US08272067B2
In one embodiment, a method comprises identifying an identifiable video object from a video picture of a digital video having video content and commercial content, the video picture contained within the video content; encoding the identifiable video object as a video overlay object; encoding the commercial content based on generating a first key frame, and storing the video overlay object within the first key frame as an object that is not displayed as part of the commercial content; and encoding the video picture based on generating a second key frame that includes a default video object in place of the identifiable video object, the default video object including an overlay reference to the video overlay object within the first key frame, wherein unavailability of the video overlay object during rendering of the second key frame causes display of the default video object to visually corrupt the video picture.
US08272066B2
Systems, method and apparatus are described for reducing unauthorized usage in a television distribution system. A television receiver communicates with base stations of a wireless communication network. Based on the communications with the base station, the television receiver identifies its location and transmits the location information to a data collection system through the wireless communication network. The data collection system utilizes the location information to identify unauthorized uses of the television receiver.
US08272065B2
A web browser client includes an aggregated web application runtime environment that controls access by a program fragment of an aggregated web application to a resource therein based upon the originating domain of the program fragment. To do so, the aggregated web application runtime environment appends an access attribute to the Document Object Model (DOM) node associated with the resource. This access attribute is associated with a plurality of access rights definitions where each access rights definition defines a set of access rights to the resource for program fragments originating from a domain with a specific access rights status. Accordingly, the aggregated web application runtime environment sets one or more access rights statuses of the originating domain of the program fragment, and thereafter, grants or denies the program fragment access to the resource based upon one or more sets of access rights defined for that program fragment.
US08272064B2
A system generates rules for classifying documents are generated by building a vocabulary of features (e.g., words, phrases, acronyms, etc.) that are related to classifying concepts. The system includes a security document reader receives a security document that defines security concepts for a particular project and parses the security document to separate the security concepts. A vocabulary builder receives samples provided by the user that contain information related to the project. For each security concept, the vocabulary builder uses statistical analysis techniques to find features in the samples that are related to that concept. A rule generation assistant, for each security concept, generates rules based on the built vocabulary and the samples. The rule generation assistant uses statistical analysis techniques on the vocabulary and samples to determine features that optimally predict a particular concept. The rules can be used by a downgrader to process information to be distributed.
US08272063B2
A method for achieving a secure recording and storing of a recorded activity is based on an extended Digital Rights Management (DRM) system. A recording and storing procedure is initiated, in response to recognizing one or more triggers at a device hosted by a user equipment. On the basis of the one or more triggers a Rights Issuer is located, and a Recording and Storing Instruction (RSI) is retrieved from the RI, using an existing DRM standard. Based on the RSI, a trusted storage for storing the recorded activity is located, and one or more recording procedures, involving one or more recording equipments, are activated and managed by the device. Before the recorded content is forwarded to the trusted storage, a protected content is generated from the recorded content, according to content of the RSI.
US08272052B2
The invention relates to systems and methods for filing and monitoring electronic claim submissions in proceedings involving a large number of claimants, such as securities class action lawsuits, estate dissolutions, arbitrations, and bankruptcies. The systems and methods create an easy-to-use and convenient way for institutions and individual claimants to register their claim relief upon judgment or settlement.
US08272050B2
A data managing device with a single chip that includes: first hardware that authenticates security of communication performed by a data processing apparatus that houses the data managing device; second hardware that performs different processing from processing performed by the first hardware; and third hardware that receives an update program for a program executed by any one of the first hardware and the second hardware, from a data providing apparatus with which security of communication is authenticated by the first hardware, and updates the program by the update program.
US08272045B2
A secure remote access system includes client software installed on a portable computer that establishes a remote session with a counterpart server software installed on a server in a DMZ of the company's internal network through a secure tunnel. The DMZ server is connected to a router behind an enterprise second level firewall. The router routes the session to the appropriate desktop computer if the desktop is permitted remote access. A bandwidth limiter may be provided to balance the load through the router.
US08272043B2
Generally speaking, systems, methods and media for implementing a firewall control system responsive to user authentications are disclosed. Embodiments of a method may include receiving a data request at a firewall where the data request is associated with a program. Embodiments may include determining whether an authentication plan is required to be matched for the associated program and, if so, accessing a stored authentication plan associated with the program and having one or more authentication records each having expected information relating to user access to a particular server. Embodiments may include accessing a current authentication plan from an authentication store, the current authentication plan having one or more authentication records each having information relating to user access to a particular server. Embodiments may include comparing the stored authentication plan with the received current authentication plan to determine whether they match and, in response, performing one or more firewall actions.
US08272042B2
A system, method and computer program product are provided for monitoring data traffic on one or more networks, determining the classification of the data based on an organization's classification rules, and assigning a classification to one or more entities involved in the transmission of the data, the classification being based at least in part on the classification of the data being transmitted. The classification rules may be based on an organization's classification categories of confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA). The system, method and computer program product are also provided for implementing controls based on the classifications of the various entities, such as issuing an alert and/or preventing transmission of data if the data is transmitted between two entities that have different classifications.
US08272041B2
Generally speaking, systems, methods and media for implementing a firewall control system responsive to process interrogations are disclosed. Embodiments of a method may include receiving a data request at a firewall where the data request is associated with a program and determining whether a process rule exists for the associated program, where the process rule includes a condition to be satisfied for a process of the user computer system. Embodiments may also include, in response to determining that a process rule does exist, determining a method for evaluating a status of the process and determining a current status of the process. Embodiments may also include determining whether the process rule is satisfied based on the current status of the process and using the determined evaluation method. Embodiments may also include, in response to determining whether the condition of the process rule is satisfied, performing one or more firewall actions.
US08272040B2
One embodiment provides a computer-implemented method for providing controlled access to electronic content. A password is associated with electronic content, such as by password-protecting an electronic file that contains the electronic content. At least one password attempt is received in an effort to access the electronic content. Each password attempt is compared to the password at a selected subset of “trap” character positions. Up to a threshold number of password entries is allowed that have incorrect characters at any of the trap character positions. A greater number or even an unlimited number of incorrect password entries are allowed having incorrect characters at non-trap character positions. Access to the electronic content is allowed only if one of the password entries exactly matches the password.
US08272028B2
An approach for managing access to electronic documents uses document retention and document security policies. In response to detecting a request to access a particular electronic document stored on a network device, a document retention policy and a document security policy are applied to the particular electronic document. If, based upon application of the document retention policy to the particular electronic document, a determination is made that the particular electronic document is to be deleted, then the particular electronic document is deleted from the network device. If, based upon application of the document security policy to the particular electronic document, a determination is made that access to the particular electronic document should be denied, then access to the particular electronic document is denied. Retention policy audits, automatic or manual loading or auto-destruction code and self-extracting and executable data may also be used to enforce document retention and document security policies.
US08272020B2
Media content, based on a predetermined set of constraints, from a content provider is delivered to a local cache of a user device before viewing the media. A client asset manager process resides in the user device, an asset list at the content provider site, and the media assets are located at a remote site.
US08272018B2
A method of creating an audio/video stream comprises multiplexing a video component, an audio component, a content reference identifier, and a semantic data packet containing information on the relationship between the video component and the content reference identifier. Apparatus for receiving the audio/video stream, and apparatus for transmitting the audio/video stream are disclosed.
US08272017B2
Methods and systems for communicating information in a network are disclosed herein and may include receiving, at a mobile terminal, a high definition television (HDTV) signal via a DVB-H downlink communication path. A standard definition television (SDTV) signal may be simultaneously received at the mobile terminal via a cellular downlink communication path. The SDTV signal and the HDTV signal may comprise the same media content. The HDTV signal received via the DVB-H downlink communication path and the SDTV signal received via the cellular downlink communication path may be selected in the mobile terminal for processing. The selection may be based on a preference indicated via the mobile terminal. The selection may also be based on at least one downlink channel condition indicator corresponding to the HDTV signal or the SDTV signal.
US08272016B2
A reservation recording module registers program information in a reserved program EPG database and a restriction period in a restriction period setting information. A reserved program keyword extracting module extracts an associative keyword from the program information registered in the reserved program EPG database and registers the associative keyword in an associative keyword database. An information content analyzing module extracts a keyword group from the program information about a now-broadcasting program in electronic program guide (EPG) data. An associated information restriction period determining module specifies as a restriction target program, only a not-yet-viewed program satisfying the restriction period in the respective programs registered in the reserved program EPG database. A program related information determining module calculates, for every restriction target program, an association level between the keyword group registered in the associative keyword database and the keyword group extracted by the information content analyzing module. If there exists the restriction target program with the association level being higher than a predetermined threshold value, an alarm issuing module 39 outputs an alarm message on a display.
US08272015B2
A system and methods for acquiring scheduled television programs with coinciding program times. One method includes initially identifying that a conflict exists to acquire the scheduled television programs. Once the conflict is identified, the method identifies one or more alternate sources that contain the scheduled television programs. Acquisition schedules are generated and optimized. Then, at least one of the scheduled television programs are recorded from one of the alternate sources. A user may set user preferences to customize how the system will generate potential acquisition schedules.
US08272013B2
A scheduled broadcast time is retrieved for a program that is to be delivered in advance of the scheduled broadcast time, wherein the scheduled broadcast time is associated with a program content identifier for the program. Prior to the scheduled broadcast time, a pre-cast channel is selected on a network by selecting at least one of a currently unused channel or a dedicated pre-cast channel. Prior to the scheduled broadcast time, a signal is sent for placing a viewer program storage device into a pre-cast mode, such that viewing of the pre-cast channel is disabled. Prior to the scheduled broadcast time, the program is delivered to the viewer program storage device over the pre-cast channel, wherein the delivered program is associated with the program content identifier and a time stamp for disabling playback of the delivered program until arrival of the scheduled broadcast time.
US08272010B2
A television display system with a television display for displaying television services and internet information, and an input unit for providing a command, the television display system receiving a data stream containing a plurality of key files, each key file including executable data and a respective key image representing said executable data. The television display system includes a memory for continuously maintaining over a period at least one of the key files, a display section displaying upon occurrence of any of a number of preselected events, a key image stored in said memory, superposed on a displayed said television service, said key image upon activation executing said executable data included in the same key file. The system also includes a command section for executing content of the key file of the displayed respective image conditional upon a key command being provided by the input unit.
US08272009B2
A system and method (i.e., utility) is provided for use in connection with delivering content that is targeted to users of a broadcast network. More specifically a utility is provided for inserting targeted content into a broadcast content stream based at least in part on information associated with content of the programming that will be provided via a broadcast network. In this regard, one or more textual fields associated with the programming is monitored (2004) or otherwise reviewed. Based on the textual information from the at least one textual field of the programming, targeted content or ‘assets’ are identified (2008) (i.e., from a collection of assets) that have at least partially matching textual constraints. At least one of the identified assets may then be inserted (2010) into a content stream of the broadcast network and provided in conjunction with the programming.
US08272001B2
A method (300) and a corresponding system for managing associations in the CIM model are proposed. An association is modeled by a particular class, which includes two or more references to other classes; the association is implemented by a corresponding provider. Whenever a management application (such as a performance monitor) needs to access the association, a corresponding request is transmitted (309) to the provider. In response thereto, the provider enumerates (315) all the resource objects instantiating the references of the association, and creates (324) an instance of the association for any combination. In the method of the invention, the provider further sets (318,327) a property of each instance of the association, according to dynamic characteristics of the corresponding resource objects. In this way, an active association is provided, allowing cross-analysis of the resource objects participating in the association.
US08271997B2
The invention provides an embedded processor architecture comprising a plurality of virtual processing units that each execute processes or threads (collectively, “threads”). One or more execution units, which are shared by the processing units, execute instructions from the threads. An event delivery mechanism delivers events—such as, by way of non-limiting example, hardware interrupts, software-initiated signaling events (“software events”) and memory events—to respective threads without execution of instructions. Each event can, per aspects of the invention, be processed by the respective thread without execution of instructions outside that thread. The threads need not be constrained to execute on the same respective processing units during the lives of those threads—though, in some embodiments, they can be so constrained. The execution units execute instructions from the threads without needing to know what threads those instructions are from. A pipeline control unit which launches instructions from plural threads for concurrent execution on plural execution units.
US08271988B2
A method for computer control of collaborating devices enables automatic generation of resource management profiles to coordinate resource allocation within the collaborating device. The method includes utilization of a graphical user interface to select an initial resource management profile and instruct the device to automatically generate a resource profile. Timing is specified for creation of the automatically generated optimized resource profile. The optimized resource profile is developed from statistics maintained, collected, and interpreted about the demand for resources within each component of the collaborating device. An operator may elect to automatically invoke the most recently generated optimized profile after a specified period of collaborating device idleness or to invoke it upon an instruction from the operator. The optimized resource profile may be saved for future use or discarded.
US08271984B2
A method is described and presented for creation of an optimized schedule for execution of a functionality by means of a time-controlled distributed computer system, in which the distributed computer system and the functionality have a set of (especially structural and functional) elements of at least one element class and the elements are at least partially in a dependence. The method according to the invention, in which the task is solved, is initially and essentially characterized by the fact that the dependences between the elements are recognized, classified and the elements are assigned to corresponding dependence classes, and that optimization of schedule occurs by coordination of elements of at least one dependence class.
US08271980B2
The invention relates to systems, methods and computer-readable media for using system jobs for performing actions outside the constraints of batch compute jobs submitted to a compute environment such as a cluster or a grid. The method for modifying a compute environment from a system job comprises associating a system job to a queuable object, triggering the system job based on an event and performing arbitrary actions on resources outside of compute nodes in the compute environment. The queuable objects include objects such as batch compute jobs or job reservations. The events that trigger the system job may be time driven, such as ten minutes prior to completion of the batch compute job, or dependent on other actions associated with other system jobs. The system jobs may be utilized also to perform rolling maintenance on a node by node basis.
US08271974B2
Methods, devices, and systems for management of a cloud computing environment for use by a software application. The cloud computing environment may be an N-tier environment. Multiple cloud providers may be used to provide the cloud computing environment.
US08271960B2
Program execution profile data is collected by direct measurement of some code paths, and by inferring data for unmeasured paths. The data collection process may cause errors, which are propagated by the inferencing process. The profile data thus constructed is further enhanced by detecting certain data mismatches, and adjusting inferred data to reduce the scope of errors propagated during the inferencing process. Preferably, a control flow graph of the program being measured is constructed. Mismatches in the total weights of input arcs versus output arcs are detected. For certain specific types of mismatches, it can be known or guessed which count is incorrect, and this count is accordingly corrected. Correction of arc counts proceeds recursively until it is no longer possible to correct mismatches. Additionally, certain other conditions are adjusted as presumed inaccuracies.
US08271957B2
There are methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for generating an integrated trace output file on a system having a first computing device and a second computing device. The first computing device generates a first trace output and receives a second trace output from the second computing device. The first computing device generates an integrated trace output file by combining the second trace output with the first trace output.
US08271956B2
A method, system and program product for dynamically adjusting trace buffer capacity based on execution history. The method includes receiving, by a module configured to trace, a plurality of traces pertaining to one or more trace events generated during execution of a program being traced, the trace events generated including panel data and sequence data. The method further includes determining, using trace data captured from the plurality of traces received, whether or not a path for a trace event is a new path. If the path for the trace event is determined to be a new path, the method includes dynamically adjusting, by the module, an initial size of a trace buffer configured to store the trace data captured, such that, the module increases the initial size of the trace buffer upon making a determination that the trace event is a new trace event based on execution history.
US08271955B1
A method and system debug a computer program by using trace data, which is a recording of the sequence of machine instructions executed by a program during a time period along with the addresses and values of memory locations accessed and modified by each machine instruction. After the time period, the method and system use the trace data to simulate the execution of the program during the time period under the control of a debugger. In addition, the method and system use the trace data to simulate the execution of the program during the time period backwards in time under the control of the debugger.
US08271954B2
A save data discrimination method saves calculation results including an element which is periodically saved when a computer executes a program repeating the same arithmetic process. The method includes analyzing a loop structure of the program from a source code of the program to detect a main loop of the arithmetic process repeated in the program and a sub-loop included in the main loop, determining a point of entrance to the main loop as a checkpoint that is a point for saving data of the calculation results, and analyzing the contents of the arithmetic process described in the main loop to identify reference-first elements which are elements only referred to and elements defined after being referred to as data to be saved at the checkpoint determined at the point of entrance.
US08271952B2
A novel software application development aid comprises a web portal that provides aggregated and prioritized application issue data to ISVs in an ISV-specific and ISV-customizable manner so that the ISVs may improve their applications or correct errors therein and may know which application issues are causing the greatest reductions in customer satisfaction. So informed, the ISV may efficiently focus limited corrective resources on the most pressing problems. The application issue data sources for the ISV portal may include logo testing data, user crash report data, and other testing data.
US08271945B2
A method of operating a set of devices comprises receiving a real-world description in the form of an instruction set of a markup language, the description including asset terms and effect terms, requesting assets and effects according to the description, modifying at least one asset according to at least one effect, and operating the devices according to the assets.
US08271936B2
Graphical programming or modeling environments, such as a block diagram environment, are disclosed in which dependencies that influence how a model executes are defined without altering the visual representation of the model. In the graphical modeling or programming environment, users create a model that describes how the system is to execute. The users can then augment the model with non-graphical dependencies that provide general execution goals or specific dependencies between blocks. The user can augment the graphical model with dependency constraints specifying how the model should execute. The constraints are coupled to the model and can be optionally displayed on the model in a debugging/analysis mode to provide further insight into how the model executes.
US08271935B2
The invention generally relates to enterprise computer applications, and more particularly to methods and tools for data-driven engineering of computer applications. A method of generating a business application includes: inputting requirement data into a requirement model; inputting platform data into a platform model; generating a design model based on the requirement model and the platform model; generating source code of the business application from the design model; and outputting the source code.
US08271925B2
A decoupling capacitor pin position information obtain unit calculates based on board design data of a printed board, position information indicating positions of decoupling capacitors on the printed board. A power supply plane position/shape information obtain unit calculates based on the board design data, position/shape information indicating a position and shape of a power supply plane of the printed board. A restriction condition input unit collects restriction conditions from an input device. A decoupling capacitor examination unit judges based on the position information, the position/shape information and the restriction conditions, whether or not arrangement of the decoupling capacitors is adequate. Therefore, a designer, while designing arrangement/wiring of the printed board, can check in real time whether or not the arrangement of the decoupling capacitors is adequate, and thus can design at higher speed a printed board in which arrangement of decoupling capacitors is adequate.
US08271924B1
Methods and apparatus are provided for allowing components such as buffers, multiplexers, ingress cores, etc. on a device such as a programmable chip to configure themselves based on parameter information. In some examples, self-configuring components obtain parameter information from adjacent components. In other examples, self-configuring components obtain parameter information from a system environment or a processor register. Component self-configuration can occur at a variety of times including preprocessing, simulation, and run-time.
US08271919B2
A method for correcting image rendering data includes preparing image rendering data having position coordinates that determine an image rendering region and base position coordinates that show the position of a base point arranged in the image rendering region; obtaining a displacement state of position coordinates on an image rendering object; based on the obtained displacement state of position coordinates on the image rendering object, correcting the base position coordinates; and based on the corrected base position coordinates, correcting the position coordinates of the image rendering region while the shape of the image rendering region is maintained.
US08271915B1
A test environment for performing verification on a parameterizable circuit design can include a test harness specifying a first instance of a device under test characterized by a first parameterization and at least a second instance of the device under test characterized by at least a second parameterization. The test environment further can include a hardware verification language shell configured to randomly generate signals which indicate one of the instances and provide the signals to the test harness. The test harness selects one of the instances according to the signals.
US08271913B2
A method and system for design and modeling of transmission lines are provided. The method includes providing a set of models of core structures (211) of transmission line cells and expanding each of the models of core structures (211) to include different neighboring elements. The parameter characteristics of the expanded core structures (214a-214c) are compared to determine a model having a minimal sufficiently closed neighborhood environment. A closed neighborhood environment complies with design rules to ensure desired transmission line behavior in a real design environment. A model having a closed neighborhood environment can be used as a stand-alone model of the core structure describing the transmission line behavior in the actual design environment.
US08271905B2
A method, system and program product for assisting a presentation owner in creating and presenting information to audience users in a virtual 3D cyclorama-like environment. A presentation object tool provides behavior in the cyclorama object to assist the presentation owner in resolving graphic objects into the cyclorama and in placing information onto the graphic objects. The presenter object tool also provides behavior in the graphic objects to allow the presentation owner to expand a graphic object into a larger viewing size, to increment and decrement the placement of graphic objects within the cyclorama's presentation space, and to place an expanded graphic object into a home viewing position for presentation to audience users.
US08271900B2
An inputting apparatus including: a display unit on which an image is displayed; a detecting portion configured to detect an approach value which represents an approaching or a touching degree of an input object with respect to each position in the display unit and which becomes larger where the approaching or touching degree is a certain degree than where the approaching or touching degree is a degree smaller than the certain degree; a button-display portion which displays at least one button; a receiving portion which receives an input of a predetermined command assigned to one of the at least one button where an approach value detected in the one button exceeds a first threshold value; and an enlarging and displaying portion which enlarges and displays only the one button on the display unit where the approach value exceeds a second threshold value smaller than the first threshold value.
US08271895B2
A method is provided for programming step and repeat operations of a machine vision inspection system. The machine vision inspection system includes an imaging portion, a stage for holding one or more workpieces in a field of view (FOV) of the imaging portion, a control portion, and a graphical user interface (GUI). According to the method, a user operates the machine vision inspection system to define a set of inspection operations to be performed on a first configuration of workpiece features. The user also operates the GUI to display a step and repeat dialog box, in which he defines a first plurality of parameters defining a set of default step and repeat locations for performing the defined set of inspection operations. The user further operates the GUI to define a set of inspection step and repeat locations, which is a subset of the defined set of default step and repeat locations, where the inspection operations are to be actually performed.
US08271889B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for automatically updating user interfaces for a mobile device. In one aspect, a first set of instructions from an automatically synchronizing data store are received. The first set of instructions are executed to provide an interface between a user and an operating system on the mobile device. The data store is automatically updated with a second set of instructions. The second set of instructions are executed to provide a modification to the interface between the user and the operating system on the mobile device.
US08271883B2
A method is provided for keeping presentation of information to a minimum. A perspective comprises areas, and each area can have one or more portlets which display information. Each area has an associated list of portlet types that can be instantiated within the area. Each portlet can be manually placed into or out of a locked state. Various portlets can also be in a dirty state if they contain unsaved information, such as in a partially completed form. When a new portlet is to be added to the perspective, first an area which supports creation of that type of portlet is selected. The existing portlets within that area are then examined, and if one exists which is not locked and is not dirty, then it is replaced with the new portlet. If no such existing portlet is eligible for replacement, then the new portlet is created and added to the existing portlets. In this way, portlets in which a user is no longer interested may be replaced with newer portlets of more immediate interest, thereby reducing clutter within the perspective view of the information.
US08271878B2
A content provider system interacts with a network of web sites to provide behavior-based content to users. Operators of the web sites add widgets to selected web pages of their sites. The widgets, when executed on the computing devices of users who view the selected web pages, report user-generated events to the content provider system. The content provider system analyzes the reported events to detect behavioral associations between particular web sites, web pages, products, and/or other types of items. The widgets may also retrieve and display behavior-based content that is based on these item-to-item behavioral associations. For example, when a user views a particular web page, a widget on that page may request and display descriptions of, and links to, other sites or pages that are (a) behaviorally related to the page being viewed or an item represented thereon, and/or (b) behaviorally related to the past browsing activities of the particular user.
US08271877B2
A method for accessing information sources and services on the Web, from a communication device connected via a network to the Internet. The method comprises: one or several steps of displaying a selection page among a plurality of selection pages in a treelike arrangement and stored locally, each selection page comprising a set of icons including one or several icons providing direct access to the information sources and one or several icons for accessing other selection pages; and a step which consists in transmitting, in response to a selection of an icon providing direct access in a selection page being displayed, the address of the information source corresponding to the icon. The invention is particularly useful in communication and office automation equipment, installed in public booths, in enclosed spaces or in private sites or for professional use.
US08271874B2
The invention provides method and apparatus for locating data in a data file and for transforming the data. The method comprises the steps: determining the data unit to be located in the data file; determining a type for the data unit, the type including “Text”, “SingleLine”, “MultiLine”, “Block” and “Iterator”; when the type of the data unit is not “Text”, selecting a different data unit as the location reference for the data unit; generating the location description for the data unit, based on the type of the data unit and the position relationship between the data unit and the different data unit, the description including the type of the data unit, one or more location elements for locating the data unit and including “Top”, “Bottom”, “Left” and “Right”, each of the location elements including a combination of attributes so as to determine the position of the location element. The invention may locate the data position by two dimensional area.
US08271865B1
A system stores an electronic document that has markers inserted within the electronic document. The system visually renders the electronic document to a user and uses the inserted markers to determine a speed at which a reader reads the electronic document.
US08271863B2
A system, apparatus, and method are provided for a nonlinear Viterbi detector that may be used in an iterative decoding system or any other system with multiple, interconnected detectors. At least one of the Viterbi detectors may estimate the digital information sequence in a received signal based on the signal itself and an estimate of the signal from another of the Viterbi detectors. The at least one Viterbi detector may calculate branch metrics for a subset of the branches in an associated trellis diagram by selecting branches that correspond to the output of the other Viterbi detector.
US08271858B2
Techniques for generating soft values for parity bits in a convolutional decoding process are disclosed. An exemplary method comprises, for each of at least one iteration in at least one soft-input soft-output decoder, calculating intermediate probability values for each possible transition between a first plurality of candidate decoder states at a first time and a second plurality of candidate decoder states at a second time. Two or more partial sums are then computed from the intermediate probability values, wherein the partial sums correspond to possible combinations of two or more systematic bits, two or more parity bits, or at least one systematic bit and at least one parity bit. Soft values, such as log-likelihood values, are then estimated for each of at least one systematic bit and at least one parity bit of the received communications data corresponding to the interval between the first and second times, based on the partial sums.
US08271853B2
A cache memory has a data holding unit having multiple cache lines each of which includes an address area, a data area and a dirty bit, and a controller which is given read data and a correction execution signal indicating whether or not error correction has been performed for the read data, the read data has been read from a memory storing error-correction-coded data, which also stores address information corresponding to the read data into the address area of any one of the multiple cache lines, stores the read data into the data area, and sets a predetermine value as the dirty bit on the basis of the correction execution signal.
US08271819B2
An information handling system (IHS) is disclosed providing a power supply operable to provide an output current to the IHS during power initiation. The IHS may also include a first power component associated with a first power stage wherein the first power stage may have a first current threshold. Furthermore, the IHS may include a power control logic coupled to the power supply and the first power component. As such, the power control logic may be operable to communicate the first power stage to the power supply, and if the output current does not exceed the first current threshold during the first power stage, the power control logic may be operable to communicate a second power stage having a second current threshold to the power supply.
US08271817B2
Information handling system with processing system, low-power processing system and shared resources
An information handling system includes a processing system, a low-power processing system, and a chipset. The processing system is configured to operate using a power system configured to power a shared resource of the processing system and a non-shared resource of the processing system, and to disable the non-shared resource during a reduced operating state of the processing system. The low-power processing system is configured to access the shared resource of the processing system during operation of the low-power processing system, wherein the operation of the low-power processing system is separate from the operation of the processing system. The chipset includes a processor of the processing system and operable to be enabled during operation of the processing system, wherein the processor is configured to be disabled during operation of the low-power processing system.
US08271814B2
Energy saving virtualization technique embodiments are presented that save energy by virtualizing a network-connected client computer's computing session (or a part thereof) as a virtual machine (VM) and then migrating it between the client computer and a VM server, depending on whether the computing session is active or idle. The client computer VM is migrated to the VM server when the client computer is deemed to be idle, and the VM is migrated back when the client computer is deemed to have re-entered an active condition. When the VM has been migrated away from the client computer and is residing on the VM server, the client computer is put into a sleep mode, thereby saving energy. However, the user's computing session remains alive on the VM server so that ongoing network connections and other activity are not disturbed.
US08271812B2
In an embodiment, a power management unit (PMU) may automatically transition (in hardware) the performance states of one or more performance domains in a system. The target performance states to which the performance domains are to transition may be programmable in the PMU by software, and software may signal the PMU that a processor in the system is to enter the sleep state. The PMU may control the transition of the performance domains to the target performance states, and may cause the processor to enter the sleep state. In an embodiment, the PMU may be programmable with a second set of target performance states to which the performance domains are to transition when the processor exits the sleep state. The PMU may control the transition of the performance domains to the second targeted performance states and cause the processor to exit the sleep state.
US08271811B2
Apparatus and method for managing power consumption of circuits within a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) device. A SAS device having a plurality of PHY logic circuits includes a queue manager and a power manager. The queue manager is operable to determine a current workload based on queued entries for the plurality of PHY logic circuits. Based on the current workload, the power manager is operable to set identified ones of the plurality of PHY logic circuits into a low power mode. In some embodiments, PHY logic circuits may be restored to full power operation responsive to changes in the current workload and/or responsive to receipt of a signal from another SAS device coupled to the SAS device. In other embodiments the power manager is further operable to manage power consumption of link and/or DMA logic circuits of the SAS device.
US08271795B2
This invention relates to security for data objects; more particularly, the present invention relates to improved security based on subliminal and supraliminal channels for data objects. In another embodiment, a method of protecting a data object comprises: steganographically encoding a subset of candidate bits in a digitized sample stream; perceptibly manipulating data in the digitized sample stream; and combining the imperceptible and perceptible data changes to create a secure/unique digital sample stream. In yet another embodiment, a method for securing a data signal comprises: preanalyzing said data signal for candidate watermark/signature bits; steganographically encoding independent data into the data signal into a subset of the candidate watermark bits, at least one time; and encoding the data signal subsequently with a perceptible technique.
US08271784B2
System, computer program product, and method embodiments for communication between a kernel operational on a storage subsystem and a key manager (KM) through a hardware management console (HMC) to provide encryption support are provided. In one embodiment, an event request is initiated by the kernel to the KM to execute an event flow. Pursuant to a communication request by the kernel to the HMC, a socket of the HMC is opened along a communication path between the KM and the kernel according to an event flow type selected by the KM for the event flow. Pursuant to a data request by the kernel to the KM, data including a data payload is sent by the KM to the kernel, the data payload corresponding to the selected event flow type.
US08271779B2
A client data distribution service may receive messages from a client device requesting data sets from the data distribution service. The data sets may include a client certificate used to protect in verified subsequent communications between the client device in the data distribution service as well as provisioning packets used by the client device to enable operation by the user. Specific messages between the client device in the data distribution service include hardware identifiers, initialization keys, last used sequence numbers, and Underwriter product identifiers. Corresponding acknowledgment messages may be used by the data distribution service to remove completed transactions.
US08271775B2
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with layer two (L2) encryption for data center interconnectivity are described. One example system includes a receive logic to receive an unencrypted L2 switched frame (UL2SF). The UL2SF may include a payload and an L2 header. The example system may also include an encryption logic to selectively encrypt the UL2SF into an encrypted frame if the UL2SF is to be sent through an L2 virtual private network (L2VPN) requiring encryption. The example system may also include a delivery logic that adds a header to the encrypted frame. The header may include data to identify a decryption function to decrypt the encrypted frame and routing information for the encrypted frame. The delivery logic may also provide the encrypted frame to the L2VPN, where the providing includes selectively sending the encrypted frame as one of, a point to point packet, and a multipoint packet.
US08271774B1
An incoming network traffic manager circumstantially blocks incoming network traffic (103) containing code (107). The incoming network traffic manager (101) monitors (201) incoming network traffic (103) addressed to a target computer (105). The network traffic manager (101) detects (203) incoming network traffic (103) containing code (107). The network manager (101) blocks (205) incoming traffic (103) containing code (107) from reaching the target computer (105), responsive to circumstances being such that it is undesirable to allow incoming traffic (103) containing code (107) to reach the target computer (105).
US08271772B2
A computer system comprises two or more computers including at least one standby computer and a management computer which controls the computers. The management computer manages unique identification information which is assigned to an Ethernet controller of each computer. When a failure has occurred to an active computer, the management computer sets the unique identification information which has been assigned to the Ethernet controller of the failed computer to the Ethernet controller of the standby computer and the standby computer boots up a software image for the failed computer by use of the unique identification information which has been set to its Ethernet controller by the management computer.
US08271758B2
A plurality of memory devices of mixed type (e.g., DRAMs, SRAMs, MRAMs, and NAND-, NOR-, AND-type Flash memories) are serially interconnected. Each device has device type information on its device type. A specific device type (DT) and a device identifier (ID) contained in a serial input are fed to one device of the serial interconnection configuration. The device determines whether the fed DT matches the DT of the device. In a case of match, a calculator included in the device performs calculation to generate an ID for another device and the fed ID is latched in a register of the device. The generated ID is transferred to another device of the serial interconnection. In a case of no match, the ID generation is skipped and no ID is generated for another device. Such a device type match determination and ID generation or skip are performed in all devices of the serial interconnection.
US08271756B2
The present invention aims to provide an apparatus capable of determining whether or not content is permitted to be taken out, by managing contents permitted to be taken out. One aspect of the invention is characterized by comprising: a storage means that stores therein taking-out-permitted-content identification data which is data generated on the basis of a part or entirety of each content permitted to be taken out; and a generating means that generates the taking-out-permitted-content identification data. Another aspect of the present invention is characterized by comprising: a storage means that stores therein taking-out-permitted-content identification data which is data generated on the basis of a part or entirety of each content permitted to be taken out to the outside; and an approving means that determines whether a content is permitted to be taken out, with reference to the taking-out-permitted-content identification data.
US08271752B2
A method of recording data on a recording medium by a recording apparatus which is unable to create a backup file. The method includes deleting a backup file corresponding to an original file from the recording medium when the original file on the recording medium is modified or deleted.
US08271746B1
Efficient memory management can be performed using a computer system that includes a client which requests access to a memory, a memory interface coupled to the client and to the memory, wherein the memory interface comprises an arbiter to arbitrate requests received from the client to access data stored in the memory, a look ahead structure for managing the memory, a request queue for queuing memory access requests, and wherein the look ahead structure is located before the arbiter so that the look ahead structure communicates with the memory through the arbiter. Efficient memory management can also be performed by sending a memory access request from a client to a look ahead structure and to a request queue, wherein the look ahead structure comprises a row bank direction queue and a tiering logic, checking state of memory being requested using the tiering logic, prioritizing memory requests according to the memory state, selecting a location to be precharged with a precharge arbiter, selecting a location to be activated using an activate arbiter, selecting a location to read or write using a read/write arbiter, and precharging, activating and reading or writing according the selections according to availability of the memory.
US08271745B2
A memory controller includes at least one interface adapted to be coupled to one or more first memory devices of a first memory type having a first set of attributes, and to one or more second memory devices of a second memory type having a second set of attributes. The first and second sets of attributes have at least one differing attribute. The controller also includes interface logic configured to direct memory transactions having a predefined first characteristic to the first memory devices and to direct memory transactions having a predefined second characteristic to the second memory devices. Pages having a usage characteristic of large volumes of write operations may be mapped to the one or more first memory devices, while pages having a read-only or read-mostly usage characteristic may be mapped to the one or more second memory devices.
US08271740B2
In an information processing system, a plurality of information processing devices CHIP0 and CHIP1 are connected to multiport memory MPMEM0 that has a plurality of ports, and memory areas in multiport memory MPMEM0 can be altered to memory areas occupied by particular ports and memory areas shared by a plurality of ports. At such times, immediately after the occurrence of a request from a port, the status of this request may be supplied from other ports.
US08271739B2
A memory control apparatus which controls access to a shared memory for each transaction. The apparatus includes a management unit that stores versions of data stored in the shared memory, a log storage unit that stores an update entry including a version of data subjected to an update operation in response to execution of an update operation on the shared memory in processing each transaction, and a control unit that writes a result of processing corresponding to execution of a relevant update operation to the shared memory when a request to commit a transaction has been given, and a relevant update entry version matches a corresponding version stored in the management unit, or re-executes the update operation and writes a result of re-execution to the shared memory when the update entry version does not match the corresponding version in the management unit.
US08271736B2
A method for increasing the performance and utilization of cache memory by combining the data block frequency map generated by data de-duplication mechanism and page prefetching and eviction algorithms like Least Recently Used (LRU) policy. The data block frequency map provides weight directly proportional to the frequency count of the block in the dataset. This weight is used to influence the caching algorithms like LRU. Data blocks that have lesser frequency count in the dataset are evicted before those with higher frequencies, even though they may not have been the topmost blocks for page eviction by caching algorithms. The method effectively combines the weight of the block in the frequency map and its eviction status by caching algorithms like LRU to get an improved performance and utilization of the cache memory.
US08271733B2
A storage apparatus for storing data is disclosed. The storage apparatus comprises: a plurality of stores having storage locations for storing data items, including a level one store and a level two store the storage apparatus having a hierarchy such that in response to an access request for accessing a data item the level one store is accessed and in response to detecting that the item is not stored in the level one store the level two store is accessed. The storage apparatus is configured to store a copy of at least some items in both of the one level one store and the level two store, the storage apparatus comprising a plurality of indicator storage elements associated with a corresponding plurality of storage locations of the level two store, a set value of an indicator stored in one of the indicator storage elements indicating that the corresponding stored data item is also stored in the level one store. The storage apparatus is configured such that in response to a request to allocate a storage location in the level two store, storage locations having a set indicator associated with them are not selected for eviction.
US08271721B2
The invention provides a data writing method for a flash memory. First, a write command, a write address, and write data are received from a host. When a total number of block pairs in the flash memory is equal to a threshold value, and execution of the write command increases the total number of block pairs, the write data is written to a data buffer block of the flash memory, and the write address is stored in an address storage table. A target block pair comprising a target mother block and a target child block is then selected from the block pairs for integration. The target mother block and the target child block are integrated into an integrated block during receiving intervals of a plurality of subsequent write commands. Finally, the write command is executed according to the write data stored in the data buffer block and the write address stored in the address storage table.
US08271717B2
According to one embodiment, a computing machine includes a virtual machine operated on a virtual machine monitor, the computing machine includes a first memory device, and a second memory device. The virtual machine monitor is configured to assign a part of a region of the first memory device as a third memory device to the virtual machine and to assign a part of a region of the second memory device as a fourth memory device to the virtual machine. The virtual machine comprises a first cache control module configured to use the fourth memory device as a read cache of the third memory device.
US08271712B2
According to an aspect of the invention, an information processing apparatus includes a main board, an expanded CPU board connector, an external device connector, a detection unit. A first CPU is mounted on the main board. The expanded CPU board connector is disposed on the main board. An expanded CPU board is connectable to the expanded CPU board connector. A second CPU is mounted on the expanded CPU board. The external device connector is disposed on the main board. An external device is connected to the external device connector. The detection unit detects that the expanded CPU board is installed to the expanded CPU board connector. The first CPU controls the information processing apparatus to change a master of control of the information processing apparatus from the first CPU to the second CPU.
US08271698B2
The present invention relates to a communication system, a transmitter, a receiver, a communication method, a program, and a communication cable for providing high-speed bidirectional communication while maintaining compatibility. When an HDMI (R) source 71 performs bidirectional IP communication with an HDMI (R) sink 72 using a CEC line 84 and a signal line 141, a switching control unit 121 controls a switch 133 so that, when data is transmitted, the switch 133 selects a constituent signal forming a differential signal output from a converting unit 131 and, when data is transmitted, the switch 133 selects a constituent signal forming a differential signal output from a receiver 82. When bidirectional communication is performed using only the CEC line 84, the switching control unit 121 controls the switch 133 so that the CEC signal output from the HDMI (R) source 71 or the receiver 82 is selected. The present invention is applicable to, for example, HDMI (R).
US08271697B2
The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for state change in systems having devices coupled in a chained configuration. A number of embodiments include a host and a number of devices coupled to the host in a chained configuration. The chained configuration includes at least one device that is not directly coupled to the host. The at least one device that is not directly coupled to the host is configured to change from a first communication state to a second communication state responsive to receipt of a command from the host.
US08271696B2
A card type peripheral apparatus connected to a host apparatus for communication therewith according to a specific protocol. The card type peripheral apparatus includes a plurality of configuration registers configured to be accessible by the host apparatus and to be set with diverse set information. At least one of the plurality of configuration registers is a special register configured to be set with data arbitrarily selected and fixedly established by a vendor that either fabricates or markets the card type peripheral apparatus. The special register is set with protocol identification information for discriminating the specific protocol.
US08271693B2
A cable connection support apparatus has a structure in which a master apparatus and a slave apparatus are connected to both ends of a plurality of cables, and each apparatus is connected to each cable by a connecting terminal. The master apparatus and the slave apparatus are grounded. The master apparatus makes, for each connected cable, an inquiry about a position of a terminal of the slave apparatus to which the cable is connected, and inspects for inter-continuity, grounded connection, and unintentional disconnection. The connection destinations and inspection results are displayed on a display apparatus. Consequently, the connection condition for each cable wire in a cable can be confirmed.
US08271686B2
The invention relates to a method of transmitting packet data from a first subsystem to a wireless terminal device via the network node of a second subsystem. In the method, at least one filter is formed to guide mapping of at least one data flow of the first subsystem to at least one data flow of the second subsystem. At least one filter is attached to at least one data flow of the second subsystem. The filter comprises at least part of the interface identifier of the IP address, which at least part of the interface identifier is allocated in the wireless terminal device. Hereby, mapping of the data flow of the first subsystem to the data flow of the second subsystem is performed on the basis of the interface identifiers of the destination IP addresses in the received packets.
US08271684B2
An electronic device includes: a communication unit which communicates with an information server that stores predetermined information, a plurality of address-offering servers that store IP addresses existing in a network and provide any one of the stored IP addresses, and a management server that includes area information on the network where the information server is located; and a controller which performs a request for an IP address of the information server for the use of information stored in the information server from the plurality of address-offering servers and the management server, checks whether the provided IP address can be used to the plurality of the address-offering servers and the management servers if one of the plurality of address-offering servers provides the IP address of the information server, and controls the communication unit to receive the information from the information server based on the IP address if a positive response signal for the use of the IP address is received from the management server.
US08271682B2
The present invention creates an electronic marketplace where owners of Internet domain names can have multiple parties compete for the right to lease their domain names. A marketplace provider supplies a technology for redirecting Internet traffic from leased domain names to domain names specified by parties that win the right to lease domain names.
US08271680B2
A method and device for communicating information resources between subscriber end stations and nodes belonging to different network domains is described. The device instantiates different virtual network machines for different network domains using separate independently administrable network databases. Each of the administrable chores of the separate independently administrable network databases includes the assignment of access control and the configuration of the policies for those network databases. The policies include traffic filtering policies to indicate what kind of information payloads can be carried, traffic and route filtering policies to indicate what paths through the network will be used for each payload carried. Each of the network domains includes one of the different virtual network machines and each of the different network domains is virtually isolated from other network domains.
US08271679B2
A CPU obtains the component information of the hardware resources for each partition when dividing a system board and IO unit which are the hardware resources of a computer server, provided by the system manager, into a plurality of partitions and assigning them to the plurality of partitions, and sets a switching hub, based on the component information of these hardware resources.
US08271678B2
A server, using a deterministic function, a secret value and persistent information of a packet, destined for a client device, generates and includes a conversation identifier for inclusion with the packet. The client device in turn includes the conversation identifier in a subsequent packet sent by the client device destined for the server. An intermediate routing device having knowledge of the deterministic function and the secret value, upon receiving the packet en-route from the client device to the server, would independently determine whether the packet is a part of a conversation between the client and the server, by independently verifying the included conversation identifier, and forward or not forward the packet accordingly. As result, undesirable packets may be independently detected and filtered for the server.
US08271677B2
A method, apparatus and system for data transfer is disclosed. For example, settings from multiple entities arranged in a multi-tier control plane are used to set data transfer policies. The policies are used to govern data transfers such as between end users or from an origin server.
US08271676B1
An active play system and method are provided that allow a piece of content to be transferred between multiple content devices associated with the user.
US08271673B2
A system and method are disclosed for processing commands to network target devices through a SCSI router in a Fiber Channel network having a plurality of Fiber Channel hosts. The system and method are implemented in the SCSI router and include receiving a command from one of the plurality of Fiber Channel hosts and, if the command is for a transfer of data larger than a threshold size, streaming the data to the target device. If a preset size memory block is free, a data block is requested from the Fiber Channel host that issued the command. Otherwise, the method of this invention waits to request the data block until the preset size memory block is free. The SCSI router receives the data block and stores the data block in a FIFO queue. The method of this invention repeats until an initial number of data blocks are stored in the FIFO queue. The command and the first data block received are forwarded to the network target device. The target device requests additional data blocks as needed and the SCSI router forwards the data blocks in the FIFO queue until a trigger number of data blocks remain in the FIFO queue. Additional data blocks are requested and received from the Fiber Channel host simultaneously with the forwarding of data blocks to the target device. The target device requests data blocks from the SCSI router until all of the data associated with the command has been transferred.
US08271669B2
Aspects of a method and system for extended steering tags (STags) to minimize memory bandwidth for content delivery servers are presented. Aspects of the system may include at least one processor that enables reception of at least a portion of a data stripe within a direct data placement (DDP) segment. The one or more processors may enable transfer of a modified version of the received portion of the data stripe to a client without waiting to receive a subsequent portion or more of a data stripe destined for the client. The modified version of the received portion or more of the data stripe may contain a destination location for storing the modified version of the portion or more of the data stripe within the client.
US08271666B2
The present application relates to systems and methods for managing of Real Time Stream Protocol (RTSP) sessions by an intermediary located between a client and a server. An intermediary located between a client and a server receives a response from the server to a request of the client to setup a media stream. The response may include a first session identifier established by the server. The intermediary may encode a port of the server and an internet protocol address of the server into the first session identifier to form a second session identifier. The intermediary may modify the response to identify the second session identifier as the session identifier provided by the server. The intermediary may transmit the modified response to the client responsive to the request of the client to setup the media stream.
US08271662B1
In general, this disclosure describes techniques for receiving, by a first computing device, information from a second computing device communicated using short-range wireless communication functionality. Responsive to receiving the information, activating, by the first computing device, a secondary communication functionality that is different from the short-range wireless communication functionality. A communication session may be established between the first computing device and the second computing device using the secondary communication functionality.
US08271655B2
The present invention provides a system and method to provide Cloud roaming services. It allows Cloud services to be offered to requesters that are abstracted from the underlying Cloud provider used to fulfill those services. The present invention provides the ability for Cloud providers to be dynamically associated with currently available Cloud services for requesters. The system and method describes two scenarios—a pull and push model—to align requester required services to currently available services from Cloud providers. The requester has a profile determining a prioritized list of Cloud providers that may be used, or the primary Cloud provider may delegate services to a partner cloud. The algorithm of the invention shows how the provider decides which requesters have access to which services—based on current utilization and forecasting. Also, from a requester perspective, location, roaming, network bandwidth and requester processing capabilities (not all-inclusive) may be sent to the provider of Cloud services to determine whether a change is needed.
US08271654B2
Disclosed are a method and apparatus for providing an application. The method includes receiving a first-level application information table (AIT) including one or more application driving conditions and location information of one or more AITs; creating an AIT map table by using the first-level AIT; obtaining a second-level AIT corresponding to a predetermined application driving condition included in the AIT map table based on the location information of the second-level AIT; driving an application based on the second-level AIT.
US08271649B2
Secure resource discover in peer-to-peer networks involves creating a resource discovery record associated with a computing resource of a user device that is made available via the user device to peers of a peer-to-peer network. The resource discovery record describes the computing resource and may be independent of native service discovery mechanisms of the peer-to-peer network. An access right record is created that controls the ability of one or more contacts to gain access to the resource discovery record. The resource discovery record is sent to the one or more contacts via the peer-to-peer network. The one or more contacts can use the resource discovery record to access the computing resource via the peer-to-peer network in accordance with the access right record.
US08271645B2
The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods for tracing packets via an intermediary device. The systems and methods include an intermediary device that establishes connections with clients and connections with servers. The intermediary device links a connection to a server with a connection to a client to provide a client with access to the server. When the client requests a packet trace, the intermediary device applies the trace to linked connections with the client to obtain full trace information for network packets servicing the client.
US08271644B2
A method can include monitoring a proportion of a particular type of information handling system resource used by a particular virtual machine of a plurality of virtual machines. The particular virtual machine can be accessible to a thin client information handling system via a communications broker. The method can include sending first data to the communications broker, the first data indicating the proportion of the particular type of information handling system resource used by the particular virtual machine, and receiving second data from the communications broker. The second data can indicate that a greater or lesser amount of the particular type of information handling system resource is to be allocated to the particular virtual machine. The method can include automatically allocating the greater or lesser amount of the particular type of information handling system resource to the particular virtual machine in response to the second data.
US08271638B2
A storage resource stores a plugin information package, which is an information package comprising definition information for plugging in a node device as a management target. The definition information is information denoting at the least one of a method for acquiring information from a node device and an item of information to be acquired from a node device. A processor references the plugin information package, which is stored in the storage resource, and accesses a node device via a communication interface device based on the referenced plugin information package. The node device comprising information that has been correctly acquired in accordance with this access is regarded as the management target.
US08271628B2
A cache module (26) at a client computer (12) controls a cache portion (28) on a storage device (24). The cache module communicates with other cache modules at other clients to form a cache community (15). The cache modules store World Wide Web or other content in the cache portions for retrieval in response to requests (32) for content from browsers (30) in the cache community. When the requested content is not available in the cache community, the requested content may be retrieved from an origin server (19) using the Internet.
US08271627B2
A method for updating system information in a broadband wireless communication system in which data is transmitted and received via a superframe, includes: receiving information from a base station by means of superframes including a primary superframe header (P-SFH) and a secondary superframe header (S-SFH), wherein the information including control information transmitted via an information element of the P-SFH (P-SFH IE) and system information transmitted via at least one of information element of a subpacket (SP) of the S-SFH (S-SFH SP IE); decoding the P-SFH IE, wherein the P-SFH IE including a scheduling information bitmap indicating a transmitted S-SFH SP IEs in the superframe, a change count (CC) of the S-SFH, and a SP change bitmap indicating changing status of the S-SFH SP IEs; comparing the received CC with a previously stored CC; checking the S-SFH SP change bitmap, if there is a difference between the received CC and the stored CC; and decoding and updating corresponding SP IE of the S-SFH based on the checking result.
US08271626B2
The invention is directed to a system for remote monitoring of a space and equipment. The space and equipment may, for example, be a sever room and associated network equipment. The system has network appliances, a server, and a client machine. The server receives data from a network appliance. The server may then deliver an application and data to the client machine for viewing and manipulating the data. The client machine may display the data as a mapping, displaying icons associated with the network appliances. The client machine may also graph the data. Further, the client machine may manipulate the organization of the data, the configuration settings of the network appliances, and store map and graph configurations.
US08271623B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to performing configuration in a multi-machine environment. In aspects, a client connects with one of a plurality of storage appliances. This storage appliance is sometimes called the coordinator appliance. Any of the storage appliances may act as the coordinator appliance. The coordinator appliance receives configuration data from the client and configures itself and the other storage appliances. During configuration, connectivity between the client and the coordinator appliance and between the coordinator appliance and the other appliances may be lost and re-established.
US08271620B2
The present invention generally relates to a communication protocol converter to allow a legacy device utilizing IPv4 to operate across the network using IPv6. In a first embodiment of the invention, two modular Ethernet connectors are placed side-by-side. A first modular connector receives IPv4 Ethernet data which is converted to a raw data signal. The data is transmitted from the first modular connector to a second modular connector by a bidirectional data line. The second connector receives the raw data, and a raw data-to-Ethernet conversion is completed providing output at IPv6. The present invention utilizes the form factor structure of the Ethernet connectors, so that the entire electronic circuitry is contained within the connectors to complete the conversion. An alternate embodiment incorporates the connectors into a single housing and the conversion is completed internally by a microprocessor and embedded software. A method of IPv4 to IPv6 conversion is additionally disclosed.
US08271619B1
A method of establishing telephony service for an end-user comprises providing the end-user with a telephone number and software or a communication device, and configuring a second service provider to provide packet-based telephony service to the end-user over a peer-to-peer IP connection to a first service provider. The software or communication device includes a first IP address and packet telephony network addresses in network-bound ones of the IP packets. The first IP address is used by the first service provider to route the network-bound IP packets over a peer-to-peer IP connection to the second service provider. The packet telephony network addresses are used by the second service provider to provide the telephony service.
US08271614B2
A method for centralizing web application interaction, the method including handling a request, using a central point of entry, from a remote application, determining a local application suitable for processing the request, and handing out the request to the, local application determined to be suitable for processing the request.
US08271610B2
A method in an electronic device provides local content to a user device in a communication network. The communication network includes an access network and a core network. In the access network, a content request is intercepted from the user device, which may be formatted according to a network interface. The content request may include a request for data content. Protocol layers associated with an active data session may be terminated so that an edge gateway device may extract and inject packets into the data stream without involving the core network. A cache may be maintained in the access network.
US08271599B2
Systems and methods for local and master management units in a photovoltaic energy system. In one embodiment, a method implemented in a computer system includes sending a first identification code from a local management unit to a master management unit. The first identification code is associated with the first local management unit, and the local management unit controls a solar module. An authentication of the first identification code is received from the master management unit. In response to receiving the authentication, active operation of the local management unit is continued (e.g., for a set time period).
US08271598B2
A method and system for preventing sending of messages to incorrect email recipients are provided. The method includes determining (120) the intended recipients of an email message prior to sending and comparing the intended recipients to defined recipient groups (126, 122). Potential errors in the intended recipients are identified and a prompt (125) is provided to amend the intended recipients. The prompt (125) provides a suggestion to replace, add or remove an intended recipient. The defined recipient groups include one or more of groups of recipients formed from an organization data structure (122), groups of recipients defined by a user, and groups of recipients (126) mined from one or more user's previous email correspondence.
US08271587B2
An object movement control system, an object movement control method, a server, and a computer program that can update the positional information of an object in a virtual space at high speed by appropriately distributing processing loads. Client control units obtain information about the position of a first object in a virtual space and information about movement of the first object and detect other objects that exist in a virtual region that contains the first object, which has been moved. The distances between objects that exist in a virtual region are calculated, and only when the number of objects the distances to which are shorter than a predetermined threshold exceeds a predetermined number, information about the objects is sent to a server. The server assigns a collision determination client that performs collision determination to each pair of objects selected from the objects.
US08271586B2
A device communicates with feature peers, associated with a network, to obtain information associated with the feature peers, and receives a customer packet. The device also determines, based on the feature peer information, which of the feature peers support a feature associated with the customer packet, and selects, from the determined feature peers, a set of feature peers for the customer packet to traverse. The device further associates, with the customer packet, an additional packet used for delivering the feature associated with the customer packet, and forwards the customer packet and the additional packet to one of the feature peers in the selected set of feature peers.
US08271584B2
An efficient method and system for utilizing existing wireless communication devices and networks, such as cellular phones and carriers, as an underlying infrastructure in providing emergency information to a targeted percentage of the population in a specified geographical location, without requiring individuals to subscribe to an alerting service and without using information solicited from or provided by the intended recipients of the alert.
US08271571B2
Provided is a microprocessor including a complex-MAC unit that operates in response to a complex-MAC instruction. The complex-MAC unit receives first and second complex data (each having 2m-bit length) from a first register having a register length of at least 2m+1 bits, and also receives third and fourth complex data (each having 2m-bit length) from a second register having a register length of at least 2m+1 bits, to calculate a sum of real parts or imaginary parts of a complex product of the first and third complex data and a complex product of the second and fourth complex data. The complex-MAC unit adds the obtained sum of the real parts or imaginary parts to a stored value of the third register, and overwrites the third register with the cumulative total value. The third register has a register length of at least 2m+2 bits.
US08271537B2
Systems and methods are provided for a grid computing system that performs analytical calculations on data stored in a distributed database system. A grid-enabled software component at a control node is configured to invoke database management software (DBMS) at the control node to cause the DBMS at a plurality of the worker nodes to make available data to the grid-enabled software component local to its node; instruct the grid-enabled software components at the plurality of worker nodes to perform an analytical calculation on the received data and to send the results of the data analysis to the grid-enabled software component at the control node; and assemble the results of the data analysis performed by the grid-enabled software components at the plurality of worker nodes.
US08271528B1
Methods and systems are disclosed for providing a database schema that links various system components and information to provide oversight and automated access control across disparate systems and applications. In one implementation, the database schema may use separate centralized tables to tie the various system components and information together. For example, one table may store information concerning technical support personnel authorized to address a given technical support incident, and another table may store information concerning approval given to do the technical support personnel to access a resource needed to provide the technical support, and the level of access needed to address provide technical support. Auxiliary tables may then be provided to support the centralized tables. Such an arrangement has a number of advantages, including the ability to allow the technical support personnel to access user ID-protected and/or password-protected systems/applications without using or knowing the user IDs and passwords.
US08271527B2
The present invention can enable increasing refinement of role-based permission to access data within a Role Based Access Control (RBAC) controlled computer system by enabling constraints to be written on the role-based permissions. The constraints may utilize each and every type or combination of subject, object, or environment information extracted from sources internal or external to the controlled computer system and may evaluate the content or context of the information extracted to enable refined and dynamic access after the role permission assignment and immediately before every access grant without the reassignment of roles.
US08271525B2
The apparatus, methods and systems for a smart address parser (hereinafter, “SAP”) described herein implement a text parser whereby users may enter a text string, such as manually via an input field. The SAP processes the input address string to extract address elements for storage, display, reporting, and/or use in a wide variety of back-end applications. In various embodiments and implementations, the SAP may facilitate: separation and identification of address components regardless of the order in which they are supplied in the input address string; supplementation of missing address information; correction and/or recognition of misspelled terms, abbreviations, alternate names, and/or the like variants of address elements; recognition of unique addresses based on minimal but sufficient input identifiers; and/or the like.
US08271519B2
Systems and methods are provided for importing data into a spreadsheet from an external data source. A set of cells containing formulas is identified. A first user defined function is executed to access a particular data record from the external data source. The execution of the first user defined function includes determining which of the stored formulas contain user defined functions to access data records from the external data source, resolving parameters of the identified user defined functions, generating a bulk query to the external data source requesting data for certain user defined functions having sufficient parameters resolved for identifying a data record plus more data records than are specified by the user defined functions, storing the data records specified in a hash table, storing the more data records than are specified in a memory, and returning the particular data record to the spreadsheet.
US08271517B2
A method, computer readable storage medium, computer program product and a service. A profile of a computer user is obtained that contains meta tags descriptive of the participants of a first social networking website. A second social networking website having meta tags is selected. A profile from the second social networking website is selected. The meta tags of the first and second social networking websites are compared to determine if there is a match of at least one meta tag. Then, a search is made for related websites having at least one meta tag that matches the at least one meta tag. A list of the related websites is then presented to the computer user.
US08271508B2
The present invention is directed to the automated storage and retrieval of data. A method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: requesting a data record; broadcasting a query for the requested data record to a plurality of data records in a data center, the query comprising a unique listener key identifying the requested data record and information regarding a requesting program; providing each of the plurality of data records with a listener, wherein each listener actively monitors the broadcasted query to determine if the unique listener key in the broadcasted query matches a unique listener key of the data record associated with the listener; and in the case of a match, automatically transferring the data record with the matching unique listener key from the data center to the requesting program.
US08271501B2
Web search by a search engine among rich media objects, the search engine including a web crawler, where web search includes: maintaining, for each of a plurality of users, a reputation score; counting, by the web crawler for a particular search term, a number of tags associated with one or more rich media objects by one or more of the users, the tags including text describing the rich media objects, the text including the particular search term; calculating, for the particular search term and for each of the one or more rich media objects, in dependence upon the number of tags associated with the rich media objects and the reputation scores of the users that associated the tags with the rich media objects, a search result score; and recording the search result scores of each of the one or more rich media objects in a primary search index.
US08271499B2
In embodiments of the disclosed technology, indexes, such as inverted indexes, are updated only as necessary to guarantee answer precision within predefined thresholds which are determined with little cost in comparison to the updates of the indexes themselves. With the present technology, a batch of daily updates can be processed in a matter of minutes, rather than a few hours for rebuilding an index, and a query may be answered with assurances that the results are accurate or within a threshold of accuracy.
US08271496B2
A computer-readable medium stores computer-readable instructions that control a communication on a communication apparatus that obtains a content summary information having at least content location information from a server. The instructions cause the communication apparatus to perform steps. The steps include receiving a delivery source information inputted through a user operation, determining whether the delivery source information includes a predetermined character string. Content summary information corresponding to the inputted delivery source information is obtained when the determining step determines that the predetermined character string is not included in the delivery source information. Content summary information corresponding to a predetermined alternative delivery source information is obtained when the determining step determines that the predetermined character string is included in the delivery source information.
US08271484B1
A method and system for querying hierarchically classified data. The system first receives a query request and then identifies classifications of the data that may satisfy the received query request. The system then displays the identified classifications. In response to selection of a displayed classification, the system displays sub-classifications when the selected classification has sub-classifications and displays the data within the classification when the selected classification has no sub-classifications. In another aspect, the system generates search results for items that are hierarchically classified. For classifications within the hierarchy of classifications, the system generates a search entry containing terms describing the items within that classification. The system then receives a search criteria. The system selects as initial search results those search entries whose terms most closely match the received search criteria. The system then adjusts the initial search results based on the hierarchy of classifications. This adjustment may include removing sub-classifications of a classification that is in the initial search results or adding a parent classification to replace multiple child classifications in the initial search results.
US08271478B2
Systems and methods for using optimization techniques to construct a nearly optimal execution plan for an outer join query are disclosed. A query graph of the outer join query is constructed, by computing for each node the set of nodes influencing it, for each target node the set of its needed reducers, and predetermining the effects of all admissible moves in all possible sequences. The directed graph of all admissible move sequences is formed. An optimization process includes dynamically generating good estimations for the target distance of a search state. Some heuristics are disclosed for providing start solutions for the optimization process.
US08271476B2
A method of locating relevant documents wherein documents are given a fingerprint comprising weights associated with particular topic categories of a classification system, each weight representing a degree to which the document relates to the particular topic category. Documents whose fingerprints have a predetermined degree of mathematical overlap with the fingerprint may be considered relevant. Fingerprints of texts may be combined to define user fingerprints and user fingerprints may be combined to define community user fingerprints, which can be monitored. Changes in the interest of the online community may be monitored and automatically reported to advertisers who can then instantly adjust their advertising campaign. Similarly, changes in community interest may be reported to pharmaceutical companies monitoring drug side effects. The methods may be used in combination with keyword searching.
US08271460B2
A program executed on a computer including storage, processing, output, and input units, the storage unit storing test-difficulty-calculation-elements-database, test-menu-database, and test-flow-database, for each test-menu-record, the program causing the processing unit to execute: calculating test-difficulty for each test-menu-record based on test-difficulty-calculation-formula by using at least one among pieces of information indicative of relationship with netlist, the number of package/test pins, expected operational clock frequency, process technology information, power consumption, and tester storage space; identifying all relationship between DFT scheme and priority, and causing the storage unit to store information indicative of the relationship between the DFT scheme and priority into the test-flow-database; and sorting the DFT scheme in an order of the priority based on the relationship between the DFT scheme and priority, causing the storage unit to store the DFT scheme as a test flow, and causing the output unit to output the test flow.
US08271457B2
A system and method for automated database management are provided. Statistics relating to operation of a database may be collected, wherein the database comprises one or more database objects. Characteristics of the database objects may be determined, either automatically or by user intervention, using the collected statistics, one or more policies, and/or one or more definitions. The policies and definitions may be defaults or may be customized by a user. Actions to be performed on the database objects may be determined, either automatically or by user intervention, based on the characteristics of the database objects. A schedule for performing the actions on the database objects may be automatically determined. The actions may be performed on the database objects based on the schedule. The actions on the database objects may be confirmed. The results of the actions on the database objects may be analyzed or monitored. Policies and/or definitions may be reconfigured based on the results. The system and method may automatically decide to perform one or more REORG actions on the database objects based on the statistics. A recommendation of a modification to one or more of the database objects may be generated based on the statistics. The scheduled actions may be modified as a result of detecting a change in the characteristics or usage of at least one of the database objects.
US08271448B2
A transaction processing system provides the capability to use one two-phase commit engine over multiple protocols and products, while being able to vary the log presumptions according to the requirements of each protocol and product. The transaction processing system comprises a coordinator operable to receive a commit or abort request from a transaction and to perform a two-phase commit protocol on behalf of the transaction and a recovery presumption mechanism operable to perform a recovery process on the transaction upon recovery of the transaction processing system from a failure.
US08271440B2
An apparatus is provided with base table storage sections that store base tables and delta tables for the base tables, a summary table storage section that stores a summary table for storing results of queries to a plurality of base tables and delta information about the summary table, delta data processing sections that insert delta data of the base tables into the delta tables, and a delta computation processing section that generates delta information about the summary table. The delta computation processing section is provided with a generation section that generates delta information about a specified base table on the basis of an update that has been performed for the base table, in a situation where a subsequent update of the specified base table is permitted; and a control section that performs control so that, when a different base table is specified, delta information is generated in a different transaction.
US08271437B2
A mechanism for managing locks for one or more resources in a distributed system including multiple distributed computing nodes, is provided. One implementation involves maintaining a database as a shared storage accessible by plural participating nodes for storing shared lock information, each participating node locally managing a local list of locks, the participating nodes cooperating in providing decentralized lock management across the nodes using the local and shared lock information, to achieve granting and releasing of locks for synchronizing access to one or more resources.
US08271434B2
Exemplary information systems and methods for storing information in a central data store are disclosed. An exemplary method may include providing a central data store including data for use in a plurality of environments, with the central data store selectively transmitting a portion of the data to a synchronized application associated with at least one of the environments. The method further includes establishing configurable instructions included in the central data store defining at least one synchronization parameter associated with the synchronized application, and modifying at least one of the synchronization parameters via the central data store according to a communication received from the synchronized application.
US08271423B2
An optimum route searching apparatus, method and recording medium make it possible to obtain the optimum cable laying route in a short period of time. The optimum route searching apparatus includes an external storage device for storing search data comprising information related to a route that has a node as a connection point; a simplification device for creating simplified data by extracting information related to a node constituting a branching point, a bending point and a terminal point; a connection information creation device for creating a connection information file of cable laying route based on the simplified data; and a searching device for searching for an optimum cable laying route candidate based on the connection information file. The search termination determination determines search termination for all routes in accordance with the route of interconnected nodes from the start point to either the end point or the dead end having been written to all cards by a card writing device.
US08271421B1
Nonparametric fuzzy inference system and method used in combination with a computer and memory for providing an indicator of asset condition by collecting asset training data, creating membership functions by deriving parameters of the membership functions directly from the asset training data, acquiring current asset data, and using the membership functions in a fuzzy inference system for processing the current asset data for providing an indicator of asset condition.
US08271419B2
Some embodiments of efficient binary protocol marshalling for rule engine sessions have been presented. In one embodiment, a set of marshalling plug-ins is provided to a rule engine. Each of the set of marshalling plug-ins is customized for a type of user objects. In response to encountering a user object, the rule engine selects a marshalling plug-in out of the set of marshalling plug-ins based on a type of the user object to marshall in or to marshall out the user object.
US08271415B2
A system for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a digital network via interactive dialogue. Software authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. “Meta” functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A semantic discrepancy evaluator routine along with a mental status examination are used to detect the consciousness level of a user of the system. A dynamic data structure is used to record and save new patient data over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
US08271412B2
Methods and systems for network monitoring using network metrics which are generalized entropy functions of the Markov monoid matrix M generated by an altered connection matrix C.
US08271399B2
A method of optimizing mail sorting on a envelope sorting machine by eliminating the necessity to pass some of the documents through the machine twice is provided in which a postal code table is created having an order for each of a plurality of postal code ranges. An unsorted document print stream is received and a document parameter table created to store boundaries of each of a plurality of documents and a location of a postal code in each document. An index table is constructed incorporating information from the postal code table indicating the location and order of each document in the unsorted document print stream. The index table is reordered according to the order of each document and a sorted document print stream is generated, whereby the documents are arranged in order of their respective priorities. The documents are then printed from the sorted document print stream, separated into groups in accordance with their respective priorities and sorted in order of each group's respective order.
US08271395B2
A payment authentication service authenticates the identity of a payer during online transactions. The authentication service allows a card issuer to verify a cardholder's identity using a variety of authentication methods, such as the use of passwords. Also, the only system participant requiring a certificate is the issuing financial institution. Authenticating the identity of a cardholder during an online transaction involves querying an access control server to determine if a cardholder is enrolled in the payment authentication service, requesting a password from the cardholder, verifying the password, and notifying a merchant whether the cardholder's authenticity has been verified. A chip card and the authentication service independently generate cryptograms to match in order for the service to verify that the correct chip card is being used by the cardholder.
US08271385B2
A method for conducting a secure transaction over a network includes the steps of receiving a price and a transaction identifier from a merchant, the transaction identifier identifying a purchase selection made by a user, receiving a user identifier from a user, receiving a financial institution selection from the user, initiating a communication session with the selected financial institution, receiving a financial-institution user-identifier from the user, communicating the financial-institution user-identifier to the selected financial institution, communicating to the selected financial institution a request to transfer funds, receiving the funds from the selected financial institution, and sending the funds to the merchant.
US08271377B2
A market map interface displays market information and trader-related information associated with at least two tradable objects. In one embodiment, the at least two graphical interfaces may be linked, and a user may define one or more adjustment parameters to be used to adjust the view of information being displayed via the linked graphical interfaces. For instance, a user may initiate repositioning of one of the linked graphical interfaces, thus, effectively, causing other linked graphical interfaces to be repositioned according to the defined adjustment parameters.
US08271376B2
Systems and methods are provided which monitor trades entered into and cleared by counterparties, track the net and gross positions of counterparties and the counterparties' parent entities, trigger warnings when counterparties or their parent entities exceed a warning limit, and shut-off counterparties' trading ability when counterparties exceed a credit limit. An operator of a credit system using these systems and methods is provided with a variety of interfaces through which the operator can set up new counterparties, search a list of counterparties, view and edit basic information for counterparties, view financial information for counterparties, view and edit notes regarding to counterparties, view and edit limits of counterparties, view position versus limit information for counterparties, view the current day's position information for counterparties, and view cumulative position information for counterparties.
US08271374B2
A method of assessing a market price of a benchmark grade of a commodity includes artificially injecting additional volumes of the benchmark grade into the marketplace to thereby increase the market activity upon which the assessment is based. By increasing the market activity upon which the benchmark assessment is based, problems associated with having a small number of market events for assessing the benchmark price, such as price volatility, may be avoided. Additional volumes of the benchmark grade may be artificially injected into the marketplace by including, in the assessment of the benchmark price, observations of market events involving one or more alternative, non-benchmark grades of the commodity. Alternatively, or in addition, additional volumes of the benchmark grade may be artificially injected into the marketplace by permitting a seller offering cargoes of the benchmark grade of the commodity to actually deliver a cargo of one or more alternative, non-benchmark grades of the commodity in satisfaction of a contract for sale of the benchmark grade.
US08271371B2
A computer implemented method for maintaining a leveraged or reverse exchange traded product is provided which includes electronically monitoring, with a computer, a change in value of a product sold on an exchange, ECN, or ATS; and calculating, with a computer, a leverage ratio, wherein the leverage ratio is dg(r)/dr=c(1+r)c−1, and wherein r is a current cumulative return of the product during a current trading day, and c is a constant, and wherein the leverage ratio is equal to the number of underlying shares required to provide the target return with respect to one share of the product.
US08271351B2
A method and system for automatically generating a naturally reading narrative product summary including assertions about a selected product. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of determining at least one attribute associated with the selected product, selecting an alternative product, retrieving assertion models to describe the product and to recommend an alternative product in a natural manner, and generating a naturally reading narrative by combining the attribute and the selected alternative product with the retrieved assertion models such that the generated narrative includes a recommendation of the selected alternative product. A system is provided for implementing the described method.
US08271350B2
The publishing system and method automates at least some portion of a publishing process. The system publishes content using metadata, rights templates and/or specifications, publishing profiles and business rules.
US08271349B1
The present invention allows users to quickly develop web pages, or offers, to meet their advertisers' individual needs; mange the offers and inventory; and prioritize the order in which the offers are displayed. Functions included in the invention allow the user to internally monitor performance of marketing campaigns. The invention also has the ability to automatically prioritize which offers are to be displayed to users and in what order they will appear based upon the number of orders outstanding from an advertiser, the revenue generated from each conversion, the conversion rate of each offer, and a manual factor inserted based upon the business priority. The current invention allows the user to effectively and efficiently run a business where the user is required to set up offers for individual advertisers and maintain an effective balance of priority based upon business concerns, revenue, inventory of offer and conversion rates.
US08271346B1
The system and method uses strings of computer readable characters, such as QR Codes, biometric data captured from electronic devices, and RFID tags to link contributors to a data supply chain upon transmission from electronic devices that transmit said data strings. The electronically readable identification data strings include connection and context information for enrollees, regulators, and providers of services and products to be subscribed to asynchronous notifications and alerts as well to exchange fees, incentives, and rewards for contributions, participation, and access. Enrolled contributors are enabled to interact with electronic devices or websites or servers to contribute observations and data into protocols or otherwise participate in a data supply chain. In some instances, links between a server and electronic devices capable of overwriting computer readable character strings or matrix codes will be implemented and fees charged for revising said data strings upon acceptance of a version transmitted by enrolled contributors.
US08271340B2
An order taking system and method for an establishment enabling a customer to place an order for an item from the establishment. Order placing equipment is located near the establishment being capable of receiving the order for the item from the customer. A first voice communication link is established between local order placing equipment and a remote facility. A second voice communication link is established between the order placing equipment and the local order receiving facility. The order taking system is operable in a first mode operatively coupled via the first voice communication link between the order placing equipment and the remote facility and in a second mode operatively coupled via the second communication link between the order placing equipment to the local order taking facility. The order taking system allows the local order receiving facility to monitor voice communication between the order placing equipment and the remote facility when operable in the first mode and allowing the remote facility to monitor voice communication between the order placing equipment and the local order receiving facility when operable in the second mode.
US08271334B1
Systems and methods for bookmarking media content for future availability are described. The method includes receiving a receiving a request for media content and user account data for a plurality of unique online content sources. The method also includes requesting content availability data from the plurality of unique online content sources and using received content availability data to generate a notification. Pricing information, the media format, and notification preferences may be used to further configure the searches and notifications.
US08271331B2
A method comprising the steps of: receiving via internet a time, a date and a telephone number for a reminder telephone call (such as a wakeup call); storing in a database the time, date and telephone number of the reminder telephone call; and delivering to the subscriber via telephone the reminder telephone call at the specified time, date and telephone number. In one embodiment, the reminder call comprises a marketing message. In another embodiment, the method further comprises the steps of: receiving via the internet demographic information corresponding to the subscriber; matching the marketing message to the demographic information; and delivering the matched marketing message to the subscriber during the reminder telephone call. In other embodiments, the method further comprises the steps of receiving via the internet a personal reminder message or a selection for information, and delivering the personal reminder message or selected information to the subscriber during the reminder telephone call.
US08271324B2
System and methods of use are discloses that default routing of an ID read by an ID reader as part of a purchase transaction in a retail store, to a first computer system (MCS) instead of the POS computer system for the retail store, the first computer system processes the ID, and the POS computer system receives the results of the processing in the form of a IDs recognizable by the POS computer system and for which the POS computer system has associated costs.
US08271321B1
An apparatus and a method for providing building management information, including a receiver for receiving at least one of information pertaining to at least one of a building, a property, a unit of the building, and a unit of the property, and a request to receive information, a memory device for storing at least one of the information and the request to receive information, a processor for processing at least one of the information and the request to receive information, wherein the processor generates a response to the at least one of the information and the request to receive information, and a transmitter for transmitting the response to a communication device associated with an individual authorized to receive the response. The at least one of the information, the request, and the response, contains at least one of building information, property information, unit information, management information and maintenance information.
US08271316B2
Methods and apparatus of the present invention collect data associated with a consumer through generation of a consumer feedback communication via a wide area network. A business to which the consumer feedback communication is directed is identified in response to input from a consumer via the wide area network. Feedback data relating to the business is obtained from the consumer via the wide area network. At least a portion of the consumer feedback communication is automatically generated using the feedback data. Data associated with the consumer is then collected from the obtained feedback data.
US08271313B2
A client transmits one or more lead records to a lead enhancement module that is configured to enhance the received lead records and return enhanced lead records to the client. The lead enhancement module may return a contactability score for each lead record, indicating a likelihood that the individual identified in the lead may be contacted using the contact information provided in the lead record and/or additional contract information located by the lead enhancement module. The lead enhancement module may also receive additional data items associated with leads from one or more data sources. Additionally, statistical models that may be customized for each client may be applied to information associated with lead records in order to determine one or more propensity scores for each of the lead records, where a propensity score indicates a likelihood that an individual will take a particular action, such as purchasing particular goods or services.
US08271303B2
A method and computerized system is disclosed for managing the underwriting, quoting and binding an insurance policy with regard to the technology used to militate against the financial consequences of property losses. The invention utilizes a classifier for categorizing and weighing risk, composed of data representing in an identified building, a first unmitigated insurance risk and a second insurance risk, based upon the use of certain technology. A plurality of such weights are summed such that the weights generate a minimized risk for a building structure under consideration. Combinations of technologies, employed in existing building structures, are assigned to a classification, which then permits an underwriter to establish a premium. In another aspect of the invention data structures representing the quantification of risk reduction attendant a given technology or product are chained into a plurality of decision trees that process a construction phase and a pruning phase.
US08271288B2
In a masking sound generation apparatus, a CPU analyzes a speech utterance speed of a received sound signal. Then, the CPU copies the received sound signal into a plurality of sound signals and performs the following processing on each of the sound signals. Namely, the CPU divides each of the sound signals into frames on the basis of a frame length determined on the basis of the speech utterance speed. Reverse process is performed on each of the frames to replace a waveform of the frame with a reverse waveform, and a windowing process is performed to achieve a smooth connection between the frames. Then, the CPU randomly rearranges the order of the frames and mixes the plurality of sound signals to generate a masking sound signal.
US08271284B2
Even when a pitch cycle has a large fluctuation and the pitch cycle string changes abruptly, it possible to suppress the affect of the pitch cycle fluctuation and generate high-quality synthesized speech. A speech synthesis device generates a synthesized speech corresponding to an input text sentence according to an original speech waveform stored in original speech waveform information storage unit (25). The speech synthesis device includes pitch cycle correction unit (40) which extracts a fluctuation component of the pitch cycle of the original speech waveform which is obtained from original speech waveform information storage unit (25) in order to generate the synthesized speech and which corrects, based on the extracted fluctuation component, the pitch cycle of the synthesized speech obtained by analyzing the input text sentence. Pitch cycle correction unit (40) connects the pitch cycle waveform of the original speech waveform at the pitch cycle of the corrected synthesized speech.
US08271280B2
A voice recognition apparatus can reduce false recognition caused by matching with respect to the phrases composed of a small number of syllables, when it performs a recognition process, by a pronunciation unit, for voice data based on voice produced by a speaker such as a syllable and further performs recognition by a method such as the Word Spotting for matching with respect to the phrases stored in the phrase database. The voice recognition apparatus performs a recognition process for comparing a result of the recognition process by a pronunciation unit with the extended phrases obtained by adding the additional phrase before and/or behind the respective phrases.
US08271278B2
A system, method and computer program product for classification of an analog electrical signal using statistical models of training data. A technique is described to quantize the analog electrical signal in a manner which maximizes the compression of the signal while simultaneously minimizing the diminution in the ability to classify the compressed signal. These goals are achieved by utilizing a quantizer designed to minimize the loss in a power of the log-likelihood ratio. A further technique is described to enhance the quantization process by optimally allocating a number of bits for each dimension of the quantized feature vector subject to a maximum number of bits available across all dimensions.
US08271276B1
The invention relates to audio signal processing. More specifically, the invention relates to enhancing multichannel audio, such as television audio, by applying a gain to the audio that has been smoothed between segments of the audio. The invention relates to methods, apparatus for performing such methods, and to software stored on a computer-readable medium for causing a computer to perform such methods.
US08271272B2
There is disclosed a scalable encoding device capable of increasing the conversion performance from a narrow-band LSP to a wide-band LSP (prediction accuracy when predicting the wide-band LSP from the narrow-band LSP) and realizing a high-performance band scalable LSP encoding. The device includes a conversion coefficient calculation unit (109) for calculating a conversion coefficient by using a narrow-band quantization LSP which has been outputted from a narrow-band LSP encoding unit (103) and a wide-band quantization LSP which has been outputted from a wide-band LSP encoding unit (107). The wide-band LSP encoding unit (107) multiplies the narrow-band quantization LSP with the conversion coefficient inputted from the conversion coefficient calculation unit (109) so as to convert it into a wide-band LSP. The wide-band LSP is multiplied by a weight coefficient to calculate a prediction wide-band LSP. The wide-band LSP encoding unit (107) encodes an error signal between the obtained prediction wide-band LSP and the wide-band LSP so as to obtain a wide-band quantization LSP.
US08271268B2
A method, system and computer-readable medium for generating, caching and transmitting textual equivalents of information contained in an audio signal are presented. The method includes generating a textual equivalent of at least a portion of a speech-based audio signal in one device into a textual equivalent, storing a portion of the textual equivalent in first device's memory and transmitting the stored textual equivalent to a another device.
US08271260B2
Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for translating text in a social network. In one embodiment translations of text phrases are received from members of the social network. These text phrases include content displayed in a social networking system, such as content from social networking objects. A particular member is provided with content including a text phrase in a first language, and the member requests translation into another language. Responsive to this request, a translation of the text phrase is selected from a set of available translations. The selection is based on actions by friends of the member in the social network, the actions being associated with the set of available translations. These actions can the viewing of or approval of translations by the friends, for example. The selected translation is then presented to the member requesting the translation.
US08271255B2
Provided is a method of exactly calculating the delay of a gate in a digital integrated circuit (IC) that drives a capacitive load and a noise current source based on a crosstalk effect due to capacitive coupling between adjacent conductive lines, the method calculates the delay of the gate by using an output waveform that sums an output waveform of a linear time-varying output resistance model generated by using a gate output resistance library generated by using input and output voltage values of the digital IC and an output waveform of a modified Thevenin equivalent model of the gate.
US08271254B2
A simulation model of BT instability of a transistor in a semiconductor integrated circuit, wherein a bias condition of at least one terminal among the drain terminal, the source terminal and the substrate terminal of the transistor is set up as an independent bias condition from other terminals; and then a model parameter of the transistor is changed in the set bias condition.
US08271250B2
A molecule design support apparatus has an input part, a display to display on a screen thereof a three-dimensional molecular structure by a half vector format or a ball-and-stick format, and a determining part to determine, in the molecular structure, an end that is to become a target of a coordinate modification with respect to a molecule in its entirety, in response to a bond axis of the molecule specified from the input part. The apparatus further has a modifying part to make a modification of the molecular structure based on the specified bond axis and the end that is the target of the coordinate modification, in response to the modification specified from the input part, and a display part to display a modified molecular structure on the screen of the display based on a determination made by the determining part and the modification made by the modifying part.
US08271247B2
Methods and systems for modeling a reservoir system are described. The method includes constructing a reservoir model of a reservoir system. The reservoir model includes a reservoir and a plurality of wells. Also, one or more material balance groups are constructed with each material balance group having a portion of at least one of the plurality of wells, a portion of the reservoir, and at least one well management algorithm to track material balance within the respective material balance group. Then, fluid flow through the reservoir model is simulated based on the material balance groups by a simulator and the results are reported.
US08271245B1
A system and methods are disclosed herein for modeling a mechanical system having body elements movable in at least two dimensions in a graphical modeling environment. The system and methods described herein allow constraints on body elements movable in at least two dimensions in the mechanical system to be generalized and represented by a single block in the graphical modeling environment. The system and methods described herein simplify the modeling of a mechanical system by allowing a user to construct a definition of generalized constraints through a connectivity table. Thus, it is possible to model a mechanical system in a graphical modeling environment with less than all the body elements represented by blocks in a graphical model.
US08271235B2
An apparatus and method for efficient and concurrent sampling of a sensor signal to create multiple output signals each at different sampling rates is provided. The apparatus and method determine an aperiodic sampling rate or sampling schedule such that only samples representing samples at the different sampling rates are taken. The aperiodic samples are taken then de-interleaved to filter wanted samples for a particular application or user. As a result, the aperiodic samples is just a combination of all of the subsets to each application. Such aperiodic sampling reduces a total number of samples taken and, as a direct result, reduces the number of samples needing to be processed and stored and also reduced the power otherwise consumed to sample, process and store unused samples.
US08271232B1
A method for detecting and reporting changes in functional features of a simulation model caused by a software revision is disclosed. In one aspect, the method is independent of simulation model architecture. One performs regression testing with a plurality of feature-specific modules. The feature-specific modules are configured to generate a first set of information with the simulation model and compare the first set of information to a second set of corresponding information from the simulation model. In the above-described testing, the first set of information postdates the software revision and the second set of information predates the software revision.
US08271228B2
In a trajectory information processing device (201) for acquiring from a trajectory of a spiral-shaped graphic easy for a person to enter the input information intended by the person, an input receiving unit (202) receives input of coordinate information of a trajectory, a closed curve acquisition unit (203) repeatedly acquires a closed curve wherein the trajectory crosses over the trajectory for the first time after the starting point and removes from the trajectory the closed curve and the curve preceding thereto for the coordinate information of a trajectory whose input was received, and a vortex information outputting unit (204) outputs changes in the time interval at which closed curves are acquired as information indicating the intensity of the vortex motion of the trajectory.
US08271224B2
In particular embodiments, fusing structures includes receiving sensor data sets generated by sensors in response to sensing a structure system. Each sensor data set describes structures of the structure system. Structure pairs are generated, where a structure pair comprises a first structure from a first sensor data set and a second structure from a second sensor data set. A relational vector set is defined for each structure pair, and a relational vector score is calculated for each structure pair according to the relational vector set of the structure pair. An association score is calculated for each structure pair according to the relational vector score of the structure pair. The association score of the structure pair indicates a likelihood that the structure pair is fusable.
US08271220B2
A system and associated method for evaluating a high-frequency signal at a point of interest on a signal path from a remote signal at a remote pickup point on the signal path. The point of interest is located on a device under test that is coupled to test equipment via the signal path. The high-frequency signal at the point of interest is calculated from the remote signal at the remote pickup point with an inverse transfer function that eliminates degradation effects on the high-frequency signal that is transferred through the signal path. The inverse transfer function may be calculated from measurements acquired in a test signal transfer through a reference path that simulates electrical properties of the signal path, or configured to a predetermined function if electrical properties of the signal path are known.
US08271219B2
There is provided a deterministic component model identifying apparatus for determining a type of a deterministic component contained in a probability density function supplied thereto. The deterministic component model identifying apparatus includes a spectrum calculating section that calculates a spectrum of the probability density function on an axis of a predetermined variable, a null value detecting section that detects a null value on the axis of the predetermined variable in the calculated spectrum, a theoretical value calculating section that calculates a theoretical value of a spectrum of the deterministic component in association with each of a plurality of predetermined deterministic component types, based on the null value detected by the null value detecting section, and a model determining section that determines, as the type of the deterministic component contained in the probability density function, a deterministic component type associated with a logarithmic magnitude spectrum difference most similar to a logarithmic magnitude spectrum of a Gaussian distribution, where the logarithmic magnitude spectrum difference is produced by subtracting the theoretical value of the spectrum of the deterministic component calculated in association with each of the plurality of predetermined deterministic component types from the spectrum calculated by the spectrum calculating section.
US08271216B2
The present disclosure includes a power measurement, circuit breaker or integrated protection system including isolated analog-to-digital modulators for measuring current using current sensors, such as, for example, current shunts, in a single or multiphase power system. In one embodiment, the modulators are divided into a line-side device with an analog-to-digital modulator and a host-side device including a decimation filter and a processor. In one embodiment, an isolation barrier, such as, for example, a pulse transformer, divides the lineside device from the host-side device.
US08271215B2
Method and practical use system for measuring the imbalance potential of an electrical installation or system comprising: i) acquiring instantaneous values of voltage (vA, vB, vC) and electrical intensity (iA, iB, iC) of each of the phases A, B, C of the installation, and breaking them down into their fundamental frequency components (vA1, vB1, vC1), (iA1, iB1, iC1); ii) obtaining effective voltage and intensity values and angles for initial phase difference between voltage and intensity, and, starting from these effective values obtaining active powers (PA, PB, PC) and reactive (QA, QB, QC) potentials for each of the phases; iii) from the active and reactive potentials, obtaining (4) a phasor imbalance potentials (ĀU) according to the following expression: ĀU=√{square root over (2)}( p·|PA+a2PB+aPC|+ q·|QA+a2QB+aQC|) where a=1|120° and p and q are orthogonal unit phasors. The invention also relates to a device for calibrating (21) instruments for measurement instruments of this imbalance power.
US08271200B2
A system and method whereby acoustic signals can be classified and identified as to nature and location of the original signal. The system and method determine from an arbitrary set of signals a signature or other characterizing feature and distinguish signals associated with a plurality of conditions by means of dictionaries comprising atoms of signals.
US08271187B2
A video mirror system for a vehicle includes an interior rearview mirror assembly having an electrochromic reflective element and a video display screen disposed to the rear of the reflective element. The video display screen, when actuated, emits light that passes through a transflective mirror reflector of the reflective element to be visible to a driver of the vehicle viewing the reflective element. The video display screen includes a thin film transistor liquid crystal display element that is back lit by a plurality of white light emitting light emitting diodes. A camera having a field of view rearward of the vehicle is mounted at the rear of the vehicle and, during a reversing maneuver of the vehicle, a video output of the camera is displayed by the video display screen as video images so as to assist the driver in reversing the equipped vehicle.
US08271184B2
The invention relates to the field of monitoring and aid to taxiing of an aircraft at an airport.The invention is a method of checking and monitoring the taxi plan and relates to a monitoring system comprising means for checking the pathway of the plan and means for signalling on the taxi aid the waiting time for the next clearance ahead of the aircraft along the pathway, the means for checking the pathway comprising a device for checking the pathway constraints and a device for checking the clearances, the device for checking the constraints making it possible to test and to display on the taxi plan the information descriptive of the constraints and the device for checking the clearances making it possible to check the clearances and to add the missing clearances to the taxi plan.
US08271182B2
A method for controlling differences in cylinder mixtures for a two cylinder bank engine having a turbocharger is presented. In one example, the description includes a method for adjusting valve timing to reduce cylinder mixture variation.
US08271175B2
A control means for controlling actuators of a vehicle creates a time series of a future behavior of the vehicle using a vehicle model. A state amount of the vehicle model is initialized on the basis of a state amount of the vehicle, and the future behavior is created starting from the initial state amount. The future behavior is created such that operation commands of the actuators in the vehicle model at the current time coincide with or approximate basic values based on operation of a manipulating device, such as a steering wheel of the vehicle. It is evaluated whether vehicle motion, road surface reaction force, and wheel sliding, in the created future behavior satisfy predetermined restrictive conditions. Based on the evaluation result, the operation commands of the actuators are successively decided. This permits ideal travel of the vehicle to be achieved by properly predicting future behaviors of the vehicle.
US08271172B2
Hydraulic brake system for a land vehicle includes a control unit that supplies control signals for controlling automatic braking operations of the brake system, a master cylinder for generating brake pressure under the control of a driver, a first brake circuit includes a first controllable pump for generating brake pressure in the first brake circuit under the control of the control unit, and a first valve arrangement having an input side, which is fluidically connected to the master cylinder, and an output side, which is fluidically connected to the first pump, wherein the first valve arrangement has an open operating state, in which the input side and the output side of the first valve arrangement are fluidically connected, and a closed operating state, in which the fluid connection between the input side and the output side of the first valve arrangement is interrupted.
US08271168B2
A shift controller includes: a shift control unit automatically shifting gears of an automatic transmission using a basic shift line map; a shift line map switching control unit switching from the basic shift line map to a high fluid temperature shift line map set on a lower vehicle speed side when a hydraulic fluid temperature in the automatic transmission is higher than a predetermined value; and a low power state determination unit determining whether a vehicle is in a low power state in which a required power related value used for gear shift determination is lower than a predetermined determination value. The shift line map switching control unit switches from the high fluid temperature shift line map back to the basic shift line map when the hydraulic fluid temperature is lower than the predetermined value and the vehicle is in the low power state.
US08271167B2
A shift control apparatus for vehicular continuously variable transmissions is equipped with a related value calculating portion (102) that calculates a first driving force related value in association with an automatic shift mode in which an automatic shift control portion (92) performs shift control and that calculates a second driving force related value in association with a manual shift mode in which a manual shift control portion (94) performs shift control, and a second changeover portion (108). The first driving force related value and the second driving force related value are set larger as the driving force output from an engine (12) increases. The second changeover portion makes a changeover from the manual shift mode to the automatic shift mode on the basis of a relationship between the first driving force related value and the second driving force related value.
US08271165B2
A method for improving haul road surface conditions comprises collecting performance data associated with at least one machine operating on a haul route and determining a rolling resistance of each of the at least one machine based on the performance data. An average rolling resistance associated with one or more portions of the haul route is determined based on the rolling resistance of each of the at least one machine. The one or more portions of the haul route are identified as irregular if the average rolling resistance of the one or more portions exceeds a threshold resistance value. A proposed modification to the irregular portion of the haul route is generated, and performance of the at least one machine is simulated based on the proposed modification. The method also includes outputting results of the simulated performance.
US08271159B2
A method of stabilizing a vehicle, in particular for stabilizing the vehicle with respect to tilting movements, to the load condition of the vehicle, performs a control depending on a load condition of the vehicle, and the load condition of the vehicle is determined by way of a vehicle mass that is established due to a balance of forces that act on the vehicle, and/or by way of a characteristic speed of the vehicle.
US08271152B2
A system and method for displaying aircraft traffic information on an onboard display element of a host aircraft are provided. The system obtains current flight status data of the host aircraft and current flight status data of a second aircraft that is near the host aircraft, and processes the current flight status data of the host aircraft and the current flight status data of the second aircraft to determine an in-trail procedure (ITP) opportunity region for the host aircraft. The ITP opportunity region is associated with conditions that satisfy ITP criteria for the host aircraft. The system renders, on the onboard display element, an ITP display comprising graphical representations of the host aircraft and the second aircraft positioned in accordance with the current flight status data of the host aircraft and the current flight status data of the second aircraft. The ITP display further includes a graphical representation of the ITP opportunity region.
US08271144B2
An expandable irrigation controller for controlling a plurality of watering stations in an irrigation system includes a removable front panel and an inner housing, connected to the front panel. The removable front panel includes a plurality of manual controls operable to input instructions for a watering program, a memory operable to store the input instructions and a controller operable to execute the watering program. The inner housing includes a control connectors which are connected electrically to the controller and a station module operable to provide an ON/OFF signal to at least one watering station of the irrigation system. The control connectors are positioned in a substantially continuous line extending across the inner housing such that the station module is connectable to the control connectors at substantially any desired location. Multiple modules of different sizes may be mounted in the inner housing as desired.
US08271141B2
A valve body has an elongated bore in communication with an inlet port and an outlet port. A valve element is movable within the bore between deactuated and actuated positions. A valve sensor generates a sensor signal indicative of an instantaneous parameter of the valve that changes between the deactuated and actuated positions. A logic unit receives the sensor signal and a pilot command signal that actuates the valve. A predetermined change in the pilot command signal causes the logic unit to determine a cycle parameter responsive to a time period between two predetermined events. At least the beginning or end of the time period corresponds to a predetermined value of the sensor signal. The individual determinations of the cycle parameter are accumulated to obtain an expected cycle parameter. The logic unit generates an indication signal when the cycle parameter exhibits a predetermined variance from the expected cycle parameter.
US08271140B2
A periodic rotational vibration check for storage devices to compensate for varying loads is disclosed. A variable representing rotational vibration status is maintained in a rotational vibration log. The variable is processed to determine whether a storage device exhibits a rotational vibration issue. Workload analysis is performed to identify a change to the workloads run on physically separate hardware to resolve the rotational vibration issue and thus eliminate the need for more expensive hardware.
US08271130B2
An input device includes a handle coupled to a base by a linkage. The handle is manually movable relative to the base to provide a position input. The linkage has a plurality of links including a redundant link that permits internal motion of the linkage such that the linkage can move without moving the handle relative to the base. When a distance between the handle and a handle stop position is less than a threshold distance, a handle stop applies a first load to the handle. A drive system applies a second load to the redundant link responsive to the first load to create internal motion of the linkage that increases a distance between the handle and a handle stop position. The second load may be proportional to a cosine of an angle between a handle axis of motion and a redundant link axis of motion.
US08271128B1
A pharmacy workflow management system including plural counters and a pharmacy workflow management method. In embodiments, the system includes a housing, a first automatic object counter and a cassette dispenser which feeds objects from a cassette mounted thereto to the first object counter. A second object counter counts objects fed from a cassette mounted to the cassette dispenser. A data processing platform within the housing is programmed with instructions that enable the system to compare the counts from the first and second object counters. The data processing platform also provides for management of pharmacy workflow by providing improved control of prescription fulfillment.
US08271125B2
A computer model is formed of a mounting component (18) to be mounted at a target location on a mounting surface (12) of a base component (11). A position and viewing direction of a digital camera (3) is determined relative to the base component (11) and a live image (11′) of the base component as viewed by the camera (3) is displayed on a monitor (4). The monitor (4) also displays a mounting component target image (18″) generated by a computer (2) of the mounting component (18) mounted at the target location on the mounting surface (12) superimposed over the live image (11′) of the base component. A user physically moves the mounting component (18) relative to the base component (11) until a live image of the mounting component as viewed by the camera (3) coincides with the mounting component target image (18″).
US08271124B2
An object is heated to a preheating temperature in an atmosphere of a reducing gas under the atmospheric pressure while adjusting the setting of the emissivity of a non-contact temperature measuring part and regulating the temperature of the object according to the measured value measured by a contact temperature measuring part. The pressure of the atmosphere is reduced. The object is further heated to a heating temperature under a lowered pressure while regulating the temperature of the object according to the measured value measured by the non-contact temperature measuring part whose setting of the emissivity is adjusted during the heating process to the preheating temperature. The pressure of the atmosphere is increased back to the atmospheric pressure while maintaining the heating temperature of the object. The temperature of the object is decreased under the atmospheric pressure. With this, in the process of heating an object under a lowered pressure, the actual temperature of the object is managed over the whole steps, and the object can be most suitably heated according to the actual temperature.
US08271121B2
An arrangement for implementing an automatic in-situ process control scheme during execution of a recipe is provided. The arrangement includes control-loop sensors configured at least for collecting a first set of sensor data to facilitate monitoring set points during the recipe execution, wherein the control-loop sensors being part of a process control loop. The arrangement also includes independent sensors configured at least for collecting a second set of sensor data, which is not part of the process control loop. The arrangement yet also includes a hub configured for at least receiving at least one of the first set of sensor data and the second set of sensor data. The arrangement yet further includes an analysis computer communicably coupled with the hub and configured for performing analysis of at least one of the first set of sensor data and the second set of sensor data.
US08271120B2
A method of finishing an optical element includes mounting the optical element in an optical mount having a plurality of fiducials overlapping with the optical element and obtaining a first metrology map for the optical element and the plurality of fiducials. The method also includes obtaining a second metrology map for the optical element without the plurality of fiducials, forming a difference map between the first metrology map and the second metrology map, and aligning the first metrology map and the second metrology map. The method further includes placing mathematical fiducials onto the second metrology map using the difference map to form a third metrology map and associating the third metrology map to the optical element. Moreover, the method includes mounting the optical element in the fixture in an MRF tool, positioning the optical element in the fixture; removing the plurality of fiducials, and finishing the optical element.
US08271115B2
A media player includes a memory, a classification component, a content allocation component, a content acquiring component, and a content playing component. The memory stores history information having content information of a plurality of contents that were played on the media player. The classification component groups the content information of the history information into a plurality of content groups, and generates a classification list including information of the content groups. The content allocation component allocates a plurality of contents stored in a media server to the content groups, and generates a content allocation list indicating relationships between the contents stored in the media server and the content groups. The content acquiring component acquires one of the contents selected based on a user list including the classification list and the content allocation list. The content playing component plays the one of the contents.
US08271113B2
An audio testing system is configured for receiving an audio signal from the an audio emitting device. The system samples the audio signal and obtains sampling points from the audio signal for determining if the audio signal has been distorted. A related method is also disclosed.
US08271109B2
A method for digitally processing audio signals to emulate the effects of vacuum tube amplifiers and preamplifiers, musical instrument amplification systems, and distortion effects. By use of a parametrically-controlled non-linear transfer function, non-linear filters, feedback elements, and power-law function models, the dynamic behavior and distortion effects of tube amplification stages are simulated. This provides users with the capability to reproduce the desired sounds of vintage and modern tube amplifier systems and effects with the conveniences and control associated with digital signal processing systems and software.
US08271106B2
A system and method to configure a rule set used in connection with a medical monitoring system for monitoring patients and patient care equipment, especially medication delivery pumps, based on a variety of conditions and parameters associated with monitored biometric information and equipment information and for providing user-defined responses to those conditions and parameters.
US08271101B2
A system for delivering therapeutic agents to biological tissue includes a surgically implantable lead configured to be inserted into the biological tissue, the surgically implantable lead including a preformed cavity; and a modular capsule containing a therapeutic agent which includes dexamethasone base; the modular capsule being secured within the preformed cavity; the modular capsule releasing the therapeutic agent into the biological tissue. A method of delivering therapeutic agents to biological tissue includes obtaining a surgically implantable lead with a preformed cavity; obtaining a modular capsule containing a therapeutic agent comprising dexamethasone base and securing it within the preformed cavity; and inserting the surgically implantable lead into the biological tissue.
US08271099B1
In one embodiment, a paddle-style lead for implantation in the epidural space, the paddle-style lead comprising: a paddle structure that comprises a frame of rigid material, the frame comprising first, second, and third longitudinal members, a distal linking portion that is mechanically coupled to the first, second, and third longitudinal members, and a proximal linking portion that is mechanically coupled to the first, second, and third longitudinal members; wherein a respective plurality of electrodes are provided for each of the first, second, and third longitudinal members, each plurality of electrodes being electrically coupled to conductors of a lead body; wherein the distal and proximal linking portions are adapted to permit compression of the first and third longitudinal members toward each other and to permit the second longitudinal member to move out of plane relative to the first and third longitudinal members when a compressive force is applied to the paddle.
US08271098B2
In one embodiment, a method, of fabricating a stimulation lead for stimulating tissue of a patient, comprises: providing a lead body, the lead body comprising a plurality of conductors embedded within insulating material; providing a plurality of terminals; electrically coupling the plurality of terminals with the plurality of conductors; providing a plurality of electrodes, the plurality of electrodes comprising a plurality of substantially continuous longitudinal trenches on a surface of the electrodes, the electrodes comprising areas of reflow material forming microstructures substantially continuously along walls of the longitudinal trenches; and electrically coupling the plurality of electrodes with the plurality of conductors.
US08271095B2
A system for determining the proximity of the esophagus to the ablation electrode of an ablation catheter during an ablation procedure is disclosed. The system comprises an ablation catheter having at least one ablation electrode, an esophageal probe catheter having at least one electrode, and a signal processing unit. Both the ablation electrode and the esophageal probe catheter are electrically connected to the signal processing unit. The signal processing unit receives electrical signals from the ablation electrode on the ablation catheter and the electrode on the esophageal probe catheter and compares the signals to determine the proximity of the esophagus to the ablation electrode.
US08271090B1
An apparatus is disclosed for providing electrical stimulation to a subject from a stimulation unit using a transmission line and a plurality of electrodes. The apparatus may include a plurality of discrete nodes, each adapted to connect to the transmission line for receiving the electrical stimulation and to connect with at least one pair of the plurality of electrodes. Related methods are also described.
US08271076B2
An option which is considered to be desired by a user is determined by using an electroencephalogram interface (IF), and a determination error for the option is detected based on an electroencephalogram. If a determination error is detected, the option is corrected based on the electroencephalogram information which was used for the option determination.A correction apparatus to be incorporated in an electroencephalogram IF system is provided. The electroencephalogram IF system includes a biological signal measurement section, an analysis section for analyzing an event-related potential contained in an electroencephalogram signal of a user, an inference section for inferring an option desired by the user based on a result of analysis, and an output section for presenting the option inferred by the inference section to the user. The biological signal measurement section measures the electroencephalogram signal of the user based on a point of presenting the option to the user as a starting point. The correction apparatus includes: a determination section for determining correctness of the inferred option based on an event-related potential contained in an electroencephalogram signal acquired after inference of the option; and a correction section for, when the inferred option is determined to be incorrect, correcting the inferred option based on the event-related potential before inference of the option and designating a device operation based on the option after correction.
US08271074B2
A system and method of dynamically calibrating an image triage system. An image that may include one or more target entities is divided into a plurality of individual non-calibration image chips. Each non-calibration image chip is successively displayed to a user for a presentation time period. A calibration image chip that includes a synthetic target entity is selectively displayed, for the presentation time period, between the successive display of two non-calibration image chips. Calibration data are collected from the user at least while each calibration image chip is being displayed, and the image triage system is dynamically calibrated using the calibration data.
US08271063B2
A sensor is disclosed having one or more light sources, and one or more light detectors. At least one of the detectors produces an output in response to received light. Also, electrical circuitry in response to the output generates a pulse waveform proportional to the arterial and venous pulse of a human body, wherein the pulse waveform is used to synchronize an arterial-pulse measurement of the absorption or reflectance of one or more coherent light sources.
US08271062B2
A superconducting article and method of fabrication are provided. The superconducting article includes a superconducting structure, which includes a superconducting conductor and multiple discrete overlay regions of higher heat capacity than the superconducting conductor. The multiple discrete overlay regions are disposed along a length of the superconducting conductor, in thermal contact with the superconducting conductor, and positioned to define a heat modulation pattern along the length of the superconducting structure. The multiple discrete overlay regions create a temperature distribution favorable to transition of the superconducting structure under load from a normal resistive state to a superconductive state by facilitating formation of a continuous superconducting path along the length of the superconducting structure. In one implementation, the multiple discrete overlay regions are multiple island regions periodically disposed adjacent to opposing first and second edges of the superconducting conductor along the length of the superconducting conductor.
US08271058B2
A first device communicates with a wireless network that includes nodes that are active for predefined activation times and that are at least partially dormant when not active. The communication method includes identifying a start of communication via a message that exceeds a maximum activation time of nodes on the wireless network by a factor N, where N is equal to at least a maximum number of frequencies on the wireless network, and exchanging information with a second device comprising a node on the wireless network that is within a transmission range of the first device, where the information is exchanged following the message and includes frequency hopping data for the second device.
US08271054B2
A method, programmed medium and system are disclosed which provide for user-controlled management of power requirements for mobile devices. The system enables the user to determine and adjust power settings according to time-related goals set by the end user. The end user, in one example, may specify a goal in hours, minutes or a predetermined date/time and the power management function displays, for example, various combinations of power-down options on specific system devices which can be implemented to achieve power availability for the specified amount of time. The user is enabled to select which of the displayed combination power-down option schemes to implement in order to best suit the user's application requirements during the time frame in which the power-saving scheme will be implemented in order to maximize power-saving while still providing optimum functionality for the user's particular application.
US08271052B2
An electronic device comprises an upper housing, a lower housing, and a battery. The lower housing is engaged with the upper housing. A bottom wall of the lower housing is partially recessed to form a thin battery receiving portion. The thin battery receiving portion can give way to pressure caused by a swelling and or exploding battery.
US08271050B2
A system and method for automatically configuring a communications system between a local mode in which a local communications device (such as an in-vehicle device or “land-line phone”) is active and a remote mode in which a mobile communications device is active and coupled to the communications system. One example of the method includes searching for a Bluetooth™ enabled device, selecting the remote mode of operation responsive to detection of the Bluetooth™ enabled device, and selecting the local mode of operation responsive to failure to detect the Bluetooth™ enabled device. In one example, selecting the local mode of operation includes activating the local communications device, and selecting the remote mode of operation includes activating local Bluetooth™ systems to connect the Bluetooth™ enabled device to the communications system.
US08271044B2
A system and method for installing wireless broadband service at a customer location. A temporary connection between a customer modem and internet service provider network is established such that final configuration of the customer modem can be completed remotely, thus eliminating the need for highly skilled installers. Further, the system and method of the present invention precludes the completion of the installation process in the event that the signal falls outside of the acceptable range.
US08271043B2
An apparatus and method to dynamically schedule user devices in a wireless communication system in single-user multiple-input multiple-output (SU-MIMO) or multiple-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) modes of operation. The dynamic scheduling employs an efficient differential reporting of channel state information that reduces uplink feedback overhead, whereby a base layer value of a channel quality indicator (CQI) is reported in conjunction with a CQI offset value. Antenna subset selection is also reported. The offset value reflects gains by detection with successive interference cancellation if multiple antennas are reported (rank>1), while it reflects the actual offset between single-layer SU-MIMO CQI and MU-MIMO CQI if a single antenna is reported. Scheduled SU-MIMO mode of operation is optimized for a user reporting either a single antenna or multiple antennas, whereas MU-MIMO operation is optimized for a user reporting a single antenna.
US08271042B2
A large scale, self-calibrating multi-antenna wireless communication system calibrates the transmit-receive RF chains of antennas in the system. The system, during a first time interval, transmits a pilot signal from at least those antennas in a first time-reuse group, so that the pilot signals are received at antennas in one or more other time-reuse groups. The system, during a second time interval, transmits a pilot signal from at least those antennas in a second time-reuse group, so that the pilot signals are received at antennas in one or more other time-reuse groups. The system also, during a third time interval, transmits a pilot signal from at least those antennas in a third time-reuse group, so that the pilot signals are received at antennas in one or more other time-reuse groups. Based on these received pilot signals, the system calculates RF-chain calibration factors for one or more of the antennas.
US08271041B2
The radio base station includes a monitoring controller for determining whether to switch between BB cards; and a baseband signal processor for transmitting a suspension request to suspend the transmission of the user data when it is determined that the BB cards are switched, and performing the handover of a processing between the BB cards based on the transmission of the suspension request. The baseband signal processor transmits a capacity allocation or a zero grant requesting to set the transmission rate of the user data to zero.
US08271035B2
In an image/audio playback technology in a mobile communication terminal, a single image is divided into two halves, i.e., left-half and right-half images, which are displayed on two mobile communication terminals, respectively. In addition, two mobile communication terminals can play left-side and right-side audio data, respectively, which compose stereo audio data, according to the relative locations of the two mobile communication terminals.
US08271034B2
A system and method for establishing a rule for an end device connected to a subscriber network. The subscriber network is connected to a service provider network via a local gateway. The subscriber network receives services from a remote operations center via a service provider network. Capability information indicative of a service that the end device is capable of receiving is acquired by the local gateway from the end device. The capability information is sent to the remote operations center via the service provider network. The remote operations center uses the capability information to identify a subscriber service that is supported by the end device. The remote operations center uses the capability information to determine if the end device requires an application to provide a service and, if so, provides the application to the end device.
US08271033B2
An accessory device and a handheld device may be synchronized by forming a communication link between the handheld device and the accessory device. The handheld device includes a plurality of functions and the accessory device is configured to operate a subset of the plurality of functions. Each of the plurality of functions of the handheld device includes executable program code, content data files and functional setting information. The executable program code, content data files and functional setting information is transferred for at least one of the plurality of functions of the handheld device to the accessory device. The communication link between the handheld device and the accessory device is disconnected. The subset of the plurality of functions is operated on the accessory device using the transferred executable program code, content data files and functional setting information from the handheld device after disconnecting the communication link between the handheld device and the accessory device.
US08271029B2
A multimode communication integrated circuit comprising baseband processing circuitry with a shared radio interface. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise a processor module adapted to perform various processing (e.g., baseband processing) in support of multimode communications. A first radio module may be communicatively coupled to the processor module through a common communication interface. A second radio module may also be communicatively coupled to the processor module through the common communication interface. The common communication interface may, for example, be adapted to communicate information over a communication bus that is shared between the processor module and a plurality of radio modules (e.g., the first and second radio modules).
US08271026B2
A system and method, in a mobile communication device, providing N-way communication through a plurality of communication services. Various aspects of the present invention provide a mobile communication device comprising a user interface and at least one communication interface module adapted to perform a first communication with a first communication device through a first communication service and perform a second communication with a second communication device through a second communication service. At least one module may be adapted to receive outgoing information from the user interface and to receive first information from the first communication device through the first communication service. The at least one module may also combine at least the received outgoing information and the received first information and transmit such combined information to the second communication device through the second communication service.
US08271017B2
A method for controlling power of an uplink physical channel includes: computing a relative gain factor in a compressed mode; correcting the relative gain factor to obtain a corrected relative gain factor; generating a gain factor in the compressed mode according to the corrected relative gain factor; controlling power of the uplink physical channel according to the gain factor in the compressed mode generated. In embodiments of the present invention, after being computed, the relative gain factor in the compressed mode is corrected, then the gain factor in the compressed mode is generated according to the corrected relative gain factor. Thus, an accurate gain factor may be acquired for controlling the power of the uplink physical channel.
US08271006B1
A system of enhanced page messaging in a short message service environment is provided. The system comprises a computer system and an application, that when executed on the computer system, receives a first message containing a request to forward the first message to a first portable electronic device wherein the first message is received via a concise textual messaging service. The system also parses at least one of the header and payload content of the first message and determines that the first message is to be delivered as a page message. The system also forwards the first message to the first portable electronic device as a page message.
US08271003B1
Messages, such as voice messages, are received at a server and processed to generate extracted data that includes text from the message, envelope information, or contact information. The extracted data is transmitted to a device that displays a visual representation that includes some of the extracted data. The visual representation (e.g., an icon) enables the user to visually see what is in a voice message. By selecting a particular visual representation, the corresponding message can be retrieved from the message server and played at the device. In some instances, the message server also transmits an initial segment to the device that can be played by the device as well.
US08270991B2
A system is provided for selecting a cell to which to hand off a user equipment (UE). The system includes a processor programmed to promote evaluation of a plurality of mobility drivers for one or more neighbor cells of a cell serving the UE (user equipment). The processor programmed to promote evaluation of a plurality of groups of mobility drivers based on the evaluations of the mobility drivers, wherein the UE is handed off to one of the cells based on the groups of mobility drivers that are evaluated positively.
US08270989B2
According to priorities determined on the basis of a number of pieces of battery information which concern batteries of a number of communication terminals and each of which is received from the communication terminals, data communication with communication terminals are controlled. The priorities are varied, irrespective of a variation in the pieces of battery information, according to a rule predetermined.
US08270966B1
A method, system, and computer-readable media are provided for reducing mobile device roaming. A set of transition mobile-network attributes are captured by an idle mobile device before switching from a roaming network to a home network. A collection of transition mobile-network attributes are used to generate transition-based data. Active mobile-network attributes are compared to the transition-based data and used to recognize when the mobile device is within an area that can receive one or more services from the home network.
US08270962B1
What is disclosed is a wireless communication device comprising a processing system and a user interface system. The processing system identifies a software update that requires a reboot of the wireless communication device. In response, the processing system determines a geographic location of the wireless communication device, initiates a user interface for emergency calls during the reboot of the wireless communication device, and reboots the wireless communication device. The user interface system presents the user interface for emergency calls during the reboot of the wireless communication device.
US08270954B1
A system is provided. The system comprises a processor, a memory, and an application stored in the memory. When executed by the processor, the application activates a concierge function in response to a first trigger, and deactivates the concierge function in response to a second trigger. While the concierge function is active, the application analyzes a first digital signal encoding voice content from the portable electronic device to identify a context and, in response to identifying the context, transmits a second digital signal encoding a voice message to be presented by the portable electronic device based on the context keyword.
US08270951B2
A system and a method for charging for directed provisioning and using of dynamic content to limited resource devices, through an integrated platform which handles all aspects of aggregation and management of such dynamic content. The integrated platform features a billing system for performing billing actions. The billing system of the present invention interacts with other components of the integrated platform in order to be able to determine the charge for particular triggering events, such as downloading dynamic content, and/or events which are actually triggered by the application itself. The charge is preferably determined according to one of a plurality of rules, as applied by a rules engine of the billing system. These rules are part of a charging policy, which may optionally be determined by the content provider.
US08270947B2
Providing a supplicant access to at least one requested service is described. An authentication request is received, wherein the authentication request comprises an association request and an identifier to a requested service. A relationship between the supplicant and the requested service based on the association request is created. Then, the association request for the requested service is fulfilled and an authentication server based upon the requested service identified in the authentication request is determined. Finally, the supplicant is authenticated for the requested service.
US08270946B2
There are provided a mobile terminal capable of switching a function of the mobile terminal depending on whether a sensor is contacted or not contacted, a mobile terminal control method, a mobile terminal control program, and a recording medium. A mobile phone 1 includes a touch sensor 9 at a position where a user generally contacts the mobile phone 1 when the user holds it. While a user is in contact with the touch sensor 9, the mobile phone 1 can perform normal operation. If the mobile phone 1 continues to be not in contact with the touch sensor 9 for a certain time, it switches from the normal operation. For example, assume that a lock mode setting is made. The mobile phone 1 switches to a lock mode while it is not in contact with the touch sensor 9. When the touch sensor 9 is contacted again, the mobile phone 1 shifts to a state for unlock processing such as password entry. If an entry is normally made, the mobile phone 1 is unlocked.
US08270944B1
A method of informing a portable electronic device of a number of available pre-paid text messages, comprising billing a pre-paid subscriber account for a predetermined number of text messages to be sent by a portable electronic device; incrementing a first count by an application executing on a computer based on the predetermined number of text messages purchased; determining by the application a second count indicating a remaining balance of text messages based on how many text messages have been one of received and sent by the portable electronic device since billing the pre-paid subscriber account based on the first count; and sending by the application a message comprising the second count to the portable electronic device.
US08270942B2
Disclosed is a species of control-message intercept method which includes a passive monitoring approach whereby the relevant control packets are inspected for the purpose of providing additional information for the purpose of facilitating the operation of some primary or ‘master’ Internet Protocol (IP) charging/rating middleware platform/gateway system (intended to equip network operators with the ability to rate and bill IP traffic), and secondly, an invasive technique whereby control (GTP-C) messages are injected for the purpose of altering the state of a given data session in an more aggressive fashion (e.g. to drop a data session when the subscriber runs out of money in his/her prepaid account).
US08270940B2
The present invention presents a method for creating a relation between mobiles and a vehicle of a wireless communications network. The vehicle is equipped with an on-board device with wireless communication capability. The present invention also presents an on-board device and a road user server to be used in such wireless communications network. Mobiles in the vehicle are triggered to report their location to the network. When the vehicle reports its location an association between the vehicle and the mobiles having same location information is performed. The triggering signal is sent on control channels triggering all mobiles, including mobiles in idle mode. Profiles of mobile users in a vehicle, based on location information and mobile identities, are retrieved and stored in lists which are forwarded to fore example hospitals and fire departments when an accident occurs.
US08270939B2
In one embodiment, the present disclosure provides a method, system and device for determining information about a location of the mobile device. The mobile device is configured to contact a private response call center (PRCC), e.g., by pressing or selecting one or more buttons or a softmenu. A PRCC operator can identify a potential emergency situation and, upon such an identification, initiate a conference call between a PRCC operator, a user of the mobile device, and a public safety answering point (PSAP) operator. The mobile device may transmit location information previously determined before PRCC call and be commanded to gather new location information during the call. The mobile device may also, while on a call with the PRCC, determine and transmit to the PRCC location information.
US08270937B2
A friends-based low-threat response service for subscribers in one or more mobile communications networks is provided. In general, in a low-threat situation, a subscriber initiates a request to the low-threat response service via the subscriber's mobile device. The low-threat response service identifies a friend of the subscriber or a friend-of-a-friend of the subscriber that is geographically proximate to the subscriber as a responder. The low-threat response service then establishes communication between the subscriber and the responder or notifies the subscriber that the responder is coming to provide assistance. The low-threat response service may also effect presentation of information at a mobile device of the responder directing the responder to the subscriber, information at the mobile device of the subscriber directing the subscriber to the responder, or both.
US08270927B2
Systems and techniques for adaptive interference filtering in a communications device are disclosed. The communications device may include a transmitter, a receiver, a duplexer coupled to the transmitter and the receiver, and an adaptive filter disposed between the duplexer and the receiver. A processor may be configured to monitor cross modulation in the receiver between transmitter leakage through the duplexer and a jammer, and adapt the filter to vary its transmit signal rejection as a function of the cross modulation.
US08270922B2
Disclosed is a radio wave receiver including an antenna to receive a radio wave, a tuning unit to switch a frequency characteristic of the antenna in a stepwise fashion, an oscillation unit to oscillate the antenna and a circuit section of the tuning unit, a receiving process unit to carry out a signal process by extracting a signal of a desired wave among received signals which are received from the antenna, a search control unit in which the oscillation unit is made to generate an oscillation signal at the circuit section and in which the oscillation signal searches a setting condition of the tuning unit which is extracted in the receiving process unit by switching a setting of the tuning unit and a search range deciding unit to selectively decide an adjustable range in which the switching of the setting of the tuning unit is carried out by the search control unit so as to be a specific adjustable range which is a portion of an entire adjustable range of the tuning unit corresponding to a frequency of the desired wave.
US08270918B2
A multi-rank beamforming (MRBF) scheme in which the downlink channel is estimated and an optimal precoding matrix to be used by the MRBF transmitter is determined accordingly. The optimal precoding matrix is selected from a codebook of matrices having a recursive structure which allows for efficient computation of the optimal precoding matrix and corresponding Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR). The codebook also enjoys a small storage footprint. Due to the computational efficiency and modest memory requirements, the optimal precoding determination can be made at user equipment (UE) and communicated to a transmitting base station over a limited uplink channel for implementation over the downlink channel.
US08270916B2
A power tuning method determines values of a magnitude control signal that controls the magnitude of an amplitude-modulated power supply signal applied to a power supply port of a power amplifier of a polar transmitter and an amplitude control signal that controls the amplitude of a constant-envelope phase-modulated signal applied to a radio frequency input port of the power amplifier necessary to set the output power of the polar transmitter to a target output power. The method is repeated and performed for a plurality of different target output powers. Output-power-level dependent power control parameters calculated from the applied method are used to set the values of the magnitude control and amplitude control signals during normal operation. Using the output-power-level dependent power control parameters, the magnitude control and amplitude control signals are changed in a continuous manner with changes in output power and over the full dynamic range of output powers the polar transmitter can be commanded to operate, thereby obviating any need for a closed-loop power detection mechanism to correct for power discontinuities.
US08270914B2
Electronic devices are provided that contain wireless communications circuitry. The wireless communications circuitry may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. A parallel-fed loop antenna may be formed from portions of an electronic device bezel and a ground plane. The antenna may operate in multiple communications bands. An impedance matching circuit for the antenna may be formed from a parallel-connected inductive element and a series-connected capacitive element. The bezel may surround a peripheral portion of a display that is mounted to the front of an electronic device. The bezel may contain a gap. Antenna feed terminals for the antenna may be located on opposing sides of the gap. The inductive element may bridge the gap and the antenna feed terminals. The capacitive element may be connected in series between one of the antenna feed terminals and a conductor in a transmission line located between the transceiver circuitry and the antenna.
US08270911B2
Communications methods, methods of forming a reader, wireless communications readers, and wireless communications systems are described in some embodiments. In one embodiment, a communications method includes associating a plurality of remote communications devices with a plurality of objects located within a wireless communications range of a reader having a first configuration, providing one of the remote communications device within a wireless communications range of a reader having a second configuration, wherein the wireless communications range of the reader having the second configuration is less than the wireless communications range of the reader having the first configuration, and during the presence of the one of the remote communications devices within the wireless communications range of the reader having the second configuration, implementing communications between the reader having the second configuration and only the one of the remote communications devices.
US08270908B2
Various example embodiments are disclosed relating to relay networks or multi-hop networks, and also relating to power control and channel reuse techniques for wireless relay networks. A technique of power control in a wireless relay network may include receiving a channel measurement report via a relay station from a mobile station attached to the relay station, and determining a mobile station-specific downlink data transmission power level for the relay station to transmit data to the mobile station based at least in part on the received channel measurement report from the mobile station.
US08270905B1
A method and apparatus for determining proximity of a headset relative to its base. A plurality of frequency swept RSSI signals are measured and processed to determine a near status or a far status of the headset relative to its base. In one example, a peak RSSI signal is identified in the plurality of frequency swept RSSI signals. The peak RSSI signal is compared to a near/far threshold RSSI value to generate a near status or far status indication.
US08270902B2
A communication system is provided comprising an environment-side electrode and a living body-side electrode sandwiching an insulating layer and electrically insulated from each other, a grounding electrode which is electrically connected to the environment-side electrode, and a reception amplifier which amplifies a potential difference between the environment-side electrode and the living body-side electrode, wherein the grounding electrode has a side surface section which extends along a vertical direction.
US08270894B2
A method and system for interacting with and between audience members located in the same or different locations is described including a central computer, at least one base station connected to the central computer, and a plurality of keypad units arranged to wirelessly transmit and receive signals from the base station. The keypad units may also be located remote to the central computer and the base station, and transmit and receive signals with the central computer via a communication network. The keypad units contain a data connector for transmitting and receiving signals via a wired connection to the central computer or the base unit. The keypad units are configured to enable numeric, text, and voice interaction with and between audience members.
US08270888B2
An image heating apparatus includes a rotatable image heater including: an electroconductive layer; a pressor, press-contacting the heater, for forming a nip in which an image on a recording material is to be heated; an urging member, provided inside the heater, for urging the heater toward the pressor; and an excitation coil for induction-heating the electroconductive layer. When the length of the heater with respect to a rotational axis direction thereof is Lb, the length of the pressor with respect to the rotational axis direction is Lr, the outside distance of bent portions of the coil at both end portions thereof with respect to the rotational axis direction is LcoilA, and the inside distance of the bent portions with respect to the rotational axis direction is LcoilB, the lengths Lb and Lr and the distance LcoilA and LcoilB satisfy the following relationship: LcoilA>Lb>Lr>LcoilB.
US08270882B2
In a developing device including a developing vessel for storing a developer, a first conveying passage, a second conveying passage, a first conveying member, a second conveying member and a developing roller, the first conveying member has a first rotary shaft and a first conveying blade formed on the periphery of the first rotary shaft, the first conveying blade has a first inner helical blade formed on the periphery of the first rotary shaft and a first outer helical blade arranged along the axis of the first rotary shaft and radially outside the outer periphery of the first inner helical blade, and the helical pitch of the first outer helical blade is specified to be shorter than the helical pitch of the first inner helical blade.
US08270878B2
An image forming apparatus includes developing units designed to have an appropriate developer storage capacity in consideration of developer consumption, and improved convenience of use. The image forming apparatus also includes an image carrier, and plural developing units arranged along a rotating direction of the image carrier to supply developers to the image carrier. The plural developing units include a first developing unit having the largest developer storage capacity and a second developing unit having the second largest developer storage capacity after the first developing unit.
US08270869B2
An image forming apparatus includes an endless belt, a plurality of processing units, a cleaning unit, a waste toner retainer, and a waste toner conveying unit. The plurality of processing units is juxtaposed above the endless belt. The cleaning unit is disposed above the endless belt to collect a waste toner deposited on the endless belt. The waste toner retainer is provided in one processing unit in the plurality of processing units. At least one of the other processing units in the plurality of processing units is interposed between the cleaning unit and the one processing unit. The waste toner conveying unit conveys the waste toner collected by the cleaning unit to the waste toner retainer, and extends from the cleaning unit to the waste toner retainer.
US08270863B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to perform printing and an initializing process, a casing formed with an opening and accommodating the image forming unit, a cover configured to open and close the opening, a detecting unit configured to detect whether the cover is in an opened state or a closed state, a measuring unit configured to measure an opening degree of the cover in the opened state, and a controller configured to control an initializing process of the image forming unit according to the opening degree of the cover in the opened state, when the detecting unit detects that the cover is changed from the closed state to the open state and that the cover is returned to the closed state.
US08270861B2
An image forming apparatus including a photosensitive body, a charger configured to charge the photosensitive body, an exposure unit configured to expose the photosensitive body charged by the charger, a developer transport section configured to cause relative movement with respect to the photosensitive body for transporting developer therebetween, a current measurement section configured to measure a current flowing between the photosensitive body and the developer transport section, and a determination unit configured to compare a current with a threshold, the current measured by the current measurement section when the photosensitive body and the developer transport section move relatively to each other and a first area of the photosensitive body that needs to be exposed faces the developer transport section, and determine whether an exposure of the photosensitive body is proper based on a result of the comparison.
US08270846B2
A plurality of inductors are connected in series between a load resistor and a first transistor, and a plurality of second transistors provided in parallel are connected to the plurality of inductors.
US08270841B2
The present invention is directed to realize a stable and highly-efficient quantum communication without being influenced by the jitter of the heralding signal. In regard to the quantum encryption transmitting apparatus 200, the pulse-driven heralded single-photon source 201 generates a photon pair, outputs one photon of the photon pair, and outputs the other photon of the photon pair as a heralding signal. The timing adjuster 202 synchronizes the heralding signal with a clock signal for pulse driving the pulse-driven heralded single-photon source 201, and outputs as a trigger signal. The quantum communication modulating unit 203 implements the signal modulation to a quantum signal, in timing with the trigger signal, and transmits the quantum signal to the quantum encryption receiving apparatus 300 via the quantum communication path 101. The heralding signal transmitting unit 205 transmits the heralding signal to the quantum encryption receiving apparatus 300 via the heralding signal communication path 102. The clock signal transmitting unit 206 transmits the clock signal to the quantum encryption receiving apparatus 300 via the clock communication path 103.
US08270840B2
An optical USB device includes an electro-optical converter configured to receive optical signals from an optical fiber and to convert them into first electrical signals and configured to receive second electrical signals and to convert them into optical signals for transmission to the optical fiber. A USB 3.0 pin-compatible connector is coupled to the electro-optical converter. The pin-compatible connector is configured for coupling to a USB 3.0 connector of another USB device. The pin-compatible connector includes a first pair of pins configured for transmitting the first electrical signals from the optical USB device. The pin-compatible connector also includes a second pair of pins configured for receiving the second electrical signals into the optical USB device. The pin-compatible connector also includes a third pair of pins configured for transceiving third electrical signals according to a non-USB serial bus interface protocol to control and configure the electro-optical converter.
US08270839B2
The present invention provides a method and a device to convert a time varying optical pattern emitted by a display into a digital data signal. More specifically the invention allows a handheld security token to convert a time-varying light intensity pattern emitted by a source such as a computer screen into a digital signal including a sequence of coded data symbols. The invention is based on the insight that the intensity of light emitted by regions of said source can be easily sampled by a simple low-cost processor if appropriate A/D conversion hardware converts the incident light into an electrical signal which is time varying, whereby the base frequency of this electrical signal is a function of the light intensity. Intensity levels used for channel coding and symbol clock can be recovered from the signal by the receiver. The invention comprises measuring this electrical signal, transforming sets of measurements into intensity samples for a plurality of sampling windows, adaptively calculating discrete intensity levels from these intensity samples, assigning intensity levels to the sampling windows, detecting symbol period boundaries, and decoding the symbols.
US08270838B2
Power distribution devices, systems and methods for a distributed communication system are disclosed. In one embodiment, an interconnect unit is coupled between a head-end unit and one or more remote units. The interconnect unit includes a plurality of communication links each configured to carry signals to and from a head-end unit to remote units. To provide power to the remote units, the interconnect unit electrically couples power from at least one power supply to a plurality of power branches. Each power branch is configured to supply power to a remote unit connected to the interconnect unit.
US08270837B2
A device capable of equalizing optical powers of optical signals in a passive optical network, the device comprising a first optical coupler for receiving optical signals having different optical power levels, an optical circulator capable of directing the optical signals from the first optical circulator, a laser diode capable of generating equalized optical signals having a predetermined range of optical power levels in response to the optical signals directed from the optical circulator, and a second optical coupler for receiving the equalized optical signals.
US08270826B2
A calibration method in a camera with a P-Iris lens having an adjustable iris opening including the steps of adjusting the size of the iris opening between a first opening position and a second opening position, recording a plurality of images during the adjusting, analyzing the images, and determining an iris opening based on the analysis, that obtains a high quality image. The analyzing includes use of high frequency content in the recorded images.
US08270822B2
To provide an aircraft use water heater that operates by an aircraft power source of an AC variable frequency mounted in an aircraft, that is small, light-weight, safe, and low power consumption, and that can supply warm water stably. In an aircraft use water heater composed of a tank section for heating liquid stored therein and a controlling section for controlling the heating of the liquid by an aircraft power source, a bottom face of the tank section has a baffle plate and, liquid flowing in the tank section collides against the baffle plate to flow in a different direction parallel to the bottom face and is upwardly moved, while being heated, in the vicinity of a helical coil-type heater and is taken out through a liquid outlet.
US08270814B2
A system modifies video by embedding portions of media, such as subsets of image pixels, in video frames. When the video is played at normal speed, the media is not discernible. However, when the video is played at an accelerated rate in the forward or reverse direction, the portions of images embedded in video frames coalesce into discernible media. The embedded media may be simple text, images, video, audio, or other media. The system may also evaluate base videos as well as insertion media using neuro-response measurements to determine how and what type of media to embed. The media may be embedded in real-time or near real-time into video for delivery to a user for playback on devices such as digital video recorders, computer systems, software and hardware players, cable boxes, etc.
US08270811B2
An information management method for managing whether to allow playback of copyrighted content includes an invalidating step, executed by playback management means when an invalidating request for content recorded on a recording medium is received, of registering the content in playback-management information as being in a playback-prohibition state; a playback processing step, executed by playback controlling means when a playback request for content on the recording medium is received, of permitting playback only when the content is not in the playback-prohibition state with reference to the playback-management information; and an invalidation canceling step, executed by the playback controlling means when playback-permission information associated with content in the playback-prohibition state is obtained, of updating the playback-management information so that the playback-prohibition state of the content is canceled.
US08270806B2
An information processing apparatus for extracting a more appropriate representative frame image from moving image data that includes a plurality of frames of image data arranged in a time series includes: an input unit configured to input moving image data; a detecting unit configured to detect a frame image, which includes an image similar to a prescribed image pattern; a tracking unit configured to detect a frame image, which includes an image similar to the image included in the detected frame image; a storage unit configured to store successive frame images that have been detected by the tracking unit; a splitting unit configured to split the moving image data into a plurality of time intervals; and an extracting unit configured to extract a representative frame image using different evaluation rules.
US08270805B2
The invention provides a recording/reproduction apparatus and method as well as a recording medium wherein, when nondestructive editing is executed for an AV signal, the AV signal can be reproduced seamlessly without suffering from any interruption. Information representative of states (an A type, a C type, a D type, or an E type) of an IN point and an OUT point on a Clip, designated by a Playitem, of a Playlist in which at least more than one Playitems are arranged in the order of reproduction is described in a block Playitem( ).
US08270802B2
A high resolution video signal is divided by video division means into a main signal and a sub signal, and the main signal and the sub signal are MPEG-encoded. The stream of the main signal and the stream of the sub signal are divided into 1 GPO or more of frames. First interleave blocks each including 1 GOP or more of the stream of the main signal and second interleave blocks each including 1 GOP or more of the stream of the sub signal are recorded on an optical disk. A high resolution reproduction apparatus reproduces both the first and second interleave blocks to obtain a high resolution video output. A non-high quality picture reproduction apparatus reproduces only the first or second interleave blocks to obtain a standard resolution video output.
US08270798B2
A cable routing guide attached to a fiber optic apparatus, such as a module positioned on a fiber optic equipment tray is disclosed. The cable routing guide is adapted to receive a length of at least one fiber optic cable intended to be connected to a cable connection point, such as a fiber optic adapter disposed on the module. The cable routing guide allows the at least one fiber optic cable to move in response to the fiber optic equipment tray or the module moving between a first position and a second position in a manner such that the length of the at least one fiber optic cable from the cable routing guide to the fiber optic adapter remains substantially unchanged. Moreover, the at least one fiber optic cable that is received by the cable routing guide may be retained and maintained by the cable routing guide without being tensed or stressed. In this manner, the at least one fiber optic cable that is routed to and through the fiber optic apparatus may not be affected by the movement of the module frame, the module, and/or the adapter between the first and second positions.
US08270793B2
A power umbilical is shown that comprises a number of power cables (4) to transfer large amounts of electric power, optionally electric wires and/or optical conductors (5), filler material (2, 3) in the form of rigid elongated plastic elements that are located at least partially around and between the power cables (4) and the optional wires/conductors (5), and they are collectively gathered in a twisted bundle by means of a laying operation. A protective jacket (1) encompasses the power cables (4), the optional wires/conductors (5), the filler material (2, 3), and at least one load carrying element (6) predetermined located in the cross section of the power umbilical. The power cables (4), the optional wires/conductors (5), the filler material (2, 3) and the at least one load carrying element (6), are alternately laid, i.e. by continuously alternating direction, in the entire or part of the longitudinal extension of the power umbilical. This is combined with that the laid bundle is retained or maintained substantially rotationally rigid by the protective jacket (1), possibly by the addition of a strength band, or tape, which is helically wound around the bundle adjacent to the protective jacket (1).
US08270792B1
In some variations, the present invention provides a method for forming a chip-scale photonic frequency channelizer or spectrum analyzer. A low-loss waveguide forms a long delay-line in a first level, from which a large number of filter-taps form narrow channel passbands. Multi-dimensional laser-written waveguides feed a slab waveguide coupler located at a stacked, second level. A chip-scale RF-photonic spectrum analyzer provided by this invention has extremely high resolution, such as a passband width of about 30 MHz over a free spectral range of 12 GHz, while occupying a device footprint of only about 10 cm2 area.
US08270788B2
The invention relates to devices having periodic refractive index modulation structures and fabrication methods for the devices using a laser means. By focusing a pulsed laser beam into a transparent material substrate, a path of laser modified volumes can be formed with modified refractive index compared with the unprocessed material. By selecting appropriate laser parameters and relative scan speed, the laser modified path defines an optical waveguide. Separation distance of the individual modified volumes define a periodic modification pattern along the waveguide path, so that the waveguide structures also exhibit grating responses, for example, as spectral filters, Bragg reflectors, grating couplers, grating sensors, or other devices. This method of direct laser fabrication enables one-step fabrication and integration of periodic or aperiodic refractive-index modulation devices together with optical waveguiding properties to enable low-cost, multifunctional 1D, 2D or 3D optical circuit fabrication for simple and complex applications.
US08270787B2
An optical fiber coupler is formed of a section of optical fiber that is positioned between a conventional input fiber (for example, a single mode fiber) or waveguide and a coiled optical fiber device. The adiabatic coupler is coiled (or, at least, curved) to assist in transforming a conventional fundamental mode optical signal propagating along the longitudinal axis of the input fiber to an optical signal that is shifted into a peripheral region of the coiled optical fiber. Moreover, the pitch of an inventive coiled optical fiber coupler can be controlled to assist in the adiabatic transformation process.
US08270786B2
Described are optical devices and related methods wherein a multiple mode input in a Higher Order Mode (an HOM) optical fiber is converted by a complex mode transformer to produce a fundamental mode output in an optical medium with an E-field that is substantially different than that exiting the HOM optical fiber. The medium is preferably a Large Mode Area (LMA) optical fiber, or free space. The mode transformer may be a series of refractive index perturbations created either by photo-induced gratings or by gratings formed by physical deformations of the optical fiber.
US08270775B2
A system and method of recognizing absolute coordinates are provided. The absolute coordinate recognition system includes: a pattern recording medium in which each cell is diagrammatized, and a predetermined microcode is allocated to the pattern formed by each arrangement of the diagrammatized cells; a pattern sensing unit recognizing the microcode by sensing the pattern; and a signal processing unit calculating the position of the pattern sensing unit on the pattern recording medium, from the sensed pattern. By constructing the simpler patterns of the pattern recording medium, the absolute coordinate recognition system and method therefor enable imaging system and image sensor with not-high resolutions to recognize the patterns.
US08270769B2
The present invention provides a true-scale, coordinate-matched, linked in real-time, dual three-dimensional/two-dimensional visual display/viewer. The display simultaneously shows a 3D digital image and an associated 2D digital image of a selected drawing. The display of the present invention allows a user to visualize an asset's location, surrounding environment and hazards and true scale structural details for interior or external structural scenes. Using the display and associated tools, the user can obtain real-time information of an environment, true-scale measurement, plan ingress/egress paths, shortest paths between points and the number of doorways in a structure and track objects within the displayed environment. The intelligence gained using the tools and 3D/2D display may be used and further manipulated by a single user or may be distributed to other users.
US08270761B2
A method and system for displaying images are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes incorporating a plurality of related images into an image boundary, applying the image boundary to border at least one key image, and displaying the at least one key image and the image boundary in a display area.
US08270759B2
A method and system for transforming a video image from a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image on an array of pixels to a Low Dynamic Range (LDR) image. An old luminance generated from a color space of the HDR image is scaled and segmented into stripes. Each stripe has at least one row of the array. A target zone surrounding a current pixel in each stripe is determined from a search strategy selected from a linear search strategy and a zone history-based search strategy. A convolution of the scaled luminance at a current pixel of each stripe is computed using a kernel specific to the target zone. The convolution is used to convert the stripes to tone-mapped luminance stripes which are collected to form a tone mapped luminance pixel array that is transformed to the color space to form the LDR image. The LDR image is stored and/or displayed.
US08270750B2
By sequentially scanning pixel lines of an image signal that has been received as input linear interpolation application regions, which are regions in which gray-level changes are to be smoothed, are detected for each line of the input signal, and the detected linear interpolation application regions are then subjected to an gray-level extension process. The regions that have been subjected to the gray-level extension process are further subjected to a process of limiting, to within prescribed values, gray-level changes in a second direction that differs from the direction in which the linear interpolation application region detection process was carried out.
US08270749B2
A method is presented for processing an image of a two-dimensional (2D) matrix symbol having a plurality of data modules and a discontinuous finder pattern, each distorted by “donut effects”. A resulting processed image contains an image of the 2D matrix symbol having a continuous finder pattern suitable for conventional 2D matrix symbol locating techniques, and having a plurality of data modules, each data module having a center more truly representative of intended data, and suitable for conventional 2D matrix symbol sampling and decoding. The method includes sharpening the distorted image of the 2D matrix symbol to increase a difference between low frequency and high frequency image feature magnitudes, thereby providing a sharpened image, and smoothing the sharpened image using a moving window over the sharpened image so as to provide a smoothed image, the moving window and a module of the 2D matrix code being of substantially similar size.
US08270744B2
The present invention enables a reduction in circuit scale.In an image coding apparatus (100), as for DCT coefficients as simple coded data obtained by coding an input image (91) by simple processing, the input image (91) is coded by at least quantizing the input image (91) as an input image on the basis of selected quantization parameters (QPl) discretely selected from quantization parameters (QP) as quantization factors, thereby computing generated code sizes of the input image (91) upon coding. The image coding apparatus (100) corrects an error in the generated code sizes of the input image upon coding which occurs in accordance with the simple processing, thereby computing low-precision generated code sizes. The image coding apparatus (100) computes low-precision generated code sizes when the input image (91) is coded on the basis of quantization parameters (QP) other than the selected quantization parameters (QPl), by an interpolation process with respect to the low-precision generated code sizes when the input image (91) is coded on the basis of the selected quantization parameters (QPl).
US08270743B2
A discrete cosine transformation circuit comprising a pipeline with a memory stage and an arithmetic stage. The arithmetic stage comprises first and second arithmetic logic units (ALU). Each of the ALUs receives from the memory a set of image data, performs a first calculation on the set of image data and outputs calculation result thereof in a first clock cycle. A path in the circuit directs the result to the memory stage, such that at least one ALU can selectively receive the result from the path in a clock cycle subsequent to the first clock cycle.
US08270722B2
Image processing by which both of high compressibility and high image quality are achieved, and in which characters in character regions and graphics in graphic regions are vectorized. If a pixel of a character in a character region overlaps with a graphic in a graphic region, graphic region vectorization is performed first, whereas if a pixel of a character in the character region does not overlap with a graphic in the graphic region, character region vectorization is performed first.
US08270712B2
An image processing device that transforms first image data of an image captured under an image-capturing condition into second image data that reproduce a color appearance under a viewing condition, includes: an image data acquiring unit that acquires the first image data of the image captured under the image-capturing condition; a first transformation unit that transforms the acquired first image data into the second image data pixel by pixel based on the image-capturing condition and the viewing condition by a first method that takes into consideration chromatic adaptation; a second transformation unit that transforms the acquired first image data into the second image data pixel by pixel based on the image-capturing condition and the viewing condition by a second method that is simpler than the first method and takes into consideration chromatic adaptation; and a controlling unit that controls such that either the first transformation unit or the second transformation unit is selected depending on a state of a transformation target pixel or a neighborhood pixel neighboring the transformation target pixel in the first image data.
US08270711B2
Method and apparatus for machine recognition of an object depicted in an image. The image is filtered to help isolate the object. The machine segments the object to determine relationships between one or more object segments. The relationships between the one or more object segments are then compared to known characteristics to facilitate machine recognition of the object.
US08270709B2
A method or computer program product for color selection in a color image, including operations or instructions for selecting a base color in a base color portion of a color image; computing a perceptual color difference between the base color and a respective second color in the color image; comparing the perceptual color difference to a tolerance; and, identifying whether the color difference satisfies the tolerance.
US08270708B2
Briefly, in accordance with one embodiment, a method of identifying marked images based at least in part on frequency domain coefficient differences is disclosed.
US08270706B2
The present invention discloses a dynamic calibration method for a single and multiple video capture devices. The present invention can acquire the variations of the pan angle and tilt angle of a single video capture device according to the displacement of the feature points between successive images. For a plurality of video capture devices, the present invention includes the epipolar-plane constraint between a plurality of video capture devices to achieve the goal of dynamical calibration. The calibration method in the present invention does not require specific calibration patterns or complicated correspondence of feature points, and can be applied to surveillance systems with wide-range coverage.
US08270703B2
A distinguishing size for distinguishing a pseudo defect from a defect caused by a process trouble is stored in a first storage area. Defect data are stored in a second storage area. A processing unit detects a defect on a wafer surface, and stores the defect data in the second storage area. Before a defect detection process is completed for all areas of the wafer surface, a size of a defect detected in a partial area is compared with the distinguishing size stored in the first storage area. If the detected defect has a size equal to or larger than the distinguishing size, an alarm is output through an output unit, whereas if a defect having a size equal to or larger than the distinguishing size is not detected, the defect detection process is executed for the area still not subjected to the defect detection process.
US08270696B2
Methods for the improved interactive segmentation of medical image slice data using a computer include the novel combination of the well-known live wire and snakes methods. The improved techniques automatically insert new anchor points for each medical image slice that is processed. The improved methods called iterative live wire and live snakes result in a segmentation process that is faster, more accurate, and requires less operator interaction than the previous methods while still allowing an operator to make adjustments to the segmentation as the process moves from one image slice to the next.
US08270690B2
A method for image volume segmentation includes receiving an input image, obtaining an oriented closed contour on one or more slices of the input image, determining a minimum-weight surface from the oriented closed contour using a minimum-cost circulation network flow, and outputting the minimum-weight surface as a segmentation of the input image.
US08270685B2
The present invention provides a fingerprint reader for an electronic device. The fingerprint reader includes a cover, a support member, two sliding rails, a sliding block, a slide groove, a first protruding portion, a second protruding portion, and a collection header. The support member defines a button exposed on one side of the electronic apparatus. The sliding block is engaged with the sliding groove, and the first protruding portion is latched in the slideway of one sliding rail and the second protruding portion is latched in the slideway of the other sliding rail. When the button is pressed, the sliding block touches the sliding groove to push the two protruding portions to move along the corresponding slideways from up to down at the same time, the first sliding block moves along a first orientation, the cover tilts along a second orientation and the collection header is exposed to outside.
US08270668B2
A method and an apparatus for analyzing at least one object. The apparatus includes at least one device for capturing images of the at least one object and a device for generating a relative mutual movement between the at least one image capturing device and the at least one object. The apparatus also includes a device for processing and analyzing images captured by the image capturing device. The relative mutual movement involves a mutual rotational movement between the at least one object and the image capturing device, thus establishing two or more images of the object(s) at various angular positions relative to the image capturing device for further processing and analysis in a computer based image analyzer.
US08270662B2
Improved loudspeakers, systems and components are adapted to interconnect with many forms of communication media. In one embodiment, a speaker is mountable within a receptacle. The speaker includes a magnetic driver and a diaphragm mounted to a frame. The frame includes a mounting member extending from a surface of the frame behind the flange plane. The mounting member is engagable in a notch formed in the receptacle for securing the speaker within the receptacle. In another embodiment, a low-profile loudspeaker has a front-mounted magnetic driver disposed within a cone-shaped acoustic diaphragm. The magnetic driver includes a first rare earth magnet centrally disposed within an electromagnetic shielding material. In another embodiment, a low-profile, two-way loudspeaker includes a cone-shaped diaphragm and a dome-shaped (tweeter) diaphragm. A front-mounted magnetic driver comprises first and second rare earth magnets each centrally disposed within electromagnetic shielding material. The driver and cone-shaped diaphragm are mounted to a speaker frame. The tweeter diaphragm is mounted onto the driver coaxially and substantially coplanar with a forward edge of the cone-shaped diaphragm.
US08270660B2
A simple structure will achieve dissipation of heat from the area inside a voice-coil bobbin and a diaphragm without a reduction in sound quality, in which a process for assembling a speaker device with high accuracy is performed in a simple operation. A speaker device comprises a recess-shaped frame 5 which supports, through an edge 9, a vibration system member 68 provided with a diaphragm 8 coupled to a voice-coil bobbin 6, and a magnetic circuit 4 which comprises an approximately ring-shaped magnet 2 and an approximately ring-shaped plate 3 which are mounted on a yoke 1 disposed in the frame 5, and a magnet gap 4g in which a voice coil 7 wound on a voice-coil bobbin 6 is disposed. In the magnetic circuit 4 a through hole 45 extending in the vibration direction of the diaphragm is fitted over a center boss 51 of a shape protruding from the bottom of the frame 5 in the direction of the sound emission, so that the magnetic circuit 4 is positioned and fixed with respect to the frame 5. An air passage 85 is formed along the center boss 51 fitted into the through hole 45 of the magnetic circuit 4 to establish communication between the inside of the voice-coil bobbin 6 and the outside of the frame.
US08270656B2
An earphone or a removable component for use with an earphone are disclosed. As an example, the removable component can be an ear tip. According to one aspect, an improved ear tip can be provided for use with a headphone. The ear tip is suitable for in-ear operation and has a deformable outer member. The deformable outer member enables the ear tip to readily conform to a user's ear. The ear tip can also include an inner member to structurally support the outer member and to facilitate attachment to a headphone.
US08270640B1
The present invention is a sports bike-type motorcycle with a sound system deployed in major part discretely in the cowling behind the rider. The speakers are incorporated into existing features in the front of the bike, such as in the rearview mirrors. To compensate for the smaller battery of sportbikes but still deliver peak power for dynamic sound, a capacitor in electrical connection with the battery and amplifier provide effective audio response. The sound system, being incorporated into existing structural features in the sports bike, cannot be observed by passers-by and is therefore less vulnerable to theft or vandalism. Also, the profile and aerodynamics, and therefore performance characteristics of the sportsbike, are not changed or compromised by the integration of the sound system within the existing structural features of a sportsbike. Furthermore, the sound system if incorporated into the cowling structure, can be packaged as an aftermarket option and mounted on a sportsbike without significant modification, since the cowling used to contain the system is preferably selected from commercially-available options from the manufacturer.
US08270636B2
Systems and methods to minimize signal loss and distortions with connections of audio sources and speakers are disclosed. Fiber optic cables are used instead of conventional cables. The audio signals are kept always in the analog domain, no matter if they are in optical or electric format. The strength of the audio signals can be controlled by a volume control unit. A small amplifier unit can either directly plugged to speakers are connected to the speakers via a short speaker cable. A preamplifier is no more necessary in the system.
US08270624B2
A noise cancelling device for detecting divergence of a coefficient of an adaptive filter without setting a threshold value in advance based on characteristics of a device from which noise is to be cancelled or an environment. The noise cancelling device includes: a divergence coefficient unit for obtaining a filter divergence coefficient from a filter coefficient of a section not including a filter coefficient at a basic tap position decided by the distance between a reference input unit and an audio input unit; a divergence threshold value calculation unit for obtaining a filter divergence threshold value from a filter coefficient of a section including the filter coefficient at the basic tap position; and a divergence detection unit for comparing the filter divergence coefficient to the filter divergence threshold value so as to detect the divergence condition of the adaptive filter.
US08270620B2
The present invention relates to a method of performing measurements by means of an audio system comprising passive loudspeakers, whereby said measurements loudspeakers for producing sound and at least one of said loudspeakers for measuring said sound. The present invention further relates to an audio system comprising N passive loudspeakers, wherein said audio system further comprises an output stage where each output acts as a combined output channel and a measurement input.
US08270619B2
A system quantifies listener envelopment in a loudspeakers-room environment. The system includes a binaural detector that receives frequency modulated audible noise signals from multiple loudspeakers. The binaural detector generates detected signals that are analyzed to determine an objective listener envelopment. The envelopment is based on binaural activity of one or more sub-bands of the detected signal.
US08270616B2
A combination of techniques for modifying sound provided to headphones to simulate a surround-sound speaker environment with listener adjustments. In one embodiment, Head Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) are grouped into multiple groups, with four types of HRTF filters or other perceptual models being used and selectable by a user. Alternately, a custom filter or perceptual model can be generated from measurements of the user's body, such as optical or acoustic measurements of the user's head, shoulders and pinna. Also, the user can select a speaker type, as well as other adjustments, such as head size and amount of wall reflections.
US08270605B2
In one implementation a method of authenticating the installation of a television receiver involves generating a fingerprint value as function of the television network characteristics at an authorized installation location, where the fingerprint is a function of at least one of a gain value of a variable gain amplifier and an equalizer coefficient of an adaptive equalizer of the television appliance; receiving a code that is a function of both a decryption key and the fingerprint value from a broadcast source; ascertaining a value of the decryption key by applying an inverse function to the code that produces the decryption key as an output; and carrying out a decryption process at the television receiver appliance using the decryption key. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08270586B2
Tools and techniques for determining conditions of conferences include calculating a global conference parameter that represents a rate at which several different conferences are processed. The machine may also calculate individual conference parameters representing a duration of time spent in processing the conferences considered individually.
US08270580B2
An interactive voice advertisement exchange presents an interactive voice advertisement to a user of a voice network who is placed on hold. After the user sends a signal response from a user device to a receiving system and is placed on hold, the hold time and a parameter associated with the signal response are received from the receiving system. Using the hold time and the parameter, an interactive voice advertisement is selected from one or more interactive voice advertisements sent by advertisers. The selected interactive voice advertisement includes a voice message and an application that dictates how the user can interact with the voice message. The voice message and the application of the selected voice interactive voice advertisement are sent to the receiving system. The receiving system sends the voice message to the user device and executes the application during a portion of the hold time.
US08270579B2
Methods, computer program products, and systems for managing VoIP network elements are provided. Methods include receiving call details records (CDRs) from a plurality of network elements. The received CDRs including disconnect cause codes and telephone call correlation identifiers. The received CDRs are correlated to telephone calls based on the telephone call correlation identifiers. Two CDR records are associated with the same telephone call when their telephone call correlation identifiers are the same. A master correlated CDR is created for each telephone call. The creating includes assigning a correlated disconnect cause code and classifying the telephone call. The assigning and classifying are responsive to the received CDRs associated with the telephone call. The master correlated CDR includes the correlated disconnect cause code and the telephone call classification. A threshold crossing alert (TCA) is generated in response to a threshold for the correlated disconnect cause code being reached.
US08270577B2
A network device may include a memory to store an aggregate database. The aggregate database may store aggregate voicemail message information, the aggregate voicemail message information including voicemail message information associated with a first device number and voicemail message information associated with a second device number. The network device may include a receiver to receive, over a network, updated voicemail message information associated with the first device number and stored in a first database different from the aggregate database, and to receive, over the network, updated voicemail message information associated with the second device number and stored in a second database different from the first database and the aggregate database. The network device may include a processor to update the aggregate voicemail message information stored in the aggregate database based on the received updated voicemail message information associated with the first device number and based on the received updated voicemail message information associated with the second device number. The network device may include a transmitter to send the updated aggregate voicemail message information to a user device associated with the first device number.
US08270571B2
A radiation source for a radiation-based image acquisition device has an electron emitter to generate a focal spot for x-ray generation at a rotating anode. An arrangement is provided to generate an asymmetrical power input profile of the focal spot parallel to the movement direction of the rotating anode.
US08270562B2
An imaging system includes a rotatable gantry having an opening therein to receive a subject to be scanned and configured to rotate about a central axis in a rotation direction. The imaging system also includes a first x-ray source coupled to the rotatable gantry at a first position, wherein the first position is offset from the central axis of the rotatable gantry by a first distance. Further, the imaging system includes a second x-ray source coupled to the rotatable gantry at a second position, wherein the second position is offset from the central axis of the rotatable gantry by a second distance, wherein the second position is offset from the first position in a direction coincident with the rotation direction, and wherein the second position is offset from the first position in a direction parallel to the central axis.
US08270557B2
An integrated circuit includes a counter configured to perform a counting operation and output a count code value. The integrated circuit further includes an operation controller, a digital circuit and an alignment unit. The operation controller receives the count code value and generates a first control signal and a second control signal. The first control signal is generated, when the count code value is equal to a first value, which is counted by the counter prior to a target count value. The second control signal is generated, when the count code value is equal to the target count value. A digital circuit performs a first operation based on the first control signal, and output a digital signal. An alignment unit aligns the digital signal, and outputs the aligned digital signal as a final digital signal in response to the second control signal.
US08270555B2
In various embodiments, the system comprises a system for storing radioactive material, wherein the system includes a storage pool for storing a plurality of radioactive objects submersed in a radiation shielding and cooling liquid. The system additionally includes an assembly building located above the storage pool for constructing one or more radioactive articles using the radioactive objects transferred from the storage pool. Furthermore, the system includes at least one transfer shaft connecting the storage pool and the assembly building. The transfer shaft(s) are used for transferring the radioactive objects directly from within the storage pool to an interior of the assembly building and directly from the interior of the assembly building into the storage pool.
US08270548B2
A method for a terminal of a cellular telecommunication system for determining system information about a node of a network of the telecommunication system is disclosed. The telecommunication system enables determination of the system information by the terminal from information transmitted from at least one cell operated by the node, where the telecommunication system employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access. The method comprises receiving a transmission signal, comprising reference symbols and synchronization symbols, from a network node of the at least one cell; estimating, for each transmit antenna of the network node, a preliminary channel estimate based on the received reference symbols; and estimating a pre-coding vector, being associated with transmission by at least one transmit antenna of the network node of the at least one cell, for the synchronization symbols. Corresponding features for computer program, decoder and terminal are also disclosed.
US08270538B2
Apparatus for controlling sensitivity by using digital gating in receiver and receiver with the same
Disclosed is a wireless communication system, more particularly, a receiver and a chipset for DSRC. A receiver includes: a low noise amplifier (LNA) amplifying a received radio (RF) signal while minimizing amplification of noise included in the received RF signal; a mixer down-converting a frequency of an output signal of the LNA to output an intermediate frequency (IF) signal; a frequency synthesizer generating and outputting a frequency signal for the frequency-down conversion of the mixer to the mixer; a bandpass filter passing a necessary band of a channel in an output signal of the mixer; a log amplifier amplifying an output signal of the bandpass filter in log scale and outputting a received signal strength indicator of an output signal of the bandpass filter; a detector comparing an output of the log amplifier with a predetermined binary threshold value, outputting a first binary signal when the output of the log amplifier is less than the predetermined binary threshold value, and outputting a second binary signal when the output of the log amplifier is equal to or greater than the predetermined binary threshold value; a switch serially connected with an output terminal of the detector; and a switch controller comparing the received signal strength indicator of the output signal of the log amplifier with an RSSI threshold, opening the switch when the received signal strength indicator is less than the RSSI threshold, and closing the switch when the received signal strength indicator is equal to or grater than the RSSI threshold.
US08270534B2
A receiver (13) of user equipment, UE, (10) of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, UMTS, network receives a digitally encoded radio signal over a downlink (11) from a base station (12). A Digital Signal Processor, DSP, (14) of the UE (10) estimates BER of data bits of power control commands received in the signal during an out of synchronisation procedure. More specifically, the DSP (14) samples the amplitude with which the data bits are received and determines a ratio of functions of one or more moments of the sampled amplitudes. The DSP (14) then compares the determined ratio to one or more values of BER for different ratios in a look-up table to estimate BER.
US08270521B2
Modulated signal A is transmitted from a first antenna, and modulated signal B is transmitted from a second antenna. As modulated signal B, modulated symbols S2(i) and S2(i+1) obtained from different data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. In contrast, as modulated signal A, modulated symbols S1(i) and S1(i)′ obtained by changing the signal point arrangement of the same data are transmitted at time i and time i+1 respectively. As a result the reception quality can be changed intentionally at time i and time i+1, and therefore using the demodulation result of modulated signal A of a time when the reception quality is good enables both modulated signals A and B to be demodulated with good error rate performances.
US08270514B2
Improving the accuracy of estimation of channel responses in receiving signals from a plurality of antennas is disclosed. A transmitting device of a base station includes a preamble A generating unit 010, a preamble B generating unit 011, phase rotating units 012 and 013, multiplexing units 014 and 015, an forward error correction coding unit 016, an S/P converting unit 017, a mapping unit 018, a changeover switch 019, IDFT (or IFFT) units 020 and 026, P/S converting units 021 and 027, GI (Guard Interval) inserting units 022 and 028, D/A converting units 023 and 029, radio transmitting units 024 and 030 and antenna units 025 and 031. In the preamble A generating unit 010 and the preamble B generating unit 011, a preamble A and a preamble B (see the packet format in FIG. 1) are generated, respectively. The preamble A is outputted to the multiplexing units 014 and 015, while the preamble B is outputted to the phase rotating units 012 and 013. The phase rotating units 012 and 013 to which the preamble B has been inputted give continuous phase rotation to subcarriers of the preamble B. In the transmitting device of the base station according to this embodiment, the phase rotating unit 012 does not give phase rotation, but only the phase rotating unit 013 gives phase rotation to the preamble B.
US08270491B2
The present invention is situated within the frame or video processing domain and more particularly in the domain of video interpolation. It relates to a device for generating an interpolated frame from source frames temporarily surrounding it. This device comprises motion estimation means, motion compensated interpolation means, linear interpolation means, means for mixing the frame produced by the motion compensated interpolation means with the frame produced by the linear interpolation means. According to the invention, the mixing coefficients assigned to these two frames depend on the displaced frame difference and/or the frame difference between the source frames surrounding this interpolated frame and/or estimated motion vectors.
US08270490B2
An apparatus detects a motion vector using image data to be encoded, and a plurality of reference image data. The apparatus conducts a motion vector search for first reference image data using a large block obtained by dividing the image data to be encoded, and divides the large block into a smaller block size at the position of a smallest matching error. The apparatus determines a block size used in a motion vector search for another reference data based on matching errors in the small blocks.
US08270487B1
In some embodiments, a server system composites in real-time, in response to a user video search query, a standard-compliant (e.g. MPEG-4/H.264) SD or HD video stream encoding a rectangular (x-y) composite video preview panel array (grid) of video search results. Each panel/tile in the rectangular panel array displays a temporal section (e.g. the first 90 seconds, looped-back) of a video identified in response to the user query. Generating the composite video panel array in real-time is achieved by compositing the component video panels in the compressed domain, after each panel undergoes a compressed-domain pre-compositing preparation process that facilitates dynamic compositing of the panels into a single video stream. The pre-compositing preparation includes transcoding to a format having a down-scaled common resolution, common GOP structure, and one-slice-per-row slice structure.
US08270486B2
Disclosed are method and apparatus for encoding and decoding an image which divides a current picture into blocks with various sizes and varies a number of intra prediction modes according to the sizes of the divided blocks.
US08270482B2
Provided are a method and apparatus for encoding and decoding multi-view video to provide uniform picture quality at different viewpoints. The multi-view video encoding method includes selecting a set of referenced viewpoint video frames referred to by different viewpoint video frames, from among received multi-view video frames; encoding the multi-view video on the basis of the set of referenced viewpoint video frames; determining whether a condition for changing the set of referenced viewpoint video frames is satisfied; and if the condition is satisfied, changing the set of referenced viewpoint video frames, and encoding the multi-view video on the basis of the changed set of referenced viewpoint video frames. According to the present invention, it is possible to provide multi-view video in which degrees of video quality deterioration at different viewpoints are uniformly distributed with respect to a long time.
US08270478B2
A logic circuit is configured to calculate a sliding sum of absolute differences of a plurality of numbers from a plurality of members respectively selected successively from all members of a sequence of numbers. The logic circuit reduces an amount of logic that is required to perform the sum of absolute differences, and thereby saves resources and latency.
US08270477B2
In a method and an encoder for encoding a digital video sequence, the digital video sequence having some sets of images including a disparity map, the disparity map being used to reconstruct one image of a set of images from another image of the set of images, the method includes the steps of encoding a type of a disparity map to be used for the reconstruction of an image, and encoding the disparity map.
US08270473B2
A video encoding system encodes video streams for multiple bit rate video streaming using an approach that permits the encoded resolution to vary based, at least in part, on motion complexity. The video encoding system dynamically decides an encoding resolution for segments of the multiple bit rate video streams that varies with video complexity so as to achieve a better visual experience for multiple bit rate streaming. Motion complexity may be considered separately, or along with spatial complexity, in making the resolution decision.
US08270455B2
In a wireless communication system, a portable device and an in-vehicle device wirelessly communicate with each other by a spread spectrum method. The in-vehicle device transmits a synchronization signal indicative of a reference period to the portable device. The in-vehicle device performs code acquisition for only a portion of a spread wireless signal received from the portable device. The portion has a starting point in a search period from a search start point to a search end point. The search start point is identified based on the reference period and a predetermined first correction time. The search end point is identified based on the reference period and a predetermined second correction time.
US08270454B2
A wireless communication device includes: a first transmission portion that transmits a radio signal using a plurality of frequency bands in accordance with a first frequency hopping pattern; a second transmission portion that transmits a radio signal using a plurality of frequency bands in accordance with a second frequency hopping pattern that differs from the first frequency hopping pattern; and an adjustment portion that adjusts a start timing of the second frequency hopping pattern such that a time slot of each of the plurality of frequency bands used by the first transmission portion and a time slot of each of the plurality of frequency bands used by the second transmission portion are not the same.
US08270447B2
A semiconductor light emitting element, comprises: an active layer; a first electrode and second electrode that inject current to the active layer; a semiconductor layer between the active layer and the first electrode; and a dielectric layer that is provided on the semiconductor layer and through which light from the active layer passes; wherein the first electrode is provided on the semiconductor layer, has an opening through which light from the active layer passes, and comprises a first electrode layer that comes in contact with and is provided on the semiconductor layer, and a second electrode layer that is provided on the first electrode layer, with the first electrode layer having less reactivity with the semiconductor layer than the second electrode layer; and the dielectric layer is provided inside the opening such that the end section on the opening side of the first electrode layer extends from the top of the semiconductor layer to the top of the dielectric layer.
US08270446B2
High performance and high reliability of a semiconductor laser device having a buried-hetero structure are achieved. The semiconductor laser device having a buried-hetero structure is manufactured by burying both sides of a mesa structure by a Ru-doped InGaP wide-gap layer and subsequently by a Ru-doped InGaP graded layer whose composition is graded from InGaP to InP, and then, by a Ru-doped InP layer. By providing the Ru-doped InGaP graded layer between the Ru-doped InGaP wide-gap layer and the Ru-doped InP layer, the Ru-doped InGaP wide-gap layer and the Ru-doped InP layer not lattice-matching with each other can be formed as a buried layer with excellent crystallinity.
US08270444B2
A side emitting semiconductor package includes a two-sided electric circuit formed on a silicon substrate of the package, and a plurality of semiconductor light emitting devices bonded on two bilateral surfaces of the electric circuit to provide a surface mounted device with two light emitting sides.
US08270443B2
A side-pumped, diode-pumped solid-state laser cavity includes a conductively cooled housing having an opening for pump radiation from a diode array in close proximity to a laser rod. The pump light is absorbed by the rod and excites the laser ions. The cavity includes a thin, diffuse reflector encircling the rod, having a shaped opening for the collection and redirection of the pump light into the rod, and a good heat conductor as the heat sink and heat conductor. A split heat sink inhibits the flow of heat from the pump diodes into the laser rod, and pre-formed air spacings are designed to provide uniform temperature distribution around the laser rod.
US08270440B2
A laser light source is provided with a pump light source (1) comprising a semiconductor laser, a solid laser medium (2) which is excited by the semiconductor laser, and multi-mode means for changing at least either a longitudinal mode or a transverse mode of laser oscillation of the solid laser. The oscillation light of the laser medium excited by the light outputted from the pump light source is changed by the multi-mode means into output light (5) having a plurality of oscillation spectra and is outputted, thereby a small, high power, and highly efficient low coherent light source can be realized, and a laser light source having reduced speckle noises can be provided.
US08270435B2
A system for variable-sized resource block allocation in a communication system is disclosed. A processor module is configured to construct one or more resource blocks, having one or more sizes, and to define a candidate resource block set, including one or more of the constructed resource blocks, and a coherence bandwidth set, including one or more coherence bandwidths. A coherence bandwidth estimate is derived for a resource block subframe, and the one or more resource blocks in the resource block set are ranked, based on a comparison between the coherence bandwidth estimate and each of the one or more coherence bandwidths in the coherence bandwidth set. The highest ranked resource block is allocated for a data transmission to a user; and data is scheduled in accordance with a size of the allocated resource block. The allocated resource block size is indicated to one or more mobile stations in the communication system.
US08270433B2
A sending method, a receiving and processing method and an apparatus for adapting a payload bandwidth for data transmission are provided. In the method, N coding blocks containing 64B are acquired, in which N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the acquired N coding blocks are converted into a (64*N+1)B coding block, so that a required linear rate is reduced after conversion, thereby reducing requirements for the payload bandwidth of a bearer layer, and satisfying the payload bandwidth required for transmitting 40 Gigabit Ethernet (40 GE) or 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GE) MAC frames in an optical transport network (OTN).
US08270428B2
A baseband processing module of a wireless terminal includes a Turbo decoding module. The Turbo decoding module decodes a Turbo code word to produce one or more Media Access Control (MAC) packet(s) carried by the turbo decode word. Each MAC packet includes a MAC packet header and the MAC packet payload, which carries one or more Radio Link Control (RLC) Packet Data Units (PDUs). The Turbo decoding module decodes the MAC packet header to determine boundaries of the PDUs carried in the MAC packet payload. The Turbo decoding module decodes RLC PDU headers and RLC PDU payloads of the RLC PDUs. The Turbo decoding module writes the decoded MAC packet header, the decoded RLC PDU headers, and the decoded RLC PDU payloads to memory in a word-aligned format. The Turbo decoding module may also operate in various other Turbo decoding modes.
US08270426B2
A method of selecting a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) in a wireless communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes selecting a MCS index having a coding rate that is greater than a specified coding rate threshold if a resource allocation scheme of a transmitting end employs a localized resource allocation scheme, and selecting the MCS index having the coding rate that is less than the specified coding rate threshold if the resource allocation scheme of the transmitting end employs the distributed resource allocation scheme.
US08270415B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for use in a wireless network that includes a first device using an wireless association protocol. In some embodiments the wireless association protocol uses at least one inquiry packet and a scatternet topology. These systems promote communication with other devices using the wireless association protocol through a routing protocol. This routing protocol routes data according to a network topology created through information obtained through the wireless association protocol.
US08270408B2
A technique for identity based networking is disclosed. A system according to the technique can include a WAN, a first VLAN, a second VLAN, and a network database. The first VLAN and second VLAN can be coupled to the WAN. The network database can include VLAN information. In operation, a client that is authorized on the second VLAN can attempt to connect to the first VLAN. A switch in the WAN can perform a lookup in the network database and determine that the client is authorized on the second VLAN. Based on this information, the client can be connected to the second VLAN using VLAN tunneling.
US08270402B2
A process for secure distribution of original digital audiovisual streams including audio, video components or other data, including packetizing the original stream into packets that can be manipulated and have a flexible size, wherein each packet includes a header containing information about the packet and a useful load including part of the data of the stream, analyzing the packetized stream prior to transmission to client equipment to generate a main stream in conformity with a packetized format of the original stream, modified in that all or part of the packets were substituted by packets of the same structure, but whose content was modified, and generating complementary information with any format suitable to permit reconstruction of the original stream, and separately transmitting the modified main stream and complementary information generated from the server to addressed equipment.
US08270400B2
A multi-stage network comprising (2×logd N)−1 stages is operated in strictly nonblocking manner for unicast, also in rearrangeably nonblocking manner for arbitrary fan-out multicast when s≧2 , and is operated in strictly nonblocking manner for arbitrary fan-out multicast when s≧3 , includes an input stage having N d switches with each of them having d inlet links and s×d outgoing links connecting to second stage switches, an output stage having N d switches with each of them having d outlet links and s×d incoming links connecting from switches in the penultimate stage. The network also has (2×logd N)−3 middle stages with each middle stage having s × N d switches, and each switch in the middle stage has d incoming links connecting from the switches in its immediate preceding stage, and d outgoing links connecting to the switches in its immediate succeeding stage. Also each multicast connection is set up by use of at most two outgoing links from the input stage switch.
US08270399B2
A router including a lookup execution unit including a plurality of stages, a forwarding table memory arranged in hierarchy including addressable sectors, blocks, and entries, and a crossbar having an address crossbar for selectively coupling one of the plurality of stages to a sector of the memory so that data from the sector can be read. In one example, any one of the stages of the plurality of stages may be selectively and dynamically coupled with any one of the sectors of the forwarding table memory for providing an address to a particular sector of the memory to read data therefrom.
US08270381B2
A Hybrid Coordination Function (HCF) implementation wherein an access point's existing (E)DCF transmit queues are augmented by at least one strict priority HCF transmit queue. The HCF queues are only used to schedule downlink data and CF-Poll transmissions are used for admitted downlink flows and for uplink flows. The 802.1D user priority value is used to select the HCF queue for an admitted flow. The strict priority HCF transmit queues are always serviced first, in priority order before any other (E)DCF transmit queue. The channel is considered busy to (E)DCF transmit queues while the strict priority queues are being serviced. An admissions control mechanism is used to control data flows and prevents the strict priority traffic from starving (E)DCF traffic. A single, simple AP scheduler is used for scheduling both polling times and station wakeup time.
US08270380B2
The method generates a candidate list in accordance with the contents of frames transmitted by access points and sequentially performs the handshaking operations with the access points on the candidate list to select a personal identification number (PIN) enabled access point. During the candidate list generating process, this method places Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) PIN-enabled access points at high priority positions but eliminates non-WPS access points and WPS push button configuration enabled access points.
US08270365B2
A user equipment (UE) is provide which reduces uplink signaling overhead in the process of reporting inter-frequency measurement results over a RACH. For measurement reporting, the UE receives an SIB including a cell information list for non-used frequency cells and a threshold from an RNC, compares signal strengths of signals received from the non-used frequency cells with the threshold, and acquires at least one inter-frequency cell ID indicating at least one non-used frequency cell having signal strength exceeding the threshold from the cell information list. The at least one inter-frequency cell ID is included in a RACH message as measurement result information for the at least one non-used frequency cell, and transmitted to the RNC. The RNC determines that the cell corresponding to the inter-frequency cell ID has signal strength exceeding the threshold.
US08270349B2
A wireless communication system includes a plurality of base stations and a management server. Each base station includes: a carrier sensing unit which performs carrier sensing for other base stations; a list generating unit which generates a monitor list including a difference in frame timing between the base station and each other base station; and a base station transmitter which transmits the monitor list. The management server includes: a management receiver which receives the monitor lists; a calculation unit which calculates a shift amount by which the frame timing of a target base station is to be shifted, based on the monitor lists; and a shift instructing unit which instructs to shift the frame timing of the target base station by the shift amount if the differences in frame timing among the base stations when reflecting the shift amount is improved from those before reflecting the shift amount.
US08270348B2
Disclosed is a method of sending status information (STATUS PDU) in which a receiving side reports a data received state to a transmitting side in a mobile telecommunication system. A receiving side RLC entity considers an available radio resource to construct a status PDU fit to the size of the radio resource and then sends the constructed status PDU to a transmitting side RLC entity, thereby avoiding a deadlock situation of RLC protocols.
US08270344B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a Telephone Number Mapping system operating in a first IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communication system having a controller adapted to receive first contact information of a communication device registered through a terminating Serving Call Session Control Function (S-CSCF) operating in a second IMS communication system and second contact information of at least one among an Interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) of the second IMS communication system and the terminating S-CSCF. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08270340B2
The invention relates to methods and arrangements for the reliability handling of idle gap commands received in a unit of a mobile telecommunication system. A user equipment located in a cell of a mobile telecommunication network receives signalling gap commands used to activate or deactivate idle gaps for downlink measurements in the neighbor cells. It is determined whether the received gap command is reliable or not. Downlink measurements are then performed in accordance with a predefined rule in case the received gap command is determined as unreliable.
US08270338B2
Implementation of opportunistic use of stations in a wireless network as repeaters is described. In one implementation, a station detects the existence of rate anomaly in a wireless network. In response to the rate anomaly, the station may transform into a software repeater for certain other neighboring stations. The repeater function allows for the relaying of packets sent by these neighboring stations to the access point and vice versa. The other neighboring stations, owing to their relative proximity to the repeater station, transmit data at a higher rate to the repeater station. Thus, the removal of the slower stations reduces clogging of the access point and increases the overall data rate within the wireless network. Further, a zero-overhead network coding protocol may be implemented in conjunction with the repeater function to increase capacity of the wireless network.
US08270331B2
An apparatus and a method for changing a MultiCast and BroadCast Service (MCBCS) broadcasting channel in a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) system are provided. The method includes, if an MCBCS initialization request message is received from an MCBCS server, sending a burst reservation request message for MCBCS burst allocation to one or more Base Stations (BSs) in a corresponding Multicast and Broadcast Service (MBS) zone, and if a burst reservation response message is received from at least one of the one or more BSs, sending a Resource Reservation (RR) request message for each channel to the at least one of the one or more BSs for establishing data channels for each channel broadcast by the MCBCS server. Accordingly, a channel transition delay time resulting from a user's channel change can be reduced.
US08270320B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for establishing a conference based on the presence or preferences (or both) of one or more invitees. The presence of each invitee is evaluated on one or more devices. A media type is selected based on the presence information. User preference information may be evaluated for those invitees who are not currently present on a device. The selected media type for the conference may optionally be required to support the requirements of the conference, such as document sharing or video links. In this manner, the same communication application can trigger conferences of different media types (where the selected media type is most likely to lead to the successful establishment of the conference). In addition, the present invention allows a media type to be selected that will be more likely to lead to the successful establishment of a conference.
US08270319B2
A method ensures that multicast packets follow the same loop-free path followed by unicast packets in a packet communication network. The communication network includes at least one first area interconnected through at least one area border node (“ABN”) to a second area. Each ABN has a first level port connected to each first area and a second level port connected to the second area. Each multicast packet forwarded includes a header having a root-id identifying a root of a multicast tree. A data packet is received at an ABN. Responsive to receiving a multicast packet at a second level port of an area border node, the root-id of the multicast packet is examined and if the multicast packet is to be forwarded over at least one of the first level ports, a different root-id is substituted into the packet before the packet is forwarded over the first level port.
US08270315B2
A method for adapting quality of service to dynamics of a wireless telecommunications network is provided. The method includes collecting data relating to operation of an element in the network, wherein the collected data comprises radio-frequency (RF) data relating to operation of the network. The method also includes pre-calculating, from the collected data, a dynamic operational characteristic of the network, wherein the pre-calculating includes pre-calculating from the collected data to obtain a geometrical determination based on a geographical location of a wireless communications device within the network. The method further includes making available the pre-calculated characteristic of the network to an application of the device using the network, including storing the characteristic at a pre-calculation server accessible by the device so the device can selectively retrieve the characteristic, and updating the characteristic at a frequency based on a trigger related to volatility of the RF data being collected.
US08270312B2
A communication system is provided which includes a first communication device for transmitting a plurality of packets in different packet sizes, and a second communication device having a reception unit for receiving over one or more links packets transmitted from the first communication device, and a calculation unit for calculating a packet loss rate for each packet size based on reception result of the reception unit. The communication system estimates a bit error rate during link transmission of the packets from a difference of the packet sizes of the packets transmitted from the first communication device as well as from the packet loss rate for each packet size calculated by the calculation unit.
US08270303B2
A system and method for facilitating the video information search and users' navigation through multiple video image or video stream files, as well as reducing the amount of data transferred between a video content management server and a video playback client, by employing metadata tags inserted into the video recordings automatically or by an operator of an encoded information reading terminal.
US08270296B2
A dynamic bandwidth manager for determining the bandwidth available to an IP connected client device, the IP connected client device requesting access to multimedia resources from a service provider, the dynamic bandwidth manager comprising: a receiving component for receiving an IP address of an IP connected client requesting access to a resource; a requesting component for locating a nearest managed device to the IP connected client and requesting a current network management data set pertaining to the IP connected client from the located managed device; a calculation component for retrieving a previously stored set of network management data pertaining to the IP connected client and for analysing the network management data sets, in dependence on the current network management data set and the previously stored network management data sets, to calculate the available bandwidth capacity of the IP connected client.
US08270294B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for implementing a multicast service. The method includes: constructing a multicast service notification packet, and sending the multicast service notification packet to a user terminal; the multicast service notification packet may be a return notification packet for responding a request of a user for joining a multicast group or an abnormity notification packet for notifying a user of reason for an abnormity in the multicast service or the reason that the user fails to join the multicast group. Therefore, it is effective to improve the user's satisfaction of a multicast video service provided by an operator and to improve the operability and the manageability of a multicast video network.
US08270292B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, a method is disclosed for transferring data, in particular between a rail vehicle and a control center. According to one embodiment of the invention, a broadband transfer path is automatically activated for the period of time that the transfer path is available and the previous transfer path is deactivated. According to another example embodiment specific to the present invention, another transfer path is automatically activated if the other transfer path malfunctions.
US08270291B2
A protected point-to-point ACM communication system including at least a first component and a second component configured to provide live functionality and backup functionality for each other, at least a first receiver and a second receiver configured to receive an ACM transmission, one or more quality detectors configured to estimate quality of the received transmission of at least the first receiver and the second receiver, wherein at least one of the quality detectors is configured to estimate the quality of the received transmission using blind detection, and a controller configured to switch the live functionality of the protected point-to-point ACM communication system from one of the first component and the second component to another of the first component and the second component, based, at least partly, on the estimated qualities of the received transmissions of at least the first receiver and the second receiver. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
US08270290B2
A method system for interfacing a client system in a first network domain with a Provider Link State Bridging (PLSB) network domain. At least two Backbone Edge Bridges (BEBs) of the PLSB domain 20 are provided. Each BEB is an end-point of a connection in the first network domain to the client system and an end-point of at least a unicast path defined within the PLSB domain 20. An inter-node trunk is provided in the PLSB domain 20 for interconnecting the at least two BEBs. A phantom node is defined in the PLSB domain 20. The phantom node has a unique address in the PLSB domain 20 and is notionally located on the inter-node trunk one hop from each of the BEBs. Each of the BEBs is configured such that: an ingress packet received from the client system via the connection in the first network domain is forwarded through a path notionally rooted at the phantom node; and an egress subscriber packet destined for the client system is forwarded to the client system through the connection in the first network domain.
US08270285B2
An optical disc includes a reflective film formed on concave and convex marks after the concave and convex marks are synchronized with the integral multiple of a channel bit length and formed in accordance with modulated main information. Thereafter, continuous or intermittent laser light synchronized with the integral multiple of the channel bit length is irradiated at intervals longer than the longest one of the concave and convex marks in accordance with a spiral track formed in a circumferential direction of the concave and convex marks, whereby an optical characteristic of the reflective film is changed to form a recordable mark and sub-information necessary to reproduce the main information is recorded in a superimposition manner.
US08270284B2
The present invention relates to optical disks and optical disk devices, and has an object to reduce access time and prevent malfunction. To attain the above object, in an optical disk (100), a management information area (130) is placed inside a user data area (140), namely, at the innermost circumference position of the optical disk (100), in an information layer (101) placed at the farthest position from the surface. A position information area (132) that stores position information indicating the position of each information layer in a thickness direction of the optical disk (100) is placed in the management information area (130).
US08270277B2
An optical disk device and recording method of recording data on an optical disk by driving a laser light source with a driving current superimposed with a high-frequency current. The device and method includes a controller for disabling tracking servo and establishing conditions for reproducing a signal from a predetermined region of the optical disk, for generating a tracking error signal by superimposing the high-frequency current varied in amplitude on the driving current for the laser light source, for determining an amplitude of the high-frequency current that provides an optimum quality of the generated tracking error signal, and for recording data on the optical disk by applying the driving current for the laser light source superimposed with the high-frequency current of the determined amplitude.
US08270275B2
An information processing device that uses contents recorded in a disc includes: an application execution unit that executes an application, which is a program for utilizing the contents recorded in the disc; and a BCA driver execution unit that executes a BCA driver, which is a program for instructing a drive device to execute a process of reading a media ID recorded in a BCA (Burst Cutting Area) area of the disc, wherein the BCA driver execution unit, in response to a first API (Application Programming Interface) call from the application execution unit, executes a process of providing the application execution unit with a pointer to a second API for executing a process of reading a media ID.
US08270269B2
An asynchronous timing detector 3 detects and measures a specific pattern (sync pattern) of audio and video reproduced signals having a digital value form an A/D converter 2 and its appearance interval based on an asynchronous clock generated by an asynchronous clock generator 4, and calculates a cycle ratio of the measured sync pattern appearance interval (the number of clock pulses of the asynchronous clock) to a normal value (the number of clock pulses of a synchronous clock obtained by measuring a sync pattern appearance interval using the synchronous clock). A pseudo-synchronous clock generator 7 thins the asynchronous clock based on the cycle ratio to generate a pseudo-synchronous clock which is pseudo-synchronous with channel data. Therefore, even when an initial frequency error is large, frequency and phase pull-in is relatively quickly performed until a timing recovery operation becomes stable.
US08270266B2
A device for detecting wobbles on an optical disc is provided, where the device is utilized for generating a wobble signal according to a plurality of detection signals. The device includes an analog signal processing circuit, a pair of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and a digital signal processing circuit. The analog signal processing circuit is arranged to perform analog signal processing on the detection signals to generate a plurality of output signals. In addition, the pair of ADCs are arranged to digitalize the output signals to generate a plurality of digital values. Additionally, the digital signal processing circuit is arranged to perform digital signal processing on the digital values and generate an arithmetic output, where the arithmetic output is utilized for generating the wobble signal or utilized as the wobble signal. An associated method for detecting wobbles on an optical disc is further provided.
US08270261B2
Provided is a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head comprising a near-field-light-generating (NFL-generating) optical system with an improved light use efficiency. The head comprises a magnetic pole, a waveguide propagating a light for exciting surface plasmon, and a NF-optical device configured to emit NF-light from its end surface located adjacent to the magnetic pole end surface. The waveguide cross-section, taken by a plane perpendicular to a waveguide edge along elongated direction, has substantially a trapezoidal shape in which a longer side of opposed parallel sides is an edge of the cross-section on the NF-optical device side. This configuration enables a coupled portion of the NF-optical device which is coupled with the light to be placed in the effective distribution range of the light seeping from the waveguide. Consequently, there can be realized a sufficiently strong coupling between the light seeping from the waveguide and the NF-optical device.
US08270258B2
A recording power determination method for determining a recording power of an optical beam for recording data on an information storage medium includes the steps of recording test data on the information storage medium at a plurality of test recording powers; reading the test data recorded at each test recording power, generating a signal, and measuring a modulation factor of the signal corresponding to each test recording power; calculating a product of an n'th power of each test recording power and the corresponding modulation factor, thereby obtaining a plurality of products corresponding to the plurality of test recording powers, where n is a value of exponent and is a real number other than 1; calculating a first recording power based on the correlation between the plurality of test recording powers and the plurality of products; and calculating the recording power based on the first recording power.
US08270245B2
A memory device comprises first memory block having first boundary cell and second memory block having second boundary cell. Data of the first and the second boundary cells are outputted simultaneously corresponding to a plurality of column selection signals.
US08270239B2
A semiconductor memory device and method of performing a stress test on a semiconductor memory device are provided. In an example, the semiconductor memory device includes a multiplexer arrangement configured to switch a timing signal that controls an internal timing of the semiconductor memory device from an internal signal to an external signal during a stress mode, and further includes one or more word lines of the semiconductor memory device receiving a stress voltage during the stress mode, a duration of the stress mode based upon the external signal. In another example, the semiconductor memory device includes one or more word lines configured to receive a stress voltage during a stress mode, and a precharge circuit configured to provide a precharge voltage to a bit line of the semiconductor memory device during the stress mode.
US08270236B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of memory banks each having a plurality of memory cell arrays, a plurality of sense amplification units corresponding to the memory banks, configured to sense data corresponding to a selected memory cell to amplify the sensed data, and a common delay unit configured to delay a plurality of respective bank active signals activated in correspondence with the memory banks by a predetermined time to generate an operation control signal for controlling the sense amplification units.
US08270225B2
A variable delay circuit provides an adjustable delay to a strobe signal. An input latch circuit latches each bit data included in internal serial data by a strobe signal delayed by the variable delay circuit. A delay set unit adjusts a delay amount provided to the strobe signal by the variable delay circuit. While a calibration operation is being executed in which a known calibration pattern is inputted as serial data, the delay set unit statistically acquires output latch data of the input latch circuit, and adjusts the delay amount such that probabilities of occurrence of 1 and 0 becomes a predetermined ratio.
US08270223B2
A memory device includes a memory sector including a memory sector, a row of select transistors and a number of drivers. The memory sector includes a plurality of word lines each couples to a plurality of memory cells. The row of select transistors select the memory sector and separate the memory sector from an immediately adjacent memory sector in the memory device. Each of the number of drivers is coupled to one of the plurality of word lines. A first one of the drivers is coupled to a first one of the word lines to receive a first control signal to conduct the first word line and a voltage source, and a second one of the drivers is coupled to a second one of the word lines to receive a second control signal to disconnect the second word line from the voltage source.
US08270219B2
A nonvolatile memory device is operated by receiving a dual plane read command for simultaneously reading first and second planes, each comprising memory cells, receiving an MSB read address for reading data stored in the memory cells, checking whether an MSB program operation has been performed on each of the first and second planes, and performing the read operation on the first and second planes according to a result of the check and outputting the read data.
US08270215B2
In a nonvolatile memory device, a cache program operation for the next data is performed in a first latch, and a verification program operation for the current data is performed using a second latch. Thus, data collision can be avoided and execution time can be reduced.
US08270209B2
One aspect of the present invention includes a Josephson magnetic random access memory (JMRAM) system. The system includes an array of memory cells arranged in rows and columns. Each of the memory cells includes an HMJJD that is configured to store a digital state corresponding to one of a binary logic-1 state and a binary logic-0 state in response to a word-write current that is provided on a word-write line and a bit-write current that is provided on a bit-write line. The HMJJD is also configured to output the respective digital state in response to a word-read current that is provided on a word-read line and a bit-read current that is provided on a bit-read line.
US08270208B2
A spin-torque based memory device includes a write portion including a fixed ferromagnetic spin-polarizing layer, a spin-transport layer having a spin accumulation region formed above the fixed ferromagnetic spin-polarizing layer. The memory device further includes a read portion in electrical contact with the spin-transport layer. The read portion includes a free layer magnet, a read non-magnetic layer, and a reference layer. The memory device further includes a metal contact region formed overlying the read portion and a nonlinear resistor formed between an upper surface of the spin transport layer and the metal contact region and modulating write and read current paths depending on an applied voltage, thereby creating different current paths for write and read processes.
US08270205B2
A variable resistance memory element and method of forming the same. The memory element includes a first electrode, a resistivity interfacial layer having a first surface coupled to said first electrode; a resistance changing material, e.g, a phase change material, having a first surface coupled to a second surface of said resistivity interfacial layer, and a second electrode coupled to a second surface of said resistance changing material.
US08270199B2
A memory system includes an X line, a first Y line, a second Y line, a semiconductor region of a first type running along the X line, first switching material and a first semiconductor region of a second type between the first Y line and the semiconductor region of the first type, second switching material and a second semiconductor region of the second type between the second Y line and the semiconductor region of the first type, and control circuitry. The control circuitry is in communication with the X line, the first Y line and the second Y line. The control circuitry changes the programming state of the first switching material to a first state by causing a first current to flow from the second Y line to the first Y line through the first switching material, the second switching material, the semiconductor region of the first type, the first semiconductor region of the second type and the second semiconductor region of the second type.
US08270193B2
Embodiments relate generally to semiconductors and memory technology, and more particularly, to systems, integrated circuits, and methods to implement a memory architecture that includes local bit lines for accessing subsets of memory elements, such as memory elements based on third dimensional memory technology. In at least some embodiments, an integrated circuit includes a cross-point memory array formed above a logic layer. The cross-point memory array includes X-lines and Y-lines, of which at least one Y-line includes groups of Y-line portions. Each of the Y-line portions can be arranged in parallel with other Y-line portions within a group of the Y-line portions. Also included are memory elements disposed between a subset of the X-lines and the group of the Y-line portions. In some embodiments, a decoder is configured to select a Y-line portion from the group of Y-line portions to access a subset of the memory elements.
US08270191B2
A power converter system includes an inverter including a first bridge and a second bridge, wherein each of the first bridge and the second bridge includes at least one switch. The power converter system also includes an inductor including a first winding coupled to an output of the first bridge and a second winding coupled to an output of the second bridge.
US08270184B2
An embodiment of a voltage converter, provided with: a voltage transformer having a primary winding receiving an input voltage, a secondary winding supplying an output voltage, and an auxiliary winding supplying a feedback voltage correlated to the output voltage; a main switch, coupled to the primary winding; a control circuit, which controls switching of the main switch and has a sampling stage for sampling and holding the feedback voltage and supplying a sampled signal; and a voltage limiting circuit, provided with a clamp capacitor, designed to be coupled across the primary winding. A sampling control stage is coupled to the sampling stage, and is designed, during a given operating condition of the voltage converter, to enable updating of the sampled signal on the basis of a state of charge of the clamp capacitor.
US08270182B2
The mobile phone includes a printed circuit board (PCB), a metal hinged shield, and a connecting member. The metal hinged shield is pivoted on the PCB by the connecting member. The metal hinged shield further comprises a high metal body and a low metal body. The high metal body partially overlaps the low metal body.
US08270175B2
A chip card holder for holding a chip card includes a fixing member and a sliding member. The fixing member defines a receiving space to receive the chip card. The fixing member includes two latching portions at two opposite sides thereof. Each latching portion includes a bent plate and a supporting plate. The bent plate defines a slot. The supporting plate is positioned above the receiving space. The sliding member includes a main plate and an operating portion at one end of the main plate. Two sliding blocks are formed on two sides of the main plate correspondingly. Each sliding block is slidably engaged in a corresponding slot. The supporting plates support the main plate.
US08270171B2
To increase air flow, an air intake/outtake (i.e., intake, outtake, or both) is positioned on a front surface of a housing, such as a rack-mounted computer network switch housing. The front surface includes jacks, controls, plugs, receptacles or other input/output for connection with the processor in the housing. The air intake/outtake is one or more openings on the front surface with the input/output components. In one embodiment, to avoid interference with the input/output components and increasing the height of the housing, the air intake/outtake is a slot extending most of or all of the distance between the sides of the housing and being above or below the input/output. An intermediate plate may be used to form and support the air intake/outtake.
US08270170B2
Various embodiments disclose a system and an associated method to provide cooling to a plurality of electronic components mounted proximately to one another in an electronic enclosure is disclosed. The system comprises a cold plate that is mounted on the electronic enclosure to conduct heat thermally. The cold plate has a first surface to mount proximate to the plurality of electronic components and a second surface to mount distal from the plurality of electronic components. One or more heat risers are configured to be thermally coupled between the first surface of the cold plate and at least one of the plurality of electronic components.
US08270162B2
An electronic device module includes an electronic device, a rack accommodating the electronic device, and a shield adjusting assembly. The rack defines a number of ventilation holes, and the shield adjusting assembly defines a number of through holes. The electronic device is placed in the rack to drive the shield adjusting assembly to a first position in which the through holes align with the ventilation holes. When the electronic device is detached from the rack, the shield adjusting assembly is restored by a resilient element to a second position in which the through holes offset the ventilation holes such that the ventilation holes are shielded.
US08270160B2
A rotating mechanism comprises a retaining plate having a track and a groove, both of which are defined in the retaining plate and parallel to each other; a rotating plate being capable of rotating in a plane parallel to the plane of the retaining plate by a shaft, the rotating plate has a slot and a slit, both of which are defined in the rotating plate and extending along a imaginary line; a biasing member including a first biasing member end and a second biasing member end; a peg retained on the first biasing member end and extending into the groove and the slot; a rail retained on the second biasing member end and extending into the track and the slit.
US08270159B2
A portable electronic device includes an electronic paper, a case, a guiding mechanism, an assembling mechanism, a mobile communication module, a first support structure and a second support structure. The guiding mechanism is disposed in the case to form a guiding space. The assembling mechanism is disposed in the guiding mechanism. The assembling mechanism includes a flexible connecting part and a driving part. The driving part is connected to the electronic paper and the flexible connecting part for rolling the flexible connecting part to contain the electronic paper in the guiding space. The first and second support structures are pivoted to two ends of the case respectively and form a support rail. A connecting socket on the first support structure is electrically connected to the mobile communication module. The electronic paper moves along the support rail to connect to the connecting socket upon the stretching state.
US08270157B2
According to one embodiment, the electronic device includes: a heating element that has: a first electronic part; and a plurality of connection terminals provided around the first electronic part; a first circuit board that has: a first surface; a second surface opposite to the first surface; an opening; and a plurality of pads provided around the opening at the first surface to be electrically connected with the connection terminals, respectively; a heat receiving member that has a heat receiving portion faced to the heating element and that is thermally connected to the heating element; a pressing member that presses the heat receiving member toward the first circuit board; and a support member that supports the first circuit board at a periphery of the opening from the second surface.
US08270153B2
A connector includes a holder, a transfer device received in the holder, a sensing device set in the transfer device, and a peripheral interface attached to the holder to be connected to a peripheral device. The sensing device senses whether the peripheral device enters the transfer device. When the peripheral device enters the transfer device, the transfer device drives the peripheral device to move to be plugged into the peripheral interface.
US08270145B2
This disclosure relates to compositions and methods for using such compositions to provide protective coatings, particularly of electronic components. Fired-on-foil ceramic capacitors coated with a polybenzoxazole encapsulant which may be embedded in printed wiring boards are disclosed.
US08270142B2
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for declamping a semiconductor wafer that is electrically adhered to a surface of an electrostatic chuck by a clamping voltage. In this method, the clamping voltage is deactivated. For a time following the deactivation, a first region of the wafer is lifted an first distance from the surface of the electrostatic chuck while a second region of the wafer remains adhered to the surface of the electrostatic chuck. A predetermined condition is monitored during the time. The second region is lifted from the surface of the electrostatic chuck when the predetermined condition is met.
US08270129B2
The present invention relates to a device arranged for converting an AC input voltage to a DC output voltage, comprising a bridgeless boost converter; and a surge protection system. The surge protection system comprises a first protection diode (Dprot1), where the anode is connected to a first AC input terminal and the cathode is connected to a positive boost output terminal (Obp); a second protection diode (Dprot2), where the anode is connected to a negative boost output terminal (Obn) and the cathode is connected to the first AC input terminal; a third protection diode (Dprot3), where the anode is connected to a second AC input terminal and the cathode is connected to the positive boost output terminal (Obp); and a fourth protection diode (Dprot4), where the anode is connected to the negative boost output terminal (Obn) and the cathode is connected to the second AC input terminal.
US08270126B1
A method and system for providing a hard bias structure include providing a seed layer for a hard bias structure. The seed layer has a lattice constant and a natural growth texture. The method and system further include depositing the hard bias layer for the hard bias structure on the seed layer. The natural growth texture of the seed layer corresponds to a texture for the hard bias layer. The hard bias layer has a bulk lattice constant. Providing the seed layer includes forming a first plasma of a first deposition gas configured to expand the seed layer lattice constant if the bulk lattice constant is greater than the seed layer constant. Depositing the hard bias layer further includes forming a second plasma of a second deposition gas configured to expand the bulk lattice constant if the seed layer lattice constant is greater than the bulk lattice constant.
US08270112B2
It is made possible to provide a magnetic head that generates a sufficient high-frequency magnetic field for assisting recording operations, and a magnetic recording device that includes the magnetic head. A magnetic head includes: a recording magnetic pole; a return yoke magnetically coupled to the recording magnetic pole; and at least two spin torque oscillators provided near the recording magnetic pole.
US08270105B2
Disclosed is a lens device including a click mechanism of a ring member that is rotated with respect to a lens barrel body, slides in the optical axis direction, has high slidability during a click operation and high durability, and can prevent one-sided abrasion due to the inclination of the ring member. A click mechanism of a first focus ring includes: elastic members for clicking provided at three equally divided positions on the circumference of a front fixed ring of a lens barrel body; and a contact portion that is formed in a central portion of the inner circumferential surface of the first focus ring and comes into contact with a convex portion of the elastic member for clicking. The elastic member for clicking is made of polyacetal with high slidability. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the abrasion of the elastic member for clicking during a click operation.
US08270096B2
An image lens system includes a first lens group that includes a first and a second lens, a movable second lens group that includes a third and a fourth lens, and a third lens group that includes a fifth lens. The image lens system satisfies the formulas: 2.1≦Lw/(a*Y)<2.5; 1.9≦|Fp|/F1|≦2.2; and 0.6≦|Fp2/F2|≦0.7, where “Lw” represents the overall length of the image lens system in the wide angle state, “a” represents the ratio of the effective focal length of the image lens system in the telephoto state to that in the wide angle state, “Y” represents the maximum height of image that the image lens system generates, “Fp1” and “Fp2” represents the effective focal lengths of the second and the fourth lenses, “F1” and “F2” represents the effective focal lengths of the first and the second lens groups.
US08270095B2
A variable-power optical system includes, in order from an object side thereof: a first lens group with a negative optical power; a second lens group with a positive optical power; a third lens group with a negative optical power; and a fourth lens group with a positive optical power. An interval between the first lens group and the second lens group decreases when a power of the variable-power optical system varies from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end. The second lens group includes at least one aspheric surface. The variable-power optical system satisfies the predetermined conditional expressions.
US08270093B2
A zoom lens system of the present invention has a plurality of lens units each composed of at least one lens element and, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises: a first lens unit having negative optical power and composed of two lens elements; a second lens unit having positive optical power; and a third lens unit having positive optical power, wherein in zooming, the lens units are moved such that an interval between the first lens unit and the second lens unit should decrease and that an interval between the second lens unit and the third lens unit should increase, so that magnification change is achieved, and wherein the condition is satisfied: 1.5
US08270090B2
A zoom lens includes, in order from the object side thereof, a first lens unit having a positive refracting power, a second lens unit having a negative refracting power, a third lens unit having a positive refracting power, a fourth lens unit having a positive refracting power, and a fifth lens unit having a negative refracting power. During zooming from the wide angle end to the telephoto end, the first lens unit and the third lens unit are kept stationary with respect to the image plane, and at least the second lens unit and the fourth lens unit move. The first lens unit includes, in order from the object side, a first sub unit having a negative refracting power, a reflecting optical element that bends an optical path by reflection, and a second sub unit having a positive refracting power. The second sub unit includes a cemented lens.
US08270082B2
A microstructure diffuser includes a light-entering surface, a light-emitting surface, and a plurality of microstructure portions having a first microstructure unit and a second microstructure unit. The first microstructure unit includes a first side surface, a second side surface, a top surface, a first pitch (P1), a second pitch (P2), and a height (H). The second microstructure unit has a curve function shape and is located at the light-emitting surface. The first side surface and the second side surface of the first microstructure unit receive the light beam of the light source to form a first optical path. The top surface of the first microstructure unit receives the light beam of the light source to form a second optical path. The second microstructure unit receives the light beam of the light source to form a third optical path.
US08270074B2
Provided is a magnified-projection optical system, which can retain a considerably long back focus although a focal length is short and which has a small chromatic aberration. The optical system comprises a projecting optical system, a relay optical system and a display element, which are sequentially arrayed from a screen side along the optical axis. The projecting optical system enlarges and projects the image, which has been linearly focused by the relay optical system, on the screen, and includes a negative group and a positive group arrayed sequentially from the screen side and having a negative optical power and a positive optical power, respectively. The optical system satisfies the following conditional relations of |Fb/F|>10 and 0.5<|F/Fp|<2.0, wherein Fb: the back focus of the whole optical system including the projecting optical system and the relay optical system, F: the focal length of the whole optical system, and FP: the focal length of the projecting optical system,
US08270072B2
A microscope includes a microscope main body, a revolving nosepiece rotatably mounted on the microscope main body and equipped with plural objective lenses, and focusing handles that adjust focal points of the objective lenses. The microscope further includes operation knobs mounted in a vicinity of the focusing handles and configured to move by a predetermined amount in a predetermined directions and an operating-force transmitting mechanism provided between the operation knobs and the revolving nosepiece and configured to transmit, when the operation knobs move, operating force to the revolving nosepiece to cause the movable member to move so that the objective lenses can be switched from one to the other through a single moving operation of the operation knobs by the predetermined amount.
US08270061B2
The present invention provides a display apparatus, comprising: a light source; at least one spatial light modulator for modulating a luminous flux emitted from the light source; and a controller for processing inputted video image information and for controlling the light source and spatial light modulator, wherein the controller controls the light source and spatial light modulator so that the light source performs pulse emission for a period shorter than a period in which the spatial light modulator is controlled under a modulation state.
US08270060B2
A panel includes a transparent substrate, a thermochromic layer, and a color modifying layer that includes an organic material. The transparent substrate, the color modifying layer and the thermochromic layer are stacked together.
US08270058B1
Techniques for producing higher fidelity interferometer measurements by reducing sensitivity to spurious sources include reducing the coherence length of an electromagnetic beam. In addition, multiple surfaces within an optical system may be measured by electronically tuning the position of a coherence plane along the optical paths of an interferometer. A phase modulator is used in conjunction with a long coherence length electromagnetic source to generate beams for each leg of an interferometer. Providing a controlled broadband RF signal to the phase modulator increases the bandwidth of the beam and thereby reduces the coherence length of the beam. This reduces the spurious contributions to the output interference fringes from undesired surfaces along the beam path.
US08270043B2
A sheet-fed scanning device with cleaning mechanism is provided. The sheet-fed scanning device includes a housing, a scanning module for scanning a fed-in document, and a cleaning curtain whose one end is fixed on the sheet-fed scanning device. The cleaning curtain is disposed in a sheet-fed direction at the front end of the scanning module, and the edge of the other end of the cleaning curtain is elastically in contact with the fed-in document for cleaning a to-be-scanned surface of the fed-in document. The invention is simple in structure and effective in cleaning the fed-in document. The cleaning mechanism does not cost much, but avoids the scanning quality being affected due to the large friction of the cleaning element. The cleaning mechanism ensures long-term cleanness of the to-be-scanned surface of the fed-in document as well as the cleanness of the glass window of the scanning module and the scanning quality.
US08270039B2
An image forming method includes marking a cutting pattern over an image to be printed, designating portions of the cutting pattern as a portion to be kept in the image to be printed and a portion to be discarded, creating an image mask using information of the designated portions, applying the image mask to create a modified image in which the portion to be kept is exposed and the portion to be discarded is hidden by the image mask, applying colorant only to the portion to be kept of the modified image, which is exposed by the image mask, to create an outputted image with colorant only on the portion to be kept, and cutting away the portion to be discarded of the modified image, which is hidden by the image mask, so that the portion to be discarded is not included in the outputted image.
US08270034B2
When the length of a print area in a print tape is designated and an instruction to print a symbol image of a two-dimensional code and character information is given, a printing apparatus sets the print size of the symbol image of the two-dimensional code to a predetermined print size defined as the initial setting, but changes the print attributes of the character information from the initial values to adjust the length of the character string, so that the character information can be printed together with the symbol image of the two-dimensional code within the print area in the print tape, that has the designated length. The printing apparatus prints the character information whose print size is adjusted and the symbol image of the two-dimensional code maintained at the predetermined print size, in a serial arrangement, in a range of the print tape having the designated length.
US08270032B2
Method of generating a CIElab to Neugebauer Primary area coverages interface for a print system, comprising selecting area coverages of Neugebauer Primaries and printing corresponding patches, measuring the CIE XYZ coordinates of the patches, converting the CIE XYZ coordinates to corresponding CIE Lab coordinates, and relating the CIE Lab coordinates to the NPacs.
US08270031B2
A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes an image processor to rasterize a received print job and to perform a halftone by comparing a first threshold value from a threshold matrix to a first image component sample, comparing the first threshold value to a first number of sequential image component samples neighboring the first sample if the first threshold value is less than the first sample and comparing the first threshold value to a second number of sequential image component samples neighboring the first sample if the first threshold value is greater than or equal to the first sample.
US08270029B2
Methods, apparatus and systems for using black-only on the neutral axis in color management profiles
This disclosure provides methods, apparatus and systems for generating and using color management profiles. Specifically, the color management profiles generated include K-only colorant recipes for image colors associated with a neutral axis.
US08270027B2
To configure print settings which have less influence on the environment, an MFP includes a document reader to receive image data, a print setting receiving portion to receive print settings to make printouts of the data, an environmental load calculating portion to calculate an environmental load which indicates a degree of influence on the environment based on the received print settings, and an alerting portion to display the calculated environmental load.
US08270026B2
A write control circuit includes a first data switching circuit that sets a correspondence relationship between signals from line buffers and input signals to a delay circuitry, based on a signal from a CPU; and a second data switching circuit that sets a correspondence relationship between output signals of the delay circuitry and drive signals, based on a signal from the CPU. This enables a plurality of light emitting sections to be driven properly, regardless of a main scanning direction and an arrangement of a plurality of light spots being in any of CASE-1 to CASE-4 in an optical scanning device.
US08270024B2
A printing apparatus for printing within a predefined print zone on a selected surface of a skewed object moving in a given direction of travel includes a bracket, at least two sensors at known positions adjacent to the passing object detecting the leading edge of a given surface, a positioning mechanism mounted on the bracket, a printhead mounted on the positioning mechanism and operable to print on the moving object selected surface, the positioning mechanism operable to position the printhead into a known correct printing position relative to the selected surface, and a controller communicating with the sensors, positioning mechanism, and printhead, and operable to calculate object skew in response to the sensor signals and to operate the positioning mechanism to position the printhead into the known correct printing position and to operate the printhead to print within the predefined print zone on the skewed moving object.
US08270023B2
A print engine controller for a pagewidth inkjet printer includes an interface for connection to an input data bus to receive page data to be processed prior to printing. A data bus is connected to the interface to communicate data to various circuitry components of the controller. A memory is connected to the data bus and is configured so that as one page is loaded another previously loaded page is read from the memory to permit the controller to act in a double-buffered manner. A print engine pipeline is connected to the data bus and is configured to read the page data from the memory and process the page data into a form suitable for printing by the pagewidth inkjet printer.
US08270021B2
A system for designing cells in a document production environment may include a computing device and a computer-readable medium in communication with the computing device, where the computer-readable medium comprises one or more programming instructions for identifying a plurality of print jobs, comprising one or more functions, where the print jobs are associated with the document production environment, generating a representation for each unique print job and creating one or more workflows. The computer-readable storage medium may also include one or more programming instructions for assigning the workflow to one of a plurality of cells, where each cell may include one or more devices, determining whether one or more of the cells is complex, and splitting at least one workflow within a complex cell.
US08270020B2
The present invention provides a system that registers, in a second information processing apparatus, device information unique to a peripheral device capable of connecting to a first information processing apparatus, wherein the first information processing apparatus includes an addition unit configured to add, to the device information, information indicating whether the device information was manually inputted to the first information processing apparatus in response to operations of a user or was automatically inputted to the first information processing apparatus by the peripheral device, and the second information processing apparatus includes a registration unit configured to register, in the database, device information to which has been added the information indicating the device information was automatically inputted, and device information to which the information indicating the device information was manually inputted has been added and that has been determined to not yet be registered in the database, in association with user information.
US08270013B2
An information processing apparatus generates print data in response to a print request, stores the print data in a storage unit, and enters a standby state for waiting for a print-data transmission request. An image forming apparatus transmits the print-data transmission request to the information processing apparatus corresponding to input identification data for uniquely identifying the information processing apparatus, receives the print data from the information processing apparatus, and prints out the print data.
US08270003B2
Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems, methods and devices for imaging device display standardization.
US08270002B1
A novel system (method and apparatus) for printing compressed digital images with rotation, wherein the image is rotated as an integral part of the decompression process. Furthermore, the system is configured so that selected sections of the image can be printing even as other sections of the image are still being processed. As a result, the new approach reduces system memory requirements, avoids reductions in image quality and minimizes printing delays.
US08270001B2
A printing apparatus that has received a request for canceling a print job determines whether the print job can be canceled, and transmits the determined result to a user of a print service before the print job is canceled. The print job is canceled in a process other than the process that has received the request for canceling the print job. After the print job has been canceled, the printing apparatus notifies a predetermined destination of the completion of canceling the print job.
US08269980B1
A simultaneous phase-shifting white light scanning interferometer comprises a white light scanning interferometer, a simultaneous phase-shifting module, and a scanner. Light from a short coherence length light source may be polarized and then split, by a polarization type beam-splitter, into orthogonally polarized reference and test beams. The simultaneous phase-shifting module comprises a plurality of detectors, allows for controlled phase shifts between the reference and test beams, and creates at least three independent interferograms, each with different phase shifts between the reference and test beams. The scanner translates the simultaneous phase-shifting module with respect to an object under measurement.
US08269976B2
A gyroscope and a method of detecting rotation are provided. The gyroscope includes a structure configured to be driven to move about a drive axis. The structure is further configured to move about a sense axis in response to a Coriolis force generated by rotation of the structure about a rotational axis while moving about the drive axis. The gyroscope further includes an optical sensor system configured to optically measure movement of the structure about the sense axis. In certain embodiments, the gyroscope is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) gyroscope.
US08269971B1
A remote sensing system includes a transmitter for generating multiple beams of light; a combiner for combining the multiple beams of light and directing the combined multiple beams toward a target of multiple gases; and a receiver for receiving the combined multiple beams of light from the target. The first and second transmitted beams of light include, respectively, first and second sets of multiple distinct wavelengths that are simultaneously transmitted toward the target. The receiver receives the multiple distinct wavelengths, and simultaneously detects an intensity of each received wavelength. The first set of multiple distinct wavelengths is selected based on absorption characteristics of a first species of gas, and the second set of multiple distinct wavelengths is selected based on absorption characteristics of a second species of gas. The transmitter includes first and second mode-locked based lasers for generating, respectively, the first and second sets of distinct multiple wavelengths. The receiver includes first and second pixel arrays for detecting, respectively, the first and second sets of distinct multiple wavelengths.
US08269969B2
There is provided a surface inspection device configured to detect the surface state of the wafer, such as a defect in the uppermost layer and a variation of the CD value, using even diffracted light influenced by the baselayer. The surface inspection device is configured so that an illumination section illuminates the surface of a wafer with a first illuminating light at a high incident angle which is sensitive to a variation of the surface state of the wafer and a second illuminating light at a low incident angle which is insensitive thereto, a detection section detects diffracted light caused by the high and low incident angles, respectively, and a computing unit determines the CD value after correcting the influence of the baselayer of the wafer based on the information relating to the diffracted lights due to the high and low incident angles.
US08269967B2
A method of attaching an object to be measured to a structure causing a diffraction phenomenon; irradiating the structure to which the object to be measured is attached and which causes the diffraction phenomenon with an electromagnetic wave; detecting the electromagnetic wave scattered by the structure causing the diffraction phenomenon; and measuring a characteristic of the object to be measured from the frequency characteristic of the detected electromagnetic wave. The object to be measured is attached directly to the surface of the structure causing the diffraction phenomenon. Thus, the method for measuring the characteristic of an object to be measured exhibits an improved measurement sensitivity and high reproducibility. A structure causing a diffraction phenomenon and used for the method, and a measuring device are provided.
US08269957B2
The present invention relates to a laser based system for protecting a platform against an armament equipped with an optical homing head element, that includes a command and control assembly equipped with an interface to a detection and acquisition system that detects and locates a threatening armament and receives from it a warning about the detection of said threatening armament combined with data relating to it; and a laser source operable by the command and control assembly in order to produce the required energy for jamming the optical head of the threatening armament; and wherein the system is characterized by that it includes in addition a sectarian array of a plurality of end units that are connected unto the laser source for selectively routing laser energy from the source to an end unit that was selected by the command and control assembly as the end unit that is best suited under prevailing conditions for pointing at the threatening armament and attacking it by emitting a laser beam in its direction.
US08269953B2
The invention relates to a detector for measuring scattered light in liquids having a housing, a transparent, flexible tube for transporting liquid through the housing, a light emitter, and a light detector. Two parallel surfaces are formed in the housing, between which the tube is arranged such that two opposing tube walls are formed in a planar parallel manner. The light emitter is arranged in such a way that the optical axis thereof is perpendicular to the parallel surfaces of the first tube wall, and the light detector is adjacent to the light emitter, the optical axes of the light emitter and light detector forming an angle smaller than 90°. The invention also relates to a method for detecting the presence of blood and for the quantitative determination of biological marker substances, especially bilirubin, in solution, and to a device for treating blood containing the detector.
US08269952B2
The present invention is to present a sample analyzer capable of automatically stabilizing the laser diode in multi-mode oscillation. A sample analyzer 1 comprises: a laser diode (LD) 501d for irradiating a sample with laser light; a photodiode (PD) 501e for detecting amount of light emitted from the LD 501d; a APC circuit 501b for outputting a direct current to be supplied to the LD 501d such that the amount of light emitted from the LD 501d is maintained at a predetermined amount, based on the amount of light detected by the PD 501e; a high frequency oscillation circuit 501f for superimposing a high frequency component on the direct current outputted from the APC circuit 501b; and a high frequency automatic adjustment circuit 501c for controlling amplitude of the high frequency component outputted from the high frequency oscillation circuit 501f according to magnitude of the direct current outputted from the APC circuit 501b such that the LD 501d oscillates in a multi-mode.
US08269946B2
A lithographic apparatus includes a substrate table on which a substrate is held, a projection system including a final optical element, the projection system projecting a patterned beam of radiation through an immersion liquid onto the substrate adjacent the final optical element to expose the substrate during an immersion lithography process, and a liquid supply system including an inlet. The liquid supply system supplies the immersion liquid during the immersion lithography process and supplies a cleaning liquid, which is different from the immersion liquid, during a cleanup process. The cleanup process and the immersion lithography process are performed at different times.
US08269944B2
A liquid immersion exposure apparatus in which a substrate is exposed to an exposure beam, includes an optical member through which the substrate is exposed to the exposure beam, a cover member having a surface, a first holding system that detachably holds the cover member, and a second holding system that holds the cover member which is released from the first holding system. The surface of the cover member held by the second holding system is opposite to the optical member.
US08269936B2
An active matrix substrate (10) included in a liquid crystal display device of the present invention is arranged such that (i) source bus lines (12) (signal wires) are disposed so that each of the source bus lines (i) partially overlaps its corresponding pixel electrodes (14) adjacent to each other along a direction in which gate bus lines (11) (scanning wires) extend and (ii) leads from a border between the pixel electrodes (14) toward a central part of each of the pixel electrodes (14), and in the meantime, the source bus lines (12) are disposed so that at least part of overlap between each of the source bus lines (12) and the pixel electrodes (14) overlaps ribs (26) (orientation-changing sections) that change orientation of liquid crystal molecules contained in a liquid crystal layer. This achieves a liquid crystal display device capable of reducing display unevenness of an image without decreasing an aperture ratio even in a case where signal wires are disposed so that each of them leads toward central parts of corresponding pixel electrodes.
US08269932B2
A liquid crystal display screen includes a first substrate, a first alignment layer, a liquid crystal layer, a second alignment layer, and a second substrate. The liquid crystal layer is sandwiched therebetween. The first alignment layer and the second alignment layer correspondingly are disposed on the first substrate and the second substrate. The first alignment layer and the second alignment layer respectively include a plurality of parallel first grooves and perpendicular second grooves. Furthermore, at least one of the alignment layers includes a carbon nanotube layer. The carbon nanotube layer includes at least one carbon nanotube film. The carbon nanotube film comprising a plurality of carbon nanotubes joined end to end and substantially aligned along a single direction.
US08269925B2
A liquid crystal display device which can obviate color mixing of colors when a display screen is viewed from oblique directions while enhancing a numerical aperture of a pixel is provided. In a liquid crystal display device having red sub pixels, green sub pixels and blue sub pixels, a width of a light blocking film arranged on a boundary portion between the blue sub pixel and the sub pixel of other color is set larger than a width of a light blocking film arranged on a boundary portion between the red sub pixel and the green sub pixel.
US08269922B2
Provided is a liquid crystal display device including: a liquid crystal display panel; a fluorescent tube disposed on a side opposite to a display surface of the liquid crystal display panel; an electrode holder for retaining the fluorescent tube; a frame to which the electrode holder is attached; a light reflection cover including one of a hole and a notch for allowing the fluorescent tube to pass therethrough, the light reflection cover covering a part of the fluorescent tube and an area of the frame on an outer side of the fluorescent tube; and an elastic body provided on the light reflection cover so as to face the fluorescent tube in a non-contact manner.
US08269911B2
In a liquid crystal display device which uses light emitting diodes as a light source, the present invention provides a light source which can be effectively housed in a housing casing of a backlight even when an area of a printed circuit board is increased by taking radiation of heat from the light emitting diodes into consideration. A printed circuit board is formed by arranging light emitting diodes on a flexible substrate. The printed circuit board is formed with an area larger than an area of a light incident surface of a light guide plate, and is arranged to face the light incident surface of the light guide plate in an opposed manner. The light guide plate and the printed circuit board are housed in the inside of a housing casing, the printed circuit board is made foldable by forming slits in the printed circuit board thus enabling housing of the printed circuit board in the housing casing in a folded shape. Due to housing of the printed circuit board in a folded shape, a contact area of the printed circuit board with the housing casing is increased thus enhancing a heat radiation effect.
US08269903B2
A panel drive apparatus that requires no special mechanism inside a device body and that can be easily mounted on the device body.One end of an arm 330 is rotatably joined to a mounting plate 310 that can be mounted on the device. The other end of the arm 330 is rotatably joined to a panel 100. The mounting plate 310 has a fan-shaped fixed gear 320. A panel gear 350, which is a spur gear, is fixed to the panel 100. The arm 330 has an idle gear 340 that is provided between the fixed gear 320 and panel gear 350 so as to be engaged with the respective gears and that can be rotated by a drive mechanism 200.
US08269902B2
System and methods for outputting coordinated audio and video presentations are provided. The system includes a plurality of speakers and a display device capable of providing a plurality of projection images. Sound generated by the plurality of speakers is coordinated with the plurality of projection images. The coordination process may be automatically performed according to position change of the plurality of projection images. Sound generated by the plurality of speakers may be further modulated according to position of a user or motion of a video object being displayed in one or more of the plurality of projected images.
US08269897B2
High-Definition Multimedia Interface Specification, Version 1.2, supports multiple video formats. Currently the HDMI sources and sinks support multiple formats through reconfiguration of the system. The present invention describes the use of a configurable ‘n’בn’ data pixel mapping matrix for video format conversion. This mapping matrix allows the mapping of any existing video format to any other existing or future video format and allows flexibility of connectivity to any transmitter or receiver. Accordingly a more user friendly implementation that provides greater flexibility for development and use of new formats in video applications is shown.
US08269894B2
An apparatus and method for display color fidelity optimization using performance prediction are provided. A method of the present invention can include obtaining data regarding available display parameters of the display device, obtaining feedback information regarding respective current values of the display parameters of the display device, performing simulations to determine how changes in the display parameters affect a display of the video content on the display, determining a prediction of a performance of the display device based upon the current values of the display parameters, determining an effect of ambient light on at least one of the determined prediction and the display parameters, and optimizing the display parameters in accordance with at least one of the determined prediction and the determined effect of ambient light. In an alternate embodiment, the method can further include recovering one or more original current values of the display parameters subsequent to a change.
US08269881B2
An imaging apparatus comprising: A spatial light modulator (30) operable to receive incident light (34) representing an incident light image and to intensity modulate said incident light to form spatially modulated (38) light; and an image capture device (42) operable to receive said spatially modulated light and to detect an intensity value for different portions of said spatially modulated light to form a modulated light image therefrom; wherein said spatial light modulator attenuates different parts of said incident light by different proportions such that intensity values of said incident light image are given by a combination of intensity values of said modulated light image captured by said image capture device and data representing proportions of attenuation applied to corresponding parts of said incident light image by said spatial light modulator.
US08269878B2
Provided is a small-sized five-element image pickup lens which ensures a sufficient lens speed of about F2 and exhibits various aberrations being excellently corrected. The image pickup lens is composed of, in order from the object side, a first lens with a positive refractive power, including a convex surface facing the object side; a second lens with a negative refractive power, including a concave surface facing the image side; a third lens with a positive or negative refractive power; a fourth lens with a positive refractive power, including a convex surface facing the image side; and a fifth lens with a negative refractive power, including a concave surface facing the image side. The image-side surface of the fifth lens has an aspheric shape, and includes an inflection point at a position excluding an intersection point with the optical axis.
US08269877B2
An imaging apparatus having an imaging element which photoelectrically converts a photographic object image at a photoelectric conversion face, an optical member provided on a front face of the element and which forms an image of the object image on the face, an oscillation element which oscillates the member, an oscillation element driving means which makes the oscillation element oscillate according to each of oscillation modes having different oscillation forms, a foreign object specifying means which specifies a position of a foreign object attached to the optical member based on image data of a white screen imaged by the imaging element, and an oscillation control means which selects an oscillation mode where the foreign object is present at a peak portion of the oscillation form, based on the foreign object specified by the foreign object specifying means, and changes an oscillation condition of the oscillation mode.
US08269868B2
A data reader preferably includes an imaging device that operates on a rolling reset basis to capture images of a moving target. Images of moving targets are preferably analyzed to determine the ambient light intensity, and a processor in the data reader preferably adjusts operation of the imager and of a light source based on the intensity of the ambient light. Other data readers may use an imager with a mechanical shutter that is designed for rapid, frequent operation.
US08269862B2
The image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a pixel extraction section that extracts an extraction region made up of a target pixel and a plurality of pixels included in a region peripheral to the target pixel, a similitude calculation section that calculates similitude of each pixel value in the peripheral region with respect to a pixel value of the target pixel, a similitude filter processing section that performs filter processing on the similitude, a first filter determining section that determines a first filter used in the filter processing of the similitude filter processing section, a second filter determining section that determines a second filter used for the extraction region based on the similitude subjected to the filter processing by the similitude filter processing section, and a noise reduction processing section that performs noise reduction processing on the target pixel based on the second filter determined by the second filter determining section.
US08269853B2
An imaging apparatus includes: an image sensor including a plurality of charge storage-type photoelectric conversion elements disposed along a first and a second direction; a rolling shutter control unit that executes storage control to store electrical charges in a first element row and in a second element row with different timing for electrical charging, the first element row including a plurality of the charge storage-type photoelectric conversion elements along the first direction and the second element row including a plurality of the charge storage-type photoelectric conversion elements along the first direction at a different position along the second direction; a detection unit that detects light emission timing indicating a light emission cycle of each of a plurality of color components in light entering the image sensor; and a start instruction unit that engages the rolling shutter control unit to start the storage control based upon the light emission timing.
US08269852B2
An imaging apparatus and an imaging method which can obtain an image in which a dynamic range is expanded at one shooting are provided. In a case where a pixel output of a pixel where a specific color separation filter is placed is equal to or more than a predetermined saturation level, based on a pixel output of a pixel which is placed in the vicinity of the pixel where the specific color separation filter is placed, a pixel output for brightness, where the pixel output becomes equal to or more than the predetermined saturation level, of the pixel where the color separation filter of the specific color is placed and the pixel output is equal to or more than the predetermined saturation level is compensated, and thereby a dynamic range of an image sensor is expanded.
US08269849B2
A method for testing image pipelines includes transforming an untransformed captured image multiple times using a plurality of pipelines, thereby generating a plurality of transformed images, and comparing a functional set of metrics associated with each of the plurality of transformed images with a functional set of metrics associated with each image in a ground truth set. From the comparison, a determination is made as to which of the plurality of pipelines generates a transformed image that is functionally closest to an image in the ground truth set.
US08269847B2
When an instruction of shooting a moving image is given in a mail writing mode, a mobile communication terminal detects the instruction, controlling an image pick-up unit 10 and image pick-up controlling unit 12 to continuously shoot images for a certain period of time. Plural images are obtained and displayed live for a certain period of time. When non image-moving region is found in all the plural obtained images and is included in the image displayed live, the non image-moving regions of MPEG format are subjected to a transparent process, and an animation file of GIF format is created. Mail data is read from a memory 15 and a description is given to display in line an animation GIF icon of the animation file at a current cursor position in the mail in the process of writing.
US08269844B2
A method of improving a video image by removing the effects of camera vibration comprising the steps of, obtaining a reference frame, receiving an incoming frame, determining the frame translation vector for the incoming frame, translating the incoming frame to generate a realigned frame, performing low pass filtering in the spatial domain on pixels in the realigned frame, performing low pass filtering in the spatial domain on pixels in the reference frame, determining the absolute difference between the filtered pixels in the reference frame and the filtered pixels in the realigned frame, performing low pass filtering in the temporal domain on the pixels in the realigned frame to generate the output frame if the absolute difference is less than a predetermined threshold, and providing the realigned frame as the output frame if the absolute difference is greater than the predetermined threshold.
US08269841B2
An optical element driving device includes an optical element holder, first and second magnets, first and second magnetic bodies each having a cross section including a vertex and first and second legs forming an opening therebetween, first and second piezoelectric elements that move the optical element holder in directions perpendicular to each other by slidingly moving the first and second magnetic bodies by vibrating the first and second magnets, and first and second magnetic sensors that detect a position of the optical element holder, wherein the first and second piezoelectric elements are driven in a state in which the first and second magnets are coupled to the first and second legs from the opening side, wherein the first and second magnets are each magnetized in directions perpendicular to a magnetization line, and wherein the second magnetic sensor is disposed at a position that is not on the magnetization line.
US08269840B2
An image stabilization driving assembly that corrects a shake of a digital camera includes a driving plate in which a correction lens is mounted and that operates in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis; a base plate that supports the driving plate at a rear of the driving plate; a tilt correction plate fastened at a rear of the base plate and that adjusts the fastening degree and corrects tilting of the driving plate; and a plurality of suspension wires having one end fixed to the driving plate, another end fixed to the tilt correction plate, and extending through the base plate. The plurality of suspension wires may be formed of an elastic material.
US08269837B2
Default image data and subject image data are stored separately in nonvolatile memory and when the subject image data stored in the nonvolatile memory is displayed in a standard playback mode, the subject image data is displayed on an LCD at a specific scaling factor (first scaling factor) determined by the image size of the subject image data regardless of whether or not default image data is set for the subject image data. On the other hand, when composite image data is displayed in a print preview mode, scaling processing to display the subject image data on the LCD at a smaller scaling factor than the first scaling factor is performed so that the whole of the composite image data can be displayed on one screen of the display.
US08269832B2
A method for measuring and displaying a factor includes: sensing a factor by using a sensing unit, which is movable in a plane, a curved surface, or a space where the factor for sensing is generated or contained and senses the factor; photographing the plane, the curved surface, or the space; simultaneously recognizing a position of the sensing unit by targeting the sound sensing unit when sensing the factor in the step of sensing; generating a factor map data by mapping the factor sensed in the step of sensing onto the position sensed in the step of recognizing; overlaying the factor map data with the picture data; and displaying the factor map data overlaid with the picture data.
US08269829B2
An imager assembly for a remote inspection device includes an imager body. A circuit board retainer is slidably received through an end of the imager body. The circuit board retainer has deflectable legs separated by a slot. A circuit board assembly has an imager device connected to a first circuit board. A second circuit board is electrically connected to the first circuit board. The second circuit board is received in the slot of the circuit board retainer and frictionally engaged by the deflectable legs. A flexible tube has a first end connected to an end of the imager body using a first ferrule. A male connector is connected to a second end of the flexible tube using a second ferrule. A wiring harness is disposed through a bore of the flexible tube.
US08269807B2
The present invention generally relates to an electrostatic coating apparatus for spraying a stream of particles onto a medium, and in particular to an apparatus equipped with a powder coating suspension device such as a multivolume chamber, or a air stream creation device. What is also contemplated is the use of a plurality of variable openings in the enclosure, used in conjunction with a plurality of conductors, to dispose a stream of particles onto a moving medium in successive layers. In yet another embodiment, the stream of particles is directed in a directional electrical field created by electrodes placed adjacent to directional shields. The present disclosure relates to an in-line industrial device able to coat paint, starch, thermoplastic materials, or any other powder material onto a medium by successively controlling a plurality of parameters.
US08269802B2
In general, when a user views an image displayed on a display apparatus, visual environments, such as ambient brightness, a distance from the user to the display apparatus and so on, may disadvantageously cause the image displayed on the display apparatus to become difficult to view. Moreover, it is complicated and troublesome for the user to enter information of ambient light amount and others when setting a picture quality. An image display apparatus holds both question constituent information related to visual environments and choice information serving as answers to questions constituted by the question constituent information, and further holds a plurality of picture quality control rules suitable for visual environments assumed in accordance with the choice information serving as the answers. When sensing a power-up, the image display apparatus outputs the questions; acquires result information that is choices serving as answers from the user to those questions and that is used to acquire the picture quality control rules; and controls the picture quality in accordance with the picture quality control rules acquired in accordance with the result information.
US08269796B2
Example embodiments relate to pointing devices, methods, and machine-readable storage media. In example embodiments disclosed herein, a pointing device may include a display screen. Example embodiments may receive an image from a computing device that includes a pointer and an area of a currently-displayed interface surrounding the pointer. Example embodiments may then output the received image on the display screen of the pointing device.
US08269790B2
A method and system for rendering graphics based on user customizations in a computer graphics application are disclosed. The customizations relate to various properties of one or more graphical elements in the graphic. Such properties include positioning, size, formatting and other visual attributes associated with the graphical elements. These properties may be defined as either semantic properties or presentation properties. Semantic properties are persistent across all graphic definitions. Presentation properties are specific to the graphic definition to which each particular graphic belongs. Thus, a customization to a semantic property of a displayed graphic is preserved in memory for application not only to the currently displayed graphic, but also to all other graphic definitions that may be displayed in the future. In contrast, a customization to a presentation property is only preserved for the currently displayed graphic, and thus not preserved for all other graphic definitions.
US08269789B2
A method and system of the present invention determines the performance values of components of a flow by taking the interactions between the components into account, and visualizes the performance values on a graphical user interface during a flow design phase. Thus, interactions between the components of the flow become transparent to the user and bottlenecks can be identified immediately.
US08269786B2
A method for reading and writing a memory having n rows and A columns includes a first step of writing data in 0th to (n−2)th rows by a first technique; a second step of writing data in (n−1)th row per column and reading data in the 0th section by a second technique; a third step of writing data in 0th to (n−2)th sections by a third technique and reading data in 1st to (n−1)th sections by the second technique, a fourth step of writing data in the (n−1)th section by the third technique and reading data in 0th row by a fourth technique; a fifth step of writing data in 0th to (n−2)th rows by the first technique and reading data in 1st to (n−1)th rows by the fourth technique; and a sixth step of returning to the second step.
US08269783B2
A method and system for converting the output of a communications port (e.g., a serial port or a USB port) into video signals representing the output of a terminal using a KVM switch. Upon receiving characters from the communications port, the system interprets the characters as terminal emulation commands and internally generates a representation of what a resulting terminal screen would look like. From that internal (digital) representation, the system produces analog outputs representing the terminal screen. The analog outputs are output on the monitor attached to the KVM switch.
US08269778B1
This disclosure relates to computer-generated imagery (CGI) and computer-aided animation. More specifically, this disclosure relates to techniques for preserving the shape of simulated and dynamic objects for use in CGI and computer-aided animation.
US08269768B1
Z-buffer rendering of three-dimensional scenes is made more efficient through a method for occlusion culling by which occluded geometry is removed prior to rasterization. The method uses hierarchical z-buffering to reduce the quantity of image and depth information that needs to be accessed. A separate culling stage in the graphics pipeline culls occluded geometry and passes visible geometry on to a rendering stage. The culling stage maintains its own z-pyramid in which z-values are stored at low precision (e.g., in 8 bits). The efficiency of hierarchical z-buffering is improved through hierarchical evaluation of line and plane equations.
US08269766B2
A placement position of a sketched image into a three-dimensional space and viewing point direction are determined using the angle method or the three-point method, and the cross-section lines of a door cross-section line and center cross-section line of a vehicle depicted in the sketched image is determined and, based on the obtained cross-section line and center cross-section line, a spatial curved surface of the vehicle in the three-dimensional space is determined, distortion is corrected, and a curved surface is created.
US08269764B2
Systems, methodologies, media, and other embodiments associated with a three dimensional spatial engine in an RDBMS are described. One example system includes logic to receive and store data representing a set of spatial features of a three dimensional geometry object. The example system may also include logic to validate the three dimensional geometry object and to provide a signal concerning the validity of the object.
US08269755B2
A display apparatus includes: a plurality of pixel circuits; drive scan lines which supply the same power supply potential to each group of the plurality of pixel circuits, the group having a plurality of pixel circuits for a plurality of successive rows; and a power supply circuit which, during an extinction period for extinguishing light-emitting devices in pixel circuits belonging to each group, supplies a high-level power supply potential to the respective pixel circuits belonging to the group related to the extinction period so as to switch the power supply potential to the high-level power supply potential higher than the power supply potential, wherein each of the plurality of pixel circuits includes a storage capacitor which retains a voltage corresponding to a video signal, a drive transistor which supplies a current based on the voltage retained in the storage capacitor to the corresponding light-emitting device by receiving the power supply potential supplied to the corresponding drive scan line, a light-emitting device which emits light in accordance with the current supplied from the drive transistor, and a write transistor which, during the extinction period, gives an extinction potential for extinguishing the light-emitting device to a gate terminal of the drive transistor, and then writes the voltage corresponding to the video signal to the storage capacitor.
US08269753B2
A display device capable of detecting the light intensity of ambient light with high accuracy is disclosed. The display device has a backlight light source and a photo sensing unit. The display device also includes a voltage supply unit for providing a voltage, which makes the photo sensing unit output a certain amount of photocurrent to the photo sensing unit; and a supply voltage control unit for modulating the voltage supplied to the photo sensing unit based on the operation status of the backlight light source. The supply voltage control unit controls the voltage supply unit by the way of outputting a voltage of a first voltage to the photo sensing unit while the backlight light source is operating; and outputting a voltage of a second voltage, which is different from the first voltage, to the photo sensing unit while the backlight light source is not operating.
US08269742B2
A manufacturing method of a coordinate position detecting device includes the steps of forming the common electrode on the resistive film of tour sides of the substrate having a rectangular-shaped configuration; measuring the electric potential of the resistive film by plural probes contacting a surface of the resistive film where the electric potential is supplied from the common electrode to the resistive film; calculating a resistive film removing area, based on a value of a measured electric potential, by a calculating part so that the electric potential distribution of the resistive film is made uniform; and removing the resistive film in the resistive film removing area calculated by the calculating part, by a laser light.
US08269740B2
A multi-touch sensing method and apparatus are described. The multi-touch sensing method includes: storing, in a memory, coordinate values of a first dead zone and coordinate values of a second dead zone existing between first and second pair of image sensors, respectively; calculating coordinate values of touch points from images obtained by the first and second pairs of image sensors; comparing the coordinate values of the touch point and the coordinate values of the dead zones to identify the location of the dead zone to which the touch point belongs; selecting the coordinate values calculated in the third step if the coordinate values of the touch point belong to the first dead zone; and selecting the coordinate values calculated in the second step if the coordinate values of the touch point belong to the second dead zone.
US08269738B2
A touch device includes a touch panel and a vibration device to provide tactile feedback to a user to locate a key on a display of the touch panel. A processor generates a drive signal to the vibration device when the position on the display touched by a finger or stylus corresponds to a location of a key on the display. The vibration device causes the display to vibrate in response to the drive signal to provide a tactile key location indication to the user while the key is touched.
US08269727B2
Techniques for identifying irregular objects in contact with, or in close proximity to, a touch-surface are described. An irregularity measure is determined based on the regions intrinsic characteristics (e.g., energy content) rather than on the shape (or pattern) of the pixels within the region.
US08269724B2
A coordinate input apparatus which can reliably specify a coordinate component (a position coordinate) of a selected position without a complicated structure irrespective of use conditions is provided. A coordinate input apparatus includes a capacity detecting portion which detects capacitance, wherein the coordinate input apparatus specifies a coordinate component of a selected position on the basis of a change in capacitance detected by the capacity detecting portion, and the capacity detecting portion includes a first conductive layer, an insulating layer which is formed on the first conductive layer, and a second conductive layer which is formed on the insulating layer in a mesh shape, and has a predetermined potential difference between the second conductive layer and the first conductive layer.
US08269723B2
A computer mouse in one embodiment includes an arcuate cover comprising a plurality of projections on a top surface; a capacitance trigger assembly aligned with the projections thereabove and comprising a flexible arcuate first capacitive film and a flexible arcuate second capacitive film therebelow; a printed circuit board disposed under the capacitance trigger assembly and comprising a photodetector array on an underside and a microprocessor; and a base releasably secured to the cover and comprising a light guide. In response to a touch of the projection, a button clicking action is triggered.
US08269709B2
A liquid crystal display and a pre-charging method thereof for pre-charging data lines using a ESD circuit to simplify a circuit configuration are provided. In the method, video lines receiving video signals are floated in a pre-charge interval of time. A pre-charge voltage is supplied to the video lines floated via a static electricity proof circuit connected to the video lines. The pre-charge voltage on the video line is pre-charged by a demultiplexer for making a time-divisional driving of the data lines in a video charge interval of time.
US08269706B2
An operating unit of an LCD panel and a method for operating the same are disclosed, to improve the picture quality by removing superior polarity. The operating unit includes a plurality of data driver ICs for supplying data to the data lines of the LCD panel, a plurality of gate driver ICs for sequentially operating the gate lines of the LCD panel, and a timing controller for supplying polarity control signals having opposite polarities respectively to first and second blocks of the data driver ICs formed by dividing the data driver ICs into multiple blocks.
US08269704B2
A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel having liquid crystal pixels on regions defined by a plurality of gate lines and a plurality data lines, a gate voltage generator configured to generate a gate high voltage and a gate low voltage, and a gate driver configured to generate gate scan signals to respective gate lines using the gate high and low voltages. The gate scan signals are enabled and shifted sequentially by a predetermined interval. A gate voltage modulating unit is configured to modulate the gate high voltage such that an impulse having a negative polarity is added every predetermined period to the gate high voltage supplied to the gate driver. The gate voltage modulating unit controls a width of the impulse depending on characteristics of the liquid crystal panel to control starting points of predetermined edges of the gate scan signals.
US08269699B2
A display apparatus includes a pixel unit in which pixels are arranged in a matrix pattern; and a driving circuit for driving the pixel unit. Each of the pixels includes a signal level holding capacitor; a first transistor that is turned on/off in response to a writing signal and via which one end of the signal level holding capacitor is connected to a signal line; a second transistor having one end of the signal level holding capacitor connected to a gate thereof and the other end of the signal level holding capacitor connected to a source thereof; a current-driven self-light-emitting element whose cathode is held at a cathode potential and whose anode is connected to the source of the second transistor; a third transistor that is turned on/off in response to a driving pulse signal; and a fourth transistor that is turned on/off in response to a control signal.
US08269698B2
An electro-luminescence display device includes an electro-luminescence panel having a plurality of pixels at pixel areas defined by intersections between data lines and gate lines, each of the pixels including: an electro-luminescence cell connected to receive a supply voltage, a driving thin film transistor controlling a current amount flowing through the electro-luminescence cell, and a bias switch connected to a gate terminal of the driving thin film transistor, the bias switch selectively applying an inverse voltage to the driving thin film transistor.
US08269695B2
A self-emission type display device is disclosed. A current comparator circuit (47) in a data line drive circuit having a current compensating function (2) detects only the result of size comparison between the current amount due to the degeneration of a self-emission element and a reference value. The reduction of the current amount below the reference value is stored by being added to the least significant bits of a display data storage circuit (30). In accordance with the display data read from the storage circuit (30), a D/A conversion circuit (41) generates a write signal voltage.
US08269690B1
The present invention may be used to locate and position a cellular telephone antenna. A base may have four side plates attached to a bottom plate and between adjacent edges to form a generally rectangular open top container wherein the container may be sized to support in a free standing manner a pole that may have attached at a top end a cellular telephone antenna when the container may be filled with a concrete material. There may be multiple bolts disposed in the concrete material with a threaded end extending above the upper surface of the concrete material. The pole may have a pole plate attached at a bottom end and a cellular telephone antenna element attached at a top end. The pole plate may have apertures positioned for mating with the bolts for attachment to the base.
US08269689B2
An antenna device includes an insulating substrate, a ground plane, a radiating element, a horizontal polarized portion and a vertical polarized portion. The insulating substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, one end of the first surface defines a first isolating area and a second isolating area, one end of the second surface adjacent to the first and second isolating areas defines an insulating area, a horizontal feed circuit and a vertical feed circuit are disposed at the insulating area. The ground plane includes a first ground plane and a second ground plane. The radiating element is positioned opposite to and spaced from the first ground plane. The horizontal and vertical polarized portions are positioned on the radiating element and corresponding to the first and second isolating areas respectively so as to couple with the horizontal and vertical feed circuits, respectively.
US08269683B2
An embodiment of the present invention is a method, comprising improving the radiated harmonic distortion of a transmitting antenna system by sensing the RF voltage present on a variable reactance network within the antenna system; controlling the bias signal presented to the variable reactance network; and maximizing the RF voltage present on the variable reactance network.
US08269679B2
The present invention relates to a display arrangement comprising display means (304) and receiving and/or transmitting means for radio waves, millimeter waves or microwaves. An electrically conductive structure (6A) is adapted to form said receiving and/or transmitting means. The display means (3O4) comprises an emission layer with a number of light emitting elements or pixel elements (531, . . . , 535). The electrically conductive structure (6A) is provided between said light emitting elements (531, . . . , 535) to form said receiving and/or transmitting means such that they are integrated with the display means (3O4). Light conducting means (731, . . . , 735) are provided to conduct light through the electrically conductive structure (6A) to represent imaging information on top of the display means.
US08269667B2
A system and method for determining the roll rate and roll angle of a spinning platform by using the measured phase and/or amplitude differences between the GPS satellite signals received on two or more antennas. The measured signal differences and the navigation solution from a GPS receiver are processed in a roll filter to obtain the desired information. Data from non-GPS measurement sources is optionally provided to update the navigation solution. Although of wide applicability, the invention is uniquely suited to the measurement of roll rates and roll angles of fast spinning platforms with small baselines in the presence as well as in the absence of jamming, and where the antennas are separated from each other by distances that are a fraction of the GPS signal wavelength.
US08269647B2
A component is deployed into a well on a carrier line that includes an electrical cable. A depth of the component in a well is determined using a time domain reflectometry technique.
US08269644B2
An apparatus for tracking and indicating the status of a lock, comprising: a movement sensing device for sensing movement of a key related to said lock and providing information about said movement; a controller for reception of said information about said movement, processing said information and identifying a key rotation event that is associated with a lock status; and an indication unit being connected to said controller; providing an indication of the lock status according to control signals that are provided by said controller.
US08269643B2
A positioning navigation system using identification tags and a method thereof is provided. The system and method are applied to an area having a plurality of identification tags to position and navigate a mobile apparatus. The system includes a plurality of identification tags and a mobile apparatus. The method includes steps of accessing unique position data stored in at least one identification tag and generating position information of the mobile apparatus according to the unique position data stored in the at least one identification tag and a geographic data of the area. The unique position data of each identification tag corresponds to a coordinate position of the geographic data of each identification tag within the area.
US08269631B2
An anti-theft device monitors objects having a shaft, strap, or similar element. The anti-theft device is comprised of a housing hingably connected to a cover. The housing and cover can move from an open position to a closed position to enclose the shaft or similar element. The housing has a first latch component and contains electronics including an arming switch on its top. When the housing and cover are moved to the closed position, the cover changes the status of the arming switch. The cover has a second latch element which combines with the first latch element on the housing to hold the housing and cover in the closed position. The anti-theft device may be armed or disarmed by a handheld remote. The latching elements may be releasably lockable and may be released by a magnet. The anti-theft device may have passcode protection capabilities.
US08269629B2
Aspects of the present invention describe a method of tracking an item, comprising. The items is associated with a tag and capable of responding to a query from a tag reader and tag combination. The tag reader and tag combination capable of identifying the item associated with the tag using a tag reader. In operation, a tag reader makes a request to at least one tag reader and tag combination for the identity of an item associated with a tag. The tag reader and tag combination identifies the item associated with the tag and provides the identity of the item and tag to the tag reader.
US08269626B2
A photoelectric cell powered based security system relies on a photoelectric cell powered detector to transmit security information to a main control panel. An optional extender relays security information between a local photoelectric cell powered detector and a main control panel in the event that the local photoelectric cell powered detector is unable to directly communicate with the main control panel.
US08269625B2
A signal processing system and associated methods are disclosed for reliably detecting audible alert signals, such as Temporal-3 (or Code-3) and Temporal-4 (or Code-4) alert signals generated by commercially available smoke, fire, and carbon monoxide detectors. The system and methods are capable of detecting audible alert signals of different intensities in the presence of dynamic background environment (e.g., television programming, music, noise, and the like). The system and methods are capable of detecting audible alert signals generated by far away smoke, fire, and carbon monoxide detectors. The signal processing system and methods may, in some embodiments, be incorporated into a bedside or other unit that generates a supplemental alert signal capable of alerting individuals who might not otherwise respond to the alarm condition, such as individuals who are asleep, children, hearing impaired, or intoxicated.
US08269622B2
A system for providing network infrastructure for energy management and control is disclosed. A controller integrates powerline and wireless networking technologies in order to provide an integrated network. A gateway sends and receives command and control data across the integrated network. Client devices may connect to the integrated network and perform a variety of functions. An appliance module may send and receive data across the integrated network in relation to a particular appliance. A panel meter may send and receive data across the integrated network in relation to data measured at a distribution panel. A serial bridge may connect various devices to the integrated network. Computing devices may remotely or locally connect to the integrated network and send and receive data.
US08269610B2
A method for sensing pressure in a pressurized article utilizing an electronic tag includes: calculating the impedance of a tag antenna, the tag antenna being flexible and at least partially composed of a flexible conductive pressure sensitive material including rubber; measuring changes in antenna impedance resulting from changes in pressure exerted on the tag antenna; calculating changes in tag transmission signal strength resulting from changes in antenna impedance; at least partially embedding the electronic tag within a wall portion of the article, the wall portion at least partially defining an article cavity and exerting a compressive force on the tag antenna of a magnitude determined by the magnitude of air pressure within the cavity; measuring the tag transmission signal strength with the tag antenna subjected to pressure from the article wall portion; determining the magnitude of air pressure within the cavity required to effect a compressive force on the tag antenna by the article wall sufficient to result in the measured tag transmission signal strength.
US08269604B2
Disclosed methods, systems, and apparatuses remotely monitor a plurality of field assets. Device discovery is conducted to find a communication path through a master controller to an operations center. A plurality of states are monitored for individual field assets of the plurality of field assets. In response to trigger events, monitored states are selectively included in data sets that may be parsed, compressed, encrypted, and forwarded through a mesh network to an operations center.
US08269602B2
A security system to identify a true door forced open alarm is provided. The security system includes an electronic entry means configured to allow access through a door. The security system also includes a request to exit device configured to indicate a request to exit the door. The security system also includes a logic unit configured to control access through the door and determine whether an open state of the door is allowed.
US08269600B2
A method and apparatus that controls access to a secured area using an automated gate controlled secured environment is disclosed. The method may include receiving an indication that an individual attempting to pass through a clearance area has not been authorized to pass through the clearance area, automatically moving one or more gates to create a channel for the non-authorized individual to be directed to a manual screening area, determining if the non-authorized individual has passed one or more sensor; wherein if the non-authorized individual has been determined to have passed the one or more sensor, then moving a gate located behind the non-authorized individual to enable other authorized individuals to pass through the clearance area while maintaining the channel created to the manual screening area, and preventing the non-authorized individual from gaining access to the automated gate controlled secured environment once the non-authorized individual reaches the manual screening area.
US08269599B2
A system and/or method to control access to secured compartments in a facility. Computers positioned throughout the facility are interfaced to respective locking mechanisms to operate the locking mechanism in response to access codes, which may be transmitted over the network. Additional steps may involve programming an authorization computer for providing access codes in whole or part for use with the computers. One or more access points may be functionally coupled to a computer system and/or to the locking mechanism and accessible to users for entry of requests for access to the secured compartment.
US08269597B2
Fuse state indicators include temperature responsive elements adapted to visually display a number of different fuse states. The displays may include distinct colors and markings that are made visible or concealed from view based on temperature ranges that the fuse is exposed to in use. Various temperature sensitive elements and various markings are disclosed to convey at least three distinct fuse states to interested persons at the location of the fuse.
US08269594B2
An insulated transformer, which can suppress aging deterioration and can reduce the influence of noise caused by external magnetic flux, while improving reliability and environmental resistance, and can send and receive signals while electrically insulating a low-voltage side and a high-voltage side. A secondary coil is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a primary coil is formed on one face of a glass substrate. The primary coil fixes the glass substrate formed on one face onto the semiconductor substrate through the other face of the glass substrate by an adhesive layer.
