US08166354B2
Apparatus, and an associated method, for estimating a bit error rate of data communicated to a receiving station of a digital communications system, such as a GSM/EDGE cellular communication system. Soft decision values, indicative of confidence levels that decided values have been correctly decided are compared with threshold values by a comparator. A count is accumulated by a counter to whose counted value is representative of decided data values having associated therewith low levels of confidence that the decided values are correct. The count value is used in the formulation of the BER estimation.
US08166343B2
A method for diagnosing hardware failures in a data processing system includes a configuring a portion of a programmable logic device to create a state machine. The state machine tests a communication bus and a plurality of component devices connected by the communication bus and identifies the test failures. The state machine communicates the test information to external test equipment. The communication bus is used in the operation of the data processing system and the testing includes tests at full clock speed of the data processing system.
US08166340B2
An apparatus for testing a communication circuit includes a detection module and a capture module. The detection module provides an enable signal in response to receiving at least one predetermined plurality of data from a communication device under test. The capture module captures at least one other predetermined plurality of data in response to the enable signal.
US08166333B2
A network signal processing circuit includes a first signal processing module, a first sampling rate converter, a second signal processing module, a second sampling rate converter and a timing controller. The first signal processing module is utilized for processing a network signal to output a first processed signal. The first sampling rate converter is utilized for performing signal frequency conversion on the first processed signal according to a first clock timing adjusting signal and outputting a first converted signal. The second signal processing module is utilized for processing the first converted signal to output a second processed signal. The second sampling rate converter is utilized for performing signal frequency conversion on the second processed signal according to a second clock timing adjusting signal and outputting a second converted signal. The timing controller is utilized for generating the first and second clock timing adjusting signals.
US08166330B2
Various example implementations are disclosed. According to one example implementation, a system may include multiple logic devices, a power input, and a logic controller. The logic devices may each be configured to assert a request for auxiliary power to a logic controller. The power input may be configured to provide the auxiliary power to one or more of the logic devices. The logic controller may be configured to poll the logic devices by polling less than all of the logic devices at a time to determine whether the logic devices assert the request for the auxiliary power.
US08166326B2
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclose for managing power consumption in a computer, the computer including random access memory (‘RAM’) implemented in two or more memory modules, the computer having installed upon it an operating system, the operating system including a power management module, that includes: freeing, by the operating system from one or more of the memory modules, at least the amount of allocated memory in one memory module; selecting, by the operating system, at least one memory module to power down; moving, by the operating system, content of the selected memory module to other memory modules; and powering, by the operating system, down the selected memory module.
US08166324B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates reducing static power consumption of a processor. During operation, the system receives a signal indicating that instruction execution within the processor is to be temporarily halted. In response to this signal, the system halts an instruction-processing portion of the processor, and reduces the voltage supplied to the instruction-processing portion of the processor. Full voltage is maintained to a remaining portion of the processor, so that the remaining portion of the processor can continue to operate while the instruction-processing portion of the processor is in reduced power mode.
US08166321B2
A coprocessor executing one among a set of candidate kernel loops within an application operates at the minimal clock frequency satisfying schedule constraints imposed by the compiler and data bandwidth constraints. The optimal clock frequency is statically determined by the compiler and enforced at runtime by software-controlled clock circuitry. Power dissipation savings and optimal resource usage are therefore achieved by the adaptation at runtime of the coprocessor clock rate for each of the various kernel loop implementations.
US08166317B2
An electronic device has: an operation unit; a power supply unit; an input changeover switch; and a controller. The power supply unit is supplied commercial power and supplies the operating power to the operation unit. The input changeover switch switches between supplying or not supplying the commercial power to the power supply unit. The controller controls the input changeover switch. The controller includes: a power input portion; a control signal input portion; and a switching signal output portion. When the device power is being supplied from a master electronic device to the power input portion and the control signal from the master electronic device is received by the control signal input portion, the switching signal output portion outputs to the input changeover switch a signal instructing to switch and supply the commercial power to the power supply unit.
US08166310B2
A method and apparatus for providing access to resources of a network device is provided. A user instructs a network device to generate a user password that is concealed from the user of the network device. The network device generates the user password based on, at least in part, public input provided by the user, and an algorithm which is concealed from the user, but known to a support service provider. The user communicates the public input to the support service provider. The support service provider uses the public input to generate a provider password based on, at least in part, the algorithm. The support service provider may access the network device via a network by providing the provider password to the network device. If the provider password matches the user password generated, then the support service provider is granted access to resources of the network device.
US08166302B1
A storage device responds to a content request by watermarking the content and providing the watermarked content to the requester. The watermarked content uniquely identifies the storage device so that the storage device is traceable from the watermarked content.
US08166300B2
Disclosed is a method and a system for rendering content on external devices securely. The method comprises setting up a communication channel between a proxy rendering server of a mobile device and an external rendering server of an external device, authenticating at least the external rendering server and upon successful authentication transferring a key from the proxy rendering server to the external rendering server, transferring the content encrypted with the transferred key from the proxy rendering server to the external rendering server for rendering the content, wherein the rendering of the content is performed in one of two modes, either in a preprocessing mode or in a non-preprocessing mode, and wherein a DRM agent is only present in the mobile device.
US08166292B2
A system to transmit a set of programs from a transmitter to a receiver is used to accommodate different levels of security used for each program. When a high level of security is necessary for transmitting or receiving a program the transmitter and/or receiver is operable to accommodate that level of security. Thus, both transmitters and receivers are operable to be reconfigured to encrypt or decrypt, respectively, at different levels. Accordingly, differing amounts of programs can be transmitted or received based on the resource requirements needed at any level of security. Consequently, a high level of encryption/decryption requires more resources and allows the processing of fewer services, while a lower level of encryption/decryption allows more services to be transmitted/received.
US08166290B2
An information processing apparatus including a hardware device, at least one application program configured to execute an operation utilizing the hardware device, an operating system, a first device driver and a second device driver to manage the hardware device, a first storage unit configured to store the first device driver and the second device driver, and a second storage unit configured to include a storage area for operating the first device driver and the second device driver using the operating system. The operating system controls the first storage unit and the second storage unit to load the second driver on the storage area in response to booting of the information processing apparatus. The operating system also controls the first storage unit and the second storage unit to load the first device driver on the storage area when a predetermined condition is satisfied after booting the information processing apparatus.
US08166289B2
In one embodiment, a method for trusted booting of a cryptographic processor system is disclosed. Default image(s) is loaded into a field-programmable logic chip or circuit (FPLC). The default image(s) cannot perform cryptographic processing, but can perform a first algorithm that is unclassified. A processor, internal or external to the FPLC, can be used with the default image. A multi-layer or multi-part key has portions stored in two different places. A protected image is decrypted with the multi-layer key using the first algorithm and loaded into the FPLC. Cryptographic processing is performed using a second algorithm classified by the government.
US08166288B2
A coordinator in a computer system receives a request from one of a plurality of operating systems (that coexist in the computer system) to invoke a service of a management routine in the computer system. The plurality of operating systems execute in respective virtual machines of the computer system. The coordinator processes the received request to invoke the service of the management routine to prevent a conflict from occurring with respect to at least another one of the plurality of operating systems.
US08166283B2
A generator of a signal including a memory in which instructions are stored, each instruction including a code portion and an argument portion; circuitry for successively reading instructions stored in the memory; decoding circuitry capable of receiving, for each read instruction, the code portion of the instruction and of providing an activation signal which depends on the code portion; and circuitry for providing the signal capable of receiving, for each read instruction, the argument portion of the instruction and capable, according to the activation signal, of storing the argument portion and of providing the signal equal to the argument portion or of providing the signal equal to the previously-stored argument portion.
US08166276B2
In an embodiment, a first instruction is defined that comprises at least a first operand from which the execution core is configured to determine a virtual address and a second operand that specifies one or more translation attributes that exist in a page table entry that defines a translation for the virtual address. A processor executing the instruction translates the virtual address, verifies whether or not the translation attributes in the page table entry match the specified translation attributes, faults the first instruction responsive to failing to locate a translation for the virtual address, and responsive to locating a translation for the virtual address in the page table entry but with the translation attributes in the entry failing to match the specified translation attributes.
US08166274B2
A method for writing data in a system with alignment restriction, where first destination data generated from first source data located in a storage range starting at a first source position is written in a storage range starting at a non-aligned position. The method includes the steps of extracting second source data from a storage range starting at a second source position preceding the first source position, the second source data including the first source data, generating second destination data from the second source data, the second destination data including the first destination data, writing the second destination data in a storage range starting at an aligned position, where the second source position is set such that the first destination data is written in a storage range starting at the non-aligned position.
US08166267B2
Data files are assigned addresses within one or more logical blocks of a continuous logical address space interface (LBA interface) of a usual type of flash memory system with physical memory cell blocks. This assignment may be done by the host device which typically, but not necessarily, generates the data files. The number of logical blocks containing data of any one file is controlled in a manner that reduces the amount of fragmentation of file data within the physical memory blocks, thereby to maintain good memory performance. The host may configure the logical blocks of the address space in response to learning the physical characteristics of a memory to which it is connected.
US08166263B2
A portable data protection system is described for protecting, transferring or copying data using continuous data protection (CDP) over intermittent or occasional connections between a computer system or mobile device containing the data to be protected, transferred or copied, called a data source, and one or more computer systems that receive the data, called a data target. CDP can be broken down logically into two phases: 1) detecting changes to data on a data source and 2) replicating the changes to a data target. The portable data protection system uses a method that performs the first phase continuously or near continuously on the data source, and the second phase when a connection is available between the data source and the data target.
US08166261B1
A computer-implemented method for seeding a fingerprint cache for data deduplication associated with a single-instance-storage computing subsystem may comprise: 1) maintaining server-side fingerprint usage data for a plurality of fingerprints associated with data stored in the single-instance-storage computing subsystem and 2) building, based at least in part on the fingerprint usage data, a server-side fingerprint cache for use in client-side data deduplication, the server-side fingerprint cache comprising at least a subset of the plurality of fingerprints. The method may further comprise: 1) receiving a request for the server-side fingerprint cache from a client-side data deduplication computing subsystem and 2) transmitting data representative of the server-side fingerprint cache to the client-side data deduplication computing subsystem for use in client-side data deduplication associated with the single-instance-storage computing subsystem. Other exemplary fingerprint cache seeding and data deduplication methods, as well as corresponding exemplary systems and computer-readable media, are also disclosed.
US08166256B2
A method, system, and computer usable program product for using a dual mode reader writer lock. A contention condition is detected in the use of a lock in a data processing system, the lock being used for managing read and write access to a resource in the data processing system. A determination of the data structure used for implementing the lock is made. If the data structure is a data structure of a reader writer lock (RWL), the data structure is transitioned to a second data structure suitable for implementing the DML. A determination is made whether the DML has been expanded. If the DML is not expanded, the DML is expanded such that the data structure includes an original lock and a set of expanded locks. The original lock and each expanded lock in the set of expanded locks forms an element of the DML.
US08166255B2
A method for performing a transaction including a transaction head and a transaction tail, includes executing the transaction head, including executing at least one memory reserve instruction to reserve a transactional memory location that are accessed in the transaction and executing the transaction tail, wherein the transaction cannot be aborted due to a data race on that transactional memory location while executing the transaction tail, wherein data of memory write operations to the transactional memory location is committed without being buffered.
US08166253B2
A memory management sub-system includes code executable by a processor fir performing selecting a plurality of contexts, and selecting a sample of the separately allocable portions of an address space for each of the contexts. For each of the selected allocable portions, a corresponding portion of the host memory to which the selected allocable portion is mapped is determined, and a count corresponding to a number of separately allocable portions of any context that are commonly mapped to the corresponding portion of the host memory. For each context, a metric is computed that is a function of the counts for that context. Host memory is allocated among the contexts at least in part based on their respective metrics.
US08166243B2
A problem to be solved is to enable the user to read out data stored in a logical unit in a power saving state in a short time in a storage system having a power saving function such as stopping the spindle of the HDD. To solve the problem, candidate document file information is read out according to the keywords inputted by the user from a search system, a predetermined number of document file names are extracted from the highest candidates in the candidate document file information, and the power saving function of the logical units actually storing the extracted document files is controlled (switch the state from the power saving state to the normal operation state).
US08166242B2
According to an aspect of the embodiment, a packet analyzing apparatus monitors a concentration level of input and output access from an access apparatus to a disk device, specifies a data area to which the concentration level of input and output access exceeds a first threshold, and instructs a storage server to cache the data area. The packet analyzing apparatus monitors a concentration level of input and output access to a data area to which the data area is cached, and, when the concentration level of input and output access is below a second threshold, instructs the storage server to release the caching.
US08166218B2
An integrated circuit to serialize local data and selectively merge it with serialized feed-through data into a serial data stream output that includes a parallel-in-serial-out (PISO) shift register, a multiplexer, and a transmitter. The PISO shift register serializes parallel data on a local data bus into serialized local data. The multiplexer selectively merges serialized local data and feed-through data into a serial data stream. The transmitter drives the serial data stream onto a serial data link. In another embodiment of the invention, a method for a memory module includes receiving an input serial data stream; merging local frames of data and feed-through frames of data together into an output serial data stream in response to a merge enable signal; and transmitting the output serial data stream on a northbound data output to a next memory module or a memory controller. Other embodiments of the invention are disclosed and claimed.
US08166214B2
In one embodiment, payload of multiple threads between intellectual property (IP) cores of an integrated circuit are transferred, by buffering the payload using a number of order queues. Each of the queues is guaranteed access to a minimum number of buffer entries that make up the queue. Each queue is assigned to a respective thread. A number of buffer entries that make up any queue is increased, above the minimum, by borrowing from a shared pool of unused buffer entries on a first-come, first-served basis. In another embodiment, an interconnect implements a content addressable memory (CAM) structure that is shared storage for a number of logical, multi-thread ordered queues that buffer requests and/or responses that are being routed between data processing elements coupled to the interconnect. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08166209B2
A hypervisor acquires an I/O command that has been issued from a virtual computer. The hypervisor judges whether or not a target of an I/O that complies with the I/O command is an unassigned port associated device that is a device associated with an I/O port that is coupled to an I/O controller that is not assigned to a virtual computer that is an issuing source of the I/O command. In the case in which the result of the judgment is positive, the hypervisor does no execute an I/O to the unassigned port associated device, and returns a virtual execution result to the virtual computer that is an issuing source of the I/O command.
US08166206B2
The state of an input/output (I/O) operation is determined in an I/O processing system. A command is received from an I/O operating system at a channel subsystem for initiating the I/O operation, a time period is for completion of the I/O operation, and the command for initiating the I/O operation is sent from the channel subsystem to the control unit. Responsive to the time period nearing elapsing without the I/O operation completing, a cancel instruction is received from the I/O operating system at the channel subsystem. Responsive to a determination by the I/O operating system to interrogate the control unit, an instruction to interrogate the control unit is received with the cancel instruction from the I/O operating system.
US08166204B2
A system may place nodes (110) within a non-biconnected network (100) that includes multiple interconnected nodes (110) to achieve biconnectivity within the network (100) and transform the network (100) from a non-biconnected one to a biconnected one. A non-biconnected network is one that necessarily becomes partitioned into two or more disconnected networks if a node in a critical position (termed a “cutvertex” node) should fail or otherwise become unavailable. A biconnected network is one that includes at least one additional network link (sometimes termed an “edge”) between nodes belonging to each of the otherwise potentially disconnected networks for the purpose of maintaining network communication therebetween if and when the cutvertex node fails or otherwise becomes unavailable. To achieve biconnectivity, the system may identify one or more nodes (110) to move and determine the direction and distance to move the one or more nodes (110). The system may then move the one or more nodes (110) in the determined direction and distance to transform the non-biconnected network (100) to a biconnected one.
US08166198B2
The delivery of web content over an IP based network is accelerated by utilizing an intermediate node to receive requests for ML files, analyze ML files and create multipart objects that compound two or more browser's objects referenced by browser's links in the original ML file. The ML file is modified by replacing browser's links with multipart URLs that represent the multipart objects. When a subsequent user requests the page, the modified ML page is sent to the user and the multipart objects are more quickly and efficiently loaded into the user's browser.
US08166193B2
A method is disclosed for communicating using a device having a Palm OS. SMB is preferentially used to communicate with a node, and if use of SMB is not possible, FTP is used, and if use of FTP is not possible, Bluetooth is used. If FTP or Bluetooth is selected as the protocol, file sharing between the device and node that entails a read or write is executed by temporarily copying a file to an internal Palm OS memory of the device, performing the read or write on the file, and then copying the file back to the node to overwrite a previous version of the file at the node. For non-Palm OS file transfer to the internal memory, the file is wrapped in a Palm OS stream in the internal memory for executing reads or writes. For file transfer to an expansion Palm OS memory card, byte-to-byte copying of the file is executed using the FAT of the expansion memory, with the file being transferred through an internal Palm OS memory of the device.
US08166191B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for media content streaming can include communicating with a remote device to stream media content to the remote device, accessing hint information associated with the media content, and transmitting a data stream to the remote device based on the hint information. The hint information can include message headers arranged in a transmission order sequence that correspond to respective media data samples. Accessing hint information can include accessing a hint segment that includes the message headers interleaved with the media data samples.
US08166185B2
A method for distributing software is provided. The method includes distributing a message from an application server to one or more application layer routers, such as servers that are being used to route enterprise software distribution messages, using a modified publish and subscribe architecture that includes the route to all recipients in the message address and that uses existing network communications. The message can thus be distributed to one or more subscribers on a first channel. The message is then distributed to one or more subscribers using the modified publish and subscribe architecture on one or more second channels selected from a second channel layer if necessary. This process is repeated until the message reaches all subscribers listed as recipients in the message.
US08166180B2
In a multi-service communication environment, when a communication establishment request is received (8-4), the request containing a service identifier and relating to a service to be invoked between a sender of the request and a recipient to whom the request is targeted, interconnection information on the service is checked (8-5, 8-6) for, how to handle the request taking into account at least the sender's operator; and the request is handled (8-7) according to an outcome of the checking. The interconnection information may contain policy rules and/or operator-specific service identifiers.
US08166171B2
A system is provided for disseminating resource allocation information from system resources to state-information observers comprising resource users and typically also at least one system resource manager. Each resource maintains state information about its identity and its allocation to one or more resource users. Each resource provides this information to a state-dissemination arrangement which disseminates it to each state-information observer. Each resource user uses the state information it receives from the state-dissemination arrangement to ascertain the resources allocated to it. Similarly, a system resource manager, when present, uses the state information it receives from the state-dissemination arrangement to ascertain the allocation of those resources that are of interest to the manager. A resource, resource user and resource manager for use in such a system are also provided.
US08166168B2
The disclosure describes systems and methods for disambiguating a non-unique identifiers of real world entities (RWEs) detected by a computing network by dynamically identifying relationships between RWEs known to the network. The relationships are determined based on social, spatial, temporal and logical information known about the RWEs based on the RWEs previous interactions with the network. These relationships are then used to generate a probability for each RWE that the non-unique identifier identifies that RWE. Based on the probabilities an RWE is selected and the proper network identifier may be used in place of the non-unique identifier.
US08166162B2
Automating event detection in a communications network includes correlating reports, issued by users experiencing an outage or a performance degradation for a service provided by a service provider, to identify a network element associated with the outage or the performance degradation. It is determined whether a predetermined threshold is crossed based on the reports. A customer-facing portion of the network element associated with the reports is adaptively reset, based on determining whether the predetermined threshold is crossed.
US08166154B2
Streaming multimedia content from a content server to client, user multimedia devices (UMDs) connected to the content server through a network includes the steps of monitoring storage states, of UMDs connected to the network, for preset multimedia content, and automatically transmitting a starting block of the content to any UMD not yet storing the block. Tasks preparatory to streaming are advantageously off-loaded to the client side and distributed among UMDs, to realize reduced bandwidth and delay and to conserve on storage capacity of a UMD.
US08166151B2
It is realized that the use of a spanning tree protocol in particular portions of a network may not necessarily be desired due to performance and stability reasons. A method and system is provided for executing a revised spanning tree algorithm that performs more optimally in particular network topologies. In one aspect, a spanning tree protocol is executed over a first and second network connected by a third network, wherein the spanning tree network is disabled in the third network. The third network may be, for example, a core network through which first and second Layer 2 networks are bridged. The first and second networks may be coupled by another network or network connection, and it may be preferable to allow the operation of the spanning tree network between the first and second coupled networks for the purpose of fail over to redundant paths. In network forwarding devices positioned at edges of the core network, the operation of the STP over interfaces where network tunnels of each network forwarding device attached to the core network may be inhibitied (e.g., turned off). A phantom root bridge may be created that does not correspond to an actual network forwarding node, and this phantom root bridge may have a bridge identifier which is used by network forwarding nodes as the root bridge. In this manner, STP protocols may work as intended in peripheral networks, while STP does not need to be executed in the core.
US08166143B2
Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for invariant representation of computer network information technology (IT) managed resources. A common information model for representing the managed resources is defined. An identification of a resource managed by an IT resource management point product is received. The identification includes an identification of a representation used by the point product for the resource managed by the point product. It is determined if an invariant representation for the resource managed by the point product has previously been defined under the common information model. The representation used by the point product for the resource managed by the point product is associated with the previously defined invariant representation for the resource managed by the point product when an invariant representation for resource managed by the point product has been previously defined. A new invariant representation for the resource managed by the point product is defined and associated with the new invariant representation when an invariant representation for resource managed by the point product has not been previously defined. The new invariant representation is a unique representation under the common information model.
US08166142B2
A method and system to allow congestion charging signals to be generated and congestion charges to be applied on an inter-domain basis, on an aggregated basis and not on a per flow basis. Each network domain charges its neighboring domain for any ECN marks that it forwards to them. Since a flow will collect marks as it progresses across the network the last network domain (typically an Internet service provider (ISP) located at the edge of the network domains) will levy a charge based on a higher number of marks than any of the charges levied by other domains involved in the transmission of the flow, and this higher charge can be passed on to the end user, preferably as a single aggregated charge per subscriber per accounting period. Each network domain (whether an edge ISP or other domain such as an intermediate ISP) will forward traffic to other network domains and consequently can produce a single aggregated charge per connected domain.
US08166139B2
Method and system for generating and sending a hot link associated with a user interface to a device
The invention sends a hot link to a device. The device may be on a wireless network, a wired network, or directly coupled to the device sending the hot link. The hot link contains an associated action that is performed by the device receiving the hot link. The associated action may be performed when a user interface is activated or automatically when the hot link is received by the device. The action (1105) can be a broadcast action (1110), Internet action (1120), call action (1150), download action (1130), or upload action (1140). The broadcast action instructs the device to tune to a particular broadcast in response to the selection of the user interface. The Internet action instructs the device to access an Internet site in response to the selection of the user interface. The call action instructs the device to call a telephone number in response to the selection of user interface.
US08166138B2
Network evaluation grid techniques are presented. Local specifications for traffic patterns are evaluated for local traffic on local grids of a grid computing environment and reported out. The local traffic reported out is then evaluated in response to global traffic pattern specifications and a global traffic policy in order to identify one or more remedial actions to take or to recommend in response to that evaluation.
US08166133B1
The present invention provides systems and methods for, in some cases, supplementing a broadcast media service with an on-demand and personalized media service.
US08166131B2
A system and method for preparing entertainment software for reduced network delivery time includes analyzing entertainment software to identify a first stage implementing a subset of the functionality of the entertainment software such that the first stage is deliverable to an entertainment platform across a network more quickly than the delivery of the entire entertainment software, and preparing the identified first stage for download, such that the identified first stage may be downloaded and used on the entertainment platform.
US08166114B2
An acceleration engine that stores context data is operatively disposed between a network and at least one web server. Incoming requests from the network are inspected by the acceleration engine and passed on to the web server. If the inspection reveals a reference to context data, the acceleration engine retrieves the context data and asynchronously sends the context data to the web server. The web server synchronizes that request and context data and generates a response message accordingly. The response message is forwarded back to the initiator of the request with or without interception by the acceleration engine. Should context data be generated during processing of the request, such context data is sent to the acceleration engine for updating purposes.
US08166111B2
A computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for correcting a received electronic mail having an erroneous header. Responsive to a recipient receiving an e-mail indicating the erroneous header, the recipient corrects the erroneous header to form a corrected header. Responsive to the recipient correcting the erroneous header to form the corrected header, a received e-mail is updated for other recipients and a sender of the received e-mail with the corrected header.
US08166101B2
Several embodiments of the present invention comprise a storage platform that provides a synchronization service that (i) allows multiple instances of the storage platform (each with its own data store) to synchronize parts of their content according to a flexible set of rules, and (ii) provides an infrastructure for third parties to synchronize the data store of the storage platform of the present invention with with other data sources that implement proprietary protocols. In various embodiments, storage-platform-to-storage-platform synchronization occurs among a group of participating “replicas.” For example, it may be desirable to provide synchronization between the data store of the storage platform with another remote data store under the control of another instance of the storage platform, perhaps running on a different computer system.
US08166096B1
Described is a system and methods for multiple tier distribution of task portions for distributed processing. Essentially, a task is divided into portions by a first computer and a task portion transferred to second participatory computer on the network, whereupon an allocated task portion is again portioned by the second computer into subtask portions, and a subtask portion transferred by the second computer to a third participatory computer on the network, whereby distributed processing transpires, and results collated as required.
US08166090B2
A system for solving linear equations comprises a first circuit including a first multiplication module for multiplying a first row of a matrix by a first instance of a vector variable to generate a first product, and a first linear solver module for calculating an updated first element of the vector variable using the first product. A second circuit includes a second multiplication module for multiplying a second row of the matrix by a second instance of the vector variable to generate a second product, and a second linear solver module for calculating an updated second element of the vector variable using the second product. An interface module updates the second instance of the vector variable with the first updated element, and updates the first instance of the vector variable with the second updated element.
US08166088B2
An implement method of a FFT processor comprises the following steps. First, a 21 point FFT processor, which has an output and an input receiving a 2n+1 point data, is provided. A 2n-point FFT processor having an input and an output is provided. Sequentially, a multiplexer, which has a first input coupled to the output of the 21 point FFT processor, a second input receiving a 2n point data and an output coupled to the input of the 2n point FFT processor, is provided. When an input data is a 2n point data, the second input of multiplexer is coupled to the output thereof, and when an input data is a 2n+1 point data, the first input of multiplexer is coupled to the output thereof.
US08166086B2
A random number generator uses the output of a true random generator to alter the behavior of a pseudo-random number generator. The alteration is performed by a mixing logic that builds a random seed for the pseudo-random number generator and includes a generator of an alteration signal, the generation of which exploits the random instant of arrival of the bits outgoing from the true random generator. The alteration signal is obtained by processing the seed by means of the pseudo-random sequence.
US08166084B2
A filter controller. In one embodiment, the filter controller includes a first mechanism for providing an input signal to an adjustable filter. A second mechanism measures a response of the adjustable filter to the input signal and provides a second signal in response thereto. A third mechanism sets one or more parameters of the adjustable filter in response to the second signal. In a more specific embodiment, the adjustable filter includes one or more sub-filters, such as a canceller filter, which may be any filter that employs one or more portions or versions of a signal to selectively cancel one or more portions or versions, such as frequency components, of the same signal.
US08166080B2
A computer method and system of diagramming provide a diagram of a subject model. In response to a primary edit to the subject model, the invention method and system generate a non-persistent view for secondary edits. The diagram is formed of notational elements corresponding to model elements of the subject model. The invention method and system provide a notation meta-model for persisting the notational elements with references to corresponding model elements. The notation meta-model allows notational elements to be recreated and changed dynamically in a manner free of replacing original notational elements.
US08166071B1
Some embodiments provide a system and method that secures access to data objects of an enterprise that includes multiple data objects and multiple user applications that access data attributes of the data objects. In some embodiments, secure access is provided via a secure resource that secures access to data attributes of at least two objects by defining access control permissions for the secure resource and applying the defined access control permissions to the data attributes of the secure resource.
US08166070B2
A method, system and article of manufacture for managing access to query results and, more particularly, for managing access by multiple users to persistently stored query results, whereby at least some of the users may have different access rights. One embodiment provides a method of managing access to a query result obtained upon execution of a query against one or more databases. The method comprises creating security information configured for restricting access to the query result. The security information is associated with the query result. Access to some or all of the query result is granted to a requesting entity on the basis of the security information and an attribute of the requesting entity.
US08166058B2
Techniques are described for identifying one or more “interest twins” of a user. An interest twin of a user in another user that has demonstrated interests in items that are the same as or similar to the items in which the user has demonstrated an interest. Various techniques are described for reducing the overhead in interest twin determination operations. Once the interest twins for a user have been identified, the knowledge of the interest twins may be used in a variety of ways to enhance to experience of the user. For example, a mechanism may be provided which allows the user to see a list of items in which the user's interest twins have indicated an interest.
US08166053B2
Schema-driven XML parsing techniques allow an XML parser to optimize its parsing process by composing parse and to dynamically generate parsing code components based on XML schema definition for the targeted XML document. These techniques reduce the XML parsing time and reduce the memory requirement during parsing process. Further, a reconfigurable parser is provided which is guided during parsing of the XML document by XML element lexicographical information and state transition information extracted from a schema associated with the XML document. Pre-allocated element object pools may be provided based on the schema analysis to reduce the requirements for dynamic memory allocation and de-allocation operations.
US08166052B2
In one embodiment, data relating to usage patterns of the user is stored, wherein the data includes information as to items which were used and the context in which they were used. The data is then clustered into input clusters of data points. It is determined if there are any input clusters that are similar to each other. Similar clusters are merged if there are any input clusters similar to each other. Any non-merged input clusters are divided into split clusters if the split clusters would not be similar to each other. The determining, merging, and dividing are then repeated using the merged, divided, and remaining unmerged and undivided clusters as input clusters.
US08166049B2
Keyword frequency data for a plurality of document-derived segments is represented in a matrix form in which each segment is represented as a vector of dimensionality equal to the number of keywords. The matrix may be subdivided into a plurality of sub-matrices, each preferably corresponding to a non-overlapping portion of the plurality of keywords. When determining a similarity measurement between any pair of segments, at least a portion of the keyword frequency data for each sub-matrix's non-overlapping keywords are used to determine a sub-matrix dot product for the pair of segments. The resulting plurality of sub-matrix dot products are then summed together in order to provide the similarity measurement. Keywords that are synonyms of each other may be accommodated through the modification of keyword frequency data. Where the keyword frequency data in the matrix representation is relative sparse, compressed views of the matrix representation may be provided.
US08166039B1
A method of processing information related to documents in a collection of linked documents. For each respective document in all or a portion of said collection, one or more auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with the respective document are quantized. A search query comprising one or more search terms is received. Using a document index that represents said collection of linked documents, a plurality of documents is identified. Each document in the identified plurality of documents includes at least one term that matches a search term in the search query. For one or more respective documents in the plurality of documents, one or more of the auxiliary page ranking vectors associated with the respective document are decoded. The plurality of documents are then ranked using the decoded auxiliary page vectors.
US08166038B2
A technique enables intelligent retrieval of digital assets. The technique involves gathering metadata based on a scan of the digital assets. The gathered metadata includes metadata entries, each metadata entry identifying a particular digital asset and a particular set of digital asset properties of that particular digital asset. The technique further involves storing the digital assets in encrypted form within a digital asset repository of the electronic system after gathering the metadata, and updating a metadata database of the electronic system based on the metadata entries, the metadata database being distinct from the digital asset repository. Accordingly, while the digital assets are stored in the digital asset repository in encrypted form, specific digital assets within the digital asset repository are identifiable in response to a database search of the metadata database since the database search is able to use digital asset properties as searching criteria.
US08166032B2
The sentimental significance of a group of historical documents related to a topic is assessed with respect to change in an extrinsic metric for the topic. A unique sentiment binding label is included to the content of actions documents that are determined to have sentimental significance and the group of documents is inserted into a historical document sentiment vector space for the topic. Action areas in the vector space are defined from the locations of action documents and singular sentiment vector may be created that describes the cumulative action area. Newly published documents are sentiment-scored by semantically comparing them to documents in the space and/or to the singular sentiment vector. The sentiment scores for the newly published documents are supplemented by human sentiment assessment of the documents and a sentiment time decay factor is applied to the supplemented sentiment score of each newly published documents. User queries are received and a set of sentiment-ranked documents is returned with the highest age-adjusted sentiment scores.
US08166018B2
An apparatus browses a list of data items. The apparatus includes a plurality of browse mechanisms each operable to scan concurrently through a list of data items and a plurality of independent groups each comprising two or more of the plurality of browse mechanisms. The browse mechanisms in a group cooperate together to browse the list of data items such that a data item is seen by only one member of the group.
US08166010B2
A search query is received over a wireless network (20), from a mobile device (10), and a response involves obtaining content summaries of search results relating to the search query, preparing a hypertext page for presentation by the mobile device. The page has a number of the content summaries extending over a number of screenviews. The page has an overview and has hyperlinks for intra-page navigation by a user between screenviews of different parts of the page. The page is sent to the mobile device over the wireless network to enable the content summaries to be browsed without requiring one or more further query and response operations across the wireless network. This can reduce the number of query response operations, by providing more information than the conventional one page annotated list, and presenting the information for easier browsing. The user can then download a selected content item over the network.
US08165997B1
A method for classifying a previously unclassified posting that includes extracting a plurality of terms from the previously unclassified posting on an application forum, calculating a term answer probability and a term comment probability for each term of the plurality of terms. The term answer probability defines a probability that the term is in an answer posting assigned to an answer class, and the term comment probability defines a probability that the term is in a comment posting assigned to a comment class. The method further includes performing a Bayesian analysis using the term answer probability and the term comment probability for each term of the plurality of terms to select a posting class for the previously unclassified posting. The posting class is either the answer class or the comment class. The posting class is assigned to the previously unclassified posting.
US08165991B2
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to online simulations. In one embodiment of the invention, a method for managing recorded data for an online simulation can be provided. The method can include determining that a first experience of a user of the online simulation shall be recorded. The method can further include generating a recording of the first experience and associating metadata with the recording. The method can further include reading metadata of a second experience of the user of the online simulation and determining that the metadata of the second experience matches the metadata of the first experience. The method can further include notifying the user that the recording is associated with the second experience.
US08165987B2
An automatic rule generation system generates rules for fact extraction. A rule generation module receives a sample and generates a rule from the sample. A rule relaxation module generates a relaxed rule from the rule. A rule testing module generates a reverse index from a corpus, applies the relaxed rule to the reverse index, and generates text segments. An information extraction module generates modified text segments from the relaxed rule and the text segments. A candidate suggestion module performs a candidate generation process: if the candidate generation process generates no candidates, the candidate suggestion module signals the rule relaxation module to generate a further relaxed rule to use as the relaxed rule. A user evaluates a candidate and provides the candidate as an additional sample for the automatic rule generation system to generate another rule to use as the rule. As a result of performing these actions iteratively, the rule is eventually generated and relaxed to result in an appropriate rule to use for fact extraction.
US08165985B2
A system and method for performing discovery of digital information in a subject area is provided. Each of topics in a subject area, training material for the topics, and a corpus comprising digital information are designated. Topic models for each of the topics are built. The topic models are evaluated against the training material. The digital information from the corpus is organized by the topics using the topic models into an evergreen index.
US08165981B2
A dynamic constraint solver for solving a constraint satisfaction problem model receives a request for a current solving session to recreate a first solving session for the model. The solver then collects a deferred port list comprising one or more ports in the model that need a sub-problem and creates one or more runtime constraints for the model. For each of the created runtime constraints, the solver propagates the constraint and determines if the propagation generates a conflict. If the propagation generates a conflict, the solver dismisses the constraint and reverts the model to a state before the constraint was propagated.
US08165976B2
Systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which in some embodiments an autonomic unit transmits an otoacoustic signal to counteract a potentially harmful incoming signal.
US08165966B2
Systems, methods, and software to collect, validate, and disseminate or otherwise use of data of decedents. Some embodiments include receiving and obtaining decedent data from various sources to augment decedent data and making the augmented decedent data available to others.
US08165964B2
Implementations may include a computer system for detecting counterfeited products. The system may include a communication unit and a processing unit. The communication unit may be configured to receive a representation of sensor data being measured at different times by a sensor unit associated with a product. The processing unit may be configured to compute a deviation of the sensor data from data of a transport profile for the product and to compute from the deviation a counterfeit value representing an estimate value for the probability that the product is counterfeited.
US08165962B1
The invention is related to a system and method for offering a financial instrument to a pre-qualified consumer. Potential consumers are pre-qualified for a variety of financial instruments, which pre-qualifications are stored in one or more databases and are linked to the consumer by a unique identifier and information that may later be verified. When a consumer contacts an entity operating, or otherwise in contact with, the system and method of the invention, the system determines whether that particular consumer has been pre-qualified for one or more financial instruments. The system may also determine whether one or more of the financial instruments which the consumer is pre-qualified for is appropriate for offering to the consumer according to pre-determined conditions linked to the financial instrument. Further checks may be performed at the time of the consumer contact for any indicators that the consumer should not be offered one or more of the financial instruments. The consumer may then be offered one or more of the financial instruments for which he or she has been pre-qualified. Typically, the consumer contacts the system for a purpose unrelated to requesting any financial instruments, and the invention permits the marketing of financial offerings to pre-qualified consumers.
US08165956B2
Systems and methods for presenting billing information are provided. A notice may be transmitted via a network by a bill presentment service provider system comprising one or more computers. The notice may be transmitted in accordance with an e-mail protocol, and the notice may indicate availability of billing information via a bill present service provider system. Subsequent to transmitting the notice, a request for the billing information may be received by the bill presentment service provider system via the second protocol. The request may be received responsive to a selection of the hyper-link. Responsive to receiving the request, at least a portion of the billing information may be transmitted by the bill presentment service provider system via the network.
US08165953B2
An investment instrument based on a range of index values is disclosed that allows investors to take risk positions relative to the size, or length, of the range. The investment instrument has a monetary value that increases as the index value increases within a low range interval of the range, decreases as the index value increases within a high range interval of the range, and is fixed or capped if the index value falls within a middle range interval of the range. Typically, one settlement amount will be zero and the other will be an amount greater than the investment instrument price.
US08165951B2
A computer based trading system implies spread markets from multiple real or implied spread markets. In particular, one aspect of the invention permits implication of a spread market from a combination of inter-commodity and inter-calendar spread orders. Furthermore, another aspect of the invention allows use of nontradeable implied or bridge markets to combine with other implied or real markets to create further tradeable implied markets. The method described herein thereby permits the creation of all implied markets that are inherent in the combination of futures, calendar spread and inter-commodity spread real orders.
US08165944B2
A method for point of service third party adjudicated payment, which includes providing payment system access information to a point of service provider, receiving from the point of service provider purchase transaction data and the payment system access information, adjudicating the transaction substantially in real-time to determine the portion payable by the customer and the portion payable by a third party, sending an adjudicated settlement transaction to the point of service provider substantially in real-time, and initiating a request to transfer funds substantially in real-time in accordance with the adjudicated settlement transaction to an account of the service provider.
US08165938B2
A method of monitoring fraud associated with prepaid devices includes configuring fraud platform parameters which comprise one or more limits defined by one or more values, each limit associated with a particular platform parameter, one or more thresholds defined by one or more values, each threshold associated with a particular platform parameter, and one or more rules that define restrictions for certain prepaid device activities. The method further includes applying the fraud platform parameters to prepaid device production data and determining whether to issue the prepaid device depending on whether any parameters were triggered by the production data.
US08165935B2
A computer-implemented method of reconciling a primary budget for a construction project. One embodiment of the invention includes generating a primary budget for the construction project and assigning a first primary budget line item from the primary budget to a participant. A secondary budget is then generated for the primary budget line item. Before administering a draw that includes a payment to the participant, the computer-implemented method ensures that the total sum of the budget amounts in the secondary budget is consistent with the budget amount for the primary budget line item. In some embodiments, the secondary budget is consistent when the total sum of the budget amounts is less than the primary budget line item. In some embodiments, the secondary budget is consistent when the total sum of the budget amounts is equal to the primary budget line item.
US08165929B2
Methods and systems for adaptive storage and management of pharmaceutical product containers at a pharmacy are described. Pharmaceutical product containers are managed so that the containers for more-frequently-used pharmaceutical products are stored among plural storage locations more-efficiently accessible to a pharmacy workstation. Containers for less-frequently- used pharmaceutical products are managed so that the containers for such products are stored among the storage locations which are less-accessible to the pharmacy workstation. As the frequency of pharmaceutical product usage changes, the inventory of pharmaceutical product containers is managed adaptively so that the containers used most frequently are stored at locations more-easily accessible to the pharmacy workstation, thereby facilitating fulfillment of prescriptions by pharmacy personnel. Further efficiencies may be achieved through use of an optical positioning system providing directed placing and picking of pharmaceutical product containers. The methods and system have particular application to management of partially-full pharmaceutical product containers which may be repeatedly taken from and returned to inventory.
US08165927B2
Processing purchasing items is provided. A broadcast television signal is received at a television system. The broadcast television signal contains data indicating that an item in the broadcast television signal is being offered for sale. A visual cue is presented in association with the item being presented in the television system in response to receiving the data. In response to receiving a user input to purchase the item, a purchase request process is sent to a seller of the item to purchase the item using personal information needed to purchase the item stored in the television system.
US08165923B2
An interactive system personalizes pages of an electronic catalog with information reflective of related orders placed by the user. In one embodiment, when a user requests a category page (such as a browse node page, author page, or artist page) of an electronic catalog, the system determines whether the user previously ordered any items falling within the associated category. If any such orders are identified, information regarding the prior order(s) is incorporated into the requested category page. This information may include, for example, an indication of the particular item(s) ordered, and the order date and/or status of each such order. The system may also personalize item detail pages with information regarding any orders placed for the corresponding items and/or similar items.
US08165911B1
Historical web-based service performance metric values and the historical web-based standards are analyzed to determine maturity classifications for a plurality of regions over a time period. The historical web-based standards applied to each of the regions at different times within the time period are compared, and current web-based standards for one or more regions are adjusted based on the comparison to improve web-based service performance in the one or more regions.
US08165909B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a system and method for electronically managing an address database such as AMS, and more particularly a system and method for automatically managing an address database through the use of a web-based application. Moreover, embodiments of the invention manage an address database, such as AMS, by comparing data in the address database with data collected from mailpieces during sorting operations.
US08165886B1
A speech processing system which exploits statistical modeling and formal logic to receive and process speech input, which may represent data to be received, such as dictation, or commands to be processed by an operating system, application or process. A command dictionary and dynamic grammars are used in processing speech input to identify, disambiguate and extract commands. The logical processing scheme ensures that putative commands are complete and unambiguous before processing. Context sensitivity may be employed to differentiate data and commands. A multi faceted graphic user interface may be provided for interaction with a user to speech enable interaction with applications and processes that do not necessarily have native support for speech input.
US08165885B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for associating dynamic sound content with a web page in a browser. A request for text data is received from the browser. The requested text data is retrieved from a source, such as a database, and converted into a sound file. The retrieved text data may be converted to a sound file by translating the text data into audio data, formatting the audio data based on a predetermined audio format, and writing the formatted audio data to a file. A web page is created including a sound tag pointing to a file path associated with the sound file. The created web page is then sent in a response to the browser. Once the web page is received by the browser, the browser initiates playback of the sound file from the file path.
US08165884B2
A plurality of prompting layers configured to provide varying levels of detailed assistance in prompting a user are maintained. A prompt from a current prompting layer is presented to a user. Input is received from the user. A level of detail in prompting the user is adaptively changed based on user behavior. Upon the user making a hesitant verbal gesture that reaches a threshold duration, a transition is made from the current prompting layer to a more detailed prompting layer. Upon the user interrupting the prompt with a valid input, a transition is made from the current prompting layer to a less detailed prompting layer.
US08165881B2
A text-to-speech (TTS) system implemented in an automotive vehicle is dynamically tuned to increase intelligibility over a wide variety of vehicle operating states and environmental conditions by tuning characteristics of the synthesized voice in response to measured operating states. To decrease distractions to an operator of the vehicle, an embodiment of the invention prevents updates to the synthesized voice character from taking effect while a message phrase is being played. Instead, voice characteristics are updated only during natural phrase breaks. In another embodiment of the invention, a damping filter is applied to calculated changes in voice characteristics to prevent excessively rapid changes from being applied, reducing the likelihood of distracting the vehicle operator. In another embodiment of the invention, both phrase-break detectors and damping filters are employed.
US08165874B2
A system, method, and program product for processing voice data in a conversation between two persons to determine characteristic conversation patterns. The system includes: a variation calculator for calculating a variation of a speech ratio of a first speaker and a variation calculator for calculating a variation of a speech ratio of a second speaker; a difference calculator for calculating a difference data string; a smoother for generating a smoothed difference data string; and a presenter for presenting the difference between the variation of the speech ratio of the first speaker and the speech ratio of the second speaker. The method includes: calculating a variation of a speech ratio of a first speaker and a second speaker; calculating a difference data string; generating a smoothed difference data string; and grouping them according to their patterns.
US08165873B2
A speech analysis apparatus analyzing prosodic characteristics of speech information and outputting a prosodic discrimination result includes an input unit inputting speech information, an acoustic analysis unit calculating relative pitch variation and a discrimination unit performing speech discrimination processing, in which the acoustic analysis unit calculates a current template relative pitch difference, determining whether a difference absolute value between the current template relative pitch difference and a previous template relative pitch difference is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold or not, when the value is not less than the threshold, calculating an adjacent relative pitch difference, and when the adjacent relative pitch difference is equal to or less than a previously set margin value, executing correction processing of adding or subtracting an octave of the current template relative pitch difference to calculate the relative pitch variation by applying the relative pitch difference as the relative pitch difference of the current analysis frame.
US08165869B2
Illustrative embodiments provide a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for learning word segmentation from non-white space language corpora. In one illustrative embodiment, the computer implemented method receives text input characters and calculates a ratio-measure for each pair of characters in the input characters. The computer implemented method further determines whether the ratio-measure of each pair of characters is equal to a predetermined threshold value. Responsive to determining the ratio-measure is less than the predetermined threshold value, and a local-minimum value, the computer method further identifies the pair as a weak pair and breaks the weak pair of characters.
US08165861B2
A simulation method of an electronic circuit or a printed circuit, represented in the form of masks and connections, includes the definition of, on one hand, inputs and outputs of circuit networks, and, on the other, internal components of each network; the formation of a reduced model of each network; and the simulation of the network using this reduced model. In the event of an unsatisfactory simulation result, the modification of one or more networks, the formation of a second reduced model, and the simulation with said new reduced model, are performed. In the event of a satisfactory simulation result, production of the circuit can be undertaken.
US08165859B2
A method of analyzing a finite element model of an airfoil assembly. The airfoil assembly comprises a main airfoil element and a plurality of control surfaces. The method comprises: generating a loads interface model of the airfoil assembly comprising: data which defines the spatial positions of a set of nodes, and data which associates each node with either the main element or one of the control surfaces. Load data is generated which defines loads acting on the nodes of the loads interface model, and mapped onto a finite element model to produce a loaded finite element model. A stress analysis is then performed on the loaded finite element model, and the finite element model can be refined as a result of the stress analysis.
US08165849B2
A system and method to facilitate device monitoring and servicing is provided. In one embodiment, a system may include a medical device having at least one component, and monitoring circuitry configured to measure operational data of the component. The system can also include a data processing system configured to analyze the operational data and to output a report based on such analysis. The analysis, in turn, may include applying a transform to the operational data and comparing one or more actual coefficient and threshold coefficient characteristics.
US08165836B2
A measurement apparatus that measures, as an error under measurement, at least one of a gain error and a phase error of a quadrature demodulator or a quadrature modulator as a measurement target. The measurement apparatus includes an output control section that causes the measurement target to output a signal, a detecting section that detects a measured signal representing a real component and an imaginary component of the signal output from the measurement target, and a calculating section that calculates, as the gain error or the phase error, a solution for a variable that maximizes a correlation value between the measured signal detected by the detecting section and an ideal signal that includes the error under measurement as the variable and that represents the measured signal that should be output by the measurement target.
US08165832B1
A wall plug power monitor accurately measures power consumption of an appliance connected via a wall plug power monitor to AC power supplies of any of the various frequencies used around the world. A three milliohm current sense resistor minimizes power consumption caused by current sensing. Digital oversampling and filtering methods allow for accurate calculation of voltage, current, and power consumption despite line noise and a minimized current sense resistor. Voltage sampling timed to correspond to positive-voltage pulses of voltage measurement signals and current sampling independently timed to correspond to positive-voltage pulses of current measurement signals allow the wall plug power monitor to be used with AC power supplies of varied and varying frequencies. A bit reservation system that scales values to preserve least significant digits allows accuracy while using an inexpensive integer-based processor.
US08165825B2
The invention discloses a method for electromagnetically measuring physical parameters of a pipe that includes measuring a pipe inner diameter ID and a pipe ratio of magnetic permeability to electrical conductivity μ2/σ2 by means of a measuring arrangement 1 comprising a transmitter coil 2 and a receiver coil 3, both coils being coaxial to and longitudinally spaced from each other, the measuring arrangement being adapted to be positioned into the pipe CS and displaced through the pipe.
US08165824B2
An improvement in monitoring alcohol levels through transdermal testing is provided by detecting if environmental gasses, referred to as interferents, have been introduced into a transdermal vapor sample. An insensible skin perspiration sample may not be completely controlled and can contain interferents from an environmental source rather than the subject. Before testing a skin perspiration sample, the alcohol sensor is sampled and averaged to establish a baseline value. A sample is drawn and presented to the alcohol sensor. The output of the alcohol sensor is monitored to determine the amount of alcohol in the sample. A maximum alcohol sensor value for the transdermal alcohol monitor is set by determining the baseline value when no alcohol is present in the sample. Subsequent baseline values during a reading above the maximum alcohol sensor value indicate that an environmental interferent is present in the alcohol sensor.
US08165822B2
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.
US08165819B2
Provided are methods of simulating tissue healing. The methods comprise using a mechanistic computer model of the interrelated effects of inflammation, tissue damage or dysfunction and tissue healing to predict an outcome of healing of damaged tissue in vivo, thereby predicting the outcome of healing of damaged tissue in vivo. Implementations of these methods on a computing device also are provided. Non-limiting examples of diseases and/or conditions that are amenable to simulation according to the methods described herein include: a diabetes, diabetic foot ulcers, necrotizing enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, restenosis (post-angioplasty or stent implantation), incisional wounding, excisional wounding, surgery, accidental trauma, pressure ulcer, stasis ulcer, tendon rupture, vocal fold phonotrauma, otitis media and pancreatitis.
US08165816B2
A method for controlling fluid injection parameters to improve well interactions and control hydrofracture geometries is provided. The method incorporates a systematic, transient analysis process for determining the formation effective displacement, stress and excess pore pressure field quantities at any depth within a stratified subterranean formation resulting from the subsurface injection of pressurized fluids.
US08165813B2
A computer-implemented system and method for efficiently performing area-to-point conversion of satellite imagery for photovoltaic power generation fleet output estimation is provided. Satellite imagery data of overhead sky clearness for a geographic region is accessed. Pixels within the satellite imagery data corresponding to a bounded area are identified. Each pixel represents collective irradiance within the bounded area. An area clearness index for the bounded area is set as an average of point clearness indexes derived from the collective irradiance for each point. A variance of the area clearness index is expressed as an average of the variance of the point clearness indexes. The variance of the area clearness index is proportioned to an area metric corresponding to each pixel's physical coverage area. A variance of the point clearness index is determined for one point as a ratio of the variance of the area clearness index and each pixel's physical coverage.
US08165810B2
A navigation system includes a display device displaying, on a cockpit pilot display unit, a set of indications including an aircraft symbol which illustrates the position of the aircraft and a map part which represents the airport and moves in relation to the aircraft symbol according to the current position of the aircraft in the airport, the aircraft symbol fixed on the cockpit pilot display unit in a centered position in a standard display. The system also has an actuating unit for deactivating the standard display to enable the aircraft symbol to be displaced on the cockpit pilot display unit, and an actuating unit for controlling a temporary displacement of the set of indications on the cockpit pilot display unit such that the aircraft symbol displayed moves away from the centered position.
US08165805B2
In the case of a system for marking a region within an image of a road map detail displayed on a vehicle video screen, a regional location can first be selected by a control element. The region, which represents one of several administrative levels, can be constantly fixed via an enter function of the control element. The administrative level and thereby the size of the region can be changed by a rotational movement of the control element, which can be rotated about a longitudinal axis.
US08165804B2
A normal route guidance of a navigation apparatus based on guidance information retrieved from a hard disk drive is switched to a turn list display based on the guidance information from an external memory when a vehicle enters a high-altitude area. The navigation apparatus calculates a navigation route to a destination, and determines if the navigation route passes a high-altitude area. If the route passes the high-altitude area, the guidance information of a high-altitude area section of the navigation route is written in the eternal memory. Thus, while the vehicle is traveling, the navigation apparatus having the hard disk drive continues its navigation operation by displaying the turn list even when an operation of the hard disk drive is stopped due to a function restriction in the high-altitude area.
US08165803B2
A broadcast receiver and a method of processing data are disclosed. The broadcast receiver includes a receiving unit, a RS frame decoder, a storage unit, and a navigation unit. The receiving unit receives a broadcast signal multiplexed mobile broadcast service data including information on route prediction and main broadcast service data. The RS frame decoder performs CRC-decoding and RS-decoding on the RS frame, thereby correcting errors occurred in the corresponding mobile broadcast service data. The navigation unit uses the information on route prediction and a current position information of the broadcast receiver, thereby predicting at least one route.
US08165802B2
A system for comparing various routes, identifying delays among the routes, and selecting a more desirable route, even if the desirable route is not the shortest distance, is described. In one embodiment, the more desirable route is the faster route. In one embodiment, the more desirable route is a route with fewer in-route delays. In one embodiment, the system loads a map from a memory and retrieves road level information based on position information of roads and delays. The roads in the map are described at various levels of detail, wherein lower levels contain more detail and relatively higher levels that contain less detail. One embodiment includes detecting a route having links with a substantially larger number of delays and adding an additional penalty cost for the links at higher levels based on penalties computed from the links at lower level road levels. If a current road level is not the highest, one embodiment include adding the additional penalty cost into a “penalty list” of a higher level link having the links of a current road level in order to detect the higher links with a large number of delays while calculating route at a higher level. When calculating a route (or portion of a route) at a higher road level, an additional penalty cost is added to the higher level links if based on the penalty list.
US08165801B1
A wireless communication device transmits first text messaging to a navigation computer system. The first text messaging indicates an identity, initial location, and destination location for the wireless communication device. The navigation computer system processes the first text messaging to determine navigation instructions from the initial location to the destination location and to initiate a voice call to the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device processes a caller number for the voice call to answer the call in speaker-phone mode and to transfer second text messaging to the navigation computer system. The second text messaging indicates current locations of the wireless communication device. The navigation computer system processes the second text messaging to transfer the navigation instructions over the voice call based on the current locations of the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device receives the navigation instructions over the voice call and audibly presents the navigation instructions.
US08165799B2
Rule-based location sharing may be provided. A location determining device, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled device, may receive a request to share the location. A rule may be used to determine whether to share the location with the requestor. If the rule allows the location to be shared, the location may be sent to the requestor. The location may be relayed through a third party server, which may be operative to evaluate the rule before sharing the location with the requestor.
US08165796B2
Systems and methods for avoiding a collision. A first sensor is located, for example, in a front portion of a vehicle and is configured to monitor a first area. A second sensor is located, for example, in a top portion of the vehicle and is configured to execute a 360-degree sweep of the area surrounding the vehicle. In a first position, the second sensor is retracted below an outer surface of the vehicle. In a second position, the second sensor is protracted above the outer surface of the vehicle. A controller is configured to detect a critical situation using the first sensor, detect zero or more additional critical situations using the second sensor, and initiate an evasive driving maneuver to avoid each of the critical situations.
US08165790B2
The different advantageous embodiments provide a system comprising a weather band selection process and a processor unit. The processor unit is configured to run the weather band selection process. The weather band selection process identifies a flight trajectory associated with an aircraft, identifies weather information for the flight trajectory, and identifies a weather band selection for the aircraft using the flight trajectory, aircraft information and the weather information.
US08165789B1
An analysis tool which extracts all the available parameter identifications (i.e. PIDS) from a vehicle's power train control module for diagnostic decisions. This is done by checking these PIDS and other information (e.g., calculated PIDS, Break Points, charts and algorithms) in three states; key on engine off, key on engine cranking, key on engine running In all three modes the tool is comparing the live data from PIDS and voltage to the other information (e.g., Break Points). If any of this data are outside the programmed values a flag is assigned to the failure or control problem. The relationship between a particular PID and its associated preprogrammed value(s) may be indicated by a light. The depth of the problem (if any) is conveyed by the color of the light. Also included are tests/charts for fuel trim, engine volumetric efficiency, simulated injector, power, catalyst efficiency, and engine coolant range.
US08165788B2
Systems and methods of operating an engine, the engine including an injector configured to directly inject fuel into an engine cylinder. One example method comprises, during an engine cold start, performing compression direct fuel injection, and retarding a timing of the compression injection as a fuel alcohol content of the fuel increases.
US08165781B2
Fuel is recovered from a combustion engine without turning the combustion engine on. A controller initiates operation of a fuel pump of the combustion engine to cause the fuel pump to pump a predefined amount of fuel in the fuel line directly to a drain conduit.
US08165780B2
Various systems and methods are described for operating an engine in a vehicle in response to a driver performance/economy mode. One example method comprises delivering a first fuel to a cylinder of the engine from a first injector, delivering a second, different, fuel to the cylinder of the engine from a second injector, varying a relative amount of said first and second fuel as an operating condition varies; and adjusting delivery of at least said second fuel based on a driver-selected performance mode.
US08165778B2
At the time of reference position learning for ensuring accuracy in detecting a valve timing, an operation amount of an actuator is set such that intake valve phase changes to a position of most retarded angle as a reference phase. When the intake valve phase reaches the most retarded angle and the change in the intake valve phase stops (YES at S150), it is determined that the intake valve phase has reached the reference phase and the learning is terminated normally. If the learning operation does not end normally even after the time lapse from the start of learning exceeds a limit time Tlmt, the reference position learning is terminated forcibly (YES at S170), and power supply to the actuator is stopped. Thus, power consumption can be reduced and the apparatus can be protected at the time of reference position learning.
US08165775B2
A vehicle driving control system and method which enables the vehicle can travel through each curve at the optimum speed on an ordinary road and also on a highway. The controller and method uses a car navigation system to detect road classification about the road ahead of where the vehicle is running under guidance. When the road is an ordinary road, the following with respect to the preceding vehicle is given priority; when the road is a highway, the target vehicle speed obtained from the navigation information of car navigation system and the vehicle speed in the following mode are compared with each other, and the lower vehicle speed is selected (select-low) under control. As a result, it is possible to travel through the curves at a reliable speed not only on ordinary roads, but also on highways.
US08165774B2
A vehicle control system includes a sensor that generates a vehicle speed signal. A cruise control system generates a cruise control signal to maintain a vehicle at a target speed. A control module compares the vehicle speed signal to the target speed signal. The control module calculates different cruise control gains to delay changes in throttle position of the cruise control system when the vehicle speed signal is greater than the target speed.
US08165771B2
The center of gravity of a vehicle is estimated to obtain, a limit lateral acceleration alim (=aMin, aMax), and the vehicle turns in a target running state (V*, γ*) requested by an occupant provided the lateral acceleration a* does not exceed the limit lateral acceleration alim. On the other hand, if the requested running state (V*, γ*) exceeds the limit lateral acceleration aaim, an ideal target running state (V*, γ*) is limited to an actual target running state (V*˜, γ*˜) so that the lateral acceleration a* equals to the limit lateral acceleration aaim. Because turning speed and turning curvature are not limited more than necessary, it is possible to achieve maximum use of turning performance of the vehicle up to the limit thereof.
US08165769B2
A method of estimating a speed of a vehicle is provided. The vehicle has a wheel and the method comprises receiving a first wheel speed signal indicating a rotation rate of the wheel, determining a first calculated forward speed of the vehicle based on the first wheel speed signal, receiving a first steering signal, determining the first steering signal contains information indicating large steering activity, receiving a second wheel speed signal at a later time than the first wheel speed signal, and determining, in response to receiving the first steering signal, a second calculated forward speed of the vehicle that is based on the second wheel speed signal and the first calculated forward speed.
US08165768B2
A method for providing a trailer equipped with trailer brakes with an electronically controlled trailer braking output to help slow a vehicle/trailer combination as quickly as possible, but in a stable and balanced manner. In situations where a low friction environment is detected, such as a wet or icy road, the present method can brake the trailer in a more aggressive manner than a gain setting would normally allow. This gain-independent segment of the trailer braking output can result in a shorter stopping distance for the vehicle/trailer combination, without causing excessive trailer wheel lockup.
US08165762B2
A method of operating a valve system of a transmission comprising part of the vehicle drive train through a valve unit and said valve unit's electro-magnetic activator configuration. In a transmission's hydraulic system and is part of the vehicle drive train, its hydraulic pressure value (p_EDS) can be employed and adjusted through a valve unit configuration by applying a pulse-width-modulated current signal (i_EDS) to the electro-magnetic activator system. The pulse-width modulated current signal (i_EDS) and its amplitude (A) and/or its pulse duration (pw1) will periodically change, during the applied Dither-Modulation, by maintaining the required pressure value (p_EDS) at the same time, whereby a lengthwise movable anchor, which is attached a valve shaft of the valve system, receives hereby an imposed vibrating oscillation. According to the invention, the Dither-Modulation is activated or deactivated during pre-defined operating conditions of the vehicle drive train.
US08165759B2
A tilt sensor arrangement and method that allows a tilt angle sensor of a vehicle to be tested without tilting the vehicle. In one embodiment, a tilt angle sensor of a vehicle is tested when the vehicle is positioned in a generally horizontal position. The tilt angle sensor is rotated from an operating position to a test position while the vehicle remains in the generally horizontal position and the tilt angle sensor is tested.
US08165752B2
A steering system of a motor vehicle has a steering wheel which engages a steering rack via a steering pinion of a steering column. A steering torque is exerted by a driver on the steering rack via the steering wheel. A steering torque assistance unit is provided and has an electric drive and a gear stage. A steering assistance torque is able to be exerted on the steering rack via the electric drive of the steering torque assistance unit. The electric drive engages the steering rack via the gear stage. Accordingly, at least one sensor determines by measurement a bearing force acting on a bearing of the steering torque assistance unit, the steering torque assistance unit generating the steering assistance torque in dependence on the steering torque exerted by the driver and in dependence on the bearing force determined by measurement.
US08165751B2
A method for rollover sensing (12) that may be used in the determination of when to deploy restraints in a vehicle is disclosed herein. The method for rollover sensing (12) may include lateral acceleration sensors (22), a roll rate sensor (18), and a roll angle detector (20). A control circuit (16) determines a roll moment of inertia as a function of lateral acceleration, a trip point length as a function of the lateral acceleration, and a trip point angle as a function of the lateral acceleration. The control circuit (16) also determines a rollover threshold in response to a roll rate signal, a roll angle signal, the trip point length, the roll moment of inertia, and the trip point angle. The control circuit (16) further generates a control signal for a deployment circuit in response to the rollover threshold.
US08165748B2
An on-vehicle device (200) includes a self-position detection unit (254), a position match judgment unit (255), an advance direction detection unit (256), and a direction match judgment unit (257). At the moment when a mobile body such as a vehicle having the on-vehicle device passes through an intended point of a data distribution side in an intended direction, a data reproduction unit (253) starts reproduction of content data associated with creation of the data distribution side acquired by a data acquisition unit (251). When there a plurality of content data intended to be simultaneously reproduced by the data distribution side, it is judged by a parallel reproduction judgment unit (252), and the data reproduction unit (253) reproduces the content data in parallel. The data is reproduced according to the intention of the data distribution side.
US08165745B2
In a vehicle control system in which a large number of ECUs operate in coordination via a network, each node has an intra-network node status determination section, other node's status decision transmitting/other nodes' status decision receiving section, and failed-node identification section. The nodes exchange decisions made by the intra-network node status evaluation section with other nodes and thereby identify failed node.
US08165735B2
A method to assist in the landing of an airplane in its final flight phase, following a current approach path toward a runway, includes determining at a given flight point, a landing delay margin, called MRAmax, corresponding to an estimated delay during which the braking actions must be undertaken, after the wheels touch down, to enable the airplane to stop on the runway. A device includes equipment for acquiring parameters necessary to perform the method of assisting the landing of the airplane, a computer to determine the landing delay margin MRAmax from the parameters, and a display for presenting the information to alert the crew.
US08165733B2
A flight control system moves elevators according to a pilot command summed with an automatic command. The flight control system monitors a set of flight parameters to determine if the flight vehicle is operating inside a permitted envelope. The flight controls system incorporates automatic protections thru the automatic elevator command if the flight vehicle is close to its envelope limits. The exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation herein provides automatic protections in order to protect the flight vehicle from low speeds, high attitude, stalls and buffetings.
US08165727B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a main body, a heating device provided in the main body, a cooling fan provided in the main body, which cools the heating device, a temperature sensor provided in the main body, which senses a temperature of the heating device, and a fan control unit provided in the main body, which rotates the cooling fan at a first rotation speed or higher during power-on of the main body and switches a rotation speed of the cooling fan to a second rotation speed which is higher than the first rotation speed when the temperature of the heating device sensed by the temperature sensor reaches a given threshold value.
US08165725B2
A kind of temperature controlling device of heating element and method thereof detect the actual temperature of heating body of the heating element, and calculate the descending gradient and frequency of temperature based on the detected actual temperature. The norm signal is formed based on the actual temperature, descending gradient and frequency of the temperature to control the switch power as to achieve the split second control for the electric power of the heating element.
US08165713B2
A method and apparatus for milling a desired pocket in a solid workpiece uses an abrasive fluid-jet by moving and suitably orienting the abrasive fluid-jet relative to the workpiece. The method includes defining a path of the abrasive fluid-jet necessary to mill a desired pocket in the solid workpiece. The path is defined by a number of parameters. The parameters include a translation velocity, a fluid pressure, and an abrasive fluid-jet position and orientation relative to the workpiece. Generating a command set is according to the defined path and is configured to drive a computer numerical control manipulator system.
US08165708B2
The disclosure provides a customized manufacturing method for an optoelectrical device. The customized manufacturing method comprises the steps of providing a manufacturing flow including a front-end flow, a customized module subsequent to the front-end flow, and a pause step between the front-end flow and the customized module, processing a predetermined amount of semi-manufactured products queued at the pause step, tuning the customized module in accordance with a customer's request, and processing the semi-manufactured products by the tuned customized module to fulfill the customer's request.
US08165699B2
A programmable controller system includes a programmable controller apparatus, a remote input and output apparatus connected to the programmable controller apparatus via a field bus and a monitoring apparatus configured to be located on a communication path between the programmable controller apparatus and the remote input and output apparatus and to monitor a communication data therebetween. The monitoring apparatus includes a rewritable tag for prescribing a condition for issuing a transmission request command with respect to an external equipment deterioration diagnosis and a command issuing part issues a transmission request command required for the external equipment deterioration diagnosis with reference to the tag. A preferable data logging operation is carried out properly without any PLC operation.
US08165694B2
Systems and techniques for thermal management of implantable medical devices. In one aspect an implantable device includes an active component configured to perform medical activities, a charging component configured to convert energy from outside a body in which the implantable device is implanted into potential energy, and a thermal barrier between the charging component and the active portion. The thermal barrier thermally isolates the charging component from the active portion so that thermal resistance between the charging component and the active component is above the thermal resistance between the charging component and the body.
US08165680B2
The invention is directed to a method of bonding a hermetically sealed electronics package to an electrode or a flexible circuit and the resulting electronics package that is suitable for implantation in living tissue, such as for a retinal or cortical electrode array to enable restoration of sight to certain non-sighted individuals. The hermetically sealed electronics package is directly bonded to the flex circuit or electrode by electroplating a biocompatible material, such as platinum or gold, effectively forming a plated rivet-shaped connection, which bonds the flex circuit to the electronics package. The resulting electronic device is biocompatible and is suitable for long-term implantation in living tissue.
US08165674B2
A method and apparatus for treatment of heart failure by increasing secretion of endogenous naturetic hormones ANP and BNP such as by stimulation of the heart atria. Heart pacing is done at an atrial contraction rate that is increased and can be higher than the ventricular contraction rate. Pacing may include mechanical distension of the right atrial appendage. An implantable device is used to periodically cyclically stretch the walls of the appendage with an implanted balloon.
US08165670B2
Stimulation system, comprising an implantable stimulation device (60), at least one implantable stimulation electrode (70) and at least one initializing sensor (40), whereby the initializing sensor (40) is configured to detect in the implanted state a voluntarily controlled muscle movement, a voluntarily induced brainwave or a voluntarily generated nerve pulse of a patient during the initial phase of a swallowing process and to generate a sensor signal in response thereto either continuously or in a clocked cycle or in response to the preceding and to send this signal to the stimulation device (60), and whereby the stimulation device (60) is configured to trigger the delivery of a stimulation pulse via the stimulation electrode (70) in response to such a sensor signal of the initializing sensor (40) which is based on a voluntarily initiated swallowing process.
US08165654B2
A textile structure for detecting body surface electrical signals of human is provided. The textile structure includes a non-conductive textile, a conductive textile, and a plurality of test terminals. The non-conductive textile covers the human body. The conductive textile has a first region, a second region, and a third region. The first region is interdigitated into but not electrically coupled to the third region. The first to third test terminals are respectively coupled to the first to third regions of the conductive textile. The first and second test terminals are used for detecting ECG signals. The first and third test terminals are used for detecting respiratory signals.
US08165653B2
An expandable tip cannula system, comprising: a hollow cannula shaft having a proximal end and a distal end; and an expandable tip mounted at the distal end of the hollow cannula shaft, the expandable tip comprising a plurality of generally-triangular shaped petals held together in a radially-inwardly tapered arrangement between adjacent petals, each petal comprising a nerve sensing electrode disposed therein.
US08165650B2
A portable electronic device comprises a body member and a cover member. The body member includes a battery receiving space and a keypad. The cover member is slidably mounted to the body member along two opposite direction so as to respectively cover the battery receiving space and the keypad.
US08165644B2
In a process, a power mode indicator is transmitted from a content server and is received by a Portable Communication Device (PCD). The indicator is indicative of a power mode potentially available to a circuit block in the PCD. The circuit block exhibits different levels of power consumption when operated in different power modes and is operated in the indicated power mode in response to the received power mode indicator. The content server may be a stream server. The circuit block may be operated in the power mode to receive/process a data stream.
US08165643B2
A charging cradle has a rectangular cradle body defined an upper surface, a front surface and two opposite lateral surfaces thereon. An end of the upper surface adjacent to the front surface is formed with a subjacent surface lower than the upper surface and connecting with the upper surface by a first inclined surface. The upper surface has a receiving chamber extending along a front and rear direction. A charging base having a rotation portion defined a rectangular base mounted in the receiving chamber and rotatable around an axis perpendicular to the two lateral surfaces. A rear end of the rectangular base is extended downwards to form a receiving portion. Two opposite sides of the rectangular base have portions adjacent to a front end thereof extended laterally to form resisting portions, free ends of which extend downwards to form holding plates located at two opposite sides of the cradle body.
US08165639B1
The wireless communication device which displays images retrieved from camera, three-dimensional images, and alphanumeric data representing audio data retrieved from microphone.
US08165633B2
A universal passive interface for connecting external systems to smart devices such as cell phones and PDAs. The passive system includes a cradle for receiving a compatible smart device that connects the functionality of the smart device to a wide variety of external systems (e.g., printers, large display, input devices, etc.). The passive interface includes a USB hub, network port, and other common connector ports for peripherals and other systems. The smart device can connect to the passive system via the cradle slot, a tether, and/or wirelessly. The external systems to which the passive system serves at the interface to the smart device include, but are not limited to, large displays (e.g., television), external monitors, input devices such as mice and keyboards, external storage devices, and networks (wired and/or wireless). A wizard allows the user to configure the external systems to work with the smart device.
US08165631B2
Applications may seek access to a radio frequency interface resource on a processor-based system that exceeds the available capacity of that resource. When more than one application needs access to an RF interface resource at the same time and the available capacity of the RF interface resource does not permit all these requests to be granted, contention resolution may be provided. In one embodiment, the contention resolution may involve determining the priority of each application seeking RF interface resource access and granting access based on that priority.
US08165623B2
A radio communication device that outputs an alarm when a reception level of a radio wave from a wireless unit is less than a threshold value, includes a reception level measuring section for measuring the reception level of the radio wave transmitted from the wireless unit at certain times. A threshold value setting section for setting a first threshold value or a second threshold value less than the first threshold value based on a difference between the reception level of the radio wave measured a previous time and the reception level of the radio wave measured a subsequent time. An alarm output requesting section for causing an alarm output section to output an alarm if the reception level of the radio wave measured a subsequent time is less than the first threshold value or the second threshold value.
US08165621B2
A cellular telephone using a memory array that is directly addressed and non-volatile is disclosed. The memory array can be used to replace and emulate multiple memory types such as DRAM, SRAM, non-volatile RAM, FLASH memory, and a non-volatile memory card, for example. The memory array may be randomly accessed. Data stored in the memory array is retained in the absence of electrical power. One or more memory arrays may be used in the cellular telephone. At least one of the memory arrays may be in the form of a removable memory card.
US08165618B1
Methods and systems for slow associated control channel signaling are disclosed. An example method for securing communications in a mobile network disclosed herein comprises transmitting a first variant of a message of a first type on a first slow associated control channel (SACCH) before ciphering is started on the first SACCH, and after ciphering is started on the first SACCH, transmitting a second variant of the message of the first type on the first SACCH, and subsequently transmitting the second variant of the message of the first type on the first SACCH, wherein the subsequently transmitted second variant of the message of the first type is the next transmitted message of the first type on the first SACCH.
US08165614B2
A wireless communication system is disclosed herein. The wireless communication system may include transmitter units and a receiver. In one embodiment, each transmitter has an address and logic programmed to perform the steps of receiving a user selection and, responsive to the receiving, repeatedly transmitting a wireless selection signal until a wireless acknowledgment signal is received. The wireless selection signal may include the address and the user selection. The receiver may include means to receive a wireless selection signal and logic programmed to transmit a wireless acknowledgment signal in response to the receipt of each wireless selection signal.
US08165600B2
A method is disclosed for providing information related to goods available for purchase in a building. The method includes establishing a plurality of boundary zones where each of the plurality of boundary zones corresponding to a physical boundary zone within a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) network. The method also includes storing product information related to the goods available for purchase that are located within at least one boundary zone of the plurality of boundary zones.
US08165598B2
Techniques and mechanisms are provided for sending targeted content and data to mobile devices. Location information associated with a device is determined. In some instances, the location information is manually entered. In other instances, the location information is determined automatically from characteristics associated with the device. Location information can be obtained from global positioning system (GPS) data, cell-site triangulation, Internet Protocol (IP) address detection, etc. Content and advertising can be provided in a location relevant manner to the mobile device.
US08165596B2
A method which can reduce loss in data transmission is provided. A data block is prepared in a high-level layer and the data block is transmitted in a low-level layer. Status report information associated with reception or non-reception of the data block is received through the low-level layer. When a receiver fails to receive data transmitted from a transmitter, the transmitter can rapidly recognize the reception failure and can retransmit the data.
US08165594B2
The present invention is a method and apparatus for resource allocation signaling for grouping user real time services. Uplink signaling for voice activity reporting of each user's transition between an active state and an inactive voice state is sent from a wireless transmit/receive unit to a Node B. Radio resource allocation to users of a wireless communication system varies based on user measurement reporting, a pre-determined pattern such as frequency hopping, or a pseudorandom function. Grouping methods are adjusted to better utilize the voice activity factor, so that statistical multiplexing can be used to more efficiently utilize physical resources.
US08165585B2
Methods and messages for performing handovers between an unlicensed mobile access network (UMAN) comprising a first radio access network and a second radio access network. URR (UMA radio resource) handover messages are exchanged between a mobile station (MS) and a UMA network controller (UNC) operating in the UMAN. The MS may access the UMAN via a wireless access point (AP) that is communicatively coupled to the UNC via an IP network. The URR handover messages are sent between the MS and the UNC using an Up interface comprising a set of layered protocols over an underlying IP transport. The handover methods include both handover from a UMAN to the second radio access network, and handover from the second radio access network to the UMAN.
US08165583B2
A multimode wireless communication terminal capable of operating on a cellular communication network and a second communication network, for example, an unlicensed mobile access (UMA) point, wherein the terminal scans (412) for service on the cellular communication network only when the signal quality of the second communication network satisfies a signal quality condition, and the terminal increases a cellular scan time interval (420) when the cellular communication network environment remains unchanged.
US08165578B2
An apparatus for communicating between a mobile device, and a plurality of transceivers. The apparatus includes a first transceiver which transmits to the mobile device on any one of a plurality of channels. The apparatus further includes a second transceiver which transmits to the mobile device on any one of the plurality of channels.
US08165574B2
A method of establishing a call to or from a mobile station (MS) operating in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) access network. An interface is established between the MS and a Packet Mobile Switching Center (PMSC), and the call is initiated after the network accepts a service request from the MS for an originating call, or after the MS is notified of a terminating call. The PMSC requests packet-switched domain resources from a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) and establishes a voice bearer channel with an endpoint in the network when the requested resources are available. The PMSC facilitates bidirectional voice traffic between the MS and the endpoint. The PMSC may also use the PCRF to modify the bearer. The PMSC then signals the MS to modify parameters for the established call.
US08165569B2
The present invention provides a new method for distributing video information to a mobile phone based on push technology where a new function of a mobile phone is utilized sufficiently. In case that a user has registered that the user makes a request for a video information distribution service about a specific area to a user management sever in advance, when a mobile phone of the user exists in the specific area, video information is distributed from a video contents server to the mobile phone of the user based on push technology. Alternatively, when traffic of a radio channel connected to the mobile phone carried by the user is lower than a predetermined threshold, video information is distributed from a video contents server to the mobile phone based on push technology.
US08165560B2
Described are techniques for transmitting information from a calling device to an emergency call center upon the initiation of a call to the emergency call center. The techniques may involve the automatic transmission of data, such as image data captured with a camera, biological information, or a profile about a person. In one embodiment, an individual's profile includes data to access medical information stored by a server, such as data to access the medical information over data access restriction functions of the server. In other embodiments, the user may select a profile to transmit from plural profiles, or not to send a profile.
US08165558B2
A new class of thin client called a trans client for operation with a smart cellular telephone as its server does not contain its own user interface (UI) and operating system (OS) and has no capability to run user programs as a standalone apparatus. Its purpose and capability is to display remote content and to provide user input interface. It is built with the slowest processing and lowest power consumption possible with the lowest cost and has security features to assure integrity of operations.
US08165553B2
A circuit is provided for suppression of second-order intermodulation in a double-balanced mixer circuit. The circuit includes a duplicate transconductor element for duplicating AC current in a transconductor pair of the double-balanced mixer circuit. A fundamental cancellation element cancels a fundamental component of an AC current of the duplicate transconductor element, while preserving a second-order intermodulation component. A phase inversion element feeds an output current of the fundamental cancellation element to the transconductor pair of the double-balanced mixer circuit, to substantially remove the second-order intermodulation component from a differential output of the double-balanced mixer circuit.
US08165550B2
A broad oscillation frequency range and good phase noise characteristic are achievable simultaneously by an oscillation circuit and a resonance circuit connected to the oscillation circuit. The resonance circuit includes an inductor element connected to the oscillation circuit, a first variable capacitance section connected to the inductor element, and a second variable capacitance section connected in parallel to the first variable capacitance section. The first variable capacitance section includes a first variable capacitive element connected to the inductor element, and a second variable capacitive element connected in parallel to the first variable capacitive element. The first variable capacitive element changes its capacity value based on a control voltage and a first reference voltage. The second variable capacitive element changes its capacity value based on the control voltage and a second reference voltage. The first reference voltage and the second reference voltage are controlled based on the capacity value of the second variable capacitance section.
US08165549B2
An electronic device, includes sigma-delta modulation circuit to operate with a clock signal and having output circuitry to deliver a digital data signal. First circuitry delivers a radiofrequency transposition signal. A notch filter includes radiofrequency digital-to-analog conversion blocks, having first input circuitry coupled to the output circuitry. Second input circuitry receives the radiofrequency transposition signal. Second output circuitry delivers a radiofrequency analog signal. Digital delay circuitry is controlled by the clock signal and includes a delay block between the two first input circuits. The frequency of a notch of the notch filter is related to the value of the delay from the delay block. Summation circuitry sums the radiofrequency signals.
US08165533B2
An apparatus and method for beamforming in a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wireless communication system are provided. A Base Station (BS) includes a calculator for generating relational expressions between beamforming vectors of Mobile Stations (MSs) using channel information of each MS, for determining beamforming vector candidates of each MS from the relational expressions using generalized Eigen-analysis, and for selecting beamforming vectors for each MS from the beamforming vector candidates, and a plurality of Transmit (Tx) beamformers for performing Tx beamforming on dedicated pilot symbols to be transmitted to each MS using the beamforming vectors for each MS.
US08165531B2
A wave-potential detector and a wave-potential radiator are provided that detect and radiate wave-potential signals having longitudinally polarized A vectors, respectively. Wave-potential receivers and transmitters incorporating the wave-potential detector and wave-potential radiator, respectively, are also provided. The wave-potential detector includes a biased plasma device, having at least a portion of its bias current that is parallel to the direction of propagation of a wave-potential signal having a longitudinally polarized A vector. Both omnidirectional and directive wave-potential radiators are provided.
US08165523B2
The invention relates to a method of initiating a wireless transfer of data between two electronic devices. In order to make the initiation particularly user friendly, it is proposed that a concept called “hugging” is employed. A hugging state between two electronic devices is assumed to be given if a first electronic device and a second electronic device are determined to undergo a specific motion pattern relative to each other while being at least in close vicinity to each other. Only in case such a hugging state is detected at a first device, a data transfer channel is opened for transferring data between the first device and some other device, e.g. the second device. The invention relates equally to a corresponding device and to a software program product with a corresponding software code.
US08165522B2
Provided are a method, apparatus and system for providing a touch and play (TAP)-based service. The method includes setting respective device identifiers of a plurality of devices which can be connected to a device using an organism as a transmission channel and setting services to be provided to a user through the interaction between the device and each of the devices corresponding to the device identifiers, respectively; having at least two execution levels so that one of the at least two execution levels can be selected in order to determine whether to execute a service in cooperation with one of the devices and setting one of the at least two execution levels according to an input from a user; receiving a device identifier of another device if the device is connected to one of the devices using the organism as the transmission channel; recognizing services set for the other device and identifying a service that is to be provided to the user through the interaction between the device and the other device; determining whether to execute the identified service according to the set execution level; and automatically recognizing information required to provide the service that is determined to be executed in cooperation with the other device and executing the determined service. When the method, apparatus and the system are used, a user can receive a desired service by simply touching two devices.
US08165520B2
The present invention provides for a satellite system that will permit for the transmission of signals of two different frequencies and polarities to be transmitted simultaneously, also the system will accommodate two different polarity commands from two or more different sources at the same time. The satellite system of the present invention includes a satellite dish or antenna that receive signals. These received signals are then transmitted to a converter. A head-in frequency processor is coupled to the converter. This head-in frequency processor enables the different frequencies and polarities to be transmitted simultaneously via a single coaxial cable. This single coaxial cable is coupled to a head-out receiver processor which is connected to a receiver. This receiver is connected to a source. This unique design and configuration provides for the system that will permit for satellite broadcasting to occur in locations that are not in the line-of-sight path to the satellites. Accordingly, the satellite system of the present invention will permit satellite broadcasting in high-rises, hospitals, condominiums, schools, and the like.
US08165518B2
A system for knowledge assessment and encouraging learning comprises transmitting to the a terminal a plurality of multiple choice questions and two-dimensional answers thereto, the answers including a plurality of full-confidence answers consisting of single-choice answers, a plurality of partial-confidence answers consisting of sets of multiple single-choice answers, and an unsure answer. The system further administers a confidence-based assessment (CBA) test that presents to the test subject the plurality of multiple choice questions directed to categorical topics, and the two-dimensional answers thereto, by which the test subject indicates both their substantive answer and the level of confidence category of their answer. The system compiles a knowledge profile from the scored CBA test, and encourages learning so that the user can address knowledge deficiencies as identified through the CBA test.
US08165517B2
The present invention provides, inter alia, inhibitors of cardiovascular diseases and disorders. The present invention also provides therapeutic methods for preventing and/or treating cardiovascular diseases and disorders. Further, the present invention provides methods of identifying inhibitors of cardiovascular diseases and disorders as well as model systems suitable for identifying such inhibitors as well as methods and compositions for detecting and/or diagnosing cardiovascular diseases and disorders.
US08165513B2
In an image forming apparatus having a fixing rotor (22) that is driven to rotate and fixes an image by heating a recording paper while conveying the paper pressurized against the rotor, an excitation coil (24) that is provided extending in an axial direction along the fixing rotor (22) and causes induction heating by applying an alternating magnetic field to the fixing rotor (22), and a demagnetizing coil (25) that is provided superposed on an end of the excitation coil (24) and is able to partially diminish a magnetic flux generated by the excitation coil (24), by making the shape of the portion that belongs to the demagnetizing coil (25) and overlaps the excitation coil (24) has an asymmetrical shape have no axis of symmetry in the direction in which the recording paper is conveyed, a trouble due to overheating and defective fixing due to a shortage in the generation of heat can be reduced even when a plurality of kinds of recording papers of slightly different sizes are used.
US08165510B2
The development device includes a toner carrier, a toner supplier, and a surface electrical potential controller. When the toner supplier supplies toner particles to the toner carrier, the toner carrier carries toner particles to adhere to a latent image formed on the latent image carrier and has a time constant τ1 of a surface electrical potential change of the toner carrier. The surface electrical potential controller has a time constant τ2 of a surface electrical potential change of the toner carrier smaller than the time constant τ1. The toner carrier includes a plurality of electrodes aligned in parallel and electrically insulated from each other on the surface thereof, and a voltage supplier for supplying each of the plurality of electrodes with a voltage to periodically switch electrical fields therebetween, so that the toner particles form a cloud on the surface of the toner carrier while hopping.
US08165507B2
An image formation apparatus is provided, to which developing devices, each having an opening, and developer cartridges for respectively supplying a developing agent to the openings of the developing devices are mountable. The apparatus includes: developing device shutters, each configured to open and close a respective one of the openings of the developing devices mounted to the apparatus; and a link mechanism configured to move the developing device shutters in linking with each other.
US08165505B2
A developer cartridge includes a developer storing portion that stores a developer and has a first opening for taking out the developer, and a shutter member slidably mounted to the developer storing portion so as to open and close the first opening. The shutter member has a resilient-member-fixing portion to which a resilient member is fixed for preventing leakage of the developer through between the shutter member and the developer storing portion. A deflectable part is provided on at least one of the resilient-member-fixing portion and a peripheral portion of the first opening of the developer storing portion.
US08165492B2
A developer cartridge includes a first frame and a second frame, which confronts the first frame. The second frame includes an opening, through which developer is passed, and which is openable and closable by the first frame in accordance with a relative movement between the second frame and the first frame, and a seal member, which is provided around the opening, and which does not overlap the first frame as viewed from a direction in which the developer passes the opening when the opening is opened.
US08165486B2
An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main unit; a detected unit that is placed in the apparatus main unit; a temperature detection member that is provided out of contact with the detected unit in the apparatus main unit for detecting a temperature of the detected unit; a change member for changing a state of an air current in the apparatus main unit; and a temperature correction unit for correcting a value relevant to the temperature detected by the temperature detection member based on change of the state of the air current by the change member.
US08165484B2
At a time for resetting a transfer voltage after a predetermined time period from the performance of ATVC in both a color mode and a monochrome mode, ATVC is performed only in a currently running mode. A transfer voltage in another mode that the ATVC has not been performed at that time is set based on results of the ATVC performed in both the color and monochrome modes and a result of the ATVC performed in the other mode at that time.
US08165481B2
An image forming method includes detecting a toner degradation state by detecting an image density on an electrostatic latent image carrier with high sensitivity and low cost. The degraded toner is processed based on the detected information, so that the waste toner can be reduced and a good image can be obtained. An image density of an image that is transferred with a predetermined reference electric field is detected in a first detecting step. An image density of an image that is transferred with an electric field that is smaller or greater than the reference electric field is detected in a second detecting step. A processing step of processing the degraded toner is performed on the basis of the image density detected by each of the detecting steps.
US08165476B2
A single sideband modulator uses a radio-frequency signal output by a voltage controlled oscillator to modulate a reference optical signal output by a local light source, thereby obtaining several sideband signals, and combines the sideband signals into a single reproduced optical signal. The optical coupler couples the reproduced optical signal with a received optical signal to generate an optical beat signal, from which a photoelectric transducer and loop filter generate a control voltage for the voltage controlled oscillator. These components operate as an optical phase locked loop that efficiently locks the reproduced optical signal in frequency and phase with the received optical signal by using the energy of all sidebands of the reference optical signal. The phase locked loop is useful for coherent detection of the received optical signal.
US08165475B2
A system for reducing clipping may be used between a multichannel RF source and a laser to reduce or correct clipping that might occur in the laser as a result of negative spikes or peaks in a multichannel RF signal. The system generally includes a clipping correction circuit that receives the multichannel RF signal and responsive to the RF signal, prevents one or more of the negative peaks in the RF signal from causing clipping. The clipping correction circuit may either detect an envelope of the RF signal and/or may detect one or more peaks in the RF signal. One or more negative peaks may be prevented from causing clipping by adjusting a bias current provided by a bias control circuit and/or by modifying the RF signal with one or more clipping correction pulses coinciding with one or more negative peaks.
US08165471B2
According to one example embodiment, a form factor adapter module may include a small form factor (SFF) host connector, an X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector, and a serial to XAUI transceiver. The SFF host connector may be configured receive a small form factor pluggable (SFP or SFP+) module and to transmit and receive data according to a Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface (SGMII) or Serializer-deserializer Framer Interface (SFI) protocol. The X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector may be configured to mate with an X2 or XENPAK edge finger socket and to transmit and receive data according to a Ten Gigabit Ethernet Attachment Unit Interface (XAUI) protocol. The serial to XAUI transceiver may be coupled to both the SFF host connector and the X2 or XENPAK edge finger connector. The serial to XAUI transceiver may be configured to convert data between the SGMII or SFI protocol and the XAUI protocol.
US08165461B2
There is provided a tankless water heater for heating water passing therethrough. The modular heater comprises a plurality of heating units, each heating unit comprising a heating tube and a coupler, wherein each heating tube defines an interior region and each heating tube includes a helical structure whereby the helical structure imparts a swirling motion on water passing through the interior region of the tube. A heating element is also disposed within the interior region of the heating tube, and electric power applied to the heating element acts to heat the water passing through the tube. Temperature sensors may be positioned so as to detect water temperature proximate the inlet portion, and the outlet portion. Additionally, a flow meter is positioned proximate the inlet portion. The controller directs signals to switches positioned at each tube so as to apply electric current to the heating elements.
US08165449B2
A set of interfaces, data structures and events represent a DV metadata extraction tool. The DV metadata extraction tool includes an API (application programming interface) for describing DV metadata packs that are to be extracted from a DV data stream. The extraction API supports methods for specifying and removing DV metadata packs to be extracted from DV frames. The DV metadata extraction tool also includes an API for describing a container that holds DV metadata once it has been extracted from a DV frame. The container API supports methods for adding and removing DV structures to the container and for retrieving data from the container, removing data from the container, and iterating through the container. The DV metadata extraction tool also includes a collection of higher-level structures that represent unpacked DV metadata packs.
US08165447B2
An information recording medium capable of converting a stream including seamless connection, which is recorded in a constrained format allowing format conversion from a first format (MPEG-TS) to a second format (MPEG-PS), into a second stream, and an apparatus and method for recording information in the information recording medium. When a system stream recorded in a constrained format enabling conversion from a first format (for example, MPEG transport stream) to a second format (for example, MPEG program stream) is converted to a second format, overlap of two system streams for audio information at a seamless point is eliminated.
US08165446B2
A user is able to select a multimedia stream from a plurality of multimedia streams available at a multimedia receiver. The availability of one or more trickplay features for the selected multimedia stream is determined in response to the selection of the multimedia stream. A visual indicator, an audible indicator, or both are selectively provided for display/output based on the determined availability status of the corresponding trickplay feature. The selective provision of a trickplay indicator can include providing a first trickplay indicator when the trickplay feature is available and providing a second, different trickplay indicator when the trickplay feature is unavailable. Alternately, the selective provision of a trickplay indicator includes providing the trickplay indicator when the trickplay feature is unavailable and omitting provision of the trickplay indicator when the trickplay feature is available, or vice versa.
US08165442B2
An optical fiber management tray system includes a tray or drawer including a base panel having a number of slots formed in the panel, and a number of retention clips for mounting fiber optic devices of different shapes and dimensions on the panel. Two or more of the clips each has a main body with a different retention portion for enveloping part of a corresponding fiber optic device, and a pair of latch fingers that project from the clip body in the direction of the base panel when the device is enveloped in the retention portion clip and placed at a desired location on the panel. The latch fingers have free ends for engaging edges of the slots in the base panel when the corresponding device is enveloped in the retention clip, thus securing the device at the desired location on the panel.
US08165437B2
Provided are semiconductor integrated circuits including a grating coupler for optical communication and methods of forming the same. The semiconductor integrated circuit includes: a cladding layer disposed on a semiconductor substrate; a grating coupler including an optical waveguide on the cladding layer and a grating on the optical waveguide; and at least one reflector formed in the cladding layer below the grating.
US08165436B2
An optical grating comprising a grating layer and two surface layers, the layers being arranged with the grating layer between the surface layers. The grating layer comprises a set of multiple, discrete, elongated first grating regions that comprise a first dielectric material and are arranged with intervening elongated second grating regions. The bulk refractive index of the dielectric material of the first grating regions is larger than the bulk refractive index of the second grating regions. The first surface layer comprises a first impedance matching layer, and the second surface layer comprises either (i) a second impedance matching layer or (ii) a reflective layer. Each said impedance matching layer is arranged to reduce reflection of an optical signal transmitted through the corresponding surface of the grating layer, relative to reflection of the optical signal in the absence of said impedance matching layer.
US08165433B2
An optical routing device is described that comprises a semiconductor substrate (52) having at least one optical input (4), a plurality of optical outputs (6,8) and an array of MEMS moveable reflective elements (58;102). The array of moveable reflective elements (58;102) are configurable such that light can be selectively routed from any one optical input (4) to any one of two or more of said plurality of optical outputs (6,8). Light selectively routed from any one optical input to any one of two or more of said plurality of optical outputs (6,8) is guided within a hollow core waveguide (54). In one embodiment, a cross-connect optical matrix switch is described.
US08165428B2
Methods and systems for optical imaging based computer pointing, including optical imaging based pointing motion and button functionality. Optical image motion information is translated to a computer pointing device data format, and one or more patterns, sequences, or combinations of optical image information are translated to one or more corresponding pointing device button select indications in the pointing device data format.
US08165424B1
A system and method use a video transform to produce an intermediate pixel transform file representative of a video effect. The intermediate pixel transform file is applied to a frame of one or more input video streams to generate a frame for a streaming video with the video effect. The intermediate pixel transform file may be stored with stock video in an effect library and used to provide real time streaming video with complex effects in an efficient manner.
US08165419B2
A histogram stretching apparatus and a histogram stretching method are disclosed to enhance image contrast by stretching a histogram of an input image within a range of a preset maximum expansion level and a preset minimum expansion level. The histogram stretching apparatus performs proper stretching suitable for a characteristic of the input image in due consideration of a saturation portion and a distribution range of a histogram of the input image. The histogram stretching apparatus can improve stretching effects by removing the saturated portion of the input image, and can prevent image distortion even for a monochromatic image. The histogram apparatus can improve histogram stretching effects by adjusting entire image levels of an image having a histogram frequency distribution skewed to a dark or bright side before a stretching operation.
US08165418B2
In an image processor, a reduced image forming unit forms a reduced image by reducing an original image. The reduced image peripheral average value generating unit generates a peripheral average value for each pixel of the reduced image. The reduced image reflectance component calculating unit calculates a reflectance component indicating a ratio of brightness between each pixel and the peripheral pixels thereof for the each pixel in the reduced image. The frequency distribution generating unit generates a frequency distribution of the frequency of each value of reflectance component calculated by the reduced image reflectance component calculating unit. The representative reflectance component determining unit determines a representative reflectance component based on the frequency distribution. The simplified correcting unit performs a simplified correcting operation for correcting the value of the target pixel in the original image by converting the value of the target pixel to an output value based on the representative reflectance component and the value of the target pixel in the original image.
US08165413B1
A computer-implemented method for optimizing bounds checking in a structured lattice having a regular pattern of neighboring nodes, includes the steps of: visiting a node in the lattice in a determined order, including bounds checking the node and performing a neighborhood process on the node; when said node is an interior node, calculating a distance k to a specified node in the determined order; visiting the next k nodes in the determined order without performing bounds checking and performing a neighborhood process on each of the next k nodes; and at least one of displaying or storing a result of the neighborhood process for the node.
US08165410B2
Category context models (64) and a universal context model (62) are generated including sums of soft co-occurrences of pairs of visual words in geometric proximity to each other in training images (50) assigned to each category and assigned to all categories, respectively. Context information (76) about an image to be classified (70) are generated including sums of soft co-occurrences of pairs of visual words in geometric proximity to each other in the image to be classified. For each category (82), a comparison is made of (i) closeness of the context information about the image to be classified with the corresponding category context model and (ii) closeness of the context information about the image to be classified with the universal context model. An image category (92) is assigned to the image to be classified being based on the comparisons.
US08165408B2
The position of a face image within an input image is detected based on results from applying a plurality of weak classifiers in sequence to each of sub-images extracted from the input image. A decision whether to interrupt the sequence and reject a currently extracted sub-image is made based on the sum of a total of weighted decision values obtained up to the current point in the sequence and a total of potential weighted decision values obtainable from the remaining weak classifiers if the extracted sub-image were a face image.
US08165407B1
Described is a bio-inspired vision system for object recognition. The system comprises an attention module, an object recognition module, and an online labeling module. The attention module is configured to receive an image representing a scene and find and extract an object from the image. The attention module is also configured to generate feature vectors corresponding to color, intensity, and orientation information within the extracted object. The object recognition module is configured to receive the extracted object and the feature vectors and associate a label with the extracted object. Finally, the online labeling module is configured to alert a user if the extracted object is an unknown object so that it can be labeled.
US08165404B2
In an apparatus for creating document data, an acquiring unit acquires a handwritten figure; and a recognizing unit converts the handwritten figure acquired by the acquiring unit into a specific figure and recognizes a layout including the specific figure as a component as a user-specified layout. A storage unit stores therein data to be inserted into a desired one of a plurality of layout models. A selecting unit selects a layout model similar to the user-specified layout model from among the layout models as a similar layout model; and an inserting unit inserts the data stored in the storage unit into the similar layout model selected by the selecting unit.
US08165401B2
Methods and apparatus for operating on images are described, in particular methods and apparatus for interest point detection and/or description working under different scales and with different rotations, e.g. for scale-invariant and rotation-invariant interest point detection and/or description. The present invention can provide improved or alternative apparatus and methods for matching interest points either in the same image or in a different image. The present invention can provide alternative or improved software for implementing any of the methods of the invention. The present invention can provide alternative or improved data structures created by multiple filtering operations to generate a plurality of filtered images as well as data structures for storing the filtered images themselves, e.g. as stored in memory or transmitted through a network. The present invention can provide alternative or improved data structures including descriptors of interest points in images, e.g. as stored in memory or transmitted through a network as well as data structures associating such descriptors with an original copy of the image or an image derived therefrom, e.g. a thumbnail image.
US08165400B2
An image data processing system includes an extracting unit extracting from an image signal corresponding to one image a signal corresponding to a pixel block including plural pixels in the image, a threshold calculating unit calculating a threshold for classifying the plural pixels into plural segments by linear calculation of display values of the plural pixels, a representative value calculating unit calculating plural representative values corresponding to the plural segments, a generating unit generating an arrangement pattern representing an arrangement of the representative values in the pixel block, and a transmitting unit transmitting the representative values and the arrangement pattern.
US08165396B2
A digital image editing method includes: reading a foreground image and a background image, where the foreground image has a foreground portion; calculating three correction constants each of which is used to correct one of three components of the foreground portion of the foreground image using color information of the foreground and background images; correcting color of the foreground portion of the foreground image using the three correction constants; and pasting the foreground portion of the foreground image onto the background image.
US08165378B2
A method and an apparatus are disclosed for visualizing tubular anatomical structures, in particular vessel structures, in medical 3D image records. The method according to at least one embodiment of the invention includes: providing 3D image data of the tubular anatomical structure; determining a centerline of the tubular anatomical structure in the 3D image data; selecting a point of the centerline; generating a 2D slice image assigned to the point, the 2D slice image representing a sectional plane in the 3D image data, which sectional plane is arranged relative to a section of the centerline, including the point and a prescribable section start point and section end point of the section, such that an orthogonal distance from the sectional plane for each centerline point of the section is less than or equal to a prescribed value R, the value R being selected to be greater than a value Rkrit, and Rkrit specifying the value for which precisely one such sectional plane can be determined; and visually displaying the 2D slice image.
US08165377B2
An apparatus, system and method to determine a coordinate system of a heart includes an imager and a computer. The computer is programmed to acquire a first set of initialization imaging data from an anatomical region of a free-breathing subject. A portion of the first set of initialization imaging data includes organ data, which includes cardiac data. The computer is further programmed to determine a location of a central region of a left ventricle of a heart, where the location is based on the organ data and a priori information. The computer is also programmed to determine a short axis of the left ventricle based on the determined location, acquire a first set of post-initialization imaging data from the free-breathing subject from an imaging plane orientation based on the determination of the short axis, and reconstruct at least one image from the first set of post-initialization imaging data.
US08165376B2
A method and system for automatically detecting rib metastasis in a thoracic CT volume is disclosed. The ribs are segmented in said CT volume by recursive tracing. A series of cross-sectional images are then generated along a centerline of each rib. Cortical and trabecular bone structures are segmented in each of the cross-sectional images for each rib. Features are calculated for each cross-sectional image based on characteristics of the cortical and trabecular bone structures, and alterations are detected in the cross-sectional images based on the features. Rib metastasis is detected in a rib when an alteration is detected in a number of consecutive cross-sectional images along the centerline of the rib.
US08165373B2
A computer-implemented data processing system for blind extraction of more pure components than mixtures recorded in 1D or 2D NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Sparse component analysis is combined with single component points (SCPs) to blind decomposition of mixtures data X into pure components S and concentration matrix A, whereas the number of pure components S is greater than number of mixtures X. NMR mixtures are transformed into wavelet domain, where pure components are sparser than in time domain and where SCPs are detected. Mass spectrometry (MS) mixtures are extended to analytical continuation in order to detect SCPs. SCPs are used to estimate number of pure components and concentration matrix. Pure components are estimated in frequency domain (NMR data) or m/z domain (MS data) by means of constrained convex programming methods. Estimated pure components are ranked using negentropy-based criterion.
US08165366B2
A system and method for determining the position of correspondence object pairs including A-objects and B-objects that represent the same objects of the same anatomical body structure in two different reference frames A and B, including: defining A-objects and B-objects that each represent different objects of the body structure in their respective reference frames; determining geometric relationship data A and geometric relationship data B that describe a geometric relationship between the A-objects based on positions of the A-objects in the reference frame A and the B-objects in the B reference frame; and providing data derived or extracted from the geometric relationship data A and from the geometric relationship data B to allow a comparison of a geometric relationship between at least two A-objects to a geometric relationship between at least two B-objects.
US08165361B2
Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for temporally aligning a plurality of cardiac image sequences. The method includes performing a locally linear embedding algorithm on a first set of cardiac image sequences and on a second set of cardiac image sequences. A graphical representation is created for the first set of cardiac image sequences and the second set of cardiac image sequences. A determination is made whether the first set of cardiac image sequences and the second set of cardiac image sequences were generated from a similar point of view. If a similar point of view is found, the first graphical representation and the second graphical representation are aligned using a minimization function. If a similar point of view is not found, the graphs are aligned with a template and then aligned with each other using the minimization function.
US08165334B2
A speaker system includes an enclosure, a first speaker unit for low frequency and a plurality of second speaker units for high frequency. The enclosure includes a front plate portion which is a baffle plate and a rear plate portion. A length of the rear plate portion in a first direction perpendicular to a forward and backward direction is shorter than a length of the front plate portion in the first direction. The first speaker unit and the second speaker units are mounted to the front plate portion. The plurality of second speaker units are arranged in the first direction. Vibration plates of the plurality of second speaker units are located in the vicinity of the front plate portions in the forward and backward direction.
US08165330B2
Data is wirelessly transferred between a hearing aid and an external device, wherein the hearing aid via an internal receiving device, receives data being sent form the external device via a wireless connection. The hearing aid is in a receiving mode when data from the external device is sent via the wireless connection, wherein the receiving device is then permanently in the on-position for receiving data. Furthermore, the hearing aid switches to a stand-by mode, when no data is sent via the wireless connection from the external device, wherein the receiving device is alternatively turned on and off, in order to detect a beginning data transfer from the external device.
US08165320B2
An audio/video (A/V) device having a volume control function for external audio reproduction units by using volume control buttons of a remote controller is provided. The A/V device includes speakers, an audio output port for externally outputting an audio signal, an audio signal processing unit for reproducing and amplifying the audio signal and applying the amplified audio signal to the speakers or the audio output port, a memory unit for storing volume control values, and a control unit for applying to the audio signal processing unit any of the volume control values stored in the memory based on whether the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port. The control unit controls the audio signal processing unit to adjust the volume control values for the audio output port by the volume control buttons when the external audio reproduction unit is plugged in the audio output port.
US08165311B2
In one embodiment, a fan is used to generate airflow through a computer chassis to a fan air inlet. An audible frequency component of the airflow is identified and selected. A sound wave is generated having a generated frequency equal to the selected audible frequency component of the airflow. The generated sound wave is introduced into the airflow with the generated frequency out of phase with the audible frequency component of the airflow. The magnitude of the generated frequency may be selected as a function of fan speed and/or air sensed pressure within the airflow. The frequency, phase, and magnitude of the generated sound wave may be selected and enforced by a baseboard management controller.
US08165301B1
A protocol for providing secured IO device and storage controller handshake protocol; IO device controlled cipher settings, and secured data storage and access in memory. An IO device requesting data transfer with encryption and/or decryption, requests session keys from the processor. The processor generates a fresh public-private key pair for the session. The public key is sent to the requesting IO device; the private key is momentarily saved by the processor for the session. The requesting IO device generates a secret key and its desired cipher setting; furthermore, encrypts the secret key and cipher setting using the public key, and sends secret key and cipher setting to the processor. The processor uses the private key to decrypt the secret key and cipher setting. The cipher setting is used for configuring the data processing core. The secret key is used for encryption and/or decryption of the data being transferred. All keys are not permanently saved.
US08165291B2
A circuit for stabilizing soft bits in a bit stream, the circuit having a first register to receive an initial read of the bit stream, a second register to receive a subsequent read of the bit stream, a comparator to compare the initial read of the bit stream to the subsequent read of the bit stream, a third register to receive a comparison string having bits set in positions where the initial read of the bit stream and the subsequent read of the bit stream do not match, indicating a soft bit in the positions, and an accumulator to receive the comparison string for multiple subsequent reads of the bit stream, and track positions of all soft bits detected during the multiple subsequent reads.
US08165289B2
A method is provided for deriving a single code from a biometric sample in a way which enables different samples of a user to provide the same code whilst also distinguishing between samples of different users. Different features are analysed to obtain mean and variance values, and these are used to control how the different feature values are interpreted. In addition, features are combined and a sub-set of bits of the combination is used as the code. This enables bits which are common to all user samples to be dropped as well as bits which may differ between different samples of the same user.
US08165287B2
The cryptographic hash functions using of elliptic polynomial polynomials are based on the elliptic polynomial discrete logarithm problem, which is well known as a computationally hard problem. The hash functions are based on the elliptic polynomial equation in their generation, where different elliptic polynomials are used for different blocks of the same plain text. Particularly, the hash functions use an elliptic polynomial with more than one independent x-coordinate. More specifically, a set of elliptic polynomial points are used that satisfy an elliptic polynomial equation with more than one independent x-coordinate which is defined over a finite field F.
US08165285B2
The invention relates, mainly to a cryptographic process using an elliptic curve represented by means of an equation containing first and second parameters (a, b), a bilinear matching, and calculations in a finite group of integers constructed around at least one first reduction rule reducing each integer to its remainder in a whole division by a first prime number (p) that constitutes a third parameter, the elements of the finite group being in bijection with points selected on the elliptic curve, and the number of which is linked to a fourth parameter (q), where this process uses public and private keys, each of which is represented by a given point of the elliptic curve or by a multiplication factor between two points of this curve.According to the invention, the first reduction rule is the only reduction rule implemented, and the elliptic curve is obtained through a step-by-step construction process, directly allocating to the finite group q*q q-order points in the elliptic curve.
US08165279B2
Provided is a teleconference system enabling easy participation in a conference from a place geographically apart, securing active proceeding by individual presenting of statement, and enabling drastic decrease of trouble of creating a result by the conference. Statement information inputted by an input means of a terminal device is received and temporarily held and then the received statement information is transmitted to all the terminal devices participating in a teleconference. The statement information displayed on a display means of the terminal device is sorted by an input means of the terminal device and received as statement attribute data. The received statement attribute data and the statement information are stored in an information database. Then, based on the statement attribute data and the statement information, a commitment related to the teleconference is generated.
US08165278B2
Service levels for call-processing are enhanced based on the subscriber status of at least one of the calling party and the called party. In one example, a calling party (caller) places a call to a called party (recipient). At least one of the parties subscribes to a call-processing service and the call normally would be processed according to a predetermined service level. However, the service level is enhanced in response to a subscriber status for at least one of the parties, and the call is processed according to the enhanced service level.
US08165271B2
A system and method is described that allows a system operator to remotely detect and diagnose a voice-enabled cable modem that has entered a chattering line state so that appropriate steps may be taken to avoid or rectify any of the problems that may result from this condition. Logic within the voice-enabled cable modem monitors for pulse dialing activity and/or excessive hook state and/or flash events that may be attributed to a faulty telephone and/or telephone line connected to the voice-enabled cable modem. Responsive to detecting such conditions, the logic within the voice-enabled cable modem reports a fault condition to an external management system via a cable data network.
US08165268B1
Effective atomic numbers associated with pixels in a region are received. An effective atomic number is associated with each pixel in the region. X-ray data for the region is received, and an item within the region is identified from the x-ray data. Some of the pixels in the region are correlated with the item such that the item is associated with an effective atomic number. An image of the region is rendered. The pixels of the item have a display style based on the effective atomic number of the item.
US08165267B2
A method and device is provided for controlling a hand luggage and other objects carried by flight passengers during check-in, wherein the complexity of an object is determined in a first verifying device by automatic verification. Afterwards, supplementary verification steps are carried out according to the determined complexity.
US08165258B2
A clock generating device includes: a frequency divider having an input node coupled to a transmission interface for generating a reference clock signal according to an input data received from the transmission interface; and a clock/data recovery circuit having a data input node coupled to the transmission interface and a reference clock input node coupled to an output node of the frequency divider, for generating an output clock signal according to one of the input data received at the data input node and the reference clock signal received at the reference clock input node.
US08165255B2
A discrete time signal resampling circuit (200). A data sample processing module (260) removes selected samples from a sequential plurality of discrete time signal samples to implement fractional resampling where the data sample processing module stores fewer samples than the number of samples between samples to be removed. A coefficient generator (240) in the resampling circuit generates a sequence of finite impulse response filter coefficients, with each coefficient in the sequence being associated with a respective distinct portion of a plurality of discrete time signal samples. A coefficient multiplier (264) multiplies each of the sequential plurality of finite impulse response filter coefficients by its associated respective distinct portion of the plurality of discrete time signal samples. An adder (236) produces a resampled output sample that consists of a sum of elements of the product vector produced by the coefficient multiplier.
US08165241B2
Feedback bandwidth may be reduced in a closed loop MIMO system by factoring non essential information out of a beamforming matrix.
US08165234B2
A method for synchronizing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission symbols includes: an OFDM transmission module receives a synchronization signal, and adjusts the OFDM symbols sent by all lines to synchronous symbols according to the synchronization signal and send the symbols out. The present invention also provides a system for synchronizing OFDM transmission symbols. In the present invention, the weaknesses of the prior art are overcome; a synchronization signal generator generates a synchronization signal and sends it to the OFDM transmission equipment; and the OFDM transmission equipment adjusts the OFDM symbols sent by all lines to synchronous symbols according to the synchronization signal and send the symbols out, thus accomplishing synchronization between OFDM symbols and optimizing the performance of the dynamic spectrum management (DSM).
US08165230B2
An apparatus and method for estimating Doppler frequency in a wireless communication network, wherein the method comprises determining a first correlation coefficient (c1) between a currently received Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) symbol and an OFDM symbol received previous to the currently received OFDM symbol, and a second correlation coefficient (c2) between the currently received OFDM symbol and an OFDM symbol received immediately previous to the OFDM symbol received previous to the currently received OFDM symbol; performing a leaky integration across OFDM symbols of the resulting first and second correlation coefficients (c1, c2) to obtain an estimate of the first and second correlation coefficients; dividing the second correlation coefficient (c2) by the first correlation coefficient (c1) to obtain a correlation coefficient ratio; and using the correlation coefficient ratio as an estimate of the Doppler frequency in the wireless communication system.
US08165218B2
A variable bit rate (VBR) representation of an image sequence is segmented based on a plurality of time intervals. For each of at least two of the time intervals, the method comprises: determining which of the packets, denoted by Pp, in the VBR representation within the presently-considered time interval has a number of blocks of information per unit time greater than a baseline value; determining which of the packets, denoted by Pn, in the VBR representation within the presently-considered time interval has a number of blocks of information per unit time less than the baseline value; and creating a second representation of the image sequence in which some blocks of information Bp are removed from at least one Pp packet and interlaced with blocks of information in at least one Pn packet to produce reformatted packets.
US08165215B2
A signal processing system adapted for sparse representation of signals is provided, comprising: (i) one or more training signals; (ii) a dictionary containing signal-atoms; (iii) a representation of each training signal using a linear combination of said dictionary's signal-atoms; (iv) means for updating the representation of the training signal; (v) means for updating the dictionary one group of atoms at a time, wherein each atom update may include all representations referring to said updated atom; and (vi) means for iterating (iv) and (v) until a stopping rule is fulfilled. The system uses the K-SVD algorithm for designing dictionaries for sparse representation of signals.
US08165207B2
A method and apparatus are provided for effectively predicting a video frame that use all of the advantages of an intra mode and an intra BL mode in multi-layer structure based-video coding. The method includes reconstructing the intra block of a lower layer using the previously reconstructed first neighboring blocks of the intra block; subtracting the first neighboring blocks from previously stored the second neighboring blocks of an upper layer corresponding to the first neighboring blocks; creating a differential predicted block based on a predetermined intra prediction mode by performing intra prediction using virtual differential neighboring blocks that are created as a result of the subtraction; adding the differential predicted block and the reconstructed intra block; and subtracting a predicted block, which is created as a result of the addition, from a block of the upper layer corresponding to the intra block.
US08165192B2
Tap coefficients of an FIR filter are prevented from converging to wrong values. A waveform equalizer for performing waveform equalization of an input signal and outputting a waveform equalization result as an output signal includes: an FIR filter for performing a convolution operation between the input signal and a plurality of tap coefficients; an IIR filter for performing a convolution operation between the output signal and a plurality of tap coefficients; an adding section for adding an operation result of the FIR filter and an operation result of the IIR filter and outputting an addition result as the output signal; an error detecting section for detecting an error of the output signal; and a tap coefficient updating section for updating respective tap coefficients of the FIR filter and the IIR filter based on the error. The tap coefficient updating section sets a step size for updating the tap coefficients of the FIR filter to a value smaller than a step size for updating the tap coefficients of the IIR filter during a period from start of operation of the waveform equalizer until a predetermined condition is satisfied.
US08165191B2
Embodiments in the disclosure include a multi-protocol transceiver including a configurable arrangement of receive and/or transmit circuitry. An exemplary transceiver can be selectively configured to effectively transmit and/or receive data communications corresponding to a select one of a plurality of high-speed communication protocols. Another more particular embodiment disclosed includes a configurable data path through link-wide Physical Coding Sub-layer (“PCS”) circuitry including link-wide clock compensation, encoding/decoding, and scrambling/descrambling circuitry and lane striping/de-striping circuitry; the configurable data path further includes lane-wide circuitry including clock compensation, encoding/decoding, receive block sync, and Physical Medium Access sub-layer (“PMA”) circuitry, and further includes bit muxing/de-muxing circuitry coupled to Physical Medium Dependent (“PMD”) sub-layer circuitry.
US08165177B2
A system and method for hybrid virtual machine monitor system is provided. A first operating system uses a file system to manage data storage and retrieval within a data storage area. A second operating system, which is not compatible with the first operating system's file system, executes a management application backup utility. The first operating system includes a filter driver that sends logical block addresses, which correspond to data reads/writes, to the management application backup utility. In turn, the management application backup utility uses the logical block addresses to perform operations on the data storage locations. In one embodiment, the management application backup utility performs actions on the data storage area, such as a disk defragmentation, and subsequently sends data location changes to the filter driver. In this embodiment, the filter driver instructs the first operating system's file system to update its translation tables based upon the data location changes.
US08165174B2
In a method of demapping a tributary from a first frame into a second frame, the first frame has a plurality of tributary words and a synchronization word, and first and second counters are provided. The first counter is increased by a first value at each dock cycle of the second frame, and reading operations are performed according to the second counter. Synchronization information, generated according to the synchronization word, is used to change between first and second states. When in the first state, the second counter is synchronized to the first counter at each clock cycle of the second frame; and, when in the second state, the second counter is synchronized to the first counter at a predetermined instant of the second frame, the second counter increasing by a second value at each clock cycle of the second frame wherein the reading operation is performed.
US08165173B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a data transmission method, a data transmission system and a CLT. The method being applicable to a semi-duplex Ethernet Passive Coaxial-cable Network and the network comprising a CLT and at least one CNU; the CLT transmitting downlink data to each CNU in a preset downlink transmission period and each CNU transmitting uplink data to the CLT in a preset uplink transmission period; the preset uplink transmission period being shorter or equal to the period that clock synchronization can be kept by the CNU. The method includes: sending, by the CLT, clock information to the CNU before the expiration of the period that the clock synchronization can be kept by the CNU, the clock information being adapted to make the clocks of the CNU and CLT be kept synchronized with each other within a period. With the embodiments of the present invention, the clock between each CNU and the CLT can be kept synchronized. Thus, the normal communication between the CNU and the CLT is guaranteed.
US08165172B2
An embodiment is a method and apparatus to perform symbol synchronization. A sign element obtains signs of samples in a sample vector. A correlation estimator computes a correlation of the sample vector. A synchronization detector detects symbol synchronization.Another embodiment is a method and apparatus to perform frame synchronization. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processing unit computes a current FFT vector and an accumulated previous FFT vector. The current FFT vector and the accumulated previous FFT vector correspond to sample vectors associated with preamble symbols prior to symbol synchronization detection. A real and imaginary processing unit generates real and imaginary summations using the current FFT vector and the accumulated previous FFT vector. A mode processor generates mode flags representing operational modes using the real and imaginary summations.
US08165169B2
Clock Priority Chain Level Systems and Methods are provided. In one embodiment, a method for determining clock priority for a multihost unit distributed antenna system is provided. The method comprises identifying which port of a plurality of ports is receiving a reference clock signal having a highest priority Network Chain Level (NCL) value, wherein the highest priority NCL value indicates a master clock priority level (MCPL) of a host unit providing a Master Clock and a chain level value indicating a chain depth; selecting a system clock reference port from the plurality of ports based on the highest priority NCL value; locking a local clock to a reference clock signal received on the selected system clock reference port; calculating an incremented NCL value based on the highest priority NCL value; and transmitting the incremented NCL value over the plurality of ports.
US08165166B2
The present invention relates to communicating between a network and a mobile terminal in a wireless communication system. The invention includes receiving a channel during a transmission time interval, and determining not to receive a transmission from the network for a predetermined amount of transmission time intervals related to the channel after receiving the channel.
US08165159B2
The present invention provides a method for allocating a pilot sequence that can obtain effect of reducing interference by combining received pilot blocks when sequence such as the CAZAC sequence as a pilot sequence is used. In the present invention, the pilot sequences by the number of 2K are divided into K sets of {C—1, C—2}, {C—3, C—4}, . . . , {C_(2K−1), C—2K} and allocated a set of the pilot sequences to each of the cells #1 to #K. For example, pilot sequences: {C—1, C—2} are allocated to pilot blocks (SB #1, #2) of the cell #1, pilot sequences: {C—3, C—4} are allocated to pilot blocks (SB #1, #2) of the cell #2, pilot sequences: {C—5, C—6} are allocated to pilot blocks (SB #1, #2) of the cell #3, and pilot sequences {C—7, C—8} are allocated to two pilot blocks (SB #1, #2) of the cell #4.
US08165150B2
A method and system for position location of clients in wireless local area networks. (WLANs). The position location technique utilizes time-of-flight (TOF) measurements of signals transmitted from a client to a number of wireless access points (APs) or vice versa to determine distances. Round-trip time (RTT) measurement protocols are used to estimate TOF and distances between the client at an unknown position and the WLAN APs. The method and system improves positioning accuracy by identifying and mitigating non-line-of sight (NLOS) errors such as multipaths. Trilateration algorithms are utilized in combination with median filtering of measurements to accurately estimate the position of the client.
US08165149B2
A medium-reservation mechanism improves transmission efficiency in a multiple-channel network that includes stations with limited-selectivity receivers. The mechanism employs a medium-request signal that conveys channel information. In this network, stations check the channel information in the medium-request signal to decide whether or not to comply with the medium-request signal. If the channel information identifies the channel that is close to the channel that the station is presently operating on, the station then complies with the medium-request signal. If the channel information identifies a channel other than the channel that the station is presently operating on, the station ignores the medium-request signal.
US08165147B2
Apparatus for flexible sharing of bandwidth in switches with input buffering by dividing time into a plurality of frames of time slots, wherein each frame has a specified integer value of time slots. The apparatus includes modules where inputs sequentially select available outputs to which the inputs send packets in specified future time slots. The selection of outputs by the inputs is done using a pipeline technique and a schedule is calculated within multiple time slots.
US08165144B2
A scheduling method and system for a multi-level class hierarchy are disclosed. The hierarchy includes a root node linked to at least two groups. One of the groups has priority over the other of the groups and comprises at least one high priority queue and at least one low priority queue. The method includes receiving traffic at the root node, directing traffic received at the root node to one of the groups, and directing traffic received at the priority group to one of the high priority and low priority queues. Packets are accepted at the high priority queue or the low priority queue if a specified rate is not exceeded at the high and low priority queues and at least some packets are dropped at the low priority queue if the specified rate is exceeded at the high and low priority queues.
US08165130B2
A method for operating a node of a communication network including a plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, the node being linked with predetermined neighbor nodes among the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes, includes: a) storing, on a first storage area, node information indicative of predetermined data required by the node to become an information provider node; b) waiting to receive from at least one information provider node of the neighbor nodes describing information of data that can be provided by the information provider node; c) at the receipt of the describing information from the at least one information provider node, checking in the first storage area if the data that can be provided by the at least one information provider node match at least in part the predetermined data required by the node; d) in the affirmative, deleting in the first storage area the node information indicative of the matching data; and e) in the negative, forwarding the describing information received in c) to at least one of the plurality of peer-to-peer nodes.
US08165126B2
A method, apparatus and system for selecting a Virtual Media Gateway are provided. The method for selecting a VMG includes: setting the service domain information on a VMG by extending a property parameter, after receiving the event triggering message on the bearer layer, the physical MG matches the source identifier information carried in the event triggering message with the service domain information on each VMG, If determining that the source identifier information is included in the service domain on a VMG, the physical MG may select the corresponding VMG accordingly.
US08165122B2
A system and method converting a unicast client request into a multicast client request is provided, the method comprising: receiving the unicast client request; mapping the unicast client request destination IP address and unicast client request destination port to a multicast record, wherein the multicast record contains a multicast destination internet protocol (IP) address and wherein the multicast destination IP address corresponds to the unicast client request destination IP address and unicast client request destination port; and transmitting the multicast client request that mirrors the received unicast client request to a plurality of destination servers using the multicast destination IP address that corresponds to the unicast client request destination IP address and unicast client request destination port.
US08165121B1
A network device includes a route selection module configured to select an alternate next hop to use in forwarding network traffic to a destination in the event a primary next hop becomes unavailable, wherein a path to the destination device associated with the alternate next hop does not send packets through the network device. The route selection module computes optimal distances from neighboring devices to the network device, wherein a number of Shortest Path First (SPF) computations required for computing the optimal distances is independent of the number of neighboring devices in the network, identifies as candidate alternate next hops those neighboring devices having distances to the destination that are less than the sum of the optimal distance from the neighboring device to the network device and the optimal distance from the network device to the destination, and selects the alternate next hop from among the stored candidates.
US08165115B2
Disclosed is a system for data-switching variable-length packets of a heterogeneous network which includes: at least two switching interface modules connected to at least two networks respectively to transceive packets; a switching chip for receiving the packets from a first switching interface module among the at least two switching interface modules and for switching the received packets to a second switching interface module among the at least two switching interface modules; a SERDES (serialization and deserialization) channel for transmitting the packets between the switching interface module and the switching chip; and a signaling channel for transmitting a port number between the switching interface module and the switching chip.
US08165114B2
An apparatus for Voice over IP capturing in a network, comprising: a data receiver, tapping the network and configured to receive at least one data packet transmitted in the network, a VoIP identifier, associated with the data receiver, configured to determine if the received data packet is a VoIP data packet qualifying for forwarding to a capture device, and a forwarder, associated with the VoIP identifier, configured to forward a copy of the qualifying VoIP data packet to at least one capture device, and to forward the received data packets back to the network.
US08165113B1
A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message adapted for communication between a plurality of network elements located on a multi-media services provider system to form a multi-media communication path between at least a first communication device and at least a second communication device of a plurality of communication devices. The SIP message includes a header region and a plurality of header fields located on the header region. The plurality of header fields include predetermined address information associated with at least one network element of the plurality of network elements located on the multi-media services provider system.
US08165112B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to portions of a switch fabric having a single logical stage and at least one physical stage. In addition, the data paths and the control paths of the switch fabric can be decoupled thereby allowing additional processing to be performed than would otherwise be the case with control rates that matched the high data rates. In other words, data cells received on high speed links can be spread over many lower speed links; consequently, the data cells can transit the switch fabric at that high speed while the control information associated with the data can be processed at that lower speed. Because the control information can be processed at a lower speed (associated with the control path), the control information can be processed over a greater period of time.
US08165107B2
A method and a system for obtaining path information as well as a PCE are disclosed herein. All the PCEs from the source PCE to the confluent PCE compute the shortest path from the source node to the egress border node of the domain covered by the respective PCE one by one, and send the computation result to the next-hop PCE until the confluent PCE. Meanwhile, all the PCEs from the destination PCE to the confluent PCE compute the shortest path from the destination node to the ingress border node of the domain covered by the respective PCE one by one, and send the computation result to the previous-hop PCE until the confluent PCE. After receiving computation results from the previous-hop PCE and the next-hop PCE, the confluent PCE computes the shortest path between the source node and the destination node, and sends the shortest path to the source PCE.
US08165106B2
An apparatus for a base station of a wireless communication network includes a detector to detect an access code received from a mobile station in each of a plurality of time durations and to detect a timing offset of the access code detected in each of the plurality of time durations, an estimator to estimate a carrier-to-interference noise ratio (CINR) during each of the plurality of time durations, and a determining unit to determine a timing offset correction value to be applied to subsequent signals from the mobile station using the CINR, the timing offset, and the access code detected in each of the plurality of time durations.
US08165104B2
Methods and systems to enhance local repair in robust header compression (ROHC) decompressors (110, 114), which may improve network transmission efficiency and quality. One method uses lower layer information to enhance local repair at the decompressor (110, 114). Another method uses a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) checksum to enhance local repair at the decompressor (110, 114).
US08165098B2
A method allocates bandwidth from a radio frequency spectrum in a cellular network including a set of cells. Each cell includes a base station for serving a set of mobile stations in the cell. An area around each base station is partitioned into a center region and an edge region. In each base station, cell-center bandwidth for use by the mobile stations in the center region is reserved according to an inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) protocol, and cell-edge bandwidth for use by the mobile stations in the edge region is reserved according to the ICIC protocol. The bandwidth can be fixed or adaptive to reduce the signaling overhead. The adaptive bandwidth can be further partitioned into reserved and the free bands. Mobile stations are classified as primary and secondary users, depending on whether they use or are assigned the fixed or adaptive band radio resources.
US08165097B2
A transmission method performed by a mobile station for random access channel (RACH) burst transmission diversity gain is provided. According to the method, by combining and using switching diversity by beam forming, frequency hopping, and power ramping, the probability that when the speed of a mobile station is low, the mobile station falls into a deep fading environment is lowered, thereby increasing the probability of detecting an RACH signature of the base station. Also, by using the transmission parameters (subbands, precoding matrixes, power, etc.) which are used for successful transmission of an RACH burst, for transmission of a successive user packet data, reliable transmission of the successive user packet data can be performed.
US08165089B2
A method and system for performing handoff between a source system and a target system are provided. The target system has a different network access standard from that of the source system. An access terminal, connected to the source system, transmits a request message including an identifier of the access terminal to be identified in the target system, to the target system, via the source system, in order to access the target system. A session storage of the target system acquires the identifier of the access terminal from the access terminal via the source system. The session storage of the target system acquires session information of the access terminal from an old session storage to which the access terminal was connected before it accesses the source system, using the acquired identifier. After the session information is acquired, a gateway of the target system acquires context information related to a data service of the access terminal from a gateway of the source system. After handoff of the access terminal, the target system provides the data service to the access terminal using the session information and the data service-related information.
US08165088B2
The preferred embodiments relate to, among other things, systems and methods for a media-independent-handover (MIH) Protocol State Machine. The present application provides, among other things, a MIH protocol state machine system and method for both source and receiver nodes. A system and/or method is described for facilitating media independent handover of a mobile node within or between network infrastructure, comprising: a media independent handover protocol state machine configured to provide states of a source node or a destination node during a transaction, said state machine addressing requests or responses both with and without an AckReq.
US08165087B2
A location service providing system and method for repeatedly providing a location service.
US08165080B2
In an addressing scheme for wireless communication a communication channel may be defined based on a unique identifier associated with a destination node or a source node. In addition, a short identifier may be included in messages sent over the communication channel such that a node may uniquely identify the source node or destination node for the message. A node may use a short identifier as an index into a lookup table to determine one or more parameters to be used for communicating with another node.
US08165071B2
A mobile terminal (and a method of controlling reception of the mobile terminal) can receive a given channel (second channel) even when a different channel (first channel) cannot appropriately be received, in the HSDPA transmission system for transmitting information necessary for a receiving process for the second channel through the first channel. The mobile terminal includes: first channel receiving processor performing a receiving process for the first channel and acquiring information regarding a receiving process for the second channel; second channel receiving processor performing the receiving process for the second channel using the information; holder holding the information; and reception controller controlling each of the channel receiving processor and the holder in such a way that the second channel receiving processor performs a receiving process for a newly received second channel using the information held in the holder.
US08165070B2
The invention relates to a system that dynamically integrates a set of communication networks to increase the overall heterogeneous network system performance and capabilities. In particular, the present invention relates to a technique of providing a Dynamic Heterogeneous Network System, and providing a Network Node entity and a Mobile Host entity into the system to support the heterogeneous network. The network system according to the present invention has an architecture that includes at least five building blocks including a mobile host (1), an access network (7), a network node (2), an AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) node (13), and an external network (3).
US08165068B2
A system is provided that includes a component configured to promote detachment of a user equipment (UE) from a plurality of packet data network (PDN) gateways by sending a message to each of the plurality of PDN gateways to which the UE has at least one active bearer. The message requests that at least one of the plurality of PDN gateways delete the at least one active bearer.
US08165063B2
Provided is a system and method for performing location management using a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) in a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. The system includes a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) terminal unit sending and receiving a SIP call, by which a VoIP telephone can be used, by being connected to a broadband VoIP network, an HSS controller having a Database (DB) storing an ID of a device which the SIP terminal unit initially accesses according to an access network to which the SIP terminal unit is connected in the broadband VoIP network, location information of the SIP terminal unit, which contains a location code and address of the device, and location information of a destination terminal to which the SIP terminal unit desires to connect, and a Call Session Control Function (CSCF) controller connecting the SIP terminal unit and the destination terminal in a VoIP telephone service using the location information stored in the HSS controller in the broadband VoIP network. Accordingly, a method of registering a location of a VoIP telephone and a location management service are provided, and a process of providing a short-distance call routing service in a representative number service, which is a location-based service, is suggested using the location registration method.
US08165062B1
Within an access services network (ASN) operable for providing wireless access services to an access terminal and including a base station communicatively coupled to an ASN gateway, a new functional process identified as an “R6 controller” is provided within the framework. The R6 controller includes both a controlling entity process residing and executing within the ASN gateway and an agent entity process residing and executing within the base station. The R6 controller entities monitor the R6 reference point between these two peer instances of the R6 controller, including executing a keep-alive procedure for determining the status of the R6 interface. If a problem is detected, interested client applications are notified and further actions (e.g., initiate handover process, notify ATs, etc.) may be taken. Optionally, the R6 controller entities function as gateways enabling centralized processing for message transmitted between peer instances of other client application processes spanning the base station—ASN gateway pair.
US08165051B2
A radio terminal includes a radio interface configured to allow radio communication with a radio base station, and a controller configured to control switching between a wake-up state in which the radio interface is turned on and a sleep state in which the radio interface is turned off. The radio terminal acquires a reference wake-up timing scheduled as a wake-up timing for switching from the sleep state to the wake-up state. The controller shifts the wake-up timing from the reference wake-up timing.
US08165043B2
A multiple instance spanning tree protocol (MI-STP) creates a plurality of active topologies (i.e., loop-free paths) within a computer network. These active topologies may be established through the exchange and processing of multiple instance spanning tree bridge protocol data unit messages (MI-STP BPDUs) by the intermediate network devices within the network. The active topologies are preferably created independently of any virtual local area network (VLAN) designations defined within the network. Once the active topologies are defined, each VLAN designation is then mapped to a single active topology, although multiple VLAN designations are preferably mapped to the same active topology to provide load balancing.
US08165041B2
A collaboration system using peer-to-multi-peer distribution of messages representing changes to a shared workspace. Each peer determines a distribution mechanism for messages to each of the target peers sharing the workspace. The selected distribution mechanism may depend on capabilities of a home relay associated with a peer initiating a message. Further, messages to subsets of the target peers sharing the workspace may be distributed using a session for each subset on which each message is sent only one time. The subset of target peers associated with some of the sessions may be selected so that target peers for which communication attempts have failed are grouped in the same session. In some scenarios, the initiating peer may provide multiple routing paths for target peers in a session and the home relay server may appropriately forward the message to the target peers, using one of the routing paths.
US08165039B2
A communication apparatus holds information concerning a second network reported from a specific wireless terminal that has left a first network. In accordance with predetermined criteria, the communication apparatus decides a wireless terminal that is to be allowed to join the second network and notifies this wireless terminal so as to cause the specific wireless terminal to return to the first network. This wireless terminal uses the held information concerning the second network to discriminate the communication status of the second network and requests the specific wireless terminal to return in accordance with the communication status discriminated.
US08165038B2
The physical connection corresponding to IP tunnels in a network are found by tracing through the device configuration and routing tables at the routers in the network to determine the outbound interface associated with each tunnel endpoint, and then inferring a likely return interface associated with the opposite tunnel endpoint. Having determined the physical devices at the source and destination of each tunnel, the physical path between these source and destination devices is traced from the source toward the destination until the path is terminated at the destination device, or at an interface to an external network. If the path ends at an external network, the path is traced from the destination device toward the source device until a corresponding interface to the external network is reached.
US08165030B2
A network monitor gets a (layer 7) media path bill of materials for a communication between two communication devices. The network monitor also gets a (layer 7) signaling path bill of materials. The media path bill of materials and the signaling path bill of materials comprise a plurality of items that are involved in the communication (e.g. hardware, software, links). The media path bill of materials and the signaling path bill of materials comprise a communication path bill of materials. The network monitor sends at least one configuration packet to a plurality of network analyzers to monitor packets that contain a status of the communication in relation one or more items in the communication path bill of materials. The status of the communication is output and displayed in relation to the items in the communication path bill of materials.
US08165028B1
A communication system having a wireless trunk for connecting multiple phone lines over wireless communication links to a cellular network comprises a central telephone switch, such as a private branch exchange or key system, connected through one or more trunk lines to a wireless access communication unit. The wireless access communication unit preferably comprises a separate subscriber interface for each trunk line from the central telephone switch. The wireless access communication unit collects data from each of the subscriber interfaces, formats the data into a format compatible with an over-the-air protocol, and transmits the information over one or more wireless channels to a cellular base station. The wireless access communication unit thereby connects calls received from the central telephone switch's trunk lines over a wireless trunk to a network. A controller within the wireless access communication unit interfaces the subscriber interfaces with a radio transceiver, and assists in the conversion of data from a format suitable for wireless transmission. The controller also assists in distributing data received over the wireless trunk to the separate subscriber interfaces, and converting the data to a format suitable for communication with the central telephone switch. Calls may be selectively routed by the central telephone switch over landlines, instead, to the wireless access communication unit, thereby bypassing landlines.
US08165014B2
A managed port circuit includes a detection circuit that is disposed in a communication channel between a first local port and a second local port and a controller that is coupled to the detection circuit and is operable to configure the detection circuit in a detection configuration in which the first and second local ports are connected to the controller and a second pass through configuration in which the first and second local ports are connected to each other via the communication channel, the controller being further operable to determine when an end device is connected to one of the first and second local ports when the detection circuit is in the detection configuration.
US08165007B2
An information detection device includes an equalizer that equalizes the readout signal to a PR channel having equalization target levels of four or more values, and a Viterbi detector. The Viterbi detector generates branch metrics with the equalization target levels as reference levels to determine recording data from an output of the equalizer. The Viterbi detector has a mode of generating the branch metrics and determining the recording data by limiting at least one out of a maximum value and a minimum value of the equalization target levels.
US08165001B2
According to one embodiment, an optical recording medium is provided in which interlayer crosstalk is low and in which stable and high-quality recording characteristics can be obtained. To this end, an optical recording medium comprises a first recording part which includes a first recording layer and a first light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side closer to a light receiving surface, and a second recording part which includes a second recording layer and a second light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side farther from the light receiving surface, the first recording part and the second recording part being stacked, wherein the thickness of the second light reflecting layer is larger than the thickness of the first light reflecting layer.
US08165000B2
According to one embodiment, an optical recording medium is provided in which interlayer crosstalk is low and in which stable and high-quality recording characteristics can be obtained. To this end, an optical recording medium comprises a first recording part which includes a first recording layer and a first light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side closer to a light receiving surface, and a second recording part which includes a second recording layer and a second light reflecting layer and which is disposed on a side farther from the light receiving surface, the first recording part and the second recording part being stacked, wherein the thickness of the second light reflecting layer is larger than the thickness of the first light reflecting layer.
US08164994B2
A tracking signal generating apparatus includes a phase detector and a digital phase controller. The phase detector generates an up signal and a down signal which contain information regarding a phase difference between a plurality of square wave signals that have been generated from an optical signal. The digital phase controller generates an up limit signal or a down limit signal whose logic levels are controlled so that a phase difference between the up limit signal and the down limit signal is reduced.
US08164993B2
Aspects of the disclosure provide a method for detecting land pre-pits. The method can adaptively adjust a threshold for detecting the land pre-pits in order to improve the correctness of detecting. The method for detecting land pre-pits can include extracting a land pre-pit data stream from a reading signal based on a land pre-pit threshold, the reading signal corresponding to land pre-pits of an optical medium, comparing the land pre-pit data stream with format information of the optical medium to obtain an error signal, and adjusting the land pre-pit threshold based on the error signal.
US08164988B2
A perpendicular magnetic recording system uses bit-patterned media (BPM) and circularly polarized light to switch the magnetization of the discrete magnetic bits by the inverse Faraday effect. Circularly polarized light generates an external rotating electric field in a plane orthogonal to the light propagation direction, which induces a magnetic field parallel to the light propagation direction in a magnetic material exposed to the electric field. The BPM is a generally planar substrate with discrete spaced-apart metal or metal alloy magnetic islands that are magnetizable in a perpendicular direction and are separated by nonmagnetic spaces of non-metallic material on the substrate. A near-field metal transducer is patterned into at least three tips, with the tips surrounding and defining a transducer active region. The circularly polarized light is incident on the tips, which produce a strong in-plane rotating electric field. A magnetic island exposed to the rotating electric field will experience an induced perpendicular magnetic field that switches the magnetization of the magnetic island.
US08164985B2
A time display device comprises a dial plate; a plurality of time indication portions set in the dial plate; and a plurality of groups of luminophors. Each of the groups of luminophors corresponds to a time indication portion, and comprises a first luminophor, a second luminophor, and a third luminophor. A clock unit provides current time information. A first switch unit electrifies/powers off the first luminophor. A second switch unit electrifies/powers off the second luminophor. A third switch unit electrifies/powers off the third luminophor. A hour hand controlling module obtains a hour value, and controls the first switch unit to electrify the first luminophor of the time indication portion corresponding to the obtained hour value. A minute hand controlling module obtains the current minute value, and controls the second switch and/or the third switch unit to electrify the corresponding luminophor.
US08164984B2
A timepiece with LED lights uses a simple light-medium body with a very rough finish to allow light from LED(s) to pass though input-end(s) of the light-medium body and travel within the body and obtain a very even brightness on all surfaces of the light medium that are seen by a viewer. Combined with a milky/frosted front sheet overlay, the light-medium surface can get perfect area illumination effects. The movement for the time display can include analog indicators with a guilt-in light-medium on the top cover to achieve a super slim LED illumination for the time piece. For night light application, the sealed-unit may consist of prong-means and an LED related circuit sealed within a safety standard plastic material and assembled with the night light body to save a lot of cost enable use of all kinds of materials. The invention may also be adapted to an LCD display timepiece.
US08164971B2
A dual power rail word line driver for driving a word line of a memory array according to a predecode signal from a decoder powered by a first supply voltage is provided. A signal buffering unit is coupled between the word line and a node. A pull-down unit is coupled between the node and a ground. A pull-up unit is coupled between the node and a second supply voltage higher than or equal to the first supply voltage. The signal buffering unit provides a word line signal corresponding to the predecode signal to the memory array via the word line when the pull-down unit is turned on by the predecode signal and a first pulse signal and the pull-up unit is turned off by a second pulse signal. There is no level shifter on a critical timing path of the dual power rail word line driver.
US08164966B2
Circuitry for determining timing characteristics, for example, access time, setup time, hold time, recovery time and removal time, of as-manufactured digital circuit elements, such as latches, flip-flops and memory cells. Each element under test is embodied in variable-loop-path ring oscillator circuitry that includes multiple ring-oscillator loop paths, each of which differs from the other(s) in terms of inclusion and exclusion of ones of a data input and a data output of the element under test. Each loop path is caused to oscillate at each of a plurality of frequencies, and data regarding the oscillation frequencies is used to determine one or more timing characteristics of the element under test. The variable-loop-path ring oscillator circuitry can be incorporated into a variety of test systems, including automated testing equipment, and built-in self test structures and can be used in performing model-to-hardware correlation of library cells that include testable as-manufactured digital circuit elements.
US08164951B2
A flash memory architecture that provides a mechanism for reducing floating gate to floating gate coupling. The floating gates of the memory cells are shifted, either vertically or horizontally thereby offsetting the floating gates of the memory cells to an intervening space between the gates of adjacent memory cells. The shift of the floating gates decreases the floating gate to floating gate coupling.
US08164945B2
A dual port SRAM cell includes an auxiliary driver transistor on each data node. The SRAM cell is capable of single sided write to each data node. The auxiliary driver transistors in addressed cells may be biased independently of half-addressed cells. During write and read operations, the auxiliary driver transistors may be floated or biased. Auxiliary driver transistors in half-addressed SRAM cells may be biased. During standby modes, the auxiliary driver transistors may be floated. During sleep modes, the auxiliary driver transistors may be biased at reduced voltages. The auxiliary driver transistors in each cell may be independent or may have a common source node within each cell. Additional single sided write ports and read buffers may be added. A process of operating an integrated circuit that includes performing a single-sided write bit-side low, a single-sided write bit-side high, and a read bit-side operation.
US08164937B2
A digital potentiometer using third dimensional memory includes a switch configured to electrically couple one or more resistive elements with a first pin and a second pin, and a non-volatile register configured to control the switch. In one example, the non-volatile register can include a BEOL non-volatile memory element, such as a third dimensional memory element. The non-volatile register can include a FEOL active circuitry portion that is electrically coupled with the BEOL non-volatile memory element to implement the non-volatile register. The resistive elements can be BEOL resistive elements that can be fabricated on the same plane or a different plane than the BEOL non-volatile memory elements. The BEOL non-volatile memory elements and the BEOL resistive elements can retain stored data in the absence of power and the stored data can be non-destructively determined by application of a read voltage.
US08164927B2
The present invention relates to a switch control device and a switch control method. The present invention controls a switching operation of a power switch that controls output power of a switching mode power supply (SMPS). The present invention generates an operation current corresponding to an input voltage of the SMPS and counts a compensation period in which a power supply voltage generated by the operation current increases from a predetermined counter low-reference voltage to a predetermined counter high-reference voltage. The present invention generates a compensation feedback current depending on the count result, generates a total feedback current by summing a main feedback current having a predetermined value and the compensation feedback current, and generates a power limit current of which a maximum value increases and decreases depending on the total feedback current. Turn-off of the power switch is determined by comparing the current flowing on the power switch with the power limit current.
US08164920B2
A printed wiring board includes a mounting portion on which a dual core processor including two processor cores in a single chip can be mounted, power supply lines, ground lines, and a first layered capacitor and a second layered capacitor that are independently provided for each of the processor cores, respectively. Accordingly, even when the electric potentials of the processor cores instantaneously drop, an instantaneous drop of the electric potential can be suppressed by action of the layered capacitors corresponding to the processor cores, respectively. In addition, even when the voltage of one of the processor cores varies, the variation in the voltage does not affect the other processor core, and thus malfunctioning does not occur.
US08164917B2
A base mechanism for use in a multi-chip module (MCM) is described. This base mechanism includes a substrate having top and bottom surfaces. The bottom surface includes first electrical connectors that convey power, and through-substrate vias (TSVs) between the top and bottom surfaces are electrically coupled to these electrical connectors. Furthermore, a bridge chip is rigidly mechanically coupled to the top surface. This bridge chip includes proximity communication connectors that communicate information via proximity communication with one or more island chips in the MCM. Additionally, spacers are rigidly mechanically coupled to the top surface of the substrate. In conjunction with the bridge chip, the spacers define cavities on the top surface, which include second electrical connectors. These second electrical connectors are electrically coupled to the TSVs, and communicate additional information with and convey power to the one or more island chips.
US08164914B2
The present invention discloses a circuit board fixing device for fixing a circuit board. The device comprises a chassis for supporting the circuit board, at least one first hook setting on the supporting surface, and at least one second hook setting on the supporting surface. The first hook has a first contact surface for clamping a first type circuit board on the supporting surface. A first distance is between the first contact surface and the supporting surface. Additionally, the second hook has a second contact surface for clamping a second type circuit board on the supporting surface. A second distance is between the second contact surface and the supporting surface. The thickness of the first type circuit board is thicker than that of the second type circuit board, and the first distance is larger than the second distance.
US08164908B2
A protector for a card-shaped peripheral device for insertion into a slot of objective equipment, includes: a first wall hating a first guide surface for guiding insertion of the peripheral device; a second wall parallel with and opposite to at least part of the first wall, and having a second guide surface for guiding insertion movement of the peripheral device in cooperation with at least part of the first guide surface; and a pair of side walls parallel with an insertion direction of the peripheral device, and connecting end portions of the first and second walls in a width-wise direction thereof perpendicular to the insertion direction. First and second end surfaces perpendicular to the insertion direction are formed respectively at end portions in the insertion direction of the first and second walls. Each of the side walls has a protrusion protruding in the insertion direction from the first and second end surfaces, respectively.
US08164907B2
A system includes a communications device and power supply units detachably installable thereon. On an outer surface of the communications device there is an aperture arranged to enable the insertion of different power supply units in different sections of the volume inside the communications device. The volume is continuous so that instead of separate power supply units it is possible to insert, through the aperture, in the volume a physically larger power supply unit which, when installed in the volume, extends into more than one section of the volume. The communications device can be flexibly equipped e.g. with power supply units functioning as back-ups for each other, each taking up part of the volume, or with a single power supply unit, larger than the above-mentioned, taking up the volume. Therefore the volume inside the communications device can be utilized in connection with power supply units of various types.
US08164895B2
A portable electronic device includes a main body and a first shock absorbing assembly. The main body defines a receiving space to receive a hard disc drive. The first shock absorbing assembly includes a supporting post, a connecting member, a clipping element, and at least one pressing post. The supporting post protrudes from a bottom of the receiving space. The connecting element is moveably connected to the supporting post and includes a first elastic member arranged around the connecting element. The supporting post resists one end of the first elastic member to cause the first elastic member to be compressed. The clipping element is secured to the connecting element. The clipping element clips the hard disc drive under the spring force of the first elastic member. The at least one pressing post is secured to the clipping element and presses the hard disc drive.
US08164885B2
An electronic device with a detachable cover comprises a main body, a cover connected to the main body, and a spring. The main body forms an opening, wherein a flange extends inwardly from an upper edge of the opening, and a first locking portion protrudes from an edge of the main body. And the cover comprises a base plate, a sliding member, and a rotating member. The base plate is received in the opening and is supported by the flange comprising an protruding tab engaging the edge of the main body and a first recess. The sliding member is slidably connected to the base plate, and comprises a second locking portion with a second recess and a first engagement member. The rotating member rotatably connected to the base plate, and comprises a second engagement member. The spring comprises a base portion and two deflected spring arms.
US08164881B2
An extremely high-performance polyaniline electrode was prepared by potentiostatic deposition of aniline on hierarchically porous carbon monolith (HPCM), which was carbonized from mesophase pitch. A capacitance value of 2200 F g−1 of polyaniline was obtained at a power density of 0.47 kW kg−1 and an energy density of 300 Wh kg−1. This active material deposited on HPCM also has an advantageous high stability. These superior advantages can be attributed to the backbone role of HPCM. This method also has the advantages of not introducing any binder, thus contributing to the increase of ionic conductivity and power density. High specific capacitance, high power and energy density, high stability, and low cost of active material make it very promising for supercapacitors.
US08164877B2
A fine arrestor having a body with a bore there through, an inner conductor within the bore, an inner conductor capacitor within the bore coupled between a surge portion of the inner conductor and a protected portion of the inner conductor, and an inner conductor inductor within the bore coupled electrically in parallel with the inner conductor capacitor. A first shorting portion coupled between the surge portion of the inner conductor and the body and a second shorting portion coupled between the protected portion of the inner conductor and the body, for conducting a surge to ground. Also, other coaxial in-line assemblies may be formed incorporating the inner conductor cavity for isolation of enclosed electrical components.
US08164865B2
A system and method for quickly discharging a DC relay is provided. In one embodiment, the invention relates to circuit for discharging a relay coil, the circuit including a first suppression circuit coupled across a control power source, a switch, a relay coil in series with the switch, wherein the relay coil and the switch are coupled across the control power source, and a second suppression circuit coupled across the relay coil, wherein the relay coil is configured to actuate at least one load switch when sufficiently energized by the control power source, wherein the first suppression circuit is configured to discharge energy stored in the relay coil, and wherein the second suppression circuit is configured to discharge energy stored in the relay coil.
US08164852B2
A magnetic head and a recording apparatus employing the same are provided. The magnetic head includes a recording member, a field inducing member inducing a magnetic field to the recording member, a shield member having the same direction of magnetization as the recording member in a recording operation, and a return path member forming a magnetic path with the recording member.
US08164851B2
A base unit for use in a storage disk drive apparatus includes a base portion; a stator core including a plurality of teeth; U-phase, V-phase, and W-phase coils; U-phase, V-phase, and W-phase common wires; and a circuit board. The U-phase, V-phase, and W-phase coils are wound on the teeth and arranged to define a U phase, a V phase, and a W phase, respectively. The U-phase, V-phase, and W-phase common wires are arranged to define the U phase, the V phase, and the W phase, respectively. Each of the U-phase, V-phase, and W-phase common wires is arranged to pass through a separate one of through holes to be drawn out beyond a lower surface of the base portion and electrically connected to the circuit board. Each of the through holes is sealed with a sealant such that the base unit is airtight.
US08164844B2
An optical filter and a lighting device using the same wherein the suppression of the melatonin secretion by the reception of light in the nighttime is prevented and the color of light is maintained. The optical filter has a mean transmissivity of a light beam in a wavelength range of about 480˜550 nm is about 30% or less. The optical filter is formed by at least molding a transparent resin and a resin composition material containing an orange color series florescent dye material, and, for 100 weight part of the transparent resin, the resin composition material containing about 0.005˜0.2 weight part of the orange color series florescent dye material is molded. This can prevent the suppression of the melatonin secretion in the nighttime. The color of light is maintained desirable. The optical filter may be applied to a lighting apparatus.
US08164843B2
An exemplary camera module includes a barrel, a holder, and an image sensor assembly. The barrel forms an external thread on an outer surface thereof. At least one protrusion is formed along a circumferential direction on the outer surface thereof. The at least one protrusion and the external thread are arranged in an order written from an object side to an image side. An internal thread is formed on an inner wall of the holder to threadedly engage with the external thread of the barrel. The at least one protrusion contacts the inner wall of the holder but are slidable relative to the inner wall of the holder. The image sensor assembly includes an image sensor. The image sensor is received in the holder.
US08164841B2
According to one embodiment, a camera module includes an insulating substrate having an imaging device, solder balls, a cylindrical lens holder, a shield, and a mounting board. The solder balls are formed on a rear face of the substrate. The lens holder is fixed on the substrate and includes an upper larger-diameter portion and a lower smaller-diameter portion. The shield includes a cylindrical side portion fitted onto the small-diameter portion and fixed on the rear face of the large-diameter portion and a plate-shaped bottom portion in contact with the rear face of the substrate and having an opening. The mounting board is on an upper surface of which the plate-shaped bottom portion is mounted to come in contact with the upper surface and the insulating substrate or the imaging device is connected with the upper surface by the plurality of solder balls.
US08164840B2
This invention provides a photographing optical lens assembly comprising, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface; a second lens element with negative refractive power having a concave object-side surface and a concave image-side surface, the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; a third lens element having a concave image-side surface, the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric, at least one inflection point formed on the image-side surface; wherein there are three lens elements with refractive power. Such an arrangement of lens elements can effectively reduce the total track length of the lens assembly, attenuate the sensitivity of the optical system and obtain higher resolution.
US08164838B2
A projection optical system includes: a refracting optical section composed mainly of a plurality of lenses disposed in order from a reducing side, and having positive power; a first reflecting optical section having a concave reflecting optical surface; and a second reflecting optical section having a convex reflecting optical surface, wherein the projection optical system satisfies the following conditional expression, denoting a focal length of a total system combining the refracting optical section, the first reflecting optical section, and the second reflecting optical section as F, and a focal length of the refracting optical section as FL: 0.2
US08164831B2
Techniques and devices for depolarizing light and producing a variable differential group delays in optical signals. In one implementation, an input optical beam is split into first and second beams with orthogonal polarizations. One or two optical reflectors are then used to cause the first and second optical beams to undergo different optical path lengths before they are recombined into a single output beam. An adjustment mechanism may used implemented to adjust the difference in the optical path lengths of the first and second beams to produce a variable DGD. When the depolarization of light is desired, the difference in the optical path lengths of the first and second beams is set to be greater than the coherence length of the input optical beam.
US08164829B2
A system for acquiring and displaying images of preparations is provided. The system includes a first and second illumination device, each including an illumination source defining a respective illumination beam path amid configured to emit light to illuminate the preparation. A camera and a display for displaying a portion of the preparation are further provided. The preparation can be placed on a stage that is movable in x and y coordinate directions. The frame is also provided with a combining device configured to combine the first imaging beam path and the second imaging beam path, and direct them to the camera.
US08164823B2
A display system is built up of at least one display cell comprising an assembly which has at least a first electrode and a second electrode and in which there are mutually non-miscible first and second liquids filled, wherein either one of the first and second electrodes is electrically insulated from the first and second liquids, the first liquid has electrical conductivity or polarity, and voltage is applied to one or both of the first and second electrodes, whereby the first liquid and the second liquid can vary in position to produce a display. Even after an applied voltage is shut off at a position to which the first and second liquids have migrated, the positions of the first and second liquids that have migrated are retained to keep memory capability going on.
US08164820B2
A display device includes a first electrode, a second electrode facing the first electrode, a first layer of material disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode, a second layer of material disposed on the first layer of material, and a light source unit emitting blue light incident to the first electrode toward the second electrode. At least one color converting member receives the blue light and generate light having a wavelength different from the wavelength of the blue light. The second layer of material is positioned on the second electrode and is movable along with the second electrode by an attraction force between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US08164819B2
In a radio frequency (RF)-photonic arbitrary waveform generator (AWG), an optical carrier signal is phase-modulated using an arbitrary waveform optical phase generator (AWPOG), which may include, e.g., sequential optical phase modulators. The phase-modulated optical signal is combined with a version of the optical carrier signal to yield an optical waveform, whose amplitude varies with a phase shift introduced by the AWPOG to the optical carrier signal. By manipulating electrical inputs to the AWPOG which control the phase shift, the optical waveform can be arbitrary shaped. The optical waveform may then be converted to an electrical waveform having a radio frequency.
US08164794B2
The present invention provides an image-forming apparatus capable of reducing the amount of toner at a position at which the trapping is carried out. The apparatus has an image-deformation processing unit where input image data is processed to deform the image shape or the trapping or overprinting is carried out on the respective color plates. The apparatus determines whether or not the trapping should be carried out to the target pixels on the boundary between color plates in the adjacent different objects, determines the color plate having the trap color, obtains the amount of toner of the trap color, determines based on the amount of toner of the trap color and the target pixels whether or not the total amount of toner of the trap exceeds the limit value, and reduces the total amount of toner if the total amount of toner of the trap exceeds the limit value.
US08164790B2
Methods of improving image quality by reducing grain and texture in a printed image are provided. According to one embodiment, a method of reducing grain and texture in an image includes the steps of providing a light color toner and a dark color toner, providing an aperiodic micrononuniformity map, using the aperiodic micrononuniformity map to determine an acceptable domain that includes a plurality of combinations of the light color toner and the dark color toner, and forming an image by selecting one combination of the light color toner and the dark color toner from the plurality of combinations of the light color toner and the dark color toner.
US08164768B2
A printer which has a direct-printing function for reading and printing information stored in a storage device and which includes: an interface unit which receives the storage device, the storage device storing file information including content information for print or display and restrictive information for controlling output of the content information; a reading unit which reads the restrictive information from the storage device; a setting unit which sets indication information indicating the file information according to the content information and the restrictive information; and an indication outputting unit which outputs information based on the indication information set by the setting unit.
US08164763B2
An image forming apparatus including a printing unit which prints an image on paper, an exit path which connects an exit of the printing unit to an exit member which pushes the paper outside of the printing unit, a plurality of guide members which are arranged widthwise of the paper, each guide member having a first guide side which guides the paper coming out of the printing unit along the exit path, wherein each guide member is installed to be movable such that the first guide side rotates when the first guide side contacts the paper which comes out of the printing unit, and returns to its original position after the paper completely passes through the printing unit.
US08164761B2
An apparatus and a method for ascertaining a gap between a stationary member and a rotating member are disclosed. At least a reference beam and a signal beam, which have different focal lengths or which diverge/converge at different rates, are fixed to the stationary member and proximate to each other. The beams are projected across a gap between the stationary member and the rotating member toward the rotating member. The reference and signal beams are reflected by the translating member when it intersects the reference and signal beam, and the reflected reference and signal pulses are obtained. One or more features of the reflected reference pulse and the reflected signal pulse, such as a rise time of the pulses, a fall time of the pulses, a width of the pulses and a delay between the reflected reference pulse and the reflected signal pulse, among other factors, are obtained. The width of the gap is obtained using at least one of these factors.
US08164757B2
To provide a miniaturized Fabry-Perot type tunable filter that can be applied to e.g. a light of wide wavelength range from infrared rays to ultraviolet rays and actuated at a low voltage.A movable portion moving in a direction parallel to the surface of the SOI substrate (hereafter called ‘plane direction’), a suspension supporting member supporting the movable portion elastically and movably, and a fixed portion secured to the SOI substrate are provided. By the comb-teeth electrode of the comb-teeth type electrostatic actuator that moves the movable portion, the first mirror structure body formed bonding to the surface of the movable portion is controlled and moved in the plane direction. The Fabry-Perot type tunable filter has a structure in which the first mirror surface of the first mirror structure body and the second mirror surface of the second mirror structure body formed by bonding to the surface of the fixed portion are arranged facing to each other in parallel, and the length thereof is changed by the move of the plane direction.
US08164754B2
An immersion exposure apparatus including an optical element 11, a reflective surface 42, a water repellent coating layer 43 in which peeled areas 45 and 46 are formed, a light intensity sensor 4 which detects light intensity of first light and second light, and an arithmetic processing unit which calculates a reflectance of the optical element 11, wherein the first light enters the projection optical system 1, passes through the peeled area 46 to be reflected by the reflective surface 42, is reflected on a surface of the optical element 11, and passes through the peeled area 45 to be received by the light intensity sensor 4, and the second light enters the projection optical system 1 and passes through the peeled area 45 to be received by the light intensity sensor 4 without being reflected on the reflective surface 42 and the surface of the optical element 11.
US08164747B2
A system and method for optical spectroscopic measurements is described. One embodiment includes a measurement head for optical spectroscopic measurements, the measurement head comprising an illumination source configured to illuminate a sample, a collection optic configured to view the sample, and an internal reference, wherein the internal reference can be illuminated by the illumination source and viewed by the collection optic.
US08164743B2
A miniaturized spectrometer/spectrophotometer system and methods are disclosed. A probe tip including one or more light sources and a plurality of light receivers is provided. A first spectrometer system receives light from a first set of the plurality of light receivers. A second spectrometer system receives light from a second set of the plurality of light receivers. A processor, wherein the processor receives data generated by the first spectrometer system and the second spectrometer system, wherein an optical measurement of a sample under test is produced based on the data generated by the first and second spectrometer systems.
US08164741B2
A lithographic apparatus includes a phase adjuster to adjust a phase of an optical wave traversing an optical element of the phase adjuster during exposure of a pattern on a substrate. In an embodiment, the optical element is a heat controllable optical element in a projection system of the lithographic apparatus. In use, the pattern is illuminated with an illumination mode including an off-axis radiation beam. This beam is diffracted into zeroth-order and first-order diffracted beams oppositely and asymmetrically inclined with respect to an optical axis. An area is identified where the first-order diffracted beam traverses the optical element. An image characteristic of an image of the pattern is optimized by calculating a desired optical phase of the first-order diffracted beam in relation to the optical phase of the zeroth-order diffracted beam. The phase adjuster is controlled to apply the desired optical phase to the first order diffracted beam.
US08164734B2
A vacuum system for extracting a stream of a multi-phase fluid from a photo-lithography tool comprises a pumping arrangement for drawing the fluid from the tool, and an extraction tank located upstream from the pumping arrangement for separating the fluid drawn from the tool into gas and liquid phases. The pumping arrangement comprises a first pump for extracting gas from the tank, and a second pump for extracting liquid from the tank. In order to minimize any pressure fluctuations transmitted from the vacuum system back to the fluid within the tool, a pressure control system maintains a substantially constant pressure in the tank by regulating the amounts of liquid and gas within the tank.
US08164722B2
A liquid-crystal display device comprising a liquid-crystal cell and at least three optically-anisotropic layers disposed on each side of the liquid crystal cell, wherein they are combined so that the Δnd value of the liquid-crystal cell and the optical characteristics of the optically-anisotropic layers can satisfy predetermined relationships, is disclosed.
US08164719B2
The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device capable of preventing the occurrence of dark currents in photodiodes. Thus, the liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel 1 including an active matrix substrate and a backlight 13 for illuminating the liquid crystal display panel. The active matrix substrate 1 includes a photodiode 7 formed by a silicon film and a light shielding film 8 for shielding the photodiode 7 against illumination light from the backlight 13. The photodiode 7 and the light shielding film 8 are provided on a base substrate 5. The light shielding film 8 is formed by a semiconductor or an insulator. Preferably, the photodiode 7 is made of, for example, polycrystalline silicon or continuous grain silicon so as to have a characteristic that its sensitivity increases as the wavelength of light entering the photodiode becomes shorter. The light-shielding film 8 is formed by a silicon film, for example amorphous silicon, that reduces the transmittance of light entering the light shielding film as the wavelength of the light becomes shorter.
US08164717B2
A liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel having a first substrate, a second substrate disposed on an observer side with respect to the first substrate and opposed to the first substrate, a liquid crystal held between the first substrate and the second substrate, an upper polarizing plate disposed on the observer side with respect to the second substrate, and a resin film disposed on the observer side with respect to the upper polarizing plate and affixed in contact with the upper polarizing plate. The resin film is higher in surface hardness than the upper polarizing plate and has a surface hardness of at least 3H in terms of surface pencil hardness. At least one of the first and second substrates has a thickness of no greater than 0.5 mm, and a total thickness of the liquid crystal display panel is no greater than 2 mm.
US08164705B2
An exemplary liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal panel, and a one-piece frame accommodating the liquid crystal panel. The frame includes a surrounding wall defining a notch in the surrounding wall, a supporting board extending inward from an inner surface of the surrounding wall, and a fixing member received in the notch. The surrounding wall and the supporting board cooperatively define a space for accommodating the liquid crystal panel. The fixing member is inclined toward the space in a free state, and is outwardly pressed by application of an external force in a direction away from the space to allow the liquid crystal panel to be placed in the space and on the supporting board, and elastically holds the liquid crystal panel in position against the supporting board after releasing of the external force.
US08164700B2
One embodiment of the present invention is a thin film transistor array including an insulating substrate, a plurality of thin film transistors and a sealing layer. The sealing layer is stripe-shaped and covers a plurality of the thin film transistors. The sealing layer is formed over the insulating substrate.
US08164698B2
Disclosed is a liquid crystal display panel which includes a first substrate, a thin film transistor array comprising at least one thin film transistor formed on a first surface of the first substrate, and a second substrate having a first surface facing the first substrate, the second substrate including an antistatic layer on a surface opposite the first surface of the second substrate. Liquid crystal molecules are positioned between the first surface of the first substrate and the first surface of the second substrate, wherein the antistatic layer includes conductive nanowire.
US08164691B2
A VSB reception system includes a sequence generator for decoding a symbol corresponding to the supplemental data and generating a predefined sequence included in the supplemental data at VSB transmission system. The reception system also includes a modified legacy VSB receiver for processing the data received from the VSB transmission system in a reverse order of the VSB transmission system by using the sequence, and a demultiplexer for demultiplexing the data from the modified legacy VSB receiver into the MPEG data and the supplemental data. The VSB reception system also includes a supplemental data processor for processing the supplemental data segment from the demultiplexer in a reverse order of the transmission system, to obtain the supplemental data, thereby carrying out the slicer prediction, decoding, and symbol decision more accurately by using the predefined sequence, to improve a performance.
US08164685B2
An image pickup apparatus according to the present invention comprises an image pickup unit for obtaining an image, the image pickup unit including an image pickup element and an image pickup optical system which includes an aperture stop and forms the image on the image pickup element, a synthesis instruction unit for providing an instruction to form a multiple exposure image by making registration of a plurality of images and synthesizing the plurality of images into one image, an aperture value control unit for controlling setting of an aperture value of an aperture stop when the synthesis instruction unit provides the instruction to form the multiple exposure image, and an image processing unit for forming the multiple exposure image by synthesizing, into one image, a plurality of images obtained by the image pickup unit with the aperture value set by the aperture value control unit.
US08164680B2
An imaging system includes an interchangeable lens and a camera body. The camera body includes a second communication unit capable of communicating with a first communication unit, an imaging element operable to generate an image signal from the optical image, and a main body controller operable to transmit a reference signal for providing a reference of a driving start timing of the focus lens to the lens controller through the second and first communication units. The main body controller transmits the reference signal to the lens controller during a period for which neither communication of predetermined signals other than the reference signal nor process related to the communication is performed between the first communication unit and the second communication unit.
US08164678B2
This invention provides an optical photographing lens assembly comprising, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface, at least one of the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; a second lens element with negative refractive power having a concave image-side surface; a third lens element with positive refractive power having a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface; and a fourth lens element with negative refractive power having a concave image-side surface on which at least one inflection point is formed, the object-side and image-side surfaces thereof being aspheric; wherein a stop is disposed between an imaged object and the first lens element and an electronic sensor is disposed at an image plane for forming images of the imaged object; and wherein the optical photographing lens assembly further comprises another stop disposed between the second and fourth lens elements.
US08164665B2
An imaging method and system that flexibly accesses light, sensor elements and processes imaging signals. The imaging system comprises an array of pixel sensor cells, an array controller and a readout control circuit.
US08164659B2
An image display system has a capsule endoscope for capturing an in-vivo image of a subject, a receiving device for receiving the in-vivo image from the capsule endoscope, and an image display apparatus for displaying a group of in-vivo images of the subject. The capsule endoscope has an imaging unit having a black region which optical rays do not reach in an effective pixel region contributing to image capture. By the imaging unit, an in-vivo image including the signal level of the black region is detected. The receiving device receives an image signal of the in-vivo image. The image display apparatus obtains an in-vivo image group from the receiving device. The image display apparatus does not display an in-vivo image in the in-vivo image group determined as an image influenced by fluctuations in the power source voltage but displays a stable in-vivo image which is not influenced by fluctuations in the power source voltage.
US08164658B2
A noise reduction apparatus, in which an occurrence of overcorrection attributed to an erroneous detection is prevented. A storage unit stores a pseudo noise signal generating characteristic. A pseudo noise generating unit sets a signal which may become a source of a noise superimposed on a video signal as a reference input signal and generates a pseudo noise signal corresponding to the superimposed noise using the pseudo noise signal generating characteristic which is stored in the storage unit and which corresponds to the reference input signal. A subtraction unit subtracts the pseudo noise signal from the video signal.
US08164655B2
Methods for storing on a storage or memory medium, and retrieving, and displaying of multiple images in a registered manner, the images have been recorded concurrently. The images may comprise at least 2 video programs. A camera system for recording multiple concurrent images is also disclosed. Lenses and corresponding image sensors are calibrated to have calibrated and associated settings for recording multiple images that are substantially registered images. A registered image may be displayed on a single display. It may also be displayed on multiple displays. A camera for recording and displaying registered multiple images may be part of a mobile phone.
US08164649B2
A white balance adjusting device includes a dividing unit which divides an image to be processed into plural small areas, a calculating unit which calculates evaluation values of each small area based on color information of the image, a judging unit which judges whether to use the evaluation values of a small area of attention for white balance calculation based on a relationship between the evaluation values of the small area of attention and the evaluation values of small areas adjacent to the small area of attention among the evaluation values of the plural small areas, and a calculating unit which performs white balance calculation based on a judgment result of the judging unit. Therefore, color failure is suppressed and white balance adjustment can be performed properly.
US08164645B2
An apparatus received input of a base image and a reference image that are images picked up by two cameras provided on left and right. A window setting portion determines a size of a window based on an edge value of an image around a gaze point in the base image. A position deviation operation portion operates deviation between the image in the window of the base image and the image in the window of the reference image. A three-dimensional coordinate operation portion operates a three-dimensional coordinate of a surface of an object based on deviation between the images.
US08164641B2
A photographing device includes a motion amount calculation unit that calculates a motion amount of an image in the successive images, an image selection unit that selects an image to be processed based on the motion amount, and an image combination unit that combines overlapped parts by using a plurality of partially overlapped images selected by the image selection unit.
US08164633B2
The present invention relates to calibration of camera parameters for converting a world coordinate system, which indicates a position in the real space, to a coordinate used in an image and vice versa. The apparatus according to the invention has a detection unit, which determines corresponding pixel pairs from the captured image and the model image and outputs corresponding data indicating determined pixel pairs, and a selection unit, which selects pixel pairs to be left in the corresponding data and removes data related to an unselected pixel pair from the corresponding data for generating selected corresponding data. The apparatus further has a calculation unit, which calculates camera parameters based on the selected corresponding data.
US08164630B2
Disclosed is a method for intelligently displaying a sports game video for a multimedia mobile terminal, the method including the steps of: determining if a camera shot existing in the sports game video is a long-shot; when the camera shot is determined as a long-shot, determining a ROI within an image frame of the sports game video; and when the camera shot is determined as a non-long-shot, displaying the image frame on the mobile terminal, and, when the camera shot is determined as a long-shot, enlarging and displaying the ROI on the mobile terminal.
US08164628B2
In a computerized system including a camera mounted in a moving vehicle. The camera acquires consecutively in real time image frames including images of an object within the field of view of the camera. Range to the object from the moving vehicle is determined in real time. A dimension, e.g. a width, is measured in the respective images of two or more image frames, thereby producing measurements of the dimension. The measurements are processed to produce a smoothed measurement of the dimension. The dimension is measured subsequently in one or more subsequent frames. The range from the vehicle to the object is calculated in real time based on the smoothed measurement and the subsequent measurements. The processing preferably includes calculating recursively the smoothed dimension using a Kalman filter.
US08164623B2
An unit for switchable arranging an arbitrary optical element on an optical path of fluorescence from among a plurality of types of the optical elements that transmit an excitation beam for exciting a sample and fluorescence emitted from the sample; an unit for picking up the observation image via the optical element arranged; and an unit for determining a type of the optical element arranged on the basis of the observation image picked up are prepared in order to provide a microscope image processing device, a program product, a program transmission medium and a method are provided, by which an optical element such as a fluorescence cube set on a fluorescence microscope can be identified on the basis of a detection result of an image pick up device that picks up an image of a sample to be observed by using the fluorescence microscope.
US08164622B2
Systems and methods for microscope slide scanning using multiple sensor arrays that receive imagery data from a single optical axis are provided. A single, high quality, easily obtained microscope objective lens is used to project an image onto two or more sensor arrays. The sensor arrays can be linear or two dimensional and imaging takes place along a single optical axis. Simultaneous sensor acquisition and parallel data processing reduce the image acquisition time by a factor of N, where N represents the number of sensors employed.
US08164620B2
A stereo projection optical system includes an image engine configured for providing light superimposed spatial information, a color selector positioned to receive a light output of the image engine, a transmission-type light modulator positioned to receive an emergent light of the color selector. The color selector is configured for selectively modifying the polarization of the light output according to the wavelength of the light output. The transmission-type light modulator alternates between a dark state and a bright state. From the foregoing, it will be apparent that the stereo projection optical system according to the present invention provides advantages in that its structure can be simplified with the reduction of its size by synthesizing lift and right image signals by displaying the stereoscopic image signal using a single projector.
US08164619B2
A recording medium records a main-view stream, a sub-view stream, and management information. The management information includes a system rate for each stream, and each stream is divided into a plurality of data blocks that form a plurality of extent blocks. In each extent block, main-view data blocks and sub-view data blocks are in a continuous interleaved arrangement. A main-view data block and sub-view data block forming a single pair each have a maximum size that is determined by the following conditions: (i) the system rate of the sub-view stream, (ii) whether the pair is the top pair within the extent block, and (iii) whether a long jump region exists between the recording areas of two extent blocks that are to be read continuously.
US08164613B2
Image input device (57) of a mobile phone captures an image of the face of the speaker and stores the captured image data in image memory (53). Communication image generator (52) reads the image data stored in image memory (53) and converts the image data into illustration image data representing an illustration-like image of the speaker. Communication image generator (52) stores the illustration image data in image memory (53). Central controller (51) reads the illustration image data from image memory (53), and sends the illustration image data via wireless device (54) and antenna (59). A mobile phone of the party who the speaker is talking to receives the illustration image data, and displays an illustration-like image of the speaker based on the image data.
US08164612B2
A light source unit is disclosed. The light source unit includes a phase type optical element which modulates a phase distribution of laser beams emitted from a light source. The phase type optical element has a phase distribution so that a first ratio of the peak intensity of side lobe laser beams to the peak intensity of main lobe laser beams in a beam intensity profile at a focal position of the laser beam condensing element is greater than a second ratio of the peak intensity of side lobe laser beams to the peak intensity of main lobe laser beams in the beam intensity profile at the focal position of the laser beam condensing element when it is assumed that the phase type optical element is not disposed.
US08164606B2
In an exposure apparatus employing an over filled optical system, the light quantity distribution on a scanning plane is kept nearly constant for a plurality of scanning light quantities. It selects the light quantity of the light beam irradiated onto the photosensitive body from a plurality of levels, and sets the light quantity selected. According to the light quantity, it selects one of a plurality of correction current profiles, and supplies a light source with a current passing through the correction based on the correction current profile selected. Since the light quantity of the light beam irradiated onto the photosensitive body is corrected by the correction current, the light quantity of the light beam on the photosensitive body becomes nearly constant in the scanning direction.
US08164605B2
A liquid crystal display panel includes a substrate and a plurality of display units. Each display unit includes a first sub-display unit and a second sub-display unit. The first sub-display unit includes a first sub-pixel unit corresponding to a first color, a second sub-pixel unit corresponding to a second color, a third sub-pixel unit corresponding to a third color, and a fourth sub-pixel unit corresponding to a fourth color. The second sub-display unit includes a fifth sub-pixel unit corresponding to the third color, a sixth sub-pixel unit corresponding to the fourth color, a seventh sub-pixel unit corresponding to the first color, and a eighth sub-pixel unit corresponding to the second color.
US08164604B2
A flat panel display device includes a display panel having at least one link pixel which has a non-defect area and a panel defect area and where adjacent pixels are linked to each other; a memory which stores a first compensation data for compensating the data which are to be displayed in the panel defect area, a second compensation data for compensating the data of a bordering part between the panel defect area and the non-defect area, and a third compensation data for compensating the data which are to be displayed in the link pixel. The first compensation data is adjusted through at spatial dispersion or temporal dispersion; the data that are to be displayed in a fixed area inclusive of the boundary are adjusted by dispersing the second compensation data to the fixed area inclusive of the boundary; the data that are to be displayed in the link pixel are adjusted to the third compensation data.
US08164602B2
A display has a modulator illuminated by a illuminator comprising an array of light sources. The array includes light sources of a plurality of colors. The light sources of different colors are individually controllable. Within each color, the light sources that illuminate different areas on the modulator are individually controllable. The display may provide a high dynamic range and a wide color gamut.
US08164599B1
Aspects of the present disclosure relate to collecting images of maps at plurality of client devices, orienting the images with respect to the Earth, and providing the oriented maps to users. The map images may be collected by users who orient the maps by arranging the position of the image over a picture of the Earth. In another example, users may orient the maps by using “pushpins” to indicate the location of two or more points in the map image to two or more locations on the image of the Earth. The images may be processed in order to generate high quality images which may then be downloaded and used by other users.
US08164593B2
A method of rendering a graphical scene includes determining a plurality of functions that contribute to a light transport model of the scene, projecting each function of the plurality of functions into the wavelet domain, encoding basis coefficients of each function in a wavelet tree, each function being encoded in at least one wavelet tree such that the plurality of functions are represented in the wavelet domain by a plurality of wavelet trees, traversing direct paths through the plurality of wavelet trees, along which direct paths an integral coefficient may be nonzero, to determine the radiance of a point in the scene, and rendering the scene.
US08164592B2
A computer readable medium is configured to determine the integral of the product of a plurality of functions. The computer readable medium includes logic configured to project each function of the plurality of functions into the wavelet domain, logic configured to encode basis coefficients of each function in a wavelet tree, each function being encoded in at least one wavelet tree such that the plurality of functions are represented in the wavelet domain by a plurality of wavelet trees, and logic configured to traverse direct paths through the plurality of wavelet trees to determine the integral of the product of the functions represented by the wavelet trees, along which direct paths an integral coefficient may be nonzero.
US08164591B2
The invention concerns a device for generating mutual photometric effects and a server for delivering photometric parameters for generating mutual photometric effects and a system including such a device and such a server. The device comprises a receiver for receiving and demultiplexing the visual data sets and photometric parameters respectively associated with the data sets, a module for defining the mutual photometric effects to be generated for these photometric parameters, a compositor and a rendering module for positioning the visual data sets in the common support space and applying the effects defined for the photometric parameters from at least one of the visual data sets to at least one other of the visual data sets so that at least one visual data set influences one other visual data set in the common support space.
US08164589B2
Disclosed are image resource loading system and method, the system comprising a basic recording space for partitioning a game map into at least one cell and maintaining an object by unit of the cell, a loading target identification unit identifying a cell becoming a target for loading and an object associated with the cell in the basic recording space, in case that a loading event occurs, an order determination unit giving a loading order to the object associated with the cell in accordance with a predetermined determination criterion, and a processor unit loading the object by referring to the given loading order, wherein the order determination unit determines the loading order by considering the size of the object or whether the object is positioned within a predetermined range of the visual field.
US08164586B2
A thin film transistor array panel according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a substrate; a gate line disposed on the substrate and extending in a first direction; a capacitive electrode separated from the gate line and elongated in a second direction; a data line intersecting the gate line; a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line and including a drain electrode; a coupling electrode overlapping the capacitive electrode and connected to the drain electrode; and a pixel electrode including at least one first subpixel electrode connected to the drain electrode and a second subpixel electrode connected to the capacitive electrode and spaced apart from the at least first subpixel electrode by a gap that overlaps the capacitive electrode or the coupling electrode.
US08164583B2
The display device has an LCD panel, a light source, and a digitizer disposed on the back surface of the LCD panel. The display device further contains a U-shaped first heat-dissipation plate made of a non-magnetic material. The first heat-dissipation plate is disposed on at least one end of the periphery of the LCD panel in a way that the opening of the U-shape faces toward the LCD panel. The light source is mounted on the first heat-dissipation plate, and an end section of the digitizer is covered with the opening of the plate.
US08164576B2
Detect four sets of first touch coordinates (A, B, C, D) on a touch panel. Divide an area delimited by the detected four sets into two areas of triangles (ABD, BCD). For each area of triangle, obtain a first correction factor. Detect a set of second touch coordinates (P, Q) selected within a respective one of the areas of triangles. Convert the detected set of second touch coordinates into a set of first corrected coordinates. Detect a difference between the set of first corrected coordinates and a set of true display coordinates. Where the detected difference is greater than a predetermined threshold value, further divide the area of triangle (BCD) into three areas of triangles (QBD, QBC, QCD). Obtain a second correction factor using the set of second touch coordinates and the sets of first touch coordinates corresponding to the vertices.
US08164572B2
An image forming apparatus and method of displaying a multilingual keyboard uses an identifier of a language-specific entity, such as a country-code top-level domain of a domain name in an e-mail address to automatically output an input device configuration, such as a keyboard configuration, in accordance with stored keyboard table information corresponding to country identification information of a target recipient using the e-mail address of the target recipient, thereby increasing the convenience of use. The image forming apparatus receives an input email address of a target recipient, detects country identification information in the email address, searches stored keyboard information for that corresponding to the detected country identification information, and displays the keyboard in the language corresponding to the country identification information found in the searching of the stored country identification information.
US08164569B2
An optical navigation input device with an offset imaging aperture. The optical navigation input device includes a light source, an illumination aperture structure, and an image sensor. The light source directs a light beam toward a substantially specular illumination surface. Scattered light reflects off of a surface reflection feature along a scattered light path which is offset from a specular reflection path. The illumination aperture structure at least partially defines an illumination aperture interposed between the light source and the illumination surface. The illumination aperture produces a diffraction pattern that includes a diffraction discontinuity which is substantially free from diffracted light within a sector area outside of the light beam. The image sensor is disposed within the scattered light path at a location corresponding to the diffraction discontinuity. The image sensor receives the scattered light from the surface reflection feature and generates a navigation image of the surface reflection feature.
US08164552B2
A display system is built up of at least one display cell including an assembly containing a set of substrates at least one of which is transparent, a wall portion for supporting the set of substrates in opposition to one another defining a liquid confining space, a 1st-A electrode and a 1st-B electrode located on the side of the substrate facing the liquid confining space in a mutually electrically independent way, an insulating layer for covering the 1st-A electrode and the 1st-B electrode, an intermediate partition located at a boundary site between the 1st-A electrode and the 1st-B electrode and the second electrode located on the side of another substrate facing the liquid confining space, such that θ1 <θ2 <θ3, where θ1, θ2 and θ3 relate to hydrophilicity of the exposed wall portion, hydrophilicity of the intermediate partition, and hydrophilicity of the insulating layer.
US08164548B2
The variation of characteristics of transistors occurs. The present invention is a signal line drive circuit having a plurality of current source circuit corresponding to a plurality of wirings, a first and a second shift registers, a latch circuit, the foregoing plurality of current source circuits have capacity means and supplying means, respectively, characterized in that the foregoing capacity means converts a supplied current into a voltage according to a sampling pulse supplied from the foregoing first shift register, the foregoing supplying means supplies a current corresponding to the foregoing converted voltage according to a video signal, and the foregoing latch circuit operates according to a sampling pulse supplied from the foregoing second shift register.
US08164543B2
A system to display graphical images upon a windscreen of a vehicle including night vision includes a transparent windscreen head up display, a night vision system, and an enhanced vision system system manager monitoring data from the night vision system, analyzing the monitored data identifying critical information, and determining display requirements based upon the critical information. A graphics system generates the graphical images to be displayed based upon the display requirements, and a graphics projection system communicates with the graphics system and displays the graphical images.
US08164539B2
A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and circuit board carried by the housing and having RF circuitry comprising at least one RF component and plurality of other components mounted on the circuit board. An RF metal shield is secured to the circuit board and surrounds and isolates the at least one RF component and plurality of other components within the RF metal shield. An RF absorber is positioned adjacent an area of the RF component that radiates energy to aid in reducing energy radiated from the RF component into the RF metal shield.
US08164535B2
A CPW fed planar log-periodic antenna is provided. The antenna includes: an upper substrate; a planar log-periodic antenna structure formed beneath the upper substrate; a CPW-fed structure formed on the upper substrate for feeding energy into the planar log-periodic antenna structure; a lower substrate disposed beneath the upper substrate; and a wire structure formed beneath the lower substrate. The antenna of the present invention features efficient reduction of cross polarized radiation and thereby enhancing the performance.
US08164530B2
A magnetic and/or magneto-electric antenna that has a plurality of conducting loops where each individual loop can be resonated at a frequency that is offset from the frequency of the other loops to provide a composite band-pass response that is broader than that of the individual loops. A receiving circuit acts to sum the signals from each of the antennas to provide a combined frequency response that is broader in bandwidth than any of the individual loops. Similarly a combination of multiple transmitter loops where a transmit circuit drives a common transmit waveform to each of the combined antennas to provide a combined transmitter frequency response that is broader in bandwidth than any of the individual loops.
US08164522B2
A positioning method for a sensor node is provided, and the method includes steps of: providing a first antenna having a first omnidirectional radiation pattern on a first plane; rotating the first antenna about an axis substantially parallel to the first plane; transmitting a wireless signal while the first antenna rotates about the axis for every a predetermined central angle; receiving the wireless signal at the sensor node; obtaining Received Signal Strength Indications (RSSIs) of the respective wireless signals; and determining a location of the sensor node according to the RSSIs.
US08164518B2
A GNSS enabled mobile device receives GNSS signals from visible GNSS satellites. Broadcast ephemeris is extracted from the received GNSS signals for generating ephemeris extension (future ephemeris) in the next several days for each of the visible GNSS satellites. The GNSS enabled mobile device uses the generated future ephemeris to determine a position fix even without fresh broadcast ephemeris completely received from the visible GNSS satellites. The generation of future ephemeris is scheduled according to the age of available ephemeris extensions and/or the time of visibility. Available ephemeris such as extracted broadcast ephemeris are integrated into an orbit model using the multi-step numerical integration methods and propagated to generate future ephemeris. The generated future ephemeris is reformatted into a desired orbit model and/or format of the GNSS enabled mobile device. A curve fitting polynomial of generated future ephemeris is stored instead of actual generated future ephemeris to conserve storage space.
US08164515B2
Methods and apparatus to locate a wireless device are described. A disclosed example method includes transmitting a request location message from a first wireless station to a second wireless station to determine a geographic location of a third wireless station, receiving a response location message at the first wireless station from the second wireless station identifying the geographic location of the third wireless station, wherein the second wireless station stores the geographic location of the third wireless station, determining a path from the first wireless station to a range of the third wireless station based on the received geographic location of the third wireless station, moving along a portion of the path with the first wireless station to the range of the third wireless station, and transmitting an association message from the first wireless station to the third wireless station to communicably couple the first wireless station to the third wireless station.
US08164513B2
An evaluation point E of a present position candidate corresponding to each satellite set is calculated based on an a priori residual (APR) (APR value), a PDOP value, and the number of satellites of the target satellite set according to E=k1·f1(APR)+k2·f2(PDOP)+k3·f3(number of satellites). Evaluation coefficients k1 to k3 for respectively weighting evaluation functions f1 to f3 are determined based on an APR average value.
US08164508B2
A proximity sensor for a parking area designed to detect the presence of an obstacle constituted by a parked vehicle, comprises a transmitting radar, designed to send electromagnetic pulses towards the obstacle, a receiving radar, designed to receive the pulses reflected by the obstacle, and a processing circuit, designed to compare samples detected in a certain condition of absence of an obstacle in a calibration step with those detected in a condition of detection of an obstacle to determine the presence/absence of the obstacle.
US08164507B2
In particular embodiments, analyzing data includes receiving sensor data generated in response to sensing one or more structures. The structural features of the sensor data are identified. Each structural feature is represented by one or more vectors. A score matrix that describes a plurality of distances among the vectors is generated. Vector pairs are formed from at least some of the vectors according to the distances of the score matrix. A layout of the structures is generated from the vector pairs.
US08164501B2
Provided is a transmitter in a communications system including a plurality of digital to analog converters. Also included is a plurality of clocks, each being communicably coupled to a corresponding one of the digital to analog converters.
US08164500B2
A continuous-time delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is disclosed. The ADC includes a loop filter, a loop quantizer, and a clock-jitter tolerant digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The clock-jitter tolerant DAC includes a dual switched-current (SI) DAC, a switched-capacitor (SC) DAC, an adder, and a switched-capacitor-resistor (SCR) injection circuit. The dual SI DAC provides two identical analog signals from the feedback digital signal of a loop quantizer within the ADC. The SC DAC provides an error-free reference signal from the feedback digital signal. The adder subtracts one of the two analog signals from the error-free reference signal to obtain an inverted jitter-induced error signal. The SCR injection circuit then injects the inverted jitter-induced error signal, delayed by one clock-cycle, in the form of a half-delay return-to-zero exponentially decaying waveform into the loop filter.
US08164499B1
In an exemplary decision-feedback equalizer (DFE) of a serializer/deserializer (SerDes) receiver, a single current mirror array is shared by multiple current digital-to-analog converter (IDAC) functions. The DFE has an initial amplifier stage that applies an initial coefficient COEFF0 to an input data signal and a number of (e.g., five) additional amplifier stages that apply additional coefficients (e.g., COEFF1-COEFF5) to different delayed versions of the recovered output data stream. The outputs of the initial and multiple additional amplifier stages are summed to generate an equalized data signal that is applied to a clock-and-data recovery (CDR) circuit. Due to certain characteristics of the equalizer function, the multiple additional amplifier stages can be implemented using a single shared current mirror array, which save significant amounts of chip area compared to conventional implementations in which each additional amplifier stage has its own dedicated current mirror array.
US08164490B2
Repetitive portions are sequentially detected in compression target data, and it is determined whether the approximately corresponding position of each repetitive portion is under a word-repetition condition, which is a position corresponding to a multiple of a length of an instruction word, or whether the position is under a byte-repetition condition. When it is under a word-repetition condition, a word-repetition code including at least a value obtained by dividing an approximately corresponding position by an instruction word length and a value specifying a length of a corresponding portion is generated and output as compressed data. When it is a byte-repetition condition, a byte-repetition code including at least a value specifying an approximately corresponding position and a value specifying a length of a corresponding portion is generated and output as compressed data.
US08164484B2
A method and apparatus for identifying running vehicles in an area to be monitored using acoustic signature recognition. The apparatus includes an input sensor for capturing an acoustic waveform produced by a vehicle source, and a processing system. The waveform is digitized and divided into frames. Each frame is filtered into a plurality of gammatone filtered signals. At least one spectral feature vector is computed for each frame. The vectors are integrated across a plurality of frames to create a spectro-temporal representation of the vehicle waveform. In a training mode, values from the spectro-temporal representation are used as inputs to a Nonlinear Hebbian learning function to extract acoustic signatures and synaptic weights. In an active mode, the synaptic weights and acoustic signatures are used as patterns in a supervised associative network to identify whether a vehicle is present in the area to be monitored. In response to a vehicle being present, the class of vehicle is identified. Results may be provided to a central computer.
US08164481B2
A system and method for conducting bi-directional communication sessions with sensing and control devices, such as utility meters, from a mobile device. A system for conducting bi-directional communication sessions with utility meters from a mobile device includes a mobile device capable of acquiring a communication session with a meter unit connected to a utility meter, a vehicle in which the mobile device is located, and a plurality of meter units connected to a plurality of utility meters. The meter units are capable of receiving and executing commands to obtain data and perform actions on the utility meters. The actions include a peak consumption value reset of the utility meter. Each command message includes a token that enables the endpoint radio transceiver devices to determine the commanded one or more operations have been performed.
US08164477B2
Jointly designed channel coding and modulation are used in an uplink telemetry system for transmitting a message signal from a bottomhole location to a surface location. A constant envelope quadrature-quadrature phase-shift keying may be used.
US08164475B2
A downhole signal receiving system where a pair of setting devices (51) are used to electrically connect with downhole structure and are connected to one another by a bulk conductor (52). Signals are extracted by using a detecting means (53) that does not interrupt the conduction path. The tool provides a low impedance conduction path along which signals from the surrounding structure can flow to facilitate detection.
US08164473B2
A mine roof monitoring apparatus has at least two contact members. At least one contact member maintains contact with the roof of a mine shaft. At least one contact member maintains contact with a floor of the same mine shaft. A motion monitoring apparatus monitors the relative motion between the two contact members, and a flag on the motion monitoring apparatus changes position, when a predetermined amount of motion occurs between the two contact members. This indicates that the roof of the mine shaft has subsided enough to move the respective contact member.
US08164471B2
A system and method for detecting a falling state of an electronic device include setting a time interval to collect position information of the electronic device and one or more alarm means, activating a global position system to locate a position of the electronic device, and acquiring position information of the electronic device at each time interval. The system and method further include calculating an acceleration of the electronic device, and activating one or more of the alarm means if the calculated acceleration is larger or equal to the acceleration of gravity.
US08164468B2
A system and method is described for rapid charging and power management of a battery for a meter. A charger component is operably associated with the meter and is capable of executing a rapid charge algorithm for a rechargeable battery. The algorithm includes monitoring for a connection to an external power source and implementing a charging routine of a battery at a first charge rate and then at a second charge rate. The second charge rate is lower than the first charge rate. A temperature rise in the rechargeable battery due to the first charge rate has a negligible heat transfer effect on the fluid sample. The meter can also include a power switch for controlling current flow to a battery fuel gauge. The power switch is open when the meter enters into a sleep mode. The state of battery charge is determined after the meter exits the sleep mode.
US08164457B2
A method for making a container including a radio frequency identification label is provide. In an embodiment the method includes placing a radio frequency identification (RFID) label into a mold; positioning the RFID label so that an outer portion of the label is substantially flush with the mold surface; and molding a container such that the outer portion of the RFID label is substantially flush with the outer surface of the side wall of the container. An article, which may be formed using the foregoing method, is also disclosed.
US08164441B2
A wireless data communication system suitable for use as a radio frequency (RF) locationing or presence detection system includes at least one wireless access device and at least one active RF tag corresponding to an item or asset of interest. The wireless access device is configured to transmit a locale message that conveys location-specific data corresponding to a geographic operating region of the wireless access device. The active RF tag receives the locale message, processes the location-specific data conveyed in the locale message, and configures itself in accordance with the location-specific data to support operation using a selected wireless data communication scheme. The selected scheme is compliant with the operating requirements of the geographic operating region in which the active RF tag resides.
US08164437B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a range reduction detection apparatus that is able to detect blocking of its field of view. Detection of an event, due to movement or intrusion within the field of view, is arranged to start a timer, which will time-out thereby providing an indication of such blocking unless a subsequent event is detected within the time-period.
US08164436B2
A power over data cable system has a power controller. The power controller receives alarm signals from alarm systems such as fire alarms and security alarms. The power controller is connected to power over Ethernet switches or injectors (PoE). The PoE Ethernet switches or injectors are coupled network devices, such as door locks, security cameras, etc. When an alarm occurs, the power controller can turn off the power to the network devices by sending a disable signal to an associated PoE Ethernet switch or injector. A user interface, allows a user to easily define which PoE Ethernet switches or injectors are to be opened for a given alarm. Using this system the user can easily setup a system to selectively disable power to certain devices and not others whenever an alarm is activated.
US08164430B2
A vehicle surrounding recognition support system for a vehicle includes a contact detection device detecting whether or not a driver of the vehicle touches a turn signal operating lever or moves his/her hand close to the turn signal operating lever, an object position detecting device detecting a position of an object existing around the vehicle, an object information identification device identifying information relating to the object in accordance with a result of detection of the object position detecting device, and a warning device warning the driver about the existence of the object in accordance with the information of the object, identified by the object information identification device, when the contact detection device detects that the driver touches the turn signal operating lever or moves his/her hand close to the turn signal operating lever.
US08164427B2
A method for optimization in an RFID location recognition system is developed to use in a blueprint in which an optimum location for installing an RFID reader is determined for using a blueprint so as to improve location recognition. The method includes the steps of inputting a blueprint and dividing a location recognition unit space from the blueprint; establishing a building interior space analysis model and an interior radio propagation space analysis model and deriving a building spatial significance and a radio propagation spatial significance; analyzing correlation between a building space and a radio propagation space and deriving a correlation coefficient; and defining an objective function for determining a location of a RFID reader based on the building spatial significance, the radio propagation spatial significance, and the correlation coefficient between the building space and the radio propagation space and performing optimization.
US08164420B2
An RFID tag includes a sensor for determining a transient state or condition of a product to which the tag is associated, and a display. The tag may be passive, semi-passive, or active. In response to receipt at the tag of a read signal that includes a first value associated with the transient state or condition, a comparison is performed. The comparison compares the first value, with a second value generated by the sensor in response to receipt of the read signal. As a result of the comparison, an indication is provided on the display. The information displayed is a function of the comparison. In one embodiment, the display provides different color indications depending on the transient state or condition sensed. In an alternative embodiment, the RFID tag display includes an electrical or thermal charge-induced pigment release medium, e.g., an electronic ink, and the tag is used to communicate information about the state of a product to which the tag is associated.
US08164419B2
An electronic lock box contains a secure compartment for storing keys to a structure. A linear actuator moves in one direction opening the door to the secure compartment, and moves in the opposite direction releasing a shackle that holds the lock box to the structure. A lock box system uses an encryption algorithm to diversify user PIN data at a central computer, and stores that diversified information on a memory card for later use when the user attempts to access a lock box. The central computer and electronic lock box both keep track of system “epoch time,” and the memory card must be presented to the electronic lock box within a correct epoch time window for the diversified PIN data to be successfully decrypted and compared to the user's PIN data that is entered on a keypad of the electronic lock box.
US08164418B2
An automobile anti-theft remote control device and a charger therefor in the field of automobile electronic anti-theft technology and more particularly pertains to a chargeable automobile anti-theft remote control device with a voice prompt function and a charger therefor. The chargeable battery is disposed in the anti-theft remote control device and its body has a charging socket. The remote control device comprises a voice prompt circuit, a vibration circuit and a display unit. The charger for the remote control device is disposed with a charging plug which is adapted to engage with the charging socket of the remote control device and to charge the chargeable battery in the remote control device. The power source input plug of the charger is adapted to engage with the car cigarette lighter socket for the power source input. The charger comprises a voltage detection circuit and a charging indication unit.
US08164408B2
There is provided a planar transformer having a dual-bobbin structure. The planar transformer includes a core unit including a pair of cores that are electromagnetically coupled to each other, and a bobbin unit including an inner bobbin part and a board part. The inner bobbin part includes a bobbin body having a predetermined volume and having a through hole into which the core is inserted, and a first winding wound around an outer circumferential surface of the bobbin body, and the board part includes at least one board including a board body having a predetermined surface area and having a through hole into which the inner bobbin part and the core are inserted, and a second winding formed on at least one surface of the board body and causing electromagnetic action with the first winding.
US08164406B2
A transformer is provided. The transformer includes a first electrical conductor, a second electrical conductor, a circuit board and a core set. The first electrical conductor has a through hole and the second electrical conductor is electromagnetically coupled with the first electrical conductor and includes a plurality of spiral coils formed by winding a single conductive wire, each spiral coil having a through hole. The circuit board has a through hole. The core set penetrates the through hole of the first electrical conductor, the through hole of the circuit board, and the through holes of the plurality of spiral coils of the second electrical conductor, and covers at least one portion of the first electrical conductor and the second electrical conductor.
US08164400B2
A distributed constant type filter includes a substrate including a part made of a first dielectric material having a first relative dielectric constant and a different-material part made of a second dielectric material having a second relative dielectric constant different from the first relative dielectric constant. A filter pattern is formed on a top surface and a ground pattern is formed on a bottom surface of the substrate. Part of the filter pattern is formed on the different-material part.
US08164397B2
A method, structure, and design structure for an impedance-optimized microstrip transmission line for multi-band and ultra-wide band applications. A method includes: forming a plurality of openings in a ground plane associated with a signal line; forming a plurality of capacitance plates in the plurality of openings; and connecting the plurality of capacitance plates to the signal line with a plurality of posts extending between the signal line and the plurality of capacitance plates.
US08164393B2
A vibrating reed includes: a base; and a vibrating arm which is extended from one end portion of the base, the vibrating arm having an arm portion which is disposed on the base side, a weight portion which is disposed on a tip side of the arm portion and has a larger width than the arm portion, main surfaces which are respectively disposed on front and back sides of the vibrating arm, side surfaces each of which extends in a longitudinal direction of the vibrating arm to connect the main surfaces on the front and back sides and which are formed so as to face each other, a first groove portion which is a bottomed groove formed at least one of the main surfaces along the longitudinal direction of the vibrating arm, a first excitation electrode which is formed on groove side surfaces each connecting a bottom of the first groove portion with the one main surface, a second excitation electrode which is formed on the both side surfaces, and a projection-in-groove which is disposed on the tip side of a bisector bisecting the vibrating arm in the longitudinal direction and is formed so as to be along the groove side surface with a part of the first groove portion interposed between the projection-in-groove and the groove side surface.
US08164376B2
A clock frequency diffusing device including a multiphase clock signal generator, a random number generator, signal selectors, and a clock signal generator. The multiphase clock signal generator receives an input clock signal and produces a plurality of delayed clock signals that are delayed relative to the input clock signal by various amounts of time. The clock signal selector randomly chooses one of the delayed signals based upon random numbers generated by the random number generator and produces a selector output signal based on its chosen delayed clock signal. A clock signal generator receives the selector output signal and produces an output clock signal.
US08164371B2
To provide a duty detection circuit including: a plurality of duty detectors that detect a duty ratio of internal clocks; a controller that controls the plurality of duty detectors so that the plurality of duty detectors operates in different phases from one another; and an output selecting unit that selects one of duty detection signals from the plurality of duty detectors. According to the present invention, since the duty detectors operate in the different phases from one another, the output selecting unit can output a duty detection signal with a higher frequency than a generation frequency with which each duty detector generates the duty detection signal. Accordingly, when the duty detection circuit according to the present invention is used to adjust a clock of the DLL circuit, a control period of the DLL circuit can be reduced.
US08164365B2
Embodiments of the invention relate to a method and apparatus to drive non-resistive loads. The non-resistive load driver may include two or more drivers, such as a high-drive circuit and a low-drive circuit, to drive rail-to-rail output voltages and to stabilize the output voltages at a substantially constant level. The high-drive circuit may drive the output voltage of the non-resistive load driver to a threshold level, whereas the low-drive circuit may modify the output voltage of the non-resistive load driver to approximate an input voltage of the non-resistive load driver, and compensate any leakage associated with the non-resistive loads to provide a substantially constant output voltage. The low-drive circuit consumes less current than the high-drive circuit. The non-resistive load driver consumes less power and use less chip space. Alternatively, the non-resistive load driver may be implemented using a single driver with multiple modes, such as a low-drive mode and a high-drive mode, by changing a bias current of the non-resistive load driver between a high current mode and a low current mode.
US08164362B2
A sense amplifier having a sampling circuit to sample the amplifier input signal; a reference node storing a reference signal corresponding to the input signal; and a timing circuit activating the sampling circuit for a predetermined interval, and admitting the reference signal to the reference node. The sense amplifier also can include a pump capacitor substantially maintaining a value of the reference signal; and a gain circuit coupled with the reference node and disposed to adaptively adjust gain of an output signal produced by the sense amplifier. The sense amplifier can be a single-ended sense amplifier.
US08164361B2
A quadrature output high-frequency RF divide-by-two circuit includes a pair of differential complementary logic latches. The latches are interconnected to form a toggle flip-flop. Each latch includes a tracking cell and a locking cell. In a first embodiment, the locking cell includes two complementary logic inverters and two transmission gates. When the locking cell is locked, the two gates are enabled such that the locked (i.e., latched) signal passes through both transmission gates and both inverters. In one advantageous aspect, the tracking cell only involves two transmission gates. Due to the circuit topology, the first embodiment is operable from a low supply voltage at a high operating frequency while consuming a low amount of supply current. In a second and third embodiment, the tracking cell involves a pair of inverters. The sources of the transistors of the inverters are, however, coupled together thereby resulting in performance advantages over conventional circuits.
US08164352B2
A capacitance detecting apparatus which can detect the change in minute capacitance of a measuring object with high sensitivity comprises a signal generator, a differential amplifying circuit, and a detecting unit. The signal generator generates a probe signal w(t) to be applied to one end of the measuring object. The differential amplifying circuit amplifies differentially a response signal v1(t) developed at the other end of the measuring object in response to the application of the probe signal w(t) and the probe signal w(t). The detecting unit detects capacitance change of the measuring object based on the amplified signal v(t) from the differential amplifying circuit.
US08164350B2
The invention relates to a capacitive angle encoder for detecting a rotational position of a rotatable object relative to a stationary object as well as a withdrawable feeder for circuit board component insertion machines, said withdrawable feeder being equipped with an angle encoder according to the invention. The angle encoder comprises a stator that supports first and second transmitting electrodes and first and second receiving electrodes, and a rotor which supports an incremental coupling electrode and an absolute value-coupling electrode. The incremental coupling electrode is designed such that the first electrostatic field is modulated by a change in capacitance in response to a change in the rotational position of the rotor, while the absolute value-coupling electrode is designed such that the second electrostatic field is modulated by a change in capacitance in response to an absolute rotational position of the rotor. A signal processing circuit detects the first and second modulated electrostatic field and determines a measured value for the position in response to the detected field. The at least one first and second transmitting electrode and the at least one first and second receiving electrode are coplanar to one another.
US08164347B2
An arc fault demonstrator device for testing the efficacy of an arc fault interrupter (AFI) circuit breaker. The device includes a motor that moves a movable electrode relative to a stationary electrode under microprocessor control. A relay switches the electrodes connection between an arc voltage measurement circuit and an electrode close circuit. When current is applied to the electrodes, the measurement circuit provides voltage measurements to the microprocessor, which instructs the motor to move the electrodes closer or apart. When the arc voltage is below a low threshold, the electrodes are moved apart until the arc voltage exceeds a medium threshold. When the arc voltage exceeds a high threshold, the electrodes are moved closer until the arc voltage falls below the medium threshold. A switch switches between the AFI circuit breaker or a conventional circuit breaker to confirm that the AFI breaker will trip upon detection of the arc whereas the conventional breaker will not.
US08164334B2
A position detection system that does not require calibration measurement to be performed in advance and reduces the work required for detecting a position and so on is provided. The provided position detection system includes a device having a magnetic inductance coil; a drive coil that has a position-calculating frequency near a resonant frequency of the magnetic inductance coil and generates an alternating magnetic field which acts on the magnetic inductance coil; a plurality of magnetic-field sensors that is disposed outside the operating range of the device and detects an induced magnetic field generated by the magnetic inductance coil; amplitude-component detection section for detecting amplitude components whose phase is substantially orthogonal to the alternating magnetic field from the outputs of the magnetic sensors acquired by the plurality of magnetic sensors; and position analyzing section for calculating at least one of a position and an orientation of the device on the basis of the amplitude components.
US08164329B2
A wire rope flaw detector comprises a back yoke and excitation permanent magnets, which form a main magnetic path in a predetermined section of a wire rope in the axial direction; a magnetic path member arranged in the predetermined section to be magnetically insulated from the back yoke and the permanent magnets and making the leakage flux generated from a damaged part of wire rope detour to the outside of the wire rope; and a detection coil wound around the magnetic path member for detecting leakage flux. The amount of leakage flux can be increased by providing the magnetic path member and since the windable area of the detection coil is increased, the number of turns of detection coil can be increased.
US08164320B2
A system includes a first switch connected to a voltage input and a switching node. A second switch is connected to the switching node and a reference potential. A first circuit generates first rising edges and first falling edges by comparing a voltage at the switching node to a first voltage reference. The first voltage reference is between the reference potential and the voltage input. A second circuit generates second rising edges and second falling edges by comparing the switching node voltage to a second voltage reference. The second voltage reference is less than the reference potential. The controller calculates delay times based on the first rising edges, the first falling edges, the second rising edges and the second falling edges. The controller generates drive signals for the first switch and the second switch based on a duty cycle and the delay times.
US08164319B2
A system and method for adapting a width of a clocking pulse for clocking a DC-DC converter, wherein the width of the clocking pulse is selected based upon the duty cycle of the DC-DC converter. When the DC-DC converter operates below a predefined threshold duty cycle, a clocking pulse of a first width is selected to allow operation of the converter at a minimum predefined duty cycle with a clocking frequency that minimizes output voltage ripple. The first width corresponds to an on-time of a switching transistor of the DC-DC converter when the converter is operated at the minimum duty cycle. When the DC-DC converter operates above the predefined threshold duty cycle, a clocking pulse of a second width is selected to allow operation of the converter at high duty cycles while simultaneously avoiding missed inductor current pulses and generation of sub-harmonic voltage oscillations.
US08164314B2
A distributed capacitor bank controller for power factor correction of a power system may include a first distributed meter, a second distributed meter, a programmable logic controller and a communications pathway. The first and second meters may be operable to provide a power factor value, a current value, a voltage value, and a load value. The first and second meters may be coupled to the programmable logic controller via the communications pathway. The programmable logic controller may be operable to receive the power factor value, the current value, the voltage value and the load value from the first and second distributed meters, determine an average power factor value and a current unbalance value, and automatically add or remove a capacitor step of a capacitor bank to the power system based at least in part on the average power factor value, the current unbalance value, the voltage value and the load value.
US08164305B2
The present invention provides a battery circuit including a first battery cell with a first parameter having a first value and a second battery cell with a second parameter having a second value. The second battery cell is coupled to the first battery cell in series. The battery circuit further includes a magnetic device operable for storing energy transferred from the first battery cell via a first winding coupled to the first battery cell and for releasing the stored energy to the second battery cell via a second winding coupled to the second battery cell if the first value of the first parameter is greater than the second value of the second parameter.
US08164300B2
At a battery exchange station a discharged battery is removed and a charged battery is inserted into an electric vehicle. The battery exchange station has various mechanisms to make this exchange. In some embodiments, the batteries are stored in a warehouse, where they are given an appropriate amount of charge. The charged batteries are moved from the warehouse by an automated robotic mechanism. The automated robotic system provides the charged battery to a battery exchange system which inserts the charged battery into the vehicle after it removes the discharged battery from the vehicle. The insertion and removal of the battery is done vertically, i.e., into and out of the bottom of the vehicle. The battery exchange system is located in a service bay under the vehicle. A sliding door system creates an opening above the service bay. The opening is of variable size depending on the size of the vehicle.
US08164296B2
A method and an apparatus are described for determining a field current through a field winding in an electrical machine with a stator and a rotor. The electrical machine includes a field-circuit transformer to produce, by induction of an electrical current on the rotor side, field current with which a field winding is energized in order to generate an excitation magnetic field. The method includes driving the primary side of the field-circuit transformer to produce a field current in the rotor, which is derived from the current induced on the secondary side in the field-circuit transformer; measuring one or more phase currents in one or more primary-side phases of the field-circuit transformer; determining a maximum value depending on the one or more measured phase currents; determining the field current through the field winding depending on the determined maximum value.
US08164295B2
A stepping motor controlling device includes first and second clock signal generators, plural drivers, and a controller. The first clock signal generator generates a reference clock signal for rotationally driving of plural stepping motors. The second clock signal generator generates, on the basis of the reference clock signal, for each of the stepping motors, speed control clock signals. The plural drivers are provided respectively for the stepping motors and, on the basis of the speed control clock signals for the respective stepping motors, generate pulse excitation signals and input the pulse excitation signals to the stepping motors to rotationally drive the stepping motors. The controller controls the second clock signal generator to generate the speed control clock signals such that phases of the respective speed control clock signals for the stepping motors differ from one another.
US08164290B2
A fan includes a motor control device which is electrically connected with a motor and an alternating current power source. The motor control device includes a converting circuit, a power factor correction circuit and a motor controlling circuit. The voltage of the alternating current power source is converted to be direct current voltage by the converting circuit and the power factor correction circuit, and then the direct current voltage is outputted to the motor control circuit. The motor controlling circuit generates a driving signal in accordance with the direct current voltage for driving the motor to operate.
US08164289B2
In a brushless motor having a stator including armature windings for a plurality of phases, and a rotor including a permanent magnet and being rotatably disposed inside or outside of the stator, an inter-phase induced voltage waveform between two different phases in the armature windings is a trapezoidal waveform formed by superimposing a fifth-order component and a seventh-order component on a first-order fundamental wave. A content rate X(=(α5+α7)/α1) of a total of voltage peak values α5 and α7 of the fifth-order component and the seventh-order component to a voltage peak value α1 of the first-order fundamental wave is preferably set to a range of 0.01≦X≦0.1, and more preferably to a range of 0.02≦X≦0.09.
US08164287B2
In application of a square wave voltage to a motor MG2 to make the motor MG2 output a torque equivalent to a torque command Tm2*, the procedure of square wave control corrects reference phases ψb and −ψb as phases for maximizing an absolute value of the output torque of the motor MG2 with a rotational position detection error θerr and sets the results of the correction to an upper limit phase ψul and a lower limit phase ψll of the square wave voltage (step S110). A target voltage phase ψ* is set within a phase range defined by the upper limit phase ψul and the lower limit phase ψll, in order to reduce a torque difference between the torque command Tm2* and a torque estimate Tm2est (steps S120 and S130). An inverter 42 is controlled based on the target voltage phase ψ* and a rotational angle θ of the motor MG2.
US08164280B2
Provided is an electronic ballast including: a rectifier which rectifies alternating current (AC) power into direct current (DC) power; a power factor compensator which improves a power face of the DC power; an inverter which inverts the DC current into high frequency square wave power; and a resonant circuit which receives the high frequency square wave power from the inverter, adjusts impedance, transforms the high frequency square wave power into high frequency sine wave power, and outputs the high frequency sine wave power.
US08164277B2
The invention relates to a system comprising a plurality of light emitting diodes, LEDs. The LEDs may be controlled in various in various manners in order to obtain any of one or more objects of the system. Thus, LEDs may be controlled for by controlling at least two of the following parameters: the luminous intensity of each of the LEDs, the luminous flux of each of the LEDs, the colour spectrum of the light being emitted from each of the LEDs, the spatial radiation pattern of the light being emitted from each of the LEDs, the spatial radiation pattern of the system, the junction temperature of each of the LEDs, the temperature of the surroundings to the LED, the amperage of the electrical power being supplied each or sections of the LEDs, the voltage of the electrical power being applied the LEDs and pulsing applied to the electrical power being applied each or sections of the LEDs.
US08164275B2
A drive circuit includes a DC/DC converter, an outer control loop providing an output voltage representing a comparison between a load current and a reference voltage, a multiplier multiplying the outer control loop output voltage with a sample of the rectified output and provide an output current, a current amplifier comparing an input line current sample and the multiplier output current, a comparator driving the switch with a modulated output based on the current amplifier output and a sawtooth reference, and an upper voltage limit loop having an output in electrical communication with the outer control loop output, wherein the outer control loop output voltage is impacted by the upper voltage limit loop output during a zero load scenario. The drive circuit also includes a line voltage transformer and a lightning suppression circuit coupled to the voltage rectifier output.
US08164270B2
A discharge lamp lighting circuit is capable of preventing the discharge lamp from going out unexpectedly. The discharge lamp lighting circuit includes a DC-AC inverter which receives a power source voltage, boosts and converts the power source voltage into AC and supplies AC electric power to the discharge lamp 21. A control circuit sends a long cycle signal when the discharge lamp 21 is started. The cycle of the long cycle signal is longer than a frequency at the time of steady lighting. The control circuit sends a steady drive signal, which is a frequency at the time of steady lighting, to the DC-AC inverter 25. A cycle of the long cycle signal is set according to at least one of the power source voltage, the temperature of the discharge lamp lighting circuit or the extinguishing time.
US08164259B2
A first aim of the present invention is to provide a PDP capable of stably delivering favorable image display performance and being driven with low power, by improving the surface layer to improve secondary electron emission characteristics and charge retention characteristics. A second aim of the present invention is to provide a PDP, in addition to having the above-mentioned effects, capable of reducing an aging time. In order to achieve these aims, a crystalline film of a film thickness of approximately 1 μm is disposed as a surface layer (protective film) 8 on a surface of the dielectric layer 7 that faces a discharge space. The surface layer 8 is made by adding Sr to CeO2, and a concentration of Sr in the surface layer 8 is in a range of 11.8 mol % to 49.4 mol % inclusive. With this structure, an attempt is made to improve the secondary electron emission characteristics and aging characteristics in the surface layer 8.
US08164256B2
A display apparatus includes a light-emitting layer, a pair of electrodes sandwiching the light-emitting layer, a transistor with an active layer for driving the light-emitting layer through the pair of the electrodes, and a matrix wiring portion having a scanning electrode line, a signal electrode line, and a first insulating layer. The active layer has an oxide which contains In and Zn and at least a part of which is amorphous, and further includes a second insulating layer containing hydrogen in an amount of less than 3×1021 atoms/cm3 disposed between the active layer and the first insulating layer.
US08164241B2
An extension-type spark plug includes an upper terminal stud and a lower terminal stud axially spaced from one another in electrical communication with one another. An upper tubular insulator having a through cavity surrounds at least a portion of the upper terminal stud. A lower insulator constructed of a separate piece of material from the upper insulator has a through cavity surrounding at least a portion of the lower terminal stud. A spring member is disposed between the upper terminal stud and the lower terminal stud and biases the upper terminal stud and the lower member away from one another. The spring member allows the upper terminal stud to move axially under an externally applied force sufficient to overcome the bias imparted by the spring member and maintains electrical communication between said upper terminal stud and said lower terminal stud.
US08164226B2
A radiator for power generator coil, which is composed of a housing, a front cover, a rotating axle, a plurality of fan blades and a coil disk; wherein the coil disk is provided interiorly with a coil set, and provided at the periphery with flanges; the peripheral wall inside of the front cover is provided with grooves, thereby said flanges of the coil disk can be fastened into the front cover and disposed between the housing and the front cover; the rotating axle goes through a front rotating disk provided with a plurality of magnets, the coil disk interiorly provided with coil set, and then a rear rotating disk provided with a plurality of magnets; the rotating axle has a step, the periphery of which is provided with at least one groove, whereas the periphery of the coil disk has many openings; thus by way of the grooves and openings, the heat occurred during operation of the power generator can be guided and dispersed into air current.
US08164225B2
A generator includes a housing and a stator arranged within the housing. The stator includes a first end that extends to a second end, and a plurality of axial flow passages extending between the first and second ends. The generator also includes at least one air flow re-direction member provided on at least one of the first and second ends of the stator. The at least one air flow re-direction member fluidly connects adjacent ones of the plurality of axial flow passages. The at least one air flow re-direction member guides an air flow passing though one of the plurality of axial flow passages in a first direction into an adjacent one of the plurality of axial flow passages in a second direction, the second direction being distinct from the first direction.
US08164219B2
A portable electronic device includes a main body and a power supply module. The main body includes a main circuit, a power input port, and a housing. The housing defines a receiving space at a side surface thereof. The main circuit is disposed in the housing; the power input port is located on a wall surface of the receiving space and is connected to the main circuit. The power supply module includes a shell, a power output port formed on the shell, and a battery, a power modulating circuit and a switch received in the shell. The shell is capable of being detachably received in the receiving space of the housing, and when the shell is received in the receiving space the power output port is connected to the power input port on the wall surface of the receiving space. The power modulating circuit modulates alternating current to direct current suitable for the main circuit. The switch selectively connects the power output port to the battery or the power modulating circuit.
US08164212B2
The wind turbine 20 includes a wind driven turbine wheel 22 rotatable about a central axis 29 that has sail wings 30 that catch the wind and rotate the turbine wheel 22. An anchor 58 has its anchor line 56 attached to the turbine wheel at its axis of rotation 29 to prevent tilting the wind turbine in response to high wind conditions.
US08164209B2
Creation of internal underwater falls and generation of electrical energy therefrom includes providing a hollow tank having a substantially vertical axis; locating a rotatable turbine in an interior of said tank and orienting said rotatable turbine so that its axis of rotation is an axis selected from consisting of a vertical axis of rotation and a horizontal axis of rotation; providing a directional flow of water into said tank forming a directional underwater fall in said tank, and directing the underwater fall onto blades of the turbine to rotate the turbine; connecting an electrical generator with a shaft of the turbine so that the rotation of the shaft of the turbine is transmitted to the electrical generator which thereby generates electricity; and evacuating water from an interior of the tank after water passes through the turbine, so as to leave under the turbine a space sufficient for a continuous flow of water into said tank, formation of the underwater fall into said tank, and flow of water out of said tank.
US08164206B2
Methods and systems are provided for starting an engine in a vehicle. In one example, two or more energy storage devices are coupled in series to improve engine starting. The method and system may reduce engine starting time.
US08164201B2
Disclosed are a semiconductor device wherein warping of a semiconductor chip due to a sudden temperature change can be prevented without increasing the thickness, and a semiconductor device assembly. The semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor chip, a front side resin layer formed on the front surface of the semiconductor chip by using a first resin material, and a back side resin layer formed on the back surface of the semiconductor chip by using a second resin material having a higher thermal expansion coefficient than the first resin material. The back side resin layer is formed thinner than the front side resin layer.
US08164188B2
A method comprises depositing a first metal containing layer into a trench structure, which contacts a metalized area of a semiconductor structure. The method further includes patterning at least one opening in a resist to the first metal containing layer. The opening should be in alignment with the trench structure. At least a pad metal containing layer is formed within the at least one opening (preferably by electroplating processes). The resist and the first metal layer underlying the resist are then etched (with the second metal layer acting as a mask, in embodiments). The method includes flowing solder material within the trench and on pad metal containing layer after the etching process. The structure is a controlled collapse chip connection (C4) structure comprising at least one electroplated metal layer formed in a resist pattern to form at least one ball limiting metallurgical layer. The structure further includes an underlying metal layer devoid of undercuts.
US08164181B2
A semiconductor device packaging structure is disclosed that can improve reliability of a performance test for the semiconductor device and prevent damage to the semiconductor device during transportation or packaging for shipment. An IC cover is attached to the semiconductor device, which has height unevenness because it includes semiconductor chips and electric parts having different heights. The IC cover includes projecting portions and a base portion. After being attached to the semiconductor device, the projecting portions stand in a free area in the semiconductor device, and the base portion is supported by the projections to be separated from the semiconductor chips and electric parts in the semiconductor device. The IC cover is detachably attached to the semiconductor device.
US08164174B2
A microstructure component, in particular an encapsulated micromechanical sensor element, including at least one microstructure patterned out from a silicon layer being encapsulated by a glass element. At least the region of the glass element covering the microstructure is furnished with an electrically conductive coating on its side facing the microstructure.
US08164168B2
A semiconductor package including a semiconductor chip; a base member on which the semiconductor chip is mounted; a plurality of leads formed on the base member, the leads including inner ends electrically connected to the semiconductor chip and outer ends; and an index for identifying locations of specific leads.
US08164159B1
A reference signal generator includes an integrated circuit substrate having a semiconductor resonator therein. The resonator includes an inductor extending adjacent a first surface of the integrated circuit substrate. A vertically-stacked composite of at least first and second electrically insulating dielectric layers is provided on the integrated circuit substrate. The vertically-stacked composite covers a portion of the first surface, which extends opposite the inductor. A first electrically conductive shielding layer is provided on a portion of the second electrically insulating dielectric layer extending opposite the inductor. The first electrically conductive shielding layer may encapsulate exposed portions of the first and second electrically insulating dielectric layers. The shielding layer may operate as an electromagnetic shield between the inductor and an external structure, such as an integrated circuit package, and also shield against environmental contamination (e.g., external moisture penetration).
US08164153B2
Ultra-thin semiconductor devices, including piezoresistive sensing elements can be formed in a wafer stack that facilitates handling many thin device dice at a wafer level. Three embodiments are provided to form the thin dice in a wafer stack using three different fabrication techniques that include anodic bonding, adhesive bonding and fusion bonding. A trench is etched around each thin die to separate the thin die from others in the wafer stack. A tether layer, also known as a tether, is used to hold thin dice or dice in a wafer stack. Such as wafer stack holds many thin dice together at a wafer level for handling and enables easier die picking in packaging processes.
US08164148B2
Provided are a method of generating strong spin waves, a method of simultaneously generating spin waves and electromagnetic waves, a logic operation device using spin waves, a variety of spin wave devices employing the same, and a method of controlling phases of spin waves. In the method of generating spin waves, strong spin waves are generated by supplying various shapes of energies to a magnetic material in which a magnetic vortex and magnetic antivortex spin structures exist separately or together. In the logic operation device, wave factors of frequency, wavelength, amplitude, and phase of a spin wave generated by the method of generating spin waves are controlled and wave characteristics such as reflection, refraction, transmission, tunneling, superposition, interference, and diffraction are used.
US08164143B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device comprises: performing a thermal process to expanding a local doped region formed between gate patterns on a semiconductor substrate; and etching a central region of an expanded local doped region so that the expanded local doped region remains at the total area of sidewalls of floating bodies isolated from each other.
US08164142B2
According to an aspect of an embodiment, a semiconductor device has a semiconductor substrate, a gate insulating film on the semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film, an impurity diffusion region formed in an area of the semiconductor substrate adjacent to the gate electrode to a first depth to the semiconductor substrate, the impurity diffusion region containing impurity, an inert substance containing region formed in the area of the semiconductor substrate to a second depth deeper than the first depth, the inert substance containing region containing an inert substance, and a diffusion suppressing region formed in the area of the semiconductor substrate to a third depth deeper than the second depth, the diffusion suppressing region containing a diffusion suppressing substance suppressing diffusion of the impurity.
US08164141B2
An opening structure includes a semiconductor substrate, at least one dielectric layer disposed on the semiconductor substrate, wherein the dielectric layer has a plurality of openings exposing the semiconductor substrate, and each of the openings has a sidewall, a dielectric thin film covering at least a portion of the sidewall of each of the openings, and a metal layer filled in the openings.
US08164140B2
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device comprises forming a first spacer layer at sidewalls of one or more gate electrodes, forming a trench by etching an isolation insulating layer exposed between the gate electrodes, forming a second spacer layer on sidewalls of the gate electrodes and an inner surface of the trench and forming an interlayer insulating layer between the gate electrodes.
US08164138B2
A recessed channel transistor includes an isolation layer provided in a semiconductor substrate to define an active region. A trench is provided in the semiconductor substrate to extend across the active region. A gate insulation layer covers a sidewall and a bottom face of the trench and an upper face of the semiconductor substrate adjacent to an upper edge of the trench, wherein a portion of the gate insulation layer on the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate adjacent to the upper edge of the trench and on the sidewall of the trench extending to a first distance downwardly from the upper edge of the trench has a thickness greater than that of a portion of the gate insulation layer on the remaining sidewall and the bottom face of the trench. A gate electrode fills up the trench having the gate insulation layer formed therein.
US08164137B2
Provided are a multiple-gate MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) transistor and a method of manufacturing the same. The transistor includes a single crystalline active region having a channel region having an upper portion of a streamlined shape (∩) obtained by patterning an upper portion of a bulk silicon substrate with an embossed pattern, and having a thicker and wider area than the channel region; a nitride layer formed at both side surfaces of the single crystalline active region to expose an upper portion of the single crystalline active region at a predetermined height; and a gate electrode formed to be overlaid with the exposed upper portion of the single crystalline active region of the channel region.
US08164127B2
A pixel cell includes a substrate, an epitaxial layer, and a photo converting device in the epitaxial layer. The epitaxial layer has a doping concentration profile of embossing shape, and includes a plurality of layers that are stacked on the substrate. The photo converting device does not include a neutral region that has a constant potential in the vertical direction. Therefore, the image sensor including the pixel cell has high quantization efficiency, and a crosstalk between photo-converting devices is decreased.
US08164122B2
A thin film field effect transistor is disclosed which provides improved time-based channel stability. The field effect transistor includes first and second disordered semiconductor layers separated by an insulator. In an embodiment a carrier injection terminal is provided in a thin semiconductor layer closest to the gate terminal. An electric field is established in the thin semiconductor layer. At sufficient field strength, the electric field extends into the second semiconductor layer, which is in contact with the source and drain terminals. At sufficient field strength a channel is established in the second semiconductor layer, permitting current to flow between source and drain terminals. Above a certain gate voltage, there is sufficient free charge is induced in the first semiconductor layer so that the field does not extend into the second semiconductor, effectively shutting off current between source and drain. Single-device transition detection (as well as other applications) may be obtained.
US08164105B2
Disclosed is a light emitting device. The light emitting device comprises a first conductive semiconductor layer, an active layer on the first conductive semiconductor layer, a second conductive semiconductor layer on the active layer, the second conductive semiconductor layer comprising a first area and a second area, a third conductive semiconductor layer on the second area of the second conductive semiconductor layer, a first electrode layer electrically connecting the first conductive semiconductor layer with the second conductive semiconductor layer of the second area, and a second electrode layer electrically connecting the second conductive semiconductor layer with the third conductive semiconductor layer.
US08164096B2
A flat panel display device, more particularly, an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display device having uniform electrical characteristics and a method of fabricating the same include: a thin film transistor of which a semiconductor layer including a source, a drain, and a channel region formed in a super grain silicon (SGS) crystallization growth region; a capacitor formed in an SGS crystallization seed region; and an OLED electrically connected to the thin film transistor. Further, a length of the channel region of the silicon layer is parallel with the growth direction in the SGS growth region to improve the electrical properties thereof.
US08164093B2
An object of the present invention is to increase the speed of the level shifting operation in a display device having a level shift circuit formed of polysilicon thin film transistors. The present invention provides a display device having a level shift circuit wherein the above described level shift circuit has: a thin film transistor having a semiconductor layer formed of a polysilicon layer; a load resistance element connected between a second electrode of the above described thin film transistor and a reference power supply; and a waveform rectifying circuit connected to the second electrode of the above described thin film transistor, and a diode element of which the anode region is connected to the first electrode of the above described thin film transistor and of which the cathode region is connected to the second electrode of the above described thin film transistor.
US08164090B2
A field effect transistor has a gate electrode, gate-insulating layer, a channel and a source and drain electrodes connected electrically to the channel, the channel comprising an oxide semiconductor, the source electrode or the drain electrode comprising an oxynitride.
US08164077B2
An optical element, especially a normal-incidence collector mirror, for radiation in the EUV and/or soft X-ray region of wavelengths is described. The element has a substrate, a multilayer coating with an optically active region, and a capacitor, having a first and a second capacitor electrode. At least one layer of the multilayer coating serves as the first capacitor electrode. At least one dielectric layer is provided between the two capacitor electrodes. Also described is an optical system with at least one optical element, having a first electrode arranged in the vicinity of the optical element.
US08164076B2
An extreme ultraviolet light source apparatus, which is to generate an extreme ultraviolet light by irradiating a target with a main pulse laser light after irradiating the target with a prepulse laser light, the extreme ultraviolet light source apparatus comprises: a prepulse laser light source generating a pre-plasma by irradiating the target with the prepulse laser light while a part of the target remains, the pre-plasma being generated at a different region from a target region, the different region being located on an incident side of the prepulse laser light; and a main pulse laser light source generating the extreme ultraviolet light by irradiating the pre-plasma with the main pulse laser light.
US08164074B2
A method, composition and system respond to ionizing radiation to adjust biological activity. In some approaches the ionizing radiation is X-ray or extreme ultraviolet radiation that produces luminescent responses that induce biologically active responses.
US08164070B2
A collimator magnet (CM) usable in an ion implantation system provides an exit ion beam with a large aperture, substantially parallel in one plane or orthogonal planes. The CM includes identical poles, defined by an incident edge receiving an ion beam, and an exit edge outputting the ion beam for implantation. Ion beam deflection takes place due to magnetic forces inside the CM and magnetic field fringe effects outside the CM. The CM incident and/or exit edge is shaped by solving a differential equation to compensate for magnetic field fringe effects and optionally, space charge effects and ion beam initial non-parallelism. The CM shape is obtained by imposing that the incidence or exit angle is substantially constant, or, incidence and exit angles have opposite sign but equal absolute values for each ray in the beam; or the sum of incidence and exit angles is a constant or a non-constant function.
US08164065B2
In a radiation detecting apparatus of the invention, plural pixels are arranged, and the pixel has a conversion element converting a radiation into an electric signal and a switching element connected to the conversion element. The conversion element includes a first electrode disposed on a first surface of an insulating substrate, a second electrode disposed on the first electrode, and a semiconductor layer disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The first electrode is made of a light-transmitting conductive material which transmits light emitted from a light source, and the first electrode is formed form a light transmitting electroconductive material transmitting light emitted form a light source disposed on a second surface of the insulating substrate opposite to the first surface. The switching element has a light shielding member which prevents incidence of the light from the light source to the switching element.
US08164064B2
A computerized system for locating a device including a sensor module and a processor. A radioactive source, associated with the device, produces a signal in the form of radioactive disintegrations. The sensor module includes a radiation detector capable of receiving a signal from the source attached to the device. The sensor module produces an output signal. The processor receives output signal(s) and translates output into information relating to a position of source.
US08164063B2
A positron emission tomography apparatus (100) includes a plurality of radiation sensitive detector systems (106) and selective trigger systems (120). The selective trigger systems identify detector signals resulting from detected gamma radiation (310) while disregarding spurious detector signals (310). In one implementation, the apparatus (100) includes a time to digital converter which decomposes a measurement time interval (Tmax) according to a binary hierarchical decomposition of level H, where H is an integer greater than equal to one.
US08164051B2
An internal standard material to be added to a specimen containing a material to be measured when measuring the content of the material to be measured by performing mass spectrometry on the specimen includes a hindered phenol compound.
US08164042B2
Color filter arrays (CFA) and image sensors using same are provided. A color filter array includes a plurality of first color filter patterns respectively interlaced with a plurality of second color filter patterns, wherein the first and second color filter patterns comprise a plurality of color filters of at least three different colors of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) filters, and the first and second color filter patterns are not mirror symmetrical, and a blue (B) filter in one of the first color filter patterns is adjoined by a red (R) filter in one of the second color filter patterns adjacent thereto and/or a red (R) filter in one of the first color filter patterns is adjoined by a blue filter in one of the color filter patterns adjacent thereto.
US08164037B2
In a co-boresighted SAL/IR seeker, the optical system and particularly the secondary lens and position of the SAL detector are configured to produce a well-corrected spot of laser energy at the SAL detector. A spreader is positioned between the secondary mirror/lens and the SAL detector, possibly on the secondary mirror, away from the aperture stop and not in the optical path to the IR detector. The spreader is configured to spatially homogenize the laser energy to increase the size of the spot of focused laser energy at the SAL detector to set the system transfer function to meet slope requirements. Spatial homogenization serves to reduce both boresight shift and slope non-linearities. This approach greatly simplifies the time and labor intensive calibration of the SAL detector's system transfer function.
US08164034B2
A configuration contains a first honeycomb body, which is formed by at least one convoluted or wound stack and has a plurality of channels allowing a flow, wherein a first end of the stack is connected to an electric connection and a second end is connected to an electric ground. The stack contains a plurality of sheet metal foils in electric contact with each other, the foils being structured at least in some regions. At the same time, the honeycomb body has support pins for connecting to a second honeycomb body, the pins have a distance of at least 25 mm from each other along the course of the stack at least outside an inner region. A method introduces support pins into the honeycomb body and a device receives a honeycomb body and/or for positioning support pins. The device enables the installation of the support pins in the honeycomb body.
US08164032B2
A cooktop has a plurality of reflection-sensitive infrared sensors. A plurality of IR receiving elements is arranged along an operating line having a density such that an operator's finger placed on the operating line necessarily covers at least one of the IR receiving elements. A smaller number of IR transmitter diodes is arranged in correspondingly lower density next to the operating line. In the setting process, two effects are used on the operating line, specifically both the radiation of the optical transmitter reflected by the finger and also the radiation of the ambient light that is thrown into shadow by the finger. The resultant signal distribution on the optical receivers can be used for reliable evaluation of the finger's position in nearly all environmental conditions.
US08164031B2
An electric trace tube bundle characterized by an internal branched circuit or circuits wherein power to the branched circuit or circuits is supplied via leads contained within a tubular jacket surrounding an insulation layer and an inner core containing one or more process tubes and the heater circuits. Such an arrangement allows the power connection to the heater circuits to be made at a proximal end of the bundle, thereby eliminating the need to cut through the jacket to make branched circuit power connections at a location remote from the proximal end of the bundle.
US08164024B2
A method for fabricating a composition of Zr-rich bulk amorphous alloy includes providing a weld member and a base, both made of Zr-rich bulk amorphous alloy, and welding the weld portion of the weld member to the base by a pulsed laser in a protective gas environment. A maximum power of the pulsed laser exceeds or equals 3.5 kW, and a welding rate exceeds 2 mm/sec.
US08164019B2
A vacuum circuit-breaker wherein one contact body is made with two windings implanted concentric with one another and connected electrically in parallel. The second winding is in the form of an solid part with an annular ring. The circuit-breaker increases the axial magnetic field (AMF) and distributes it uniformly over the contact surface so that arc extinction is improved for high short-circuit currents, typically greater than 63 kA.
US08164014B2
A concavo-convex light emitting section provided on an under surface of a base material is formed of a synthetic resin with inorganic oxide dispersed therein. A larger amount of light is reflected by inorganic oxide having a large refractive index and dispersed inside the synthetic resin, to cause a plurality of light emitting sections to emit bright light with a small number of light emitting elements. A light guiding sheet capable of making bright and uniform illumination and a movable contact body using the same are realized with a simple configuration.
US08164013B2
A contactor comprises, for each phase, a pair of contact devices which comprise a connection strip and at least two conductors provided with a stationary contact, and a movable contact bridge able to close the two stationary contacts or not. According to the invention, the contact device is formed from superposition of a number of pieces equal to the number of conductors, each piece comprising one of the conductors and a connection part corresponding to the connection strip but of smaller thickness. Each of the pieces can be made from folded metal. The connection parts are coupled to one another to form the connection strip by means of holes at the same time as the sets of bars are secured thereto.
US08164012B2
A one-touch stop-lamp switch of a vehicle can contribute to reducing manufacturing costs of a vehicle and ensuring stable and durable quality by quickly and simply mounting the stop-lamp switch at an appropriate position with respect to a brake pedal and stably maintaining the position.
US08164011B1
Systems and methods are disclosed which allow for mechanically switching the electrical connections to a device to which multiple transducers are permanently physically connected. In one embodiment, two transducers are connected to the device on a semi-permanent basis and contacts within the mechanical switch are moved physically by the user to adjust the electrical connection to the desired active transducer. In the embodiment, the mechanical switch moves the entire electrical contact housing from one transducer to another.
US08164010B2
A cable assembly (100) comprises a cover (2) having a plurality of retaining slots (216, 226) arranged in a row along a transversal direction; a number of connectors (12, 13, 14, 15) mounted to the retaining slots, respectively; and a switch device (4) mounted to the cover, the switch including a base portion (41), a pushing portion (42) and an operating portion (43) assembled together in serial manner.
US08164003B2
A circuit board surface structure and a fabrication method thereof are proposed. The circuit board surface structure includes: a circuit board having a plurality of electrically connecting pads formed on at least one surface thereof; a first and a second insulating protective layers formed on the surface of the circuit board in sequence; first and a second openings respectively formed in the first and second insulating protective layers to expose the electrically connecting pads on the surface of the circuit board, wherein the first and second openings have narrow top and wide bottom and the diameter of the first openings is bigger than that of the second openings; and conductive elements formed in the first and second openings on surfaces of the electrically connecting pads. The present structure facilitates to strengthen the bonding between the conductive elements and the corresponding electrically connecting pads.
US08163996B2
A cable joint and a method of assembling a cable joint include at least two cables having inner conducting elements secured to each other at a point of connection. At least one of the cables is a paper-insulated lead cable including paper insulation impregnated with oil. A deformable elastomeric sleeve covers the point of connection. A flexible tape is wound about the elastomeric sleeve. The flexible tape restrains expansion of the elastomeric sleeve resulting from expansion of the oil in the paper insulation of the paper-insulated lead cable.
US08163989B2
The present invention is an energy enhanced drumstick which provides substantially more kinetic energy per strike and produces a more vibrant sound and desired quality of resonance from a drumstick, all while still maintaining the most desirable features of the traditional drumstick design. This kinetic energy enhanced drumstick is the hybrid structural product of using two or more distinct materials having markedly differing densities which are permanently joined together to form a single unified construct. This hybrid structural product yields a kinetic energy enhanced drumstick comprised of at least one primary material having a first density at its tip end, and has at least one secondary substance having a second density which is greater than the first density of the primary material adjacent the butt end of the drumstick.
US08163977B2
The present invention relates to environmental stress responsive protein ferritin (CaFer1) of chickpea. The invention discloses identification, isolation and cloning of ECM-localized ferritin (CaFer1) of chickpea and its multifunctional role in nutrient uptake, storage and stress tolerance. Comparative proteomic analysis of the chickpea extra-cellular (ECM) was performed to identify novel components of dehydration stress signaling. In addition, the present invention relates a method for producing environmental stress tolerant transgenic plants over-expressing the said CaFer1 gene. The present invention further provides dehydration stress tolerant transgenic plants overexpressing dehydration-responsive extra cellular matrix (ECM) protein ferritin (CaFer1).
US08163976B2
Transgenic lignocellulosic plants are provided according to embodiments of the present invention, the transgenic plants transformed with an expression cassette encoding a protein operably linked to a signal peptide which targets the protein to a cell wall of the transgenic plant, where at least 5% of the total amino acid residues of the protein are tyrosine, lysine, serine, threonine or cysteine. Methods of increasing lignin-protein bonds in a lignocellulosic plant are provided according to embodiments of the present invention which include expressing a recombinant nucleic acid in a lignocellulosic plant, the recombinant nucleic acid encoding a protein operably linked to a signal peptide which targets the protein to the cell wall of a plant, where at least 5% of the total amino acid residues of the protein are tyrosine, lysine, serine, threonine or cysteine.
US08163967B2
Improved processing of an oxygenate-containing feedstock involving increased or enhanced removal or recovery of carbonyls, particularly, acetaldehyde via either or both application of a more stringent stripping regime or addition of a sulfite-containing material.
US08163959B2
A method for the preparation of 4-fluoro-α-[2-methyl-1-oxopropyl]-γ-oxo-N-β-diphenylbenzenebutanamide also known as 2-[2-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-oxo-1-phenylethyl]-4-methyl-3-oxo-pentanoic acid phenylamide of the formula I containing about 0.1% or less of α-[2-methyl-1-oxopropyl]-γ-oxo-N-β-diphenylbenzene butanamide, about 0.05% or less of difluoro-α-[2-methyl-1-oxopropyl]-γ-oxo-N-β-diphenylbenzene butanamide and about 0.1% or less of 3-[2-(4-Fluorophenyl)-2-oxo-1-phenyl-ethoxy]-4-methyl-pent-2-enoic acid phenylamide.
US08163955B2
An improved process is provided for the preparation of 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitrotoluene by amination of 2,6-dichloro-3,5-dinitrotoluene. The presence of water unexpectedly results in a highly pure product, free of glycol ether impurities. This product can be used to make highly pure 2,3,5,6-tetraaminotoluene, which in turn can be used to make high molecular weight polybenzimidazoles for high strength fibers.
US08163943B2
The present invention is to provide manufacturing intermediates which can be led to useful α-ketoamide compounds having protease-inhibiting activity extremely economically and stereoselectively, and to provide epoxycarboxamide compounds, azide compounds and amino alcohol compounds represented by the following formulae: wherein R1 and R2 each represents alkyl group, alkenyl group, aromatic hydrocarbon group or heterocyclic group; R3 represents alkyl group, alkenyl group, aromatic hydrocarbon group, heterocyclic group, R6—O— or R7—N(R8)—; where R6 represents alkyl group, alkenyl group, aromatic hydrocarbon group or heterocyclic group; R7 and R8 each represents hydrogen atom, alkyl group, alkenyl group, aromatic hydrocarbon group or heterocyclic group, and, R4 and R5 represent the same groups as R7 and R8, respectively, and R4 and R5 optionally form a ring together; and X represents —O— or —N(R9)—, where R9 represents hydrogen atom or alkyl group, and X optionally forms a ring together with R4 or R5, and processes for preparing α-keto amide compound using the same.
US08163939B2
Disclosed is an ascorbic acid derivative or a salt thereof wherein at least one of hydrogen atoms in hydroxy groups at the 2-position and the 3-position of ascorbic acid is substituted by R—O—CH2—CH(OH)—CH2—, R—O—CH2—CH(CH2OH)—, R—CH(CH2OH)—, R—CH(OH)—CH2— (wherein R represents an alkyl group, an alkenyl group or a phenyl group), or a hydroxycyclohexyl group. Also disclosed is a method for producing an ascorbic acid derivative or a salt thereof, which is characterized by reacting ascorbic acid with an epoxy compound such as an alkyl glycidyl ether, an epoxy alkane or an alicyclic epoxy.
US08163933B2
The present invention provides compounds and methods that can be used to convert the intermediate halomethyl ketones (HMKs), e.g., chloromethyl ketones, to the corresponding S,S- and R,S-diastereomers. More particularly, the present invention provides: (1) reduction methods; (2) inversion methods; and (3) methods involving the epoxidation of alkenes. Using the various methods of the present invention, the R,S-epoxide and the intermediary compounds can be prepared reliably, in high yields and in high purity.
US08163929B2
Compounds of the formula I: or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, wherein m, n, p, q, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 and R6 are as defined herein. Also disclosed are methods of making the compounds and using the compounds for treatment of diseases associated with the P2X7 purinergic receptor.
US08163924B2
Dicyclohexylamine salt of formula (IIa) or a pharmaceutically acceptable solvate thereof, including a hydrate, and its process for preparation are provided. The invention also relates to processes for the preparation of montelukast of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, or a pharmaceutically acceptable solvate thereof, including a hydrate, based on the conversion of a salt of formula (IIa) into its form of free acid, followed by reaction with a compound of formula (III) CH3MgX, wherein X is halogen, in a suitable solvent, optionally in the presence of a Lewis acid.
US08163916B2
The invention relates to compounds that are substituted azaadamantane ester and carbamate derivatives, compositions comprising such compounds, and methods of using such compounds and compositions.
US08163893B2
The present invention provides nucleic acids encoding recombinant envelope proteins; and packaging cells comprising the nucleic acids, which packaging cells provide for encapsidation of recombinant retroviral vectors. The present invention provides producer cells that produce pseudotyped recombinant retroviral vectors. The present invention further provides methods of purifying pseudotyped recombinant retroviral vectors; and purified pseudotyped recombinant retroviral vectors. The present invention further provides methods of delivering a gene product to an individual. The methods generally involve introducing a subject recombinant retroviral vector into an individual.
US08163883B2
A cDNA molecule that encodes a protein designated Labyrinthin (Lab) isolated and its nucleotide sequence is determined. The protein, or peptides derived from the protein, are markers useful to define novel classes of cancers. Diagnostic assays for these cancers use antibodies to Lab or nucleotide probes that hybridize with the lab gene or a fragment therefrom. Vaccines useful either to prevent recurrence of cancers in subjects who test positive for Lab (or lab), or to prevent initial occurrence of cancer, use proteins or peptides derived from Lab. Expression of Lab via immunogenic assays is used to monitor effects of cancer treatments. Antisense molecules against lab are used in treatments. Sense molecules of lab are used to restore lost lab function in diseased normal cells, for example, gland cells.
US08163871B2
Conversion in vitro of X-Gly to X-alpha-hydroxy-Gly or X-NH2 (X being a peptide or any other compound having a carbonyl group capable of forming a covalent bond with glycine) is accomplished enzymatically in the presence of keto acids, or salts or esters thereof, to provide a good yield without the necessity of catalase or similar enzymatic reaction enhancers. Peptidylglycine α-amidating monooxygenase (PAM) is a preferred enzyme for catalyzing the conversion. Alternatively, peptidylglycine α-hydroxylating monooxygenase (PHM) is utilized to convert X-Gly to X-alpha-hydroxy-Gly which may be recovered, or optionally may be simultaneously or sequentially converted to an amide by either a Lewis base or action of the enzyme peptidyl α-hydroxyglycine α-amidating lyase (PAL). Both PHM and PAL are functional domains of PAM.
US08163857B2
A mixture of polyfluoroalkadienes represented by the general formulae: CF3(CF2)nCF═CH(CF2)m+1CH═CH2 [Ia] and CF3(CF2)n+1CH═CF(CF2)mCH═CH2 [Ib], wherein n is an integer of 0 to 5, and m is an integer of 0 to 6, is obtained as a mixture fraction of products [Ia] and [Ib] by reacting a polyfluoroalkyl iodide represented by the general formula: CF3(CF2)n+1CH2(CF2)m+1(CH2CH2)I [II], with an organic basic compound. The polyfluoroalkadiene mixture is compounds having a perfluoroalkyl group in which the number of successive CF2 groups is 5 or less, and is effectively used as a copolymerizable monomer in the production of resinous or elastomeric fluorine-containing copolymers, which are used as active ingredients of surface-treating agents, such as water- and oil-repellents and mold-release agents.
US08163856B2
In an embodiment, a method is disclosed to increase the activity of an ionic liquid catalyst comprising emulsifying the ionic liquid catalyst with one or more liquid components. In an embodiment, a method is disclosed comprising introducing into a reaction zone a monomer feed and a reduced amount of ionic liquid catalyst and controlling an amount of shear present in the reaction zone to maintain a desired conversion reaction of the monomer. In an embodiment, a catalyzed reaction system is disclosed comprising a reactor configured to receive one or more liquid components and ionic liquid catalyst; a device coupled to the reactor for adding high shear to the liquid components and ionic liquid catalyst; and a controller coupled to the device for adding high shear and configured to control the amount of shear added to a catalyzed reaction zone to maintain a conversion reaction.
US08163851B2
The invention provides a polymeric salt, wherein the monomer unit of the polymeric salt comprises two nitrogen containing heterocyclic groups joined by a rigid linker group. The nitrogen atoms of the heterocyclic groups are disposed so as to enable a polymeric carbene formed by from the polymeric salt to complex with a metal atom. The invention also provides a polymeric metal complex which may be made from the polymeric salt, and which may be used in a Suzuki coupling reaction. The polymeric salt may be used as a heterogeneous organic catalyst for cyanation reaction.
US08163849B2
It is an object of the present invention to produce a polylactic acid having a high molecular weight such as a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of more than 100,000 from which only a stereocomplex crystal is grown even by repeating melting and crystallization. The present invention is a process of producing a polylactic acid, including the steps of: (i) obtaining a solid by kneading together poly(L-lactic acid) and poly(D-lactic acid) at a temperature of 160 to 225° C. and crystallizing the kneaded product; and (ii) melt kneading the obtained solid.
US08163848B2
Disclosed are toughened, antistatic resin composition and an article comprising the composition wherein the composition comprises or consists essentially of poly(hydroxyalkanoic acid), such as polylactic acid; an impact modifier comprising an ethylene copolymer; and an ion conducting polymer.
US08163846B2
The invention provides a chlorinated ethylene-based polymer, process for preparing the same, and compositions and articles prepared from the same. The chlorinated ethylene-based polymer has a low residual crystallinity, for example, less than 8 percent, a relatively high crystallization temperature, Tc, for example greater than, or equal to, 25° C., and a medium weight average molecular weight, Mw, for example, less than, or equal to, 325,000 g/mole.
US08163837B2
A method for forming a heat sealable coating on a substrate, wherein the substrate is formed from at least one oriented polymer is shown. The method includes depositing an aqueous polymer dispersion on the substrate, wherein the aqueous polymer dispersion includes (A) at least one thermoplastic resin; (B) at least one dispersing agent; and (C) water; wherein the dispersion has a pH of less than 12, and drying the dispersion to form a first layer.
US08163833B2
Melt adhesive containing 5 to 40 wt.-% of at least one ethylene-based copolymer and at least one C3 to C20-α-olefin obtained through metallocene-catalyzed polymerization, 10 to 65 wt.-% of at least one tackifying resin, 0 to 35 wt.-% of a plasticizer, 0.01 to 30 wt.-% additives and additional ingredients selected from stabilizers, adhesion promoters, fillers or pigments, waxes and/or other polymers, wherein the total should amount to 100%, characterized in that copolymer A is a block copolymer that exhibits a substantially even elastic behavior in the range of 0° C. to 25° C., measured as the ratio of the storage modulus E′ according to (E′0C−E′25C)/E′25C<1.5.
US08163830B2
A composition includes a bismaleimide triazine (BT) compound with a nanoclay composited therewith. A mounting substrate includes polymer compound with a nanoclay composited therewith to form a core for the mounting substrate. A process includes melt blending a polymer such as BT with a nanoclay and forming a core. A process includes dissolving a monomer such as BT with a nanoclay and forming a core. A system includes a nanoclay dispersed in a polymer matrix and a microelectronic device mounted on the mounting substrate that includes the nanoclay dispersed in the polymer matrix.
