US08370961B1
An atomic force microscope (AFM) apparatus for determining a topography of a sample surface is disclosed. The AFM apparatus comprises: a controller having a controller frequency response and being configured to provide a controller output signal. The controller comprises an integrator that provides an integrator output signal, and a filter block. The AFM apparatus also comprises a physical system having a physical system response and being configured to receive the controller output signal and to provide a probe height in response to the controller output signal. The physical system comprises an actuator configured to maintain a deflection of a probe tip relative to the sample surface. The deflection being is indicated by a deflection signal, and the filter block of the controller provides an inverse of the physical system response, such that the probe height is substantially equal to the integrator output signal.
US08370958B2
The invention relates to a decoding method for a probabilistic anti-collusion code aiming to identify at least one sequence of the code present in a multimedia content having served in the creation of an illegal copy of the multimedia content, this method comprising a step of selection of the collusion strategy used to constitute the illegal copy from among a set of collusion strategy models. In addition, the invention relates to a method for filtering sequences of a probabilistic anti-collusion code for the decoding of this code aiming to identify at least one sequence of the code present in a multimedia content having served in the creation of an illegal copy of the multimedia content comprising a step of selection of a sub-group of the smallest possible sequences of code containing at least one sequence present in a multimedia content having served in the creation of the illegal copy by comparing for each sequence of the code and for a selected given symbol index, the symbol of the sequence of the code with the symbol of the sequence contained in the illegal copy.
US08370952B1
Method and apparatus for automatically distributing, as needed, a user's digital-works and usage-rights to one or more user-devices. A definition of the usage-rights for a digital-work may be stored at one or more locations on a network. A version of said digital-work suitable for a user-device may be provided by one or more locations on said network. When a user who is authorized to utilize said digital-work is active at a user-device, a version of said digital-work and authorization to utilize is automatically transferred when needed to a user-device. The digital-work and authorization may be automatically transferred as needed to any user-device where an authorized user is active. The usage-rights may only be valid for one or more specific users. The usage authorization at each user-device may be less than defined in the full usage-rights maintained on the network. Authorization to utilize said digital-work at a user-device may be extended from time to time by exchanging user-device status across the network. Digital-works are automatically provided as needed to any user-device that an authorized user is using.
US08370950B2
Embodiments are directed to securing mixed-mode applications in a semi-trusted environment. In an embodiment, a computer system securely loads native data files associated with a mixed-mode application. The secure loading ensures that the native components upon which the managed component depends are authentic. The computer system implements a securely stored handle associated with the loaded native data files to provide secure communications between the managed component and the loaded native data files. The handle provides a trusted function pointer to an associated mixed-mode application function. The computer system also initiates a security permission request for each resource that is passed to the native components during execution of the mixed-mode application, so that each resource is verified before execution.
US08370939B2
A method and system for identification of malware threats on web resources. The system employs a scheduled antivirus (AV) scanning of web resources. The scheduled scanning of web resources allows to create malware check lists and to configure access to web resources. Frequency and depth of inspection (i.e., scan) are determined for each web resource. The user identifiers are used for scheduled AV scanning of web resources. The system allows for scanning a web resource based on selected configurations without using additional client applications.
US08370936B2
Systems and methods for detecting and preventing network security breaches are described. The systems and methods present a gateway-based packet-forwarding network security solution to not only detect security breaches but also prevent them by directly dropping suspicious packets and connections. The systems and methods employ multiple techniques to detect and prevent network security breaches, including stateful signature detection, traffic signature detection, and protocol anomaly detection.
US08370934B2
Three heuristic layers are used to determine whether suspicious code received at a port of a data processing device is malware. First, static analysis is applied to the suspicious code. If the suspicious code passes the static analysis, dissembling analysis is applied to the suspicious code. Preferably, if the suspicious code passes the dissembling analysis, dynamic analysis is applied to the suspicious code.
US08370911B1
In a location where a number of entities share a common area and where those entities wish to exclude unauthorized individuals yet desire access for a set of individuals from each entity, a system, using networking techniques, integrates a plurality of independent entity access control systems in which each system authorizes credentials from one of the plurality of entities to control access to each individual entity area.
US08370908B2
Systems, methods, and computer-storage media for decreasing web service login latency are provided. Upon a user's initial login to the web service from a web browser, the location of user information is identified. A cookie containing information identifying the location of the user information is generated and stored in association with the web browser. Upon a subsequent login to the web service by the same user, the location information included in the cookie is utilized to direct the user request directly to the correct location, without having to repeat the act of identifying the location, thus providing the user with the desired information more quickly.
US08370906B2
A plug-in privilege control includes authorizing a plug-in, including assigning a plug-in identification number (PIN) to the plug-in wherein the PIN is used to identify an identification (ID) of the corresponding plug-in; notifying the plug-in about the PIN; storing information about the plug-in and a plug-in accessible service to a mapping of services; receiving a request for a service from the plug-in, wherein the request includes the PIN; retrieving the ID of the plug-in according to the PIN; and determining whether to allow the plug-in to access the service that it requested.
US08370897B1
Techniques are described for managing failover in redundant network devices. In particular, each device in a set of redundant network devices includes redundant processing modules. Each module provides a separate operating environment for a set of network services. Each network device includes a control unit that receives configuration information that specifies individual weight values for each of the modules and a threshold value for the network device. The control unit detects failures of the modules and transfers primary responsibility for performing the network service to a second network device when the threshold value is exceeded by a weighted sum of the weight values for the failed modules.
US08370891B2
A communication apparatus includes a display unit, a communication unit, and a control unit. The display unit displays video data. The communication unit communicates with an external apparatus. The control unit controls the communication apparatus in accordance with a command received by the communication unit. If the display unit is in a mute state and the communication unit is sending the external apparatus the data for placing the external apparatus in a mute state, the control unit determines not to control the communication apparatus in accordance with the command.
US08370877B2
A content downloading method and apparatus of a mobile device employing an Internet protocol television (IPTV) are provided. The content downloading method and apparatus allow an IPTV to provide a mobile device with content information received from a service provider, allow a user to input content desired to be downloaded to the mobile device, and allow a user to download the content to the mobile device from the service provider via the IPTV, thereby quickly and easily downloading desired content to the mobile device without a complicated process of browsing and copying the content.
US08370873B2
A method of operation of three dimensional (3D) stereoscopic television consistent with certain implementations involves turning on or installing a set of 3D glasses on a viewer to cause the set of 3D glasses to enter an active operational mode; and at the 3D glasses, emitting a signal to the television that causes the television to switch from a 2D display mode to a 3D display mode. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08370867B1
An optical disk drive including a housing, a top cover, a spindle motor and a supporting element is provided. The housing has an accommodating space. The top cover covers the accommodating space. The spindle motor is disposed within the accommodating space and has a shaft. The supporting element is disposed between an end of the shaft and the top cover. When the top cover is deformed, the shaft props up the top cover through the supporting element.
US08370864B2
An optical disc player includes a main body, a lid, a rotator, and a protective structure. The lid is pivotably connected to the main body. The rotator is disposed in the main body for rotating discs and can be covered by the lid. The protective structure is disposed between the rotator and the lid. The protective structure is capable of suppressing noise and/or damage caused by contact between the rotator and the lid when the rotator operates.
US08370861B2
A method, computer program and system, which, given a set of Boolean state variables, a set of state transitions described as truth tables for the state variables, a set of initial states (that is states that objects happen to be in when they are brand new or when they are introduced into the system), all established by a natural modeling of the application domain, can derive an encoding that is provably isomorphic to the initial one but smaller, and transitions that match exactly the initial transitions but operating upon the new encoding, without incurring a significant time penalty. This effect is obtained by generating the extensive set of significant states, renumbering those states, then modifying the transitions implementation so as to use the renumbered states in place of the original ones.
US08370859B2
Web services are generated from an existing web site having web page based business processes or transactions. A script is generated representative of a user navigation sequence involved to perform the transaction. The script elements include the web application calls, input/output parameters, and/or the interrelation between the elements of the transaction. A WSDL file, web service interface code, and web service implementation code are generated from the navigation script, and may be published locally to the web site or on a remote site.
US08370847B2
Provided are method, apparatus and computer program product for managing persistence within a messaging system. The method includes evaluating the messaging system's exposure to risk of losing messages. Data relating to nominally-persistent messages held in the system is saved to persistent storage if an evaluating step determines that the exposure exceeds at least one risk threshold. This approach enables a reduction in the number of writes to persistent storage compared with conventional systems in which any message that is labeled persistent will be written to disk, since disk writes can be avoided whenever an evaluation determines that the messaging system's exposure to the risk of losing messages is low.
US08370846B2
A task execution method for executing a plurality of tasks while switching the tasks from one to another by time-sharing, wherein an allocated time is allocated for each of the plurality of tasks, and the plurality of tasks includes a plurality of first-type tasks and a single second-type task, and the task execution method includes a task selection step which selects a task from among the plurality of tasks according to a predetermined sequence, a correction step which corrects an allocated time for the second-type task so that execution of the plurality of tasks completes within the cycle time, when the task selected is a second-type task, which is the total allocated time for the plurality of tasks, and a task execution control step which causes the selected task to be executed so that the execution of the selected task completes within the allocated time or the corrected allocated time.
US08370845B1
Method for synchronizing independent cooperative thread arrays running on a graphics processing unit
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for synchronizing the execution of multiple cooperative thread arrays (CTAs) implementing a parallel algorithm that is mapped onto a graphics processing unit. An array of semaphores provides synchronization status to each CTA, while one designated thread within each CTA provides updated status for the CTA. The designated thread within each participating CTA reports completion of a given computational phase by updating a current semaphore within the array of semaphores. The designated thread then polls the status of the current semaphore until all participating CTAs have reported completion of the current computational phase. After each CTA has completed the current computational phase, all participating CTAs may proceed to the next computational phase.
US08370839B2
A method, system, and computer program product for initiating batch jobs in a message queuing information system are provided. The method, system, and computer program product provide for monitoring a message queue in the message queuing information system, detecting a predetermined condition in the message queue, determining whether a member name is associated with the predetermined condition, determining whether a server is available responsive to a member name being associated with the predetermined condition, and sending the member name to the server for the server to attach a batch job to load or unload one or more messages in the message queue based on information included in the member name responsive to a server being available.
US08370834B2
A data center can share processing resources using virtual networks. A virtual machine manager (10) hosts one or more virtual machines (11, 411), the virtual machines forming part of a segmented virtual network (34). Outgoing messages from the virtual machines have an intermediate destination address of an intermediate node in a local segment of the segmented virtual network, and the virtual machine manager has a router (18) for determining a new intermediate destination address outside the local segment, for routing the given outgoing message. By having the router as part of the virtual machine manager rather than having only a switch in the virtual machine manager, the need for virtual machines for implementing gateways is avoided. This can reduce the number of “hops” for the message between virtual entities hosted, and thus improve performance. This can help a service provider to share physical processing resources of a data center between different clients having their own virtual networks.
US08370833B2
A system and method for implementing distributed data storage. In particular, the system includes a plurality of virtualization servers, each of which is associated with available data resources. Each virtualization server supports one or more application virtual machines through a virtualization layer. In addition, a plurality of storage virtual machines is included in the system. Each storage virtual machine is associated with a corresponding and participating virtualization server. A virtual storage pool is included in the system, wherein each storage virtual machine allows the export and aggregation of available data resources within a corresponding virtualization server into the virtual storage pool.
US08370832B2
Virtual machine (VM) technology allows multiple operating systems each deploying multiple applications to run on a single host. This invention presents an effective method and system for virtual machine migration from a source host to a target host. The method and system concern the migration of both the service VM and the element managing it. State of the migrating VM is preserved so that it can resume its execution on the target host.
US08370830B2
Technologies are described herein for deploying a data only solution package separate from custom code. In this way, lifecycles of the data only solution package and the custom code can be separately controlled. In an illustrative implementation, the data only solution package is received at a computer. A data specification is installed at the computer through the data only solution package. The data specification may specify a location of an external system storing external data. A data subscription may also be installed at the computer through the data only solution package. The data subscription may include queries for retrieving the external data from the external system and frequency information specifying a frequency at which to retrieve the external data. The external data is retrieved from the external system utilizing the location information, the queries, and the frequency information. A data cache at the computer is populated with the external data.
US08370825B2
An update website prioritizes updates available for an application (e.g., a word-processing program or a fault-tolerance program) running on a user computer system. Prioritization is in part a function of usage data gathered on the user computer system by a usage-tracking module of the application. The usage data is transferred to the update site and parameters relevant to prioritization are evaluated. The parameter values are then used for prioritization. The usage data can also be compiled with data from other users to guide further development of the application.
US08370813B2
A unified program analysis framework that facilitates the analysis of complex multi-language software systems, analysis reuse, and analysis comparison, by employing techniques such as program translation and automatic results mapping, is presented. The feasibility and effectiveness of such a framework are demonstrated using a sample application of the framework. The comparison yields new insights into the effectiveness of the techniques employed in both analysis tools. These encouraging results yield the observation that such a unified program analysis framework will prove to be valuable both as a testbed for examining different language analysis techniques, and as a unified toolset for broad program analysis.
US08370810B2
A debugging device configured to debug a program includes an analysis section configured to analyze information of a code that does not need to be debugged in which a predetermined processing instruction is described, the code being generated by optimization of a compiler for a source code of the program, and an output section configured to output processing content information, a start address, and an end address of the code that does not need to be debugged which are obtained by the analysis.
US08370800B2
A method of distributing applications between a plurality of machines forming a client system. The method includes determining that applications should be distributed to maximize hardware utilization of each or the plurality of machines; determining a plurality of possible configurations of applications among the plurality of machines; creating a list of all possible configurations; comparing the list of all possible configurations to a database of state information; removing configurations from the list if the configuration is the same as a state previously determined to be non-functional to create a pruned list; generating a score for each configuration on the pruned list by comparing each configuration with states information in the database; selecting the configurations with the highest score, the number of configurations equaling the number of machines; and deploying the selected configurations on the plurality of machines.
US08370795B1
A method for explaining a value of a selected field includes obtaining a calculation tree for the selected field, where the calculation tree represents dependencies between the selected field and precedent data elements. The method further includes obtaining a first equation associated with the selected field from the calculation tree, and displaying a first value associated with the selected field and the first equation in symbolic form. The first equation includes a first precedent data element. The selected field is dependent on the first precedent data element. The method further includes receiving an expansion request for the first equation, obtaining a second equation associated with the first precedent data element, and displaying a second value associated with the first precedent data element and the second equation with the first value and the first equation in a dependency hierarchy.
US08370792B2
Techniques for project management instantiation and configuration are provided. A master project includes policy directives that drive the dynamic instantiation and configuration of resources for a project. The resources are instantiated and configured on demand and when resources are actually requested, in response to the policy directives.
US08370789B2
The terminals that oppose each other when substrates are bonded are designed to be reliably joined. Comprised in a semiconductor device design system are a numerical value acquiring part, which acquires the respective numerical values of a plurality of calculation parameters, a junction estimating part, which, in the case in which a plurality of substrates has been pressed at a prescribed pressure so that the bump front end faces come into contact, estimates whether or not the respective mutually opposing bumps will be joined based on the respective numerical values of the calculation parameters acquired by the numerical value acquiring part, and a change processing part, which, in the case in which it has been estimated by the junction estimating part that any of the bumps will not be joined, gives a warning or performs processing so as to change the numerical value of at least one calculation parameter among the plurality of calculation parameters.
US08370785B2
Software controlled transistor body bias. A target frequency is accessed. Using software, transistor body-biasing values are determined for the target frequency in order to enhance a characteristic of a circuit. The bodies of the transistors are biased based on the body-biasing values, wherein the characteristic is enhanced.
US08370780B2
A design structure is embodied in a machine readable medium for designing, manufacturing, or testing integrated circuitry. The design structure includes first hardware for executing first software in response to macros that describe the integrated circuitry, and for generating a set of constants in response to the execution of the first software. Second hardware is for receiving the set of constants from the first hardware, and for executing second software in response to the macros and the set of constants, and for estimating a power consumption of the integrated circuitry in response to the execution of the second software.
US08370775B2
A method for determining a predicted soft error rate (SER) for an integrated circuit device design includes calculating the SER based on a predicted amount of charge imparted by a one or more particles to the integrated circuit device based on the design. The SER is further based on a predicted sensitivity level of a region of the integrated circuit device to the charge imparted by the one or more particles, and can also be based on the energy spectrum of the particles.
US08370769B2
Systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums for managing at least one subset of user contacts on a telecommunications device are provided. In one embodiment, a software application executed by a processor of a telecommunications device identifies a first subset of contacts selected at least in part by a user of the telecommunications device and a second subset of contacts. Each of the first and second subsets of contacts includes a portion of the user's contacts accessible by the telecommunications device. The software application executed by the processor of the telecommunications device then causes display of a graphical identifier associated with each contact of the first subset of contacts in a first arrangement on a display of the telecommunications device about a first axis positioned external to the display of the telecommunications device. The software application further causes display of a graphical identifier associated with each contact of the second subset of contacts in a second arrangement on a display of the telecommunications device about a second axis positioned external to the display of the telecommunications device. Aspects of systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums for further arranging the graphical identifiers are also provided. Even further, aspects of systems, methods, and computer-readable mediums for providing functionality associated with the graphical identifiers are provided.
US08370767B2
A list authoring surface (LAS) is provided that includes a lightweight user interface component for entering, displaying, manipulating, and providing reminders for one or more tasks that takes the place of hand-written notes, scraps of paper, or “sticky” notes. The list authoring surface may be deployed across a multitude of software applications and may be readily accessed anywhere on a stationary or mobile desktop or display screen. Information may be manually or automatically entered into the list authoring surface user interface. An event timeline that uses a “fuzzy” reminder method allows for reminders to be associated with tasks where some tasks must be accomplished or must occur at hard dates/times, but where other tasks may be accomplished or may occur during soft or “fuzzy” date/time ranges.
US08370766B2
Methods and other embodiments associated with a browser extension that provides menu manipulation functionality are described. One example browser extension includes a drag logic to identity an item in a first frame, where the item is to be added to a menu in a second frame. The browser extension may also include a deposition logic to identify a location in the menu where the item is to be added. The browser extension may also include a menu logic to add a representation of the item to the menu in the second frame, to update a data structure with information concerning the updated menu, and to store information associated with the data structure in a fixed medium.
US08370761B2
Methods and systems provide a computational assistance for interactive classification that compensates for the small size of computer screens and accelerates classification tasks. Similarity indicators reduce manual search by enabling information objects to “call out” automatically to encourage a sensemaker to place related items nearby. Similarity terms signal which groups or objects match and why they match. Using these techniques, an interactive classification tool can focus a sensemaker's attention, move things into view automatically, and provide shortcuts for automatic classification. These techniques speed up classification for rule-based classification, example-based classification, and mixed strategies and have the potential for application in a wide variety of sensemaking tools.
US08370760B2
Necessary display count information about a count that predetermined content data should be displayed in a predetermined display device in a displayable period is acquired, display result count information about the display result count that the predetermined content data is displayed between a start of the displayable period and a present time is acquired, the display estimated count that the predetermined content data should be displayed in any period of the displayable period from the present time is decided based on the displayable period, the necessary display count information, and the display result count information, display time zone information about time zones in which the predetermined content data can be displayed in the predetermined display device is acquired, and a display start time at which the content data is displayed in the predetermined display device is decided based on the display estimated count and the display time zone information.
US08370752B2
Automatically generating visualization artifacts corresponding to related service operation interfaces is provided. A user level visualization finite state machine instance is created for a specific service instance based on user activation and deactivation of service operations in the specific service instance and user selection of a start visualization state. The service operations are included in a service level visualization finite state machine instance for the specific service instance. Visualization artifacts are automatically generated based on the user level visualization finite state machine instance and parameterized entities bound to a concrete visualization component. The visualization artifacts are outputted in a service operation interface of the specific service instance for a user to visualize and interact with, resulting in the elimination of individual user unwanted server side function in the units of service operations without server side processing.
US08370750B2
A history acquisition unit acquires a history of operations with a web browser by a user and stores the history in a storage device. A search unit accesses the storage device to search a history of a first operation for inputting a parameter and a history of a second operation performed after the first operation. A generation unit generates a service program that provides services that the user has received through the operations with the web browser, and stores it in the storage device. The service program makes a computer function as: an input acceptance unit that accepts input of a new parameter instead of the parameter input through the first operation; and a processing unit that performs, in response to the new parameter, inputting the new parameter in the web page and processing associated with the second operation beforehand in this stated order with respect to the web browser.
US08370748B1
Technologies are provided herein for executing SMASH CLP commands through a Web-based GUI. A baseboard management controller (“BMC”) includes a Web server program and a SMASH CLP engine. The SMASH CLP engine is configured to execute SMASH CLP commands with respect to managed entities or targets within a host computer system. A software interface is also provided between the Web server program and the SMASH CLP engine. Through the interface, the Web server can transmit SMASH CLP commands to the SMASH CLP engine for execution and receive the results of the execution of the SMASH CLP commands. The BMC stores a Web page which, when rendered by a Web browser, provides a GUI for the creation and execution of SMASH CLP commands by the SMASH CLP engine.
US08370737B2
Disclosed is a system and method that adds additional data (a banner, footer or a header, for example) to a web page while the data is transferred toward a mobile device. An exemplary system can comprise an intermediate node between a surfer and the Internet. Such an intermediate node element can reside at a service provider premises (SPP), for example. The service provider can be a telecom operator, such as but not limited to, a cellular service provider, a satellite communication service provider, a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) operator, an access network service provider, etc. Alternatively, other exemplary embodiments can comprise elements which reside at an Internet Service Provider (ISP) premises.
US08370734B2
A system and method may be disclosed for facilitating the creation or modification of a document by providing a mechanism for locating relevant data from external sources and organizing and incorporating some or all of said data into the document. In the method for reusing data, there may be a set of documents that may be queried, where each document may be divided into a plurality of sections. A plurality of section text groups may be formed based on the set of documents, where each section text group may be associated with a respective section from the plurality of sections and each section group includes a plurality of items. Each item may be associated with a respective section from each document of the set of documents. A selected item within a selected section text group may be focused. The selected item may be extracted to a current document. The current document may be exported to a host application.
US08370704B2
Techniques are described that can extend the transmission rate over cable. Multiple cables can be used to increase the transmission rate. The transmission standard applied for each cable can be an Ethernet backplane standard such as IEEE 802.3ap (2007). Data can be assigned to virtual lanes prior to transmission over a cable. Forward error correction may be applied to each virtual lane prior to transmission over cable. Forward error correction may be negotiated over a single virtual lane and then applied to all virtual lanes.
US08370695B2
A method of improving uplink transmission of TTI bundling for a MAC layer of a user equipment in a wireless communication system includes receiving a first signaling and a second signaling, and when a transmission collision happens between a first transmission corresponding to the first signaling and a second transmission corresponding to the second signaling, handling the transmission collision according to a type of the first signaling and a type of the second signaling.
US08370694B2
A method and device for transmitting data packets from a server to at least one client concerns i) estimating a time lapse between the transmission of a successive first and second packet, on the basis of information relating to the first packet, the information being representative of whether or not the first and second packets transport image data from the same image, and ii) triggering and defining retransmission of the second packet, on the basis of said time lapse. In one embodiment, the client estimates the time lapse on the basis of the type of the second packet and on the basis of statistical results concerning the type of the second packet and requests the retransmission of a packet awaited for a longer time than that time lapse. In another embodiment, the server estimates the time lapse on the basis of the type of payload of a first packet to retransmit and of at least one second packet following the first packet to retransmit and spontaneously retransmits the second packet with the first packet on the basis of that time lapse.
US08370688B2
Storage volumes are provided across a plurality of storage devices, where the storage volumes include at least a first storage volume and a second storage volume. A storage controller detects fault in a portion of a particular one of the plurality of storage devices, where the portion corresponds to the first storage volume. The storage controller identifies the particular storage device as faulty for the first storage volume without identifying the particular storage device as faulty for the second storage volume.
US08370680B2
A solid state storage system includes a flash memory region comprising a plurality of memory blocks and a plurality of replacement blocks corresponding to error-occurred blocks when errors occur in the memory blocks; and a memory controller configured to perform a control operation to replace the error-occurred blocks with the replacement blocks, wherein the error-occurred blocks comprise correctable blocks and uncorrectable blocks, and wherein the memory controller determines whether the error-occurred blocks are the correctable blocks or the uncorrectable blocks and controls zones of the replacement blocks, replaced in correspondence to the correctable blocks, to be allocated a plurality of times.
US08370674B2
Computing and server power supplies are typically sized larger to deliver the maximum power the system may need. However since systems are not often used to capacity a smaller power supply may be used in conjunction with a thermal sensor to monitor a critical component of the power supply defined as the particular component within the power supply whose temperature reaches its maximum allowed limit sooner than any other power supply component when the average (continuous) power may exceed the power supply's max rating. When a critical temperature has been reached, an interrupt signal is generated by the power supply to signal the host to throttle back until the temperature comes back into an acceptable range.
US08370667B2
A method and apparatus for improving the resume time of a platform. In one embodiment of the invention, the context of the platform is saved prior to entering an inactive state of the platform. When the platform is switched back to an active state, it reads the saved context and restores the platform to its original state prior to entering the inactive state. In one embodiment of the invention, the platform determines whether it should compress the saved context before storing it in a non-volatile memory based on the operating condition of the platform. This allows the platform to select the optimum method to allow faster resume time of the platform.
US08370666B2
A protection circuit suitable for electrical instruments includes a software detecting circuit, a logic AND circuit, a driver and control circuit for engine operating power components, and a hardware detecting circuit connected with the logic AND circuit. Both the software detecting circuit and the hardware detecting circuit monitor the state of an operating switch and provide signals to the logic AND circuit. Only when the state of the switch changes from opened to closed and both detecting circuits determine that this state is correct will the driver and control circuit signal the engine to operate. Furthermore, by connecting two or more power components in serial at the same time, the engine will not work by accident and the machine will not be out of control when any one of the power components is damaged. A circuit using capacitors of suitable specification can also be provided to isolate the controlling pin of a power component in the form of an SCR to thereby avoid failure and damage of the entire system.
US08370661B2
Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for budget-based power consumption for application execution on a plurality of compute nodes that include: assigning an execution priority to each of one or more applications; executing, on the plurality of compute nodes, the applications according to the execution priorities assigned to the applications at an initial power level provided to the compute nodes until a predetermined power consumption threshold is reached; and applying, upon reaching the predetermined power consumption threshold, one or more power conservation actions to reduce power consumption of the plurality of compute nodes during execution of the applications.
US08370660B2
A method and system for reducing power consumption of active web page content includes synchronizing the wakeup periods of threads associated with active advertisement components of a web page.
US08370657B2
An information processing apparatus includes a receiving unit that receives, from an external device via a communication line, a signal requesting provision of various types of services; a processing unit that when the receiving unit receives the signal in a setting period of a power saving state where power consumption is lower than in a running state, returns to the running state to process the signal and provide a service corresponding to the signal; and a memory that stores a content of the service provided by the processing unit and a content of a request requested by the signal, the content of the service and the content of the request being correlated respectively, wherein when the request received by the receiving unit in the setting period of the power saving state matches the content of the request stored in the memory, the processing unit reads the content of the service correlated with the content of the request from the memory and provides the service corresponding to the content of the service to the external device.
US08370650B2
A power supply capable of receiving digital communications from an electrical device is described. The power supply includes a microprocessor and instructions, configured for execution by the microprocessor, to receive a digital communication from a device to be powered by the power supply. A method of supplying power is also described. The method includes receiving a digital communication from a device and supplying power to the device based on the digital communication.
US08370647B2
An information processing apparatus includes: a memory in which an apparatus-unique key is stored, the apparatus-unique key being a key that is unique to the information processing apparatus; an input section that inputs user operation information; a communication section that performs data reception processing; a data processor that executes validity determination processing for the apparatus-unique key; and an output section that outputs a result of the validity determination processing executed by the data processor. The data processor receives, via the communication section, key-validity determination data for determining whether the apparatus-unique key is valid or invalid. The data processor also executes the apparatus-unique-key validity determination processing by using the key-validity determination data in response to a user instruction input via the input section, and outputs a result of the validity determination processing to the output section.
US08370645B2
Security parameters used to encrypt data stored on a storage device may be protected using embodiments of systems and methods described herein. During a resize operation, data stored on a memory unit in the storage device may be altered prior to communicating an updated partition size to a host computer. In some examples, data is altered prior to storing the updated partition sizes in the storage device. In this manner, a host system may not receive the updated partition sizes until after the data is altered. Altering data may avoid exposure encrypted data, information about one or more security parameters used to encrypt data on the memory unit or decrypt data retrieved from the memory unit, or combinations thereof.
US08370638B2
A method of generating authentication seeds for a plurality of users, the method involving: based on a single master seed, generating a plurality of derivative seeds, each one for a corresponding different one of a plurality of users; and distributing the plurality of derivative seeds to a verifier for use in individually authenticating each of the plurality of users to that verifier, wherein generating each one of the plurality of derivative seeds involves mathematically combining the master seed and a unique identifier identifying the corresponding user.
US08370635B2
A method for synchronization of a digital watermark generates a digital watermark based on feature extraction and a key generator. The synchronization method is adapted for both temporal and spatial synchronization. Statistical features of the watermarked signal along with key generators are used to compute keys used to detect embedded digital watermarks that vary over time or space. For spatial synchronization, spatial redundancy is used to detect geometric distortion of a signal in which the watermark is embedded using an autocorrelation method to detect peaks caused by the redundancy of the watermark structure. These peaks are then analyzed with a histogram method to detect rotation and scaling of the host media signal. The spatial synchronization process is applied to watermarks for both intra-coded frames of video (I-frames) as well as still images.
US08370630B2
A mail system having high security is realized by mounting TCP2 for mail communication between client apparatuses. The present invention relates to a mail communication system which is connected to a network and exchanges mails between client apparatuses provided with the existing mailers, and each client apparatus is mounted with a TCP2 driver. A TCP2 driver 34 includes a TCP2 core 36 and a mail system core 37 and an e-mail received via the network is processed in this TCP2 driver 34 and thereafter, is supplied to an existing mailer 31 of the client apparatus. In the mail system core 37 of the TCP2 driver 34, control of mail encryption and decryption, deletion of an unnecessary mail and the like is carried out.
US08370626B2
A method and apparatus are provided for generating identity data to be provisioned in product devices that are a part of a project. The method includes establishing a template associated with each CA in a hierarchical chain of CAs having a root CA at a highest level in the chain and a signing CA at a lowest level in the chain. The template associated with the signing CA inherits mandatory attribute fields specified in the root CA and any intermediate CA in the hierarchical chain. The mandatory attribute fields are user-specifiable fields to be populated with PKI data. A configuration file is generated upon receipt of an order for digital certificates using PKI data provided by a user to populate the mandatory attribute fields of the template associated with the signing CA. The digital certificates requested in the order are generated using the PKI data in the configuration file.
US08370624B2
A key generation method for self-configuration is provided which includes selecting existing nodes as many as a predefined reference number t from nodes which configure a network; transmitting a partial key request message to the selected existing nodes; and generating a node key based on randomized partial keys received in response to the partial key request. Accordingly, when a new node intends to join the network, the existing nodes forming the network can allocate a node key to the new node by themselves. Also, whether the node key of the new node is compromised or not can be verified using the error-checking witness.
US08370613B1
A method and apparatus for optimizing a startup sequence to improve system boot time is described. In one embodiment, a method for configuring a startup sequence stored in memory, using one or more processors, to improve system boot time including accessing necessity indicia associated with a plurality of startup programs, wherein the necessity indicia comprising at least one of global reputation data or local interaction information, identifying at least one startup program to disable or postpone based on the necessity indicia and modifying at least one startup sequence to disable or delay execution of the at least one identified startup program.
US08370597B1
Technologies are described for implementing a migration mechanism in a storage system containing multiple tiers of storage with each tier having different cost and performance parameters. Access statistics can be collected for each territory, or storage entity, within the storage system. Data that is accessed more frequently can be migrated toward higher performance storage tiers while data that is accessed less frequently can be migrated towards lower performance storage tiers. The placement of data may be governed first by the promotion of territories with higher access frequency to higher tiers. Secondly, data migration may be governed by demoting territories to lower tiers to create room for the promotion of more eligible territories from the next lower tier. In instances where space is not available on the next lower tier, further demotion may take place to an even lower tier in order to make space for the first demotion.
US08370592B1
A technique migrates data from source arrays to target arrays. The array devices operate in either active mode, passive mode, or stalled-active mode. The technique involves providing active-to-passive instructions to transition the source devices from active to passive while a host initially accesses host data from the source arrays using MPIO software (the target devices being in stalled-active mode), and monitoring whether the source devices successfully transition to passive during a predefined time period. If so, the technique involves operating the target devices in active mode and transferring data from the source devices to the target devices to enable the host to access the host data from the target arrays using the MPIO software. However, if a source device remains passive, the technique involves providing passive-to-active instructions to transition the source devices back to active to enable the host to access the host data from the source arrays.
US08370583B2
A network memory system comprises a first appliance and a second appliance. The first appliance receives data and determines whether a portion of the data is locally accessible to the second appliance. The first appliance generates an instruction based on the determination and transfers the instruction to the second appliance over a communication network. The second appliance receives the instruction from the first appliance over the communication network and processes the instruction to obtain the data. The second appliance then transfers the data to a computer.
US08370581B2
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method comprises measuring memory access latency for a prefetch cycle associated with a transmission of data from a memory device to a destination device such as a storage device. Hereafter, the prefetch rate is dynamically adjusted based on the measured memory access latency.
US08370580B2
Techniques for directory server integration are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for directory server integration comprising setting one or more parameters determining a range of permissible expiration times for a plurality of cached directory entries, creating, in electronic storage, a cached directory entry from a directory server, assigning a creation time to the cached directory entry, and assigning at least one random value to the cached directory entry, the random value determining an expiration time for the cached directory entry within the range of permissible expiration times, wherein randomizing the expiration time for the cached directory entry among the range of permissible expiration times for a plurality of cached directory entries reduces an amount of synchronization required between cache memory and the directory server at a point in time.
US08370575B2
Process, cache memory, computer product and system for loading data associated with a requested address in a software cache. The process includes loading address tags associated with a set in a cache directory using a Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) operation, determining a position of the requested address in the set using a SIMD comparison, and determining an actual data value associated with the position of the requested address in the set.
US08370568B2
A data access method for an application circuit to access a memory. The method includes steps of: receiving a first data from the application circuit; duplicating the first data to obtain a duplicated first data; and writing the first data and the duplicated first data into the memory at continuously accessible addresses. For accessing to the first data, the first data and the duplicated first data are read from the memory in response to a rising edge and a falling edge of a data-triggering signal; and one of the first data and the duplicated first data is outputted while the other of the first data and the duplicated first data is discarded.
US08370567B1
A method for storing data, including receiving a request to write a first datum defined using a first object ID and a first offset ID to persistent storage. The method further including determining a first physical address in the persistent storage, where the first physical address comprises a first block ID and first sub block ID. The method further includes writing the first datum to the first physical address, generating a first table of contents entry (TE) comprising the first object ID, the first offset ID, and the first sub block ID, and writing the first TE to a second physical address in the persistent storage, where the second physical address comprises the first block ID and a second sub block ID corresponding to the second sub block ID, and where the second sub block is located within a first block corresponding to the first block ID.
US08370566B2
In one embodiment, an interface circuit is configured to couple to one or more flash memory devices and is further configured to couple to a host system. The interface circuit is configured to present at least one virtual flash memory device to the host system, wherein the interface circuit is configured to implement the virtual flash memory device using the one or more flash memory devices to which the interface circuit is coupled.
US08370561B2
Original data to be stored in a nonvolatile memory are first randomized while preserving the size of the original data. In response for a request for the original data, the randomized data are retrieved, derandomized and exported without authenticating the requesting entity. ECC encoding is applied either before or after randomizing; correspondingly, ECC decoding is applied either after or before derandomizing.
US08370550B2
Described herein are various techniques and principles for determining how to assign control of peripherals and assigning control of peripherals. In some embodiments, determining how to assign control of peripherals comprises reviewing connections of peripherals to the computing device and evaluating rules to determine management points in the connections. In some cases, the connections of peripherals to the computing device may be organized into a hierarchy corresponding to a hierarchy of physical connections of the peripherals, including physical connections of peripherals located remote from the computing device and possibly connected through another computing device. When management points are identified among the connections, control of peripherals associated with the management points may be assigned in the same way. For example, access rights to each of the peripherals may be assigned to a same user session.
US08370544B2
A data storage system includes a host interface configured to be coupled to a host device, to receive data from the host device, and to send data to the host device and a memory. The data storage system further includes a primary compression engine coupled to the host interface and to the memory, wherein the primary compression engine is configured to compress data received from the host device via the host interface and to store the compressed data in the memory, and wherein the primary compression engine is further configured to decompress compressed data stored in the memory prior to the decompressed data being sent to the host device via the host interface. The data storage system further includes a secondary compression engine coupled to the memory, wherein the secondary compression engine is configured to compress data stored in the memory and to store the compressed data back in the memory, and wherein the secondary compression engine is further configured to decompress compressed data stored in the memory and to store the decompressed data back in the memory. The data storage system further includes a non-volatile storage medium and a processor configured to transfer compressed data from the memory to the non-volatile storage medium in response to a write command received from the host device and to transfer compressed data from the non-volatile storage medium to the memory in response to a read command received from the host device.
US08370542B2
A system and method for transferring data in a library storage system. The library storage system comprises a management server including a storage policy. A media agent is connected to the management server. A plurality of storage media and a data source are connected to the media agent. The data source is divided into at least a first and a second portion of data. The portions of data are transferred from the data source to a first and second primary storage medium using a first and a second data stream respectively. The media agent then causes the first and second portion of data to be transferred from the first and second storage medium to a third auxiliary storage medium using a third combined data stream. Auxiliary copying is performed in chunks and multiple streams are copied in parallel.
US08370531B1
A method, system and apparatus, including a computer program apparatus, implementing techniques for dynamically creating a class and an object in an external computing environment. The method, system and apparatus allow the creation of an adapter class, capable of implementing a listener interface, during runtime.
US08370529B1
A trusted zone protector in exemplary embodiments of an electronic system helps reduce unwanted attempts to use a consumer machine in a trusted zone to address a network resource that lies inside the trusted zone on behalf of a website that lies outside of the trusted zone. An address manager in the electronic system is arranged to provide an indication whether an element retrieved by a network-enabled application executing on the consumer machine is arranged to address a network resource that lies inside the trusted zone. The trusted zone protector is arranged to generate a protective action in response to the indication that the element retrieved by the network-enabled application is arranged to address the network resource that lies inside the trusted zone.
US08370527B2
Control of collaborative devices, including providing at least two collaborative devices, wherein each collaborative device comprises a client device and an embedded Java server, providing a registry service to which the collaborative devices are coupled for data communications, and providing at least one registry table, wherein the registry table includes registry records, wherein the registry records include registry records representing capabilities of collaborative devices, wherein the registry records representing capabilities of collaborative devices include data elements describing, for each collaborative device, capabilities, tertiary relationships, and network connectivities. The method further includes providing a service bundle of OSGI-compliant Java servlets comprising at least one predetermined algorithm for controlling the collaborative devices, and controlling the collaborative devices in accordance with the predetermined algorithm.
US08370510B2
Web access over a public network for applications that operate on virtual desktops on a plurality of servers is facilitated. Through the web access the user is provided with the information necessary to establish a connection with an application by way of the virtual desktop. Applications that the user is authorized to access are determined and those applications that the user is not authorized to access are filtered out. The applications associated access control list is used for determining the user's access to discover an application.
US08370509B2
Techniques are disclosed for enabling operators of communication networks to provide one or more identity services such as, for example, an authentication service. For example, in a communication network, assume that a first computing device is a client device, a second computing device is an application server, and a third computing device is a server under control of an operator of the communication network. A method may comprise the following steps. In response to the first computing device issuing a resource request to the second computing device and the first computing device providing a first identifier to the second computing device for use in authenticating the first computing device to the second computing device, and in response to the second computing device being unable to authenticate the first computing device, the third computing device assisting in the authentication of the first computing device to the second computing device when a correlation exists between the first identifier sent by the first computing device and a second identifier used by the first computing device to access the communication network as a subscriber, wherein the second computing device is able to reply to the resource request sent by the first computing device upon a successful authentication assisted by the third party computing device.
US08370502B2
A method and an apparatus for processing a session request in an Internet Protocol (IP) network are disclosed. For example, the method receives a session request, and queries an tElephone NUmbering Mapping (ENUM) server for a called party of the session request. The method determines if at least one Naming Authority Pointer (NAPTR) resource record associated with the called party is received from the ENUM server, and forwards the session request to a circuit switched network if the at least one NAPTR resource record is not received from the ENUM server. The method determines a Session Description Protocol (SDP) value of the session request if the at least one NAPTR resource record is received from the ENUM server, and processes the session request in accordance with the SDP value if the at least one NAPTR resource record is received from the ENUM server.
US08370500B2
A method and system for remote session control of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) sessions, wherein media is established using one or more devices, and multi-media session/session control for multi-media session is provided by a device which may or may not be the same as the device on which the media is established. A method and system is also provided to transfer media from one device to one or more devices retaining multi-media session/session control on a transferring device.
US08370493B2
Techniques are described for managing distributed execution of programs. In at least some situations, the techniques include decomposing or otherwise separating the execution of a program into multiple distinct execution jobs that may each be executed on a distinct computing node, such as in a parallel manner with each execution job using a distinct subset of input data for the program. In addition, the techniques may include temporarily terminating and later resuming execution of at least some execution jobs, such as by persistently storing an intermediate state of the partial execution of an execution job, and later retrieving and using the stored intermediate state to resume execution of the execution job from the intermediate state. Furthermore, the techniques may be used in conjunction with a distributed program execution service that executes multiple programs on behalf of multiple customers or other users of the service.
US08370491B1
A method, system, and computer-readable media are provided for writing provisioning parameters to a device. In a first aspect, a set of computer-readable media provide a method that includes receiving a request for access onto a communication network from a device. Attributes about the device are retrieved from a first database that details the capabilities of the device. One of the attributes may identify the device a being capable of being provisioned via Open Mobile Alliance protocol, wherein the first database sends a request to a second database to retrieve a tree structure of the device. The tree structure is populated with one or more provisioning parameters, and the populated tree structure is written to the device.
US08370488B1
Techniques are described for providing managed virtual computer networks whose configured logical network topology may have one or more virtual networking devices, such as by a network-accessible configurable network service, with corresponding networking functionality provided for communications between multiple computing nodes of a virtual computer network by emulating functionality that would be provided by the networking devices if they were physically present. The networking functionality provided for a managed computer network may include supporting a connection between that managed computer network and one or more other managed computer networks, such as via a provided virtual peering router to which each of the managed computer networks may connect, with the functionality of the virtual peering router being emulated by modules of the configurable network service without physically providing the virtual peering router, including to manage routing communications between the inter-connected managed computer networks in accordance with client-specified configuration information.
US08370482B2
An information management and distribution method and system for updating contact information over a network. A plug-in associated with a cloud-based back-end unit interacts with a Web application. A virtual card comprising a set of pluggable user interface components associated with the plug-in can be displayed in a user interface associated with the Web application. The contact information with respect to a user can be updated and automatically distributed to other users associated with the Web application that is configured with the virtual card plug-in module. The back-end unit can be employed to keep track of the contact information in a database and provide management functions associated with the data via a Web services application programming interface. A hard copy version of the virtual card can also be rendered utilizing a variable data composition engine and a rendering technology.
US08370480B2
A routing system includes a router, a statistics server (Stat Server) coupled to the router, receiving, processing and storing statistics related to event handling, and providing information regarding the statistics for use by routing intelligence in the router, and a first proxy data server coupled to the Stat Server and to a second proxy data server at a remote contact center over a network. The system is characterized in that the Stat Server receives event statistics regarding the local queue, and through the coupled first and second proxy data servers, event statistics regarding the remote queue, provides information related to the statistics to the router, and the router determines to route incoming events to local queue or to the remote queue based on the information provided.
US08370477B2
Systems and methods for managing and providing content and services on a network system. Aspects of the invention include location-based determination of network content and services that may be provided to client computers. Other aspects of the invention include authorization and authentication components that determine access rights of client computers. Additional aspects include systems and methods for redirecting client computers to different network content. The disclosed systems and methods may be used in numerous network system applications.
US08370471B2
A system for managing one or more wireless devices in a wireless network, the system comprising: a single generic device manager for implementing device management operations; and an interface layer for translating administration client-specific requests to the generic device manager.
US08370464B1
A computer-implemented method for presenting data is disclosed. The method includes receiving at a data server sub-system, from a browser on a remote client computing system, a request for data stored in a central data store; retrieving the requested data from the central data store and providing data corresponding to the requested data to a spreadsheet presentation sub-system that is in communication with the data server sub-system and with the browser on the remote client computing system; and providing a document key to the browser on the remote client computing system so that the browser can request from the presentation sub-system a spreadsheet document that displays the data corresponding to the requested data.
US08370462B2
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with service configuration assurance are described. One example method includes generating an expected device configuration model based at least in part on service information for a network device. The example method may also include comparing this expected device configuration model with an actual device configuration model for the network device. The example method may also include generating a service-impact event notification when a likely service-impacting configuration change is detected.
US08370455B2
Systems and methods for mapping viewable and non-viewable media to websites are disclosed. Mapping is executed through associated or embedded data, based upon frame and/or time segment of the media. The media-to-browser-destination-data (MBDD) may be embedded in media content, embedded in a transmitted signal, downloaded or pushed to a media playing device, or provided by a graphic overlay. Media players are disclosed that can process the MBDD to launch a browser to a selected web site.
US08370452B2
Techniques for partial object caching are disclosed. For example, a method includes receiving, at a content delivery network (CDN) from a end user device, a request for at least a portion of an object, retrieving the portion of the object from a content site and delivering the portion of the object to the end user device, and caching, in a partial object cache, the portion of the object. Further, the method may include receiving a subsequent request for the portion of the object, and retrieving, from the partial object cache the portion of the object and delivering the portion of the object in response to the subsequent request.
US08370447B2
A system and method for providing a memory region/memory window (MR/MW) access notification on a system area network are provided. Whenever a previously allocated MR/MW is accessed, such as via a remote direct memory access (RDMA) read/write operation, a notification of the access is generated and written to a queue data structure associated with the MR/MW. In one illustrative embodiment, this queue data structure may be a MR/MW event queue (EQ) data structure that is created and used for all consumer processes and all MR/MWs. In other illustrative embodiments, the EQ is associated with a protection domain. In yet another illustrative embodiment, an event record may be posted to an asynchronous event handler in response to the accessing of the MR/MW. In another illustrative embodiment, a previously posted queue element may be used to generate a completion queue element in response to the accessing of the MR/MW.
US08370445B2
Systems and methods for providing message communication among multiple communication gateways. In particular, systems and methods for providing non-voice message delivery to intended recipients with increased speed and reliability to multiple users on multiple platforms. The systems and methods relate to non-voice messaging to multiple messaging gateways. In at least one embodiment, the systems and methods include Internet based electronic messaging using a messaging subsystem configured to optimize text message delivery to communication gateways.
US08370443B2
A resend operation of application-level messages by communicating control messages over a publish/subscribe channel. A sending module sends application-level original messages to recipients, and stores a copy of the original message in a store. A resend determination module determines, in the event of insufficient acknowledgement of the original message, whether the original message should be resent. If the original message should be resent, the resend determination module also publishes a control message that correlates to the original message. A resend module subscribes in a manner that results in the resend module receiving the control message, and uses the control message to determine that the corresponding original message should be resent, whereupon the original message may be resent using the copy of the original message in the store.
US08370441B2
Systems and methods for processing a data over signaling (DoS) message at an access terminal are disclosed. A message is received at an access terminal. The message is decoded to determine if it is a DoS message. Upon detecting the DoS message a sleep delay timer is set to prevent the access terminal from entering a sleep state for a predetermined time.
US08370433B2
A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes evaluating calendar information in order to identify a first meeting involving an end user and a second meeting involving the end user. The meetings are configured to be provided consecutively in relation to each other and during a designated time period in which both meetings begin. The credential information can be used to enable participation in the first meeting by the end user. The method also includes transitioning the end user from the first meeting to the second meeting without requiring additional credential information to enable participation in the second meeting. In other embodiments, the method includes prompting the end user with information about the second meeting before transitioning the end user from the first meeting to the second meeting. In still other embodiments, the method includes maintaining shared information generated in the first meeting such that the shared information is provided to the end user in the second meeting.
US08370427B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting messages between heterogeneous networks are disclosed. The method includes: receiving an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) message from an IMS network; converting the format of the IMS message into the format of a non-IMS message and converting the sender terminal ID of the IMS message into the sender terminal ID of the non-IMS message; and sending the non-IMS message that includes the content and sender terminal ID of the non-IMS message to a receiver terminal of the non-IMS message through the home network of the non-IMS message. The disclosure can implement message interworking between an IMS user terminal and a non-IMS user terminal.
US08370425B2
The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate creation and management of an event-oriented transient network and can further manage decommission of the transient network. In particular, the architecture can construct temporary communities based upon a particular event, project, or activity; manage (e.g., filter, prioritize, or control) communications and content associated with the community; and disband the community by deconstructing the transient network according to an aging function that controls how the network decays. In addition, the architecture can leverage existing information (e.g. profile data) and content feeds associated with disparate social networking services or communities for the benefit of the temporary community.
US08370416B2
In one embodiment a method of creating a clustered computing system, comprises storing license information for a computing cluster in a memory module associated with a computing node, wherein the licensing information includes a bundle-type parameter that identifies a characteristic of the cluster and one or more node license parameters that identifies a characteristic of a computing node, initializing the computing cluster in a first computing node, adding one or more available computing nodes to the computing cluster; and activating the computing cluster when the computing cluster includes a number of nodes that complies with the bundle-type parameter.
US08370414B2
A method may include storing N number of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) data points into x-memories, N and x being integers greater than one, and the x-memories having a total memory capacity equivalent to store the N number of FFT data points, and reading K FFT data points of the N number of FFT data points from each of the x-memories so that the N number of FFT data points are read, K being an integer greater than one. The method may further include performing parallel radix-m FFTs on the x*K number of FFT data points, multiplying the x*K number of FFT data points by twiddle factors to obtain resultants, shifting the resultants, and writing back the shifted resultants of the x*K number of FFT data points to the x-memories. The method may also include repeating the reading, the multiplying, the shifting and the writing back until the N number of FFT data points have been completely transformed into an FFT resultant, and where there is x*K number of FFT data points available for processing during every repetition, and outputting the FFT resultant.
US08370386B1
A computer-based method for creating data mining task templates for utilization in data mining activities is described. The method includes defining, via a template editor and an associated user interface, a task template for discovery of common patterns occurring within data mining events, generating a task editor/wizard from the task template, creating example tasks via the task template and task editor/wizard, running at least one of the example tasks, and refining the task template using results returned from execution of the at least one of the example tasks.
US08370384B2
An image processing apparatus which is capable of improving user's convenience in searching for documents once found by a previous search, again. A CPU of the apparatus accepts the entry of a search keyword from the user, and obtains user information for identifying the user. The CPU adds the input search keyword to an index information item contained in each of document data items in association with the user information, and stores the index information item having the search keyword added thereto in an HDD, together with the document data item.
US08370383B2
A multi-process interactive system is described. The system includes numerous processes running on a processing device. The processes include separable program execution contexts of application programs, such that each application program comprises at least one process. The system translates events of each process into data capsules. A data capsule includes an application-independent representation of event data of an event and state information of the process originating the content of the data capsule. The system transfers the data messages into pools or repositories. Each process operates as a recognizing process, where the recognizing process recognizes in the pools data capsules comprising content that corresponds to an interactive function of the recognizing process and/or an identification of the recognizing process. The recognizing process retrieves recognized data capsules from the pools and executes processing appropriate to contents of the recognized data capsules.
US08370382B2
A method for facilitating the search of video content by matching fingerprint data extracted from a given video content with existing video fingerprint data already stored in the database. The system consists of systems for extracting fingerprint from the video content, the database for storing plurality of fingerprint data entries from known video content segments and systems for comparing between the fingerprint data obtained from the video content with the fingerprint data entries obtained from the fingerprint database. Once a match is identified, the video content associated with the matched fingerprint in the database is said to be identified by the information in the database associated with the match. The information referenced from the database includes archived video information.
US08370374B1
Some embodiments of on-the-fly pattern recognition with configurable bounds have been presented. In one embodiment, a pattern matching engine is configured based on user input, which may include values of one or more user configurable bounds on searching. Then the configured pattern matching engine is used to search for a set of features in an incoming string. A set of scores is updated based on the presence of any of the features in the string while searching for the features. Each score may indicate a likelihood of the content of the string being in a category. The search is terminated if the end of the string is reached or if the user configurable bounds are met. After terminating the search, the scores are output.
US08370373B2
This invention is directed to a document processing system and control method thereof. The system stores a plurality of items of document data each containing metadata pertaining to the contents of each item of document data, and relation information representing the relations between the plurality of items of document data. When scanned image data or facsimile-received image data is input, document data related to the input image data is specified among the plurality of items of stored document data, based on the metadata contained in each item of document data. Relation information representing the relation between the input image data and the specified related document data is stored. Even document data obtained from a paper document is able to be stored as document data subjected to search processing.
US08370368B2
A method and computer program product include defining one or more filter criteria based upon, at least in part, an organizational structure. A body of content is filtered based upon, at least in part, the defined filter criteria. At least a portion of the filtered body of content is provided. The organizational structure may be defined within a corporate directory. The body of content may include one or more of a document library, a tag repository; a threaded discussion, a wiki, and a blog. Defining one or more filter criteria may include defining one or more filter criteria based upon, at least in part, an organizational hierarchy. Defining one or more filter criteria may further include defining one or more filter criteria based upon, at least in part, one or more positions defined within the organizational structure.
US08370362B2
An improved human user computer interface system, wherein a user characteristic or set of characteristics, such as demographic profile or societal “role”, is employed to define a scope or domain of operation. The operation itself may be a database search, to interactively define a taxonomic context for the operation, a business negotiation, or other activity. After retrieval of results, a scoring or ranking may be applied according to user define criteria, which are, for example, commensurate with the relevance to the context, but may be, for example, by date, source, or other secondary criteria. A user profile is preferably stored in a computer accessible form, and may be used to provide a history of use, persistent customization, collaborative filtering and demographic information for the user. Advantageously, user privacy and anonymity is maintained by physical and algorithmic controls over access to the personal profiles, and releasing only aggregate data without personally identifying information or of small groups.
US08370356B2
A music search device, a music search method, a music search program, and a recording medium having the music search program recorded on it are provided. There is included a memory means for relating a music to a characteristic of the music and memorizing the music and the characteristics; a reproduction means for reproducing the music; a process means for processing the characteristic of the music thus reproduced by the reproduction means based on an instruction of a manipulation input; a characteristic detection means for detecting the characteristic of the music thus processed; and a search means for searching the music thus memorized by the memory means based on the characteristic of the music thus detected.
US08370355B2
Embodiments of a method for managing entities include candidate selection by a transitive bucketing process where at least one attribute of an initial data record is used to determine a set of candidate data records corresponding to the initial data record. For each candidate data record thus determined, additional candidate data record(s) may be determined using attribute(s) not used in linking the candidate data record to the initial data record. This process may be repeated until no more candidate data records are returned. The initial data record and related candidates thus determined are then resolved into group entities, each having member records that match one another above a certain threshold. If no match is found, a group entity comprising a single data record may be created. These group entities are then reconciled with other entities in a master entity index system.
US08370354B2
A method, system, and program product are presented for identifying similar functional segments of code to a service oriented architecture transition team. The method, system and program product comprise identifying, by a processor of a computer, a number of functionally equivalent segments in a number of lines of code by analyzing tag files associated with each of a number of functional segments in the number of lines of code.
US08370347B1
A system is described for assessing information in natural language contents. A user interface receives an object name as a query term and a value for a customized ranking parameter from a user. A computer storage device stores an object-specific data set related to the object name, wherein the object-specific data set includes a plurality of property names and association-strength values. A computer processing system can count a first frequency of a first property name and count a second frequency of a second property name in a document containing text in a natural language, calculate a relevance score as a function of the first frequency and the second frequency, and rank the plurality of documents using their respective relevance scores, and return one or more documents to the user based on the ranking of the plurality of documents. The function is in part defined by the customized ranking parameter.
US08370346B2
Architecture that enables a user to connect, search, and review information under a mobile context by interacting through a micro-browser. The current “Find” experience can now be made part of the document search functionality thereby allowing the user to enter one or more keywords to quickly search and obtain the information desired. The “Find” feature can be part of the micro-browser viewer and solves the current inability of the user to view and read documents on the small display of the mobile device. Additionally, users can choose to search from the current page or from the beginning of the document. Results are listed with the keyword(s) emphasized (e.g., highlighted) in a portion of the content in which the keyword(s) was found. The page number can also be presented. Each result can be presented is an active link that automatically navigates the user directly to the associated keyword of the page.
US08370343B2
Methods and systems in search marketing which permit advertisers to provide advertisements to a search engine, as well as bids associated with the advertisements themselves, are provided. Advertisements are selected for presentation when they are determined to be relevant and payment for presentation is due only upon the conditions of the bid being met. If desired, advertisers may be permitted to provide, in addition to an advertisement, one or more destination pages associated with selection of the advertisement. In this case, relevance can be determined not only on the basis of the content of the advertisement itself, but also on the content of the destination page(s).
US08370342B1
Apparatus and associated systems, methods, and computer program products relate to displaying the most relevant information in a document at or near the top of a page of displayed information. The most relevant information may be determined to be relevant with respect to a set of search query terms, such as those that may be entered into a search engine, for example. In some embodiments, a selected document of interest may be formatted (i.e., transcoded) for display on a small display area, and the transcoding may be arranged to produce a first displayed page or sub-page (if the document is divided among more than one sub-page) that begins with the most relevant information in the document. By formatting transcoded pages in this manner, the most relevant information may be displayed first for immediate viewing by the user.
US08370341B1
A system, computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program, and a computer-implemented method for updating content are presented. A first version of content residing on a user device is determined, and a second version of content relating to the first version of content is determined. Version information for each file within a second set of files organized within a second archive of the second version of content is sequentially accessed based on a second order of the second set of files in the second archive, the version information indicating a version of each file. A determination is made of when version information indicating a newer version of content has been accessed from the second archive, and new content associated with the newer version is provided to the user device.
US08370336B2
Methods and systems for using a half-life formula for deriving demand metrics used in ordering item listings, when presenting those item listings in a search results page, are described. In some embodiments, a demand metric for an item listing is derived by monitoring events associated with item listings, such as, keeping a count of the number of search impressions an item listing receives. A half-life formula is used to ensure that events occurring earlier in time contribute less to the demand metric than more recently occurring events. The demand metric are used to order the item listings, when the item listings are being presented in a search results page.
US08370327B2
A “Book of Business” (or Book) is a set of business domain data of one or more book types. This set of data is identified by a “driving condition” or quality. A driving condition typically arises from a business practice, and may be further qualified by local conditions. Accordingly, data may be organized based on local activities or conditions that may not be explicitly stored in a database. In one embodiment, a method for querying the database includes identifying data in a database. The data is organized into one or more segments. A book of business associated with a segment in the one or more segments is then generated. The book of business includes a set of references to the data organized into the segment. A query plan may be determined based on the book of business. A set of results may then be generated based on the query plan.
US08370325B2
The present invention provides a file structure analyzing apparatus for analyzing a file including a group of structured data formed into a tree structure by having a plurality of distinct element packets referenced externally, each of the distinct element packets including a unique identifier for identifying the distinct element packet in question and an external referrer for indicating an external reference destination at which to reference externally another distinct element packet using the unique identifier of the latter packet, the file structure analyzing apparatus including: a distinct element packet input section; an external referrer holding section; a unique identifier holding section; and a reference relationship analysis section.
US08370319B1
Systems and methods described and suggested herein utilize various techniques to assess the degree of specificity of search queries. By assessing the degree of specificity of search queries, the systems and methods may be used to determine where the submitting users' intentions fall along the continuum between specific and general searching. Thus, the systems and methods may be used to, among other uses, deliver search results that more closely coincide with the users' intentions. For example, if data associated with a search query indicates that users typically submit the search query with the intention of specific searching, embodiments may tailor search results to include a limited number of highly relevant search-result items. On the other hand, for example, if data associated with a search query indicates that users typically submit the search query with the intention of general searching, embodiments may tailor search results to include a diverse set of search-result items from multiple categories.
US08370314B2
Methods, systems and program products for replacing a master media file. Data indicates characteristics of a first user's multiple media files. At least one of the multiple media files matches content in a master media file. The content in the matching media file is of a second quality that is higher than the first quality of the master media file. A server system stores the matching media file in place of the master media file. The server system receives a request from a second user for content matching the master media file, and accesses quality parameters that indicate the second user can access a version of the content at a third quality that is less than the second quality. A media file that contains the requested content at the third quality is generated and sent to the second user.
US08370313B2
A method assigns a score to each node in a directed graph. Nodes in the graph represent autonomous entities, and links denote opinions entities hold of each other. Scores are assigned based on either a deterministic iterative method or a random walk. Both methods are able to take negative opinions into account by assigning negative reputation to a node in proportion to the positive reputation of the node that links to it with a negative opinion, and also assigning a separate kind of negative reputation to nodes that have a positive opinion of a node with either kind of negative reputation. The random walk method also solves the “rank sink” problem of previous methods by disallowing any single traversal from visiting any particular node more than once within a certain interval.
US08370287B2
Methods of classifying a subject's condition are described. The method includes: receiving measured signals from the subject; processing the measured signals using a computing device to identify a class associated with an identified condition of the subject; introducing an artificial class, the artificial class being associated with an unknown condition of the subject; classifying a feature vector from the subject into the identified class or the artificial class; and generating a signal in response to classifying the feature vector. The measured signals from the subject may include at least one signal extracted from brain activity of the subject.
US08370269B2
Electronic commerce over a publicly accessible computer network such as the Internet is facilitated and leveraged by a computer system that forms a community of computer user parties based on personal and business connections of the parties involved. Personal connections are created between users by invitation and mutual acceptance. Business connections are created between users when a transaction takes place between those users. Users search to perform any one or more of a variety of actions such as to purchase products, browse departments and categories for purchasing products, or explore the connections between the parties involved to find items to buy. Different groupings of the parties involved may be the users themselves and other buyers/sellers in the business network, the users themselves and their friends in the personal networks, or some combination of buyers/sellers and friends from each of the types of networks. A computer or server at a site in the network implements an architecture whereby various pages viewed by a user have links to enable them to find products.
US08370266B2
An authentication-authorization system for a mobile communication terminal and a method therefor are provided. When a mobile communication terminal is in a connect state, code data randomly generated by a remote encoding terminal is continuously provided to the terminal and data management terminal. When an application service program on the mobile communication terminal or an application service terminal connected to the mobile communication terminal need to execute an authentication-authorization, identification data of the mobile communication terminal and its card and code data can be offered to the data management terminal to carry out a bidirectional dynamic authentication-authorization, to determine whether allow the application service program or the application service terminal to keep providing an application service or not. In a further aspect of the embodiment, at least two aforementioned authentication-authorization systems are joined, and a layered authentication-authorization mechanism is adopted, so as to provide a secured and completed system.
US08370257B2
A print system allowing a user to obtain a transaction statement in a safe and easy manner is provided. For this purpose, a print system includes: a banking terminal; and a digital multi-function peripheral performing data communication with a Web server having transaction statement data and PIN code stored in association with each other, through an external network and an in-store network. The banking terminal is adapted to include an operation panel receiving a request from a user for an output of a transaction statement, and a PIN code generating unit and a receipt issuing unit for generating and outputting a PIN code in response to the received request. The digital multi-function peripheral is adapted to include an operation panel receiving the PIN code input by a user operation, a control unit obtaining transaction statement data corresponding to the received PIN code from the Web server, and a printer unit outputting a transaction statement based on the obtained transaction statement data.
US08370243B1
A financial planner and portfolio simulation system projects the simulated cumulative risks and rewards of one or more mixed portfolios in relation to the expected risk and reward of a minimum-risk or relatively risk-free baseline portfolio. As a user enters portfolio input parameters, the system immediately computes, displays, and graphs an inflation-adjusted retirement budget that a baseline portfolio fully invested in minimum-risk assets would be able to sustain. The system also generates—through simulation—a probability distribution of average retirement budgets that the mixed portfolio(s) would be projected to sustain, and graphs various percentile-ranked samples from that distribution on the same computer-generated plot that displays the sustainable retirement budget supported by a baseline (minimum risk) portfolio. The statistical and graphical comparisons of the mixed portfolio(s) to the baseline portfolio assist investors in choosing mixed portfolios best suited to their retirement goals and risk tolerance.
US08370238B2
The present invention relates to a credit index, a system and method for structuring a credit index, a system and method for operating a credit index, and a system and method for determining the liquidity of a credit.
US08370228B1
Method and apparatus for tax refund allocation in tax programs. A tax program may include a tax refund allocation component and user interface that allows a taxable entity to allocate portions of a refund from one tax authority to pay taxes due to another tax authority. The component and user interface may also be used to allocate portions of tax refunds to other institutions than tax authorities. Once the tax refund allocation process is completed, a message or messages indicating the allocation instructions may be sent to a financial institution that acts as an intermediary between the taxable entity, the tax authority(s), and the other institutions. The financial institution may receive the tax refund from the tax authority and distribute the portions of the refund to the other tax authorities and/or institutions as directed by the received allocation instructions.
US08370223B2
A broadband intelligent event repository may be provided. The broadband intelligent repository may allow a cross processing life cycle phase view of an event. In addition, the broadband intelligent repository may provide for the ability to associate all recordings associated with a given event. Furthermore, the broadband intelligent repository may provide the ability to view events as they morph through the various phases of the processing life cycle. The events may occur at elements within a data network. The data network may be configured to provide at least one of the following services: voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP) communications services, video services, Internet services, and e-mail services.
US08370216B2
Techniques are described regarding providing consumers with devices on which digital content appropriate for those consumers has been loaded, such as digital media player devices or other consumer devices that are able to play or otherwise present digital media loaded on those devices. In some situations, when a consumer orders such a digital media player or other consumer device from a merchant (or other distributor of the device), the merchant preloads a copy of the device with digital media content before delivering that device to the consumer or other specified recipient, such as digital media items that are automatically selected in a personalized manner for the recipient to whom the device will be sent. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08370212B2
Methods, apparatuses and article of manufactures of an electronic auction system that receives at least one bid to purchase an item that is available for auction during a period of time. The period of time comprises a plurality of time increments. The system also uses a computing device to determine that the auction for the item has ended. The act of determining includes determining that at least one of the following events has occurred: (ii) a first quantity of bids received during a first time increment is less than a first pre-determined number; and (iii) a second quantity of bids received during a second time increment is less than a second pre-determined number. Based on pre-determined criteria, the system also determines a winning bid from a plurality of received bids. In addition, the system transmits to a remote device a notification of the winning bid. The remote device and the computing device are in communication via a network. The system also processes a payment of the item.
US08370208B1
This disclosure relates to determining whether to include items in a feed to a referral network site. A catalog is maintained of a plurality of items sold through an electronic commerce network site, wherein at least a portion of a plurality of sales of the items originate by virtue of a referral from a referral network site. A quantity of commercial data associated with the items is stored in a data store, and a predictive model is trained with the commercial data associated with the items. Each of the items is applied to the predictive model to determine whether such items are to be included in a feed to the referral network site. The feed that includes a subset of the items is sent to the referral network site.
US08370206B2
A method of administrating inmate privileges in a correctional facility using a computer kiosk is provided. The method includes accepting data and information corresponding to inmate privileges for an inmate population, the data and information including restrictions on the inmate privileges. The method also includes accepting requests for privileges by an inmate, applying the restrictions to the accepted requests, and visually presenting information to the inmate regarding accepted requests.
US08370200B2
A data processing system issuing electronic certificates through “online” networks. Each electronic certificate includes transaction data and identification data, and can be printed out on a printing device linked to a consumer's personal input device, or electronically stored in a designated data base until a specified expiration date. Consumers access the data processing system online, browse among their choices, and make their selections. Certificate issuers have online access to the data processing system and can create or revise offers, and provide various instructions pertaining to the certificates, including limitations as to the number of certificates to be issued in total and to each individual consumer.
US08370197B2
A (e.g., expected) performance of proposed ad placement is compared with a performance threshold (either an initial threshold or an adjusted threshold). The ad may be served if the expected performance meets the threshold (perhaps subject to additional conditions), but is not served if the expected performance is less than the performance threshold. Spend information of the ad so served is analyzed to determine if a target amount (budget) is expected to be overspent or underspent. If the former, the performance threshold is increased (and/or the ad performance value is decreased). If the later, the performance threshold is decreased (and/or the ad performance value is increased).
US08370194B2
Robust forecasting techniques are relatively immune from anomalies or outliers in observed data, such as a stream of data values reflective of the operation or use of a computer system. One robust technique provides a relatively accurate forecast of seasonal behavior even in the presence of an anomaly in corresponding historical data. Another robust forecasting technique provides a relatively accurate forecast even in the presence of an anomaly that spans multiple recent observations. In one embodiment, both techniques are used in combination to automatically detect anomalies in the operation and/or use of a multi-user computer system.
US08370186B2
A centralized web-based system and method for managing appointments having a user interface that interacts with one or more users to display one or more items based on user input, a management module connected to the user interface and configured to receive data related to scheduling an appointment, determine one or more possible appointments based on the data, present the one or more possible appointments, receive a user selection from the one or more possible appointments, and schedule the appointment based on the user selection, and one or more databases configured to store appointment information, wherein the one or more databases are connected to the management module and wherein the data comprises a date and time slot and at least one of a facility, a service, and a servicer.
US08370178B1
Insurance coverage on valuable personal property (“VPP”) can be marketed and/or serviced through an expert system that interacts with a user through a web site and web browser. VPP coverage tends to have many facets and complexities, and a system can be used to explain the various complexities and to guide said user through the process of selecting coverage, obtaining a quote, and purchasing said policy. The system can provide various forms of user education, such as graphical and/or text screens that explain features of coverage, can also provide said user with a linear process flow for those tasks that can be accomplished simply, and can involve a human representative for more complicated tasks.
US08370174B2
A medical image processing apparatus includes a unit configured to analyze a target medical image a unit configured to register information representing an aptitude of each doctor with respect to interpretation of a specific lesion and a modality used by each doctor, and a unit configured to, when the analysis result includes information associated with a lesion, decide an assigned doctor based on information representing the aptitude of each doctor with respect to interpretation of the specific lesion, and, when the analysis result includes no information associated with a lesion, decide an assigned doctor based on the modality.
US08370171B2
The invention relates to a method for assigning a risk rating to a medical product. The method includes assessing one or more threats associated with the medical product; assessing the level of experience with the medical product; and assigning a risk rating for the medical product to provide an indication of risk associated with the medical product. The method may be implemented as a webpage. For example, a new contraceptive may be assigned a risk rating of yellow for the general treatment population. This risk rating allows consumers to make an informed choice between different products on the basis of benefit versus risk, and help patients decide what steps they may wish to take to minimize their risk if they choose to take the new drug.
US08370168B1
A server identifies a user device that is missing, communicates with the user device and causes the user device to disable access to content stored on the user device, and to generate a message that includes information facilitating return of the user device to an owner of the user device.
US08370159B2
A multi-layered speech recognition apparatus and method, the apparatus includes a client checking whether the client recognizes the speech using a characteristic of speech to be recognized and recognizing the speech or transmitting the characteristic of the speech according to a checked result; and first through N-th servers, wherein the first server checks whether the first server recognizes the speech using the characteristic of the speech transmitted from the client, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result, and wherein an n-th (2≦n≦N) server checks whether the n-th server recognizes the speech using the characteristic of the speech transmitted from an (n−1)-th server, and recognizes the speech or transmits the characteristic according to a checked result.
US08370155B2
A real-time method and system are described for automatically extracting text from the customer-agent interaction at a contact center, analyzing the extracted text to automatically identify one or more customer issues, and performing processing by contact-center agent buddies (CABs) to generate at least one response to the customer issues.
US08370149B2
Waveform concatenation speech synthesis with high sound quality. Prosody with both high accuracy and high sound quality is achieved by performing a two-path search including a speech segment search and a prosody modification value search. An accurate accent is secured by evaluating the consistency of the prosody by using a statistical model of prosody variations (the slope of fundamental frequency) for both of two paths of the speech segment selection and the modification value search. In the prosody modification value search, a prosody modification value sequence that minimizes a modified prosody cost is searched for. This allows a search for a modification value sequence that can increase the likelihood of absolute values or variations of the prosody to the statistical model as high as possible with minimum modification values.
US08370146B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for recognizing speech input. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a user input and a grammar including annotations, the user input comprising audio data and the annotations providing syntax and semantics to the grammar, retrieving third-party statistical speech recognition information, the statistical speech recognition information being transmitted over a network, generating a statistical language model (SLM) based on the grammar and the statistical speech recognition information, the SLM preserving semantics of the grammar, processing the user input using the SLM to generate one or more results, comparing the one or more results to candidates provided in the grammar, identifying a particular candidate of the grammar based on the comparing, and providing the particular candidate for input to an application executed on a computing device.
US08370145B2
The present invention aims at extracting a keyword of conversation without preparations by advanced anticipation of keywords of conversation. A keyword extracting device of the present invention includes an audio input section 101 by way of which a speech sound made by a speaker is input; a speech segment determination section 102 that determines a speech segment for each speaker in connection with the input speech sound; a speech recognition section 103 that recognizes a speech sound of the determined speech segment for each speaker; an interrupt detection section 104 that detects a feature of a speech response suggesting presence of a keyword on the basis of a response of another speaker to speech sounds of respective speakers; namely, an interrupt where a preceding speech and a subsequent speech overlap; a keyword extraction section 105 that extracts the keyword from the speech in the speech segment specified on the basis of an interrupt; a keyword search section 106 that performs keyword search by means of the keyword; and a display section 107 that displays a result of keyword search.
US08370141B2
Devices, systems and methods for converting analog data to digital data or digital data to analog data for enabling speech recognition processing on a portable data device are provided. The system includes at least one portable data device including an input module configured to receive analog audio signals; a processing module configured to convert the analog audio signals to digital audio data; a communication module configured to transmit the digital audio data to a remote processor and to receive digital text data from the remote processor; and a display module for displaying the received digital text data; the remote processor configured for receiving digital audio data, converting the digital audio data to digital text data and transmitting the converted digital text data to the at least one portable data device; and a communications network for coupling the remote processor to the at least one portable data device.
US08370134B2
A system and a method for coding by principal component analysis (PCA) of a multi-channel audio signal comprising the following steps: decomposing at least two channels (L, R) of said audio signal into a plurality of frequency sub-bands (I(b1), . . . , I(bN), r(b1), . . . , r(bN)), calculating at least one transformation parameter (θ(b1), . . . , θ(bN)) as a function of at least some of said plurality of frequency sub-bands, transforming at least some of said plurality of frequency sub-bands into a plurality of frequency sub-components as a function of said at least one transformation parameter (θ(b1), . . . , θ(bN)), said plurality of frequency sub-components comprising principal frequency sub-components (CP(b1), . . . , CP(bN)), combining at least some of said principal frequency sub-components (CP(b1), . . . , CP(bN)) in order to form a principal component (CP), and defining a coded audio signal (SC) representing said multi-channel audio signal (C1, . . . , CM), said coded audio signal (SC) comprising said principal component (CP) and said at least one transformation parameter (θ(b1), . . . , θ(bN)).
US08370130B2
A speech understanding apparatus includes: a speech recognition unit for recognizing an input speech to produce a speech recognition result; a sentence analysis unit for performing morpheme analysis on a sentence corresponding to the speech recognition result, extracting additional information, and performing syntax analysis; a hierarchy describing unit for describing hierarchy of the sentence; a class transformation unit for performing class transformation on the sentence; a semantic representation determination unit for marking optional expressions for the sentence, deleting meaningless expressions and the additional information, converting the sentence into its base form, and deleting morphemic tags or symbols to determine a semantic representation; a semantic representation retrieval unit for retrieving the determined semantic representation from an example-based semantic representation pattern database; and a retrieval result processing unit for selectively producing a retrieved semantic representation.
US08370128B2
A system and method of developing rules for text processing enable retrieval of instances of named entities in a predetermined semantic relation (such as the DATE and PLACE of an EVENT) by extracting patterns from text strings in which attested examples of named entities satisfying the semantic relation occur. The patterns are generalized to form rules which can be added to the existing rules of a syntactic parser and subsequently applied to text to find candidate instances of other named entities in the predetermined semantic relation.
US08370119B2
Website design pattern modeling technique embodiments are presented that model a website's design patterns. This can be based on the website's layout elements, its URL tokens, or both. When based on both, the design patterns can be modeled separately using first the layout elements and then the URL tokens, or vice versa. Alternately, the modeling can be based on coupled layout and URL token patterns. In operation, the modeling involves first identifying layout elements and/or URL tokens found on at least some of the pages of the website. The website design patterns are then modeled based on the occurrences of the identified layout elements and/or URL tokens in pages of the website. In cases where a coupled modeling scheme is employed, a modeling technique that exploits the correlations between the layout elements and URL tokens is used.
US08370102B1
The different advantageous embodiments provide a method for alignment of platform features. A number of feature locations for a platform is identified using a platform model. A number of platform instructions for taking measurements at the number of feature locations is identified using the platform model. Instructions are generated having a number of measurement locations for each feature location in the number of feature locations for the platform.
US08370098B2
A measuring system for precise measuring a density of a medium flowing in a pipe line. The measuring system comprises a temperature sensor and a pressure sensor. Both sensors communicate with a measuring electronics of the system. The measuring electronics are operable to provide, based on temperature measurement and pressure measurement, a provisional density measured value, especially according to one of the industrial standards AGAR, AGN NX-19, SGERG-88 IAWPS-IF97, ISO 12213:2006. Further, the measuring electronics provides, based on the provisional density measured value and a density correction value, which is dependant on a flow velocity of the medium, and temperature measurement, a density measured value, which differs from the provisional density measured value, and which represents the density to be measured more accurately.
US08370085B2
Sonic wave speed at a part is calculated considering the environment surrounding the part, sonic wave speed around the part is measured, and the accuracy of the position detection is improved. An ultrasonic wave transmitting device is arranged at a robot hand tip, hexahedrons which can contain the tip are set, and the ultrasonic wave transmitting-receiving devices are arranged at the top points thereof. Upon detecting the tip position, a top point that is close to the tip is selected as a specific point, and sonic wave speeds from other top points to this specific point are calculated. Based on these sonic wave speeds, sonic wave speed along a route from the tip to the specific point is calculated. Based on this sonic wave speed value and spread time of ultrasonic waves between the tip and the specific point, distance from the specific point to the tip is calculated.
US08370080B2
According to embodiment, systems and methods for processing a physiological measurement and generating alarms based on the measurement are provided. Multiple features of a single physiological measurement may be concurrently monitored to generate alarms. One or more of the features may be based on a trend of the physiological measurement. One or more of the features may be based on a wavelet transform of the physiological measurement. Different features may be used in different combinations to lower the percentage of false alarms while still recognizing valid alarm events.
US08370078B2
BioMEMS/NEMS appliance biologically monitors an individual, using biosensors to detect cellular components. Data is simulated or analyzed using systems-biology software, which provides diagnostic or therapeutic guidance.
US08370065B2
An engine control apparatus which may be employed in automotive vehicles. The engine control apparatus is equipped with at least one of a combustion parameter or a controlled variable arithmetic expression. The combustion parameter arithmetic expression defines combustion conditions of the engine needed to achieve required values of engine output-related values such as exhaust emissions. The controlled variable arithmetic expression defines how to operate actuators for an operation of the engine to meet desired combustion conditions of the engine. The use of the combustion parameter or controlled variable arithmetic expression achieves simultaneous agreement of the engine output-related values with required values without mutual interference between combustion parameters associated with the combustion conditions.
US08370059B2
A display is divided into two regions, a standard region and an enlarged region with a user positioned is at an angle relative to the display. The standard region is formed on a side nearer the user and the enlarged region is formed on a side farther from the user. When the navigation device displays guidance information, information displayed in the standard region is displayed on a standard scale, while information displayed in the enlarged region is displayed enlarged relative to the standard scale. Since the display on the side farther from the user position is thus enlarged, the user can more easily view that guidance information.
US08370058B2
In a method for controlling a display device in a motor vehicle, the display device displays a geographic map having elements which are assigned geographic positions and which are displayed on the displayed map at the geographic positions they are assigned. The relevance of the elements displayable on the map for the user is evaluated and an automatic decision is made as a function of the result of the evaluation as to which elements are displayed at the geographic positions they are assigned. A display device in a motor vehicle includes a control device, a display connected to the control device, a memory or a plurality of memories for storing data for displaying a geographic map and for storing elements that are assigned geographic positions and which are displayable on the displayed map at the geographic positions they are assigned. The display device includes a decision processor, which is connected to the control device, by which the relevance of the elements displayable on the map is able to be evaluated, and an automatic decision is able to be made as a function of the result of the evaluation as to which elements will be displayed at their assigned geographic positions.
US08370048B2
The pollution control system includes a controller coupled to a sensor monitoring an operational characteristic of a combustion engine, such as engine RPM. A PCV valve having an inlet and an outlet is adapted to vent blow-by gas out from the combustion engine. A fluid regulator associated with the PCV valve and responsive to the controller selectively modulates engine vacuum pressure to adjustably increase or decrease a fluid flow rate of blow-by gas venting from the combustion engine. The controller selectively adjustably positions the fluid regulator to vary the degree of vacuum pressure to optimize the recycling of blow-by gases.
US08370045B2
Starter control valve failure prediction machines, systems, program products, and computer implemented methods to predict and trend starter control valve failures in gas turbine engines using a starter control valve health prognostic and to make predictions of starter control valve failures, are provided. A computer implemented method according to an embodiment of the present invention can include the steps of generating a continuous starter control valve deterioration trend function responsive to a plurality of health indices derived from gas turbine engine startup data downloaded from gas turbine engine sensors for a plurality of startups and analyzing the continuous starter control valve deterioration trend function to identify potential starter control valve failure points where the points on the starter control valve deterioration trend function correlate to a starter control valve health prognostic responsive to historic gas turbine engine startup data downloaded from gas turbine engine sensors.
US08370043B2
An apparatus for determining an air-fuel ratio imbalance among cylinders including an upstream air-fuel ratio sensor, a catalytic converter, and a downstream air-fuel ratio sensor disposed at positions downstream of an exhaust gas aggregated portion, calculates a sub feedback amount to have an output value of the downstream air-fuel ratio sensor coincides with a value corresponding to the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, and performs an air-fuel ratio feedback control to have an air-fuel ratio of a mixture supplied to an engine based on the sub feedback amount and the output value of the upstream air-fuel ratio sensor.
US08370038B2
A method is provided for controlling at least one active subsystem in a vehicle chassis. The method includes, but is not limited to the steps of evaluating a driver's driving style based on data (ax(K), ay(K)) representative of acceleration of the vehicle and setting an operating state of the subsystem according to the driving style.
US08370031B2
A digging machine. The machine includes a rod having a central bore with at least two strain gauges angled relative to each other, a hoist rope, and a CPU configured to create a calibration table of a plurality of outputs from each of the two strain gauges, given various rope tensions and rope angles, determine an unknown rope tension and rope angle, use the output from one strain gauge and create a first set of data point angle and tension pairs from plurality of calibration outputs that correspond to the one output from one strain gauge, use the output from the other strain gauge and create a second set of data point angle and tension pairs from the plurality of calibration outputs that correspond to the one output from other strain gauge, and determine, based on where said two sets of data points intersect, rope tension and rope angle.
US08370010B2
A stop range changing unit changes an engine stop range, which is a cruise range in which an operation of an engine is stopped, based on a type of fuel that is burned in the engine and that is determined by a fuel type determination unit. Therefore, the engine is stopped or started up under a cruise condition that suits the fuel type. Accordingly, even if start-up performance of the engine varies due to variation of the fuel type, unfavorable effects of the variation in the start-up performance of the engine on a smooth motion of a hybrid vehicle is alleviated.
US08369993B2
A calibrating technique is provided for the position/attitude or only the position of an arm tip of a robot, such as an articulated type of robot. At plural positions, respective n pieces of errors (Δφn, wherein n is a positive integer larger than a value obtained by dividing the number of unknown parameters by 6 or 3) are calculated. Each error is a difference between a position of the arm tip measured and a position commanded by control. An inter-error difference (Δεy (1≦y≦n−1)) between a reference error (Δφm (1≦m≦n)) arbitrarily selected from the n-piece errors (Δφn) and other errors (Δφx (x≦n, except for m)) other than the reference error (Δφm) is calculated. A parameter, which is a basis for calculating the inter-error differences (Δεy), is made to converge until a sum of absolute values of the inter-error differences (Δεy) becomes within a given threshold (ε0 (ε0>0)).
US08369992B2
A robotic system includes a humanoid robot with multiple compliant joints, each moveable using one or more of the actuators, and having sensors for measuring control and feedback data. A distributed controller controls the joints and other integrated system components over multiple high-speed communication networks. Diagnostic, prognostic, and health management (DPHM) modules are embedded within the robot at the various control levels. Each DPHM module measures, controls, and records DPHM data for the respective control level/connected device in a location that is accessible over the networks or via an external device. A method of controlling the robot includes embedding a plurality of the DPHM modules within multiple control levels of the distributed controller, using the DPHM modules to measure DPHM data within each of the control levels, and recording the DPHM data in a location that is accessible over at least one of the high-speed communication networks.
US08369987B2
An apparatus, method and system are presented for delivering multi-media products using a self-service kiosk. The kiosk delivers the multi-media product on a DVD or electronically downloads the multi-media product via high-speed communications to a portable device. The high-speed communications allows the multi-media product to be downloaded in relatively short time period.
US08369983B2
A fitting apparatus includes a robot arm having, at the forward end thereof, a gripper for holding a workpiece, a force detector for detecting a force and moment received by the workpiece held by the gripper, and a controller for controlling an operation of the robot arm. The controller includes a motion command generating unit for generating an operation command to fit two workpieces to each other, and an operation command correcting unit for correcting the operation command so as to correct the position of the gripper in a direction perpendicular to the fitting direction and the orientation of the gripper around an axis perpendicular to the fitting direction until the detected force and moment become less than or equal to a threshold value, based on either maximum values of the force and moment detected by the force detector while the two workpieces are in contact with each other or the force and moment detected by the force detector when the two workpieces first come into contact with each other.
US08369980B2
A method of operating a machine tool, e.g., an electrical discharge machine, and a machine tool system with a machine, e.g. an electrical discharge machine, for machining a workpiece may include numerous configurable modules (DRIVE; GEN; CONTROL) to perform at least one of controlling, monitoring and carrying out of the machining of a workpiece. The modules (DRIVE; GEN; CONTROL) are arranged on the machine and are linked by a data network to a node for at least one of sending data to the node and receiving data from the node.
US08369974B2
A computer-based method and system to play back an audio file, and to display and animate a virtual phonograph turntable on a touch-screen similar to the movement of a record and stylus in a conventional physical turntable. A user may manipulate and control playback of the audio file by using the touchscreen to touch, move and drag the virtual record or stylus on the screen. The audio file playback is modified in accordance with the user's input, resulting in playback that is similar to what would occur if corresponding touching and movement were performed on a conventional turntable. The system may playback and mix from multiple sources under user control, which may be saved, recorded or exported for future use.
US08369973B2
Asynchronous sample rate conversion for use in a digital audio receiver is disclosed. Different algorithms are applied for the upsampling and downsampling cases. In the upsampling case, the input signal is upsampled and filtered, before the application of a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. In the downsampling case, the input signal is filtered by an FIR filter, and then filtered and downsampled. The FIR coefficients of the fractional delay FIR filter are calculated by evaluation of polynomial expressions over intervals of the filter impulse response, at times corresponding to the input sample points.
US08369967B2
An alarm system controller is provided, having a packet data network interface; a security alarm system interface configured to communicate with security alarm sensors; and a controller configured to receive at least one input from the security alarm system interface, to process the at least one input to determine an alarm condition, and to communicate the alarm condition and a markup language interface through the packet data network interface. The packet data network interface may communicate with the Internet. An environmental control system interface may also be provided to communicate with an environmental control system and to communicate the markup language interface through the packet data network interface, wherein the packet data network interface is configured to control the environmental control system. The markup language interface may be, for example HTML or XML.
US08369963B2
Disclosed herein are circuits and methods for a multi-electrode implantable stimulator device incorporating one decoupling capacitor in the current path established via at least one cathode electrode and at least one anode electrode. In one embodiment, the decoupling capacitor may be hard-wired to a dedicated anode on the device. The cathodes are selectively activatable via stimulation switches. In another embodiment, any of the electrodes on the devices can be selectively activatable as an anode or cathode. In this embodiment, the decoupling capacitor is placed into the current path via selectable anode and cathode stimulation switches. Regardless of the implementation, the techniques allow for the benefits of capacitive decoupling without the need to associate decoupling capacitors with every electrode on the multi-electrode device, which saves space in the body of the device. Although of particular benefit when applied to microstimulators, the disclosed technique can be used with space-saving benefits in any stimulator device.
US08369952B2
At least one of a plurality of disorders of a patient characterized at least in part by vagal activity innervating at least one of a plurality of organs of the patient is treated by a method that includes positioning an electrode on a vagus nerve. An electrical signal is applied to the electrode to modulate vagal activity by an amount selected to treat the disorder. In some embodiments, the disorder is gastroparesis. The signal may be a blocking or a stimulation signal. In some embodiments, the signal is selected to a) at least in part, upregulate neural activity on the vagus nerve without triggering muscular contractility, and, b) increase pancreobilliary output.
US08369943B2
An implantable neural stimulation system includes an implantable medical device having a neural stimulation circuit and at least one implantable lead configured to allow one or more stimulation electrodes to be placed in one or more lymphatic vessels of a patient, such as the patient's thoracic duct and/or vessels branching from the thoracic duct. Neural stimulation pulses are delivered from the implantable medical device to one or more target regions adjacent to the thoracic duct or the vessels branching from the thoracic duct through the one or more stimulation electrodes.
US08369942B2
A method may include placing a first device on a first side of a skin portion of a subject and transferring a material through the skin portion of the subject from the first device to a subdermal second device disposed on a second side of the skin portion of the subject.
US08369940B2
Described here are implantable devices and methods for monitoring physiological information relating to sleep. The implantable devices are generally designed to include at least one sensor for sensing physiological information, a processor for processing the physiological information using low computational power to detect a sleep stage, and a battery. The detected sleep stage information may then be used to indicate sleep quality, identify or monitor a medical condition, or guide treatment thereof.
US08369938B2
An apparatus comprises an implantable cardiac signal sensing circuit and a controller circuit. The implantable cardiac signal sensing circuit provides a sensed depolarization signal from a ventricle and a sensed depolarization signal from an atrium. The controller circuit includes an onset detection circuit and a classification circuit. The onset detection circuit detects an onset episode that includes fast cardiac depolarizations and identifies a depolarization that initiates the onset episode. The classification circuit classifies the onset episode as supra-ventricular tachycardia (SVT) when the initiating onset episode is identified in the atrium and the number of atrial depolarizations is greater than or equal to the number of ventricular depolarizations during the onset episode, and as ventricular tachycardia (VT) when the initiating onset depolarization is identified in the ventricle and the number of ventricular depolarizations is greater than the number of atrial depolarizations during the onset episode.
US08369925B2
A method to derive anatomical structures from non-invasive imaging technologies is provided. Non-invasive imaging technologies are computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), surface scans and others. Imaging data obtained by a non-invasive technology is used to create a surface contour. The imaging data is transmitted to a rapid prototyping apparatus as readable data. With this readable data the rapid prototyping apparatus establishes a positive or negative surface model, such as a fixation device, a mask, or a prosthesis, or other instruments for medical purposes.
US08369920B2
Devices for treating a patient by measuring a condition, such as the partial pressure of CO2, at a location on a mucosal membrane surface in the mouth region of the patient, includes a sensor (14, 16) with an end (44, 46) that lies against the mucosal surface, and a seal (20) that extends 360° around the sensor end and presses against the mucosal surface. The sensor end and the seal lie on the first end portion (24) of a holder (22) which has a second end portion (26) that presses against the outside of the patient at a location opposite the sensor and seal. The holder is a clasp which can be formed as a single piece of resilient material that extends in a loop, or which can be formed in the manner of a clothespin with a spring that pivots two bars to urge their end portions towards each other.
US08369911B2
A miniundulator that includes a first bobbin and a second bobbin parallel to and spaced from the first bobbin, and a superconductive wire wound around the outer surfaces of the first bobbin and the second bobbin, and method for the assembly of the miniundulator are disclosed.
US08369900B2
A mobile terminal and an operation section display method are provided, in which predetermined display data can be displayed in both of key frame inside regions and key frame outside regions in an operation section of the mobile terminal. This is achieved by the mobile terminal including the operation section, a display device, an application control section and a display control section. The operation section has a plurality of keys. The display device displays operation section display data for the operation section. The application control section controls an application instructed by the user who operates the plurality of keys to start. The operation section display data is supplied to the display device when the application is started and the operation section display data is displayed on a region included in the operation section and in both of key frame inside regions and key frame outside regions of each of the plurality of keys.
US08369889B2
Aspects of a method and system for sharing a single antenna for frequency modulation (FM) transmission, FM reception and near field communication (NFC) are presented. Aspects of a system may include at least one circuit that enables, via a single antenna, simultaneous transmission of an FM signal and reception of an FM signal, and transmission of an NFC signal or reception of an NFC signal.
US08369886B2
A method and apparatus for performing state transition of a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) which supports enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) in the CELL_FACH state is disclosed. Uplink data is transmitted via an E-DCH after a state transition to the CELL_FACH state.
US08369878B2
A method for providing a personalized multimedia messaging service, wherein the method includes obtaining an MMS message. Recipient according to preferences of the at least one targeted recipient, thereby producing a personalized MMS message, and transmitting the personalized MMS message to the at least one targeted recipient indicate that the at least one targeted recipient is not interested in receiving the personalized MMS message.
US08369869B2
In a method and a device for determining a geographical position of a node in an ad-hoc network, distance circles of at least two nodes that adjoin the node are determined. In addition, points of intersection between the distance circles of the at least two nodes adjoining the node are identified. A main set of points of intersection is determined from among the set of the identified or determined points of intersection, the main set comprising points of intersection located in the vicinity of an estimated position of the node. The geographical position of the node is then determined by the main set of points of intersection.
US08369868B2
An IP connection is released when a SUPL-based periodic triggered service starts, so as to prevent consumption of network resources. After releasing the IP connection, if a location is measured thereby to generate location information, only the fact that the location has been measured is notified to a requester, and the requester is allowed to receive the location information only when a secure transmission is ensured after the notification, thereby avoiding the location information from being exposed externally.
US08369864B2
The present invention provides a method for interference cancellation in a wireless communication system. One embodiment of a method includes accessing information indicative of one or more first signals transmitted by one or more first mobile units from one or more first sectors. The method also includes accessing information indicative of one or more second signals transmitted by one or more second mobile units from one or more second sectors different than the first sectors. The method further includes canceling interference caused in the second signal(s) by the first signal(s) using the accessed information indicative of the first signal(s) and the second signal(s). The method also includes jointly scheduling and allocating resources to one or more mobile stations in one or more sectors of one or more base stations.
US08369862B2
A method for controlling transmission power in a mobile communication system is provided. According to the method, a serving base station arranges a plurality of terminals in ascending order according to Carrier-to-Interference-and-Noise-Ratios (CINRs) based on the CINR measured by the plurality of terminals, classifies the plurality of terminals in one of a first group and a second group according to the order, allocates a subchannel of a data region corresponding to the first group from among a plurality of data regions included in the uplink frame to a terminal classified as the first group, and allocates a subchannel of a data region corresponding to the second group from among the data regions to a terminal classified as the second group.
US08369856B2
The present disclosure relates to a mobile terminal device for a mobile telecommunication system. The device includes electronics for receiving a telephone call, electronics for receiving packet-oriented radio signals, and electronics for selecting at least one transmission service which is transmitted using the packet-oriented radio signals. The mobile terminal device is adapted to receive a signal regarding a time slot from the network of the mobile telecommunication system, the time slot being determined in accordance with the selected transmission service. During the at least one time slot the reception of the packet-oriented radio signal is suspended in order to receive a radio paging signal which signals a telephone call addressed to the mobile transmission device so that the mobile terminal device remains accessible to telephone calls during reception of the packet-oriented radio signals.
US08369850B2
A system and method for detecting and storing information regarding a mobile communications device within a mobile communications network. Initially, a first data record is received at a subscriber/device database comprising subscriber/device data. Next, a second data record is received at the subscriber/device database comprising additional subscriber/device data. A first data record of a subscriber may then be compared to a second data record of the same subscriber, and if the first data record is different from the second data record a service provider may be notified.
US08369849B2
It is possible to provide a radio communication terminal, a radio communication terminal communication control method, and a radio communication system which can effectively capture a communication system and try connection by a communication method desired by a user even if judgment of a blind spot is made when a transmission operation is performed. The radio communication terminal includes at least: a communication system selection unit (185); and a capture instruction function execution unit (186). The communication system selection unit (185) reports a capture failure to a capture instruction function execution unit (186) only when all the communication systems in which the radio communication terminal can perform a system scan cannot be captured. Moreover, the capture instruction function execution unit (186) does not issue a system scan again unless the capture failure is reported as a result of all the system scan from the communication system selection unit (185).
US08369848B1
The present disclosure introduces a system and method for distributing content. Content is stored on a server located on a vehicle prior to departure by the vehicle for a destination. A portable device is provided by a passenger on the vehicle. A communication link is established between the server and the portable device, and the content is transmitted to the portable device.
US08369841B2
Invented is a facility service to be used as a component service for building compound wireless mobile communication services (CWSs). The name ascribed to this facility service is Invoke. The purpose of Invoke is to detect the events signifying that the CWS operation is to commence and then initiate (or invoke) the CWS execution. The events represent variables within a Boolean expression parameter of an Invoke service. The Boolean expression allows Invoke to be very versatile with respect to the possible combination of events for CWS invocation. Versatility is enhanced by the wide variety of events that are recognized; e.g., entering a geographical location, recognizing an audio signal, reaching a time of day, observing a specific caller ID. The Invoke facility service contains other parameters useful at CWS invocation; e.g., CWS password protection, CWS initialization of constants and variables, linkage to other CWSs to acquire data.
US08369840B2
A method for managing visual voicemail messages includes displaying a list of voicemail messages on a telecommunications handset, receiving user commands for operating on the voicemail messages including a delete message command and in response to a delete message command, marking a voicemail message for deletion with a delete timestamp and moving the voicemail message to a Deleted Messages folder. A Deleted Message Age Indicator function processes to control permanent deletion of voicemail messages in the Deleted Messages folder based on delete timestamps and a global Delete Time value in cooperation with a visual voicemail platform.
US08369839B2
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a communication module, a content information acquisition module, and a communication state notification module. The communication module executes close proximity wireless transfer. The content information acquisition module acquires content information about at least one content item to be transmitted between the communication module and an external device by negotiation. The communication state notification module executes either a first communication state notification processing of outputting a start tone indicative of start of transmission of the at least one content item and an end tone indicative of end of transmission of the at least one content item or a second communication state notification processing of suppressing output of the start tone and outputting the end tone, based on the acquired content information, when the at least one content item is transmitted between the communication module and the external device.
US08369837B2
Methods, program products, and systems for task management based on travel distance are disclosed. In general, in one aspect, a method executed on a mobile device can include receiving a request to perform a task in a first subsystem (e.g., an application subsystem) of the mobile device. The request can indicate that the task is to be performed when the mobile device travels at least a threshold distance. The mobile device can determine a duration of silence. The mobile device can configure a second subsystem (e.g., a baseband operating system) of the mobile device to send a notification to the first subsystem notifying that the mobile device has traveled after at least the duration of silence. The first subsystem can receive the notification and determine that the threshold distance has been satisfied based on the received notification. The first subsystem can perform the task upon the determining.
US08369827B2
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a subscriber profile repository (SPR) for determining a subscriber associated with a set of subscription identifiers. The subscriber profile repository may include: an interface which receives a subscriber profile request including at least one subscription identifier; a subscriber record database that includes a set of subscription identifiers; a subscriber record cache that contains a subset of the records contained in the subscriber record database; and a search manager that queries the subscriber record cache using each subscription identifier and queries the subscriber record database when the subscriber record cache does not contain a record matching a subscription identifier. The SPR may also include a results manager that compares subscriber records and updates the cache when a result is found in the subscriber records database. Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method performed by the SPR and a machine-readable medium including instructions for an SPR.
US08369826B2
Example methods and apparatus to identify wireless subscriber activity status are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes identifying a market of interest associated with wireless services, and creating a list of telephone numbers (TNs) from the identified market of interest. The example method also includes initializing each TN in the list of TNs as dormant, monitoring each TN in the list of TNs during a monitoring duration for an indication of activity, and when the indication of activity is received, associating one of the TNs in the list of TNs with an active status.
US08369825B2
A switched emergency call (e.g., a 911 call, an alarm company call) forwarded by a telematics call center is converted into a session initiation protocol (SIP) packetized phone call at the call center, and routed over an IP network, for presentation to an emergency services gateway, which connects to a selective router via dedicated circuits, gaining full access to the Enhanced 911 network. This provides a PSAP receiving a call from a telematics call center or other call center with all features available in an Enhanced 911 network, e.g., callback number of the 911 caller, and location of the 911 caller. Location of the caller is provided using a VoIP positioning center (VPC), queried from the call center. In this way, the switched emergency call is converted into a SIP packetized phone call and routed without further passage through the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
US08369824B2
A network component is provided that includes a processor configured, upon the network component receiving an IMS (Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem) emergency call from a user equipment (UE) 110, to detect in the emergency call an indicator requesting the network component to restrict presentation of private information related to the UE 110. The processor is further configured, when the indicator is present, to transmit the emergency call without at least some of the private information to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) 130.
US08369817B2
An analog finite impulse response (AFIR) filter including at least one variable transconductance block having an input for receiving an input voltage and being adapted to sequentially apply each of a plurality of transconductance levels to the input voltage during at least one of a plurality of successive time periods to generate an output current at an output of the variable transconductance block, the at least one variable transconductance block including a plurality of fixed transconductance blocks each receiving the input voltage and capable of being independently activated to supply the output current; and a capacitor coupled to the output of the variable transconductance block to receive the output current and provide an output voltage of the filter.
US08369810B2
The present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computer program product, wherein a level of a first signal received via first channel is determined. Additionally, a moving average of a plurality of determined levels of the first signal is obtained, and the moving average is subtracted from the determined level. The subtraction result is then used for estimating a noise variance of a second signal received via a second channel.
US08369807B2
A receiver includes a frequency translation bandpass filter (FTBPF) and an RF receiver section. The RF receiver section includes an amplifier section, a phase information detection module, an amplitude information detection module, and analog to digital conversion (ADC) modules. The FTBPF is operable to filter an inbound radio frequency (RF) signal to produce a filtered inbound RF signal. The amplifier section is operable to amplify the filtered inbound RF signal to produce an amplified inbound RF signal. The phase information detection module, when enabled, is operable to determine phase information from the amplified inbound RF signal. The amplitude information detection module, when enabled, is operable to determine amplitude information from the amplified inbound RF signal. A first one of the ADCs is operable to convert the phase information into digital phase information and a second one of the ADCs is operable to convert the amplitude information into digital amplitude information.
US08369798B2
A method and system for wireless communication is provided and may include generating a single analog quadrature signal in a chip including RF transmitters and receivers using a baseband processor, and generating output RF signals based on the quadrature signal in corresponding RF transmitters. The output RF signals may be communicated to the RF receivers via a feedback path including circuitry external to the RF receivers. The dedicated circuitry may include a transmit/receive switch and/or an on-chip or off-chip balun. The quadrature signal may include in-phase and quadrature-phase components. The output RF signal communicated via the feedback path may be down-converted utilizing mixers in the RF receivers and communicated to the baseband processor. Distortion in the quadrature signal may be estimated utilizing the communicated down-converted output RF signals and subsequently generated quadrature signals may be predistorted based on the distortion estimation.
US08369795B2
Systems and methods for providing notifications to players of a gaming console of messages and system notifications. A controller and the gaming console include a four quadrant LED indicator. Each quadrant of the ring may be illuminated individually or together using an LED to indicate the messages and notifications. The quadrants may be illuminated in one of three colors and/or in patterns to indicate different types of notifications. Onscreen displays may be used to supplement the LED indicators to convey information to users. A method of binding and discovering a controller is also provided where the controller may be bound to a gaming console. After a controller is bound to a console, the controller may be discovered by the gaming console where it is assigned a virtual port and enabled for game play.
US08369789B2
An interference cancelling station ICS includes a transmission weight factor calculating unit calculating a transmission weight factor w2 and an interference cancelling data signal transmitting unit generating an interference cancelling data signal by multiplying, by the transmission weight factor w2, a data signal transmitted by a base station BSb of the wireless communication system B and transmitting the interference cancelling data signal in synchronization with timing with which the base station BSb of a wireless communication system B transmits the data signal, and a mobile station MSa of a wireless communication system A receives a data signal transmitted by a base station BSa of the wireless communication system A, the data signal having cancelled interference from the base station BSb of the wireless communication system B.
US08369788B2
A method for reducing inter-cell interference and a method for transmitting a signal by a collaborative MIMO scheme, in a communication system having a multi-cell environment are disclosed. An example of a method for transmitting, by a mobile station, precoding information in a collaborative MIMO communication system includes determining a precoding matrix set including precoding matrices of one more base stations including a serving base station, based on signal strength of the serving base station, and transmitting information about the precoding matrix set to the serving base station. A mobile station in an edge of a cell performs a collaborative MIMO mode or inter-cell interference mitigation mode using the information about the precoding matrix set collaboratively with neighboring base stations.
US08369785B2
Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide compatibility among incompatible accessories and portable media players. One example provides an adapter having a connector receptacle to mate with an accessory's connector insert and a connector insert to mate with a portable media player's connector receptacle. Another example provides an adapter having a direct connection between pins on the connector insert and pins on the connector receptacle that are used for compatible signals. Another example provides an adapter including a DC-to-DC converter that receives a first power supply from an accessory and provides a second power supply to a portable media player. Another translates signals using different signaling technologies. Authentication and identification circuitry may also be included. Other examples may employ wireless technologies instead of either or both the connector insert and connector receptacle.
US08369783B2
A method for controlling a communication apparatus includes communicating with an external device through close proximity wireless communication, receiving a remote control signal transmitted from a remote controller, storing a remote control setting which enables or disables an operation of the remote controller, making a determination as to whether a connection between the communication apparatus and the external device through the close proximity wireless communication is established, and controlling an operation of the remote controller for the communication apparatus on the basis of the determination.
US08369779B2
Methods and apparatuses for determining the wearing status of body worn devices are disclosed. In one example, RSSI values are processed to identify the wearing status of a body worn device.
US08369768B2
A cleaning blade assembly within a printing device is positioned to contact a surface to be cleaned. There is a first opening within the cleaning blade assembly and a first pin within the first opening. There is also a second opening within the cleaning blade assembly, and a second pin within the second opening. The first and second pins connect the cleaning blade assembly to the printing device. The first pin has a first cam surface that is rounded and is off-center with respect to the axis of the first pin. The cam surface is parallel to the axis of the first pin and is positioned within the first opening such that rotation of the first pin within the first opening causes the cleaning blade assembly to move in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the first pin.
US08369766B2
A cleaning device includes: a first scraping member that scrapes off a developer on a surface of a moving body that circularly moves; a second scraping member that is disposed downstream from the first scraping member in a moving direction of the moving body, and that scrapes off residuals remaining on the surface of the moving body; a container having: a first housing portion that houses the developer scraped off by the first scraping member, as a recovered material; and a second housing portion that houses the residuals scraped off by the second scraping member; a discharge port that is disposed in the first housing portion, wherein the developer in the first housing portion is discharged to an outside of the container through the discharge port; and a conveying member that conveys the recovered material housed in the first housing portion to the discharge port.
US08369763B2
A pressure roller forms a nip for contacting a heating member to pinch and convey a heat recording material. The roller includes a core metal and an elastic layer containing filler. The elastic layer containing the filler includes thermal conductive filler with a length of not less than 0.05 mm and not more than 1 mm with a thermal conductivity λf in the longitudinal direction in a range of λf≧500 W/(m·k), being dispersed in not less than 5 vol % and not more than 40 vol %. The elastic layer containing the filler has a thermal conductivity λy in the longitudinal direction perpendicular to a recording material conveyance direction, of λy≧2.5 W/(m·k) and an ASKER-C hardness of the filler is not more than 60 degrees. A solid rubber elastic layer with a thermal conductivity λ in a thickness direction of not less than 0.16 W/(m·k) and not more than 0.40 W/(m·k) is included.
US08369762B2
A heating device includes: a heating member heating a recording medium; a pressure member forming a heating pressure portion with the heating member, through which the recording medium passes; a tensioning member facing the pressure member across the heating member, and providing a tension to the heating member; a peeling member placed downstream of the heating pressure portion and adjacent to the tensioning member, and peeling off the recording medium from the heating member; and an inside heating unit heating the heating member and controlling meandering of the heating member, the inside heating unit including: a secured center shaft; an outer circumferential portion rotating about the center shaft; a heater placed inside the outer circumferential portion to heat thereof from inside; and a heat reflecting member secured to the center shaft and placed at each end portion of the outer circumferential portion, and that reflects heat from the heater.
US08369761B2
A heating device includes: a heating member heating a recording medium by being heated through electromagnetic induction; a pressure member configured to come into contact with and separate from the heating member, and forming a nip portion between the pressure member and the heating member by pressing and coming into contact with the heating member; a first elastic member arranged inside the heating member, and elastically deformed at the nip portion by the pressure member; and any one of a second elastic member and a support member. The second elastic member is arranged between the first elastic member and the heating member while being fixed thereto, and has a larger elastic deformation ratio at the nip portion than the first elastic member. The support member supports the heating member and the first elastic member so as to form a gap therebetween, and rotates them with a rotational drive force.
US08369753B2
A developer supply container detachably mountable to a developer receiving apparatus and settable in a developer receiving apparatus by a setting operation including at least a rotation toward a setting position, includes a containing portion for containing the developer; a rotatable discharging member for discharging the developer out of said containing portion; drive transmitting means, engageable with a driving gear provided in said developer receiving apparatus and rotatable in a direction opposite the setting direction, for transmitting a rotating force from said driving gear to said discharging member.
US08369743B2
A process cartridge is provided for detachably mounting to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus. The process cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a drum unit containing the electrophotographic photosensitive drum, and a developing unit which contains the developing roller and which is movable relative to the drum unit such that developing roller is movable between a contact position in which the developing roller is contacted to the electrophotographic photosensitive drum and a spaced position in which the developing roller is spaced from the electrophotographic photosensitive drum. The process cartridge also includes a force receiving member capable of taking an operating position for moving the developing frame from the contacting position to the spacing position by receiving an external force, and a stand-by position retracted from the operating position.
US08369740B2
Remanufactured toner cartridge with added cleaning roller for the primary charge roller, and methods
A remanufactured laser printer toner cartridge, and methods, having an added primary charge roller cleaning roller assembly. In an exemplary embodiment, the cleaning roller assembly engages the bare ends the primary charge roller shafts; installation of the cleaning roller assembly into the cartridge is accomplished by reinstalling the primary charge roller, with the assembly, into the cartridge's primary charge roller shaft saddles. The cleaning roller may be adapted to rotate through contact with the primary charge roller.
US08369729B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device for forming a toner image on an image conveying member on the basis of an input image signal; a transfer device for transferring the toner image from the image conveying member onto an image receiving member; a bias applying device for applying a transfer bias to the transfer device when the toner image is transferred from the image conveying member onto the image receiving member; an executing portion for executing a test mode in which a test image is formed on the image conveying member and is then transferred onto the image receiving member; a detecting device for detecting a current passing through the transfer device in the test mode; a control device for controlling an image forming condition of the image forming device on the basis of an output of the detecting device; and a setting device for setting a test bias to be applied from the bias applying device at a value larger than the transfer bias in terms of an absolute value.
US08369718B2
An image forming apparatus, which has a plurality of image forming units, comprises a plurality of cartridges adapted to supply developer; a plurality of supply members adapted to supply developer to the image forming units from a plurality of the cartridges; a drive unit adapted to drive a plurality of the supply members; and a control unit adapted to supply developer from a plurality of the cartridges by selectively operating a plurality of the supply members based on the amount of developer accommodated in the cartridges.
US08369716B2
An integrated wavelength selectable photodiode includes a device package having an input that receives an optical signal. A set-and-hold, thermally tunable thin-film filter is positioned in the device package and includes an input that is optically coupled to the input of the device package. The set-and-hold, thermally tunable thin-film filter passes light with a predetermined optical bandwidth to an output. An optical element collimates an incident optical beam onto the input of the set-and-hold, thermally tunable thin-film filter. A detector is positioned in the device package and includes an input that is optically coupled to the output of the set-and-hold, thermally tunable thin-film filter. The detector detects data received by the integrated wavelength selectable photodiode.
US08369713B2
In the present invention, unlike a conventional circuit, discrimination is not made by integrating a logical code that includes “0” and “1” to some extent and produced from a random code, but repetition of an identical pattern of a well-known preamble signal added to a head portion of a signal is discriminated when a bit-rate of the signal is changed. More specifically, the repetition of the identical pattern is converted into a consecutive identical signal to generate the consecutive identical signal (having a length of tens bits to thousands bits). Although the consecutive identical signal is longer than a same-code continuation length included in the signal, and is shorter than a time constant necessary to the conventional circuit by about one to three digits. Therefore, an integration time can be shortened to the same degree as the generated consecutive identical signal length, and the bit-rate can be discriminated at high speed within a preamble signal receiving time.
US08369709B2
An optical transceiver includes a substrate, a plurality of laser components, a bracket and a plurality of lenses. The substrate defines a plurality of through holes, a plurality of receiving grooves and at least two fixing holes. The laser components are received in the plurality of receiving grooves and installed on the substrate. The bracket includes a top cover with an upper surface and one or more side walls. The one or more sidewalls include at least two positioning posts and one or more fixing surfaces. The positioning posts are engaged with the fixing holes to position the bracket to the substrate. The fixing surfaces are affixed on the substrate by an adhesive. The one or more sidewalls define one or more through channels extending from the one or more fixing surface to the upper surface. The lenses are installed on the bracket and correspond to the laser components.
US08369703B2
There is provided a moving picture camera. The moving picture camera includes a case having an internal space, a frame supporting a camera module in the internal space, a printed circuit board on which circuit devices are mounted, the circuit devices receiving and processing a moving picture signal captured by the camera module, and an electrostatic transfer gasket interposed between the frame and the printed circuit board and transferring static electricity from the frame to the printed circuit board.
US08369696B2
Example embodiments relate to micro-heaters, micro-heater arrays, methods for manufacturing the micro-heater, and methods for forming a pattern using the micro-heater. A micro-heater according to example embodiments may include a metal pattern formed on a substrate. A support may be formed beneath the metal pattern, the support securing the metal pattern to the substrate while spacing the metal pattern apart from the substrate. A spacer may be formed on the substrate and adjacent to the metal pattern, a first distance from the substrate to the top surface of the spacer being greater than a second distance from the substrate to the top surface of the metal pattern. The distance between the micro-heater and a target substrate positioned above the metal pattern may be controlled by the spacer, thus allowing the formation of a relatively fine pattern on the target substrate.
US08369681B2
When a mark key of a remote control is pressed by a user during fast-forward reproduction of video images and audio sounds, a system control unit searches a position of a video image which is presumed as a scene change closest to and on rewind side from the position of the video image reproduced at the time the mark key is pressed. This search is performed, based on rate of change in amount of data (bit rate) of the compressed video data used per unit time to generate the video signals by a video and audio signal processing unit. The system control unit then sets, as a mark position, the position of the video image presumed as the scene change.
US08369674B2
An optic device includes a multilayer zone forming a redirection section for redirecting and transmitting photons through total internal reflection, each multilayer zone including a high index material having a first real refractive index n1 and a first absorption coefficient β1, a low index material having a second real refractive index n2 and a second absorption coefficient β2, and a grading zone disposed between the high index material and the low index material and including a grading layer having a third real refractive index n3 and a third absorption coefficient β3, wherein n1>n3>n2.
US08369670B2
An optical device is provided having a solid state nonlinear material with a nanostructured extent, in at least one dimension, that is less than about 10 nm or that is at a temperature of less than about 77 K. An electronic band gap, EGap, of the material is at least about twice as large as an energy of a photon with a wavelength, λ, equal to an operational wavelength of the device. The material is characterized by a switching figure of merit, ξ, having a value that is at least about 2π. A dielectric structure is around at least one dimension of the nonlinear material in a geometric arrangement having a characteristic photonic band gap that at least partially overlaps the electronic band gap of the material. At least one waveguide is disposed at the dielectric structure in sufficient proximity with the material for coupling light to the material.
US08369667B2
Downhole cables are described that are configured to protect internal structures that may be detrimentally impacted by exposure to the downhole environment, by protecting such structures by at least two protective layers. In some examples, the structures to be protected may be housed in a protective tube housed within the protective outer sheath. The described configuration enables the use of structures such as polymer fibers in the cables for strength and load-bearing capability by protecting the fibers, by multiple protective layers, from exposure to gases or fluids within a wellbore.
US08369661B2
The optical multiplexer system comprises an optical multiplexer, an output path and an adjustable beam steering element. The optical multiplexer comprises an input port characterized by an original acceptance range. The output path is disposed relative to the optical multiplexer such that a light beam incident on the input port within the original acceptance range enters the output path. The adjustable beam steering element is located adjacent the input port and is adjustable such that a light beam incident on the beam steering element within an enhanced acceptance range enters the output path as an output beam. The enhanced acceptance range is at least angularly greater than the original acceptance range.
US08369656B2
This disclosure describes various exemplary user interfaces, methods, and computer program products for the interactively ranking image search results refinement method using a color layout. The method includes receiving a text query for an image search, presenting image search results in a structured presentation based on the text query and information from an interest color layout. The process creates image search results that may be selected by the user based on color selection palettes or color layout specification schemes. Then the process ranks the image search results by sorting the results according to similarity scores between color layouts from the image search results and the interest color layout from a user based on the color selection palettes and the color layout specification schemes.
US08369653B1
Systems and methods for upsampling input images may evaluate potential upsampling solutions with respect to an objective function that is dependent on a sparse derivative prior on second derivative(s) of the potential upsampling solutions to identify an acceptable higher-resolution output image. The objective function may also be dependent on fidelity term(s) and/or sparse derivative prior(s) on first derivative(s) of potential upsampling solutions. The methods may include applying the iteratively re-weighted least squares procedure in minimizing the objective function and generating improved candidate solutions from an initial solution. The identified solution may be stored as a higher-resolution version of the input image in memory, and made available to subsequent operations in an image editing application or other graphics application. The methods may produce sharp results that are also smooth along edges. The methods may be implemented as program instructions stored on computer-readable storage media, executable by a CPU and/or GPU.
US08369652B1
Described is a system for finding salient regions in imagery. The system improves upon the prior art by receiving an input image of a scene and dividing the image into a plurality of image sub-regions. Each sub-region is assigned a coordinate position within the image such that the sub-regions collectively form the input image. A plurality of local saliency maps are generated, where each local saliency map is based on a corresponding sub-region and a coordinate position representative of the corresponding sub-region. Finally, the plurality of local saliency maps is combined according to their coordinate positions to generate a single global saliency map of the input image of the scene.
US08369648B2
An image correction apparatus calculates a feature value indicative of an average brightness of an input image from the pixel values of the input image and determines a pixel value at a boundary for correcting each pixel of the input image to make it brighter or darker by using the calculated feature value of the input image. The image correction apparatus calculates, with respect to the pixel value of each pixel of the input image, an area for determining a contrast correction amount for a pixel value smaller than the pixel value at the determined boundary such that a pixel is to be made darker and calculates an area for determining a contrast correction amount for a pixel value larger than the pixel value at the determined boundary such that a pixel is to be made brighter, thereby correcting the contrast of the input image by using the calculated areas.
US08369644B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus for reducing motion blur in a video signal, comprising an analysing means for determining edge characteristics of an input video signal and for providing motion estimation of an edge within said input video signal, generation means for generating a synthetic detail signal dependent on said edge characteristics and said motion estimation, and an adding means for adding the detail signal to the edge within the input video signal and outputting an output video signal.The present invention further relates to a method for reducing motion blur in a video signal.
US08369632B2
An image processing apparatus includes image processors and a margin storing buffer. The image processors read an input image data from a frame memory for each image data of a plurality of block lines each having a first number of pixels along the columns and a second number of pixels along the rows. The margin storing buffer stores the image data of the margin portion used also in the image processing of the image data of the next block line, among the image data of the present block line input to each of the image processors. Each of the image processors performs the image processing on an image data including the image data of the present block line and the image data of the margin portion, at the time of image processing on the image data of the next block line.
US08369628B2
A video encoding device including a region division section for dividing a frame image constituting video data into a plurality of regions as encoding target regions, an encoding section for encoding an image of each region, an inverse transformation section and an addition section for generating reproduced image of the encoded image, a storage section for storing reproduced images, a prediction generation section for searching a region which is highly correlated to a reproduced image of a template region, which is adjacent to the region of the encoding target image in a predetermined positional relationship and is a part of the reproduced image, from the reproduced image, and determining a prediction signal based on the searched region and the above-mentioned positional relationship, and a subtraction section for generating a difference signal between the prediction signal and the encoding target image as a signal for encoding.
US08369619B2
An apparatus and method of correcting skin color in an image is disclosed. The method may include extracting skin colors; analyzing the extracted skin colors to calculate axes of a different vector space; transforming the extracted skin colors to the different vector space; using the result of the transformed skin colors to identify a color from an input image as a skin color; and correcting the color identified as a skin color. The different vector space may be a principal components analysis (PCA) vector space. Extracting skin colors may include detecting a face region as a skin region in an input image and extracting skin colors from the face region. A lookup table be generated according to the result of projecting the skin colors to fewer dimensions of the different vector space. Extracting skin colors may include extracting colors from a training image of skin colors.
US08369616B2
A system and method for image retrieval formulated as a game are disclosed. The method includes receiving a user's image category selection, retrieving an image responsive to the user's image category selection from an associated image database, and displaying the retrieved image and a set of candidate color palettes to the user. The set of candidate color palettes includes a correct palette and at least one incorrect palette. The method further includes providing for a user to attempt to identify the correct palette by selecting at least one of the displayed candidate color palettes and, with a computer processor, generating a score based on the user's at least one selection and outputting the score.
US08369595B1
This specification describes technologies relating to biometric authentication based on images of the eye. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include obtaining one or more image regions from a first image of an eye. Each of the image regions may include a view of a respective portion of the white of the eye. The method may further include applying several distinct filters to each of the image regions to generate a plurality of respective descriptors for the region. The several distinct filters may include convolutional filters that are each configured to describe one or more aspects of an eye vasculature and in combination describe a visible eye vasculature in a feature space. A match score may be determined based on the generated descriptors and based on one or more descriptors associated with a second image of eye vasculature.
US08369589B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method for a concurrent transferring of an image stream gathered by an in-vivo sensing device, including creating a plurality of segments from at least a portion of the image stream and concurrently transferring the created segments. Other embodiments of the present invention provide and system and method for a concurrent processing of an image stream gathered by an in-vivo sensing device, including creating a plurality of segments from at least a portion of the image stream and concurrently processing the created segments.
US08369587B2
A digital signature system includes an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) server and a portable terminal communicating with the EDI server. The portable terminal includes a touch-sensitive display, and a processing unit includes a receiving module configured for receiving a file from the EDI server, a signature mode control module configured for providing a signature file mode for users to select, a signature file creating module configured for recording signature input through the touch-sensitive display and creating a signature file to record the input signature if the signature file mode is selected, and a file combining module configured for combining the signature file and the file from the EDI server into a composite signature file. A related method is also provided.
US08369586B2
A technique for processing a digital image uses face detection to achieve one or more desired image processing parameters. A group of pixels is identified that corresponds to a face image within the digital image. A skin tone is detected for the face image by determining one or more default color or tonal values, or combinations thereof, for the group of pixels. Values of one or more parameters are adjusted for the group of pixels that correspond to the face image based on the detected skin tone.
US08369568B2
Methods and systems for securing digital imagery are provided. In one respect, embedding, compression, encryption, data hiding, and other imaging processing techniques and systems may be provided for digital image security. In one non-limiting example, a method for producing a compressed and encrypted image is provided. An image may be converted into a binary bit stream, and the bit stream may be decomposed into a plurality of segments. A binary sequence based on a first key may be generated and may be used to generate a code matrix. A distance between the code matrix and the distance may be determined for each of the plurality of segments. Using a combined first and second key, a compressed and encrypted image may be obtained.
US08369563B2
A method for automatically detecting fires on Earth's surface using a satellite system is provided. The method includes acquiring multi-spectral images of the Earth at different times, using a multi-spectral satellite sensor, each multi-spectral image being a collection of single-spectral images each associated with a respective wavelength (λ), and each single-spectral image being made up of pixels each indicative of a spectral radiance (Rλ) from a respective area of the Earth. The method also includes providing a model relating the spectral radiances (Rλ) of each pixel in multi-spectral images acquired at different times and physical quantities representing thermodynamic phenomena occurring on the Earth's surface, in the Earth's atmosphere, and related to the Earth and the Sun relative positions. The method further includes computing for each pixel, at a given time, at least the physical quantity in the model representing a possible fire on the Earth's surface.
US08369556B2
A microphone pop filter for attenuating plosive artifacts utilizes a substantially acoustically transparent material configured to define multiple airfoil surfaces that are oriented non-orthogonally relative to an axis defined between an audio source and a microphone diaphragm, with the substantially acoustically transparent material disposed intermediate the audio source and the microphone diaphragm and separated from the microphone diaphragm by an airspace. Plosive artifacts from the audio source may be deflected away from the microphone diaphragm by the airfoil surfaces to reduce the impact of such artifacts on the microphone diaphragm and the resulting electronic signal output therefrom.
US08369552B2
A microphone assembly having a housing, a transducer, and an electronic circuit. The housing has an opening, and the transducer is disposed within that opening. The electronic circuit covers the opening such that the transducer is surrounded by at least the electronic circuit and the housing. The electronic circuit includes a substrate and an amplifier for amplifying the electrical signal into an amplified electrical signal which is coupled to a connection means. The connection means provides a direct electrical connection between the electronic circuit and a receiver. The amplifier is mounted on the substrate and disposed on a side of the substrate of the electronic circuit facing the transducer. The receiver is disposed on a side opposite the side and outside the housing.
US08369551B2
A hearing aid with wireless signal transmission is provided which includes a radio reception unit for wireless reception of modulated and/or coded audio signals, a device to estimate the reception quality of the received audio signal, a device to generate an acoustic limit signal whose level increases when the estimated reception quality of the received audio signal decreases, a device to heterodyne a demodulated and/or decoded audio signal with the limit signal, and a device to output the audio signal heterodyned with the limit signal to a hearing aid wearer. To generate a limit signal, the hearing aid includes a device to generate an impulse response and a device to perform the operation of convolving the demodulated and/or decoded audio signal with the impulse response. This convolution produces a desired signal which appears closer to the hearing aid wearer when the estimated reception quality is better.
US08369547B2
Disclosed is an enclosure for a communication device. The enclosure comprises: a casing for the communication device, the casing having a back side and a casing opening in the back side; a speaker mounted inside the casing and in communication with the casing opening; and a cover shaped to mate with and to cover the casing opening. The cover has: a central portion; a first rail protruding outwardly from a surface of the cover and located in the central portion; a second rail protruding outwardly from the surface and located in the central portion; and a speaker grill having an opening therein providing an air channel for the speaker.
US08369546B2
An ultrasonic transducer having a reduced cost of manufacture. The ultrasonic transducer includes a first insulative retaining layer, a second insulative retaining layer, and a vibrator film layer sandwiched between the first and second retaining layers. The first retaining layer includes a first plurality of apertures formed therethrough, and the second retaining layer includes a second plurality of apertures formed therethrough, in which the second apertures are substantially in registration with the first apertures. The ultrasonic transducer further includes a first cover portion having a plurality of spring/backplate assemblies connected thereto, and a second cover portion. The combination of the first retaining layer, the vibrator film layer, and the second retaining layer is sandwiched between the first and second cover portions of the ultrasonic transducer. The laminated construction of the ultrasonic transducer allows the formation of an array of ultrasonic film transducers using a single piece of ultrasonic vibrator film.
US08369544B2
A microphone component that may be used in many types of enclosures for making contact with a living body for picking up body sounds. Piezoelectric transflexural diaphragm elements (3, 5, 6) are known; however, they are only useful as microphone elements when the manner of creating electrical contact does not influence their mechanical properties. A microphone component has been developed, which is both rugged and amenable to very inexpensive manufacture. This is obtained using a laminated construction in which a special layer is placed between the piezoelectric transflexural diaphragm element and the electrical interface element.
US08369542B2
The speaker apparatus according to the invention is arranged in a manner that when the magnitude of an audio signal Sin increases temporarily and so a consumption power increases, a DC-DC converter reduces an output voltage Vout to thereby increase an output current Iout and further discharges a capacitor to thereby increase a current supplied to an amplifier. Thus, a power of 2.5 W or more supplied from a USB connection terminal can be temporarily supplied to the amplifier. Further, since the change of the voltage difference between the both ends of the capacitor can be made large, an amount of the electric charges discharged from the capacitor can be made large and so the size of the capacitor can be reduced.
US08369540B2
A system for amplifying a digital audio signal comprises a receiver 12 for receiving a digital audio signal, a level estimator 14 arranged to calculate the audio level of the digital audio signal, a gain control 16 arranged to receive a gain level, the gain level defining the desired amplification of the digital audio signal, a logic circuit 18 arranged to calculate the headspace in the digital audio signal and to divide the gain level into a scaling gain and an amplifier gain, the scaling gain not exceeding the calculated headspace, a digital signal processor 20 arranged to amplify the digital audio signal with the scaling gain, a digital-to-analogue converter 22 arranged to convert the amplified digital audio signal into an analogue signal, and an amplifier 24 arranged to amplify the analogue audio signal with the amplifier gain.
US08369538B2
An effect adding method, includes: applying different gains to a positive side waveform portion and a negative side waveform portion of an audio signal respectively when absolute values of input levels of the positive side waveform portion and the negative side waveform portion are smaller than a predetermined value; producing a higher range component of the audio signal based on a high range component of the audio signal to which the gain is applied, the higher range component being higher in frequency than the high range component; producing a lower range component of the audio signal based on a low range component of the audio signal to which the gain is applied, the lower range component being lower in the frequency than the low range component; and synthesizing an audio signal having an effect sound by adding the audio signal to which the different gains are applied, the higher range component, and the lower range component with each other.
US08369534B2
An audio host device has an electrical interface having a speaker contact, a microphone contact, and a reference contact. The reference contact is shared by a microphone and a speaker. The reference contact is also directly coupled to a power return plane of the audio host device. A difference amplifier is provided, having a cold input and a hot input. The hot input is coupled to the microphone contact. A switched attenuator circuit is also provided that has first and second states. In the first state, the attenuator circuit couples a sense point of the reference contact to the cold input, while in the second state the cold input is isolated from the reference sense point. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08369532B2
A device for processing an audio signal, wherein the device comprises a detection unit adapted for detecting a widening state of the audio signal, and a widening modification unit adapted for modifying a widening characteristic of the audio signal depending on the detected widening state of the audio signal.
US08369529B1
A system and method for pre-generating encryption keys for re-keying stored ciphertext. The encryption keys are illustratively distributed to LKMs and therefrom to the security appliances communicating with each other. A minimum number of un-used pre-generated encryption keys is established wherein when that number is reached more pre-generated encryption keys are created and distributed.
US08369523B2
The present invention relates to a method or system of generating a surrogate key using cryptographic hashing. One embodiment of the method of the present invention may have steps such as selecting a field or group of fields that is or are unique among all records in the database, for each record, extracting the data from the fields, concatenating the extracted data into an input message, running the input message through a hash generator, either in batches or one at a time, for testing purposes perhaps, and outputting a surrogate key.
US08369513B2
The present invention relates to methods and systems for minimizing alien crosstalk between connectors. Specifically, the methods and systems relate to isolation and compensation techniques for minimizing alien crosstalk between connectors for use with high-speed data cabling. A frame can be configured to receive a number of connectors. Shield structures may be positioned to isolate at least a subset of the connectors from one another. The connectors can be positioned to move at least a subset of the connectors away from alignment with a common plane. A signal compensator may be configured to adjust a data signal to compensate for alien crosstalk. The connectors are configured to efficiently and accurately propagate high-speed data signals by, among other functions, minimizing alien crosstalk.
US08369511B2
This invention proposed an Echo Suppressor which can efficiently suppress both echoes and background noise without introducing “choppiness”. The Echo Suppressor System includes said two adaptive gains Gr(RSR) and Gn(NSR), said one adaptive zeros-filter A1(z) and said one adaptive poles-filter A2(z); wherein, thr gain Gr(RSR) is controlled by RSR (Residual echo level to Signal level Ratio); the gain Gn(NSR) is controlled by NSR (Noise signal level to current Signal (Tx) level Ratio); the filter A1(z) is converted from LSF1 obtained from the first modification of LSFTx (Line Spectral Frequencies of Tx signal); the filter A2(z) is converted from LSF2 obtained from the second modification of LSFTx.
US08369497B2
A system for processing voicemail is provided that includes a voicemail database processor establishing one or more of an accounts table, a messages table, a distribution list table, a distribution lists members tables, and a delete request table. In operation a message navigation menu is provided to a user to allow the user to move back and forth a specified number of voicemails, change between urgent and normal priority voicemails, retrieve messages only from a specific mailbox or from outside the system, or initiate an improved deletion operation.
US08369489B2
A method (300) for providing an audio message (105). The method can include detecting at least one external parameter (125, 130, 135). Detecting the external parameter can include detecting a time, a location or a station identifier. Detecting the location can include receiving a signal from a network node (110) or a beacon (115), or receiving location information from a positioning system (240). In one arrangement, detecting the external parameter can include detecting a plurality of identifiers, such as a time, a location and/or a station identifier. The external parameter can be processed to identify at least one audio attribute (265) associated with a voice persona. An audio message then can be generated based, at least in part, on the audio attribute. Identifying the audio attribute can include identifying at least a second audio attribute associated with a background sound.
US08369485B2
Example methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to trigger preemptive maintenance of vectored digital subscriber line (DSL) systems are disclosed. An example method includes obtaining a value representing crosstalk coupling between a first subscriber loop and a second subscriber loop, the first and second subscriber loops belonging to a vectored DSL group of subscriber loops, determining whether to automatically perform a diagnostic test on the first subscriber loop based on the value, submitting a trouble ticket for the first subscriber loop based on a result of the diagnostic tests, and generating a maintenance report for the vectored DSL group based on the value and the results.
US08369483B2
Various methods and systems are provided for multi-resolution x-ray image capture. In one embodiment, a method includes repositioning an image capture assembly of an x-ray image capture apparatus from a first position to a second position, the first position corresponding to a first pixel density resolution and the second position corresponding to a second pixel density resolution; activating an x-ray source; and obtaining a digital x-ray image of a subject from an imaging sensor of the image capture assembly, the digital x-ray image having the second pixel density resolution.
US08369476B2
A clock generator is illustrated. The clock generator mentioned above includes a multimodulus frequency divider and a delta-sigma modulator. The multimodulus frequency divider is archived by switching the phase thereof. The multimodulus frequency divider increases the operating frequency of the clock generator effectively, and has a characteristic with half period resolution for reducing the jitter of an output clock signal when its spectrum is spread. Besides, the delta-sigma modulator increases the accuracy of the triangle modulation and reduces error of quantization by adding a few components therein. Thus, the clock generator could be expanded to a programmable clock generator.
US08369475B2
A nuclear fuel assembly support grid formed from an array of a plurality of orthogonally arranged straps in an egg-crate configuration with angled trailing and/or leading edges that are designed to break the correlation of vortices shed from the edges of the grid straps by varying the phase of the vortices to avoid resonant vibration of the straps.
US08369469B1
A method including: receiving, through a wireless channel, a plurality of modulated signals at a plurality of antennas, wherein each antenna receives a corresponding modulated signal; generating a plurality of autocorrelated signals by autocorrelating the plurality of modulated signals; determining whether a signal strength associated with each modulated signal is (i) below a threshold or (ii) above the threshold; for each modulated signal having a signal strength below the threshold, disabling the antenna that received the modulated signal having the signal strength below the threshold; combining the modulated signals having a signal strength above the threshold; generating weighted autocorrelated signals based on (i) the plurality of autocorrelated signals and (ii) the combined modulated signals; generating a combined weighted signal by summing the weighted autocorrelation signals; demodulating the combined weighted signal; and determining a state of the wireless channel based on the demodulation of the combined weighted signal.
US08369466B2
An automatic gain control circuit includes: an amplification degree control section for calculating power of a digital value of a received signal, and for controlling an amplification degree of an amplifier of a receiving apparatus so that a difference between the power and predetermined reference power is zero; a received signal quality measuring section for measuring quality of the received signal; a reference power adjusting section for, upon finding that the measured quality of the received signal is below a fixed level, adjusting the reference power for a predetermined period of time; and a reference power updating section for causing the reference power adjusting section to continue to adjust the reference power until the quality of the received signal recovers to be at a predetermined recovery level or above, and for updating the reference power so that the reference power takes on an optimally adjusted value.
US08369465B2
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for estimating a frequency offset in a wireless telecommunication system. The present invention does not estimate an initial frequency offset using a preamble which is the initial symbol of a frame upon estimation of the frequency offset in the wireless telecommunication system, but estimates a frequency offset using correlation of a cyclic prefix (CP) existing in each symbol, thereby eliminating a need to reproduce information about separate preamble signals and preamble signals, and easily estimating a frequency offset using only input signals.
US08369464B2
A system for processing a received signal having at least one code applied thereto, the received signal having a frequency, the system comprising: first correlator circuitry arranged to correlate the received signal with a first code to provide an output; second correlator circuitry arranged to correlate the received signal with a second code to provide an output, wherein the first code and the second code are different; and processor for processing together the outputs of the first and second correlator circuitry to cancel the frequency.
US08369462B2
A DTV receiver includes a tuner, a demodulator, a channel equalizer, a sequence detector, and a burst controller. The tuner receives a DTV signal having main data and at least one burst of enhanced data. The demodulator demodulates the DTV signal by performing carrier and time recovery and the channel equalizer equalizes the demodulated signal. The sequence detector detects one or more known data sequences from any one of the received signal and the demodulated signal. The demodulator and the channel equalizer use the detected known data sequences when performing the carrier and timing recover and the channel-equalization, respectively. Lastly, the burst controller supplies power to the tuner, the demodulator, the channel equalizer, and the data detector only during a burst time for each burst of enhanced data for efficient power consumption.
US08369461B2
The present invention relates to a method and arrangement for providing a reliability information on information bits (bk) transmitted in a communications network, said bits constituting a transmitted vector (s) comprising elements selected by a transmitter from finite alphabet (S), wherein said transmitted vector is detected from an observed vector received symbols (y) providing a log-likelihood (L). Thus, the approximation is done by defining a number of bit terms having constant size and selecting a subset of bits and marginalizing over a selected part of said subset of bits.
US08369459B2
Methods, software and apparatuses for decoding received delayed path signals are described. A receiver receives a signal via different paths with relative delay, e.g., on the same frequency channel. The signal is sampled at at least one sample per symbol. A channel estimator determines channel coefficients associated with the channel over which the signals were transmitted. A processor selects samples that include a dependence on a particular symbol being decoded and computes an error metric for each possible value of the particular symbol, for combinations of hypothesized future symbol values on which the selected samples depend, and for single values of previous symbols on which the selected samples depend. Error metrics calculated for each symbol are stored in memory. A soft symbol is generated based on said signal samples from the sampler, the channel coefficients and estimates of symbols computed.
US08369457B2
Disclosed herein is a demodulation apparatus including: an operation determination block configured to determine whether the demodulation apparatus operates as part of either a first device or a second device with which the demodulation apparatus communicates, the first device being configured to ASK-modulate and transmit data, the second device being configured to load-modulate and transmit data; and first and second demodulation control blocks.
US08369455B2
The present invention provides a receiving apparatus including: a capturing section configured to correct an error of a receive signal and capture the receive signal; a filtering section configured to remove a low frequency component of a signal indicative of an integrated value of an error of the receive signal; and a capture detecting section configured to monitor a signal outputted from the filtering section and, if the signal is within a predetermined range for a predetermined time, detect that the capturing section has captured the receive signal.
US08369452B2
Apparatus, methods, and systems are disclosed, including, for example, a data receiver to receive a calibration voltage and a reference voltage to calibrate the data receiver. The output of the data receiver is provided to a first ripple counter that counts the outputs from the data receiver and provides an output count. The ripple counter may count either ones or zeros. A second ripple counter counts the number of a clock signals over the same period of time. The output count is either multiplied by two or the count of clock signals is divided by two. A ripple comparator may then compare the outputs and adjust the reference voltage based upon the comparison results.
US08369450B2
Methods and circuits for assigning pilot boosting factors and calculating traffic to pilot ratios in a wireless communication system. The data to be transmitted is first modulated to generate a plurality of data modulation symbols. The plurality of data modulation symbols and a plurality of reference signal symbols are mapped into transmission resources of each of a plurality of antennas in accordance with a transmit diversity scheme. The transmission resources of each of the antennas are divided into a plurality of subcarriers in a frequency domain and a plurality of time units in a time domain. Then, a power scaling factor are assigned for data modulation symbols on each of the antennas in dependence upon power levels of the reference signal symbols to maintain a fixed power level across the plurality of antennas in each time unit. Finally, the data modulation symbols and the reference signal symbols are transmitted via the plurality of antennas in accordance with the mapping scheme and the assigned scaling factors.
US08369448B2
A digital communication system, having a transmitter to transmit a digital signal; and a receiver to receive the digital signal; wherein the digital signal utilizes a 32APSK system with FEC coding, and the signal is bit-mapped using gray mapping, and bits of the digital signal are ordered based on the values of a log likelihood ratio from a communications channel.
US08369444B2
An apparatus and method for beamforming in a multi-antenna system are provided. The method includes assuming at least one codeword comprised in a codebook as a precoding weight of a reference receive end and generating post-processing weights of at least two receive ends, confirming a codeword maximizing a sum rate using the post-processing weights, generating preceding weights of the receive ends using the codeword maximizing the sum rate, and precoding a transmit signal using the generated precoding weights and transmitting the precoded transmit signal to each receive end.
US08369440B2
A communication apparatus includes a plurality of transmitting units that transmit a signal stream from each different antenna; a scheduling unit being configured such that the number of outputs is set so as to not exceed the number of transmitting units capable of transmitting, and a combination of transmitting units corresponding to the number of outputs, to each of which one of the signal streams is to be input, is defined in the form of a precoding matrix; a codeword generating unit that generates, from data to be transmitted, a predetermined number of codewords to be transmitted out simultaneously; an encoder that generates, from the codewords, signal streams corresponding to the number of outputs; and a modulation unit that supplies each of the signal streams to a corresponding one of the transmitting units in accordance with the precoding matrix.
US08369436B2
A spatial diversity receiver for wirelessly receiving a modulated RF signal and a method for wirelessly transmitting and receiving the modulated RF signal. The spatial diversity receiver includes at least two antenna arrays and an antenna beam selection control unit. Each antenna array of the spatial diversity receiver includes at least two fixed beam antennas with distinct radiation patterns, and combinations of the fixed beam antennas are selectable for wireless receipt of the modulated RF signal. The antenna beam selection control unit is configured to control at least one antenna switching and/or combining unit in order to select a specific combination of fixed beam antennas from each antenna array.
US08369429B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting a Precoding Matrix Index (PMI) in a Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) communication system are disclosed. The method includes receiving signals in a same frequency band from Base Stations (BSs) included in a CoMP set, which operate in joint processing mode, selecting a first precoding matrix for each of the BSs using the received signals, generating a second precoding matrix by combining the first precoding matrices, and transmitting an index of the second precoding matrix to a serving BS among the BSs.
US08369427B2
A mapping method and an apparatus, which uniformly distribute bits included in transmission symbols to various resource blocks in mapping the transmission symbols to the resource blocks for transmission in an OFDMA mobile communication system. A sub-packet generator generates a sub-packet by selecting symbols from coded symbols including a first bit group and a second bit group, the first bit group having a different priority than the second bit group. A divider divides each bit group of the sub-packet into as many bit streams as previously allocated resource blocks. A resource block mapper maps the divided bit streams to the resource blocks, respectively, and outputs the bit streams for transmission.
US08369420B2
A multimode filter that is versatile for digital signal processing including in-loop processing (de-blocking and de-ringing), post processing (de-blocking and de-ringing), and overlap smoothing. A flexi-standard filter includes the multimode filter. An electronic device includes the flexi-standard filter. A process for digital signal processing includes in-loop processing (de-blocking and de-ringing), post processing (de-blocking and de-ringing), and overlap smoothing.
US08369416B2
An error concealment method and apparatus are provided. The error concealment method includes determining a reference direction of a lost frame by determining whether a scene change between frames has occurred based on the lost frame; extracting concealment reference points for a pixel of the lost frame by using at least one frame except for the lost frame according to the determined reference direction; obtaining a concealment pixel value of the pixel of the lost frame by giving weight values to the extracted concealment reference points; and restoring the lost frame by performing a concealment of the pixel using the concealment pixel value. According to the error concealment method and apparatus, when a frame loss occurs in an appliance that receives/outputs compressed moving images, error concealment in the unit of a frame can be effectively performed, and the deterioration of picture quality due to the error propagation can be minimized.
US08369415B2
A method of decoding an enhanced video stream composed of base layer video access units and enhancement layer video access units, each access unit comprising a plurality of syntax structures, includes passing the syntax structures of the base layer access units to a base layer buffer, passing syntax structures of the enhancement layer access units to an enhancement layer buffer, outputting the syntax structures passed to the base layer buffer in a predetermined sequence, outputting the syntax structures passed to the enhancement layer buffer in a predetermined sequence, and recombining the sequences of syntax structures output by the base layer buffer and the enhancement layer buffer respectively to form a complete enhanced access unit, composed of base layer syntax structures and enhancement layer syntax structures in a predetermined sequence.
US08369413B2
A transport stream processing system capable of recording and playing back a transport stream carrying a plurality of transport stream packets is provided, and includes: a first memory unit storing a plurality of sets of control words; a packet identifier filter acquiring a set of control words according to a packet identifier value of a transport stream packet and configuring an indicator to indicate whether the transport stream packet is for a recording or a playback operation; a second memory unit storing a plurality of data structures, wherein each data structure corresponds to an index number of each set of control words; and a processor determining whether the recording or playback operation for the transport stream packet is performed for the transport stream packet according to the indicator, retrieving a data structure according to the index number corresponding to the acquired set of control words and performing the operation accordingly.
US08369407B2
A method of indexing a video document represents the video document in the form of a parallelepipedal volume obtained by juxtaposing, on a time axis, successive frames of the video document where each frame is represented by a matrix of pixels in a two-dimensional space. A space-time video slice of the video document is constructed by extracting a set of pixels for each frame of the video document in a same line defined relative to a first direction of the frames and juxtaposing the lines of pixels corresponding to the frames on a time axis to form a space-time video slice of a length defined by the juxtaposed lines of pixels and of a height equal to the length of the lines extracted from each of the frames. The length is a function of the dimension of the frames in a second direction and the orientation of the lines. The colorimetric values of the pixels of the lines of the space-time video slice are initialized on the basis of the content of the lines extracted from the frames of the video document.
US08369399B2
Methods and systems for combining multiple video streams are provided. Video feeds are received from multiple optical sensors, and homography information and/or corner metadata is calculated for each frame from each video stream. This data is used to mosaic the separate frames into a single video frame. Local translation of each image may also be used to synchronize the video frames. The optical sensors can be provided by an airborne platform, such as a manned or unmanned surveillance vehicle. Image data can be requested from a ground operator, and transmitted from the airborne platform to the user in real time or at a later time. Various data arrangements may be used by an aggregation system to serialize and/or multiplex image data received from multiple sensor modules. Fixed-size record arrangement and variable-size record arrangement systems are provided.
US08369390B2
A wireless transceiver includes a plurality of antennas. A plurality of signal recovery circuits generate a selected number of received signals from a first subset of the plurality of antennas, based on a control signal. A receiver section recovers an inbound data stream from the selected number of received signals. A transmitter module generates a transmit signal to a selected one of the plurality of antennas, based on the control signal. The intersection between the first subset of the plurality of antennas and the selected one of the plurality of antennas is the null set for each value of the control signal. The control signals can be generated in multiple different operational modes including, for instance, a cyclic modes and a fixed mode of operation.
US08369378B2
A method for transmitting Acknowledgement/Negative acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information in a communication system includes spreading first ACK/NACK information using an orthogonal sequence with a spreading factor of 2, spreading second ACK/NACK information using an orthogonal sequence with the spreading factor of 2, and coding the first and second spread ACK/NACK information on four available neighboring subcarriers of multiple antennas.
US08369377B2
Systems (100) and methods (700) for providing a communications link with a power-limited communication transmitter (102) positioned remotely from an intended receiver system (104). The methods involve channel encoding a carrier signal with data provided at the power-limited communication transmitter to form an information signal. The methods also involve generating a chaotic spreading sequence based on a chaotic number sequence. The chaotic spreading sequence has a magnitude that is constant and a variable arbitrary phase angle comprising phase values which are uniformly distributed over a predetermined range of angles. A spread spectrum signal is formed by multiplying the information signal by the chaotic spreading sequence. The spread spectrum signal has an adjustable amplitude characteristic and a zero autocorrelation. The spread spectrum signal is transmitted from the power-limited communication transmitter to the intended receiver system.
US08369373B2
An RF powered CO2 gas-discharge laser includes discharge electrodes and a lasing gas mixture between the electrode. The lasing gas mixture is ionized when the RF power is applied to the electrodes and laser action is initiated when the RF power has been applied for a duration sufficient to ignite a discharge in the lasing gas mixture. The gas mixture is pre-ionized by periodically applying the RF power to the electrodes for a predetermined period during which ignition of a discharge is not expected to occur. RF power reflected back from the electrodes is monitored. If the monitored power falls below a predetermined level indicative of the imminent onset of laser action before the predetermined duration has elapsed, application of the RF power to the electrodes is terminated to prevent the laser action from occurring.
US08369370B2
A laser light source including a semiconductor layer sequence having an active region and a radiation coupling-out area having a first partial region and a second partial region different than the first partial region, and a filter structure. The active region generates, during operation, coherent first electromagnetic radiation having a first wavelength range and incoherent second electromagnetic radiation having a second wavelength range. The coherent first electromagnetic radiation is emitted by the first partial region along an emission direction, and the incoherent second electromagnetic radiation is emitted by the first and second partial regions. The second wavelength range includes the first wavelength range, and the filter structure at least partly attenuates the incoherent second electromagnetic radiation emitted by the active region along the emission direction.
US08369362B2
A device is dedicated to the processing of audio and video data for multimedia communication, via an asynchronous network, between first LAN audio and video terminals and second LAN audio and video terminals. This device includes i) a connector which establishes communications with the first LAN audio and video terminals and with other connectors installed in another device, ii) a first dating module which attaches a transmit time mark and an identifier to the audio and video data emitted by the first LAN audio and video terminals, before their transmission to the other connector and iii) a processor which determines a time difference representing the transmission time difference between the received audio and video data and presenting the same identifier.
US08369361B2
Systems and techniques are disclosed relating to wireless communications, and more specifically, to various systems and techniques for early termination of low rate traffic in a wireless network. A physical layer packet (PLP) grouping factor K configures the PLP into K groups and an ACK/NAK is received on each group.
US08369360B2
According to the exemplary embodiments of the invention, there is a method, apparatus and computer program for composing at least one system information message instance for a first particular radio access technology system, and for transmitting the at least one message instance to at least one network node. In addition, the exemplary embodiments of the invention provide for receiving, decoding, and processing the received at least one message instance. Further, according to the exemplary embodiments each one of the at least one message instance includes a start field to indicate whether the message instance is a first instance of the at least one message instance, and a stop field to indicate whether the message instance is a last instance of the at least one message instance.
US08369352B1
A method, medium, and wireless system are provided for scheduling access terminals to prevent starvation of other access terminals connected to a communication network. The wireless system includes access terminals and base stations that are configured with a first wireless scheduler and a parallel wireless scheduler that select access terminals to communicate during specified time slots. The access terminals may measure channel conditions associated with communications to the base station and transmit requests that specify a desired communication rate to the base station. The first and parallel wireless schedulers on each base station receive the requests from each access terminal and select an access terminal to communicate during a subsequent time slot that may be based on, for example, the channel conditions and weighted average functions of the communication rates—corresponding to the access terminal—generated by the first and parallel wireless schedulers.
US08369351B2
A wireless communication device, a wireless communication system and a method of avoiding collisions by transmitting a packet length field before transmitting a header of the packet.
US08369349B2
The present disclosure is directed to using feedback information regarding a data stream being sent from a sending endpoint to a receiving endpoint. Both of the sending endpoint and the receiving endpoint each have multiple physical interfaces connecting the sending endpoint and the receiving endpoint to multiple networks, respectively, and the data stream is split into a series of data packets and sent over the multiple physical interfaces. Different portions of the data packets are sent over different ones physical interfaces based at least partially on a data capacity throughput for each of the multiple physical interfaces. Feedback information is gathered for each of the multiple physical interfaces. Feedback information gathered at the receiving endpoint is split and sent to the sending endpoint on one or more of the physical interfaces. Data packets are then reapportioned and sent over different ones of the physical interfaces based on the feedback information.
US08369342B2
System, apparatus, and method for extending network with power supply are disclosed. The apparatus includes a processing unit, a signal and power integration unit, a power supply unit, a transmission rate regulation unit, a display unit, and a symmetric transmission control unit. The signal and power integration unit integrates the electrical power with the data packages, so that the normal data transmission line can also transmit electrical power alone with signals to the electrical devices which are connected to the network extending apparatus. Therefore, the electrical devices do not need any extra power transmission line or independent power supply for obtaining the requisite power.
US08369341B2
Provided are: a multiplexing apparatus for comparing priorities, selecting multiplexed data in an arbitrary output rate, and outputting the multiplexed data; and a receiving apparatus for combining data outputted from the multiplexing apparatus in a time sequential order, and thereafter outputting the data. A multiplexing apparatus (1) includes: a multiplexing buffer (2) that receives and temporarily stores encoded units to which respective priorities have been added; a multiplexing control unit (4) for sequentially selecting, based on the priorities and data amounts of the encoded units, encoded units each having respective data amounts which can be transmitted in a unit time and also having a higher priority than any other one; and a multiplexing unit (3) for sequentially selecting and multiplexing, under control of the multiplexing control part, encoded units, from among the encoded units stored in the multiplexing buffer, each of which has a respective data amount which can be transmitted in the unit time and also has a higher priority than any other one, and outputting the encoded units.
US08369336B2
A method, terminal and server for controlling a domain transfer operation, are discussed. According to an embodiment, the method includes receiving, by a terminal, a domain transfer request from a network server, the domain transfer request including domain transfer related information; evaluating, by the terminal, the domain transfer related information when deciding whether or not to initiate a domain transfer; determining, by the terminal, whether to initiate the domain transfer of an ongoing call based on the evaluation result; and initiating, by the terminal, the domain transfer of the ongoing call when the evaluated domain transfer related information indicates that the domain transfer of the ongoing call needs to be initiated, wherein the domain transfer is for voice call continuity that is capable of transferring voice calls between a circuit switched (CS) domain and an (IMS) domain.
US08369333B2
A capability is provided for providing transparent cloud computing with a virtualized network infrastructure. A method for enabling use of a resource of a data center as an extension of a customer network includes receiving, at a forwarding element (FE), a packet intended for a virtual machine hosted at an edge domain of the data center, determining a VLAN ID of the VLAN for the customer network in the edge domain, updating the packet to include the VLAN ID of the VLAN for the customer network in the edge domain, and propagating the updated packet from the FE toward virtual machine. The edge domain supports a plurality of VLANs for a respective plurality of customer networks. The packet includes an identifier of the customer network and a MAC address of the virtual machine. The VLAN ID of the VLAN for the customer network in the edge domain is determined using the identifier of the customer network and the MAC address of the virtual machine. The FE may be associated with the edge domain at which the virtual machine is hosted, an edge domain of the data center that is different than the edge domain at which the virtual machine is hosted, or the customer network. Depending on the location of the FE at which the packet is received, additional processing may be provided as needed.
US08369327B2
A device, system, and method are directed towards communicating mobile information over a network. A mobile message (MM) is generated by an Internet Protocol (IP) enabled application interface. The MM may include advertising information. The MM is received at a routing server and comprises a destination phone number and/or advertising information. If the MM is determined to be locally processed, the routing server selectively routes the MM to a destination carrier associated with the destination phone number. If the MM is determined to be remotely processed, the MM is recursively forwarded until the MM reaches another routing server associated with the destination phone number. The other routing server is configured to selectively route the MM to the destination carrier. A response MM may be received at a boundary routing server.
US08369325B2
Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system for packet classification and spreading in a virtualized system. The system can use information in a packet's header to determine a destination system-image in the virtualized system, and a packet-spreading policy for the destination system-image. The system can determine a key using the information in a packet's header. Alternatively, the system can hash the information in the packet's header to obtain an index value. Next, the system can use the key or the index value to perform a lookup in a table which associates keys or index values with system images and/or packet-spreading policies. Once the destination system-image and the packet-spreading policy are determined, the system can deliver the packet to a thread on the destination system-image according to the packet-spreading policy.
US08369320B2
An ATM multiplexing apparatus of the present invention is the apparatus for selectively performing cell discard processing in the case of congestion on the basis of a use state of the same connection formed by cells from the side of an ATM switching unit and subscribers without installing UPC units, and the ATM multiplexing apparatus, which is connected to the ATM switching unit and each of plural subscribers through ATM communication lines and performs multiplexing processing to ATM cells sent from the plural subscribers, comprises: detection means 118 for detecting a level of a congestion state corresponding to the received ATM 157 from the subscribers; and discard means (111, 115 and 117) for selectively discarding the received ATM cells from the subscribers on the basis of a communication state determined by the received ATM cells 155 from the ATM switching unit and the received ATM cells from the subscribers and a level value of a warning signal 129 indicating the detected congestion state.
US08369319B2
System and method for originating a call via a circuit-switched network from a user equipment device
Methods and apparatus for originating a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) call from a user equipment (UE) device in a network environment including a circuit-switched (CS) network and an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) network to a called party are disclosed. In one illustrative example, when the SIP call is originated by the UE device in the CS network domain, a SIP Invite message which includes a SIP Uniform Resource Indicator (URI) or Tel URI of the called party is sent from the UE device to the IMS network (e.g. to an application server (AS) node). At the AS node, a pool of E.164 numbers are maintained as IP multimedia routing numbers (IMRNs) which are utilized for mapping to or otherwise associating with called party URIs. Thus, the AS node dynamically allocates a select E.164 number with respect to the called party's URI received from the UE device, and returns it to the UE device in a SIP Response message, e.g., a SIP 380 (Alternative Service) message. Subsequently, the dynamically-allocated E.164 number is sent from the UE device in a call setup message for identification of the URI at the AS node, via the mapping, so that the SIP call may be properly routed towards the called party.
US08369311B1
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications and in particular to systems and methods for routing telephone calls. A first address, such as a first phone number, can be associated with a telephonic terminal, such as a fixed or mobile phone. Incoming calls to the first address can be routed using an Internet Protocol, such as SIP, or other protocol to the telephonic terminal or to other destinations based on telephonic terminal status and/or based on a user instruction.
US08369282B2
A ranging method in a mobile station of a femto system is disclosed. According to the present invention, a femto base station enables non-synchronized ranging channel (NS-RCH) information to be carried on S-SFH SP1. A mobile station receives S-SFH and then determines whether a base station is a femto base station. If the base station is the femto base station, the mobile station is able to perform a periodic ranging using the NS-RCH information within the S-SFH as well as an initial/handover ranging.
US08369277B2
A communication system, such as a wireless CDMA system, detects markers with fewer errors by having field units transmit the markers at different power levels (e.g., 9 dB for one marker and 11 dB for another marker). The difference in power levels of the markers allows the base station to identify the request markers using alternative criteria with a low probability of error, where the alternative criteria may include comparing the markers to respective energy level thresholds, monitoring occupancy of time slots, occupancy of mutually exclusive code channels, or combinations thereof. For example, in one particular embodiment, a request marker, which is generally a high priority marker, is transmitted with higher power, which improves the probability of detection and reduces the probability of false detection of the request marker.
US08369274B2
There is provided a communication system comprising: a first communication device that senses a communication environment surrounding the first communication device; a second communication device that acquires sensed data sensed by the first communication device; and a third communication device that determines availability of usage of a second communication service using a part or whole of a spectrum assigned to a first communication service based on the sensed data transmitted from the second communication device.
US08369273B2
A base station detects the transition of a mobile station from a DTX mode to a continuous transmission mode. The base station schedules an uplink transmission by the mobile station during an uplink transmission period while the mobile station is in DTX mode and receives an uplink LLC PDU from said mobile station during the scheduled uplink transmission periods. The base station determines the operating mode of the mobile station based on the size of the received uplink LLC PDU.
US08369265B2
System and methods for providing telecommunication functions on a mobile device are disclosed. An inbound call request is received, a call control interface is presented for a user to choose among a plurality of communication modes by which an inbound call is to be established. Call control data selecting a mode of communication is received through the call control interface. Communication is established according to the selected mode of communication. An outbound call request identifying a callee device is send from a mobile device through a packet network to a telecommunication service provider, and a call connection from the mobile device to the telecommunication service provider is established through the telecom network. The telecommunication service provider places a call to the callee device and combines the call connection from the mobile device to the connection to the callee device to establish a single joint call connection.
US08369260B2
Channel estimation accuracy is improved by adjusting the power level of a physical control channel allocated to a receiver based on the transmission rate and/or transport format of a corresponding physical data channel allocated to the same receiver. The physical control channel may be a DPCCH, E-DPCCH or other type of physical control channel allocated to a receiver for facilitating uplink or downlink communication. Regardless, the control channel power level is optimized for channel estimation as a function of data transmission rate and/or transport format. In one embodiment, control channel symbols are transmitted for use in channel estimation by adjusting the power level of a physical control channel allocated to a receiver based on the transmission rate and/or transport format of a physical data channel allocated to the receiver (200). Control channel symbols are transmitted to the receiver over the physical control channel at the adjusted power level (202). The receiver uses the control channel symbols to perform channel estimation (204).
US08369253B2
Methods and apparatus to support voice solutions for data centric terminals are described. An example method includes sending a combined registration request message for at least one evolved packet system service via a first radio access technology, receiving an EPS service registration accept message comprising an indicator that indicates that circuit switched fall back is supported, and when the user equipment has a voice centric setting, reselecting to a second radio access technology.
US08369243B2
Minimizing bandwidth cost for a participant in an online game, the method including: querying the game participant to determine a network service charge model; selecting a role for the game participant based on the determined network service charge model and a position of the participant in a network topology; and positioning the game participant into the selected role within the network topology of the online game.
US08369233B2
A method of monitoring a plurality of transmission lanes in a data transmission system includes the step of extracting individual lane parameters in the data transmission system independently of a transmitted training sequence.
US08369229B2
In one of many possible embodiments, a method may comprise using one or more packet delivery monitoring packets to monitor packet delivery between a first reference node and a second reference node communicatively coupled to one another by at least one network path, each of said PDM packets comprising an Internet Control Message Protocol packet modified to include at least one packet delivery monitoring extension.
US08369223B2
A packet processing apparatus includes a plurality of communication connecting unit each connected with a communication partner apparatus using one of a work path and a protection path, connecting unit for connecting, using a data bus, the plurality of communication connecting unit with one another; determination unit for, when a packet sent from the communication partner apparatus is received by one of the communication connecting unit, determining whether the packet is a maintenance packet that is used for monitoring a connection state with the communication partner apparatus; and transmitting unit for, when it is determined that the packet is a maintenance packet by the determination unit, transmitting the maintenance packet to the plurality of communication connecting unit using the data bus via the connecting unit.
US08369211B2
A method performed by network devices that includes operating in a normal mode, where the network devices form a virtual chassis that corresponds to a single logical network device; detecting when a failure within the virtual chassis occurs; executing a splitting process to form one or more new virtual chassis in correspondence to the failure; determining whether one of the one or more new virtual chassis operates as a functioning virtual chassis based on whether at least one of a set of criteria is satisfied, where the functioning virtual chassis operates according to resources configured for the virtual chassis; and operating as a nonfunctioning virtual chassis when it is determined that the one of the one or more virtual chassis does not satisfy the at least one of the set of criteria, where the nonfunctioning virtual chassis operates in a pass-through mode.
US08369206B2
A base station is provided. The base station comprises a downlink transmit path comprising circuitry configured to transmit a plurality of reference signals in one or more subframes. Each subframe comprises one or more resource blocks. Each resource block comprises S Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. Each of the S OFDM symbols comprises N subcarriers, and each subcarrier of each OFDM symbol comprises a resource element. The base station further comprises a reference signal allocator configured to allocate the plurality of reference signals to selected resource elements of a resource block, and circularly shift the plurality of reference signals in a time domain of the resource block by an hshift value that is based at least partly upon a cell_ID of the base station.
US08369197B2
If a defective cluster in a spare area is managed with a defect entry, the size of a DFL will increase as the size of the spare area increases with an increase in the number of recording layers stacked in a disc. An information recording medium according to the present invention has pointer information indicating the location of the next available cluster in each spare area, and restricts the direction in which the spare area is used. Also, a defect entry indicating a defective cluster in the spare area is registered with the DFL. Thus, even if the size of the spare area 15 increases, the size of the DFL 21 can be kept relatively small. Furthermore, even after physical reformatting is done, a defective cluster, if any, in the spare area 15 can still be recognized as a defect and the control operation can be performed so that a replacement cluster is not re-allocated to that defective cluster (i.e., the defective cluster is not used).
US08369188B2
The striking watch (1) includes a watch case, which is formed of a middle part (4) and a back cover (5) removably secured to the middle part, and a crystal (2) that closes the case in a sealed manner. A watch movement (20) is held inside the watch case on a plate (14). The watch movement is provided with a striking mechanism able to be actuated at determined times to produce a sound. At least one acoustic membrane (10) is arranged between the back cover (5) which includes at least one lateral aperture (6) and the plate (14) of the watch movement. This acoustic membrane is made of amorphous metal or metallic glass to radiate the sound produced by the striking mechanism towards the exterior of the case.
US08369183B2
A method of analysing the dynamic behavior of fracture networks in a seismic volume is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of seismic time lapse vintages of the same geological volume; identifying and parameterising fractures within fracture networks of each vintage; determining one or more distributions of fracture parameters for the fracture networks of each vintage; and identifying changes to the fracture networks by comparing corresponding distributions across the vintages.
US08369172B2
An integrated circuit includes a capacitor. A switch is electrically coupled with the capacitor in a parallel fashion. A comparator includes a first input node, a second input node, and an output node. The second input node is electrically coupled with a first plate of the capacitor. The output node is electrically coupled with the switch. A transistor is electrically coupled with a second plate of the capacitor. A circuit is electrically coupled with a gate of the transistor. The circuit is configured to provide a bias voltage to the gate of the transistor so as to control a current that is supplied to charge the capacitor.
US08369167B2
A semiconductor device includes the following elements. A sense amplifier amplifies signal on a bit line. A column switch is between the bit line and a local input-output line. A sub-amplifier amplifies signal on the local input-output line. A write switch is between the local input-output line and a main input-output line. A write amplifier amplifies write data and supplies the amplified write data to the main input-output line when data write operation is performed. A test circuit activates the sense amplifier while the test circuit deactivating the sub-amplifier and the write amplifier when a data read operation is performed in test mode. The test circuit places the column switch and the write switch in conductive state.
US08369166B2
A redundancy scheme for Non-Volatile Memories (NVM) is described. This redundancy scheme provides means for using defective cells in non-volatile memories to increase yield. The algorithm is based on inverting the program data for data being programmed to a cell grouping when a defective cell is detected in the cell grouping. Defective cells are biased to either “1” or “0” logic states, which are effectively preset to store its biased logic state. A data bit to be stored in a defective cell having a logic state that is complementary to the biased logic state of the cell results in the program data being inverted and programmed. An inversion status bit is programmed to indicate the inverted status of the programmed data. During read out, the inversion status bit causes the stored data to be re-inverted into its original program data states.
US08369157B2
Methods for programming memory cells and memory devices are disclosed. One such method for programming includes performing a program verify operation of a group of memory cells. A number of potential CS2 situations are detected. If the number of detected potential CS2 situations is greater than a threshold, programming compensation for a CS2 situation is used in a subsequent programming operation.
US08369154B2
A nonvolatile memory device for reducing programming current and improving reliability comprises a memory cell array, a write circuit, and a verification circuit. The memory cell array comprises memory cells arranged at crossing points of a bit-line and word-line matrix of the memory cell array. The write circuit provides multiple variable pulses to each word-line for programming. The multiple variable pulses have predetermined amplitude for keeping gate injection current roughly maximum while lowering conduction current during programming operation. The verification circuit senses variation of the conduction current during the programming operation, and disables the programming operation if the sensed conduction current during the programming operation reaches a predetermined value.
US08369143B2
The embodiments of the invention in this disclosure describe techniques for early warning of degradation in NOR Flash memories by estimating the dispersion of the threshold voltages (VT's), of a set of NOR Flash memory cells during read operations. In an embodiment invention the time-to-completion (TTC) values for the read operation for the memory cells are used as a proxy for dispersion of the threshold voltages (VT's). If the measured TTC dispersion differs by more than a selected amount from the reference dispersion value, a warning signal is provided to indicate that the page of memory has degraded significantly. Higher level components in the system can use the warning signal to take appropriate action. Since every cell's VT position in an ideal distribution can be estimated, the data from each cell can have a confidence level assigned based on deviation from the mean of an ideal distribution.
US08369138B2
A semiconductor memory device measures a leakage current generated when a unit cell is accessed during a test process. The semiconductor memory device includes a unit cell configured to include a memory element, a word line configured to be coupled to one end of the unit cell, and a bit line configured to be coupled to the other end of the unit cell. In a normal operation, a current signal flows from the bit line to the word line through the unit cell such that data stored in the memory element is read. In a test operation, the word line is deactivated and a read operation is carried out such that data stored in the memory element is read.
US08369134B2
Memory devices and methods of operation are provided. A memory device includes first and second cross-coupled inverters and first and second access transistors coupled to an input node of the second inverter. The memory device also includes a control circuit for providing a first reference voltage at a first ground node of the first inverter and a second reference voltage at a second ground node of the second inverter. The first access transistor is configured to conduct current from a first bit line to the input node and to provide substantially no current conduction from the input node to the first bit line. The second access transistor is configured to conduct current from the input node to one of the first bit line and a second bit line and to provide substantially no current conduction from the input node to the one of first and second bit lines.
US08369129B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a variable resistance element configured to store data “0” and data “1” in accordance with a change in resistance value, a current generator configured to generate a reference current for determining data of the variable resistance element, and having an admittance middle between an admittance of a variable resistance element storing data “0” and an admittance of a variable resistance element storing data “1”, and a sense amplifier includes a first input terminal connected to the variable resistance element and a second input terminal connected to the current generator, and configured to compare currents of the first input terminal and the second input terminal.
US08369128B2
A storage device capable of decreasing the number of voltages necessitating control and decreasing peripheral circuit size is provided. A first pulse voltage (VBLR) is supplied from a first power source through a bit line BLR to an electrode of a variable resistive element. A second pulse voltage (VWL) for selecting a cell is supplied from a second power source through a word line WL to a control terminal of a transistor. A third pulse voltage (VBLT) is supplied from a third power source though a bit line BLT to a second input/output terminal of the transistor. At the time of rewriting information, the voltage value (VBLT) of the third power source is adjusted by an adjustment circuit. Thereby, a cell voltage and a cell current are changed (decreased or increased).
US08369124B2
Disclosed is a semiconductor memory apparatus comprising an upper mat and a lower mat with a sense amplifier array region in between, where the sense amplifier array region includes a plurality of sense amplifiers. There is also a plurality of bit lines configured to extend toward the sense amplifier array region from the upper mat, and a plurality of complementary bit lines configured to extend toward the sense amplifier array region from the lower mat. Bit lines of the upper mat and complementary bit lines of the lower mat are configured to be alternately disposed at a predetermined interval in the sense amplifier array region, and the sense amplifier is configured to be formed between a bit line and a corresponding complementary bit line.
US08369116B2
New utility of an existing class of DC galvanically isolated current sourcing circuit topologies for power conversion simultaneously allows improvement in its secondary circuit(s) to power conversion efficiency and reduction in working voltage magnitudes, or simply reduction in working voltage magnitudes, with resulting benefits for reduction in manufacturing cost, reduction in size and weight, and increase in market acceptance, or may simply allow secondary circuit(s) to enable easier provisioning of safety, improvement in reliability, or improvement in efficiency. The magnitude of DC output voltage is optimized at higher value for greater efficiency, while simultaneously optimizing the secondary circuit's working voltage maximum magnitude at a lower value for greater safety. The method requires full cycle current-compliant input impedance of the secondary power source whereby the secondary of the DC galvanically isolating device behaves in a mode of being a full cycle voltage-compliant current source.
US08369113B2
A power conditioning unit for delivering power from a power source to a mains utility supply, the power conditioning unit comprising a plurality of input terminals for connecting to the power source, a plurality of output terminals for connecting to the mains utility supply, a voltage increasing converter connected to the input terminals, a voltage reducing converter connected to the voltage increasing converter and a dc-to-ac converter connected to the voltage reducing converter and to the output terminals.
US08369110B2
Object of this invention is to prevent deviating increase of switching frequency of a switching element for a half-wave rectification current resonance type switching power supply device in the process of a soft start operation. To solve the object, between output terminals of a direct current power source, a first switching element Q1 and a second switching element Q2 are connected in series. A primary winding of a transformer T1 and a current resonant capacitor Cri are connected to the second switching element Q2 in parallel. A gate control circuit is designed to gradually lengthen the on period of the first switching element Q1 and also designed to shorten the on period of the second switching element Q2 in time of the start operation. This makes it possible to perform a soft start without deviating from the frequency band required for voltage control.
US08369109B2
A self-oscillating DC/DC converter comprising: a first and a second input connection for application of an input DC voltage; a first and a second bipolar transistor, wherein each bipolar transistor has a control electrode, a reference electrode and a working electrode; at least one first coupling capacitor; wherein a first switching junction is formed by the junction of the working electrode and the reference electrode of the first bipolar transistor, and a second switching junction is formed by the junction of the working electrode and the reference electrode of the second bipolar transistor, wherein the first and the second switching junctions are connected in series with respect to the input DC voltage; a rectifier, with an output that is coupled to a first and a second output connection in order to provide an output DC voltage; a transformer, which has a primary winding, a secondary winding and at least one control winding; wherein the primary winding is coupled between a galvanic connection of the first and the second switching junction and the at least one coupling capacitor; wherein the secondary winding is coupled to the input of the rectifier; wherein each bipolar transistor has an associated control winding which is coupled to the control electrode of the respective bipolar transistor and at least one timer, which is coupled between the respectively associated control winding and the respective control electrode.
US08369105B2
Various electromagnetically-countered systems are provided and include at least one wave source irradiating harmful electromagnetic waves and at least one counter unit emitting counter electromagnetic waves for countering the harmful waves. Various generic counter units of such systems and various mechanisms are provided to counter the harmful waves by the counter units by matching configurations of the counter units with those of the wave sources, matching shapes of such counter waves with shapes of the harmful waves, etc. Various methods are provided for countering the harmful waves with the counter waves by such source or wave matching. Various methods are also provided for the counter units as well as counter waves. Various processes are provided for providing such systems and counter units. Various electric and/or magnetic shields may be used alone or in conjunction with such counter units to minimize irradiation of the harmful waves from the system.
US08369103B2
A multi-screen display device forms a large screen by adjacently arranging a plurality of display devices on a frame by engaging a monitor fixing provided on a back surface of a display device with a bracket that is provided on the frame; the monitor fitting that includes a plate-like body that is provided so as to project out from the back surface of the display device and a long hole that is formed in the plate-like body along with a lateral direction of the display device, is arranged at corner portions of the back surface of the display device; and the bracket includes a plate-like body that is perpendicularly provided at a position corresponding to the monitor fixing and a pin member that is provided in a standing manner in a vertical direction on the plate-like body, and is inserted in the long hole of the monitor fixing.
US08369096B2
An electronic apparatus includes a wiring board, a main member to which the wiring board is fixed, a first component mounted rigidly on the wiring board and positioned with respect to the main member, and a second component mounted movably on the wiring board and positioned with respect to the main member, and a positioning portion provided on the wiring board to determine a position of the wiring board with respect to the main member, wherein a distance from the positioning portion to the first component is shorter than a distance from the positioning portion to the second component.
US08369089B2
A fixing assembly for fixing a peripheral device having a positioning member is provided. The fixing assembly includes a bracket and a latching mechanism. The bracket is configured for accommodating the peripheral device. The latching mechanism is configured for fixing the peripheral device to the bracket. The bracket defines a guiding slot. The positioning member is slidable along the guiding slot. The latching mechanism includes a base and a latching portion slidably coupled to the base. The base is fixed to the bracket. The base defines a sliding slot corresponding to the guiding slot. The latching portion is slidably received in the sliding slot. When the peripheral device is inserted into the bracket at a predetermined position, the latching portion cooperates with the positioning member to fix the peripheral device to the bracket.
US08369088B2
An electronic device includes a first part, a second part, and a connecting mechanism configured to connect the first part with the second part. The connecting mechanism includes a connecting element installed on the first part, a movable element installed on the second part, and a drive element installed on the first part. The drive element is capable of moving the movable element from a first position of the second part to a second position of the second part. When the movable element is located in the first position, the movable element is latched by the connecting element. When the movable element is located in the second position, the movable element is unlatched by the connecting element.
US08369085B2
A rotating shaft structure for a screen is used for a foldable portable electronic device. The rotating shaft structure includes a fixing element, a first pivot element, and a second pivot element. The fixing element includes a fixing base and a pivot hole. The fixing base is connected to the foldable portable electronic device. The first pivot element can be pivoted in relation to the fixing element via the pivot hole. The second pivot element is disposed on the fixing element and adjacent to the first pivot element. When the pivoting angle is in a specific pivoting angle range, the first pivot element is pivoted to drive the second pivot element to increase the torsion of the rotating shaft structure.
US08369076B2
A moving mechanism is provided, including a torsion hinge, a slider, a lock member, and an elastic member disposed on the slider. The torsion hinge has a first plate and a second plate rotatable relative to each other. The lock member is rotatable relative to the first plate, and the slider is movably disposed on the second plate. When the moving mechanism is in a closed state, the lock member is engaged with a slot portion of the second plate, so as to restrict the second plate in a predetermined angle. When the slider slides relative to the second plate to a critical position, the elastic member pushes the lock member to release from the slot portion, such that the second plate is rotatable to an open position.
US08369073B2
A multiple hard drive connection system includes a first backplane, a second backplane, and a card assembly. The first backplane includes a pass-through and a first socket, and couples to a control system such that the first socket is in electrical communication with the control system. The second backplane is adjacent to and spaced apart from the first backplane, includes a second socket aligned with the pass-through, and couples to the control system such that the second socket is in electrical communication with the control system. The card assembly includes a first edge card connected to the first socket and a second edge card extending through the pass-through and connected to the second socket. The card assembly couples to a hard drive such that the hard drive is in electrical communication with the control system via the first backplane, the second backplane, and the card assembly.
US08369064B2
A ceramic capacitor includes a capacitor body and a metal layer arranged on an outer surface of the capacitor body. The outer surface includes: a first capacitor major surface; a second capacitor major surface opposite to the first capacitor major surface in a thickness direction of the capacitor body; and a capacitor lateral surface between the first and second capacitor major surfaces. The capacitor body includes a first layer section and a second layer section. The first layer section includes a plurality of ceramic dielectric layers and a plurality of internal electrodes, wherein the ceramic dielectric layers and the internal electrodes are layered alternately. The second layer section is exposed at the first capacitor major surface, and includes a corner portion at a boundary between the first capacitor major surface and the capacitor lateral surface. The metal layer covers the corner portion of the second layer section.
US08369063B2
A circuit includes a line input for receiving a line power. The circuit further includes a line output for transmitting the line power. The circuit further includes a next-gun-detect output and a next-gun-detect input. The circuit further includes a first detonator connection and a second detonator connection, the second detonator connection being connected to a ground. The line input is coupled to the first detonator connection through a one-polarity-pass component that only allows power of a first polarity to pass. The line input is coupled to the first detonator connection through a detonate-enable switch circuit that is coupled to the next-gun-detect output and the line input. The detonate-enable switch passes power only if (a) the next-gun-detect output is not coupled to the next-gun-detect input and (b) power of a second polarity has previously been applied to the line input while the next-gun-detect output is not coupled to the next-gun-detect input.
US08369062B2
According to certain embodiments, a detonation control system includes a controller circuit coupled to a manual switch and a detonation device. The detonation device is configured to activate an explosive. The controller circuit includes a memory operable to store one of a multiple time-to-fire settings representing a time delay from arming the detonation device to activation of the detonation device. The controller circuit is operable to store a first time-to-fire setting in the memory, store another of the multiple time-to-fire settings in the memory upon actuation of the manual switch, and repeat the step of storing another of the multiple time-to-fire settings in the memory for each actuation of the manual switch.
US08369055B2
A method of determining out of step condition and an instance of separation within electrical power system. The method does not require user settings and ensures reliable discrimination between recoverable power swing and pole slips that indicates non-recoverable power swing and the need for system separation. The method also allows tripping at a user selected system angle if desired. A calculated angle is used to determine the magnitude of the swing current to control the tripping at the desired angle θ when the system could be safely split after detection of out of step condition based on the criteria of this invention.
US08369054B2
A power-to-ground clamp transistor provides electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection. A filter capacitor and resistor generate a filter voltage that is buffered by three stages to drive the gate of the clamp transistor. The filter capacitor is about twenty times smaller than in a conventional clamp circuit. Feedback in the circuit keeps the clamp transistor turned on after the R-C time constant of the capacitor and resistor in the filer has elapsed, allowing for a smaller capacitor to turn on the clamp transistor longer. A sub-threshold-conducting transistor in the first stage conducts only a small sub-threshold current, which extends the discharge time of the first stage. The gate of the sub-threshold-conducting transistor is driven by feedback from the second stage. A feed-forward resistor has a high resistance value to slowly raise the voltage of the second stage from the filter voltage, and thus slowly raise the gate of the sub-threshold-conducting transistor.
US08369050B2
A circuit (S) for protecting a DC network having DC loads (1) and connectable to the circuit (S), the circuit (S) is suitable and configured to supply the DC network with electric power via a three-phase rectifier (G) and wherein the circuit (S) includes a means (2, 3, 4, TH1, LS, CS, DU, DV, DW) for detecting an overvoltage, wherein the means is suitable and configured to detect an overvoltage at the input of the DC network, and the circuit (S) includes a means (2, 3, 4, TH1, LS, CS, DU, DV, DW) for transferring a current, wherein the means is suitable and configured to supply current to one or several current-carrying thyristors (THU1, THV1, THW1) of the rectifier (G), wherein the current causes the thyristor or thyristors (THU1, THV1, THW1) to turn off as soon as the detection means has detected an overvoltage.
US08369049B2
A method for shutting down an electric machine having a pulse-controlled inverter in the event of a malfunction. Undesirable side effects during shut-down of the electric machine may be minimized and the regular machine operation may be maximized when the electric machine is first switched to a disconnect mode in which all switches of the pulse-controlled inverter are open and subsequently is switched to a short-circuit mode in which the switches connected to the high potential are open and the switches connected to the low potential are closed.
US08369039B2
An apparatus and method for writing data to be played back onto a tape is provided. Included is an acquisition unit for acquiring data to be written onto the tape, a writing unit for writing the data to the tape, and a determination unit for determining a data amount of a leading part of the data to be stored in a place separate from a place where the data is stored so that a part following the leading part is made ready to be played back before playback of the leading part ends, to reduce the time taken to read the data from the tape. Also included is an extraction unit for extracting the data and a storage unit for storing the leading part of the data.
US08369038B2
Disclosed are a method and system for distinguishing spatial and thermal defects on perpendicular media. The magnetic domains of the perpendicular media are oriented to have a first polarity, scanned using a read head, oriented to have a second polarity and scanned again. The signals from the read head are combined to produce output signals having improved signal to noise ratios from which the locations of spatial and thermal defects can be identified and distinguished.
US08369034B2
A lens apparatus for a surveillance camera. The apparatus includes an operation ring which is rotatably provided on an outer periphery of a lens barrel body, a threaded hole being formed in an outer peripheral surface of the operation ring. The apparatus also includes a cover which is provided on the lens barrel body to cover an outer periphery of the operation ring, a slit which is circumferentially formed in a peripheral surface of the cover. The apparatus further includes a knob which has a body part and a threaded part and is attached to the operation ring by screwing the threaded part into the threaded hole through the slit. The operation ring is locked by tightening the knob and holding the cover between the operation ring and the body part of the knob.
US08369033B2
There is provided a method of manufacturing a lens, including applying a second lens material to a first lens member made of a first lens material; aligning and fixing a light shielding member to the second lens material; and further applying the second lens material to the first lens member and performing curing thereon to complete a second lens member.
US08369028B2
An imaging lens (LN) includes at least one lens block (BK), and an aperture stop (ape). The lens block (BK) includes parallel flat lens substrates (LS) formed of different materials, and a lens (L). In the imaging lens (LN), a first lens block (BK1) positioned closest to an object includes a first lens substrate (LS1) and a lens (L[LS1o], and a prescribed conditional expression is satisfied.
US08369025B2
A lens barrel capable of distributing, upon receipt of the impact of, e.g., dropping, a torque load so as not to concentrate on a particular linear movement key and groove for linearly moving a barrel member, thereby suppressing occurrence of a failure. The lens barrel has a fixed barrel (8) and a third lens group barrel (3). In a movement region of the third lens group barrel (3) moving in the optical direction relative to the fixed barrel (8), each of a set of a first linear movement groove (8c) and a first linear movement key (3c) and a set of a second linear movement groove (8d) and a second linear movement key (3d) has a mutually engageable region and a mutually disengageable region, and a set of a groove (8e) and a projection (3e) has not a mutually engageable region.
US08369023B2
A lens system and an image capturing device having the same include a first lens group having a positive refractive power, a second lens group having a negative refractive power, a third lens group having a positive refractive power, a fourth lens group having a positive refractive power, and a fifth lens group being exchangeable with the third lens group.
US08369021B2
A zoom lens system ZL installed in an electronic still camera 1 and the like comprising, in order from an object side: a first lens group G1 having negative refractive power; and a second lens group G2 having positive refractive power; the second lens group including at least two cemented lenses each of which includes a positive lens disposed to the object side and a negative lens disposed to an image side, a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group varying upon zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state, thereby providing a zoom lens system having excellent optical performance, an optical apparatus equipped with the zoom lens system, and a method for manufacturing the zoom lens system.
US08369019B2
A projection display (60) includes a first waveguide (64) incorporating a grating structure (74) and second waveguide (66) incorporating an exit grating (84). The first and second waveguides (64, 66) are arrange to expand an image in orthogonal directions. The second waveguide (66) includes a first layer (86) with a first predetermined refractive index and/or first predetermined thickness, a second layer (88) with a second predetermined refractive index and/or second predetermined thickness. The exit grating (84) is arranged to direct at least some impinging light out of the second waveguide(66) and to provide at least some beam splitting of light passing through the exit grating (84). The first and second layers (86, 88) are arranged to abut one another such that the exit grating (84) is therebetween. The first predetermined refractive index and second predetermined refractive index and/or first predetermined thickness and second predetermined thickness are arranged to vary the spatial periodicity of pupils of image bearing light radiated from the second waveguide (66).
US08369012B2
The present invention relates to projection films and methods of making the same. In particular, the present invention relates to a projection film whereby the microspheres exhibit improved alignment on the light exit surface and have alignment on the light entrance surface that varies according to the individual microsphere diameter. In another embodiment, the present invention relates to a projection film that has the attributes of variable gain within the single projection film. In another embodiment, the present invention relates to an exposed microsphere projection film construction that provides modification of the head-on and angular pattern of light transmission (gain).
US08369010B2
A microscope includes a microscope main unit including a stage on which a specimen is to be placed; and a light source provided on the microscope main unit and emitting illumination light for illuminating the specimen. The microscope also includes a main power supply operable to be turned on and off; a sensor that senses the presence or absence of a subject in a front or side area of the microscope main unit; a determining unit that determines based on a result of the sensing whether the subject moves; and a control unit that turns on the light source when the main power supply is turned on, maintains the light source in an ON state when the determining unit determines that the subject moves, and turns off the light source when the determining unit determines that the subject does not move and a predetermined period of time passes.
US08368994B2
A scanned, one-dimensional, phased-array display system combines imaging optics on one axis with Fourier transform optics on another. The display offers the energy efficiency and fault tolerance of phase modulator-based displays, and the compactness, flexibility and speed of optical MEMS. Also described is a mechanism to introduce amplitude variations on the Fourier axis if needed to compensate for image artifacts.
US08368991B2
A 3D image display device includes a display module, an electrochromic module, a control unit and a sensing unit. The electrochromic module has a first electrochromic element and a second electrochromic element disposed in the different direction, and the electrochromic element is a solution type electrochromic material, and the valence of ions in the material is changed to produce a quick and uniform coloration. The display device transmits a detect signal of the sensing unit to the control unit, and the control unit controls the coloration/decoloration of the first and second electrochromic elements to switch the horizontal or vertical parallax barrier, such that viewers can view a 3D image from different viewing angles and directions.
US08368988B2
A micro shutter device and a method of manufacturing the micro shutter device are provided. A transparent substrate is provided. A barrier is formed on the substrate to partition a unit pixel. A pattern layer is formed with a transparent material to have a transparent first pattern portion on the substrate in the unit pixel. A movable plate is arranged to face the pattern layer, has an opaque second pattern layer corresponding to a shape of the first pattern portion, and is configured to transmit light therethrough except the second pattern portion. An actuator is for moving the movable plate. Therefore, light leakage due to diffraction can be prevented, resulting in increasing contrast ratio and improving light efficiency.
US08368976B2
An automatic document feeding and scanning apparatus includes an automatic document feeder and a flatbed scanner mechanism. The flatbed scanner mechanism includes a casing, a scanning module and a scanning platform. The scanning platform has a first scanning window and a second scanning window for fixing a first transparent plate and a second transparent plate, respectively. In addition, an inner periphery of the second scanning window and an edge of the second transparent plate have complementary profiles.
US08368969B2
A method for rasterizing transparent pages scans each transparent page twice. The first scanning syntactically interprets a page description file of the transparent page, divides it into page blocks, and writes information of image element objects and transparency parameters into intermediate files. The second scanning reads the image element objects and the transparency parameters from the intermediate files and builds a page bitmap in blocks. A device for rasterizing transparent pages includes interpreting, dividing, file storing and building units. The interpreting unit implements syntactical interpretation. The dividing unit divides pages into transparent and nontransparent page blocks. The building unit implements rasterization according to the transparent or nontransparent page blocks, the information of image element objects and the transparent parameters to build a page bitmap in blocks. The methods and devices herein improve the efficiency of building a page bitmap and decrease memory utilization during generation of the page bitmap.
US08368967B2
A scanning controller, a scanning apparatus and a method for performing the scanning controller are disclosed herein. The scanning controller includes an image data processing unit, a memory control unit, a dummy line control unit, a buffer condition control unit, a motor condition control unit, a motor controlling unit and a relation control unit. Based on at least one of several predetermined contrastive relationships among each stored data amount with regard to an image buffer and its corresponding motor move timing, the relation control unit controls generation of a motor move timing from the motor controlling unit to drive a motor with variance of a scanned data generation rate and simultaneously enable determination of the dummy line control unit on which part of scanned image data should be skipped by catching of the image data processing unit.
US08368963B2
A method for exposing a printing form includes the following steps: A matrix having device-dependent image information is provided on a computer for supplying data to a printing form exposer. The matrix having device-dependent image information is transformed in a matrix manipulation device into a corrected matrix having device-dependent image information. A printing form is exposed in the printing form exposer with the image information in accordance with the corrected matrix. Here, a first part of the transformation rule for producing the corrected matrix in a first zone of the matrix is defined as a function of the area coverage of the first zone, and a second part of the transformation rule for producing the corrected matrix in a second zone of the matrix, which is different from the first zone, is defined as a function of the area coverage of the second zone, the area coverage in the first zone and the area coverage in the second zone being different from each other.
US08368959B2
An image processing system utilizes an image type classification circuit to identify inputted image data as picture image data or text/graphics image data. A halftone circuit, operatively connected to the image type classification circuit, converts the inputted image data, identified as picture image data, to halftone image data. Moreover, a tile pattern circuit, operatively connected to the image type classification circuit, to replace the inputted image data, identified as text/graphics image data, with tile patterns. Non-halftone cluster areas in the tile patterns are encoded with a predetermined pattern. A bitmap rendering circuit combines the halftone image data with the encoded tile patterns to render a bitmap, wherein the bitmap can be used by a print engine to reproduce the image.
US08368956B2
Aspects of the present invention relate to methods and systems for segmenting a digital image into regions. A frequency-of-occurrence of image values may be determined excluding a portion of pixels in a digital image. An image value associated with a peak in the frequency-of-occurrence of image values may be identified and associated with an image label. Pixel locations may be labeled based on the associated labels and image values. Additionally, unreliable pixels may be determined and labeled based on the associated labels and image values, and an unreliable pixel may be assigned a label after multiple scan passes of a classification map.
US08368953B2
An image forming device having a plurality of developing units is provided. The image forming device includes a control unit to determine whether to perform an auto color registration (ACR) with respect to one or more of the plurality of developing units, and a print engine unit to perform an ACR of the determined developing units.
US08368946B2
An information processing system includes: an imaging device including a first recording medium recording a content file, and a management information storage unit storing management information for managing the content file in the first recording medium; an information processing device including a second recording medium recording a predetermined content file; and a control unit controlling so as to detect difference information relating to the storage state of the content file recorded in the first recording medium, based on the results of comparing present management information stored in the management information storage unit, with past management information which has been recorded before the present management information and is management information of the point-in-time at which the content file in the first recording medium was saved to the second recording medium, and record, in the second recording medium, the content file in the first recording medium, based on the detected difference information.
US08368945B2
An information processing apparatus for outputting a document to a printer. Whether or not each of a plurality of set values set for one printing condition is a set value by which a print output can be performed in the printer is discriminated. If a plurality of set values determined to be the set values by the print output can be performed in the printer exists among the plurality of set values, by deciding the set value of the printing condition according to a priority added to each of the plurality of set values, a proper print result is provided according to the printing conditions set on a distributing source side of print content.
US08368943B2
There is provided an image creating apparatus including: an inputting device for inputting creation data composed of input data and creation condition data; an image creating device for creating a two-dimensional code image based on the inputted creation data; and an informing device for informing of a print size of the created two-dimensional code image, wherein the image creating device creates the two-dimensional code image based on the creation data being inputted, in the process of inputting the creation data by the inputting device, and the informing device informs of the print size of the two-dimensional code image created by the image creating device based on the creation data being inputted.
US08368942B2
An image processing apparatus has a multi-cropping function that automatically crops the scanned images of a plurality of original sheets placed on a platen of an image reading apparatus all at one pass. The desired number of cropped images is input by the user, and the number of cropped images detected when cropping the image of the original sheets placed on the platen, are compared.
US08368930B2
A job execution system includes a terminal apparatus and an image processing apparatus. The terminal apparatus includes an accepter that accepts a value set by a user for one or more than one setting item to execute a job by the image processing apparatus and a transmitter that transmits the job including the accepted value, to the image processing apparatus. In the image processing apparatus, a judger judges whether or not there exists a setting item for which the value “to be specified” is set in advance, among those included in the job received by a receiver, to execute the job. And if it judged that there exists, a job executor puts on hold execution of the job and a display portion displays a setting screen that allows a user to specify a value for the setting item for which the value “to be specified” is set in advance.
US08368924B2
A method of printing a document includes generating commands in a computing device that include: (i) commands for printing based on document data, and (ii) an identification of a determined portion of the document data that is to be used in generating a printed copy detection pattern. The method further includes sending the printer control commands to an intermediate electronic device that stores a key, generating copy detection pattern data using the determined portion of the document data and the cryptographic key, and generating modified printer control commands that include commands for printing a first document portion based on the document data and a second document portion including the printed copy detection pattern based on the copy detection pattern data. Finally, the modified printer control commands are sent to a printing device. Also, a system is provided for implementing the method.
US08368923B2
An image forming apparatus capable of reprinting image data once printed without requiring a server system for integrally managing image data is provided. A storage section individually provided in an image forming apparatus stores inputted image data, and an information generating section generates log information of the image data to record on an IC card outside the apparatus. Then, based on position information included in the log information, a data reading section specifies a storage section in which desired image data is stored among storage sections provided in a plurality of image forming apparatuses capable of implementing data communication, and reads the desired image data from the specified storage section.
US08368921B2
Print controllers and associated methods of processing JDF job tickets in a printing system are disclosed. A print controller in one embodiment includes a storage system that receives a printable file from a host system, and stores the printable file. The print controller further comprises a JDF interpreter that receives a Job Definition Format (JDF) job ticket that is associated with the printable file from the host system. The JDF interpreter parses the JDF job ticket to identify printing parameters defined for the printable file. The JDF interpreter then issues device control commands for the printing parameters in the JDF job ticket. Thus, JDF job ticket processing is performed in the printing system instead of in the host system.
US08368920B2
An image forming system includes an information terminal and an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus stores a hash value of a file on which image forming operation is to be performed or has been performed. Upon a request to print a predetermined file at the information terminal, the information terminal generates a hash value of the predetermined file. The information terminal transmits print data and the hash value to the image forming apparatus only in the case where the information terminal determines that hash values stored by the image forming apparatus do not include the generated hash value.
US08368918B2
Methods and apparatus to methods and apparatus to identify images in print advertisements are disclosed. An example method comprises computing a first image feature vector for a first presented image, comparing the first image feature vector to a second image feature vector, and when the first image feature vector matches the second image feature vector, storing printed-media information associated with the first presented image in a database record associated with the second image feature vector.
US08368916B2
A first copier acquires data and determines a plurality of recipients to deliver split data. A data splitter 308 splits data into a plurality of data blocks and a dummy data generator 315 generates dummy data. A data delivery unit 310 delivers the data blocks and dummy data to the plurality of recipients. At the same time, the data delivery unit 310 outputs restoration information including information about the recipients of the data. Based on the restoration information, a second copier collects the plurality of data blocks and the dummy data from the plurality of recipients and discards the dummy data, acquiring the plurality of data blocks. The second copier reconstructs a set of data from the plurality of data blocks.
US08368903B2
An image forming apparatus including a control section which detects an offset of a recording sheet being conveyed, the offset being in a main scanning direction perpendicular to a conveyance direction of the recording sheet; performs an offset regulation control which adjusts a main scanning direction image area signal in accordance with the offset; and forms a patch at a non-transfer area on an image carrier, wherein the control section performs a first control based on the offset of the recording sheet for the offset regulation control while a sub scanning direction image area signal is active for image forming on the recording sheet, and performs a second control for the offset regulation control while the image area signal in the sub scanning direction is inactive.
US08368889B2
An imaging polarimeter optics unit comprising: a first polarization-sensitive beam-splitter optic, a retarder, a second polarization-sensitive beam-splitter optic, and an analyzer, through which input light passes in sequence, wherein the retarder and polarization-sensitive beam-splitters cause the input light to have optical components that provide different information about the state of polarization of the input beam is provided.
US08368878B2
Spectral information may be employed in process control and/or quality control of goods and articles. Spectral information may be employed in process control and/or quality control of media, for example financial instruments, identity documents, legal documents, medical documents, financial transaction cards, and/or other media, fluids for example lubricants, fuels, coolants, or other materials that flow, and in machinery, for example vehicles, motors, generators, compressors, presses, drills and/or supply systems. Spectral information may be employed in identifying biological tissue and/or facilitating diagnosis based on biological tissue.
US08368875B2
An optical instrument and a method for obtaining distance and image information of an object is disclosed to improve the speed and accuracy of data acquisition. The instrument comprises a camera, positioning unit, distance measuring unit, lens arrangement and control unit. The camera acquires images of an object and the control unit defines an area to be scanned as well as an object feature of the object, wherein measurement pixels corresponding to positions on the object may be defined in the area with an increased density of measurement pixels at the object feature. Subsequently, the distances to the object at the selected positions of interest are measured.
US08368873B2
There is provided a proximity to a target, detection system, including a laser transmitter for transmitting a beam of radiation at a predetermined wavelength temporal and spatial shape, towards a target from which the proximity is to be determined, a small dimensions body having an opening for admitting radiation reflected from the target, the body housing a receiver for receiving the reflected beam radiation from the target and directing it towards a detector in the body for producing a signal. The detector includes a detection logic circuit allowing detection of reflected radiation for producing an output signal when the body is at a predetermined range from the target and in consideration of the temporal or spatial relative strength of the signal produced by the detected radiation of the reflected beam. A method for detecting the proximity of a body to a radiation-reflecting surface of a target, is also provided.
US08368871B2
A lithographic method related to Talbot imaging for printing a desired pattern of features that is periodic or quasi-periodic in at least one direction onto a substrate surface, which method includes providing a mask bearing a pattern of mask features, arranging the substrate parallel and in proximity to the mask, providing an illumination source having a central wavelength and a spectral bandwidth, forming from said source an illumination beam with an angular distribution of intensity, arranging the distance of the substrate from the mask and exposing the mask pattern to said beam so that each angular component of illumination exposes the substrate to substantially the entire range of lateral intensity distributions that occur between successive Talbot image planes for the illumination wavelengths, wherein the angular distribution of the beam is designed in conjunction with the pattern of features in the mask and the distance of the substrate from the mask.
US08368868B2
A lithographic apparatus includes a position controller configured to control a position of a patterning device in its planar direction by selectively pressing at least one of the side faces of the patterning device. The position controller includes a gas pressure supply and one or more outflow openings directed towards at least one side face of the patterning device so as to exert pressurized gas on this side face in order to control the position of the patterning device in its planar direction in a contactless manner.
US08368865B2
A display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate facing the first substrate, and a pixel disposed on either the first substrate or the second substrate. When an electrode is formed, a portion of the electrode is removed to form a spacer area and a droplet including a bead spacer mixed with a solvent is provided in the spacer area. Then, the solvent is vaporized to move the bead spacer to a center of the spacer area. The second substrate is provided to face the first substrate while interposing the bead spacer therebetween. The spacer area has a dimension equal to or greater than a diameter of the droplet.
US08368864B2
In a seal portion of a liquid crystal display device, column spacers are formed on a counter substrate side, organic passivation films are formed so as to face the column spacers on a TFT substrate side, and the gap between the TFT substrate and the counter substrate is controlled by the column spacers and the organic passivation films. A sealing material covers the column spacers and the organic passivation films and is in contact with an inorganic film formed on the TFT substrate on the TFT substrate side. Therefore, the adhesive force of the sealing material is improved to ensure the reliability of the seal portion.
US08368861B2
A liquid crystal display device comprises a plurality of pixels arrayed in a first direction and a second direction, each of the pixels having a reflective area in at least a portion thereof. The reflective area comprises a surface-irregularity film that is a film having a plurality of surface irregularities, a light reflecting film disposed as an upper layer over the surface-irregularity film, and an electrode group disposed as an upper layer over the light reflecting film. The electrode group in each of the pixels that are arrayed in at least the first direction comprises at least two types of electrode patterns having different layouts.
US08368858B2
The present invention relates to an optical film produced by stretching a film having a low residual solvent amount in a machine direction followed by heat-treating it at a temperature falling from the glass transition point (Tg) to the melting point (Tm) thereof, which is a cellulose acylate film satisfying the following relations (1) to (6) and containing at least one cellulose acylate and at least one retardation enhancer having an absorption maximum wavelength λmax of from 280 nm to 380 nm: (1) 35 nm≦Re(550)≦75 nm, (2) 85 nm≦Rth(550)≦140 nm, (3) 0 nm<ΔRe(630−450)≦40 nm, (4) −75 nm≦ΔRth(630−450)<0 nm, (5) 2.7≦A+B≦3.0, and (6) B≧0, wherein “A” means a degree of substitution with an acetyl group of said at least one cellulose acylate, and “B” means a degree of substitution with an acyl group having at least 3 carbon atoms thereof.
US08368856B2
An array substrate for a transflective liquid crystal display device includes: a substrate; a gate line and a data line on the substrate, the gate line and the data line crossing each other to define a pixel region including a transmissive area and a reflective area surrounding the transmissive area; a thin film transistor having a gate insulating layer, the thin film transistor electrically connected to the gate line and the data line; a first passivation layer having a drain contact hole exposing a drain electrode of the thin film transistor and a through hole exposing the substrate in the transmissive area; a pixel electrode on the first passivation layer, the pixel electrode contacting the substrate in the transmissive area through the through hole; and a reflective plate on the pixel electrode, the reflective plate being electrically connected to the drain electrode through the drain contact hole and to the pixel electrode.
US08368854B2
An object is to provide a highly reliable liquid crystal display device which includes a liquid crystal layer exhibiting a more stable blue phase. Another object is to provide a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device with high yield. Polymer stabilization treatment is performed as follows: a photocurable resin is added to a liquid crystal material exhibiting a blue phase, and the photocurable resin is selectively polymerized by scanning a liquid crystal layer provided between a first substrate and a second substrate with light in a certain direction. Thus, a first region where the light irradiation treatment is performed and a second region where the light irradiation treatment is not performed are formed in the liquid crystal layer. Since polymerization of the photocurable resin proceeds in the first region, the polymerization degree of the photocurable resin in the first region is higher than that in the second region.
US08368852B2
A display panel includes; a substrate, and a light blocking structure surrounding an ink filling region on the substrate, the light blocking structure including; a first layer pattern having an ink affinity characteristic disposed on the substrate, and a second layer pattern positioned on the first layer pattern and including an organic material having a light blocking characteristic.
US08368837B2
A liquid crystal display device includes: a liquid crystal display panel; and a backlight disposed to face the liquid crystal display panel, the backlight including at least a frame having a bottom surface facing the liquid crystal display panel, a reflector placed on the bottom surface of the frame, and a plurality of light sources disposed on the liquid crystal display panel side of the reflector and supported by the frame, wherein a recess protruding in the opposite direction to the liquid crystal display panel is formed in the bottom surface of the frame, the recess and the reflector constituting an air duct.
US08368833B2
A liquid crystal display uses a pixel division method by which the size of a defect can be reduced much more than conventionally possible, and a defect correcting method for the liquid crystal display. The liquid crystal display is provided with an active matrix array substrate including a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of source lines arranged on a transparent substrate to intersect with each other, and a plurality of pixel electrodes arranged in a matrix, each pixel electrode including an assembly of a plurality of sub-pixel electrodes, separate TFTs respectively connected to the sub-pixel electrodes in the vicinity of an intersection portion of the gate line and the source line, the TFTs being driven by the common gate line and the common source line, and at least one opening portion being formed in a lower-layer side line placed in a lower layer at the intersection portion.
US08368831B2
A liquid crystal formulation is described. The liquid crystal formulation comprises a first oligosiloxane-modified nano-phase segregating liquid crystalline material; and at least one additional material selected from a second oligosiloxane-modified nano-phase segregating liquid crystalline material, non-liquid crystalline oligosiloxane-modified materials, organic liquid crystalline materials, or organic non-liquid crystalline materials, wherein the liquid crystal formulation is nano-phase segregated in the SmC* phase, has an I→SmC* phase transition, with a SmC* temperature range from about 15° C. to about 35° C., has a tilt angle of about 22.5°±6° or about 45°±6°, and has a spontaneous polarization of less than about 50 nC/cm2, and a rotational viscosity of less than about 600 cP. Devices containing liquid crystal formulations are also described. The device has a stable bookshelf geometry, bistable switching, and isothermal electric field alignment, a response time of less than 500 μs when switched between two stable states, and an electric drive field of less than about 30 V/μm.
US08368822B2
To provide an image display apparatus that is allowed to incorporate a panel module with excellent mechanical strength even if a screen is upsized and the apparatus is slimmed down. Strengthening units are mounted along a horizontal direction on canopies provided on an upper portion and a lower portion of a panel module constituting a display unit of a large-size, thin image display apparatus. Also, supporting members are mounted on the upper and lower strengthening units in such a manner that the supporting members bridge between the upper and lower strengthening units, so that a stand, or a chain or a string to be used when hanging the image display apparatus is mountable to the supporting members. This prevents direct application of external force to the panel module.
US08368820B2
A lighting device 12 of the present invention includes a light source 17, an external power source 21 arranged to supply drive power to the light source 17, and a relay connector 19 arranged to provide an electrical connection between the light source 17 and the external power source 21. The relay connector 19 includes a conductive resin layer 40 and an insulating resin layer 50 arranged on the periphery of the conductive resin layer 40. According to the construction, the conductive portion and the insulating portion of the relay connector 19 are both made of resin, and therefore can be formed by the same process, e.g., by two-shot molding. Further, the number of components can be reduced.
US08368814B2
The invention achieves a visual processing device that can execute precise contrast adjustment on image signals that have been input and that does not cause discrepancies in the output timing of the image signals that are output. The visual processing device is provided with a gain-type visual processing portion that outputs a first gain signal having predetermined gain characteristics with respect to the input image signal, and a correction portion that corrects the input image signal based on the first gain signal.
US08368813B2
A generating device includes: a subtitle encode unit for generating subtitle data by encoding the image data of a subtitle; and a determining unit for determining whether or not reproduction of the subtitle is in time for display thereof based on the size of encoded data obtained by encoding the image data, with the subtitle data being classified into display sets as display units, and with the determining unit obtaining processing time regarding the display set of interest from the size of encoded data of the display set of interest according size-time relationship between the size of the encoded data and the processing time, and determining that reproduction of the subtitle of the display set of interest is not in time for display thereof when the available time regarding the display set of interest is below the processing time regarding the display set of interest, to output error information.
US08368812B2
The present invention relates to the domain of video equipment. It relates to a phase-locked loop able to recover the timing of a synchronization signal comprising a temporal discontinuity of amaximum amplitude equal to PCR_Modulus, the loop comprising: a sample comparator comparing the samples and the local samples of a synthesized signal, means for producing the synthesized signal from a corrected signal, a corrector receiving a comparison result delivered by the comparison means and delivering the corrected signal, According to the invention, the comparison means comprises the means to determine a difference in value between the local samples and the samples of the synchronization signal and in that the comparison result has a value that depends on the value ε and on the difference between the value ε and the value PCR_Modulus/2.
US08368808B2
A camera module and a portable electronic device using same are provided. The camera module can be rotated to align with a first camera window and a first aperture in the front of the portable electronic device or a second camera window and second aperture in the rear of the portable electronic device.
US08368799B2
A mount adapter includes: a camera cone having a length of adjusting a flange focal length between an imaging device provided with an imaging element and an interchangeable lens; a focus detection unit carrying out focus detection from a phase difference; an optical device separating an incident light from the interchangeable lens into an incident light of the imaging element and an incident light of the focus detection unit; and a correction information storage unit storing correction information used for correction of an error between the flange focal length and a distance from a mounting surface of the interchangeable lens to the focus detection unit.
US08368796B2
A camera system has an imaging optical system, an imaging component, a liquid crystal monitor, an aperture setting component, and an image display controller. The liquid crystal monitor has a first display region and a second display region. The aperture setting component adjusts the aperture in a specific period so that the actual aperture value will be a preset value. The image display controller displays, in the first display region, a reference image acquired by the imaging component under conditions in which the aperture value is the preset value, and displays, in the second display region, a comparative image acquired by the imaging component at a different timing from that of the reference image.
US08368792B2
Methods, apparatuses and systems provide a high dynamic range mode of operation for an image sensor when operating in a skip mode where certain pixels of an array are not readout. Multiple integration periods are employed in the skip mode with selected pixels being readout through circuits associated with pixels that are not readout.
US08368790B2
An image sensing apparatus comprises a pixel array; a readout unit; a first terminal; and a second terminal, wherein the readout unit including a column amplification unit, a holding unit, a first power supply line, and a second power supply line, and wherein the column amplification unit including a transistor having a gate electrode and back-gate electrode, the gate electrode receiving a signal read out from a pixel on each column of the pixel array, and the holding unit including a capacitor having a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode receiving a signal amplified by the column amplification unit, and wherein the first power supply line transfers the first power supply voltage to the back-gate electrode of the transistor, and the second power supply line transfers the second power supply voltage to the second electrode of the capacitor.
US08368788B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a photoelectric conversion layer, a MOS transistor circuit. The photoelectric conversion layer is formed over a semiconductor substrate. The MOS transistor circuit reads out a signal corresponding to charges generated in the photoelectric conversion layer and then collected, and that is formed in the semiconductor substrate, the charges having a given polarity. The MOS transistor circuit includes a charge accumulation portion, a reset transistor, and an output transistor. The charge accumulation portion is electrically connected with the photoelectric conversion layer. The reset transistor resets a potential of the charge accumulation portion to a reset potential. The output transistor outputs a signal corresponding to the potential of the charge accumulation portion. The reset transistor and the output transistor have carriers whose polarity is opposite to the given polarity. In the MOS transistor circuit, following formula (1) is satisfied: GND
US08368781B2
The present invention provides an imaging technology having high reproducibility of a document and making image correction possible, without being influenced by a way of placing the document or a position of a camera, and irrespective of paper color and despite of damage of a corner portion. By printing positioning symbols on document paper in advance when the document is photographed by a digital camera or a portable phone with a camera, such as a smart phone, and by processing the image based on these positioning symbols, image processing having high reproducibility of the document and making image correction (keystone correction) possible can be implemented irrespective of paper color and despite of damage of a corner portion.
US08368780B2
A fixed pattern noise of an image converter is automatically determined. A first optical image is converted using the image converter into digital image data, the light level of the first optical image is determined, the light level of the first optical image is compared with a threshold value, and the image converter characteristics of the image converter are reset to a dark image setting in such a way that the image data generated over the photosensitive imaging surface of the image converter at constant distribution of the determined light level include no component produced by the light level. Immediately thereafter, using the dark image setting previously set, a first dark image is recorded.
US08368771B2
A plurality of images is captured, and a positional displacement between the images is determined. The images may be captured as still images or as moving images. Moving images may include, for example, images that are captured as part of the recording of a video or as live image data that is played back in real time. Different positional displacement techniques are be used to determine the positional displacement between the images, based on how the images are captured. For example, a first positional displacement technique may be used if the images are still images and a second positional displacement technique if the images are moving images. The images may then be synthesized images based on the determined positional displacement of the images to generate a synthesized image. The images may be synthesized using a weighted synthesis technique, a simple synthesis technique, or other appropriate synthesis technique.
US08368770B2
An in-vivo imaging device including a camera may include a frame storage device. Systems and methods which vary the frame capture rate of the camera and/or frame display rate of the display unit of in-vivo camera systems are discussed. The capture rate is varied based on physical measurements related to the motion of the camera. Alternatively, the frame capture rate is varied based on comparative image processing of a plurality of frames. The frame display rate of the system is varied based on comparative image processing of a multiplicity of frames. Both the frame capture and the frame display rates of such systems can be varied concurrently.
US08368759B2
There are provided a landmark for recognizing a position of a mobile robot moving in an indoor space and an apparatus and method for recognizing the position of the mobile robot by using the landmark. The landmark includes a position recognition part formed of a mark in any position and at least two marks on an X axis and Y axis centered on the mark and further includes an area recognition part formed of a combination of a plurality of marks to distinguish an individual landmark from others. The apparatus may obtain an image of the landmark by an infrared camera, detect the marks forming the landmark, and detect precise position and area information of the mobile robot from the marks.
US08368758B2
An imaging apparatus for taking an image of a face includes an imaging element having sensitivity for a near-infrared range and a visible range, a first optical filter provided between the face and the imaging element to reduce an intensity of a visible light entering the imaging element and a near-infrared light irradiating portion for irradiating the face with a near-infrared light.
US08368757B2
Disclosed are processes for the centralised monitoring of territories to recognize forest and surface fires. A swiveling and tiltable camera installed at a monitoring site supplies images of overlapping observation sectors. In each observation sector a sequence of images includes a plurality of images is taken, at an interval which corresponds to fire and smoke dynamics. An on-site image-processing software supplies event warnings with indication of the position of the event site in the analysed image. A total image and an image sequence with image sections of the event site are then transmitted to a central station and reproduced at the central station as a continuous sequence in quick-motion mode. Event warnings with relevant data are blended into electronic maps at the central station. Cross-bearing is made possible by blending event warnings from adjacent monitoring sites. False alarms are minimized by marking known false alarm sources as exclusion zones.
US08368745B2
An image display apparatus and method to simultaneously display two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) images with minimized visual 3D discomfort. The image display apparatus may include a lens unit to spatially separate images displayed in a display panel unit to thereby simultaneously form a 2D image viewing area and a 3D image viewing area, respectively, enabling the simultaneous displaying of the 2D images and the 3D images.
US08368740B2
In order to prevent leakage of confidential data, a meeting system includes a MFP and a projector. The MFP includes a data obtaining portion to obtain data, a participant information obtaining portion to obtain user identification information as participant information, an access permission determination portion and an output permission determination portion to determine whether or not a user identified by the participant information can access the obtained data, to determine that the obtained data can be output if the determination result shows that all the meeting participants can access the obtained data, and to determine that the obtained data cannot be output if any one of the meeting participants cannot access the obtained data, and an output portion to output data on condition that it is determined by the output permission determination portion that data can be output. The display device displays an image based on the data output from the data processing apparatus.
US08368739B2
A system, method, and apparatus are disclosed whereby a wireless Personal Area Network such as a Bluetooth piconet may be extended to a remote location beyond the normal range by means of a conferencing connection. The conferencing connection may comprise, for example, one or more ISDN lines or an IP connection between two or more conference endpoints. The broadband connection may include a video channel, an audio channel, a control channel, and a Bluetooth channel.
US08368738B2
Architecture for combining an outbound contact via multiple communications modes and the joining of an invitee to a communications session (e.g., conference call, web conference, etc.) without requiring substantial authentication of the invitee, if at all. The invitee can be automatically connected to the session using the communication method of choice, for example, conference call session or web conferencing session. An invitation can be sent to the invitee through multiple communication channels such as phone, text messaging, SMS, MMS, and email. The architecture facilitates the automatic creation of meeting resources (conference call session or web conferencing session). The meeting (or session) organizer can be treated as an invitee and be contacted by an application to request join in the meeting resource. Moreover, the ability is provided to mix audio/video of meeting resources. The invitee and/or the organizer can have an interactive conversation with the invitee-join application using the communication modes. The invitee-join application can parse and understand invitee responses.
US08368736B2
An optical scanning device includes four light sources, a pre-deflector optical system, a polygon mirror, an optical scanning system, etc. The optical scanning system includes deflector-side scanning lenses made of glass, imaging-surface-side scanning lenses made of resin, polarized light splitters, and reflecting mirrors. The deflector-side scanning lenses, the imaging-surface-side scanning lenses, the polarized light splitters, and the reflecting mirrors are arranged in this order on an optical path of light going from the polygon mirror toward drum-shaped photosensitive elements.
US08368735B2
A light emitting head for use in copiers or printers, the light emitting head having an illuminated length, e.g. a print width or copy width, and including a rigid carrier structure provided from a bulk material that spans at least the illuminated length of the head, the bulk material having a coefficient of thermal conduction larger than 100 W/mK and a coefficient of thermal expansion; a plurality of blocks of light elements arranged in a longitudinal array, the blocks having a coefficient of thermal expansion, each of the blocks of light elements having a first and a second surface, each of the blocks of light elements including a plurality of light-emitting elements exposed on a first surface on the block, the plurality of blocks being physically attached to the carrier structure by a conductive adhesive at substantially the second surfaces, and wherein the bulk material has a coefficient of thermal expansion that differs from the thermal expansion coefficient of the block material by a maximum of 5*10−6/K.
US08368734B2
An exposure device includes a plurality of light-emitting elements, a lighting driver, a first storage, a reader, a shading correction unit and a second storage. The lighting driver drives and lights up the light-emitting elements based on image data. The first storage stores light amount unevenness correction values of the respective light-emitting elements. The reader reads the light amount unevenness correction values stored in the first storage. The shading correction unit executes shading correction for the light amount unevenness correction values read by the reader. The second storage stores correction values obtained by having the shading correction unit to execute the shading correction for the light amount unevenness correction values. The lighting driver controls light power of the respective light-emitting elements based on the correction values stored in the second storage.
US08368729B2
A direct-viewing type display device according to the present invention includes: at least one display panel having a display region and a frame region formed outside of the display region; and at least one Fresnel lens plate disposed on a viewer side of the at least one display panel with a predetermined interval therefrom. The Fresnel lens plate includes a Fresnel lens region at a position overlapping a region that contains a portion of the frame region of the display panel and a portion of a peripheral display region within the display region that adjoins the portion of the frame region along a first axis. A portion of display light exiting the portion of the peripheral display region is emitted from a region of the Fresnel lens region that overlaps a portion of the frame region, or a region outside the region, toward the viewer side. According to the present invention, there is provided a direct-viewing type display device in which a frame region of a display panel, or a joint in the case of tiling, is made unlikely to be seen, with a structure which is more simple and light-weighted than conventionally.
US08368720B2
Method and apparatus for layer-based panoramic image blending, adjustment and editing. A panoramic image mechanism may provide the automated generation of a panoramic image from a set of input images. The panoramic image may be generated, organized and persisted as a set or stack of component layers, which enables manual modification of the component layers to optimize the panoramic image. The panoramic image mechanism may include scripts and associated user interface mechanisms that automate the generation of a panoramic image and that may provide users access to the adjustment and edit mechanisms, and that thus enable users to retouch the automatically-generated panoramic images.
US08368716B2
In a method for processing pixel values of an image in a first representation to a second representation having a yellow-blue axis, a red-green axis, and a luminance axis, the pixel values are converted from the first representation to the second representation by converting the pixel values to a more opponent color encoding using a logical operator to compute a yellowness-blueness value of each of the pixel values and using scaled multiplications to compute a redness-greenness value of each of the pixel values in the second representation. In addition, the converted pixel values are outputted.
US08368711B2
Methods and apparatus to provide dynamic messaging services are disclosed. One example method includes determining supported dimensions for display of information on a display screen, restricting the supported dimensions, wherein the restricted dimensions define a boundary between a first screen portion and a second screen portion, and displaying content of a first type on a first side of the boundary and displaying a content of a second type on a second side of the boundary. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08368703B2
Many computing device may now include two or more graphics subsystems. The multiple graphics subsystems may have different abilities, and may, for example, consume differing amount of electrical power, with one subsystem consuming more average power than the others. The higher power consuming graphics subsystem may be coupled to the device and used instead of, or in addition to, the lower power consuming graphics subsystem, resulting in higher performance or additional capabilities, but increased overall power consumption. By transitioning from the use of the higher power consuming graphics subsystem to the lower power consuming graphics subsystem, while placing the higher power consuming graphics subsystem in a lower power consumption mode, overall power consumption is reduced. A processor executes application software and driver software. The driver software includes first and second driver components for respectively controlling operation of the first and second graphics subsystems. A further proxy driver component routes calls (e.g. API/DDI calls) to one of said first and second driver components, in dependence on which of the first and second graphics system is in use.
US08368700B1
A method for specifying an animatronics unit includes receiving a force-based software model for the animatronics unit, receiving a kinematics-based software model for the animatronics unit, receiving animation data for animating the kinematics-based software model, wherein the animation data comprises artistically determined motions for the kinematics-based software model by a user, determining a plurality of driving signals in response to the animation data, animating the force-based software model of the animatronics unit in response to the plurality of driving signals, displaying animation of the force-based software model determined in response to the plurality of driving signals, and determining a specification for construction of the animatronics unit in response to animation of the force-based software model.
US08368693B2
Example embodiments of the present invention include systems and methods for the efficient rendering of multiple light sources, each controlled individually, in a single pass. An example embodiment encodes the light sources in a texture map, such as DXT. Each channel of the multi-channel texture map encodes data associated with a light source. The pixel shader then renders multiple light sources according to the multiple channels of the texture. Additionally, the pixel shader may render multiple textures, and thus render an even greater number of individual light sources. In a further embodiment, the rendering of a plurality of individually controlled light sources is accomplished in a single pass.
US08368690B1
Exemplary embodiments provide devices, systems and methods that enable viewing of three-dimensional images on an autostereoscopic display using a barrier grid of dynamically configurable grid characteristics. The barrier grid is configurable to include alternating light-transmitting and light-blocking portions that may be characterized by and configured using a set of one or more grid indicia. The cooperative display of an image on an image display device and the dynamically configurable barrier grid enables autostereoscopic 3D and 4D viewing of images.
US08368686B2
Disclosed are systems and methods for rule-based procedural generation of terrain in real time for a virtual world. By describing the terrain with rules rather than storing the actual geometry data, a drastic savings in terms of memory and disk space is achieved by generating terrain procedurally on the fly in real time when it is necessary. Using the terrain editor tool, the terrain system allows defining and modifying the terrain height, color, shaders, textures, flora, and environment, for example. Additionally, generating the terrain procedurally allows for almost limitless detail by changing the parameters used to create the terrain geometry. These rules can also be added and removed dynamically, leading to terrain modification in real time. In addition, resources are managed for the terrain generation system, such as allocating memory for areas of virtual terrain; associating a priority level to each virtual terrain for memory management; and deallocating memory of the virtual terrain based at least in part on the priority levels of the areas of virtual terrain.
US08368684B2
An organic light emitting display device includes a pixel unit including data lines, a data driving unit providing data signals corresponding to first and second data to the data lines, a timing controlling unit controlling the data driving unit and supplying the first data from the outside, and a power supply for the pixel, data driving, and timing controlling units. A converting unit may receive the first data from the timing controlling unit, convert the first data into the second data, and transmit the converted second data to the data driving unit. When the first data supplied from the timing controlling unit has a digital bit corresponding to one of a first range for displaying white-related colors and a second range for displaying black-related colors, the converting unit converts the first data into the second data having a digital bit corresponding to one of the second and first ranges, respectively.
US08368681B2
The present invention sets a scanning line to which a driving signal for power supply is output to a floating state in an entire period of pauses of threshold voltage correction processing or a partial period thereof.
US08368677B2
An optical sensor device includes a plurality of optical sensor units two-dimensionally arranged, a scan driver, and a detection driver. The scan driver sets optical sensor units, in each row, in a selected state. The detection driver acquires detection signals corresponding to illuminance of incident light on the optical sensor units. Each of the optical sensor units comprises a first optical sensor including a first photoelectric conversion section blocked from light and a second optical sensor including a second photoelectric conversion section configured to change the illuminance in response to an externally applied external force. The detection driver maintains each voltage of electrodes of the first optical sensors and each voltage of electrodes of the second optical sensors in equal voltage levels to each other, and acquires a plurality of voltage signals in parallel.
US08368672B2
A source driver that drives source lines of an LCD panel includes a first driver block including first to pth source output blocks arranged along a first direction, each of the source output blocks including a first output circuit that drives a source line, a second driver block including (p+1)th to qth source output blocks arranged along the first direction, each of the source output blocks including a second output circuit that drives a source line, and a precharge line that supplies a precharge voltage for precharging each of a first output of the first output circuit and a second output of the second output circuit. The precharge voltage is supplied to a voltage supply point of the precharge line provided so that a load from the voltage supply point to an edge of the pth source output block is equal to a load from the voltage supply point to an edge of the (p+1)th source output block.
US08368671B2
A driving circuit for a display with display elements in rows and/or columns has a shift register, through which tokens are shifted. The shift register's parallel outputs are latched and enable switch cells depending on the tokens. Control signals are supplied to the switch cells which control the output signal in terms of pulse width and/or signal shape. Buffers output the signals to a connected display. Individual or groups of buffers are connected to different supply voltages. The shift register may have more than one input in order to allow for shifting tokens in parallel, e.g. to every second output, using only one clock cycle. Further, inputs are provided for inverting the travelling direction of the tokens, inverting the shape of the signal that is output or switching all outputs to a predetermined state.
US08368669B2
A position detecting device is provided. The position detecting device includes a position pointer which transmits a position-pointing signal using a power supply stored in a rechargeable power storage unit, and a tablet which detects a position pointed to by the position pointer when receiving the position-pointing signal. The position pointer includes a coil, a charging circuit for charging the power storage unit, and a transmitter for transmitting the position-pointing signal. The tablet includes an excitation coil wound around a periphery of a position detecting area of the tablet, an excitation circuit for supplying an alternating voltage to the excitation coil, a position-pointing signal detector for detecting the position-pointing signal received from the position pointer, and an excitation controller for controlling a supply of the alternating voltage to the excitation coil based on the detected position-pointing signal.
US08368665B2
In a computer-implemented method, a portion of an electronic document is displayed on the touch screen display. The displayed portion of the electronic document has a vertical position in the electronic document. An object is detected on or near the displayed portion of the electronic document. In response to detecting the object on or near the displayed portion of the electronic document, a vertical bar is displayed on top of the displayed portion of the electronic document. The vertical bar has a vertical position on top of the displayed portion of the electronic document that corresponds to the vertical position in the electronic document of the displayed portion of the electronic document. After a predetermined condition is met, display of the vertical bar is ceased. The vertical bar is displayed for a predetermined time period when the portion of the electronic document is initially displayed.
US08368648B2
A wireless input device for playing an interactive motion-sensitive game using a wireless-compatible game console in which a virtual play environment is represented through one or more computer-animated visual, aural or tactile effects is provided wherein game play is conducted by moving, shaking, twisting, waving or pointing the input device in a particular manner. The input device can include motion-sensitive circuitry and/or command circuitry for generating control signals and/or an effects generator and associated control circuitry to enable the input device to selectively generate at least one visual, aural or tactile effect comprising sound, lighting or vibration. The input device can include a wireless transceiver for providing two-way wireless communication with the wireless-compatible game console. An optional display screen displays short text messages received through wireless communications with the wireless-compatible game console.
US08368634B2
Disclosed herein is a gate driver which is capable of partially driving a screen. The gate driver includes a first shift register for sequentially outputting n scan pulses (where n is a natural number larger than 2), and a second shift register for selecting p ones (where p is a natural number smaller than or equal to n) of the n scan pulses from the first shift register in response to an external output control signal and supplying the selected p scan pulses respectively to p gate lines of a liquid crystal panel.
US08368633B2
A pixel data preprocessing method includes the steps of: inputting a first frame data into a timing controller; performing a differential operation on the first frame data to generate a first frame differential data; writing the first frame differential data into a frame memory with the timing controller; reading a second frame differential data from the frame memory with the timing controller; performing an inverse differential operation on the second frame differential data to generate a second frame data; comparing the first frame data and the second frame data; and outputting a driving data with the timing controller according to a comparison result of comparing the first frame data and the second frame data. The present invention further provides a pixel data preprocessing circuit.
US08368615B1
The device, a conformal antenna, includes an antenna element directly coupled to a layer of gyrotropic material and means for creating a magnetic field, the magnetic field having a component substantially perpendicular to, and passing through, the layer of gyrotropic material and the antenna element. The gyrotropic material may be at least partially disposed on a ground plane and may comprise a material such as yttrium iron garnet. The means for creating a magnetic field can be located within the layer of gyrotropic material and may comprise at least one external magnet. The reflective metal ground plane can be the outer surface of a vehicle. The antenna element could have a dipole antenna configuration, and can produce a wave that is linearly polarized. The operation of the device may be at or above the resonant frequency of the gyrotropic material.
US08368614B2
An antenna apparatus includes: a ground plane; a plurality of conductive elements arranged substantially in parallel to a surface of the ground plane; a plurality of linear elements configured to connect the conductive elements to the ground plane; and an antenna configured to radiate a radio wave, wherein a plurality of openings to reflect the radio wave radiated from the antenna are formed in the ground plane under an arrangement region of the conductive elements.
US08368610B2
Methods and devices for shaped ballistic radomes according to various aspects of the present invention comprise systems for shielding transmission devices; and more particularly, representative and exemplary embodiments of the present invention generally relate to improved methods and systems for ballistic deflection and protection of antenna equipment units, and/or the like.
US08368608B2
The antenna may include a planar reflector having a plurality of loop electrical conductors defining an array of parasitically drivable antenna elements, and a circularly polarized antenna feed spaced from the planar reflector to parasitically drive the array of parasitically drivable antenna elements and impart a traveling wave current distribution therein. The antenna may have properties that are hybrid between parabolic reflectors and driven arrays, providing a relatively compact circularly polarized antenna capable of having low wind load. Closed circuit or loop elements may provide increased gain over antennas using dipole turnstile reflector elements.
US08368606B1
An improved mobile satellite communication system comprises an antenna configured to transmit and receive signals from a satellite and a modem connected to a mast to generate a wireless WiFi zone around the system to allow persons within the zone to access the Internet and communicate via wireless telephones and fax machines. The system comprises a lightweight, relatively small sized trailer having electronic cases containing the necessary electronics and storage cabinets containing other equipment and materials. Front and rear stabilizing mechanisms extend outward from the trailer to stabilize the system when in use. A collapsible or foldable tow bar is provided for transporting the system with a vehicle. The antenna is mounted on a support structure above the electronic cases and supported by the cabinets. Preferably, the satellite system is sized and configured to be transported by conventional, smaller sized helicopters and to be relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
US08368603B2
A housing of an antenna device is made of a flexible material and contains the FPC-type antenna therein. The antenna device may be mounted to a PCB assembly of an electronic device, either detachably or fixedly. The housing and the antenna may both be all made of a flexible material, or the housing may further use a base made of a rigid material to mount to the PCB assembly, while the antenna may also be hybrid circuit board. As the antenna device is moved out of the shielding area of a metal housing of the electronic device for use, the flexibility of the antenna device keeps the antenna device from cracking due to external force and increases the durability of the antenna device.
US08368593B2
The energy potential of a receiver receiving signals from a navigation satellite is calculated according to an algorithm which is a function of an estimate of the mean and an estimate of the variance of a correlation signal. Improving the accuracy of measuring the energy potential may be achieved by improving the variance estimate. The variance estimate may be determined from measurements of the correlation signal over long time intervals during operation of the receiver. The variance estimate may also be determined during a calibration procedure, or by mathematical modeling of the receiver.
US08368578B2
The present invention is related to an analog to digital converter circuit. The circuit comprises at least one input node for applying an analog input voltage signal (Vin), means for sampling said analog input voltage signal, a first array of capacitors arranged for receiving the sampled analog input voltage signal, a digital delay line connected to the first array of capacitors and arranged for being enabled by a clock generator and for generating a staircase or slope function by means of the first capacitor array, taking into account the sampled analog input voltage signal, a comparator arranged for comparing a converted signal with a reference voltage (Vref), said converted signal being a version of said sampled analog input voltage converted according to said staircase or slope function, and for generating a stop signal based on the comparison result thereby latching the digital delay line and thereby acquiring the digital code.
US08368576B2
An analog-to-digital converter includes a plurality of sequentially cascaded stages, each stage including an amplifier and four copies of a circuit block including a flash and capacitors, in which the four copies of the circuit block operate interleavingly in a respective sample mode, pre-gain mode, gain mode, and reset mode of the circuit block, the copies of the circuit block in the sample mode, pre-gain mode, and reset mode are decoupled from the amplifier, and the copy of the circuit block in the gain mode is coupled to the amplifier to produce an output for a next following stage.
US08368572B2
A detecting device has: a detecting element to which a first constant voltage is applied; a resistance element connected to the detecting element; a switching element having a first terminal to the resistance element, a second terminal controlled to a second constant voltage lower than the first constant voltage, and a control terminal sets the first terminal and the second terminal in a conducting state; a control unit, according to a conducting/non-conducting state, controls voltage to the control terminal to maintain a potential difference between the detecting element and the resistance element; and an AD converter converting, into a digital value, a potential of a potential difference between the first constant voltage and the first terminal being voltage-divided at the detecting element and the resistance element to the detecting element, a first reference potential is the first constant voltage, and a second reference potential is voltage to the first terminal.
US08368568B2
The invention relates to a computer-implemented method for compressing numerical data comprising a structured set of floating point actual values. A floating point value is defined by a sign, an exponent and a mantissa. The method comprises computing a floating point predicted value related to a target actual value of the set. The computing includes performing operations on integers corresponding to the sign, to the exponent and/or to the mantissa of actual values of a subset of the set. The method also comprises storing a bit sequence representative of a difference between integers derived from the target actual value and the predicted value. Such a method is particularly efficient for reducing the storage size of a CAD file.
US08368558B2
Every time a vehicle is parked in a parking lot, a CPU updates priorities of information stored in a parking lot learning table which is stored in a parking lot DB based on parking lot information related to the parking lot and information of an entrance wait time for each parking lot, a traffic jam in the vicinity of a destination facility, and so on, which are distributed regularly from a road traffic information center or the like.
US08368548B2
An enhanced wireless headset and battery status indication method is provided for indicating an accurate battery level of a wireless headset. A battery status indication method for a wireless headset determines a residual charge of a battery of the wireless headset and emits light having one of a plurality of colors from a status indication unit of the wireless headset. Each of the plurality of colors indicates a different residual charge of the battery. The wireless headset and battery status indication method also enables indicating whether the wireless headset is operating in charging mode by maintaining or blinking the battery status indication light. In addition, the wireless headset and battery status indication method enables indicating a radio communication status as well as a battery status by blinking the battery status indication light in correspondence with a communication radio scanning cycle.
US08368546B2
Users are located to determine if the user is within, or has departed from, at least one bounded area established about a geographic location. The bounded area may be defined by setting one or more distance boundaries from the geographic location. A base station may monitor the location of a wireless device in proximity of the user. If the wireless device departs from a bounded area, a message containing information configured to be understandable and convey meaning to the user and/or a third-party is sent to the wireless device and/or the third-party. For example, the message may be configured to communicate to the user and/or third-party information pertaining to the departure from the bounded area, location information, navigation directions, instructions, etc. The message sent may include text and/or other symbols.
US08368541B2
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a method of memory mapping disparate memories on a composite radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, where the RFID tag includes a plurality of individual RFID devices each having a memory store with a physical memory address range and mounted to a common substrate, where at least one of the individual RFID devices comprises memory configuration information, and where a memory addressing facility maps the physical memory address ranges of each of the individual RFID devices to a single logical addressing space and presents the address space as a single memory, where the memory addressing facility is included on a computing facility separate from the composite RFID tag.
US08368534B2
A remote door access monitoring system includes a central monitoring component and a remote monitoring component. The central monitoring component includes an optical source, an optical power level receiver, and a microcontroller. The optical power level receiver is in communication with the microcontroller. The remote monitoring component includes an optical switch that is operably associated with a door of a communications equipment cabinet. The communications equipment cabinet is located at a geographical location different from a geographical location of the central monitoring component. The optical source transmits an optical signal from the optical source to the optical switch and back to the optical power level receiver. The optical switch attenuates the optical signal in response to opening and closing of the door. The optical power level receiver is configured to detect an attenuated optical signal and then notify the microcontroller of the existence of an attenuated optical signal.
US08368528B2
A notification device includes a processing module configured to determine a communication mode capability of an alarm panel. The processing module communicates with the control using the determined communication mode. The notification device also includes an output module that is in electrical communication with the processing module. The output module is configured to produce an output signal in response to a signal communicated by the alarm panel.
US08368526B2
A system and method for providing home security services may include receiving, at a local alarm controller, a cordless sensor signal indicative of an alarm sensor being triggered. The cordless sensor signal may be communicated over one of multiple cordless telephone channels. In response to receiving the sensor signal, a signal indicative of the cordless telephone channel may be communicated to a mobile telephone of a user to notify the user that a sensor associated with the cordless telephone channel was triggered.
US08368522B1
A car alert device featuring a microprocessor operatively connected to a transmitter; a body controller operatively connected to the microprocessor, the body controller is configured to detect if a window is open, if an interior light is on, if the headlights are on, if a door is unlocked, or if the alarm system is activated; wherein the microprocessor is configured to receive input signals from the body controller when the body controller detects the window is open or the interior light is on or the headlights are on or the door is unlocked or the alarm system is activated, wherein upon receipt of the input signals the microprocessor sends output commands to the transmitter to cause the transmitter to send alert messages to the cellular phone of the user.
US08368521B2
Contact detection units are attached to an information transfer device in a predetermined arrangement pattern to detect contact with a human body. Presentation units are attached to the information transfer device in a predetermined arrangement pattern to present a tactile stimulus. A contact detection unit that has detected contact is specified. Based on the arrangement distribution of the specified contact detection unit and a type of information to be presented via a tactile stimulus, a presentation unit to be driven is specified. The specified presentation unit is driven and controlled.
US08368512B2
An RFID tag is characterized in that it includes: a dielectric substrate; a ground conductor portion disposed on one main surface of this dielectric substrate; a patch conductor portion disposed on another main surface of the above-mentioned dielectric substrate and forming a slot; electrical connecting portions internally extending from opposing sides of the above-mentioned slot, respectively; and an IC chip placed in the above-mentioned slot and connected to the above-mentioned electrical connecting portions.
US08368509B2
A movable barrier operator controls access to a secured area which houses vehicles. The movable barrier operator is operable to move a movable barrier from an open to a closed position. A sensor controls the operation of a service-providing device through the controller of a movable barrier operator or by direct communication to a controller for the service-providing device. The sensing device senses whether a vehicle is present in the secured area. The sensor is operatively connected to the moveable barrier operator and is used to control the operation of at least one service-providing device without necessarily effecting movement of a barrier by the movable barrier operator. Operation of the service-providing device is effected upon sensing whether a vehicle is present in the secured area to effect an operation of the service-providing device.
US08368503B2
A temperature sensor for a radiant heater has a first tubular expansion element which is connected to its housing and contains a second rod-like expansion element, the two expansion elements having different coefficients of thermal expansion. The temperature sensor has two switching springs for different switching points. In order to adjust a second switching spring, which is fastened to a second switching spring base, the second switching spring base can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the rod and is then permanently fixed by bending or welding.
US08368487B1
Microelectromechanical resonators include a resonator body anchored to a surrounding substrate by at least one support that holds the resonator body opposite a recess in the substrate. The resonator body has first and second pluralities of interdigitated drive and sense electrodes thereon. The first plurality of interdigitated drive and second electrodes are aligned to a first axis of acoustic wave propagation in the resonator body when the resonator body is operating at resonance. In contrast, the second plurality of interdigitated drive and sense electrodes are aligned to a second axis of acoustic wave propagation in the resonator body. This second axis of acoustic wave propagation preferably extends at an angle in a range from 60° to 120° relative to the first axis and, more preferably, at an angle of 90° relative to the first axis. The resonator body may also be configured to have a first side that is oriented at a 45° angle relative to the first axis of acoustic wave propagation and oriented at a 45° angle relative to the second axis of acoustic wave propagation.
US08368479B2
A VCO device is described that has pre-compensation. Digitally switchable compensation capacitors are selectively activated to adjust operation of the VCO to mitigate undesirable operational effects. In some example embodiments, the digitally switchable compensation capacitors of the VCO are adjusted to compensate for the effects of activating (from a quiescent state) an output buffer driven by the VCO.
US08368468B2
An error amplifier and a LED circuit comprising the same are provided. The LED circuit comprises an inductor, a group of LEDs and a power MOS connected to the inductor, an error amplifier and a pulse width modulator controlling the gate of the power MOS according to an error amplifier output. The error amplifier comprises a differential input stage, an output stage having a first NMOS, a first PMOS, a second NMOS, a second PMOS and a control switch module. During a first operation mode, the control switch module connects the first NMOS and PMOS and connects the second NMOS and PMOS, and during a second operation mode, control switch module disables the second NMOS and PMOS.
US08368453B2
A switch can be implemented by a switch circuit, which can include a pair of NMOS transistors connected in series as pass-through transistors to transmit an input signal at an input terminal to produce an output signal at output terminal in response to an active state of a switching signal, and a pair of PMOS transistors connected in series as pass-through transistors to transmit the input signal at the input terminal to produce the output signal at output terminal in response to the active state of the switching signal. The switch circuit can also include a switch network connecting, in response to the active state of the switching signal, sources to bodies of the pairs of NMOS and PMOS transistors, and connecting, in response to an inactive state of the switching signal, the bodies of the pair of NMOS transistors to a first reference voltage, the bodies of the pair of PMOS transistors to a second reference voltage, and the sources of the pairs of NMOS and PMOS transistors to a third reference voltage. A capacitance-to-voltage converter can include one or more of the switch circuits.
US08368451B2
A radio frequency (RF) switch circuit includes switching devices coupled at a common node and a floating control signal circuit (CSS) coupled to the control electrodes of the switching devices and the common node and configured to isolate RF signals from the CSS and configured to provide differential voltage signals to the common node and each of the control electrodes.
US08368443B1
A differential charge pump circuit including a common mode bias unit, a first single-ended charge pump unit, and a second single-ended charge pump unit is provided. The common mode bias unit provides a differential signal to a low pass filter. The first single-ended charge pump unit provides a first current to the common mode bias unit or sinks the first current from the common mode bias unit via the first terminal based on an up signal and a down signal. The second single-ended charge pump unit provides a second current to the common mode bias unit or sinks the second current from the common mode bias unit via the second terminal based on the up signal and the down signal. The first and the second single-ended charge pump units respectively charge or discharge the first and the second terminals of the common mode bias unit.
US08368438B2
A phase locked loop circuit according to the present invention includes a selector that selects an input clock, a 1/m frequency divider that divides a frequency of the input clock, a 1/n frequency divider that divides a frequency of a feedback clock, a phase difference detector, a first voltage controlled oscillator that includes a first voltage holding circuit, a second voltage controlled oscillator that includes a second voltage holding circuit, and a selection circuit that outputs any output of the first and second voltage controlled oscillators as an output clock and outputs any output of the first and second voltage controlled oscillators as a feedback clock. The input clock is switched when the voltage controlled oscillator in a holding mode generates the output clock and the voltage controlled oscillator in a normal mode generates the feedback clock.
US08368435B2
A low bandwidth phase lock loop (PLL) arranged in a dual-loop configuration is disclosed. The first loop is a standard loop configuration using a crystal oscillator as a reference clock. The loop parameters for this first PLL can be optimized to work over a wide range of output frequencies, and with a minimum amount of jitter. The first loop outputs a reference signal, which is a VCO output. The second loop comprises a bang-bang detector configured to drive a digital loop filter, which then drives a phase interpolator. The phase interpolator manipulates the output phase. Since phase and frequency are related, where frequency is the derivative of phase, small frequency offsets can be made using a phase control signal, generated within the second loop based on the relation between the reference signal and the clock input signal. The second loop sets the jitter transfer bandwidth of the system.
US08368428B2
Various systems and methods are provided for integrated circuit clocking. In one embodiment, an integrated circuit system includes a plurality of combinational logic groups, each combinational logic group having a propagation time; and means for delaying a synchronizing clock signal supplied to at least one of the plurality of combinational logic groups based upon a period of the synchronizing clock signal and the propagation time of the at least one combinational logic group. In another embodiment, a method includes delaying a clock signal to produce a delayed clock signal and communicating the clock signal and the delayed clock signal to separate groups of the combinational logic circuit during a clock cycle that results in a reduction in power consumption by the combinational logic circuit.
US08368425B2
A level shifter having first and second P-type transistors cross coupled at an output port thereof, wherein there are first and second voltage rising circuits coupled at gates of the first and second P-type transistors, respectively. A voltage level at the gate of the first P-type transistor is associated with an output signal of the level shifter. When an input signal, operated by a first power, of the level shifter rises, the first voltage rising circuit couples a second power to the gate of the first P-type transistor to speed up the rising of the output signal. The voltage level at the gate of the second P-type transistor is associated with an inverted output signal. When the input signal falls, the second voltage rising circuit couples the second power to the gate of the second P-type transistor to speed up the rising of the inverted output signal.
US08368420B2
A method is specified for fault identification when operating a rotating-field motor by means of a pulse-controlled inverter, wherein electromagnetic state variables of the rotating-field motor are determined by means of a mathematical model in space-vector form, and wherein the pulse-controlled inverter is operated electronically using space-vector variables. In this case, the invention provides that, during the operation of the rotating-field motor, the space vector of an uncontrolled state variable of the rotating-field motor is formed, in that the space vector that is formed is analyzed for a spectral component at twice the frequency of the rotating field, and in that, if the spectral component at twice the frequency is present, a partial turns short is deduced in the stator windings.
US08368419B2
During an asymmetry testing mode of an integrated circuit, the asymmetry of an on-chip I/O circuit is tested. In particular, a transmitter circuit in the integrated circuit transmits electrical signals, which are associated with a predefined data pattern, to a receiver circuit in the integrated circuit via a communication channel (such as a differential pair of signal lines). Then the integrated circuit generates an eye pattern using the received electrical signals, and determines an asymmetry of the eye pattern about a common reference level of the received electrical signals. Furthermore, the integrated circuit performs remedial action based on the determined asymmetry. For example, the integrated circuit may compare the determined asymmetry with a predefined asymmetry criterion and, if the asymmetry exceeds the predefined asymmetry criterion, may output a result of the comparison that indicates a failure of the asymmetry test.
US08368412B2
An apparatus for measuring a water content in a multiphase fluid flow stream is provided. The apparatus includes a measurement section configured to obtain a series of electrical measurements of the multiphase fluid flow stream over a first predetermined time interval, and determine a minimum electrical measurement Fmin_baseline from the series of electrical measurements. The measurement section also is configured to calculate a running average of the frequency (Fmin_gas_pattern) from the series of electrical measurements indicative of a change in a gas flow pattern of the multiphase fluid flow stream over a second predetermined time interval. The measurement section further is configured to calculate a corrected electrical measurement F_calc_WC for determining the water content in the multiphase fluid flow stream by subtracting the running average of the frequency. Fmin_gas_pattern from the minimum electrical measurement Fmin_baseline.
US08368407B2
A device for measuring the thickness of a layer of material, the device including a reading head and control unit connected to the reading head. The reading head includes a microwave planar type sensor and an A/D converter connected to the microwave sensor and arranged in proximity of the microwave sensor.
US08368406B2
An insulation measuring apparatus having a measuring circuit including a first capacitor; a control unit that reads a voltage set on the first capacitor to decide an insulation state of a power supply, and control a path configuration of the measuring circuit; a switching section provided in a path located between the measuring circuit and the control unit; and a second capacitor provided between a ground and a path located between the switching section and the control unit. The control unit controls the path configuration of the measuring circuit, by turning ON the switching section to set a voltage corresponding to the voltage that is set on the first capacitor on the second capacitor, and then by turning OFF the switching section to read the voltage set on the second capacitor and to discharge an electric charge corresponding to the voltage being set on the first capacitor.
US08368402B2
This invention relates generally to NMR systems for in vivo detection of analytes. More particularly, in certain embodiments, the invention relates to systems in which superparamagnetic nanoparticles are exposed to a magnetic field and radio frequency (RF) excitation at or near the Larmor frequency, such that the aggregation and/or disaggregation of the nanoparticles caused by the presence and/or concentration of a given analyte in a biological fluid is detected in vivo from a monitored RF echo response.
US08368400B2
A magnetic resonance method for using radio frequency pulses for spatially selective and frequency selective or multidimensionally spatially selective excitation of an ensemble of nuclear spins with an initial distribution of magnetization in a main magnetic field aligned along a z-axis, wherein a spin magnetization with a given target distribution of magnetization is generated, and for refocusing the spin magnetization, is characterized in that the radio frequency pulse is used as a sequence of sub-pulses of independent duration, courses of gradients and spatial and/or spectral resolution, comprising one or more large angle RF pulses with tip angles greater than or approximately equal to 15°, which generate a gross distribution of magnetization approximating the target distribution of magnetization or a desired modification of the distribution of magnetization with a mean deviation less than or approximately equal to 15°, wherein the actual effect of the LAPs on the distribution of spin magnetization before the radio frequency pulse is used is calculated by integration of the Bloch equations without small angle approximation, and one or more small angle RF pulses=SAPs with tip angles less than or approximately equal to 15° reducing the difference between the target distribution of magnetization and the gross distribution of magnetization caused by the LAPs.
US08368392B2
A magnetic encoder includes a multi-pole magnetic detecting unit having a multi-pole magnet. In the multi-pole magnetic detecting unit, first and second magnetic detecting elements that output sinusoidal signals having a 90° phase difference are arranged apart from third and fourth magnetic detecting elements at a mechanical angle of 180° . The first and third magnetic detecting elements are disposed at the same position represented by an electrical angle and output sinusoidal signals of a same phase. The second and fourth magnetic detecting elements are arranged at the same position represented by an electrical angle and output sinusoidal signals of a same phase. A sum signal of the output signals of the first and third magnetic detecting elements and that of the output signals of the second and fourth magnetic detecting elements are obtained, thereby eliminating or remarkably reducing error components of detection signals of the first to fourth magnetic detecting elements caused by the magnetic flux of a two-pole magnet and those of the detection signals caused by rotational run out of the multi-pole magnet. A rotational angle can be detected with high accuracy.
US08368386B2
Systems and methods for interconnecting local generation or power monitoring systems to a residential or commercial electric power system so that the connection is made via a direct connection to the power meter socket on the consumer side of the meter. The breaker for the system may be collocated with the interconnection. The system allows for a quick interconnection of the local generation or power monitoring system by inserting an attachment, or shim, underneath the existing standardized meter for simplified power connection, measurement and communications. The attachment may include integrated measurement coils or sensors connected to built-in power management electronics, a control computer, and/or a powerline communications module.
US08368377B2
An integrated circuit includes a bandgap reference generator and a voltage regulator. The bandgap reference generator includes a first current path, and a first bipolar transistor with an emitter-collector path in the first current path. The voltage regulator includes a second current path, wherein the second current path mirrors the first current path; a resistor configured to receive a current of the second current path; a second bipolar transistor with a base and a collector of the second bipolar transistor being interconnected; and a third bipolar transistor connected in series with the second bipolar transistor and the resistor. A base and a collector of the third bipolar transistor are interconnected.
