US08386807B2

Methods, apparatuses, and systems for managing power of a processing unit are described herein. Some embodiments include determining a voltage variation of a subset of current components of a current consumed by a processing unit. Other embodiments include detecting architectural events on a processing core of the processing unit and instituting various actions to reduce an input rate of instructions to the core. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US08386797B1

A data storage system providing transparent encryption. The data storage system has a hardware encryption/decryption engine and a register coupled to the hardware encryption/decryption engine. The register is for securely storing a key for encrypting and decrypting data. The key may not be read from outside the data storage system. More specifically, the key may not be read by the operating system. The user does not have access to the encryption key, but may have a password that is passed to a controller coupled to the encryption/decryption engine. The controller verifies the password and causes data received from main memory to be encrypted by the hardware encryption/decryption engine using the key. The controller also transfers the encrypted data to the data storage device.
US08386788B2

A method and apparatus is provided for securing a region in a memory of a computer. According to one embodiment, the method comprises halting of all but one of a plurality of processors in a computer. The halted processors entering into a special halted state. Content is loaded into the region only after the halting of all but the one of the plurality of processors and the region is protected from access by the halted processors. The method further comprises placing the non-halted processor into a known privileged state, and causing the halted processors to exit the halted state after the non-halted processor has been placed into the known privileged state.
US08386784B2

An apparatus and a method for securely submitting a request and an apparatus and a method for securely processing a request. The apparatus for securely submitting a request includes a request pre-submitting component and a request confirmation component. The request pre-submitting component sends a request with a unique identifier to a server and sends an alarm message containing the unique identifier and a request description to the request confirmation component. The request confirmation component contains a key inaccessible to other components in a client. It pops up a request confirmation window, on which the request description is displayed, in response to the alarm message and generates a request confirmation message associated with the request by using the key and the unique identifier.
US08386781B2

A chip mountable on a replaceable unit used in an image forming job is disclosed. The chip includes a central processing unit (CPU) to perform at least one of authentication and cryptographic data communication with a main body of the image forming apparatus using an operating system (OS) of the CPU which operates separately from an OS of the image forming apparatus. With the use of such a configuration, security for a unit in which the chip is mounted can thereby be reinforced.
US08386776B2

In a certificate generating/distributing system, an authentication apparatus includes token transmitting means transmitting, to a service mediating apparatus, a certificate generation request token, which is information corresponding to a first certificate valid in the service mediating apparatus, together with the first certificate. The service mediating apparatus includes mediating apparatus token forwarding means forwarding the certificate generation request token to a service providing apparatus. The service providing apparatus includes certificate requesting means transmitting the certificate generation request token to the authentication apparatus when requesting a second certificate valid in the service providing apparatus. The authentication apparatus includes certificate transmitting means transmitting, to the service providing apparatus, the second certificate generated based on the first certificate in response to the request of the second certificate by the certificate requesting means.
US08386773B2

A mobile communication device operates in a wireless communication network with use of a communication service provided by a service provider (e.g. a wireless carrier for voice telephony, or data service provider for data synchronization). An application server receives, via the wireless network, a message from the mobile device. The message has a field for inclusion of a token having a digital signature corresponding to the service provider. The application server performs token validation of the message, which includes a verification step for verifying the digital signature of the token with a public key corresponding to the service provider. The application server then grants or denies access to an application service depending on the outcome of the token validation. In one embodiment, the application service is an e-commerce transaction service, wherein a proof-of-work (POW) test (e.g. a Captcha test) otherwise utilized for the service is bypassed or excluded.
US08386772B2

A method for generating a secure association key (SAK), a method for realizing medium access control security (MACsec) and a network device are provided. The method for generating an SAK includes the following steps. A sending key selection protocol (KSP) instance sends a key selection protocol data unit (KSPDU) to the other KSP instances in the same secure connectivity association (CA). The KSPDU includes a secure connectivity association key identifier (CKI) of the instance and information about a MACsec level that the sending KSP instance belongs to. If the receiving KSP instance and the sending KSP instance belong to the CA with the same MACsec level, an SAK is generated based on the KSPDU. The MACsec of multiple levels in a communication network and the secure MACsec network communication with multiple levels are realized, thus ensuring the confidentiality of the network communication.
US08386770B2

The present invention relates to a method for allowing a user to access the Internet. A user sends an Internet access request through a first Organization's gateway and supplies to the latter some credentials for his/her authentication with a second Organization. The credentials provided contain at least one piece of information about the second Organization. The first Organization contacts the second Organization for the purpose of authenticating the user and granting him/her access to the Internet. The second Organization then gives the user the authorization to access the Internet. According to the invention, upon the access request the gateway redirects the user to a web page of the second Organization, where the user supplies to the second Organization, through the web page, further authentication credentials required for his/her identification.
US08386757B1

A method and system of operating an actual or virtual desktop or server and managing such desktops and servers involves a cache appliance serving desktop, operating system, and application objects to a managed machine. The objects are composited together to present a normal file structure to the user, with all user configuration and data stored in the desktop object. Management requirements are minimized to maintain operating system and application objects, while users maintain distinct and customizable desktops.
US08386756B2

A new zSeries floating-point unit has a fused multiply-add dataflow capable of supporting two architectures and fused MULTIPLY and ADD and Multiply and SUBTRACT in both RRF and RXF formats for the fused functions. Both binary and hexadecimal floating-point instructions are supported for a total of 6 formats. The floating-point unit is capable of performing a multiply-add instruction for hexadecimal or binary every cycle with a latency of 5 cycles. This supports two architectures with two internal formats with their own biases. This has eliminated format conversion cycles and has optimized the width of the dataflow. The unit is optimized for both hexadecimal and binary floating-point architecture supporting a multiply-add/subtract per cycle.
US08386754B2

An out-of-order renaming processor is provided with a register file within which aliasing between registers of different sizes may occur. In this way a program instruction having a source register of a double precision size may alias with two single precision registers being used as destinations of one or more preceding program instructions. In order to track this data dependency the double precision register may be remapped into a micro-operation specifying two single precision registers as its source register. In this way, scheduling circuitry may use its existing hazard detection and management mechanisms to handle potential data hazards and dependencies. Not all program instructions having such data hazards between registers of different sizes are handled by this source register remapping. For these other program instructions a slower mechanism for dealing with the data dependency hazard is provided. This slower mechanism may, for example, be to drain all the preceding micro-operations from the execution pipelines before issuing the micro-operation having the data hazard.
US08386751B2

One embodiment of the present includes a heterogenous, high-performance, scalable processor having at least one W-type sub-processor capable of processing W bits in parallel, W being an integer value, at least one N-type sub-processor capable of processing N bits in parallel, N being an integer value smaller than W by a factor of two. The processor further includes a shared bus coupling the at least one W-type sub-processor and at least one N-type sub-processor and memory shared coupled to the at least one W-type sub-processor and the at least one N-type sub-processor, wherein the W-type sub-processor rearranges memory to accommodate execution of applications allowing for fast operations.
US08386750B2

A multiprocessor computer system has a plurality of first processors having a first addressable memory space, and a plurality of second processors having a second addressable memory space. The second addressable memory space is of a different size than the first addressable memory space, and the first addressable memory space and second addressable memory space comprise a part of the same common address space.
US08386745B2

An input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) configured to control requests by an I/O device to a system memory includes control logic that may perform a two-level guest translation to translate an address associated with an I/O device-generated request using translation data stored in the system memory. The translation data includes a device table having a number of entries. The control logic may select the device table entry for a given request by the using a device identifier that corresponds to the I/O device that generates the request. The translation data may also include a first set of I/O page tables including a set of guest page tables and a set of nested page tables. The selected device table entry for the given request may include a pointer to the set of guest translation tables, and a last guest translation table includes a pointer to the set of nested page tables.
US08386736B2

Efficient and convenient storage systems and methods are presented. In one embodiment a storage system includes a host for processing information, a memory controller and a memory. The memory controller controls communication of the information between the host and the memory, wherein the memory controller routes data rapidly to a buffer of the memory without buffering in the memory controller. The memory stores the information. The memory includes a buffer for temporarily storing the data while corresponding address information is determined.
US08386723B2

Systems and methods for reading data are disclosed. In a particular embodiment, a data storage device includes a host interface that is adapted to couple the data storage device to a host. The host includes memory that is addressable by a host memory address space. The data storage device also includes a device address space that is independent from the host memory address space. The device address space includes a first address region and a second address region, where the second address region is distinct from the first address region. The data storage device also includes a non-volatile memory array and a controller coupled to the non-volatile memory array and further coupled to a mapped device. The controller is adapted to, in response to a first request from the host for access to the first address region of the device address space, perform a memory access operation at the non-volatile memory array. The controller is also adapted to, in response to a second request from the host for access to the second address region of the device address space, map the second request to the mapped device.
US08386719B2

Provided are a method and apparatus for controlling a shared memory, and a method of accessing the shared memory. The apparatus includes a processing unit configured to process an application program, a user program unit configured to execute a program written by a user based on the application program of the processing unit, a shared memory unit connected to each of the processing unit and the user program unit through a system bus and configured to store data interchanged between the processing unit and the user program unit, and a control unit configured to relay a control signal indicating whether the system bus, by which the data is interchanged between the processing unit and the user program unit, is occupied, and control connection of each of the processing unit and the user program unit with the system bus in response to the control signal. In the apparatus, the processing unit and the user program unit can easily interchange a large amount of messages through the shared memory unit having an abundant memory space.
US08386714B2

Embodiments of the invention are directed to reducing write amplification in a cache with flash memory used as a write cache. An embodiment of the invention includes partitioning at least one flash memory device in the cache into a plurality of logical partitions. Each of the plurality of logical partitions is a logical subdivision of one of the at least one flash memory device and comprises a plurality of memory pages. Data are buffered in a buffer. The data includes data to be cached, and data to be destaged from the cache to a storage subsystem. Data to be cached are written from the buffer to the at least one flash memory device. A processor coupled to the buffer is provided with access to the data written to the at least one flash memory device from the buffer, and a location of the data written to the at least one flash memory device within the plurality of logical partitions. The data written to the at least one flash memory device are destaged from the buffer to the storage subsystem.
US08386713B2

Disclosed herein is a memory apparatus comprising: a nonvolatile memory configured to allow data to be written thereto and read therefrom in units of a cluster and to permit data to be deleted therefrom in units of a block made up of a plurality of sectors; a control circuit configured to control access operations to said nonvolatile memory; a management area; a user data area; and a cache area; said management area includes a logical/physical table, and the addresses of physical blocks in said cache area.
US08386712B2

A design structure embodied in a machine readable storage medium for designing, manufacturing, and/or testing a design for a single unified level one instruction cache in which some lines may contain traces and other lines in the same congruence class may contain blocks of instructions consistent with conventional cache lines is provided. A mechanism is described for indexing into the cache, and selecting the desired line. Control is exercised over which lines are contained within the cache. Provision is made for selection between a trace line and a conventional line when both match during a tag compare step.
US08386708B2

A method for metadata management in a storage system configured for supporting sub-LUN tiering. The method may comprise providing a metadata queue of a specific size; determining whether the metadata for a particular sub-LUN is cached in the metadata queue; updating the metadata for the particular sub-LUN when the metadata for the particular sub-LUN is cached in the metadata queue; inserting the metadata for the particular sub-LUN to the metadata queue when the metadata queue is not full and the metadata is not cached; replacing an entry in the metadata queue with the metadata for the particular sub-LUN when the metadata queue is full and the metadata is not cached; and identifying at least one frequently accessed sub-LUN for moving to a higher performing tier in the storage system, the at least one frequently accessed sub-LUN being identified based on the metadata cached in the metadata queue.
US08386707B2

In a multinode storage system, a virtual disk associated with a storage device to be connected is created, and a slice of a connected storage device is allocated to one segment of the virtual disk. Next, one slice of data in the storage device to be connected is copied to the connected storage device. The rest of the data in the storage device to be connected is divided into slices, which are allocated to segments of the virtual disk. Then, metadata of the rest of the slices is written into a management information area in which copying of the data therefrom has been completed.
US08386706B2

A method and system for secure data storage and retrieval is provided. A sequence of data units is divided into multiple subsets of data units corresponding to multiple data channels. The multiple data channels are assigned to multiple data writers based on a key code. Then, each subset of data units is transferred to a writer via an assigned channel for writing to storage media. Thereafter, to securely retrieve the stored data, each subset of data units is read from the storage media using a data reader. The original sequence of data units can only be reassembled using the key code for properly reassembling the subsets of data units into their original sequence.
US08386703B2

Means which allows the storage and subsequent retrieval of data on a storage means such as, for example, a storage means in the form of, and known as, a hard disk drive. The storage of data is in the form of video, audio and/or auxiliary data transmitted from a remote location and received by receiver apparatus for the processing and subsequent generation of video, audio, and/or auxiliary data via a television screen connected to or including the receiver. In some instances the data is not decoded and displayed immediately, and the decoding and/or the display of the data, when it does occur may be obtained from the storage means. The control system of the storage means includes a First In First Out (FIFO) buffer which in conjunction with a Central Processing Unit (CPU) controls the generation of the control signals and the storage of the incoming data.
US08386701B2

In some embodiments, a non-volatile cache memory may include a multi-level non-volatile cache memory configured to be located between a system memory and a mass storage device of an electronic system and a controller coupled to the multi-level non-volatile cache memory, wherein the controller is configured to control utilization of the multi-level non-volatile cache memory. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.
US08386700B2

A flash memory controller connected to multiple flash memory groups performs independent garbage collection operations in each group. For each group, the controller independently determines the amount of free space and performs garbage collection operations if the amount falls below a threshold.
US08386695B2

Methods and apparatus for writing data to non-volatile memory include maintaining one or more lists of obsolete blocks of the non-volatile memory and limiting the lists to a predetermined value. If a write operation would result in a list exceeding its predetermined value, a block erase operation is performed on one of the obsolete blocks. Valid data contained in an obsolete block selected for erasure is relocated prior to erasure.
US08386692B2

According to an aspect of the embodiment, an input/output device transmits a message to a first node controller of a parent node which is set in advance via a cross bar. At this point, the cross bar generates information based on node information of the input/output device, and adds the generated information to the message. The first node controller transmits, via the cross bar, the message to a second node controller of a parent node corresponding to an input/output device that is to receive the message. The second node controller transmits, via the cross bar, the message to an input/output device that is to receive the message. At this point, the cross bar transmits the message restored by deleting the generated information from the message to the input/output device which is set as a destination.
US08386689B2

Interface adapter systems and methods are provided. An adapter means can be provided for coupling a first interface to a second interface, the second interface configured to accommodate the coupling of a peripheral device. A detector means can be provided for detecting the peripheral device. A means can be provided for communicating a first signal to a first bus when the peripheral device is not detected. A converting means can be provided to convert a first signal to a second signal having a protocol different than the first and a communications means for communicating the second signal to a second bus can be provided when the detecting means has detected the peripheral device.
US08386674B2

An electronic system includes a signal processor, a control signal generator, and an I/O interface. The signal processor has a first output signal and the first output signal is characterized by at least a first property and a second property. The control signal generator is configured to produce first and second control signals in accordance with the first and second properties of the first output signal, respectively. The I/O interface is configured to couple at least the first and second control signals to an output device. In some embodiments, the first output signal is a pulse width modulated signal having a software-specified pulse width and a software-specified repeat frequency. In some embodiments, the first property of the first output signal is the signal's duty cycle and the second property is the signal's frequency.
US08386671B2

A communication system includes a first communication device that transmits transmission data containing user data and control data, and a second communication device that receives the transmission data from the first communication device. The second communication device includes a temporary storing unit that temporarily stores therein the received transmission data, and a space-insufficient-information transmitting unit that transmits, when an amount of the transmission data stored in the temporary storing unit exceeds a first threshold, space insufficient information indicating that available storage space of the temporary storing unit is insufficient to the first communication device. The first communication device includes a transmission control unit that transmits, when receiving the space insufficient information from the second communication device, transmission data excluding the user data from the transmission data to the second communication device, and that resumes, when receiving space-insufficient dissolution information from the second communication device, transmission of the user data.
US08386667B2

This invention relates to techniques for managing the transmission and reception of data fragments that contains one or more data blocks using a single timer. One embodiment of the invention includes the following steps: processing the fragments sequentially, wherein each fragment has a processing index that corresponds to sequential processing of that fragment; processing each of the fragments until a termination upon meeting a first pre-defined condition; assigning a timer to an un-terminated fragment having a lowest processing index; starting said timer having a timeout value; and running said timer until the processing of said un-terminated fragment is terminated. This invention uses only one timer for each connection and therefore reduces memory and operational needs in the management of the data fragments that are being received or transmitted.
US08386666B2

A method for operating a host device includes comparing a predetermined response of a peripheral device to a response token received from the peripheral device. The predetermined response and the response token are generated based on a first command transmitted from the host device to the peripheral device. The method further includes controlling a transfer of first data from a first memory to a peripheral control module based on the comparison between the predetermined response and the response token without interrupting a host control module, and selectively passing interrupts to the host control module when the predetermined response does not match the response token.
US08386663B2

The present invention provides a high definition media interface (HDMI) controller having a modular design internal bus structure, and applications thereof. The controller includes a circuit interface, an address decoder coupled to the circuit interface, a plurality of sub-circuits, wherein each sub-circuit includes registers used to configure and control the sub-circuit, and a bus that couples the registers of each sub-circuit to the address decoder. After startup of the controller, the sub-circuits are configured by using the circuit interface, address decoder, and bus to write values to the registers of the sub-circuits. The sub-circuits of the controller include a video pixel sampler, an audio sampler, a frame composer, and a power controller. The video sampler can be configured to convert one of a plurality of RGB and YCbCr signals to a common format signal used by other sub-circuits of the controller.
US08386652B2

Techniques for predicting accessory behavior and techniques for responding based on the predicted behavior are provided. A mobile computing device (MCD) determines firmware being used by an accessory. Based on the determination, the MCD can predict a command most likely to be received next from the accessory. After the MCD determines the command most likely to be received next from the accessory, the MCD can retrieve the information to be sent in response to the command and/or initiate an operation to be performed in response to the command prior to actually receiving the command from the accessory.
US08386651B2

A computerized method provides for a computer to interact with peripheral devices where a complete set of control functions of the peripheral devices are operable on the computer. The method includes receiving by a computer from a receiver coupled to the computer an enumerator report having a peripheral device report and a device index included in a set of device indices. The peripheral device report is sent from a select peripheral device to the receiver. The method further includes determining by the computer the device index in the enumerator report. The method further includes routing by the computer the peripheral device report to a device driver associated with the device index. The device driver is configured to provide a complete set of operating function for a peripheral device associated with the device driver. The computer executes a command function from the peripheral device report issued by the select peripheral device.
US08386649B2

Embodiments discussed herein are directed to an apparatus and method for relaying user input commands by a receiver to other devices connected to or in communication with the receiver. In one embodiment, a receiver receives one or more commands from a user input device and determines if the command is intended for the receiver or for a device in communication with the receiver. Based on this determination, the receiver may either execute the command or relay the command to a device that is attached or otherwise in communication with the receiver.
US08386644B1

Large data segments are efficiently processed by setting up a plurality of Large Receive Segment Offload (LRO) queues within the computing system memory. The plurality of LRO queues are maintained concurrently so that a plurality of LRO contexts can be assembled simultaneously. A timer associated with each LRO queue prevents indefinite waiting for LRO segments to be completed.
US08386635B2

A communication system is disclosed, including: a network in which the transmission speeds of a upstream channel and a downstream channel for transmitting data can be changed independently; a data storage server connected to the network, the data storage server configured to store data uploaded thereto via the network; and a communication terminal connected to the network, the communication terminal configured to upload old data stored therein to the data storage server via the network thereby to move the old data to the data storage server, and download new data via the network thereby to store the new data therein. The communication terminal is further configured to request the network to change at least one of the transmission speeds of the upstream channel and the downstream channel based on remaining memory capacity thereof and the transmission speeds such that there remains memory capacity available for the new data.
US08386634B2

A communication system includes a communication device provided with an accessing system capable of accessing web pages. At least one operation member which is operable with being attached to the communication system is provided. The operation member has a data storage containing first access data which is used by the communication device to access a first predetermined web page. The system includes a transmitting system that transmits the first access data contained in the data storage to the accessing system when the at least one operation member is operated while it is attached to the communication device. In this configuration, the accessing system accesses the first predetermined web page based on the first access data transmitted from the data storage of the at least one operation member.
US08386633B2

A method and system is disclosed for processing information provided from various content providers in the form objects having states subject to periodic updates. Formatted information indicating a current state of the objects are delivered to subscribing clients in substantially real-time. An information manager module is configured to receiving raw data objects from the content providers, format the information, and broadcast current state information on various broadcast data stream. A client manager module supports multiple client communication sessions and connects to at least one broadcast data stream. Current state information received on a broadcast data stream is processed and transmitted to specific clients in accordance with processing rules specified in the client profiles.
US08386631B2

A data streaming system and method typically use a server arranged to stream one of a plurality of encoded data streams to a client. Each of the plurality of data streams may be an independent representation of a common data source encoded at a different resolution to the other of the plurality of data streams. The server can include a transmitter and a first buffer. The transmitter can be arranged to transmit data packets of the encoded data stream to the client via the first buffer. The transmitter can be arranged to monitor the content of the first buffer and switch to transmit another of the plurality of data streams in the event that predetermined criteria are detected from the first buffer.
US08386628B1

To accommodate different viewer capabilities, update commands may be maintained in an update queue at the server and distributed to viewers according to the viewers' abilities to receive them. As update commands arrive that supersede older update commands, the new update commands may cause the old update commands to be removed from the queue so that the older update commands may be pruned from the update queue. Where the pruned update messages have not yet been sent to the slower viewers, pruning the older update commands from the update queue enables information that will quickly be replaced via another update command to be selectively not transmitted to slower viewers. Panes may be used to keep track of which updates are required to be maintained in the queue and which may be pruned from the queue.
US08386613B2

The present invention relates to a pseudonode used for deployment on a peer to peer network which pseudonode comprises an IP address and client ID that is changeable upon the occurrence of a preselected event and includes a list containing at least one searchable data object. The pseudonode is programmed for monitoring the network to receive search requests therefrom and to compare each said received search with said list of data objects and to respond to such request. The invention also provides a method for monitoring search requests for selected objects by nodes on a peer to peer network. The method includes interposing the pseudonodes on the network in which it is configured to provide at least one IP address and optionally at least one client ID. The pseudonode has at least one stored object corresponding to a request object stored at said pseudonode; and monitors the network to detect requests matching at least one of the stored objects and acquires a unique ID generated by any network node requesting the object matching that stored object on the pseudonode and responding to substantially each node representing an acquired ID.
US08386609B2

The invention generally relates to electronic collaboration sessions and, more particularly, to systems and methods for providing reconnection to and migration of electronic collaboration sessions. A method for managing a collaboration session includes providing a computer infrastructure structured and arranged to store data regarding a plurality of clients of a collaboration session, and monitor a connection of each of the plurality of clients to a host system. The computer infrastructure is further operable to (i) migrate the plurality of clients to a new host system after determining that a number of the plurality of clients experiencing connection problems with the first host system exceeds a threshold value and/or (ii) present customized summary data to at least one of the plurality of clients after the at least one of the plurality of clients reconnects to the collaboration session after having been disconnected from the collaboration session.
US08386607B2

Disclosed herein are embodiments of a method and system for optimizing resource management in a distributed computing environment through the use of a resource conductor. An application managed by an application manager requires resources managed by a resource manager. A resource conductor in communication with both the application manager and the resource manager receives from the application manager a processing specification for the application and workload associated with the application. The processing specification provides the resource conductor with information needed to determine the type and quantity of resources appropriate for processing the workload associated with the application. The resource conductor adjusts the quantity of resources allocated to the application by communicating with the resource manager.
US08386604B1

According to one general aspect, a method of assigning blame to web browser extensions and applications is described. The method gathers performance data about a web application, detects a problem with the web application based on the performance data, and displays, when the problem is detected, an indication of the problem adjacent an indicator representing the web application.
US08386601B1

A reporting system for providing reports on consumption rate changes for media content delivered over a network. A respective media consumption history is received for each of a plurality of entities at a storage. The histories are analyzed to identify selected media content for reporting based on changes in a consumption rate of the media content between at least two time intervals. A report including a reference to the selected media content is provided to a system. In an example, the system is a search engine indexing system and the invention enables the rapid indexing of new content and/or media content experiencing a surge in popularity. The consumption rate changes can be measured for monitored audiences comprising a subset of the audience. The monitored audience can be provided as a list of entities and/or selected based on the media consumption history and/or similarity to a known set of entities.
US08386599B2

This invention comprises a method and system for estimating unique visitors for Internet sites that is more accurate than the existing unique cookie/unique address counting methods. The invented method relies on the count of unique user identifiers (such as network addresses or preferably cookies)—I—that can be obtained from an existing cookie tracking/user access logging system. The number of unique visitors U is calculated substantially as a ratio of the count of unique cookies (or unique network addresses) to the number of visits N times the inflation factor X plus constant on that is approximately one (exactly one in the case of cookies). The number of visits is calculated by multiplying the sampling period t to the visitation frequency T1 minus one. The resulting estimate of the unique visitors is stable and does not diverge with sampling time unlike estimates directly obtained from the unique network address or unique cookie counts. The method is also applicable when there are multiple dominant visitation frequencies by accounting to the sum by all significant visitation frequencies. All key parameters of the method can be established before hand by mining a multitude of the site's historical visit logs and/or third party site access logs; the parameters can be corrected/calculated dynamically by mining the site's current access log (or current third party logs) while focusing on unambiguously identified visitors (such as return visitors identified by their login ID or unchanged cookie value).
US08386598B2

A computer method and a system for detecting the file type of an electronic file, the method including the steps of: (a) using a predetermined number of bytes at the beginning of the file to create a list of probable file types; (b) testing the file against a detection rule for each file type in the list until a match is found; if no match is found (c) testing the file against other known detection rules for file types to find a match.
US08386596B2

A system and method for management and processing of resource requests is provided. A content delivery network service provider receives a DNS query from a client computing device. The DNS query corresponds to a requested resource from the client computing device. The content delivery network service provider associates the client computing device with a cluster of other client computing devices. Based on routing information for the cluster, the content delivery network service provider routes the DNS query. The process can further include monitoring performance data associated with the delivery of the requested resource and updating the routing information for the cluster based on the performance data for use in processing subsequent requests from client computing devices in the cluster.
US08386593B1

A computer aided network engineering (CANE) system provides an integrated network management platform that not only decodes a user's network but also provides an interactive environment, based on data-driven maps, to allow users to define and automate network tasks. Among other things, the CANE system allows users to drive automation via self-contained interactive model-driven maps (referred to as Q-maps). Some of the tasks that can be automated include, without limitation: a) network diagramming and documentation; b) performance troubleshooting; and c) design analysis.
US08386590B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a Domain Name System (DNS) server having a controller to receive new provisioning information for updating a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), and update the FQDN with the new provisioning information. The new provisioning information can include among other things a start time for rehoming one or more user endpoint devices (UEs) assigned to a current session border Controller (S/BC), a move-from record comprising a descriptor of at least the current S/BC, a move-to record comprising a descriptor of at least a new S/BC to which to rehome the one or more UEs, a transfer window representing a total time for the rehoming the one or more UEs to the new S/BC, and a pacing parameter for rehoming the one or more UEs to the new S/BC during the transfer window. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08386589B2

A system automates the provision of embedded software to an embedded system. The system may include a portable device having a portable device application that provides the embedded software to the embedded system, a communication link coupling the portable device to the embedded system, and an embedded software manager that accesses one or more embedded software components through the communication link.
US08386574B2

A classification apparatus, method, and computer program product for multi-modality classification are disclosed. For each of a plurality of modalities, the method includes extracting features from objects in a set of objects. The objects include electronic mail messages. A representation of each object for that modality is generated, based on its extracted features. At least one of the plurality of modalities is a social network modality in which social network features are extracted from a social network implicit in the set of electronic mail messages. A classifier system is trained based on class labels of a subset of the set of objects and on the representations generated for each of the modalities. With the trained classifier system, labels are predicted for unlabeled objects in the set of objects.
US08386568B2

Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business for improving communication, whereby message content is routed efficiently while allowing different recipients to receive different versions of the content. A portion of the electronic conversation in an instant messaging session (or of messages in other messaging systems) can be identified as being relevant to a third party (or parties), and information can be specified for routing the relevant information to that third party. A variety of delivery mechanisms may be used. Approval may be obtained prior to routing an annotated message. The recipients of annotated message may be human users and/or automated processes. The message author may also be a human or an automated process.
US08386567B2

Internet content is coordinated with audio communications, such that two or more parties can view the same media content on the Internet while simultaneously communicating over a traditional telephony network or via voice over network. A user computer displays shared content that corresponds to a second computer's display, such that both parties view the same content on their browsers. Either of the parties is allowed to update the visual content of their browsers. Updates in the visual content are transmitted to the other parties so that all parties view the same, shared content. The shared content can include web pages, forms, applications, images, conferences, and files among other information.
US08386565B2

An invention for communication integration between users of a virtual universe is provided. In one embodiment, there is a communication integration interface tool that provides communication integration between users within the virtual universe. In this embodiment, there is a response component for identifying an object of interest in the virtual universe, the object of interest comprising at least one of the following: a first user, or an asset associated with the first user that is within the virtual universe, and generating a response from the object of interest in the virtual universe. The communication integration interface tool further includes a communication link component for establishing a communication link between a second user and at least at least one of the following: the first user, a representative of the first user, or a third user in the virtual universe associated with the asset based on the generated response.
US08386563B2

A first client device performs a handoff operation to a second client device by transmitting application information, associated with a first application, to the second client device when the first client device is positioned within a predefined proximity of the second client device. The first application has a first client device user interface state when the handoff operation is performed. Further, the first client device, in response to receiving from another client device application information associated with a second application executed by the other first client device, executes a third application corresponding to the second application with an initial user interface state corresponding to a user interface state of the other client device.
US08386558B2

A technique and mechanism to effect cross-pollination synchronization of PIM (personal information manager) data to multiple sources. Additionally, a novel feature of the subject invention is the ability to effect cross-pollination synchronization with any number of devices and sources in a network. The invention provides for a user to employ a mobile device or set of devices as a central repository for PIM data (e.g., calendar, contacts and tasks) synchronized from multiple sources (e.g., multiple PC's (personal computers), an exchange server). The invention provides for synchronization of PIM data from multiple types of server sources to multiple devices regardless of the synchronization protocol versions and different schemas.
US08386557B2

The invention is a method for processing a packet in a wireless network. The method includes the acts of receiving a data packet having data therein, and associating the data with a software application. In addition, the method processes information in a wireless network by receiving a user input at a wireless client, converting information indicative of the user input into data transferable as at least one data packet, and transmitting the data packet via a wireless protocol. The method may also update a wireless client display by receiving a video packet via a wireless protocol, and changing at least one pixel to implement the display information received in the video packet.
US08386553B1

A plurality of specialized processing blocks in a programmable logic device, including multipliers and circuitry for adding results of those multipliers, can be configured as a larger multiplier by adding to the specialized processing blocks selectable circuitry for shifting multiplier results before adding. In one embodiment, this allows all but the final addition to take place in specialized processing blocks, with the final addition occurring in programmable logic. In another embodiment, additional compression and adding circuitry allows even the final addition to occur in the specialized processing blocks. Circuitry that controls when an input is signed or unsigned facilitates complex arithmetic.
US08386552B2

In a data processing system, having a twiddle factor unit, a method for performing a mixed-radix discrete Fourier transform (DFT) having a block size, N, and a maximum block size, Nmax, wherein the maximum block size includes a radix that is not a power of 2 is provided. The method includes receiving a delta value at an input of the twiddle factor unit, the delta value representing a ratio of a modified maximum bock size to the block size, wherein the modified maximum block size is a power of 2. The method further includes using the delta value to obtain a step size for generating indices of a look-up table stored within the twiddle factor unit, wherein the look-up table stores real and imaginary components of twiddle factors corresponding to a set of block sizes of the DFT.
US08386544B2

Systems and methods for managing floating point variables are described in the present disclosure. According to one example, an embodiment of a method includes analyzing a constraint on a floating point variable in a system that supports both floating point variables and integer variables. The constraint is designed to have the ability to numerically limit the domain of the floating point variable. The method also includes determining whether or not the floating point variable can be handled as an integer variable and converting the floating point variable to a pseudo integer variable when it is determined that the floating point variable can be handled as an integer variable. This conversion of the floating point variable to a pseudo integer variable allows the domain of the floating point variable to be processed as an integer domain.
US08386541B2

Systems and methods for dynamically creating Entity-Specific Views from one or more Data Warehouses are provided. The system may involve multiple data sets within a Data Warehouse and may provide a Target Result data set which excludes fields of information not relevant to the desired view. The system may involve the use of derived fields and logical decision structures for the assignment of overriding boundary date information.
US08386538B2

A mobile device includes a file information acquiring unit, a file information display unit that displays the file information acquired on a display unit, a file presence identifying unit that determines whether or not a file specified by file information designated by a user from among the file information displayed on the display unit is stored in a storage unit, a first file transmitting unit that transmits the stored file to another mobile device when the file presence identifying unit determines that the file is stored in the internal storage unit, a file acquiring unit that downloads the file specified by the designated file information from the server when the file presence identifying unit determines that the file is not stored in the internal storage unit, and a second file transmitting unit that transmits the file acquired by the file acquiring unit to the other mobile device.
US08386536B2

With a new function introduced neither to a file server nor to a client terminal, control of displaying only a file or a folder whose access right is held by a user is enabled by using existing file server and client terminal. A gateway server connected to a file server and a client terminal through a network, which has the function of filtering structure information of a folder and a file that the file server has based on access authorization of a user of the client terminal on the user basis and presenting the filtered structure information of the folder and the file to the client terminal of a user who has access authorization for the folder and the file.
US08386531B2

Methods and apparatus for constructing objects within a cache system thereby allowing the cache system to respond to requested objects that are not initially available within the cache system. One embodiment of the invention caches image files, where the images are divided into components and stored in a format that allows identification and access to the components. The cache system determines that an object, such as an image file, is missing from the cache memory, locates sufficient components from the cache memory and/or external storage, and constructs the object from the located components.
US08386527B2

A method and a system efficiently and effectively share array entries among multiple threads of execution in a multiprocessor computer system. The invention comprises a method and an apparatus for array creation, a method and an apparatus for array entry data retrieval, a method and an apparatus for array entry data release, a method and an apparatus for array entry data modification, a method and an apparatus for array entry data modification release, a method and an apparatus for multiple array entry atomic release-and-renew, a method and an apparatus for array destruction, a method and an apparatus for specification of array entry discard strategy, a method and an apparatus for specification of array entry modification update strategy, and finally a method and an apparatus for specification of user-provided array entry data construction method.
US08386523B2

Random access decoding start points (audio frame headers) for AMR-type files are found by sequential elimination of types of file points from consideration for a block of file points following a random access selected point. Chaining of file points according to frame header format interpretation gives paths of points through the block, and selection of maximal path(s) includes sums of weights of the points of a path. The next-to-initial points of such a maximal path provides a decoding start point.
US08386520B2

A database structure that may be used for semistructured databases assigns each node of a database to a collection. For each collection, create rights, retrieve rights, associate rights and dissassociate rights are provided to one or more users, the rights being assigned in common for all nodes of the collection. Users can only carry out the task if they have the appropriate rights. In this way, a flexible database security structure is provided that can deliver appropriate security for different elements of a semistructured database.
US08386514B2

In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and programs for providing location-based information. A geographical location of a mobile computing device is received at a server system. A request for content is received at the server system and from the mobile computing device. A search area that corresponds to the geographical location is selected by the sever system. The search area is selected from among a collection of search areas that correspond to the geographical location. At least one of the search areas in the collection is geographically nested within at least one other of the search areas. A search result that is most-relevantly ranked for the selected search area is determined by the server system. Content that represents the determined search result is provided by the server system and for receipt by the mobile computing device.
US08386512B2

A system and process for managing data collection processes is disclosed. An apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure can include, a data collection system having a controller element that assigns to each of the processes a query interval according to a priority level of the data collection process for requesting use of processing resources, receiving one or more requests from the processes, once per respective query interval, for use of at least a portion of available processing resources, releases at least a portion of the available processing resources to a requesting one of the processes when the use of the available processing resources exceeds a utilization threshold. Additional embodiments are disclosed.
US08386511B2

A contextual similarity measurement system computes a similarity model for a reference document using a prediction by partial match method. The system further computes a similarity measure between a compared document and the reference document using the similarity for the reference document.
US08386510B2

A data feed engine allows a user to create a data feed without protocol and/or formatting knowledge for the data source. The data feed engine dynamically selects a connector for any one of a variety of different types of data sources. The date feed engine can then build a search command with search parameters and a data source identity based on the automatically selected data source connector. The data feed engine publishes a reference to the generated data feed definition in a catalog of data feeds. A framework that utilizes such functionality allows creation of a mashup to with a combination of data feeds from different types of data sources.
US08386506B2

A system and method for media enhanced messaging. A message from a message sender to be delivered to at least one message recipient is received over a network. The message comprises at least one delivery criteria and at least one content criteria. When it is determined, via the network that the delivery criteria of the message has been satisfied, a query is formulated based on the content criteria so as to search, via the network, for user profile data, social network data, spatial data, temporal data and topical data that is available via the network and relates to the content criteria and to media files so as to identify at least one media file that is relevant to the content criteria. The media files are inserted into the message and the message is transmitted over the network to the recipient.
US08386504B1

A system and method determines the differences between versions of an object, such as a file. The object versions are compared using a differencing tool to identify the differences between the versions. A scoring algorithm may be selected for the object based on one or more attributes of the object. The scoring algorithm is used to compute a difference score for the object. The difference score may be a function of the differences between the object versions and the characteristics or qualities of those differences. The difference score provides an indication of the relative importance of the changes made to the object. The difference scores from multiple objects may be presented in an interactive report, and sorted to identify those objects that underwent the most significant or noteworthy changes.
US08386503B2

The present invention provides a way to efficiently validate and process requests, such as deletion requests, that affect items having associated objects in a content management system. When the request is received, a timestamp for the item is retrieved. A timestamp for any objects affected by the request are then retrieved and checked against the timestamp for the item. The request is then completed on the item and objects based on the respective timestamps for the item and the objects.
US08386498B2

Messages (e.g., log messages or any form of record oriented data) are analyzed for identifiable value patterns. When a pattern is located the value is replaced by a name or “token” for the pattern, resulting in a “message description” for the message. When analysis is finished and token/value replacements are complete the message description can be stored as a reference to the message.
US08386496B2

A system and method for effectively implementing a personal channel for interactive television comprises a personal channel manager that may include a configuration module, a search module, and a content packaging module. A system user may utilize the configuration module to perform a personal channel configuration procedure to specify personal channel configuration data for performing a content record search procedure. The search module may manage the content record search procedure according to one or more search parameters that may be defined during the personal channel configuration procedure. The search module finds content records from content databases during the foregoing content record search procedure. The content packaging module coordinates a content record sorting procedure according to user-specified sorting criteria.
US08386495B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for scoring resources. One method includes generating a resource graph, the graph including nodes representing resources, nodes representing queries, edges between nodes representing resources, and edges between nodes representing queries and nodes representing resources. The method further includes calculating a score for each of the resources, wherein the score for a particular resource is based on scores for resources represented by nodes with edges to the node representing particular resource in the graph and scores for queries represented by nodes that have an edge to the node representing particular resource in the graph, and ranking one or more of the resources in response to a first query received from a user based, at least in part, on the scores.
US08386476B2

A computer search system compares search results received for searches falling within a defined parameter envelope used for grouping search requests. The parameter envelope may be defined by various parameters, for example, time of search, origin or search request, language, or other non-keyword data associated with each search request, excluding keywords used to define the search. Each new search result (comprising a list of search hits) for incoming search requests is compared to stored search results for search requests within the same parameter envelope. Search results that are found to be similar based on a pre-defined similarity measure are provided as related search results responsive to the incoming search requests. A client-side pseudo-browsing application may control interactions with the search engine, collecting true browsing input from the client and providing pseudo-browsing information to the search engine or other information provider.
US08386475B2

An attribution analysis and correlation system can include a content manager and a semantic correlation module. The content manager can receive a list identifying at least one contributor to be evaluated. The content manager can also mine at least one community for content pertaining to the contributor(s). The semantic correlation module can generate correlation results by performing a semantic analysis and correlation on the persistent content and attributions corresponding to the contributor(s).
US08386472B2

Techniques for database rule ordering and processing are provided. Structured Query Language (SQL) statements are iterated to identify processing dependencies and a processing order is generated. The SQL statements are automatically modified to enforce the processing order and the modified SQL statements are executed against a database.
US08386463B2

A query facility for database queries dynamically determines whether selective portions of a database table are likely to benefit from separate query execution strategies, and constructs an appropriate separate execution strategies accordingly. Preferably, the database contains at least one relatively large table comprising multiple partitions, each sharing the definitional structure of the table and containing a different respective discrete subset of the table records. The query facility compares metadata for different partitions to determine whether sufficiently large differences exist among the partitions, and in appropriate cases selects one or more partitions for separate execution strategies. Preferably, partitions are ranked for separate evaluation using a weighting formula which takes into account: (a) the number of indexes for the partition, (b) recency of change activity, and (c) the size of the partition.
US08386459B1

A method for determining a recrawl schedule of items on an intranet using a search appliance includes estimating, using the search appliance installed on the intranet, a change period for items on the intranet using a history of crawl information for the items. The change period for an item may be a frequency of change in content of the item. The method includes calculating a crawl period for each of the items, where the crawl period for an item is set relative to the change period for the item. The method includes determining whether to adjust the calculated crawl period for each of the items using adjustment criteria, adjusting the calculated crawl period for selected items determined for adjustment using the adjustment criteria and creating a recrawl schedule of the items on the intranet using a recrawl time for each of the items.
US08386457B2

A method for providing content-level data artifact recommendations can begin with the creation of a semantic library from the textual content of data artifacts by a newsworthy content recommendation engine. A base newsworthiness rating can be calculated using global newsworthiness parameters and behavioral functions that model newsworthy influences for each relationship contained in the semantic library. A user-specific search network can be generated that represents user-entered criteria and/or user task-related criteria. Within the semantic library, potential newsworthy semantic networks can be identified. Newsworthy content from each identified potential newsworthy semantic network can be dynamically determined based upon the base newsworthiness rating and a predefined newsworthiness threshold. The newsworthy content from the identified potential newsworthy semantic network can be related to the user-specific search network at the common node, creating a newsworthy content recommendation graph. The newsworthy content recommendation graph can be presented within a user interface.
US08386455B2

The present invention provides a method and system for generating search results including receiving a search request including at least one search term and accessing a corpus of data to determine relevant content for inclusion in a search result set on the basis of the search request. The method and system includes determining a plurality of applications associated with the search request and generating a search result output display for the presentation of at least a portion of the search result set and at least a portion of the applications.
US08386453B2

A system identifies a document, performs a search to identify web documents relating to an attribute associated with the document, and provides information associated with the web documents and the document.
US08386452B2

A data join system of the present invention includes a table determination unit 11 selecting a record b as a join target if a value of a key item included in a record a acquired by a data write unit from a table A falls within a first predetermined range set based on a value of a key item included in the record b stored in a table B, a data join unit joining the selected record b with the record a to generate a record c, and a data write unit storing the record c into a table C. Thus, the success rate of data join can be improved while the accuracy of join of the record b and the record a to be joined is improved.
US08386438B2

A computer system and methods for restoring data from a copy of a database file. The method includes receiving a request to restore an item from the copy of the database file. The item includes a file and associated context information describing the file in a first intranet portal application environment. The method further includes retrieving a schema including the item from the copy of the database file and generating an item file comprising a copy of the file. The item file is independent of the context information. The method further includes generating a metadata file based on the context information, associating the metadata file with the item file, storing the item file and associated metadata file in a file system, and restoring the item to a second intranet portal application or to a third application via the file system.
US08386432B2

Provided is a computer system which is capable of backup operation with a minimum count of volumes in a remote copy environment when a disaster or the like causes a storage system to stop working normally. The computer system has a host computer, a first storage system, a second storage system, and a management computer. The first storage system contains a data volume which stores data requested by an application to be written. The second storage system contains a mirrored volume to which data stored in the data volume is copied. The computer system is characterized by being configured to receive an input of a policy about backup processing executed in backup volumes and set a configuration of the first storage system and a configuration of the second storage system under the received policy.
US08386428B2

A method, system and computer program product for generation and management of incremental backups of VEE file system using bitmaps. The proposed method allows users to roll back to any previous version or state of the VEE file system and to instantiate this version using the data encapsulated in virtual disk storage (i.e. file system) of the VEE. A number of VEEs run on a Host Operating System of the computer system. One of the VEEs implemented on the computer system is designated to generation and management of backups of the virtual disk data of the other VEEs without freezing the file system during the entire backup process. A special tracing application runs on the designated VEE for generating the bitmap of a file system snapshot. The user can also set up a time for generating a backup or create a schedule for automatically generating the backups at critical points.
US08386424B2

A unified data access mechanism can provide transparent access to data that is either stored locally or remotely. Application programs can direct data requests and data modifications to this singular component without foreknowledge of where the data is stored. The unified data access mechanism can work in concert with a synchronization mechanism that can maintain data synchronization between local data and remote data. Requested or modified data can be identified as stored locally or remotely based on the namespace of the data. If the data is stored remotely, the user credentials associated with the user's process space within which the application program is executing can be utilized to identify, and then provide, relevant authentication information to the remote data store, should it be required.
US08386418B2

A method and system relate to data storage, and more particularly, to an intelligent storage service catalog. A method is implemented in a computer infrastructure having programming instructions. The programming instructions are operable to receive at least one definition of storage requirements for an organization for at least one data type and establish at least one data storage allocation rule based on the at least one data type. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to receive a request for storage for the at least one data type and allocate data storage based on the request for storage and the at least one data storage allocation rule.
US08386412B2

Example methods and apparatus to construct histogram and wavelet synopses for probabilistic data are disclosed. A disclosed example method involves receiving probabilistic data associated with probability measures and generating a plurality of histograms based on the probabilistic data. Each histogram is generated based on items represented by the probabilistic data. In addition, each histogram is generated using a different quantity of buckets containing different ones of the items. An error measure associated with each of the plurality of histograms is determined and one of the plurality of histograms is selected based on its associated error measure. The method also involves displaying parameter information associated with the one of the plurality of histograms to represent the data.
US08386410B2

The invention provides an enterprise administration system and method. The system includes a user interface module configured to enter administration terms or select a predetermined script of administration terms, a knowledge base configured to store system information, a meta information module configured to use the system information to store entity-objective indexes, and a workflow mapping module configured to map the administration terms to system information extraction tasks to extract relevant entities and objectives and apply a rule to the extracted entities and objectives for presenting the extracted entities and objectives in a ranked order.
US08386409B2

A syslog message routing system can include multiple syslog sources, a syslog message routing module, and multiple syslog parsers. The syslog message routing module can receive a syslog message from one of the syslog sources, identify a particular syslog parser to handle the syslog message, and send the syslog message to the selected syslog parser. The syslog message routing module can identify the syslog parser by applying at least one of an application ID-based policy, a unique pattern matching rule policy, and a universal syslog parser policy.
US08386408B2

A component in a graph-based computation having data processing components connected by linking elements representing data flows is updated by receiving a rule specification, generating a transform for transforming data based on the rule specification, associating the transform with a component in the graph-based computation, and in response to determining that a new rule specification has been received or an existing rule specification has been edited, updating the transform associated with the component in the graph-based computation according to the new or edited rule specification. A computation is tested by receiving a rule specification including a set of rule cases, receiving a set of test cases, each test case containing a value for one or more of the potential inputs, and for each test case, identifying one of the rule cases that will generate an output given the input values of the test case.
US08386403B2

Implementations and techniques for distributed-type Markov chain Monte Carlo are generally disclosed.
US08386401B2

Methods for training machines to categorize data, and/or recognize patterns in data, and machines and systems so trained. More specifically, variations of the invention relates to methods for training machines that include providing one or more training data samples encompassing one or more data classes, identifying patterns in the one or more training data samples, providing one or more data samples representing one or more unknown classes of data, identifying patterns in the one or more of the data samples of unknown class(es), and predicting one or more classes to which the data samples of unknown class(es) belong by comparing patterns identified in said one or more data samples of unknown class with patterns identified in said one or more training data samples. Also provided are tools, systems, and devices, such as support vector machines (SVMs) and other methods and features, software implementing the methods and features, and computers or other processing devices incorporating and/or running the software, where the methods and features, software, and processors utilize specialized methods to analyze data.
US08386395B1

Systems and methods are provided for providing an adjustment to a value estimate for a property that is considered distressed. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving the estimate of value for the property; determining, based on a model, the adjustment to the estimate of value, such that the model accounts for a characteristic of the property and a characteristic of the loan; and providing the adjustment.
US08386390B2

A service provider (SP) receives an original license including an edit condition that shows designation of a range of a usage condition from a content provider (CP) license management server of a CP. On the basis of the received original license, a sales license generation tool of the SP generates a sales license which includes the usage condition that shows a condition for allowing the usage of the content and from which a content key has been deleted. A content key insertion processing unit of an SP license management server judges whether or not the usage condition included in the generated license information is within the range of the edit condition, and inserts the content key into the generated license information only when the usage condition is within the range of the edit condition.
US08386377B1

A technique is provided for determining credit ratings without the need for traditional credit bureau data. In at least one embodiment of the invention, a method comprises the steps of providing a network of linked identity records, each identity record comprising identity related information; receiving an identity record comprising identity related information of the entity; linking the received identity record with at least one of the identity records in the network of linked identity records, quantifying a plurality of linked identity records related to the entity; and generating a credit rating for the entity based on the quantified identity records. Application of the invention is particularly useful for individuals with less than a few years credit behavior recorded on a credit bureau, such as immigrants or young people with limited traditional historical information (“thin file”) and individuals with no traditional historical information (“no hit”).
US08386371B2

Market data is monitored for purposes of canceling orders for financial articles of trade. Real-time data is collected from multiple liquidity destinations trading at least one financial article of trade. The real-time data comprises disparate data corresponding to associated liquidity destinations. The collected real-time data is normalized into a standardized form. A condition is defined of a trading market that includes one or both of submitted and executed transactions of financial articles of trade over the multiple liquidity destinations. The condition is associated with an entity. Through monitoring of the normalized real-time data, an event is identified in the trading market that matches the condition. Upon identification of the condition, at least one communication session between the entity and a corresponding liquidity destination is terminated causing a process at the corresponding liquidity destination to cancel pending or outstanding orders for financial articles of trades from the entity.
US08386370B2

The system provides two-sided local markets that enable local and/or intermittent resource allocation through a market model. The system provides a method for defining goods, services or assets are to be exchanged among a large but limited number of participants (e.g. between 10 and 100). In one embodiment, all participants may have both needs and endowments of the goods, services and assets to be traded and who may at times want to simultaneously buy and sell multiple units. Alternatively the market may have participants who are either sellers or buyers. The system provides a market mechanism where participants can submit orders (through limit orders and market orders) in user defined time frames.
US08386364B2

A computerized entity, system and method for monitoring, determining and/or presenting risk to a trader for multi-leg transactions is provided. The system may include a trading terminal that can calculate the current price for a synthetic instrument representing a multi-leg trade based on trading data for each financial instrument of the multi-leg trade. The trading terminal may provide indicia of the likelihood of success of completing each single-leg trade of the multi-leg trade.
US08386355B1

A system and method for defining, structuring, and trading political event contracts is disclosed that implement a systematic process for defining political event contracts. The systematic process comprises a rigorous taxonomy of risk event classes that delimit the types of contracts to be defined. An event relevance scoring mechanism determines whether a derivative instrument embodying a specified event is economically warranted and useful to the marketplace as a mechanism for hedging risks not easily addressed through other market tools. The disclosed apparatus further comprises apparatus for modeling the value of a specified political event contract that captures both rational and intuitive analysis about an event using criteria based decision trees to provide highly structured calculation of relative probabilities. The tree components are weighted and compared by an analyst or other user to determine probabilities for various alternative outcomes to a specified political event.
US08386341B2

The present invention provides apparatus, systems and methods that apply to a single particular billing method selected by each of a plurality of users, in response to each particular user's request, a set of billing method rules for each carrier of a plurality of carriers and determines whether or not each carrier of the plurality of carriers supports the shipper's specified preferred billing method, and if so, any special pricing considerations for each particular Carrier. Each user of the present invention accesses the present invention over a global communications network using a client computer device, each user client computer device having an individual electronic connection to the global communications network.
US08386333B2

A system and method for enabling a user to transact an anonymous on-line transaction, wherein a form of on-line payment is requested at a transaction interface is disclosed. The method may include providing an anonymous user interface that enables a user to initiate an on-line payment, accessing a first profile comprising user data when the user activates the form of on-line payment, generating a second profile linked to the first profile, wherein the second profile comprises anonymous data, and communicating the anonymous data from the second profile to the transaction interface to enable completion of the transaction.
US08386329B1

Embodiments of the invention provide methods and program products for making a recommendation to a purchaser and/or member of a social network. A first aspect of the invention provides a method of making a recommendation to a purchaser, the method comprising: determining a plurality of features of a first product selected by a purchaser; prioritizing the plurality of features of the first product; and making at least one recommendation to the purchaser, the at least one recommendation being selected from a group consisting of: a second product sharing at least one feature of the first product and a social network connection determined to have purchased another product sharing at least one feature of the first product.
US08386327B2

Embodiments of the invention provide for methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for providing a financial institution check-out system for processing online transactions using a customer's pre-existing online financial institution profile. A customer desiring to checkout from an online vendor's electronic marketplace is given a choice to checkout using a financial institution's secure checkout widget, which is rendered alongside the customer computer system's web browser application by a financial institution server. The widget authenticates the customer as a financial institution account owner, and the financial institution server displays to the customer his or her available payment accounts and receives customer input regarding the desired payment account. The server runs a payment service engine that controls payment for the transaction, and then the widget communicates proof of successful payment to the vendor server. The vendor server receives payment confirmation from the financial institution server and thereafter communicates successful payment confirmation to the customer via the vendor's checkout interface.
US08386325B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for implementing a software architecture design for a software application implementing plan-driven procurement. The application is structured as multiple process components interacting with each other through service interfaces, and multiple service operations, each being implemented for a respective process component. The process components include an Inbound Delivery Processing process component, a Site Logistics Processing process component, an Inventory Processing process component, a Purchase Request Processing process component, a Purchase Order Processing process component, a Purchasing Contract process component, a Supplier Invoice Processing process component, a Demand Forecast Processing process component, a Supply and Demand Matching process component, an External Procurement Trigger and Response process component, and a Logistics Execution Control process component.
US08386324B2

An auto-identification system is described that includes a plurality of distributed auto-id nodes that are operable to track physical objects as they move through an operation of an enterprise, such as, for example, a supply chain network or a sales network. The auto-id nodes are distributed across sites of the network, and are in communication with enterprise application systems and/or data acquisition systems such as RFID readers or sensor devices. By focusing on their respective sites, the auto-id nodes minimize the amount of data tracked by their respective enterprise applications. Further, a distributed management service may be in communication with all of the auto-id nodes, so as to distribute rules governing the operation of the enterprise to at least one of the auto-id nodes. The distributed management service may be used for, for example, generating and updating new rules, distributing the rules into the local auto-id nodes, and operating the rules for handling the data collected from different auto-id nodes.
US08386321B2

Methods and systems for identifying and presenting information are described. Search results are received from a search engine. An entity associated with a networked site is selected using a selection criterion. A determination is made as to whether the listing includes a link to the networked site or includes the link to the networked site at a list position that fails to satisfy a first criterion. After determining that the link to the site associated with the entity is not included in the search result listing, or that the link to the site associated with the entity is not at a position in the search result listing that satisfies the first criterion, the search listing is modified by causing the link to the site associated with the entity to appear in a first position in the search listing. The modified search listing is displayed on a user terminal.
US08386316B1

A method and system to control at least one remote video resource access system. A first embodiment is a method to operate a remote video resource access system. The method includes publishing an access link on a website to a video resource of a grantor; detecting activation of the access link by a prospective grantee; obtaining the prospective grantee identity from a website user file to determine if the prospective grantee should be a grantee; providing an advertising opportunity to a prospective advertiser regarding the prospective grantee; and granting the prospective grantee access to the video resource of the grantor, within one or more limits optionally imposed by the grantor on the scope of the access being offered. A second embodiment is a remote video resource access system. The system includes a module to publish an access link on a website to a video resource of a grantor; a module to detect activation of the access link by a prospective grantee; a module to obtain the prospective grantee identity from a website user file to determine if the prospective grantee should be a grantee; a module to provide an advertising opportunity to a prospective advertiser regarding the prospective grantee; and a module to grant the prospective grantee access to the video resource of the grantor, within one or more limits optionally imposed by the grantor on the scope of the access being offered. These embodiments can be applied in several wired and wireless communication applications, even combinations of wired and wireless technologies including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.16 wireless applications.
US08386314B2

Metrics for online ads are captured by parsing web pages to identify ad beacons containing information identifying whether the online ads are for a particular client. These metrics are used to determine key performance indicators for auditing and competitor analysis for an online ad campaign.
US08386307B2

Purchase rewards account holders accumulate rewards currency. A network-based investment management system allows account holders to purchase shares in investments using reward currency. When all the shares for a particular investment have been purchased, the underlying investment is acquired. Account holders owning shares in an investment may sell shares to other account holders through system. Account holders are thereby able to invest their rewards dollars in investments typically requiring cash or cash equivalents and to grow their rewards currency.
US08386298B2

A system, method and computer program product for providing the ability for retailers to devise a current channel strategy (e.g., adaptive price setting) that considers competitors in a dynamic competing environment, and that enables computing a competitive advantage of a channel. To estimate a price for selling a product j in a commerce channel comprises: a) receiving, at a processor device, real market data including sales and price history data of a product j sold by one or more retailers over one or alternate sales channels t; generating, by the processor device, a competitive advantage parameter value based on the sales and price history data; and, computing, utilizing the competitive advantage parameter value, an optimum price for a particular product to be marketed in one of the one or alternate sales channel.
US08386290B2

A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product optimize a shared service delivery system. A model of an existing shared service delivery system is created. Capacity of the existing shared service delivery system is defined according to required resources for existing projects, new projects, and proposed projects. Existing cells of practitioners in the existing shared service delivery system are identified, and any gaps or gluts of capacity in the existing cells of practitioners are identified according to a general predetermined resource requirement for the shared service delivery system.
US08386286B2

A system and method for dynamically allocating resources in a process. A demand pattern change detection unit, a future demand forecasting unit and a process optimization engine can be employed to constantly adjust resource allocation and assist in maintaining processes in a state of peak performance. An initial resource allocation unit generates an initial resource allocation plan based on past experience with respect to the process. The change detection unit detects a shift in the job demand pattern utilizing a statistical data when a change occurs in process requirements. The future demand generation unit accurately generates future demand data based on current job data and the outlook of future demand. The optimization engine acts as a surrogate process expert and provides recommendations to the process owner regarding potential possible resource allocation policies for new job demand data utilizing a simulation process to predict the result of variable staffing configurations.
US08386282B2

Embodiments of the invention are associated with a configuration comprising multiple integrated SOA governance components, and are generally concerned with monitoring and managing events that can or are likely to impact on different components of the configuration. One embodiment of the invention, directed to a method, comprises the steps of detecting a particular event that occurs at a particular SOA governance component of the configuration, and routing information pertaining to the detected event to a pre-specified storage location. The method further comprises operating a monitoring mechanism to selectively monitor the information routed to the location, and to determine from the monitored information that the particular event has occurred at the particular component of the configuration. Responsive to determining that the particular event has occurred at the particular component, the monitoring mechanism is further operated to query each of the remaining SOA governance components, in order to identify each of the remaining components in which the particular event does not exist.
US08386277B2

Various embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems and methods for identifying suspicious orders for controlled substances based on performing checks on a received order using historical information on previous orders. According to various embodiments, these checks may include: (1) comparing the order quantity for the received order with the order quantity history for the customer who placed the order for the controlled substance; (2) comparing the order quantity and the days since the last order was shipped to the customer for the same controlled substance with the order quantity history and the days between orders for the particular customer and controlled substance; (3) comparing the order quantity with order quantity history for orders received by customers of the same type for the controlled substance; and (4) comparing the order quantity with order quantity history for any customer for the particular controlled substance.
US08386276B1

Systems and methods may determine prescribing physician activity levels. Information associated with a plurality of healthcare transaction requests that are received during a designated time period from at least one healthcare provider computer for communication to one or more claims processor computers may be collected. A respective prescribing physician for each of the plurality of received healthcare transaction requests may be identified. For each identified physician, a respective activity measure for the designated time period may be calculated based upon a respective number of the healthcare transaction requests identifying the physician.
US08386268B2

An apparatus for generating a synthesis audio signal using a patching control signal has a first converter, a spectral domain patch generator, a high frequency reconstruction manipulator and a combiner. The first converter is configured for converting a time portion of an audio signal into a spectral representation. The spectral domain patch generator is configured for performing a plurality of different spectral domain patching algorithms, wherein each patching algorithm generates a modified spectral representation having spectral components in an upper frequency band derived from corresponding spectral components in a core frequency band of the audio signal. The spectral domain patch generator is furthermore configured to select a first spectral domain patching algorithm from the plurality of patching algorithms for a first time portion and a second spectral domain patching algorithm from the plurality of patching algorithm for a second different time portion in accordance with the patching control signal to obtain the modified spectral representation.
US08386254B2

A method of speech recognition converts an unknown speech input into a stream of representative features. The feature stream is transformed based on speaker dependent adaptation of multi-class feature models. Then automatic speech recognition is used to compare the transformed feature stream to multi-class speaker independent acoustic models to generate an output representative of the unknown speech input.
US08386252B2

An automated telecommunication system adjunct is described that “listens” to one or more participants styles of speech, identifies specific characteristics that represent differences in their styles, notably the accent, but also one or more of pronunciation accuracy, speed, pitch, cadence, intonation, co-articulation, syllable emphasis, and syllable duration, and utilizes, for example, a mathematical model in which the independent measurable components of speech that can affect understandability by that specific listener are weighted appropriately and then combined into a single overall score that indicates the estimated ease with which the listener can understand what is being said, and presents real-time feedback to speakers based on the score. In addition, the system can provide recommendations to the speaker as to how improve understandability.
US08386246B2

A system is described that performs frame erasure concealment to generate frames of an output speech signal corresponding to a series of erased frames of encoded bit-stream in a manner that conceals the quality-degrading effects of such erased frames. In one embodiment, responsive to the detection of a first erased frame in the series, a number of steps are performed. These steps include deriving long-term and short synthesis filters based on previously-generated portions of the output speech signal, calculating a ringing signal segment based on the long-term and short-term synthesis filters, and generating a frame of the output speech signal corresponding to the first erased frame by overlap adding the ringing signal segment to an extrapolated waveform. Deriving the long-term filter includes estimating a pitch period based on a previously-generated portion of the output speech signal by finding a lag that minimizes a sum of magnitude difference function.
US08386242B2

Provided are a method, medium and apparatus for enhancing an acoustic signal using an auditory property. An acoustic signal is enhanced by generating a plurality of harmonic signals based on a predetermined acoustic signal frequency, selecting harmonic signals, which exist in an area masked by the predetermined harmonic signal, from among the generated plurality of harmonic signals, and outputting harmonic signals remaining after excluding the selected harmonic signals from the generated plurality of harmonic signals. The enhancement results in a bass signal of good sound quality and having a low distortion ratio, without changing the structure of a micro speaker.
US08386231B2

A method, performed on a server, of translating between languages includes receiving first audio data for a first language from a mobile device, translating the first audio data to second audio data for a second language, receiving an indication that the mobile device has moved between two locations, and sending the second audio data to the mobile device in response to the indication.
US08386223B2

A method for selecting, from a set of possible configurations, an optimized tire configuration for fitting a vehicle intended to run on a circuit following a predefined route, oriented in a single course direction and including bends. The method includes the steps of developing a physical model of the vehicle fitted with a first tire configuration, simulating the route course by the modeled vehicle, optimizing the speed of the vehicle, storing in memory the course time taken by the vehicle to cover the route at least once, comparing the course time to at least one reference time and producing a comparison result, and optionally selecting the first configuration at the optimized configuration as a function of the comparison result.
US08386220B2

Systems and methods for representing a surface with faces. Defining a face with inner and outer concave constraint lines. Representing the face with five initial vertices spread equidistant on each of the inner and outer concave constraint lines. Using a triangulation refinement method to transform the initial set of vertices into a first set of representative vertices.
US08386214B2

In a method and system for simulating a magnetic resonance image of an examination subject, imaging parameters are determined that correspond to an imaging sequence that will be used to generate a magnetic resonance image of an examination subject, this being the magnetic resonance image that is to be simulated. At least one item of anatomical information of the subject is determined, and signal-to-noise information of the MR system, with which the magnetic resonance image of the subject will be generated, also is determined. The magnetic resonance image is simulated in a processor in real time dependent on the determined imaging parameters, the determined anatomical information, and the determined signal-to-noise information. The simulated magnetic resonance image is then visually displayed.
US08386212B2

When an abnormality or a sign of abnormality occurs in an electric power generating facility, an appropriate operating support can be made in a short time. The electric power facility operation remote supporting method in accordance with the present invention is characterized by that an abnormality or a sign of abnormality is judged based on at least one of information on an operating state of the electric power generating facility and information on time-varying characteristics of components in the electric power generating facility, and a service mode is set based on the judged information of the abnormality or the sign of abnormality, preset abnormality corrective data and preset service modes.
US08386211B2

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture are provided for detecting events based upon population density as a function of time and geographic location. Flow of population enables continuous movement to be distinguished from non-continuous movement. Accordingly, various types of events where people are gathering may be determined based upon the population flow and density.
US08386206B2

A method for checking an interface module, the interface module returning to the processor, using a second data message, stored values representing sensor values, after a request for a test by a processor using a data message. Using these firm sensor values, the processor can check the functioning of the interface module and its own algorithm. A safety module, which also picks up the sensor values, also checks its functioning with them, since the safety module is a redundant hardware path to the processor and is used as a plausibility check for the release decision of means of restraint. The interface module is changed into a test mode as soon as it receives the first data message from the processor, and it then suppresses the transmission of the real sensor values which were received from connected sensors.
US08386205B2

A rotational vibration test system and method of a storage system set storage devices of the storage system, fan speeds of an electric fan of the storage system, and access patterns of the storage system. The electric fan is controlled to run at the fan speeds. The storage system is accessed according to the access patterns. Accordingly, the storage devices are input/output performance tested. Test results of the storage devices are output to an output device.
US08386198B2

Real-time power line rating may be provided. First, sensor data may be received corresponding to a conductor of a power line. The sensor data may provide real-time weather conditions for the conductor's environment. The sensor data may be received from a sensor device configured to collect the sensor data. The sensor data may correspond to the weather conditions at a location of the sensor device on the power line. Next, design limitations for the power line having the conductor may be received. The conductor of the power line may have a design ampacity based upon the design limitations and assumed weather conditions for the conductor's environment. Then a dynamic ampacity may be calculated for the power line based upon the received sensor data and the received design limitations for the power line. The power line may then be operated according to the calculated dynamic ampacity instead of the design ampacity.
US08386194B1

The condition of a bond surface is determined. A 3-D wettability tension curve is generated for the bond surface which represents a range of possible wettings of an adhesive on the bond surface that may result in a bond joint of acceptable quality. At least three surface energies on the bond surface are measured, and the wettability curve is used to determine whether the condition of the bond surface is acceptable based on the measured bonding surface energies.
US08386183B2

Chemical compositions may be selectively or preferentially excited by the application of scores comprising a series of energy inputs, thereby changing them from a first geometric configuration to a second geometric configuration (e.g., a first to a second stereoisomer).
US08386179B2

A Solar Access Measurement Device (“SAMD”) located at a predetermined position is disclosed. The SAMD may include a skyline detector enabled to detect a skyline of a horizon relative to the SAMD, an orientation determination unit enabled to determine the orientation of the skyline detector, and a processor in signal communication with the skyline detector and orientation determination unit.
US08386176B2

A system and the like capable of reporting a position of a vehicle to outside at an appropriate frequency, while saving communication cost is provided. According to a vehicle position transmission system 10 of the present invention, after an IGN switch 101 of a vehicle 1 is switched from ON to OFF, the vehicle position transmission system 10 is transited from an operating state to a stand-by state. Then, in the case where a transition requirement of the vehicle position transmission system 10 to a sleeping state is satisfied, a wireless communication equipment 14 transmits a position signal to a vehicle management center 2, and thereafter a vehicle position transmission system 10 is transited to the sleeping state.
US08386174B2

The invention relates to a method and a device for calculating a time window for a time constraint of arrival of an aircraft at a given point, the aircraft receiving wind predictions and including a sensor for measuring the wind. The method includes a calculation of a first time window, and the calculation of an overall confidence index having the determination of a first confidence index on the basis of a deviation between wind predictions and wind measurements performed by the aircraft, the calculation of a margin for the time constraint on the basis of the overall confidence index, and the calculation of a second window on the basis of the first time window and of the calculated margin.
US08386172B2

An in-vehicle apparatus includes: a memory for storing a map data; a center communication element for obtaining a latest map data from a center; an inter-vehicle communication element for communicating with another in-vehicle apparatus; an input element for receiving an input signal of a specific area from an user; and a controller for setting the specific area as an initial main area. The inter-vehicle communication element receives another map data from another in-vehicle apparatus. The controller compares the map data with another map data. When another main area includes an area not included in the initial main area, the controller adds the area as a new main area, and updates the map data with another map data. The controller updates the map data corresponding to the initial main area with the latest map data.
US08386162B2

A controller determines whether or not the map data that includes the position information of the user device and the position information of the other party can be displayed on the screen of the display panel at a predetermined reduced scale. When the result of the determination specifies that the map that includes the position information of both parties cannot be displayed at the predetermined reduced scale, the controller 11 splits the display panel into two screens, and displays the map data that include the user device position information and the map data that include the other party position information on separate screens. When the result of the determination specifies that the map that includes the position information of both parties can be displayed, the central control device displays the single map data that include the position information of both parties on the single screen of the display panel.
US08386161B2

Route planning methods and systems are provided. First, an input corresponding to a specific region is received via an input unit of a personal navigation device. Then, a first predefined location located in the specific region is determined. A first route from a first current position of the device to the first predefined location is planned.
US08386157B2

A universal GPS traffic monitoring system that uses a plurality of GPS enabled mobile devices to transmit near real-time traffic direction and speed information to a server. The sever processes the information thereby reducing the computational load and power consumption of the mobile devices. The system uses a Traffic Pattern Recognition software program that recognizes only valid traffic data while filtering out unwanted traffic data. The system creates a Distributed Traffic Data Store database containing the average speeds for designated traffic monitoring points (TMPs) created for the region. A request for traffic data containing the boundary data and the zoom level is sent from the mobile device to the server. The server reviews the request and determines which specific Distributed Traffic Data Store database contains the information and then creates and sends a compressed file containing the traffic information relevant to the TMPs in the request to the mobile device.
US08386156B2

A roadside equipment (RSE) system that can be used for controlling traffic signals and other equipment and corresponding method. A method includes wirelessly receiving vehicle data from an onboard equipment (OBE) system connected to a vehicle, the vehicle data including location data, time data, and vehicle identification data related to the vehicle. The method includes determining motion data for the vehicle and determining the current state of at least one traffic device. The method includes determining a roadway lane corresponding to the vehicle, based on the motion data and the current state of the at least one traffic device, and storing the vehicle and associated roadway lane.
US08386155B2

A fault analysis method for a lambda probe of an internal combustion engine, in particular for detecting a heater input, has the following steps: measurement of an air ratio in the exhaust gas of the internal combustion engine by a lambda probe, control of the air ratio in the exhaust gas of the internal combustion engine by a lambda probe by a lambda controller intervention in accordance with the measured air ratio, and evaluation of the lambda controller intervention in order to detect a fault.
US08386152B2

Upon satisfaction of an idle learning condition, the internal combustion engine system of the invention successively performs learning of an idle control amount and learning of a most delayed angle control amount in this sequence. Upon satisfaction of a most delayed angle learning condition, on the other hand, the internal combustion engine system successively performs learning of the most delayed angle control amount and learning of the idle control amount in this sequence. This arrangement effectively reduces the total time required for completion of learning both the idle control amount and the most delayed angle control amount, compared with the conventional procedure of individually learning only one control amount corresponding to the satisfied learning condition.
US08386151B2

An ECU executes a program based on which, when a fuel-supply cutoff control is executed or when a hybrid vehicle travels in a second mode in which the engine is stopped and the hybrid vehicle travels using only the drive power generated by a second MG an intake VVT mechanism is controlled so that a valve phase is brought to the mechanically determined most retarded phase. The phase, which is detected by a cam position sensor, is learned as the most retarded phase.
US08386149B2

A low pressure, low cost electronic fuel injection system (18) for small hand-held two cycle engines (1) is provided which employs a number of improvements, including by way of example and not of limitation, an improved low cost injector construction (45), a throttle body integration (10) that includes mounting the operational components of the supply system on a single unit, an improved ignition module (40), a pressure regulated fuel system controlled by an electronic control unit (42) employing and an adaptive algorithm based on engine speed which controls the speed by varying the amount of fuel provided to the engine.
US08386145B2

A device, system and method for controlling speed of a vehicle are provided. The device includes a locational information module for determining location information and speed; a storage module for storing at least one geographic map including at least one route and a speed limit for the at least one route; a processing module configured to receive the location information, retrieve at least one geographic map based on the location information, determine a speed limit based on the location information and compare the speed of the device to the determined speed limit; and a display module for alerting a user if the speed of the device exceeds the determined speed limit. The system and method can be for communicating a subject vehicle's speed to a central server where it can be utilized to analyze traffic congestion patterns or notify selected companies or individuals.
US08386144B2

A system configured to estimate a change in temperature of a brake component of a vehicle brake during a braking operation. The system includes a weight estimation module for estimating a weight of a vehicle to which a brake is fitted, a volume estimation module for estimating a volume of a brake component, a temperature model module for calculating a change in temperature during brake application based on a relationship between the weight of the vehicle as estimated by the weight estimation module, the volume of the brake component as estimated by the volume estimation module, the deceleration of the vehicle, and further constants of the vehicle and/or the brake.
US08386141B2

A vehicle control system for an automatic transmission includes a range selector for outputting a range instruction signal representing the selected shift range and a range shifter for manually outputting a shift instruction signal, and a by-wire control part for controlling the change-over of the shift range according to the range instruction signal input from the range selector. The by-wire control part has a range control circuit, which uses the shift instruction signal input from the range shifter if the range instruction signal is abnormal while monitoring the range instruction signal input from the range selector.
US08386137B2

A planter monitor system and method that provides an operator with near real-time data concerning yield robbing events and the economic cost associated with such yield robbing events so as to motivate the operator to take prompt corrective action.
US08386125B2

A method of adaptively communicating between a telematics unit of a vehicle and a call center based on acoustic conditions. A communication session is initiated between a telematics unit and a call center and vehicle sensors are monitored for acoustics-related parameters. The acoustics-related parameters are analyzed, and it is determined if one or more of the acoustics-related parameters are indicative of an unacceptably noisy condition. The communication session is established as a live communication session between the telematics unit and a live advisor at the call center, if one or more of the acoustics-related parameters are indicative of an unacceptably noisy condition.
US08386120B2

A method for automatically determining an engine oil change frequency at an engine control unit includes the steps of determining an amount of fuel used per oil change, and calculating an amount of fuel remaining from the fuel used per oil change. The method also includes the steps of comparing the amount of fuel remaining to a predetermined amount of fuel remaining, and actuating an oil change indicator if the fuel remaining is less than the predetermined amount of fuel.
US08386114B2

A vehicular imaging system includes an imaging device that is part of an exterior rearview mirror assembly and having a field of view rearward and/or sideward of the vehicle. A control processes captured image data utilizing edge detection. Responsive at least in part to the processing, the control determines objects of interest present in the field of view of the imaging device. Objects of interest determined to be present in the field of view include (i) a vehicle that is rearward and/or sideward of the vehicle, (ii) a headlight of a vehicle that is rearward and/or sideward of the vehicle, (iii) a bicycle that is rearward and/or sideward of the vehicle, and/or (iv) a bicycle rider that is rearward and/or sideward of the vehicle. Responsive at least in part to the processing of captured image data, a driver of the vehicle is alerted to a hazardous condition.
US08386109B2

An apparatus includes a fuel burning actuator operable to burn fuel to drive generator means to generate charge to recharge an energy storage means. The apparatus is operable to motor the fuel burning actuator by means of motoring means comprising an electric machine, the fuel burning actuator being operable to pump gas when motored. Brake means comprising a second electric machine is operable to generate charge in a regenerative braking operation in order to recharge the energy storage device. The apparatus is operable automatically to motor the fuel burning actuator by means of the motoring means when the fuel burning actuator is not burning fuel responsive to at least one operating parameter associated with the energy storage means, the apparatus being operable automatically to restrict by means of restrictor means an amount of gas pumped by the fuel burning actuator thereby to increase an amount of work done by the motoring means when the fuel burning actuator is motored.
US08386108B2

In a system and method of supplying proper polarity electrical power to positive and negative conductors of a vehicle, first and second pairs of vehicle mounted contacts are electrically connected between positive and negative conductors of a first electrical bus and the positive and negative conductors of the vehicle, respectively. In response to the first pair of contacts moving into a space or gap between the first electrical bus and a second electrical bus, the first pair of contacts is isolated from the positive and negative conductors of the vehicle. In response to the vehicle moving the first pair of contacts into contact with the second electrical bus while the second pair of contacts are electrically connected to the first electrical bus, the first pair of contacts is electrically connected between the negative and positive conductors of the vehicle and negative and positive conductors of the second electrical bus, respectively.
US08386105B2

A fuel cell vehicle comprises a motor , a fuel cell , a first DC/DC converter, and a first converter control unit . The first DC/DC converter performs a boosting operation when the fuel cell vehicle runs in a non-stationary state, and does not perform the boosting operation during the vehicle runs in a stationary state.
US08386103B2

A parking meter includes an access control device to uniquely identify a vehicle based on wireless communication with the vehicle; and a plurality of power connections to distribute electricity to charge in parallel a plurality of battery sets in the vehicle. The battery sets may form an exterior body of the vehicle.
US08386102B2

In an electrically powered vehicle, a computer-controlled switching system activates relays to switch additional discrete batteries into a circuit in response to throttle level, where a processor is configured to decide what specific batteries should be present in the circuit at any given time, in response to both throttle level and a battery load balancing optimization scheme.
US08386095B2

Methods and systems are provided for using a measurement of only one axis of a three-axis magnetometer to perform at least one corrective action on an unmanned aerial vehicle (“UAV”). An exemplary embodiment comprises (i) receiving from a three-axis magnetometer a measurement representative of an attitude of a UAV, wherein the measurement is of only one axis of the magnetometer, (ii) comparing the measurement to an allowable range of attitudes, (iii) determining that the measurement is not within the allowable range of attitudes, and (iv) performing at least one corrective action on the UAV.
US08386092B1

A hold line awareness system for alerting an occupant of an aircraft that the aircraft is approaching a hold line at an airport. In one broad aspect the invention includes an airport database located on an aircraft. The airport database is configured to store location information for a plurality of hold lines at the airport. A positioning system is located on the aircraft. The positioning system is configured to determine the aircraft location. A processor is located on the aircraft and is operatively connected to the airport database and the positioning system. The processor is configured to calculate the distance between the aircraft location and a hold line and provide a processor alerting output signal if the distance is less than a predetermined value. A sensory effector is located on the aircraft and operatively connected to the processor for receiving the processor alerting output signal and providing a tactile alert to an occupant in response thereto. In another broad aspect, a real time feature detecting system is utilized instead of the airport database. The feature detecting system is configured to detect features defining a plurality of hold lines at the airport and for determining the distance of the aircraft from a detected hold line.
US08386088B2

In a particular embodiment, a method includes receiving a powered device (PD) detection signal at a PD from a powered network and applying the PD detection signal to an external resistor to provide a detection signature to the powered network. Further, the method includes receiving a PD classification mark signal at the PD, applying the received PD classification mark signal to the external resistor, and selectively activating a classification mark current path in parallel with the external resistor to produce a classification mark signature.
US08386079B1

Methods and systems for determining semantic information associated with objects are provided. An example method includes receiving information associated with an object and information associated with a contextual situation of a robotic device from the robotic device. For example, the information associated with the contextual situation may include information associated with an environment in which the robotic device is configured to operate. The method may further include performing a search of a database for information associated with the object, and receiving results of the search. The method may also include a computing system determining semantic information associated with a use of the object based on the results of the search. The use of the object may be based on the information associated with the contextual situation of the robotic device. According to the method, the semantic information may be stored as supplemental information associated with the object.
US08386075B2

A system for controlling advancement of and access to product and for generating data associated with such advancement and access. Systems of this invention include a pusher system having a track, a pusher, and mechanisms for generating data relating to the movement of the pusher. Certain embodiments of the invention include a door assembly, which controls consumer access to product located behind the door assembly, a stop for limiting the forward progression of the pusher along the track, and mechanisms for generating data relating to when and/or for how long the door assembly is open.
US08386074B2

One embodiment of the vending machine of the present disclosure provides a housing defining a product holding area, a frame positioned in the product holding area, a plurality first product holders removably attached to the frame and configured to hold a first type of product package, a plurality different second product holders configured to hold a second different product package, a plurality of RFID sensors, each RFID sensor attached to a different one of the product holders, a door attached to the housing, a first electronic combination display device and input device attached to the door, a second electronic display device attached to the door and configured in one mode to display advertising or other content, a physical product display area in the door, a signage display area in the door, a payment receiver in the door, a product retrieval area in the door, a lock configured to lock the door to the housing, and a computer control system including at least one processor configured to control various functions of the vending machine.
US08386067B2

The invention relates to a machine tool monitoring device with an identification unity for identifying the operating situation of a machine tool. According to the invention, the machine tool monitoring device has at least one projection unit for defining at least one region to be monitored.
US08386051B2

Various techniques for using a disconnection element to disable an implantable medical device (IMD) are described. The disconnection element may be responsive to energy delivered from outside of the IMD to the disconnection element within the IMD. In response to the delivery of the energy, the power source and operational circuitry of the IMD may be decoupled.
US08386049B2

A communication wake-up scheme for an implantable medical device may involve repeatedly activating a receiver to determine whether an external device is attempting to establish communication with the implantable device. To reduce the amount of power consumed by the implantable device in conjunction with the wake-up scheme, the scheme may involve conducting preliminary RF signal detections as a precursor to conducting a full scan. In this way, power may be conserved since the more power intensive full scans may be performed less frequently. This preliminary detection of RF signals also may be adapted to reduce the number of full scans performed by the implantable device that do not result in communication with the external device. In some embodiments the adaptation involves adjusting one or more thresholds that are used in conjunction with the preliminary detection of RF signals. In some embodiments a wake-up scheme may involve scanning for signals using an initial RF band that is relatively wide, and then scanning for signals using narrower RF bands.
US08386048B2

An exemplary system for communicating with or providing power to an implantable stimulator includes a coil configured to emit a magnetic field for driving a corresponding circuit in the implantable stimulator and a coil driver circuit configured to drive the coil with a tuning frequency. The coil driver circuit actively adjusts the tuning frequency such that the coil operates at a frequency substantially equal to a resonant frequency. An exemplary method of communicating with or providing power to an implantable stimulator includes driving a coil with a tuning frequency and actively adjusting the tuning frequency such that the coil operates at a frequency substantially equal to a resonant frequency. The coil emits a magnetic field used to drive a corresponding circuit in the implantable stimulator.
US08386046B2

Devices and methods for treating obstructive sleep apnea by first performing an assessment of the patient that involves observing the patient's upper airway during a tongue protrusion maneuver. The assessment may, for example, be done using endoscopy to observe the upper airway while the patient is awake in the supine position. An adequate response of the upper airway during the tongue protrusion maneuver is indicative of likely therapeutic success with hypoglossal nerve stimulation, and may be used for making clinical decisions. The principles of the present invention may be applied to other therapeutic interventions for OSA involving the upper airway.
US08386045B2

Various system embodiments comprise an implantable lead, an implantable housing, a neural stimulation circuit in the housing, and a controller in the housing and connected to the neural stimulation circuit. The lead has a proximal end and a distal end. The distal end is adapted to deliver neural stimulation pulses to the ventral nerve root and the dorsal nerve root. The proximal end of the lead is adapted to connect to the housing. The neural stimulation circuit is adapted to generate neural stimulation pulses to stimulate the ventral nerve root or the dorsal nerve root using the implantable lead. The controller is adapted to control the neural stimulation circuit to deliver a neural stimulation treatment.
US08386041B2

In implantable medical devices such a pacemaker or cardioverter/defibrillators (ICDs) and systems including such a device and an external programmer a measure of a hemodynamic parameter such as the cardiac output, the stroke volume, or the contractility of a patient is used to trend heart failure or in an AV/VV optimization scheme. The implantable medical device is adapted to measure the cardiac impedance and the cardiac impedance data is used to determine impedance morphology curves, which, in turn, are used to compute a measure of the hemodynamic parameter.
US08386039B2

This document discusses, among other things, systems and methods to discriminate between a ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT) and a supraventricular tachyarrhythmia (SVT), such as upon detecting sudden onset and one-to-one tachycardia. In certain examples, a detected tachyarrhythmia is analyzed to determine whether it is sudden onset and 1:1. If so, a first fast beat is identified. One or more ventricular intervals in close proximity to the first fast beat are analyzed to determine an initial classification of either VT or SVT. The initial classification is used to adjust a morphological feature correlation coefficient (FCC) threshold. A morphology analysis is performed with the adjusted FCC threshold value to yield a secondary classification.
US08386032B2

A patch for a therapeutic electrical stimulation device includes a shoe connected to the first side of the patch, the shoe including a body extending in a longitudinal direction from a first end to a second end, and having first and second surfaces, the first end of the shoe defining at least two ports, and the first surface of the shoe defining a connection member. The patch also includes at least one conductor positioned in the ports of the first end of the shoe. The shoe is configured for sliding insertion into a receptacle defined by a controller so that the conductor is connected to the controller to deliver electrical current from the controller, through the conductor, and to the electrodes, and the connection member is at least partially captured by a detent defined by the controller in the receptacle to retain the shoe within the receptacle.
US08386026B2

A system and method for acquiring and processing abdominal EMG signals from a maternal patient to indicate when a maternal patient should push to progress the labor toward delivery. Raw abdominal EMG signals are acquired and processed in a central unit designed to isolate the patient and any internal circuitry from electrical shock. The central unit has a circuit board that amplifies and filters the EMG signal, then transmits the signal to an A/D converter, after which the digitized signal is transmitted to a computer for further processing and subsequent display of a signal representative of abdominal activity. The system may also acquire and process uterine EMG signals that can be evaluated in conjunction with the abdominal EMG signals.
US08386007B2

A thin-film microelectrode array tailored for long-term, minimally invasive cortical recording or stimulation and method are provided. The microelectrode array includes a flexible element that is movable between a first contracted configuration and a second expanded configuration. An array of contacts is provided on the flexible element. The contacts are engagable with a cortical surface with the flexible element in the expanded configuration. A link operatively connects the array of contacts to a control module. The link is capable of transmitting at least one of cortical recordings and cortical stimulation signals thereon.
US08386005B2

A method of stimulating sensory nerves is disclosed that comprises the steps of providing an electrode plate with a pattern of needle-like (NL) electrodes and conductive plate (CP) electrodes disposed on a front face of the plate element, the NL electrodes being configured to apply electrical stimulation to cutaneous Aδ/C fibers, and the CP electrodes being configured to apply electrical stimulation to cutaneous Aβ fibers; mounting the electrode plate on a patient's skin with the front face in an abutting relationship with the patient's skin, the abutting relationship causing the NL electrodes to penetrate the epidermis of the patient's skin; and applying electrical stimulation to the patient's skin via the pattern of NL electrodes and CP electrodes, the electrical stimulation being applied so that Aβ fiber input from the CP electrodes overlaps in time at the patient's spinal cord and/or brain stem with Aδ/C fiber input from the NL electrodes.
US08386001B2

The present invention discloses a finger-clipped oximeter comprising an upper case (2) and a lower case (1), wherein one of the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) is provided with a guide post (12) which enables the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) to depart from and approach to each other vertically, the other of the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) is provided with a guide sleeve (13) which enables the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) to depart from and approach to each other vertically, and a return spring (9) is provided between an end of the guide post (12) and the case provided with the guide sleeve (13). One of the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) is provided with rockers (7, 8) which are used to facilitate the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) to depart from and approach to each other vertically, the other of the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) is provided with chutes (14, 15) which are used to facilitate the upper case (2) and the lower case (1) to depart from and approach to each other vertically, and ends of the rockers (7, 8) fit with the chutes (14, 15).
US08386000B2

Present embodiments are directed to a system and method capable of modulating light at a modulation frequency, wherein the modulation frequency is somewhere above about 50 MHz and below about 3 GHz, to generate photon density waves in a medium, detecting relative amplitude changes and phase shifts in the photon density waves, and detecting and graphically indicating a physiologic value related to scattering particles in the medium based on the phase shifts.
US08385995B2

A physiological parameter tracking system has a reference parameter calculator configured to provide a reference parameter responsive to a physiological signal input. A physiological measurement output is a physiological parameter derived from the physiological signal input during a favorable condition and an estimate of the physiological parameter according to the reference parameter during an unfavorable condition.
US08385990B2

A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and circuit board carried by the housing and having radio frequency (RF) circuitry and a processor operative with each other. Audio circuitry is carried by the circuit board and an audio transducer assembly, such as a speaker, has electrical contacts that electrically engage the audio circuitry for carrying audio signals between the audio circuitry and audio transducer assembly. A filter is mounted at the audio transducer assembly and reduces radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic interference to the audio transducer assembly during device operation.
US08385988B2

A system and method of reducing the WLAN power consumption and limiting battery drain of a mobile communications device is provided. The mechanism continuously monitors for changes in the WLAN and cellular signal strength and modifies the WLAN profile scanning activity accordingly. By monitoring for changes, transitions can be detected which indicate the location of the mobile device (i.e., indoor or outdoor). An increase in cellular signal strength and a decrease in WLAN signal strength indicates the user is transitioning outdoors where WLAN coverage may be limited. To reduce battery power consumption, background scanning is suspended or its frequency significantly lowered. Moving indoors is indicated by a decrease in cellular signal strength and an increase in WLAN signal strength. Background/Connectivity scanning frequency is increased to provide shorter time-to-connect to WLAN Networks for the user within the WLAN coverage area.
US08385985B2

Method for reducing power consumption in a multimode device is disclosed. The multimode device includes a COMM1 component and a COMM2 component. In one aspect, a COMM1 component may be a UWB component and a COMM2 component may be a CDMA component. According to a disclosed embodiment, the time for a next scheduled COMM1 wakeup process to be performed by a COMM1 module is established. Thereafter, if the next COMM1 wakeup process is scheduled to be performed before the next COMM2 wakeup process, a COMM2 wakeup process is synchronized to be performed by a COMM2 module at the same time as the next COMM1 wakeup process. Following, when the time arrives for the COMM1 module to perform the next COMM1 wakeup process, the COMM2 module also performs the COMM2 wakeup process.
US08385982B2

A wireless communications device is controlled in accordance with motion thereof. If the device is determined to be in motion, such as in a vehicle, use of the device is restricted. Discrimination between vehicular motion and ambulatory motion is provided. While in motion, use of the device can be allowed under specific exception conditions. Exception conditions include the device being used by a passenger of a vehicle, a 911 call, or a call to a designated number. The ability to control the device in accordance with motion thereof can be remotely activated and deactivated, thus allowing, for example, parental control of a device belong to a child.
US08385967B2

A wireless base station and method are described for adjusting an output power level for self-optimizing radio access node. The base station monitors a link metric of a downlink traffic channel and records the measurements as historical link metric data. Later, the base station compares the link metric with the historical link metric data and adjusts the power level of a broadcast channel and one or more system channels. This may reduce the operating radius of the base station, including the broadcast channels, system channels, and traffic channels, to reduce interference with other cells in a network. This method may be used in a femtocell or picocell wireless base station.
US08385964B2

A system for exchanging GPS or other position data between wireless devices for purposes of group activities, child location monitoring, work group coordination, dispatching of employees etc. Cell phones and other wireless devices with GPS receivers have loaded therein a Buddy Watch application and a TalkControl application. The Buddy Watch application communicates with the GPS receiver and other wireless devices operated by buddies registered in the users phone as part of buddy groups or individually. GPS position data and historical GPS position data can be exchanged between cell phones of buddies and instant buddies such as tow truck drivers via a buddy watch server. Emergency monitoring services can be set up with notifications to programmable individuals in case an individual does not respond. Positions and tracks can be displayed. TalkControl simplifies and automates the process of joining talk groups for walkie talkie services such as that provided by Nextel.
US08385960B2

The present invention relates to a method for communicating from a primary station to a plurality of secondary station, comprising the step of at the primary station allocating a resource to the secondary stations over the time on the basis of a hash function, wherein the hash function is such that the probability that two secondary stations are allocated common resources in two sub frames substantially equals the product of the probability that the two secondary stations are allocated a common resource in the first subframe and the probability that the two secondary stations are allocated a common resource in the second subframe.
US08385958B2

In a cellular radio system data is transmitted to a Dual Carrier mobile station from two different cells during a data transfer. Hereby existing hardware in a GSM system can be utilized more efficiently. The data transmission from the two cells can be frame synchronized. Frame synchronization can for example be obtained by transmitting data from two cells located on the same radio base station site.
US08385956B2

Systems and methods for providing alerts to end users of networked enabled portable devices are provided so that the end users are made aware when broadcast emergency alerts are issued. In various embodiments, a portable device is enabled to receive information about an emergency alert broadcast of which the user should be aware, e.g., from the EAS, and to notify the user of the emergency alert. The user can be automatically taken to the emergency alert information by having the portable device automatically tune to the emergency broadcast information, the user can optionally retrieve the emergency information by tuning to the emergency broadcast channel, and/or the user can otherwise be presented with a reference to the emergency data, such as a link to the information.
US08385939B2

Resources in a multi-cellular wireless communication system are scheduled. A beam pattern associated with at least one mobile terminal located within one of the cells is identified and assigned to a slot, providing at least one stream to said at least one mobile terminal. At least one other mobile terminal located within said cell having the same beam pattern associated therewith as that of said identified beam pattern to be served during said slot is scheduled. The assigned beam pattern in said cell is communicated to at least one interfering cell.
US08385937B2

A system and method for equalizing traffic between antenna beams is described. Aspects of the system and method may vary the beam widths to attempt to equalize traffic based on non-real-time communications and/or non-real-time communications.
US08385933B2

Provided is a base station device capable of suppressing power consumption of a radio communication device and transmitting a pilot signal for measuring an uplink channel quality in a high frequency use efficiency. The base station device (2) includes: a resource block size decision unit (54) which decides the number of subcarriers to be allocated for the radio communication device (1); and a cyclic shift delay amount decision unit (55) which sets a cyclic shift delay amount used when performing cyclic shift delay diversity transmission according to the number of subcarriers decided by the resource block size decision unit (54). By using the cyclic shift delay amount set by the cyclic shift delay amount decision unit (55), the radio communication device (1) cyclic shift delay diversity transmission of the channel quality measuring signal.
US08385929B2

An apparatus and a method for allocating feedback channels in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes determining a number of common feedback channels to be allocated commonly to one or more terminals using a capacity loss according to the feedback channel allocation; and generating feedback channel change information to change the number of the common feedback channels per terminal.
US08385927B2

The present invention relates to a method for generating a space-related traffic database for a radio network which comprises a plurality of radio cells which can each be assigned to a group of radio cells, with a region to be mapped being subdivided into area elements by a grid and each of the area elements being allocated a respective assignment probability for each of the radio cells which supply the area element and a land-use class from amongst a finite group of land-use classes by generation being achieved by a minimization process in which the distance between the measured traffic of a radio cell and the predicted traffic of the radio cell is minimized for each radio cell, with the traffic, which is to be predicted, of a respective radio cell being set equal to the sum of area elements which are weighted by land use class-specific and group-specific coefficients, which area elements of the respective radio cell for a respective land-use class and for a respective group of radio cells are produced from the assignment probabilities of the area elements to the radio cells included in the process, and the coefficients are determined by the minimization process and assigned to the corresponding radio cell. The present invention also relates to a computer program and a corresponding computer-program product.
US08385925B2

Method of selecting a communications node for allocation to a user communications device. The method comprises selecting the communications node from a plurality of communications nodes of a communications network. The method further comprising performing a calculation to determine a selection value, which calculation includes as input data at least one of first identifier data identifying selection equipment configured to select a communications node from a plurality of communications nodes, and second identifier data identifying a radio cell with which the user communications device is associated. The method also comprises using the selection value in selecting the communications node.
US08385921B1

A system for communicating between Radio Access nodes includes a Radio Access Network (RAN) comprising a plurality of Radio Access nodes and a backhaul system interconnecting the Radio Access nodes. The backhaul system identifies at least some paths belonging to the backhaul system, each path interconnecting a pair of Radio Access nodes belonging to the RAN. The backhaul system ascertains, per path, at least one type of Traffic Engineering (TE) metric associated with transporting data between a pair of Radio Access nodes, and convey, per path, the TE metric, to the pair of Radio Access nodes. Optionally, the pair of Radio Access nodes perform a real-time data exchange, provided that the TE metric, conveyed to one of the Radio Access node of the pair, indicates that such an exchange is viable using the path. Optionally, at least some of the paths comprise wireless data links.
US08385919B1

Solving dual errors for user equipment UE checking whether a private cell is allowed when handing over between serving and target cells, where the PLMN and/or EPLMNs list of the serving and target cells may differ. The serving cell may send a one-bit indication that there is a change in a handover command or system information SI6 message after which the UE may or may not refrain from reporting new cells until it performs a registration/location area update in the target cell. The target cell may trigger in the UE a registration update then provide the UE with the PLMN of the target cell. The serving cell can provide the PLMN of the target cell in a SI6 message or handover command, which the UE may use in place of or in addition to the PLMN/EPLMN of the serving cell when checking whether a private/closed subscriber group cell is allowed.
US08385916B2

Devices and methods are disclosed for controlling communications over a roaming access network by determining that an end-user device is connected to or attempting to connect to the roaming access network and applying a control policy that allows the end-user device to send a first data communication over the roaming access network but prevents the end-user device from sending a second data communication over the roaming access network.
US08385913B2

Techniques for facilitating the exchange of information and transactions between two entities associated with two wireless devices when the devices are in close proximity to each other. A first device uses a first short range wireless capability to detect an identifier transmitted from a second device in proximity, ideally using existing radio capabilities such as Bluetooth (IEEE802.15.1-2002) or Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11). The detected identifier, being associated with the device, is also associated with an entity. Rather than directly exchanging application data flow between the two devices using the short range wireless capability, a second wireless capability allows for one or more of the devices to communicate with a central server via the internet, and perform the exchange of application data flow. By using a central server to draw on stored information and content associated with the entities the server can broker the exchange of information between the entities and the devices.
US08385898B2

A messaging application and a telephony application can be activated on a mobile device for sending messages to a connected party while a telephone connection is established between the mobile device and the connected party. A user can compose a message or send a file from the mobile device to the connected party based on the caller details associated with the connected party.
US08385887B2

Systems and methods for processing encoded messages within a wireless communications system are disclosed. A server within the wireless communications system performs signature verification of an encoded message and provides, together with the message, an indication to the mobile device that the message has been verified. In addition, the server provides supplemental information, such as, for example, a hash of the certificate or certificate chain used to verify the message, to the device, to enable the device to perform additional checks on the certificate, such as, for example, validity checks, trust checks, strength checks, or the like.
US08385879B2

A system, a method, and a computer readable storage medium are disclosed for providing emergent contacts by a mobile computing device to a user when such contacts are likely to be desirable by the user. The emergent contacts are selected by the user and can be optionally assigned quick keys on a key pad of the mobile computing device. After an emergent phone call was made using the mobile computing device, the emergent contacts are retrieved and displayed for user selection. When an emergent contact is selected, a phone call to the selected contact is initiated by the mobile computing device.
US08385876B2

In view of achieving a cost reduction of an antenna switch, a technique is provided which can reduce harmonic distortion generated in the antenna switch as much as possible in particular even when the antenna switch is comprised of a field effect transistor formed over a silicon substrate. Each of a TX series transistor, an RX series transistor, and an RX shunt transistor is comprised of a low voltage MISFET, while a TX shunt transistor is comprised of a high voltage MISFET. Thus, by reducing the number of serial connections of the high voltage MISFETs constituting the TX shunt transistor, the nonuniformity of the voltage amplitudes applied to the respective serially-coupled high voltage MISFETs is suppressed. As a result, the generation of high-order harmonics can be suppressed.
US08385871B2

The present invention is a hybrid RF-digital signal processor-based filter for multiband radio architectures systems capable of spectrum re-farming and software defined radios. It performs low-loss frequency agile multiple notch filtering at RF where a large dynamic range exists at a filter input between signals in a stopband and passband. It is a frequency dependent signal attenuation apparatus having two paths connected together by directional couplers. The first path comprising a component such as a delay component or duplexer. The second path comprising a bandstop filter connected to a down converter, a digital filter, and an up converter. At the output of a power amplifier, the invention can be used to attenuate spurs, or noise within bands with strict emission constraints. At the input of a low noise amplifier, the invention can be used to attenuate blockers and transmitter noise outside of the receiver passband.
US08385863B2

Exemplary techniques for DC offset calibration for complex filters are disclosed. A complex filter is provided having a first calibration path circuit and a second calibration path circuit, each including a first and a second set of switches, respectively. The first set of switches is enabled during calibration mode and the second set of switches is enabled during normal operation mode such that the network characteristics of each calibration path circuit are substantially the same during both modes of operation. In one embodiment, the complex filter is a low pass filter.
US08385860B2

According to one embodiment, a power detector includes a reference voltage generator, a square signal generator, a detection circuit, and an output circuit. The reference voltage generator is configured to receive a bias voltage and generate a reference voltage. The square signal generator is configured to receive a voltage having a high frequency input voltage superimposed on the bias voltage and output a signal including the reference voltage, a voltage of a square of the high frequency input voltage, and a high-frequency signal. The detection circuit has a first lowpass filter, a first operational amplifier configured to amplify error between an output voltage of the first lowpass filter and the reference voltage and output the error as a control voltage, and a feedback transistor configured to feed a feedback current according to the control voltage back to an output terminal of the square signal generator.
US08385859B2

An electronic apparatus having communications capabilities, including: an envelope detector that detects an envelope of a transmission signal; a differentiator that differentiates the envelope with respect to time to obtain differential components; a filtering processor that filters the differential components; an integrator that integrates the filtered differential components with respect to time to generate an envelope tracking signal; an amplifying unit that amplifies the transmission signal; and a voltage controller that controls, in accordance with the envelope tracking signal, a voltage the amplifying unit uses to amplify the transmission signal.
US08385858B2

A power amplifier and a signal transmitting system using the power amplifier are disclosed. The power amplifier includes a circuit board, a power amplifier, and a structural component. The circuit board is fixed on the structural component. The power amplifier is fixed on the circuit board or the structural component. A grounding reference layer is set on the structural component. A pair of pins is set on the power amplifier. A pair of housing portions is set between the circuit board and the structural component. Overhead matching areas are set face to face with the housing portions on the circuit board respectively. Power amplification matching portions are set face to face with the reference layer on the matching areas respectively. The pins are electrically connected to the power amplification matching portions respectively.
US08385850B1

A telecommunications enclosure for telecommunications equipment that includes an equipment housing with sealed openings to receive wiring. Each sealed opening having a removable blank so that the sealed opening can be utilized. There being at least two brackets mounted to the inside surface of the top of the equipment housing to receive and secure the telecommunications equipment. There being an enclosure door attached to the equipment housing to close off the open end of the equipment housing. The enclosure door being removable to allow access to the equipment housing. The enclosure door having perforations covering at least 30 percent of the enclosure door to allow airflow to flow in and out of the enclosure door when in a closed position on the equipment housing. The enclosure door having a depth such that a portion of the enclosure door with all of the perforations extends in the room.
US08385846B2

An isolation circuit includes a low dropout operational current control loop and a shunt regulator. The current control loop is configured to drive the shunt regulator to result in a high dynamic impedance ratio between a voltage source and a load. The current control loop may include a series-pass transistor, a current sensing resistor, and a high side current sensor.
US08385837B2

A mobile receiver apparatus includes first tuner 2 for converting a received frequency signal by antenna 1 into an intermediate frequency signal, delay circuit 4 for setting a time required for the movement corresponding to a specific wavelength of the received frequency signal as a delay time, second tuner 3 for converting an output of the circuit 4 into a second intermediate frequency signal, and control units 5A and 7A for dynamically setting the delay time in the circuit 4 in response to a measured movement speed of a mobile unit and a received electric field strength upon the measurement, and equiphase-combining the intermediate frequency signals generated by the tuners 2 and 3 to be outputted, and the unit 7A sets the delay time corresponding to a received frequency and a Doppler shift frequency in the circuit 4, and equiphase-combines signals having a phase difference of about ¼ wavelength (90°).
US08385827B2

An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising, a wireless platform adapted for communication with at least one additional wireless platform, wherein the wireless platform and the at least one additional wireless platform each have their own set of wireless communication devices and capabilities, wherein at least one of the wireless communication devices and capabilities are in common between the wireless platform and the at least one additional wireless platform, and wherein when the wireless platform and the at least one additional wireless platform are within communication range of each other or are on at least one common wireless communication protocol, the wireless platform is capable of virtualizing to the wireless platform some or all wireless devices and capabilities available on the at least one additional wireless platform.
US08385825B2

There is provided a communication device for communicating with a counterpart device, including: a first and a second short range communication modules; and a short range communication controller configured to: control the first short range communication module to exchange information with the communication device, determine whether file transmission between the counterpart device and the second short range communication module is properly done based on the information received from the counter part device, and control the second short range communication module to receive or transmit a file from or to the counterpart device based on a determination that the file transmission is properly done.
US08385824B2

Disclosed herein is a system for configuring and setting up a one to one communication correspondence between a headset and a mobile device. The authentication PIN allows communication of the headset with only those devices that are authenticated using the PIN. A first software application and a second software application are provided on the mobile device and a headset respectively. The process of configuring the PIN access information on the headset using the first and second application comprises the step of establishing a secure communication link by completing challenge response sequence between the headset and the device using the currently prevailing PIN, transmitting a configuration set PIN from the device to the headset, enforcing reauthentication using the newly configured PIN, and establishing and locking a communication between the device and the headset based on the new personal identification number.
US08385822B2

A mobile computing device (‘MCD’) and docking station (‘dock’) are individually equipped with features and components that enable charging/power signals to be communicated from the dock to the MCD without use of connectors. Other embodiments provide for the MCD or the dock to identify an orientation of the MCD as retained on the docking station. As an addition or alternative, magnetic coupling may be used to maintain and/or orient the two devices in a mated position.
US08385821B2

An underwater communications system is provided that transmits electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals to a remote receiver. The transmitter includes a data input. A digital data compressor compresses data to be transmitted. A modulator modulates compressed data onto a carrier signal. An electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna transmits the compressed, modulated signals. The receiver that has an electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna for receiving a compressed, modulated signal. A demodulator is provided for demodulating the signal to reveal compressed data. A de-compressor de-compresses the data. An appropriate human interface is provided to present transmitted data into text/audio/visible form. Similarly, the transmit system comprises appropriate audio/visual/text entry mechanisms.
US08385806B2

An image forming apparatus includes a sheet feeding unit configured to feed a recording sheet, a transfer unit configured to transfer a toner image to the recording sheet fed by the sheet feeding unit, a fixing unit configured to heat the toner image transferred to the recording sheet by the transfer unit, a gloss imparting unit configured to impart gloss to an arbitrary region of the recording sheet heated by the fixing unit, a calculation unit configured to calculate a shrinkage ratio of the recording sheet shrunk through heating by the fixing unit, and a correction unit configured to correct the region to which gloss is imparted by the gloss imparting unit according to the shrinkage ratio calculated by the calculation unit.
US08385797B2

In a fixing device, a second rotary member disposed opposite a first rotary member forms a nip between the first rotary member and the second rotary member through which a recording medium bearing a toner image passes. A first separation member rotatively provided on a rotary shaft of the first rotary member separates the recording medium passing through the nip from the first rotary member. A rotation angle adjuster connected to the first separation member changes a rotation angle position of the first separation member.
US08385790B2

A two-component developing method, including regulating a two-component developer borne on a developer bearer with a doctor blade; and transferring the regulated two-component developer to the developer bearer to develop a latent image on an image bearer, wherein the two-component developer includes a pulverized toner having a volume-average particle diameter of from 3.0 to 6.0 μm, including particles having a particle diameter not greater than 4.0 μm in an amount not less than 30% by number, and including particles having a particle diameter not greater than 2.0 μm in an amount not greater than 10% by number, and wherein the doctor blade has a surface regulating the developer at an upstream side relative to a rotational direction of the developer bearer, which has a surface roughness Ra not greater than 0.2 μm.
US08385786B2

A developer accommodating container is provided with a first accommodating portion in which a first feeding member is arranged, a second accommodating portion in which a second feeding member is arranged, a first communication portion communicating the first accommodating portion and the second accommodating portion in their one end sides, a second communication portion and a third communication portion communicating the first accommodating portion and the second accommodating portion at two positions in the other end sides so as to be shifted their positions in a feeding direction of the developer, a discharge portion arranged between the second communication portion and the third communication portion in the second accommodating portion, and provided for discharging the developer, and a replenishing portion arranged in a downstream side in the feeding direction of the developer than the third communication portion in the first accommodating portion, and provided for replenishing the developer.
US08385782B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier, a rotary-type developing device and a development control device. The developing device includes a rotation holding member and plural developing units mounted on the rotation holding member. The rotation holding member is configured to stop rotating so that any of the developing units stops in a developing position. The development control device includes a receiving unit, a first determination unit, a first drive control unit and a second drive control unit. The receiving unit receives an image formation instruction relating to a series of image formation processes. The first determination unit determines as to whether or not the series of image formation processes are completed. When the first determination unit makes the determination, the second derive control unit returns the developing unit, which is finally located in the developing position in the image formation processes, to an initial waiting position.
US08385778B2

An image forming apparatus includes a rotating member, a motor configured to rotate the rotating member, and a marking member having primary and secondary portions. The image forming apparatus also includes a mark sensor configured to detect the primary and secondary portions, and output a primary signal and a secondary signal, and a position sensor configured to determine a rotational position of the rotating member based on a primary reception time of one of the primary and secondary signals that comes immediately after the other of the primary and secondary signals when the position sensor receives the other of the primary and secondary signals at a start of a mark detecting operation. Further, the image forming apparatus includes a motor controller configured to control the motor based on the recognition result and make the rotational position consistent with a target position at a predetermined time during the mark detecting operation.
US08385769B2

An image forming apparatus, including: a plurality of charging members, each applying charging voltage between the charging member and corresponding charged body, a plurality of cleaning members, each removing adherent matters by reciprocating in a contact state with each of the charging members, each waiting in a waiting position in a non-cleaning time, a plurality of detection units, each detection unit detecting by availability of electric connection whether each of the cleaning members is located in the waiting position, and a series circuit that connects the plurality of detection units in series, wherein, when the plurality of cleaning members clean the plurality of charging members: an outward movement is started from a cleaning member on a side corresponding to one end of the series circuit, and a homeward movement is completed by the cleaning member on the side corresponding to the one end of the series circuit.
US08385768B2

An image forming apparatus includes temperature sensors that measure temperatures at different locations in the longitudinal direction of a photosensitive drum. The image forming apparatus also includes an image processing circuit configured to change an exposure condition in the longitudinal direction of the photosensitive drum based on measured values obtained by the temperature sensors. A related image forming method includes calculating a temperature at a third location between the first and second location based on the measured temperatures at the first location and the second location, and controlling an exposure condition for exposure at the third location in accordance with image information, including changing the exposure condition for the exposure at the third location based on the calculated temperature at the third location.
US08385764B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a fixing unit, a temperature sensor including an element in which a resistance value increases as a temperature decreases and configured to detect a temperature of the fixing unit, a connector configured to transmit an output signal of the temperature sensor, a control unit disposed on a side opposed to the temperature sensor with respect to the connector and configured to control the temperature of the fixing unit based on the output signal of the temperature sensor, a resistor disposed on the same side of the temperature sensor with respect to the connector and connected to the temperature sensor in parallel, and a power source disposed on the side opposed to the temperature sensor with respect to the connector and configured to supply currents to the temperature sensor and the resistor via the connector.
US08385761B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a toner image forming device, an intermediate transfer member, a primary transfer device, a toner adherence detector, a secondary transfer device, and a controller. The toner image forming device forms a toner image and a toner pattern for detection of degradation of toner on the image bearing member. The primary transfer device transfers the toner pattern onto the intermediate transfer member with transfer conditions that deliberately reduce transfer efficiency compared with that for image formation. The toner adherence detector detects an amount of toner adhered to the toner pattern at multiple places. The controller calculates a degree of degradation of toner based on the difference in the amount of toner adhered to the toner pattern detected by the toner adherence detector and adjusts secondary transfer conditions for the secondary transfer device based on the obtained degradation of toner.
US08385759B2

An image forming apparatus including: an image bearing belt that bears an image; an image creation unit that transfers the image on the image bearing belt; a first driving source; a driving roller that is rotationally driven by the first driving source and causes the image bearing belt to move; a transfer roller that has a concaved portion in a circumferential surface, forms a transfer nip by the transfer roller making contact with the image bearing belt, and transfers the image on the image bearing belt to a recording material; a second driving source that rotationally drives the transfer roller; a material type determination unit that determines a type of the recording material; and a control unit that controls a rotational frequency of the transfer roller when the recording material is nipped by the transfer nip based on information of the type determined by the material type determination unit.
US08385757B2

An image forming apparatus includes a reception unit, an image forming unit, a drive unit, a detection unit, a prediction unit, and a control unit. The image forming unit forms an image based on image information received by the reception unit. The drive unit controls an imaging forming unit drive. The detection unit detects temperature within the image forming apparatus. The prediction unit predicts a transition of temperature within the image forming apparatus and an image formation time based on the image information and the temperature within the image formation unit. The control unit is responsive to detected temperature and predicted image forming time. The control unit switches between image forming modes and controls the image forming apparatus to form an image in a short image forming time.
US08385756B2

A first feature quantity computing unit that computes a first feature quantity representing an average of a plurality of driving loads recorded by a driving load of a fixing section recording unit of an image forming device that records the driving load acquired by a driving load acquiring unit that acquires the driving load, a second feature quantity computing unit that computes a second feature quantity representing a deviation of the plurality of the driving loads, and a diagnosis unit that performs failure diagnosis including estimation of a cause of a failure of the fixing section using the first feature quantity and the second feature quantity are used.
US08385743B2

Signal wavelengths λ1, λ2, λ3 of signal light components multiplexed at signal multiplexing sections 31, 41, 51 of multiplexing stations 3, 4, 5 installed on the input end side of an EDFA 2 on an optical transmission line 1 are set such that the wavelength-dependent noise figure of EDFA 2 successively decreases from the signal wavelength λ1 multiplexed at the signal multiplexing section 31 closest to the input end of EDFA 2 to λ2 and λ3. On the other hand, the transmission length of individual signal light component before being fed into the EDFA 2 is the shortest in the signal light component at λ1 and successively increases at λ2 and λ3. Thus, the order of magnitude of input signal light power is the same as the order of highness of noise figure in EDFA 2, whereby fluctuations in S/N ratio in the resulting amplified light are reduced.
US08385731B2

A heat exchanger has a laminar fluid flow path receivable between the heating plates of a high flow rate infusion unit to which heat is conducted by contact with the heating plates. A bubble trap and a valve are integrated with the heat exchanger. The bubble trap collects air from the infusate exiting the laminar flow path, and includes an air vent in contact with the infusate that vents the air from the bubble trap. The valve shuts off the flow of infusate if air is detected in the bubble trap.
US08385727B2

In a recording apparatus, a succeeding chapter of a video stream is recorded by being connected to the preceding chapter of the video stream contained in a multiplexed stream. When transfer of the succeeding chapter of the video signal from a video encoder to a VBV buffer starts, a multiplexer is controlled in such a manner that the fullness of the VBV buffer will exceed a set threshold value.
US08385724B2

A controlling device of a liquid crystal display is provided. The controlling device includes an A/D interface, a sampler, and a shift error correction circuit. An input end of the A/D interface receives an analog video signal for being converted, so as to output a digital video color level. The sampler is coupled between a reference potential and the input end of the A/D interface, and a controlling end of the sampler receives a correction signal. The shift error correction circuit receives the digital video color level, the correction signal, and a target value corresponding to the reference potential. When the correction signal is enabled, the sampler is ON, and the shift error correction circuit performs a correction operation on the received digital video color level and the target value to get a correction value for the A/D interface that corrects the conversion error of the A/D interface.
US08385722B2

Modular storage functionality is provided for a digital video recorder (DVR), which may be configured in such a way as to limit a user's access to the whole storage capacity, and wherein a user may choose to increase or decrease the amount of accessible storage capacity of the internal storage medium.
US08385720B2

A playback apparatus not only plays back an AV stream recorded on a BD-ROM but also downloads an update kit from a WWW server (500) and writes it on a local HD (12). The AV stream stored in the local HD (12) includes an audio stream for an additional language. A control unit (16) reads the AV stream recorded on the BD-ROM and the AV stream recorded in the local HD (12) in units of access units. An audio decoder (6) obtains a necessary audio frame from the access units read from the BD-ROM and the local HD (12) and plays it back. A video decoder (4) obtains video data from the access unit read from the BD-ROM and plays it back.
US08385716B2

An imaging apparatus includes an image unit, a video recording medium configured to store video data generated by the imaging unit, and a controller configured to control recording of the video data in the video recording medium. The video recording medium includes a first recording medium having a data area in which data can be recorded, and at least one second recording medium having first and second data areas in which data can be recorded. The second data area can be written data at a higher speed than a speed for writing data in the first data area. The controller records video data and management data for managing the video data in the first recording medium, using whole data area of the first recording medium. The controller records video data in the second recording medium, using only the second data area of the second recording medium.
US08385709B2

Structured cabling solutions may include techniques and systems usable to route, organize, and otherwise manager wires, optical fibers, and other cables. Structured cabling solutions may include one or more chassis coupled to and movable relative to a frame to provide access to signal connectors on the chassis. Structured cabling solutions may also include labeling schemes that identify patch connectors that correspond to outlets in a structured cabling installation.
US08385707B2

A device (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) including an ambient image light source (110, 210, 310) and a stacked plurality of ambient imaging light guides (120, 220, 320) The ambient image light source (110, 210, 310) is arranged to couple light into the stacked light guides (120, 220, 320). The stacked light guides (120, 220, 320) are arranged to couple out corresponding ambient image light portions onto a reflective surface (130, 230). The stacked light guides (120, 220, 320) may be arranged to provide the ambient image light portions extending outward from the device (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) such that a first one of the ambient image light portions extends substantially outward from a second one of the ambient image light portions. The second one of the ambient image light portions may be projected closer to the device (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) and may be projected to reflect brighter than the first one of the ambient image light portions.
US08385703B2

Multimode optical fibers with a large core diameter and high numerical aperture are disclosed herein. Multimode optical fibers disclosed herein comprise a core region having a radius greater than 30 microns and a cladding region surrounding and directly adjacent to the core region, the cladding region comprising a depressed-index annular portion comprising a depressed relative refractive index. The depressed cladding region is surrounded by a titania doped cladding region. The fiber has a total outer diameter of less than 120 microns, and exhibits an overfilled bandwidth at 850 nm greater than 200 MHz-km.
US08385697B2

An optical fiber includes a cladding, a first core, and a second core. At least one of the first core and the second core is hollow and is substantially surrounded by the cladding. At least a portion of the first core is generally parallel to and spaced from at least a portion of the second core. The optical fiber includes a defect substantially surrounded by the cladding, the defect increasing a coupling coefficient between the first core and the second core.
US08385691B2

Digital image data including discrete photographic images of a variety of different subjects, times, and so forth, are collected and analyzed to identify specific features in the photographs. In an embodiment of the invention, distinctive markers are distributed to aid in the identification of particular subject matter. Facial recognition may also be employed. The digital image data is maintained in a database and quarried in response to search requests. The search requests include criteria specifying any feature category or other identifying information, such as date, time, and location that each photograph was taken, associated with each photograph. Candidate images are provided for review by requesters, who may select desired images for purchase or downloading.
US08385686B2

The present invention relates to an image processing method, image processing device and program which make it possible to shorten the processing time, and which also make it possible to set tile regions in appropriate ranges, by dividing one image into a plurality of regions and performing a transformation for each of these regions. The post-transformation image is divided into a plurality of tile regions, and transformation processing and the like are successively performed, with each of these tile regions as the object. In cases where a given tile region that is the object of processing contains a central axis that passes through the origin of the post-transformation image, the tile size of this region is altered by the tile size determining part 41 so that this region does not contain a central axis. The regions on the pre-transformation image corresponding to the tile regions that are the object of processing are calculated by the image region calculating part, and the pixel data contained in the calculated regions is read out from the storage part 18. The present invention can be used in personal computers or the like that process image data acquired by means of a digital camera.
US08385683B2

A self-localization device and a method thereof are provided. The self-localization device has a movable carrier, a first laser image-taking device and a processor. The movable carrier can be moved and rotated on a plan. During the motion of the movable carrier, the first laser image-taking device disposed on the movable carrier acquires an i-th lot point data in the space at a time point ti, where i is one index number from 1 to n, and n is an integer. The processor controls the first laser image-taking device, and receives coordinates of the i-th lot point data. The processor executes a K-D tree algorithm to perform a comparison and merge process between the first and the i-th lots point data, so as to establish a two dimensional profile.
US08385680B2

The present invention includes a calculation unit configured to calculate a target value of gradation correction of a captured image; an extraction unit configured to extract a luminance component image and a low frequency component image of the luminance component image from the captured image; a first processing unit configured to execute first gradation correction processing to the captured image using the luminance component image and the low frequency component image; a second processing unit configured to execute second gradation correction processing to the captured image by tone curve; a setting unit configured to set a correction level of the first gradation correction processing in response to input by user operation; and a determination unit configured to determine a correction amount of the first gradation correction processing and a correction amount of the second gradation correction processing based on the calculated target value and the set tone curve.
US08385675B2

According to embodiments, systems and methods for reducing noise in a signal are provided. A signal may be transformed using a continuous wavelet transform and a corresponding scalogram may be generated. Regions of noise may be identified from the resulting scalogram. These regions may be masked by, for example, removing, altering, or appropriately tagging the regions. After masking the regions of noise, the scalogram may be converted to a filtered signal using an inverse wavelet transform. Alternatively or additionally, desirable regions of non-noise may instead be identified from the resulting scalogram. These desirable regions may be extracted from the scalogram and an inverse wavelet transform performed on the extracted regions in order to generate a filtered signal.
US08385648B2

An image having m light sources, with m preferably equaling 2 or 3, is sequenced into different regions, each of which is lit by only one of the m light sources, by obtaining paired imaged with different filtering, for example a filtered and an unfiltered image, applying to the image pairs sets of m pre-computed mappings at the pixel or region level, and selecting the most appropriate. The rendering of the information in the image maybe adjusted accordingly.
US08385643B2

A preprocessing section binarizes input image data and calculates a total black pixel ratio. A feature extracting section detects connected components included in the binary image data and detects circumscribing bounding boxes of the connected components. Predetermined connected components are removed from all of the connected components based on the sizes of the detected circumscribing bounding boxes and bounding box black pixel ratios. By using the connected components that remain after removing the unnecessary connected components, a histogram is generated by specifying the sizes of the circumscribing bounding boxes as classes and numbers of the connected components as the frequencies of occurrence. A determining section determines whether the input image data is document image data or non-document image data based on information related to the generated histogram and the total black pixel ratio.
US08385642B2

A method for removing color fringe is presented. Separated luminance and chrominance (YCbCr) signals of a digital image are analyzed through specific color detection, luminance detection, and gradient color detection, so as to determine whether color fringe occurs to each pixel in the digital image, thereby correcting pixels with color fringe.
US08385640B2

A system for controlling a printed dynamic optical illusion image, comprising: an item including a printed optical illusion image having one or more mutable portions that can be controllably switched between first and second appearance states by application of an appropriate external stimulus; a stimulus source for providing the external stimulus; and a controller for controlling the stimulus source. The printed optical illusion image is printed on a printing device using a plurality of colorants, one or more of the colorants being appearance mutable colorants having spectral characteristics that can be controllably switched between a first colorant state and a second colorant state by applying the appropriate external stimulus, the one or more mutable portions of the optical illusion image being printed using at least one appearance mutable colorant.
US08385631B2

A calculation processing apparatus, which executes calculation processing based on a network composed by hierarchically connecting a plurality of processing nodes, assigns a partial area of a memory to each of the plurality of processing nodes, stores a calculation result of a processing node in a storable area of the partial area assigned to that processing node, and sets, as storable areas, areas that store the calculation results whose reference by all processing nodes connected to the subsequent stage of that processing node is complete. The apparatus determines, based on the storage states of calculation results in partial areas of the memory assigned to the processing node designated to execute the calculation processing of the processing nodes, and to processing nodes connected to the previous stage of the designated processing node, whether or not to execute a calculation of the designated processing node.
US08385630B2

The present invention is a system and a method for processing stereo images utilizing a real time, robust, and accurate stereo matching system and method based on a coarse-to-fine architecture. At each image pyramid level, non-centered windows for matching and adaptive upsampling of coarse-level disparities are performed to generate estimated disparity maps using the ACTF approach. In order to minimize propagation of disparity errors from coarser to finer levels, the present invention performs an iterative optimization, at each level, that minimizes a cost function to generate smooth disparity maps with crisp occlusion boundaries.
US08385627B2

When an inspection apparatus of a semiconductor device repeatedly executes computation of prescribed area data, such as image processing for detecting defects, procedures for commanding, data load, computation, and data store need to be repeated the number of times of the computation. This may impose a limitation on the speeding up of the operation. In addition, when performing parallel computation by a high-capacity image processing system for handling minute images, a lot of processors are needed, resulting in an increase in cost. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the invention, an inspection apparatus of a semiconductor device includes a data memory including an access section which is capable of reading and writing simultaneously, a plurality of numerical computation units, a connector for connecting the data memory and the numerical computation units, a controller for collectively controlling the contents of processing by the plurality of numerical computation units, another connector for connecting the numerical computation units and the controller, and a data transfer controller for controlling data transfer between the numerical computation units.
US08385620B2

A computed tomography apparatus and method where data is upsampled with shifting to produce upsampled data. The data is shifted up and down in the same amount in the z-direction, and then upsampled through interpolation. An image is reconstructed using the upsampled data. The process is preferably performed column-by-column. An upsampling shift and interpolation kernel size can be adaptive to the data z-gradient.
US08385614B2

A shadow area in a lung-field area of a subject is detected from tomographic images constituting a three-dimensional image representing the subject. A hilum-of-lung area in the lung-field area of the subject is detected from the tomographic images. Further, a slice image that passes through a first point that is a predetermined point in the detected shadow area, a second point that is a predetermined point in the detected hilum-of-lung area, and an arbitrary point that has been set in advance is generated. The generated slice image is displayed.
US08385607B2

An imaging apparatus includes an image pickup unit for capturing an image of a subject, an image input unit for inputting the image captured by the image pickup unit, a face detecting unit for detecting a face from the image input by the image input unit, a face position marker generating unit for generating a face position marker indicating a position of the face, detected by the face detecting unit, in the image input by the image input unit, an overlaying unit for overlaying the face position marker generated by the face position marker generating unit and the image input by the image input unit, and a display unit for displaying an image overlaid by the overlaying unit.
US08385598B2

An action analysis apparatus includes an acquiring unit that acquires moving image data including a series of frame image data obtained by imaging a human body and environmental information in a period when the moving image data is imaged, a unit that detects at least one image area in which a predetermined portion of the imaged human body is imaged in the frame image data and generates and stores information to identify the detected image area, a unit that (i) generates feature quantity information, (ii) generates information to identify frames of the moving image data imaged at a timing at which the feature quantity information satisfies a predetermined condition, (iii) obtains a length of continuous timings at which a length of the feature quantity information exceeds the predetermined condition based on to generated information, and (iv) stores the information.
US08385597B2

A tracking device includes: an image sensor that obtains image information of an image present within an image plane formed via an optical system; a tracking unit that tracks a target within the image plane based upon the image information; a focus detection unit that detects a focus adjustment state of the optical system over at least one focus detection area set in the image plane; a focus adjustment unit that executes focus adjustment for the optical system based upon the focus adjustment state detected in the focus detection area corresponding to a position of the target; a decision-making unit that makes a decision as to whether or not the target is being tracked based upon results of tracking operation executed by the tracking unit; and a control unit that bans the focus adjustment based upon results of the decision made by the decision-making unit.
US08385590B1

In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in a system that includes a user interface device; and one or more computers operable to interact with the user interface device and to perform operations including: receiving video data including frames; varying a watermark pattern in accordance with a function of frame numbers of the frames of the video data to create multiple variations of the watermark pattern; applying the variations of the watermark pattern to the video data in respective frames; and outputting the watermarked video data. Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding methods, apparatus, and computer program products, as well as corresponding receiver and watermark detection system, methods, apparatus, and computer program products.
US08385587B2

A computer reviews card designs for color changes in a fabric pattern that might cause mixed contours in the fabric woven by a Jacquard design. The computer displays problem positions of the card designs that cannot be corrected by correction lift plans and suggests changes to the card designs. When permitted the computer automatically changes the card designs to avoid mixed contours.
US08385581B2

A speaker includes a case, a dome, a diaphragm, a first voice coil, a second voice coil, a first pole plate, a second pole plate, a first magnet, a second magnet and a yoke. The case is supported on the frame to form a receiving room therebetween. The yoke includes a bottom portion and a side portion perpendicularly extending upward from the center of the bottom portion. A first magnetic gap is formed between the inner wall of the side portion and the outer wall of the magnet for receiving the first voice coil, and a second magnetic gap is formed between the outer wall of the side portion and the inner wall of the second magnet for receiving the second voice coil.
US08385565B2

An audio system includes a level controller receiving an input audio signal from an audio medium. The level controller includes a gain adjust module producing an output audio signal based on the input audio signal. A filter arrangement is communicatively coupled to the level controller. The filter arrangement receives the output audio signal and divides the output signal into a plurality of filtered signals. Each of the filtered signals corresponds to a respective frequency band. A multiband dynamics controller is communicatively coupled to the filter arrangement. The multiband dynamics controller receives the filtered signals and applies a respective gain characteristic to each of the filtered signals to thereby produce a plurality of gain adjust signals. The gain adjust signals are combined into a multiband dynamics controller output signal.
US08385557B2

A multichannel acoustic echo reduction system is described herein. The system includes an acoustic echo canceller (AEC) component having a fixed filter for each respective combination of loudspeaker and microphone signals and having an adaptive filter for each microphone signal. For each microphone signal, the AEC component modifies the microphone signal to reduce contributions from the outputs of the loudspeakers based at least in part on the respective adaptive filter associated with the microphone signal and the set of fixed filters associated with the respective microphone signal.
US08385550B2

The present invention provides methods and devices for a security architecture for use in wireless multi-hop networks. A method for implementing pair-wise encryption key establishment, network node authentication and determining tunnel encryption keys is provided in a following manner. In a multi-hop wireless network including a plurality of network nodes, pair-wise security is established between pairs of neighboring network nodes of the plurality of network nodes. For example, pair-wise security is established in the form of temporal pair-wise encryption keys. Following establishment of pair-wise security between pairs of neighboring network nodes, for a pair of network nodes that are not neighbors, tunnel security is established between the pair of network nodes using tunnel encryption keys derived by the pair of network nodes on an ad hoc basis. The tunnel encryption keys are used to form the connection between non-neighboring network nodes so as to avoid the hop-by-hop encryption/decryption used in conventional multi-hop wireless systems.
US08385545B2

Systems and methods of secure content key distribution using multiple distinct methods are disclosed herein. Example embodiments include receiving multiple distinct control words from multiple conditional access systems and encrypting packets or a group of packets using the multiple distinct control words.
US08385542B2

Techniques are described herein for securing communications in a television transmission network. A television receiver receives encrypted content from a transmission network and the encrypted content is input into a decryption device. The decryption device decrypts the encrypted content and generates supplemental data in order to pad the size of the decrypted content. The padded content may then be output from the decryption device to other components of the television receiver, for further processing, such as decoding and output to an associated presentation device.
US08385540B2

A block cipher algorithm based encryption processing method comprises the following steps: external key registration, external data registration, key expansion, data encryption conversion, internal data registration, and data iteration processing, which solves the problems of the prior ciphering method based on block cipher algorithm, such as low ciphering efficiency and high implementation cost, and efficiently reduces the resource consumption under the premise of keeping the high efficiency of the prior art, thereby reducing the implementation cost of the device. When the number of the conversion component is 1, the resource consumption is only about 60 percent of the prior art; and when the number of the conversion component is 2, the resource consumption is only about 70 percent of the prior art. The present invention increases a sub-key registration unit, which can reduce the critical paths and increase the clock dominant frequency of the ciphering equipment during the implementation of integrated circuits, thereby improving the ciphering capacity of the inventive method.
US08385539B2

The invention relates to methods for controlling adaptive filters, where a first step involves a first input signal, which has a narrowband frequency range and occurs at least intermittently during an adaptation phase in the filter, at the input of the filter prompting the adaptation phase to be continued until an echo signal which is conditional upon the first input signal and in the same frequency range is compensated for completely, a second step involves the adaptation phase being suspended when complete compensation for the echo signal has been achieved, and a third step involves the adaptation phase being continued if the first input signal is followed by a second input signal which has a narrowband frequency range and which differs from the frequency range of the first input signal at least by a frequency value, with the above steps being repeated starting at the first step, or with a fourth step involving a new adaptation phase being performed if the first input signal is followed by a third input signal having a wideband frequency range. The invention also relates to an arrangement for carrying out the method.
US08385535B2

A method and system for automating cross-connects for a telecommunication system comprising a network of communication lines for connecting subscriber locations to a central office exchange 112. The communication lines extend to the subscriber locations from a main distribution frame (MDF) (320) in which a plurality of standard termination blocks are housed in the MDF for terminating the lines from to the subscriber side and lines from the exchange side, which are cross-connected in the prior art with jumper wires. In an embodiment of the invention, the cross-connects are mounted on modular cross-connect boards having mechanical switching means that are inserted into or connected to the termination blocks. Automation is achieved by selectively controlling the connection state of the cross-connects via a computer terminal (350,352) located remotely from the MDF. The system is scalable to the growth in subscriber lines within the MDF by installing additional cross-connect boards. A further embodiment includes automation of street cabinets (328) and drop point sites (330) containing cross-connect boards of the present invention.
US08385534B2

Techniques for dispatching one or more services requests to one or more agents are provided. The techniques include obtaining one or more attributes of each service request, obtaining one or more attributes of each agent, obtaining feedback from each of one or more agent queues, and using the one or more attributes of each service request, the one or more attributes of each agent and the feedback from each of the one or more agent queues to determine one or more suitable agents to receive a dispatch for each of the one or more service requests. Techniques are also provided for generating a database of one or more attributes of one or more service requests and one or more attributes of one or more agents.
US08385531B2

A method, system, and computer program for routing an outgoing communication in real time is presented. A communication is received from a caller to an intended receiving wireless telecommunication device. In response to the communication failing to connect to the intended receiving wireless telecommunication device, scan of other alternate telecommunication devices is initiated to determine if other communication devices are available for receiving a re-route of the original communication. If an alternate telecommunication device is available to receive the communication, then the communication is rerouted to the preferred alternate telecommunication device based on the alternate telecommunication device being a mutual contact of the contact list of the caller telecommunication device and the mapping profile of the intended receiving telecommunication device.
US08385529B2

Methods, systems, and products provide called party identification to a calling party. A communication is processed from a calling communications address to one of a plurality of communications addresses associated with a simultaneous ring. When an answer is detected at one of the plurality of communications addresses, an answering communications address is sent to the calling communications address.
US08385518B1

Apparatuses, systems and methods are presented for handling calls. In one embodiment, an emergency call handling system capable of receiving visual information from callers and correlating the visual information to particular incidents is disclosed. To obtain visual information, a call handler may generate and send an electronic mail message to the caller. The caller may reply to the electronic mail message and attach an image captured with, for example, a camera phone. The visual information may then be correlated to the call between the caller and call handler. The visual information may be used to assess an emergency situation. The visual information may be forwarded to emergency service providers.
US08385517B2

An apparatus includes a display and a processor connected to the display. The processor being configured to transmit at least one reply communication in response to an incoming communication, the at least one reply communication being formatted by the processor for a communication protocol that is different from a communication protocol of the incoming communication.
US08385506B2

The disclosed embodiments include embodiments such as an X-ray tube cathode filament system. The X-ray tube cathode filament system includes a substrate and a coating disposed on the substrate. In this cathode filament system, an electron beam is emitted from the coating but not from the substrate. The electron beam is produced through the use of the thermionic effect.
US08385497B2

A method to confine a nuclear reactor fuel bundle assembly including: inserting a lower portion of the fuel bundle assembly into an open end of a lower fuel particle barrier; supporting the lower portion of the fuel bundle with the lower fuel particle barrier; grasping the lower portion of the fuel bundle assembly with the lower fuel particle barrier; lowering an upper fuel particle barrier over an upper tie plate of the fuel bundle assembly; moving at least a portion of a handle fixed to the upper tie plate through an open slot in the upper fuel particle barrier; closing the open slot with a closure device after the handle passes through the slot, and preventing fuel particles being released from the nuclear reactor fuel bundle assembly by the upper and lower fuel particle barriers.
US08385496B1

One embodiment relates to a method of offset cancellation for a receiver in an integrated circuit. The receiver is set to a phase-detector offset-cancellation mode so as to determine offset cancellation settings for the phase detector. The offset cancellation settings are applied to the phase detector. The receiver is then set to a receiver-driver offset-cancellation mode so as to determine an offset cancellation setting for the receiver driver. This offset cancellation setting is applied to the receiver driver. Another embodiment relates to an integrated circuit configured to perform receiver offset cancellation. The integrated circuit including a receiver driver configured to receive a differential input signal, a phase detector including a plurality of latches, a calibration controller, a voltage source, and first and second pairs of switches. Other embodiments, aspects, and features are also disclosed.
US08385493B2

Disclosed is a system and method for improving the linearity of a clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit. In one embodiment, a data stream is received, and the phase of a clock signal is adjusted using two interpolators. The phase of the output signal of the second interpolator is adjusted simultaneously with, and complementary to, adjusting the phase of the first interpolator. The first interpolator's output signal is injected into a first delay cell in a delay loop having a plurality of delay cells, and the output of the second interpolator is inactivated. When the maximum phase of the first interpolator's output signal is reached, the second interpolator's output signal is injected into another one of the delay cells, and the first interpolator's output signal is inactivated. The data stream is then recovered using the output of the delay loop as a clock signal.
US08385491B2

In a system packing multiple PDUs on a single physical burst and using OFDM or OFDMA, a synchronization method comprising: a. performing an initial lock; b. processing each new header information, verifying if checksum OK, and if OK—remain in (b), system is in locked state; c. activating new header seeker, to enable running window processor to compare the expected checksum with the last byte as tentative checksum; d. declaring Tentative lock, when detecting a checksum correspondence; e. declaring Final lock, when two or more consecutive successful detections of headers, at their expected locations based on prior detections, then Goto (b).
US08385488B2

Disclosed is an inter-cell interference mitigation method using a spatial covariance matrix (SCM) estimation method in a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system for mitigating interference between asynchronous cells. The inter-cell interference mitigation method includes extracting a reference symbol (RS) of a received OFDM symbol and performing channel estimation, estimating an initial SCM using the RS signal and the channel estimation result, applying time-domain sinc type weighting to the initial SCM and applying an SCM, and demodulating a data symbol with mitigated inter-cell interference using the channel estimation result and the estimated SCM. By applying time-domain sinc type weighting to SCM estimation, it is possible to reduce an SCM estimation error occurring due to a spectral leakage induced by an abrupt change in a signal at a border point between an effective sub carrier zone and a guard band zone, and a simple design of a moving average filter form for a frequency domain signal can be made instead of frequency-time-frequency domain transformation using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) and fast Fourier transfer (FFT).
US08385482B2

A method and apparatus for use in connection with wireless communication to adjust the frequency of an oscillator to synchronize with a received signal by correlating a synchronization code channel with training sequences to estimate relative offsets which are employed to estimate an error, which is then filtered. The filtered output preferably provides a voltage controlling a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The same technique may be employed to control a numeric controlled oscillator (NCO).
US08385472B2

An overhead processor for data transmission in digital communications, where a state machine, including a logic element and a flip-flop, is able to process a “previous” data state and a “next” data state simultaneously by storing the previous state in an external elastic storage element until the next state arrives along the datapath. By employing flip-flops on the path from the logic element to the elastic store and on the path from the elastic store to the logic element, data is transmitted faster, resulting in the ability for both the previous data state and the next data state to be transmitted simultaneously, in one clock cycle, requiring half of the transmission time required by prior art.
US08385470B2

A method can include receiving, at an electronic transmitter device, for communication to an electronic receiver device, a first data value corresponding to one of a plurality of predetermined data values; identifying, from a matrix of data bits having the form of a 2N×2N Hadamard matrix whose rows have been randomly or pseudo-randomly shuffled, a column of data bits that is associated with the first data value; and transmitting to the electronic receiver device, in place of the first data value, the identified column of data bits. The method can further include receiving data at the electronic receiver; correlating the received data to the identified column of data bits; and providing the first data value for further processing by the electronic receiver.
US08385467B2

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for information transmission in a radio communication system. The method includes the steps of creating a first symbol and a second symbol relevant to information, creating a first transmission vector and a second transmission vector on the basis of Alamouti code from the first symbol and the second symbol, and transmitting the first transmission vector via a first antenna and transmitting the second transmission vector via a second antenna.
US08385466B2

A method for limiting peak-to-average power of a signal transmitted from a power amplifier. The method comprises: applying a pulse-shape filter to a first signal, thereby generating a second signal being a filtered version of the first signal; and outputting the second signal for transmission from a power amplifier. The method further comprises: applying each of a plurality of predictor filters to a respective instance of the first signal, each predictor filter approximating the application of the pulse-shape filter to the first signal based on a different respective set of filter coefficients, and each thereby generating a respective third signal. The method also further comprises determining an indicator of amplitude of each of the third signals, selecting the indicator corresponding to the largest of those amplitudes, generating a modifier based on the selected indicator, and using the modifier to limit the first signal prior to applying the pulse-shape filter.
US08385464B2

A baseband circuit for a communications transmitter includes a baseband modulator, a pulse-shaping filter, and an AMPR reduction circuit. The baseband modulator is configured to generate a sequence of symbols formatted in accordance with a non-constant envelope modulation scheme. The pulse-shaping filter is configured to band-limit the sequence of samples to provide a sequence of samples. The AMPR reduction circuit is configured to analyze and modify one or more samples in the sequence of samples, if a sample in the sequence of samples that has been previously analyzed by the AMPR reduction circuit is determined to have a magnitude less than a predetermined low-magnitude threshold.
US08385463B2

Provided are a transmitter and a method for transmitting a data block in a wireless communication system. The method comprises the following steps: encoding an information bit and generating a block coded with an NCBPSS bit; generating two sub-blocks by parsing the coded block; and transmitting the two sub-blocks to the transmitter. By preventing the bits that are contiguous to the encoding block from having continuous identical reliabilities on a signal constellation, the deterioration of the decoding performance of the transmitter can be prevented.
US08385460B2

A method for transmitting and receiving a signal and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving a signal are disclosed. The method for receiving the signal includes receiving (S210) the signal in a first frequency band, identifying (S220) a first pilot signal including, a cyclic prefix obtained by frequency-shifting a first portion of an useful portion of the first pilot signal and a cyclic suffix obtained by frequency-shifting a second portion of the useful portion of the first pilot signal from the received signal, demodulating (S220) a signal frame including a physical layer pipe (PLP) to which a service stream is converted, by an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, using information set in the first pilot signal, parsing (S230) the signal frame and obtaining the PLP and obtaining (S240) the service stream from the PLP.
US08385457B2

Methods and systems to compensate IQ imbalances in a tuner system, including relatively wideband ZIF tuner systems and tuner systems having substantially linear frequency dependent phase imbalance, where a one-tap compensation element may be utilized to compensate frequency dependent phase imbalance. A two tone probe may be applied in controlled loop-back modes, and resultant baseband components may be used to determine a straight line from which to determine compensation. The probe may include a Multi-Media over Coax Alliance (MoCA) Type 2 probe. Compensation parameters may be determined as fixed or non-adaptive compensation parameters in a digital domain and may be applied at baseband. One or more compensation values may be determined in a fixed point circuit.
US08385455B2

Wireless communication devices A and B perform wireless communication with the MIMO technology. The wireless communication devices A and B determine the optimal diversity combining information that optimizes a diversity reception state through a two-way training signal transfer. This determination can be made based on reception level information, baseband reception IQ information, correlation information between a diversity-combining received signal and a predetermined information sequence, or the like, which are obtained when the diversity combining information with respect to each antenna is sequentially changed. The optimal diversity combining information can be determined by receiving training frames or symbols (the number of antennas+1) times.
US08385449B2

A device that detects the presence of several amplitude-modulated high-frequency signals in a sum signal with closely-adjacent carrier frequencies. The sum signal is phase-demodulated by a phase demodulator and Fourier-transformed by a Fourier-transformation device. On the basis of the Fourier transform, the presence of several carrier frequencies is determined by an evaluation device.
US08385445B2

The present invention relates to a method for processing digital signals and to a transmission/reception system implementing said method; the present invention is based on the use of LDPC codes, in particular the LDPC code of the DVB-S2 standard, in combination with a QAM modulation, in particular the 1024QAM and 4096QAM modulations; in transmission, a bit permutation (Demux) is carried out prior to the QAM constellation mapping function; in reception, the bit permutation is carried out after the QAM constellation demapping function.
US08385435B2

Embodiments describe a method of measuring noise and interference within transceivers of an OFDM wireless transmission system, or similar communication system, including a number of receivers communicating with one or more base stations in cell or sector arrangements. The transmitter schedules a transmission burst for a non-existent user (receiver) using wireless transmission traffic. In an OFDM system, this corresponds to a certain set of subcarriers in the time/frequency arrangement. Thus, in the receive frame structure, the data and pilot subcarriers are guaranteed to be only noise and interference from adjacent sectors. The receiver can accurately measure the noise and interference without needing to cancel out the transmitted signal. Therefore, the system is assured that there is no desired signal as part of this measurement. The noise and interference measurement process can be appropriately scheduled so that it does not impact the overall throughput of the system. This mechanism creates a deterministic place (in time and/or frequency) within the transmission, where no desired signal is required.
US08385434B2

A system for synchronization of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signal having a first frequency. The system includes filters configured to receive the OFDM signal, and output second signals corresponding to different frequency bands of the OFDM signal. Each of the second signals includes a corresponding synchronization symbol associated with the OFDM signal, and the synchronization symbols of each of the second signals are the same. The system further includes a Fourier transform circuit configured to receive the second signals from the filters, and output the second signals. Each of the second signals has a second frequency. The system is configured to detect the synchronization symbols in the second signals, and detect a start of OFDM symbols in the OFDM signal based on the detected synchronization symbols. The start of the OFDM symbols corresponds to an average of a plurality of estimations of the start of the OFDM symbols.
US08385432B2

Scalable video coding based on H.264/AVC uses motion compensation, which results in motion vectors and residual pictures. To optimize the encoding of the residual pictures of the enhancement-layer, they can be predicted from the base-layer. This requires complex encoders and decoders. Simplified residual prediction techniques are provided that focus on reducing the encoding and decoding complexity of the spatial scalable enhancement-layer with optimized coding efficiency. The method for encoding video data containing high-pass frames and low-pass frames comprises the steps of encoding the low-pass frames, wherein residual prediction may be used, splitting the high-pass frames into two interleaving frame groups, encoding the frames of the first of said frame groups, wherein residual prediction may be used, and encoding the frames of the second of the frame groups using an encoding method without residual prediction.
US08385431B2

To aim at outputting video signals causing a viewer to feel none of a sense of discomfort even if a partial or entire lack of the picture occurs in a device that decodes a datastream of a compressed moving picture of one-segment broadcasting etc and outputs the video signals. A moving picture data decoding device includes a buffer unit 26 buffered with a predetermined quantity of already-decoded pictures decoded by a decoding process, and a picture generation unit 23 configured to generate pictures and, if there is a missing picture used for interframe prediction (S202), performing the picture generation (S205) in a way that acquires a substitute reference picture with which to substitute the missing picture from the already-decoded pictures buffered in the buffer unit 26 (S203).
US08385430B2

A moving area detecting circuit detects a moving area of image information S(i-1). An intermediate image generating circuit generates intermediate image information SC(i-1) based on the moving area information. A spatial frequency separating circuit generates high-frequency image information SH(i-1) and low-frequency image information SL(i-1) from the image information S(i-1). If contrast information of the moving area is higher than a predetermined value, an image represented by the image information S(i-1) and an image represented by the intermediate image information SC(i-1) are sequentially displayed. If the contrast information is not higher than the predetermined value, an image represented by the high-frequency image information SH(i-1) and an image represented by the low-frequency image information SL(i-1) are sequentially displayed.
US08385425B2

Background vs. foreground decisions for video frames to be compressed and transmitted in a real time video communication system are made based on a non-parametric approach using signs of pixel value changes in sequential frames. Pixel value changes are tracked as negative or positive. Cost functions may be assigned to rows and columns of predefined blocks and a decision made based on randomness of the signs within the block whether the block represents background (noise) or foreground. Recursive temporal filtering is then employed to reduce the background noise progressively resulting in increased compression and transmission efficiency. Offset tiling is used to increase accuracy of randomness determination when blocks include background and foreground combinations.
US08385410B2

A digital broadcast system and a data processing method are disclosed. A data processing method of a digital broadcast transmission system includes delaying a reference time of a program clock reference (PCR) based on a size of mobile service data, when processing a broadcasting signal including main service data and the mobile service data, verifying a transport stream system target decoder (T-STD) model based on the PCR of the delayed reference time, and storing a packet of the main service data in an auxiliary buffer, when overflow of a buffer in the T-STD model is estimated as the verification result of the T-STD model.
US08385409B2

A picture coding method of the present invention codes a picture signal and a ratio of a number of luminance pixels and a number of chrominance pixels for the picture signal, and then one coding method out of at least two coding methods is selected depending on the ratio. Next, data related to a picture size is coded in accordance with the selected coding method. The data related to the picture size indicates a size of the picture corresponding to the picture signal or an output area, which is a pixel area to be outputted in decoding in a whole pixel area coded in the picture signal coding.
US08385408B2

An image transmitting apparatus including a database configured to store first moving image data for multiple speed reproduction separately generated from second moving image data for normal speed reproduction, the first moving image data being constructed using I-frames selected from a plurality of group of pictures (GOPs) included in the second moving image data; a data transceiver configured to receive a signal requesting a bit stream for reproducing a moving image at an arbitrary multiple speed, and to transmit the bit stream for reproducing a moving image at an arbitrary multiple speed according to the signal; and a controller configured to control transmission of the bit stream for reproducing a moving image at the arbitrary multiple speed based on the first moving image data stored in the database.
US08385405B2

A coding/decoding device using a bit-precision is disclosed. A coding device includes a bit-precision selecting unit, selecting a bit-precision value according to data to be coded; and a coding unit, generating a bit-stream by coding the data according to the selected bit-precision value, whereas the selected bit-precision value is inserted into the bit-stream.With the present invention, video data can be entropy-coded by selectively determining the number of bits and there can be provided the decoding method with a little complexity which has not only the identical compression rate to the conventional entropy coding method but also no necessity of additional computation when video data is decoded.
US08385402B2

A transmission element having at least one input and at least one output is described, the transmission element delivering a functional relationship (t=F(R)) between the input quantity (R) applied to the input and the output quantity (t) that may be picked up at the output and the functional relationship (t=F(R)) being stored in a characteristics map, wherein the characteristics map comprises at least one segment having a lower limit (N(bi)) and an upper limit (N(b(i+1)), a function value (t_(i)=F(N(b_i))) being assigned to the lower limit (N(bi)) and a function value (t(i+1)=F(N(b(i+1))) being assigned to the upper limit (N(bi+1)), and the output quantity (t) being interpolated between the lower limit and the upper limit.
US08385396B2

The present invention relates to a waveform equalizer and a method for controlling the same, as well as a receiving apparatus and a method for controlling the same whereby better receiving characteristics are provided than before.In a filter 28, registers 911 through 915 delay an input DT1; multipliers 920 through 925 multiply outputs from the registers by filter coefficients C20 through C25 respectively; and adders 931 through 935 add up outputs from the multipliers to acquire DT2. A selector 81 either outputs a timing signal at intervals of a symbol period of DT1 to drive the filter 82 as a symbol rate equalizer, or outputs the timing signal at intervals of half the symbol period to operate the filter 82 as a fractionally spaced equalizer. The present invention may be applied to waveform equalizers performing waveform equalization of the input signal.
US08385394B2

Disclosed herein are embodiments of an improved built-in self-test (BIST) circuit and an associated method for measuring phase and/or cycle-to-cycle jitter of a clock signal. The embodiments of the BIST circuit implement a Variable Vernier Digital Delay Locked Line method. Specifically, the embodiments of the BIST circuit incorporate both a digital delay locked loop and a Vernier delay line, for respectively coarse tuning and fine tuning portions of the circuit. Additionally, the BIST circuit is variable, as the resolution of the circuit changes from chip to chip, and digital, as it is implemented with standard digital logic elements.
US08385390B2

A system and method of extracting data from data packets transmitted over a wireless network includes receiving a data packet having a preamble portion and a payload portion. The preamble portion is cross correlated with a first known spreading sequence to generate a first timing signal and the preamble portion is cross correlated with a second known spreading signal to generate a frame timing signal. An impulse is detected in the first timing signal and a first timing parameter is set based upon the detected impulse in the first timing signal. An impulse is detected in the frame timing signal and a frame timing parameter is set based upon the detected impulse in the frame timing signal. Data is extracted from the received payload portion according to the first timing parameter and the frame timing parameter.
US08385388B2

A method and system for reconstructing a user's received signal based on knowledge of the user's transmitted signal to yield efficient interference cancellation when there is spatial and/or temporal correlation in the received signal. The invention may be applied to the cancellation of pilot, decoded data and overhead signals. The method may involve a linear combination of the received samples across time, e.g., at a per-chip or sub-chip resolution, and across antennas, and build upon previous work in that the tap weights need not be the sole functions of the de-spreader outputs in the RAKE receiver.
US08385380B2

Light emitting systems are disclosed. The light emitting system includes an electroluminescent device that emits light at a first wavelength. The light emitting system further includes an optical cavity that enhances emission of light from a top surface of the light emitting system and suppresses emission of light from one or more sides of the light emitting system. The optical cavity includes a semiconductor multilayer stack that receives the emitted first wavelength light and converts at least a portion of the received light to light of a second wavelength. The semiconductor multilayer stack includes a II-VI potential well. The integrated emission intensity of all light at the second wavelength that exit the light emitting system is at least 10 times the integrated emission intensity of all light at the first wavelength that exit the light emitting system.
US08385375B2

A glass composition for use as a laser medium, a method for producing the glass composition, and a laser apparatus including the glass composition are provided. The glass composition includes a host glass; a 3p component having a concentration of about 5 mole percent to about 10 mole percent; and at least one of a 6p component having a concentration of about 1 mole percent to about 5 mole percent and a 5p component having a concentration of about 1 mole percent to about 5 mole percent.
US08385372B2

Disclosed herein are techniques, systems, and methods relating maintaining a time base between receiving and transmitting assemblies during interruption of data streams communicated therebetween.
US08385368B2

A method for inserting parity into an FCH is disclosed. A method for inserting parity into a frame control header includes channel-encoding, by an additional channel encoder, a frame control header bit applied to a legacy encoder, and generating an additional codeword, and mapping the codeword generated by the legacy encoder and the additional codeword to subcarriers. This method inserts parity into the FCH, and defines a new FCH, such that it extends an FCH coverage simultaneously while maintaining a compatibility with a legacy system. Also, it may add additional energy to a legacy FCH or may give a coding gain to the same legacy FCH, such that it can extend information transferable using reserved bits of the FCH.
US08385362B2

A method and system for wireless communication in an asymmetric antenna system (AAS) communication system is provided. A wireless station performs carrier sensing by sensing a wireless communication channel for ongoing communications in one or more directions. Upon detecting that the wireless communication channel is idle, the station transmits a frame preamble on the channel to a receiving wireless station in more than one transmit direction, and transmits a frame payload on the channel to the receiving wireless station in one transmit direction.
US08385360B2

Control channel information is formulated for transmission in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In an example embodiment, a method entails formulating control channel information for a transmitting device operating in an OFDM system in which a control channel spans n OFDM symbols, with n being an integer. The method includes acts of allocating, creating, and mapping. Control channel data is allocated to at least one set of resource element groups. At least one order for the set of resource element groups is created in accordance with one or more permutation mechanisms that involve at least one interleaving sequence having a low cross-correlation property. The set of resource element groups is mapped to resource elements of the n OFDM symbols of the control channel responsive to the order that is created using the permutation mechanism(s). The permutation mechanisms may include interleaving sequence(s) and/or cyclic shift(s).
US08385352B2

A computer data signal embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium is described. In one embodiment, the computer data signal includes a generic element identifier, a plurality of task-specific data, a variable length identifier and a multi-use data type identifier. The generic element identifier is configurable to identify an information element containing the generic element identifier as a generic information element. The variable length identifier is configurable to indicate a number of the plurality of task-specific data. The multi-use data type identifier is configurable to indicate a type of the plurality of task-specific data.
US08385349B2

A medium access control (MAC) device and method for optical packet-switched metro wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) slotted-ring networks are used for providing quality of service (QoS) guarantees for isochronous traffic. The device includes a MAC processor and a distributed call admission control (CAC) module. The CAC module in each node of an optical packet-switched network is designed in a distributed manner, and flexibly allocates a reserved bandwidth to an isochronous traffic by a mean-rate-reservation method, controls a quota of the isochronous traffic below a quota ratio rH, resolves output contention by recording node locations forming a connection, and establishes a connection for each isochronous traffic. The MAC processor establishes a connection in the reserved bandwidth for each isochronous traffic between the nodes according to control information carried in a control channel, controls uploading, unloading, and erasing of a plurality of data channels, and updates corresponding contents in the control information.
US08385336B2

A source apparatus writes, in a route request packet, the number of routes requested by the source apparatus. When a relay apparatus receives a route request packet for the first time, the relay apparatus determines a waiting time period, based on a route evaluation value that indicates a state of a route through which the route request packet has passed, and starts a timer. The relay apparatus selects route request packets having as high route evaluation values as possible, among route request packets that have been received until the timer expires, the number of route request packets to be selected being equal to the number of routes requested by the source apparatus, and then broadcasts the selected route request packets.
US08385334B2

Systems and methods are provided for communication via address modulation on an communication channel. A first processing component is configured to produce a plurality of data packets. Each data packet has an associated address from a plurality of available addresses. The system further comprises a plurality of addressable entities, with each of the addressable entities being represented by a proper subset of at least two of the available addresses. A second processing component is configured to apply at least one conditioning process to the series of data packets. The first processing component is configured to select an address for each packet from the subset of available addresses representing the addressable entity associated with the packet as to communicate data between the first processing component and the second processing component.
US08385326B2

Technologies for handling early media in VoIP communications with multiple endpoints are provided. A calling device sends an initial VoIP call request to multiple destination devices, or endpoints. The calling device then receives a provisional response from one or more of the destination devices that includes media streaming parameters regarding the destination device. The calling device creates a media context associated with the destination device that contains the media streaming parameters and stores the media context. The calling device uses the media context to establish a media connection with the destination. One of the destination devices returning a provisional response is selected to exchange early media over the media connection established with the destination device.
US08385325B2

A method of receiving at a terminal a first signal transmitted via a communication network, said method comprising the steps of; receiving at the terminal the first signal comprising a plurality of data elements; analysing characteristics of the first signal; receiving from a user of the terminal a second signal to be transmitted from the terminal; analysing characteristics of the second signal to detect audio activity in the second signal; and applying a delay between receiving at the terminal and outputting from the terminal at least one of said plurality of data elements; and adjusting the delay based on the analysed characteristics of the first signal and on the detection of audio activity in the second signal.
US08385320B2

A system and method are disclosed for providing uplink timing synchronization in a wireless communication system. The uplink timing synchronization may be provided via a specific message sent from the user equipment to a network access device, or may be calculated based upon data received at the network access device from the user equipment.
US08385317B2

Methods and apparatus related to peer to peer communication networks are described. A wireless communications device supports peer to peer communications with multiple peers. The wireless communications device determines its transmit timing synchronization based on a reference signal received from a node such as a base station, a satellite, or a beacon transmitter which does not transmit user data. The wireless communications device determines a plurality of different receive timing adjustments corresponding to different peer communications devices based on signals received from those peer communications devices. The wireless communications device stores the plurality of determined receive timing adjustment information corresponding to the different peer communications devices. The wireless communications device retrieves and applies stored receive timing adjustment information which matches the particular device which transmitted the signal attempting to be recovered.
US08385316B2

Methods and apparatus related to peer to peer communication networks are described. A peer to peer timing structure is implemented which includes a pattern of different types of time intervals including at least a peer discovery time interval and a traffic interval. A wireless communications device, supporting peer to peer operations stores the peer to peer timing structure information, accesses the stored information, and used the accessed information to determine an operation to be performed during a current time period. The operation is, e.g., a peer discovery operation, a peer to peer timing synchronization operation, a peer paging operation, or a peer to peer traffic signaling operation. Various exemplary relationships between the different types of intervals, including relative frequencies, relative durations, and spacing information, are described. Advantageous construction of the recurring peer to peer timing structure facilitates efficient utilization of air link resources and/or higher traffic data throughput capabilities.
US08385315B2

A router system receives from a host service a message which is intended for delivery to a mobile device via a wireless network. The message includes at least a first field having an identifier which identifies the mobile device, a second field having a payload of the message, and a third field having a return packet indication on whether to return a return packet to the host service. The router system examines the indication in the message and, if the indication is set to a first setting, the router system returns to the host service a return packet which indicates a status associated with the message for delivery to the mobile device. If the indication is set to a second setting, then the router system does not return to the host service the return packet which indicates the status associated with the message for delivery to the mobile device.
US08385310B2

A method includes operating a transmitter connected with nt transmit antennas serving K users having nr receive antennas each; and scheduling which users are to be simultaneously served in a same time-frequency-code slot. A particular user pairing configuration is denoted by π within a set of all configurations Π, and scheduling includes expressing mutual information as an additive objective function and maximizing the additive objective function over a particular choice of πεΠ.
US08385305B1

A hybrid band intelligent backhaul radio (HB-IBR) is disclosed that is a combination of two radios operating in different bands. Embodiments include a dual radio configuration wherein a first radio operates in a non-line of sight (NLOS) radio link configuration and a second ancillary radio operates in a near line of sight or line of sight configuration (n)LOS. For example, the HB-IBR may have an Intelligent Backhaul Radio (IBR) operating in the non-line of sight mode of operation within the 5.8 GHz unlicensed band, and have an ancillary radio link operating in the FCC part 101E band of operation at 60 GHz. A common medium access control (MAC) block may be utilized between the dual radios.
US08385302B2

A method to support distributed beacon transmission in a directional communication network is provided. The method may comprise receiving, by a second apparatus, a first reference signal from a first apparatus, wherein the first reference signal comprises network shared information associated with a first network and specific information associated with the first apparatus, generating a second reference signal by updating the network shared information in the first reference signal to include specific information associated with second apparatus, and transmitting the second reference signal at a defined time, wherein the defined time is selected to minimize any interference associated with a subsequent transmission of the first reference signal by the first apparatus.
US08385301B2

Provided are an apparatus and method for increasing operation time in an IEEE802.15.4-2006 beacon based wireless sensor network (WSN) with respect to the same amount of power consumption used by coordinators included in a WSN, by reducing unnecessary standby power consumption required during an active period of a super frame in a beacon-enabled mode.
US08385299B2

The present invention relates to communication technologies and provides a private network communication terminal and a method for realizing private network communication, In the invention, one private network communication can only be performed in one time slot with a fixed location in a DMR TDMA frame, so that other mobile communication terminals that do not participate in the private network communication can determine an unoccupied time slot in advance, thereby they can initiate a new private network communication with the unoccupied time slot.
US08385294B2

Aspects of the disclosure describe a cellular transceiver that can include multiple diversity branch receivers that receive a transmitted signal from a base station (BS). The cellular transceiver can include 1) a windup detector that can detect a low windup condition and 2) a receiver selector that can modify a number of active diversity branch receivers when the low windup condition is detected.
US08385292B2

A mobile station is configured to transmit a sequence of data packets over a wireless network. The station includes a data sequence expander. The expander receives an indication of a pending hand-off for the mobile station from a first network access point to a second network access point and estimates an amount of time prior to occurrence of the hand-off. The expander inserts a number of delay packets into the sequence of data packets in response to receiving the indication of the pending hand-off. The number of delay packets is determined based on the estimated amount of time prior to the occurrence of the hand-off such that the insertion of the delay packets into the sequence of data packets will cause a delay that corresponds to the amount of time prior to occurrence of the hand-off.
US08385289B2

Systems and methods are provided for procedure processing for packet mode location services in a mobile radio communications cellular system, which may include entities of a base station subsystem (BSS) type, a network service entity (NSE), and a serving GPRS support mode (SGSN). In accordance with the systems and methods provided herein, in the event of an inter-NSE cell change, a current location procedure is not aborted if it can be maintained by the BSS.
US08385286B2

Method, apparatus, and computer program product embodiments are disclosed to provide for wireless resource sharing on a fair basis between heterogeneous wireless networks to enable coexistence in a TV band white space. An example embodiment of the invention includes a method, comprising the steps of: receiving a coexistence value associated with a wireless network; receiving radio frequency spectral environment information of the wireless network; receiving coexistence values and radio frequency spectral environment information of wireless networks neighboring the wireless network; receiving a resource request for the wireless network; generating a resource allocation based at least on the received coexistence values and received radio frequency spectral environment information; and communicating at least a portion of the generated resource allocation to the wireless network. The resulting embodiments provide for wireless resource sharing on a fair basis between heterogeneous wireless networks to enable coexistence of secondary networks.
US08385282B2

A networked computing system facilitating ancillary device measurement of regional network communications in order to determine intra-network communications handovers. The networked computing system includes a base station, one or more transceiver devices having shorter-range communications capability than the base station, user equipment, and a data communications network facilitating data communications amongst the networked computing systems devices. Within the network, a first transceiver device may be configured to detect ancillary communications between a user equipment and the base station, and then measure one or more characteristics associated with the ancillary communications in response to detecting the ancillary communications. The first transceiver device may also be configured to transmit the measured characteristics to the base station or to an auxiliary network controller device that is capable of making network communications usage decisions based on one or more network resource usage rules.
US08385277B2

In a radio communication system including a mobile station and a base station apparatus for communicating with the mobile station according to a SC-FDMA scheme in uplink, the mobile station includes a transmitting unit configured to transmit at least one of a first signal and a second signal; and a Sounding RS transmitting unit configured to determine a transmission band for a Sounding Reference Signal (Sounding RS) based on mapping information of at least one of the first signal and the second signal.
US08385275B2

A subscriber station may determine whether a service flow between the subscriber station and a base station is retained during an idle mode of the subscriber station. The subscriber station may reactivate the service flow when the subscriber station exits the idle mode. The subscriber station may monitor whether the service flow has data activity. The subscriber station may delete the service flow if there is no data activity.
US08385262B2

A circuit mobility management entity (CMM) is intended a mobile network adapted for transferring data in a dual transfer mode to and from mobile stations. The CMM is arranged, when it has established a circuit-switched (CS) connection between a mobile station and the mobile network and when it receives from a radio resource entity (RR) of the mobile network, a message informing that the CS procedure corresponding to this CS connection is ended, to determine if a GPRS Tunnelling Transport Protocol (GTTP) procedure is running for a packet-switched (PS) signalling procedure which concerns the mobile station, then either i) require release of the CS connection near the RR entity if the GTTP procedure is ended, or ii) maintain the CS connection as long as the GTTP procedure is running, and require release of the CS connection near the RR entity when the GTTP procedure is ended.
US08385260B2

The present invention is to allow prompt and reliable synchronization of belonging information management table even in environments where there is a possibility of receiving update notification information from a plurality of wireless base stations, without needing unnecessarily large traffic for synchronization of belonging information management table. Wireless base station stores belonging information management table, to which belonging information of a terminal belonging to the base station is associated with, to new/old judgment information for judgment of new/old of update. Belonging information update unit performs update of belonging information including the new/old judgment information thereof. Further, upon receiving update notification information from other wireless base station, the belonging information update unit updates the belonging information management table based on the update notification information. The update notification information includes at least updated portion in the belonging information and new/old judgment information.
US08385258B2

A network for wireless transmission of a media data in a building includes a plurality of access points. A first access point receives the media data from a source and transmits the media data downstream at a first data rate. A plurality of additional access points is distributed about the building, each of which includes an upstream transceiver to receive the media content on a first channel and a downstream transceiver to re-transmit the media content at substantially the first data rate on a second channel. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US08385256B2

Embodiments herein provide a method and system for synchronization in a Wireless Communication Network using a new frame, Synchronization Frame (SF), and a configurable length of the same that is transmitted from a Network Controller (NC) to the Network Elements (NEs) in the network. The periodicity of the SF could be changed, to align with the data exchange periodicity, while still keeping synchronization. The length of the SF is made configurable to achieve this effect. It is directly proportional to the period, with which it needs to be transmitted, i.e., a larger delay between two SFs is achievable through the use of a larger SF frame size. This method provides a mechanism in which synchronization between the NC and NEs is achieved by listening to only a part of the SF, which is constant in size. This method also provides tolerance to failure by using acknowledgement schemes.
US08385254B2

A method for sharing a channel in a communication system is disclosed. The method includes receiving scheduling information including information about a channel time reserved by other user devices, and transmitting data through the reserved channel time if a result of performing scanning in the reserved channel time indicates that no interference occurs, wherein the communication system performs communication using beam signals which are directional. If the signals are highly directional, the channel sharing method enables a plurality of user devices to share a channel, thereby increasing the efficiency of channel use.
US08385249B2

An apparatus comprising a mobile access gateway (MAG) configured to receive a tunneled multicast packet from a local mobility anchor (LMA), decapsulate the tunneled multicast packet, and forward the multicast packet to a mobile node (MN). A network component comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising receiving a request message tunneled by a MAG for a MN, wherein the request message indicates that the MN wants to join a multicast group, decapsulating the tunneled message, connecting to a router for the multicast group, receiving a multicast packet from the router, and sending a tunneled multicast packet to the MN via the MAG, wherein the tunneled multicast packet has at least three Internet Protocol (IP) layer or layer 3 headers.
US08385246B2

A method of controlling downlink transmission from a base station having multiple antennas to a mobile station having multiple antennas includes the steps of applying open loop-type MIMO diversity to one or more common control channels, an MBMS channel, and an L1/L2 control channel; and applying closed loop-type MIMO multiplexing and/or MIMO diversity to a shared data channel.
US08385244B2

A method for communicating with a mobile station is presented. The method includes transmitting a first radio block to the mobile station. The first radio block including an indication instructing the mobile station to enter a DTR mode. Before receiving an indication of whether the mobile station is in DTR mode, the method includes retransmitting to the mobile station at least one of the first radio block and a radio block previously transmitted to the mobile station using a timeslot that is not monitored by the mobile station when the mobile station is in the DTR mode.
US08385240B2

A device chooses to use any one of a number of nodes with wireless wide area network (WWAN) modems, depending on whether utilization of one of the nodes will mitigate the power consumption of the device. The choice might also be a function of an energy level of the nodes. The choice can also be based on a link performance indicator. The chosen node is selected as a WWAN modem for communication and utilizes the identity of the device for application data services being supported in this mode.
US08385236B2

A user apparatus for use in a mobile communications system is disclosed. The user apparatus includes a unit which determines, using acknowledgement information received from a communications counterpart, whether retransmission is required for a transmitted signal; and a unit which transmits, to the communications counterpart, a signal required to be retransmitted according to a round-trip delay (RTD) which is set for the user apparatus for retransmission control, wherein, the RTD of the user apparatus is arranged to be changed, when the user apparatus enters a region which uses an RTD shorter than the RTD set for the user apparatus to an integer multiple of the shorter RTD.
US08385235B2

An exemplary embodiment of a full division duplex system comprises a receiver, a transmitter and an auxiliary circuit. The receiver receives an inbound RF signal of a first band to generate an inbound baseband signal, and the transmitter up converts an outbound baseband signal by an oscillation signal to generate an outbound RF signal of a second band for transmission. The auxiliary circuit calculates leakages from the outbound RF signal to generate a blocker replica, in which a LNA is coupled to a non-conductive coupling path extended from the input of receiver to collect leakages from the outbound RF signal to produce an induction signal. The induction signal is down converted to perform an adjustment, and thereafter up converted again to generate the blocker replica. In this way, the inbound baseband signal is generated from a subtraction of the inbound RF signal and the blocker replica.
US08385234B2

A basic idea for efficient media communication between two nodes in a group communication system is to set up a number, N, of parallel, separate media streams of the same media type in a given direction between the nodes, where N is equal to or greater than 2. Before setting up the media streams, the actual number of media streams is negotiated (S1). Once the negotiation is completed, the media streams are established (S2). Media data of the same type can then be transferred in parallel, media streams (S3), where each media stream may include media data from a separate source or from a mix of sources. In this way, a richer and/or more personalized rendering of the media data is enabled since media data may be transported as individual media streams and processed locally in a participant, rather than processed and mixed into a single stream by a central mixer.
US08385232B1

An integrated cellular/Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone system including a flexible alerting system, which in response to an inbound call placed to a pilot telephone number, routes a first call leg to a cellular telephone assigned to the pilot telephone number and a second call leg to a first telephone number. The telephone system further includes a VoIP server, adapted to establish an inbound call to a VoIP client in response to an inbound call leg routed to the first telephone number. To provide an integrated one-number service, the VoIP server also establishes an outbound call but sets the caller identification data to correspond to the pilot telephone number, in response to an outbound call originated by the VoIP client.
US08385227B1

A base round trip time (RTT) for a path in a network is determined. The RTT along a network path between a source node and a destination node is measured one or more times. A sample set of fitting parameters based on a distribution of historical queue delays is obtained. A Monte Carlo simulation is performed using the fitting parameters in the sample set to generate a distribution of queue delays for the measured network path. A base RTT for the network path is determined using the measured RTT and the distribution of queue delays.
US08385221B2

Embodiments of the invention provide monitoring of the Quality-of-Experience (QoE) of a mobile user of a wireless network without introducing any additional packets or requiring user feedback. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention provide QoE information based on certain control messages that may be utilized for reporting, research, or monitoring purposes. As such, a service provider could utilize the QoE information provided by embodiments of the invention to, among other possibilities, manage, upgrade, or enhance their wireless network to ensure a quality network experience for end users.
US08385218B2

To efficiently compress the information amount for feedback when a communication apparatus sends back a result of performing discrete cosine transform on the reception quality information to a communication apparatus of a communicating destination. In a communication apparatus for transmitting feedback information generated based on a plurality of reception quality information to a communicating destination apparatus, the feedback information is a result of performing discrete cosine transform on the plurality of reception quality information, and performing respective different quantization on signal components of at least a group of samples among signal components of a plurality of samples obtained by the discrete cosine transform.
US08385213B2

A method for identifying possible error causes in a network having a plurality of computer-based nodes is provided. The method comprises proceeding from a control node, the execution of a test module in each case running locally on all or on selected nodes that are to be tested is triggered for the purpose of identifying possible error causes on the respective node; testing of a network connection between all or selected nodes that are to be tested for the purpose of identifying possible error causes; and recording of a result including one error cause, provided such a cause can be identified.
US08385204B1

Methods, apparatus, and computer programs for processing packets. The method includes receiving a packet at a first port of an apparatus, wherein the packet (i) is associated with a first session of a plurality of sessions being maintained by the apparatus and (ii) includes a first transmit window size associated with the first session; storing the packet in a packet buffer prior to retransmitted the packet from the apparatus, the packet buffer having a predetermined size; modifying the first transmit window size as set forth in the first packet based on (i) the predetermined size of the packet buffer, and (ii) a second transmit window size associated with a second session of the plurality of sessions, wherein the second session is separate from the first session; and transmitting the packet having the modified first transmit window size from a second port of the apparatus.
US08385200B2

Providing for network selection management for a mobile communication environment is provided herein. By way of example, the network selection can supersede default network selection configurations of a mobile terminal. Usage behaviors of mobile terminals can be monitored to gauge service demand for individual terminals. Based on the service demand, a particular network can be selected as a default for a terminal. The network selection can be utilized for load balancing terminals among suitable mobile networks, optimizing network resources, improving services for terminal devices, or the like.
US08385194B2

A network includes an advanced bandwidth manager (ABM) to manage loading when a network nears or exceeds its capacity due to changes in the network, e.g., component failures or incremental growth. The ABM gathers strategic information from remote listeners about how traffic is being routed over the whole network, and is abstracted into point-to-point tables. The information gathered also helps to provide long term service planning. Autonomous policy enforcement points (PEP's) provide short term controls on their own. Intelligent action can be taken by the ABM through the PEP's by downloading admission tables based in the point-to-point abstractions. The goal is to keep the highest level of service up for the most users and prevent total failures. Requested network connections are either admitted or denied to these ends.
US08385187B2

The present invention concerns a receiver and a method for retrieving data from Ultra wideband radio transmission signals received by a receiver and transmitted in packets containing at least a preamble known to the receiver and a payload containing data unknown to the receiver. The payload data is formed of at least one burst containing at least one pulse. The method comprises the steps of receiving a signal corresponding to the preamble of a packet by a receiver; determining the energy of the received signal; determining weighting coefficients from the energy of the received signal; receiving a signal corresponding to the payload of a packet by a receiver; determining the energy of the received signal; calculating a threshold depending on the weighting coefficients; and applying a decision rule based on the sampled energy, weighted by said weighting coefficients and depending on said calculated threshold.
US08385171B2

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information recording apparatus, such as a digital camera, arranged to record information on a detachably mountable storage medium, such as for example to record video data on the storage medium. In one version of the apparatus, when a connection of an AC adapter is cancelled, the storage medium is detected by a storage medium detection unit, and in a case where the storage medium is not mounted to the mounting unit, a warning is issued, for example in an audio output unit or a display unit. Accordingly, the user can find out that the storage medium is not mounted before the digital camera has been brought outside for use. Thus, it may be possible to prevent a failure in which the user first realizes that they forgot to mount the storage medium only when they are already away from home.
US08385168B2

A measuring apparatus includes a first connector connected to a storage controller through a second connector of a motherboard. A control circuit receives voltage signals from the storage controller and converts the voltage signals to hard disk drive (HDD) power signals. A detecting circuit includes an AND gate and first to fourth resistors. A first input terminal of the AND gate is grounded through the first resistor and connected to the control circuit through the second resistor. A second input terminal of the AND gate is grounded through the third resistor and connected to the control circuit through the fourth resistor. An output terminal of the AND gate is connected to a measuring pin of the first connector. The AND gate receives the HDD power signals and outputs a power good (PWG) signal to the measuring pin of the first connector to be measured.
US08385155B2

A digital underwater acoustic sensor system is disclosed. The system can include an acoustic sensor configured to detect an underwater acoustic signal and form an analog signal proportional to the underwater acoustic signal. The acoustic sensor can include an interior cavity. A digital communication module can be positioned within the interior cavity. The digital communication module comprises an amplifier configured to amplify the analog signal. An analog to digital converter is configured to convert the analog signal to a digital signal. A digital signal transmission module is configured to communicate the digital signal to a receiver.
US08385151B2

Images relating to a subsurface region may be generated based at least in part on a backward propagated source wavefield and a receiver wavefield. A source wavefield may be propagated from an initial wavefield-state forward in time, from an initial time-state to a final time-state, through an earth model associated with the subsurface region. The backward propagated source wavefield may be determined by propagating the source wavefield backward in time, from the final time-state to the initial time-state, through the earth model to reconstruct the initial wavefield-state. The receiver wavefield may be propagated, from the final time-state, through the earth model. The earth model may include at least one boundary region that can be defined as having one or more of absorbing characteristics, boosting characteristics, randomly perturbed characteristics, and/or other characteristics. As such, wavefields may be dampened, amplified, randomly scattered, and/or otherwise altered at the at least one boundary region. These wavefields may be used for constructing images of subsurface regions with improved signal-to-noise ratios.
US08385149B2

The present invention proposes a gate oxide breakdown-withstanding power switch structure, which is connected with an SRAM and comprises a first CMOS switch and a second CMOS switch respectively having different gate-oxide thicknesses or different threshold voltages. The CMOS switch, which has a normal gate-oxide thickness or a normal threshold voltage, provides current for the SRAM to wake up the SRAM from a standby or sleep mode to an active mode. The CMOS switch, which has a thicker gate-oxide thickness or a higher threshold voltage, provides current for the SRAM to work in an active mode. The present invention prevents a power switch from gate-oxide breakdown lest noise margin, stabilization and performance of SRAM be affected.
US08385137B2

A semiconductor device includes a termination driver for driving a data line with a predetermined termination level by using an external power supply voltage and a drive current controller for controlling a drive current flowing into the data line from the termination driver in response to a voltage level of the external power supply voltage.
US08385136B2

The present application discloses a memory circuit having a first data line configured to carry a first data line signal and a second data line configured to carry a second data line signal. Further, a first driver is coupled to the first data line and the second data line and configured to establish a first current path for the first data line responsive to the second data line signal. Similarly, a second driver is coupled to the first data line and the second data line and configured to establish a second current path for the second data line responsive to the first data line signal. The memory circuit further has a first driver enabling line configured to selectively enable the first driver and a second driver enabling line configured to selectively enable the second driver.
US08385135B2

A voltage regulator for a regulated voltage generator configured to generate an operating voltage and including a variable comparison voltage generator, a comparison voltage, a partition branch including a plurality of active devices of a resistive type to receive the operating voltage and supply an intermediate voltage correlated to the operating voltage, and a comparator, to receive the comparison voltage and the intermediate voltage and supply a regulation signal for the regulated-voltage generator.
US08385133B2

A flash memory system for an A/V player, utilizing a two-level round-robin write scheme upon N flash memory planes, enabling the A/V player to be loaded with data at a data throughput essentially N times the write throughput of one of the flash memory planes. The flash chips' memory cores and data registers, and the memory system's write buffers, can be kept fully utilized during data writing.
US08385126B2

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device according to one embodiment of the present invention includes: a memory cell array and a control circuit. The control circuit executes a first reading operation and a second reading operation. The first reading operation is an operation of reading a threshold voltage set in the selected memory cell by setting a voltage between a control gate electrode and source of the selected memory cell to a first value. The second reading operation is an operation of reading a threshold voltage set in the selected memory cell by setting a voltage between the control gate electrode and source of the selected memory cell to a second value lower than the first value. When executing the second reading operation, the control circuit keeps a voltage of the control gate electrode of the selected memory cell to 0 or a positive value.
US08385097B2

In a method for controlling a Voltage Source Converter having at least one phase leg comprising a series connection of switching elements, in which each said element has at least two semiconductor devices of turn-off type, at least two free-wheeling diodes connected in parallel therewith and at least one energy storing capacitor, each said switching element is controlled according to a Pulse Width Modulation pattern so that each switching element is switched to change between applying a zero voltage and the voltage across its capacitor across its terminals each time a saw tooth voltage wave for that switching element crosses a reference alternating voltage belonging to that switching element.
US08385096B2

In compensating for unbalanced voltages of three-phase AC, instantaneous values of wye-phase voltages 120° out of phase with each other are obtained from line voltages using a centroid vector operation, symmetrical component voltages of three-phase balanced system are obtained from the instantaneous values of wye-phase voltages, a compensation signal to compensate unbalanced voltages of three-phase AC is generated from zero-phase-sequence voltage of symmetrical component voltages is generated, wye-phase voltages 120° out of phase, the unbalanced voltages of which are compensated, are obtained from the compensation signal and the symmetrical component voltages, a control signal of a PWM conversion is generated based on the compensated wye-phase voltage compensated, and the unbalanced voltages of three-phase AC are compensated. The amount of time to compensate the three-phase unbalanced voltages required for detecting an unbalance of voltages and generating a control signal can be shortened.
US08385084B2

A shielding structure is provided for shielding a signal path extending between a first layer and a second layer in an electronic device at a transition region with a transition that extends in a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The shielding structure includes a shielding structure portion, which includes a first shielding via in proximity to a first area of the signal path at the transition; a second shielding via in proximity to a second area of the signal path at the transition; and an area metallization electrically coupled to the first shielding via.
US08385077B2

An electronic device includes a housing having an accommodation space, a first support body being slidably insertable into the accommodation space in parallel with a predetermined plane, a second support body coupled with the first support body rotatably around a rotation axis parallel to a front side of the housing and being rotatable between a reference attitude disposed in the same plane with respect to the first support body and an inclined attitude disposed at a given angle with respect to the first support body, and a drive mechanism for changing the attitude of the second support body.
US08385076B2

An exemplary electronic device includes a case, an inner body and a pivotable arm pivotally connected on the inner body by a pivot. The case defines an opening at a first lateral side thereof and a latching hole at a second lateral side thereof adjacent to the opening. The inner body is inserted in the case through the opening. The pivotable arm includes a frame engaged in the latching hole of the case, a latching member pivotally connected to the frame by the pivot, and a resilient member. The latching member includes an inner end and an outer end at opposite sides of the pivot. The outer end of the latching member is engaged in the latching hole. The resilient member abuts against the inner end of the latching member such that the inner end of the latching member biases the inner body.
US08385075B2

A modular portable computer system is described. A top modular layer with a coupled display interface and adapted to be interconnected with other modular layers. A second modular layer is interconnected with the top modular layer and other modular layers, for providing a power source to supply operating power to said top modular layer and to those other modular layers present and is disposed beneath the top modular layer. A third modular layer is interconnected with the top modular layer and the second modular layer for providing baseline logic electronics and communication components to the modular portable computer system and is disposed beneath the top modular layer. A universal interconnect for providing electronic and communicative interconnection of each modular layer is disposed at least once on each modular layer.
US08385074B2

A display unit for displaying information including a housing having an opening and a display unit with a display, moveable between a rest position in which the display unit is completely retracted into the housing and a display position in which the display unit is extended from the housing. A cover is moveably driven between a cover position that covers the housing opening and a release position releasing the housing opening. The display unit and the cover can be moveably driven by way of a coupling assembly by a rotary drive. The coupling assembly couples the motion of the display unit and the cover. The coupling assembly includes a first coupler that can rotate about a fixed first axis of rotation with a free end of hinged to the cover. The display unit is hinged to a free end of a second coupler by a second linkage at the cover and at distances from the first linkage and the second linkage by a third linkage.
US08385070B2

A portable electronic device comprises a housing, a circuit board, a heat-conduction structure and a heat-dissipation structure. The circuit board is disposed in the housing. The heat-conduction structure is disposed in the housing and contacts the circuit board. The heat-dissipation structure is disposed outside the housing and connected to the heat-conduction structure, wherein heat is transmitted from the circuit board, passing the heat-conduction structure and the heat-dissipation structure to be dissipated out of the housing.
US08385066B2

A flow control device and a related cooled electronic system are provided. The electronic system comprises a first heat dissipation component and a second heat dissipation component. The flow control device controls an amount of an air flow to the first heat dissipation component and the second heat dissipation component. In one illustrative embodiment, the flow control device comprises: a memory metal component coupled to the first heat dissipation component and the second heat dissipation component and a movable component comprising a first end and a second end. The first end is coupled to a point between two ends of the memory metal component and the second end is movable with respect to the first end. In response to a temperature difference between the first heat dissipation component and the second heat dissipation component, the second end approaches the first heat dissipation component or the second heat dissipation component.
US08385065B2

Gimbal system, including apparatus and methods, with forced flow of external air through a channel to remove heat. The system may comprise a support portion including at least one electronic component and defining a channel, a gimbal assembly pivotably connected to and supported by the support portion, and a payload pivotably orientable with respect to the support portion by the gimbal assembly. The support portion alone or collectively with the gimbal assembly may define a chamber in which the electronic component is disposed. The support portion may include a forced-air device configured to drive flow of external air through the channel, thereby removing heat transferred to the channel from the electronic component.
US08385063B2

An electronic device includes a body, a cover, a sliding apparatus, and a latch assembly. The body defines two sliding slots. The sliding apparatus is received in the two sliding slots and is slidable relative to the two sliding slots. The cover is foldable on the body and is rotatably coupled to the sliding apparatus. The latch assembly is fixed to the sliding apparatus. When the latch assembly latches the body, the sliding apparatus is unlatched from the electronic device, and the cover is slidable relative to the body and is unfolded while the cover slides away from the body.
US08385062B2

A hard disk device frame for fastening a plurality of hard disk devices, a fan, and a main board is disclosed. The hard disk device frame includes a rotary piece, a back chassis, and plural hinges. The rotary piece includes a front chassis having an opening; and a bracket fixed on the front chassis, wherein the hard disk devices enter the opening and couple to the bracket. The fan and the main board are fixed on the back chassis. The hinges connect the front chassis and the back chassis, thereby the rotary piece is pivoted relative to the back chassis to hide or expose the fan and the main board on the back chassis.
US08385056B2

A two-axis hinge unit is provided with a first rotating shaft that rotates so as to open in the vertical direction from a folded state with a first casing and a second casing overlapping and a second rotating shaft that rotates so as to open in the horizontal direction from a folded state with the first casing and the second casing overlapping, and is provided with a restriction member positioned between the first rotating shaft and the second rotating shaft that, when one of the rotating shafts is in a predetermined rotational position, is pressed by this one rotating shaft and engages with the other rotating shaft, thereby restricting rotation of that other rotating shaft.
US08385054B2

A support structure for supporting a computer device includes a clamping frame, two clamping members, and a support rod. The clamping frame is used for clamping a side of the computer device. The two clamping members are disposed on the clamping frame. At least one of the two clamping members has at least one angle positioning bump. The support rod is disposed at a side of the clamping frame for supporting the clamping frame. The support rod includes an arm portion and a shaft portion. The arm portion has an angle positioning hole for engaging with the angle positioning bump to fix an angle of the arm portion relative to the clamping frame. The shaft portion is extendedly connected to an end of the arm portion and detachably disposed between the clamping members, for making the arm portion capable of rotating relative to the clamping frame.
US08385047B2

A multi-layer film-stack and method for forming the multilayer film-stack is given where a series of alternating layers of conducting and dielectric materials are deposited such that the conducting layers can be selectively addressed. The use of the method to form integratable high capacitance density capacitors and complete the formation of an integrated power system-on-a-chip device including transistors, conductors, inductors, and capacitors is also given.
US08385044B2

A film capacitor is provided that includes a case in which a film cell is incorporated and a heat radiating plate including a heat absorption unit being positioned adjacent to the film cell while not being in contact with the film cell for absorbing heat and a heat radiating unit being exposed to the outside of the case. Preferred film capacitors can perform a stable operation and have durable lifespan, even when an inverter adopting the film capacitor is mounted on a trunk room and an engine room, by effectively cooling heat generated from a film cell of the film capacitor.
US08385042B2

Disclosed herein are methods for selective control of groups of wireless initiation devices such as wireless electronic boosters at a blast site. Such methods may be applied to a wide variety of blasting techniques that would benefit from the use of wireless control and initiation of explosive charges at the blast site.
US08385041B2

A method of using honeycomb material having opposite surfaces and flow channels between the surfaces, includes directing fluid flow through the channels while applying a voltage between the surfaces and across fluid flowing in the channels. A method of using honeycomb material that includes at least one electrode, the honeycomb material and electrode be useful in an electrical or electronic device, includes using the honeycomb material to support or to suspend the electrical or electronic device. An apparatus includes a honeycomb structure of dielectric material having a number of flow channels therethrough, an electrode at a surface of the dielectric material responsive to electrical input to apply an electrical response alone or with regard to another electrode, the honeycomb structure having cohesive strength and rigidity to support itself and the electrode from in suspended relation.
US08385039B2

An electronic device for predicting or anticipating a user's operational desires. The electronic device is ready to perform the anticipated function without input from the user by using sensors to sense environmental attributes. The sensors can include an ambient light sensor, a force sensor, a temperature sensor, an ambient noise sensor, and a motion sensor. The electronic device also includes a control mechanism for switching between modes for the device.
US08385037B2

A protective switching device is disclosed for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user, including a switching functionality, an excess current triggering functionality and a short circuit triggering functionality. In at least one embodiment, the protective switching device includes a first microcontroller with a first input signal filter, wherein the first microcontroller is configured for monitoring the excess current triggering functionality and wherein a second microcontroller is provided with a second input signal filter that is configured for monitoring the short circuit triggering functionality, wherein the two input signal filters are designed differently, and wherein the switching functionality is provided in one of the two microcontrollers. A method is further disclosed for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user by way of a protective switching device.
US08385032B1

An embodiment bridgeless power factor correction circuit comprises a first boost converter and a second boost converter connected in parallel. A first switch is coupled between the input of the first boost converter and ground. A second switch is coupled between the input of the second boost converter and ground. Both the first switch and the second switch help to reduce the common mode noise of the bridgeless power factor correction circuit. The bridgeless power factor correction circuit further comprises two surge protection diodes coupled between the inputs of two boost converters and the output of the bridgeless power factor correction circuit.
US08385021B2

A plasmon generator positioned away from the substrate and extending to the air bearing surface (ABS) as facing a part of the waveguide. The plasmon generator has a propagation edge extending in a longitudinal direction. The propagation edge has an overlapping part overlapping the waveguide in the longitudinal direction, and a near field light generator positioned on the ABS and located in the vicinity of the edge part of the recording magnetic pole. The overlapping part of the propagation edge is coupled with the laser light propagating through the waveguide in a surface plasmon mode so that a surface plasmon is generated. The propagation edge propagates the surface plasmon generated in the overlapping part to the near field light generator. The magnetic recording element further has a grounding element electrically connecting the plasmon generator and the substrate.
US08385020B2

A shield design for a magnetic write head is described that eliminates the far-field WATE problem while still maintaining side shielding ability. This is achieved by moving all but the central sections of the three shields (LS, SS, and WS) and, optionally, the top yoke a short distance further away from the recording medium than the ABS.
US08385019B1

A magnetic head includes a coil, a main pole, a write shield, a gap part, and a return path section. The return path section is located on the front side in the direction of travel of a recording medium relative to the main pole, and connects the write shield and part of the main pole away from a medium facing surface to each other. The coil includes a specific coil element. The main pole has a top surface including an inclined portion and a flat portion. The write shield has an inclined surface. The inclined surface includes a first portion opposed to the inclined portion with the gap part therebetween, and a second portion located farther from the medium facing surface than the first portion. The specific coil element includes a portion interposed between the flat portion and the second portion.
US08385012B2

A method for thermal management of a solid immersion lens is described. In one example, a method includes applying a lens tip assembly of a solid immersion lens to a device under test, focusing an image of the device under test on an optical probe, applying a first thermally controlled fluid to a first heat exchanger thermally coupled to the objective near the lens tip assembly, applying a second thermally controlled fluid to a second heat exchanger thermally coupled to the objective farther from the lens tip assembly than the first heat exchanger, to independently alternately heat or cool a portion of the objective different from that of the first heat exchanger.
US08385009B2

A scanner lens includes a first lens, a second lens, and a third lens. The first lens is provided with a first focal length. The first, second, and third lenses are sequentially arranged from an object end to an imaging end and are respectively provided with a plus diopter, a minus diopter, and a plus diopter. At least one of the first, second, and third lenses comprises an aspheric lens. The ratio of the first focal length to a system focal length of the scanner lens ranges between 1 and 2.
US08385007B2

A micro-lens module including a first lens group and a second lens group is provided. The first lens group is disposed between an object side and an image side, wherein a surface closest to the object side in the first lens group is a first aspheric surface, whose radius of curvature is r1. A surface closest to the image side in the first lens group is a second aspheric surface, whose radius of curvature is r2. The second lens group is disposed between the first lens group and the image side, wherein a surface closest to the first lens group in the second lens group is a third aspheric surface, whose radius of curvature thereof is r3. A surface closest to the image side in the second lens group is a fourth aspheric surface. The micro-lens module satisfies: 0.6>r1>0.4 mm, and 0.3
US08385004B2

An apparatus for attachment to a portable image capture and storage device. The apparatus includes an auxiliary lens and an elastic band coupled thereto. The auxiliary lens is shaped for image alteration of an image obtained by the portable image capture and storage device. The auxiliary lens characterized by an optical axis extending from a base of the lens to a crown of the lens. The elastic band extends, at least in part, in a lateral direction, substantially orthogonal to the optical axis, from the auxiliary lens. The elastic band in combination with the auxiliary lens forms a closed loop whereby the apparatus is removably attachable to a peripheral portion of the image capture and storage device to alter the appearance of the image obtained by the portable image capture and storage device.
US08385001B2

A zoom projection lens system, in order from the magnification side to the minification side thereof, includes a first lens group with negative refraction power, a second lens group with positive refraction power, a third lens group with positive refraction power, a fourth lens group with negative refraction power; and a fifth lens group with positive refraction power. The first, second, third, fourth lens group are movably positioned, and the fifth lens group is immovably positioned. The first lens group includes a first aspherical plastic lens. The second lens group includes a second aspherical plastic lens. The fourth lens group includes a third aspherical plastic lens. The system satisfies the formula: −2.4≦Fa1/Fw≦−2.1; 2.9≦Fb1/Fw≦3.2; −3.8≦Fa2/Fw≦−3.6, wherein Fa1, Fa2, Fb1 are the effective focal lengths of the first, second, third aspherical plastic lens respectively, Fw is the effective focal lengths of the system in a wide angle state.
US08384988B2

A three-dimensional geometric photonic crystal and a method of fabricating the photonic crystal are disclosed. The photonic crystal includes a geometric structure having a plurality of electrophoretic self-assembled particles and the plurality of particles are periodically arranged at any cross sections of the geometric structure. The method includes preparing an electrophoresis deposition suspension, installing first and second electrodes in the electrophoresis deposition suspension with the first electrode being encircled by the second electrode, and applying a voltage to the first electrode and the second electrode to form an electric field between the first and second electrodes, such that particles in the electrophoresis deposition suspension are electrophoretic self-assembled, and a periodically arranged geometric structure is formed. A photonic crystal thus may have a three-dimensional geometric structure in any shape.
US08384981B2

An electrochromic material including at least one compound represented by Chemical Formulas 1 to 3, for use in an electrochromic device: wherein Z1 to Z3 are each independently selected from a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C30 arylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C2 to C30 heteroarylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C3 to C30 cycloalkylene group or a combination thereof, R1 to R3 are each independently selected from a single bond, a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C30 alkylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C3 to C30 cycloalkylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C30 arylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C2 to C30 heteroarylene group or a combination thereof.
US08384978B2

An optical clock comprises a laser oscillator and modulating means arranged to cooperate with the laser oscillator to produce a series a series of phase-modulated optical pulses. The optical clock further comprises an optical fiber arranged to provide compression of the optical pulses, and may also comprise a step-recovery diode arranged to pulse-pick pulses output from the fiber to produce a series of optical clock pulses, depending on the mode of operation of the modulating means. Phase-modulation is carried out a frequency which provides sufficient linewidth broadening to inhibit stimulated Brillouin scattering within the optical fiber. An optical clock of the invention provides a robust and reliable alternative to clocks based on modelocked lasers, and may be assembled from inexpensive, commonly-available components. The repetition rate of a clock of the invention may easily be adjusted by electronic means. Unlike many modelocked lasers, a clock of the invention does not require precise optical alignment.
US08384977B2

A light extracting device includes a dual light generating unit and a first order Bragg grating unit. The dual light generating unit is for receiving an input optical signal and a control signal, and for generating from the input optical signal first and second optical signals that have a phase difference there between. The phase difference is associated with the control signal. The first order Bragg grating unit is for receiving the first and second optical signals from the dual light generating unit, and for causing optical interference to occur between the first and second optical signals within a predetermined wavelength range to result in first and second output optical signals.
US08384970B2

A document setting position on a document set tray 101 where a small-sized document is set is determined by positionally matching a near-side reference position (a position of or set in the vicinity of a user-side end of a document placement surface of the document set tray 101) and a user-side edge of the document. An output tray 114 has a window 115 made from a transparent material so as to allow a user to see a document setting position on the document set tray 101 where the user sets a small-sized document. This makes it possible to adjust a position on the document set tray 101 where a document is placed, in use of an image reading apparatus 100 in which the document set tray 101 for placing thereon a document to be read is provided below the output tray 114 for placing a read document thereon.
US08384965B2

A communication system includes a printing apparatus and a data transmitting apparatus configured to transmit image data to the printing apparatus. The printing apparatus includes a printing unit, a recording medium information obtaining unit that obtains information identifying the recording medium on which an image has not be printed normally, and a retransmission requesting unit that requests the data transmitting apparatus to retransmit image data corresponding to the recording medium on which an image has not been printed normally in accordance with the recording medium information. The data transmitting apparatus includes an image data storage unit that stores the image data transmitted to the printing apparatus, and an image data retransmitting unit configured such that, when retransmission of the image data is requested by the printing apparatus, the image data retransmitting unit retrieves the image data from the image data storing unit and transmits te same to the printing apparatus.
US08384960B2

An image forming apparatus includes: an image bearing member; an image forming unit configured to form a toner image on the image bearing member based on an image input signal; a detection sensor configured to detect a detection image at multiple density levels, which is formed by the image forming unit; a correction unit configured to correct image output characteristics of the image forming unit with respect to the image input signal, based on a detection result of the detection sensor; and a change unit configured to change the density levels at which the detection image is formed so that the detection image is preferentially formed in a density area of a large absolute value of a rate of change of slope of the image output characteristics.
US08384951B2

An image generating device for generating a gradation in which the color value changes from a center of the gradation through multiple areas includes an acquisition unit that acquires parameters representing a gradation pattern including the center and shape of the gradation, a symmetry judgment unit that judges whether the gradation symmetry is satisfied (condition that the shape has line symmetry or point symmetry and the gradation center is on a line symmetry axis or at the center of point symmetry), an area determination unit that determines a partial area usable for generating a whole gradation using the gradation symmetry if the gradation symmetry is judged to be satisfied, a drawing unit that draws the gradation in the partial area based on the parameters, and a gradation development unit that develops the drawn gradation into the whole gradation using the gradation symmetry.
US08384943B2

It enables even by an image forming apparatus which does not have a function to recognize an image other than a leading image included in a multi-image file to print the image other than the leading image. To do so, there is provided a control method which comprises: outputting the image included in the multi-image file of a format in which the leading image can be processed by an image processing apparatus which does not deal with the multi-image file but an image other than the leading image cannot be processed by the image processing apparatus which does not deal with the multi-image file; and replacing, in a case where an output instruction to output, among the plural images included in the multi-image file, the image other than the leading image has been accepted, the image to which the output instruction has been accepted with the leading image.
US08384930B2

An information processing system includes: an information processing apparatus; and an image input apparatus. The information processing apparatus performs: storing a correspondence relationship between a document and a user in charge of the image input of the document; transmitting a request for the image input to the user; picking out information on the document from the correspondence relationship on the basis of information on the user; and transmitting the information on the document to the image input apparatus. The image input apparatus performs: authenticating the user; transmitting a name specifying the authenticated user to the information processing system; receiving information on a document associated with the user from the information processing system; requesting the image input based on the received information on the document; inputting an image; registering the input image; and transmitting to the information processing system information on the registered image and the document.
US08384928B2

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus in which even in the event that a print job is suspended by reason of payment of an insufficient fee, image formation continues effectively and appropriately. The image forming apparatus, which charges for image formation processing, has determination means for determining whether or not a fee necessary in order to execute a specified print job has been received; printing suspension means for suspending the print job if the determination means has determined that a fee received is insufficient; and authentication means for authenticating user information during suspension of printing. The apparatus further includes printing control means for saving data relating to the suspended print job and accepting a print job from a different user if use of user information that is identical with user information of the suspended print job has not been sensed by the authentication means.
US08384927B2

An efficient and effective method for managing a plurality of print jobs is implemented on a print job management apparatus (e.g. a server) which is connected to a plurality of printing devices. The print job management apparatus groups the received print jobs into a number of groups based on various criteria, such as customer information, print priority, color settings, the number of copies, paper size, paper type, finishing options, etc., and submits each group of print jobs to one printing device for printing. Different groups of print jobs can be submitted to different printing devices, and each printing device prints the print jobs submitted to it. The print job management apparatus can also display the grouping result to an operator. The method allows the print job management apparatus and the operator to more efficiently manage the print jobs.
US08384921B2

An image forming apparatus registers a mode program constituted by operation mode information set to a job in order to execute the job by retrieving the mode program. A mode program registration section outputs an instruction to acquire the operation mode information set to the job and acquires the operation mode information. An operation mode acquisition section sends a request to a software part corresponding to a process constituting said job to acquire the operation mode information, and acquires and outputs the operation mode information of a predetermined type, which is a return value output from the software part, to the mode program registration section. A mode program information management section creates mode program information including the operation mode information acquired by the mode program registration section and identification information of the mode program, and stores the mode program information in a mode program information retaining section.
US08384918B2

A method for enforcing a user specified minimum font size (USMFS) in a hardcopy document (HD). The method includes: receiving a request to print an electronic document (ED) according to a magnification ratio; identifying a first character in the ED having a first font size smaller than a quotient of the USMFS divided by the magnification ratio; and increasing the first font size by a scale factor to match the quotient; where the HD is generated by scaling the ED according to the magnification ratio, and wherein the HD comprises the first character in the USMFS.
US08384912B2

In an optical tracking system for determining the pose of a moving object in a reference coordinate system, the system including at least one light emitter, at least one optical detector for detecting the light emitted by the at least one light emitter and a pose processor, coupled with the at least one optical detector, and with the at least one light emitter, for determining the pose of the moving object according to the light detected by the at least one optical detector.
US08384911B2

A measurement device includes a pattern light characteristic setting unit configured to set illumination light having a pattern light characteristic to be projected onto a measurement object, a reflected light measurement unit configured to measure reflected light when the measurement object is irradiated with the illumination light on, an image feature extraction unit configured to extract from the measured reflected light an image feature based on a physical characteristic of the measurement object, a feature distribution calculation unit configured to calculate a distribution characteristic for each local region of the image feature, and a pattern light control unit configured to control the pattern light characteristic of the illumination light, which includes a pattern light characteristic for distance measurement and a pattern light characteristic for image feature extraction, based on the calculated distribution characteristic for each local region.
US08384910B2

An interferometer of the present invention includes a PBS2 which splits light into reference light and measurement light, a reference mirror 4a which reflects the reference light entering the reference mirror from a first direction, a measurement mirror 4b which reflects the measurement light entering the measurement mirror from a second direction, a lens system 6 which reflected lights from the reference mirror 4a and the measurement light 4b enter, a reflective device 5 which reflects light from the lens system 6, and a light receiving device 16 which receives multiplexed light, wherein the reference mirror 4a and the measurement mirror 4b are in a conjugate relation with respect to the reflective device 5, and at least one of the reference mirror 4a and the measurement mirror 4b is tilted so that its normal direction differs from the first and the second direction.
US08384909B2

An apparatus and method are provided. In particular, at least one first electro-magnetic radiation may be provided to a sample and at least one second electro-magnetic radiation can be provided to a non-reflective reference. A frequency of the first and/or second radiations varies over time. An interference is detected between at least one third radiation associated with the first radiation and at least one fourth radiation associated with the second radiation. Alternatively, the first electro-magnetic radiation and/or second electro-magnetic radiation have a spectrum which changes over time. The spectrum may contain multiple frequencies at a particular time. In addition, it is possible to detect the interference signal between the third radiation and the fourth radiation in a first polarization state. Further, it may be preferable to detect a further interference signal between the third and fourth radiations in a second polarization state which is different from the first polarization state. The first and/or second electro-magnetic radiations may have a spectrum whose mean frequency changes substantially continuously over time at a tuning speed that is greater than 100 Tera Hertz per millisecond.
US08384907B2

Method, apparatus and arrangement according an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be provided for generating an image of at least one portion of an anatomical structure. For example, the portion can have an area greater than about 1 mm2, and the image can have a resolution a transverse resolution that is below about 10 μm. For example, light can be scanned over such portion so as to generate first information which is related to the portion, where the light may be provided through a diffraction arrangement to generate a spectrally dispersed line. Method, apparatus and arrangement according to a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be provided for positioning a radiation or optical beam within an anatomical structure based on signals generated by scanning a portion of the structure using the same or a different beam.
US08384902B2

A gas flow cell for an optical gas-analysis system, including a cylindrical cell body; and a single sample-gas introduction port configured to introduce sample-gas. The single sample-gas introduction port is provided at a location at a substantial center of the cell body with respect to a long axis direction of the cell body, and the single sample-gas introduction port is aligned along a direction orthogonal to the long axis direction so that the cylindrical cell body and the single sample-gas introduction port together form a shape of a character T.
US08384901B2

The invention relates to the scan methods and means for tomographic examination of two-dimensional structure of planar objects. The invention aims at developing a method of studying nanodimensional or microscopic objects with a resolution of the order of 30 nanometer and means of implementation of such a method. The task in view is performed such that the scanning microscope comprises a radiation source 1, as well as, positioned along the radiation rays, an opaque screen 2 with a slit, an object stage 4 with a mobility device for disposing of and maneuvering with an object under examination within the scan plane 7, a radiation detector 8 connected to an information processing unit 9, wherein according to the embodiment, the opaque screen is supplied with at least one slit shutter 3 movable in the plane of the opaque screen, the slit shutter providing the variability of cross-sectional dimensions of the slit.
US08384892B2

Highly sensitive Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) sensors are described in the form of a optical resonator and a metal nanostructure deposited on surface of the optical resonator. In one embodiment the optical resonator is in the form of a photonic crystal, but other optical resonators are contemplated. Examples are described in which the resonant near-fields of a large-area replica molded photonic crystal efficiently couples light from a laser to dielectric-metal “post-cap” nanostructures deposited on the photonic crystal surface by a glancing angle evaporation technique, achieving a high SERS enhancement factor. Other constructions are also contemplated a metal nanostructure formed on a dielectric support deposited on the photonic crystal, including a metallic film deposited over close-packed surface of nanospheres, arrays of metallic nanotriangles, metallic nanorods, metallic nanohelices, arrays of metallic nanospheres, and roughened metal surfaces.
US08384885B2

A personal identification system, which uses a vein pattern of a finger, optimizes the amount of light of a light source based on a captured finger image and emphasizes the vein pattern during image processing for identification.
US08384877B2

There is provided an exposure apparatus capable of forming a desirable device pattern by removing unnecessary liquid when performing exposure by projecting a pattern onto the substrate via a projection optical system and the liquid. The exposure device projects an image of the pattern onto the substrate P via the projection optical system and the liquid so as to expose the substrate P. The exposure device includes a liquid removing mechanism 40 which removes the liquid remaining on a part 7 arranged in the vicinity of the image plane of the projection optical system.
US08384875B2

An exposure apparatus includes a mask-moving section movable in a first direction while holding a mask formed with a pattern; an illumination system which forms first and second illumination areas separated each other by a spacing distance in the first direction; a substrate-moving section movable in a second direction while holding a photosensitive substrate; a projection optical system which forms first and second projected images of the patterns of the first and second illumination areas; and a restricting section which restricts the first and second projected images to be within first and second projection areas respectively. A spacing distance between a first conjugate area with the first projection area and a second conjugate area with the second projection area is set to be such a spacing distance that scanning exposures are successively performed for first and second transfer areas provided adjacently in the second direction.
US08384873B2

A drill 40 for repairing a point defect in a liquid crystal device 10 in accordance with the present invention is the drill 40 for cutting the glass substrate 11 included in the liquid crystal device 10 so as to repair the point defect in the liquid crystal device 10. The drill 40 is characterized by having a point angle PA from 130 to 180 deg.
US08384870B2

A display substrate includes a first switching element, a second switching element, a first pixel electrode, a second pixel electrode, a main storage electrode and a sub-storage electrode. The first switching element is connected to a data line and a first gate line. The second switching element is connected to the data line and a second gate line adjacent to the first gate line. The first pixel electrode is electrically connected to the first switching element. The second pixel electrode is electrically connected to the second switching element. The main storage electrode is disposed in an area between the first pixel electrode and the second electrode to overlap with first ends of the first and second pixel electrodes. The sub-storage electrode is spaced apart from the first and second gate lines.
US08384852B2

An daylight-coupled display includes a plurality of passive backlights cascaded in a stack for backlighting of LCD panels or static display panels. The display includes a diffuser to transmit light to multiple cascaded curved reflectors, each of which reflects light for backlighting of the display. A polarization rotator is located within the backlight such that the reflectors provide the correct polarization of light to the LCD panel for backlighting of it. One daylight-coupled display can include an active light source to provide light to the reflectors A secondary light source can provide light to at least one of the reflectors to provide backlighting of the display in low lighting conditions.
US08384849B2

A light guide plate includes a main body, a main reflective structure and an auxiliary reflective structure. The main reflective structure has a first included angle and a second included angle with respect to a bottom surface of the main body. The auxiliary reflective structure is adjacent to the main reflective structure and has a third included angle and a fourth included angle with respect to the bottom surface. A height difference between the main reflective structure and the auxiliary reflective structure ranges between 1.5 micrometer and 5 micrometer, and a bottom width of the auxiliary reflective structure on the bottom surface is smaller than a bottom width of the main reflective structure on the bottom surface. A liquid crystal display is also disclosed herein.
US08384838B2

A liquid crystal display device is provided, capable of minimizing deterioration in display quality of a liquid crystal panel due to external force generated by connection with an external chassis such as a customer's chassis. The liquid crystal display device has, at least, a front frame, a liquid crystal panel, and a backlight unit having at least a rear frame, arranged in this order. A back fixing frame to be fixed to the front frame is provided on the back face of the liquid crystal display device, and attachment portions to be attached to an external chassis are provided in the back fixing frame. This makes it difficult for external force generated by connection with the external chassis to be transmitted to the liquid crystal panel or the backlight unit, suppresses deformation of the liquid crystal panel or reflection sheet and prevents deterioration in display quality.
US08384826B2

Deterioration of the image quality of a moving image which is deteriorated due to a motion-compensated frame rate conversion (FRC) processing is prevented. An image display device comprises an FRC portion (10) for converting the number of frames of an input image signal by interpolating an image signal to which the motion compensation processing is performed between frames of the input image signal and a controlling portion (15) for controlling the operation of the FRC portion (10) after determining whether or not the degree of deterioration of the input image signal is equal to or higher than a predetermined value. The FRC portion (10) comprises a motion vector detecting portion (11e) for detecting a motion vector between frames of the input image signal, an interpolating vector evaluating portion (11f) for allocating an interpolating vector between the frames based on the motion vector information, and an interpolating frame generating portion (12d) for generating an interpolating frame from the interpolating vector. If the degree of deterioration of the input image signal is equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the controlling portion (15) makes the motion compensation of the FRC portion (10) ineffective by setting the motion vector detected by the motion vector detecting portion (11e) to a zero vector.
US08384816B2

An electronic apparatus includes an operation receiving unit configured to receive a selection operation for selecting, in a case where index images for allowing selection of content to be reproduced are displayed in list form on a display unit, an index image from among the index images displayed in list form, an image processing unit configured to sequentially scale up an image related to content corresponding to the selected index image from a size of the selected index image to a certain size, and a control unit configured to cause the display unit to display the image that is being sequentially scaled up, with an arrangement position of the selected index image serving as a reference position, and cause the display unit to display the content corresponding to the selected index image when a size of the image that is being sequentially scaled up reaches the certain size.
US08384813B2

An image sensor includes a two-dimensional array of pixels having multiple column outputs and an output circuit connected to each column output. Each output circuit is configured to operate concurrent sample and read operations. A timing generator outputs a column address sequence that is received by a column decoder that is electrically connected to each output circuit. The timing generator suspends the output of the column address sequence during a sample operation and resumes the output of the column address sequence at the end of the sample operation.
US08384812B2

A technique capable of satisfying both higher functionality and higher accuracy in a compact imaging device is sought to be provided. In order to accomplish the above object, an imaging device is formed by lamination of a plurality of layers including: an imaging element layer that has an imaging element part; a lens layer that has a lens part whose distance from the imaging element part is changeable, and is disposed between a subject and the imaging element part; and an actuator layer that has an actuator part to move the lens part, and is disposed between the subject and the imaging element part.
US08384810B2

The invention relates to an image sensor array having multiple pixel sensor elements along the surface area of said image sensor and outputting at a specified video frame rate subsequent video frames corresponding to the image, characterized in that each multiple pixel sensor element is arranged for generating one or more video frame segments, said segments each having a time duration being a fraction of the time equivalent to the video frame rate, and composing a single video frame from the multiple of said video frame segments. The invention also relates to said pixel sensor element for use with an image intensifier or in an electron bombarded image sensor array device according to the invention.
US08384807B2

An imaging element includes: a plurality of color filters arranged in a Bayer array; photoelectric conversion elements provided for the respective color filters; a signal adder circuit which carries out additions in each of the unit grids, by (i) adding up signals outputted from two photoelectric conversion elements corresponding to different colors of two color filters out of four color filters, and (ii) adding up signals outputted from two photoelectric conversion elements corresponding to remaining two color filters; and an A/D converter. The imaging element outputs: (i) a first digital image signal where signals of one color out of Ye (yellow) and Cy (cyan), and signals of G, are alternately placed; and (ii) a second digital image signal where signals of an other color out of Ye and Cy, which is different from the one color, and signals of Mg (magenta), are alternately placed.
US08384804B2

An imaging apparatus includes a pixel unit having a photoelectric conversion section and an amplifying device for amplifying a signal from the photoelectric conversion section and outputting the signal, a reading unit having a first mode in which a signal obtained by resetting an input section of the amplifying device is sampled a plurality of times via the amplifying device and a second mode in which a photoelectric conversion signal generated in the photoelectric conversion section is sampled a plurality of times via the amplifying device; a mixing unit for generating a first mixing signal by mixing the signals that are sampled in the first mode, outputting the first mixing signal, generating a second mixing signal by mixing the signals that are sampled in the second mode, and outputting the second mixing signal; and a difference processing unit for performing difference processing between the first mixing signal and the second mixing signal.
US08384802B2

An image generating apparatus generating image data of a plurality of different viewpoints, comprises: a file converting device which records the image data of each viewpoint in a general-purpose image file format, and records moving image regeneration information including a regeneration time interval for regenerating each image as a moving image, and viewpoint information for regenerating each image as a three-dimensional image in a file header portion at the beginning of the general-purpose image file. By recording an image of a plurality of viewpoints along with the viewpoint information in a general-purpose moving image format, the exclusive-use regenerating apparatus becomes able to regenerate and display a three-dimensional image and a moving image, and the general-purpose regenerating apparatus becomes able to regenerate as a moving image.
US08384799B2

Both a high signal-to-noise ratio and wide dynamic range of the output video signal of a one-CCD color television camera are realized. An image signal processing apparatus of an imaging device using a solid-state image sensor in which different color filters are arranged includes an amplifying unit which amplifies color signals from the solid-state image sensor with a predetermined amplification factor, a separating unit which separates the color signals amplified by the amplifying unit into individual color signals, a white balance adjusting unit which subjects the separated color signals to white balance adjustment, a level detecting unit which detects a saturation level from the color signals subjected to the white balance adjustment depending on the amplification factor of the amplifying unit, a correction signal generating unit which generates correction signals from the other color signals than the color signal from which the saturation level is detected by the level detecting unit, and a first adding unit which adds the correction signals to the color signals subjected to the white balance adjustment.
US08384788B2

An image processing apparatus includes a memory that memorizes a plurality of pickup images in which an object has been picked up by varying an irradiation direction of a light; an extracting portion that extracts an area image of an area indicated by a user from each of the pickup images memorized in the memory; a calculating portion that calculates at least one illumination parameter for each area image by one of calculating an amount of edges from each extracted area image, executing a clustering process to brightness of each extracted area image, and executing a totaling process of totaling differences in brightness between the extracted area images; and a generating portion that generates at least one synthetic image by synthesizing the extracted area images with the at least one illumination parameter.
US08384786B2

A method of compensating for vibration and an imaging apparatus are provided. The method of compensating for vibration includes determining whether a vibration compensation starting condition is satisfied, and starting compensating for vibration prior to operating a shutter, if the vibration compensation starting condition is satisfied. Accordingly, a shutter lag is reduced and power consumption is reduced, and accuracy of vibration compensation is improved.
US08384784B2

Provided is a method of controlling a digital photographing apparatus. The method includes: determining a target subject; determining whether the target subject exists in a moving image photographing domain; determining whether a condition of temporarily stopping recording of a moving image based on whether the target subject exists is satisfied; and temporarily stopping the recording of a moving image when the condition is satisfied.
US08384778B2

An instrument for of observation images exhibits a high ground resolution and a high frequency of coverage of the Earth. Such an instrument includes a spatial images acquisition layer (1) including satellites (4), a terrestrial images processing layer (3), including images processing devices (5), and a telecommunications layer (2) that is suitable to ensure a transfer of the images from the spatial layer (1) to the terrestrial layer (3), wherein each satellite (4) includes at least one images acquisition device with fixed aim exhibiting a spatial resolution of the order of one meter; each images processing device (5) includes at least one communications line (8) coupling the images processing device (5) and at least one immediately adjacent images processing device, a processing unit that is suitable to process the images received, element for storage of the processed images, and a connection to a digital network.
US08384775B2

A scanning-type image display device includes: a light source section; a horizontal scanner; a vertical scanner; and a vertical scanner control section that controls the vertical scanner in such a manner that, when a second video signal is input, the vertical scanner control section controls the vertical scanner so as to perform vertical scanning with a scanning speed of vertical scanning which is higher than that of vertical scanning in the case of a first video signal being input, and after temporarily retuning a drawing position to an initial position within a time range from a point of time at which horizontal scanning of a current frame is completed to a start time of a next frame, the vertical scanner control section restarts the vertical scanning from the initial position in synchronization with a start timing of the next frame.
US08384773B2

A method and system for displaying an image in three dimensions during a frame period. The method includes generating a left image sub-frame and a right image sub-frame. The left image sub-frame defines a visual perspective of a left eye and the right image sub-frame defines a visual perspective of a right eye for the image. The method further includes displaying the left image sub-frame utilizing a first plurality of colors and displaying the right image sub-frame utilizing a second plurality of colors. The first plurality of colors is distinct from the second plurality of colors.
US08384770B2

A hand-held image display apparatus includes a touch panel, a stereoscopic display apparatus, a first imaging section, and a second imaging section. The hand-held image display apparatus detects a marker from a real world image shot by at least one of the first imaging section and the second imaging section, and determines the relative positions of a virtual object and a pair of virtual cameras with respect to each other in a virtual space, based on the result of the detection. Then, the hand-held image display apparatus superimposes virtual space images drawn based on the first virtual camera and the second virtual camera, onto the real world images shot by the first imaging section and the second imaging section, and displays images that are stereoscopically visible by naked eyes, on the stereoscopic display apparatus.
US08384769B1

A three-dimensional image display method is disclosed. The three-dimensional image display method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: displaying an object image; displaying a background image by using a three-dimensional image display method; and disposing the object image at a close distance and the background image at a far distance such that the object image and the background image overlap inside a same viewing angle. By using images having a different sense of depth, a high-resolution image can be displayed while providing a sense of reality.
US08384763B2

Depth maps are generated from a monoscopic source images and asymmetrically smoothed to a near-saturation level. Each depth map contains depth values focused on edges of local regions in the source image. Each edge is defined by a predetermined image parameter having an estimated value exceeding a predefined threshold. The depth values are based on the corresponding estimated values of the image parameter. The depth map is used to process the source image by a depth image based rendering algorithm to create at least one deviated image, which forms with the source image a set of monoscopic images. At least one stereoscopic image pair is selected from such a set for use in generating different viewpoints for multiview and stereoscopic purposes, including still and moving images.
US08384757B2

A method of displaying images among a plurality of spaced apart locations is provided, which method, in one exemplary embodiment, includes displaying an image associated with a first location on a first surface at a central location, displaying an image associated with a second location on a second surface at the central location, and displaying an image associated with the central location and the image associated with the first location at a common surface at the second location.
US08384755B2

A tele-presence system that includes a portable robot face coupled to a remote station. The robot face includes a robot monitor, a robot camera, a robot speaker and a robot microphone. The remote station includes a station monitor, a station camera, a station speaker and a station microphone. The portable robot face can be attached to a platform mounted to the ceiling of an ambulance. The portable robot face can be used by a physician at the remote station to provide remote medical consultation. When the patient is moved from the ambulance the portable robot face can be detached from the platform and moved with the patient.
US08384747B2

An autostereoscopic display apparatus includes a plurality of colored individually addressable display elements (2) arranged in an array of rows and columns. A lenticular sheet (15) includes a plurality of light directing elements, for example lenticular elements (16). A color order of the individually addressable display elements (2) in the row direction (4) provides triplets (21; 23; 24) of adjacent individually addressable display elements (2), each individually addressable display element (2) of a triplet (21; 23; 24) being a respective one of the colors (R, G, B) of the display. The internal color order of the individually addressable display elements (2) within a triplet (21; 23; 24) is different for different triplets (21; 23; 24) in at least one of the row direction (4) and the column direction (6).
US08384746B2

The embodiments of the present invention relate to a color management method and device, the method comprises: RGB values is acquired from image signal inputted from external device; the corresponding transmittance of red pixel, transmittance of green pixel, and transmittance of blue pixel are calculated with an formula according to said RGB values and pre-stored system transition matrix with standard transition matrix; a control signal to control a driving voltage and/or luminance of light source corresponding to the red, green and blue pixels of the display device is generated according to the calculated transmittance of red pixel, transmittance of green pixel, and transmittance of blue pixel, so as to control the display device to perform the color display. The color management method enables the display device to accurately restore the reproduction color information, thereby effectively solving the color distortion problem of the display device.
US08384741B2

A numerical-simulation-result display system includes an image output apparatus, a three-dimensional-CAD-model-data input unit configured to read three-dimensional-CAD-model data of an object to be analyzed, a CAD-model-data converting unit configured to convert the read three-dimensional-CAD-model data into CAD graphic data capable of being displayed on the image output apparatus, a numerical-simulation-result-data input unit configured to read numerical-simulation-result data of the object, a simulation-result converting unit configured to convert the read numerical-simulation-result data into simulation-result graphic data capable of being displayed on the image output apparatus, and a display unit configured to display the CAD graphic data and the simulation-result graphic data on the image output apparatus in a superimposed manner.
US08384739B2

Methods consistent with some embodiments presented provide methods for identifying at least one pixel in a raster image buffer for inclusion in a processing space. In some embodiments of methods identifying at least one pixel in a raster image buffer for inclusion in a processing space may include analyzing a tag-field associated with the at least one pixel. The tag-field may identify object types associated with the pixel. In some embodiments, an action directive may be assigned to the pixel based on the value of the tag-field. In some embodiments, the pixel may be included in a processing space based on the action directive.
US08384737B2

A method of static graphics rendering in a mobile device. Panning increments are received for panning a previously rendered frame to a panned frame. A rendering region is then determined based on the panning increments. A candidate line segment or polyline is then clipped to create clipped line segments contained within the rendering region. The clipped line segments can then be rendered, and a portion of the previously rendered frame can be copied, to provide the panned frame.
US08384732B2

A method for adjusting color saturation is adapted for color adjustment of a pixel in a color space. The method includes: determining a color cube in the color space; selecting one from a plurality of diagonals of the color cube as a primary diagonal, and setting the primary diagonal at a vertical axis of the color space; determining a hue azimuth angle and a height in the color cube desired by the pixel; determining a reference point at an outermost periphery of the color cube corresponding to the azimuth angle, and obtaining a reference height and a reference horizontal distance of the reference point distant from the primary diagonal; and obtaining a color saturation value of the pixel by multiplying the reference horizontal distance with a ratio between the reference height and the height of the pixel.
US08384726B1

Computer-implemented methods for selectively pre-rendering off-screen content for display before the content comes on-screen on a device are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request to display content on a device and dividing the content into a first displayable portion that is based on a size of a viewport of the device and a second displayable portion that is outside the viewport. The method also includes rendering and displaying the first displayable portion of content within the viewport, and selecting a subset of the second displayable portion of content for rendering off-screen based on a predetermined rule. Systems, graphical user interfaces, and machine-readable media are also provided.
US08384722B1

According to one aspect, a display controller is included in a graphics processing system where the display controller includes a plurality of look up tables in a data path. According to one embodiment, each of the plurality of look up tables is configured to be coupled to a source of surfaces, each of the plurality of look up tables includes circuitry that is physically separate from circuitry included in others of the plurality of look up tables, and the display controller is configured to employ a combination including at least two of the plurality of look up tables to process a first component of a plurality of pixels included in a surface received from the source of surfaces.
US08384719B2

Mechanisms for accessorizing avatars with animated items. Avatars may be accessorized by items that have animations that are item specific, or they may be accessorized by items that apply to the entire body of the avatars. In addition, such item accessories may apply to avatars across different game titles and they may be added during the execution of a game, whether using a user interface or the game itself (e.g. receiving accessories for achieving certain milestones in a game). Such accessories may also be obtained from remote sources as packages, and then applied locally to avatars.
US08384714B2

A variety of methods, devices and storage mediums are implemented for creating digital representations of figures. According to one such computer implemented method, a volumetric representation of a figure is correlated with an image of the figure. Reference points are found that are common to each of two temporally distinct images of the figure, the reference points representing movement of the figure between the two images. A volumetric deformation is applied to the digital representation of the figure as a function of the reference points and the correlation of the volumetric representation of the figure. A fine deformation is applied as a function of the coarse/volumetric deformation. Responsive to the applied deformations, an updated digital representation of the figure is generated.
US08384712B2

Systems and methods for imaging waveform volumes. An image of the waveform volume may be drawn on a display device as a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional image of a sampling probe and redrawn in real-time at interactive rates using a graphics accelerator or a graphics card. The image of the waveform volume may also include seismic-data traces that are color-filled according to texture coordinates for pixels on the display device that intersect the waveform volume.
US08384710B2

3D images (or graphics) are effectively displayed across multiple displays provided in a gaming environment based on a 3D imaging (or graphics) model (or world). A game scene for a game played on a gaming machine is effectively displayed as a larger 3D scene across multiple displays configured for multiple gaming machines when a gaming criteria, event or condition is met (e.g., when a slot game generates a particular outcome on a gaming machine, a 3D scene is displayed on multiple gaming machines). 3D images (or objects) effectively displayed across multiple displays configured for multiple gaming machines can effect and/or complement the game being played on one or more of the gaming machines and/or used as an independent game. Animation (or movement) of one or more 3D objects can be used to trigger a gaming criteria, event or condition (e.g., start a bonus period for a game being played in a gaming machine). The gaming criteria, event or condition can be triggered solely based on the animation (or movement) of the 3D object(s) or in a combination with another condition.
US08384705B2

A display panel includes a substrate, a pixel array, and a plurality of shift registers. The pixel array is disposed on the substrate. The shift registers are disposed on the substrate for sequentially outputting a plurality of scanning signals to drive the pixel array. Each of the shift registers includes a pull-up transistor and a first reserve transistor. The pull-up transistor raises the voltage level of the corresponding scanning signal. A control terminal of the first reserve transistor is coupled to a control terminal of the pull-up transistor, and a second terminal of the first reserve transistor is coupled to a second terminal of the pull-up transistor. When the pull-up transistor in each of the shift registers has insufficient output ability, a first terminal of the first reserve transistor is coupled to a first terminal of the pull-up transistor.
US08384700B2

An apparatus and method is provided for controlling a display device for displaying a user interface associated with an application. A processor for controlling peripheral devices and/or the display may be selected based on characteristics of a requested function to be performed. For example, a processor may be selected with a power characteristic corresponding to a power level needed to perform the requested function. Also, an instantiation of a user interface may be switched based on selection of the processor for controlling peripheral devices. In another example, the transition from one instantiation of the user interface to another instantiation of the user interface may be smooth such that a user may be unaware a change has been made.
US08384698B2

Direct and absolute pointing is provided for with respect to a two-dimensional information display surface, much like how one would point a laser pointer or flashlight at a desired point. The displayed control may be moved by manipulating the pointing device in three dimensions. The translational position of the pointing device may be measured in three dimensions. Also, the three-dimensional orientation of the pointing device may be measured. A computing device may receive this information from the pointing device and determine where the pointing device is pointing to. If the pointing device is pointing at a display, then the computing device may cause the control to be displayed at the position to which the pointing device is pointing. In addition, the control may be displayed at an orientation that depends upon the orientation of the pointing device.
US08384680B2

A portable electronic device includes a housing, a touch-sensitive display movable with respect to the housing, and at least one piezoelectric actuator arranged to provide tactile feedback to the touch-sensitive display in response to an actuation signal by moving the touch-sensitive display. The at least one piezoelectric actuator may move the touch-sensitive display, resulting in vibration or a single movement of the touch-sensitive display.
US08384662B2

A display device is provided. The display device includes an input unit, a display unit, a storage unit, and a processing unit. The input unit it for generating input signals in response to user input. The display unit is for displaying interfaces with a plurality of icons. The storage unit is for storing a movement track and a speed of each icon. The processing unit is for selecting an icon in response to an input signal from the input unit, acquiring a movement track and a speed of the icon from the storage unit, controlling the icon to move at the speed along the movement track and the display unit to display a movement of the icon, and performing a function associated with the icon.
US08384661B2

A determination device stores a plurality of pieces of reference data associated with a predetermined movement pattern of a controller, and determines whether or not output values that respectively have a given relationship with reference data have been output from an acceleration sensor in a predetermined order within an input reception period in which an input that moves the controller in the predetermined movement pattern is received. The determination device receives an input that moves the controller in the predetermined movement pattern and performs a game process when the determination device has determined that the output values that respectively have the given relationship with the reference data have been output from the acceleration sensor in the predetermined order within the input reception period.
US08384659B2

A display element includes a first electrode including conductive lines, a second electrode, and a dielectric layer on the first electrode. The dielectric layer has recess regions therein exposing at least portions of the conductive lines. The display element includes a fluid with colorant particles between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US08384648B2

A driving unit for a liquid crystal display device is provided. The driving unit includes a first group of driving stages and a second group of driving stages. A first driving stage of the first group receives a first gate start voltage. The first group of driving stages sequentially outputs scan signals according to a first clock signal. The scan signal outputted by one driving stage of the first group is sent to a next subsequent driving stage of the first group. A first driving stage of the second group receives a second start voltage. The second group of driving stages sequentially outputs the scan signals according to a second clock signal. The scan signal outputted by one driving stage of the second group is sent to a next subsequent driving stage of the second group. The driving stages of the first group and the second group alternately output the scan signals.
US08384646B2

A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display panel including a plurality of data lines, a plurality of gate lines intersecting the data lines, and liquid crystal cells respectively formed at intersections of the data lines and the gate lines, and divided into a first area, a second area and a third area, a first data integrated circuit (IC) that drives the first area, a second data IC that drives the second area, a third data IC that drives the third area, and a timing controller that analyzes an input digital video data, generates a first selection signal and a second selection signal for controlling whether charge sharing is used, and independently controls the first, second, and third data ICs using the first and second selection signals, wherein the second area is divided into a first block adjoining the first area, a third block adjoining the third area and a second block located between the first block and the third block; and the first selection signal controls whether the charge sharing is used for the first and third data ICs, and the second selection signal controls whether the charge sharing is used for the second block and controls a charging delay variation so that the charging delay variation is lessened between the second block and the first area or between the second block and the third area in the first or third block.
US08384644B2

In one embodiment of the invention, a display device includes a plurality of gate lines transferring gate signals, a plurality of data lines transmitting data voltages, a plurality of storage electrode lines transferring storage signals, and a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, each pixel comprising a switching element connected to a gate line and a data line, a liquid crystal capacitor connected to the switching element and a common voltage, and a storage capacitor connected to the switching element and a storage electrode line. The display device may further include a plurality of signal generating circuits generating the storage signals, wherein the signal generating circuit is connected to a k-th storage electrode line, where k is a natural number.
US08384630B2

The present invention provides an electronic apparatus, such as a lighting device comprised of light emitting diodes (LEDs) or a power generating apparatus comprising photovoltaic diodes, which may be created through a printing process, using a semiconductor or other substrate particle ink or suspension and using a lens particle ink or suspension. An exemplary apparatus comprises a base; at least one first conductor; a plurality of diodes coupled to the at least one first conductor; at least one second conductor coupled to the plurality of diodes; and a plurality of lenses suspended in a polymer deposited or attached over the diodes. The lenses and the suspending polymer have different indices of refraction. In some embodiments, the lenses and diodes are substantially spherical, and have a ratio of mean diameters or lengths between about 10:1 and 2:1. The diodes may be LEDs or photovoltaic diodes, and in some embodiments, have a junction formed at least partially as a hemispherical shell or cap.
US08384622B2

The total number of the scan electrodes is divided into a first scan electrode group and a second scan electrode group. The first scan electrode group drive section for driving the first scan electrode group produces a selection potential and a non-selection potential in the scan period, and supplies scan pulses based on the two potentials in the first half of the scan period. The complex switch section supplies the selection potential produced using the first scan electrode group drive section to the second scan electrode group drive section for driving the second scan electrode group in the latter half of the scan period. The second scan electrode group drive section supplies scan pulses based on the input selection potential.
US08384618B2

A display apparatus which comprises an image module for generating an image, a spectacle-like frame which carries the image module, and wherein the spectacle-like frame comprises a front portion with a nose support, as well as two lateral temples mounted to the front portion. At least one of the temples has shiftably mounted to it a holding element. The holding element comprises a first portion extending downwards from the temple, and a second portion connected with the lower end of the first portion, the second portion extending from the lower end of the first portion in a direction pointing away from the front portion.
US08384616B2

A display system, a method of constructing a display system, and a method of displaying an image are provided. In one embodiment, a display system includes a support structure having a plurality of attachment members and a plurality of tiles. Each of the plurality of tiles is attached to a corresponding attachment member of the plurality of attachment members. The support structure is configured to structurally support each of the plurality of tiles, and at least one of the plurality of tiles includes at least one connection configured to removably connect and align the at least one of the plurality of tiles with another one of the plurality of tiles.
US08384610B2

An antenna including a reflector with coverage and frequency flexibility is provided. The antenna comprises a reversible reflector having two separate reflecting surfaces shaped geometrically so as to cover respectively a first and a second geographical zone which are different and have predetermined shapes, in which the two reflecting surfaces are fastened back to back on a common support, and at least two independent sources arranged in a fixed configuration and connected to separate radiofrequency supply chains defining different and predefined operating frequency planes, the reflector having a first deployment position, in which the focal point of the first reflecting surface is located at the phase center of the first source, and a second deployment position, in which the focal point of the second reflecting surface is located at the phase center of the second source. Application notably to the field of satellite telecommunication antennae.
US08384604B2

According to various aspects, exemplary embodiments are provided of portable communications terminals and assemblies thereof. In one exemplary embodiment, a portable communications terminal includes a support member. An antenna is supported by the support member. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding structure is also supported by the support member. A printed circuit board includes one or more electronic components mounted thereon. The EMI shielding structure is operable for providing EMI shielding for one or more electronic components that are disposed within the interior defined by the EMI shielding structure and the printed circuit board.
US08384598B2

A surface-mounted antenna has a base having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, an antenna element formed on the surface of the base and having a first radiation electrode subjected to direct power supply, and an antenna element formed on the surface of the base and having a radiation electrode subjected to capacitive coupling power supply. With this, the smaller surface-mounted antenna of a combo antenna type can be provided.
US08384597B2

The present invention relates to a system for changing the radiation pattern shape of an antenna array during electrical tilting. The antenna array has multiple antenna elements, and the system comprises a phase-shifting device provided with a primary port configured to receive a transmit signal, and multiple secondary ports configured to provide phase shifted output signals to each antenna element. The system further comprises a phase-taper device that changes phase taper over the antenna elements, and thus the beam shape, with tilt angle θ. The invention is adapted for use in down-link as well as up-link within a wireless communication system.
US08384596B2

Methods and systems for inter-chip communication via integrated circuit package antennas are disclosed and may include communicating one or more signals between or among a plurality of integrated circuits via one or more antennas integrated in a multi-layer package. The integrated circuits may be bonded to the multi-layer package. The antennas may be configured via switches in the integrated circuits or by MEMS switches integrated in the multi-layer package. The signals may include a microwave signal and a low frequency control signal that may configure the microwave signal. The low frequency control signal may include a digital signal. The antennas may comprise metal and/or ferromagnetic layers deposited on and/or embedded within the multi-layer package.
US08384575B1

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) includes a continuous time filter, a quantizer, a continuous time digital-to-analog converter, a discrete time DAC, and a switch. The quantizer has an input terminal coupled to the output terminal of the continuous time filter, and a plurality of output terminals. The continuous time DAC has a plurality of input terminals coupled to the plurality of output terminals of the quantizer, and an output terminal. The discrete time DAC has a plurality of input terminals coupled to the plurality of output terminals of the quantizer, and an output terminal. The switch has a first input terminal coupled to the output terminal of the continuous time DAC, a second input terminal coupled to the output terminal of the discrete time DAC, and an output terminal coupled to the input terminal of the continuous time filter.
US08384572B2

A novel noise injection technique is presented to improve dynamic range with low resolution and low speed analog to digital converters. This technique combines incoming signal and noise signal with wave front de-multiplexer and split into several channels. Then low resolution and low speed analog to digital converters are used to sample each channels. All signals are recovered using wave front multiplexer. For advanced design, ground diagnostic signals with optimizing processor can be added to guarantee recovery quality.
US08384568B2

Decoder circuits and methods down-sample the samples that oversample an input signal having a differential Manchester encoding. A first input port receives first, second, and third samples. A second input port receives a state indicating whether a clock transition or a data transition precedes the first, second, and third samples. A third input port receives first, second, and third down-sampled bits. A detector circuit is configured to generate a detection signal indicating a presence of a short pulse within the samples when the state indicates the clock transition and the second and third down-sampled bits are equal and differ from the first down-sampled bit and the third sample. A generator circuit is configured to generate a fourth down-sampled bit that equals the third sample when the detection signal indicates the presence of the short pulse, and that equals the second sample when the detection signal does not indicate the presence.
US08384565B2

An expanding operating device has a first connector, a second connector and a sensor. The first connector has a first shape physically and electrically connectable with a connector provided with an operating device. Thus, by connecting the first connector to the connector of the operating device, the expanding operating device can be used with the operating device as a single unit, which eventually adds the sensor to the operating device. On the other hand, the second connector has a second shape connectable with a connector with the first shape. This allows a connector conventionally connected to the connector of another operating device to be also connected with the second connector. Accordingly, if the connector of another device is connected to the second connector in a state that the first connector is connected to the connector of the operating device, the another device is eventually connected to the operating device via the expanding operating device.
US08384562B2

A mobile traffic controller to aid pedestrians includes a wireless transmitter and receiver that are configured to communicate with a traffic signal or a traffic control system. In response to a user request, the transmitter sends a traffic control request to a traffic signal or a traffic system controller. The request is acknowledged, and when appropriate, the mobile traffic controller receives a message indicating that a crossing is authorized. The mobile controller can include a vibro-tactile or audio output device for communication with the user. In addition, position and orientation systems can be included so that the user can be directed along a preferred path or alerted that a predetermined or legally established passage zone has been exited or is about to be exited.
US08384561B2

A parking assist device comprises an image obtaining portion for obtaining a surrounding image of a vehicle, a display controlling portion for displaying the surrounding image and a pair of vehicle width extended lines on a displaying device provided at an interior of the vehicle in such a way that the pair of vehicle width extended lines is superposed on the surrounding image, the vehicle width extended lines serving as indicative lines for notifying a driver of a width of the vehicle and a stall line detecting portion for detecting a pair of stall lines indicating a parking stall, wherein, when the pair of the stall lines is detected, the display controlling portion changes a distance between the vehicle width extended lines corresponding to a distance between the stall lines.
US08384554B1

A device and methods for detecting current changes over a preset threshold in a circuit are provided. The device includes a housing for securing at least a circuit board therein. The device further includes at least one alerting device in electrical communication with and controlled by a micro-controller. The device also includes at least one input device fixed with the housing and configured so that a user may set conditions for the micro-controller. The meter also includes at least one detecting device for measuring a current reading in a circuit, and in electrical communication with the micro-controller. The micro-controller stores a current reading in the memory and the micro-controller then compares subsequent current readings to the stored current readings to calculate a current change. If the current change is greater than the preset threshold, the micro-controller activates the at least one alerting device.
US08384546B2

This invention relates to security protocols for RFID systems. Systems and methods are presented to protect the system from hackers attempting to compromise the RFID system. Also, methods and systems for improving RFID security are disclosed. The systems utilize mechanisms to determine the authenticity of the RFID tags used in such systems. The systems and methods also reduce unauthorized access to the RFID system. A system and method to make tags more difficult to compromise or counterfeit is also described.
US08384539B2

Methods for responding to a potential incident are provided in which data about the potential incident is received from a first remote sensing unit. Additional remote sensing units are identified that may have additional data about the potential incident, and additional data about the potential incident is received from at least some of these additional remote sensing units. The totality of the received data is then analyzed, and at least one remote entity is automatically notified regarding the occurrence of the potential incident.
US08384538B2

Arrangement and method for monitoring a structure at a fixed location, e.g., a house, parked boat or parked airplane, includes a monitoring or sensor system arranged to obtain information about the structure, an exterior of the structure and/or an interior of the structure different than the location of the structure, and a communication system coupled to the sensor system and being provided with a location of the structure. The communication system transmits the information about the structure obtained by the sensor system and the location of the structure to a remote facility. The remote facility can therefore monitor the structure, and take steps to ensure the integrity of the reservoir and the fluid therein. To enable wireless and powerless monitoring, a power source independent of a power grid extending outside of the fixed structure may be provided to supply power to the sensor system and the communications unit.
US08384536B2

The invention provides an instrument control panel that is easily customized and reconfigured, and yet provides the familiar tactile sensation of physical knobs, sliders, and buttons. The instrument control panel comprises one or more interface components that are removably coupled to an interface display wherein the interface components communicate with one or more control components disposed behind the interface display. The present invention lends itself particularly well to an instrument panel.
US08384516B2

Conventional techniques for logging and using a user's signature are insecure and inflexible. A system and method are provided which: i) translate a user's first signature, such as a user's voice signature, into a user's second signature, such as a radio frequency identifier signature; and ii) deploy the user's second signature. By translating the user's first signature into the user's second signature and deploying the user's second signature, the provided technique assures the authenticity of the user. Furthermore, the provided system and method enable additional authentication factors, such as a user's personal identification number, to be used with the user's first and second signatures in multiple combinations and sequences to assure the authenticity of the user. As such, the invention provides a security layer offering added security and added flexibility previously unavailable, and which may be applied in a variety of contexts, such as a user device or a retail transaction.
US08384510B2

When a communication between a camera and a television is performed utilizing a first wireless communication mode which employs high-directional radio transmission, and a second wireless communication mode which employs low-directional radio transmission with lower directivity than that of high-directional radio transmission, the television detects that the communication in the first wireless communication mode has been disconnected and notifies the camera. The camera determines whether or not the movement of the camera is the cause of disconnection in the first wireless communication mode. If the reason for disconnection is the movement of the camera, a control signal is transmitted to the television so as not to execute the process for an avoiding no-signal condition.
US08384501B2

An electromagnetic actuator (1) with an armature (3) mounted so that the armature can be moved by virtue of a bearing arrangement (6A, 6B) and an electric coil (4) is provided for moving the armature (3). A magnetostrictive element (8) is provided, by which relative movement between the armature (3) and at least part of the bearing arrangement (6A, 6B) is produced.
US08384498B2

In an exemplary embodiment, a spurline filter comprises a capacitive element connected to a spur and either a through-line of the spurline filter or ground. In another embodiment, multiple capacitive elements are connected to the spur. In an exemplary embodiment, the capacitively loaded spurline filter provides a band rejection frequency response similar to the band rejection frequency response of a similar spurline filter that does not comprise at least one capacitive element but the capacitively loaded spurline filter has half the layout area or less. In an exemplary embodiment, the spurline filter comprises capacitive elements, where the capacitive elements are configured to reduce the resonant frequency of the filter.
US08384486B2

A piezoelectric oscillator includes: a piezoelectric resonator element having a piezoelectric substrate and an excitation electrode formed on a surface of the piezoelectric substrate; a semiconductor circuit element provided with an oscillation circuit for oscillating the piezoelectric resonator element and having a first insulating film formed on a principal surface; a package for airtightly housing the semiconductor circuit element and the piezoelectric resonator element; and a protruding section having at least of a thin film circuit component formed on the first insulating film and connected to the oscillation circuit; and a second insulating film formed on the first insulating film and covering the thin film circuit component. In the oscillator, the piezoelectric resonator element is fixed to an upper surface of the protruding section.
US08384478B2

An audio power amplifier with a four-quadrant power supply having a synchronous output rectifier that includes a planar transformer. The amplifier includes a first amplification unit including a switching voltage amplifier with a command signal input and an amplified signal output. Control electronics provide a signal input to the first amplification unit.
US08384471B2

A circuit includes a first PMOS transistor and a second PMOS transistor, wherein a gate of the second PMOS transistor is coupled to a gate and a drain of the first PMOS transistor; a first NMOS transistor having a drain coupled to a drain of the first PMOS transistor; and a second NMOS transistor, wherein a drain of the second NMOS transistor is coupled to a gate of the first NMOS transistor, a gate of the second NMOS transistor, and a drain of the second PMOS transistor. A first switch is coupled between the drain of the first PMOS transistor and the drain of the second PMOS transistor. A second switch is coupled between a source of the first NMOS transistor and an electrical ground. A third switch is coupled between a source of the second NMOS transistor and the electrical ground.
US08384468B2

Systems and methods for achieving multiple supply voltage compatibility of an input/output (I/O) ring of an integrated circuit (IC) chip. The IC chip includes a core surrounded by the I/O ring which includes a voltage detector circuit. An I/O supply voltage of the IC chip is sensed by the voltage detector circuit to generate a control signal. The control signal is used to configure the I/O ring to operate at the I/O supply voltage of the I/O ring, thus enabling the IC to operate at multiple supply voltage levels.