direction or way possible given the construction of the seat.
US07860624B2
A vehicular steering control apparatus is comprised of a steering system of receiving a steering torque inputted by a driver, a torque control actuator connected to the steering system to produce an actuator torque relative to the steering torque and a steering controlling section connected to the torque actuator. The steering controlling section controls the torque control actuator and increases a phase delay of the actuator torque relative to the steering torque toward a neighborhood of 180° as the frequency of the inputted steering torque increases.
US07860623B2
A process for increasing the stability of a vehicle upon acceleration on a roadway with a non-homogenous coefficient of friction, whereby a drive wheel is acted on by a braking force on a side with a low coefficient of friction by means of a drive slip regulation. A value (pASR) is determined which corresponds to the braking force (FB,ASR) set by the drive slip regulation (ASR). The value determined (pASR) is used for the determination of a disrupting yaw momentum (MZ), and a control portion (ΔδZ) of a supplemental steering angle (Δδ) is determined in dependence on the disrupting yaw momentum (MZ). An apparatus for the implementation of the process is also provided.
US07860620B2
An inspection apparatus includes a discrimination function determination unit which determines whether or not a discrimination function forms an area including a discrimination sample. The discrimination function is used in non-parametric one-class discrimination. The discrimination sample is discriminated into a class as a single area in an input space where learning samples are plotted.
US07860614B1
A trainer for training a human to use a physical robot in a physical environment, the physical robot being controlled in the physical environment by an operator control unit, the trainer comprising an input device; a visual display; a computer connected to the input device and the visual display; and computer software disposed in the computer for creating a virtual robot and a virtual environment on the visual display, the virtual robot and the virtual environment being simulations of the physical robot and the physical environment wherein interaction between the virtual robot and the virtual environment simulates interaction between the physical robot and the physical environment.
US07860613B2
A legged mobile robot which permits improved follow-up of an actual floor reaction force to a desired floor reaction force and which can be stably controlled is provided.According to a robot 1 in accordance with the present invention, a deformation amount (mechanism deformation amount) of a compliance mechanism 42 that occurs due to a desired floor reaction force of a foot (ground contacting portion) 22 is determined, and the operation of a leg 2 is controlled such that the foot 22 lands onto a floor at a predetermined velocity in a vertical direction or in a direction perpendicular to the floor surface on the basis of a component of the mechanism deformation amount in the vertical direction or a component thereof in the direction perpendicular to the floor surface.
US07860606B2
A system for dispensing media discs comprising, in combination, a storage system for storing the media discs, a dispense system for dispensing the media discs to consumers, a disc transfer system for moving the media discs from the disc storage system to the dispense system, and a control system operably connected to the disc transfer system to selectively activate the disc transfer system to move the media discs from the disc storage system to the dispense system. An inventory management system is operably connected to the disc transfer system to selectively activate the disc transfer system to move selected ones of the media discs from the disc storage system to a holding location located outside the disc storage system for manual removal.
US07860604B2
A method for controlling access to and segregating items dispensed from a vending machine having a stock of said items, said method comprising: vending an item only when a control procedure is satisfied; storing a record indicating said vended item has been dispensed; if said vended item is not distributable to an authorized recipient; quarantining said vended item including inserting said vended item into a port on an exterior of said vending machine that conveys said inserted vended item to a secure repository in the interior of said machine; and updating said record to indicate said vended item has been returned to said machine.
US07860597B2
A method and apparatus for atomic layer deposition (ALD) is described. The apparatus comprises a deposition chamber and a wafer support. The deposition chamber is divided into two or more deposition regions that are integrally connected one to another. The wafer support is movable between the two or more interconnected deposition regions within the deposition chamber.
US07860584B2
A method, computer, and recording medium storing a program are provided which, based on local optimal solutions, more efficiently calculate an optimal global optimal solution in a global operating area. System calculates the global optimal solution by solving, using a genetic algorithm based on the local optimal solutions and the initial values, an equation, which should be satisfied by the plurality of design variables, by obtaining the plurality of combinations of design variables composing local optimal solutions for each design variable respectively calculated for each of a plurality of combinations of a plurality of operating states, and by obtaining initial values for the plurality of combinations of design variables used for calculating the global optimal solution.
US07860574B2
An implantable medical device comprises a near field telemetry module, a far field telemetry module, and a processor in electrical communication with the near field telemetry module and the far field telemetry module. The processor is configured to establish, in relation to a communication signal received by the near field telemetry module, a time period during which communication via the far field telemetry module is available, authenticate a far field communication session using the far field telemetry module, and communicate using the far field telemetry module upon authentication of the communication session.
US07860562B2
A method of controlling an external force applied to an animal to achieve as a target relation the relation between the external force and a motion variable varying with the motion of the animal. A value of an external force f applied to a human leg according to an external force function f(x) on the basis of a measured value of a myoelectric potential x that occurs in the human leg, current I of a motor 220 is controlled according to the set value, and the external force f is applied to the leg through an orthosis 222. A resultant force (the sum of an internal torque and an external torque around a knee joint) F is measured as “a motion variable.” Moreover, a value of a factor γ is set according to a factor function γ(f, F) on the basis of the set value of the external force f and the measured value of the resultant force F. If a deviation δ between the set value of the factor γ and target value γt thereof is equal to or greater than a reference value ε, a new external force function f(x) is set in such a way that the set value of the factor γ approaches the target value γt.
US07860554B2
A non-invasive method of characterizing burn injuries using near infrared spectroscopy is described. In the method, a beam of light is emitted into the burnt tissue portion at two or more different tissue depths. The spectra are then compared using multivariate analysis to determine diagnostic regions of the spectra. This information is used to categorize the burn. In some cases, the diagnostic regions correspond to wavelengths related to the hemodynamics of the tissue portion. The spectra can also be repeated over time, thereby allowing trends and changes in the spectra to be measured. This data is in turn used to categorize the burn as either a superficial burn, partial thickness burn, deep partial burn or a full thickness burn. Once the burn has been categorized, the clinician can intervene as needed to treat the burn.
US07860551B2
A magnetic resonance diagnostic apparatus includes an input unit which inputs information associated with the physique of a subject to be examined and information associated with an imaging region, a calculating unit which calculates a partial body SAR associated with a partial body including the imaging region on the basis of the input information associated with the physique and the input information associated with the imaging region, and a display unit which displays the calculated partial body SAR.
US07860550B2
A robotic patient positioning assembly for therapeutic radiation treatment includes a robotic positioning device for moving and supporting the patient during treatment, a sensor system for detecting the position of the robotic positioning device, and a controller operatively connected with the sensor system for receiving position data of the robotic positioning device and operatively connected to the robotic positioning device for controlling the motions of the robotic positioning device. The controller is adapted for controlling the motion of the robotic positioning device in response to information representative of the position of the robotic positioning device received from the sensor system, so that the treatment target within a patient loaded on the robotic positioning device is properly aligned with a radiation source of a therapeutic radiation treatment system.
US07860546B2
A medical electrode includes a backing layer having a top face and a bottom face, and a shrinkable layer covering at least a portion of the top face of the backing layer. Shrinkage of the shrinkable layer results in flexing of a portion of the backing layer to aid placement and attachment of the electrode to the patient.
US07860543B2
In certain embodiments, a method samples a body fluid of a patient. The method includes providing a fluid handling system having one or more fluid passageways. The method further includes infusing an infusion fluid by way of a fluid handling system into a patient through one or more fluid passageways. The method further includes obtaining a sample of body fluid by way of a fluid handling system from a patient through one or more fluid passageways. The obtained sample is no more than 5 milliliters in volume. The method further includes analyzing at least an analyzed portion of the obtained sample by way of an analyte detection system operatively associated with the fluid handling system to determine a concentration of at least one analyte.
US07860542B2
In certain embodiments, a method samples a body fluid of a patient. The method includes providing a fluid handling system having one or more fluid passageways. The method further includes infusing an infusion fluid by way of a fluid handling system into a patient through one or more fluid passageways. The method further includes obtaining a sample of body fluid by way of a fluid handling system from a patient through one or more fluid passageways. The obtained sample is no more than 400 microliters in volume. The method further includes analyzing at least an analyzed portion of the obtained sample by way of an analyte detection system operatively associated with the fluid handling system to determine a concentration of at least one analyte.
US07860536B2
A method of using a portable communications device includes displaying a first image of a rotary dial in a display of the portable communications device in response to a first contact by a user with a click wheel. The first image of the rotary dial includes a plurality of icons arranged proximate to a periphery of the rotary dial. The plurality of icons include numbers.
US07860532B2
A document is requested using a browser of a computing device. The document is parsed, prior to rendering the document, for any contact data. Each contact data on the document is replaced with an activatable link that will allow a user to activate the link on the computing device to automatically initiate a communication, from a mobile device in communication with the computing device, to a contact associated with the contact data.
US07860525B2
A method is provided that includes accessing information associated with at least one service or application in a social network. The method also includes detecting at least one event relating to the information associated with the at least one service or application within the social network and modifying the information associated with the at least one service or application in response to the at least one event.
US07860524B2
The invention concerns a method of providing a Push-to-Talk (=PTT) service within one or more telecommunication networks (1, 2, 3, 4) by means of a gateway-server (5) which sets up a virtual connection per PTT connection. The virtual connection provides information about the participating terminals (10, 20, 30, 40) of the PTT connection, the service type to reach each terminal (10, 20, 30, 40), and the connection status of each terminal (10, 20, 30, 40). Thus, the gateway-server (5) is capable of providing the PTT service within and/or across different telecommunication networks comprising radio access telecommunication networks (1), fixed wire-line telecommunication networks (2), circuit-switched telecommunication networks (3), and packet-switched telecommunication networks (4).
US07860520B2
The embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for issuing paging messages and an MSC/VLR, the method includes: determining types of networks terminating the process, if the MS only accesses a 2G network; issuing, by the MSC/VLR, paging messages on an RNC, and terminating the process, if the MS only accesses a 3G network; and issuing, by the MSC/VLR, paging messages on both the BSC and RNC, if the MS accesses both the 2G network and the 3G network. According to the embodiments of the present invention, the MSC/VLR can choose to issue paging messages on the BSC or the RNC separately or on both the BSC and the RNC, since it can determine the types of networks accessed by the MS. Thus, unnecessary paging messages issued on the BSC same time, a great deal of radio paging channel resources on the BSC or the RNC is saved, which greatly reduces effects on the process of paging other MSs.
US07860511B1
A method for preventing the occurrence of overload conditions in a multi-carrier communication system such as, but not limited to, enhancements to 1xEV-DV by controlling the amount of voice and data users having access to the communication system in order to provide enhanced QoS and load balancing. The method includes converting one of carriers in the multi-carrier voice/data system to a voice-only carrier when loading exceeds a given threshold related to QoS and outage criteria.
US07860508B2
A mobile communication system, according to the present invention includes: a cell station; and a plurality of mobile stations, which are connectable to the cell station in wireless manner. Each of the mobile stations calculates a transmission timing of link channel request for communication with the cell station in accordance with a formula using a parameter, which is calculated using a random number.
US07860504B2
A method of treating a handover in a bridge-based radio access station backbone network including a plurality of base station bridges each including a two-tiered switch connected with a plurality of radio access stations, a plurality of SCBs (Site Core Bridges) each composed of two-tiered switch for constituting the core network, and an HLR (Home Location Register) for managing the structural information of the network constituents. The SCB stores the terminal information containing the receiving address of the initial terminal registration message and the SCB to delete the terminal information in response to a disconnection message of the terminal caused by handover, to request the SCBs in the terminal end of the old MAC-in-MAC tunnel to delete the tunnel information and the terminal information, and to inform the HLR of initiating the handover to change the registered operational state of the terminal.
US07860500B2
During operation of a secondary communication system, nodes having different channel monitoring capabilities or requirements will cooperatively monitor possible frequencies for transmissions, each node using only a subset of all possible modulation sensing schemes. All nodes will share channel occupancy information to other nodes within the communication system. For example, a first group of nodes may monitor possible frequencies for television transmissions, while a second group of nodes may monitor the possible frequencies for APCO 25 transmissions. A group of nodes may also cooperatively monitor possible frequencies for more than one type of modulation transmission. Channel information will be shared among the nodes.
US07860495B2
On a first level of the wireless building automation architecture, sensors and associated actuators communicate directly. The sensor performs control processes appropriate for the sensor and regardless of the type of actuator being used. The actuator performs control processes specific to the actuator regardless of the type of sensor being used. By direct wireless communication between sensors and actuators, the opportunity for a failed communications link using a hub and spoke arrangement may be avoided. Communication redundancy is provided by receiving the outputs of sensors at a controller, such as a controller on a second high speed or high bandwidth tier of the architecture. Regional control is implemented in the higher level tier. The higher level tier may override or control operation of components of the lower level tier as needed. The distributed control processing allows for more convenient room level integration. Where a problem is detected, such as a fire, corrective action begins within the immediate region of the sensor generating an alarm signal. The corrective action occurs without routing the alarm signal to upper levels of control processes or across different systems. The alarm signal is also propagated to upper level control systems for generating appropriate responses in other zones. To provide the different zones and avoid interference, the transmit power of the sensors and actuators is controlled as a function of two or more other devices.
US07860491B2
A method of providing data content obtained from one or more network-connected nodes to a mobile computing device is provided. The method includes determining whether a previously-established network connection between the mobile computing device and a network-connected node has been interrupted after the mobile computing device receives a first set of data content and an identifier corresponding to a second set of data content from the network-connected node via the previously-established network connection. The method also includes establishing a wireless connection between the mobile computing device and another computing device if the previously-established network connection has been interrupted and the second set of data content is stored by the other computing device. The method further includes conveying the second set of data content to the mobile computing device from the other computing device via the wireless connection if the previously-established network connection has been interrupted and the second set of data content is stored at the other computing device.
US07860490B2
Methods, systems, and devices are disclosed for exposing access network capabilities using an enabler proxy. In one embodiment, a device for providing access to one or more capabilities of a wireless network comprises a first interface to communicate with an application, a second interface to communicate on a wireless network as a subscriber device, and logic to process requests from the network-based application to access one or more capabilities of the wireless network. The logic may be configured to process the requests by at least using one or more services subscribed to by the device.
US07860482B2
A disclosed method tunes a signal from a channelized spectrum having a predetermined channel spacing. A signal of interest having a predetermined maximum bandwidth is mixed with a local oscillator signal, which has a frequency that is an integer multiple of the channel spacing or one-half of a channel spacing displaced from an integer multiple of the channel spacing. The local oscillator signal is selected to frequency translate the signal of interest to within a near-baseband passband whose lower edge is spaced from DC by at least about the maximum bandwidth of the signal of interest. Problems associated with 1/f noise, DC offsets, and self-mixing products are avoided or substantially diminished. Other methods and systems are also disclosed.
US07860466B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for providing a linear polar transmitter. The systems and methods may include generating an input amplitude signal and an input phase signal, where the input amplitude signal and the input phase signal are orthogonal components of an input signal, and where the input amplitude signal and the input phase signal are generated on respective first and second signal paths. The systems and methods may also include processing the input amplitude signal along the first signal path using an amplitude error signal to generate a predistorted amplitude signal, and processing the input phase signal along the second signal path using an phase error signal to generate a predistorted phase signal. The systems and methods may also include providing the predistorted amplitude signal along the first signal path and the predistorted phase signal along the second signal path to a power amplifier to generate an output signal, where the amplitude error signal is generated from a comparison of at least an amplitude portion of the output signal with the predistorted amplitude signal and where the phase error signal is generated from a comparison of at least a phase portion of the output signal with the predistorted phase signal.
US07860462B2
The power level of multicast data transmissions in a wireless communications network are controlled. Power level information is provided in a transmitted channel received by a user equipment. The user equipment measures the power level of a received signal. It compares the measured power level to the power level indicated by the power level information provided in the transmitted channel. Power level measurement information is included in a message sent by the user equipment depending on the results obtained when the power level measured by the user equipment is compared to the power level indicated by the power level information provided in the transmitted channel.
US07860453B2
A satellite system 10 having a first satellite 14 at a first orbital slot B has a first transponder 32 and a second generating a first downlink signal 44B at a first frequency and a second downlink signal 44C at a second frequency. An outdoor unit is directed toward the first satellite 14 and includes a support structure, a reflector 64 coupled to the support structure and reflecting the first downlink signal and the second downlink signal. A first feed 66B is coupled to the support structure and receives the first downlink signal. A second feed 70A is coupled to the support structure and receives the second downlink signal. A secondary reflector 72 reflects the second downlink signal to the second feed 70.
US07860452B2
A method of assigning a carrier for mitigating inter-cell interference in a fixed relay based communication system is provided. In a normal mode, the method includes defining at least one sector group by grouping cells at least two tiers away from each other; selecting a single sector group; and assigning, by a base station of the selected sector group, a first carrier to a relay station or a mobile station which is located in a coverage area of the base station. In a relay mode, the method includes determining whether a current mode is a normal mode or a relay mode; determining whether a base station is included in a selected sector group; and assigning carriers to a relay station or a mobile station belonging to the base station, when the current mode is the normal mode and the base station is included in the selected sector group.
US07860450B2
An electronic couponing technique includes transferring coupon information, which may include a coupon ID (identification) to a first portable terminal and storing same therein. The portable terminal displays a representation of the transferred coupon information on a display thereof. The stored coupon information may be transferred from the portable terminal to another terminal for redemption. The stored coupon information may also be transferred from the portable terminal to another portable terminal. Various schemes may be used to transfer the coupon information including a Bluetooth low-range radio link or an optical bar code scanner scanning an optical bar code or an infrared link or a wireless link from the portable terminal. The Internet or wireless LAN (Local Area Network) may also be used in transferring the coupon information to and from the various terminals.
US07860447B2
A curling device includes a first curling unit configured to curl a sheet in a first direction and a second curling unit. The second curling unit is for curling a sheet which has passed the first curling unit in a second direction which is opposite to the first direction. The curling device also includes an input unit facilitating manual inputting correction values relating to the curling direction and curling amount to be corrected, and a control unit configured to changeably control the curling amount of each of the first curling unit and the second curling unit, to correspond to the correction values input in the first and second input units.
US07860446B2
An image reading device includes a document stacking tray on which documents are stacked, a feed roller for picking up, one sheet at a time, the documents that are stacked on the document stacking tray, a curved transporting path through which the document is transported, and a CCD reading unit and a CIS reading unit for reading images from the document. The document stacking tray includes a electric tray for raising or lowering the document within a range of a height of the curved transporting path, so as to feed the document to the feed roller. With such an arrangement, it is possible to provide an image reading device and an image forming apparatus that are capable of separating and transporting a large number of documents and efficiently reading images from the documents even when the documents are thick.
US07860442B2
An image fixing device for use in an image forming apparatus. The fixing device includes a fixing member which fixes a toner image on a recording medium at a nip area, a pressurizing member which pressures the recording medium toward the fixing member at the nip area, a carbon lamp which emits infrared rays, and a reflecting member which reflects the infrared rays to the nip area.
US07860440B2
A fixing device fixes a toner image carried on a recording medium. The fixing device includes a rotatable fixing roll member, a fixing belt member and a walk adjustment mechanism. The fixing belt member is wound on the fixing roll member so as to be rotatable. The walk adjustment mechanism changes a walk width of the fixing belt member in accordance with a width of the recording medium.
US07860438B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, an endless belt whose front surface contacts the image carrier to form a transfer nip, and a bias applying roller configured to apply a transfer bias to a back surface of the endless belt. An image is formed of a toner having an additive embedded rate of not less than 40 percent and including a mother particle having a binder resin and a colorant, and an external additive. The bias applying roller is located so as to satisfy a relationship, L>(A/2)+(B/2)+C, where A is a diameter of the image carrier, B is a diameter of the bias applying roller, C is a thickness of the endless belt, and L is a distance between centers of the image carrier and the bias applying roller on a virtual plane perpendicular to an axis direction of the image carrier.
US07860435B2
A developing device includes a developing tank having a developing region tank and an agitating region tank, a partition wall member, a first agitating and conveying member, a second agitating and conveying member, a first intermediate wall member, a second intermediate wall member and a sensor, and an opening portion is formed. In the developing device, a third agitating and conveying member extending in a longitudinal direction of the agitating region tank is provided between the second agitating and conveying member and the second intermediate wall member in a transverse direction of the agitating region tank.
US07860434B2
A developing cartridge includes a body frame, a photosensitive body having a shaft, a developing unit having a shaft in parallel to the photosensitive body, a driven part that is rotatably joined to the shaft of the developing unit, a transmission part that has a transmission shaft in parallel to the shaft of the developing unit and is connected to the driven part in a transmittable manner, a unit casing that rotatably supports the shaft of the developing unit and the transmission shaft, is rotatably supported to the body frame, and controls the developing unit to approach the photosensitive body when the unit casing rotates in the same direction as a rotation direction of the photosensitive body, and a driving part that is provided in the body frame and rotates the transmission part in the same direction as the rotation direction of the photosensitive body.
US07860430B2
A transfer device has a cleaning arrangement for preventing any leakage of the toner and the liquid carrier remaining on a transfer belt. The transfer device includes a transfer belt onto which liquid developer images are transferred, the transfer belt being wound around a roller having an axial length of L1, a transfer belt cleaning blade to be brought into contact with the roller by way of the transfer belt, the transfer belt cleaning blade having a length L2 in the axial direction of the roller, and cleaning blade seal members arranged at the opposite lateral ends of the transfer belt cleaning blade in the axial direction of the roller and having a length of L3. The lengths of these members have the relationships of L1>L2 and L1
US07860423B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming mechanism for forming an image, at least one developer container replaceably provided in the image forming apparatus for containing developer, a housing for housing the image forming mechanism and the at least one developer container, and an operation device provided on the housing. The housing includes at least one openable portion opened for replacement of the at least one developer container. The operation device includes an instruction display part for indicating a message prompting opening of the at least one openable portion, and at least one developer-end display part for indicating depletion or near-depletion of the developer contained in any one of the at least one developer container. The at least one developer-end display part and the instruction display part are placed adjacent to each other and are viewable from a front side of the image forming apparatus.
US07860410B2
As a projection extending member is arranged adjacently to a projection, a sensor S1 produces an “ON” state output when an eccentric cam starts turning even in non-printing mode. The time from when the eccentric cam starts turning until sensor S1 changes its output from “ON” to “OFF” becomes longer when a new intermediate transfer belt unit is used than when a used intermediate transfer belt unit is used. The length of this time is measured so as to detect whether the intermediate transfer belt unit is brand-new or old.
US07860403B2
The invention includes a method for optically encoding data for transmission over a wavelength division multiplexed optical communications system comprising the steps of: generating a periodic series of optical pulses defining a series of time slots, wherein one pulse appears in each time slot; filtering the pulses to produce carrier pulses extending over more than one time slot; and modulating the pulses with data for transmission. Preferably, the filter gives rise to the pulses having a temporal profile with a minimum in the centre of each of the time slots adjacent to the time slot for that pulse. The resulting data format allows for greater spectral efficiency in a WDM optical transmission system as compared with conventional RZ and NRZ data formats.
US07860400B2
An optoelectronic device implements a serializer array circuit or multi-channel CDR circuit to reduce the cost and size of the circuit. An efficient serializer array circuit includes a plurality of serializer blocks sharing the functionality of a single CMU to clock a plurality of serial signals out of the final stages of the serializer blocks. An efficient multi-channel CDR circuit includes a single CDR for acquiring the clock for one of a plurality of data signals and a plurality of DLLs using the recovered clock to acquire the data for the plurality of data signals. Alternately, an efficient multi-channel CDR circuit includes a single frequency acquisition loop and a plurality of data acquisition loops.
US07860388B2
An image capturing apparatus includes: an image acquisition unit operable to acquire a plurality of captured images at least relating to the focus control among images captured by an image capturing unit; an image comparison unit operable to compare focus states of focus positions of the plurality of captured images acquired by the image acquisition unit; an out-of-focus determination unit operable to determine which captured images are not in focus, the captured images being included in the plurality of captured images compared by the image comparison unit; and an error display signal generating unit operable to generate a signal for displaying an error region on the display unit for the captured image determined to be out-of-focus by the out-of-focus determination unit.
US07860372B2
A television receiver includes: a video decoder that converts a composite signal into a digital signal; a video encoder that converts a reproduced data or the digital signal to output a Y/C signal; a monitor; a detecting unit that detects the reception of broadcast signal; and a controller. When the detecting unit detects that the receiving state is good, the controller controls the video encoder to convert the digital signal so that broadcast pictures are displayed on the monitor by using the Y/C signal. When the detecting unit detects that the receiving state is not good, the broadcast pictures are displayed on the monitor by using the composite signal. When the recording medium is reproduced, the controller controls the video encoder to convert the reproduced data so that reproduced pictures are displayed on the monitor by using the Y/C signal or the component signal.
US07860365B2
An edge protector for use with fiber optic cables includes a body having a first portion and a second portion. The first portion includes a first surface and an oppositely disposed second surface. The second portion includes a tang and a radius protrusion having a radius. The tang extends outwardly from the radius protrusion such that the tang extends beyond the second surface.
US07860360B2
A coupler and method of coupling a signal beam between from a circular-core fiber to a rectangular-core cross section fiber includes providing an optical coupler having an optical core with a high-aspect ratio cross section at one end and a circular cross section at an opposite end to receive a signal beam having a circular cross section. The signal beam is propagated from the circular fiber to the rectangular-core cross section fiber in a narrow, fast-axis direction while maintaining the size and divergence of the signal beam as it propagates. The signal beam is expanded in size while producing a collimated beam from the circular cross section end to the rectangular-core cross section end in a wide, slow-axis direction.
US07860357B2
An optoelectronic device chip, and a method for making the chip, are disclosed. The chip comprises a device substrate, an optically transparent upper substrate, and a composite spacer layer which includes an adhesive material and a plurality of particles dispersed in said adhesive material. The distance between the device substrate and the upper substrate is controlled by the thickness of the composite spacer layer so that the variation is within the depth of focus of optical system.
US07860348B2
A compensating technique, implemented as an image processing block inserted in a chain of sequential image processing blocks, is used to achieve custom tuning at an end-user site to provide a customer a desired image quality (IQ) different from the factory calibrated one, or to simply compensate for drift in the image quality due to a number of factors including environmental conditions and/or system aging. The compensating techniques use a higher order polynomial to correct an actual input/output parameter relationship such that it is acceptably close to a pre-determined input/output parameter relationship for a given measurable parameter related IQ.
US07860343B2
A new method, system, apparatus and software product for constructing by an electronic device an image panorama from a plurality of images based on their visual quality is presented. The same portion of a panoramic image scene is typically captured on multiple neighborhood video frames from which one can choose the best visual representation to be pasted into the panorama. Constructing the image panorama from the plurality of captured images can comprise the following steps: a) evaluating image quality of K consecutive frames out of the captured plurality of images using a predetermined criterion, b) selecting one image out of the evaluated K frames with the best image quality using a predetermined rule, and c) appending the selected frame to previously selected frames for constructing the image panorama. On-line and off-line implementations are possible.
US07860337B2
Disclosed herein is an improved blur computation algorithm. The proposed algorithm accomplishes a blur of an image using fragment programs on a GPU. Alternatively, the blur may be computed on a CPU through emulation or directly programmed. Modifications of the program are possible that accomplish motion blur, zoom blur, radial blur, and various other forms of blur that vary across an image computed for the purpose of simulating depth-of-field.
US07860336B2
An image conversion device according to an example of the invention comprises a blur estimating unit which estimates a blur state of input image data, a blur changing unit which changes the blur state estimated by the blur estimating unit into an arbitrary blur state, and an image constructing unit which constructs output image data on the basis of a blur changing result obtained by the blur changing unit.
US07860327B2
Additional data compression is achieved by enhancing the spatial and temporal correlation of the data in a pre-processing module prior to sending the data to an encoding algorithm, such as for example, the MPEG algorithm. An input frame of data is decomposed into a luminance frame and two chrominance frames. The luminance frame is transformed on the basis of each of a plurality of luminance pixels within the frame to produce a transformed luminance frame having a plurality of transformed luminance pixels. A map describing a relationship between the plurality of luminance pixels of the luminance frame and the plurality of transformed luminance pixels of the transformed luminance frame is created. The two chrominance frames are transformed according to the map to produce two transformed chrominance frames. The transformed luminance frame and the two transformed chrominance frames are integrated to produce a transformed output frame.
US07860325B2
An image processing method according to one aspect of the present invention is an image processing method for decompressing a compressed image data file using at least one of a hardware-based decompression processing and a software-based decompression processing, wherein both of the hardware-based decompression processing and the software-based decompression processing are performed in parallel when a plurality of compressed image data files are present as a decompression processing subject.
US07860319B2
There is disclosed a method of processing a digital image, which includes assigning an image quality classification to the image on the basis of an analysis of at least a portion of the image to detect whether one or more defects exist in the image.
US07860314B2
A method and apparatus are provided for adapting an exponential probability model. In a first stage, a general-purpose background model is built from background data by determining a set of model parameters for the probability model based on a set of background data. The background model parameters are then used to define a prior model for the parameters of an adapted probability model that is adapted and more specific to an adaptation data set of interest. The adaptation data set is generally of much smaller size than the background data set. A second set of model parameters are then determined for the adapted probability model based on the set of adaptation data and the prior model.
US07860311B2
A video object segmentation method takes advantage of edge and color features in conjunction with edge detection and change detection to improve the accuracy of video object segmentation for rainy situations. The video object segmentation method of the present invention includes analyzing HSI-color information of the initially extracted objects to obtain features of the moving object; performing edge detection to obtain edges of the moving object for reducing the effect of confusing raindrops with moving objects in rainy dynamic background; performing object region detection to generate an accurate object mask for solving the uncovered-background problem and the still-object problem; and employing a bounding-box based matching method for solving the reflection problem of the moving object in the rained ground.
US07860301B2
A system for creating photorealistic 3D models of environments and/or objects from a plurality of stereo images obtained from a mobile stereo camera and optional monocular cameras, for enhancing 3D models of environments or objects by registering information from additional sensors to improve model fidelity or to augment it with supplementary information using a light pattern projector, and for generating photo-realistic 3D models of underground environments such as tunnels, mines, voids and caves, including automatic registration of the 3D models with pre-existing underground maps. The cameras may be handheld, mounted on a mobile platform, manipulator or a positioning device. The system automatically detects and tracks features in image sequences and self-references the stereo camera in 6 degrees of freedom by matching the features to a database to track the camera motion, while building the database simultaneously. A motion estimate may be provided from external sensors and fused with the motion computed from the images.
US07860300B2
The invention relates to a method and system for determining a sharp panoramic image constructed from a group of projection images, especially the invention relates to defining a structure of the panoramic X-ray image of an area of a dentition and of jaws. The structure of a panoramic image to be generated from a group of projection images is determined by at least two crucial parameters, namely parameters of the central surface S of the sharp layer and thickness t(s) of the sharp layer, using penalty function F(S,t), which is at least a penalty function F3(S,t) of low-frequency changes in the computed panoramic image corresponding to the choices S and t(S). After computing F3(S,t) the best center surface and thickness function (in other words the sharpest layer of the panoramic image) is obtained by minimizing said penalty function F(S,t) over parameter space.
US07860292B2
Systems and methods for creating and viewing three dimensional virtual slides are provided. One or more microscope slides are positioned in an image acquisition device that scans the specimens on the slides and makes two dimensional images at a medium or high resolution. This two dimensional images are provided to an image viewing workstation where they are viewed by an operator who pans and zooms the two dimensional image and selects an area of interest for scanning at multiple depth levels (Z-planes). The image acquisition device receives a set of parameters for the multiple depth level scan, including a location and a depth. The image acquisition device then scans the specimen at the location in a series of Z-plane images, where each Z-plane image corresponds to a depth level portion of the specimen within the depth parameter.
US07860287B2
A system compares clinical trial protocol data in a configuration file with medical image metadata and data exchange protocol header data and in response generates a message to a user. A patient clinical image data processing system comprises a first validation processor for parsing a message conveying patient medical image data to identify image metadata indicating first characteristics of the image. The first validation processor performs a first comparison by comparing the metadata with configuration data indicating predetermined characteristics of images required for a particular use and indicating the image is acceptable for the use in response to a successful first comparison. A second validation processor parses header data of DICOM compatible data representing the image to identify image metadata indicating second characteristics of the image. The second validation processor performs a second comparison by comparing header data with configuration data indicating predetermined characteristics of images required for a particular use and indicating the image is acceptable for the use in response to a successful second comparison. A data processor indicates the image is acceptable for the use in response to successful first and second comparisons.
US07860280B2
A method for facial feature detection. The method comprises the following steps: a) receiving a digital image depicting a human face, the digital image comprising a plurality of color pixels, each one of the color pixels comprising color information, b) segmenting a face segment based on the color information, the face segment delimiting the area of the face, c) identifying a centerline that approximately bisects a human face section, and d) using the centerline to segment a set of facial features of the human face.
US07860275B2
A method for detecting raindrops on a windscreen, which uses a camera, which is fitted inside the vehicle opposite the windscreen and which is focused at infinite. The method comprises steps of acquiring images by a camera through the windscreen, camera preferably focused at infinite, retrieving the contours of the spots present on the acquired images, and realizing the histogram of the widths of contours of the spots.
US07860268B2
A method of authenticating an object using optically decodable encoded images is presented. The method comprises attaching a digital data storage medium to the object and storing an optically decodable digital encoded image in the data storage medium. The digital encoded image comprises authentication information determinable by decoding the digital encoded image. The method further comprises downloading the digital encoded image from the digital data storage medium and applying a digital decoding algorithm to the captured digital image to establish a decoding result. The decoding result is then compared to object authentication criteria to establish an authentication result.
US07860267B2
A system, method and computer program product for managing documents. The system includes a document manager that is configured to search for application services providers (ASPs) over a network and based on a user input. The document manager can search documents within the ASPs, retrieve documents and URLs, store documents and data, format documents, generate and issue unified bills from a plurality of bills from a plurality of ASPs. The document manager can also manage, e.g. create, receive, transmit, store, merge, watermark information for documents managed by the document manager. The document manager can request that a document be merged with a corresponding watermark information so that the document be printed with an embedded watermark. Alternatively, the document manager can merge the watermark information with the document and can transmit the merged document data to a printing entity.
US07860252B2
A system is provided in which a first circuit is protected by security features provided by a second circuit. The first circuit comprises a processor which retrieves content from a memory. Initially, the contents of the memory are authenticated using security features of the second circuit to check that the processor is accessing authenticated content. To maintain security during use, the second circuit checks that the processor is accessing content from valid regions of the memory, being those that have been authenticated, and re-checks the authenticity of the content of the valid regions of memory. The combination of checking that the processor is accessing from valid regions of the memory and authenticating the content stored in the valid regions maximizes the security of the system. If any of the checking or authentication steps fail then operation of the system is impaired. The first circuit is thus protected by security features provided by the second circuit.
US07860251B1
An encryption-decryption circuit for encrypting and decrypting data. The encryption-decryption circuit comprises: 1) an N-bit shift register for storing and shifting an N bit keyword; 2) a first exclusive-OR gate array for receiving M bits from the N-bit shift register and generating a one-bit exclusive-OR result that is shifted into an input of the N-bit shift register; and 3) a second exclusive-OR gate array comprising K exclusive-OR gates, each of the K exclusive-OR gates receiving one of K bits from the N-bit shift register and one of K data bits from a received K-bit data word and generating therefrom an exclusive-OR result. The K exclusive-OR gates thereby produce one of: i) a K-bit encrypted data word and ii) a K-bit unencrypted data word.
US07860245B2
Disclosed embodiments include a computer-implemented first method for providing the blinded result of a subtraction of a first split value of a first system from a second split value of the first system for a comparison. Furthermore, a computer-implemented second method is disclosed for computing a comparison of the blinded result of the subtraction provided by the first system with a result of a subtraction of a blinded first split value of a second system from a blinded second split value of the second system. Computer-implemented further methods for providing a contribution to the comparison of the split values are disclosed. The further methods involve a third system and a fourth system.
US07860242B2
A method for the secure application of a cryptographic algorithm of the RSA type in an electronic component obtains the value of a public exponent e from a given set of probable values, without a priori knowledge of that value. Having determined the value for the public exponent e, the application of countermeasures using the value of e, to block error attacks and side channel attacks, particularly of the DPA and SPA type, are carried out on the application of a private operation of the cryptographic algorithm.
US07860231B2
The present invention provides an apparatus, method and article for porting a directory number for a duration of time. A portability component automatically updates one or more provisioning components to port the directory number for the duration of time. The value for the duration of time may be one or more of a period of time, a date in the future, or a permanent status. Upon the expiration of the duration of time, the portability component initiates one or more notifications of the expiration of the duration of time to a management component and/or the provisioning components to remove and/or alter the port of the directory number.
US07860222B1
Disclosed are systems and methods which provide availability of information on a network wide basis, with the network or information technology (IT) fabric spanning a wide range of institutions and other sources of information, including correctional facilities, without regard to which jurisdiction the source of information belongs, e.g. police, courts, federal investigation agencies, public databases etcetera. Embodiments provide an electronic based capability to identify useful information and for locating, collecting, compiling, aggregating, distilling, and/or reporting robust data.
US07860221B2
Network asset recovery includes querying assets on a communications network to obtain a current inventory of the assets on the communications network and obtaining inventory data for the communications network from an inventory management database. The current inventory is compared with the inventory data from the inventory management database to identify a plurality of non-utilized assets. Asset type need data is obtained from a demand database and at least one of the non-utilized assets is identified for recovery based on the obtained asset type need data. The assets may be intelligent network elements and the communications network may be a telecommunications network.
US07860219B2
A cathode shield can comprise a shield body, a pair of tabs for defining a focal spot length, and a lip for concentrically aligning the cathode shield relative to a mounting element and/or an electron source of a cathode assembly. The tabs may be integral with the shield body and spaced a distance apart from each other. The distance may at least partially define the focal spot length of the electron source associated with the cathode assembly. The lip may also be integral with the shield body and extend from the shield body around at least a portion of a perimeter of the shield body so as to define a recess that is configured to receive the mounting element of the cathode assembly.
US07860217B2
An X-ray diffraction measuring apparatus equipped with Debye-Scherrer optical system therein, comprises a generator for generating a characteristic X-ray to be irradiated upon a sample to be measured; an X-ray detector being disposed to surround that sample around; and a focusing arrangement, being disposed between the sample and the X-ray detector, for collecting an X-ray scattering from the sample covering over a predetermined angle, in a peripheral direction, around the sample, and for focusing and irradiating it upon the X-ray detector.
US07860214B1
A technique to correct deficiencies in x-ray images of cylindrical or spherical objects that are a consequence of the geometry of the sample is disclosed, for both normal imaging of stationary objects with film or digital detectors and linescan imaging of moving objects. The methods described involve the use of attenuators specifically shaped to equalize the x-ray absorption across the sample, thus correcting the variation in pixel intensity caused by the varying thickness of the sample.
US07860206B2
In order to provide a reactor power control apparatus which can maintain a stable water level when reactivity control based on control rod operation and water level adjustment is performed, this invention comprises a turbine control which calculates the load set error signal from the error between the set target generator power value and the generator power that was fed back and outputs to the turbine control apparatus; control rod control in the natural circulation boiling water reactor which calculates the control rod operation signal and outputs it to the control rod drive control apparatus; water level control inside the natural circulation boiling water reactor which calculates the water level set signal and outputs it to the feed water control apparatus; and the switch determining device which selectively outputs one of the control rod control and water level control based on the generator power that was fed back, the reactor power and water level, as well as switching rules and determination values.
US07860203B1
A programmable logic device integrated circuit (“PLD”) includes high-speed serial interface (“HSSI”) circuitry in addition to programmable logic circuitry. The HSSI circuitry includes multiple channels of nominal data-handling circuitry (typically including clock and data recovery (“CDR”) circuitry), and at least one channel of nominal clock management unit (“CMU”) circuitry (typically including phase-locked loop (“PLL”) circuitry or the like). To increase the flexibility with which the channels can be used, the nominal data-handling channels are equipped to alternatively perform CMU-type functions, and the nominal CMU channel is equipped to alternatively perform data-handling functions.
US07860202B2
The method and circuit provide an effective implementation to handle the data transferring problem between multiple clock domains. A shift circuit shifts the incoming data stream, which comprises N parallel signals divided into a first group of parallel signals and a second group of parallel signals, to be in accordance with a first sequence of N sampling pulses, and a sampling module sequentially samples each signal in the first group signals and the second group signals with the N sampling pulses in a second sequence and outputs a serial signal.
US07860195B2
A receiver for a mobile communication system includes a channel equalizer for receiving a burst and generating a soft decision output associated with the burst, a soft decision correction circuit follows the channel equalizer and a decoder receives and decodes a block of bursts. The soft decision correction circuit calculates a correction factor based on the soft decision output for the burst and applies the correction factor to the burst prior to the burst entering the decoder.
US07860194B2
An apparatus and method are provided for normalizing input soft metric to a channel decoder in a wireless communication system. A demapper generates soft metric using an in-phase component (Xk) and a quadrature component (Yk) of a received modulated symbol (Rk), a channel fading coefficient (gk) and a constant value (c) defined by a modulation order of the received modulated symbol. A normalizer receives the soft metric, computes a normalized log likelihood ratio (LLR) by multiplying the soft metric by a ratio of the constant value to a noise variance value, transforms the normalized LLR into a desired range and a desired number of bits, and outputs an input LLR of the channel decoder.
US07860183B2
A system for communicating through a multicarrier communication channel estimates a channel transfer function Hnm(K) each of a plurality of subcarriers of a multicarrier communication channel from received training signals. The system also estimates a spatial correlation matrix Rnn(k) for each subcarrier from noise and interference samples obtained during the reception of the training signals through two or more receive-signal paths. Receiver and transmitter beamformer weights may be generated for the subcarriers using the channel transfer function Hnm(k) and the spatial correlation matrices Rnn(k) for use in subsequent communication through the channel.
US07860181B2
Disclosed herein is a decoding apparatus for decoding channel input bits from a partial-response channel output in accordance with a trellis obtained by combining a coding constraint and state transitions of a partial response for a case in which the length of a memory required for describing the coding constraint is greater than the length of a channel memory of the partial response. The apparatus may include a first calculation unit configured to carry out a first calculation on first branch information, which may be defined as information on first branches included in three or more branches merging in a state determined in advance, and first path information defined as information on first paths for the first branches; and a second calculation unit configured to carry out a second calculation on a first calculation value obtained as a result of the first calculation.
US07860178B2
A guard section length detection method is disclosed. In the method, a guard section length detection method is used in an OFDM system. The OFDM symbol includes a data interval having a first length, and a guard section having a guard section length. The method detects a first symbol boundary and a second symbol boundary, and determines the guard section length based on a length between the first symbol boundary and the second symbol boundary.
US07860177B2
A receiver for receiving a target signal complying with a specific communication specification comprising a specific spectrum characteristic includes a detecting module for detecting a packet of an input signal, a transforming unit for transforming the packet from a time domain to a frequency domain to derive a spectrum characteristic of the input signal, and a determining unit for determining whether the input signal is the target signal according to the spectrum characteristic of the input signal. Therefore, the proposed receiver is able to reduce packet miss rate and false alarm rate while robust to a severe channel condition, and achieve fast and accurate signal quality detection.
US07860168B2
A method and apparatus for processing a video block extracted from an encoded bitstream. The method generally includes the steps of (A) generating a normal block by inverse transforming the video block, the normal block having a normal resolution, (B) generating an alternate block from the video block, the alternate block comprising image detail (i) present after the inverse transforming and (ii) absent from the normal block and (C) generating an output block based on the normal block and the alternate block, the output block having an output resolution greater than the normal resolution.
US07860166B2
Efficient search window storage schemes for motion estimation in video signal processing are disclosed. According to one embodiment, motion estimation is carried out as follows: allocating a ring buffer to store at least critical number of macro-blocks of luminance data from a reference frame on the motion estimator, establishing a rule to relate each storage unit of the ring buffer with each of the macro-blocks of the reference frame, initializing the ring buffer by reading in one less than the critical number of macro-blocks from the reference frame, when the macro-block is located next to a border of the reference frame, generating one or more added border macro-blocks and storing into the corresponding position of the ring buffer in accordance with the rule, constructing the search window from the macro-blocks stored in the ring buffer, and conducting motion estimation of the current macro-block of the current frame with the search window.
US07860163B2
A video encoding method includes selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations. Each combination includes a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture. A prediction picture signal is generated in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination. A predictive error signal is generated representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal. Encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination is included.
US07860162B2
An object tracking apparatus includes a buffer unit that is configured to store picture information, an object position detecting unit that detects positional information of an object from the picture information, an object region detecting unit that detects a region of the object in the picture information based on the positional information, a storage unit that detects a feature properties of the object located in the region and stores the positional information, the feature properties and the region of the object, a predicting unit that predicts a position of the object of the next frame in the picture information from the position information, a determining unit that determines a predictive area of the next frame where the region is to be moved based on the position of the object of the next frame, and a verifying unit that verifies the feature properties of the object within the predictive area of the next frame and outputs a most resemble region.
US07860153B2
A method, and a mobile terminal incorporating the same, of carrying out a reception decision uses a signal received from a base station in the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal includes a communication parameter calculating unit for calculating a communication parameter that is used for estimating a state of a communication environment based on a reception signal transmitted from a base station, a decision parameter setting unit for calculating a decision parameter based on a result of estimation for the state of the communication environment generated by using the communication parameter calculated by the communication parameter calculation unit, and a reception decision unit for carrying out a reception decision of the reception signal based on the decision parameter set by the decision parameter setting unit.
US07860147B2
A system and method communicates and generates a Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (COFDM) communications signal as a plurality of subcarriers. Selected subcarriers are turned ON and OFF while also frequency hopping and spreading the selected ON subcarriers over the frequency domain based on a fixed or variable sample rate to reduce average power for enhanced Low Probability of Interception/Low Probability of Detection (LPI/LPD) and also allow for more transmit power within a spectral mask.
US07860140B2
A light-emitting device that reduces the leak current flowing along the sides of the mesa stripe is disclosed. The device provides the mesa stripe, the current blocking layer, and two intermediate layers put between the mesa stripe and the current blocking layer. One of intermediate layers has the p-type conduction and comes in directly contact with the mesa stripe, while, the other intermediate layer has the n-type conduction and put between the former intermediate layer and the current blocking layer. The double intermediate layers prevent impurities in the current blocking layer and in the mesa stripe from inter-diffusing each other.
US07860139B2
A semiconductor laser device includes an n-type clad layer, an active layer, and a p-type clad layer having a ridge and wing regions. The wing regions are provided with a first trench present on one side of the ridge and a second trench provided on the other side thereof being interposed therebetween. A reflectivity Rf at a front end face of a resonator, a reflectivity Rr at a rear end face of the resonator, a minimum value W1 of a width of the first trench in a region adjacent to the front end face, a minimum value W2 of a width of the second trench in the region adjacent to the front end face, a width W3 of the first trench at the rear end face, and a width W4 of the second trench at the rear end face satisfy Rf
US07860124B2
A bandwidth control method includes: determining a service type of a service ordered by a user, allocating maximum usable bandwidth to the service type and setting up a bandwidth control policy for the service type; calculating bandwidth occupied by the service type when the user uses the service; and adjusting, according to the bandwidth control policy, the bandwidth occupied by the service type if the bandwidth occupied by the service type is higher than the maximum usable bandwidth allocated to the service type.
US07860122B2
A user device connected to a CMTS over a network is configured such that upon power-up it can use a universal broadcast SID or a predetermined multicast SID to obtain an initial maintenance during a maintenance window. The predetermined multicast SID is assigned to the device at manufacture based on the type, or class, of device. The CMTS to which the devices connect is configured to schedule exclusive initial maintenance opportunity windows for each type of device in addition to an all-inclusive, or open, initial maintenance opportunity window, during which all types of devices may attempt to register. The order and number of initial maintenance windows within a periodically recurring sequence of windows can be configured by an operator based on the types of devices connected to the network.
US07860115B1
Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, data structures, computer-readable medium, mechanisms, and means for withdrawing routes based on a tag. One implementation receives one or more messages identifying multiple routes and a tag associated with the multiple routes. A routing database is updated to include the routes. A particular message associated with a route withdraw operation is received, with the particular message including an indication of the tag. The multiple routes are removed from the routing database in response to receiving the tag. For example, the tag may be a Border Gateway Protocol attribute, a Border Gateway Protocol communities attribute, or some other indication. When some devices do not support this feature, before other nodes will typically send to a particular device a message to withdraw multiple routes based on a tag, the particular device must first advertise that it has this capability and/or it will withdraw multiple routes based on a tag.
US07860105B2
A connection is established between a node on a first network and at least one node on a second network lacking a valid address on the first network by receiving at a gateway a connection request from the node on the first network, sending information related to the connection request to a plurality of nodes on the second network, receiving responses to the sent information from at least one of the nodes on the second network, and establishing at least one connection between at least one of the nodes on the second network from which responses are received, and the node on the first network, according to the order of the received responses or according to priority weighting information or according to priority weighting information concerning the nodes from which the responses are received.
US07860090B2
The present invention discloses a method for processing LMP packet carrying a control message, which includes: receiving the LMP packet carrying a control message from a peer LMP node, determining whether a state of a control channel is an available state according to the LMP packet, and updating or resetting a HelloDeadInterval timer if the control channel is in the available state. When the control channel is in the available state, the processed LMP packet is sent to the peer node, a new LMP packet carrying the control message is generated and sent to the peer node, and a HelloInterval timer is updated or reset. The present invention further provides a LMP processing unit and a LMP packet processing node.
US07860084B2
A device for a LAN, containing an integrated adapter that converts digital data to and from analog video signals, allowing the use of analog video units in a digital data network or telephone line-based data networking system, eliminating the need for digital video units or external adapter. The device may include a hub for connecting an analog video signal via an adapter, and retaining the data network connection. In such an environment, the data networking circuitry as well as the analog video adapters are integrated into a telephone device, providing for regular telephone service, analog video connectivity, and data networking as well. In such a configuration, the device would have a standard telephone jack, an analog video jack and at least one data networking jack. Such device can be used to retrofit existing LAN and telephone wiring, and original equipment in new installations.
US07860078B2
A method of transmitting feedback information in a wireless communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the method comprises a mobile station (MS) which determines whether to transmit feedback information to a base station (BS) without solicitation from the BS. After determining to do so, the MS transmits a request message to request the BS to allocate an uplink resource for transmitting at least one unsolicited header and thereafter receives the uplink resource allocation from the BS. Lastly, the MS transmits the at least one unsolicited header via the allocated uplink resource.
US07860074B2
In a communication system (10) having a pool of communication resources (11), such resources are preferentially allocated amongst a plurality of communication services (such as, for example, voice services, single-slot packet data services, and multi-slot packet data services) in a manner that tends to facilitate subsequent expansion of selected services (such as multi-slot packet data services). In a preferred embodiment, the allocation process also tends to favor balanced as versus unbalanced expansion of certain services when comparing one physical carrier that supports the service against another physical carrier that also supports that service.
US07860069B2
A communications system is provided, the system being operable to provide a communications session utilizing an internet protocol, such as for example IPv4, IPv6 and their extensions mobile IPv6 or IPv4. The system includes a mobile node having an application program and an operating system. The application program is operable to provide the communications session using an internet protocol address information. The operating system is operable to monitor the internet protocol address information and to inform the application program of a change of internet protocol address information. The application program is arranged to adapt the communications session in accordance with the change of internet protocol address information. As a result of the operating system informing the application program of a change of the internet protocol address information, the application program can adapt the operation of the communications session to reduce a likelihood of the communications session being affected when the IP address changes.
US07860061B2
A novel method and apparatus is disclosed for performing seamless handoff of a mobile station (MS) between Radio Access Networks (RANs) that use different types of wireless interfaces. The described embodiments enable an MS to handoff between different RANs without causing routing ambiguity, and without substantial loss of network data. Upon moving from the coverage area of a first RAN using a first wireless interface to the coverage area of a second RAN using a second wireless interface, an MS determines whether routing ambiguity may result from the change of RAN and, based on the determination, triggers a re-registration of its network address. A foreign agent (FA) within a packet data serving node (PDSN) monitors network address re-registrations in order to determine whether multiple RAN-PDSN (R-P) connections are being created for the same MS. Based on this determination, the PDSN terminates redundant R-P network connections resulting from movement of the MS between different RANs.
US07860056B2
A method for allocating a sub-channel in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes measuring a moving velocity of each of mobile stations (MSs); selecting MSs to which a sub-channel is to be allocated; determining a resource allocation period for sub-channel allocation to the MSs using the measured moving velocity; calculating an average amount of data to be transmitted for the determined resource allocation period, and sending a channel quality information (CQI) request to the MSs; upon receipt of CQI in response to the CQI request, allocating a sub-channel satisfying the average data amount taking the CQI into account; and transmitting a control signal for the sub-channel allocation to the MSs.
US07860054B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product for using a single-radio node and a multi-radio node in a wireless network having a control channel and at least one data channel is presented. One radio of the multi-radio node is kept tuned to the control channel. The single-radio node and the multi-radio node release the control channel at a predetermined time. Further, the data channels used by the single-radio nodes are released at the predetermined time. In such a manner single-radio and multi-radio nodes can co-exist harmoniously in wireless networks with increased bandwidth utilization and efficiency.
US07860053B1
A multiple access communication protocol that includes an uplink and a downlink channel is disclosed. The uplink channel has a plurality of frames, such that each frame has a first selectable number of minislots and a second selectable number of slots. A reservation request of a first type is sent into a first selected minislot of a selected frame of the uplink channel when information of a first type is to be sent. The reservation request of the first type requests an assignment for at least one slot for transmitting information of the first type in at least one frame that is subsequent to the selected frame. A reservation request of a second type is sent into a second selected minislot of the selected frame when the second selected minislot is available in the selected frame and when information of a second type is to be sent. The reservation request of the second type requests an assignment of at least one slot for transmitting information of the second type in at least one frame that is subsequent to the selected frame, and contends for the second selected minislot based on a pseudo-Bayesian Aloha algorithm. The downlink channel contains a feedback message that occurs prior to the end of the selected frame of the uplink channel. The feedback message includes minislot assignment information for sending reservation requests of the first and the second type and slot assignment information for transmitting information of the first and the second type, minislot contention information for the reservation requests of the second type sent in the selected frame, and reservation backlog information for an estimated number of reservation requests of the second type pending at a beginning of the selected frame.
US07860051B2
A radio communication apparatus capable of alleviating a burden in setting a transmission format and suppressing increases in the scale of the apparatus. In this apparatus, space multiplexing adaptability detection section (108) detects space multiplexing transmission adaptability for divided bands (DB-1 to DB-Nd) obtained by dividing a communication band to which Ns subcarrier signals belong in multicarrier transmission and to which a plurality of subcarrier signals belong, and outputs the detection results (#1 to #Nd). Transmission format setting section (110) sets a transmission format when carrying out radio transmission based on the detection results (#1 to #Nd) from space multiplexing adaptability detection section (108).
US07860039B2
A method for establishing radio bearer (RB) between a mobile terminal and a network in a wireless communication system. The mobile terminal receives RB information for a specific service from one or more cells and stores the received the RB information. If the mobile terminal is moved to one or more cells and then is moved back to the specific cell, the mobile terminal establishes an RB for the specific service according to the previously stored RB information of the specific cell rather than re-receiving the RB information.
US07860037B2
A telecommunications system for communicating internet packets between a correspondent node and a mobile node. The system comprises a packet radio network providing packet data bearers for communicating internet packets with nodes. Each of the bearers is defined with respect to a source address of the internet packets, the packet radio network including a gateway support node (GGSN) to provide an interface between the external network and the packet radio network. The GGSN detects whether an internet packet is for providing a binding update to the correspondent node of a first source address of the mobile node to a care-of-address of the mobile node. If the internet packet is a binding update, the GGSN allows egress of internet packets sent from the correspondent node. By allowing egress of packets from the correspondent node having this care-of-address as the destination address, a measure of security is provided.
US07860036B2
Methods and apparatus for including mode information in a wireless transmission frame, which is useful for system acquisition. In particular, a first information bit is provided in a preamble of a transmission frame, where the bit is configured to indicate that a wireless communication system is operating according to either a time division duplex (TDD) mode or a frequency division duplex (FDD) mode. The addition of a single bit minimally affects the resources of the preamble. Additionally, another bit resource already present in the preamble for normally communicating whether FDD transmissions are full duplex or half-duplex transmissions, may be further allocated to indicate partitioning information concerning TDD mode transmissions when the first bit indicates TDD mode, thus affording additional information communicated in the frame without increasing preamble resources.
US07860033B2
The principles of the present invention relate to passive full-duplex bidirectional Zero Packet Loss (ZPL) network taps that include single, dual, or dual differential couplers that are placed in the communication path between two network devices that communicate using a full-duplex bidirectional data stream that include a first and a second data component. The bidirectional couplers are configured to at least partially obtain a second data stream that includes at least the first data component and to obtain a third data stream that includes at least the second data component. In some embodiments, the bidirectional couplers may include a signal separation module or stage that is configured to further separate the first and second data components.
US07860030B2
In a communication system including a plurality of communication apparatuses, each communication apparatus has a first operation mode in which the communication apparatus controls communication of other communication apparatuses and a second operation mode in which the communication apparatus operates under the control of another communication apparatus. A network independent of an existing network is formed by switching the operation mode of one of communication apparatuses into the first operation mode.
US07860029B2
A subscriber line accommodation device and packet filtering method is provided. In response to a request for acquisition of an IP address from a user terminal, a DHCP server in the subscriber line accommodation device allocates an IP address, registers a set of the allocated IP addresses, a MAC address of the user terminal, and a line number in a DHCP management table. The subscriber line accommodation device sets the registered information in an input filter section as a packet passing condition. Among packets sent from user terminals, the input filter section sends only those packets satisfying registered conditions toward a bridge forwarder and discards those packets not satisfying the conditions. Even when access is attempted by illegally using an IP address, the packet concerned is discarded unless the line number or a MAC address agrees.
US07860026B2
Network devices, systems and methods are described that may be used in network switch deployment. One method embodiment includes physically connecting a network switch to a network prior to booting the network switch, booting the network switch into a non-bridging mode, and providing the network switch with a configuration while the switch is in the non-bridging mode.
US07860024B1
The present invention permits a network operator to maintain a timely view of changes to an operational packet-switched network. In an exemplary embodiment, the method includes subscribing to routing protocol messages received from a plurality of network elements participating in a routing protocol in the packet-switched network. Then, the routing protocol messages from the network elements are received without participating in the routing protocol. Subsequently, the method detects deviations from normal operation of the packet-switched network using the routing protocol messages received from the network elements.
US07860016B1
A method and apparatus for operating on a system containing a plurality of components in communication using at least one communication protocol is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of representing selected ones of the plurality of components, the relationship among the components and the associated communication protocols, determining a mapping between a plurality of events and a plurality of observable events occurring among the components and among the communication protocols, wherein the mapping is represented as a value associating each event with each observable event, and performing the operation in conjunction with the events and observable events, wherein events associated with the communication protocols are distinguished from events associated with the components. The operations may be selected from the group of monitoring, discovering, managing, analyzing and displaying the components associated with the multicast protocols.
US07860009B2
A method and apparatus for providing backpressure flow control to traffic flows of a data communications system are provided. Embodiments of the invention selectively apply a measure of flow control to traffic flows responsive to a level of congestion at a packet processor of the system. These embodiments advantageously provide flexibility in the application of flow control to specific traffic flows in accordance with one or more of characteristics of those traffic flows.
US07860006B1
On-switch methods for enforcing a policy relating to one or more network switch resources, for detecting and mitigating a network anomaly, and for selectively filtering packets to an externally-accessible port, are provided. The methods may each be embodied as one or more rules held by one or more processor readable media, with one or more of the rules defining one or more conditions to be met by one or more usage-derived packet statistics, and one or more actions to be performed if the one or more conditions are met.
US07860005B2
Methods and systems thereof for streaming data are described. Information that quantifies a characteristic associated with a frame in a sequence comprising a plurality of frames of video data is accessed. The information is used to make a decision about the transmission of the frames, such as the order for sending the frames or whether or not to send a frame.
US07860003B2
The invention relates, in particular, to a system for managing communication sessions between first terminals adapted to send audio and/or video and/or data streams during these sessions and second terminals accessible via an external data transmission network. The first terminals are connected to a stream concentrator itself connected to the external network. Since the streams sent by at least some of the first terminals are coded or intended to be coded by hierarchical encoders, the system includes means for processing said streams so that each of them is sent to the external network by the concentrator at a given hierarchy level and means for determining said hierarchy level as a function of parameters relating to the number and nature of the sessions set up between the first terminals and the second terminals.
US07860001B2
A telecommunications system. The system includes a communications network. The system includes N nodes, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, which run a same or different applications and process a same or different ranges of application level traffic, and which communicate with each other through the network using signaling by SIGTRAN protocols. Each of the N nodes has a full receive state where a node receives any type of traffic from the other nodes and an isolated receive state where the node only receives allocated traffic from the other nodes. The node sends traffic to the other nodes whether the node is in the full receive state or the isolated receive state. A method for communicating.
US07859997B2
Methods for handling packets received at a network device are described. The packets are placed into a queue that contains packets of a first type and packets of a second type. The packets of the first type include protocol packets, and the packets of the second type include packets other than protocol packets. A first count is incremented when the queue is full. A packet of the second type is forwarded for processing provided that the first count satisfies a condition; otherwise, the packet of the second type is discarded.
US07859996B2
An intelligent congestion feedback apparatus and method thereof includes a source endpoint transmitting data packets, and a destination endpoint receiving the data packets, and a timer in the destination endpoint set to zero. An intermediate node detects congestion between the source endpoint and the destination endpoint. Upon congestion detection, the intermediate node marks the data packets transmitted to the destination endpoint indicative of congestion. Upon receipt of the marked data packets, the timer begins reverse counting from a preset time value to zero and a feedback loop is turned-on between the destination endpoint and the source endpoint to transmit congestion notification (CN) messages to the source endpoint contributing to the congestion.
US07859995B2
A system and method providing fault resilient multicast services using a network topology in which a source node communicates with a plurality of receiver nodes via at least two disjoint paths in which at least one receiver node is provisioned according to a 1+1 protection mechanism.
US07859994B2
A low-cost, high-speed data switching system and method uses several parallel switching systems or fabrics. In one of various embodiments, for example, the constituent data flows in a data stream can be selectively routed to a switching fabric that has the lowest input data rate. Data flows can be assigned to the various switching fabrics so as to balance the amount of data passing through each parallel system. Data flows can be re-assigned on an as-needed basis to insure maximum throughput. In the case where a data flow initially routed into one switching fabric must be re-routed to a different fabric, the ordering of data packets can be preserved by withholding the transfer of packets through the second fabric until the packets previously sent into the first fabric have cleared. Methods and apparatus of the present invention find application to parallel computing as well.
US07859986B2
Transmitting signals, e.g., high power narrow band signals on a periodic basis to facilitate detection of a frequency band and/or carrier signal to be used for communication with a basestation are described. The detected frequency band may be a downlink frequency band. The uplink frequency band to be used can be determined from a know frequency relationship between the detected downlink carrier and a corresponding uplink carrier or by monitoring the detected downlink frequency band for information indicating the uplink frequency band/carrier to be used. Carrier search methods involving searching for the narrowband high power signals used to provide carrier information and/or to indicate the frequency band to be monitored are described. Power detection methods can be used to detect the high power signals avoiding the need for symbol timing synchronization and/or channel estimation with regard to detection of the signals used to locate the frequency band to be used.
US07859982B2
An optical information recording medium comprises at least a substrate on which a groove is formed in a recording area, a recording layer comprising an organic dye, and a reflective layer. The recording area has a preformat area and a data area, and the groove in the preformat area is narrower or shallower than that in the data area.
US07859980B2
In an optical beam transmissive adjusting mechanism (110) included in an optical pickup device, arrangement positions of a first transmissive element (111) having a first transmittance and a second transmissive element (112) having a second transmittance higher than the first transmittance are switched by a rotational drive unit (105), and an optical beam having a first optical power and an optical beam having a second optical power are output selectively. Furthermore, since a transmissive element of a non-transmissive side for an optical beam is arranged at an angle inclined to an optical axis of the optical beam, the transmissive element does not obstruct a path of the optical beam to be diffused.
US07859978B2
An optical pickup lens for focusing a light beam from a laser light source on an optical information recording medium is a single lens. The optical pickup lens has two surfaces, and a surface R2 opposite to a surface R1 closer to the laser light source has a continuous shape. When the surface R2 has radii h1, h2 and h3 (h1
US07859970B2
A holographic storage and reproduction system and method with a servo are provided, wherein a servo mechanism is provided, such that the holographic interferogram is continuously stored in the holographic recording medium. When a reproduced signal is to be obtained, it can be retrieved quickly and accurately through the servo mechanism. Also, the intensity distribution of the reference light reflected by the holographic recording medium can be monitored and controlled, such that the relative distance and oblique angle between the storage and reproduction system and the holographic recording medium are analyzed and adjusted.
US07859948B2
The invention relates to a watch provided with time indicators with three dimensions placed at the periphery of the movement of the watch, in the space delimited by the middle, the glass, the base and the movement. The movement of these indicators is provided by various clockwork mechanisms that are either independent or connected to the principle movement.
US07859946B2
The present invention is a new and innovative device for regulating parking permits in parking zones in which parking is permitted for short time spans. Embodiments of the present invention enable users to purchase reusable electronic parking devices which display the amount of time remaining for free parking. For instance, in parking zones which allow fifteen minutes of free parking, the device displays 15 min when turned on and counts back the minutes until the time is over. A delaying mechanism inhibits the reactivation of the device for a predetermined time period. Thus, the device ensures that the parking permit is only used for the predetermined time period once since users cannot activate the device sequentially. According to embodiments of the present invention the proposed system and method may be embedded into other time parking devices.
US07859941B2
Apodization control techniques for a microbeamformer including a plurality of microbeamformer channels each including a transducer, a microbeamformer transmitter for driving the transducer, a microbeamformer receiver for receiving signals from the transducer and usually a delay element for delaying the received transducer signals. To improve the generation of waveforms by the transducers, the voltage provided to the microbeamformer transmitters is adjusted and/or the current provided by the microbeamformer transmitters is adjusted. The microbeamformer channels can also be grouped together into patches and/or clusters with the patches and clusters being provided with a common voltage source or current.
US07859939B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a clock input unit configured to receive a first clock and a second clock from the external. The memory device further includes a frequency conversion unit configured to convert a frequency of the second clock so that the frequency of the second clock becomes identical to a frequency of the first clock, a phase comparison unit configured to compare a phase of the first clock with that of a clock outputted from the frequency conversion unit, and output a comparison signal corresponding to the comparison result, a logic level change unit configured to change a logic level of a training information signal when a logic level of the comparison signal is fixed for a given time after being changed, and a signal transfer unit configured to transfer the training information signal to the external.
US07859938B2
When a predetermined code is set to a mode register, a switching signal generating circuit is activated, and a switching signal TCLKE becomes at a high level. When the switching signal TCLKE becomes at a high level, input data supplied from a data input and output terminal DQ is used as an internal clock ICLK. Accordingly, during a test in a wafer state, a clock signal can be received from the data input and output terminal DQ, even when a clock terminal, an address terminal, and a command terminal are connected in common to plural semiconductor memory devices. Therefore, a code for artificially performing a fine adjustment of a reference voltage can be individually supplied for each chip.
US07859936B1
A method and apparatus involving a circuit is disclosed. The circuit has separate first and second portions, where the first portion includes a first memory device such as a flip-flop, and the second portion includes a second memory device such as a latch. The first portion is selectively operated in first and second operational modes, the first portion consuming less power in the second operational mode than in the first operational mode. During the first operational mode a logical value is maintained in the flip-flop and can vary dynamically. During the second operational mode, the state that the logical value had at a point in time just before the first portion entered the second operational mode is maintained in the latch. Then, after the first portion switches from the second operational mode back to the first operational mode, the state of the logical value in the latch is restored to the flip-flop.
US07859934B2
A method and apparatus to configure redundant memory elements in a system on a chip (SoC) having discrete voltage domains (islands). A plurality of memories are provided for each voltage island, each containing redundancy elements or having the capability to access redundant memory elements in a neighboring voltage domain; a fuse cell stores configuration information for controlling the switching of memory elements of the plurality of memories; a shift register receives and retains configuration information on a memory array from the fuse cell corresponding to each memory; and a control circuit directs operation of the shift register. The shift register includes a shift portion for receiving the data of the configuration information and transferring the data to another shift register, and a latch portion for retaining the data inputted to the shift portion. The control circuit controls whether or not the data of the shift register, which is inputted to the shift portion, is to be retained in the latch portion.
US07859932B2
Techniques are disclosed to refresh data in a non-volatile storage device often enough to combat erroneous or corrupted data bits, but not so often as to interfere with memory access or to cause excessive stress on the memory cells. One embodiment includes determining to perform a refresh of data stored in a first group of non-volatile storage elements in a device based on a condition of data in the first group, determining that a second group of non-volatile storage elements in the device should undergo a refresh procedure based on when the second group of non-volatile storage elements were last programmed relative to when the first group of non-volatile storage elements were last programmed, and performing the refresh procedure on the second group of non-volatile storage element.
US07859929B1
Sense logic, and associated signaling, for dynamic thyristor-based memory cells is described. A first supply voltage level is greater than a second supply voltage level. In an embodiment, cross-coupled inverters of a sense amplifier are operatively coupled between a ground node and the second supply for sensing voltage. The first supply voltage is pass gate coupled to a first sense node and a second sense node. The pass gating is responsive to sample signaling. A first supply transistor is gated by a transfer bus. A second supply transistor is gated by a sense reference voltage that is between the first supply voltage level and the second supply voltage level. Each of the first supply transistor and the second supply transistor is back body biased with a write voltage level that is between the second supply voltage level and the ground voltage level.
US07859910B2
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device according to one embodiment of the present invention includes: a memory cell array including a plurality of word lines; a parameter storage part which stores a parameter related to a programming voltage which is applied to a word line for programming data; a word line selection circuit which selects a word line among the plurality of word lines which is connected to a memory cell to be programmed with data; a voltage application circuit which applies a programming voltage to the selected word line according to the parameter; a verify circuit which performs verification of programmed data; a control part which outputs a signal for selecting a word line and repeats the operations of the voltage application circuit until the verification is successful; a calculation circuit which calculates an average value of the number of times the control part repeats the operations of the voltage application circuit per each word line; and a parameter setting circuit which sets the parameter using the average value calculated.
US07859909B2
A sub-decoder element provided corresponding to each word line is constructed by the same conductive type MOS transistors. The sub-decoder elements are arranged in a plurality of columns such that the layout of active regions for forming the sub-decoder elements is inverted in a Y direction and displaced by one sub-decoder element in an X direction. The arrangement of the sub-decoder elements is adjusted such that high voltage is not applied to both of gate electrodes adjacent in the Y direction. A well voltage of a well region for forming the sub-decoder element group is set to a voltage level such that a source to substrate of the transistor of the sub-decoder element is set into a deep reversed-bias state. In a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, the leakage by a parasitic MOS in a sub-decoder circuit or word line driving circuit to which a positive or negative high voltage is supplied, can be suppressed.
US07859905B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor storage device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes forming dummy cells 611, to 618 at a position adjacent to a reference cell 412, and implanting an impurity into the dummy cells 611, to 618 using a mask that covers the reference cell 412. Here, the process of implanting the impurity is carried out so that the impurity exudes out of the dummy cells 611, to 618 to the reference cell 412.
US07859903B1
A Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) cell in an NVM array is read out using other NVM cells in the array as a load element. Conventional load elements such as MOS transistors or resistors used to vary the bitline potential for the NVM cell readout in conventional NVM arrays are replaced with NVM cell(s) in the array. The omission of the extra MOS transistors or resistors for the load elements not only saves silicon area but also simplifies the bitline sensing circuitry design in the NVM array.
US07859902B2
A three dimensional stacked nonvolatile semiconductor memory according to an example of the present invention includes a memory cell array comprised of first and second blocks. The first block has a first cell unit which includes a memory cell to be programmed and a second cell unit which does not include a memory cell to be programmed, and programming is executed by applying a program potential or a transfer potential to word lines in the first block after the initial potential of channels of the memory cells in the first and second cell units is set to a plus potential. In the programming, the program potential and the transfer potential are not applied to word lines in the second block.
US07859896B2
A semiconductor device for high-speed reading and which has a high data-retention characteristic is provided. In a semiconductor device including a memory array having a plurality of memory cells provided at intersecting points of a plurality of word lines and a plurality of bit lines, where each memory cell includes an information memory section and a select element, information is programmed by a first pulse (reset operation) for programming information flowing in the bit line, a second pulse (set operation) different from the first pulse, and information is read by a third pulse (read operation), such that the current directions of the second pulse and the third pulse are opposite to each other.
US07859895B2
A standalone memory device includes thin-film peripheral circuitry, including decoding circuitry. The standalone thin film memory excludes all single-crystal electronic devices and may be formed, for example, on a low-cost substrate, such as fiberglass. The memory is configured for operation with an external memory controller.
US07859894B2
An integrated circuit that includes a plurality of phase-change memory cells, at least one write pulse generator, and at least one temperature sensor. The plurality of phase-change memory cells are each capable of defining at least a first and a second state. The write pulse generator generates a write pulse for the plurality of phase-change memory cells. The temperature sensor is capable of sensing temperature. The write pulse generator adjusts the write pulse for at least some of the phase-change memory cells in accordance with the temperature sensed by the temperature sensor.
US07859887B2
A method of programming a nonvolatile memory cell includes applying at least one initialization pulse having a duration of at least 1 ms, followed by applying plural programming pulses having a duration of less than 1 ms. The cell includes a steering element located in series with a storage element, and the storage element includes a carbon material.
US07859886B2
A resistance memory element memorizing a high resistance state or a low resistance state in a memory region and switched between the high resistance state and the low resistance state by an application of a voltage includes a resistance memory layer 42 of a resistance memory material, an electrode 38 and an electrode 40 arranged, sandwiching the resistance memory layer 42. The electrode 38 and the electrode 40 are formed on the same surface, whereby the manufacturing process of the resistance memory element can be simplified.
US07859883B2
A memory device includes a plurality of memory cells each including a recordable layer between two metal layers, the recordable layer including a first sub-cell and a second sub-cell. Each memory cell is constructed and designed to change from an as-deposited state to an initialized state upon application of an initialization signal, from the initialized state to a first inscribed state upon application of a first write signal, and from the initialized state to a second inscribed state upon application of a second write signal. The memory cell has a resistor-like current-voltage (I-V) characteristic when in the as-deposited state, a diode-like I-V characteristic when in the initialized state, and resistor-like I-V characteristics when in the first and second inscribed states for voltages within a predetermined range.
US07859882B2
A resistive memory device is provided. The resistive memory device includes word lines arranged in M rows, bit lines arranged in N columns, local source lines arranged in M/2 rows, and resistive memory cells arranged in M rows and N columns. Each of the resistive memory cells includes a resistance variable element having a first electrode connected to a corresponding bit line, and a cell transistor having a first terminal connected to a second electrode of the resistance variable element, a second terminal connected to a corresponding local source line, and a control terminal connected to a corresponding word line. The local source line is commonly connected to the second terminals of the cell transistors of the two neighboring rows.
US07859881B2
A magnetic memory device includes a first magnetic line which has a plurality of cells made of magnetic domains partitioned by domain walls, and in which information is recorded in each cell, a first write element formed at one end portion of the first magnetic line, and a first read element formed at the other end portion of the first magnetic line.
US07859875B2
A universal power adapter has an input for receiving an input voltage from a power source and an output for supplying an output voltage selected from amongst two or more preset voltages. A voltage converter circuit converts between the input voltage and the two or more preset voltages. A connector tip connectable with the output connects one of the two or more preset voltages to the output.
US07859868B2
A synchronous rectification control circuit is connected with a secondary-side rectification circuit and includes a driving circuit, a dead-time acquisition circuit, and a zero-voltage detection circuit. The driving circuit includes a differentiating circuit, a first comparator, and a capacitor, wherein the differentiating circuit generates a signal to the first comparator and the capacitor functions to charge and discharge to form a cycle. The dead-time acquisition circuit includes a second comparator and a third comparator, wherein the second comparator has a positive input connected to an output of the first comparator of the driving circuit, the second comparator has an output connected to a positive input of the third comparator, and the third comparator has a negative input connected to the output of the first comparator to acquire a dead-time signal. The zero-voltage detection circuit includes a fourth comparator and a totem pole circuit, wherein the fourth comparator has a negative input connected to an input terminal of the driving circuit for detecting a potential present in the input terminal of the driving circuit and the fourth comparator has an output that is connected to the totem pole circuit to supply an output of a signal. With such an arrangement, shorting is prevented from occurring in the secondary-side rectification circuit.
US07859866B2
A DC power source voltage is supplied to a center tap of a primary winding, and first and second semiconductor switches alternately turned on are disposed between each of both ends of the primary winding and a common potential point, and a current flowing through a load is fed back and PWM control of each of the semiconductor switches is performed. Also, snubber circuits are respectively connected between a ground and the center tap of the primary winding, and an abnormal high voltage at the time of switching is reduced. Also, a parallel running of plural inverters is simply performed by disposing PWM comparators corresponding to the first and second semiconductor switches.
US07859851B2
A flexible printed circuit board and a bracket structure for the hard disk drive. The flexible printed circuit board includes a base layer, a circuit layer provided on the base layer, a cover layer provided on the circuit layer, and a filter layer interposed between the base layer and the circuit layer. Also, the bracket structure includes a flexible printed circuit board for driving an actuator, a bracket connected to the flexible printed circuit board, and a filter interposed between the flexible printed circuit board and the bracket. Thermal asperity caused by fine particles in the hard disk drive is prevented so that performance deterioration of the hard disk drive is prevented and reliability thereof is improved.
US07859848B1
A heat spreader having at least two adjoining strips of pyrolytic graphite material is made by cutting a strip from a sheet of pyrolytic graphite in the z direction. Thermal conductivity in the xy plane of the graphite sheet is greater than in the z direction. The z direction cut provides strips which are then each individually oriented 90 degrees such that the thickness direction of the original pyrolytic graphite sheet becomes the width or length of the cut strip. A face on the side of a first strip adjoins a face on the side of a second strip. Due to the greater thermal conductivity in the xy plane of the strips as compared to in the z direction heat transfers more rapidly in the length and thickness direction of the strips than across adjoining sides of the oriented strips.
US07859847B2
An assembly comprises a frame adapted to mount an electronic device having a thickness within a range of thicknesses. The frame is adapted to assemble to a heat sink assembly after the electronic device is mounted. The assembly further comprises at least one spring adapted to secure the electronic device to the frame.
US07859846B2
A power module assembly (400) with low thermal resistance and enhanced heat dissipation to a cooling medium. The assembly includes a heat sink or spreader plate (410) with passageways or openings (414) for coolant that extend through the plate from a lower surface (411) to an upper surface (412). A circuit substrate (420) is provided and positioned on the spreader plate (410) to cover the coolant passageways. The circuit substrate (420) includes a bonding layer (422) configured to extend about the periphery of each of the coolant passageways and is made up of a substantially nonporous material. The bonding layer (422) may be solder material which bonds to the upper surface (412) of the plate to provide a continuous seal around the upper edge of each opening (414) in the plate. The assembly includes power modules (430) mounted on the circuit substrate (420) on a surface opposite the bonding layer (422). The power modules (430) are positioned over or proximal to the coolant passageways.
US07859836B2
Disclosed herein is a laptop table including a laptop station, on which a laptop computer is disposed. The laptop station has a connection port set and a power supply unit integrally mounted therein. The connection port set and the power supply unit of the laptop station is connected to an external port set and a power supply unit of the laptop computer. A data storage unit, such as a hard disc drive, a flash memory set, and a CD/DVD ROM drive, is integrally mounted in the laptop station. The laptop station is disposed on a supporting plate of a movable exclusive table, which can be moved and the height of which can be adjusted, such that the laptop station and the supporting plate can be engaged with or disengaged from each other by an engagement unit.
US07859830B2
The present invention relates to making data entry on a handheld device quicker and easier, while still being able to interact with the software/firmware in a familiar way. In particular, we disclose a device and method for text entry that uses a combination of keys on the front and back of a device held in two hands. Keys on the back are utilized in a manner that takes advantage of the muscle memory associated with QWERTY keyboards. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
US07859827B2
An ultracapacitor or hybrid capacitor includes an electrically non-conductive rigid or semi-rigid porous honeycomb structure (12) having cells extending along a common direction and having an average density per unit area within in a plane perpendicular to the common direction exceeding 15.5 per square centimeter, desirably formed of a material that is stable at temperatures of 300° or more, such that high temperatures processing can be used to help ensure high purity of the final product. The material may desirably be an oxide or non-oxide ceramic, such as cordierite, silicon nitride, alumina, aluminum titanate, zircon, glass, or glass-ceramic.
US07859823B2
In a sintered ceramic body including side gap portions arranged between sides of first and second internal electrodes and first and second side surfaces of the sintered ceramic body and between sides of the effective layer portion and the first and second side surfaces of the sintered ceramic body, regions of the side gap portions at least adjacent to the first and second internal electrodes are Mg-rich regions each having a Mg concentration greater than that of the effective layer portion.
US07859819B2
In an energy storage device (1) with evaporation cooling wherein the boiling temperature of a liquid which is disposed in heat exchange relationship with electric capacitors (2, 3, 4) for limiting the operating temperature of the electric capacitors, a thermal vapor condensing arrangement is provided for condensing the vapors formed from the liquid during cooling of the electric capacitors and returning the condensate back to the liquid surrounding the electric capacitors.
US07859817B2
The present invention concerns a method of producing a lightning diverter for conducting a lightning-induced electrical current, which is to be placed on structures such as wings on wind turbines, aircraft components, radomes and the like with the purpose of lightning protection. The method comprises the steps of making a plurality of holes in a plate of an electrically conductive material, filling said holes at least partly with one or more electrically non-conductive materials, and then finally dividing the plate—preferably into strips. The lightning diverter obtained hereby consists of a layer of electrically non-conductive material with a plurality of isolated segments of electrically conductive material.The invention further relates to a diverter strip with isolated segments of concave shapes being advantageous because of the good connection between the segments and the non-conductive material.
US07859815B2
An apparatus in an electronic control system allows two or three wire operation. A power supply can supply power to the enclosed circuitry in both two and three wire installations. Two separate zero cross detectors are used such that timing information can be collected in both two and three wire installations. Both zero cross detectors are monitored and are used to automatically configure the electronic control. Over voltage circuitry senses an over voltage condition across a MOSFET which is in the off state and turns the MOSFET on so that it desirably will not reach the avalanche region. Over current circuitry senses when the current through the MOSFETs has exceeded a predetermined current threshold and then turns the MOSFETs off so they do not exceed the MOSFETs' safe operating area (SOA) curve. Latching circuitry is employed to keep the protection circuitry in effect even after a fault condition has cleared. Lockout circuitry is used to prevent one protection circuit from tripping after the other circuit has already tripped from a fault condition. The protection circuitry output is desirably configured such that it can bypass and override the normal turn on and turn off impedance and act virtually directly on the gates of the MOSFETs. Preferably, the system has a high efficiency switching type power supply in parallel with a low frequency controllably conductive device.
US07859809B2
A test plug for use with protective relays has a circuit that when it detects an overvoltage on the secondary side of a current transformer limits the overvoltage amplitude and the occurrence of the overvoltage to a predetermined number of peaks that are less than all of the peaks that occur when the secondary side is open circuited and the test plug is connected to the relays. The test plug also ensures that there is a continuous flow of current in the relays. The test plug further that has an indicator visible external to the plug to indicate the occurrence of an open circuit transformer secondary and that indicator remains illuminated when the test plug is disconnected from the protective relays.
US07859805B2
A protection circuit according to the present invention includes: a diode (D1) having an anode thereof connected to a gate signal input terminal and a cathode thereof connected to the gate of an output transistor (N1); a resistor (R1) having one end thereof connected to the gate signal input terminal and the other end thereof connected to ground; a PNP bipolar transistor (Qp1) having the emitter, base and collector thereof connected to the gate of the output transistor (N1), the one end of the resistor (R1) and ground, respectively. With this configuration, it is possible to prevent, without the need for electric power, an open-drain output transistor from erroneously turning on as a result of an electrostatic pulse or the like being applied thereto, and thus to protect the output transistor from electrostatic breakdown.
US07859796B2
A disk drive and an arm coil support assembly are to be provided which enables a trace to be disposed with a simple construction without the need of machining arms. In one embodiment, a trace for connection between a head and an FPC is disposed on an opposite surface of each of arms and opposite to a confronting surface of each of the arms which confronts a recording surface of a disk. The trace is bent nearly vertically in the vicinity of a connection between a coil support which supports the arms, and holds a VCM coil and the arm and is connected to the FPC. The coil support includes a force mechanism having a gap for insertion therein of the trace and also having a pressure portion spaced through the gap from the surface on which the trace is disposed. The force mechanism prevents wafting of the trace from the opposite surface of the arm caused by the bending of the trace.
US07859792B2
A recording element supported by a slider includes a non-magnetic film and a magnetic pole film. The non-magnetic film has a depression whose inner surface is provided with an amorphous electrode film used as a plating seed film. Above the electrode film, the magnetic pole film is grown by plating. The magnetic pole film may be either an electroplated film grown on the electrode film to have a maximum crystal grain size of 20 nm or less or an electroless plated film. This decreases coercive force of the magnetic pole film.
US07859771B2
An imaging lens includes an imaging lens system and an image sensor. The imaging lens system includes a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, and a fourth lens. The imaging module satisfies the formulas (1) D/T≧1.1, (2) −3.5
US07859770B2
A fixed-focus lens including a first lens group and a second lens group is provided. The first lens group is disposed between a magnified side and a reduced side and includes a first lens and a second lens arranged in sequence from the magnified side to the reduced side. The refractive powers of both the first lens and the second lens are negative, and the first lens is an aspheric lens. The second lens group is disposed between the first lens group and the reduced side and includes a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, an eighth lens, and a ninth lens arranged in sequence from the magnified side to the reduced side. The refractive powers of the seven lenses from the third lens to the ninth lens are respectively positive, negative, positive, negative, positive, negative, and positive in sequence.
US07859761B2
An illumination system including a coherent light source and a speckle-reducing module is provided. The coherent light source is adopted for providing a light beam. The speckle-reducing module is disposed at an optical path of the light beam. The speckle-reducing module includes a rotator, a carrier and an optical path adjusting member. The rotator is adopted for rotating on a reference plane about a spindle axis passing through the rotator. The spindle axis is substantially perpendicular to the reference plane. The carrier is disposed at the rotator. The optical path adjusting member is disposed at the carrier and at the optical path of the light beam. The optical path adjusting member has an incident surface inclined at an angle with respect to the reference plane.
US07859759B2
In one embodiment a film can comprises a surface comprising a plurality of prism structures. Each prism structure has a lateral modulation in the w direction of less than or equal to ±20% of an average pitch of the prism structures. The plurality of prism structures can have a variation in the w direction of prism peak height that is discrete and/or continuous. In one embodiment, a method for making a film can comprise forming a plurality of prism structures on a surface. The plurality of prism structures can have a lateral modulation in the w direction of less than or equal to ±20% of an average pitch of the prism structures, and wherein the plurality of prism structures have a variation in the w direction of prism peak height that is discrete and/or continuous.
US07859753B2
A wavelength discriminating optical filter has birefringent retarders stacked between polarizing filters, in relative rotational orientations causing passband wavelengths to emerge in a polarization state aligned to a second such polarizing filter, for transmission, whereas wavelengths at orthogonal polarization states are blocked. The second polarizing filter can be a wiregrid type that reflects the blocked orthogonal component backwards along the light signal propagation path. Internal reflections are minimized while obtaining a high transmission ratio and high discrimination for the passband wavelengths, by pairing a zero-degree reflective polarizer as the second or selection polarizer, with a preceding non-zero-degree reflective polarizer. The non-zero-degree reflective polarizer can absorb the blocked orthogonal polarization components, for example using an oriented dichroic material, or a polarizing cube or the like can be provided to divert the blocked polarization component.
US07859741B2
The present invention relates to a variable iris using charged opaque particles, and to a method for operating such a variable iris.According to the invention, the variable iris has a first transparent substrate and a second transparent substrate, which are separated by one or more ribs to form a cell confining charged opaque particles, the first transparent substrate being provided with at least a first electrode and a second electrode both being adapted to be connected to a voltage source for acting on the charged opaque particles, and at least a third electrode adapted to be connected to the voltage source for acting on the charged opaque particles, the voltages applied to the first electrode, the second electrode, and the third electrode being controllable to have the same or opposite signs. The variable iris further has a pulse driver for applying voltage pulses to the electrodes.
US07859733B2
A scanning apparatus for a printer or similar instrument. A multiharmonic oscillator is used to provide a composite motion of a laser beam or other light beam to scan an imaging surface. The multiharmonic oscillator may have multiple sections each having a different resonant frequency. One section includes a reflector that intercepts the light beam, and drive electronics move the reflector so the light beam scans the imaging surface. Linear and complex non-linear motions of the light beam may be achieved. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology may be used to fabricate the oscillator.
US07859727B2
The invention is to provide a light-focusing for image-gathering device that receive the light coming from the image of an object being scanned. The light-focusing for image-gathering device is comprised of: at least one reflection mirror, an imaging device and at least one raster (optical grate). The reflection mirror has plural concave surfaces that are arranged appropriately, and the concave surface provides the light being focused and reflected to a predetermined route. The imaging device receives the light reflected from at least one reflection mirror and converts it into electronic signal. The raster has plural pervious holes, of which positions are just respectively corresponded to each concave surface. The raster is located in the light-path route between the imaging device and at least one reflection mirror. When an image data of an object being scanned that can be divided into receivable image-and-light signal of the object being scanned and un-receivable image-and-light signal of the object being scanned is gathered executively, the un-receivable image-and-light signals of the object being scanned are first removed, then the adjacent receivable image-and-light signal of the object being be scanned is connected together to obtain a complete image output data.
US07859719B2
According to the present invention, a print control apparatus for displaying a print preview, comprises the units adapted to: spool print data created by application; issue a rendering instruction of the spooled print data to a graphic engine together with output information indicating one of a preview setting and a print setting; return a response about one of a color profile for previewing when the output information indicates the preview setting and a color profile for printing when the output information indicates the print setting, as a response to an inquiry about a color profile from the graphic engine that receives the rendering instruction; and display image data rendered by the graphic engine when the output information indicates the preview setting, and outputting the rendered image data to the printer when the output information indicates the print setting.
US07859718B2
An image output device includes: a color conversion processing unit that converts output-use image data into image data of a standard CMYK color space; and a color correction processing unit that conducts color correction of the image data of the standard CMYK color space outputted from the color conversion processing unit, wherein the color correction processing unit includes a K correcting unit that conducts correction of the K component of the image data and a CMY correcting unit that conducts correction of the CMY components of the image data.
US07859707B2
The present invention provides a printing apparatus which can prevent surrounding borders from becoming uneven and unnecessary borders from appearing, and which can optimally print object data even when the aspect ratio of the object data is maintained. The printing apparatus 200 includes: a print data analysis unit 203 having a layout area information obtainment unit 2032 which obtains layout area information indicating a layout area, and an effective drawing area information obtainment unit 2033 which obtains effective drawing area information indicating a printing area which is dependent on the printing apparatus 200; and a layout unit 204 which lays out, based on the size of the object data which is the object to be printed and the size of a layout area on layout area, and in addition lays out, based on the size of the layout area and an effective drawing area, the layout area onto the effective drawing area.
US07859697B2
An image transmission apparatus for transmitting image data to a designated destination including, a mode selection section for receiving a transmission mode selection, and a destination selection section for receiving a destination selection, wherein the destination selection section enables to select a destination according to the transmission mode selected by the mode selection section.
US07859695B2
In the network system, which includes a scanner apparatus and a printer apparatus connected to network, the scanner apparatus scan the image of a plurality of pages of an original document, and the scanned image data is transmitted to the printer apparatus before the completion of scanning all of the plurality of original document pages.
US07859688B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a command data conversion device and printing apparatus that can correctly interpret print command data even where the codes or the parameter codes assigned to the commands in the print command data change, or where the data output sequence changes. Using the present invention, print command data including commands used in print control as well as associated data are received, and the contents thereof are interpreted. Multiple commands are rewritably stored in command registers in advance, and if a command included in the print command data matches any of the stored multiple commands, prescribed processing is carried out to at least one of either the command or its associated data.
US07859687B2
To provide a height detection apparatus capable of detecting height information of a subject surface even in a narrow area, the height detection apparatus includes: an illumination optical system for illuminating the subject surface with a light flux emitted from a light source unit; an imaging optical system for causing the light flux reflected on the subject surface to form an image as a line image on an imaging surface; and a light detection unit disposed on the imaging surface. A light detection surface of the light detection unit is positioned in a plane rotated about a rotational axis, the rotational axis being an axis which is perpendicular to an optical axis of an optical element positioned optically closest to the light detection unit among optical elements constituting the imaging optical system, and is perpendicular to the line image to be formed by the imaging optical system.
US07859685B2
A device having a robotic arm within a robot chamber. The robotic arm includes an end effector adapted to handle a wafer. A linear array of charge-coupled devices are provided within the interior of the robot chamber, the linear array positioned to acquire image data from a measurement volume in one or more predetermined locations within the robot chamber.
US07859684B2
A device for shaping objects by removal of material from the surface thereof with a pulsed laser beam and a deflecting device through which the laser bean is guided over the surface of the object. An optical device is provided for changing the distribution of the radiation intensity inside the laser beam cross section. After the passage of the laser beam through this optical device, the radiation intensity has a bell-shaped or Gaussian distribution, or a distribution similar to a bell-shaped or Gaussian distribution, in at least one cross-sectional direction through the laser beam.
US07859683B2
Disclosed herein is an apparatus for measuring the shape of a 3D object using an interferometer. The apparatus includes a light source unit, a beam splitter, a reference mirror, an actuator, an image pickup device, and a control unit. The light source unit emits light. The beam splitter divides the light from the light source unit. The reference mirror reflects light as a reference beam. The actuator moves the reference mirror. The image pickup device acquires a plurality of interference patterns by causing the reflected beam and the reference beam to interfere with each other. The control unit measures the shape of the object from the acquired interference patterns, outputs reference mirror drive signals to the actuator, and issues an image capture command at the end of image capture time that is shorter than settling time.
US07859682B2
An optical interference apparatus for carrying out Fourier domain optical coherence tomography. Multiple beams are provided and respective interferograms are recorded simultaneously for a plurality of different focal depths within a substance to be examined. Combined images are derived from the interferograms for a plurality of different focal depths, whereby a single image may be constructed with an increased depth of field. The axial spacing of the foci is calculated to take into account the Rayleigh range of the focal waist in the substance to be examined.
US07859678B2
An automatic gain control system for a fiber optic gyroscope control loop includes an adjustable gain applied to the gyro output signal. A pilot signal is injected into the fiber optic gyroscope control loop. A compensation loop receives signals output from the control loop and also receives pilot signals. The compensation loop processes the pilot signal to produce a compensation signal that is combined with signals output from the control loop to provide a compensated fiber optic gyroscope output signal. An automatic gain control loop is connected between the compensation loop and the adjustable gain applied to the fiber optic gyroscope output signal. The automatic gain control loop includes a gain error demodulator that multiplies the compensated fiber optic gyroscope output signal and the compensation signal together to produce a gain error signal used to control the adjustable gain in order to stabilize the gain of the gyro control loop.
US07859675B2
An opto-electronic assembly and testing method are disclosed. A housing of the opto-electronic assembly is coupled to a window to form an optical chamber. A retro-reflector can be coupled to the housing. A radiation source can be disposed on or about the retro-reflector. The radiation source can emit radiation into the optical chamber through at least a portion of the retro-reflector. A detector can sense a level of the radiation in the optical chamber. A controller coupled to the detector can signal an error condition when the level of the radiation exceeds a threshold associated with the presence of obscurants on the window. Optionally, the controller can be coupled to the radiation source for selectively emitting pulses of radiation into the optical chamber and detecting data bits corresponding to the pulses of radiation.
US07859674B2
A system and method for measuring a quality parameter of a harvested crop are provided. Specifically, the system is adapted to be carried by a harvesting device such that a sensor is enclosed in a controlled environment and such that the sensor is capable of precisely and reliably measuring the quality parameter while the harvesting device is in operation. The system includes a verification device and an actuator device contained within the controlled environment. The actuator device periodically conveys the sensor device to at least one of a verification position relative to the verification device and a measurement position. Thus, the sensor device may be periodically and reliably referenced and/or validated while in use in harsh agricultural environments such that the sensor device is capable of accurately measuring the quality parameter as the crop is harvested.
US07859673B2
A method for detecting and analyzing light signals, in which a light signal impinges an optoelectric converter, where it is converted into an electric signal and the electric signal subsequent to the conversion is distributed into several analysis channels (13.1-13.4), within each analysis channel (13.1), (i) a signal analysis is performed, which is different from the signal analysis for the other analysis channels (13.2-13.4) and (ii) an output signal is created. In such a method, one or more output signals are selected for further processing and output using a specified, changeable selection criterion.
US07859666B2
The present invention relates to an electric field sensor including: a light source (1); an electro optic crystal (7) which is applied with an electric field based on a signal under test, in which a birefringent index changes according to the electric field, and which changes a polarization state of light incident from the light source according to the birefringent index and emits the light; and a detector (9, 17, 19, 21) that detects an electric signal according to the change of the polarization state of the light emitted from the electro optic crystal (7). Further, the electric field sensor includes: a signal electrode (11) for applying the electric field based on the signal under test to the electro optic crystal (7); a counter electrode (12) that forms a pair with the signal electrode (11); and an auxiliary electrode (61) that is electrically connected to the counter electrode (12), and that forms a capacitance with ground.
US07859664B2
The present invention provides a plurality of samples, each of which includes particles of a predetermined particle dimension, within narrow predetermined limits, dispersed in a carrier at a predetermined particle concentration. The predetermined particle dimension and the predetermined particle concentration are the same for each sample. However, advantageously, each sample has a different predetermined ratio of a value of an optical property of the particles to a value of the same optical property of the carrier. The present invention also provides a method for selecting a target sample from the plurality of samples to assess the measurement accuracy or the detection sensitivity of an optical particle analyzer as the predetermined ratio approaches 1.
US07859658B2
A polarizing filter includes a portion with a filtering layer having a plurality of openings extending therethrough, where this portion has a maximum physical thickness in a radiation travel direction which is less than approximately one wavelength of the radiation being filtered. A method of making the filter includes: forming a filtering layer over a substrate; creating a plurality of openings through a portion of the filtering layer; and separating the filtering layer from the substrate.
US07859656B2
An inspection system includes: a facility that uses wide-band illumination light having different wavelengths and single-wavelength light to perform dark-field illumination on an object of inspection, which has the surface thereof coated with a transparent film, in a plurality of illuminating directions at a plurality of illuminating angles; a facility that detects light reflected or scattered from repetitive patterns and light reflected or scattered from non-repetitive patterns with the wavelengths thereof separated from each other; a facility that efficiently detects light reflected or scattered from a foreign matter or defect in the repetitive patterns or non-repetitive patterns or a foreign matter or defect on the surface of the transparent film; and a facility that removes light, which is diffracted by the repetitive patterns, from a diffracted light image of actual patterns or design data representing patterns. Consequently, a more microscopic defect can be detected stably.
US07859655B2
A first method determines a position of a point of interest on a target object surface in a target object coordinate system using orientation and distance measurements of a pointing instrument in an instrument coordinate system. A second method determines an orientation of a pointing instrument in an instrument coordinate system for the instrument to be aligned with a point of interest on a target object surface having a target object coordinate system, wherein a position of the point of interest in the target object coordinate system is known. A third method controls orientation of a laser beam of a laser in an instrument coordinate system for the laser beam to trace an image on a target object surface having a target object coordinate system, wherein positions of points for the image on the surface of the target object in the target object coordinate system are known.
US07859648B2
A reflector structure suitable for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is provided. The structure comprises a substrate having a multi-layer reflector. A capping layer is formed over the multi-layer reflector to prevent oxidation. In an embodiment, the capping layer is formed of an inert oxide, such as Al2O3, HfO2, ZrO2, Ta2O5, Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2, or the like. The capping layer may be formed by reactive sputtering in an oxygen environment, by non-reactive sputtering wherein the materials are sputtered directly from the respective oxide targets, by non-reactive sputtering of the metallic layer followed by full or partial oxidation (e.g., by natural oxidation, by oxidation in oxygen-containing plasmas, by oxidation in ozone (O3), or the like), by atomic level deposition (e.g., ALCVD), or the like.
US07859646B2
According to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a method for writing an arbitrary, two-dimensional pattern using interferometric lithography and classical techniques includes the steps of: (1) creating a pixel array defined by a number of pixels having specific coordinates; (2) mapping pixel information based on the desired pattern, the pixel information including a list of which pixels are activated to define the desired two-dimensional pattern; (3) controlling a relative strength of each pixel for indicating a feature height of a portion of the desired two-dimensional pattern; and (4) controlling a degree that one pixel is shifted in an x-direction and a y-direction relative to original coordinates of the pixel in order to define the desired two-dimensional pattern pixel by pixel.
US07859636B2
A liquid crystal panel and method for fabricating the same are provided. A plurality of photo spacers and ball spacers are disposed between a color filter substrate and an array substrate. The device for simultaneously applying photo spacers and ball spacers exhibits the ability to eliminate force impact and overcome problems such as touch mura and sound mura.
US07859631B2
A multi-domain liquid crystal display device that is capable of forming a multi-domain by using a gate line. In the device, a data signal is applied to the data line and a gate signal is applied to gate lines crossing the data lines. Switching devices are arranged at each intersection between the gate lines and the data lines and are connected to the pixel electrodes. Auxiliary electrode lines are extended vertically from the gate lines to control an orientation of the liquid crystal with the gate lines. Accordingly, the gate line is used as the auxiliary electrode line, so that an aperture ratio can be improved. Also, a resistance component is reduced, so that problems of the brightness non-uniformity and the generation of a flicker and a residual image, etc. caused by a voltage deviation can be overcome.
US07859625B2
A liquid crystal display device which can reduce or eliminate a display defect is provided. The liquid crystal display device includes a first alignment film formed on one of the pair of substrates; a second alignment film formed on another of the pair of substrates; first projecting portions which are provided to the first alignment film and project into the liquid crystal layer by first constitutional members which constitute a layer below the first alignment film; and second projecting portions which are provided to the second alignment film, face the first projecting portions, and project into the liquid crystal layer by second constitutional members which constitute a layer below the second alignment film, the first projecting portion being set lower than the second projecting portion, and an area of an upper surface of the first projecting portion being set smaller than an area of an upper surface of the second projecting portion. The first alignment film is made of a photo-decomposition-type alignment film material.
US07859621B2
A display device using a novel semiconductor device, which includes a pixel matrix, an image sensor, and a peripheral circuit for driving those, that is, which has both a camera function and a display function, and is made intelligent, is provided and a method of manufacturing the same is also provided. One pixel includes a semiconductor device for display and a semiconductor for light reception, that is, one pixel includes semiconductor devices (insulated gate-type field effect semiconductor device) for controlling both display and light reception, so that the display device having a picture reading function is made miniaturized and compact.
US07859609B2
A backlight unit for a liquid crystal display device includes a reflector having a plurality of grooves and one or more light emitting diodes within each of the grooves.
US07859607B2
A method for assembling a liquid crystal display includes steps of disposing a liquid crystal panel and a backlight module and blowing an ionic flow into the space between the liquid crystal panel and the backlight module to clean the surfaces of them. In addition, the method can be proceeded by an apparatus for assembling the liquid crystal display. The apparatus comprises a fastening device, a hoist platform, and an ionic particle-removal device. The fastening device has several vacuum suckers used to attach the surface of a liquid crystal panel and the panel is held and fixed. The hoist platform is disposed vertically under the fastening device to carry a backlight module and thus to adjust the distance between the liquid crystal panel and the backlight module. The ionic particle-removal device, which is disposed at a lateral part of the hoist platform and the fastening device, is capable of blowing an ionic flow to remove the particles and electrostatic charges attached on the surface of the liquid crystal panel and the backlight module simultaneously during assembly.
US07859599B2
A broadcast receiving device includes a receiver configured to selectively receive two programs; an analyzer configured to analyze sound volume levels of the two programs for a certain time; and an adjuster configured to adjust the relative sound volume levels of the two programs, when the analysis indicates that there is a difference between the sound volume levels of the two programs, so as to control the difference between the sound volume levels to within a predetermined reference level difference.
US07859592B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, at least parts or all of the windows for tarry lamps are located in the outside of the front cover by constructing the front cover portion between the top face and left-hand side face of the front cover, and the front cover portion between the top face and right-hand side face of the front cover as the inclined planes respectively. That is, since the windows for tarry lamps are not covered by the front cover as conventional ones, visibility from the external improves.
US07859585B2
A portable terminal is disclosed, having a first housing, a second housing that is rotatably combined with the first housing and moves toward or away from the first housing while facing the first housing, and a camera lens assembly provided on the second housing. The second housing moves toward or far from the first housing as it is rotated with respect to a predetermined hinge axis. The hinge axis provides a rotation axis of a lens housing of the camera lens assembly, the rotation axis extending in a longitudinal direction of the camera lens assembly and passing through the center of the camera lens assembly. The lens housing and the second housing rotate with respect to the first housing as the second housing is moved toward or away from the first housing and the lens housing are rotated with respect to the second housing by a user when desired.
US07859580B2
A method and apparatus for determining missing color pixel values in image data. Pixel values are interpolated in a horizontal or a vertical direction based on gradient scores and optionally chroma and local statistical scores. Several techniques for refining the interpolation direction determination are also disclosed, including applying a low-pass filter, applying one or more digital filters, and growing an interpolation direction region to nearby pixels. A technique for interpolating corner pixel values is also disclosed.
US07859564B2
Viewing a three dimensional area from numerous camera angles at different exposures using intensity and chromaticity data at the different exposures to create a pixel model for each pixel. A current image is compared with the background model to find pixels that have changed from their pixel model. These novel pixels are processed using contiguous region detection and grouped into foreground figures. For each camera, software extracts features from each foreground figure. A central processor maintains an object model for each foreground figure. A graphical user interface displays the relative location of foreground figures in a world model. The location and identification of the foreground figures is checked against a table of permissions so as to selectively generate an alert. If a figure leaves or is about the leave a cell, the invention accounts for its approximate position and notifies adjacent cells of the expected arrival of the foreground figure.
US07859557B2
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for recording digital data on an image-receiving medium (20). The recording head (71) is transported along a slow-scan-direction (Y) and digital image data is recorded along a fast-scan-direction (X). The recording head (71) is decoupled from its drive (60) during recording of digital image data of a line or an image or part of it. The transient movement of the recording head (71) along the fast-scan-direction (X) is detected before and/or during exposure using a sensor system (52, 53) and these signals are used to derive a high precision synchronized clock by suitable interpolation and/or extrapolation for the recording of image data to the image-receiving medium (20).
US07859549B2
A comparative review system for displaying views associated with studies on first and second display areas according to a screen layout, a study view mode, and a hanging protocol. The screen layout is used to determine the number of display slots to display in the first and second display areas. This determination along with the study view mode is then used to determine whether to display a study in corresponding display slots associated with the first and second display areas. The number of display slots displayed, whether studies are displayed in corresponding display slots across displays, and the hanging protocol are used to determine which views to display within display slots. Each screen layout, study view mode and hanging protocol is associated with a comparative review mode, which in turn are combined into a comparative review sequence. The comparative review sequence allows for display and navigation through the various modes.
US07859546B2
Skin-attached features are placed on a computer generated character by defining a set of placement points on at least a portion of a skin surface of the computer generated character. For each placement point, a radius is defined for the placement point. For each placement point, a density value is determined for the placement point. The density value is a sum of weighted overlaps with neighboring placement points within the radius of the placement point. The weighted overlaps are functions of the radius of the placement point. The number of placement points in the set of placement points is reduced based on the density values.
US07859544B2
The present invention allows highly efficient high-speed data processing based on dynamic data federation among a plurality of data display means, without increasing the data volume in the individual data display means. A user data display section has a classification and component specific information table, which is extracted from a three-dimensional component database and a two-dimensional component database, and a component attribute data table associated thereto. A federation control section controls data federation among a three-dimensional component data display section, two-dimensional component data display section and user data display section. A jump section acquires the classification or component specific information using the classification and component specific information table, retrieves the three-dimensional component database or two-dimensional component database by controlling the three-dimensional component data display section or two-dimensional component data display section, and displays an image display screen of the three-dimensional component data or two-dimensional component data of the retrieved component.
US07859543B2
Displaying an image is described. A method for displaying an image includes determining, for each of multiple images, metric associated with the image. The multiple images are displayed in a view in which each of the multiple images is associated with at least one visually perceivable attribute that reflects at least the determined metric. The attributes that reflect the metrics are logically independent of the metrics. In one implementation, the metric relates to a significance value associated with the image. In one implementation, the visually perceivable attribute relates to a size with which the multiple images are displayed in relation to each other.
US07859538B2
Animation of an object from a character modeling and/or animation tool is converted from a representation used by that tool to a representation used in a runtime animation system, such as a game engine. Such a tool typically represents the object using a source structure and a source skin. The runtime animation engine typically uses a target structure, target skin and shading to represent animation of an object. In addition to transferring motion of the object from its source structure to the target structure, deformation and shading also are converted. Low resolution information about the deformation of the source skin is converted into a set of skinning weights for associating the target skin with virtual bones added to the target structure and animated deformation data for each frame of animation. High resolution detail from the deformation of the source skin is converted into a set of normal maps, one or more masks and animated mask parameters for use by one or more shaders.
US07859537B2
Systems and methods for converting vector graphic object path profiles into planar map profiles for efficient mean value coordinates evaluation wherein the nodes of resultant region paths include a set of quantities of arbitrary dimension.
US07859531B2
A graphic apparatus that draws an object three-dimensionally using a level plane and a height-axis perpendicular to the level plane includes a receiving unit, a calculating unit, and a drawing unit. The receiving unit receives vertex data identifying a position of a top surface of the object on the level plane. The calculating unit calculates a modulation coefficient of luminance for the top surface based on a normal vector for the top surface and a light-source vector indicating a direction of a light source on the level plane. The drawing unit draws the top surface using the vertex data and the modulation coefficient, and a top surface of another object using the modulation coefficient.
US07859528B2
A power module for energy recovery and sustain of a plasma display panel is disclosed. The power module includes a first high-voltage integrated circuit which is of a single type, a first switching element for receiving an output from the first high-voltage integrated circuit, and performing a switching operation in response to the output received from the first high-voltage integrated circuit, a first diode connected to one terminal of the first switching element, a second high-voltage integrated circuit which is of a single type, and is arranged symmetrically with the first high-voltage integrated circuit, a second switching element for receiving an output from the second high-voltage integrated circuit, and performing a switching operation in response to the output received from the second high-voltage integrated circuit, and a second diode connected to one terminal of the second switching element.
US07859527B2
A reference voltage line is synchronously scanned with scanning of a scanning signal line, voltage of the reference voltage line is set to be the voltage of a common electrode, the second transistor is set to be OFF state during the reference voltage line is set in the common voltage for a pixel wherein a node between an image signal memory and said second transistor is set in a voltage so that said second transistor becomes OFF and the voltage of image signal line is set to be high voltage level when the voltage of the scanning signal line changes from low voltage level to high voltage level for the pixel wherein the node between the image signal memory and the second transistor is set in a voltage so that said second transistor becomes ON.
US07859521B2
Displays with touch sensing circuitry integrated into the display pixel stackup are provided. Circuit elements, such as touch signal lines, such as drive lines and sense lines, grounding regions, in the display pixel stackups can be grouped together to form touch sensing circuitry that senses a touch on or near the display. An integrated touch screen can include multi-function circuit elements that can operate as circuitry of the display system to generate an image on the display, and can also form part of a touch sensing system that senses one or more touches on or near the display. The multi-function circuit elements can be, for example, capacitors in display pixels that can be configured to operate as storage capacitors/electrodes, common electrodes, conductive wires/pathways, etc., of the display circuitry in the display system, and that may also be configured to operate as circuit elements of the touch sensing circuitry.
US07859515B2
A mobile communication terminal including an input unit including a plurality of certain keys, a calculator which calculates an interval between a consecutive selection of one of the certain keys, and a processor which executes a predetermined function if the calculated interval is within a threshold time. Further, the predetermined function is set to correspond with the consecutive selection of the one certain key within the threshold time and being different than a function associated with a single selection of the one certain key.
US07859514B1
A multi-functional user interface for electronic devices includes a hand-operable controller for providing an interface through which a user can command a peripheral electronic device to perform multiple actions. Such a controller includes an ergonomic housing including a communication link electrically matable to the electronic device. The housing includes a plurality of controls for generating a plurality of control signals based upon a plurality of corresponding user inputs respectively. The housing includes front and rear faces, each including a plurality of controls for generating a plurality of signals based upon a plurality of corresponding user inputs respectively. The device is selectively interchangeable between Internet Mode, Applications Mode, and Word Mode, conveniently enabling a user to use a single input device for a variety of different functions.
US07859512B2
An image display panel of the reflection type includes, in a multilayer structure, a first layer including a periodic planar arrangement of a plurality of electrophoretic elements, each showing one of an opaque black state and a transparent state in response to an input signal, and a second layer including a periodic planar arrangement of a plurality of electrophoretic elements, each showing at least a first color state and a second color state in response to an input signal. An arrangement period of the electrophoretic elements included in the first layer is smaller than an arrangement period of the electrophoretic elements included in the second layer.
US07859504B2
A liquid crystal display device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an active matrix type liquid crystal display panel, in which a set value of a common voltage applied to a common electrode of the liquid crystal display panel is determined based on input image data, and a timing of changing the common voltage to the preset value in accordance with a timing of driving at least one of a scan line and a signal line of the liquid crystal display panel.
US07859502B2
An array substrate includes a base substrate and a plurality of pixels on the base substrate. Each pixel includes a data line, first and second gate lines, first to third switching devices, and first and second pixel electrodes. The first and second gate lines cross the data line, and the second gate line is spaced apart from the first gate line. The first switching device is electrically connected to an adjacent gate line corresponding to an adjacent pixel. The second switching device is electrically connected to the data line and the first gate line. The third switching device is electrically connected to the data line and the second gate line. The first pixel electrode is electrically connected to the first and second switching devices, and the second pixel electrode is electrically connected to the first and third switching devices. The second pixel electrode is spaced apart from the first pixel electrode.
US07859491B2
The pixel circuit of an organic light emitting display includes a first transistor to a seventh transistor, a first capacitor, a second transistor and an organic light emitting diode. The first capacitor stores the data signal from the first, second and third transistors, and the second capacitor stores the threshold voltage of the fourth transistor from the fifth transistor. Voltages stored in the first and second capacitors are combined by the sixth transistor, and the fourth transistor generates a driving current corresponding to a combined voltage of the voltages stored in the first and second capacitor. The seventh transistor transmits the driving current and the organic light emitting diode emits light corresponding to the driving current.
US07859487B2
An image display device and a method of controlling an image display device are provided. The image display device may include a signal processor having a plurality of input/output ports to control a degaussing operation and a data download, a degaussing circuit connected a first port of the signal processor to perform the degaussing operation during a first mode, and a download interface connected to the first port of the signal processor to download data on the signal processor during a second mode.
US07859485B2
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel. The plasma display panel of the present invention is divided into three or more regions. Address electrodes located in each region are classified into electrode groups. Each of the electrode groups is supplied with a driving signal from an additional data driver. Therefore, high speed driving is made possible during the address period and voltage drop in the electrodes can be compensated. Furthermore, since a discharge period can be relatively extended, the display quality can be improved.
US07859482B1
A waveguide switch is shown. The waveguide switch includes a frequency selective surface and a biasing diode configured to selectively provide a short between an outer metal loop and an inner metal loop to place the frequency selective surface into either a non-reflective state or a reflective state.
US07859477B2
A J-Pole antenna disclosed including: shunt segment extending out of the plane of the J-Pole antenna. A shunt segment extending out of the plane of the J-pole antenna aids in attaching the antenna to a connector and allowing for a reduction in the size of the antenna and connector. The shunt segment also makes the antenna shorter while preserving the same gain and impedance performance as a conventional J-Pole antenna. A connector plate and connector may be used with the antenna having the shunt segment extending out of the plane of the J-Pole antenna. A protective enclosure may be used with the J-Pole antenna and allowing a radiating antenna segment of the J-Pole antenna to extend from the protective enclosure.
US07859476B2
The present invention relates to the production of reflectarray antennas, that is to say antennas consisting of a primary illumination source and a phase-shifting plate consisting of an array of cells each having a coefficient of reflection the phase of which is electronically controlled. According to the invention, each cell consists of a waveguide element closed at one of its ends by a dielectric substrate wafer carrying an electrical circuit formed by three parallel conducting strips. A variable capacitor, produced either in MEMS technology or by means of a ferroelectric element, is implanted by means of bonding wires on the electrical circuit etched on the substrate. The shape and the arrangement of the three parallel conducting strips constituting the electrical circuit and the way in which the variable capacitor is connected to this circuit make it possible to form, in the plane of the substrate, a phase shifter circuit, the phase shift of which may vary almost continuously over a wide range of variation. Advantageously, the phase shifter circuit thus formed occupies a small volume. The invention applies to the production of dual-polarization reflectarray antennas.
US07859474B1
The present invention is a tunable multi-element network for providing impedance transformation. The network may include a first switched capacitor power load modulator circuit and a second switched capacitor power load modulator circuit. The network may further include a series inductive component configured for connecting to at least one of the first power load modulator circuit and the second power load modulator circuit. The network may be further configured for connection to a transmit antenna and a power amplifier. The network may be further configured for receiving an arbitrary impedance from the antenna. The network may be further configured for synthesizing an arbitrary capacitive reactance based on a dynamically controllable phase angle between a switch drive signal provided by the network and an incident Radio Frequency (RF) signal. The network may be further configured for matching the antenna impedance to the power amplifier via the arbitrary capacitive reactance.
US07859473B2
The present invention relates to management of information relating to medical fluids, containers therefore, and medical fluid administration devices for administering such medical fluids to patients. Data tags (e.g., RFID tags) are generally associated with containers of the invention and may be electromagnetically read from and/or written to using an electromagnetic device, for example, that may be associated with a medical fluid administration device of the invention.
US07859470B2
An antenna assembly for multiple band operation of a wireless communications devices such as cellphones. Embodiments of the present invention provides for operation over 824-960 MHz Cellphone and 1575 MHz GPS bands and 1710-2155 MHz. Coverage over the GPS frequency band is highly desirable for wireless communication devices such as cell phones, in order to provide location information. Radiating conducting elements can be positioned in close proximity to an inverted PIFA-type antenna, requiring very little additional space or volume and allowing nearly the same form factor to be used for the antenna assembly. An illuminated panel may be positioned within an aperture of the ground plane. The panel may be back lit and activated in response to an external signal.
US07859469B1
A combined, compact battery holder and antenna apparatus. The combined, compact battery holder and antenna apparatus includes a dielectric battery holder and a conductive antenna element having a radiating arm that is supported by the dielectric battery holder. When mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB), the dielectric battery holder maintains the radiating arm of the conductive antenna element at a constant height above a ground plane on the PCB. The compact, combined battery holder and antenna apparatus may be beneficially adapted and configured for use in a variety of electronic devices including, for example, wireless headsets or headphones, cellular communications devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and may be adapted and configured to operate according to various types of wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular wireless technologies.
US07859468B2
A mobile wireless communications device may include a portable housing, a printed circuit board (PCB) carried within the portable housing, and wireless communications circuitry carried by the PCB within the portable housing. The device may also include a folded monopole antenna assembly coupled to the wireless communications circuitry. The folded monopole antenna assembly may include a dielectric body adjacent the PCB and having a generally rectangular shape defining opposing top and bottom faces, opposing first and second end faces, and opposing first and second side faces. The antenna may also include a conductive trace coupled to the wireless communications circuitry and having a first end section extending along the first end face, a second end section extending along the second end face, and an intermediate section extending along the top, bottom, first side and second side faces.
US07859467B2
An object of the present invention is to provide an antenna device for a radio apparatus in which the amount of energy (SAR) absorbed by a head of a human body can be reduced without lowering the power of radio waves transmitted during a call. There is provided a board 108 serving as a base plate of an antenna element, an antenna element 102 disposed in a longitudinally end portion of the board 108 through a feeding portion 107, a conductor plate 109 disposed substantially in parallel with a main surface of the board 108 and disposed on the opposite side to a surface having a sound hole of a receiver portion, and a plurality of short-circuit conductors 110 disposed on a lower end portion of the conductor plate 109. The conductor plate 109 is short-circuited to a lower end portion of the board 108 through the short-circuit conductors 110.
US07859454B2
Aspects of a method and system for calibrating group delay errors in a combined GPS and GLONASS receiver are provided. The combined GPS and GLONASS receiver may be enabled to receive both GPS signals and GLONASS signals. GPS based navigation information may be calculated based on the received GPS signals. Group delay errors resulted by the received GLONASS signals may be calibrated based on the GPS based navigation information. Respective GLONASS signals may be estimated in responsive to the GPS based navigation information. Corresponding clock information associated with the estimated GLONASS signals may be transferred from the clock information of the GPS based navigation information. A calibration signal may be generated by comparing the estimated GLONASS signals with the received GLONASS signals. The calibration signal may be processed by an error state Kalman filter and may be used to offset the group delay errors in the combined GPS and GLONASS receiver.
US07859449B1
An aircraft weather radar system can be used with a terrain avoidance system. The aircraft weather radar system is coupled to an antenna. A processor receives radar returns received by the antenna. The processor determines terrain elevation estimates for use with the terrain avoidance system from the radar returns. The terrain elevation estimates are compared to stored terrain elevation data used with the terrain avoidance system to verify position or to check the integrity of the stored elevation data. The processor can be part of a terrain avoidance system, a weather radar system, a navigation system, or can be a standalone system.
US07859442B2
This disclosure relates to analog to digital conversion using irregular sampling.
US07859438B2
In a bit stream syntax containing compressed video slice data for compressed video data of a slice structure, a slice header for compressed video slice data has attached thereto a slice start code, a register reset flag indicating whether a register value, which designates a status of a codeword occurring in an arithmetic coding process, should be reset in the next transmission unit, an initial register value which indicates a register value to be used to start arithmetic coding/decoding to build/decompose the next transmission unit, only when the register reset flag indicates that the register should not be reset.
US07859436B2
A memory device includes a receiver to receive a first input data signal and to create an output signal corresponding to the first input data signal and a voltage representative of a second signal received earlier in time than the first input data signal. A memory system includes a memory controller and one or more memory devices, at least one or which includes a receiver to receive a first input data signal and to create an output signal corresponding to the first input data signal and a voltage representative of a second signal received earlier in time than the first input data signal.
US07859435B2
A method for a rate increase and a method for a rate reduction of a sampling input sequence into a sampling output sequence is provided. The sampling input sequence is subjected to signal processing. Signal processing maps a spreading with a first factor and an interpolation and a decimation with a second factor to generate the sampling output sequence with use of a counter. The counter and the signal processing are clocked with the higher rate, in each case, of the sampling input sequence or the sampling output sequence, respectively.
US07859404B2
A security system comprises a control panel configured to control devices in a security system, a keypad and an arm/disarm device. The keypad is in communication with the control panel and comprises a transceiver configured to communicate with the control panel and a magnet having a magnetic field extending within a predetermined proximity of the keypad. The arm/disarm device comprises a transmitter and a switch configured to activate the transmitter when the switch is in the magnetic field. The transmitter is further configured to transmit a low power signal when activated. The transceiver is further configured to receive the low power signal and transmit a message to the control panel. The control panel is further configured to change an Armed/Disarmed Mode of the system based on the message.
US07859390B2
A distance measuring system and method is disclosed having a transponder and an interrogation unit in communication with each other wherein, based upon a calculated distance between the transponder and the interrogation unit, a warning signal is provided if the calculated distance is within a predetermined range.
US07859387B2
A backscatter transponder for an HF communication system with modulated reradiation, is provided that includes an antenna for receiving high-frequency carrier signals, wherein the antenna has reflective characteristics, a control unit for providing transponder-specific parameters, and a modulator that can be driven by the control unit. The modulator altering the reflective characteristics of the antenna in accordance with at least one transponder-specific parameter.
US07859386B2
Method and arrangement for controlling authorization for access to an object, in which a signal communication via electromagnetic waves is established between the object and a wireless portable unit when a tripping device on the object is actuated. The signal communication includes at least one first signal (X1 . . . Xn) that is sent from the object to the portable unit, and at least one second signal (Y3, Z1 . . . Zn) that is sent from the portable unit to the object in response to the first signal(s). The second signal(s) includes sufficient information for verifying that the portable unit has an approved identity. The verification information is checked, a distance is measured between the object and the portable unit and the authorization is confirmed if both the checked verification information is approved and the measured distance is less than a predetermined value. For the distance measurement, a time (T3) is measured for the transmission of at least one of the first signals and at least one of the second signals with verification information.
US07859378B2
There is provided an inductive coupler. The inductive coupler includes (a) a housing having an aperture that extends lengthwise through the housing, a gap that extends lengthwise along a side of the housing, and a flexible region that enables the gap to be opened or closed, wherein the gap, when opened, permits the inductive coupler to be installed on a conductor by having the conductor routed through the aperture. The inductive coupler also includes (b) a magnetic core; and (c) a winding wound around a portion of the magnetic core. The magnetic core and the winding are secured to the housing such that a position of the magnetic core and a position of the winding are maintained relative to one another. The inductive coupler, when installed on the conductor, couples a signal between the conductor and the winding via the magnetic core.
US07859377B2
A coil component is provided, and the coil component for an inductor is deformable dependent on flex of a flexible printed board due to elapse of time when mounted thereon, and has high resistance against dropping impact and has an inductance value. The coil component includes an anisotropic compound magnetic sheet which is layered on at least any one or both of the upper surface and the lower surface of an air core coil formed spirally in a plane and which is composed of flat or needle-shaped soft magnetic metal powder, which has a major axis and a minor axis and is dispersed in a resin material, the major axis of which corresponds to an in-plane direction of the air core coil.
US07859364B2
A layered low-pass filter includes: a first coil and a second coil that are connected in series and that are located between an input terminal and an output terminal in terms of circuit configuration; and a capacitor located between a ground and a node between the first and second coils in terms of circuit configuration. In terms circuit configuration, the first coil is located closer to the input terminal than is the second coil. Each of the first and second coils has an input and an output. The layered low-pass filter further includes: a first conducting path formed using at least one through hole and used for connecting the capacitor to the output of the first coil; and a second conducting path formed using at least one through hole and used for connecting the capacitor to the input of the second coil.
US07859358B2
A nonreciprocal circuit device has a structure that allows a direct current magnetic field having an even density to be applied to a necessary portion of a ferrite without impairing a reduction in profile so as to improve insertion loss. The nonreciprocal circuit device, for example, a two-port isolator, includes permanent magnets, a ferrite to which a direct current magnetic field is applied by the permanent magnets, and a first center electrode and a second center electrode that are disposed on the ferrite. The permanent magnets are disposed so as to oppose principal surfaces of the ferrite. Portions of each of the permanent magnets opposing relay electrodes on top and bottom surfaces are preferably thicker than other portions thereof.
US07859355B2
An oscillator circuit and system are provided having a peak detector that can determine a peak voltage value from the oscillator. The peak voltage value can then be compared against a predetermined voltage value by a controller coupled to the peak detector. The comparison value is then used to change a bias signal if the peak voltage value is dissimilar from the predetermined voltage value. A variable capacitor or varactor can be formed from a transistor and is coupled to the oscillator for receiving the bias signal upon a varactor bias node. The bias signal is used to regulate the capacitance within the varactor as applied to the oscillator nodes. Another controller can also be coupled to the peak detector to produce a second bias signal if the peak voltage is dissimilar from a second predetermined voltage value. The second bias signal can then be forwarded into an amplifier having a variable gain to regulate the gain applied to the oscillator. The combination of a varactor and variable gain amplifier regulate the negative resistance applied to the resonating circuit during startup and steady state operations to ensure a relatively fast startup, and to maintain optimal loading and accurate steady state amplitude after startup has completed.
US07859354B1
Ring oscillator circuitry is provided. The ring oscillator circuitry may include a loop of inverters. A control gate may be interposed in the loop to control operation of the loop. The control gate may be activated using a ring oscillator trigger signal. During application of the trigger signal, the trigger signal may become degraded due to circuit parasitics. Trigger signal conditioning circuitry may be used to remove noise from the degraded trigger signal. A version of the trigger signal that has been conditioned by the trigger signal conditioning circuitry may be applied to a control input of the control gate. The trigger signal conditioning circuitry may include a low pass filter, a hysteresis circuit, and a two-stage buffer. The two-stage buffer may be formed from transistors with the same characteristics as the transistors in the inverters of the ring oscillator loop.
US07859352B2
Systems and methods for insuring successful initiation of a resonating micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS). An example system includes a resonating sensor, a drive device, a charge amplifier, and a voltage gain circuit. At start up, the charge amplifier and voltage gain circuit receives signals from the resonating sensor, compensates this signal for DC offsets, and generates a clock signal for the drive, thus placing the resonating sensor in a steady state operating mode. The circuit includes a plurality of gain switches that are toggled to produce a glitch in the signal associated with the received signal. The glitch overcomes the DC offset. A comparator generates the clock signal for the drive device if a signal associated with the received signal exceeds a reference signal.
US07859348B2
A crystal device for surface mounting, in which a metal cover is jointed to the metal ring by seam welding, satisfies relationships A2/A1
US07859344B2
In an ADPLL composed of a digital circuit, a technique improving phase difference detection in a vicinity of a phase difference of 0 (zero) is provided. A feedback loop comprises a PFD comparing phases and frequencies of a reference signal and a feedback signal, a TDC converting an output of the PFD into a digital value, a DLF removing a high frequency noise component from an output of the TDC, a DCO controlled based on an output of the DLF and a DIV frequency-dividing an output the DCO and outputting the feedback signal. An offset value is added at any portion of the feedback loop, a phase of the feedback signal is controlled and a value other than 0 is inputted to the TDC even when the ADPLL is locked.
US07859339B2
A differential amplification circuit is constituted of a differential transistor pair including a pair of n-channel MOS transistors whose sources are connected together, a constant current source circuit which is connected to the sources of the differential transistor pair, a current-mirror load circuit including a pair of p-channel MOS transistors whose gates are connected together, and a bias generation circuit which generates a gate bias voltage and a drain bias voltage applied to the current-mirror load circuit in such a way that the same potential is set to both the drains of the p-channel MOS transistors. Thus, it is possible to reduce the input offset voltage without reducing the margin of operation voltage and without increasing the overall chip size.
US07859338B2
A compact low-power class AB power amplifier design is provided. In an embodiment, the amplifier design eliminates an intermediate stage that couples an input stage and a biasing mesh of the amplifier. In another embodiment, the amplifier design reuses a tail current from the input stage to bias the biasing mesh. Accordingly, a much higher power efficiency can be achieved using the proposed amplifier design compared to conventional class AB amplifiers. Further, the proposed amplifier design is extremely compact and occupies a small silicon area.
US07859321B2
Apparatus (40) comprising a multistage charge pump (10) having an output (41) for connecting a load (Cout, KL). The charge pump (10) comprises m gain stages for charging and discharging m external stage capacitors (C) in order to provide an output voltage (Vout) at the output (41) that is about m times higher than a supply voltage (Vdd) of the charge pump (10). The charging and discharging is influenced by switches inside said charge pump (10) that are controlled by a switching signal having a switching frequency (fosc). A monitoring circuit (20) is provided that monitors temperature-induced changes of the value of an external reference capacitor (Cref). Furthermore, means (30) for adjusting the switching frequency (fosc) are employed in order to compensate variations of the gain of said charge pump (10) that are caused by the changes of the value of the m external stage capacitors (C).
US07859314B2
Edge-rate control circuits and methods are implemented using a variety of arrangements and methods. Using one such method, an output signal of a bus is controlled by decoupling a feedback capacitor (116) from a gate of a transistor (108) using an isolation switch (106). The transistor (108) is used to control the output signal. A predetermined amount of charge is removed from the feedback capacitor (116) using a charge distribution capacitor (114) that is selectively coupled to the feedback capacitor (116) using a switch (112). The switch (112) is enabled in response to the output signal reaching an output voltage and disabled in response to the charge distribution capacitor (114) reaching a reference voltage.
US07859312B2
In a bridge adder circuit, a first and a second complementary pair of current mirrors is connected between the input terminals and a positive and a negative supply voltage bus, respectively, to control a first and a second push-pull output stage. The outputs of the push-pull output stages are connected to the respective inputs through first resistors and to a common output node through second resistors. As a result, a universal circuit element for a multivalued logic element, such as ternary logic or 5-valued logic is provided.
US07859306B2
A load driving circuit comprising: a bias current circuit configured to generate a bias current having a current value corresponding to a level of a control signal; a control circuit configured to control the level of the control signal so that the bias current is increased and thereafter decreased, when an input signal reaches one logic level; and a driving circuit configured to raise an output voltage for driving a load to a higher logic level in a time corresponding to the current value of the bias current, when the input signal reaches the one logic level, and lower the output voltage to a lower logic level, when the input signal reaches the other logic level.
US07859300B2
An input and output circuit apparatus includes a signal generating circuit configured to generate a first signal, an input and output circuit configured to receive the first signal from the signal generating circuit and a second signal to generate an output signal responsive to the first signal and the second signal, an operation test circuit having substantially an identical circuit configuration to the input and output circuit, and configured to receive the first signal from the signal generating circuit and a third signal to generate an output signal responsive to the first signal and the third signal, a check circuit configured to generates a check signal indicative of an operating condition of the operation test circuit in response to the output signal of the operation test circuit, and an adjustment circuit configured to adjust the signal generating circuit in response to the check signal output from the check circuit.
US07859299B1
A method and circuit includes providing at least one conductor for receiving an input signal. A termination circuit and a clamp circuit are coupled to the at least one conductor. The termination circuit is enabled while the clamp circuit remains enabled. The clamp circuit is disabled. After disabling the clamp circuit, while the termination circuit remains enabled, both a first differential comparator and a second differential comparator are enabled. The first differential comparator receives a first differential input signal at a first input and a second differential input signal at a second input. The second differential comparator detects when a difference between the first differential input signal and the second differential input signal is greater than a predetermined value and enables transfer of an output of the first differential comparator to a memory controller.
US07859295B2
Apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed that operate to drive an output with a data signal and to boost a potential of the output in response to a boost signal. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US07859294B1
An arrangement and method of reducing power in bidirectional I/O ports includes driving an input signal from an I/O port by asserting a high impedance (Hi-Z) signal to an output drive, driving an output signal from the I/O port by refraining from asserting a Hi-Z signal to an output driver, and feeding back the output signal to an input driver when driving the output signal. The method can float the I/O port when the Hi-Z signal is asserted on the output driver or drive the I/O port as an input when the Hi-Z signal is asserted on the output driver. The method can refrain from floating a signal back into the I/O port when driving a signal out by driving a constant logical zero back into the I/O port or driving a constant logical one back or by maintaining a last value driven.
US07859293B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a digital circuit and a first-stage register circuit provided in a stage followed by the digital circuit. The digital circuit includes a logic circuit and a register circuit configured to temporarily retain a logic output from the logic circuit. The first-stage register circuit has a function as an alternative configured to test at least one register circuit and a function as an interface which supplies input data from an external input terminal to the digital circuit. The first-stage register circuit retains the input data from the external input terminal in synchronization with a clock signal, supplies the retained data to the digital circuit at the time of system operation, and outputs the retained data from an external output terminal connected to a dedicated output terminal or the digital circuit at the time of testing.
US07859288B2
Provided is A test apparatus that tests a device under test, including a power supply section that supplies power to a power supply terminal of the device under test; a power supply control section that controls the power supply section to output the power at a plurality of voltage levels; a current measuring section that measures, at each voltage level, a current value of a quiescent current of the device under test, the quiescent current being supplied to the power supply terminal of the device under test by the power supply section; and an analyzing section that analyzes whether a defect is present in the device under test by using at least three current values from among the current values measured by the current measuring section at the plurality of voltage levels.
US07859276B1
A process for performing non-destructive monitoring of a semiconductor device that permits detection of additional circuitry that is not part of the original, intended design. This permits verification that additional circuitry, for example malicious circuitry, has not been added to the semiconductor device. In one embodiment, the monitoring is performed at the die level before the die is packaged into a complete semiconductor device. The monitoring is non-destructive so that the semiconductor die is not destroyed during the monitoring process.
US07859275B2
An integrated circuit (70) having parallel scan paths (824-842, 924-942) includes a pair or pairs of scan distributor (800,900) and scan collector (844,944) circuits. The scan paths apply stimulus test data to functional circuits (702) on the integrated circuit and receive response test data from the functional circuits. A scan distributor circuit (800) receives serial test data from a peripheral bond pad (802) and distributes it to each parallel scan path. A scan collector circuit (844) collects test data from the parallel scan paths and applies it to a peripheral bond pad (866). This enables more parallel scan paths of shorter length to connect to the functional circuits. The scan distributor and collector circuits can be respectively connected in series to provide parallel connections to more parallel scan paths. Additionally multiplexer circuits (886,890) can selectively connect pairs of scan distributor and collector circuits together. The scan distributor and collector circuits can be formed in core circuits (704). The core circuits then can be connected to other core circuits and functional circuits with simple connections to the parallel scan circuits through the scan distributor and collector circuits.
US07859274B2
A system for testing a flat panel display having a flat display panel assembly includes a testing stage for arranging the flat display panel assembly, a measuring apparatus being disposed on the testing stage and for measuring a spectrum of a transmitted light passing through a measuring region of the flat display panel assembly from a light source, a transporting apparatus for moving the measuring apparatus at a constant acceleration on the testing stage, a defect informing apparatus being electrically connected to the measuring apparatus and for informing an existence of defect, a type of defect, and a severity of defect by processing an electrical signal of the spectrum transmitted from the measuring apparatus.
US07859264B2
New MRI coil and resonators are disclosed based solely on superconducting inductive element and built-in capacitive elements as well as hybrid superconducting-metal inductive and capacitive elements having superior SNR. Single and multiple small animal MRI imaging units are also disclosed including one or more resonators of this invention surrounding one or more small animal cavities. Methods for making and using the MRI coils and/or arrays are also disclosed.
US07859263B2
A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus generates slice images by repeating, for a plurality of consecutive repetition times, transmitting an RF pulse to a plurality of slices and scanning the slices to acquire magnetic resonance signals generated therein, in multi-slice acquisition covering the sequential slices, the sequential slices including at least a first slice, a second slice, a third slice, and a fourth slice. In the first, second, third, and fourth slices, phases of the RF pulses are alternately reversed every consecutive repetition time, and the RF pulses are transmitted to the first, second, third, and fourth slices such that the phases of the RF pulses transmitted to the first and third slices are reversed from each other in each consecutive repetition time and such that the phases of the RF pulses transmitted to the second and fourth slices are reversed from each other in each consecutive repetition time.
US07859248B2
An electronic device test apparatus comprises: a contact arm making an IC device move and pushing it against a socket 301; a control device controlling the contact arm; an instructing unit instructing the control device on a pushing torque of the contact arm; an acquiring unit acquiring from the tester the result whose a test of an IC device is executed when the contact arm pushes the IC device against the socket according to the torque instructed by the instructing unit; a correction unit correcting the torque on which the control device is instructed on the basis of the test result acquired by the acquiring unit; and a setting unit setting the stroke at the time when the test result is normal as an optimum stroke if the torque was not corrected by the correction unit.
US07859247B2
A system for monitoring the electromagnetic field strength received at a predetermined point of a monitored area, includes a device that senses the electromagnetic field fed in at a least one frequency band to an antenna by a transmission apparatus and transmits at least one RF power signal indicative of electromagnetic field strength to a control center. With the control center a geographic data base is available that includes information items on the mutual position of the antenna and the predetermined point. A processing facility with the control center is configured for receiving the RF power signal from the device and calculating from the RF power signal and the data base items the field strength received at said predetermined point from the antenna.
US07859243B2
The conventional cascode circuit can be improved by adding another transistor in series. The added transistor may use the body effect to reduce supply voltage variations across the cascode transistor as the supply voltage varies. The added transistor reduces impact ionization in the cascode transistor.
US07859233B1
A synchronous switching voltage regulator circuit is provided. After the first PWM pulse or at the end of a soft-start, a gradual transition is made from asynchronous rectification to fully synchronous rectification. The gradual transition to synchronous rectification is made by gradually increasing the time that the synchronous switch is enabled to be on.
US07859228B2
A generating method or apparatus can generate an electric power by using a temperature difference. The generating apparatus includes a higher temperature portion, at least one coil, a lower temperature portion, and at least one magnet. Thus, the magnet is heated or cooled by a temperature difference between the higher temperature portion and the lower temperature portion, and the magnetic force of the magnet changes at a predetermined Curie temperature, so that the magnet is movable reciprocally between the iron core of the higher temperature portion and the lower temperature portion by a temperature difference between the higher temperature portion and the lower temperature portion to change a magnetic flux in the iron core and to produce a pulse voltage or current in the coil successively so as to generate an electric power.
US07859219B2
A device for a plug in vehicle includes a cord with a ball-like covering that allows it to be dropped. The cord bounces when dropped, and no damage is caused. There is also an electrical actuator that is based on when the vehicle is in a mode that allows it to be charged. When the vehicle is in the charge mode, the actuator either magnetically attracts the cord, or tightens against the cord to hold it more tightly If the vehicle is put in reverse, for example, the actuator is deenergized, and the cord is less tightly held, facilitating its disconnection.
US07859210B2
In order to prevent a short circuit of top and bottom arms of a motor driving IC when noise is added to six control signals for controlling six switching elements, there is provided a semiconductor device for driving a motor, being sealed with resin as one package and comprising: six switching elements for driving a three-phase motor; three output terminals for outputting voltages to the three-phase motor; at least one driving circuit for driving the six switching elements; three control signal input terminals; and a function) of generating six control signals for control of the six switching elements based on three control signals inputted through the three control signal input terminals.
US07859197B2
The switching timing is flexibly set in an inverter.An H-bridge circuit is controlled based on a triangular wave signal and an error voltage. To control the circuit, a first high-side transistor and a second low-side transistor are turned on in a first period until the triangular wave signal reaches the error voltage. The first high-side transistor is turned on in a second period until the triangular wave signal reaches a peak edge. A second high-side transistor is turned on in a third period until the triangular wave signal reaches a bottom edge. A first low-side transistor and the second high-side transistor are turned on in a fourth period until the triangular wave signal reaches again the error voltage. The second high-side transistor is turned on in a fifth period until the triangular wave signal reaches again a peak edge. The first high-side transistor is turned on in a sixth period until the triangular wave signal reaches again a bottom edge.
US07859188B2
A light-emitting diode device, including a substrate; and a reflective electrode and a semi-transparent electrode formed over the substrate and an unpatterned white light-emitting layer formed between the reflective electrode and the semi-transparent electrode, the reflective electrode, semi-transparent electrode, and unpatterned white-light-emitting layer forming an optical microcavity, and wherein either the reflective or semi-transparent electrodes is patterned to form a plurality of independently controllable light-emitting elements with at least one light-emitting element having no color filter. Color filters are formed over a side of the semi-transparent electrodes opposite the unpatterned white light-emitting layer in correspondence with the light-emitting elements, the color filters having at least two different colors. Additionally, a reflected-light absorbing layer is located over all of the light-emitting elements.
US07859187B2
It is an object of the invention to provide a display device which can be manufactured by a simplified manufacturing process by which the efficiency in the use of material is improved. It is a further object of the invention to provide a manufacturing method of the display device. It is another object of the invention to provide a fabrication technology for improving adhesion of a pattern. In view of the above problems, according to the present invention, a pattern is formed by a droplet discharge method. Particularly in the invention, base pretreatment is performed before/after a pattern is formed by a droplet discharge method. As a result of such base pretreatment, adhesion of a pattern can improved, and the pattern may be made finer.
US07859176B2
A high-pressure discharge lamp assembly has a discharge lamp (1) and a concave reflector (11) arranged around a longitudinal axis (30). The discharge lamp is closed in a gastight manner and comprises a first and second end portion (3, 4) and an ionizable gas filling, and in which a pair of electrodes (5, 6) is arranged. A first and a second current-supply conductor (7, 8) are connected to the pair of electrodes and issue to the exterior of the discharge lamp (1). The first end portion of the discharge lamp extends through an opening (14) arranged in a center section of the reflector. A conduction member (9) is connected to the second current-supply conductor and extends through the opening in the center section of the reflector. The conduction member is connected to a contact member provided on a surface of the reflector facing away from the discharge lamp.
US07859166B2
A carbon brush that suppresses a wear amount of a carbon commutator and has less swelling is provided. The carbon brush has a part connected to a lead and is one that slides in contact with a carbon commutator that is used in a fuel pump. The bulk density of the carbon brush is 1.85 g/cm3 or less, and the shore hardness of the carbon brush is 40 or less.
US07859154B2
A turboalternator system includes a turboalternator having a rotatable member operatively engaged to a bearing set, a radial support element, and a contact structure engaged with the radial support element. The rotatable member defines a first end, a second end and an axis of rotation. The turboalternator system is configured to be thermally adjustable such that in a first thermal condition the contact structure is at a first radial position with respect to the axis of rotation and contacts the rotatable member to provide support, and in a second thermal condition the contact structure is at a second radial position with respect to the axis of rotation that is spaced further from the axis of rotation than the first radial position. The contact structure includes a ring having a groove formed in an outer diameter surface thereof, and the radial support element engages the groove in the contact structure.
US07859153B2
A motor stator mounting device includes a plastic motor housing having a cylindrical housing section for receiving the stator. Longitudinal ribs along an inside surface of the housing section are inclined to converge gradually in a distal direction, thus tending to center a stator inserted distally into the housing section. An annular stator retaining member includes a plurality of distally extending centering features. Outside surfaces of the centering features interact with an interior surface of the housing section to center the retaining member as it is inserted distally. Inside surfaces of the centering features interact with a proximal region of a previously inserted stator, such that distal insertion of the retaining member both axially positions and radially centers the stator relative to the cylindrical housing. The retaining member is secured to the housing with a series of sonic welds to positionally fix the stator inside the housing.
US07859149B2
Assembly work of an electric motor in which a power supply device and a rotation detector both equipped in a motor case are connected to a control device via a connector unit can be made easy. A power window motor includes an armature provided with an armature shaft and a motor yoke rotatably accommodating the armature. A gear case is fixed to the motor yoke, and a power supply unit that supplies a driving current to the armature is equipped to the gear case in the axial direction of the armature shaft. A sensor unit that detects rotation of the armature shaft is attached to the power supply unit in the axial direction of the armature shaft. A connector unit for connecting the power supply unit and the sensor unit to the control device is integrally formed with the power supply unit. The power supply unit is attached with the sensor unit in advance and then equipped to the gear case.
US07859143B2
The moving parts of an electric motor are intended to be cooled more effectively and in a simple manner. For this purpose, the invention proposes an electric motor with a first motor part (1) and a second motor part, which interacts magnetically with the first motor part (1) and with respect to which the first motor part is capable of moving in two opposite movement directions (A, B). The electric motor is also equipped with a cooling system, which is fitted to the first motor part (1) and which has a cooling medium for cooling at least the first motor part. The cooling medium is moved, exclusively by means of acceleration of the first motor part (1), in one of the two opposite movement directions (A, B) in the cooling system. The movement can be triggered, for example, by the dead weight in an open cooling cycle system or else by means of a piston (23) in a closed cooling cycle system. The movement of the motor is therefore also used for pumping the coolant and additional electrical components such as fans can be dispensed with.
US07859142B2
The aim of the invention is to provide a robust, simple woodworking machine. To achieve this, the invention provides a machine comprising at least one linear direct drive, which contains a primary part (3, 3a, 3b, 4, 4a, 4b) with a first element (9, 10, 12, 14) for generating a first magnetic field and at least one additional element (17, 18, 20, 27, 28, 29, 30) for generating an additional magnetic field. The first element (9) for generating the first magnetic field is positioned, in particular, in such a way in relation to the additional element (17, 18, 20, 27, 28, 29, 30) for generating the additional magnetic field that the first magnetic field overlaps the additional magnetic field. The machine also comprises a secondary part (5, 6, 6a, 6b), which comprises magnetic return elements and is devoid of magnetic sources. According to the invention, the primary part (3, 3a, 3b, 4, 4a, 4b) and/or the secondary part (5, 6, 6a, 6b) is or are suitable for guiding or placing at least one workpiece and/or for guiding and/or placing at least one tool for machining the workpiece.
US07859140B2
The permanent magnet member 10 for a voice coil motor (VCM) in accordance with the present invention comprises a magnet body 1 including a shorter periphery 11, a longer periphery 12 located at a position separated from the shorter periphery 11 by a predetermined distance, and a pair of side peripheries 13, 14 connecting the shorter periphery 11 and longer periphery 12 to each other, the magnet body having a fan-shaped planar form; and a corrosion-resistant film (Ni plating film 2) applied to a surface of the magnet body. The permanent magnet member 10 has a thickness whose maximum and minimum values yield a difference of 10 to 150 μm therebetween.
US07859130B2
The invention relates to a device for supplying power to equipment disposed in a space, with varying requirements for the power supply, comprising a main distributor which can be connected to a mains electricity supply and which is provided with a fuse, and at least one sub-distributor which is connected to the main distributor by means of a breakable connection, which sub-distributor is provided with equipment sockets for the connection of equipment.
US07859128B2
Power generating equipment comprising a buoyant power generating apparatus and a support structure for the power generating apparatus, which support structure, in use, is disposed on the bed of a body of water, the power generating apparatus comprising a motor-driven winching device having a tether which is connectable at its free end to the support structure whereby retraction of the tether causes the power generating apparatus to be drawn downwardly through the body of water into engagement with the support structure, the power generating apparatus and the support structure being provided with means for aligning and latching the power generating apparatus with respect to the support structure upon engagement with the support structure.
US07859125B2
Method of controlling a wind turbine connected to an electric utility grid during malfunction in the electric utility grid is provided. The method includes the steps of detecting a malfunction in the electric utility grid and operating at least two control units of a power converter in relation to at least one power converter limit value. A control system for a wind turbine connected to a utility grid and a wind turbine is also provided.
US07859119B1
A stack of semiconductor dies is disclosed. A first stack level includes a first semiconductor die and at least one first support that are attached to a substrate surface. A second level includes a second semiconductor die and at least one second support that are attached to the active surface of the first semiconductor die and to a coplanar surface of the first support(s). A third level includes a third semiconductor die attached to the active surface of the second semiconductor die and to a coplanar surface of the second support(s). The second and third semiconductor dies do not overlap bond pads of the first and second semiconductor dies, respectively. An adhesive film overlies the entire inactive surface of the second and third semiconductor dies, and attaches the second and third semiconductor dies to the immediately underlying active surface and support(s).
US07859118B2
A multi-substrate region-based package and a method for fabricating the same are provided. An active surface of a chip is divided into a plurality of functional regions, and each of the functional regions is electrically connected to a corresponding substrate via bonding wires. Each of the functional regions has a separate system, and the circuit layout thereof is not limited by the substrate or other systems but can be flexibly and independently designed, thereby allowing the package to be made smaller and thinner. Each set of the functional region and its corresponding substrate functions as an independent unit, such that the substrates are not affected by each other, thereby providing good compatibility, improved reliability and reduced packaging area.
US07859115B2
A semiconductor package includes a semiconductor chip having a first region and a second region. Bonding pads are formed and through-holes are defined in the first and second regions. Insulation layers are formed on sidewalls of the through-holes, and through-electrodes formed in the through-holes and connected with corresponding bonding pads. The insulation layers formed in the first and second regions have different thicknesses or dielectric constants.
US07859112B2
Memory devices, such as DRAM memory devices, may include one or more metal layers above a local interconnect of the DRAM memory that make contact to lower gate regions of the memory device. As the size of semiconductor components decreases and circuit densities increase, the density of the metal routing in these upper metal layers becomes increasingly difficult to fabricate. By providing additional metal routing in the lower gate regions that may be coupled to the upper metal layers, the spacing requirements of the upper metal layers may be eased, while maintaining the size of the semiconductor device. In addition, the additional metal routing formed in the gate regions of the memory devices may be disposed parallel to other metal contacts in a strapping configuration, thus reducing a resistance of the metal contacts, such as buried digit lines of a DRAM memory cell.
US07859107B1
A solder attach film includes a first cover film, a flux layer, a solder layer, and a second cover film, and it can be treated or kept in a roll shape. A solder ball forming method using the solder attach film includes preparing a semiconductor package or a semiconductor die, adhering the solder attach film, gridding, and reflowing. In the solder attach film adhering operation, the first cover film and the second cover film are removed, and the flux layer is adhered to electrically conductive pads of the semiconductor package or the semiconductor die. Subsequently, in the reflowing operation, the flux layer is volatilized and removed, and the solder layer is fused and fixed to the electrically conductive pads, so that solder balls are formed.
US07859102B2
A stacked wafer level semiconductor package module includes a semiconductor chip module including first and second semiconductor chips each having a rectangular shape. The first semiconductor chip has first pads disposed along a first short side of a lower surface thereof. The second semiconductor chip has second pads disposed along a first short side of a lower surface thereof. The first and second semiconductor chips are stacked so as to expose the first pad and the second pad on one side of the stacked first and second semiconductor chips. The package also includes a substrate having a first connection pad facing the first pad and a second connection pad facing the second pad. The package also includes a first connection member for connecting the first pad to the first connection pad, and a second connection member for connecting the second pad to the second connection pad.
US07859097B2
A semiconductor device including a semiconductor chip having external connecting terminals formed on one side is restrained to cause chipping in ridge line portion of semiconductor chip. A cover layer 103 is formed on the other side of the semiconductor chip 102. At least a part of an end portion 106 of the cover layer is outside of the ridge line portion 107 of the semiconductor chip.
US07859091B2
A semiconductor device includes: a first substrate made of semiconductor and having first regions, which are insulated from each other and disposed in the first substrate; and a second substrate having electric conductivity and having second regions and insulation trenches. Each insulation trench penetrates the second substrate so that the second regions are insulated from each other. The first substrate provides a base substrate, and the second substrate provides a cap substrate. The second substrate is bonded to the first substrate so that a sealed space is provided between a predetermined surface region of the first substrate and the second substrate. The second regions include an extraction conductive region, which is coupled with a corresponding first region.
US07859086B2
A nitride semiconductor single crystal substrate, a manufacturing method thereof and a method for manufacturing a vertical nitride semiconductor device using the same. According to an aspect of the invention, in the nitride semiconductor single crystal substrate, upper and lower regions are divided along a thickness direction, the nitride single crystal substrate having a thickness of at least 100 μm. Here, the upper region has a doping concentration that is five times or greater than that of the lower region. Preferably, a top surface of the substrate in the upper region has Ga polarity. Also, according to a specific embodiment of the invention, the lower region is intentionally un-doped and the upper region is n-doped. Preferably, each of the upper and lower regions has a doping concentration substantially identical in a thickness direction.
US07859073B2
The present invention provides a solid-state image pickup device including an image pickup pixel section which is provided on a semiconductor substrate and in which a plurality of pixels each having a photoelectric conversion element and a field-effect transistor are arranged, and a peripheral circuit section for the image pickup pixel section. An interconnect layer driving the field-effect transistor in the image pickup pixel section is formed on a first surface side of the semiconductor substrate. A light receiving surface of the photoelectric conversion element is located on a second surface side of the semiconductor substrate. The solid-state image pickup device includes a first terminal exposed from the second surface side of the semiconductor substrate, and a second terminal electrically connected to the first terminal and connectable to an external device on the first surface side of the semiconductor substrate.
US07859064B1
A semiconductor device may include a substrate, an active semiconductor region of the substrate, and a gate electrode. The active semiconductor region may include a channel region between first and second junction regions. The channel region may include a first semiconductor material, the first and second junction regions may include a second semiconductor material, and the first and second semiconductor materials may be different. The gate electrode may be on the channel region with portions of the first and second junction regions being free of the gate electrode.
US07859052B2
A semiconductor apparatus includes: a first first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer; a second first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer provided on a major surface of the first first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer; a third second-conductivity-type semiconductor layer forming a periodic array structure in combination with the second first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer in a lateral direction generally parallel to the major surface of the first first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer; and a sixth first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer provided on the major surface of the first first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer in a termination section outside the periodic array structure. The second first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer has an impurity concentration varying in the lateral direction and the impurity concentration is minimized at a center in the lateral direction. An impurity concentration in the sixth first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer is not higher than the impurity concentration at the center of the second first-conductivity-type semiconductor layer.
US07859051B2
The application relates to a semiconductor device made of silicon with regionally reduced band gap and a process for the production of same. One embodiment provides a semiconductor device including a body zone, a drain zone and a source zone. A gate extends between the source zone and the drain zone. A reduced band gap region is provided in a region of the body zone, made of at least ternary compound semiconductor material.
US07859048B2
A semiconductor device includes: a first semiconductor layer; a PN column layer having first and second column layers; and a second semiconductor layer. Each of the first and second column layers includes first and second columns alternately arranged along with a horizontal direction. The first and second column layers respectively have first and second impurity amount differences defined at a predetermined depth by subtracting an impurity amount in the second column from an impurity amount in the first column. The first impurity amount difference is constant and positive. The second impurity amount difference is constant and negative.
US07859040B2
Non-volatile memory is described. The non-volatile memory includes a substrate having a source region, a drain region and a channel region. The channel region separates the source region and the drain region. An electrically insulating layer is adjacent to the source region, drain region and channel region. A floating gate electrode is adjacent to the electrically insulating layer. The electrically insulating layer separates the floating gate electrode from the channel region. The floating gate electrode has a floating gate major surface. A control gate electrode has a control gate major surface and the control gate major surface opposes the floating gate major surface. A vacuum layer or gas layer at least partially separates the control gate major surface from the floating gate major surface.
US07859034B2
Magnetic multilayer structures, such as magnetic or magnetoresistive tunnel junctions (MTJs) and spin valves, having a magnetic biasing layer formed next to and magnetically coupled to the free ferromagnetic layer to achieve a desired stability against fluctuations caused by, e.g., thermal fluctuations and astray fields. Stable MTJ cells with low aspect ratios can be fabricated using CMOS processing for, e.g., high-density MRAM memory devices and other devices, using the magnetic biasing layer. Such multilayer structures can be programmed using spin transfer induced switching by driving a write current perpendicular to the layers to switch the magnetization of the free ferromagnetic layer.
US07859029B2
Provided are a FET-based sensor for detecting an ionic material, an ionic material detecting device including the FET-based sensor, and a method of detecting an ionic material using the FET-based sensor. The FET-based sensor includes: a sensing chamber including a reference electrode and a plurality of sensing FETs; and a reference chamber including a reference electrode and a plurality of reference FETs. The method includes: flowing a first solution into and out of the sensing chamber and the reference chamber of the FET-based sensor; flowing a second solution expected to contain an ionic material into and out of the sensing chamber while continuously flowing the first solution into and out of the reference chamber; measuring a current in a channel region between the source and drain of each of the sensing and reference FETs; and correcting the current of the sensing FETs.
US07859023B2
This invention prevents a break in a signal wire disposed between wire ends due to attenuation and improves production yields of devices. In a standard cell, a first signal wire extends in a first direction. Second and third signal wires extend in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction and are facing each other across the first signal wire. The second and third signal wires have the widths larger than the width of the first signal wire.
US07859017B2
A normally-off HEMT is made by first providing a substrate having its surface partly covered with an antigrowth mask. Gallium nitride is grown by epitaxy on the masked surface of the substrate to provide an electron transit layer comprised of two flat-surfaced sections and a V-notch-surfaced section therebetween. The flat-surfaced sections are formed on unmasked parts of the substrate surface whereas the V-notch-surfaced section, defining a V-sectioned notch, is created by lateral overgrowth onto the antigrowth mask. Aluminum gallium nitride is then deposited on the electron transit layer to provide an electron supply layer which is likewise comprised of two flat-surfaced sections and a V-notch-surfaced section therebetween. The flat-surfaced sections of the electron supply layer are sufficiently thick to normally generate two-dimensional electron gas layers due to heterojunctions thereof with the first and the second flat-surfaced section of the electron transit layer. The V-notch-surfaced section of the electron supply layer is not so thick, normally creating an interruption in the two-dimensional electron gas layer.
US07859015B2
A semiconductor device is provided with a semiconductor region, a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode. The semiconductor region is formed on a semiconductor substrate surface and includes a first semiconductor portion of a first conducting type, a second semiconductor portion of a second conducting type, a band gap distinct from the substrate's band gap, more than two accumulated semiconductor layers, and junctions between the layers. The semiconductor layers each contain an impurity of the first conducting type. The gate electrode adjoins a heterojunction between the second semiconductor portion and the semiconductor substrate through a gate insulation film. The source electrode is coupled to the semiconductor region. The drain electrode is coupled to the semiconductor substrate.
US07859014B2
The present invention provides a semiconductor device capable of suppressing current collapse, and also of preventing dielectric breakdown voltage and gain from lowering so as to perform high-voltage operation and realize an ideal high output. On a substrate (101), there are formed a buffer layer (102) made of a first GaN-based semiconductor, a carrier traveling layer (103) made of a second GaN-based semiconductor and a carrier supplying layer (104) made of a third GaN-based semiconductor. A recess structure (108) is made by eliminating a part of a first insulation film (107) and a part of the carrier supplying layer (104). Next, a gate insulation film (109) is deposited, and then a gate electrode (110) is formed so as to fill up the recess portion (108) and cover on over an area where the first insulation film (107) remains so that its portion on the drain electrode side is longer than that on the source electrode side. Such a recess structure is employed so as to provide the high-output semiconductor device capable of performing the high-voltage operation.
US07859007B2
To provide a light-emitting device using a nitride semiconductor which can attain high-power light emission by highly efficient light emission and a manufacturing method thereof, the light-emitting device includes a GaN substrate and a light-emitting layer including an InAlGaN quaternary alloy on a side of a first main surface of GaN substrate.
US07859004B2
The present invention provides a semiconductor device having a structure which is suitable for reduction in thickness and weight.The semiconductor device 1 comprises a housing 12 which has the recess 24 in the front surface 14, the pair of lead electrodes 20 which have the distal ends 34 exposed in the recess 24, protrude from the external surface of the housing 12 and are bent along the bottom surface 16 of the housing 12, and a semiconductor element 36 which is housed in the recess 24 and is electrically connected to the pair of lead electrodes 20. The housing 12 has the grooves 30 which are formed on the pair of side surfaces 18 which adjoin the front surface 14 and the bottom surface 16 on the right and left sides so as to penetrate the housing 12 from the top surface 28 toward the bottom surface 16 of the housing 12. The grooves 30 preferably have width substantially equal to the thickness of the lead electrode 20. The grooves 30 are more preferably formed to be flush with the distal ends 34 of the lead electrode 20.
US07859000B2
Methods for fabricating LED chips from a wafer and devices fabricated using the methods with one method comprising depositing LED epitaxial layers on an LED growth wafer to form a plurality of LEDs on the growth wafer. A single crystalline phosphor is bonded over at least some the plurality of LEDs so that at least some light from the covered LEDs passes through the single crystalline phosphor and is converted. The LED chips can then be singulated from the wafer to provide LED chips each having a portion of said single crystalline phosphor to convert LED light.
US07858994B2
An electronically active sheet includes a bottom substrate having a bottom electrically conductive surface. A top substrate having a top electrically conductive surface is disposed facing the bottom electrically conductive surface. An electrical insulator separates the bottom electrically conductive surface from the top electrically conductive surface. At least one bare die electronic element is provided having a top conductive side and a bottom conductive side. Each bare die electronic element is disposed so that the top conductive side is in electrical communication with the top electrically conductive surface and so that the bottom conductive side is in electrical communication with the bottom electrically conductive surface.
US07858991B2
A light emitting device with magnetic field includes a light emitting device, a thermal conductive material layer and a magnetic layer. The thermal conductive material layer is coupled with the light emitting device to dissipate heat generated by the light emitting device. The magnetic layer is coupled with thermal conductive material layer to produce a magnetic filed on the light emitting device.
US07858981B2
Strained NMOS transistor featuring deep carbon doped regions and raised donor doped source and drain
Some embodiments of the present invention include providing carbon doped regions and raised source/drain regions to provide tensile stress in NMOS transistor channels.
US07858979B2
A method of forming an aligned connection between a nanotube layer and a raised feature is disclosed. A substrate having a raised feature has spacers formed next to the side of the raised feature. The spacers are etched until the sidewalls of the raised feature are exposed forming a notched feature at the top of the spacers. A patterned nanotube layer is formed such that the nanotube layer overlies the top of the spacer and contacts a side portion of the raised feature in the notched feature. The nanotube layer is then covered with an insulating layer. Then a top portion of the insulating layer is removed to expose a top portion of the etched feature.
US07858978B2
A nonvolatile organic bistable memory device includes a substrate, a lower electrode disposed on the substrate, a lower charge injection layer disposed on the lower electrode, an insulating polymer layer including nanoparticles disposed on the lower charge injection layer, an upper charge injection layer disposed on the insulating polymer layer, and an upper electrode disposed on the upper charge injection layer. The lower and upper charge injection layers each include fullerenes and/or carbon nanotubes.
US07858974B2
An organic light-emitting display panel having a storage capacitor comprised of a storage electrode overlapping a power line with a first gate-insulating layer disposed therebetween, wherein the storage capacitor includes a groove portion formed on a lateral side of the power line overlapping the storage electrode so that the overlapping area of the power line and the storage electrode is kept constant, and a method of manufacturing the same.
US07858963B2
In the nitride based semiconductor optical device LE1, the strained well layers 21 extend along a reference plane SR1 tilting at a tilt angle α from the plane that is orthogonal to a reference axis extending in the direction of the c-axis. The tilt angle α is in the range of greater than 59 degrees to less than 80 degrees or greater than 150 degrees to less than 180 degrees. A gallium nitride based semiconductor layer P is adjacent to a light-emitting layer SP− with a negative piezoelectric field and has a band gap larger than that of a barrier layer. The direction of the piezoelectric field in the well layer W3 is directed in a direction from the n-type layer to the p-type layer, and the piezoelectric field in the gallium nitride based semiconductor layer P is directed in a direction from the p-type layer to the n-type layer. Consequently, the valence band, not the conduction band, has a dip at the interface between the light-emitting layer SP− and the gallium nitride based semiconductor layer P.
US07858962B2
A semiconductor light-emitting device fabricated in the (Al,Ga,In)N materials system has an active region for light emission (3) comprising InGaN quantum dots or InGaN quantum wires. An AlGaN layer (6) is provided on a substrate side of the active region. This increases the optical output of the light-emitting device. This increased optical output is believed to result from the AlxGa1-xN layer serving, in use, to promote the injection of carriers into the active region.
US07858960B2
A phase change memory device includes a semiconductor substrate having an impurity region and an interlayer dielectric applying a tensile stress formed on the semiconductor substrate and having contact holes exposing the impurity region. Switching elements are formed in the contact holes; and sidewall spacers interposed between the switching elements and the interlayer dielectric and formed as a dielectric layer applying a compressive stress.
US07858955B2
An ion beam uniformity control system, wherein the uniformity control system comprising a differential pumping chamber that encloses an array of individually controlled gas jets, wherein the gas pressure of the individually controlled gas jets are powered by a controller to change the fraction of charge exchanged ions, and wherein the charge exchange reactions between the gas and ions change the fraction of the ions with original charge state of a broad ion beam, wherein the charge exchanged portion of the broad ion beam is removed utilizing an deflector that generates a magnetic field, a Faraday cup profiler for measuring the broad ion beam profile; and adjusting the individually controlled gas jets based upon feedback provided to the controller to obtain the desired broad ion beam.
US07858949B2
The present invention includes a high-energy detector having a cathode chamber, a support member, and anode segments. The cathode chamber extends along a longitudinal axis. The support member is fixed within the cathode chamber and extends from the first end of the cathode chamber to the second end of the cathode chamber. The anode segments are supported by the support member and are spaced along the longitudinal surface of the support member. The anode segments are configured to generate at least a first electrical signal in response to electrons impinging thereon.
US07858947B2
To improve a sensor resetting method and thereby implement a high rate at which a moving image is read, the invention provides an image pickup apparatus and a radiation image pickup apparatus including: a plurality of pixels arranged on a substrate in row and column directions, each pixel having a conversion element and a transfer switching element; a drive wiring connected to a plurality of the transfer switching elements in the row direction; and a conversion element wiring connected to a plurality of the conversion elements in the row direction, wherein a reset switching element is disposed between the conversion element wiring and a reset wiring for supplying a reset voltage for resetting the conversion element, and a bias switching element is disposed between the conversion element wiring and a bias wiring for supplying a bias voltage for operating the conversion element.
US07858941B2
The invention relates to a device and method for communicating with a thermal detector module and an appropriate thermal detector for a use with such a control device. The device for communicating with a thermal detector module comprises a means for providing a collimated beam of thermal infrared radiation and means for modulating the intensity of the collimated beam of thermal infrared radiation. The intensity modulated thermal infrared beam, when directed on to the thermal detector module from a position within the module's field of view, is suitable for triggering a response from the thermal detector module. The intensity modulated thermal infrared beam may also be encoded with a digital signal to control the function of the thermal detector.
US07858937B2
A sample S is irradiated with a two-dimensionally spread ray of laser light to simultaneously ionize substances within a two-dimensional area on the sample. The resultant ions are mass-separated by a TOF mass separator 4 without changing the interrelationship of the emission points of the ions. The separated ions are then directed to a two-dimensional detector section 7 through a deflection electric field created by deflection electrodes 61 and 62. The two-dimensional detector section 7 consists of a plurality of detection units 7a arranged in parallel, each unit including an MCP 8a, fluorescent plate 9a and two-dimensional array detector 10a. The magnitude of deflecting the flight path of the ions by the deflection electric field is changed in a stepwise manner with the lapse of time from the generation of the ions so that a plurality of mass analysis images are sequentially projected on each detection unit 7. When the mass analysis image shifts from one detection unit to another, the data acquisition operation by the two-dimensional array detector in the previous detection unit is discontinued. As a result, a predetermined number of the latest images are held inside the detector. Thus, the measurement time can be extended to widen the measurable mass-to-charge ratio range, while ensuring a high mass resolution.
US07858935B2
A method and system for conducting event-streamed spectrum imaging concurrently collects electron and spectral signals resulting from a raster scan of a sample. The signals are formatted and assembled as a packet stream. The packet stream is transmitted to a host where it is buffered, stored and processed.
US07858932B2
Disclosed herein is an electrospray device for mass spectrometry that includes a fluid inlet, an outlet orifice, and a passage for fluid communication between the fluid inlet and outlet orifice. This passage is formed from a capillary (i.e., a first capillary). This first capillary (3) partially houses a second capillary (7) such that the outlet orifice is narrowed. A portion (17) of the second capillary extends beyond the first capillary. This extension permits a practitioner to clip away obstructed portions of the second capillary.
US07858930B2
Disclosed are ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) cells and other ion-trapping cells with plural groups of multiple trapping electrodes for shaping (e.g., flattening) the radial electric field within the ICR cell. Also disclosed are methods for controlling the electric field to diminish effects of de-phasing. The diminished effects are achieved by decreasing space-charge contributions by increasing the length of the ion-oscillation path along the z-axis of the ICR cell. The methods and devices enhance the time-domain signal of a Fourier-transform ion-cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FTICR-MS) and provide enhanced resolution and accuracy of mass measurements.
US07858929B2
A method for reducing the energy spread of ions over a specific and limited mass to charge ratio range is disclosed, along with an ion deceleration arrangement for implementing such a method. An electric field, having an electric field strength E is generated by a deceleration electrode arrangement (250). Ions of a specific and limited mass to charge ratio range, but having a spread of energies, are directed into the decelerating electric field generated by the deceleration electrode arrangement (250). The decelerating electric field is then removed, once substantially all of the ions of the specific mass to charge ratio range have entered the decelerating electric field. By matching the electric field strength E to the energy spread of the ions upon entry into the electric field, the energy spread of the said ions is reduced. Preferred embodiments of the invention employ energy dispersion upstream of the ion deceleration arrangement. For example, an ion mirror arrangement (200) may be used, the ions reflecting off an ion mirror (220) within that ion mirror arrangement (200) to promote energy defocusing.
US07858928B2
Embodiments of the invention include methods and devices for the analysis of proteins utilizing a gold coated nanoporous alumina surface for dual ionization mode mass spectrometric analysis using desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) and laser desorption ionization (LDI). Combined use of DESI and LDI gives increased sequence coverage in peptide mixture analysis from a single sample preparation.
US07858924B2
An optic module verification device for normalizing between X photon counters, including a verification tray with X verification wells and a modular photon emitter in each verification well. Each photon emitter includes a spring, a Beta source disk, a scintillator disk adjacent the Beta source disk, and a neutral density filter over the scintillator disk, all of which are encapsulated in a cylindrical chamber with the filter adjacent an opening on one end of the chamber and the spring biasing the Beta source disk and the scintillator disk toward the opening. The device is periodically used for normalization, and may be updated when emitted photons fall below a desired level by replacing the scintillator disk and then determining a new normalized reference values for each photon emitter.
US07858922B2
A position-measuring device includes a scanning unit and a measuring graduation that is displaceable thereto in at least one measuring direction. The measuring graduation includes two incremental-graduation tracks extending in parallel in the measuring direction, between which a reference-marking track having at least one reference marking at a reference position extends. The scanning unit includes a first scanning device for generating the reference-pulse signal and a second scanning device for generating the incremental signals. To generate the incremental signals, a scanning beam acts at least once upon each incremental graduation in an incremental-signal scanning field.
US07858920B2
According to the invention, two simultaneous images with different wavelengths (λ1, λ2) are formed in synchronism with each illuminance laser pulse, one of the Images corresponding to the wavelength (λ1) of the laser pulses, and the difference between the two images is generated.
US07858918B2
Small-signal and other circuit design techniques realized by carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) to create analog electronics for analog signal handling, analog signal processing, and conversions between analog signals and digital signals. As the CNFETs exist and operate at nanoscale, they can be readily collocated or integrated into carbon nanotube sensing and transducing systems. Such collocation and integration is at, or adequately near, nanoscale.
US07858907B2
An electric switching circuit with a first current path for operating an electric motor and with a second current path for operating a first heater. The electric motor drives a fan during which an air flow created by the fan is heated by the first heater. A switch for opening or closing the second current path in response to an actual operating state of the electric motor is, in the second current path, connected in series to the first heater. The switch is designed as a bimetallic switch and a second heater is assigned thereto that is arranged and designed for detecting the actual operating state of the electric motor and for controlling the bimetallic switch by changing its ambient temperature in response to the detected operating state.
US07858900B2
The invention provides a method of making a component from first and second parts which are joined in a welding process wherein a laser beam is transmitted in a direction from a laser source and at least partly into a gap. The gap is made between edges of the component, and to enable a faster laser welding process, the laser has a focus point size which is at least of the size of the gap. To enable better control of the width of the gap, the invention further provides a method and components wherein one part is formed with a neck which extends into a complementary socket of the other part to prepare the parts for the welding process. The invention in particular concerns welding of brass.
US07858898B2
A device for cleaning a bevel edge of a semiconductor substrate. The device includes a lower electrode assembly that has a top surface and is adapted to support the substrate and an upper electrode assembly that has a bottom surface opposing the top surface. The lower and upper electrode assemblies generate plasma for cleaning the bevel edge of the substrate disposed between the top and bottom surfaces during operation. The device also includes a mechanism for suspending the upper electrode assembly over the lower support and adjusting the tilt angle and horizontal translation of the bottom surface relative to the top surface.
US07858896B2
A spot welding gun for resistance welding of workpieces, includes a base body and a bracket, in which electrode holders are arranged, the electrodes being in turn arranged in the holders. At least one electrode holder is fixed to an actuator that enables the electrode holder fixed thereto with the electrode to be displaced in longitudinal direction towards other electrodes. To protect the electrodes a winding device with a band is arranged, the band being displaceably arranged between the contact surface of the electrode and the workpiece opposite the electrode. The winding device assigned to the displaceable electrode is connected to the displaceable electrode so that it moves at the same time as the electrode when the electrode is moved in longitudinal direction. The electrode holders and the electrodes have devices for guiding the band from the winding device axially along the electrode holders towards the electrode and vice versa.
US07858886B2
The present invention is directed to a bracket for mounting housing for accommodating electrical components. The bracket comprises a base member capable of being mounted to a surface. The bracket may also comprise a sidewall extending from the base member and a system for mounting the electrical component housing to the sidewall of the base member, so that when the electrical component housing is connected to the bracket, a space is defined between the base member and the electrical component housing.
US07858880B2
The invention provides a welding method by resistance welding capable of adequately increasing a welding strength between two conductive terminals each made of copper, and a conductive terminal structure obtained by the method. A first conductive terminal made of a tinned flat copper plate is molded such that a step portion is formed at a position spaced away from a tip end position of the first conductive terminal and a projection is formed at a tip end portion ranging from the tip end position to the step portion. A second conductive terminal made of the aforementioned copper plate and the first conductive terminal are molded such that a weld surface of the second conductive terminal has a size to cover an entire weld surface of the projection of the first conductive terminal. Simultaneously, the respective conductive terminals are molded such that the tip end portion of the first conductive terminal becomes substantially equal in sectional area to a weld portion of the second conductive terminal. These conductive terminals are brought into contact under pressure with electrodes equal in electrical characteristic to each other, and then electric current is fed to the electrodes. Thus, the projection of the first conductive terminal is melted into and is welded to the weld surface of the second conductive terminal.
US07858878B2
The present invention includes a housing for hanging or mounting a wire and a device in a corner between two walls of a building. The housing includes an angular back plate. The angular back plate is bifurcated at an acute angle and the backplate further includes an angular raised portion which is similarly bifurcated at an acute angle and positioned in mating relation with the angular back plate. The raised portion is recessed from top, bottom and side edges of the angular back plate. The raised portion has planar front portions in angular relation to each other and enclosing the raised portion. The back plate is mounted to a corner defined by the wall frames using back plate holes. The angular raised portion mates with a building material affixed to the building wall frame. One of the planar front portions of the angular raised portion defines a hole for passing the wire therethrough.
US07858875B2
A radiant energy concentrating or collimating system comprising an enclosure that shields its contents from environmental effects while allowing radiant energy to transmit through its top window; a plurality of energy concentrating or collimating assemblies, each on its own pivot mechanism and each comprising a plurality of optics, a support structure and an energy conversion device that is mounted on a heat dissipating structure; a drive mechanism controlled by a microprocessor to rotate the said energy concentrating or collimating assemblies on two orthogonal axes in unison so the assemblies are oriented towards desired direction at any given time.
US07858869B2
A sound analysis apparatus employs tone models which are associated with various fundamental frequencies and each of which simulates a harmonic structure of a performance sound generated by a musical instrument, then defines a weighted mixture of the tone models to simulate frequency components of the performance sound, further sequentially updates and optimizes weight values of the respective tone models so that a frequency distribution of the weighted mixture of the tone models corresponds to a distribution of the frequency components of the performance sound, and estimates the fundamental frequency of the performance sound based on the optimized weight values.
US07858865B2
A self-contained tuning stabilizer for a stringed instrument consists of a body which is attachable to the stringed instrument like a capo, the stabilizer containing mechanical members for increasing or decreasing the tension on each of the strings to keep them in tune as the instrument is played. The device contains sensors for each string, an analyzer for determining if the frequency produced by each string is correct, and a driver for each of the mechanical members for applying micro-tuning corrections to the strings. The device must first be zeroed, and the instrument tuned by hand. Thereafter, the device will maintain the original tuning.
