US08239965B2
A conference system includes a storage unit configured to store electronic data used as conference material, a display unit configured to display electronic data stored in the storage unit, an identifying unit configured to identify an attendee of a conference, and a memory unit configured to store information about an attendee identified by the identifying unit as viewing history information in association with electronic data displayed by the display.
US08239964B2
Safe deposit boxes, services, and methods for physically secure data storage are provided that include securing a network-enabled computer within a safe deposit box, receiving, in the network-enabled computer, data transmitted from a remote computer coupled for data communications with the network-enabled computer; and storing the data in the memory of the network-enabled computer. Securing a network-enabled computer within a safe deposit box may be carried out by providing a locked safe deposit box having the networked enabled computer stored within. Securing a network-enabled computer within a safe deposit box may be carried out by providing a lockable safe deposit box having the networked enabled computer integrated within.
US08239962B2
This invention relates to a method of processing rights relating to content, that can be communicated between devices. Typically, a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system imposes limitations of use and distribution, imposed by the service provider, content provider or distributor. The method of the invention renders it possible for a user who has received DRM rights to restrict the right further. The invention is more particularly related to the receipt of DRM rights to Authorized Domain Digital Rights Management (AD-DRM) systems and the introduction of user attributed rights in the form of further restrictions introduced to the received DRM rights. The invention further relates to a Rights Program Template (RPT) facilitating the introduction of such further restrictions in a user friendly way. Finally, the invention relates to a system supporting the method of the invention.
US08239961B2
A method for monitoring time so that the use of protected content can be controlled includes receiving a trusted time value from a trusted authority external to a client device. When the client is no longer in communication with the trusted authority, the previously-received trusted time value is updated by use of the client's operating system counter so that a calculated trusted time value is derived for content license evaluation purposes.
US08239960B2
Systems and methods are provided for preserving the privacy of data contained in mirrored network traffic. The mirrored network traffic may comprise data that may be considered confidential, privileged, private, or otherwise sensitive data. For example, the data payload of a frame of mirrored network traffic may include private Voice over IP (VoIP) communications between users on one or more networks. The present invention provides various techniques for securing the privacy of data contained in the mirrored network traffic. Using the techniques of the present invention, network traffic comprising confidential, privileged, private, or otherwise sensitive data may be mirrored in such a manner as to provide for the privacy of such data over at least a portion if not all of the mirrored communications between the mirror source point and the mirror destination point.
US08239949B2
A method for managing network traffic flow is provided. The method includes receiving network traffic content, storing at least a portion of the network traffic content to a memory, sending a copy of the network traffic content to a processor, which determines whether the network traffic content contains content desired to be detected. Another method for managing network traffic flow includes receiving network traffic content, flagging the network traffic content, sending the flagged network traffic content to a module, which is configured to pass unflagged data to a user and prevent flagged data from being sent to the user, and sending a copy of the network traffic content to a processor, which determines whether the network traffic content contains content desired to be detected.
US08239946B2
A method for maintaining computer security, includes providing a database of known good software, opening a file, identifying the file being opened, determining whether an entry exists in the database of known good software for the identified file and performing at least one of allowing and preventing the opening of the file from continuing based on the result of the determination.
US08239945B2
An intrusion detection system (IDS) comprises a network processor (NP) coupled to a memory unit for storing programs and data. The NP is also coupled to one or more parallel pattern detection engines (PPDE) which provide high speed parallel detection of patterns in an input data stream. Each PPDE comprises many processing units (PUs) each designed to store intrusion signatures as a sequence of data with selected operation codes. The PUs have configuration registers for selecting modes of pattern recognition. Each PU compares a byte at each clock cycle. If a sequence of bytes from the input pattern match a stored pattern, the identification of the PU detecting the pattern is outputted with any applicable comparison data. By storing intrusion signatures in many parallel PUs, the IDS can process network data at the NP processing speed. PUs may be cascaded to increase intrusion coverage or to detect long intrusion signatures.
US08239938B2
A method for providing an operating system access to devices, including enumerating hardware devices and virtualized devices, where resources associated with a first hardware device are divided into guest physical resources creating a software virtualized device, and multiple instances of resources associated with a second hardware device are advertised thereby creating a hardware virtualized device. First and second permission lists are generated that specify which operating systems are permitted to access the software virtualized device and the hardware virtualized device, respectively. First and second sets of virtual address maps are generated, where each set maps an address space associated with either the software virtualized device or the hardware virtualized device into an address space associated with each operating system included in the corresponding permission list. The method further includes arbitrating access requests from each of the plurality of operating systems based on the permission lists and the virtual address maps.
US08239931B2
A communication apparatus used in a plurality of networks is disclosed. The communication apparatus includes a firewall which allows communication with outside of the communication apparatus when disabled, and prohibits communication with outside of the communication apparatus when enabled. Then, the communication apparatus includes a firewall control unit which acquires a first MAC address of a first default gateway provided for a predetermined specific network and a second MAC address of a second default gateway provided for a network in which the communication apparatus is being connected, and controls the firewall according to a result of comparison of the first MAC address and the second MAC address.
US08239928B2
Disclosed relates to an access control system and method based on hierarchical keys. The system comprises an access control server (ACS), a home gateway, and a plurality of sensor devices disposed on a home network. The ACS sets up user's access limits of authority and authorization verifier, and saves the related data of user's password and the user's access limits of authority. The gateway records the authority limits' level and the authority limits' key which are constructed based on a hierarchical key structure. When a user logs in the ACS to request access, an one-time communication key between the user and the home gateway is established by exchanging the ticket and the token that are issued by the ACS. This allows the user to access the information of the sensor devices.
US08239925B2
Methods and systems are provided for controlling access to a file system. A record of actual accesses by users of the file system is maintained. Before a user is removed from a set of users or before a privilege for a set of users to access a data element is removed, it is determined whether the actual recorded accesses of the user are allowed by residual access permissions that would remain after implementing the proposed removal of access permission. An error condition is generated if the proposed removal of the access permission would have prevented at least one of the actual accesses. In another aspect of the invention, the system determines if the users would have alternate access to the storage element following implementation of the proposal.
US08239918B1
A computer-implemented method includes receiving, by one or more servers associated with an application marketplace, a policy that includes data that identifies one or more users, and a restricted permission. A request is received, by the servers associated with the application marketplace, to access one or more applications that are distributed through the application marketplace, wherein the request includes data that identifies a particular one of the users. One or more of the applications that are associated with the restricted permission are identified by the servers associated with the application marketplace, and access by the particular user to the applications that are associated with the restricted permission is restricted by the servers associated with the application marketplace.
US08239917B2
Systems and methods authenticate a device to operate within an enterprise system with an enterprise policy. An agent, installed on the device, analyzes the device to determine profile information of the device. The determined profile information is sent to a type 2 super peer that verifies whether the profile information conforms to the enterprise policy. If the profile information conforms to the enterprise policy, an agent trust credential is generated, within the type 2 super peer, for the agent, based upon the profile information, and issued to the agent. Authenticity of the device is verified based upon the agent trust credential. If the device is authenticated, communications with the device are permitted. If the device is not authenticated, communications with the device is prevented. In another embodiment, a method restores a device to conform to a system policy. A snapshot of critical components of the device is taken while the device is in compliance with the system policy. The critical components are monitored to identify critical components that differ from the critical components of the snapshot. If differing critical components are detected, the device is restored to conform with system policy by replacing differing critical components based upon the snapshot.
US08239916B2
Methods, data processing systems and computer program products for assessing and assigning privacy levels to data elements are provided. A method of assigning privacy levels to data elements (e.g., text files, web page files, image files, audio files, video files, and portions thereof) includes assigning a predetermined privacy level to a data element; storing the data element with the assigned privacy level; determining if the assigned privacy level for data element is proper; and assigning a different privacy level to the data element in response to determining that a currently assigned privacy level for the data element is not proper. A predetermined privacy level may be assigned to a data element under various conditions, such as when the data element arrives at a device, when the data element is created by a device, and/or when the data element is modified by a device.
US08239912B2
Wireless network base stations capable of receiving video signals are provided. A wireless network base station includes a video signal receiver, a video decoding unit, a first Ethernet port, and a processor. The video signal receiver receives a video signal. The video decoding unit connected to the video signal receiver decodes the video signal. The first Ethernet port connected to a network receives first data packets therefrom and transmits second data packets thereto. The processor, connected to the video decoding unit and the first Ethernet port, converts the decoded video signal to video packets and controls reception and transmission of the video packets, the first data packets, and the second data packets. The processor transmits the video packets and the first data packets to a computer and receives the second data packets from the computer wirelessly.
US08239894B2
A graphical user interface is disclosed which achieves an easy search for a desired item upon scrolling. A plurality of representation images individually representing different selection object items are displayed in an array along one direction of a display screen. A noticed representation image selected from among the representation images is displayed emphatically at a fixed position on the display screen, and explanation information of the noticed representation image is displayed in the proximity of the noticed representation image. If a scrolling information for the array of representation images is issued, then scrolling is executed such that explanation information also of the representation images other than the noticed representation image is displayed. Further, a bar display including a mark representing the position and the group of the noticed representation image in the array of representation images is displayed together.
US08239887B2
This invention relates to a system and method for providing dedicated television advertisements based on speech recognition of telephone conversations. The home user makes telephone calls using a landline, cellular phone or VoIP phone. The user may also be watching TV. While doing so, the user is able to see advertisements on part or all of his TV screen, based on words and phrases he may have used during his telephone conversation(s). The system and method may be provided by a triple play or quad play service provider which associates its users' telephone calls with TV advertising. Once the user sees the advertisement he can get more information concerning the advertisement by clicking on it with a pointing device, e.g., a mouse or TV remote control, or by using any other navigation method the TV system provides, to see additional details concerning the advertisements.
US08239881B2
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for detecting an event while a powered system is powered off. An exemplary system comprises an event input that is configured to detect an electrical signal created by an event while the system is powered off; a zero-power event memory configured to receive the electrical signal from the event input and use the electrical signal to store an indication that the event occurred, wherein the zero-power event memory is configured to store the indication that the event occurred at least until the system next powers on; a read subsystem that is configured to, when the system powers on, access the zero-power event memory and determine whether or not an event occurred while the system was powered off; and a reset subsystem that is configured to, when the system powers off, cause the zero-power event memory to reset to a state indicating that no event has occurred. Further, the system may comprise an event response subsystem configured to take appropriate responsive actions when an event is detected.
US08239879B2
A method for providing global notification of completion of a global shared memory (GSM) operation during processing by a target task executing at a target node of a distributed system. The distributed system has at least one other node on which an initiating task that generated the GSM operation is homed. The target task receives the GSM operation from the initiating task, via a host fabric interface (HFI) window assigned to the target task. The task initiates execution of the GSM operation on the target node. The task detects completion of the execution of the GSM operation on the target node, and issues a global notification to at least the initiating task. The global notification indicates the completion of the execution of the GSM operation to one or more tasks of a single job distributed across multiple processing nodes.
US08239869B2
A method, system, and apparatus to divide a computing job into micro-jobs and allocate the execution of the micro-jobs to times when needed resources comply with one or more idleness criteria is provided. The micro-jobs are executed on an ongoing basis, but only when the resources needed by the micro-jobs are not needed by other jobs. A software program utilizing this methodology may be run at all times while the computer is powered up without impacting the performance of other software programs running on the same computer system.
US08239868B2
[Object] To provide a system capable of performing optimum job scheduling in respect of the types and utilization of computers as well as the types of jobs, and readily accommodating changes to the system configuration, in a grid computing system.[Constitution] A center server 100 which requests process servers on a grid computing network to execute jobs includes a scheduler section 110 which assigns a job to be executed to a process server and issues a job execution request, and a PS agent section 120 which manages information about the process servers 200, receives a request issued by the scheduler section 110, and sends the request to the process server 200 to which the requested job has been assigned, depending on the operating status and access type of the process server 200.
US08239856B2
Techniques are disclosed which allow independent software components to share unresolved information with one another. Components may register with a component integration bus (CIB) as a provider or a consumer (or both) for a variety of different data types. The CIB may be further configured to store and share component information with users of the CIB to broker consumer-provider relationships between components included in an integrated solution package. The CIB may also validate the consumer-provider relationships between components included in such a package. Further, the CIB provides information useful to validate the solution package. Using the information from the CIB, components of the solution package are able to resolve unresolved information when the integrated solution is deployed on a remote system.
US08239852B2
A system for remotely updating a program configuration includes an update server in communication with a client device configured to execute a remote update program. The client device includes a first processor coupled to memory storing the program which, executed, performs physical device recognition on the client device to determine its machine parameters, and generates unique device identifiers based thereon, and a first transceiver configured to send the identifiers to the update server. The update server is configured to collect the identifiers from the client device, and includes a second processor for analyzing the identifiers and determining an updated program configuration based on the collected identifiers matching known identifiers, and a second transceiver configured to deliver data representing the updated program configuration to the client device for storage therein.
US08239843B2
Parallelize a computer program by scoping program variables at compile time and inserting code into the program. Identify as value predictable variables, variables that are: defined only once in a loop of the program; not defined in any inner loop of the loop; and used in the loop. Optionally also: identify a code block in the program that contains a variable assignment, and then traverse a path backwards from the block through a control flow graph of the program. Name in a set all blocks along the path until a loop header block. For each block in the set, determine program blocks that logically succeed the block and are not in the first set. Identify all paths between the block and the determined blocks as failure paths, and insert code into the failure paths. When executed at run time of the program, the inserted code fails the corresponding path.
US08239832B2
An in-process debugging experience can be implemented using an infrastructure that supports out-of-process debugging. A program that is to be debugged may be written in a command-line language that receives and processes input through an input loop. The interpreter for the language runs in a first process. A helper program is started in a second process, and attaches to the first process as if it were an out-of-process debugger. A debugging module is loaded into the interpreter, which provides user debugging commands that may utilize the helper program. When the program to be debugged generates a debug event, the event is received by the helper process, which uses a debug primitive to start a new instance of the input loop in the first process. Debugging commands provided by the debugging module can be entered by the user into the new instance of the input loop.
US08239831B2
A system and a method of providing a visual interface for creating, maintaining, and reviewing the results of, automated functional tests of software applications that includes screen views for each window automated within the application under test. The system and method provide a visual interface for creating and modifying functional tests of software applications geared for novice users. The visual interface includes a screen preview, test steps, properties and a storyboard. A test logic builder interface enables novice users to add logic, including verification and synchronization, to their visual test transactions without having to understand programming concepts.
US08239827B2
A system and method for compiling part of the bytecode for a software application into native code at install time when the software application is installed on a particular computer are described. According to one embodiment of the method, usage information for the software application may be received. The usage information may indicate how frequently or commonly each of a plurality of features of the software application is used. The usage information may be analyzed to determine a rank ordering of the features. The method may further comprise installing the software application on the particular computer. Installing the software application may comprise compiling one or more bytecode modules of the software application into native code, where the one or more bytecode modules are selected from a plurality of bytecode modules depending upon the rank ordering of the features.
US08239826B2
An automation framework for automation of modular scripts based on a method for automating a script step in a modular script is provided. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the method comprises preparing a software environment for automation; performing one or more user actions on a software product executing on a computer system, the actions being representative of the script step that is to be automated, while the computer system records the user actions such that the modularity of the modular script is retained and the script step is automated; and providing user input to the computer system indicating that all the user actions have been performed. The modular script may be a modular test script prescribing test script steps that test a software product. Script steps that are shared by a large number of modular scripts and that are affected by a change to a corresponding software product need to be re-automated or updated only once, leading to automatically updated modular scripts that share the updated script steps.
US08239824B2
System and method for performing program-related operations over a network via a web browser. A network connection is established between a server computer and a client computer over a network. A universal resource identifier (URI) is sent from the client computer to the server computer over the network, where the URI indicates a program, e.g., a graphical program (GP), or at least a portion of a graphical program interactive development environment (GPIDE), e.g., a graphical program editor, an execution engine, a static or dynamic analyzer, and/or compiler. The at least a portion of the GPIDE is received from the server computer over the network in response to the URI, and executed in a web browser of the client computer to perform some specified functionality with respect to the GP.
US08239811B2
Disclosed are embodiments of a system and a method that allow for wireless and dynamic intra-process (i.e., during and/or between process steps) measurements of integrated circuit parameters. The embodiments incorporate the use of a passive circuit, such as an inductor-capacitor-resistor (LCR) circuit resonator, that has a predetermined sensitivity to process variations in one or more physical or electrical integrated circuit parameters. The passive circuit can be wirelessly interrogated between and/or process steps. Then, the actual behavior exhibited by the passive circuit in response to the interrogation is compared to the expected behavior of an optimal circuit in the absence of process variations in order to determine the one or more parameters. Also disclosed is an embodiment of an exemplary passive circuit that can be used to implement the disclosed system and method embodiments.
US08239803B2
A layout method of a semiconductor integrated circuit by using cell library data includes specifying a gate in a predetermined cell as a reference gate, and automatically arranging a plurality of cells by a computer such that a number of gates arranged in an area in a predetermined distance from the reference gate meets a preset gate data density condition.
US08239795B2
A timing analyzing system includes an RC extracting section configured to generate an SPEF (Standard Parasitic Exchange Format) file which contains resistance and capacitance components of wirings; a delay calculating section configured to generate an SDF (Standard Delay Format) file based on the SPEF file; and a clock mesh calculating section configured to generate a corrected circuit model by simplifying a netlist on a clock path to pass through a clock mesh structure from an input stage. A timing analysis section is configured to perform timing analysis of a semiconductor integrated circuit of an analysis target based on the corrected circuit model.
US08239791B2
Methods of designing and testing restore logic for restoring values to storage elements of power-managed logic circuitry. In one implementation, a design method disclosed includes providing a design of the logic circuitry that, when instantiated, will have a number of states it can be returned to upon repowering-up the logic circuitry. Values held by the storage elements are determined and utilized to categorize the storage elements into categories that allow the development of restore logic that will restore the state of the power-managed logic circuitry that is appropriate to the particular powering-up. The restore logic design is tested by modeling it and the power-managed logic circuitry in a hardware description language and simulating the number of states over a number of test cases. If the design and testing are successful, the restore logic can be optimized for instantiation into an actual integrated circuit.
US08239788B2
A method includes receiving an integrated circuit chip size and determining a frame structure segment size based on the chip size. The frame structure segment size is less than the chip size. An initial shot layout having a chip count is established in which a number of shots, each including at least one frame structure segment and at least one chip, are arranged in vertically and horizontally aligned columns and rows. At least one additional shot layout is established in which at least one of a row or column of shots is offset from an adjacent row or column of shots. The initial shot layout is compared to the at least one additional shot layout, and a final shot layout is selected based in part on the total number of shots in the shot layout and has a final chip count that is greater than or equal to the initial chip count.
US08239785B2
Techniques involving gestures and other functionality are described. In one or more implementations, the techniques describe gestures that are usable to provide inputs to a computing device. A variety of different gestures are contemplated, including bimodal gestures (e.g., using more than one type of input) and single modal gestures. Additionally, the gesture techniques may be configured to leverage these different input types to increase the amount of gestures that are made available to initiate operations of a computing device.
US08239783B2
A user interface can display active and passive content. For example, a camera viewfinder image can be displayed on a screen, as part of a strip, concatenated with one or more other images, for example, images that were previously taken with the camera. A user can cause the viewfinder image and the other images to move together across the screen. This can allow a user to easily examine the other images and the viewfinder image without, for example, switching between different screens in a user interface. Media captured with a device can be associated with a media category by positioning a user interface element near one or more other elements associated with the category.
US08239775B2
This invention relates to a computer simulated environment, such as a virtual world, and to the identification of a user entering the virtual world and user context in the virtual world model. An output of the virtual world model may be rendered using objects in the virtual world model. Previous versions of the rendered objects may then be located in associated user memory and specified differences between the rendered objects and the previous versions of the objects may be identified. A layer of the identified differences may then be rendered on the rendered output of the virtual world model.
US08239771B2
A CRM server sends to a client terminal activity data that has been read from a DB server, and directs the display thereof. When the activity data has been received from the CRM server, a client terminal obtains the screen data of a calendar screen is generated. Then a screen data for the activity detail screen that displays the activity data, screen data for an activity calendar screen is generated after display data for displaying information about a portion of the content of the activity has been added to screen data for a calendar screen in a field corresponding to a date and time shown by the activity data, and these generated screens are output on one screen.
US08239767B2
Audio stream management techniques are described. In an implementation, a unique representation is generated by a client for each of a plurality of audio streams associated with television content received at the client. Each of the unique representations is displayed in a user interface at the client to be selectable by a user to cause output of a respective audio stream with the television content.
US08239754B1
A method for annotating an electronic document includes associating a first electronic annotation to a data point of a data structure associated with an electronic document.
US08239751B1
A spreadsheet user interface accepts a request for at least one fact, the request comprising a user-selected identifier for the desired fact. Responsive to the entry of the request, a fact repository containing information derived from unstructured documents is accessed. The fact or facts corresponding to the request, if any, are retrieved from the repository, and the results are displayed at the location of the spreadsheet that is associated with the request.
US08239746B2
Digital communication coding methods are shown, which generate certain types of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes built from protographs. A first method creates protographs having the linear minimum distance property and comprising at least one variable node with degree less than 3. A second method creates families of protographs of different rates, all structurally identical for all rates except for a rate-dependent designation of certain variable nodes as transmitted or non-transmitted. A third method creates families of protographs of different rates, all structurally identical for all rates except for a rate-dependent designation of the status of certain variable nodes as non-transmitted or set to zero. LDPC codes built from the protographs created by these methods can simultaneously have low error floors and low iterative decoding thresholds.
US08239744B2
A data transfer method includes reading data from a NAND flash memory in pages into a first buffer, transferring a parity in the data read into the first buffer to a second buffer, after transferring the parity to the second buffer, transferring a main data in the data read into the first buffer to the second buffer, on the basis of the parity, correcting an error in the main data transferred to the second buffer, and transferring an error-corrected main data to a third buffer.
US08239740B2
A circuit and technique for reducing parity bit-widths for check bit and syndrome generation is implemented through the use of additional check bits to increase the number of minimum weighted codes in the Hamming Code H-Matrix. The circuit and technique of the present invention may be implemented while adding no additional correction/detection capability, in order to reduce the number of data bits that are used for each check bit/syndrome generation and to reduce the width of the parity generating circuitry.
US08239735B2
A method for data storage in a memory (28) that includes a plurality of analog memory cells (32) includes estimating respective achievable storage capacities of the analog memory cells. The memory cells are assigned respective storage configurations defining quantities of data to be stored in the memory cells based on the estimated achievable capacities. The data is stored in the memory cells in accordance with the respective assigned storage configurations. The achievable storage capacities of the analog memory cells are re-estimated after the memory has been installed in a host system and used for storing the data in the host system. The storage configurations are modified responsively to the re-estimated achievable capacities.
US08239733B2
The present invention is directed to a memory device with protection capability and a method of accessing data therein. A spreader encrypts input user data according to an entered password, and the encrypted data is then stored in a storage area. A despreader performs reverse process of the spreader on the stored data according to the entered password.
US08239732B2
Systems and/or methods that facilitate error correction of data are presented. An error correction code (ECC) control component facilitates enabling or disabling error correction of data being written to or read from memory, such as flash memory, based on ECC indicator data associated with a piece of data. The ECC control component can analyze data, parity code, and/or indicator data associated with the incoming data and/or data stored in the memory location where the incoming data is to be written to determine whether parity code can be written for the incoming data and/or whether error correction can be enabled with respect to the incoming data. Error correction can be enabled when an indicator bit associated with the data is unprogrammed (e.g., bit set to ‘1’ state) and can be disabled by programming the indicator bit (e.g., bit set to a ‘0’ state).
US08239731B1
Systems and methods are provided for performing multilevel coset coding and probabilistic error correction. Multiple bit data is encoded in a memory by combining one of the bit positions of multiple data values and encoding the combination to form a codeword. A data point containing a bit error is determined by decoding a codeword associated with one of the bit positions. A first coset corresponding to a data point with the error is determined where the coset includes labels representing non-adjacent analog signal levels. Labels in a second coset that includes mutually exclusive labels from the first coset are analyzed to select a label representing a signal level that is closest in proximity to the signal level represented by the data point containing the bit error than the other labels in the second coset. The data point error is corrected by replacing the data point with the selected label.
US08239728B1
A signal is encoded by receiving input data. A first portion of the input data is encoded to obtain a first set of encoded data. At least some part of the input data is processed to determine which one of a plurality of subsets the input data corresponds to. In the event the input data corresponds to a first subset having a greater signal margin (SM) than a second subset, the first set of encoded data and a second portion of the input data are output. In the event the input data corresponds to the second subset, the second portion of the input data is encoded to obtain a second set of encoded data and the first set of encoded data and the second set of encoded data are output.
US08239724B2
An apparatus for error correction for a data storage device may include an input interface that is configured to receive individual error correction requests to correct data from multiple channel controllers and that is configured to receive error correction information corresponding to the error correction requests, where each of the channel controllers is arranged and configured to control operations associated with one or more memory chips. The apparatus may include a corrector module that is operably coupled to the input interface and that is arranged and configured to perform error correction using an error correction algorithm and the error correction information to generate correction solutions, where the corrector module is a shared resource for the multiple channel controllers. The apparatus may include an output interface that is operably coupled to the corrector module and that is arranged and configured to communicate the correction solutions to the channel controllers.
US08239721B2
Methods and apparatus utilize hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmissions and retransmissions that are usable on multiple carriers, i.e. joint HARQ processes. For example, a downlink (DL) shared channel transmission of a joint HARQ process is received on one of the carriers. A first part of an identity of the joint HARQ process is determined by using HARQ process identity data received on a shared control channel. A second part of the joint HARQ process identity is determined using additional information. The joint HARQ process identity is then determined by combining the first part and the second part. A WTRU is provided that is configured to receive the DL shared channel and to make the aforementioned determinations. A variety of other methods and apparatus configurations are disclosed for utilizing joint HARQ processes, in particular in the context of DC-HSDPA.
US08239715B2
A method is provided for operating an interface between a first unit and a second unit supplying its data. The method includes switching control between LSSD_B and LSSD_C clocks and system clock (CLK) to provide a test mode of operation and a functional mode of operation to optimize setup and hold times depending on conditions under which the unit is operating. In the test mode, data is launched by the LSSD_C clock. In the functional mode, the data is launched by the system clock (CLK) to RAM. A method is also provided to determine which memory inputs should use a circuit that provides adequate setup and hold margins.
US08239706B1
A method is disclosed of maintaining data. The method includes the steps of providing a plurality of data storage mediums, each comprising a parity bit that provides an indication of the parity of the data in each respective data storage medium, at least one of the data storage mediums providing an exclusive OR function of a parity output bit of the at least one of the plurality of data storage mediums; encoding data provided by the exclusive OR functionality of the parity output bit to provide encoded data; time stamping the encoded data with a time stamp circuit that is coupled to the encoded data to provide time stamped encoded data; and providing the time stamped encoded data to a time-retrieval data storage medium.
US08239704B2
In some embodiments, the present invention relates to a method of maintaining a global clock within a multiprocessor system having a plurality of nodes that are connected in a network via links. A virtual spanning tree is mapped onto the network and the nodes and the links are configured such that each node is in a parent-child relationship with one or more other nodes in the virtual spanning tree. A global clock is generated in a root of the virtual spanning tree and global clock signals are communicated down the virtual spanning tree to each of the nodes.
US08239697B2
A performance state control system includes a processor and a voltage regulator coupled to the processor. The voltage regulator provides a regulated voltage to the processor, as instructed by the processor. A logic circuit coupled to the processor and the voltage regulator detects that the processor is in an operating power state, determines a time that the processor is in the operating state and instructs the processor to execute a performance state determination algorithm when the time that the processor is in the operating state exceeds a pre-determined threshold value.
US08239696B2
A power supply circuit for supplying electric power to a portable computer includes a main battery, a first control circuit, a backup battery and a second control circuit. The main battery includes a first output terminal and a second output terminal shorter than the first output terminal. When the main battery is drawn out of the portable computer, a disconnection between the second output terminal and the portable computer occurs earlier than a disconnection between the first output terminal and the portable computer to from a time difference between the two disconnections. During this time difference, the main battery is controlled by the first control circuit to change from supplying electric power to the portable computer to not supplying electric power to the portable computer, and the backup battery is controlled by the second control circuit to supply electric power to the portable computer instead of the main battery.
US08239690B2
A storage device that can be attached and/or detached to and/or from an information-processing device is provided. The storage device includes a storage unit including a first area provided to store an encryption key used to encode first information and first authentication information used to perform authentication, and a second area storing second information encoded by the information-processing device by using the encryption key, an authentication unit configured to authenticate a user based on second authentication information generated by the information-processing device based on third information input by the user and the first authentication information, a transmission unit configured to transmit the encryption key to the information-processing device when validity of the user is confirmed through the authentication, and a control unit configured to have control over writing and/or reading the encoded second information into and/or from the second area.
US08239676B2
A system and method determines the proximity of the target node to the source node from the time required to communicate messages within the node-verification protocol. The node-verification protocol includes a query-response sequence, wherein the source node communicates a query to the target node, and the target node communicates a corresponding response to the source node. The target node is configured to communicate two responses to the query: a first response that is transmitted immediately upon receipt of the query, and a second response based on the contents of the query. The communication time is determined based on the time duration between the transmission of the query and receipt of the first response at the source node and the second response is compared for correspondence to the query, to verify the authenticity of the target node.
US08239673B2
A device (200, 2200) for improved security includes a processor (200) and a secure writeable memory (2245) coupled to said processor (200) and including code (2240) to download a loadable security kernel to the processor (200), authenticate the loadable security kernel, and transfer the kernel so that the kernel begins at a predetermined address inside the secure writeable memory (2245) only if the authentication is successful. A process (2400) of manufacturing a target communication device (2310) having a memory space having a secure writable portion (2245) of the memory space, the manufacturing process (2400) using a host machine (2330). The manufacturing process (2400) includes downloading (2540) the loadable security kernel from the host machine (2330) to the memory space at the target (2310). The loadable security kernel has a flashing entry point. The process also includes authenticating (2590) the downloaded loadable security kernel received at the target (2310), moving (2640) the loadable security kernel in the memory space provided the authenticating is successful (2610), wherein after the moving (2640) the loadable security kernel is in the secure writable portion (2245) of the memory space; and jumping (2650) to a predetermined location in the secure writable portion of the memory space, the predetermined location coinciding with the flashing entry point of the security kernel as moved.
US08239672B2
A method for a access point device having first network identity information to automatically establish a security link with a peer access point device in a wireless communication system includes searching and receiving a beacon corresponding to the peer access point device by radio frequency scan, obtaining second network identity information corresponding to the peer access point device from the beacon, determining a primary-secondary relationship for the access point device and the peer access point device according to the first and second network identity information, generating or receiving security data according to the primary-secondary relationship, and then establishing the security link with the peer access point device according to the security data.
US08239666B2
A system for managing hardware resources includes a computer system and a management server, wherein the computer system includes a static authentication key generation unit that generates authentication keys for the detected hardware resources, a dynamic authentication key generation unit that requests arrangements of a hardware resource and an activation key to the management server by transmitting a dynamic installation authentication key generated from a system authentication key, a first additional hardware resource authentication unit that judges whether or not a new hardware resource is unauthorized by comparing the authentication key with the activation key, and a second additional hardware resource authentication unit that judges whether or not the new hardware resource fit the computer system by comparing the dynamic installation authentication key with the activation key, and wherein the management server includes an activation key generation unit that transmits the activation key to the computer system.
US08239662B1
A system for providing an operating system over a network to a local device is provided. The system includes a base image server, a preferences image server and an image loader. The system may also include a boot loader. A method for providing an operating system over a network to a local device is also provided. The method includes receiving a request for an operating system. The method further includes transmitting to a local device remotely stored base and preferences images that are configured for combination into a combined image. The method may also include the synchronizing the combined image with a cached version of an operating system on the local device.
US08239657B2
Address translation performance within a processor is improved by identifying an address that causes a boundary crossing between different pages in memory and linking address translation information associated with both memory pages. According to one embodiment of a processor, the processor comprises circuitry configured to recognize an access to a memory region crossing a page boundary between first and second memory pages. The circuitry is also configured to link address translation information associated with the first and second memory pages. Thus, responsive to a subsequent access the same memory region, the address translation information associated with the first and second memory pages is retrievable based on a single address translation.
US08239648B2
A thin provisioned storage system may have a file system manager that presents a logical storage system to a user and a storage management system that manages physical storage devices. When a block of data is freed at the logical layer, the file system manager may identify the freed block and send a command to the physical layer. The physical layer may identify the corresponding physical block or blocks and free those blocks on the physical layer. The storage management system may use a table to manage the location of blocks of data across multiple physical storage devices.
US08239647B2
Systems and methods are provided for performing data backup of a communication device. Data backup can occur automatically or manually. A data backup status indicator is displayed on the communication device indicating the current status of the data backup. The user can select the data backup status indicator to obtain additional information about the status of the data backup service.
US08239640B2
A system for controlling one or more aspects of a data storage and access routine incorporates a filter driver residing on a digital storage medium internal to or accessible to a host computing system; and a configuration interface residing on the digital storage medium. The interface enables reservation of an amount of memory for accelerating processes of data access and data storage and wherein the filter driver monitors data read and data write requests and processes those requests allowed through configuration and according to configured parameters.
US08239639B2
A method and system for providing advance data type information to a mass storage system is disclosed. The method may include a host system providing host file information, such as a host file identifier and/or a data type, to a memory system in addition to LBA format data. The system may include a processor, a memory system interface and a host file system operative on the processor to identify and provide host file information and/or data type information to the memory system along with LBA format data.
US08239626B2
One storage area is selected from two or more storage areas of a high load physical storage device, a physical storage device with a lower load than that of the physical storage device is selected, and it is judged whether the redundancy according to the RAID level corresponding to the logical volume decreases when the data elements stored in the selected storage area are transferred to the selected low load physical storage device. If the result of this judgment is that the redundancy does not decrease, the data elements stored in the selected storage area are transferred to a buffer area of the selected low load physical storage device and the logical address space of the logical volume that corresponds to the selected storage area is associated with the buffer area.
US08239621B2
There is provided a distributed data storage system for splitting content-data into a plurality of split data and storing a plurality of copy data corresponding to at least one of the plurality of split data in a plurality of memory devices. The system comprises a copying management information storing unit and a access location determining unit. The copying management information storing unit stores copying management information indicating a storage location of the copy data corresponding to the split data. The access location determining unit determines at least one of the plurality of memory devices storing the copy data corresponding to the split data as an access location for accessing split data.
US08239617B1
A system including an enterprise data storage system having a plurality of multi-level cell (MLC) flash devices configured as data storage drives. The enterprise data storage system is operated in such a way and the configuration of the MLC flash devices is such that the enterprise data storage system is able to maintain a performance level comparable to that of an enterprise data storage system utilizing single-level cell (SLC) flash devices.
US08239612B2
The memory controller updates a count number based on a new assignment of a logical block to a physical block, and writes count information in the physical block to which the logical block is newly assigned. The count information is defined by the count number. The memory controller decides, based on the count number and the count information stored in each physical block, whether or not to transfer stored data in a physical block to another physical block.
US08239611B2
Systems and methods that can facilitate more optimized relocation of data associated with a memory are presented. In addition to a memory controller component, a memory manager component can be employed to increase available processing resources to facilitate more optimal execution of higher level functions. Higher level functions can be delegated to the memory manager component to allow execution of these higher level operations with reduced or no load on the memory controller component resources. A uni-bus or multi-bus architecture can be employed to further optimize data relocation operations. A first bus can be utilized for data access operations including read, write, erase, refresh, or combinations thereof, among others, while a second bus can be designated for higher level operations including data compaction, error code correction, wear leveling, or combinations thereof, among others.
US08239609B2
A page scanner may be configured to identify, during a live migration of a virtual machine including a transfer of a plurality of memory pages from source hardware resources to destination hardware resources, a candidate memory page of the plurality of memory pages to include in the transfer while at least one operation of the virtual machine continues to execute. A fingerprint comparator may be configured to compare a candidate page fingerprint of the candidate memory page to existing page fingerprints of existing memory pages stored using the second hardware resources, and further configured to determine, based on the comparing, that a duplicate of the candidate page is included within the existing memory pages. A duplicate page handler may be configured to facilitate continued execution of the virtual machine using the duplicate of the candidate page and the second hardware resources.
US08239603B2
A system including a serialized secondary bus architecture. The system may include an LPC bus, an I/O controller, a serialized secondary bus, and at least one slave device. The LPC bus may be connected to the I/O controller, and the at least one slave device may be connected to the I/O controller via the serialized secondary bus. The serialized secondary bus has a reduced pin count relative to the LPC bus. The I/O controller may receive bus transactions from the LPC bus. The I/O controller may translate and forward LPC bus transactions to the at least one device over the secondary bus. The I/O controller may include a processing unit. The processing unit may initiate bus transactions intended for the at least one slave device. The I/O controller may also include a bus arbitration unit. The bus arbitration unit may arbitrate ownership of the secondary bus between the processing unit and the LPC bus.
US08239600B2
The present invention provides a data processing system having excellent immediacy of interrupting process. Different interrupt request signals are supplied from a circuit module which can be commonly used by a plurality of central processing units to a plurality of interrupt controllers assigned to central processing units, respectively. In response to the input interrupt request signal, each of the interrupt controllers notifies the corresponding central processing unit of an interrupt. The circuit module selects an interrupt controller for supplying an interrupt request signal from the plural interrupt controllers. For example, the circuit module identifies a central processing unit which instructed a start request and supplies an interrupt request signal to an interrupt controller corresponding to the central processing unit. The burden of the interrupting process of the single central processing unit can be lessened. In addition, since the interrupting process in the single central processing unit is not necessary, interruption response of another central processing unit is increased.
US08239598B1
Techniques are presented for tracking status within object chains. Global objects are associated with unique identifiers and each dependent local object created within the context of a particular global object receives that particular global object's identifier. A unique counter value is maintained for each status type of each global object. The local object facilitates communicating changes in its status using the received global identifier, and the counter values are updated accordingly for the affected global object.
US08239596B2
An IC card and a terminal mounted with an IC card are disclosed. In one embodiment, the IC card includes i) a memory, ii) a plurality of contacts including a pair of RF contacts and at least one communication contact, a micro processor, selecting any one of a low speed communication protocol and a high speed communication protocol, processing data written in the memory by a command inputted through any one of the RF contact and the communication contact determined by the selected communication protocol, and outputting a corresponding response, iii) a high speed interface, communicating the command and the response through the communication contact by use of the high speed communication protocol, iv) a low speed interface, communicating the command and the response through the communication contact by use of the low speed communication protocol and v) a contact allotting unit, connecting the communication contact determined by the selected communication protocol to any one of the low speed interface and the high speed interface.
US08239584B1
Described are techniques for performing automated data storage configuration. A plurality of I/O operations are received on a data path. The I/O operations are analyzed and analysis information is determined. In accordance with the analysis information, an application which issued the plurality of I/O operations is determined. One or more configuration options are determined which are customized in accordance with the application. A portion of data storage in a data storage system is configured for use by the application in accordance with the one or more configuration options.
US08239566B2
Processing transaction requests in a shared memory multi-processor computer network is described. A transaction request is received at a servicing agent from a requesting agent. The transaction request includes a request priority associated with a transaction urgency generated by the requesting agent. The servicing agent provides an assigned priority to the transaction request based on the request priority, and then compares the assigned priority to an existing service level at the servicing agent to determine whether to complete or reject the transaction request. A reply message from the servicing agent to the requesting agent is generated to indicate whether the transaction request was completed or rejected, and to provide reply fairness state data for rejected transaction requests.
US08239563B2
A network is disclosed. The network includes a server computer, a first wireless communications link communicatively coupled to the server computer, a second wireless communications link communicatively coupled to the server computer, and a handheld device communicatively coupled to the first and second wireless communications links. The handheld device concurrently receives an object from the server computer via the first and second wireless communications links.
US08239551B2
There is provided a user device that is equipped with IMS functionality. The user device includes: searching means for searching, based on UPnP technology, a UPnP network for another user device that has IMS subscription information, establishing means for establishing a session with the other user device discovered by the searching means, retrieving means for retrieving the IMS subscription information from the other user device via the session, and sending means for sending a first SIP register message including the IMS subscription information to an IMS network.
US08239550B2
An apparatus may include a processor configured to maintain at least a portion of a distributed database. The distributed database may comprise a plurality of private address data. The processor may be further configured to receive a request from a first terminal device seeking to establish a communications session with a second terminal device. The processor may be additionally configured to search the distributed database for a private address for the second terminal device. The processor may also be configured instruct a network address translating (NAT) apparatus to create a binding between the private address for the second terminal device and a public address accessible by the first terminal device. In some embodiments, the processor may be further configured to facilitate establishing a communications session between the first and second terminal devices based upon the binding between the private address and the public address.
US08239549B2
Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) is extended in order to assist with secure network location awareness. In an embodiment a DHCP client receives a signed DHCP response message from a DHCP server, the signed message comprising at least a certificate chain having a public key. In that embodiment the DHCP client validates the certificate chain and verifies the signature of the signed message. If this is successful the DHCP client accesses stored settings for use with the server. The stored settings are accessed at least using information about the public key. In some embodiments signed DHCPOFFER messages and signed DHCPACK messages are used. In another embodiment the signed DHCP message comprises a location identifier which is, for example, a domain name system (DNS) suffix of a DHCP server.
US08239545B2
The present invention relates to a method for asynchronous multimedia content retrieval, which can be applied to TV-Anytime standard or MPEG standard. In summary, an asynchronous multimedia retrieval method is provided as including: a client establishing the first session as requesting to the server; transmitting to the server the retrieval inquiry message for contents that the server needs; terminating the first session after the retrieval inquiry; establishing the second session and requesting to the server the result for the retrieval inquiry at a certain point in time that the previously set time has passed; and receiving the retrieval result from the server and terminating the second session.
US08239543B1
A method and an apparatus to manage data in a networked storage server have been disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a single logical layer between a number of logical subsystems in a storage server and a number of data management agents in the storage server, wherein the data management agents are operable to service requests from a number of client machines following different data management protocols, and exporting a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) from the single logical layer to interface with the data management agents.
US08239539B2
Systems, methods and computing components are provided for allocating a plurality of computing components among one or more logical partitions. Each of the plurality of computing components may have a management processor that is configured to assume a role among management processors of a partition. Each management processor may then cooperate with other management processors of the partition to control resources of the partition.
US08239524B2
A technique for operating a high performance computing (HPC) cluster includes monitoring workloads of multiple processors included in the HPC cluster. The HPC cluster includes multiple nodes that each include two or more of the multiple processors. One or more threads assigned to one or more of the multiple processors are moved to a different one of the multiple processors based on the workloads of the multiple processors.
US08239522B1
Tools and techniques are provided to assist in gathering web analytics data from wireless devices and in other configurations where passing data to an analytics server in a web-beacon query string has been difficult due to lack of an embedded scripting language and/or inaccessibility of desired data values. A dynamic variable specification is built on the web-reading device, including variables with associated data sources, operators, and literal values. The dynamic variable specification is sent to an analytics server, where an interpreter gathers data values and assigns them to variables.
US08239514B2
A system, method, and computer readable medium for managing CDN service providers are provided. A network storage provider storing one or more resources on behalf of a content provider obtains client computing device requests for content. The network storage provider processes the client computing device requests and determines whether a subsequent request for the resource should be directed to a CDN service provider as a function of the updated or processed by the network storage provider storage component.
US08239510B2
A location tracking system for building a geographic location database of network nodes in a computer network includes a trace engine module configured to send trace Id commands to a plurality of user terminals. The user terminals are actively coupled to a server node so that the trace engine module is able to obtain IP address of each of the user terminals and its corresponding geographic location. A first database is configured to store IP addresses obtained by the trace engine module and their corresponding geographical locations. A second database is configured to store a set of physical connections between IP addresses obtained by the trace engine module. The system can then determine the geographical location of end user terminals who employ the database as previously populated.
US08239509B2
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for instantiating and operating a virtual appliance monitor in a cloud. A network cloud environment can include a set of instantiated virtual appliances supported in the cloud. A cloud management system can control and organize the resource servers and other resources necessary to build the virtual appliances. In addition to the set of virtual appliances, the cloud management system can instantiate a virtual appliance monitor that communicates with the set of virtual appliances, to monitor their execution state, software complement, and other operational details. In implementations the virtual appliance monitor can be migrated from a physical on-premise platform. The virtual appliance store can store information related to the execution state of the virtual appliances to an off-cloud appliance data store. The instantiation and operation of the virtual appliance monitor can be metered for subscription-based usage charges.
US08239498B2
System and method for facilitating the implementation of changes to the configuration of resources in an enterprise. Embodiments of the present invention facilitate the use of historical information about an enterprise's IT configuration to evaluate the risk and impact of proposed changes. Risk can be evaluated using a success history for an organization within the enterprise that is responsible for the proposed change, or by applying a neural network to the historical data to detect recognizable patterns in the historical data. A risk evaluation can take into account sensitivity of the change to dates assigned on a change calendar, based on sensitivity dates gathered from the historical data. Historical data can be maintained and provided by a configuration database.
US08239489B1
In one general aspect, a page identifier of a test display environment having code defining a content section, the content section comprising a plurality of content section fragments, is received. A content item group is selected from a collection of content item groups, each content item group defining an association of content items with content section fragments of the content section. Each identified content item in the selected content item group is transmitted for placement on the test display environment in the associated content section fragment.
US08239488B2
A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring a first data indicating at least one reported event as originally reported by a user and a second data indicating at least a second reported event as originally reported by one or more sensing devices; and developing a hypothesis based, at least in part, on the first data and the second data. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US08239485B2
A system for distribution of a content item in a network, particularly a peer-to-peer network. A requesting node sends a request for the content item. An access requirement value for the content item is compared to a counter value for the requesting node to determine if the requesting node may download the content item from a sharing node. The counter value is advantageously linked to the requesting node's habit of sharing content items. The access requirement value, which preferably is not only linked to the size of the content item, is modified for at least one content item in the network, either following a time rule or when the content is downloaded. In this way it can be ensured that initial downloaders are likely to share the content item and that the content then gets more accessible to other nodes.
US08239482B2
A method includes receiving a request for content from a client, and determining an elapsed time since a previous request for the content. Additionally, the method includes retrieving the content from a content server and storing the content in a cache when the elapsed time since the previous request for the content is not greater than a threshold. Further, the method includes providing the content to the client. The method also includes determining a cache-hit ratio and altering a threshold in response to the cache-hit ratio.
US08239481B2
A system and method for implementing open-protocol remote device control are provided. A user accesses a common user interface for controlling one or more networked devices. Utilizing the interface, the user selects one or more actions. The selection is encoded in a standard protocol and transmitted to a premises server. The premises server obtains the selection, accesses a device interface database and translates the selection into a device-specific protocol. The translated instruction is transmitted to the selected device for implementation. The user interface then obtains any device return data for display on the user interface.
US08239477B2
Disclosed is a session modification mechanism for altering a data tapping process in a storage area network (SAN). In general, a data tapping mechanism is set up so that an appliance receives SAN data that is tapped from a particular SAN session. That is, the data tapping mechanism provides to a particular appliance a copy of the SAN data that is being written from a particular host to a particular storage device. The session modification mechanism allows the appliance to alter various aspects of the SAN session that is to be (or is being) tapped. Examples of various modification features includes (i) redirecting READ commands initiated by the host to the appliance and not sending such command to the storage device, (ii) redirecting both READ and WRITE commands initiated by the host to the appliance and not sending such commands to the storage device, (iii) halting redirection and thereby causing READ commands initiated by the host to be sent to the storage device and WRITE commands initiated by the host to be mirrored to both the storage device and appliance, (iv) quiescing and unquiescing all data I/O's for the particular storage device and appliance, and (v) stopping and starting the data tapping mechanism.
US08239475B2
Software is executed on a wireless device for presenting a response aggregation drawn upon a message having at least two desired recipients. The software of presenting at least two message-structure item questions via the wireless device and receives input requesting response aggregation drawn upon the message having at least two desired recipients and transmits the message to at least one of the at least two desired recipients using the wireless device.
US08239467B2
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for intercepting an e-mail from a backend system and converting the e-mail into a message which can be used by a mobile device to graphically represent a business process. The mobile device can interact with the graphic representation, or invoke a business method from a local graphic representation, in order to send a response message to the backend system for further communications.
US08239466B2
Techniques described herein describe a proxy used in an instant messaging system. The proxy, upon receiving an instant message (IM) from a first mobile device and addressed to a second mobile device, dynamically determines whether, and for how long to store the IM on a local proxy. Otherwise the IM is forwarded to a server.
US08239446B2
A hierarchical cached media distribution system that employs the Internet. The distribution system assures reliability and quality of service in delivery of timely content. New content is harvested from multiple disparate sources, associated with channels, and encrypted, conditioned, and packaged prior to distribution. A peer-to-peer network scheme is provided where peer groups are associated and maintained for efficient file distribution. Content servers are dynamically prioritized based on availability and cost. A push-based distribution method may be used to exploit cached content stored on peers subject to network address translation (NAT). The distribution system exploits a redundant self repairing packaged file format for media content. Embodiments of the present invention further provide dynamic feedback to content sources.
US08239439B2
Embodiments of the invention provide methods and apparatus for executing a multiple operand instruction. Executing the multiple operand instruction comprises transferring more than two operands to a vector unit, each operand being transferred to a respective one of a plurality of processing lanes of the vector unit. The operands may be transferred from the vector unit to a dot product unit wherein an arithmetic operation using the more than two operands may be performed.
US08239432B2
One or more embodiments are disclosed that involve computer implementable techniques for generating simulate-able waveforms without the need for repeatedly including and simulating a full channel model or testing the waveforms on a physical channel. Techniques according to such embodiments the invention comprise simulating the sending of a waveform across a channel and recording deviations from a simulated received waveform, which comprise differences between the ideal waveform as sent and the simulated received waveform. These deviations are then used to create simulate-able waveforms, which include the effects of noise and jitter, without the need for additional channel simulation. As an alternative to using channel simulation, deviations may also be collected from sending a waveform across a physical channel. Thus, a received signal sent across the physical channel may be sampled at sample points to record deviations, which are then used to create simulate-able waveforms without sending additional signals across the physical channel. Other embodiments include deriving and recording signal deviations from a simulated or measured system pulse response, and tabulating the deviations in the system pulse response when it occurs within a set of pre-determined bit patterns.
US08239428B2
A method for copying data from a source hard drive to a target hard drive is implemented in an electronic device. The source hard drive stores a master boot record (MBR) recording a SYSTEM partition and at least one other partition. The electronic device copies information related to the SYSTEM partition to a file to store in the source hard drive and modifies the MBR to be a modified MBR by erasing the SYSTEM partition. The electronic device then creates a diagnostic sub-partition for system diagnostics in one of the at least one other partition, copies the file to the diagnostic sub-partition, and copies the modified MBR in the target hard drive. When the system diagnostics is implemented for the target hard drive, the electronic device restores the SYSTEM partition in the target hard drive based on the file.
US08239424B2
In one embodiment, a thermographic imaging device having a visual compare mode that allows a user to compare a live image of a subject to a previously captured image of the same subject to aid the user in aligning the live image with the previously captured image. In this manner, a user can capture a series of images of the subject with the device located and oriented at a common location and orientation that is consistent throughout the series. In another embodiment, trend analysis software that includes a thermographic tool copying feature for copying one or more thermographic tools from a tooled thermographic image file to one or more non-tooled thermographic image files. In some embodiments, the software includes a trend-graphing feature that generates one or more trend plots after one or more tools have been copied to one or more non-tooled thermographic image files.
US08239420B1
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for locking data in an on-demand database service. These mechanisms and methods for locking data in an on-demand database service can enable embodiments to prevent race conditions, etc. The ability of embodiments to provide such feature may lead to enhanced data integrity when editing data.
US08239419B2
An SCA generator is configured to use data in a Metadata repository to generate files that can be used by an SCA server. The SCA generator includes an instruction analyzing module configured to analyze input instructions and to determine the Metadata repository from the input instructions. The SCA generator also includes a matching module configured to match a service identifier received with the input instructions to service metadata stored in the Metadata repository and a retrieving module configured to retrieve service parameters for the matched service. The SCA generator further includes a tree generating module configured to generate a parser tree based on the retrieved service parameters and an output file generation module configured to recursively walk through the parser tree and to generate target output files. The target output files generated by the output generation module are configured such that the SCA server can access services that have associated service metadata stored in the Metadata repository.
US08239417B2
A method, system and computer program product for creating a report on the basis of a plurality of remote datasets. The system for achieving this includes an intelligence server, connected to one or more tree servers. The tree servers are in turn connected to one or more databases. A user specifies a report to be created by the system. A client, acting on behalf of the user, creates a report definition that is sent to the intelligence server and the tree servers. Each tree server creates one or more segments, or slices, of the report, using the information that resides on the tree server. These slices are then sent to the intelligence server, which aggregates the slices into a tree structure. The tree structure is then converted into a report for presentation to the client. Moreover, the intelligence server receives updates from the tree servers as necessary. To do so, the tree servers and the intelligence server remain in communication for the purposes of passing update messages. The update messages are received and processed at the intelligence server in a manner that facilitates synchronization with the contributing tree servers and provides live updates to the user.
US08239405B1
A system and method for filtering keywords. The method may include receiving a first set of keywords. The method may include determining a first set of numbers associated with a first metric relating to the first set of keywords and a second set of numbers associated with a second metric relating to the first set of keywords. The method may include receiving at least one metric rule relating to the first and the second metric. The method may include determining a respective combination number for each keyword in the first set of keywords based on the first set of numbers, the second set of numbers, and the metric rule. The method may include filtering the first set of keywords based on the respective combination numbers to produce a second set of keywords.
US08239401B2
A Sales-Chip Associator process permits a creator of a Sales-Chip to share the Sales-Chip with a receiving party. The process utilizes a Sales-Chip Database and a Sales-Chip Subscriber Database to facilitate chip sharing. A handler is used in the Associator process and determines if an association exists between the Sales-Chip and the receiving party. The handler also facilitates recalling an association after being established by the receiving party.
US08239398B2
To provide an apparatus that transmits information, which includes a storage unit that stores notification rule information in which transmission destination information is associated with notification type information, a reception processor that receives predetermined information from a detector that detects a mobile information storage medium attached to an object, a notification information generating unit that obtains information specified by the notification type information in the notification rule information based on the predetermined information, to generate notification information from obtained information, and a notification unit that transmits the notification information to a transmission destination specified by the transmission destination information associated with the notification type information that is used when the notification information is generated.
US08239396B2
A machine-implemented method and machine-readable media for transforming sensitive data in a database is provided. Sensitive data in the database are transformed based on a query context of a query. The query may also be transformed. The transformed query may be applied against the transformed sensitive data to construct a query result. The query result with the transformed sensitive data represents a lenticular view. The lenticular view represents a modified form of the sensitive data that an end-user is allowed access to.
US08239381B2
A system and related techniques accept user-inputted search terms, for example to perform a search for files or other data or objects. According to embodiments, an extension of a search to different levels or points in the file system hierarchy may be automatically generated and presented to the user as a selectable search box. That box may be highlighted to the user for easy selection. When the user selects the selectable search box, the user's search for files of type or extension “.doc” or “.memo”, may be seamlessly extended to other files, folders, trees or other points or levels in the file system hierarchy. Search results may be continuously or dynamically updated as the user enters more characters or other data.
US08239375B2
A method of searching for Personal Information Management information of a handheld electronic device includes accepting input of one or more search criteria, such as text search criteria and/or name search criteria; accepting input of a representation of a plurality of different databases or applications of the handheld electronic device including Personal Information Management information to be searched; and conducting a search of the different databases or applications based upon the one or more search criteria and the representation of different databases or applications. The method determines one or more search results from the search and displays those search results.
US08239372B2
An approach is provided for determining related queries for a given search query based on the linking structure of electronic documents within a document set. Document titles are used to represent potential search queries and links between the electronic documents are used to determine relationships between the potential search queries. As such, the document set may be represented as a directed graph in which document titles (which represent potential search queries) are nodes and links are edges between the nodes. When a particular search query is received, a corresponding node is identified and related queries are determined by identifying other nodes having connections with that node.
US08239370B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system, and media for determining search results based on a query. One embodiment of the method includes receiving an initial query, inspecting an initial set of query-related information that is associated with the query, which is the fruit of analyzing aggregated user-interaction data, which includes information related to how users have previously interacted with former search results that were presented in response to the query. This information includes prior metadata associated with the former search results. Embodiments further include presenting an initial set of search results based on the initial set of query-related information, gathering current user-interaction data, and updating the initial set of query-related information based on the current user-interaction data. In this way, an embodiment of the invention helps, among other things, map a semantic meaning of a query to results that bring about a satisfying user experience.
US08239368B2
An apparatus, system, and method for executing a distributed spatial data query. The present invention allows a client to perform spatial queries against spatial data stored in a various formats in various separate databases. A view of the data is created in the relevant databases, wherein the spatial data is converted to WKB and stored as a BLOB. A federated server contains nicknames for the various database views, and also contains views of the data where the BLOB is converted back to a spatial data type. The federated server presents to clients an application view of the distributed heterogeneous spatial data such that the clients can treat the data as if it were a homogenous data source. Also taught is incorporating distributed non-spatial data into the application view by creating a nickname and a view on top of the nickname which derives spatial information from the non-spatial location information.
US08239359B2
There is provided a system and method for visual search in a video media player. There is provided a computing device for performing a visual search in video files comprising a display, a memory, a video media player application in the memory, and a processor configured to store into the memory search terms by allowing a user to visually select objects as search terms using a user interface on the display, initiate a search using the search terms, obtain search results comprising time offsets and play durations within the video files, each play duration containing at least one frame corresponding to the search terms, and display navigational controls in the user interface for presenting the search results, including selectable graphical thumbnail images or preview videos. A user can select objects via outlined, highlighted, or otherwise visually identified objects in a video frame, the selecting enabled by associated search metadata.
US08239350B1
A system and method for resolving ambiguities in date values associated with an attribute in a memory of the computer system. If a first text string conforms to one or more date formats, a confidence value is assigned for each of the date formats for the first text string based on the amount of specificity with which the first text string conforms to each date format. Similarly, if a second text string conforms to one or more date formats, a confidence value is assigned for each of the date formats for the second text string based on the amount of specificity with which the second text string conforms to each date format. The date format with the highest confidence value for the first text string and the date format with the highest confidence value for the second text string are merged to obtain a date value for the attribute.
US08239349B2
Information can be extracted from unstructured documents using embodiments described herein. An entity recognition may be performed on an unstructured document and found entities may be annotated. Annotating includes inserting tags around the found entities to generate marked entities. A rule is applied to each of the marked entities in the unstructured document to generate a confidence value for every marked entity, wherein the rule comprises a plurality of prefixes for a target entity and a plurality of suffixes for the target entity. A marked entity with the highest confidence value is selected as an extraction target.
US08239341B2
A method of pattern matching applicable to a transmission flow which is divided into multiple segments is provided, including: determining whether there is flow status information corresponding to a current pattern for a transmission flow to which a current segment belongs; creating the flow status information corresponding to the current pattern for the transmission flow if there is no flow status information corresponding to the current pattern for the transmission flow to which the current segment belongs; performing pattern matching for the current segment by taking the flow status information as assistant information of the pattern matching. An apparatus of pattern matching applicable to a transmission flow which is divided into multiple segments is also provided, including a flow status information configuration module and a pattern matching processing module. The solution of the present invention can avoid the defects caused by flow-reassembly.
US08239340B2
A method for processing messages is provided where at least one algorithmic conduit is defined, and at least one conduit rule for controlling at least one algorithmic conduit is defined. An algorithmic conduit is a persistent connection, controlled by explicit, independent, dynamic rules, and capable of processing messages among data communicators such as devices, systems, or programs. Messages can be monitored, filtered, transformed, correlated, or processed in other ways without modifying the data communicators. A message conduit hub system allows creation and management of algorithmic conduits to serve as active, virtualized links carrying rules-based data streams among configurable endpoints. These “smart” connections are managed using parameters, logic, and other control interfaces for tailoring behavior to a particular application, site, or user. A message conduit hub system may be implemented as a stand-alone device, as part of a larger system, or as an “encapsulation layer” for an existing application.
US08239337B2
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with importing proximity data are provided. Device identification information and device location information associated with a device are received from a data source. An estimated proximity of the device to one or more network zones is determined based at least in part on the device location information. A device identifier and the estimated proximity of the device are stored in a proximity database that stores proximity data for devices relative to one or more network zones.
US08239332B2
An exemplary method for optimizing a continuous density hidden Markov model (CDHMM) includes imposing a constraint for discriminative training, approximating an objective function as a smooth function of CDHMM parameters and performing a constrained line search on the smoothed function to optimize values of the CDHMM parameters. Various other methods, devices and systems are disclosed.
US08239329B2
A data storage medium includes a first storage unit and a second storage unit. The first storage unit is used to store a target electronic device ID, the second storage unit stores software installation data. The software installation data includes a copyright protection module, a software installation program, and a software data. When the software installation data is invoked to install the software data, the copyright protection module is invoked and automatically runs. The copyright protection module accesses the first storage unit and reads the target electronic device ID. The software data can be installed in the target electronic device only if the first storage unit contained the target electronic device ID or the first storage unit is writable and the target electronic device ID is stored in the first storage unit successfully.
US08239328B2
An information processing apparatus, which encrypts print data (PDL), receives a personal identification code (PIN) input by a user, generates a random number (rnd), encrypts the generated random number by using the personal identification code or an encryption key generated based on the personal identification code, converts the personal identification code by using a predetermined function, and encrypts print data by using the random number as an encryption key, thereby maintaining security in the printing.
US08239323B2
The invention comprises a method for distributing dead bank cards to customers who have not solicited a bank card or submitted an application. The dead bank card is a bank card (e.g., ATM card, debit card, check card, and the like) which contains all necessary information to be used, including a pre-assigned bank account number, and which only requires activation/approval by the prospective new bank account customer. In one embodiment, the dead bank card is distributed in connection with live credit cards issued to applicants for credit card accounts. Once operative, the bank card and the credit card may be linked together through a rebate/rewards program.
US08239317B2
A system, method, and corresponding computer program product facilitates trading of a standardized contract. The terms of the contract may be such that it provides a payout from one party to the other based on the price, yield, level or other measure of an asset, basket, index, financial contract, other financial instrument or some economically significant variable observed at or around two specified times, both such times being after the time that the standardized contract is first available for trading. Alternatively, the terms of the contract may be such that it provides that one party has the right but not the obligation either to purchase or to sell some asset at a price which is determined at a first specified time, such right to be exercised at some time not later than the second specified time, both such times being after the time that the standardized contract is first available for trading. These and other related contracts are described.
US08239309B2
A method for determining a closing price of a security traded in an electronic market includes receiving a trade price of an executed trade of the security wherein the executed trade is executed during a trading session of the electronic market, comparing the received trade price to a market parameter of the security to determine the closing price of the security, and reporting the determined closing price of the security to a user.
US08239304B1
According to one embodiment, the present invention relates to a method and a system for offering a consumer an opportunity to purchase one or more targeted products and/or services with a pre-approved credit instrument where the selection of one or more products is based on consumer related profile information, which may include previous spending habits, previous transactions and/or other information. Some or all aspects of an offer for the targeted product or service, which may include product type, offer delivery, pricing and payment terms, may be determined by various factors, such as the consumer's credit-worthiness, profile information and/or other information.
US08239303B2
A market system that includes an internal execution process is described. The system includes an order execution process that receives orders and matches orders against quotes posted in the system on a time priority basis and an order match-off process that checks if a market participant identification associated with a received order matches a market participant identification representing a quote in the system that is at the best bid or best offer price in the system.
US08239297B2
A system, method and computer program product for managing documents are disclosed. The system includes a document manger configured to receive job information from a remote user via a network, the job information being related to a job performed on a document. The document manager can generate billing information based on the job information; and transmit the billing information to an application service provider (ASP) providing a service on the document. The document manager can also transmit the information to the ASP. The document manager can receive login information from the user, and verify the login information. The document manager can generate a job profile based on the login information, and transmit the job profile to the user. The image processing apparatus used in this system, and the method performed by such an image processing apparatus, are also disclosed.
US08239291B2
A method for communicating information pertaining to a task includes receiving wirelessly first status information. The first status information specifies a first status associated with a task. The method also includes indicating the first status to a user and receiving input from the user indicating a second status associated with the task. Additionally, the method includes transmitting wirelessly second status information to a remote device in response to receiving the input from the user. The second status information specifies the second status.
US08239286B2
Wireless-enabled mobile communication devices and network nodes are configured for participation in wireless, location-based e-commerce activities. Consumers using mobile communication devices in the vicinity of physical retail locations receive opportunities to engage in e-commerce, using their mobile communication devices, with merchants operating the physical retail locations. In an exemplary e-commerce transaction, a wireless communication session is established between a mobile communication device and a wireless network access node, which may be associated with a wireless local area network (“WLAN”) or a wide-area network (“WAN”). Via the wireless communication session, a consumer receives a virtual retail experience associated with the physical retail location, and an exchange of consideration between the consumer and the merchant entity is arranged. In exchange for consideration from the consumer, the consumer receives commodity.
US08239280B1
Described are embodiments for valuing products or services. In one embodiment, a buyer is enabled to anonymously access content from a website, choose one of several payment options that most closely reflect the buyer's perceived value of the content and to pay for the product while still maintaining anonymity. The buyer is required to make a payment, even if it is zero, to maintain his/her purchase power and ability to continue buying from a particular seller as well as to use this facility. The embodiment maintains statistical data on all purchases and an amount paid by each of the buyers and offers an ability to provide and display numerical and textual feedback to the sellers regarding the quality and relevance of the accessed content.
US08239272B2
The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing complete electronic commerce (“E-Commerce”) transactions and solutions for a marketing company's products via the World Wide Web, including facilities for signing up new customers and recruiting, training and supporting new Independent Business Owners through an interactive online process. In another aspect, the present invention relates to the combination of a marketing business with a membership buying opportunity using both electronic commerce and face-to-face transactions. The present invention is also directed to a system and method for combining a marketing business with a membership buying opportunity, so that Independent Business Owners participating in the marketing plan can introduce customers to a membership buying opportunity and earn bonuses or commissions based on the purchases by those members, while Members in the buying opportunity can consume products or, at their option, qualify to become Independent Business Owners.
US08239271B2
Techniques for managing data received from devices in a point of sale system are described. A point of sale system is operated utilizing independent software objects including a device sequence manager. The device sequence manager communicates with each device producing data for which proper sequencing must be maintained. Upon receiving a data event from a device, the device sequence manager creates a data object and stores the data object in an output queue. Upon receiving a request for data from an executive application, the device sequence manager retrieves the data object from the output queue and transfers it to the executive application, maintaining the sequence in which the data objects were received from the devices.
US08239270B2
This invention relates to an expense reporting system for viewing and manipulating a user's financial transaction data and a method for associating financial transaction data with a user's project data. The system includes a user's financial transaction data hosted in a data storage unit, addressable on a network, and accessible by a remote user on a user interface unit having a user input means and a display; and an expense reporting module having a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows a user to define project category data and associate representations of the user's financial data with the user-defined project category data.
US08239269B2
The exemplary embodiments described herein relate to the field of electronic registration (ER) of purchased products and, more particularly, to an improved electronic registration system that enables unique item-level tracking from an initial point-of-sale (POS) transaction involving a post-paid service/subscription and related device or product, to any cancellations in service and returns to the store or service provider. Certain exemplary embodiments thus advantageously “close the gap” between retailers and service providers, e.g., in connection with subscriptions/post-paid service agreements and related devices or products. In certain exemplary embodiments, an “interest” may be taken and charged in the event that the customer does not return the device when or after an associated service has been cancelled.
US08239263B2
A content owner partner (e.g., a Website/Web page publisher) can easily block entire broad or narrow categories of ads, and can specify objectionable ad content or targeting. Concepts may be associated with a property and ads related to those concepts may be blocked for the given property. Further, terms may be associated with a property and ads including any of the terms may be blocked for the given property.
US08239262B2
A recycling kiosk for recycling and financial remuneration for submission of a mobile telephone is disclosed herein. The recycling kiosk includes an inspection area with at least one camera and a plurality of electrical connectors in order to perform a visual analysis and an electrical analysis of the mobile telephone for determination of a value of the mobile telephone. The recycling kiosk also includes a processor, a display and a user interface.
US08239259B2
A donation aspect for a website is provided. Amounts of donations are limited and users are given awards based on their donations.
US08239257B2
Disclosed is a method for displaying an advertisement. The method displays a present advertisement, determines whether the present advertisement has been displayed completely, and adds an identifier of the present advertisement to a priority advertisement list if the present advertisement has not been displayed completely. The method sends the priority advertisement list to the advertisement engine when requesting the advertisement engine for displaying a next advertisement. Using the priority advertisement list, the advertisement engine may give priority to the present advertisement in next advertisement assignment. Using an optimized advertisement display strategy, the disclosed method may increase coverage rates of advertisement contents to audiences, thereby improving advertisement effectiveness for advertisers and increasing cash flow return for website owners.
US08239248B2
Techniques to manage information for dynamic reports are described. An apparatus may comprise a business planning application module to update a current period reference to a time member of a time dimension, generate a rolling data entry form with actual data members and forecast data members based on the current period reference, and set a data locking mode for the actual data members and a data access mode for the forecast data members. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08239247B2
Exemplary embodiments of this invention provide a method that includes estimating an empirical distribution of a metric for a company. The method includes estimating a distribution of the metric for a plurality of companies. The method further includes determining whether the company is an outlier, based on the empirical distribution of the metric for the company and the distribution of the metric for the plurality of companies, and generating at least one recommendation based determining whether the company is an outlier.
US08239238B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for encoding a work item type definition. In one embodiment, a method is provided for encoding the work item type definition as a data object, such as an XML document. The work item type definition may include a specification of workflow associated with the work item type, and//or a specification of the display of the work item type by a graphical user interface, such as that which may be provided by a workflow management application.
US08239236B2
A method for scheduling a meeting for a set of recipients is provided. The set of recipients includes a special attendee and at least one additional attendee including a meeting organizer. The method includes obtaining an initial meeting request from the meeting organizer. The meeting request does not specify meeting commencement information corresponding to at least one of a start time and a date. The method also includes generating a user interface for displaying the initial meeting request to the special attendee. The method also includes collecting input designated by the special attendee from the user interface. The input specifies the meeting commencement information. The method further includes transmitting the collected input. The collected input is used to generate an updated meeting request designating the set of recipients and specifying the meeting commencement information.
US08239231B2
Conventional resource allocation process has intrinsic inefficiency because of the resource fragmentation. A solution is provided to defragment the resource so that the customers' requests are better served and provider's resource utilization rate is improved.
US08239229B1
A method for simulating the entire superset of potential valid keyword regular expression requests constructed during an Internet browser search and converting the result sets into Environmental summary report to enable efficient and accurate searching without requiring Browser Engine supercomputer cluster searching capabilities.
US08239227B2
Providing for generating an executive report of business or personal activity is described herein. By way of example, such executive report can identify a change and related cause with respect to a prior report. As a particular example, an inference engine can receive an activity report and reference prior reports to identify the change and related cause. A set of results containing such information can be provided to a synthesis component that can include and highlight such information in the executive report. In addition, additional sources of data can be referenced in order to include and/or customize the report to a particular individual, organization, culture, or the like. As described, aspects of the subject innovation can provide an executive report highlighting important aspects of data and tailoring those aspects to interests of one or more users.
US08239223B1
A method for ensuring valid participation of a plan participant in a defined contribution pension plan provides data query for identifying the plan participant. A pension debt coverage policy protects an outstanding balance of a defined contribution plan loan secured by participant's plan assets, eliminating adverse tax consequences to the plan beneficiary in the event of the death or disability of the participant and ensuring that the full plan account balance passes intact to beneficiary in such event.
US08239221B2
An insurer sells a life insurance policy having a coverage period equal in length to the term of the policy. The consideration paid by the insured is relatively high compared to conditional receipt coverage, but is generally lower than that charged for standard simplified issue policies. The policy is only underwritten on a limited basis, preferably using information available in remote databases. During a predetermined time period, the insured has the option of providing medical test results or other material sufficient to enable comprehensive medical underwriting. Upon receipt of the information and material, an underwriter comprehensively underwrites the policy. If the results of the underwriting are satisfactory, the premiums are reduced significantly for the remainder of the term of the insurance policy and/or the benefit amount is increased. If the insured does not provide any additional information or materials, or if the materials provided result in unsatisfactory underwriting, the premiums remain unchanged.
US08239219B2
A computer program product, method and system for producing seat availability information for a mode of travel such as airline travel produce a prediction of availability of a seat in accordance with an availability query. The prediction is used in place of making an actual query to an airline or other travel mode availability system.
US08239218B1
A method of creating and maintaining a centralized medical record system includes establishing, in a computer system, a record associated with an account of a client, the computer system being in communication with a network to which the client has access, receiving a copy of at least one medical record or item of data, from one or more of a multiplicity of health care entity sources, sent to the centralized medical record system, producing an electronic representation of each copy received from each of the multiplicity of health care entity sources, and storing, in the centralized medical record system, the representation received and logically associating, with each representation, client information related to the client. The method also includes providing the client with access, via a web page, to each of the representations over the network, each of the representations constituting an accessible entry in the web page, such that the client can review the representations, wherein the web page includes a facility by which the client can provide information describing each representation, the information being stored in logical association with the representation so as to permit subsequent access to and retrieval thereof via the web page, the information including a client-described label that is used in identifying the representation on the web page.
US08239212B2
A method is provided for determining whether a third party is authorized to access information representative of genetic data. This information representative of genetic data is associated with a physical sample and is provided in an accessible format. A set of access rights is received that define which third parties can access the information and how the information can be used. A third party requests to access the information for the purposes of performing a test. The request is compared to the access rights. If the third party is authorized, the test is performed on the information. If, however, the third party is not authorized, access is denied.
US08239207B2
A system and method for a highly interactive style of speech-to-speech translation is provided. The method includes receiving a first and a second language selection and receiving an expression in the first language. The method includes presenting the expression in the first language for verification and translating the verified expression into an expression in the second language. The method further includes confirming the meaning of terms within the verified expression in the first language and back-translating the expression in the second language to a back-translated expression in the first language. The back-translated expression is verified in the first language.
US08239204B2
The disclosed solution includes a method for dynamically switching modalities based upon inferred conditions in a dialogue session involving a speech application. The method establishes a dialogue session between a user and the speech application. During the dialogue session, the user interacts using an original modality and a second modality. The speech application interacts using a speech modality only. A set of conditions indicative of interaction problems using the original modality can be inferred. Responsive to the inferring step, the original modality can be changed to the second modality. A modality transition to the second modality can be transparent the speech application and can occur without interrupting the dialogue session. The original modality and the second modality can be different modalities; one including a text exchange modality and another including a speech modality.
US08239198B2
A system and method for creating user voice profiles enables a user to create a single user voice profile that is compatible with one or more voice servers. Such a system includes a training server that receives audio information from a client associated with a user and stores the audio information and corresponding textual information. The system further includes a training server adaptor. The training server adaptor is configured to receive a voice profile format and a communication protocol corresponding to one of the plurality of voice servers, convert the audio information and corresponding textual information into a format compatible with the voice profile format and communication protocol corresponding to the one of the plurality of voice servers, and provide the converted audio information and corresponding textual information to the one of the plurality of voice servers.
US08239190B2
A method of communicating speech comprising time-warping a residual low band speech signal to an expanded or compressed version of the residual low band speech signal, time-warping a high band speech signal to an expanded or compressed version of the high band speech signal, and merging the time-warped low band and high band speech signals to give an entire time-warped speech signal. In the low band, the residual low band speech signal is synthesized after time-warping of the residual low band signal while in the high band, an unwarped high band signal is synthesized before time-warping of the high band speech signal. The method may further comprise classifying speech segments and encoding the speech segments. The encoding of the speech segments may be one of code-excited linear prediction, noise-excited linear prediction or ⅛ frame (silence) coding.
US08239187B2
A method and associated apparatus for using visual separators to indicate additional character combination choices from a disambiguation function on a handheld electronic device.
US08239186B2
Methods, program products and systems for first receiving an indication of when a user-manipulable cursor is positioned in proximity to a first presentation of first text in a graphical user interface (GUI), the first text being in a first language. In response to the first receiving, causing a second presentation in the GUI of second text in a distinct second language, where the second text represents a translation of the first text into the second language or the first text represents a translation of the second text into the first language. Second user input to the GUI is received providing an alternate translation of the first text to the second text or the second text to the first text.
US08239185B2
The present invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating an interview where the interviewer and interviewee speak different languages. An important application is to first responder situations during an emergency. The invention implements several improvements over the prior art. A method is provided whereby the interviewee who cannot read can nevertheless specify her language to the interviewer and system. Choices of topics about which the interviewer might want to communicate with the interviewee are ranked by associated probabilities or risks, thereby assisting the interviewer in selecting next steps in the interview and treatment process; the interviewer, nevertheless, retains the discretion to choose other options. Information communicated to the interviewee in detail can be presented to the interviewer in summary form, so that the interviewer can concentrate on higher priority matters. Ordinarily, the interviewer and interviewee wear headsets, but an interviewee headset that can be conveniently converted into speakers allows the interviewer to communicate in the interviewee language to third parties at the scene, such as family members. Other implementations allow the headset to serve as a hub for sensor (e.g., camera, audio recorder, thermometer) data collection, storage, and dissemination.
US08239182B2
Systems and/or methods that facilitate simulation, verification, and optimization of a data transmission system by utilizing simulation memory component(s) are presented. A simulation memory component can be used to replace memory components and/or hardware components to facilitate early simulation and/or verification of the overall interconnectivity of the system. A simulation memory component(s) can be configured to emulate various sizes of memory components associated with the system. Data throughput can be measured during simulation, and the depth and/or width associated with a simulation memory component can be adjusted to facilitate obtaining a desired data throughput based in part on predefined data throughput criteria.
US08239176B2
A simulation of a multiplication process includes tracing histories of a plurality of carriers, increasing a weight factor of a carrier to simulate a multiplication of the carrier, and summing the number of the plurality of carriers. Each of the plurality of carriers is multiplied by its respective weight factor.
US08239173B2
The invention concerns an apparatus and a computer software product for the conceptioneering, predesign and configuration of a machine object represented by an object data model. Component objects are stored in an object database, wherein a component object contains at least one parameter object. In addition the database contains functional objects. The modeling approach implemented by the separation according to the invention of component objects and functional objects permits a distinction to be drawn between constraints within a component object and constraints which exist between component objects. The former are embraced by the component objects themselves and the latter by the functional objects. That encapsulation has in particular the advantage that the modeling process can be substantially clearer. In addition encapsulation permits re-use of the component objects in various systems.
US08239172B2
A transient electromagnetic signal is recorded in an earth formation in the presence of a pipe having a finite conductivity. A portion of the signal dominated by the pipe signal is analyzed to determine a functional representation, extrapolated back to a time interval where the formation signal is present and subtracted from the recorded signal to provide a corrected signal.
US08239163B2
A coherence scanning interferometer carries out: a coherence scanning measurement operation on a surface area using a low numeric aperture objective so that the pitch of the surface structure elements is less that the spread of the point spread function at the surface to obtain structure surface intensity data; and a coherence scanning measurement operation on a non-structure surface area to obtain non-structure surface intensity data. A frequency transform ratio determiner determines a frequency transform ratio related to the ratio between the structure surface intensity data and the non-structure surface intensity data. A structure provider sets that frequency transform ratio equal to an expression representing the electric field at the image plane of the interferometer in terms of surface structure element size (height or depth) and width-to-pitch ratio and derives the surface structure element size and width-to-pitch ratio using the frequency transform ratio.
US08239160B2
A method of detecting activity in a MEMS accelerometer captures an acceleration bias, measures acceleration at a predetermined time, calculates a change in acceleration using the measured acceleration and the acceleration bias, and compares the change in acceleration to a threshold to detect activity. A method of detecting inactivity uses a similar technique along with a timer. The method of detecting inactivity in a MEMS accelerometer captures an acceleration bias, measures acceleration at a predetermined time, calculates a change in acceleration using the measured acceleration and the acceleration bias, and compares the change in acceleration to a threshold to detect inactivity. The method further determines if the change in acceleration is less than the threshold and, if so, determines if a predetermined period of time has elapsed to detect inactivity.
US08239149B2
Due to their exposure to extreme environments, it is expected that parts or all of a solar power system will experience degradation in performance. The degradation may be due to temporary environmental factors, such as cloud cover; damage or localized soiling; a general dirty condition; or ageing of the components. A method is disclosed wherein a remote system may detect degraded performance and determine the cause, thereby enabling a decision as to the appropriate corrective action to be taken, if any.
US08239131B2
A navigation device displays, on a screen, a route guidance object indicating a route along which the vehicle is to travel, and includes: an image pickup section that obtains a photographed image ahead of the vehicle; a white line detection section that detects a road white line in the photographed image; a map information storage section that stores map information including road shape data which represents the road shape; a road shape data correction section that corrects the road shape data, based on a detection result of the road white line, such that the route guidance object is displayed along the road white line; a route guidance object generation section that generates the route guidance object, based on the corrected road shape data; and the display section that displays the generated route guidance object on the screen.
US08239128B2
A method of managing movement of an electric cable that is configured to provide power to a mobile machine. The method includes determining an initial boundary of an isolation zone in which the cable lies, for a first location of the machine. The initial boundary is divided into a first static boundary and a first dynamic boundary. The first static boundary surrounds a static isolation sub-zone of the isolation zone, and the first dynamic boundary surrounds a dynamic isolation sub-zone of the isolation zone. A second dynamic boundary surrounding the dynamic isolation sub-zone is determined, based on a second location of the machine when the machine moves from the first location to the second location, such that the cable lies within the second dynamic boundary. The first static boundary is maintained when the machine is in the second location.
US08239121B2
A stop-time target phase setting unit sets a target phase CAr for an intake valve to a target phase, which is used when an engine is stopped, in response to issuance of an engine stop command. An engine stop control unit generates a series of control commands for an engine stop process in response to issuance of the engine stop command. A motoring command unit generates a first MG control command for rotating the engine using a motor for a predetermined period Tm that is counted by a timer in response to issuance of the engine stop command. Thus, the engine idles even after fuel combustion stops. In this way, the period in which the valve phase can be changed by a VVT mechanism is increased. As a result, a valve phase when the engine stops is reliably brought to the target phase that is suitable for next engine starting.
US08239120B2
A method and a device for operating an internal combustion engine to perform a lambda regulation without using a lambda sensor. Fuel is injected for combustion in a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine. A first quantity of the internal combustion engine is ascertained, which allows a conclusion to be drawn about the behavior of an output quantity of the internal combustion engine, in particular of a torque.
US08239109B2
An anti-lock braking system (ABS) calculates driven wheel speed without any sensors on the driven axle assembly. A powertrain control module (PCM) receives signals from an output shaft speed (OSS) sensor and adds the speed and axle ratio information to a control network bus. Access to the CAN bus is provided to enable calculation of the rear wheel speed based on such information so that ABS may implement anti-lock braking functionality by taking into account such information.
US08239106B2
A control system includes first and second clutches of a transmission and a control module. Each of the first and second clutches includes an on state and an off state. The control module cycles the first clutch between the on state and the off state using a stepped command signal while the second clutch is maintained in the on state. The control module monitors an output parameter of the transmission that is based on the stepped command signal. The control module controls the transmission based on the output parameter.
US08239105B2
A control device of an automatic transmission includes a motor control portion to control an output of a motor that executes a control operation on a clutch control portion. The motor control portion includes a target motor current computation portion that computes a target motor current according to a desired driving state, a motor current detection portion that detects plural motor currents respectively corresponding to plural detection timings, a selection portion that selects a motor current corresponding to the desired driving state among the detected plural motor currents, and a motor driving portion that applies feedback control on an output of the motor according to a difference between the target motor current and the selected motor current. Hence, not only can the most suitable clutch control be applied for each gear-change interval at gear change, but also the comfortable feeling during the driving and the fuel efficiency can be enhanced.
US08239102B2
A vehicle safety system includes a motion detecting device, a control module, a positioning module, and a wireless transmitting module. The motion detecting device is configured for sensing the motion of a vehicle and recording corresponding motion data. The control module is configured for analyzing the motion data and judging whether an accident has occurred to the vehicle based upon the analysis. The positioning module is configured for obtaining position coordinates of the vehicle. The wireless transmitting module is configured for automatically making contact with and reporting the position coordinates of the vehicle to a remote service station when an accident has occurred to the vehicle.
US08239086B2
An imaging system for a vehicle includes an imaging array sensor and a control. The imaging array sensor is disposed at least partially within an exterior rearview mirror assembly that is attached at a side of a vehicle. The field of view of the imaging array sensor encompasses at least one of a rearward field of view, a sideward field of view and a forward field of view. The control may utilize edge detection in processing captured image data. Responsive at least in part to processing of captured image data by the control, the control determines an object of interest present in the field of view of the imaging array sensor. A portion of the equipped vehicle is present in the field of view of the imaging array sensor and the control may be operable to determine that the portion of the equipped vehicle is not an object of interest.
US08239085B2
A method for detecting road lane markings for a motor vehicle in motion with an image recording unit is presented. The image recording unit points to the road in front of the vehicle and in the recorded image data, brightness differences (contrasts) are analysed and/or edges are extracted. Road lane markings are detected by means of their periodic arrangement. For evaluation purposes, the measuring signal of the image recording unit is transformed into another coordinate system, and the auxiliary function thus obtained is tested for periodic structures.
US08239083B2
A method and apparatus for moving a machine having at least one drive wheel along a desired path includes detecting and storing data including a plurality of GPS locations linked to particular points along an entire desired path of travel of the machine during operation of the machine in a manual learn mode to traverse the entire desired path to be followed by the machine during subsequent operation in a robotic mode. The method and apparatus then operates the machine in the robotic mode by controlling the at least one drive wheel to move the machine along the desired path. In one embodiment, a fee is charged based on an amount of time the machine is operated.
US08239081B2
A charge accumulating circuit accumulates regeneration power. The charge accumulating circuit includes a DC bus line which is connected to a smoothing capacitor, a charge accumulating capacitor with an internal resistance, and a converter which connects the DC bus line and the charge accumulating capacitor to each other, and performs a charge/discharge operation. The control device changes the OFF state of the first switch to the ON state when the start key is turned on, measures a physical quantity involved with a discharge characteristic of the charge accumulating capacitor, and calculates at least one of the internal resistance and a capacitance of the charge accumulating capacitor on the basis of a measurement result.
US08239080B2
A computerized system and method of managing subway trains along a two-track subway line to allow express travel in combination with local service. Express trains catch up to local trains at express stations along the line, and provision is made to allow the express trains to physically or “virtually” pass the local train at those stations. Embodiments in which the express trains physically pass the local train include direct train-to-train transfer facilitated by side-by-side tracks at the express station occupying reduced foot-print. In other embodiments, virtual passing is accomplished by changing the type of service provided by trains at express intervals: a local train “transforms” into an express train and vice versa. Embodiments enable passengers to transfer between trains at express stations so that these “relay” passengers can travel faster than any specific train.
US08239069B2
A flow control valve includes a housing that includes a fluid inlet, a fluid outlet, a first work port and a second work port. The housing defines a spool bore and a pilot spool bore. A main stage spool is disposed in the spool bore. A pilot stage spool is disposed in the pilot spool bore. The pilot stage spool is in selective fluid communication with the main stage spool. A microprocessor includes a controller having a restricted structured controller and a compensation controller. Outputs of the restricted structured controller and the compensation controller are summed to form an electrical signal that is communicated to the pilot stage spool.
US08239065B2
An air conditioner with operation according to a user-defined curve and the control method thereof are disclosed. The air conditioner includes a main unit, the main unit includes: a receiving unit of user-defined curve for receiving the user-defined curve set by a user, the user-defined curve is used to define the coincidence relation between the needed air conditioning temperature and the time, and a control unit connected to the receiving unit of user-defined curve for controlling the air conditioning temperature of the air conditioner at different time according to the user-defined curve. The user-defined curve can be set by a keyboard of a remote controller by the user, the data of the user-defined curve can be stored in a memory chip and then can be sent into an infrared signal receiving unit of the main unit, a MCU control chip controls the operation of the air conditioner according to the user-defined curve.
US08239057B2
A method for controlling several master axes in a machine, for example a production machine includes the steps of defining profiles of desired values for a plurality of master axes, determining for each master axis a current desired value and also a current desired value for a slave axis using a logic combination rule, controlling a first drive in accordance with the current desired value of the slave axis, and if the dynamics controlling the first drive exceeds an upper dynamics limit, starting at the next clock pulse to modify determination of the current desired values for at least one of the master axes, and controlling the first drive with a reduced dynamics until the reduced dynamics falls below a lower dynamics limit.
US08239052B2
An audio signal produced by playing a plurality of musical instruments is separated into sound sources according to respective instrument sounds. Each time a separation process is performed, the updated model parameter estimation/storage section 114 estimates parameters respectively contained in updated model parameters such that updated power spectrograms gradually change from a state close to initial power spectrograms to a state close to a plurality of power spectrograms most recently stored in a power spectrogram separation/storage section. Respective sections including the power spectrogram separation/storage section 112 and an updated distribution function computation/storage section 118 repeatedly perform process operations until the updated power spectrograms change from the state close to the initial power spectrograms to the state close to the plurality of power spectrograms most recently stored in the power spectrogram separation/storage section 112. The final updated power spectrograms are close to the power spectrograms of single tones of one musical instrument contained in the input audio signal formed to contain harmonic and inharmonic models.
US08239049B2
A playing state presentation system has a contents server for supplying consecutive contents data, and a contents playing device for obtaining and playing the contents data. The contents playing device includes: a reception unit for receiving the contents data from the contents server by wireless communication; a supplying unit for supplying the contents data to a playing unit which successively plays the contents data received by the reception unit, with the contents data being supplied at a supply speed unique to the contents data; a playing state prediction unit for predicting whether or not the contents data can be continuously played at the playing unit, as a playing state; and a presentation unit for presenting the predicted playing state.
US08239042B2
An operating room connector is used in conjunction with a multiple electrode SCS system which can easily detach and connect to an external trial stimulator (ETS). By connecting the electrode SCS system to a stylet handle, and then locking the stylet handle within a slot of the connector platform, a user is able to minimize the required steps in connecting the ETS to the implanted SCS lead system. The ETS can then be used to readjust the position of the electrode array(s) previously implanted to deliver an optimal stimulation therapy.
US08239041B2
A multilayer helical wave filter having a primary resonance at a selected RF diagnostic or therapeutic frequency or frequency range, includes an elongated conductor forming at least a portion of an implantable medical lead. The elongated conductor includes a first helically wound segment having at least one planar surface, a first end and a second end, which forms a first inductive component, and a second helically wound segment having at least one planar surface, a first end and a second end, which forms a second inductive element. The first and second helically wound segments are wound in the same longitudinal direction and share a common longitudinal axis. Planar surfaces of the helically wound segments face one another, and a dielectric material is disposed between the facing planar surfaces of the helically wound segments and between adjacent coils of the helically wound segments, thereby forming a capacitance.
US08239031B2
A method, device and system for stimulating visual tissue, typically in the retina or visual cortex, to achieve an artificial percept of light or image. The method includes providing stimulating electrodes suitable for placement in proximity to the visual tissue and generating a series of short-duration stimulation signals having a duration of less than about 0.5 milliseconds each. The short-duration stimulation signals are applied through the stimulating electrodes with varying frequencies that are substantially matched to a spiking range of frequencies of at least one ganglion cell for perceiving brightness or image.
US08239030B1
Embodiments of the disclosed technology provide a combination electroencephalography and non-invasive stimulation devices. Upon measuring an electrical anomaly in a region of a brain, various tDCS or other electrical stimulations are utilized to correct neural activity. Devices of the disclosed technology may utilize visual, balance, auditory, and other stimuli to test the subject, analyze necessary brain stimulations, and administer stimulation to the brain.
US08239028B2
Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and apparatus for treating a chronic medical condition in a patient. A time of beat sequence of the patient's heart is determined. A regulatory system parameter is determined based on the time of beat sequence. The parameter is indicative of a stress level of the patient's regulatory adaptation systems. The determined regulatory system parameter is compared with a threshold regulatory system parameter value. An electrical signal is applied to a neural structure of the patient to treat the chronic medical condition if the determined regulatory system parameter exceeds the threshold regulatory system parameter value.
US08239019B2
An implantable electrostimulation device having at least three input channels, (each forming a sensing channel), which are each connected to at least one electrode or to one terminal for an electrode, using which at least three different electrical potentials accompanying an excitation of cardiac tissue (myocardium) in a heart may be detected. Uses a signal processing unit which is connected to the input channels and is implemented to analyze the time curve of the potentials detected via the three sensing channels as three input signals in chronological relation to a periodically repeating trigger signal, which triggers a time window, and which is also implemented to detect predefined signal features for each of the three input signals within the time window triggered by the trigger signal, store them, and compare them to corresponding signal features of preceding time windows or of another input channel within the same time window.
US08239010B2
The invention provides a system for continuously monitoring a patient during hemodialysis. The system includes a hemodialysis machine for performing the hemodialysis process that features a controller, a pump, a dialyzer filter, a lumen, and an interface to a body-worn monitor. A patient attaches to the dialysis machine through the lumen, and wears a body-worn monitor for continuously measuring blood pressure. The monitor includes an optical system for measuring an optical waveform, an electrical system for measuring an electrical waveform, and a processing component for determining a transit time between the optical and electrical waveforms and then calculating a blood pressure value from the transit time. The body-worn monitor features an interface (e.g. a wired serial interface, or a wireless interface) to transmit the blood pressure value to the controller within the hemodialysis machine. The controller is configured to receive the blood pressure value, analyze it, and in response adjust the dialysis process.
US08238998B2
A disposable tab electrode has core elements that include an adhesive conductive laminate layer and a logo sticker layer with a penetrating hole for contacting a sensor electrode. A protecting film is put around both ends of the core elements. As a result, the disposable tab electrode can be made inexpensively, stored hygienically for a long time and used easily. A lead wire for connecting to the tab electrode has a projection on one end of a sensor electrode that is adhered onto the conductive laminate layer of the disposable tab electrode. The projection is fixed to the lead wire body by a fixing member. As a result, expensive Ag—AgCl electrode sensors can be used repeatedly. The lead wire can have a nipper self-contained or integrated with the lead wire body to prevent the lead wire from separating from the disposable tab electrode during use.
US08238995B2
A self-adhering sensor for non-invasively attaching to a portion of a skin is provided. The sensor comprises a biocompatible substrate, and an array of solid nanoelectrodes coupled to the biocompatible substrate and configured to self-adhere to the skin. Also provided is a sensor for attaching to a portion of a skin, where the sensor comprises an array of solid electrodes configured to self-adhere to the skin, where each of the solid structures comprises a stem and one or more projections extending out from the stem, where both the stem and the projections are solid. The stem comprises a mechanical stopper to control the extent of penetration of the solid electrodes into the skin. The sensor further comprises an electrolyte coating disposed on one or more of the solid structures.
US08238992B2
An arrangement is specified for current limiting having a superconducting cable (SK) which is arranged in a cryostat (KR) which has an outer wall which comprises two metallic tubes (1, 2) which are arranged concentrically with respect to one another and between which vacuum insulation (3) is incorporated. The cryostat (KR) surrounds a free space (FR) for a coolant to pass through, in which free space (FR) the superconducting cable (SK) is arranged. It also has an inner wall (IW) which surrounds a cylindrical cavity (HR) and likewise comprises two metallic tubes (4, 5) which are arranged concentrically with respect to one another, between which vacuum insulation (6) is incorporated, and which is located within the outer wall (AW) and is separated therefrom by the free space (FR). The superconducting cable (SK) which has a superconducting conductor, a dielectric surrounding the same and a superconducting screen which is arranged above the same, is wound in a helical shape around the inner wall (IW). An iron core (7) is arranged in the cylindrical cavity (HR).
US08238991B2
A precursor wire of an oxide superconducting wire includes a first sheath made of silver or silver alloy, a center portion in the first sheath, and a plurality of peripheral segments placed close to one another at the inside of the first sheath so as to surround the center portion. Each of the peripheral segments is formed as a monofilamentary segment that has an arch-shaped cross section and that includes a ribbon-shaped filament made of a precursor of an oxide superconductor and covered with a second sheath made of silver or silver alloy. The multiple peripheral segments are placed in a multilayer state in the form of concentric circles such that wide-width surfaces of the peripheral segments surround the center portion.
US08238988B2
A superconducting magnet assembly and method of cooling a superconducting magnet assembly. An embodiment of the method of manufacturing a superconducting magnet assembly includes: providing a housing configured about a vacuum reservoir; forming a coil former; surrounding the coil former with a thermal shield; locating the thermal shield in the vacuum reservoir; positioning a superconducting magnet about the coil former, wherein the superconducting magnet is configured about a central core to receive an object; providing a second vacuum reservoir having a cryogen reservoir therein; providing two two-phase heat transfer devices wherein each comprises tubing having an evaporator region and a condenser region; thermally connecting the evaporator region of one of the heat transfer devices with the coil former and/or the superconducting magnet and the evaporator region of the other two-phase heat transfer device with the thermal shield; and thermally connecting a cryocooler to the cryogen reservoir and to the condensing region of both heat transfer devices.
US08238987B2
The invention relates to a retractable antenna structure for use in a telecommunications device. The antenna structure comprising a slide portion adapted for movably mounting the antenna structure in a cavity of a telecommunications device, such that the antenna structure is retractable into the cavity for storage and extensible from the cavity for operation, and an antenna portion carrying a flat radiation element for establishing at least one wireless network connection. The antenna portion comprises a first wing carrying a first part of the radiation element and a second wing carrying a second part of the radiation element. The wings are pivotally connected to each other between a storage position in which the wings lie on top of each other and an operational position in which the wings are spaced apart. The antenna portion further comprises at least one resilient member acting on at least one of the wings for spacing the wings apart. The invention further relates to a telecommunications device equipped with the antenna structure, such as a PCMCIA telecommunications card or a laptop computer.
US08238984B2
A system for accommodating a mobile telephone in a compartment in a motor vehicle. The compartment is electromagnetically shielded against the emission of radio signals from the mobile telephone. The system includes a connector for transmitting an antenna signal from an antenna of the motor vehicle to the mobile telephone, an electromagnetically shielded housing with an opening for inserting the mobile telephone into the housing and for removing the mobile telephone from the housing, and an elastically deformable retaining element that is designed to be electromagnetically absorbing. In a closed state of the housing in which the opening of the housing is at least partially closed, the opening at least partially shields against the emission of radio signals of the mobile telephone from the housing. In the closed state the retaining element secures the mobile telephone in a temporary position.
US08238981B2
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a voltage regulator, an amplifier, and control logic. The regulator may receive a supply voltage and output a regulated voltage to an intermediate node. In turn, the amplifier is to be powered by the regulated voltage, while the control logic is coupled to the voltage regulator to cause a change in the regulated voltage to a safe voltage before one or more gain stages of the amplifier is to be coupled to or decoupled from an output signal path.
US08238980B1
A communications device, and a method for efficient utilization of multiple radio access technologies in the communications device, is disclosed. The communications device includes a plurality of radios, where each of the plurality of radios is communicable with a respective one of a plurality of radio access technologies. The communications device attempts to extract control channel information from a radio access technology assigned a highest priority in a first geographic area by a radio associated with the highest priority radio access technology in the first geographic area and, if the control channel information for the highest priority radio access technology in the first geographic area is extracted by the radio associated with the highest priority radio access technology in the first geographic area, the communications device does not enable a second radio associated with a second lower priority radio access technology in the first geographic area.
US08238958B2
The subject matter disclosed herein provides methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for selecting a modulation and coding scheme. In one aspect, there is provided a method. The method may receive information representative of a first normalized channel characteristic power associated with a downlink and receiving information representative of a second normalized channel characteristic power associated with an uplink. A predicted normalized channel characteristic power of the uplink may be determined based on the first normalized channel characteristic power and the second normalized channel characteristic power. Related systems, apparatus, methods, and/or articles are also described.
US08238957B2
In a communication control method which realizes the quick and stable provision of a service by increasing efficiency in transmission power control, a target SIR setting part 18 controls downlink transmission power from a base station so that the T-SIR will be equal to the SIR measured in a known inner loop, by increasing a target signal interference ratio (T-SIR) by a first predetermined value when a reception field level of a common pilot channel before the establishment of synchronization of a dedicated control channel, which is provided by the quality measurement part 12, falls below a first threshold selected by a target quality setting part 14 depending on the reception quality of a DPDCH, and decreasing the target signal interference ratio (T-SIR) by a second predetermined value when the reception field level of the common pilot channel exceeds a second threshold selected by the target quality setting part 14 depending on the reception quality of the DPDCH.
US08238951B2
An enhanced services platform said platform includes an interface for receiving a communication from a user requesting a desired data. A response module parses the communication and retries the desired data. The platform arranges the desired data into a response message that is sent to the user. A user identifier database module stores information about the users in a user profile that including at least a preferences field and a preference value field identifying relative values of user preferences stored in the preference field, wherein when a preference having a higher ranking in the preference value field is non available, a second preference having a lower ranking in the preference value field is utilized.
US08238948B2
A method of exploiting a signaling message related to a predetermined OSI layer of a wireless communication system and adapted to transmit signaling information specific of the OSI layer for transmitting data different from the signaling information, includes: ascertaining the presence of unallotted space in the signaling message; based on the ascertained presence of unallotted space, determining an amount of transmissible data different from the signaling information; and modifying the signaling message by filling at least part of the unallotted space with the amount of transmissible data. The method is in particular useful in cellular telephony networks like 2G and 3G networks, in 802.1x networks and broadcasting ones such as DVBs.
US08238938B2
Various devices may include a short-range wireless transmitter and/or one or more short-range wireless readers. When a first device including the transmitter is placed near a second device including the one or more readers, a relative location of the first device may be determined. Information regarding the relative location of the first device, may be used to facilitate use of the first device with a processing device. In one embodiment, the processing device may automatically configure itself, such that the first device may be used with the processing device. In another embodiment, the processing device may provide feedback, such as, for example, step-by-step instructions to facilitate setup and use of the first device with the processing device. In some embodiments, an application program interface may provide information about the device to an application executing on the processing device.
US08238927B2
Since the OFDM communication method does not select whether plural sectors use a same terminal as a transmission destination, or always use it as a transmission destination, giving a preference to system throughput deteriorates channel quality of a terminal in a sector boundary, while increasing channel quality in sector boundaries greatly deteriorates system throughput. In a base station, when a sector transmits to a terminal in the front of a beam, only the sector performs the transmission, and when transmission is made to a terminal in a sector boundary off the direction of the beam, a different sector transmits to the same terminal using a same hopping pattern. Thereby, tradeoff between the channel quality of the terminal in a sector boundary and deterioration in system throughput can be minimized.
US08238916B2
A mobile communication method according to the present invention is to communicate between a mobile station (UE) and a radio base station (eNB) by using a certain key generated using a first key. The mobile communication method includes the steps of: updating, at the mobile station (UE), the first key upon receiving a handover command signal from the radio base station (eNB); transmitting, from the mobile station (UE) to the radio base station (eNB), a handover complete signal by using the certain key generated using the updated first key; and performing, at the mobile station (UE), a cell selection processing when failing to transmit the handover complete signal and detecting a radio link failure, and transmitting, from the mobile station to a selected re-establishment target cell, a re-establishment request signal by using the first key before being updated.
US08238914B2
A handoff method, a switching device, and a terminal are provided. A first service link is established between a first terminal and a second terminal through a switching device. The method includes the following steps. A first switching device receives a call request from the first terminal, and the first switching device sends a link establishment request to the switching device on the first service link according to the call request. A switching device and a terminal are also provided. By adopting the handoff method, the switching device, and the terminal, only the switching device on the first service link is updated to support the universal handoff logic, and there is no requirement of whether the first switching device supports the universal handoff logic. In the case that it is difficult to update all the switches one by one to support the universal handoff logic in the current network, the handoff method is simple to operate and has wide universality.
US08238910B2
Disclosed are devices, systems and methods including a wireless terminal adapted to perform a detach of the wireless terminal when registered to a telecommunication network by associating an identification for the wireless terminal, deriving a signature for the identification, and allocating a pair containing the identification and the signature to the wireless terminal. The wireless terminal includes a transceiver adapted to send a detach request including the identification and the identification signature from the wireless terminal to the network in response to detection of a predetermined state of the wireless terminal. The predetermined state includes one or more of, for example, a power off state, a low battery state, and/or a removal of a subscriber identity module from the wireless terminal.
US08238908B2
A method for network logout for a mobile station (MS) in IDLE mode. The method includes performing network logout upon the MS by a network side, releasing the resources associated with the MS and deleting the context of the MS. A system for network logout for a mobile station in IDLE mode. MS location update procedures, conducted by the network side, in various situations enables the paging controller or other network entity to delete the context of the MS and also provides network logout processing in the scenarios when the network resources are in congestion, the location update of the network side times out and the network side varies with the service policy.
US08238906B1
Methods and systems for reducing the frequency of handoffs to non-preferred wireless coverage areas are presented. In particular, a RAN may determine that a WCD is likely to begin roaming. The WCD may be served by a preferred wireless coverage area and may be likely to roam to a non-preferred wireless coverage area. In order to avoid drawbacks associated with letting the WCD roam, the RAN may grant the WCD one or more forms of increased service quality. For example, the RAN may use a roaming-likelihood value as a basis for determining a page-concatenation level for the page, concatenate the page according to the determined page-concatenation level, and then transmit the page.
US08238903B2
A system and method for highly efficient constellations of satellites which give single, double, . . . k-fold redundant full earth imaging coverage, or k-fold coverage for latitudes greater than any selected latitude is given for remote sensing instruments in short periods of time, i.e., continuous coverage, as a function of the parameters of the satellite and the remote sensing instrument for many different types of orbits. A high data rate satellite communication system and method for use with small, mobile cell phone receiving and transmitting stations is also provided. Satellite instrument performance models, full and partial satellite constellation models, and satellite cost models are disclosed and used to optimize the design of satellite systems with vastly improved performance and lower cost over current major satellite systems.
US08238902B2
An embodiment of a method for initiating an outgoing call from a cellular handset to a fixed network using a DECT base station includes receiving an outgoing call request from a cellular handset by an adaptor module in communication with the cellular handset. The outgoing call request includes a request to establish a call session with a communication device over a fixed network. The method further includes sending a call set-up message to a DECT base station in response to receiving the outgoing call request. The DECT base station is configured to initiate an outgoing call to the communication device over the fixed network in response receiving the call set-up message. The method further includes receiving a call connect message from the DECT base station, and establishing a call session between the cellular handset and the communication device.
US08238900B2
A mobile station (129) will have the capability to detect an impending cell change and Routing Area Update (RAU) and will send a “Request Deny” message to the network via the serving cell prior to handing over. The PTT server (131) will use the Request Deny message as an indication that an inter-SGSN RAU may be occurring. The PTT server (131) will wait for the mobile station to reappear, after handover, on a new cell. If the mobile does not reappear, an inter-SGSN RAU may be assumed and the PTT server (131) will release the floor and deny the floor to all mobile stations. This action forces all mobile stations back into idle mode and prevents them from seizing the floor. The PTT server (131) will then wait for the mobile station (129) performing the RAU to reappear on a new cell before opening the floor to all mobile stations.
US08238897B2
A system and method for making vehicle originated calls to a telematics service provider or other call center. The method includes identifying a call type associated with a desired wireless communication of speech or data to the call center, and then carrying out one of a number of different call connection processes depending on the call type. For voice channel cellular connections, an in-band modem cellular connection is preferably established in most instances using a connection retry strategy that includes primary, secondary, and possibly tertiary connection attempts each of which utilize at least one of a number of different voice and data call origination processes. The system and method can be carried out in connection with various cellular system technologies, but is especially suited for use with GSM systems.
US08238895B2
In a wireless communications network having a base station subsystem controlling at least one network cell, and in which the base station subsystem communicates with mobile stations in the cell through radio blocks, a method of distributing information contents received in data packets at the base station subsystem to the mobile stations, includes obtaining, starting from the data packets, radio blocks to be transmitted through the network cell, labeling the radio blocks with a first radio link identifier, identifying a logic connection between a mobile station and the base station subsystem, communicating the first radio link identifier to a first mobile station in the network cell, and in case at least one second mobile station in the network cell, asks to receive the information contents, communicating thereto the first radio link identifier. The method further includes having the first mobile station and the at least one second mobile station assigned respective second radio link identifiers to be included in the radio blocks.
US08238875B2
A system, method, and computer readable medium to provide alternative communications during jamming in a presence system, that comprises, registering a mobile device as a presentity to a presence server in the presence system, detecting a communication jamming of the mobile device, providing information related to the detected communication jamming as a state information to the presence server, and upon attempting to communicate with the mobile device while being jammed, providing the state information and offering an alternative communication suggestion.
US08238874B2
A method for location-dependent billing for a services that are available to a mobile terminal, a local communication connection is set up to a fixably installed external location tag with a corresponding wireless interface between the fixably installed tag and the mobile terminal, the method including the steps of accessing the external location tag and transmitting a billing rate code from the external location tag to the mobile terminal, forwarding the billing rate code from the mobile terminal to a central unit of a mobile communication network, in which the mobile terminal is logged, determining a geographic location identification of the external location tag by evaluation of the billing rate code at the central unit, and selecting a billing rate for billing for the service available to the user based on the billing rate code at the central unit.
US08238873B2
The present invention provides a method for charging control in a Flow Based Charging (FBC) system, which includes the steps of: a Charging Rule Function (CRF) receives a charging rule request message from a Traffic Plane Function (TPF), the CRF sends a charging rule to the TPF. The charging rule includes an indication on whether to perform charging for a service data flow, and if the indication indicates to perform no charging, the service data flow is filtered but no charging information is generated. By applying this invention, operation in the TPF is optimized such that the TPF only needs to perform necessary charging instead of performing charging operation for the service data flow which does not need to be charged. As a result, the load of the TPF is reduced, so is the load of network devices, and system efficiency is improved.
US08238871B2
Techniques for use in a mobile device involve detecting a temperature condition at said device and, in response, operating in a limited communication state for which only emergency communication is permitted. When the mobile device receives a user-initiated communication request, the mobile device inhibits non-emergency communication but permits emergency communication despite the existence of said temperature condition.
US08238867B1
A low-noise amplifier includes first and second transconductance paths and first and second variable capacitive dividers. The first transconductance path has a first terminal for receiving a first input signal, a control terminal, and a second terminal for providing a first output signal. The second transconductance path has a first terminal for receiving a second input signal, a control terminal, and a second terminal for providing a second output signal. The first variable capacitive divider has a first terminal for receiving the first input signal, a second terminal coupled to a reference voltage terminal, and an intermediate terminal coupled to the control terminal of the second transconductance path. The second variable capacitive divider has a first terminal for receiving the second input signal, a second terminal coupled to the reference voltage terminal, and an intermediate terminal coupled to the control terminal of the first transconductance path.
US08238849B2
A method of adaptive predistortion of a power amplifier, characterized in that the method comprises the steps of: storing values of a plurality of corresponding first and second coefficients; selecting one of the stored first coefficients; processing a first signal with the first coefficient to produce an input signal for the power amplifier; amplifying the input signal in the power amplifier to produce an output signal; calculating an error value from the output signal and a previously selected first coefficient; selecting a stored second coefficient corresponding with the previously selected first coefficient; updating the previously selected first coefficient with a value calculated from the error value and the second coefficient; updating the second coefficient; and replacing the previously selected first coefficient and corresponding second coefficient with the updated first and second coefficients respectively.
US08238843B2
A strap attaching section of a folding portable apparatus includes a recessed section arranged on a hinge section of a case configuring the portable apparatus, a strap holder stored in the recessed section, and a coupler for coupling the strap holder and the hinge section. The coupler includes a first pin hole which penetrates the strap holder, a second pin hole formed on the hinge section, a groove formed on an outer surface of the hinge section, and a pin. The groove is provided with a first region whereupon one end of the second pin hole opens, and a second region continued to the first region. A first portion of the pin extends through the first and second pin holes, and a second portion of the pin is arranged in the second region in the groove. A cover is removably attached to the case to cover the groove.
US08238840B2
A communication apparatus includes: a communication unit COM that performs operation control of a function involving transmission or reception of an electromagnetic wave by an antenna; a touch sensor module TSM having an oscillation circuit and an electrode connected to the oscillation circuit; a power supply PS that supplies power to the oscillation circuit; and a power supply controller PSCON that controls supply of power by the power supply PS. The touch sensor module TSM detects a contact operation based on an oscillation state of the oscillation circuit which varies in accordance with a contact operation. As a result, a state where the power supply PS is supplying power to the oscillation circuit under the control of the power supply controller PSCON and a state where the communication unit COM is performing operation control of the function involving transmission or reception of an electromagnetic wave do not exist concurrently.
US08238832B1
In a method for forming beam patterns for a wireless device, the device determines angles of arrival for data signals corresponding to different wireless network protocols, such as Bluetooth signals and wireless local area network signals. The wireless device has multiple antenna array and a beamform controller to selectively transmit and receive data signals along a communication path corresponding to the angle of arrival of the particular protocol data. Data signal transmissions along angles of arrival corresponding to other protocol channels are suppressed to avoid interference between data signals and to allow the wireless device to receive data signals for different protocols simultaneously.
US08238831B2
Mitigating interference in a mobile wireless communication device by using an estimation of the performance impact of interfering signals generated by a wireless cellular transmitter and received by a co-located Bluetooth receiver. Bluetooth frequency channels are marked suitable or unsuitable for transmission based on the performance impact estimation and the state of the wireless cellular and Bluetooth connections. The estimation accounts for properties of the wireless cellular transmitter and Bluetooth receiver as well as operational characteristics of the wireless cellular and Bluetooth connections.
US08238830B2
A Wireless Regional Area Network (WRAN) receiver comprises a transceiver for communicating with a wireless network over one of a number of channels, and an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) signal detector for use in forming a supported channel list comprising those ones of the number of channels upon which an ATSC signal was not detected. The ATSC signal detector comprises a matched filter that matches to at least a modulated version of an ATSC field sync signal for detecting the presence of an incumbent ATSC broadcast signal.
US08238829B2
To enable a user to easily approximate a portable information device to a position where the portable information device should be approximated so as to cause the portable information device and a communication apparatus to communicate with each other by wireless communication, there is provided a control method for controlling the communication apparatus, comprising: performing data transfer between the communication apparatus and the portable information device by the wireless communication through a communication unit; acquiring identification information for identifying the portable information device; and displaying position information which indicates the position where the portable information device should be approximated to the communication apparatus so that the portable information device identified by the acquired identification information and the communication unit perform the data transfer by the wireless communication.
US08238826B2
A method for monitoring the status of a container for transporting goods, wherein the container includes sensors includes receiving data at a processing system within the container from at least one sensor within the container, implementing a controller within the processing system for comparing the received sensor data against a predetermined condition stored in a memory of the processing system, initiating a message from the controller in response to comparison between the received sensor data and the predetermined-condition related to the measured sensor data, and transmitting the initiated message as an RF signal from within the container to a satellite transceiver element outside the container, thereby initiating unprompted communication from inside of the container, wherein the RF signal is transmitted outside of the container via a passive antenna system.
US08238814B2
A radio frequency radiation module includes a beam forming network capable of applying a signal including contributions to several beams, to several channels. Each channel has a high power amplifier without redundant units, and an antenna radiating feed connected to the output of the amplifier. The beam forming network has a device for selective compensation for failure of one of the channels, increasing the power of the contribution of at least one of the signals to a beam for which the radiation is affected by the failure.
US08238806B2
An image forming apparatus is provided which includes: an image carrier that carries an image; a transfer roller that includes a gripping member, and transfers the image to the transfer medium; a suction guide portion that includes a suction unit, and suctions and guides the transfer medium transferred the image, vertically upward with a plane transferred the image of the transfer medium being directed vertically downward; and a transfer medium transporting section that includes a suction member and transports the transfer medium while suctioning the transfer medium by the suction member, the transfer medium transporting section being configured such that a position of starting to suction the transfer medium is arranged at a position having a predetermined relationship with respect to a position of releasing the transfer medium from the gripping member and a position at which the image carrier is separated from the transfer medium.
US08238802B2
A developing unit includes a developer receiving vessel and a developer conveyance member as defined herein, the developer conveyance member includes a rotary shaft, a first conveyance member and a second conveyance member as defined herein, the second conveyance member is supported on the rotary shaft and bent in contact with the wall surface of the developer receiving chamber with rotation of the rotary shaft while conveying the developer toward the developer retainer, and the second conveyance member includes a second conveyance member body supported on the rotary shaft and located out of the overlapping range, and a second overlapping portion extending from the second conveyance member body to the other axial end of the overlapping range, designed to be movable relatively to the rotary shaft and disposed adjacently to an upstream side of the first overlapping portion in a rotation direction.
US08238799B2
An alignment member is externally disposed on a toner cartridge for alignment with a developer unit in an electrophotographic image forming device. In one embodiment of the invention, the alignment member includes a first portion to properly align the developer unit relative to the toner cartridge and a second portion to maintain the proper alignment of the developer unit. The alignment ensures proper installation of the toner cartridge into the image forming device and prevents undesirable spill of toner.
US08238798B2
According to an embodiment, a developing device, comprising: a developing unit configured to store an initial two-component developer including an initial toner containing silica externally added and a carrier and to form a toner image on an image bearing member with the two-component developer; a discharging section configured to discharge a part of the initial developer from the developing unit; and a developer supplying unit configured to supply a supply developer including a supply toner containing silica externally added and the carrier to the developing unit, the amount of silica added to the supply toner being smaller than the amount of silica added to the initial toner.
US08238793B2
A belt member is supported by a plurality of rollers and moves in a predetermined moving direction. A detecting unit detects a displacement of the belt member in its width direction. A correcting unit moves a second end of a first roller from among the rollers in either one of a forward direction and a backward direction while fixing its first end based on a result of detecting the displacement of the belt member such that a tilt of a rotating shaft of the first roller is changed to correct a meandering of the belt member. An adjusting unit adjusts a fixing position of the first end.
US08238786B2
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes a cartridge supporting member movable between an inside position in the main assembly of the apparatus and an outside position outside the main assembly. The apparatus further includes a first opening through which the cartridge supporting member passes between the inside position and the outside position and a first openable member for openably closing the first opening. A second opening is provided continuing from the first opening and provided above the first opening, with the second opening being effective to permit the cartridge to be removed from the cartridge supporting member in the state that the cartridge supporting member takes the outside position and being effective to permit the supporting member to support the cartridge. The apparatus also includes a second openable member for openably closing the second opening.
US08238781B2
An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive drum, an optical unit provided below the photosensitive drum and including a cover glass for transmitting light emitted toward the photosensitive drum, and a cleaning member configured to clean a surface of the cover glass. The cleaning member includes a cleaning sheet configured to move foreign substances on the surface, and a wiping member configured to wipe foreign substances from the surface. The cleaning sheet and the wiping member move in contact with the surface of the cover glass when the cleaning member cleans the surface. The wiping member moves in contact with a portion of the surface of the cover glass after the cleaning sheet moves in contact with the portion. Accordingly, the cover glass can be reliably cleaned even when an unexpectedly large number of foreign substances that vary in particle size and shape adhere to the cover glass.
US08238778B2
An image forming apparatus has a vibration generating source, a holding member that holds the vibration generating source and a sealing member arranged between them. An elastic damping member is inserted in a through-hold formed in the holding member and is brought into pressure contact with the vibration generating source, the damping member having a retaining portion which is retained to a surface of the holding member on the side opposite to a holding surface of the vibration generating source and a main body portion that has a diameter smaller than a diameter of the through-hole so that it is inserted into the through-hole without contacting the through-hole and brought into pressure contact with the vibration generating source. There is also a fixing portion that integrally fixes the holding member and the vibration generating source through the damping member.
US08238777B2
A developing device detachably coupled to an electrophotographic image forming apparatus which includes a housing including a photoconductive drum and at least one roller; and an electrical contact member disposed in the housing, connected to the at least one roller, and formed of a conductive metallic plate to provide an electrical path between the at least one roller and a power supply when the developing device is attached to the electrophotographic image forming apparatus, wherein the electrical contact member includes a base including a coupling unit to engage with the housing, a first elastic member to bend from the base in a first direction; a second elastic member to bend from the first elastic member in a second direction and including a contact to contact the at least one roller; and an anti-deformation unit to bend from the base and to face a surface of the first elastic member in the second direction of the second elastic member to prevent the first elastic member from bending in the second direction.
US08238769B2
This disclosure is directed to systems and methods for calibrating, to a higher level of precision, the timing of operation of a bias transfer element in an image forming device. Specifically, the systems and methods are directed to calibrating the timing of forward and reverse biasing in a document processing apparatus to account for myriad mechanical and environmental disturbances.
US08238763B2
A method of managing errors of at least one image forming apparatus, the method involving collecting information regarding the errors disrupting normal operation of the at least one image forming apparatus, analyzing the severity of each of the errors based on the collected information, and outputting a severity analysis result for each of the errors.
US08238761B2
An optical receiver is described. This optical receiver includes a digital feedback circuit that biases a front-end circuit, which receives an optical signal, so that an analog electrical signal output by the front-end circuit is calibrated relative to a reference voltage corresponding to a decision threshold of a digital slicer in the optical receiver. In particular, during a calibration mode the feedback circuit may determine and store a calibration value that calibrates the analog electrical signal relative to the reference voltage. Then, during a normal operating mode, the feedback circuit may output a current corresponding to the stored calibration value that specifies a bias point of the front-end circuit.
US08238759B2
A high capacity optical transmitter implemented on a photonic integrated circuit chip comprises a single light source which supplies a continuous wave having a particular wavelength to a plurality of modulators to form modulated optical information signals. A phase shifter is coupled to at least one of the modulators and is used to shift the phase of the corresponding modulated optical information signal associated with a particular modulator. A polarization beam combiner receives each of the modulated optical information signals from the modulators and the modulated optical information signal from the phase shifter and combines each of these signals to form a polarization multiplexed differential quadrature phase-shift keying signal. The light source, the plurality of modulators, the phase shifter and the polarization beam combiner are all integrated on the chip.
US08238758B2
A modulator is disclosed that includes three arms between a splitter portion and a coupler portion. The modulator typically requires at most a π/2 phase shift between constellation points. Accordingly, the modulator is more efficient and consumes less power.
US08238757B2
An optical network transmitter comprising a fractional-bit delay module, an optical modulator coupled to the fractional-bit delay module, and a band-limiting optical filter coupled to the optical modulator. Also disclosed is a transmission system comprising a source configured to generate two complementary binary data streams, a fractional-bit delay module in communication with the source and configured to delay one of the complementary binary data streams, a modulation module in communication with the source and the fractional-bit delay module and configured to convert the undelayed complementary binary data streams and the delayed complementary binary data streams into a fractional-bit delayed optical duobinary signal, and a band-limiting node in communication with the modulation module and configured to filter and transmit the optical duobinary signal.
US08238748B2
In accordance with the present disclosure, a method of configuring a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) network is presented. The WDM network includes circuits that carry optical signals, with each signal corresponding to a wavelength. The WDM network includes nodes, with links connecting the nodes to one another. Each circuit includes at least one link and at least one node. The method comprises assigning each of the circuits to an optical signal, based on first and second criteria, and configuring the nodes based on the assignment.
US08238740B2
A light quantity adjustment apparatus includes a support plate with a first through hole, a rotation plate with a second through hole corresponding to the first through hole and rotatable with respect to the support plate, 2D iris plates rotatably connected to the support plate so as to move between a location in which the first through hole is completely opened and another location in which the first through hole is completely closed, two 3D iris plates each having one end rotatably connected to the support plate and another end engaged with the rotation plate, a shading plate, and a shading plate driving unit. The 2D iris plates adjust an open area of the first through hole. The two 3D iris plates move between a retreat location away from the first through hole and a photographing location where a first photographing hole and a second photographing hole are formed.
US08238739B1
A positioning system for a miniature electronic device. The positioning system has a first portion including a damper and a second portion connected to the first portion. The second portion positions a payload of the miniature electronic device. The miniature electronic device may be a miniature camera, or other device.
US08238732B2
The present invention provides an oven that utilizes light emitting diode (LED) and or laser diode (LD) as heating devices. Such heating devices will enable a wide variety of heating modalities.
US08238731B2
Annular reflecting rings are removably mounted on the upper and lower sides of a chamber side portion of a chamber. An annular recessed portion is formed sandwiched between the lower end face of the upper reflecting ring and the upper end face of the lower reflecting ring to surround a holding part for holding a semiconductor wafer. The outer peripheral surface of the recessed portion communicates with a transport opening. The formation of the recessed portion prevents the light emitted from halogen lamps and flash lamps from being non-uniformly reflected around the holding part to enter a semiconductor wafer, thus improving the uniformity of the in-plane temperature distribution in the semiconductor wafer during heat treatment.
US08238726B2
To provide an audio-video data synchronization method whereby an increase in the amount of control message transmission can be suppressed and the video output can be prevented from being interrupted. The audio-video data synchronization method includes: obtaining, by the audio output device, a first latency that is a period of time taken for the video output device to output the video, by receiving the display identification data that includes information indicating the first latency from the video output device when the indication of the connection validity status information changes from Invalid to Valid; adjusting, by the audio output device, timing of outputting the audio according to the first latency; obtaining, by the video output device, a second latency which is a period of time taken to output the video in the outputting; notifying the audio output device of the second latency by sending a control message from the video output device when the connection validity status information indicates Valid, the control message including information that indicates the second latency obtained in the obtaining of a second latency; and adjusting, by the audio output device, timing of outputting the audio according to the second latency.
US08238725B2
Systems and methods that provide personal video recording trick modes are provided. In one example, a method that provides a trick mode in a personal video recording system may include the steps of receiving a transport stream; storing data from the transport stream in a data storage; generating index table using the data from the transport stream; receiving a trick mode command; and accessing, based on the trick mode command, particular data in the data storage using the index table.
US08238723B2
A disk recording device includes an encoding unit, a control unit, and a structure which encodes a video signal in analog format and records it upon a DVD. Furthermore, the control unit includes a bit rate control unit which controls the bit rate during encoding by the encoding unit to any one of a plurality of video recording modes whose bit rates are different, a bit rate changeover control unit which selects one or more of these video recording modes and controls the timing of the changeover between them, and a ROM in which control data for the video recording mode is recorded in the format of a data table. The bit rate changeover control unit inputs the appointed time period for video recording the video signal, and the capacity which can be recorded upon the disk, and calculates the timing for the changeover between video recording modes.
US08238721B2
A video playback device automatically generates transition indications when a user selects a new video stream while a current video stream is playing. Transitions can be any visual and/or audio indication including a wipe, fade, title overlay, graphics overlay, etc. Predetermined default transitions are associated with different transition types or a user can create and associate transitions to be used. Different types of transitions include a scene change, angle change, exit to a control menu, etc.
US08238718B2
The present invention relates includes system and a method for automatically generating short segments of video (or video “cliplets”) from a larger source video. A cliplet has the properties that its length is determined prior to generation and that the cliplet ideally is semantically meaningful and contains a single short event or theme. Generally, the cliplet generation method processes a large source video and generates cliplet results for presentation (such as to a user). Specifically, the method processes the source video to determine editing points and then extracts cliplets from the source video based on the editing points. The extracted cliplets can overlap in time. Cliplet results then are presented, such as to a user. The cliplet generation system includes a video cliplet generator that processes a large source video and generates cliplets in accordance with the cliplet generation method.
US08238714B2
A playback apparatus has a platform 1410 that is a program execution environment of an application 1400. When the platform 1410 initiates the application 1400, a graphics information transmission unit 1403, which corresponds to an API function, obtains graphics information and stores the graphics information in a graphics information storage unit 1413. A graphics information control unit 1414 selects graphics information to be rendered, based on a stream event obtained by a stream event reception unit 1416 and the graphics information stored in the graphics information storage unit 1413. The graphics information control unit 1414 has a graphics rendition unit 1415 render the selected graphics with a video playback timing relating to the stream event.
US08238710B2
A reproduction apparatus includes a reproduction unit that reproduces digital data selected by a user; a prediction unit that predicts a reproducible time based on remaining power of a battery and a determination unit that determines whether the digital data selected by the user can be reproduced to the end or not based on the reproducible time, wherein when the determination unit determines that the selected digital data can be reproduced to the end, the reproduction apparatus causes the reproduction unit to reproduce the selected digital data and when the determination unit determines that the selected digital data cannot be reproduced to the end, the reproduction apparatus warns that the digital data cannot be reproduced to the end.
US08238704B2
A light coupler between an optical fiber (6) and a waveguide is made on a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate (1), this substrate (1) comprising a thin layer of semiconducting material in which the waveguide is made. The coupler comprises a light injector (5) and an adiabatic collector (4) made up with an inverted nanotip formed from the thin layer of semiconducting material. The injector (5) is formed on the insulator (3) and has a face (7) for receiving an end of the optical fiber (6). The adiabatic collector (4) has a cross-section which increases from a first end located on the side of said end of the optical fiber (6) right up to a second end which is connected to the waveguide, the injector (5) covering the adiabatic collector (4) and having a rib waveguide shape.
US08238702B2
The present invention provides a hybrid dielectric/SPP waveguide that can form either a single mode, single polarization waveguide, or a multi-mode waveguide. When multi-mode, this invention effectively transfers energy back and forth between the dielectric waveguide and metal surface. This improves on standard SPP modes, yielding longer range propagation along with high intensity near the metal surface at decisive locations. When single-mode, this hybrid waveguide allows for control of propagation and confinement for applications such as telecommunications optics integrated on silicon microchips. Gratings may be patterned in the metal for coupling light into and out of the modes or for use as mirrors in the mode. For areas where very long ranges are required, a metal grating may be used to couple light into the mode, but then the metal may be removed in other regions and make the range of the mode virtually infinite (limited by surface roughness).
US08238700B2
A multilayer printed circuit board including insulating layers, conductor circuits formed between the insulating layers, and optical circuits formed between the insulating layers and including a first optical circuit. The first optical circuit is positioned on a first outermost insulating layer of the insulating layers, and the insulating layers, conductor circuits and optical circuits are layered to form a multilayer structure having a first surface and a second surface on an opposite side of the first surface such that the multilayer structure is structured to mount optical elements on the first surface and second surface of the multilayer structure, respectively.
US08238699B2
A semiconductor-based optical transceiver. The optical transceiver includes a post-amplifier that may communicate with an optoelectronic transducer, an electro-optic transducer driver that may communicate with an electro-optic transducer, and a control module that controls the operation of the post-amplifier and electro-optic transducer driver. The control module, the post-amplifier, and the electro-optic transducer driver are integrated in a single integrated circuit (IC) that does not require a printed circuit board for interconnecting these components of the optical transceiver.
US08238694B2
The alignment of a sharp image of a subject and a blurred image of the same subject is disclosed. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method of determining a series of trial images. The method comprises applying a corresponding series of coordinate transforms to the sharp image, the series of coordinate transforms differing with respect to one or more of a rotational operation and a scaling operation. The method further comprises computing a series blur kernels corresponding to the series of trial images, each blur kernel mapping a trial image from the series of trial images to the blurred image. The method further includes locating a sparsest blur kernel in the series of blur kernels, and identifying one or more of the rotational operation and the scaling operation of the coordinate transform mapping the trial image corresponding to the sparsest blur kernel to the blurred image.
US08238693B2
An apparatus, method and computer program product are provided for tying items of information to features in an area associated with a captured media object. An information provider may associate physical coordinates and temporal information with an item of information. When a media object is captured, metadata indicating the location and direction from which, and the time at which, the media object was captured, and/or, in the instance where the media object is an image, a focal and zoom setting of the device that captured the image, may be generated and stored with the media object. When the media object is viewed, this information, as well as other metadata associated with the capturing and/or reproducing of the media object, as well as the media object itself, may be used to estimate the area corresponding to the media object and to determine item(s) of information corresponding with features in the estimated area.
US08238692B2
Disclosed are a device and a method for displaying a private image on a public display device. Image sequence pattern is generated for the private image and the corresponding masking image. The masking image is made from the dynamic inverse image of the private image, based on the refresh rate of the display device and the image sequence pattern. The masking image can screen the private image more effectively. The private image and the masking image is displayed on the display device according to the image sequence pattern.
US08238689B2
A development server for more easily creating an image having a quality of image matching the desire and preference of the user from image data such as RAW data from which the user cannot develop. A development server (120) comprises a RAW receiving section (122) for receiving undeveloped image data, a temporarily-developed image creating section (124) for creating temporarily-developed images by simply developing undeveloped image data by applying correction parameters corresponding to respective mutually different qualities of image, a temporarily-developed image transmitting section (125) for combining temporarily-developed images with corresponding correction parameters applied to the respective temporarily-developed images and transmitting them to a development client (110), a correction parameter receiving section (126) for receiving a correction parameter applied to one of the temporarily-developed images from the development client (110) as an instruction to develop undeveloped image data, and a digital picture developing section (127) for creating developed image data by developing the undeveloped image data by applying the correction parameter specified by the development instruction.
US08238676B2
In a data decompressor, a variable length decoding unit extracts a variable length code from compressed image data, performs variable length decoding of the extracted variable length code, and restores quantized data before the variable length encoding was applied. An inverse quantization unit performs inverse quantization on the restored quantized data to generate orthogonal transform coefficients of each block and writes the generated orthogonal transform coefficients to a memory. An inverse orthogonal transform unit reads the orthogonal transform coefficients of each block from the memory and performs an inverse transform of the orthogonal transform performed by a data compressor on the orthogonal transform coefficients to thereby restore an image of each block. The inverse orthogonal transform unit is constructed so as to perform the inverse transform of the orthogonal transform coefficients in parallel with the variable length decoding of the variable length decoding unit and the inverse quantization of the inverse quantization unit.
US08238668B2
An object is held in any one of a plurality of specific orientations to present an aspect, corresponding to a specific orientation, to an imaging module of an electronic device. An image of the aspect is captured. The current captured image is compared with images in a library of image-command associations to find a match. If a match is found, the electronic device triggers a command execution of the matching image-command association. If no match is found, a new image-command association is established and stored in the library of the image-command associations.
US08238665B2
A document processing method comprises adding document markers to predetermined locations of an electronically stored document. These are printed with the document. The document is scanned and the scanned document markers are used to process the scanned image. This processing comprises at least pixel threshold setting, and determination of the locations of the scanned image which are to be processed to derive the pixels of a digital version of the document. This enables local deformations in the paper document to be corrected, and enables correct thresholds for the printing and scanning operations to be applied. The electronically stored document can be processed to derive a set of document properties which can be used when constructing the digital version.
US08238661B2
The invention relates to the devices for contactlessly measuring surface profiles and can be used for person identification in security systems. The inventive device for contactlessly controlling surface profile comprises a pulse illumination unit which is provided with a transparency and forms a transparency image on an object surface, and image recording unit and a computer. Said device also comprises a control unit which is connected to the image recording unit in the form of a TV camera with field interlacing, the pulse illumination unit and to the computer for synchronizing the illumination of the object surface by said pulse illumination unit with the TV camera field and for synchronizing the image processing by the computer with the TV interlacing. The transparency is embodied in the form of a line screen provided with an aperiodical different width band structure and a uniform transmission along each band, thereby making it possible to identify the sequence of the line screen images on the object surface.
US08238657B2
A computer readable storage medium storing instructions of a computer program which when executed by a computer results in performance of steps including inputting a first image and a second image from two cameras of three or more cameras, respectively, transforming the first image to a transformed image, obtaining a degree of similarity D indicating a similarity between an image in a processing region established in the second image and an image in a corresponding processing region established in the first image, obtaining a degree of similarity P indicating a similarity between an image in the processing region established in the second image and an image in a corresponding processing region established in the transformed image, detecting the obstacle based on the degree of similarity D and the degree of similarity P on a reference plane region, and selecting and outputting either a result of detection of a plurality of the obstacles or a position of an obstacle detected as being the closest to the three or more cameras.
US08238654B2
A method for mapping/enhancing the color of an image to be displayed on a display includes receiving an image having a plurality of pixels where each of the pixels has a plurality of color components. The image is processed using a pair of gamut color mapping operations in combination with skin-tone pixels detection to modify the image in a suitable manner for presentation on the display, wherein the technique includes color temperature compensation.
US08238653B2
Methods and systems to determine a probability that a given illumination is a reference illumination. In an embodiment, data representing a set of respective captures of reference targets under a reference illumination may be used to generate a probability distribution for the reference illumination. In another embodiment, one or more such probability distributions, each corresponding to a respective reference illumination, may be used in estimating a non-reference illumination.
US08238647B2
A system, method and computer program product for defect detection, the method includes: (i) retrieving a second pixel of a second image that corresponds to a tested pixel of a first image of the object; wherein the first and second images were obtained using different acquisition methods; (ii) searching a third pixel of the second image such that a neighborhood of the second pixel is similar to a neighborhood of the third pixel; (iii) retrieving a fourth pixel of the first image that corresponds to the third pixel; and (iv) comparing between the tested pixel and the fourth pixel.
US08238645B2
A method for inspecting objects and an inspection system, the system includes: an image acquisition unit adapted to acquire multiple images, according to a predefined image acquisition scheme, of multiple portions of a diced wafer that comprises multiple dice; and a processor adapted to locate multiple unique features within the multiple images, at least partially during the acquisition of images; associate multiple unique features with multiple dice, at least partially during the location of multiple unique features; determine multiple transformations between multiple die coordinate systems and a global coordinate system, in response to a locations of unique features and their associations with multiple dice, at least partially during an association between multiple unique features with multiple dice; and detect defects in response to a comparison between dice and corresponding reference dice, in response to the transformations, at least partially during the determination of the multiple transformations.
US08238643B2
A computerized system, method, and computer-readable media implementing a method for determining a weight of a product, and optionally its shipping weight and postage are described. A product having a variable shape in two dimensions wherein the shape is defined in the two dimensions by a set of cutlines is manufactured from a product blank of known weight. The weight of the product is determined from the number of pixels in a scaled image of the cutlines, the image having the same aspect ratio as the product blank. The weight of the product blank and the ratio of the pixels corresponding to product surface area relative to the total number of pixels in the image are used to calculated the actual weight of the product.
US08238641B2
There is provided a method of evaluating quantitatively surface properties such as cleanness and quality of the surface of a work that has been evaluated in the past by visual appearance inspection. A determined pattern 14 is made from plural concentric circles arranged at a center of an object lens in a taking picture device 12. A front edge of a probe is in contact with the surface of a work by the probe 10 that is provided at a middle portion of a cylindrical case 11 in a vertical direction so that the surface of the work and the determined pattern face each other. The determined pattern is illuminated by light of a light source so that a reflected image of the determined pattern is projected onto the surface of the work. A picture of the reflected image is taken by the taking picture device. The resulted image data includes standard deviation of brightness distribution of the resulted image data positioned on radius lines extending in all directions to outside from a center of the ring pattern image. A relative value between the resulted standard deviation and the standard deviation of the amplitude of the brightness distribution of the image data on a plurality of lines of the criteria mirror surface is determined as the mirror index. The image clarity of the surface of the work is evaluated from the mirror index of the plurality of lines.
US08238640B2
A display testing method applied on an apparatus is provided, the apparatus being connected with an image capturing device. The method includes: controlling the image capturing device to capture and store images of displays to be tested; determining a first vertex of a test area on the captured image, determining a test area according to the determined first vertex; and testing parameters of the display according to the test area.
US08238636B2
In a device, method and computer program product for generation of an exposure plan for irradiating a patient, at least one reference data set independent of the patient is provided, from which an attenuation of high-energy radiation upon passage through a reference body can be determined. A patient magnetic resonance image of the patient is adapted using the reference data set and an exposure plan is generated based on the patient magnetic resonance image and the patient-specific attenuation of high-energy radiation upon passage through the patient. The patient-specific attenuation of high-energy radiation upon passage through the patient is determined using the adaptation of the patient magnetic resonance image with the reference data set.
US08238632B2
Systems, methods, media, and other embodiments associated with episcopic, histological, autoradiographic, and/or other imaging are described. One exemplary system includes a cryomicrotome, an episcopic imaging device and a histological imaging device, logic for registering episcopic images with histological images, and logic for manipulating images acquired from the episcopic imaging device and the histological imaging device.
US08238630B2
Improving diagnosis performance by matching the appearances of images while maintaining difference arising from the difference in tissue structure without being influenced by a non-interest region. Two medical images are divided into a plurality of tissue regions, each with each tissue imaged therein, and a similarity level is calculated for each corresponding pair of the plurality of tissue regions between the two medical images based on the form of each tissue region. An interest level is set for each corresponding pair and a weigh is obtained for each corresponding pair according to the similarity level and interest level. An image processing condition is set such that the matching level of an image characteristic of each corresponding pair is varied according to the weight, and image processing is performed on at least either one of the two medical images according to the set image processing condition.
US08238629B2
A CPU implements a possible polyp detection process of step S4 to execute processing for each label value of a thinned image and superimpose a processing result on a possible polyp image, thereby generating a possible polyp labeling image in which a possible polyp edge is labeled. The possible polyp labeling image, in which the possible polyp image is superimposed on an original image, is displayed on a display device so that a possible polyp location on the image can be easily checked, thereby improving the detection accuracy of an intraluminal abnormal tissue.
US08238622B2
A vein authentication device has an interface on which a part of a living body is placed. One or more light sources for emitting infrared light and an image pickup unit are provided for picking up a blood vessel image of the part of the living body using infrared light emitted from the light sources. An image computing unit processes the blood vessel image picked up by the image pickup unit. A light shielding unit shields infrared light emitted from the light sources and prevents the infrared light from traveling in an image pickup direction of the image pickup unit. The interface has an opening opened in the image pickup direction of the image pickup unit, and the light sources irradiate the part of the living body with infrared light from an image pickup side of the part of the living body.
US08238621B2
A ridge flow based fingerprint image quality determination can be achieved independent of image resolution, can be processed in real-time and includes segmentation, such as fingertip segmentation, therefore providing image quality assessment for individual fingertips within a four finger flat, dual thumb, or whole hand image. A fingerprint quality module receives from one or more scan devices ridge-flow—containing imagery which can then be assessed for one or more of quality, handedness, historical information analysis and the assignment of bounding boxes.
US08238613B2
The simulation of film grain in an image makes use of parameters contained in a Supplemental Enhancement Information (SEI) message that accompanies the image upon transmission. The SEI message specifies film grain simulation parameters such as the film simulation model, the blending mode, and color space.
US08238607B2
A method of identifying, tracking, and counting human objects of interest based upon at least one pair of stereo image frames taken by at least one image capturing device, comprising the steps of: obtaining said stereo image frames and converting each said stereo image frame to a rectified image frame using calibration data obtained for said at least one image capturing device; generating a disparity map based upon a pair of said rectified image frames; generating a depth map based upon said disparity map and said calibration data; identifying the presence or absence of said objects of interest from said depth map and comparing each of said objects of interest to existing tracks comprising previously identified objects of interest; for each said presence of an object of interest, adding said object of interest to one of said existing tracks if said object of interest matches said one existing track, or creating a new track comprising said object of interest if said object of interest does not match any of said existing tracks; updating each said existing track; and maintaining a count of said objects of interest in a given time period based upon said existing tracks created or modified during said given time period.
US08238606B2
An image recognition apparatus includes an image recognition unit, an evaluation value calculation unit, and a motion extraction unit. The image recognition unit uses motion vectors that are generated in the course of coding image data into MPEG format data or in the course of decoding the MPEG coded data by the evaluation value calculation unit and the motion extraction unit as well as two dimensional DCT coefficients and encode information such as picture types and block types for generating the evaluation values that represent feature of the image. The apparatus further includes an update unit for recognizing the object in the image based on the determination rules for a unit of macro block. The apparatus can thus accurately detect the motion of the object based on the evaluation values derived from DCT coefficients even when generation of the motion vectors is difficult.
US08238604B2
The subject application is directed to a system and method for validation of face detection in electronic images. Image data is first received along with at least one image portion that includes a possible facial depiction. Eye position data, nose position data, and mouth position data are also received. A reference point at a central location of the at least one image portion is then isolated. A width of the image portion is then isolated, and a facial region is isolated in accordance with the eye, nose, and mouth position data. The eye distance is then determined from the received eye position data. The isolated facial region data is then tested against the reference point and eye distance is tested against a width of the image portion. An output is generated corresponding to the accuracy of isolated facial region in accordance with the tests.
US08238602B2
The present invention discloses a method and system to track and process the received postal items in their personal mailbox. The present invention resides inside the personal mailbox of a user. When mail item arrives in the mailbox, controller initiates the tiny robot arm to pick up the item and moves it to scanner and initiates the scanner to scan the item. Controller then collects associated entities of the received mail item using OCR and sends a notification to the user. An associated entity includes sender name and address and other information on the face of the mail item. If there is no sender address in the mail item then controller realizes that the received mail item is junk/unwanted and sends it to shredder using robot arm for trash.
US08238600B2
An electronic watermark embedding apparatus and an electronic watermark embedding method can severally deal with both of the resistance property of an electronic watermark and the prevention of image quality deterioration. Electronic watermark information of a high importance level is embedded in a component having a strong resistance property, and electronic watermark information of a low importance level is embedded in a component exerting little influence on an image quality. As a result, the electronic watermark information to be embedded in the component having a strong resistance property is limited to that of a high importance level. Moreover, the image quality deterioration can be suppressed in comparison with the case of embedding all pieces of information, and the electronic watermark information of low importance level is embedded in the component having a weak resistance property but exerting little influence on an image quality.
US08238585B2
An audio module used for a display device is disclosed. The display device has a display substrate. The audio module has a filter, an amplifier, and at least one output unit. The filter receives and filters an audio signal to generate a filtered signal. The amplifier is coupled to the filter and amplifies the filtered signal to generate an amplified signal. At least one output unit is coupled to the amplifier and plays the amplified signal in a predetermined way.
US08238584B2
A voice signal transmitting/receiving apparatus includes: a device body; a speaker array arranged in the device body and including a plurality of arrayed speaker units; and a microphone array arranged in the device body and including a plurality of arrayed microphones. By thus integrating the speaker array and the microphone array, it is possible to improve the operability of a user, to acquaint the user relatively easily with the error in the set position and to make the device compact.
US08238580B2
The present invention provides a module for a powered speaker, such as a subwoofer that may be actuated to turn the speaker on and off remotely by energizing the auxiliary AC power supply provided with an audio device or other source unit. The main power of the module is provided via a wall outlet or suitable power supply that may adequately supply the necessary power.
US08238574B2
The invention provides a computer-implemented method for determining a time delay for time delay compensation of a microphone signal from a microphone array in a beamformer arrangement. For a given time, an instantaneous estimate of a position of a wanted sound source and/or of a direction of arrival of a signal originating from the wanted sound source is determined. The computer system then determines whether the instantaneous estimate deviates from a preset estimate of a position of the wanted sound source and/or of a direction of arrival of a signal originating from the wanted sound source according to a predetermined criterion. The predetermined criterion comprises a check whether the instantaneous estimate deviates from the preset estimate by at least a predetermined deviation threshold. If the predetermined criterion is fulfilled, the instantaneous estimate for the given time is set by the computer system as the preset estimate, and the computer system determines the time delay for time delay compensation of the microphone signal based on the instantaneous estimate.
US08238569B2
A method, medium, and apparatus for extracting a target sound from a mixed sound. The method includes obtaining the mixed signal from a microphone array, generating a first signal which is emphasized and directed toward a target sound source, and a second signal which is suppressed and directed toward the target sound source, calculating a non-linear filter which is adaptive to at least one of an amplitude ratio of the first signal to the second signal in a time-frequency domain, frequencies of the first and second signals, and a ratio of an interference signal to the mixed signal, and filtering the first signal by the non-linear filter.
US08238566B2
An apparatus for providing sound effects according to an input image and a method thereof capable of conveying details of the input image lively and effectively by recognizing the shape of the image and outputting a sound suitable for the recognized shape of the image. The apparatus for providing the sound effects according to the image includes an image input unit for receiving an input of an image, a sound effect providing unit for recognizing the image inputted through the image input unit and providing the sound effects according to the input image, and an image output unit for outputting the image inputted through the image input unit and the sound provided from the sound effect providing unit.
US08238557B2
An encoder according to the present invention embodiments employs a key expansion module to expand an encryption key by using logic and available clock cycles of an encryption process or loop. The key expansion module generates control signals to enable key expansion data to be injected at appropriate times into the encryption loop (e.g., during available clock cycles of the encryption loop) to perform the key expansion, thereby utilizing the resources of the encryption loop for key expansion. The key expansion module dynamically accounts for varying key lengths, and enables the encryption loop to combine the data being encrypted with proper portions of the expanded key. The use of encryption logic and available clock cycles of the encryption loop for the key expansion reduces the area needed by the encoder on a chip and enhances encoder throughput.
US08238552B2
A password-based key derivation function includes a sub-function that gets executed multiple times based on an iteration count. A key derivation module computes the iteration count dynamically with each entered password. The iteration count is computed as a function of the password strength. Specifically, the weaker the password, the higher the iteration count; but the stronger the password, the smaller the interaction count. This helps strengthen weaker passwords without penalizing stronger passwords.
US08238541B1
The present invention is directed toward a method and system for determining the skill levels of an agent in a contact center. The invention creates a relationship between contact intent and agent skill to help determine agent skills based on successfully completed contacts.
US08238533B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus for populating a least cost routing database. In one aspect, a method includes receiving from a carrier a bid for routing a telephone call to a destination; automatically loading the received bid into a least cost routing database to generate an updated least cost routing database; and making the updated least cost routing database accessible for use in determining one or more least cost routes. Further, the received bid can be analyzed to generate a projected business result and the projected business result can be presented to the carrier before loading the received bid into the least cost routing database. Additionally, input can be received from the carrier specifying an historical period and the projected business result can be generated based on data associated with the specified historical period.
US08238523B2
The present invention relates to method and system for providing a ring back tone service by using a play announcement message in an intelligent network. According to the present invention, there is no need for separate apparatus such as a signaling gateway, by removing the interoperation between a service control point and a coloring server. Thus, there is an advantage that additional cost does not occur.
US08238521B2
X-ray collimators, and related systems and methods involving such collimators are provided. In this regard, a representative X-ray collimator includes: a first member having channels located on a surface thereof; and a second member having protrusions located on a surface thereof; the first member and the second member being oriented such that the protrusions extend into the channels to define collimator apertures, each of the collimator apertures being defined by a portion of the first member and a portion of the second member.
US08238515B2
The present invention includes an apparatus for preparing samples for measurement by x-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The apparatus comprises a plate having one or more holes passing through the plate. The holes are covered by a film on one side of the plate. The holes are less than 500 micrometers across in one dimension where the film covers the holes. The film is translucent to x-rays. The present invention also includes an apparatus for preparing samples for measurement by x-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The apparatus comprises a plate having one or more holes passing through the plate. The holes are covered on one side of the plate by a detachable cover forming a water-tight seal against the plate. The cover is substantially free of the elements osmium, yttrium, iridium, phosphorus, zirconium, platinum, gold, niobium, mercury, thallium, molybdenum, sulfur, lead, bismuth, technetium, ruthenium, chlorine, rhodium, palladium, argon, silver, and thorium. The holes are less than about 500 micrometers across in one dimension where the cover covers the holes. The present invention also includes a method for preparing samples for measurement by x-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The method comprises providing a solution of with less than 10 micromolar solute and a volume of between about 2 microliters and about 2 milliliters. The solution is concentrated and analyzed using x-ray fluorescence spectrometry.
US08238509B2
A method of calibrating a nuclear instrument using a gamma thermometer may include: measuring, in the instrument, local neutron flux; generating, from the instrument, a first signal proportional to the neutron flux; measuring, in the gamma thermometer, local gamma flux; generating, from the gamma thermometer, a second signal proportional to the gamma flux; compensating the second signal; and calibrating a gain of the instrument based on the compensated second signal. Compensating the second signal may include: calculating selected yield fractions for specific groups of delayed gamma sources; calculating time constants for the specific groups; calculating a third signal that corresponds to delayed local gamma flux based on the selected yield fractions and time constants; and calculating the compensated second signal by subtracting the third signal from the second signal. The specific groups may have decay time constants greater than 5×10−1 seconds and less than 5×105 seconds.
US08238508B2
A device for extracting a clock signal from a baseband serial signal, includes an injection-locked oscillator (19), a phase-locked loop (25) including a digital phase detector (26). The oscillator (19) includes a digital input for controlling the value of its natural frequency, and the phase-locked loop (25) includes a counting circuit (30, 35) aggregating the relative values of the digital signal supplied by the digital phase detector (26) and supplying a control signal in digital form for the oscillator (19).
US08238494B2
A radio frequency (RF) receiver having an analog gain control section for controlling the gain of a received RF signal, and a digital demodulator section for demodulating the output of the gain control section, includes an analog GO circuit connected to recognize the presence of a data packet within a received RF signal in the analog gain control section, and in response to produce an analog GO signal, a digital GO circuit connected to recognize the presence of a data packet within the received RF signal from the digital demodulator section, and in response to produce a digital GO signal, and control circuitry connected to enable gain control functions within the analog gain control section and digital demodulator functions within the digital demodulator section in response to respective analog and digital GO signals.
US08238493B1
A system including a differential demodulation module, a first summing module, and a second summing module. The differential demodulation module generates differentially demodulated signals based on having differentially demodulated received signals. The first summing module generates a combined signal by adding the differentially demodulated signals, wherein the combined signal includes a plurality of symbols. The second summing module generates a plurality of sums for each of a plurality of derived preamble sequences, wherein the derived preamble sequences are derived from preamble sequences, and wherein each of the derived preamble sequences includes a plurality of derived symbols. The second summing module further generates cross-correlation values for the derived preamble sequences based on the plurality of sums, wherein one of the cross-correlation values generated for one of the derived preamble sequences is a sum of the plurality of sums generated for the one of the derived preamble sequences.
US08238488B1
A method of decoding a signal includes receiving multiple data symbols corresponding to multiple transmitted data symbols. The method further includes selecting one candidate data symbol from multiple candidate data symbols corresponding to the multiple transmitted data symbols. The method further includes determining a global optimum candidate value for the selected one candidate data symbol. The method further includes grouping all possible values of the selected one candidate data symbol into two or more bit groups. The method further includes selecting a bit group from the two or more bit groups that does not include the global optimum value. The method further includes determining a local optimum candidate value from values in the selected bit group. The method further includes calculating a likelihood value for a bit in the selected one candidate data symbol based at least in part on the determined global and local optimum candidate values.
US08238483B2
A method for communication includes receiving in a receiver signals, which include one or more dedicated reference signals and are transmitted from a transmitter over a communication channel in multiple blocks. The signals in each block, including the dedicated reference signals, are transmitted on a respective group of subcarriers over a respective time interval and are precoded using a respective precoding scheme that maps the signals onto multiple antenna ports of the transmitter. Two or more of the blocks whose respective precoding schemes differ from one another by no more than a predefined distance are identified. One or more parameters of the communication channel are estimated over the dedicated reference signals included in the identified blocks. The signals are decoded based on the estimated parameters.
US08238481B2
An apparatus and method is described that provide an efficient blind channel estimation approach for PSK and DPSK modulated multicarrier communication systems. With the requirement that the channel phase difference between any two adjacent carriers is smaller than one half of the minimum phase difference between two symbols of the PSK or DPSK constellation, a low-complexity deterministic approach to channel estimation is devised. This approach is highly effective, robust, and particularly useful for time varying channels with low AWGN noise.
US08238479B2
A method for synchronizing a receiver to a received signal begins by down-converting the received signal to a first baseband signal. A coarse frequency offset (CFO) of the first baseband signal is determined and is applied to the down-converting of the received signal to a second baseband signal. A fine frequency offset (FFO) of the second baseband signal is determined. The receiver is synchronized to the received signal using the CFO and the FFO.
US08238478B2
Multi-symbol non-coherent continuous phase modulation (CPM) detectors having a trellis structure, methods of continuous phase detection using a trellis structure, and trellis-based lock detectors and methods for digitally modulated signals are described. The continuous phase modulation detector includes receiver, observation, memory, and adjustment portions. The receiver has a trellis structure and is adapted for receiving digitally modulated signals having a generally continuous phase. The observation portion is adapted for performing multi-symbol observations on received digitally modulated signals and the memory is adapted for storing historic observation data corresponding to multi-symbol observations performed by the observation portion. The adjustment portion is adapted for selectively adjusting the receiver in accordance with stored historic observation data. A trellis-based lock detector computes a global survivor for consecutive time indexes as a maximum cumulative branch metric corresponding to a given time index for consecutive branches of the trellis structure.
US08238476B2
The invention provides a semiconductor device with high yield by reducing an effect of variations in characteristics of a semiconductor element. Further, by reducing an effect of variations in characteristics of a semiconductor element to improve productivity, an inexpensive semiconductor device can be provided. Further, an inexpensive semiconductor device can be provided by forming a semiconductor device in a large amount over a large substrate such as a glass substrate and a flexible substrate. A semiconductor device of the invention includes a demodulation signal generating circuit and an antenna or a wire for connecting the antenna. The demodulation signal generating circuit includes a demodulation circuit and a correction circuit. The correction circuit corrects a first demodulation signal generated from the demodulation circuit and generates a second demodulation signal.
US08238470B2
An equalizer provided in a digital transmitter compensates for attenuation in a signal channel to a digital receiver. The equalizer generates signal levels as a logical function of bit history to emphasize transition signal levels relative to repeated signal levels. The preferred equalizer includes an FIR transition filter using a look-up table. Parallel circuits including FIR filters and digital-to-analog converters provide a high speed equalizer with lower speed circuitry. The equalizer is particularly suited to in-cabinet and local area network transmissions where feedback circuitry facilitates adaptive training of the equalizer.
US08238465B2
A sphere decoding method applied to a MIMO channel is provided. Multiple constellation points of an nth detection layer corresponding to a MIMO channel matrix are enumerated based on an enumeration rule, and at least one nth sub-set of the nth detection layer is defined. K constellation points are obtained from each of the at least one nth sub-set as preferred points, and Kn preferred points are selected from all the K preferred points of the at least one nth sub-set. K1 preferred points are transferred to a second detection layer from a first detection layer. K(T−1) preferred points are transferred to a Tth detection layer from a (T−1)th detection layer. An optimal solution is determined according to Kn preferred points of the nth detection layer. K and at least one of K1 to KT are determined by the The characteristic of the MIMO channel matrix.
US08238463B1
A method of receiving Multiple Input Multiple Output—Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Accessing (MIMO-OFDMA) signals using a single receiver rather than multiple receivers and performing measurements specific to various parts of MIMO-OFDMA systems using all measurable parameters of MIMO-OFDMA systems is disclosed. In addition, a method of receiving and completing impairment estimation of WiMAX MIMO signals using a single receiver according to the IEEE 802.16 standards is provided.
US08238460B2
A method and system are provided for minimizing errors by retransmitting packets in a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) space-time coded packet radio. A packet is transmitted using a first STC code mapping, the mapping including well-known symbol operations, and optional signal weighting. When transmission errors are detected the packet is re-transmitted using STC code mappings selected in turn from a deterministic sequence of STC code mappings. The STC code mappings are chosen in accordance with one or more principles.
US08238459B2
A decoding device that decodes demodulated data obtained by demodulating a quadrature modulated signal arising from digital modulation of a carrier and detects synchronization, the decoding device includes, a decoder configured to decode first demodulated data that is the demodulated data obtained by demodulating the quadrature modulated signal and is composed of in-phase axis data and quadrature axis data. The decoding device decodes second demodulated data obtained by interchanging the in-phase axis data and the quadrature axis data of the first demodulated data. A synchronization detector is configured to detect a boundary between predetermined information symbol sequences from first decoded data obtained by decoding the first demodulated data and detect the boundary from second decoded data obtained by decoding the second demodulated data. The synchronization detector selects and outputs one of the first decoded data and the second decoded data based on a result of the detection of the boundary.
US08238458B2
System and method for evaluating a transmitter by estimating IQ impairments in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) signal generated by the transmitter. The OFDM signal may be received. The OFDM signal may represent a stream of symbols, each comprising a plurality of subcarriers. At least a subset of the subcarriers may be pilot subcarriers. The pilot subcarriers may be grouped into one or more groups of pilot subcarriers based on one or more conditions: a pilot subcarrier which satisfies a condition in its relation to a mirror subcarrier may be grouped with other pilot subcarriers which also satisfy the condition in relation to mirror subcarriers. An estimate of one or more of gain imbalance or quadrature skew of the OFDM signal may be calculated based on the one or more groups of pilot subcarriers and the one or more conditions. The estimate may be used to evaluate the transmitter.
US08238451B2
A network transmitting apparatus and a power saving method thereof are provided. The network transmitting apparatus includes a chip, a transformer, and a power regulating unit. The chip includes a detecting and controlling unit, an analog circuit, and a digital circuit. The detecting and controlling unit receives a received signal and detects the received signal and a state of the chip to generate a first control signal. The transformer has a first side coupled to the chip and a second side. The power regulating unit coupled to the detecting and controlling unit and a center tap of the first side of the transformer is used for receiving a voltage, generating a first regulated voltage according to the first control signal, and connecting the first regulated voltage to the center tap of the first side of the transformer, the analog circuit, and the digital circuit.
US08238450B2
An apparatus comprising an artificial noise (AN) controller coupled to a digital subscriber line (DSL) transmitter and configured to adjust an AN level for a signal transmitted by the DSL transmitter, wherein the AN level is adjusted based on an actual signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the signal from the receiver to achieve a desired SNR for the signal. Also disclosed is a method comprising maintaining a data rate in a line at about a desired level by adjusting an AN level in a transmitted signal based on a SNR of a received signal.
US08238439B2
There are provided methods and apparatus for multi-view information conveyed in high level syntax. An encoding method and apparatus is disclosed for encoding multi-view video content in a resultant bitstream and multi-view coding information for the multi-view video content in at least one high level syntax element. A decoding method and apparatus is disclosed for decoding multi-view video content from a resultant bitstream and multi-view coding information for the multi-view content from at least one high level syntax element.
US08238436B2
Methods and systems for receiving, processing and/or decoding digital video transmissions are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a method of processing a digital video signal includes the steps of applying an initial set of video transmission parameter values to one or more digital video signal processes, decoding video transmission parameter information from the digital video signal, and updating the initial set of video transmission parameter values with the decoded video transmission parameter information. Embodiments of the present invention can advantageously demodulate and decode a digital video signal before transmission parameters embedded in the signal are completely decoded. Thus, the time to acquire and/or scan a digital video channel is improved.
US08238434B2
An inverse wavelet transformer causes a level-graded buffer to store one of two lines of coefficient data generated through a synthesis filtering operation. In order to adjust an output timing of image data, the inverse wavelet transformer causes an output buffer to store temporarily the other line of the two lines of coefficient data in a period throughout which the output buffer stores no baseband image data and then causes the level-graded buffer to store the other line of the two lines of coefficient data. In this way, the level-graded buffer stores coefficients generated through the synthesis filtering operation on a line-by-line basis.
US08238433B2
A method and device to transcode H.264/AVC video frames into MPEG-2 can include converting the H.264/AVC interframe coding modes into modes allowed by MPEG-2 and converting H.264/AVC motion information into corresponding MPEG-2 semantics, and determining a most suitable motion vector for each MPEG-2 macro-block, on the basis of motion vectors of reference frames and sub-blocks of a H.264/AVC macro-block corresponding to the MPEG-2 macro-block.
US08238427B2
A method of video coding comprising Intra prediction coding at least a predetermined constant M macroblocks within an ordinary frame. These M macroblocks include naturally selected macroblocks where the bit cost of Intra prediction coding is less than for Inter prediction coding and optional additional macroblocks. The optional additional macroblocks have the least bit cost of Inter prediction coding as adjusted by a penalty factor each time a corresponding macroblock is Intra coded in a predetermined number of frames. An end frame Intra prediction codes each macroblock having no corresponding Intra prediction coded macroblock in a predetermined number of ordinary frames.
US08238425B2
An encoding apparatus for encoding progressive image data and interlace image data corresponding to this progressive image data, having a first encoding unit configured to encode picture data composing the interlace image data to generate first encoded data and decoding and recomposing the first encoded data to generate recomposed image data, an up sample processing unit configured to up sample the generated recomposed image data to generate image data having the same resolution as that of the progressive image data, and a second encoding unit configured to encode the picture data composing the progressive image data to generate second encoded data using the generated image data as predictive image data.
US08238419B2
A method of displaying video includes receiving a video bitstream corresponding to a video. The video comprises a sequence of frames having an associated video resolution level. At least a portion of the video bitstream is decoded. A background region of the video is displayed at a first video resolution level and a window region of the video is displayed at a second video resolution level. The second video resolution level is higher than the first video resolution level.
US08238416B2
Apparatuses and methods are provided for transmitting and receiving uncompressed audio or video (AV) data by applying a different coding rate to each bit or each group of bits included in the uncompressed AV data according to significance of each bit or each group of bits. The apparatus for transmitting the uncompressed AV data includes a grouping unit which classifies bits of each pixel included in the uncompressed AV data into at least two groups of bits according to a significance of the bits; an encoding unit which performs error correction encoding on each of the at least two groups using a different coding rate; and a radio frequency (RF) processing unit which transmits the encoded, uncompressed AV data, which includes the pixels on which the error-correction encoding was performed, using a communication channel.
US08238410B2
A positioning system receiver that mitigates narrowband interference by dynamically choosing the mitigation technique that yields the best interference mitigation capability with the least signal degradation to maximize receiver performance parameters such as receiver sensitivity, multipath resolution, and low power.
US08238402B2
The present invention provides a communications system, node and method of operation for forming a wireless network from independently operating nodes that have the ability to self-synchronize with each other, independently determine master and slave modes of operation to cooperate as a network, and independently vary those functions to adjust to changes in the network.
US08238393B2
A multi-beam laser light-intensity control circuit includes laser diodes; a light-receiving element for receiving a laser beam emitted from each laser diode and outputting a current corresponding to the light intensity of the received laser beam; and an automatic power control circuit for automatically controlling output power of each laser diode based on the current output from the light-receiving element. The automatic power control circuit includes a current/voltage conversion unit for converting the current output from the light-receiving element into a voltage; an error amplifying circuit for amplifying a difference voltage between the voltage output from the current/voltage conversion unit and a predetermined reference voltage; storing circuits each configured to store the difference voltage output from the error amplifying circuit in association with the corresponding laser diode; and drive current generating units each configured to generate a drive current for the corresponding laser diode based on the difference voltage.
US08238383B2
A compressively-encoding-resultant video signal resulting from compressively encoding a video signal, a first compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal resulting from compressively encoding a first audio signal having a synchronized relation with the video signal, a reference clock information signal relating to synchronization between the compressively-encoding-resultant video signal and the first compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal, and an indication timing information signal designating an indication timing of the video signal are multiplexed to get an AV multiplexing-resultant signal. A second audio signal is compressively encoded to get a second compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal. A sound-production-timing information signal is added to the second compressively-encoding-resultant audio signal to get a substitution playback audio signal. During playback, the substitution playback audio signal can be reproduced instead of the first audio signal while being synchronous with the video signal. The sound-production-timing information signal responds to the reference clock information signal, and relates to synchronization with the video signal.
US08238377B2
Network timing is derived from the PSTN and distributed through the network to gateways capable of deriving timing from the incoming UDP stream. The derived timing has the correct frequency for voice telephony without using external timing sources or extraneous hardware components. For example, a digital signal processor (DSP) can derive the timing from a timed TDM bus and distribute messages, such as IP messages, to other gateways or port networks. The other gateways and port networks use the incoming stream to extract the timing which is then used to time their TDM bus. The port networks and gateways can also distribute other streams to other gateways in a fan-out type of arrangement. This internally generated timing can be used, for example, for Circuit Emulated Services (CES).
US08238366B2
The invention provides a sequential rate allocation process which assigns excess rates to variable-rate users in a sequential fashion according to specified priorities and yields a strongly pare-to-optimal rate allocation. The invention also provides two parallel rate allocation techniques for where all variable-rate users have the same priority. The first is a parallel symmetric rate and the second is an iterative rate allocation.
US08238361B2
The invention relates to a scheduler for a TCP/IP based data communication system and a method for the scheduler. The communication system comprises a TCP/IP transmitter and a receiving unit (UE). The scheduler is associated with a Node comprising a rate measuring device for measuring a TCP/IP data rate from the TCP/IP transmitter and a queue buffer device for buffering data segments from the TCP/IP transmitter. The scheduler is arranged to receive information from the rate measuring device regarding the TCP/IP data rate and is arranged to adapt the permitted queue latency to a minimum value when the TCP/IP transmitter is in a slow start mode and to increase the permitted queue latency when the TCP/IP rate has reached a threshold value.
US08238347B2
A Data Center Ethernet (“DCE”) network and related methods and device are provided. A DCE network simplifies the connectivity of data centers and provides a high bandwidth, low latency network for carrying Ethernet, storage and other traffic. A Fiber Channel (“FC”) frame, including FC addressing information, is encapsulated in an Ethernet frame for transmission on a Data Center Ethernet (“DCE”) network. The Ethernet address fields may indicate that the frame includes an FC frame, e.g., by the use of a predetermined Organization Unique Identifier (“OUI”) code in the D_MAC field, but also include Ethernet addressing information. Accordingly, the encapsulated frames can be forwarded properly by switches in the DCE network whether or not these switches are configured for operation according to the FC protocol. Accordingly, only a subset of Ethernet switches in the DCE network needs to be FC-enabled. Only switches so configured will require an FC Domain_ID.
US08238338B2
In one example embodiment, a system and method is illustrated that includes receiving connectivity data for at least one network device, the connectivity data describing a connection to the at least one network device within an area. The system and method further includes processing the connectivity data to obtain a routing update for distribution to another network device outside the area. Additionally, the system and method includes a routing summary in the routing update, the routing summary including an address prefix. Further, the system and method includes reachability information in the routing update, the reachability information including an address for the at least one network device.
US08238331B2
According to one embodiment, a communication system includes a Network Address Translator (NAT) rooter and a telephone exchange apparatus. The NAT router comprises a transfer module configured to transfer a communication packet brought from the global network to the telephone exchange apparatus. The telephone exchange apparatus comprises a memory configured to store a map table in which a terminal ID specifying the terminal, and an address and a port number specifying the network are correlated with each other, and a controller configured to refer to the map table, and notify the terminal connected to the global network of an address and a port number of the telephone exchange apparatus's own apparatus as an address and a port number of the communication partner, and bring the communication path between the terminals into the apparatus.
US08238325B2
Full-mesh WDM transmission units, each of which includes n number of interfaces and is capable of establishing a bidirectional full-mesh communication between all of the interfaces using wavelength paths based on a wavelength division multiplexing technique, are connected in a multistage tree-shaped structure by internetwork connection units through edge-packet transfer units connected to the respective interfaces. Therefore, it is possible to hold a direct communication between user terminals connected to the edge-packet transfer units of the same full-mesh WDM transmission unit, and to realize scalability by a multistage connection configuration.
US08238320B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving control information in an SC-FDMA system are provided, in which different cyclic shift values are generated for different SC-FDMA symbols in one of a slot and a subframe, a sequence allocated for CDM of control information is cyclically shifted by the cyclic shift values, and a control channel signal including the control information is combined with the cyclically shifted sequences on an SC-FDMA symbol basis and transmitted in the SC-FDMA symbols.
US08238318B1
A intelligent backhaul radio is disclosed that is compact, light and low power for street level mounting, operates at 100 Mb/s or higher at ranges of 300 m or longer in obstructed LOS conditions with low latencies of 5 ms or less, can support PTP and PMP topologies, uses radio spectrum resources efficiently and does not require precise physical antenna alignment.
US08238315B2
An apparatus including a receiver, an address module, and a connection module. The receiver receives a first wireless signal from a wireless network. The address module determines a type of Internet Protocol address assignment employed by the wireless network based on an indicator in the first wireless signal. The connection module establishes a network-layer connection to the wireless network based on a first type of Internet Protocol address assignment when the address module determines that the indicator indicates the first type. The connection module also establishes a network-layer connection to the wireless network based on a second type of Internet Protocol address assignment when the address module determines that the indicator indicates the second type.
US08238313B2
An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for communicating in a wireless personal area network (WPAN), comprising using Spatial Division Multiple Access (SDMA) in said WPAN network by exploiting directional antennas.
US08238312B2
A heterogeneous back-off algorithm wherein latency-intolerant messages follow a linear back-off and other messages follow an exponential back-off protocol is disclosed. Typically exponential back-off techniques are used to schedule retransmissions to increase the probability of successful transmission in temporally high contention scenarios. However, exponential back-off can create an exponential increase in the transmit latency. For transmitting latency-intolerant messages like handoff messages large latency is not acceptable therefore a heterogeneous back-off algorithm using both back-off protocols is proposed.
US08238302B2
A method of determining a transport block size (TBS) allocated to a data packet transmitted via a wireless channel is provided. The TBS is determined according to the number of resource blocks (resource block number) NRB allocated to the data packet and a modulation coding scheme (MCS) level. A part or all of the TBSs allocated to a specific resource block number is determined to have the same value as a part or all of the TBSs allocated to another resource block number.
US08238300B2
A device and method for communicating by a mobile communication terminal in communication with a base station. The method according to an embodiment includes exchanging a frame of data with the base station. The frame of data includes a) a plurality of first subframes each having a first number of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) symbols, and b) a plurality of second subframes each having a second number of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) symbols different from the first number.
US08238283B2
A method and apparatus adapted to a portable terminal for generating a multicast group and multicasting messages using the multicast group are provided. The method includes inputting a number to be used as a multicast number, searching in a phone book for phone numbers matching with the input number, selecting at least two phone numbers matching with the input number, and generating a multicast group. Portable terminal users can more easily and efficiently send the message to recipients.
US08238279B2
When there are no network devices currently associated with a wireless network controller, the network controller may reduce power consumption by placing itself in a standby mode. In the standby mode, the network controller may place some of its components into a non-operational low power state, while keeping enough components in an operational state to receive and decode received communications requests from devices that may wish to become associated with it. This may involve placing the transmit chain, and in some cases the applications processor, into the low power state. When a communications request is detected, the network controller may restore the transmit chain and if necessary the applications processor to an operational state, and transmit a response to the communications request.
US08238277B2
Channel state information in a closed-loop, multiple-input, multiple-output wireless networks is fed back from each mobile station to a base station by first determining a transmit covariance matrix R, and applying a singular value decomposition (SVD) R=UΣVH, where U, V are left and right singular vector matrices, Σ is a diagonal matrix with singular values. The matrix V includes column vectors V. A beamforming vector vmax=[1 exp(jΦ)exp(j2Φ) . . . exp(jΦ)]/√{square root over (N)}] is approximated by the column vector V having a maximum magnitude, where Φ is a real number. Then, only the angle Φ is fed back using a phase modulation mapping of the components exp(jΦ) onto the associated subcarrier.
US08238274B2
Device, system, and method of wireless beamforming calibration. In some embodiments, a wireless communication device include a wireless communication unit to transmit a wireless beamforming calibration announcement packet to another wireless communication device, and to transmit a first null-data-packet after transmitting the announcement packet and prior to receiving a second null-data-packet from the other device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08238273B2
The present method groups a transmission data stream, taking a combination of data bits to be transmitted from a part or all of the plurality of transmission antennas at the same time as one group; and performs transmission processing, including at least either of bit repetition processing or retransmission processing by the unit of the group (bit combination). As a result, in MIMO communication, etc., it is possible to suppress deterioration of reception characteristic due to vanishing of correlation among bits transmitted at the same time.
US08238267B2
Methods and apparatus to manage voice service in evolved packet systems are disclosed. An example method in a UE in an Evolved Packet System (EPS) includes receiving a first Non Access Stratum (NAS) protocol response message with network provided Voice over IP Multimedia (IM) Core Network (CN) Subsystem (VoIMS) indicators, wherein the UE has a voice services indicator related to a UE usage setting and responsive to at least one of the voice services indicator related to a UE usage setting or the network provided VoIMS indicators, causing the UE to disable evolved universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (E-UTRAN) cell reselection.
US08238258B2
Disclosed is a system and method of managing network performance. The method includes receiving input data identifying a customer. The method also includes determining a plurality of network elements related to the customer, where the customer receives video content over a private video distribution network that includes the plurality of network elements related to the customer and at least one network device not related to the customer. The method also includes receiving performance data of each of the plurality of network elements related to the customer.
US08238252B2
A system for automated installation of a communication line using an optimal route between a source location and a destination location is disclosed. The system includes a routing engine providing an automated design process for rendering the optimal route. The routing engine utilizes a routing algorithm to select the optimal route from a graph of capacity links defining a plurality of possible routes between the source and destination locations. If, at any time during the design process, the optimal route or capacity links defining the optimal route are detected as unavailable for any reason, the routing engine re-initiates the design process and thereafter selects a new optimal route based upon a new capacity graph built without the previously unavailable capacity link. Once designed, the available optimal route is provided to a command and control engine, which, in turn, manages the installation of the communication line using the optimal route. The command and control engine manages the process for assigning the optimal route in the provisioning system.
US08238244B2
The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for packet processing. One method embodiment for packet flow control includes deconstructing a transport layer packet into a number of link-control layer packets, wherein each of the link-control layer packets has an associated sequence number, communicating the number of link-control layer packets via a common physical connection for a plurality of peripheral devices, and limiting a number of outstanding link-control layer packets during the communication.
US08238238B2
Methods and systems which identify and interact with network interfaces based on the network to which they provide access. A computing device operating in accordance with one or more of the principles described herein may examine available network interfaces and identify the network to which the network interfaces provide access, and perform networking tasks on interfaces based on the network identified. For example, a user may instruct a computing device to connect to a specified network, and the computing device will select a particular network interface by which to connect from the one or more available network interfaces that are able to connect to that network. Alternatively, a user may manage policies (e.g., security, connection, and application policies) based on the network to which a network interface provides access and thereby manage a network regardless of which of multiple network interfaces is used to access the network.
US08238236B2
Disclosed is a method for configuring a bitmap in a mobile communication system employing a block ACK scheme, which faithfully performs its intrinsic function of acknowledging a reception result, and yet can reduce transmission delay and the overall system load due to retransmission in the case where packet loss is relatively less important than transmission delay time, such as in the case of voice communication. To this end, a recipient compares a PER of a received packet signal with a threshold value. If the PER is higher than the threshold value, the recipient operates in the block ACK scheme, and if the PER is lower than the threshold value, the recipient determines a bitmap configuration scheme on the assumption that an erroneous frame has been successfully received. Also, using the determined bitmap configuration scheme, the recipient transmits a reception result for each received packet.
US08238228B2
A system and method for enabling a disabled port on a device such as a Two Port Medium Access Control (MAC) Relay (TPMR), which relays MAC frames in a communication network. When a link in the network fails, the TPMR disables the port due to operation of a link failure propagation protocol. When the TPMR detects that the failed link is repaired, the TPMR stops transmitting link failure Packet Data Units (PDUs) and transmits a Link Failure Terminating PDU to other connected TPMRs in the network. Receipt of the Link Failure Terminating PDU indicates the failed link is repaired and all ports disabled as a result of the failure should consequently be enabled.
US08238221B2
An optical pickup device includes: a first light source for emitting recording laser light; a second light source for emitting reproducing laser light having a wavelength different from a wavelength of the recording laser light; an objective lens for converging the recording laser light and the reproducing laser light. A quarter wavelength plate is disposed between the first light source and the second light source, and the objective lens. A wavelength-selective polarized beam splitter is disposed between the quarter wavelength plate, and the first light source and the second light source. The reproducing laser light alone out of the recording laser light and the reproducing laser light reflected on recording medium is guided to a photodetector.
US08238220B2
A pickup device comprising an irradiation optical system including an objective lens to focus a ray bundle on a track of a recording surface of an optical recording medium to form a light spot, and a detection optical system including a photo detector to receive return light reflected from the light spot via the objective lens and perform photoelectric conversion and controls said objective lens in position according to electrical signals produced through operations on outputs of said photo detector.
US08238218B2
To provide an optical pickup and an optical information device, capable of obtaining excellent signal characteristics for an optical disk on and/or from which recording and/or reproducing are performed using a laser. The optical pickup includes an optical detector, a support holder for holding the optical detector, and an optical base for fixing the support holder. The support holder has at least two notches at its both ends, the optical base has convex portions corresponding to the notches of the support holder, the optical base and the support holder are fixed by photo-curable adhesives for bonding the convex portions and the support holder to each other, and the shortest distance between the side faces of the convex portions, which do not face each other, is equal to or less than the width of the support holder in the direction of right and left ends.
US08238208B2
A method for detecting a typical defect area on a disc track includes the following steps. Firstly, a source signal is provided. Then, first and second signals are generated according to the source signal. The first and second signals are held at the peak level of the source signal and respectively decreased at first and second drop rates. Then, first and second threshold values are subtracted from the first and second signals to generate first and second slice signals, respectively. Afterwards, the source signal is compared with either the first slice signal or the second slice signal. When the first slice signal is larger than the source signal, a typical defect signal is changed from a first level to a second level. Whereas, the typical defect signal is changed from the second level to the first level when the second slice signal is smaller than the source signal.
US08238205B2
An information recording medium 1 at least comprises a substrate 13 having a microscopic pattern 20, which is constituted by a shape of continuous substance of approximately parallel grooves formed with a groove section G and a land section L alternately, a recording layer 12 formed on the microscopic pattern 20 and a light transmission layer 11 formed on the recording layer. The microscopic pattern 20 is formed so as to satisfy a relation of P<λ
US08238202B2
A waveguide structure for a TAMR head is disclosed wherein at least one detection waveguide is formed parallel to a main waveguide and located a gap distance therefrom. A light source transmits light into the main waveguide and towards an ABS/medium interface. A plasmon generator converts light from the waveguide into plasmon waves that are directed onto a magnetic medium. Back reflected light is captured by the main waveguide, partially diverted into a detection waveguide, and transmitted to a photo detector that measures light intensity (IB) which correlates closely to the plasmon wave intensity at the ABS/medium interface. A controller linked to the photo detector is employed to calculate IB as a function of ABS/medium spacing in a non-write condition and this relationship can be used to control and maintain a constant plasmon wave intensity at the ABS during a series of TAMR write processes with a plurality of media.
US08238198B2
Systems and methods for seismic data acquisition utilizing wireless modules to perform real time data read out. The wireless modules may be assigned a shared multiplexing sequence through which each module advances in successive transmission periods. Wireless modules belonging to a shared collision domain may be operated out of phase from one another with respect to the shared multiplexing signature sequence. As such, a dynamic multiplexing regime may be implemented. The shared multiplexing signature sequence may include, among others, a plurality of different frequencies, a plurality of different codes, or a plurality of different discrete time periods.
US08238191B2
A method for a read-before-write functionality for a memory within a programmable logic device (PLD) is provided. The method begins when a read operation and a write operation are initiated through two different ports of a memory simultaneously to access the same address in the memory. In order to prevent the write operation from proceeding prior to the read operation, a read-before-write control logic is provided to the control block of the port that supports the write operation. Thus, the write operation is paused until the control block of the port that supports the write operation receives a signal from a read sense amplifier indicating that the read operation is complete. The read sense amplifier is capable of detecting the completion of a read operation by monitoring the voltage difference of the read bitline. When this voltage difference reaches a threshold value, the read sense amplifier triggers a write wordline signal. The enabling of the write wordline signal causes, the data to be written to the memory.
US08238189B2
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to systems, methods, and apparatuses for a common memory device for variable device width and scalable pre-fetch and page size. In some embodiments, a common memory device (such as a DRAM) can operate in any of a number of modes including, for example, a ×4 mode, a ×8 mode, and a ×16 mode. The page size provided by the DRAM may vary depending on the mode of the DRAM. In some embodiments, the amount of data pre-fetched by the DRAM also varies depending on the mode of the DRAM.
US08238186B2
A semiconductor memory device is capable of performing a stable high-speed operation while inputting/outputting data. The semiconductor memory device includes an inversion output circuit configured to output a clocking pattern in a clocking mode, and an inversion pin to which the inversion output circuit is connected.
US08238184B2
A data sensing method for sensing storage data stored in a memory cell includes the steps of: biasing a sensing node and a reference node to a first voltage in response to a first control signal; discharging the sensing node and the reference node via the memory cell and a reference memory cell, respectively; enabling a latch circuit to amplify a voltage difference between the sensing node and the reference node.
US08238181B2
A semiconductor device includes first and second lines, and a switch between the first and second lines. The switch temporary and electrically connects the first and second lines to each other, when the first signal line is transitioned from a first level to a second level while the second signal line is transitioned from the second level to the first level.
US08238172B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, and first to third latch circuits. The first latch circuits hold information as to whether an associated column is defective. A pointer is set in the second latch circuits. The third latch circuits hold write data or read data. One of the third latch circuits is activated at a time the pointer is set to an associated second latch circuit when an associated first latch circuit holds the information indicating that the associated column is not defective. The pointer is sequentially shifted among the second latch circuits in synchronization with a clock. In shifting the pointer, the pointer skips one of the second latch circuits associated with one of the first latch circuit which holds the information indicating that the associated column is defective.
US08238167B2
The present disclosure includes various method, device, system, and module embodiments for memory cycle voltage adjustment. One such method embodiment includes counting a number of process cycles performed on a first memory block in a memory device. This method embodiment also includes adjusting at least one program voltage, from an initial program voltage to an adjusted voltage, in response to the counted number of process cycles.
US08238163B2
A page buffer of a nonvolatile memory device according to the present disclosure comprises a first data latch unit configured to store data for program or program inhibition, a second data latch unit configured to store data for setting threshold voltage states of cells to be programmed, and a 1-bit pass determination unit configured to determine whether a cell to be programmed has been programmed to exceed a verification voltage by grounding or making floating a first verification signal output terminal in response to data set to a first node of the first data latch unit and data applied to a sense node.
US08238162B2
A method of detecting a disturb condition of a memory cell includes application of multiple sets of conditions to the memory cell and determining whether the memory cell behaves as a programmed memory cell in response to the sets of conditions. A disturbed memory cell can be detected if the memory cell responds as a programmed memory cell in response to one of the sets of conditions, but responds as an erased memory cell in response to another of the sets of conditions.
US08238160B2
A non-volatile memory device including a cell array having memory cells arranged at intersections of word lines and bit lines; an address decoder configured to select one of the word lines in response to an address; a write circuit configured to write program data in memory cells connected with the selected word line; and a control circuit configured to control the address decoder and the write circuit such that a plurality of band program (write) operations are sequentially executed during a write operation, wherein the control circuit is further configured to select each band write operation the optimal write condition of the next band write operation. A plurality of available write conditions are stored as trim information in a plurality of registers. The control circuit selects the register storing information for performing programming under the optimal write condition.
US08238157B1
A method for data storage includes defining, in a memory that includes multiple analog memory cells, an erased state, a set of non-erased programming states and a partial subset of the non-erased programming states. Data is initially stored in a first group of the analog memory cells by programming each of at least some of the memory cells in the first group from the erased state to a respective non-erased programming state selected from the set of non-erased programming states. After initially storing the data, a second group of the analog memory cells, which potentially cause interference to the first group, is programmed. After programming the second group, the first group is selectively re-programmed with the data by repeating programming of only the memory cells in the first group whose respective programming states belong to the partial subset.
US08238146B2
The invention relates to the use of chalcogenide devices exhibiting negative differential resistance in integrated circuits as programmable variable resistor components. The present invention is a continuously variable integrated analog resistor made of a chalcogenide material, such as a GeSeAg alloy. Continuously variable resistor states are obtained in the material via application of an electrical pulse to it. The pulse sequence, duration and applied potential determine the value of the resistance state obtained.
US08238139B2
A dynamic RAM which includes a first inverter, a second inverter, a sense amplifier, a first pair of switches, a pair of bit lines, and a dynamic RAM cell. The first inverter receives a first driving signal. A power end of the first inverter is coupled to a first voltage source. The second inverter receives a second driving signal output from the first inverter. A power end of the second inverter is coupled to a second voltage source. The sense amplifier senses and amplifies a voltage difference between a first sensing signal and a second sensing signal. A power end of the sense amplifier is coupled to a third voltage source, wherein a voltage value of the second voltage source is between a voltage value of the first voltage source and a voltage value of the third voltage source.
US08238137B2
A ferroelectric random access memory device has a first bit line, a first ferroelectric capacitor, a second bit line, a second ferroelectric capacitor and a first to fourth MOS transistor. The first bit line is changed to a first data potential according to first data stored in the first ferroelectric capacitor, the second bit line is changed to a second data potential according to second data obtained by inverting a logic of the first data, and then the second MOS transistor and the fourth MOS transistor are turned on.
US08238131B2
A method in connection with a frequency converter and a frequency converter, the frequency converter being arranged for periodic recurrent use. The method comprises steps for generating and storing in a memory an average heating of a power semiconductor of the frequency converter, caused by one loading period, determining a temperature limit from the generated heating and the highest allowed temperature of the power semiconductor, determining the temperature of the power semiconductor in the frequency converter, and changing the operation mode of the frequency converter when the temperature of the power semiconductor exceeds the temperature limit when transferring to a loading period.
US08238125B2
The specification discloses a wireless power charging system in which undesired frequencies in the primary coil are cancelled. Exemplary undesired frequencies are the harmonics of the primary coil drive signal. The system includes a sense transformer/coil, an injection transformer/coil, and a compensation signal generator. The sense transformer/coil senses the signal in the primary coil. The compensation signal generator receives the sensed signal and generates an injection signal whose constituent parts are equal in amplitude to, but pi phase different from, each undesired frequency. The combined signal is injected into the primary through the injection transformer/coil so that the injection signal cancels the undesired frequencies in the primary coil.
US08238124B2
Dual-mode AC/DC power converters and associated methods of operation are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the AC/DC converter includes a primary winding, a switching transistor coupled to the primary winding, the switching transistor configured to carry a drain-source current, and a feedback voltage port configured to carry a feedback voltage. The feedback voltage port is coupled to the switching transistor to switch off the switching transistor when the drain-source current reaches a peak current limit. The peak current limit increases with increasing feedback voltage if and only if the feedback voltage satisfies an ordered relationship with a threshold.
US08238122B2
The present invention relates to a DC/DC converter (1) with primary side (11) consisting of a resonant converter, which DC/DC converter (1) comprises a first and a second transformer (T1, T2), connected in series on the primary side (11) and on the secondary side (12) of the DC/DC converter. The secondary side (12) comprises an autotransformer (Tcd) consisting of a first and a second winding (Tcda, Tcdb) connected to a common center tap (Tcdc), where the first winding (Tcda) of the autotransformer (Tcd) is connected to the secondary winding (T1b) of the first transformer (T1), forming a first output connection point (P1), the second winding (Tcdb) of the autotransformer (Tcd) is connected to the secondary winding (T2b) of the second transformer (T2), forming a second output connection point (P2).
US08238117B2
The invention provides, in one aspect, an access control system that comprises an access control panel coupled to an access control expansion box. The access control panel includes one or more access control boards disposed within a first rack-mount enclosure, each control board providing at least an interface for monitoring and/or controlling access to one or more building entry points or zones via associated sensors and/or intrusion prevention devices, collectively, “security devices.” The access control expansion box includes a plurality of input/output (I/O) boards disposed within a second rack-mount enclosure. The I/O boards provide an interface for at least (i) sending signals received from one or more additional security devices to the control boards, and/or (ii) sending signals received from the control boards to one or more of the additional security devices.
US08238116B2
Disclosed are apparatus and methodology for providing land grid feedthrough capacitor designs having broad applicability to signal and power filtering technologies. Such capacitor designs provide characteristics for use in decoupling applications involving both signal level and power level environments. Low equivalent series inductance (ESL) is provided by current cancellation techniques involving opposite current flow in power or signal and ground current paths through the device.
US08238111B2
A printed circuit board includes a signal layer, a power layer, and a ground layer. The signal layer includes an analog audio input/output (I/O) port and an audio chip. The audio chip includes a main body, a first group of signal pins connected to the analog audio I/O port and a second group of signal pins connected to a control chip. The power layer and the ground layer each is divided into two unconnected parts, an audio part and a digital part, by a dividing groove. The two audio parts act as a whole reference plane for traces between the analog audio I/O port and the first group of signal pins of the audio chip. The two digital parts act as reference planes for traces between the control chip and the second group of signal pins of the audio chip.
US08238110B2
The invention concerns an anti-interference advice for a housing (1) including at least two electrically conductive terminals (32, 33) distinctly positioned on an electronic card (30) and connected to processing means, a protective circuit (45) positioned relative to the two electrically conductive terminals (32, 33) in such a manner as to close the electrical circuit during the normal utilization position of the housing (1), the protective circuit (45), including means adapted for opening the electrical circuit closed in response to a deterioration in the protective circuit (45).
US08238108B2
A power semiconductor module system. One embodiment provides a power semiconductor module and a mounting adapter. The mounting adapter and the power semiconductor module can be latched to one another in two different latching stages such that a contact element of the power semiconductor module makes electrical contact with a contact element of the mounting adapter assigned to the contact element in a second one of the latching stages but not in a first one of the latching stages.
US08238104B2
A system for providing computing capacity includes a base module and two or more fin modules coupled to the base module. At least one of the fin modules includes one or more fins and two or more computer systems coupled to the fins. At least one of the fins to which the computer systems are coupled extends from the base module such that the fin has a primarily vertical orientation. An electrical power bus in the base module supplies power to computer systems of the fin modules. The site of operation may be indoors, out of doors, or in a limited shelter.
US08238100B2
According to one embodiment, a centrifugal fan includes an impeller and a fan casing containing the impeller. An intake port configured to draw air and a first outlet port and a second outlet port configured to expel the air are provided in the fan casing. The first outlet port is open in a direction different from a direction in which the intake port is open. The second outlet port is open in a direction same as the direction in which the intake port is open in a position apart from the impeller.
US08238094B1
A data processing unit includes a chassis configured to contain a line card. The chassis defines, at least in part, a portion of a first flow pathway and a portion of a second flow pathway. The chassis is configured such that a first portion of a gas can flow within the first flow pathway between an intake region and the first end portion of the line card such that the first portion of the gas flows across a first end portion of the line card in a first direction. The chassis is configured such that a second portion of the gas can flow within the second flow pathway between the intake region and a second end portion of the line card such that the second portion of the gas flows across the second end portion of the line card in a second direction opposite the first direction.
US08238093B2
A computer system includes a chassis, a motherboard, a heat sink, a duct and a fan. The chassis includes a chassis bottom wall. The motherboard with a chip is secured to the chassis bottom wall. The heat sink is secured to the motherboard for cooling the chip. The duct includes a guiding portion and a latch portion located on the guiding portion. The latch portion is secured to the chassis bottom wall. The guiding portion is adjacent to the heat sink to direct airflow to the heat sink. The fan is secured on the latch portion of the duct. The guiding portion of the duct is positioned between the heat sink and the fan.
US08238083B2
A slide mechanism includes a main plate, a slide plate, an elastic member, and two connecting members. The main plate includes two rail portions and two guide rails. Each rail portion defines a guiding slot. Each guide rail is received in one of the guiding slot and defines a slide groove. The elastic member is secured on the main plate and the slide plate. The two connecting members are secured to the slide plate and each connecting member is slideably received in one of the guiding slots.
US08238074B2
The present invention provides a capacitive RF-MEMS device comprising a vertically integrated decoupling capacitor (14). The decoupling capacitor (14) therefore does not take extra area. Furthermore, the RF-MEMS according to the invention needs less interconnects, which also saves space and which reduces the series inductance/resistance in the RF path.
US08238057B2
The present invention relates to a magnetic head and particularly to improvement of its recording element. The recording element includes a first magnetic film, a second magnetic film, a coil film, and an insulating film. The first magnetic film has a first pole portion. The second magnetic film has a second pole portion opposed to the first pole portion with a magnetic gap film therebetween and is joined to the first magnetic film at a back gap portion that is located in a rearward position with respect to a medium facing surface. The coil film extends around the back gap portion, and the insulating film encloses the coil film. Moreover, the second magnetic film entirely covers the insulating film.
US08238054B2
A hard disk drive effectively removes internal humidity therefrom and thus improves the reliance and performance of the hard disk drive in high and increased humidity environments.
US08238051B2
Real time monitoring inconsistent operations in a hard disk drive, wherein the hard disk drive comprises a magnetic disk, a controller and a channel clock. A timing signal from the channel clock is measured in real time in the controller. Time intervals between sector identifier marks of the magnetic disk are detected using the timing signal from the channel clock during reading and writing operations of the hard disk drive in the controller. An inconsistency in the drive operations is detected in the controller based on changes in the time intervals between the sector identifier marks is detected during operation of the hard disk drive. The detection of the inconsistency in the drive operations is responded to.
US08238049B2
A lens drive device formed in a substantially quadrangular shape may include a movable body holding a lens, a fixed body movably holding the movable body, and a drive mechanism for driving the movable body in the optical axis direction. The drive mechanism may include first drive magnets respectively disposed on four side faces of the lens drive device, a second drive magnet for restraining inclination which is disposed on at least one of four corners of the lens drive device, and a drive coil which is wound around in a substantially octagonal shape. Magnetic flux passing through the drive coil at one of the four corners of the lens drive device is different from magnetic fluxes passing through the drive coil at the other three corners, or magnetic fluxes passing through the drive coil at two corners adjacent to each other of the four corners of the lens drive device are different from magnetic fluxes passing through the drive coil at the other two corners.
US08238040B2
A zoom optical system including, in order from an object side: a first group having positive power; a second group having negative power; a third group having positive power; and a fourth group having positive power, at least a portion of lenses within said third group composing a movable group which moves in a direction having a component perpendicular to an optical axis, a distance between said first group and said second group, a distance between said second group and said third group and a distance between said third group and said fourth group being variable upon zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telescopic end state, thereby providing a zoom optical system capable of correcting a camera shake by the movable group with realizing high optical performance, a high zoom ratio, and a small f-number, an optical apparatus equipped therewith, and a method for manufacturing thereof.
US08238033B2
A manufacturing method for a liquid lens device includes: preparing a body having a liquid chamber, a conductive first liquid stored in the liquid chamber, an insulating second liquid stored in the liquid chamber, an electrode kept in contact with the first liquid, and a liquid discharge passage for making the communication between the inside and the outside of the liquid chamber; applying pressure to the first and second transparent substrates to thereby compress the sealing member and discharge the first liquid through the liquid discharge passage to the outside of the liquid chamber; and closing the liquid discharge passage.
US08238026B1
A polarization-sensitive infrared image sensor (also termed a snapshot polarimeter) utilizing a 2-D array of polarizers to filter infrared light from a scene according to polarization, and a 2-D array of photodetectors (i.e. a focal plane array) to detect the filtered infrared light and generate polarization information which can be used to form a polarization-sensitive image of the scene. By forming each polarizer on an optical fiber in a fiber optic faceplate, the polarizers can be located facing a 2-D array of retarders to minimize diffraction effects of the infrared light. The optical fibers also guide the filtered infrared light to the photodetectors to reduce cross-talk in the polarization information. The polarizers can be formed as wire grid polarizers; and the retarders can be formed as subwavelength surface-relief gratings.
US08238013B2
A projection apparatus comprising a micromirror device for reflecting and modulating a light emitted from a light source to project a display an image on a display screen. The projection apparatus further includes a projection optical system comprises an adjustable aperture for adjusting an aperture ratio to control an amount of output light reflected from the micromirror device to the image display screen.
US08238012B2
Light beams from light sources 1, 2 are scanned by a galvano mirror 10a to illuminate a predetermined portion 15b of an object to be observed 15 via an objective lens 14. The reflected light from the object is re-scanned by the galvano mirror 10a to obtain a two-dimensional image via an image-capturing element 25. Measuring means composed of an OCT interferometer 32 is branched or coupled in the optical path between the objective lens 14 and the galvano mirror 10a to obtain a tomographic image of the object. In this configuration, the two-dimensional image and the tomographic image of the object can be displayed simultaneously on a display device 28.
US08238011B1
A micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) mirror device has a mirror, a frame rotatively coupled to the mirror, and a biaxial actuator rotatively coupled to the frame where the actuator is able to rotate about the rotational axes of the mirror and the frame with the mirror.
US08238008B2
A laser transmitter projects a beam of laser light outward while raising and lowering the beam. The beam may define a conical surface of varying inclination. The transmitter includes a laser source that directs a beam generally vertically, and a beam diverting element. The beam diverting element is positioned in the path of the beam, intercepting the beam and redirecting it. The beam emerges from the transmitter as a non-vertical beam that is raised and lowered. The diverting element may include a pair of mirrors configured as a pentaprism, with one of the mirrors pivotable. Alternatively, the diverting element may include a plurality of micro mirrors. Also, the diverting element may include a conical reflector and an annular lens which is cyclically raised and lowered. The beam may be raised and lowered cyclically according to a predetermined schedule, or it may be raised and lowered non-cyclically.
US08237998B2
A system for processing documents having fastening devices includes a document transport system and a fastening device detecting station connected to the transport system that is adapted to detect a fastening device securing together pages of a document. The fastening device removing station is adapted to remove a fastening device securing together pages of a document. A scanning station is adapted to scan the pages of a document. A page flipping station is adapted to flip and position pages of a document to be scanned. A systems controller controls the transport system and the stations based on information provided by the fastening device detecting station for a document to be scanned, to cause such document to be processed by the fastening device removing before scanning of the document or by the page flipping station during scanning of the document to be scanned.
US08237996B2
Image reading apparatus, controller, image forming apparatus and angular position controlling method
The image reading apparatus includes: an original placing unit on which an original is to be placed, and the original placing unit transmitting light applied onto an original surface of the original and light reflected by the original surface; a lighting unit having plural light-emitting elements arrayed in a line and lighting the original surface of the original placed on the original placing unit; an image signal generating unit receiving the light reflected by the original surface lit by the lighting unit and generating an image signal; a detecting unit detecting a position of the original surface; and a lighting-unit setting unit setting, by using a result of the detection by the detecting unit, the lighting unit at an angular position so that the image signal generating unit does not receive light emitted from an optical axis of the light-emitting elements and then reflected by the original surface.
US08237995B2
A scanner is mounted on a printer. A printer lid is pivotally mounted to the printer, and is moveable to open and close. A scanner lid is pivotally mounted to the scanner, and is moveable to open and close. A printer locking member and a scanner locking member are pivotally mounted to the scanner. Opening the scanner lid causes the printer locking member to pivot to lock the scanner to the printer. Opening the printer lid causes the scanner locking member to pivot to lock the scanner lid to the scanner. A scanner having a lid is pivotally mounted on a printer. When the lid is pivoted to open, a stopper may pivot together with the lid and abut the scanner, thereby stopping the lid. The stopper may pivot together with the lid and the scanner and abuts the printer, stopping the lid and the scanner.
US08237992B2
In order to prevent illegal copying more effectively in an image forming apparatus, when a specified ground pattern for preventing copying is detected in input image data, the detected ground pattern is emphasized in the image data. Alternatively, information for detecting the specified ground pattern is stored in a storage device, in order to detect the ground pattern with the stored information. When the ground pattern is not detected, a ground region in the image data is analyzed further to determine whether a different ground pattern exits or not. When a ground pattern is detected, information for detecting the ground pattern is stored in the storing device.
US08237984B2
Provided are a data processing method and a data processor for ink jet printing, which are capable of achieving uniform and high-quality images while stabilizing density and color development in each of pixels. To this end, a mask pattern for setting permission and non-permission to print dots in each area is arranged non-periodically by using an integral multiple of m×n areas as one unit. The m×n areas allow one pixel to be expressed in half-tone. Thereby, density in the pixel is stable since a plurality of dots printed in the same pixel are printed approximately in the same event. Moreover, since each of the units (clusters) is non-periodically arranged, a uniform image can be obtained.
US08237982B2
An image forming apparatus includes setting means configured to set writing start address for each line of image data, based on information for correcting distortion of a scanning line, correction means configured to read the image data from storage means on a line-by-line basis in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction of the image, and execute correction processing to write the image data in the storage means from the writing start address set by the setting means on a line-by-line basis in the second direction of the image, output means configured to read the image data corrected by the correction means from the storage means on a line-by-line basis in the first direction of the image to output the image data.
US08237978B2
In a method or system for generation of media print copies of at least one media title, running data are generated in an editing computer, the running data being associated with a media page. The running data have reference information and are transferred to a job system. Job data of an individual job are generated from the running data and from customer-specific data that correspond to media categories of the media title. Individual page frame data are formed from the job data. Control information is attained from the job data and with the control information the page frame data are merged with page content data of pages filled with editorial information.
US08237977B2
A system is provided for maintaining imaging device (IDev) accounting data. A primary accounting server (PAS) sends messages to an imaging device (IDev) and to a lightweight accounting back-up server (LABS). The PAS receives messages from the IDev and updates a primary IDev activity log (PIAL). The IDev receives messages from the Primary server and a LABS in communication with the IDev. The LABS sends and receives messages and data from the IDev and from the PAS. The IDev sends a record of its activity to the PAS when the PAS is available, and the PAS maintains a primary IDev activity log (PIAL). The IDev sends a record of its activity to the LABS when the PAS is not available and the LABs maintains a temporary IDev activity log (TIAL). The PAS updates the PIAL with the TIAL data after a period of unavailability.
US08237970B2
Selective rerouting of document processing jobs is disclosed. A printer driver first converts electronic document data is into a device compatible format and assigned a unique document ID. The printer driver then determines a set of network devices, such as document processing devices, that are participating in the performance of received document processing jobs. The converted document data is then divided into portions and one or more portions are then sent to each of the participating network devices. One of the devices is then selected as the output device, whereupon the output device broadcasts/multicasts a request for processed data portions from each of the other network devices. The received portions are then recombined, and released for further processing in accordance with the received document processing job.
US08237960B2
An image processing apparatus that allows accumulated image data and print control data to be transferred to another image processing apparatus and that may improve user convenience. The image processing apparatus is communicatively connected to another image processing apparatus. A storage unit stores input image data in a first format. A reception unit receives from the another image processing apparatus information indicating a format of image data capable of being analyzed by the another image processing apparatus. An identification unit identifies, based on the information received by the reception unit, software for converting the image data from the first format to another format of image data capable of being analyzed by the another image processing apparatus. A transmission unit transmits the image data stored in the storage unit and the software identified at the identification unit and information indicating a location where the image data is stored in said storage unit to the another image processing apparatus.
US08237959B2
A communication apparatus is provided. The communication apparatus includes an image read unit which reads image data from a transmission document; a tag read unit which wirelessly reads tag data stored in a wireless tag corresponding to the transmission document; an image data generation unit, if the tag data includes mark data indicating that a mark is to be added to the image data, generates composite image data by combining the image data and mark image data based on the mark data; and a transmission unit which transmits the composite image data as transmission document data to an external apparatus.
US08237957B2
A demonstration system for a peripheral such as a printer connects an external, non-volatile memory to the printer in place of the host computer. One such peripheral uses a peripheral cable containing a controller or formatter that includes a computer interface for communications with the host computer and an interface for memory accesses. The peripheral cable connects to the computer interface for communications with the host computer. The demonstration system employs a controller or formatter of the same type as used in the peripheral cable and connects the interface for reading from the external memory. The controller can load both demonstration code and demonstration data from the external memory and direct the peripheral to perform a demonstration.
US08237950B2
An image formation device, having a storage unit capable of storing image data, includes a determination unit for determining the capability of another image formation device, and an editing unit for performing desired editing as to the image data to be stored in the storage unit. If the determination unit determines that the desired editing cannot be performed by another image formation device, the desired editing is performed by the editing unit and the image data subjected to the desired editing by the editing unit is transmitted to another image formation device. On the other hand, if the determination unit determines that the desired editing can be performed with another image formation device, the image data is transmitted to another image formation device without the editing unit performing the desired editing.
US08237949B2
A system and method for combining at a single location selection of image finishing operations of multiple devices. The system comprises a first memory for storing imaging finishing operations of the source device; a second memory for storing imaging finishing operations of the destination device; a display; and a system processor, coupled to the first memory, the second memory and the display, for producing a representation of both imaging finishing operations of the source device and imaging finishing operations of the destination device, and causing that representation to be presented by the display. The method comprises retrieving from a first memory information regarding imaging finishing operations of the source device; retrieving from a second memory information regarding imaging finishing operations of the destination device; and producing a representation of both imaging finishing operations of the source device and imaging finishing operations of the destination device, and causing that representation to be presented by a display. The system and method may be particularly adapted for pull printing of an image by a printer in communication with a host computer.
US08237945B2
An image processing apparatus which makes it possible not only to improve reusability of data in another apparatus, but also to increase the speed of data output. If a process is requested to be executed on the image data and the file data contains data usable by the image processing apparatus in addition to the image data, the apparatus executes the requested process using the usable data, whereas if the file data does not contain data usable by the image processing apparatus in addition to the image data, the apparatus executes the requested process using the image data. Further, the apparatus adds data generated during execution of the requested process using the image data to the file data, as data usable by the apparatus.
US08237937B2
An image processing apparatus includes a generator, a storage, an image data format converter, and a sender. The generator generates print image data for printing an image, based on image data sent from an external device. The storage stores the print image data. The image data format converter converts the print image data into image data in a format handled by an external device. The sender sends the converted image data via an IP (internet protocol) network to the external device. The image data format converter performs one of color space conversion, expansion, compression, resolution conversion, filtering, halftone processing, density gamma conversion, and noise removal in accordance with parameters determined based on at least one of property information of the print image data and property information requested by the external device.
US08237934B1
A system and methods for precision marking are disclosed. A spring-loaded mechanical marking tool comprising an optical retro-reflector is operable to interface with a metrology system to expedite determination of a desired feature location. The tool simplifies user operation of metrology targeting devices, and reduces or eliminates process non-conformance, potential surface damage and miss-location.
US08237929B2
The present subject matter relates to methods of high-speed analysis of product samples during production of the product. Light is directed to a portion of a product under analysis and reflected from or transmitted through the product toward optical detectors. Signals from the optical detectors are compared to determine characteristics of the product under analysis. Temperature within the monitoring system may be monitored in order to provide compensation for the signals produced by the optical detectors. The products under analysis may be stationary, moved by an inspection point by conveyor or other means, or may be contained within a container, the container including a window portion through which the product illuminating light may pass.
US08237928B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the analysis of the components of one or more gases, for example a gas mixture sampled from a semiconductor manufacturing process such as plasma etching or plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Particular embodiments provide sufficient power to a plasma of the sample, to dissociate a large number of the molecules and molecular fragments into individual atoms. With sufficient power (typically a power density of between 3-40 W/cm3) delivered into the plasma, most of the emission peaks result from emission of individual atoms, thereby creating spectra conducive to simplifying the identification of the chemical composition of the gases under investigation. Such accurate identification of components of the gas may allow for the precise determination of the stage of the process being performed, and in particular for detection of process endpoint.
US08237919B2
A controller uses two Z heads, which are positioned above a reflection surface installed on the ±X ends of the upper surface of a table, to measure the height and tilt of the table. According to the XY position of the table, the Z heads to be used are switched from ZsR and ZsL to ZsR′ and ZsL. On the switching of the heads, the controller applies a coordinate linkage method to set an initial value of the Z heads which are to be newly used. Accordingly, although the Z heads to be used are sequentially switched according to the XY position of the table, measurement results of the height and the tilt of the table are stored before and after the switching, and it becomes possible to drive the table with high precision.
US08237916B2
A stage device is equipped with a first scale which is placed with a Y-axis direction serving as its longitudinal direction and in which a first grating whose periodic direction is in an X-axis direction is formed and a second scale which is placed with the X-axis direction serving as its longitudinal direction and in which a second grating whose periodic direction is orthogonal to the periodic direction of the first grating is formed, the first scale and the second scale being placed on a plane which a wafer stage faces. Further, on the upper surface of the wafer stage, a plurality of X heads placed at different positions in the X-axis direction and a plurality of Y heads placed at different positions in the Y-axis direction are arranged. An encoder system that has these heads measures positional information of the stage within an XY plane, based on an output of the X head facing the first scale and an output of the Y head facing the second scale.
US08237906B2
A liquid crystal display device includes: a pair of substrates disposed to face each other; an inner sealing material surrounding a non-display region between the pair of substrates; an outer sealing material surrounding the inner sealing material; liquid crystal filled between the inner sealing material and the outer sealing material; and a display region formed in a region where the liquid crystal is filled, and first columnar spacers fixed on any one of the pair of substrates are formed in the forming region of the inner sealing material, the first columnar spacers being formed so as to avoid positions overlapped with intersecting portions of the gate signal lines and the drain signal lines.
US08237905B2
An electro-optical device includes a pair of first and second substrates. A pixel region on the first substrate. A seal material arranged along the periphery of the pixel region. An alignment mark located between the outer edge side of the second substrate and the seal material, The alignment mark is provided in at least one of four corner regions partially defined by four corners of the second substrate, and is used during alignment of the first and second substrates.
US08237901B2
A liquid crystal display device includes an OCB mode liquid crystal display panel, and an optical compensation element which is disposed outside of the liquid crystal display layer. The optical compensation element includes a polarizer plate, a first retardation plate which is disposed between the polarizer plate and the liquid crystal layer, and a second retardation plate which is disposed between the polarizer plate and the first retardation plate and has a biaxial refractive index anisotropy. The optical compensation element compensates a difference of a polarization state that differs between azimuth directions of light passing through the liquid crystal layer and compensates a shift of the polarization state of light, which passes through the retardation plate, from an azimuth direction of an absorption axis of the polarizer plate.
US08237896B2
An active matrix substrate (30) of the present invention includes (i) a plurality of TFT elements (2) provided on an insulating substrate (10), and (ii) pixel electrodes (7) electrically connected to the plurality of TFT elements (2), respectively. The pixel electrodes (7) has (i) a first transparent electrode layer (7a), (ii) a reflective electrode layer (7b) stacked on the first transparent electrode layer (7a), which reflective electrode layer (7b) has a smaller area than that of the first transparent electrode layer (7a), and (iii) a second transparent electrode layer (7c) stacked so as to cover at least the reflective electrode layer (7b). Hence, it is possible to realize a transflective liquid crystal display device which suppresses occurrence of a flicker, thereby having high display quality.
US08237894B2
A color filter includes a red filter segment, a green filter segment and a blue filter segment, on a substrate, wherein when a pseudo-white LED is used, an area of a triangle defined by three chromaticity points of the red, green and blue filter segments expressed as (xR, yR), (xG, yG) and (xB, yB) on the x-y chromaticity diagram occupies 72% or more of an area standard triangle defined by defined by 3 points of red (0.67, 0.33), green (0.21, 0.71) and blue (0.14, 0.08), and the color filter has a color temperature of 6000K or more. Each of the red, green and blue filter segments has a thickness of 3.3 μm or less. A liquid crystal display device includes such color filter and the pseudo-white LED.
US08237888B2
An illuminating device includes a light guide plate, a light source disposed on a side face of the light guide plate, and a light modulation element disposed on a surface or on inside of the light guide plate and joined to the light guide plate. The light modulation element has a pair of transparent substrates disposed apart from each other and opposed to each other, a pair of electrodes provided on surfaces of the pair of transparent substrates, and a light modulation layer provided in a gap between the pair of transparent substrates. The light modulation layer includes a first region and a second region both having optical anisotropy and having response speeds to an electric field different from each other.
US08237880B1
An active matrix display includes a matrix of pixel elements, an array of column conducting lines, an array of row conducting lines crossing the array of column conducting lines, and an array of enabling lines crossing the array of column conducting lines. A column conducting line is electrically connected to a column of pixel elements. A row conducting line is electrically connected to a row of pixel elements. An enabling line is electrically connected to one or more rows of pixel elements. A pixel element includes a capacitive element, a nonlinear element, and a switching transistor. The nonlinear element is electrically connected the capacitive element. The switching transistor has a gate configured to receive an electric signal from an enabling line and has a semiconductor channel electrically connected to the capacitive element.
US08237873B2
Three or more projectors project their respective images to form a composite image. In some cases all three projected images overlap. In order to compensate for distortions in this overlap, blending values are assigned to the projector pixels that contribute to the overlap regions. Pixels that contribute to the overlap of two projectors are assigned a blending value associated with this projector pair. Pixels that contribute to the overlap of three projectors are assigned a blending value that is the greater of the two blending values associated with the two projector pairs, after such blending value has been scaled.
US08237863B2
An adaptive gain and offset control for a digital video analog to digital converter is provided. A gain indicator and/or an offset indicator, which are used as inputs control signals to an analog-to-digital converter, are determined based on a detected maximum level and a detected blanking level from an input video signal. The gain and offset indicators may be determined independently from a minimum level of the video signal.
US08237849B2
An image-pickup apparatus is disclosed which is capable of realizing a focus-effect function in a constant time without being influenced by contrast of an object or the position of a focus lens. The apparatus includes a signal generator which generates a focus evaluation signal, a detector which detects information corresponding to an object distance, and a controller which performs focus lens control on the basis of the focus evaluation signal and focus lens control on the basis of information corresponding to the object distance. The controller determines a direction and a velocity in which the focus lens is moved toward an in-focus position on the basis of the information corresponding to the object distance in the focus lens control according to the focus-effect function. The controller performs the focus lens control on the basis of the focus evaluation signal after the focus lens is moved in the determined direction.
US08237845B2
Provided are a method of controlling a focus lens to be moved to a target location by generating a normalized focus graph by use of relative values of a plurality of focus values obtained by using a plurality of filters each having different cut-off frequencies, and predicting a target position of the focus lens according to the normalized focus graph, an apparatus operating by using the method, and a recording medium for recording the method. According to the present invention, in terms of performing an auto-focusing function, by optimizing the motion line of the focus lens, wasteful power consumption can be prevented and a scanning time of the focus lens can be shortened.
US08237841B2
A compound-eye imaging device comprises an imaging device body having 9 optical lenses and a solid-state imaging element for imaging unit images formed by the optical lenses. Assuming that the combination of each of the optical lenses with a corresponding divided area of the solid-state imaging element to image each of the corresponding unit images is an imaging unit, thereby forming multiple imaging units, the respective imaging units have randomly different optical imaging conditions. For example, the focal lengths of the 9 optical lenses are set to have random values in which the optical lenses are arranged to have random distances between adjacent ones thereof in a direction parallel to the major surface of the solid-state imaging element. This compound-eye imaging device substantially prevents unit images formed by respective imaging units from being the same, making it possible to easily increase the definition of a reconstructed image.
US08237840B2
In a digital camera operation method, photographic images are taken with the camera and a corresponding compressed high resolution image and also a corresponding lower resolution image is stored for each. A fast display mode of the camera sequentially displays individual lower resolution display images, using the data of one of the lower resolution images. A normal display mode displays high resolution display images by expanding and displaying one of the compressed high resolution images. When changing from the fast display mode to the normal display mode, the lower resolution display image currently displayed can be replaced with the corresponding high resolution display image.
US08237830B2
Embodiments provide a video camera that can be configured to highly compress video data in a visually lossless manner. The camera can be configured to transform blue and red image data in a manner that enhances the compressibility of the data. The data can then be compressed and stored in this form. This allows a user to reconstruct the red and blue data to obtain the original raw data for a modified version of the original raw data that is visually lossless when demosacied. Additionally, the data can be processed in a manner in which the green image elements are demosaiced first and then the red and blue elements are reconstructed based on values of the demosaiced green image elements.
US08237829B2
A frequency component comparing unit performs frequency component comparison for each of the image signals corresponding to the wavelength components subjected to resolution reconstruction. An image synthesizing unit performs image synthesis with an image signal that is selected according to a comparison result of the frequency component comparing unit as a component. The wavelength component that is subjected to frequency component comparison by frequency component comparing unit is selected according to the modulation transfer function characteristic of the optical system.
US08237828B2
A device for inspection of print products (36) produced by a printing machine (10) is provided with a first camera (48) being directed to an inspection field to be checked. At least one further camera (50) is provided being directed at least partially (58) to the same inspection field (54) being checked already by the first camera (48).
US08237821B2
An image capturing apparatus includes a zoom lens, a solid-state image sensor which photoelectrically converts an image formed by the zoom lens, a processing unit which processes image data obtained by the solid-state image sensor, and a correction units which processes the image data from the processing unit to correct distortion aberration of the image formed by the zoom lens, and outputs the corrected image data. The lens arrangement of the zoom lens, and the length of the diagonal line of the image capturing area in correcting distortion aberration are appropriately set.
US08237815B2
An image processing apparatus which corrects, based on information of a foreign substance adhered to an optical element arranged in front of an image sensor in an image capturing apparatus, a shadow of the foreign substance in the moving image data generated by performing predictive encoding by referring to image data of a different input frame, the image processing apparatus comprises: a moving image decompression unit which decompresses an image of each frame by obtaining information representing a difference between frames from the moving image data; and a correction unit which corrects the information representing the difference between frames when the information representing the difference between frames that is obtained by the moving image decompression unit in correspondence with a region containing the shadow of the foreign substance represented by the foreign substance information is determined to be larger than a predetermined threshold.
US08237804B2
Upon correcting blur of image capture data of an image capturing device by coded exposure processing, an exposure time and aperture value, which are set by a photometry unit of the image capturing device according to an object, are input, and the exposure time or aperture value is adjusted based on a ratio of shutter open periods in an opening and closing pattern of a shutter used in the coded exposure processing. Then, a gain adjustment value of the image capture data corresponding to a deficiency of an exposure amount by the adjusted exposure time or aperture value is set, image capture by an image capturing unit of the image capturing device is controlled based on the opening and closing pattern, exposure time, and aperture value.
US08237801B2
An apparatus, device, methods, computer program product, and system are described that determine a processing to be performed on an image at a remote processing resource, capture an image, and transmit to the remote processing resource, in response to a triggering event, the image to be processed and associated information.
US08237781B2
An electronic component mounting apparatus includes two second linear-motion devices on each of which an image pickup device and a mounting head are placed so as to be movable in an X direction, a first linear-motion device for moving the second linear-motion devices in a Y direction independently of each other, in which the image pickup device is placed at such a position as to be contained within an X-directional width of the mounting head and moreover contained within a Y-directional total width of the mounting head and the second linear-motion device. Thus, since the image pickup region of the camera is contained within the moving region of the mounting head, there is no need for ensuring a moving distance taking into account only the camera's image pickup region, so that the moving-axis length of the second linear-motion devices can be reduced.
US08237780B2
A method and apparatus for three-dimensional image viewing of an image display employs a pair of viewing glasses having left and right side lenses for alternate left-eye and right-eye image viewing by alternately blocking and passing left and right-eye image views from the image display. An image monitor is used to detect lens sync control information interleaved or embedded with image frames of the image display. The lens sync control information detected by the image monitor is decoded into left and right lens control signals for alternately blocking and passing of left and right-eye image views by the left and right side lenses, respectively, in order to generate three-dimensional image viewing.
US08237779B2
Video signals in a video stream are encoded by inserting reference signals in the video stream such that the encoded video stream carry both reference signals and video signals being coded. In the decoding stage, reference images generated from the reference signals are detected and used for identifying the encoded video signals based upon the profiles of the detected reference images. An imaging architecture capable of using the coding scheme comprises a shutter that can be implemented as a dual-processor configuration.
US08237778B2
A system includes a first specifying unit which specifies a first output information showing at least the viewpoint of a multi-viewpoint image, a second specifying unit which specifies a second output information showing an image area to be output as a single viewpoint image out of the multi-viewpoint images, and a recording unit which associates the second output information specified by the second specifying unit with the multi-viewpoint image and the first output information specified by the first specifying unit and records the second output information in a predetermined recording medium. A device which can output a multi-viewpoint image can output the multi-viewpoint image based on the first output information, and a device which cannot output a multi-viewpoint image but a single viewpoint image can output the single viewpoint image suitable for appreciation based on the second output information.
US08237772B2
When a start recording instruction or an end recording instruction is transmitted from a terminal device, a DTMF detector (106) detects a DTMF signal and supplies the detection results to a control module (107). The control module (107) supplies the received start recording instruction or end recording instruction to an image data converter (105) and a switch (108). When a start recording instruction is received as input, the image data converter (105) converts the reception image data (103) to image data that have undergone intramode coding and supplies the result to the switch (108). The switch (108) supplies a storage device (110) with the image data that were supplied from image data converter (105) at the time that a start recording instruction is received as input, and supplies the storage device (110) with reception image data (103) from the time that recording has started until the input of an end recording instruction.
US08237766B2
A video telephony terminal and an image transmission method thereof are provided. During video communication, the video telephony terminal generates a still image having a desired pattern in a user-desired region and provides a terminal of another party with an image achieved by synthesizing the generated still image with an image captured by a built-in camera. Upon establishing video communication, a change to the desired pattern in the user-desired region of the camera-captured image can be made quickly, or a desired message can be inserted into the captured image and can be transmitted in real time.
US08237764B1
A system and method enabling a local party to see how a remote party is viewing him/her during a videoconference is provided. This is accomplished by predicting and changing the local video to a similar video quality level as the video quality displayed with which the local video is displayed on a remote display. This process occurs without any input from the parties/user(s). Instead the prediction and changing of the local video occurs in an automatic fashion and continuously.
US08237757B2
There is provided a photoreceptor cleanerless image forming apparatus capable of decreasing color mixture or an exposure error due to reverse transfer toner an untransferred toner. An image forming apparatus 100 according to the present invention comprises four image forming units 100a, 100b, 100c, and 100d configured to be photoreceptor cleanerless in a 4-drum tandem manner. Each image forming unit includes a photoreceptor 103a, 103b, 103c, or 103d, a charger 105a, 105b, 105c, or 105d, an exposure apparatus 106a, 106b, 106c, or 106d, and a developing apparatus 109a, 109b, 109c, or 109d. When exposure intensities Iy, Ic, Im, and Ik are assumed for exposure sources of the exposure apparatuses in the image forming units which form yellow, magenta, cyan, and black images, respectively, the exposure intensities are configured to satisfy conditions of Ik≧Ic≧Im≧Iy and Ik>Iy. This decreases an exposure error (image hysteresis) in an image formed on paper.
US08237743B2
A computer implemented system and method for generating a game, such as spot-the-difference are provided. The method includes receiving a user-selected original image and storing the image in memory. From the original image, the method includes automatically generating a pair of images which are visually identical except for a predetermined number of random localized modifications, and providing the pair of images to the user as a game which can be played by spotting differences between the pair of images as a result of the modifications.
US08237742B2
A simulation method and system. A computing system receives a first audio and/or video data stream. The first audio and/or video data stream includes data associated with a first person. The computing system monitors the first audio and/or video data stream. The computing system identifies emotional attributes comprised by the first audio and/or video data stream. The computing system generates a second audio and/or video data stream associated with the first audio and/or video data stream. The second audio and/or video data stream includes the data without the emotional attributes. The computing system stores the second audio and/or video data stream.
US08237741B2
An image processing apparatus that displays, on a display region having a first number of pixels, an image represented by gigantic image data that is recorded in a recording medium and has a second number of pixels that is significantly greater than the first number of pixels, including: a reproducing unit configured to read image data from the recording medium; an output unit configured to output the image data, which is read by the reproducing unit from the recording medium, in synchronization with a vertical synchronization signal; and a control unit configured to control the reproducing unit and the output unit. The control unit performs control to extract and read a region corresponding to the display region from the gigantic image data recorded in the recording medium.
US08237736B2
Various embodiments utilize a set of pixels that that make up an image that is to appear in a user interface. The method divides the applicable color space into pre-defined regions and then analyzes the image by mapping color values associated with pixels of the image into defined regions. After mapping the color values, the method determines which one or more region(s) is associated with the most mapped color values and then selects that region(s) for further analysis. Using the selected region(s), the method then divides the region(s) into further sub-regions and repeats the mapping process, progressively narrowing the regions down until a single color is selected for use in a frame that comprises part of the user interface.
US08237733B2
A page transition file creation system and a method for creating a page transition file in a file format suitable for displaying transitions quickly on an electronic paper display. The page transition file creation system creates a page transition file with page transition blocks representing transition between two or more pages. A page transition display system and uses page transition files to display page transitions. The page transition display system determines the appropriate page transition file and waveform lookup table for displaying page transition. The page transition display system uses the determined page transition file and waveform lookup table for displaying the transition.
US08237719B1
Animation software enables the creation and manipulation of animation in terms of relationships between poses, as opposed to discrete values of computer graphics variable knots. Poses are automatically associated with animation structures that define object pose or poses over a time interval, rather than at a single discrete time. Animation structures may define and manipulate animation data defined over time intervals as a unit, as opposed to a set of unrelated computer graphics variable knots. Animation structures may be used to block out the general form, timing, and rhythm of animations. Optional transition animation structures, pose anticipations, and pose reactions may be automatically or manually defined between adjacent pose hold durations. General parameters of an animation structure may be applied to create or modify the animation data associated with the animation structure. Operations on animation structures can be applied to all of the animation data included in these animation structures.
US08237716B2
A system and method for drawing directed acyclic graphs is disclosed. In particular, an algorithm, as implemented in a method and system, to aesthetically layout directed acyclic graphs is presented. The algorithm includes methods to reduce the number of edge crossings and increase the number of straight edges in such drawings. The algorithm keeps short and straight edges wherever possible and gives preference to vertical edges. It also provides an edge-crossing reduction heuristic to refine the layout obtained after standard median heuristic layout, and further provides a method to focus on important paths in the graph through layout.
US08237714B1
A graphical user interface provides a series of nested spherical surfaces representing a surface and/or human development at differing times in history and prehistory. An embodiment of the present invention, a knowledge web (K-Web), comprises a new, “multiple-intelligences” learning tool aimed at encouraging depth of thinking and understanding in numerous content areas. The K-Web optionally does this by presenting content in a dynamic structure having a multiplicity of interconnections that, used in conjunction with other input and display devices, is readily accessible in many different ways to many different intelligences and cognitive styles, and thus aid in the visualization of and collaboration on “wickedly complex” problems, such as Global Warming and Third World development. It may also be used to predict the outcome when combinations of unrelated individuals, events, and technologies are brought together.
US08237712B2
Disclosed herein are embodiments of systems and methods for displaying and updating image previews in the graphical user interface of an application program running on a computer. The image previews for a given master image within the application program constitute various image sizes and resolution of that master image, and are preferably compiled as image preview data sets in a database accessible by the application program. When the image previews are manipulated in the applications program by a user, for example by scrolling or magnifying them, an appropriate resolution for that image preview can be queried from the database and displayed. For example, while scrolling, a lower-resolution image preview data set might be used when compared to those image preview data sets used while the image previews are not scrolled, thus making them less computationally intensive to display and update. Likewise, while magnifying, an appropriate image preview data set can be queried from the database instead of, or in conjunction with, up- or downscaling the image preview.
US08237710B1
Various embodiments of methods and apparatus for performing vector artwork fill rule evaluation over a tessellation are described. In some embodiments the geometric shapes of vector artwork are approximated by line segments, then tessellated into simple convex polygons (i.e. tessellation primitives). Fill rules for geometric primitives of the vector artwork are assigned to edges of the tessellation primitives. In some embodiments, fill rules for boundary edges are evaluated using background state information to assign fill values to tessellation primitives. State information for filled tessellation primitives is used by fill rules to determine fill values for unfilled tessellation primitives. Embodiments may provide detection of conflicting fill rules in the vector artwork, and may perform corrective actions on tessellation primitives.
US08237706B2
An apparatus and method for simplifying 3-Dimensional (3D) mesh data are disclosed. The method includes measuring discrete curvature at each point of received 3D mesh data, calculating an error based on distance-curvature error metrics including the discrete curvature, first sorting a low curvature one of the calculated error values in a heap in ascending order, selecting a minimum error among the calculated errors, determining if the minimum error is less than a threshold, contracting an edge if the selected minimum error is greater than the threshold, and recalculating an error of a surface neighboring to a surface on which the contracted edge belongs and re-sorting the calculated error values.
US08237695B2
A method and system for a software driver of a graphics controller to work with a display codec. The software driver may be configured to work with different display codecs at different periods of time while using a default configuration. Other embodiments are also described.
US08237694B2
In a first display period of a display device, a first count value is recorded at the rising edge of the data enable signal for controlling the length of a horizontal line. Next, a second count value is recorded at the falling edge of the data enable signal for identifying the time when the data enable signal switches from a high level to a low level. When entering a porch period following the first display period, the counter is cleared when the count value reaches the first count value. In a second display period following the porch period, the counter is cleared at the rising edge of the data enable signal, and the first count value is used for controlling the length of the horizontal line.
US08237684B2
A user input device to generate an optical navigation signal based on an edge-lit pattern. The user input device includes an optical element, a light source, a sensor array, and a navigation engine. The optical element includes a finger interface surface. At least a portion of the optical element exhibits total internal reflection (TIR). The light source provides light to the finger interface surface. The sensor array detects light reflected from the finger interface surface in response to contact between a finger and the finger interface surface. The contact between the finger and the finger interface surface disrupts the TIR and causes light to be reflected out of the optical element towards the sensor array. The navigation engine generates lateral movement information, which is indicative of lateral movement of the finger relative to the sensor array, in response to the detected light.
US08237680B2
A touch panel includes a first electrode plate and a second electrode plate connected to the first electrode plated. The first electrode plate includes a first substrate, and a first conductive layer disposed on the first substrate. The second electrode includes a second substrate, and a second conductive layer disposed on the second substrate. The first or the second conductive layer includes at least one carbon nanotube composite layer.
US08237670B2
A touch panel includes a first electrode plate and a second electrode plate. The first electrode plate includes a first substrate, a first conductive layer disposed on a lower surface of the first substrate, and two first-electrodes disposed on opposite ends of the first conductive layer. The second electrode plate separates from the first electrode plate and includes a second substrate, a second conductive layer disposed on an upper surface of the second substrate, and two second-electrodes disposed on opposite ends of the second conductive layer. At least one of the first-electrodes and the second-electrodes includes a carbon nanotube layer. Further, the present invention also relates to a display device. The display device includes a displaying unit and a touch panel.
US08237668B2
A touch control device includes a transparent substrate, a display element, and a touch panel. The display element is disposed on a surface of the transparent substrate and includes a displaying surface. The displaying surface is located away from the transparent substrate. The touch panel is located on opposite side of the display element from the transparent substrate. The touch panel includes a first electrode plate and a second electrode plate. The first electrode plate includes a first substrate and a first conductive layer disposed on a lower surface of the first substrate. The second electrode plate is separated from the first electrode plate and includes a second flexible substrate and a second conductive layer disposed on an upper surface of the second substrate. The first conductive layer and the second conductive layer both include a carbon nanotube layer.
US08237665B2
A method for interpreting ambiguous click events in relation to click targets on a touch-screen display disposed at respective click target locations includes detecting a touch at a touch location and determining whether the touch location corresponds to a click target location. The method also includes searching for nearby click target locations in a predetermined click region and, upon locating a first click target location within the predetermined click region, associating the touch with the first click target location to identify a click event. A computing device for facilitating accurate touch input targeting with respect to a touch-screen display includes a display component, a touch detection component, a targeting component that associates a touch with a click target, and an event detection component that associates the touch with one of a right click event, a left click event, or a drag event.
US08237662B2
An electronic device includes a keypad, and a body having a touch screen. The keypad attached to the touch screen, includes an obverse surface and a reverse surface. A protrusion is protruded from the obverse surface and is configured to receive user input operation, an attaching member is mounted on the reverse surface and is configured to attach the keypad to the touch screen, a hollow portion is defined in the reserve surface corresponding to the protrusion, and a pressing member is mounted in the hollow portion and is configured for touching the touch screen when the protrusion is pressed.
US08237657B2
Systems and methods according to the present invention describe 3D pointing devices and methods which detect movement of the 3D pointing device and remove unintentional movement from the output readings.
US08237655B2
An information processing apparatus includes an imaging unit, an icon display control unit causing a display to display an operation icon, a pickup image display processing unit causing the display to sequentially display an input operation region image constituted by, among pixel regions constituting an image picked up by the imaging unit, a pixel region including at least a portion of a hand of a user, an icon management unit managing event issue definition information, which is a condition for determining that the operation icon has been operated by the user, for each operation icon, an operation determination unit determining whether the user has operated the operation icon based on the input operation region image displayed in the display and the event issue definition information, and a processing execution unit performing predetermined processing corresponding to the operation icon in accordance with a determination result by the operation determination unit.
US08237653B2
An electrophoretic display device includes a pair of substrates, an electrophoretic element that includes electrophoretic particles and that are held between the pair of substrates, and a display portion formed of a plurality of pixels. The display portion includes pixel electrodes, an opposite electrode, a first control line and a second control line. The opposite electrode is opposed to the plurality of pixel electrodes through the electrophoretic element. The first control line and the second control line are connected to each of the pixels. Each of the pixels includes a pixel switching element, a memory circuit, and a switch circuit. Switching of the switch circuit is performed by an output signal of the memory circuit to switch between a connected state where the pixel electrode is connected to the first control line and a connected state where the pixel electrode is connected to the second control line.
US08237649B2
A liquid crystal driving device includes, for each of a plurality of scanning lines, a level shift and output buffer circuit including a first PMOSFET and a first NMOSFET connected in series, a second PMOSFET and a second NMOSFET connected in series, and CMOS inverter circuit. A gate of the first PMOSFET and a gate of the second NMOSFET may be connected to respective bias voltages. Alternatively, a gate of the first NMOSFET and a gate of the second PMOSFET may be connected to respective bias voltages. Each level shift and output buffer circuit receives a binary input signal and outputs a buffered signal having both levels shifted with respect to the input signal using six transistors.
US08237647B2
A driving method for a liquid crystal display apparatus, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between a pixel electrode and a counter electrode, and that controls a transmitted light in the liquid crystal layer by dividing a single frame period into multiple subfield periods and applying an on/off binary data signal between the pixel electrode and the counter electrode in each subfield period. When a counter electrode potential applied to the counter electrode is used as a reference and a voltage higher than the reference is taken as a positive-polarity voltage and a voltage lower than the reference is taken as a negative-polarity voltage, the data signal is converted to the positive-polarity voltage and negative-polarity voltage alternately and cyclically every a cyclical period having subfield period or every several subfield periods. Further, the length of half the cyclical period is no less than 1.6 ms.
US08237638B2
A method of driving an electro-optic display, the display having a plurality of pixels each addressable by a row electrode and a column electrode, the method including: receiving image data for display, the image data defining an image matrix; factorizing the image matrix into a product of at least first and second factor matrices, the first factor matrix defining row drive signals for the display, the second factor matrix defining column drive signals for the display; and driving the display row and column electrodes using the row and column drive signals respectively defined by the first and second factor matrices.
US08237633B2
The present invention provides an EL display adapted to receive a three-color input image signal, including three gamut-defining EL emitters for emitting red, green, and blue colored light and two additional EL emitters for emitting at least two additional colors of light, the chromaticity coordinates of the at least two additional colors of light lying inside the gamut and near the Plankian Locus; a structure for providing a display white point; and a controller responsive, to the provided display white point and the input image signal for providing first separate drive signals for the three gamut-defining EL emitters and second separate drive signals for the two additional EL emitters, wherein the respective luminance values corresponding to the second separate drive signals are each a function of the input image signal and the distances between the display white point and the pseudo-blackbody points of the two additional colors.
US08237628B2
A vector image drawer comprises: an outline definer, a divider, an outline flag setter, a filler, and a continue flag setter. The outline definer defines outline data for indicating a start pixel and an end pixel of a filling along each scanning line of a drawing region. The divider divides the drawing region into an m×n matrix of drawing subregions. The outline flag setter sets an outline flag for indicating a presence of the outline data for each of the drawing subregions. The filler performs a fill processing for drawing subregions in a case where a continue flag is set for an adjacent drawing subregions and the outline flag is set for each of the drawing subregions. A continue flag setter sets the continue flag for each of the scanning line, whether a filling continues into an adjacent drawing subregion.
US08237623B2
A headset antenna and a connector for the same are provided. The headset antenna includes an audio signal line, an antenna and a high impedance element in specified application frequency ranges. The audio signal line is adapted for transmitting an audio signal and the antenna is adapted for receiving an RF signal. The high impedance element is disposed on a transmission path of the audio signal and generates a high impedance at a specified frequency band of the RF signal, so that the audio signal line is equivalent to an open circuit and the antenna obtains a better receiving capability.
US08237617B1
What is disclosed is a surface wave antenna configured to install on an electrically conductive structure. The surface wave antenna includes a first portion comprising a conductive element and an attachment element, and a second portion comprising a conductive element and an attachment element. The conductive element of the first portion and the conductive element of the second portion are configured to each form a conductive longitudinal portion of a horn receive element, and the attachment elements are configured to conductively couple the conductive elements together to form the horn receive element. The surface wave antenna also includes a dipole element comprising a first transmit element and a second transmit element. The surface wave antenna also includes a mounting element comprising a first dielectric mount and a second dielectric mount.
US08237611B2
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system and method for processing multiple navigation signal components received from multiple global navigation satellite systems (GNSS'). In a particular implementation, a code phase in a first navigation signal component may be detected based, at least in part, on information in a second navigation signal component.
US08237596B2
For high resolution resistor string DACs, a resistor string is placed in an array of columns and rows, each resistor tap is connected to a switch network, and a decoder is used to select switches to be closed such that sub-DAC voltage comes from the resistor taps connected to the selected switches. The voltages from each row of the resistor string are fed into a multiplexer, wherein the multiplexer produces an output voltage. A method and apparatus are disclosed for implementing the reflective nature of Gray code to design a DAC such that all the switches in a column of the resistor string may be controlled with only one control signal, thereby reducing extra routing costs, surface area, and dynamic power consumed by the circuit.
US08237594B2
An encoding apparatus includes a unit that calculates a plurality of normalized values by dividing input values in an input signal by either a normalization coefficient that is closest to a maximum value of absolute values of the input values or a normalization coefficient that is closest to the maximum value from among normalization coefficients that are larger than the maximum value; a unit that generates a plurality of quantized values by quantizing the plurality of normalized values; a unit that stores a code table in which the smaller the probability of occurrence of the plurality of quantized values, the longer the code length of a variable-length code allocated to the plurality of quantized values; and a unit that outputs, when the plurality of quantized values are all zero, a variable-length code allocated to a combination of a plurality of quantized values in accordance with the code table.
US08237584B2
In one aspect of the present invention, a method for tool string communication comprises the steps of providing a downhole tool string with at least two downhole LWD/MWD instruments in electrical communication with a downhole telemetry system. The instruments are capable of generating at least one data packet assigned a priority. The tool string is deployed in a wellbore and then the priority of the data packet is changed.
US08237576B2
A manhole security system includes a barrier and an alarm. The barrier fits within a manhole opening and under a manhole cover. The barrier is also formed to substantially close the manhole opening to block access to the manhole if the cover is removed, and includes a basin to collect fluids that may otherwise drain into the manhole. The alarm of the system is positioned on the barrier and includes a monitoring device operable to directly or indirectly monitor the position of the manhole cover and/or to detect a volatile gas in the manhole. Upon the removal of a manhole cover and/or upon the detection of a volatile gas within the manhole, the alarm emits an audible alert and/or transmit a signal to a remote station indicating that the manhole cover has been removed an/or the presence of a volatile gas in the manhole.
US08237573B2
In one example embodiment, an alarm unit for monitoring or detecting presence of an analyte on an analyte sensor comprises a square plastic casing protecting the alarm electronics portion and including a signal processing means, a clip attachment means configured to be separated and attached from the casing and used to attach the unit to clothing. The clip attachment has enough clearance to be used with thick articles of clothing including diapers and has a set of teeth frictionally held against a rubber strip portion located on the casing back so as to also enable secure attachment to very thin articles of clothing. The alarm unit may further comprise a three-way switch located externally for easy alarm chime and alarm volume selection. Interdependent modes of operation may enable the signal processing means to control the alarm unit operation and features including low power indication, improper cable plug installment, three-way switch deactivation during Monitor mode, and a snooze/reset feature by which the alarm is disabled temporarily so that, as an example, a user can focus on running to the bathroom where the device is used to treat enuresis.
US08237557B1
A safety light system is incorporated into the tailgate of a pickup truck. The safety light is incorporated into the tailgate and is illuminated when the tailgate is in a lowered or horizontal position and when either the ignition switch is in the on position, the parking lights are turned on, or both. The safety light can be positioned either on the top edge-rail of the tailgate, as a slide-out unit placed in a pocket with the top edge-rail of the tailgate, or as a rotating assembly incorporated into the outer sheet metal of the tailgate. Additional safety lights can be incorporated into the sides of the tailgate assembly. An optional feature includes the ability to pull the safety light out from the tailgate and secure the safety light to an object that extends beyond the length of the pickup bed. Alternatively, the safety lights can be installed in or on a bed extension apparatus. The safety light can additionally include the features of a standard taillight, comprising brake lights and or turn signal indicators. Alternates include reflective tape and a pullout feature from other locations. A pullout section can also provide a step for accessing the bed.
US08237555B2
A hazardous vehicle alert system comprising a control module, a special graphical user interface, a speed and distance detector, and an alarm module where the user sets alarm triggers based on reaction time until potential impact from the hazardous vehicle. The user can assess the landscape, traffic patterns, and specifics of the task at hand to determine the required reaction time to take evasive maneuvers from the threat of on-coming hazardous vehicles and create alarm triggers to yield this reaction time. A software package is used to drive the graphical user interface, control module, alarm module, and detector module. The system includes modes ranging from one to four pieces and a mode that can be installed in a vehicle.
US08237552B2
A method of controlling an input/output interface of a mobile terminal which receives a user command, and an apparatus to perform the method, the method including receiving the user command that selects a functional mode of the mobile terminal; perceiving the functional mode of the mobile terminal using the received user command; and controlling the input/output interface, which provides a sense of physical contact corresponding to the perceived functional mode, to be activated.
US08237550B2
A radio-frequency identification (RFID) device, or other type of device that transmits data in response to a broadcast of energy, may have a switch. The switch may allow an operator to signal whether the device will transmit data when energized. The switch could also allow an operator to select a particular item of data, or a combination of items of data, to be transmitted. Receiving data reflected from the device may signify an action to be performed, or may signify the fact that some physical action (e.g., pressing, by a human finger) has occurred with respect to the device. Thus, device that transmit data when energized may be used to direct the operation of other devices (e.g., by turning such other devices on or off), to implement tactilely-sensitive displays, or as part of other applications.
US08237544B2
A main control ECU of a vehicle unit performs mutual communication with a portable device by external transmitters when respective vehicle doors provided with the automatic open/close function are open. The main control ECU further performs, after ID code matching is confirmed, the mutual communication with the portable device by the external transmitters again after a predetermined time. The main control unit still further performs, when the second matching is not confirmed, mutual communication with the portable device by an internal transmitter. The main control unit automatically closes the vehicle doors when the third matching is not confirmed.
US08237537B2
A pressure transducer comprising a corrosion resistant metal diaphragm, having an active region, and capable of deflecting when a force is applied to the diaphragm; and a piezoresistive silicon-on-insulator sensor array disposed on a single substrate, the substrate secured to the diaphragm, the sensor array having a first outer sensor near an edge of the diaphragm at a first location and on the active region, a second outer sensor near an edge of the diaphragm at a second location and on the active region, and at least one center sensor substantially overlying a center of the diaphragm, the sensors connected in a bridge array to provide an output voltage proportional to the force applied to the diaphragm. The sensors are dielectrically isolated from the substrate.
