US08650714B2

A hinge plate includes a frame hinge plate part comprising a frame fastening part and a frame hinge part. A leaf/sash hinge plate part comprises a leaf/sash fastening part and a leaf/sash hinge part. A primary coil is disposed in the frame hinge part and a secondary coil is disposed in the leaf/sash hinge part, each coil being configured to surround a hinge plate pin. The primary coil extends at least almost up to an end face of the frame hinge part facing the leaf/sash hinge part. The secondary coil extends at least almost up to an end face of the leaf/sash hinge part facing the frame hinge part. A hinge plate pin sleeve comprising a ferrite material is disposed between the hinge plate pin and the primary and secondary coils, and extends approximately over a length of the hinge plate pin surrounded by the primary and secondary coils.
US08650711B1

A hinge assembly includes a hinge cup, an arm, an installation member and a damping device. The hinge cup has a receiving space and a positioning hole communicating with the receiving space. The bottom wall of the receiving space has at least one first engaging part. The arm is pivotably connected to the hinge cup. The damping device is located in the receiving space and includes a damping member, a slide and a housing. One end of the damping member is mounted in the positioning hole. The damping member has a piston rod which is connected to the slide. The housing has at least one second engaging part which is engaged with the first engaging part on the bottom wall. When the arm is moved toward a closed position relative to the hinge cup, the arm pushes the slide to provide the damping force.
US08650704B2

A cleaning appliance includes separating apparatus for separating dirt from a dirt-bearing fluid flow, a chassis, and a duct mounted on the chassis for conveying the fluid flow to the separating apparatus, the duct including a support for supporting the separating apparatus.
US08650703B2

A cleaning apparatus including a main body, a dust collection unit detachably installed on the main body and provided with a plurality of inlets, through which foreign substances are introduced into the dust collection unit, and a connection hole, to which an external instrument is connected, a shutter to open and close one inlet, and a cap to open and close the connection hole. The shutter opens and closes the inlet in cooperation with one of whether or not the dust collection unit is attached to or detached from the main body and whether or not the connection hole is opened or closed.
US08650696B1

A sanitary sewer cleaning apparatus for removing roots and debris with a segmented circular brush attached to a rodder root removal tool. As the apparatus travels through a sewer line, the segmented brushes, which are mounted on hinges, fold back to reduce drag and facilitate movement through obstructed sewers. As the rodder pulls back the apparatus, the brushes engage the walls of the pipe to pull roots and debris to the sewer access point. The preferred embodiments comprises rodder coupler, an extension arm for coupling a plurality of brushes in a radial configuration, a plurality of brushes for collecting the root infiltration debris, and a plurality of hinges for angularly altering the plurality of brushes relative to the apparatus.
US08650695B2

The present invention is a pipeline pig for cleaning the interior of a pipeline, the pipeline pig having a longitudinal pig body with forward and rearward elastomeric propulsion members affixed to and supporting the pig body substantially concentrically in a pipeline, the propulsion members functioning to move the pig body through a pipeline by the force of fluid flow and a plurality of spaced apart elastomeric diagonally oriented scrapers radially extending from the pig body, each scraper member having a semi-circular outer peripheral edge configured and dimensioned to engage the interior wall of a pipeline to thereby scrape and clean the interior pipeline wall as the pig is moved through the pipeline and provide additional support for the pig substantially concentrically in a pipeline. Orientation of the scraper enhances scraping effectiveness by slicing through any debris buildup, separating the debris from the inner pipe wall so that it can be pushed out of the pipeline by the pig discs or cups.
US08650674B2

A footrest mounting system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the footrest mounting system comprises: a mounting platform that is coupled to a footrest; a mounting arm that is coupled to the mounting platform at a proximal end; and a lower body having at least one mounting depression in which the mounting arm is disposed within such that the footrest is positioned at an incline relative to the lower body.
US08650669B1

A portable urinal is provided with a reservoir having a low center of gravity, a flexible corrugated hose which will maintain its position in either a contracted or expanded condition or a shape or curve to which it is placed for convenience in use wherein the flexible corrugated hose maintains its shape and degree of extension or contraction and including receptacles suitable for use by males and females in various positions including seated, standing and stooping.
US08650666B2

A baseball type cap with a circumferentially stretchable headband to adjust to different head sizes is modified to add a stretchable fabric member that is stitched to the cap cover gores and to the stretchable headband. The lower edge of the fabric member extends about halfway around the back of the cap ending on either side near the ears of a user wearing the cap and stretches along with the stretchable headband to adjust to the head size of the user. A number of seams join the stretchable fabric member to the cap cover, creating a center pocket with an open top to hold a stereo jack and a removable audio device such as an MP3 player. The seams also create bud pockets on either side to hold ear buds. The dual wires from the stereo jack lead to a T-junction in the bottom of the center pocket and are long enough to manipulate the controls of the MP3 player outside the pocket while wearing the cap. At the T-junction, the dual wires are divided into individual ear bud wires, which pass through passages between the seams from the center pocket to the bud pockets without need to pierce the cap cover or fabric member. At the opposite ends of the fabric member on the sides of the cap, the seams are interrupted to leave openings for withdrawing the ear buds for use and subsequently replacing them.
US08656509B2

It has been difficult to highly accurately measure the profiles of samples using scanning probe microscopes at the time when scanning is performed due to scanning mechanism fluctuations in the non drive direction, i.e., vertical direction. The present invention is provided with, on the rear side of a sample stage, a high-accuracy displacement gauge for measuring fluctuation in the non drive direction, i.e., vertical direction, at the time when the sample stage is being scanned in the horizontal directions, and as a result, highly accurate planarity evaluation with accuracy of sample nm-order or less is made possible by correcting sample surface shape measurement results obtained using a probe.
US08656494B2

A system and method for optimization of AV processing of disk files. The system includes an AV scanner, a data cache module, an AV service and file analysis module. The optimization allows for reduction of time needed for the AV processing. Trusted files associated with a trusted key file are found. The trusted files that have been found are cached and excluded from further AV processing and the AV processing time is reduced.
US08656491B1

Remediating a suspicious element in a web page is disclosed. An indication of a suspicious element is received. A quarantine instruction is sent to a server of the web page. One example of a quarantine instruction is an instruction to block the page from being served. Another example of a quarantine instruction in as instruction to block an element of the page from being served.
US08656473B2

Systems and methods are provided for linking a web identity and a portable device to provide web access to a user from a vehicle. An example system includes a presence agent that may be configured to validate the presence of the portable device in the vehicle by recognizing a device identifier saved on the portable device. After the presence of the portable device is validated, a security manager may receive a user identifier, and verify if the user identifier corresponds with a known user value. Then, the security manager may send a user identity secure proxy to a credential manager. The credential manager may be configured to receive the user identity secure proxy, and in response, pass one or more credentials to a computing device onboard the vehicle. The credentials may indicate that the user is authorized to access one or more web services from the computing device.
US08656467B1

A device for communicating with other devices to allow them to access applications, comprises: at least a first application; authentication means for authenticating a communicating device; and access control means accessible by a communicating device requesting access to the first application without the communicating device having been authenticated by the authentication means. The device is further arranged to arbitrate whether access of the communicating device to the first application is granted or refused wherein if the arbitration requires an authentication of the communicating device, the access control means instructs the authentication means to authenticate the communicating device.
US08656465B1

In one example, a method includes intercepting, by a first security module, a request from a software application executing on the computing device to access a resource of the computing device. The first security module may include a first group of permissions received from a second security module included in an operating system. The second security module may control access by software applications executing on the computing devices to resources of the computing device based upon permissions granted to the software applications. The method may also include identifying a second group of permissions granted to the software application. The second group of permissions may be a subset of the first group of permissions. The method may also include determining, based upon the first group of permissions, whether the software application is allowed to access the resource. The method may also include controlling access to the resource, based on the determining.
US08656464B2

Upon obtaining second (first) class information corresponding to a second (first) device newly added to a network, the communication controller refers to fundamental request (notification) information and obtains request (notification) information corresponding to the obtained second (first) class information. The communication controller refers to notification (request) authorization information and obtains second (first) sender information associated with the notification (request) information indicative of the same processing as that indicated by the obtained request (notification) information. The communication controller creates request (notification) authorization information indicative of a combination of the first (second) sender information indicative of the second (first) device newly added to the network, the obtained request (notification) information, and first (second) destination information indicative of the same first (second) device as the first (second) device indicated by the obtained second (first) sender information.
US08656461B2

Various embodiments are disclosed relating to performing a trusted copy and paste operations between a source application and a target application. For example, a trust system may receive a paste request for pasting copied source content, and may compare a source trust level associated with the source content to a target trust level associated with a target application. In this way, for example, harmful or disruptive code may be prevented from being pasted into the target application.
US08656451B2

A policy application server and methods for use are described. The policy application server is a logical element of a policy-based control and charging system for a mobile data service network. The policy application server is configured to manage policies including creating, revising, formatting, and provisioning of policies. The policy application server is configured to assemble policy rules from policies and context data. Context data includes subscriber and service information needed to make a particular policy rule. The policy application server gathers context data from one or more network databases. The policy application server is configured to send policy rules to select ones of a plurality of policy decision engines. The policy application server manages the storing of policies, policy rules and formatted context data in select ones of a plurality of policy repositories.
US08656448B2

Methods, apparatus, products are disclosed for providing policy-based application services to an application running on a computing system. The computing system includes at least one compute node. The compute node includes an application and a plurality of application services of a service type. Providing policy-based application services to an application running on a computing system includes establishing, on the compute node, a service policy specifying one of the application services of the service type for use by the application, establishing a performance ruleset, the performance ruleset specifying rules for analyzing the performance of the computing system, measuring performance of the computing system, and adjusting the service policy in dependence upon the performance ruleset and the measured performance. Providing policy-based application services to an application running on a computing system may also include accessing, by the application, the specified application service.
US08656443B2

A server may be used to handle at least some of processing of content retrieved via and/or derived from Internet access operations of a plurality of set-top boxes (STBs). Resource allocation and/or utilization, and/or tasks or applications performed in the server during the processing may be configured based on control data, which may be determined by the server and which may comprise capabilities of links between the server and each of the plurality of STBs, requirements of the tasks, characteristics of the content and/or the Internet access operations, user preferences and/or interactions, and/or content provider preferences. The server may dynamically reconfigure the tasks and/or resources based on monitoring of its operations and/or changes of the control data. Configuring tasks and/or resources may comprise time slicing access to resources that are commonly used during concurrent servicing of at least some of the plurality of STBs by the support server.
US08656438B2

A queue management module receives a message to queue location information for multimedia content. The queue management module stores the location information in a queue corresponding to a subscriber. The queue management module receives a message for location information from a video distribution module. The queue management module transmits a message for retrieval of multimedia content to the video distribution module. In other examples, a queue agent module transmits a message for location information for multimedia content to a queue management module. The queue agent module receives a message for retrieval of content from the queue management module. The queue agent module retrieves the multimedia content from the remote content server using the location information received in the message for retrieval of content. A data storage module identifies available storage in limited storage provided for the subscriber and stores the retrieved multimedia content in the limited storage for the subscriber.
US08656435B2

A method of controlling revelation of one or more metadata items is disclosed. Each of the one or more metadata items is associated with one or more parts of an audio-visual data stream (101). The method comprises: for a given one or more parts (103,105) of the audio-visual data stream (101), revealing one or more metadata items (113,115,117) associated with the given one or more parts (103,105) of the audio-visual data stream (101) only after the given one or more parts (103,105) of the audio-visual data stream (101) have been accessed.
US08656433B2

A TV program information management method has steps of creating a channel information table, receiving and updating channel program information, generating arranged channel information and receiving download request. A management platform generates an arranged channel information according to the channel information table and the updating channel program information. The arranged channel information is hierarchical information related to cable providers, grouped channels by similarity that are provided by the cable providers, programs of the channels and ratings of the programs. A remote control downloads the arranged channel information therein so a desired program may be selected easily.
US08656430B2

A processing system includes a memory module that stores an electronic program guide (EPG) authoring application. A processing module executes the EPG authoring application including a graphical user interface that responds to input from an end user. The EPG authoring application creates EPG configuration data to configure an EPG application of a client device associated with the end user.
US08656426B2

An end-user rendering system including an advertisement database to receive advertisements, and store the advertisements therein, a state database to store information, a decision model optimization module to receive a tree-type decision model and optimize the tree-type decision model based on at least some of the information stored in the state database, an advertisement decision module to evaluate the optimized tree-type decision model and select an advertising campaign, the selected advertising campaign having at least one advertisement, and a rendering module to render the at least one advertisement of the selected advertising campaign. Related apparatus and methods are also described.
US08656420B2

A system for providing a routing service that enables a client to locate a target service in distributed computing environment that supports multiple communications protocols. The system includes a main database and a routing mechanism. The main database has routing information. The routing mechanism can be distributed in multiple instances. The routing mechanism includes a local database. The local database stores an extract of the main database. The routing mechanism uses the local database to make routing decisions. To locate the target service, the client first obtains a reference to the routing mechanism. The client then sends a request with input parameters to the routing mechanism. The routing mechanism then returns output parameters to the client. The output parameters contains a reference and/or associated properties of the target service depending on the type of the target service. The client analyzes the returned output parameters and locates the target service.
US08656417B2

An application programming interface (API) provides telecommunication services in the form of a resource modeled as an object, which object can be essentially any coherent and meaningful concept that may be addressed. The API model permits simpler and more intuitive invocation and usage of the API. The object model for the API avoids having to understand service infrastructure for proper API invocation and tends to increase the usability of the service represented by the API. With the object-modeled resource, the device can be made to appear to an application programmer as a webpage, so that interacting with the device is the same as interacting with a webpage, such as by utilizing HTTP requests and responses. The object-model API can increase the ease with which an application programmer can utilize the services offered, as well as increase the ease with which the API may be integrated into an overall communication system.
US08656406B2

In a system including a load balancer to select a virtual server to which a request is to be transferred, the load balancer includes a function to monitor resource use states of physical and virtual servers and a function to predict a packet loss occurring in a virtual switch. The request count of requests processible by each virtual server is calculated based on the resource amount available for the virtual server and a packet loss rate of the virtual switch, to thereby select a virtual server capable of processing a larger number of requests.
US08656399B2

A computer-implemented method of performing runtime analysis on and control of a multithreaded computer program. One embodiment of the present invention can include identifying threads of a computer program to be analyzed. Under control of a supervisor thread, a plurality of the identified threads can be folded together to be executed as a folded thread. The execution of the folded thread can be monitored to determine a status of the identified threads. An indicator corresponding to the determined status of the identified threads can be presented in a user interface that is presented on a display.
US08656384B2

A system and method of providing a user with a post installation configuration file include providing a user with a list of software applications that are available for installation. At least one software application selection from the list of applications is received by the system. At least one post installation configuration script associated with the use selected software application is retrieved, the at least one post installation configuration script using a common user interface for a plurality of software application from the list of software applications. The at least one post installation configuration script associated with the use selected software application and the at least one user selected software application are packaged into a user package.
US08656378B2

Memoization may be deployed using a configuration file or database that identifies functions to memorize, and in some cases, includes input and result values for those functions. At compile time, functions defined in the configuration file may be captured and memoized. During compilation or other pre-execution analysis, the executable code may be modified or otherwise decorated to include memoization code. The memoization code may store results from a function during the first execution, then merely look up the results when the function may be called again. The memoized value may be stored in the configuration file or in another data store. In some embodiments, the modified executable code may operate in conjunction with an execution environment, where the execution environment may optionally perform the memoization.
US08656373B2

A system and method for deploying one or more graphical programs on a personal digital assistant (PDA). One or more selected graphical programs may be programmatically converted to an executable format that can be executed by the portable computing device. For example, the graphical programs may be initially represented as a plurality of data structures that define or specify the operation of the respective graphical programs, and conversion software program may operate to access these data structures from memory and convert the data structures to an executable format suitable for the portable computing device. The executable may be transferred to the portable computing device for execution.
US08656361B2

A debugger session is initiated to monitor application execution. A debugger canvas corresponding to the debugger session is identified and displayed. The displayed debugger canvas includes one or more code bubbles created during a prior debugger session. The one or more code bubbles already present on the displayed debugger canvas are reused during the current debugger session. Accordingly, existing code bubbles and bubble sets are reused on a debugger canvas when entering a debug session, thus providing a more stable and manageable view for debugging an application in an integrated development environment. The code fragments in code bubbles on a debugger canvas can be analyzed, inspected, and edited during or after a debug session. Notations can also be added to a debugger canvas in the form of note bubbles and context data bubbles.
US08656356B2

A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for creating an OWL ontology from a Java source code, wherein the Java source code includes a plurality of Java classes. Each of these Java classes includes one or more Java members and one or more Java objects. The Java objects are used to instantiate each of the Java classes. An OWL class is created for each of the Java classes, and an OWL concept is created for each of the Java members. Further, an OWL instance is created for each of the Java objects. Each of the OWL classes, the OWL concepts, and the OWL instances are assigned data type properties and object properties. Subsequently, each of the OWL classes and relations between them, each of the OWL concepts, and each of the OWL instances are included to form the OWL ontology.
US08656351B2

A system and method for configuring a state diagram with graphical source code is described. The state diagram may be created in response to user input. The state diagram may include a plurality of state icons and a plurality of connector elements interconnecting the state icons, where the state icons represent a plurality of states and wherein the connector elements represent transitions between the states. Graphical source code may be associated with one or more of the state icons.
US08656343B2

An artifact update notification system that includes a server computer and client computer is discussed and described. The server computer stores artifact preferences, determined according to objective and subjective criteria, of artifact characteristics. The client computer executes a software development environment that makes use of a software artifact. The server computer and client computer interact to perform an update cycle. The update cycle includes the server computer communicating to the client computer whether there is an actionable change to the software artifact with respect to the artifact preferences. If there has been an actionable change to the software artifact, the client computer performs an update action in the software development environment in response to the actionable change. A related artifact update notification method is also described, as is a computer-readable storage medium that includes instructions for operation of a computer to execute a related artifact update notification method.
US08656338B2

Technologies are generally described for hardware synthesis using thermally aware scheduling and binding. Multiple versions of a hardware design may be generated, each having variations of schedule and binding results. The scheduling and binding may be performed such that thermal profiles of the multiple versions have thermal peaks that are distant between the versions. The increased physical distance between the thermal peaks of the versions can give the versions unique thermal characteristics. A schedule of rotation between the multiple versions of the design may be constructed such that the thermal profile of the integrated circuit balances out during operation. A linear programming framework may be used to analyze the multiple designs and construct a thermally aware rotation scheduling and binding. For example, the K most efficient versions may be selected and then durations for operating each version within a rotation may be determined.
US08656337B2

A method, device, and article for assisting in the design of a logic circuit. The method can be such that: logic circuit description data is acquired, a first netlist is generated which is logically integrated with a first frequency based on the acquired logic circuit description data, and a second netlist is generated which is logically integrated with a second frequency higher than the first frequency based on the acquired logic circuit description data, logical operation elements and the wiring for the logical operation elements are arranged based on the first netlist, and a timing report is outputted which is related to the execution timing for each block divided into a predetermined wiring unit, and any block not satisfying the desired operational speed based on the outputted timing report is extracted, the first netlist is replaced with the second netlist for any extracted block, and placement and routing is performed.
US08656334B2

A method, system, and computer usable program product for multiple threshold voltage cell families (mVt families) based integrated circuit design are provided in the illustrative embodiments. The integrated circuit includes cells, and a cell includes an electronic component. A design process is initialized by using cells from the mVt families in the design. The cells from the mVt families are included in iterative manipulation of the design. The cells from the mVt families are further included in violation cleanup and subsequent steps of the design process. A version of the design is produced that is usable to implement the circuit with the cells from the mVt families.
US08656333B1

A plurality of approaches for forming a semiconductor device using an adaptive patterning method is disclosed. Some approaches include placing a semiconductor die unit on a carrier element, calculating trace geometry for a second set of traces, constructing a prestratum comprising a first set of traces, and constructing the second set of traces according to the calculated trace geometry. Forming the semiconductor device may further include electrically connecting at least one of the first set of traces to at least one of the second set of traces, and electrically connecting at least one bond pad of the semiconductor die unit to a destination pad through the at least one of the first set of traces and the at least one of the second set of traces.
US08656330B1

In one embodiment of the invention, a design verifier is disclosed including a model extractor and a bounded model checker having an arithmetic satisfiability solver. The arithmetic satisfiability solver searches for a solution in the form of a numeric assignment of numbers to variables that satisfies each and every one of the one or more numeric formulas. Conflict in the search, results in the deduction of one or more new numeric formulas that serve to guide the search toward a solution. If the search finds a numeric assignment that satisfies each and every one of the one or more numeric formulas, it indicates that a functional property of the system is violated.
US08656329B1

A system and method are provided for generating a programmably implemented model which emulates a power delivery network serving an integrated circuit (IC) core in an electronic system. The system and method generally comprise measures for establishing a power integrity (PI) topology including models for a voltage regulator module that generates at least one predetermined supply voltage level, and for a conductive power rail portion of the power delivery network (PDN). The system and method further comprise measures for interconnecting to the conductive power rail portion model a first behavioral model indicative of the current consumption characteristics of the IC core, and a second behavioral model indicative of the current consumption of an IO interface buffer driving an output signal of the electronic system.
US08656326B1

The circuit design process requires ways to reduce the power consumption of large integrated circuits and system-on-chip designs. This is typically done by introducing a process of clock gating thereby enabling or disabling flip-flops associated with specific functional blocks within the circuit. However, such changes in the circuit require synthesis and verification to ensure correctness of design and operation as sequential clock gating changes the state function dynamically. It is therefore necessary to define synthesis methods adapted to such dynamic changes in the design. According to an embodiment a sequential clock gating method uses an exclusive-OR technique to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art methods.
US08656319B2

A method of optical proximity correction (OPC) convergence control that includes providing a lithography system having a photomask and an illuminator. The method further includes performing an exposure by the illuminator on the photomask. Also, the method includes optimizing an optical illuminator setting for the lithography system with a defined gate pitch in a first direction in a first template. Additionally, the method includes determining OPC correctors to converge the OPC results with a target edge placement error (EPE) to produce a first OPC setting for the first template. The first OPC setting targets a relatively small EPE and mask error enhancement factor (MEEF)of the defined gate pitch in the first template. In addition, the method includes checking the first OPC setting for a relatively small EPE, MEEF and DOM consistency with the first template of the defined gate pitch in a second, adjacent template.
US08656316B2

A device, system and method to present electronic content on a first mobile electronic device in communication and configured to receive electronic content from a second electronic device. In accordance with a system, a first mobile electronic device having a first processor, a first short-range communications subsystem coupled to the first processor, and a first display coupled to the first processor; and a second mobile electronic device having a second processor, a second short-range communications subsystem coupled to the processor, a long-range communications subsystem coupled to the processor and operable to couple to a content server via a communication network, and a second display coupled to the second processor, wherein a short-range wireless connection is established between the first and second short-range communications subsystems of the first and second mobile electronic devices.
US08656315B2

In general, this disclosure describes techniques for moving a graphical selector. In one example, a method includes activating, by a computing device, a graphical key that is displayed with a presence-sensitive interface of the computing device. Upon activation of the graphical key, the method also includes receiving gesture input corresponding to a directional gesture using the presence-sensitive interface of the computing device and moving a graphical selector displayed with the presence-sensitive interface from a first graphical location to a second graphical location by at least one selected increment based on a property of the gesture input.
US08656313B2

A display system manages the states of two cursors that are situated on an interactive window of a display screen, as a function of the last actions carried out by the crew.
US08656312B2

In a content display apparatus in which a plurality of contents are displayed according to the order of metadata added to each content, the plurality of contents are arranged hierarchically by metadata and a group of metadata, and an array of plurality of contents arranged hierarchically is formed. Icons representing contents are displayed on a display device according to the order of the array of plurality of contents formed, and when a command for scroll is made for the displayed icons, icons in the hierarchy level to which the icons belong are scroll displayed. The scroll speed for scroll displaying the icons is changed, and based on the changed scroll speed, the hierarchy level is changed so that icons in different hierarchy level are displayed and scrolled.
US08656311B1

At least some embodiments of the present disclosure include a method for compositing media and non-media content of user interface for display on a device. The method includes constructing a data structure having a hierarchy of layers associated with the user interface of the device. The method further includes determining whether each layer of the data structure is associated with media or non-media content. The data structure or layer tree is traversed in order to determine whether each of the layers of the data structure is associated with media or non-media content. The method further includes detaching a layer associated with media content from the data structure. The method further includes storing media content in a first memory location. The method further includes storing non-media content in a second memory location. The method further includes compositing the media and non-media content for display on the device.
US08656309B2

Media menu items are generated within a media interface environment. Media menu item abstractions are generated, one of the media menu item abstractions arranged in a foreground position, and one or more of the media menu item abstractions arranged in background positions in the media interface environment. Selection of a media menu items transitions to a corresponding content menu interface.
US08656300B2

The present invention provides a system or method for displaying rich presentation taskbar buttons for a corresponding application. In one example, the rich presentation taskbar button may receive content from an application through a programming interface. The present invention further relates to a system and method for displaying a rich presentation taskbar button and for displaying and/or dismissing a thumbnail of an application window associated with the rich presentation taskbar button. The present invention may further include a system and method of pinning the thumbnail on a display or dismissing a thumbnail. The present invention also relates to a system and method for displaying multiple taskbar buttons in a taskbar including controlling the size of individual taskbar buttons, consolidating taskbar buttons and placing taskbar buttons into an overflow based on the type of taskbar button in the taskbar.
US08656294B2

A user interface (UI) for a text editing application executing on an electronic device, such as a wireless communication device, partitions a touch-sensitive display into two functional areas, a user input area and a text composition area. The UI displays text output in the text composition area and allows a user to scroll “user documents” through the input area. From an active user document displayed in the input area, users can automatically copy-and-paste text directly into a text area without having to exit the text editing application.
US08656293B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for configuring mobile devices using emulations of the mobile devices.
US08656290B1

Collaborative editing of electronic documents in realtime is provided. A host serves a client code over a network to a plurality of clients that each employ a browser to run the client code. The client code revises the text document locally in response to user input, frequently sends those edits to the host, receives updates from the other clients via the host, and revises the local text document accordingly. Each client, in some embodiments, stores three variables, one for edits not yet reported to the host, one for edits reported by not yet acknowledged, and one for the text document as modified by the acknowledged edits. Updates from the other clients are applied to the three variables according to certain rules. A composition of the three variables yields a version of the text document. The host keeps records of which edits were introduced by which client.
US08656284B2

An embodiment of the present invention provides a method for establishing Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements and metrics for different types of actual user activities over IP networks. These activities include, but are not limited to web browsing, sending and receiving email, file downloading and uploading, peer to peer (P2P) networking, VoIP, online gaming, and media streaming. The measurement of the QoE metrics is based on both objective and subjective metrics, including network characteristics, such as packet loss and latency, along with empirical observations of the user activities.
US08656282B2

An authoring tool for post-production insertion of tags and pointers into a video sequence is disclosed. Such an authoring tool can facilitate tag and pointer coordinate capture and tracking by using position detection (e.g., via a touchscreen) coupled to a display system. In one embodiment, a method can include: (i) selecting a video frame loop for viewing on a display device; (ii) receiving a list of tags for positioning within the selected video frame loop; and (iii) positioning a selected tag from the list of tags in one or more frames of the video frame loop. Also, the method can include positioning a pointer corresponding to the selected tag in the one or more frames.
US08656265B1

To help reduce latency when an application presents an embedded web view, the application may provide to a web view controller not only a base uniform resource indicator of a web application defining the web view but also preview data for the web view controller to render for presentation together with a cached version of the web view. In accordance with script logic defined by the web application, the web view controller may then (i) incorporate the provided preview data into the cached version of the web view and render the result as a preview view for presentation at a user interface, (ii) download instance data for the web view while the preview view is presented, and (iii) upon receipt of the instance data, establish and render a full version of the web view based on the instance data, for presentation at the user interface.
US08656256B2

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for operating a multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory circuit. Data is read from a memory block of a plurality of memory blocks in the MLC flash memory circuit, wherein each of the plurality of memory blocks can operate in one of at least three modes of operation comprising an MLC mode, a single-level cell (SLC) mode and a defective mode, and wherein the memory block is initially operating in the MLC mode. Error correction is performed on the read data to correct read errors in the read data. A determination is made if a number of bits corrected by the error correction exceeds a predetermined threshold value. If the number of bits corrected by the error correction exceeds the predetermined threshold value, the operating mode of the memory block is switched from the MLC mode to the SLC mode.
US08656254B2

A controller includes a link interface that is to couple to a first link to communicate bi-directional data and a second link to transmit unidirectional error-detection information. An encoder is to dynamically add first error-detection information to at least a portion of write data. A transmitter, coupled to the link interface, is to transmit the write data. A delay element is coupled to an output from the encoder. A receiver, coupled to the link interface, is to receive second error-detection information corresponding to at least the portion of the write data. Error-detection logic is coupled to an output from the delay element and an output from the receiver. The error-detection logic is to determine errors in at least the portion of the write data by comparing the first error-detection information and the second error-detection information, and, if an error is detected, is to assert an error condition.
US08656249B2

Various embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatuses for multi-level layer decoding of non-binary LDPC codes. For example, an apparatus is disclosed for layer decoding of multi-level low density parity check encoded data. The apparatus includes a low density parity check decoder operable to perform layered decoding of a plurality of circulant submatrices from an H matrix. The apparatus also includes a parity check calculator connected to the low density parity check decoder, operable to detect whether a stopping criterion has been met in the low density parity check decoder. The low density parity check decoder is also operable to end a decoding operation at less than a maximum number of iterations when the stopping criterion is met.
US08656245B2

A digital communication decoding method for low-density parity-check coded messages. The decoding method decodes the low-density parity-check coded messages within a bipartite graph having check nodes and variable nodes. Messages from check nodes are partially hard limited, so that every message which would otherwise have a magnitude at or above a certain level is re-assigned to a maximum magnitude.
US08656237B2

A scan test architecture facilitates low power testing of semiconductor circuits by selectively dividing the serial scan paths into shorter sections. Multiplexers between the sections control connecting the sections into longer or shorted paths. Select and enable signals control the operation of the scan path sections. The output of each scan path passes through a multiplexer to compare circuits on the semiconductor substrate. The compare circuits also receive expected data and mask data. The compare circuits provide a fail flag output from the semiconductor substrate.
US08656235B2

In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method includes receiving, in a processor, a device description code identifying components of a device and connections between the components, wherein some of the components and connections form boundary cells used for testing the device. The method can include processing, in the processor, the device description code to determine that the components and the connections meet a standard governing components and connections necessary for the boundary cells. The method can also include traversing the connections between the components to determine that the connections meet the standard, and reporting, via one or more output devices, that the device complies with the standard.
US08656230B2

A method for driving an electronic device stably is provided. The electronic device includes a power supply circuit to which power is fed by power sequentially supplied from a contactless power feeding device, and a plurality of loads to which power is sequentially supplied from the power supply circuit. Further, a method for driving an electronic device stably is provided. The electronic device includes a power supply circuit to which power is fed by power supplied from a contactless power feeding device, and one or more loads to which the power supply circuit repeatedly supplies power. The power supply potential Vdd is restored to more than or equal to 90% of the initial potential Vdd0 within an interval in which the power supply circuit is not connected to a load; then, the next load may be connected to the power supply circuit, and may be driven.
US08656227B2

An on-line client service method for a storage apparatus includes establishing a link between a client host and the storage apparatus for detecting the current status of the storage apparatus, the client host generating a diagnostic result of the storage apparatus, the client host transmitting the diagnostic result to a far-end server, the far-end server determining whether the storage apparatus functions abnormally according to the diagnostic result. If the storage apparatus functions abnormally, the client host reloads a firmware provided by the far-end server to the storage apparatus, and determines whether the storage apparatus functions abnormally after the storage apparatus is reloaded with the firmware.
US08656223B2

An information handling system includes a peripheral component interconnect express root complex, a basic input output system, and a root complex mirroring block. The peripheral component interconnect express root complex includes a plurality of peripheral component interconnect express ports. The basic input output system is in communication with the peripheral component interconnect express root complex, and is configured to detect a peripheral component interconnect express adaptor configuration, and to set a peripheral component interconnect express mirroring setting based on the peripheral component interconnect express adaptor configuration. The root complex mirroring block is in communication with the basic input output system, and is configured to mirror data between a first peripheral component interconnect express adaptor and a second peripheral component interconnect express adaptor based on the peripheral component interconnect express mirroring setting.
US08656216B2

A failure diagnostic system (100) for a multicore CPU having installed therein a plurality of CPU cores (11) that is configured to be switched from a SMP mode to an AMP mode includes: load prediction means for predicting a processing load of the multicore CPU; mode switching means for switching at least one of the CPU cores (11) to the AMP mode when the processing load is less than a threshold; and failure diagnostic means for performing a failure diagnosis of the CPU core that has been switched to the AMP mode.
US08656214B2

A dual ported replicated data cache. The cache is configured for storing input data blocks. The cache includes an augmenter for producing an augmented data block with parity information from the input data block, a first memory array for storing the augmented data block, and a second memory array for storing the augmented data block.
US08656207B2

A method performs statistical static timing analysis of a network that includes a phase-locked loop and a feedback path. The feedback path comprises a set of delays operatively connected from the output of the phase-locked loop back to the input of the phase-locked loop. One embodiment herein computes a statistical feedback path delay for the feedback path. The method can use a separate statistical parameter to represent random uncorrelated delay variation for each delay in the feedback path. The method also computes an output arrival time for the phase-locked loop based on the negative of the statistical feedback path delay.
US08656199B2

A power-down method for a system including a plurality of volatile memory devices is disclosed. The method includes providing some of the plurality of volatile memory devices or some memory regions of the volatile memory devices to operate in a self-refresh mode, thereby increasing a rebooting operation speed and reducing power consumption.
US08656198B2

A method for power management is disclosed. The method may include monitoring requests for access to a memory of a memory subsystem by one or more processor cores; and monitoring requests for access to the memory conveyed by an input/output (I/O) unit. The method may further include determining if at least a first amount of time has elapsed since any one of the processor cores has asserted a memory access request and determining if at least a second amount of time has elapsed since the I/O unit has conveyed a memory access request. A first signal may be asserted if the first and second amounts of time have elapsed. A memory subsystem may be transitioned from operating in a full power state to a first low power state responsive to assertion of the first signal.
US08656190B2

A one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be used in any computing system to store system information such as security violations and policies for responding to them. A one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be cryptographically signed, encrypted with a per device key and accessible by only the most privileged software executed by a computing device, e.g., hypervisor or operating system kernel. A one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be mirrored in RAM for performance. Recordable event fields in a software repository may be one-time-settable without the ability to reset them in a field operation mode whereas they may be resettable in a different mode such as a manufacturing mode. Memory allocated to a one-time-settable tamper resistant software repository may be reset, reclaimed, reassigned, scaled and otherwise flexibly adapted to changing conditions and priorities in the lifespan of a computing device, which may be particularly useful for service-backed consumer devices.
US08656187B2

A method operating on a computer begins by generating a read command to read at least some of a plurality of data slices from a dispersed storage network. The method continues by receiving the at least some of the plurality of data slices. The method continues by performing a reverse information dispersal algorithm on at least some of the plurality of data slices to produce a plurality of transposed data elements. The method continues by reverse transposing the plurality of transposed data elements to recover data elements of a data segment.
US08656186B2

A method, system and program are provided for enabling selective access to multiple users' encrypted data in a single storage cartridge. A unique, derived key is generated for each user's data by performing cryptographic operations on a combination of a common base key and metadata related to the data to be encrypted (e.g. its total block count). The base data key is wrapped with one or more encryption keys to form one or more encryption encapsulated data keys (EEDKs). The base key and the derived key are wrapped to create a session encrypted data key (SEDK), which along with the EEDKs, are conveyed to the tape drive, where the SEDK is decrypted. The EEDKs are then stored in one or more places on the storage cartridge. The base key and the derived key are used to encrypt a predetermined user's data, with the derived key stored on the cartridge with the encrypted data. The encrypted data may be subsequently decrypted by retrieving the EEDK and decrypting it with a decryption key to extract the base data key. The extracted base data key can then be used with other information to calculate the derived key. Once calculated, the derived key is used to decrypt its associated encrypted data.
US08656185B2

A method and apparatus for preventing compromise of data stored in a memory by assuring the deletion of data and minimizing data remanence affects is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of monitoring the memory to detect tampering, and if tampering is detected, generating second signals having second data differing from the first data autonomously from the first processor; providing the generated second signals to the input of the memory; and storing the second data in the memory. Several embodiments are disclosed, including self-powered embodiments and those which use separate, dedicated processors to generate, apply, and verify the zeroization data.
US08656182B2

A security technique to reduce the risk of unauthorized release of a software object. The technique allows identification of an individual responsible for the unauthorized release by marking each object with information, which acts as a fingerprint from which a person manipulating the object in a development environment can be identified. The development environment may be configured to quickly and automatically mark the object whenever a manipulation that may precede an unauthorized release occurs. To prevent circumventing the security technique, the object may be configured to enforce a requirement for a valid fingerprint such that the object is disabled if the fingerprint is removed or altered. Despite the marking, personally identifiable information is not revealed because the fingerprint is generated through a one-way cryptographic function performed on identifying information.
US08656180B2

Systems and methods for activating a token to enable a user to enter a transaction based on information received from a recovery key and a passcode are described herein.
US08656179B2

A system for encrypting Secure Volumes using an encryption key which is saved in the open after being encoded inside a hardware token device utilizing a secure secret which is stored inside the device, and which never leaves the device. The encrypted volume can be accessed again only after a hardware token has decoded this encryption key. The system also provides means whereby the holder of a Master token and the holder of a Grand Master token may also have access to the volume as long as the user token was previously registered to the Master token, and the Master Token was previously registered to the Grand master token before the secured volume was encrypted. Also, the system allows members of user groups so designated at the time the volume is encrypted, to be able to have access to the volume as long as their token was previously registered with the same Master Token as the user that encrypted the volume and as long as the token encrypting the volume was also a member of the authorized user group.
US08656174B2

The invention provides a method of recovering from de-synchronization attacks includes registering original and altered digital content using nonlinear transformations to iteratively attempt to provide better-approximated registration. Approximation occurs at more than one level of granularity, by selecting among a greater number of possible transformation functions at each step. Transformations and comparisons might be conducted directly on pixel values, on coefficients for a set of basis wavelets, or on some transformation of the original and altered digital content. A human operator might assist this process, such as by suggesting transformations or providing evaluation of the degree of registration. Upon resynchronization, embedded identifying information in the original digital content is recovered.
US08656173B2

An electronic image data verification program disclosed herein is capable of detecting presence or absence of a change, specifying a changed portion (the position of a change) if present, and making the presence or absence and the changed portion provable to third parties, by generating partial signature information separately from electronic image information to be registered, by dividing and maintaining the partial signature information, and by clearly separating functions/roles of the electronic image information (original information) and the partial signature information (verification information). The present invention comprises: a partial signature information generation section 40 that uses partial information of electronic image information, to generate partial signature information for specifying presence or absence of a change to the electronic image information and a changed portion if a change has been made; a registration section 70 that registers the electronic image information and the partial signature information generated from the electronic image information; a storage section 80; and a partial signature verification section 50 that uses the electronic image information and the partial signature information registered by the registration section, to verify presence or absence of the change to the electronic image information, or a changed portion if a change has been made to the electronic image information.
US08656170B2

Techniques are provided for determining freshness of control messages in a network. At a first device that is to enter into a secure communication session with a second device, timestamp information and time window size information are sent to the second device in a control message during a first exchange between a first device and a second device. At the first device, timestamp information and time window size information are obtained from a control message received from the second device by the first device during the first exchange. At the first device, the freshness of a control message is tested based on the timestamp information of the control message during a second exchange and the time window size information received from the second device during the first exchange.
US08656165B2

A method of displaying electronic documents on a vehicle display screen is described. The vehicle includes a display screen embedded in a window of the vehicle in a manner visible from outside the vehicle. The method includes storing the digital certificate in a memory unit of the control module. The method includes displaying information on the display screen by retrieving the digital certificate. Also, upon validating the digital certificate, the information associated with the digital certificate is displayed on the display screen, wherein the information includes an electronic document that indicates at least one of compliance with a local law, valid insurance, validation of payment of taxes associated with the vehicle, and a parking receipt for parking the vehicle, wherein the display screen comprises at least one button, manipulable by a user outside of said vehicle, to select a display mode of said display screen.
US08656155B2

Digital certificate public information is extracted using a processor from at least one digital certificate stored within at least one digital certificate storage repository. The extracted digital certificate public information is stored to at least one dynamically-created certificate public information directory. At least a portion of the digital certificate public information stored within the at least one dynamically-created certificate public information directory is provided in response to a digital certificate public information request.
US08656150B2

An overclocking method applied to a computer system includes the following steps: setting a first operating voltage and a first clock rate; generating a first control signal to a power supply and generating a second control signal to a clock generator according to the first operating voltage and the first clock rate, respectively; controlling the computer system into a sleep mode; resuming the computer system from the sleep mode after a predetermined time; restarting the power supply and the clock generator, and generating the first operating voltage by the power supply according to the first control signal and, generating the first clock rate by the clock generator according to the second control signal; and setting a parameter of a memory controller in a north bridge chip of the computer system via the first clock rate and the first operating voltage.
US08656142B2

An illustrative embodiment provides a computer-implemented process for managing multiple speculative assist threads for data pre-fetching that sends a command from an assist thread of a first processor to second processor and a memory, wherein parameters of the command specify a processor identifier of the second processor, responsive to receiving the command, reply by the second processor indicating an ability to receive a cache line that is a target of a pre-fetch, responsive to receiving the command replying by the memory indicating a capability to provide the cache line, responsive to receiving replies from the second processor and the memory, sending, by the first processor, a combined response to the second processor and the memory, wherein the combined response indicates an action, and responsive to the action indicating a transaction can continue sending the requested cache line, by the memory, to the second processor into a target cache level on the second processor.
US08656141B1

An integrated circuit includes a plurality of tiles. Each tile includes a pipelined processor configured to process multiple streams of instructions for the processor; and a switch including switching circuitry to forward data over data paths from other tiles to one or more pipeline stages of the processor and to switches of other tiles. At least some of the data is forwarded based on one or more streams of instructions for the switch.
US08656140B2

An internal buffer is provided for a DRP core. A selector SEL switches input/output destination of the DRP core between external memory and an internal buffer. Control software executed by a CPU core receives information a pipeline of configurations for a sequence of target processing and generates combinations as to whether the processing result is transferred between the configurations via the external memory or via the internal buffer as transfer manners. Next, for each manner, bandwidth and performance of the external memory used by the DRP core in the manner are calculated. The manner of the best performance satisfying a previously specified bandwidth restriction is selected among the manners and the selector SEL is switched in accordance with the manner.
US08656124B2

A method for re-establishing a backup relationship between first and second volumes associated with one or more storage media in a data storage system is provided. The method comprises storing first information for preserving the backup relationship, in response to or in advance of receiving a request to terminate the backup relationship; recording changes to the first or second volumes that occur subsequent to terminating the backup relationship; and re-establishing the backup relationship between the first and second volumes according to the first information such that the first and second volumes are synchronized by merging the recorded changes with the first or second volumes.
US08656121B2

Fine-grained detection of data modification of original data is provided by associating separate guard bits with granules of memory storing original data from which translated data has been obtained. The guard bits indicating whether the original data stored in the associated granule is protected for data coherency. The guard bits are set and cleared by special-purpose instructions. Responsive to attempting access to translated data obtained from the original data, the guard bit(s) associated with the original data is checked to determine whether the guard bit(s) fail to indicate coherency of the original data, and if so, discarding of the translated data is initiated to facilitate maintaining data coherency between the original data and the translated data.
US08656116B2

A shared memory made on a chip based on semiconductors comprising: an integer number m, greater than one, of data buses; m address and control buses; m input/output interfaces, each input/output interface being connected to one of the m data buses and to one of the m address and control buses; an integer number p, greater than one, of memory banks, each memory bank comprising: a memory, comprising a data input/output and an address and control input controlled by each of the address and control buses; a block of m switches, each of the m switches being connected on the one hand to a memory data bus, said memory data bus being connected to the data input/output of the memory, and on the other hand to one of the m data buses.
US08656114B2

In general, the present invention relates to data cache processing. Specifically, the present invention relates to a system that provides reconfigurable dynamic cache which varies the operation strategy of cache memory based on the demand from the applications originating from different external general processor cores, along with functions of a virtualized hybrid core system. The system includes receiving a data request, selecting an operational mode based on the data request and a predefined selection algorithm, and processing the data request based on the selected operational mode. The system is further configured to delegate computational or memory resource needs to a plurality of sub-processing cores for processing to satisfy application demands.
US08656100B1

This invention is a system and method for managing provisioning of resources for one or more data storage networks using a new architecture.
US08656097B2

A method of controlling a hybrid hard disk drive. The method includes receiving a read command from a host; searching metadata of a file to be read; determining whether the metadata satisfies a predetermined setup condition; and if the metadata satisfies the setup conditions, copying the file to be read, from a first storage device and storing the file in a second storage device.
US08656088B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to throttling accesses to a flash memory device. The flash memory device is part of a storage system that includes the flash memory device and a second memory device. The throttling is performed by logic that is external to the flash memory device and includes calculating a throttling factor responsive to an estimated remaining lifespan of the flash memory device. It is determined whether the throttling factor exceeds a threshold. Data is written to the flash memory device in response to determining that the throttling factor does not exceed the threshold. Data is written to the second memory device in response to determining that the throttling factor exceeds the threshold.
US08656085B2

A flash memory device resilient to bit errors and a programming method suitable for the flash memory are provided. The flash memory device stores data in a parallel manner in a superpage which is generated by grouping a plurality of physical pages into a logical page. The flash memory device spreads input data using a predetermined spreading code to generate spread data. The spread data is stored on a superpage-by-superpage basis.
US08656084B2

A user device includes a flash memory configured to store an index including a plurality of index nodes and a controller configured to control the flash memory. The controller is configured to detect a pointer ID corresponding to a selected key of a first index node, translate the detected pointer ID to an index address by using a pointer table, and access a second index node corresponding to the selected key by using the index address.
US08656079B2

A method and apparatus are provided for controlling system management interrupts is disclosed. The method comprises: receiving an interrupt signal; determining a type associated with the interrupt signal; using the determined type to access control information indicating an action to be applied to the determined type of interrupt; and blocking, passing or remapping the interrupt signal in response to the control information. The apparatus comprises a memory, an interrupt unit and a logic circuit. The memory is adapted to store control information regarding a plurality of types of interrupt signals. The interrupt unit is adapted to receive the interrupt signal, and use the interrupt type contained in the interrupt signal to access the control information stored in the memory. The logic circuit is adapted to block, pass or remap said interrupt signal in response to the control information.
US08656078B2

Transaction identifier expansion circuitry is provided, along with a method of operating such circuitry. The transaction identifier expansion circuitry interfaces between a master device and interconnect circuitry used to couple the master device with a plurality of slave devices to enable transactions to be performed. Transaction analysis circuitry is responsive to each transaction in a sequence of transactions initiated by the master device, to compare at least one attribute of the transaction with predetermined attributes indicative of the target slave device for that transaction. Based on the comparison, an initial transaction identifier is then mapped to one of a plurality of revised transaction identifiers, such that the revised transaction identifier is dependent on the target slave device. Reordering circuitry is then arranged to buffer response transfers received from the interconnect circuitry destined for the master device, with each response transfer having the revised transaction identifier associated therewith. The reordering circuitry then re-orders the response transfers having regard to the original transaction order of those transactions within the sequence of transactions that had the same initial transaction identifier, prior to provision of each response transfer to the master device. By such an approach, the performance of a high performance master device can be maintained, by ensuring that for at least the transactions targeted to a particular subset of the slave devices, no intervention by deadlock avoidance circuitry within the interconnect is required when routing transactions to those slave devices, due to the use of different transaction identifiers when accessing those slave devices.
US08656076B2

The disclosed USB device holder includes a USB unit, a main body made of cardboard and having a receiving portion for receiving and maintaining the USB unit.
US08656059B2

Methods and structure for transferring administrative information through a communication interface. Features and aspects hereof provide for exchanging administrative information between an initiator device and a target device using read and write commands encoded with a reserved sub-tag value. In the context of a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) system, a portion of a parameter (e.g., the LBA parameter) of a read or write command (a Native Command Queuing command) is defined to encode a sub-tag value. One or more sub-tag values are reserved to indicate that the corresponding read or write command is related to the exchange of administrative information rather than the reading or writing of data on a storage device. A parameter value encoded in the LBA field or data length field of the read or write command indicates administrative data to be returned to the initiator or to be updated within the target device.
US08656058B2

A method for back-off retry with priority routing in a single, cohesive SAS expander includes routing a data transfer between an input of a single, cohesive SAS expander and an output of the single, cohesive SAS expander, wherein the single, cohesive expander includes a first SAS expander, and at least one additional SAS expander via at least one inter-expander link (IEL). The routing of data may further include routing a first OPEN request on a direct path through the first SAS expander to a port of a device and routing a second OPEN request on an alternate path from the first SAS expander and through a second SAS expander to the port of the device. The method further includes determining link availability between the second SAS expander and the port of the device, and, upon determination of a failed link or a busy link, re-routing the data transfer from the second SAS expander to the first SAS expander or a third SAS expander, or retrying the data transfer through the second SAS expander.
US08656055B2

A computer-readable medium, computer-implemented method, apparatus, and system for converting and restoring an object are provided. In one embodiment, an object created by a server is serialized, at the server, into a compressed object format. The compressed object format is then inserted into a tag of a file. The file can then be sent from the server to the client at runtime. In another embodiment, a file is received, at a client. The client then automatically deserializes and loads the compressed data within the tag of the file into an object created by the client. The client then uses the object to load and invoke a view engine in order to render a view.
US08656049B2

A system for injecting code into an HTML file comprises a memory and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The memory stores code. The processor receives a request for content. The processor determines whether the request for content includes a request for compression and, if so, deletes the request for compression associated with the requested content. The processor retrieves the requested content. If the retrieved content is associated with an HTML file, then the processor injects the code into the HTML file to thereby modify the HTML file. The processor communicates the modified HTML file to a client.
US08656043B1

Apparatus and method for providing an adaptive personalized entertainment experience that is customized for each user. Details of playback or presentation of a composition to a user may be captured at one or more use-devices. The captured details may include user actions and user control actions that are associated with each played or presented composition. A target time for the playback or presentation of a composition to a user, and/or a targeted time between playbacks or presentation of a composition to a user, may be determined by using the captured details of the playback or presentation of compositions. A customized sequence of compositions may be automatically generated for each user by utilizing a history of the details of playback and/or presentation associated with the user; and/or the user actions and/or control actions. The personalized sequence may automatically adapt to changing user preferences and feedback over time.
US08656024B2

Transactional application processing in a distributed environment using an application-aware network infrastructure element is described. In an embodiment, an apparatus comprises a plurality of network interfaces, forwarding logic, and transaction manager logic. The plurality of network interfaces is operable to communicatively connect to one or more packet-switched networks. The forwarding logic is coupled to the plurality of network interfaces and, when executed, is operable to receive packet flows therefrom and to forward the packet flows thereto. The transaction manager logic is encoded in one or more tangible media for execution and when executed is operable to: receive first information that specifies one or more remote resources associated with an extended transaction, where the extended transaction comprises a plurality of child transactions; and reserve the one or more remote resources by sending out one or more reservation requests over a network management protocol.
US08656021B2

The problem is solved by including a read unit reading operation information corresponding to an application according to an execution request and relating to an operation of the application; and a construction unit constructing an execution environment in which the application operates, based on the operation information read by the read unit.
US08656013B2

Data monitoring including: establishing a real-time connection between at least two processing entities; defining transfer preferences for data and metrics to be sent for monitoring; and sending the data and metrics from at least one sending entity to a collecting entity of the at least two processing entities using a data push process, wherein the data push process is based on the transfer preferences defined in advance for the data and metrics.
US08656009B2

A primary application comprising one or more executables is defined, and a network ontology for the primary application is determined and stored in a database, where the network ontology comprises one or more nodes of an enterprise network that communicate during execution of the one or more executables. Next, a change of state for at least one of the nodes is detected and used to determine one or more elements of the network ontology for the primary application that have a changed state. Further, an impact summary view is generated to indicate the elements of the primary application that have a changed state, and the impact summary view is displayed to a user.
US08656004B1

A method and apparatus for delivering selected multimedia content to a user of a mobile device in a pervasive computing environment is disclosed. Communication with a mobile device in the environment is established. A user profile and viewing history is received from the mobile device. Multimedia content is selected and sequenced for viewing by the user. The selection of multimedia content is based on search logic that includes the user profile and viewing history. Metadata is transmitted to the mobile device that is associated with the selected multimedia content.
US08656002B1

Systems and method for the management of resource dependent workflows are provided. One or more resource control devices monitor usage of a computing resource by server computing devices. Each resource control device may direct a server computing device to proceed with a workflow or to pause processing a workflow. A resource control device may further direct a server computing device to take resource conserving actions. When a computing resource is determined to be available, a resource control device may direct a paused server computing device to resume a workflow.
US08655999B2

A mechanism is provided in a storage management application that automatically reconfigures agents and scheduled probes of agents in cases where the agents do not automatically reconfigure themselves to manage a newly formed fabric after fragment segmentation. The solution does not burden the storage administrator to reconfigure agents or to reconfigure regularly scheduled inventory probes through storage management applications.
US08655995B2

Devices, systems and methods for commissioning a home network and inhibiting unaffiliated wireless communication devices that are physically proximate to each other from forming a wireless network. A wireless communication device may include a transceiver capable of communicating with at least a second device, a non-volatile memory capable of storing a network name, a controller, and a user input acceptance element capable of placing the controller in a network set-up mode. The controller may have a plurality of modes including the network set-up mode, as well as a status indicator for providing an indication of whether the device is operating with one of a parent status and a child status. A method for joining a wireless network may include entering a network set up mode, and scanning for a second device operating with a parent status. If the second device is operating with the parent status, the network name of the second device may be adopted as the network name. However, if there is no second device operating with the parent status, the network name may be established as either a new name or an existing name.
US08655987B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a bid to display in a predetermined area of a web page an organic-activity-stream entry matching particular story characteristics. The bid includes a bid amount and one or more targeting criteria. The method includes, n response to identifying an organic-activity-stream entry as matching the story characteristics, providing for display the organic-activity-stream entry in a predetermined area of a web page based at least in part on the bid amount and targeting criteria.
US08655977B2

An intermediate device communicatively connected to a host device and a sequential device in a storage area network. The host device is configured to issue different kinds of commands to the sequential device, including an inquiry command. The sequential device is configured to sequentially process requests from the host device. The intermediate device is configured to cache inquiry data about the sequential device itself in a cache memory connected to the intermediate device and service inquiry commands from the host device.
US08655967B1

A communications platform having an XML based message-processing platform that enables users to receive electronic messages. The processing platform may include at least one server that receives an electronic message addressed to the platform, wherein the electronic message includes a routing indicator including at least one user identity and one or more message attributes. The one or more message attributes may include “folios” which include information folios that at least one of intelligently store, display and synthesize “incoming” electronic messages. The platform further includes at least one database that stores a user-defined endpoint table, the endpoint table correlating endpoints with sender defined message attributes. In this embodiment, the platform may include a sender stylesheet and an electronic message stylesheet.
US08655963B2

A reception apparatus which receives a first and second message includes a determination unit configured to determine correspondence between the first message and the second message, an acquisition unit configured to acquire data length information expressing a data length from the first message, and an extraction unit configured to extract data which has the data length based on the data length information from the second message when the determination unit determines that the first message corresponds to the second message.
US08655955B2

A system for responding to requests using stream processing can include a processor configured to initiate executable operations including receiving a server request from a server, wherein the server is configured to generate the server request responsive to a client request, generating a request identifier associated with the server request, and, responsive to the server request, sending a stream processing request derived from the server request to a first stream processing node. The stream processing request can include the request identifier. Responsive to receiving a create response message including a stream processing result and the request identifier from a second stream processing node, the stream processing result can be correlated with the server request. A write response message specifying the stream processing result can be sent to the server.
US08655953B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for obtaining and presenting information to a user playing a media item identifying playback positions of a number of other users also playing the media item. In one embodiment, a first user begins playback of a media item. Information identifying playback positions of a number of second users also playing the media item is obtained from a playback information broker and presented to the first user. The first user may then provide user input identifying a desired action to take with respect to one or more of the second users. In response, the desired action is effected.
US08655950B2

A computer-implemented method of alerting users to collaborative activity can include receiving a user input selecting at least one of a plurality of data types to be included within a notification, wherein the plurality of data types correspond to collaborative session data exchanged during a collaborative session among a plurality of users. The method can include buffering collaborative session data during the collaborative session and responsive to detecting an occurrence of an awareness triggering event, outputting the notification comprising at least a portion of the buffered collaborative session data corresponding to the selected at least one of a plurality of data types.
US08655938B1

A system and method is disclosed for measuring contributor weight or influence in social media. Content posted by a user on one or more social media platforms is identified. The identifying the content posted by the user includes searching the one or more social media platforms for content posted by the user with identifying information. Downstream content associated with the content posted by the user is identified. Metrics measuring a contributor weight of the user based on the downstream content are calculated.
US08655921B2

When a searching apparatus accepts a search condition including a logical condition formed of variables, transition table is created by using a BDD method. In the transition table, a combination of a bit string indicative of true or false of a variable at each level for arriving from a starting-point variable to an arrival variable and the starting-point variable is associated with the arrival variable. Then, a true/false decision on the search condition of the search target data is made by, with an arrival variable of a transition destination being taken as the starting-point variable, extracting a bit string of a predetermined number of digits from the starting-point variable from among logical bit strings of the search target data and specifying the arrival variable as the transition destination based on the combination and the transition table.
US08655920B2

A method, system and computer program product for creating a report on the basis of a plurality of remote datasets includes an intelligence server, one or more tree servers and one or more databases. Each tree server creates one or more segments, or slices, of a report, using information that resides on the tree server. Slices are aggregated into a tree structure, and the tree structure is converted into a report. The intelligence server receives updates from the tree servers. The tree servers and the intelligence server remain in communication for the purposes of passing update messages. The update messages are received and processed at the intelligence-server in a manner that facilitates synchronization with the contributing tree servers and provides live updates to the user.
US08655914B2

A method and system for controlling access to stored data is provided. The storage access control system leverages a preexisting security infrastructure of a system to inform the proper access control that should be applied to data stored outside of its original location, such as a data backup. The storage access control system may place similar access control restrictions on the backup files that existed on the original files. In this way, the backed up data is given similar protection as that of the original data.
US08655912B2

A computer-implemented method and system for combining keywords into logical clusters that share a similar behavior with respect to a considered dimension are disclosed. Various embodiments are operable to order a list of keywords from high activity to low activity, partition the list into at least two sets, a head partition including keywords with an activity level above a predefined threshold, a tail partition including the remainder of the keywords in the list, model the keywords in the head partition based on a set of variables, score the keywords in the head partition based on the modeling, and cluster head partition keywords with tail partition keywords having at least one common variable into at least one keyword cluster.
US08655911B2

Techniques are provided for (1) extending SQL to support direct invocation of frequent itemset operations, (2) improving the performance of frequent itemset operations by clustering itemset combinations to more efficiently use previously produced results, and (3) making on-the-fly selection of the occurrence counting technique to use during each phase of a multiple phase frequent itemset operation. When directly invoked in an SQL statement, a frequent itemset operation may receive input from results of operations specified in the SQL statement, and provide its results directly to other operations specified in the SQL statement. By clustering itemset combinations, resources may be used more efficiently by retaining intermediate information as long as it is useful, and then discarding it to free up volatile memory. Dynamically selecting an occurrence counting technique allows a single frequent itemset operation to change the occurrence counting technique that it is using midstream, based on cost considerations and/or environmental conditions.
US08655901B1

This specification describes technologies relating to search systems. In general, one aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the actions of receiving a query pattern, the query pattern identifying a particular rule to interpret a particular type of query, the query pattern being in a first language; identifying a collection of queries in the first language matching the query pattern; annotating each query of the collection of queries with one or more labels; translating the collection of annotated queries in the first language into a translated collection of queries in a second language; aligning the translated collection of queries including identifying a most common term in the translated collection of queries and determining the corresponding positions of the annotations relative to the translated query terms; and extracting a translated query pattern from the aligned translated collection of queries.
US08655900B2

A universal data management interface (UDMI) system includes a processing system generates a visual interface through which a user can access, manage, and manipulate data on plural different types of remote databases. The UDMI connects to multiple standard database management systems and to allow multiple users to access, manage, and manipulate data within each of the multiple standard database management systems. The UDMI also allows multiple virtual databases that reside in a single database to be available as a network service.
US08655899B2

A method, software, database and system for attribute partner identification and social network based attribute analysis are presented in which attribute profiles associated with individuals can be compared, attribute partners can be identified, groups of individuals can be formed, associations between individuals can be determined, and attribute based information can be analyzed and referenced. Attributes, both genetic and non-genetic, can be analyzed and utilized not only for the basis of comparisons between individuals, but also to form groups based on overlapping genetic and non-genetic attributes.
US08655893B2

A method for organizing images from multiple image capture devices includes allowing the determination of an offset between image capture times recorded in a first image capture device and image capture times recorded in a second image capture device, adjusting the image capture times recorded in the second image capture device by the offset to produce adjusted image capture times by a computer processor, and sequencing images taken by the first image capture device and the second image capture device in an chronological order. The sequencing is based on the image capture times for the images captured by the first image capture device and the adjusted image capture times for the images captured by the second image capture device.
US08655889B2

An autonomous blog engine is implemented to enable the autonomous generation of a blog. The autonomous blog engine receives media objects that are captured by an electronic device during a trip session. The autonomous blog engine determines a place of interest based on photographs selected from the media objects. The autonomous blog engine then generates textual content using one or more pre-stored knowledge items that include information on the place of interest. The autonomous blog engine further autonomously publishes a blog entry on the place of interest that includes one or more photographs from the photograph cluster and the textual content.
US08655874B2

An information reproducing apparatus and method thereof. The information reproducing apparatus includes a storage unit, communication unit, controller, and display unit. The storage unit stores music data and at least one first string of characters corresponding to the music data. The reproducing unit reproduces the music data from the storage unit. The communication unit communicates with an image data storage unit, which stores a plurality of image data each corresponding to at least one second string of characters. The controller controls acquisition of one image data from the image data storage unit via the communication unit. The one image data is acquired based on a comparison between the at least one first string of characters and the plurality of the at least one second string of characters. Further, the display unit is configured to display the acquired image data when the reproducing unit is reproducing the music data.
US08655865B1

A method and apparatus for facilitating indexing of rich Internet content by accessing a portion of rich Internet content containing a plurality of states and a plurality of transitions that connect various ones of the plurality of states through activation of at least one entity. The method and apparatus accesses contextual information coupled to at least one of a transition, a state or an entity, and examines at least one of the plurality of states using the at least one of the plurality of transitions and the contextual information.
US08655861B2

In one example, a method comprises receiving, with a data access service, an input query from an enterprise software application, wherein the data access service is positioned between the enterprise software application and a multidimensional data source; parsing the input query into a parse tree; generating an abstract syntax tree based on the parse tree, the abstract syntax tree comprising input query elements and multidimensional expression query elements based on the input query; performing an evaluation of metadata comprised in the multidimensional expression query elements of the abstract syntax tree; restructuring the abstract syntax tree based on the evaluation of the metadata; executing a query based on the restructured abstract syntax tree on the multidimensional data source; and retrieving a query result set from the multidimensional data source comprising results that are responsive to the query based on the restructured abstract syntax tree.
US08655857B1

Integrating a new class into a class hierarchy is disclosed. A new class having a place in a class hierarchy is received. Metadata, associated with the new class, that includes the new class's place in the class hierarchy is also received. Hierarchy data associated with a previously compiled class is dynamically modified to reflect the place of the new class in the class hierarchy.
US08655854B2

A computer-based method for media composition of a family of related time-based media programs. The method involves creating a master program with time-based elements of video and/or audio as well as time-based and non-time-based metadata, creating a derivative program that includes derivative elements, defining an inheritance relationship between the master program and the derivative program that specifies elements of the master program to be inherited by the derivative program, and causing the derivative program to inherit the specified elements from the master program in accordance with the inheritance relationship. User interfaces are provided for creating, editing, and viewing hierarchical trees of related programs.
US08655853B2

Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to a system and method for optimizing transaction termination. A database interface receives an indication to terminate a transaction. The database interface decides whether to send a command to the underlying database server to terminate the transaction. If the database interface does send a command to the database server, it determines which command is appropriate to send.
US08655843B2

A device receives medical data associated with a user of the device, and creates a body template based on the received medical data, where the body template includes layers that are representations of a human body associated with the user. The device also displays the body template to the user, where the user is capable of manipulating one or more layers of the body template in order to review the medical data.
US08655840B2

An apparatus for providing sub-file level synchronization may include a processor configured to receive an indication of a change to a portion of a file, generate a file identifier in response to the receipt of the indication, the file identifier including a sub-file identification indicative of the portion of the file, and enable synchronization of the portion of the file based on the sub-file identification. A corresponding method and computer program product are also provided.
US08655836B2

The disclosure discloses a method for implementing data synchronization between a source database and a target database, which includes: a synchronization device acquires at least one first Logical Change Record (LCR) and a keyword of the first LCR from the source database; the synchronization device determines whether there is a second LCR with a keyword as same as the keyword of the first LCR in the synchronization device itself; the synchronization device processes the first LCR to generate a processed LCR according to the determination result, so that the synchronization device stores only one LCR containing the keyword of the first LCR; and the synchronization device sends the processed LCR to the target database. Accordingly, the disclosure also discloses a device and system for implementing data synchronization between a source database and a target database. The disclosure can reduce the data transmission load when implementing the synchronization between the source database and the target database.
US08655835B2

An information generating device in an information communication system in which contents and catalog information including its attribute information are distributed in node devices, includes: a first storage unit storing first catalog information, the catalog information including link information associating the plurality of attribute information with each other; a acquisition unit acquiring, in response to updating the content of the attribute information, the updated attribute information; a generation unit generating the link information for updating the first catalog information on the basis of the attribute information acquired by the first acquisition unit, and the first catalog information stored in the first storage unit, and generate second catalog information including the generated link information and the updated attribute information; a second storing unit storing the second catalog information; and an updating unit updating the first catalog information on the basis of the second catalog information for each given period.
US08655831B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for automatically parsing data from disparate data sources. In some implementations, actions include receiving first data from a first data source, identifying a first regular expression that corresponds to a data format of the first data, selecting a first set of parsing rules from a plurality of parsing rules based on the first regular expression, parsing the first data based on the first set of parsing rules to provide a first set of sub-data, populating data fields of a first data object with respective sub-data from the first set of sub-data, and transmitting the first data object to a computing device.
US08655828B2

A method of improving the accuracy and computation time of automatic image recognition by the implementation of association graphs and a quantum processor.A method of solving problems using a quantum processor by casting a problem as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (“QUBO”) problem, mapping the QUBO problem to the quantum processor, and evolving the quantum processor to produce a solution to the QUBO problem.
US08655824B1

Analyzing a set of policies. A goal comprising a particular outcome is received. An analysis object comprising a data structure maintaining information needed to perform an analysis of the goal is defined. The analysis object is configured to limit a number of calculations needed to achieve the goal. Each member of a set of expressions found in the set of policies has an output. The output is the same for each expression. One of the set of expressions is solved. The solved output is cached in the analysis object such that the solved output is associated with each member of the set of expressions. The analysis object is processed to create a set of values that achieves the goal. Processing includes referencing the cache to retrieve the solved output each time a member of the set of expressions is to be solved during processing of the analysis object.
US08655823B1

Improved techniques of identifying actions to take in response to events involve assigning, to each set of event parameter values which characterizes an event, a set of weight values, each weight value indicative of a probability of the event belonging to a cluster of events which follow a set of rules. To continue the previous example, an event management system may determine the probability of the first event belonging to the first cluster is 51% and that for the first event belonging to the second cluster is 49%, while the probability of the second event belonging to the first cluster is 49% and that for the second event belonging to the second cluster is 51%. In such a case, the event management system can be configured to respond to such similarly configured events in similar ways.
US08655818B2

An apparatus for discrimination includes a memory, an alignment unit configured to align nodes of a decision tree in the memory, wherein a node in which depth from a root node is not greater than a threshold is aligned in accordance with a breadth of first order, and a node in which depth from a root node is greater than a threshold is aligned in accordance with a depth of first order, and a discrimination unit, receiving an inputted data, configured to discriminate a class of the inputted data using the nodes aligned in the memory.
US08655814B1

A method of generating a model of propulsive efficiency for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is based on a multilayer perception neural network model using data from aquatic species, such as undulatory fin propulsion in the knifefish (Xenomystus nigri), and a sensitivity analysis is used to lower the number of required inputs. The model of propulsive efficiency allows an AUV to achieve high values of propulsive efficiency over a range of forward velocity, giving a lowered energy drain on the battery. In an embodiment, externally monitored information, such as that on flow velocity, is conveyed to an apparatus residing in the vehicle's control unit, which in turn signals the locomotive unit to adopt kinematics, such as fin frequency and amplitude, associated with optimal propulsion efficiency. Power savings could protract vehicle operational life and/or provide more power to other functions, such as communications.
US08655808B2

The present invention relates to a prosthetic device including a prosthetic joint which accurately transitions between a loose mode and a stiff mode to more accurately mimic a human gait. The prosthetic joint includes a state controller which utilizes a sensor to detect prosthetic joint movement data, and compares it with prosthetic joint movement decision values to determine when a solenoid should be energized to place the prosthetic joint in the loose mode. An optimization unit connects to the prosthetic joint in a prosthetic joint system. The optimization unit generates a plurality of data files containing prosthetic joint movement data corresponding to an amputee walking without stumbling. By iteratively analyzing the prosthetic joint movement data, the optimization unit adjusts the prosthetic joint movement decision values to ensure that the prosthetic joint does not prematurely enter a stumble recovery state.
US08655803B2

Aspect of the exemplary embodiment relate to a method and apparatus for automatically identifying features that are suitable for use by a classifier in assigning class labels to text sequences extracted from noisy documents. The exemplary method includes receiving a dataset of text sequences, automatically identifying a set of patterns in the text sequences, and filtering the patterns to generate a set of features. The filtering includes at least one of filtering out redundant patterns and filtering out irrelevant patterns. The method further includes outputting at least some of the features in the set of features, optionally after fusing features which are determined not to affect the classifiers accuracy if they are merged.
US08655797B2

Logic circuits provide networks to simulate the functions of neural networks of the brain, and can discriminate degrees of state, and combinations of degrees of state, corresponding to a number of neurons. Logic circuits comprise Recursive AND NOT Conjunctions (RANCs), or AND NOT gates. A RANC is a general logic circuit that performs conjunctions for 2n possible combinations of truth values of n propositions. The RANCs function dynamically, with capabilities of excitation and inhibition. Networks of RANCs are capable of subserving a variety of brain functions, including creative and analytical thought processes. A complete n-RANC produces all conjunctions corresponding to the 2n possible combinations of truth values of n propositions.
US08655795B1

A system and related method are disclosed for establishing geographical communication and predicting mail delivery using mailbox-mounted devices adapted to detect delivery automatically and transmit that detection to associated electronic devices. Detection may be performed by various means including accelerometers, cameras, and magnetometers. The method includes maintaining a registry of mailbox-mounted devices, and passing communication between electronic devices used by owners of mailbox-mounted devices. The communication can include detection by the mailbox-mounted devices of mail delivery, and calculation of the postal carrier's probable route using that delivery detection.
US08655792B1

Content of a private profile/site of a user is derived based on analysis of the user's friend's profiles/sites. A mapping module maps a social networking group with a number of members. A pattern module determines a pattern of publishing activity of each of the members in posting content on sites of other of the members. A profiling module defines a member usage profile for each member based on the pattern. An identification module identifies a private site of a private member of the social networking group to be analyzed. An analysis module analyzes content posted by the private member on public sites of public members of the social networking group. A prediction module predicts responses of the public members to the content posted by the private member based on the member usage profiles of the public members. An estimation module estimates the type and amount of content posted on the private site based on the analysis of the public sites and the prediction based on the member usage profiles.
US08655790B2

The present invention relates to devices and methods that coordinate an external conversation process between entities with an internal workflow of one of the entities. More particularly, it relates to devices and methods that are compliant with an inter-enterprise conversation process standard for routing electronic commerce documents between enterprises. Particular aspects of the present invention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.
US08655787B1

A computer-implemented technique processes a potentially sensitive item of data (e.g., data which may be either a credit card number or a token having a similar format). The technique involves, after the potentially sensitive item of data is properly received within a physical memory location, generating a token result which indicates whether the potentially sensitive item of data satisfies a valid-token requirement. The technique further involves preserving the potentially sensitive item of data in an unaltered form within the physical memory location when the token result indicates that the potentially sensitive item of data satisfies the valid-token requirement. The technique further involves replacing the potentially sensitive item of data within the physical memory location with a token when the token result indicates that the potentially sensitive item of data does not satisfy the valid-token requirement.
US08655785B2

An authenticated digital confirmation of an installation or an update of a licensed computer data product, for providing the licensor with a validation that the installation/update was carried out as intended, and conveying relevant details of the installation/update. The installation/updating facility (internal software, external hardware device, or combination thereof) examines and documents the pre-installation/update state of the target computer system, performs the installation/update, examines and documents the post-installation/update state, and generates the confirmation, which is a summary or digest of the process and the status thereof. The confirmation is securely authenticated and sent to the licensor for validation, to be used for order fulfillment, billing and accounting, and other purposes.
US08655783B1

A computer-implemented method includes issuing a transaction on the Automated Clearing House (ACH) electronic network, the transaction including instructions for printing a check, receiving the transaction, and printing the check according to the instructions.
US08655779B2

A user selects a product to be liquidated from a product provider and then designates to the transacting entity that reward points are to be used towards the purchase of the liquidated product. The transacting entity acts to decrease the number of reward points in the user's reward account by the required number of points. The reward account holder conveys consideration to the transacting entity equivalent to the par value of the reward points consumer obtains the product in exchange for reward points having a retail value equivalent to what he would have otherwise paid for the product, while the reward account holder is required to convey only the par value of the points. The product provider is able to liquidate the product and obtain payment equivalent to what it would otherwise have obtained in a prior art liquidation process, auction or trading environment.
US08655777B2

A business derives its cost to pay accounts payable (AJP) with a corporate card versus other payment methods. The business identifies each merchant to whom the business owes AJP who but does not accept the corporate card. A weighting factor is derived for each such merchant from costs of paying with and without the corporate card, as well as from its history of past payments to the merchant. The benefit to the business is derived, using the corresponding weighting factor, for each such merchant in paying the corresponding AJP to the merchant with the corporate card. Where the benefit exceeds a predetermined threshold, information is sent to each such merchant sufficient for the merchant to receive payment of the corresponding AJP with the corporate card.
US08655772B2

A system and method for qualifying a participant over a global network for an auction or other e-commerce transaction helps to significantly reduce or eliminate Internet commerce fraud. An auction site, for example, enlists the system to maintain funding accounts for prospective participants. When a bid is placed or a transaction is entered, the funds are reserved in the funding account including funds for a deposit if required. In the case of an auction, in the event that a bidder is not the high bidder, the reserved funds are released. At completion of the transaction, the funds may be transferred from the funding account to the seller, and the holds are released. A balance in the funding account can be established according to funds deposited in the account in an interest-bearing account or via a line of credit issued from a bank card issuing company or the like.
US08655768B2

A method of managing trading orders is provided. The method includes receiving a request to place a first order to trade a first product, the request being made using an account having one or more current balances. The method further includes determining a risk value for the first order based at least in part on the first product. The method further includes determining whether to approve the first order based at least in part on the risk value determined for the first order and one or more of the current balances for the account, and if the first order is approved, placing the first order.
US08655763B2

A computer-implemented system and method supporting microfinance funds aggregation for a retail investor are disclosed. A particular example embodiment includes receiving a purchase request at a host site from an investor at an investor site, the purchase request including information identifying a security offered for sale by a security issuer on the host site; facilitating payment for the security by the investor via a financial site; receiving confirmation of payment for the security; and sending confirmation of payment for the security to the investor.
US08655761B2

A computer-implemented method includes generating, using an embedded client application, a keyword context for a container document holding the embedded client application; generating, using the embedded client application, a geographic context associated with a device on which the container document is displayed; submitting the keyword context and the geographic context to a remote server; and displaying an interactive application using information obtained in response to the submission of the keyword context and geographic criteria.
US08655758B2

Systems and methods are provided to model financial transactions. According to some embodiments, simple events, branch events, composite events, and/or contingent events associated with a financial transaction are defined. The events may then be used to automatically manage the transaction during the transaction's lifecycle.
US08655755B2

Disclosed herein in a preferred embodiment is an automated financial instrument brokerage system wherein a front end layer interacts with customers to generate activity requests for an intermediate layer. The intermediate layer preferably processes the activity requests and places financial instrument orders on a financial market if appropriate. A backend layer preferably provides data to the intermediate layer for processing activity requests. Multiple heterogeneous front end customer applications may be supported by the same intermediate layer. Further, multiple backend layer applications may interact with the intermediate layer in a manner transparent to the front end layer. Further, scalability can be achieved be partitioning various tasks of the intermediate layer onto separate servers, and more preferably on-separate redundant servers. Load balancers may then be used in the intermediate layer to provide distributed access to these servers. Also disclosed herein is a caching technique whereby turnaround time for processing activity requests can be reduced by reducing the number of times that the intermediate layer needs to interact with the backend layer.
US08655752B2

The invention includes a computer readable medium with executable instructions to analyze radio frequency (RF) tag information. The executable instructions access cross-enterprise RF tag information, identify a product transition based upon the cross-enterprise RF tag information, define a new product path based upon the product transition, and apply logic to the new product path to facilitate cross-enterprise product flow analysis.
US08655745B1

A system, method, and computer readable medium for facilitating user interaction with numerous product suppliers to determine which supplier to utilize for ordering a product based on various parameters are provided. A user may interact with one or more suppliers using similar or different parameters for each supplier within the same application without having to switch to another external application. Results are provided in a visually appealing and logical manner and automate the ordering of an item if that item is found at a particular supplier within predefined thresholds specified by the user. In this manner, orders may be submitted at the moment order thresholds are met, and decisions may be made automatically by one or more of the system, the user, or on an interaction by the user and another individual.
US08655737B1

A product catalog includes information regarding products for sale online by various merchants. An analysis software module can identify brand names in the product catalog that relate to the same brand. The analysis module can compute parameters of pairs of product offers having matching product identifiers. The analysis module can group the product offer pairs into brand pair groups based on the brand names for the products subject to the product offers. The analysis module can compute parameters of each brand pair group based on product offer pairs in the brand pair group and attributes of product offers in the product catalog. The analysis module can use the computed parameters to determine whether the brand names of each brand pair are related. The analysis module can use the identified related brand names and additional attributes of product offers to identify product offers related to the same product.
US08655736B2

Systems and methods of buyer-side consolidation of compatible purchase orders are described herein. Purchase orders can be identified for consolidation using spatial and temporal proximity parameters. Purchase orders can be modified by changing a ship date or a delivery date and the changing can be based on a buyer input. Shipments can be consolidated based on the purchase order modifications and less than truckload shipments can be reduced. Consolidated shipments can be associated with different requested delivery dates, different suppliers, and/or different buyers. Buyer-side consolidation of compatible purchase orders can occur before purchase orders are processed by a transportation management system.
US08655729B2

A wireless communication device is configured to be able to communicate via both a first access point and a second access point for using the first access point to obtain validation credentials in order to permit use of the second access point to access a network. The wireless communication device comprises a processor; and a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions. The instructions are operable to: initiate communication with the second access point in order to access a network; obtain an access point identifier from the second access point, the access point identifier for identifying the second access point; transmit the access point identifier to a validation server via the first access point; receive validation credentials from the validation server via the first access point; and use the validation credentials to validate the wireless communication device with the second access point to obtain access to the network.
US08655726B1

A method and system for deriving a consumer's shopping habits includes a process for deriving a consumer's shopping habits whereby data representing financial transactions conducted by a given consumer using one of more payment methods is obtained. Payee identification data for the payees associated with the financial transactions is then obtained/derived from the financial transactions data. The payees' identification data is then analyzed to determine each payee's geographic location. The data representing the geographic location of the various payees is then aggregated, mapped, and analyzed to derive a geographical shopping area for the consumer, i.e., to determine where the consumer does a significant amount of his or her shopping.
US08655718B2

A system for monetization of content includes a storage device for storage and retrieval of data, and a library of content and advertisements stored within the storage device. The library comprises an organizational structure for facilitating the storage and retrieval. The system also includes a monetization engine for identifying within the library a first content item having a first monetizable feature. The system is configured for selecting a second content item from several content items within the library, and associating the second content item to the first content item by using the first monetizable feature for presentation of the second content item in conjunction with the first content item. Further embodiments include various additional systems, methods, and computer readable media for implementation of the foregoing.
US08655710B2

The present invention provides a public sector technology expenditure benefits realization framework that offers an unparalleled approach for addressing the very specific needs of public sector organizations combining the development of the business case with technology implementation program and integrating a sustainable long-term benefits realizations program. Specifically, in one embodiment, the methodology of the present invention integrates three steps: (1) the visioning phase for creating the vision for the planned benefits; (2) the integration phase comprising the integrating the planned benefits from the technology expenditure; and (3) the realization phase during which the public entity incorporates a sustainable benefits realization and monitoring program.
US08655709B2

Process Brokering Services (PBS) are implemented though the concept of Adaptive Documents to facilitate electronic commerce (e-commerce). PBS provides a single point of process control over the various fragmented execution flows and brings together the elements for process integration (views, content, flows) in a unified, scalable architecture on an industry standard platform. The two principal functions of the PBS are brokering of multiple business processes encapsulated in various back-end systems including workflow engines and business applications, and aggregating content from multiple enterprise information systems in the business context and managing the shared access to this based on the roles of the participants. The dynamic services provided by PBS are accessible to clients through the PBS Interface.
US08655708B2

Methods and systems are provided for determining and using market areas associated with one or more branches of a business. Market areas are determined using a combination of deterministic and probabilistic techniques. Distances are calculated between customers and associated branches and a convex hull formed containing the closest 60%. A block and a tightened block is formed of dissemination areas contained within the convex hull. Where blocks are shared between branches, dissemination areas are weighted according to the portion of customers associated with each branch.
US08655707B2

Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for delivering products according to propagated changes in a demand planning hierarchy. Demand planning data is received in addition to a change to the product quantity or a disaggregation factor at a node of the hierarchy. The product quantity is updated at other nodes based upon the received change. Updating the product quantity at other nodes includes solving a set of simultaneous equations to generate an updated demand planning hierarchy. The simultaneous equations include a sum of the product quantity at a node and a augmenting flow at the node equals a sum of the product quantities of children nodes of the nodes and a relieving flow at the node, and disaggregation factors at the node and other nodes are implemented. Solving the set of simultaneous equations includes minimizing the sum of the augmenting flows of the node and other nodes.
US08655698B2

This invention relates to an automated method and system for forming and implementing a performance-based logistic contract through managing the maintenance an item of equipment in accordance with a maintenance plan. Embodiments of the present invention include a method and system for maintaining an item of equipment supports the provision of predictive maintenance in a manner which eliminates or reduces downtime of the equipment. The method includes tracking performance data on the equipment or a particular component of the equipment. At least one required maintenance activity is predicted based upon the performance data with respect to a defined performance standard. Performance of the required maintenance activity is scheduled at a defined respective time based upon the prediction.
US08655690B2

This invention relates generally to a computer system and method for integrating insurance policy underwriting. In one aspect it integrates the older legacy insurance policy generating systems to on line systems where users access the system through browsers. The computer system to perform the process of underwriting, rating, quoting, binding, and booking an insurance policy includes browsers, data bases, processors and a dispatcher that parses the information to select an insurance process. Suitable software programs review messages received from users to determine if certain messages are less than a prescribed limit. If a message is greater than the limit, then the message is parsed into a header information and one or more data fields whereby the header information is provided to a legacy processor and to policy generation software for further creation of policy related information and documentation.
US08655683B2

A contents estimating system and method for providing an estimate of the cost of settling an insurance claim which includes a server having an embedded program compiled on the server and embedded in a web page, a client having a browser removably connected to the server, an inventory data acquirer for acquiring inventory data of each of the items that are the subject of the insurance claim and insert them into the web page, a price data acquirer for acquiring prices of the items of inventory data that are the subject of the insurance claim and insert them into the web page, and a liability limits data acquirer for acquiring liability limits data for the insurance claim and insert them into the web page, in which, upon receipt of a claim of loss from the insured, the web page is displayed on the screen of the client, the embedded program is executed within a client process with substantially unrestricted access to the client's system resources, and an estimate of the cost of settling a claim is produced by mapping an item of the inventory data to the price data, subject to the liability limits data, and is provided to the insured upon calculation, at the insured's location or the location of the loss.
US08655675B2

A system and method for providing to an individual certain information which is relevant to that individual's health status. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for providing information relevant to an individual's health status and wherein the information provided is chosen on the basis of not only the individual's health status but also complex psychosocial behavioral factors related to that individual's motivational structure and likely impact.
US08655674B2

A method of providing personal service assistance in a virtual universe is disclosed. The method provides a customer avatar (CA) access to a personal assistance avatar or personal customer service representative (PCSR) avatar, hereinafter PCSR avatar. Through the PCSR avatar, the CA communicates a need or requests for personal service assistance from a business or organization. The communication of the received request is processed to identify an appropriate business, organization or vendor that meets the need or request. The identified business, organization or vendor is contacted for a representative from the business to accede to the request from the CA. The representative from the business is allowed to assume control of the PCSR avatar to conduct the session necessary for rendering the assistance or transaction. Upon completion of the session, control of the PCSR avatar is reverted to that prior to the session.
US08655663B2

An audio signal interpolation device is presented, including an input unit for receiving an input audio signal, a phase splitting unit for splitting the input audio signal, a high range interpolation unit for interpolating a high range component into the signal, a phase combining unit for combining an in-phase component signal with a differential phase component, a high-pass filter for high-pass filtering the audio signal from by the phase combining unit, a delay unit for producing a delayed audio signal, and an addition processing unit for adding the delayed audio signal to the audio signal output from the high-pass filter.
US08655655B2

A sound event detecting module for detecting whether a sound event with characteristic of repeating is generated. A sound end recognizing unit recognizes ends of sounds according to a sound signal to generate sound sections and multiple sets of feature vectors of the sound sections correspondingly. A storage unit stores at least M sets of feature vectors. A similarity comparing unit compares the at least M sets of feature vectors with each other, and correspondingly generates a similarity score matrix, which stores similarity scores of any two of the sound sections of the at least M of the sound sections. A correlation arbitrating unit determines the number of sound sections with high correlations to each other according to the similarity score matrix. When the number is greater than one threshold value, the correlation arbitrating unit indicates that the sound event with the characteristic of repeating is generated.
US08655653B2

A method, system and program for encoding and/or decoding a speech signal. The method comprises: generating a first signal representing a property of an input speech signal; transforming the first signal using a simulated random-noise signal, thus producing a second signal; quantizing the second signal based on a plurality of discrete representation levels, thus generating quantization values for transmission in an encoded speech signal, and also generating a third signal being a quantized version of the second signal; and performing an inverse of the transformation on the third signal, thus generating a quantized output signal, wherein the generation of the first signal is based on feedback of the quantized output signal. The method further comprises controlling the transformation in dependence on a property of the first signal so as to vary the magnitude of a noise effect created by the transformation relative to the representation levels.
US08655650B2

A method is provided for decoding data streams in a voice communication system. The method includes: receiving two or more data streams having voice data encoded therein; decoding each data stream into a set of speech coding parameters; forming a set of combined speech coding parameters by combining the sets of decoded speech coding parameters, where speech coding parameters of a given type are combined with speech coding parameters of the same type; and inputting the set of combined speech coding parameters into a speech synthesizer.
US08655629B2

A computer-implemented land planning system is designed to generate at least one conceptual fit solution to a user-defined land development problem. The system electronically creates at least one candidate solution to the land development problem. The candidate solution incorporates a number of engineering measurements applicable in development of an undeveloped land site. A fitness function quantitatively evaluates the candidate solution based on its fitness. A heuristic problem-solving strategy manipulates the engineering measurements of the candidate solution to achieve a more quantitatively fit solution to the land development problem. A computer output device outputs to a user documentation illustrating the fit solution to the land development problem.
US08655625B2

The invention relates to a method for breaking down a set of signals consisting of an instantaneous linear mixture of independent components. The method comprises a step (200) consisting in estimating a mixture matrix A by using the product of one or more trigonometric rotation matrices by one or more hyperbolic rotation matrices.
US08655624B2

A measurement system uses a plurality of transducers that may differ from each other in at least one respect, such as having different operating principles or being made by different manufacturers. Respective measurement values obtained from the transducers are applied to a processor which provides a measured value based on the measurement values from a plurality of the transducers. The processor also provides information about the calibration drift of each of the transducers based upon a comparison between the measurement value obtained from the transducer to a value obtained from a combination of respective measurement values obtained from a plurality of the transducers. The calibration drift information provides an objective evaluation about the calibration condition of each of the transducers. When a transducer is determined to be outside of its calibration tolerance, a calibration needed alert occurs.
US08655622B2

Techniques for interpreting orientation invariant motion are disclosed. Unlike a prior art controller that has a specific physical design to induce or force a user to grip the controller in a consistent way, a disclosed controller does not have such a physical design and allows a user to grip the controller in any way that is comfortable to the user. One or more transformations or rotations are designed to transform or rotate readings from inertial sensors housed in the controller to readings independent from how the controller is being gripped by a user.
US08655614B2

A method for determining the amplitude of an infrared object may include receiving an infrared image of the object from a sensor, and expressing the objects infrared amplitude as a function of its position coordinates. The sum of the squared residuals of the objects true infrared response and a model of the objects infrared response may be minimized to determine the centroid of the infrared image. The objects infrared amplitude may then determined based on the centroid location.
US08655610B2

A system and computer program product for virtual machine placement in a datacenter include using one or more server power characteristics to determine a power cost for any given virtual machine placement in the datacenter, using a heat profile of one or more datacenter components in relation to one or more cooling resources in the datacenter to determine cooling cost for any given virtual machine placement in the datacenter, and using the power cost and cooling cost to apply integrated energy cost minimization at one or more levels of hierarchy in the datacenter to determine placement of a virtual machine in the datacenter such that the integrated energy cost of the datacenter is minimized.
US08655608B2

A set of current measurements may be transmitted from a remote Intelligent Electronic Device (IED) to a local IED. The current measurements may comprise a timestamp and/or be associated with timestamp information to allow the local IED to time align the local current measurement with the remote current measurement. The local IED may detect a fault within the power system segment defined by the local and remote IEDs by comparing an operating current to a scaled restraint current. A fault may also be detected by comparing the operating current to a scaled nominal current. The operating and restraint currents may be derived from the local and remote current measurements. The restraint current scale may be derived from the characteristics of the local and/or remote IED. The current measurements may correspond to a negative-sequence component and/or a zero-sequence component of a three-phase current measurement set.
US08655601B1

The present invention relates to a method of detecting soil nutrients or soil nutrients in soil from reflected light, and also includes systems for the measurement, calculation and transmission of data relating to or carrying out that method.
US08655599B2

The present invention relates to genetic analysis and evaluation utilizing copy-number variants or polymorphisms. The methods utilize array comparative genomic hybridization and PCR assays to identify the significance of copy number variations in a subject or subject group.
US08655597B2

The present invention relates to a scoring system for the prediction of cancer recurrence by selecting genes and/or proteins whose expression patterns associated with recurrence of cancer, and generating formulae with the selected genes and/or proteins for the prediction of cancer recurrence. The present invention relates to a kit for determining the likelihood of recurrence of cancer, comprising DNA chip, oligonucleotide chip, protein chip, peptides, antibodies, probes and primers that are necessary for effecting DNA microarrays, oligonucleotide microarrays, protein arrays, northern blotting, in situ hybridization, RNase protection assays, western blotting, ELISA assays, reverse transcription polymerase-chain reaction to examine the expression of at least 2, 4, 6, 10, 12 or more genes and/or proteins, that are indicative of cancer recurrence.
US08655595B1

In various embodiments, a flood risk score may be determined for a property point that provides a comprehensive assessment of the property point's risk of flooding. Determining the flood risk score may include determining a flood risk characteristic for the property point and assigning a flood risk score that corresponds to the flood risk characteristic. In some embodiments, flood risk characteristics may include a difference in elevation between the elevation of the property point and an elevation of a calculated point (e.g., on a known flood risk zone boundary). Flood risk characteristics may also include a flood zone determination for the property point and/or proximity of the property point to a known flood risk zone boundary or a flood source. In some embodiments, flood risk scores may be provided on flood risk score reports.
US08655593B1

Computer program products, methods, systems, apparatus, and computing entities are provided for defining travel paths in parking areas. In one embodiment, travel paths in parking areas can be defined by connecting street networking connection points within the parking areas. In another embodiment, such defined travel paths can be merged with actual paths traveled by vehicles in the parking areas.
US08655583B2

A preferred route may be determined from an origin location to a destination location. The determination is made by processing directed links (e.g., one-way edges) in a graph that includes one or more links and two or more nodes. The determination of a preferred route may include an estimate of the time required at one or more intersections along alternative. Individual routing preferences, such as a preference of a rural over an urban route, also may be considered. Techniques are described that may help reduce the time required to identify a preferred route, including the identification and removal of no outlet routes before processing the directed links and techniques using particular data formats.
US08655581B2

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is a data server (110) providing modified route information to a first user terminal (130) used by a first user, comprising a receiving unit (114) configured to receive a request from the first user terminal for requesting a second user terminal (120) used by a second user to modify route information, a geographical database (113) configured to store geographical data, a route information generation unit (112) configured to generate the route information indicating a route from a first location to a second location, using the geographical data, and a transmitting unit (115), configured to transmit a route modification request with the generated route information to the second user terminal. The receiving unit is further configured to receive modified route information from the second user terminal (120). The transmitting unit is further configured to transmit the modified route information to the first user terminal (130).
US08655573B2

A control apparatus for an internal combustion engine is provided that can successfully achieve a desired acceleration by avoiding an absence of torque of the internal combustion engine due to an influence of EGR gas when the torque increases toward a required torque. A required throttle valve opening degree TAreq is set based on a required torque TQreq in accordance with a required throttle valve opening degree map that defines a relation between the required torque TQreq and the required throttle valve opening degree TAreq. In addition, a required EGR valve opening degree EGRreq is set based on a required load factor KLreq in accordance with a required EGR valve opening degree map that defines a relation between the required load factor KLreq and the required EGR valve opening degree EGRreq.
US08655569B2

A method and system for varying an output of a driveforce unit based on load data. The present invention includes an automobile including a driveforce system. The driveforce system includes a driveforce unit for generating an output according to a driveforce map, a memory for storing the driveforce map, a load determination unit for determining a load data indicating a load on the automobile, a speed sensor for detecting speed data indicating a speed of the automobile and/or an acceleration of the automobile, an acceleration input device for detecting acceleration input data indicating a percent application of the acceleration input device, and a processor. The processor receives the acceleration input data, the speed data, and the load data, and adjusts a driveforce curve in the driveforce map to maintain a speed of the automobile, even when the load data indicates an increased or decreased load on the automobile.
US08655562B2

A method for setting a vehicle in motion: The vehicle includes a combustion engine for generating driving force for transmission to at least one powered wheel via a clutch and a gearbox. The driving force is selectively transmitted from the engine to the powered wheels by closure of the clutch. Gear changes by the gearbox are at least partly controlled by a control system. With the clutch closed and upon demand for the vehicle to be set in motion with the clutch closed, the control system activates the vehicle's starter motor with gear engaged, and uses the starter motor to accelerate the combustion engine to an initial speed which represents a speed at which the combustion engine will start.
US08655560B2

A control apparatus and a control method for a vehicular drive apparatus that includes a driving power source, and a power transmission device that transmits power from the driving power source to a drive wheel are provided. It is determined that a malfunction occurs in the power transmission device, when a comparison value remains equal to or above a predetermined value for a predetermined period. The comparison value is obtained by making a comparison between an actual value and a theoretical value that relate to a rotational speed of a predetermined rotational member that constitutes at least a part of the vehicular drive apparatus. The predetermined period is set according to an operating state of the power transmission device. Thus, it is possible to reduce the possibility that it is erroneously determined that a malfunction occurs, and to quickly determine that a malfunction occurs.
US08655559B2

Predictive tractor path adjustments improve implement tracking performance by enabling agricultural autopilots to anticipate the effect of curves, slopes, changing soil conditions and other influences.
US08655557B2

A working vehicle motor control device includes: a rotational speed control device that controls a motor rotational speed in accordance with an operation amount of an accelerator pedal; a travel drive device that transmits rotation of the motor to wheels through a torque converter and a transmission; a speed ratio detection device that detects a speed ratio of an input shaft and an output shaft of the torque converter; and a speed restriction device that restricts a maximum rotational speed of the motor in accordance with a speed ratio detected by the speed ratio detection device. In the working vehicle motor control device, the speed restriction device restricts the maximum rotational speed when a detected speed ratio is in an acceleration region of the motor rotational speed to less than the maximum rotational speed when a detected speed ratio is in a non-acceleration region.
US08655555B2

A computing device computes at least one index value for an execution history of opening/closing movement of an openable and closable member. A sensing device outputs signals one after another in response to a change in a rotational state of the electric motor, which is sensed by the sensing device. A setting device sets a masking range for at least one of the signals based on the at least one index value. A determination device determines whether an object is pinched by the openable and closable member based on at least another one of the signals, which is outputted in a range other than the masking range, without referring to the at least one of the signals in the masking range during execution of the opening/closing movement of the openable and closable member.
US08655543B2

A vehicle on-board unit communicates with vehicles to increase the accuracy of lane centerline determination. The on-board unit includes a communication system and a controller. The controller has a vehicle path history generating component, a lane centerline determining component, and a message processing component. The vehicle path history generating section generates a host vehicle path history data. The lane centerline determining section receives a preceding vehicle message including at least a preceding vehicle centerline data from the communication system and determines a host vehicle lane centerline data indicative of a centerline of the lane based on the host vehicle path history data and the preceding vehicle centerline data. The message processing component produces a host vehicle message including the host vehicle lane centerline data, the communication system being configured to broadcast the host vehicle message.
US08655541B2

A vehicle update system for updating a vehicle's ROM data is provided. More specifically, a telematics unit is configured to receive new ROM data transmitted from a telematics server. An electronic control unit (ECU) is configured first check to determine whether certain update conditions are satisfied and when they are satisfied, update the old ROM data to the new ROM data using at least one of a main battery and an auxiliary battery. More specifically, the update conditions are that the charged state and the voltage level for at least one of the main battery and the auxiliary battery is greater than a certain level, the vehicle is stopped or parked, and the controller area network (CAN) communication state of the vehicle is normal.
US08655537B2

A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous mode could determine a current state of the vehicle and the current state of the environment of the vehicle. The environment of the vehicle includes at least one other vehicle. A predicted behavior of the at least one other vehicle could be determined based on the current state of the vehicle and the current state of the environment of the vehicle. A confidence level could also be determined based on the predicted behavior, the current state of the vehicle, and the current state of the environment of the vehicle. In some embodiments, the confidence level may be related to the likelihood of the at least one other vehicle to perform the predicted behavior. The vehicle in the autonomous mode could be controlled based on the predicted behavior, the confidence level, and the current state of the vehicle and its environment.
US08655532B2

A method of modifying the charging target for the state-of-charge (SOC) of a hybrid vehicle battery in response to a sudden power draw includes determining that the hybrid vehicle has entered a steep grade environment, adjusting a power management scheme of the hybrid vehicle from a standard charging mode to an aggressive charging mode, and operating the hybrid vehicle operated using the adjusted power management scheme. The charging target may include both an immediate charging target and an ultimate charging target, where the immediate charging target is less than the ultimate charging target, and where adjusting a power management scheme from a standard charging mode to an aggressive charging mode includes increasing the immediate charging target.
US08655527B2

A vehicle power indication status quantity display unit displays on an indicator a vehicle power indication status quantity obtained by dividing the torque required for driving a hybrid vehicle by the upper limit value of the torque that does not excessively increase the fuel consumption. A HV eco zone of the vehicle power indication status quantity display unit is the zone that is determined by the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the HV eco zone that indicates the motor is being effectively used to drive the vehicle. A check is made to determine whether the vehicle power indication status quantity is within the HV eco zone, and, if it is determined to be within the HV eco zone, the driving being performed is diagnosed as fuel-saving driving.
US08655523B2

A vehicle control device (10) comprises a driving device (20) including an engine (22) and a rotary electric machine (24), a power circuit (30) connected to the rotary electric machine (24), a control part (50), and an ecoswitch (42). The CPU (52) of the control part (50) comprises a low fuel consumption travel instruction judgment module (60) for judging on or off of the ecoswitch (42), an operation condition switch module (62) for switching the operation condition of the rotary electric machine on the basis of the on or off of the ecoswitch (42), an engine state judgment module (64) for judging whether or not the engine (22) is in a started state or a stopped state, and a damping control module (68) for carrying out damping control when the engine (22) is stalled or stopped.
US08655518B2

A system includes a scheduling module and a resolution module. The scheduling module determines plural initial schedules for plural different vehicles to concurrently travel in a transportation network. The initial schedules include locations and times for the vehicles to travel. The resolution module modifies at least one of the initial schedules to one or more modified schedules based on an anomaly in at least one of the vehicles or the routes that prevents one or more of the vehicles from traveling in the transportation network according to the initial schedules. The scheduling module communicates the modified schedules to the vehicles so that energy management systems disposed on the vehicles modify travel of the vehicles according to the modified schedules.
US08655508B2

A method of aircraft engine thermal threat mitigation includes detecting an airflow thermal profile at a location on the aircraft forward of an aircraft engine inlet and transmitting the thermal profile to an aircraft control system. The thermal profile is compared to a catalog of thermal threat profiles at the aircraft control system and a determination is made if a thermal threat is present based on the comparison. A thermal threat mitigation measure is initiated to reduce an effect of the thermal threat on aircraft engine performance.
US08655501B2

Systems associated with moving heat out of a computer are described. One exemplary system embodiment includes a large heat exchanger, large, quiet, automatically redundant fans, automatically redundant pumps, and a leak containment apparatus. The example system may also include logics for selectively controlling air flow, liquid flow, and flow paths.
US08655498B2

A system for timely standby power generation supplementing a solar array during periods of cloud coverage, including a power plant comprising solar arrays for normal power production during periods of maximum or reduced solar influx, and distributed generating sets (DGS) for standby power generation to supplement the solar arrays during periods of cloud coverage. A weather station has sensors for acquiring real-time meteorological data in the vicinity of the power plant and a processor for processing the acquired meteorological data so as to generate data related to a solar influx reduction event at the power plant including an event starting time. A controller receives the event data from the processor and operating the DGS in response to the received event data.
US08655493B2

A controller in communication with one or more energy consuming appliances for a premises includes a transmitter device for transmitting wireless signals to a utility meter to request an energy consumption reading, and a receiver device to receive wireless signals including energy consumption information. The controller is configured to receive a signal from an energy consuming appliance indicating the appliance was actuated, and to responsively transmit a signal to the utility meter to request an energy consumption reading and thereafter receive a signal including an energy consumption value. Following deactivation of the appliance, the controller is configured to transmit a signal to the utility meter to request an energy consumption reading, and thereafter receive a signal from the meter including another energy consumption value. The controller is configured to determine from a difference between the energy consumption values an estimate of the energy consumption level associated with the appliance.
US08655489B2

An air-conditioning controller is configured to receive an operation input for an air-conditioning apparatus capable of being set to a plurality of airflow direction settings. The air-conditioning controller includes a switching button, a determination unit and a display unit. The switching button is for switching between the airflow direction settings. The determination unit is configured to determine a currently selected airflow direction setting based on an operation input inputted via the switching button. The display unit is configured to simultaneously display an image and a character corresponding to the airflow direction setting determined to be currently selected by the determination unit.
US08655484B2

The invention relates to a multidirectional transport module having a control system for the goods pack movement direction and having an interface for communication with other transport modules. In this case, the invention provides for the control system to be designed to reserve the transport module for the transport of at least one goods pack in a given goods pack movement direction, in response to signals received via the interface.
US08655479B2

A method of determining conditions for machining a part so as to avoid vibration appearing during the machining. A machining stage is simulated by provisionally setting parameters of a function for modulating cutting speed, by deducing a corresponding surface state, by modifying parameters iteratively with the machining stage being simulated each time until the surface state reaches an acceptable value, and by performing the machining stage by causing the cutting speed to vary in application of the corresponding modulation function.
US08655478B2

A method dresses a polishing member with a diamond dresser having diamond particles arranged on a surface thereof. The method includes determining dressing conditions by performing a simulation of a distribution of a sliding distance of the diamond dresser on a surface of the polishing member, and dressing the polishing member with the diamond dresser under the determined dressing conditions. The simulation includes calculating the sliding distance corrected in accordance with a depth of the diamond particles thrusting into the polishing member.
US08655472B2

A scheduler generates not only normal substrate transferring schedules for substrates newly supplied to a substrate processing apparatus, but also substrate transferring schedules for keeping a high production quantity in the event of a failure. The scheduler is used in a substrate processing apparatus including a plurality of substrate processing sections for processing substrates, a transfer device for transferring the substrates, and a controller for controlling the substrate processing units to process the substrates and controlling the transfer device to transfer the substrates. The scheduler is incorporated in the controller for calculating a substrate transferring schedule and has a function to successively calculate substrate transferring schedules for substrates which are newly supplied to the substrate processing apparatus, and, in the event of a fault occurring in the substrate processing apparatus, to recalculate the substrate transferring schedules with an initial state represented by a state including the fault.
US08655471B2

This impurity amount control system for manufacturing a single crystal has a resistivity profile memory which stores a resistivity profile for a portion of a single crystal that is rendered into wafers; a simulator which determines a resistivity profile formula for indicating a resistivity profile within a reusable ingot that is the reusable material in the single crystal from an impurity concentration estimating formula including one or more variables selected from among resistivities at both ends of the reusable ingot in the crystal growth axis direction, the impurity concentration when crystal pulling begins, a segregation coefficient, a solidification ratio and a correction coefficient, and from the resistivity profile; and an impurity amount calculator which calculates, based on the resistivity profile formula, the amount of impurity within the reusable ingot.
US08655470B2

A computer implemented method for evaluating quality control data of a product manufactured by a partially automated manufacturing process. In the method, a database is generated which includes design specifications for the product. Manufacturing data generated from inspection of the product at each stage of the partially automated process is then received. The manufacturing data is then compared with the design specifications to determine whether the manufacturing data meets the design specifications. In one embodiment, the product is an induction coil used in electric motors.
US08655466B2

Exemplary embodiments of methods and apparatuses to correlate changes in one audio signal to another audio signal are described. A first audio signal is outputted. A second audio signal is received. The second audio signal may be stored in a memory buffer. The first audio signal is correlated to conform to the second audio signal. The first audio signal may be dynamically correlated to match with the second audio signal while the second audio signal is received. At least in some embodiments, a size of a musical time unit of the second audio signal is determined to correlate the first audio signal. At least in some embodiments, the adjusted first audio signal is stored in another memory buffer.
US08655463B2

A method for avoiding refreshing a database of metadata associated with digital media content is disclosed. In one embodiment, a digital media player storing a database of metadata associated with digital media content determines whether a removable memory device was connected with the digital media player while the digital media player was powered down. The digital media player refreshes the database only if it is determined that the removable memory device was connected with the digital media player while the digital media player was powered down. In another embodiment, the digital media player determines whether the digital media content stored on the removable memory device changed since the database was last updated. The digital media player refreshes the database if it is determined that the digital media content stored on the removable memory device changed since the database was last updated.
US08655461B2

A system, method, and computer readable medium. A method includes receiving input for a simulation model, the simulation model including a sensor. The method includes concurrently executing the simulation model and control code for a simulated physical controller, where the control code interacts with the simulation model according to a state of the sensor. The method includes generating revised control code based on the executed simulation model and control code, and generating controller-specific control code based on the revised control code. The method includes executing the simulation model and the controller-specific control code, the controller-specific control code interacting with the simulation model.
US08655452B2

The present invention relates to the treatment of ischemic diseases, and more particularly, to treatment of diabetic retinopathy and ischemia of the retinal and choroidal tissues. The treatment, which will work in vitrectomized eyes as well as non-vitrectomized eyes, is based on selective and fractional electrolysis of the vitreous humor to produce oxygen and optionally active chlorine while simultaneously controlling pH. Oxygen or active chlorine can suppress or reverse the onset of diabetic retinopathy, other retinovascular diseases, and choroidal neovascularization.
US08655450B2

Medical monitoring and treatment apparatus, which is controlled by a plurality of control sources, includes a “personal medical device” (PMD) or an “implantable medical device” (IMD), respectively carried by, or implanted in, a patient. The PMD/IMD is alternatively self-controlled or controlled by one or more local external control stations, at or near the location of the patient, and/or one or more remote external control stations, remote from the patient. Either or both of the local and remote stations may be operated by a person, such as the patient, a patient facilitator and/or a medical professional, or the stations may operate automatically. Since the device is controlled by multiple sources, hierarchies are used to select the source of control.
US08655443B2

The invention provides an electrophysiological analysis system, in particular for detecting pathological states. This system comprises: electrodes intended to be placed in different regions of the body that are well away from each other; an adjustable DC voltage source for generating successive DC voltage pulses varying in magnitude from one pulse to another, the duration of the pulses being equal to or greater than about 0.2 seconds; a switching circuit for selectively connecting a pair of active electrodes to the voltage source and for connecting at least one other high-impedance electrode; and a measurement circuit for recording data representative of the current in the active electrodes and potentials on at least certain high-impedance connected electrodes in response to the application of said pulses. The range of voltages covered causes, from one pulse to another, the appearance or disappearance of electrochemical phenomena in the vicinity of the active electrodes.
US08655431B2

An optical coherence tomography probe and laser combination device configured for real-time z-directional guidance of the incisional depth of a surgical procedure. It can be used alone or placed within the working channel of an endoscope. The device includes an OCT single mode fiber, and a laser fiber or laser hollow waveguide or electrical surgical wire positioned adjacent to the OCT single mode fiber. The single mode fiber is configured to move laterally when activated by an actuator to scan light data reflected from a sample that is positioned in front of a distal end of the device. The light data can be processed to generate a B-scan image. The device can collect data in real-time during lasing, or immediately prior to and following the cutting. The surgical tool, when coupled to a processor, can deactivate when the B-scan image identifies that the incision is within a predefined tolerance.
US08655430B2

Systems and methods are provided for positioning a therapeutic device relative to a target displaced on a platform. A base member has a first track extending along a length of the platform for defining a first pathway for translating the therapeutic device relative to the target. A curved frame is slidably mounted on the base member through the first track. The curved frame has a second track along an interior wall of the curved frame for defining a second pathway for translating the therapeutic device relative to the target. A housing is disposed in the second track of the curved frame and configured to receive the therapeutic device. The housing is extendible at least along a radial direction of the curved frame for defining a third pathway for translating the therapeutic device relative to the target. Applications of the systems and methods may include image-guided thermal therapy.
US08655427B1

Catheter systems for measuring at least one electrical property, e.g., impedance, of cardiac tissue of a living being are disclosed. The system includes a catheter having a tip with a sensing electrode, a guard electrode and an electrical shield. The sensing electrode is arranged to engage the cardiac tissue and is coupled to circuitry for measuring the at least one electrical property of the cardiac tissue, shielding the sensing electrode from bulk blood adjacent the cardiac tissue. The measurement can gated to the cardiac cycle. Additional embodiments include multi-electrode sensor catheter tips for high density mapping. Moreover, such tips may be dynamically configurable, i.e., their electrodes can be variably assigned as sensor electrodes or guard electrodes by associated circuitry. Such multi-electrode configuration and reconfiguration can be gated to the cardiac cycle.
US08655422B2

An outer cover for an electronic device, such as a portable electronic device, is disclosed. Since portable electronic devices are often portable, they can be damaged, such as scratched, dented, broken, and the like, when transported or used. The outer cover can serve to provide a protective member over part of the housing for the electronic device. The protective member, when placed on the portable electronic device can serve to reduce damage to sides of the portable electronic device. While the outer cover can provide side and/or edge protection, the outer cover need not also provide front or rear protection.
US08655421B2

A portable wireless device and a wireless communication method, which can transmit and receive wireless signal without affecting influence from metallic part that is included in an expandable mechanism, are provided. In the portable wireless device taking two statuses of an expanded status in which an upper housing 2 and a lower housing 7 are arranged approximately in series and a contracted status in which the upper housing 2 and the lower housing 7 are overlapped each other, at least a part of rotating mechanism 1 which makes the expanded status and the contracted status variable is formed of metal, and the metal part of rotating mechanism 1 operates as an antenna.
US08655419B2

A system and method for providing a power state alter signal to a device based upon a position signal corresponding to the mobile device is disclosed. The technology initially accesses a position based rule. The position based rule is then compared to a position signal. A power alerting signal is provided when the position based rule correlates with the position signal.
US08655417B2

A video/audio playing apparatus with wireless audio signal transmission function comprising: a headset place slot, an audio processing module, a wireless audio signal transmission module, and a system audio interface. The headset place slot can accept and electrically connect a wireless headset, and transmits an electric potential signal. The audio processing module is used for outputting an audio signal. The wireless audio signal transmission module further comprises: an audio signal switching unit and a control unit. The audio signal switching unit is used for receiving the audio signal, and switches the output path of audio signal according to the electric potential signal. The control unit connects to the audio signal switching unit and connects to the wireless headset using wireless. Thus, the audio signal switching unit can switch the wireless headset or the system audio interface to output the audio signal according to the electric potential signal.
US08655416B2

In a portable electronic device such as a mobile phone with a touchscreen display and a camera, if the camera detects that the user's ear is near the touchscreen (indicating that the user is using an audio application such as a phone call, radio player, music player, etc.) then the touchscreen can accept a touch or swipe from the user's ear, head, cheek or adjacent area. The adapted input can allow the user to control the audio application such as by swiping to change the volume, channel, song, etc.
US08655413B2

A mobile terminal and a method of setting items in a mobile terminal are provided. The mobile terminal and the method of setting items in a mobile terminal can easily set positions of items in a graphic user interface including a plurality of items.
US08655408B2

A basestation for cellular wireless communications network is able to configure itself for the operation in the network, by selecting appropriate operating frequencies (in the case of a GSM network) or scrambling codes (in the case of a UMTS network), and appropriate transmit powers. This makes it practical for a large number of such basestations to be deployed in a network, within customers' premises, without requiring network intervention in each case.
US08655403B2

There is provided a control section 82 having a first function of commencing receipt of broadcast contents data in accordance with an open/closed state of the housing that is a result of detection performed by the housing status detection section or completing receiving operation in consideration of the content of received data; a second function of commencing or completing, during receipt of broadcast contents data, saving of data into a storage section 83 in accordance with the open/closed state of the housing that is a result of detection performed by the housing status detection section; and a third function of commencing or completing, during receipt of the broadcast contents data, playback of the data saved in the storage section 83 in accordance with the open/closed state of the housing that is a result of detection performed by the housing status detection section.
US08655402B2

The present invention relates to a PBX system for providing exchange service to a number of extension subscribers. In the PBX system, a main exchange center provides a private branch exchange service to a number of extension subscribers. When a ring is received via a main line, the main exchange center judges whether the ring is received from an SMSC, and if the ring is received from the SMSC, notifies the receipt of an SMS message. An SMS processor receives the SMS message from the SMSC via the main exchange center, extracts an originating or destination unit data therefrom, refers to previously stored extension unit-matching information to search for at least one destination extension unit which the SMS message is headed for, and distributes the SMS message to the destination extension unit.
US08655393B2

The present invention is directed to a system and method for communicating using SMS messages between devices in different home networks, and, in one embodiment, to a method and system for assigning a local SMS number to a recipient device in a different home network such that a user is charged reduced communications costs.
US08655385B2

A mobile device is associated with a user profile which includes one or more user interests. The device sends a request for identifying social groups in a mobile geographic location. In response to the request, the device receives data identifying a plurality of social group profiles corresponding to a plurality of social groups in the mobile geographic location. The mobile device presents a list of the social groups based on the received data, ranked in accordance with similarity scores. Each similarity score is produced based on both a proximity identified between the mobile and social group geographic locations, and similarities identified between the one or more user and group interests. In response to receiving a user input, the device may enter into the social group and present a chat session interface for a chat session for the selected social group.
US08655381B2

Systems, methods, apparatus, computer program code, and means for receiving a search request from a user operating a wireless device, determining at least one of a location and a desired search location of the user, determining a search response based on a user profile and the at least one of a location and a desired search location, and transmitting a response to the wireless device. In some embodiments, the response includes at least one of an offer and a display sequence selected based at least in part on the user profile.
US08655378B1

A method and apparatus is provided for minimizing potential security problems and battery power usage in a tracking device used in tracking an associated product while being transported along a route wherein wireless communication may be nonexistent or intermittent. This is accomplished in part by having an accessible database of signal quality and strength at a large plurality of locations along given transportation routes whereby adjustments can be made as to the times for the tracking device to obtain GPS location information as well as for times to report any location and or product status data to a remotely located central station. The ability to predict when, along a transportation route communication problems may occur provides the opportunity to notify appropriate authorities in advance of arriving at the communication gap zones whereby arrangements can be made to alleviate potential problems during transportation through wireless communication “gap or dead” zones.
US08655377B2

Disclosed is a method for processing readily available radio network, timing and power information about cellular networks and typical measurements made by the mobile device and network. A probabilistic method is disclosed that uses both time (i.e., range) and power differences with known downlink transmitter antenna characteristics to locate mobiles with accuracy better than cell-ID with ranging, with high capacity, and without the need for field calibration.
US08655376B2

A position coordinate receiving section obtains a position from a user terminal. A nearby user distributing section provides information about a source user terminal to a recipient user terminal. The nearby user distributing section controls whether or not to provide the information about the source user terminal to the recipient user terminal based on a position that is obtained from the recipient user terminal and a position obtained from the source user terminal. The position obtained from the source user terminal that is used in the control is a position outside an area set by a user of the source user terminal. Accordingly, a user is provided a way to prevent other users from knowing that the user is in a place specified by the user.
US08655374B2

A system, method, and User Equipment, UE, for providing a current LTE cell location to a Generic Radio Access Network Controller, GANG, based on different triggers depending on the UE state. The GANC ensures that the correct GANG is serving the UE, and also maps the LTE cell location to an associated GAN Cell Global Identifier, GAN-CGI. The GANG provides the GAN-CGI to a Mobile Switching Center, MSC, or other serving core network node to support location-based services and other mobile originated or mobile terminated calls and transactions.
US08655366B2

In a mobile communication system, an interference equalization method is installed in a radio base station for managing a cell configured of sectors, thus equalizing interference between sectors in uplink communication and improving sector-user throughputs. In the situation that congestion occurs in a second sector adjacent to a first sector, a handover from the second sector to the first sector is accelerated when uplink interference of the first sector is equal to or above a first threshold while the usage rate of resource blocks in the first sector is equal to or below a second threshold. This accelerates a handover from the second sector undergoing congestion to the first sector having available resource blocks, thus equalizing uplink interference between these sectors.
US08655365B2

In an access network infrastructure of a cellular radio communication network, comprising a first radio access point serving at least one radio cell and capable of communicating, over a radio interface, with at least one user equipment item located within the radio coverage of at least one of the radio cells, first and second criteria for establishing a radio communication link with a radio access point are defined, with these two criteria being distinct from one another, as well as a set of user equipment associated with the first radio access point. Whenever user equipment is located within the radio coverage of at least one of the cells of the first radio access point, and the first criterion for establishing a radio communication link or the second criterion for establishing a radio communication link is applied, depending on whether or not the user equipment belongs to the set of user equipment associated with the first radio access point, for the purposes of establishing a radio communication link between the user equipment and the first radio access point whenever the applied radio communication link establishment criterion is fulfilled.
US08655359B2

As a result of ISR being enabled between a portable terminal device and a network which are capable of communicating by using the communication protocols of a plurality of wireless access technologies, the portable terminal device performs position registration processing between the plurality of wireless access technologies and the portable terminal device each time a fixed period of time elapses, and the portable terminal device is able to move between the plurality of wireless access technologies that have already been registered, without conducting new position registration processing. At this time, if there is a possibility of there being a difference in ISR states (activated or not activated) between the portable terminal device and the network, the portable terminal device ignores any instructions issued by the network for ISR to be enabled in the portable terminal device.
US08655356B2

A network scanning method in a mobile station and the mobile station using the method are disclosed, which can efficiently scan a network intended to be selected. The method includes: requesting a network selection, and scanning frequencies in an order starting from the highest receive-level of each frequency; detecting a carrier having network information during the scanning, and acquiring the network information; and sorting carrier frequencies and non-carrier frequencies of respective networks, based on the acquired network information. The frequency scanning is performed only for carrier frequencies. Therefore, corresponding services are provided rapidly to users.
US08655350B2

A pn junction type solar cell is formed in a predetermined region on a substrate made of glass. Light emitted from a light emitting unit reaches an n-type semiconductor layer after it passed through substrate. The solar cell generates electromotive force corresponding to a quantity of the emitted light. A control circuit, a mask ROM, a transmitting circuit and an antenna are formed on an upper side of the solar cell. A surface of a semiconductor storage device is entirely covered with an insulating film to block entry of outside air. The insulating film is typically formed of physicochemically stable glass or silicon dioxide.
US08655346B2

A method of controlling a mobile device and which includes wirelessly communicating, via a wireless communication unit of the mobile terminal, with other devices existing in a network including the mobile terminal; displaying, on a display unit of the mobile terminal, a multimedia file display region displaying contents existing in one of the devices in the network including the mobile device; and displaying, on the display unit, a reproduction control region including a first region displaying a first reproduction device for reproducing a first content selected from the multimedia file display region, and a second region for displaying the reproduced first content.
US08655344B2

A user may point a control device at a controllable device for which control is desired, and the control device may detect the targeted controllable device. Additionally, the control device may detect a plurality of wireless nodes and list the available wireless nodes. For example, the control device may identify wireless nodes associated with a particular room in the house, or the control device may detect the wireless nodes within a certain range. The list may be a selectable list and a user may select the desired device to control from the list. Upon detection or user selection, the control device may establish control of the wireless node and initiate actions associated with the selected device.
US08655343B2

A system includes a server and an information terminal apparatus that can be locally connected to a cellular phone terminal, which can be connected to the server via a cellular phone communication network. With such a system, when the server receives a request to remotely control the information terminal apparatus, the server verifies the validity of the request. When the request is valid, the server establishes a connection to the cellular phone terminal, and transmits, via the cellular phone terminal, a packet which is an instruction to start up the information terminal apparatus. Upon receiving the start-up instruction packet transmitted from the server, the information terminal apparatus starts up and establishes a connection to the server.
US08655342B2

A controlling party can set limitations on a controlled party's access to applications operating on the controlled party's wireless mobile communication device. The controlling party can effectuate these limitations via various different mechanisms. In one instance, the controlling party uses another wireless communication device to effectuate the limitations. In another instance, the limitations are effectuated by the controlling party's operation of a data apparatus connected by a wired data communication bus to the controlled party's wireless mobile communication device. In a still further instance, the controlling party effectuates the limitations by accessing a website supported by a web server.
US08655337B2

A determines the model of a mobile device and delivers configuration parameters to the mobile device consistent with the model determined. The application server captures the mobile device's phone number and associates it with a generated unique identifier. The unique identifier is sent to the mobile device as part of a URL. When the mobile device accesses the URL, the request sent to the application server includes the unique identifier as well as a user agent header. The model number of the mobile device can be extracted from the user agent header, and thus the model number can be tied to the mobile device's phone number by way of the unique identifier. The model number and phone number association can be used to correctly configure applications for use on the mobile device.
US08655334B2

The disclosed embodiments provide a system and method for configuring a communication device. In one embodiment, a method is presented that includes monitoring for a presence of at least one mobile device that stores a user profile. In response to the communication device detecting the presence of at least one mobile device that stores a user profile, the method retrieves the user profile from the mobile device. The method configures the communication device in accordance with the user profile.
US08655330B2

A method of operating a mobile communication terminal, the method including photographing an image and interconnecting the photographed image with an input number such that when the number is input into the mobile communication terminal, the photographed image is automatically displayed on the mobile communication terminal.
US08655316B2

A method for controlling access of a terminal, which is connected to a Home (e)NodeB operated in a closed access mode, the method comprises: determining whether a timer, which designates allowable time to access to the Home (e)NodeB by using a specific closed subscriber group (CSG) ID, has expired; comparing an allowed CSG list for the terminal with a CSG ID list of the Home (e)NodeB if the allowed access timer has expired; and changing the specific CSG ID of the terminal into another CSG ID such that service to the terminal from the Home (e)NodeB is maintained if there is the another CSG ID in both the allowed CSG ID list for the terminal and the CSG ID list of the Home (e)NodeB.
US08655313B2

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for verification of a mobile telephone number. The method comprises: storing a mobile telephone number and a corresponding mobile subscriber identity number; receiving a request for verification of the mobile telephone number; sending, in response to the request, an IMSI query requesting a mobile subscriber identity number registered in association with the mobile telephone number in an HLR; receiving, in response to the IMSI query, the mobile subscriber identity number associated with the mobile telephone number in the HLR; comparing the stored mobile subscriber identity number and the received mobile subscriber identity number, and, if the comparison shows that the received mobile subscriber identity number corresponds to the stored mobile subscriber identity number; initiating the performance of the messaging-or-positioning service in relation to the mobile telephone number.
US08655310B1

A method of preventing identity theft is provided. The method comprises reading confidential information from a mobile terminal that is not in communication with the public wireless communication network and determining if the mobile terminal has been reported lost. When the mobile terminal is determined to have been reported lost, the release of the confidential information by the mobile terminal is disabled.
US08655308B2

A method for charging control in a communications network comprises, at a policy manager, responsive to a request for policy regulations for a subscriber, a stimulus is provided to a control system to trigger pre-emptive retrieval of subscriber information. At the control system, responsive to the stimulus, subscriber information is retrieved, information is stored in a cache, and responsive to receiving a request from a party, the information in cache is consulted and a response is provided to the party based on the consultation.
US08655301B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for an electronically adjustable signal filter system, which comprises, in some embodiments, a first filter coupled to an antenna coupling network and a second filter, a power amplifier coupled to the first filter, an antenna connected to an antenna coupling network, a pilot tone generator coupled to the first filter, and a first signal source connected to the power amplifier and first filter. In some embodiments, the power amplifier amplifies the first signal, the first filter places a notch into the first signal transmitted to the antenna coupling network, the antenna coupling network combines the first signal and a second signal received from the antenna and transmits a third signal to the second filter.
US08655297B2

Disclosed are a nonlinear distortion compensating receiver and nonlinear distortion compensation method, wherein nonlinear distortion is reduced with a simple circuit configuration. A correction (opposite characteristics) filter (104) has characteristics opposite that of the frequency characteristics of a direct sampling mixer (102) and corrects signals sampled by the direct sampling mixer (102). In the main path, a LPF (106) extracts a frequency band component of a desired signal from the corrected signal. In the replica path, a BPF (107) extracts the frequency band component of a blocker signal from the corrected signal. A cubing circuit (108) uses the frequency band component of the blocker signal to generate a replica signal for the nonlinear distortion. An adaptive filter (110) performs filter processing on the replica signal while updating the filter coefficients. A subtractor (111) subtracts the output signal of the adaptive filter (110) from the frequency band component of the extracted desired signal and outputs the subtraction result as the desired signal.
US08655294B2

Methods and circuits for positioning a signal sampling window within a wireless receiver device for use in a multi-transmitter wireless broadcast network include generating a long channel model based upon a signal identifying transmitters that can be processed without aliases, and positioning the signal sampling window based upon the long channel model. For example, in a MediaFLO® broadcast, the long channel model may be generated by receiving positioning pilot channel (PPC) signals. Positions for the signal sampling window may be determined by identifying hypothetical signal sampling window positions, calculating signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) values for each identified hypothetical, and selecting the hypothetical with the best SINR. Using a long channel model to position the signal sampling window may provide improved window placement, reduce destructive aliasing, and reduce a time guard in the window placement. The long channel model may be used in conjunction with terrain databases.
US08655289B2

A distortion compensation device includes a distortion compensator that predistorts an input signal based on delay signals and distortion compensation coefficients corresponding to the respective delay signals obtained by applying different amounts of delay to the input signal, a calculator that calculates an error signal based on the predistorted input signal and an output signal from an amplifier that amplifies the predistorted input signal, a calculator that calculates prospective distortion compensation coefficients for updating the distortion compensation coefficients, based on the error signal, a saturation processor that performs saturation processing for bringing, when the prospective distortion compensation coefficients do not fall into a preset range, the prospective distortion compensation coefficients into the preset range, and a controller that controls the updating of the distortion compensation coefficients based on pieces of coefficient saturation information indicating whether the saturation processing is performed on the prospective distortion compensation coefficients.
US08655275B2

A first wireless device is configured to be used with a second wireless device. The configuration is performed after the first wireless device establishes a connection with the second wireless device. The first wireless device identifies services supported by the second wireless device without user intervention, and passes identified services to a plugin system in the first wireless device. The plugin system includes plugins that are associated with the identified services. The plugins present configuration options that are associated with the identified services via a user interface. From the user interface, the first wireless device receives a selection of the configuration options and is configured according to the selection.
US08655272B2

Example embodiments are disclosed for limiting radio frequency noise created during wireless charging of rechargeable batteries in radio frequency communication devices. In an example embodiment, a power source circuit in a wireless charging device produces a source alternating current. The source alternating current is passed through a radio frequency blocking filter to limit radio frequency noise. The filtered source alternating current is then driven through a transmitting coil in the charging device, which inductively couples with a proximately located receiving coil in a radio frequency communication device. An induced alternating current is passed through a second radio frequency blocking filter in the communication device, which limits radio frequency noise that could otherwise be created by the rectifier and control circuits in the communication device.
US08655263B2

A method for searching for a broadcast/multicast single frequency network cluster, when a terminal needs to receive the broadcast/multicast service in the broadcast/multicast single frequency network cluster, the terminal synchronizes to a non broadcast/multicast single frequency network cell which is associated with the broadcast/multicast single frequency network cluster; and the terminal searches for the broadcast/multicast single frequency network cluster on the basis of the information indicated by the system information in the non broadcast/multicast single frequency network cell. So that the UE can search for the corresponding MBSFN cluster, and can receive the MBMS service in the searched MBSFN cluster.
US08655253B2

A glossing device includes a heat roller, a stripper roller, an endless, rotary glossing belt, a first belt cooler, a pressure member, an endless, rotary cooling belt, and a second belt cooler. The heat roller is subjected to heating. The stripper roller is disposed parallel to the heat roller. The glossing belt is looped for rotation around the heat roller and the stripper roller. The first belt cooler is disposed adjacent to the glossing belt to cool the glossing belt. The pressure member is disposed opposite the heat roller. The cooling belt is looped for rotation around the pressure member. The second belt cooler is disposed adjacent to the cooling belt to cool the cooling belt. The heat roller and the pressure member press against each other via the glossing belt and the cooling belt to form a glossing nip therebetween through which the recording medium is conveyed.
US08655248B2

A fixing device includes a magnetic-field-producing member producing an alternating-current magnetic field, a fixing belt that is heated by electromagnetic induction caused by the alternating-current magnetic field and fixes toner on a recording material, and a pressure applying member pressed against the fixing belt and forming a press-fixing part therebetween through which the recording material having an unfixed image is transported. The fixing belt includes a metal body that is a stack of at least three layers including a base layer and a protective layer both made of metal, and a conductive layer provided between the base layer and the protective layer and to be heated by electromagnetic induction. In a section of the fixing belt taken in a thickness direction, the metal body has its neutral axis on a side of the protective layer with respect to a thickness center line thereof and in the protective layer.
US08655246B2

A fixing device includes a fixing member formed into a loop and rotatable in a predetermined direction of rotation. A heating assembly faces a first region on an inner circumferential surface of the fixing member to heat the fixing member. The heating assembly is thermally deformed to contact and move the fixing member. A first fixing member support and a second fixing member support face a second region on the inner circumferential surface of the fixing member other than the first region. The first fixing member support and the second fixing member support contact and support the rotating fixing member moved by the thermally deformed heating assembly.
US08655244B2

A fixing device includes a stationary at least partially tubular thermal member, a flexible fuser belt, a fuser pad, and a rotatable pressure member. The thermal member has a tubular portion thereof extending in an axial direction and defining a closed axial cross-section. A circumference of the thermal member is subjected to heating. The fuser belt is looped for rotation around the thermal member. An inner circumference of the fuser belt at least partially faces the thermal member. The fuser pad is held stationary inside the loop of the fuser belt. The pressure member extends opposite the thermal member in the axial direction with the fuser belt interposed between the fuser pad and the pressure member. The fuser pad is pressed against the pressure member through the fuser belt to form a fixing nip. The thermal member is spaced apart from the fuser pad.
US08655243B2

An image heating apparatus includes a rotatable heater heating an image on a recording material; a rotatable pressor contacting the heater to form a nip therebetween; a driving source; first and second helical gears rotatable by a driving force supplied from the driving source and having different twisting directions; first and second switching members for switching between rotation transmission and non-transmission from a driving gear to the first and second helical gears, respectively; third and fourth helical gears provided on the heater in meshing engagement with the first and second helical gears, respectively; and a switch for switching at least between drive transmission by first switching member and drive transmission by the second switching member to change a position of the heating rotatable member along a rotational axis direction of the heater.
US08655237B2

A development device includes a developer bearer to carry the developer to a development range, a magnetic field generator disposed inside the developer bearer for generating magnetic force, a developer regulator for adjusting an amount of the developer, a developer supply compartment disposed adjacent to the developer bearer, separated by a side wall from a portion where the developer bearer is provided, a developer agitator provided in the supply compartment, and a blocker disposed above the side wall of the supply compartment across a supply gap through which the developer moves from the supply compartment. The magnetic field generator has an attraction magnetic pole and a regulation magnetic pole. The blocker prevents the developer blocked by the developer regulator from moving along a magnetic force line of the regulation magnetic force toward the circumferential surface of the developer bearer.
US08655236B2

A developer storage body includes a housing in which a developer is stored, a shutter portion mounted to the housing and having a hole portion through which the developer is replenished into the housing, and a cap portion covering the hole portion. The cap portion includes a structural portion that constitutes an enclosure body enclosing a hollow portion. The structural portion is formed of a first material. The cap portion further includes a seal portion that covers the structural portion to seal the hollow portion. The seal portion is formed of a second material having a lower flexural modulus than the first material.
US08655235B2

A toner cartridge includes: a main body; a shutter; a toner seal; and a shift member. The main body defines an internal space for accommodating toner and formed with a communication hole, through which an interior and an exterior of the main body communicate. The shutter is movable between an open position in which the communication hole is open and a closed position in which the communication hole is closed. The shutter is also shiftable between a first position in which the shutter is positioned away from the main body and a second position in which the shutter is positioned close to the main body. The toner seal is disposed between the main body and the shutter when the shutter is in the closed position. The shift member is configured to shift the shutter from the first position to the second position when the shutter is in the closed position.
US08655231B2

A toner replenishment apparatus for a dry electrophotographic (EP) printer includes a rotatable transport subsystem in the developer. The subsystem includes an elongated housing with a feed port and various apertures arranged along its length. A channel within the housing receives toner from the toner supply through the feed port. A toner transport member in the channel moves toner received through the feed port to the apertures, and a developer-mixing member attached to the outside of the housing mixes toner and carrier particles in the developer. The toner transport member is stationary or rotates at a different angular velocity than the housing. When the rotation of the transport subsystem brings a selected one of the apertures below the center of the housing, toner passes through the selected aperture into the developer in the sump, and is mixed into the developer by the developer-mixing member as the transport subsystem rotates.
US08655230B2

An image forming apparatus for forming a color image on a recording material includes mounting means for detachably mounting a plurality of process cartridges each including a photosensitive drum and a developing roller. Movable members are provided that are actable on first and second clutches for switching between an operation state for transmitting the driving force to the developing rollers and a non-operation state not transmitting the driving force thereto. Also provided is a switching member for switching among a first mode for transmitting the driving force to the developing rollers of all of the process cartridges, a second mode for not transmitting the driving force to any one of the developing rollers, and a third mode for transmitting the driving force only to the developing roller of a black process cartridge.
US08655224B2

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier; an intermediate transfer unit including an intermediate transfer body onto which an image on the image carrier is transferred, and plural rotation members around which the intermediate transfer body is wound, each rotation member rotating around a rotation axis, the intermediate transfer unit detachably attached, in the rotation axis direction, to an apparatus main body; a secondary transfer unit that makes contact with and separates from the intermediate transfer body, the secondary transfer unit provided at an opposite side of the rotation members across the intermediate transfer body; a positioning unit that, when the intermediate transfer unit is attached to the apparatus main body, positions the intermediate transfer unit in the secondary transfer unit side at least at two points differently located in the rotation axis direction; and a securing unit that secures the intermediate transfer unit to the apparatus main body.
US08655221B2

A cartridge includes a casing, a rotatable member rotatably supported by the casing, a protruding member configured to advance and retract in directions parallel to an axis of rotation of the rotatable member, and an urging member configured to urge the protruding member to advance in an advancing direction. The protruding member has a particular sloping surface configured to be contacted in a direction orthogonal to an axis of rotation of the protruding member when the cartridge is mounted. The particular sloping surface slopes with respect to directions parallel to and orthogonal to the axis of rotation of the protruding member.
US08655220B2

An electrophotographic photoreceptor including a conductive substrate and a photosensitive layer provided on a surface of the conductive substrate, an outermost layer of the photosensitive layer containing a crosslinked product formed from at least one charge transporting material having at least one substituent selected from the group consisting of —OH, —OCH3, —NH2, —SH, and —COOH and at least one selected from a guanamine compound or a melamine compound, the content of the at least one charge transporting material being at least about 90% by weight, and the content of the at least one selected from the guanamine compound or the melamine compound being from about 0.1% by weight to about 5% by weight.
US08655219B2

A cleaning device includes a device body, a cleaning member, and a support member. The device body is moved in a longitudinal direction of a plate-like grid member of a charging device. The cleaning member is disposed in the device body and cleans a first face of the grid member while pressing against the first face when the device body is moved. The support member is provided in the device body and has a support surface that is in contact with and supports a second face opposite to the first face of the grid member pressed by the cleaning member. The support surface is in contact with a mesh portion and a non-mesh portion of the grid member.
US08655218B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a first process unit and a second process unit arranged in parallel and each having a photosensitive drum configured to form an electrostatic latent image by an exposure and a charging device configured to charge the photosensitive drum; an exposing unit disposed between the first process unit and the second process unit and configured to expose the photosensitive drum of the second process unit; a first flow channel formed between the first process unit and the exposing unit for supplying air to the charging device of the second process unit; and a second flow channel formed in the first process unit and having an outlet for supplying the air to the charging device of the second process unit.
US08655217B2

Methods are provided for controlling airflow across a width of a charger support area having a charger housing supporting a corona charger that is proximate to a primary imaging member. In one method, a flow of air is provided proximate an inlet side of the charger housing area and a deflection surface is used to deflect the flow of air from a first direction to a second direction leading to an impact surface against which the flow of air is disbursed. The impact surface is outside of the width of the charger housing so that the air flow can supply a volume of disbursed air into the charger housing and primary imaging member that is sufficient to create a pressure that causes the disbursed air to move to an outlet on an opposite side of the area without directly exposing the charger or the primary imaging member.
US08655202B2

A toner container includes a toner accommodating portion: a rotatable toner stirring member; a sensor for detecting a remaining amount of the toner; wherein the sensor includes a first flexible sheet portion, a second sheet portion, a first opening, a first electroconductive portion, a second electroconductive portion, wherein the first sheet portion flexes by a stirring operation of the stirring member, and the first electroconductive portion is contacted to the second electroconductive portion, by which the remaining toner amount is detectable, and wherein the toner accommodating portion is provided with a second opening for communicating the first opening and an outside of the toner accommodating portion with each other.
US08655196B2

This invention relates to a phase control circuit for an optical receiver (1). The phase control circuit (9, 19) comprises a non-linear element (22) and a power detector (24). The non-linear element (22) has a rectifying characteristic, inputs the received electrical signal (7, 17) and provides a rectified signal at its output. The power detector (24) provides an error signal which is used to obtain a phase control signal (5) which is output by the phase control circuit. The invention further relates to a corresponding method for phase control of an optical receiver (1).
US08655183B2

An optical transceiver includes an internal optical fiber coupled to optical sub-assemblies in the transceiver and is capable of maintaining a bend diameter of the internal optical fiber above a minimum bend diameter. The optical transceiver thus allows optical fiber to be used within a relatively small space within a housing of the optical transceiver without significant power loss in the optical signal carried on the optical fiber. The optical transceiver may be a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver used, for example, in an optical line terminal (OLT) and/or optical networking unit (ONU) in a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) passive optical network (PON).
US08655182B2

An optical transceiver with a bus selector for selecting one of I2C inner busses is disclosed. One of inner I2C buses connects the controller with a nonvolatile memory, while another I2C bus connects the controller with a volatile memory with a priority to the non-volatile memory. When the volatile memory is selected during the controller communicates with the non-volatile memory, the controller sets a command to the bus selector to select the second I2C bus and hold the first I2C bus.
US08655181B2

An optical transmission/reception module including a filter holder on which filter mount surfaces for mounting wavelength division multiplexing filters and light wavelength band limiting filters are formed and in which a hole for guiding a light signal is formed in each of the filter mount surfaces incorporated into a housing. The wavelength division multiplexing filters and the light wavelength band limiting filters are mounted to the filter mount surfaces formed on the filter holder, respectively.
US08655173B2

A network component comprising a control plane controller configured to implement a method comprising transmitting routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) information to at least one adjacent control plane controller, wherein the RWA information is transmitted using an interior gateway protocol (IGP). Included is a method comprising communicating a message comprising RWA information to at least one adjacent control plane controller, wherein the message comprises an indication whether the RWA information is static or dynamic. Also included is an apparatus comprising a control plane controller configured to communicate data to at least one adjacent control plane controller, wherein the data comprises RWA information, and wherein the data comprises an indicator that indicates whether the RWA information is associated with a node, a link, or both.
US08655171B2

A method and a device for an optical power budget in a passive optical network are disclosed in the present invention, wherein said method includes: acquiring a corresponding minimum optical link loss according to a transmission requirement of a passive optical network with a large splitting ratio or long distance (710); selecting an optical transmitter with large power and an optical receiver with high sensitivity as a combination of an optical transmitter of an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and an optical receiver of an Optical Network Unit (ONU) in an optical link, as well as a combination of an optical receiver of the OLT and an optical transmitter of the ONU in the optical link according to the minimum optical link loss to compose a passive optical network system comprising the OLT, an Optical Distribution Network (ODN), and ONUs connected in sequence (720).
US08655167B1

Implementations of techniques and systems are disclosed for detecting a fiber fault in a point-to-point optical access network based on optical time domain reflectometry (“OTDR”) measurements. The techniques include identifying loss of service between a central office (“CO”) and a given optical network unit (“ONU”) of a plurality of ONUs. In response to the identifying the loss of service, configuring a test signal distribution unit to optically couple an OTDR unit to a selected subset of the point-to-point fiber links which includes the given ONU. An optical test signal is launched from the OTDR unit into the selected subset of the point-to-point fiber links via the test signal distribution unit. Test signal reflections are received from each of the point-to-point fiber links within the selected subset as a reflection signature, which is analyzed to identify a location of the fiber fault.
US08655154B2

A television signal recording apparatus comprises a recording unit that makes recordings of television signals and stores metadata representing information in respect of the recordings including the channel and the recording time. A graphical display of made recordings and scheduled recordings is produced in which graphical objects representing respective recordings are arranged in two dimensions, ordered in a first dimension on the basis of the channels and ordered in a second dimension on the basis of the recording times. In the second dimension, the graphical objects are arranged along a time axis which includes discontinuities at times when no recording is present, the discontinuities being graphically represented by graphical symbols that are different according to the period of the discontinuity. An electronic program guide is produced with a similar format, the programs being filtered to select programs and discontinuities being present at times where there is no selected program.
US08655152B2

A process for presenting live action foreign language feature films in a native language by replacing the physical mouth positions of the original actors to match a newly recorded audio track in a different language with the original and/or replacement actors keeping the essence of the original dialect, while achieving the illusion that the content was originally filmed in the new voice over language. This process applies an artistic, multifaceted approach rather than a purely procedural approach, and utilizes a combination of visual effects techniques to achieve realistic lip sync animation to be convincing to the viewing audience.
US08655151B2

An editing apparatus is disclosed. A story determination block determines a story expressed by a time function and provides a reference for selecting an image from among candidate images. An evaluation value computation block computes an evaluation value for each of the candidate images for each selection time in the story based on the story determined by the story determination block and at least one feature value indicative of a feature of each of candidate images set to each thereof. An image selection block selects an image for each selection time from among the candidate images based on the computed evaluation value. An editing processing block links selection images that are images selected by the image selection block for each selection time to each other in a time-dependent manner.
US08655142B2

A method for displaying a record in an initial driving state of a record displaying apparatus is disclosed. The method includes searching execution/non-execution file descriptors of recorded multimedia files, and extracting record files not played back, and outputting a record file alarming message when a record file not played back is extracted. The record displaying apparatus is also disclosed. Execution/non-execution file descriptors of record files are searched upon system initialization of a broadcast receiver. When there is a new record or a record not played back, a record file alarming message is output in a state of being overlaid on a broadcast signal received. Accordingly, the user can access the record file list simultaneously with viewing a broadcast, without using any additional means.
US08655141B2

There is provided a video transmission apparatus including a signal conversion unit for converting a packet of a local area network for transferring data into data suitable for a non-compressed video signal based on a given standard, and a video synthesis unit for recording the data converted from the packet by the signal conversion unit in an available region of the non-compressed video signal.
US08655139B2

A data reading device includes a reading means for reading video data recorded in a video processing device which records and plays back video data and a control means for controlling the reading means so as to read video data from the video processing device by transmitting a reading request of index data to a video writing device which writes the video data to the video processing device when video data whose index data indicating an address of the video data is not recorded in the video processing device from the video processing device, and by designating the address indicated by the index data transmitted from the video writing device.
US08655134B2

Provided herein are photonic devices configured to display photonic band gap structure with a degenerate or a split band edge. Electromagnetic radiation incident upon these photonic devices can be converted into a frozen mode characterized by a significantly increased amplitude, as compared to that of the incident wave. The device can also be configured as a resonance cavity with a giant transmission band edge resonance. In an exemplary embodiment, the photonic device is a periodic layered structure with each unit cell comprising at least two anisotropic layers with misaligned anisotropy. The degenerate or split band edge at a given frequency can be achieved by proper choice of the layers' thicknesses and the misalignment angle. In another embodiment, the photonic device is configured as a waveguide periodically modulated along its axis.
US08655124B2

A waveguide intersection includes an input waveguide and an output waveguide; a crossing waveguide intersecting the input waveguide and the output waveguide to form an intersection; and a block that is optically joined to the intersection such that a guided mode is produced within the intersection. A method of reducing optical losses within a waveguide intersection includes increasing a cross-sectional height of an intersection such that optical energy passing through the intersection is laterally confined.
US08655120B2

In a multi-chip module (MCM), integrated circuits are coupled by optical waveguides. These integrated circuits receive optical signals from a set of light sources which have fixed carrier wavelengths. Moreover, a given integrated circuit includes: a transmitter that modulates at least one of the optical signals when transmitting information to at least another of the integrated circuits; and a receiver that receives at least one modulated optical signal having one of the carrier wavelengths when receiving information from at least the other of the integrated circuits. Furthermore, the MCM includes tunable drop filters optically coupled to the optical waveguides and associated integrated circuits, wherein the tunable drop filters pass adjustable bands of wavelengths to receivers in the integrated circuits. Additionally, control logic in the MCM provides a control signal to the tunable drop filters to specify the adjustable bands of wavelengths.
US08655115B2

Provided is an integrated optical current sensor for measuring the magnitude of current. The integrated optical current sensor is fabricated by integrating optical elements, such as a thermo-optic phase modulator, a waveguide polarizer and an optical coupler, on a single substrate. As compared to the known current sensors using optical fibers, the integrated optical current sensor is more compact and enables measurement of current with higher reliability. Provided also is a method for producing current sensor chips in a large scale by using a process for fabricating integrated optical elements.
US08655114B2

A hitless tunable filter may include a ring resonator, a Mach-Zehnder coupler, and first and second phase shifters. The Mach-Zehnder coupler may include a switching arm that is coupled to the ring resonator at first and second coupling points. The first phase shifter may be used to introduce a first phase shift to light propagating through the ring resonator, while the second phase shifter may be used to introduce a second phase shift to light propagating through the Mach-Zehnder coupler. The Mach-Zehnder coupler may have a free spectral range substantially equal to a free spectral range of the ring resonator divided by a non-negative integer.
US08655105B2

A method for proactively creating an image-based product includes identifying a group of images and automatically creating a design for a image-based product without receiving a user's request if the number of images in the group is determined to be within a predetermined range. The image-based product incorporates a plurality of images in the group. The method further includes presenting the design of the image-based product to a user for preview and making a physical manifestation of the image-based product based on the design.
US08655096B2

Systems, methods and computer program products are disclosed for automatic image sharpening. Automatic image sharpening techniques are disclosed that automatically bring a blurred image into focus. Techniques for reducing edge ringing in sharpened images are also disclosed. According to implementations, a computer-implemented method includes determining a normalized entropy of a first image, calculating a correlation target based on the normalized entropy, automatically determining a blur radius of a de-convolution kernel that causes a cosine of a first radial power spectrum of the kernel and a second radial power spectrum of a reconstruction of the first image to approximate the correlation target and generating a second image based on the blur radius.
US08655085B2

Modified compression/decompression and metadata in burst mode images reduce the storage space consumed by burst mode images. Metadata is added to image files (e.g., EXIF files) to establish links between images in a burst mode image series. A series of linked burst mode images can include delta images representing a temporal difference between the image data (e.g., pixel data) for two burst images captured at different time instances. Difference information can be compressed. A root image for a linked burst mode series can be identified and used as a reference for other burst images. Metadata can be added to image files to link burst images prior to compression, after compression, or at an intermediate stage of compression of image data. Difference information for delta image files can be derived prior to compression, after compression, or at an intermediate stage of compression of image data.
US08655081B2

To provide a lane recognition system which can improve the lane recognition accuracy by suppressing noises that are likely to be generated respectively in an original image and a bird's-eye image. The lane recognition system recognizes a lane based on an image. The system includes: a synthesized bird's-eye image creation module which creates a synthesized bird's-eye image by connecting a plurality of bird's-eye images that are obtained by transforming respective partial regions of original images picked up at a plurality of different times into bird's-eye images; a lane line candidate extraction module which detects a lane line candidate by using information of the original images or the bird's-eye images created from the original images, and the synthesized bird's-eye image; and a lane line position estimation module which estimates a lane line position based on information of the lane line candidate.
US08655080B2

Matching combinations of regions are identified in a first and second image of a common scene. First and second sets of image regions are first identified in the first and second image on their own. Next a search is made for potentially matching first and second regions from the first and second set. First and second geometrical parameters such as moments are computed, which provide a first order approximation of the shapes of the first and second region respectively, in terms of the size and directions of major and minor axes of ellipses. These first and second geometrical parameters may be considered to define a first and second normalizing map, which map the first and second regions to isotropic regions, wherein the ellipses become circles. A search is made for closest third and fourth regions in the first and second image with matching distances to the first and second regions in spaces obtainable by mapping locations in the first and second image according to the first and second normalizing maps. The match is verified when such matching closest regions are found.
US08655072B2

A medical image processing apparatus includes a first extraction part, an adding part, a first specifying part, and a second specifying part. The first extraction part extracts an air region from volume data after receiving volume data representing a region including an organ under observation. The adding part adds pixel values of the pixels in the air region along a predetermined projection direction to generate projection image data representing the distribution of the added value of pixel values. The first specifying part specifies a first characteristic point from the projection image data. The second specifying part specifies, as a second characteristic point, a point on a line passing a first characteristic point in an air region.
US08655065B2

An image processing device comprises a halftoning module, a detecting module, an adding module and a generating module. The halftoning module generates an error diffusion value. The detecting module detects an edge at a current pixel of an image. The adding module adds the pixel value of the current pixel with one of the error diffusion value and an error diffusion seed according to the detecting result. The generating module generates the error diffusion seed. The error diffusion seed is generated by a formula based on the pixel value and location of the current pixel and a random number, or the error diffusion seed is generated by a formula based on the pixel value of the current pixel and a looked-up value, and the looked-up value is retrieved from a look-up table according to the location of the current pixel.
US08655061B2

Provided is an image processing apparatus including an extraction unit that extracts a color boundary of an image, an influence value calculation unit that calculates an influence value indicating the degree of an influence of the color boundary on a pixel, a setting unit that sets a coefficient for a convolution operation in accordance with the color boundary extracted in the extraction unit and the influence value calculated in the influence value calculation unit, and an operation unit that performs a convolution operation using the coefficient set by the setting unit.
US08655057B2

In an information processing apparatus that processes data using cascade-connected weak classifiers, processing specification information specifying the processing content of each of the weak classifiers is stored. The weak classifiers to be used in processing the data are selected from the weak classifiers by referring to a table in which is specified information for determining the weak classifiers to be used based on a condition for processing the data. The data is then processed by the selected weak classifiers based on the processing specification information that corresponds to those weak classifiers, and an object is extracted from the data using an obtained evaluation value. Through this, a combination of extraction process speed and extraction accuracy can be changed in a flexible manner when extracting a specific object from image data.
US08655035B2

A method for training a classifier to be operative as an epithelial texture classifier, includes obtaining a plurality of training micrograph areas of biopsy tissue and for each of the training micrograph areas, identifying probable locations of nuclei that form epithelia, generating a skeleton graph from the probable locations of the nuclei that form the epithelia, manually drawing walls on the skeleton graph outside of the epithelia to divide the epithelia from one another, and manually selecting points that lie entirely inside the epithelia to generate open and/or closed geodesic paths in the skeleton graph between pairs of the selected points. Data is obtained from points selected from the walls and the paths and applied to a classifier to train the classifier as the epithelial texture classifier. A method and detector for detecting epithelial structures includes applying a sample micrograph area of biopsy tissue to an epithelial texture classifier; identifying probable locations of nuclei that form epithelia of the sample micrograph area with the epithelial texture classifier, generating a skeleton graph from the probable locations of the nuclei that form the epithelia of the sample micrograph area, determining a set of open and/or closed geodesic paths in the skeleton graph of the sample micrograph area; and determining a set of the epithelial masks using the open and/or closed epithelial paths of the sample micrograph area.
US08655034B2

An information processing apparatus comprises: a spatial filtering unit configured to perform spatial filtering in a frequency range based on a spatial frequency of an object for image data of a current frame; and a recursive filtering unit configured to perform recursive filtering by obtaining image data, which has been processed prior to the current frame, from a memory, multiplying the obtained image data by a coefficient α (α<1), adding the image data multiplied by the coefficient α to the image data of the current frame after the spatial filtering, and storing the image data after the addition in the memory.
US08655033B2

An improved iterative reconstruction method to reconstruct a first image includes generating an imaging beam, receiving said imaging beam on a detector array, generating projection data based on said imaging beams received by said detector array, providing said projection data to an image reconstructor, enlarging one of a plurality of voxels and a plurality of detectors of the provided projection data, reconstructing portions of the first image with the plurality of enlarged voxels or detectors, and iteratively reconstructing the portions of the first image to create a reconstructed image.
US08655025B2

Provided is a data analysis device for automatically detecting a step on the ground based on point cloud data representing a three-dimensional shape of a feature surface. A space subject to analysis is divided into a plurality of subspaces. A boundary search unit (22) searches for a boundary formed by the step on a horizontal plane for each of the subspaces. The boundary search unit (22) searches for a step neighborhood area having a predetermined width, in which the points projected on the horizontal plane are accumulated equal to or more than a criterion set in advance and a cloud of the points have a difference in height equal to or more than a step threshold set in advance, and searches for a directional line along a distribution of the cloud of points belonging to the step neighborhood area on the horizontal plane as the boundary.
US08655020B2

A camera system comprises an image capturing device, object detection module, object tracking module, and match classifier. The object detection module receives image data and detects objects appearing in one or more of the images. The object tracking module temporally associates instances of a first object detected in a first group of the images. The first object has a first signature representing features of the first object. The match classifier matches object instances by analyzing data derived from the first signature of the first object and a second signature of a second object detected in a second image. The second signature represents features of the second object derived from the second image. The match classifier determine whether the second signature matches the first signature. A training process automatically configures the match classifier using a set of possible object features.
US08655017B2

Techniques for identifying images of a scene including illuminating the scene with a beam of 3 or more wavelengths, polarized according to a determined direction; simultaneously acquiring for each wavelength an image X//(λi) polarized according to said direction and an image X⊥(λi) polarized according to a direction perpendicular to said direction, X⊥(λi) being spatially distinct from X//(λi); calculating for each wavelength an intensity image which is a linear combination of X//(λi) and X⊥(λi), providing an intensity spectrum for each pixel; calculating for each wavelength a polarization contrast image on the basis of an intensity ratio calculated as a function of X//(λi) and of X⊥(λi), providing a polarization contrast spectrum for each pixel; and calculating a spectro-polarimetric contrast image of the scene, each pixel of this spectro-polarimetric contrast image calculated based on the intensity spectrum and the contrast spectrum of the pixel considered.
US08655001B1

A method and apparatus for enhancing the performance of an in-the-canal hearing aid by temporarily increasing the adaptation speed of an adaptive feedback cancellation filter in response to sudden changes in the acoustic feedback path. The hearing aid employs a sound producing transducer (e.g., a speaker) mounted in a user's open ear canal along with a sound responsive transducer (e.g., a microphone) and a second sound responsive transducer also mounted in the ear canal and spaced a fixed distance from the first sound responsive transducer. The output signals from the first and second sound responsive transducers are applied to a digital processor which compares the respective output signals to detect impedance changes in the audio feedback path. The detected occurrence of an impedance change is then used to influence the adaptation speed of the adaptive feedback cancellation filter.
US08654985B2

A parametric representation of a multi-channel audio signal having parameters suited to be used together with a monophonic downmix signal to calculate a reconstruction of the multi-channel audio signal can efficiently be derived in a stereo-backwards compatible way when a parameter combiner is used to generate the parametric representation by combining a one or more spatial parameters and a stereo parameter resulting in a parametric representation having a decoder usable stereo parameter and an information on the one or more spatial parameters that represents, together with the decoder usable stereo parameter, the one or more spatial parameters.
US08654979B2

The present invention relates to an improved quantum key device for use in quantum key distribution, which device comprises a quantum detector unit for detecting a quantum signal and a plurality of logic units operably connected to the quantum detector unit wherein each logic unit is arranged to derive a separate quantum key from the quantum signal detected. In this way, a single quantum key distribution (QKD) receiver can generate separate quantum keys for separate users.
US08654976B2

A random wave envelope is created from a set of bounded random numbers by additively combining a triangle, a square and a sine wave. The random wave envelope is then used to create a sequence of wave random numbers from the wave envelope, which are used to generate random-variant keys for encryption in place of the pre-placed encryption key. An ambiguity envelope is thus created over the transmission of data packets as random-variant-keys are used that are distinct and separate for each packet and may also be distinct and separate for each incoming and outgoing packet. The random-variant keys are only created at the time of the actual use for encrypting or decrypting a data packet and not before and then discarded after one time use. The random-variant keys may be used in wireless network using wireless access points, cellular phone and data networks and ad hoc mobile wireless networks.
US08654974B2

A system for securing information. The system includes a first tracking device associated with an object or an individual. In one embodiment, the first tracking device generates independently a synchronous secret key and a server generates independently the synchronous secret key. Over an insecure communication channel, the server communicates an asynchronous vector pair encrypted with the synchronous secret key with the tracking device. To securely communicate information, messages are encrypted and decrypted using the asynchronous vector pair between the tracking device and the server. To further secure message information, a set of random numbers may be further utilized with the asynchronous vector pair to further encrypt and decrypt the messages communicated between the tracking device and the server.
US08654956B2

Tthe present invention seeks to avoid origination or continuation of unauthorized calls, while also avoiding the inconvenience, expense and uncertainty for call parties resulting from premature termination of calls because of erroneous or ill-founded suspicions that unauthorized activities are occurring. By permitting one or more parties to a call that is deemed suspicious to provide information establishing proper authorization, or innocent mistake, security procedures can be assured while avoiding improper false-positive determinations that unauthorized calling activities have occurred. When suspicions cannot be overcome, the called party is requested to terminate the call and a separate continuation link is established to the called party.
US08654948B2

A telephone fraud prevention system is provided. A fraud application server is in communication with a fraud database and a switch that determines which calls are sent to the fraud application server. A policy function may be integrated with existing fraud detection and correlation systems. When a call is originated and authentication fails, whether that's through a PIN, voice recognition, etc., the fraud application server sends a message indicating that this customer has failed to authenticate. After a number of authentication failures, evidence of high-risk calling is determined. Instead of reactively dealing with the fraud, the risk has been captured at the fraud application server and the switch blocks potential damage from that call and from that user.
US08654946B1

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for sending a missed call notification to a receiver based on an instruction from a caller. In use, an instruction is received from a caller to send a missed call notification to a receiver. Additionally, at least one parameter associated with the instruction is identified. Further, the missed call notification is generated utilizing the at least one parameter. Moreover, the missed call notification is sent to the receiver.
US08654937B2

A method, system and computer program for assessing the quality of a call recipient response during an interactive voice dialog. Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to biometric analysis and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for call center agent quality assurance using biometric technologies. A solution for automated monitoring of call center agents' skill, mood, professionalism and behavior using biometric technologies and for providing appropriate action to improve customer handling and satisfaction is provided. The solution provides an automated method for detecting potential problems and preemptively taking action to provide consistent, quality customer service.
US08654936B1

A voice-activated command interface module for interacting with a plurality of home-based electronic devices so as to allow for a remotely-located home owner to communicate with, command and control various ones of the electronic devices. The module includes a plurality of communication ports, each communication port associated with a different type of communication interface for providing communications to and from the plurality of electronic devices. The module also includes a voice network communication port for receiving the voice commands from the home owner and a data network communication port for transmitting monitoring and control information between the plurality of electronic devices and the home owner. In operation, the command interface module is responsive to voice commands received from a remote user via an incoming telephone line (either data or voice). A voice recognition unit within the command interface module is utilized to translate the received voice signal into an “action/control” signal and then perform the desired activity.
US08654935B2

A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code having programming instructions tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium. The programming instructions are operable to receive an audio stream of a communication between a plurality of participants. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to filter the audio stream of the communication into separate audio streams, one for each of the plurality of participants, wherein each of the separate audio streams contains portions of the communication attributable to a respective participant of the plurality of participants. Furthermore, the programming instructions are operable to output the separate audio streams to a storage system.
US08654934B2

Multi-modal interaction with a telephonic device using a call handling system is enabled by receiving a call at an interactive voice response (IVR) system of the call handling system, the call being received from a telephonic device of a caller. A voice communications session between the IVR and the telephonic device is established in response to the call. Whether the telephonic device is capable of processing multi-modal communications is determined. Based on determining that the telephonic device is not capable of processing multi-modal communications, the IVR is enabled to access and audibly deliver voice page content to the caller via the voice communications session. Alternatively, based on determining that the telephonic device is capable of processing multi-modal communications, the call handling system is configured to exchange multi-modal communications with the telephonic device during the call.
US08654928B2

A target for generating x-rays includes a target substrate comprising molybdenum and having a beveled surface according to a desired track angle, a track comprising tungsten and configured to generate x-rays from high-energy electrons impinging thereon, wherein the track comprises a brazing surface having an area that is less than an area of the beveled surface of the target substrate, and a braze joint attaching the brazing surface of the track to the beveled surface of the target substrate.
US08654906B2

A receiving device includes a FFT unit performing FFT on an input signal of a time domain to transform the input signal into a plurality of signals of frequency domains and outputting the plurality of signals of the frequency domains, a signal extracting unit extracting a signal with a power that is greater than a threshold value from among the plurality of signals of the frequency domains output from the first FFT unit and outputting the extracted signal, an IFFT unit performing IFFT on the extracted signal output from the signal extracting unit, a subtracting unit subtracting the extracted signal output from the IFFT unit from the input signal and outputs a subtracted signal, and a second FFT unit transforming the subtracted signal output from the subtracting unit into a signal of the frequency domain by performing the FFT on the subtracted signal output from the subtracting unit.
US08654905B2

An apparatus for canceling interference includes a plurality of converters, a plurality of interference cancellation units, a plurality of variance detectors, and an output selecting unit. The plurality of converters converts a plurality of received signals to a plurality of frequency domain signals, respectively. The plurality of interference cancellation units cancel interference in the plurality of frequency domain signals using a plurality of interference cancellation schemes to generate a plurality of interference-canceled signals corresponding to the plurality of interference cancellation schemes, respectively. The plurality of variance detectors measure a plurality of amounts of residual interference corresponding to the plurality of interference-canceled signals, respectively. The output selecting unit selects a single interference-canceled signal with the least amount of residual interference from the plurality of interference-canceled signals, based on the plurality of amounts of residual interference.
US08654898B2

Incoming data at a high-speed serial receiver is digitized and then digital signal processing (DSP) techniques may be used to perform digital equalization. Such digital techniques may be used to correct various data anomalies. In particular, in a multi-channel system, where crosstalk may be of concern, knowledge of the characteristics of the other channels, or even the data on those channels, may allow crosstalk to be subtracted out. Knowledge of data channel geometries, particularly in the context of backplane transmissions, may allow echoes and reflections caused by connectors to be subtracted out. As data rates increase, fractional rate processing can be employed. For example, the analog-to-digital conversion can be performed at half-rate and then two DSPs can be used in parallel to maintain throughput at the higher initial clock rate. At even higher rates, quadrature techniques can allow analog-to-digital conversion at quarter-rate, with four DSPs used in parallel.
US08654893B2

A communication apparatus and a channel estimating method for performing channel estimations with high precision. The communication apparatus, which receives multicarrier signals comprising a plurality of subcarriers, has a first estimating unit that generates temporary channel estimation values from pilot signals located in any ones of a plurality of received subcarriers; a second estimating unit that generates a virtual channel estimation value sequence related to the frequency bands other than the frequency bands of the plurality of subcarriers and that combines the generated virtual channel estimation value sequence with the plurality of temporary channel estimation values to generate a channel estimation value sequence corresponding to a predetermined frequency bandwidth; and a generating unit that uses this generated channel estimation value sequence to generate channel estimation values related to any ones of the plurality of subcarriers.
US08654892B2

An arrangement of interleavers allocates bits from an input symbol across sub-symbols transmitted via sub-carriers of multiple orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) carriers. The input bits are allocated in a fashion to provide separation across subcarriers, and rotation of sub-symbols across the OFDM carriers provides additional robustness in the present of signal path impairments.
US08654890B2

An apparatus comprises a differential equalizer having: a) a first differential input, b) a second differential input, c) a first differential output, and d) a second differential output; a frequency detector coupled to the first and second differential inputs; an amplifier coupled to a first differential output and a second differential output of the differential equalizer; and a logical combiner having a first input coupled to an output of the frequency detector and an output coupled to a control input of the amplifier, wherein the logical combiner can mask at least one received de-emphasis parameter.
US08654869B2

Devices, networks, systems and methods for coordinating communications on multi-path radio transmission mesh networks include evaluating available path metrics to ensure the best available connection routes through the network can be understood and utilized. The evaluation of the path metric may include comparing an xth percentile signal strength indication (RSSI) value with a predetermined RSSI threshold level, wherein x is strategically selected to address multi-path signal fading issues.
US08654855B2

Disclosed is an apparatus for decoding motion information in merge mode for reconstructing a moving picture signal coded at a low data rate while maintaining a high quality of an image. The apparatus for decoding motion information in merge mode discloses the position of a merge mode candidate and the configuration of a candidate in order to predict motion information in merge mode efficiently. Furthermore, a merge candidate indicated by the merge index of a current block can be efficiently reconstructed irrespective of a network environment by adaptively generating a merge candidate based on the number of valid merge candidate.
US08654849B2

Methods and systems for integrated transcoding on a plurality of data channels to convert one or more data channels from an incoming encoding format to an outgoing encoding format are disclosed.
US08654846B2

A motion compensator detects a first shift amount between temporally adjacent first and second frames, wherein the first shift amount is detected based upon a differential value between pixels constituting the first frame and pixels constituting the second frame; stores in a storing unit of information of the detected first shift amount with regard to each reference frame candidate; calculates a second shift amount between the input frame and each reference frame candidate based upon the first shift amount or a sum of the first shift amount from each reference frame candidate to the input frame; selects a reference frame candidate for which the second shift amount is smallest as a reference frame; and calculates a motion vector, with regard to each macro block of the input frame, based upon each macro block of the reference frame.
US08654840B2

A rate control method of perceptual-based rate-distortion (R-D) optimized bit allocation is disclosed. An input frame is firstly determined as a key frame or non-key frame. A key frame is additionally encoded to generate rate-distortion (R-D) points. The R-D model of each basic unit (BU) is updated, followed by perceptual-based bit allocation, thereby generating a target bit rate. A quantization parameter (QP) is computed according to the target bit rate, and the current BU is encoded according to the QP. A rate-quantization (R-Q) model is updated if not all BUs have been encoded.
US08654836B2

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for determining an adaptive filter tap to encode a wavelet transform coefficient, a wavelet transform apparatus and a method using the same, and a recording medium for the same, wherein the filter tap is determined rendering the high-band energy to be minimized, based not only on whether an edge is present but also on the edge location so as to adaptively determine the filter tap for an efficient coding of the wavelet transform coefficient. Therefore, the disclosure is able to prevent ringing artifacts and increase coding efficiency while maintaining clear definition on the edges.
US08654835B2

A value of one or more Lagrangian multipliers is adaptively estimate and update based, at least in part, on the video source statistics or dynamic programming. Methods, techniques, and systems involve determining a first Lagrangian multiplier with a video encoder, and updating a second Lagrangian multiplier with the first Lagrangian multiplier. The system can include a Lagrangian multiplier Estimation Module that estimates the Lagrangian multiplier, and a Lagrangian multiplier Update Module that updates the current Lagrangian multiplier using the estimated Lagrangian multiplier. The Online Lagrangian Multiplier Estimation Module may function with Rate Distortion Slope Estimation with Rate Distortion Optimized Mode Decision; Rate Distortion Slope Estimation with Local Approximation; Rate Distortion Slope Estimation with Local Information; or Rate Distortion Slope Estimation with Global Information. The Lagrangian Multiplier Update Module may function with Direct Update; Step Size Update; Sliding Window Update; or Periodical Update.
US08654833B2

This disclosure describes efficient transformation techniques that can be used in video coding. In particular, intermediate results of computations associated with transformation of a first block of video data are reused in the transformation of a second block of video data. The techniques may be used during a motion estimation process in which video blocks of a search space are transformed, but this disclosure is not necessarily limited in this respect. Pipelining techniques may be used to accelerate the efficient transformation techniques, and transposition memories can be implemented to facilitate efficient pipelining.
US08654832B1

A communication method includes: receiving input data at a transmitter, the transmitter including at least one convolutional encoder and at least one modulator; applying the input data to a trellis-coded modulation (TCM) scheme to encode the input data and produce one or more TCM symbols representing the encoded data; applying the one or more TCM symbols to a second modulation scheme, the second modulation scheme including a pulse modulation in combination with an additional modulation; and generating one or more modulation symbols representing the encoded data based on the second modulation scheme.
US08654825B2

System and method for backoff correction of channel quality information (CQI). A correction factor is calculated based on a goodness measure such as packet error rate (PER). The selection of modulation and coding scheme (MCS) is made considering the channel quality information (CQI) adjusted by the correction factor. A meaningful goodness measure can be imposed if the goodness measure is very low. A different correction factor can be calculated for different confidence levels, MCSs and transmission modes.
US08654822B2

A link adaptation system using a Doppler frequency is provided. The link adaptation system includes: a Doppler frequency estimation unit to estimate a Doppler frequency of a signal transmitted via a wireless channel; a Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) measurement interval determination unit to determine an SNR measurement interval of the signal transmitted via the wireless channel based on the estimated Doppler frequency; and an SNR measurement unit to measure an SNR of the signal based on the determined SNR measurement interval.
US08654820B2

The signaling amount in selecting a plurality of beams is reduced in pre-coding to enhance throughput. When notification of a beam number is provided in a feedback signal from a user equipment to a radio base station, a superior beam number, having a high quality rank with small time variation, is bound up and fixed for a predetermined time period and notification of only a inferior beam number is provided within the predetermined time period. For example, to select three beams among six beams, first, notification of the superior two beam numbers (beam numbers ‘b’ and ‘c’) is provided. These beam numbers are fixed for a predetermined time period and then notification of only the inferior one beam number (beam number ‘e’) is provided within the predetermined time period. Thus, the signaling amount for providing beam number notification is reduced.
US08654816B2

The invention relates to a method 20 in a base station 2 for determining a transmission rank. The base station 2 controls two or more transmit antenna ports 3a, 3b for supporting a multi-antenna transmission mode and for transmission of data on a channel for communication with a user equipment 4. The method 20 comprises receiving 21 a rank indicator from a user equipment 4, the rank indicator indicating the number of spatial multiplexing layers recommended by the user equipment 4, and determining 22 the transmission rank based on a channel imbalance factor CIF, wherein the channel imbalance factor CIF quantifies a difference in receive power of the two or more transmit antenna ports 3a, 3b. The invention also relates to a base station, methods in user equipment, user equipment, computer programs, and computer program products.
US08654811B2

Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) arrays with vias for electrical connection are disclosed. A Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) array in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention comprises a plurality of first mirrors, a plurality of second mirrors, a plurality of active regions, coupled between the plurality of first mirrors and the plurality of second mirrors, and a heatsink, thermally and mechanically coupled to the second mirror opposite the plurality of active regions, wherein an electrical path to at least one of the plurality of second mirrors is made through a via formed through a depth of the plurality of second mirrors, and a plurality of VCSELs in the VCSEL array are connected in series.
US08654810B2

A light-emitting device formed by easily mounting a light-emitting element onto a supporting base and a method of manufacturing the light-emitting device are provided. A light-emitting device includes: a supporting base including a depression section on a top surface thereof, the depression section having an inclined surface on a side wall thereof; a first light-emitting element arranged on a bottom surface of the depression section; and a second light-emitting element arranged on the first light-emitting element and the supporting base.
US08654807B2

An electrical device includes a charge carrier transport layer formed using a ternary semiconducting compound having a stoichiometry of 1:1:1 and an element combination selected from the set of I-II-V, I-III-IV, II-II-IV, and I-I-VI; or having a stoichiometry of 3:1:2 and an element combination selected from the set of I-III-V; or having a stoichiometry of 2:1:1 and an element combination selected from the set of I-II-IV. In some embodiments, the charge carrier transport layer is used as the radiation absorption layer for a photovoltaic cell, or a light emitting layer of a light emitting device. Other devices, such as laser diode, a photodetection device, an optical modulator, a transparent electrode and a window layer, can also be formed using the ternary semiconducting compound as the charge carrier transport.
US08654799B2

A mode-locked fiber laser has a resonator including a gain-fiber, a mode-locking element, and a spectrally-selective dispersion compensating device. The resonator can be a standing-wave resonator or a traveling-wave resonator. The dispersion compensating device includes only one diffraction grating combined with a lens and a minor to provide a spatial spectral spread. The numerical aperture of the gain-fiber selects which portion of the spectral spread can oscillate in the resonator.
US08654796B2

A system for synchronizing clock, which is used to realize the synchronization between a radio frequency module and a base band module in a base station, comprises: one or more time generators, located on the radio frequency module side, configured to generate a synchronous signal according to an external clock signal, and to send the synchronous signal to a time distributor; the time distributor, located on the base band module side, configured to generate a synchronous clock according to a synchronous signal from one of the one or more time generators, and to adjust the synchronous clock according to a communication delay between the time generator which outputs the synchronous signal and the time distributor, and to send the synchronous clock adjusted to the radio frequency module and the base band module to realize the synchronization between the radio frequency module and the base band module.
US08654790B2

A test device includes a packet input receiver for receiving encapsulated packets from a network; a packet reader for extracting timing information from the encapsulated packets, and for decapsulating encapsulated packets so as to obtain test packets; a FIFO queue for storing the test packets; a packet controller for reading the test packets from the FIFO queue and writing the test packets into a de-jitter buffer in accordance with the timing information, the de-jitter buffer for storing the reordered test packets; and, a packet output generator for providing the test packets to a target device wherein time intervals between the test packets are reproduced using the timing information.
US08654783B2

A method for channel switching comprising the steps: establishing (10) an active communication in a channel ch(m), checking (11) if the communication at an actual timeslot t(n) is successful, if checking (11) if the communication at the actual timeslot t(n) is successful, keeping the communication using the channel ch(m) for a next timeslot t(n+1) and repeating checking (11) if the communication at the actual timeslot t(n) is successful, if checking (11) if the communication at the actual timeslot t(n) is not successful, initiating a selection of a next channel ch(m+1). Further a device for communication is presented.
US08654776B2

A system and method is provided for scheduling transmissions from a plurality of services operating over a widely distributed communications network. A headend communications device (such as a cable modem termination system) arbitrates bandwidth among a plurality of cable modems configurable for bi-directional communications. The headend grants a bandwidth region to a specified cable modem or assigns contention regions for a group of cable modems. Each cable modem contains a local scheduler that sends requests for bandwidth according to local policies or rules. Upon receipt of a grant from the headend, the local scheduler selects packets to be transmitted to best serve the needs of the services associated with the cable modem. Accordingly, a service requesting bandwidth may not be the service utilizing the grant corresponding to bandwidth request. Nonetheless, the local scheduler manages bandwidth allocation among its local services such that all requesting services eventually receive bandwidth.
US08654775B2

In a wireless communication system, a multi-source data multiplexing system (e.g., a media access control (MAC)) accepts information packets from a plurality of signal sources, evaluates the relative efficiencies of data transmission, and transmits the information packets in provided grant regions for maximum efficiency. The multi-source data multiplexing system may accept any form of information packet from any form of signal source. The system receives a grant region, typically including a transmission time on a data channel, and inserts an information packet into the grant region. The actual information packet placed in the grant region may be one other than the packet for which the grant region was intended. Further, the multi-source data multiplexing system may fragment an information packet and transmit only a portion of the information packet in the grant region. Alternately, the multi-source data multiplexing system may concatenate multiple information packets, or information packet fragments, from any combination of signal sources and transmit the concatenated result in the grant region. As long as any signal source is active, the composite flow of information packets remains active, and the composite flow then serves as the primary mechanism for requesting and transmitting additional bandwidth in the wireless communication system.
US08654774B2

Multi-rate link partners coupled via an Ethernet link may be configured to implement an asymmetric handshake wherein a change of rate in a first direction may be independent of delay that may occur when implementing a change of rate in a second direction. A rate change may be delayed based on a known time delay for configuring a link partner. A change in rate in the first direction may not be delayed by data transmissions in the second direction. Rate changes may be managed via physical layer control characters, physical layer out of band channel and/or packets generated from a layer above the physical layer. Control characters may be transmitted during inter-packet gaps and/or within a packet stream. Data rates may be transitioned from a full rate, intermediate rate or a rate of zero to a full data rate, intermediate rate or a rate of zero.
US08654773B2

Systems and methods for coexistence of WLAN and Bluetooth networks are described. At least one embodiment includes a method for operating a wireless device in both a 802.11 network and a Bluetooth network. In accordance with some embodiments, the method comprises monitoring transmission of Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO) slots over the Bluetooth network, informing an access point (AP) in the 802.11 network not to transmit to the device before the end of an SCO slot, transmitting a power save trigger to the AP to retrieve buffered data from the AP, and transmitting data to the AP.
US08654767B2

A method and system for audio transmission in a wireless communication system which transmits digital video and digital audio in High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) format. Position information of audio packets within the HDMI frame is obtained. Digital audio information including the position information is transmitted from a data source device to a data sink device via a wireless communication medium. At the data sink device, an HDMI frame is reconstructed by inserting received audio packets into horizontal and vertical blanking periods of the HDMI frame.
US08654766B2

An interconnection between fully synchronous networks and next-generation frame communications networks is disclosed. A means of bidirectional frame format conversion between a synchronous multiplexing system and a logical multiplexing system is provided, along with a method of transmitting data between different networks on a path as if it were being transmitted in the same network. Further, when converting network control information in an STM network into data suitable for a packet network, even across the boundary of a synchronous multiplexing system and a logical multiplexing system, a unified communication management means is provided over the whole path.
US08654765B2

A network appliance that is part of a distributed virtual switch collects network flow information for network flows passing through the network appliance. The network flow information is encapsulated into packets as a data record for transport. Network flow exporter type information is added to the network flow records configured to indicate that the packets are from a distributed exporter. An option template is sent to the network flow data collectors that includes a device identifier that is configured to uniquely identify the network appliance. The packets are exported to the network flow data collector. The network flow data collector uses the network flow exporter type information and the device identifier to associate the network flow information with the distributed virtual switch.
US08654764B2

The present invention relates to a protocol accelerator module for a data transmission protocol level of a transceiver, particularly but not exclusively for rapid forwarding of data packets in wireless sensor networks using the time-division multiple access method according to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The invention also relates to a method of transceiver operation for rapid forwarding of data packets, likewise particularly, but not exclusively, in wireless sensor networks using the time-division multiple access method according to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The core of the invention is a reference table which stores references from identifiers of second transceivers to identifiers of third transceivers as well as references from specific messages to identifiers of third transceivers. A transceiver can check during reception of a data packet whether it is a data packet to be forwarded, and can take appropriate precautions for rapid sending of a data packet to be forwarded. This allows real-time conditions of many applications to be met.
US08654761B2

In one embodiment, a method can include: (i) establishing an internet protocol (IP) connection; (ii) forming a buffered version of a plurality of voice frame slices from received audio packets; and (iii) when an erasure is detected, performing a packet loss concealment (PLC) to provide a synthesized speech signal for the erasure, where the PLC can include: (a) identifying first and second pitches from the buffered version of the plurality of voice frame slices; and (b) forming the synthesized speech signal by using the first and second pitches, and more if needed, followed by an overlay-add (OLA).
US08654752B2

It is possible to obtain the diversity effect in a plurality of slots while preventing complication of a scheduler or inefficient use of resources, to eliminate the phenomenon in which SINR significantly decreases in a specific slot, and to avoid deterioration of demodulation performance. In a radio communication system which performs transmission in a sub-frame unit having two slots temporally continuously arranged, when pre-coding is performed by multiplying a signal to be output to a plurality of antennas by a pre-coding weight, CDD is used to shift a phase such that the phase in the pre-coding weight is cyclically changed on the frequency axis. The phase shift amount to be applied by the CDD is set to change by 2π in an allocated resource block (1RB) of the local device, and PVS is applied such that the phase shift amount differs by π between the weight W0 of the first half slot and the weight W1 of the second half slot in the sub-frame.
US08654751B2

A transmission apparatus according to the present invention includes: an encoding section; a modulation section; a variable-SF spreading section that performs spreading with variable SF according to control information A from a control section; an IDFT section that performs IDFT on output from the spreading section; a GI inserting section; a parallel/serial conversion section that converts output from the GI inserting section into a serial data sequence; a digital/analog conversion section; and an RF section that transmits a signal from an antenna after converting the signal to a frequency band for analog signal transmission and controlling it to an appropriate transmission power. The control section is configured to generate control information A for determining the variable SF and input the information A to the variable-SF spreading section and the RF section. In control information A, SF is varied depending on transmission power required.
US08654749B2

Systems and methods for establishing IT services in edge environments are described. In some examples, the system comprises a transportable housing capable of being carried by personnel, a plurality of commercial off-the-shelf components contained in the housing and coupled together and configured to provide the broadband communications network, a software management system operatively coupled to the plurality of components, a network connection subsystem defined by at least a first portion of the plurality of components and configured to establish access to the broadband communications network, and a connection subsystem defined by at least a second portion of the plurality of components and that provides a user with a connection to the broadband communications network via the network connection subsystem.
US08654741B2

Techniques are provided for selecting an access point (AP) to communicate with from a plurality of candidate access points (APs) when a wireless communication device (WCD) roams in a wireless local area network (WLAN). The WCD can determine whether a particular link quality metric (e.g., a signal strength indicator value) of a particular preferred access point (that has the highest link quality metric) is greater than an upper threshold. If so, the WCD can then create a preferred candidate list that comprises only preferred access points, and determine whether a current serving access point of the wireless communication device is a preferred access point. If the current serving access point is not a preferred access point, the WCD can initiate a roam to the particular preferred access point that has the strongest link quality metric.
US08654739B2

An IP (Internet Protocol) session for a mobile node is carried out through the use of a virtual care-of address. A foreign agent sends an agent advertisement to the mobile node to allow the mobile node to choose from a list of IP addresses of the foreign agent. The foreign agent ties a virtual care-of address to a mobile node so that an intelligent and dynamic selection of tunnels to be used for the IP session can occur. Therefore, traffic for an IP session is not limited to transmission over the single particular tunnel that corresponds to an IP address initially selected by the mobile node. Rather, the virtual care-of address shifts the tunneling decision from the mobile node to the foreign agent. Supporting multiple tunnels between home agent and foreign agent allows resilience, redundancy, and service-level differentiation to mobile node traffic without involving the mobile node in the process.
US08654734B2

This invention is a method of wireless communication using candidate multi-cell CSI-RS time-frequency patterns in the invention. This invention avoids collision with antenna ports 0, 1, 2 and 3 used for transmitting cell-specific reference signals and port 5 used for transmitting demodulation reference signals. This invention satisfies the nested property requirement. This invention avoids collision with DM-RS signal for extended cyclic prefix transmission as long as DMRS Rank is less than or equal to 2. For ranks greater than 2, this invention produces patterns that may collide with Rel. 10 DM-RS for extended CP. The invention includes alternative patterns obtained by relabeling and/or reshuffling the CSI-RS antenna port numbers while preserving identical time-frequency resources assigned to CSI-RS in the time-frequency grid.
US08654731B2

A system and method for establishing and/or maintaining disparate connection paths from an originating mobile user device to a base station via a mobile peer-to-peer (PTP) network including an originating mobile user device configured to broadcast at least one of a path establishment request signal and a confirmation request signal to an intermediate mobile user device; a mobile peer-to-peer network including the intermediate mobile user device configured to forwarding at least one of the path establishment request signal, the path establishment response signal, the path confirmation request signal, and a path confirmation response signal, via a disparate connection path; and a base station configured to broadcasting at least one of the path establishment response signal and the path confirmation response signal to the originating mobile user device via one or more disparate connection paths within the mobile peer-to-peer network.
US08654729B2

A base station and an uplink transmission method thereof are provided. The base station receives a plurality of first uplink transmission requests of a plurality of first wireless devices of a first group and a plurality of second uplink transmission requests of a plurality of second wireless devices of a second group in a first time interval, and approves one of the second uplink transmission requests. The base station receives second uplink transmission data of the second wireless device corresponding to the approved second uplink transmission request in a second time interval behind the first time interval. The base station receives the second uplink transmission requests of the second wireless devices corresponding to the unapproved second uplink transmission requests in a third time interval behind the second time interval.
US08654727B2

The present disclosure provides a method and system for transmitting a position reference signal, which includes: acquiring a currently needed Position Reference Signal (PRS) sequence with a length of 2×NRBPRS, wherein NRBPRS is the PRS bandwidth configured by high layer signaling, which is represented by a unit of a resource block; determining the position of the PRS sequence in a physical resource block; and transmitting the acquired PRS sequence on the determined position. With the method of the present disclosure, a currently needed PRS sequence is acquired directly, or at first, a PRS sequence with the maximum length is generated, and then the currently needed PRS sequence is intercepted from the PRS sequence with the maximum length. The present disclosure ensures that an effective PRS sequence can be acquired in any circumstance, thereby ensuring the realization of the positioning function of the PRS.
US08654722B2

Methods and systems for cognitive radio channel searching are shown that include determining an upper threshold and a lower threshold that will find a free channel in a minimum average searching time based on a channel occupancy probability π0 and the number of channels K, constrained by a target acceptable misdetection probability and a target acceptable false alarm probability. The K channels are searched with a signaling device using the determined upper threshold and lower threshold to find a free channel.
US08654718B2

A method of transmitting a wideband frame for a wideband system having backward compatibility with a narrowband system includes configuring a wideband carrier by using a set of base carriers, wherein a bandwidth of the base carriers corresponds to a bandwidth of the narrowband system and any one of center frequencies of the base carriers is the same as a center frequency of the narrowband system, and allocating all or some of guard subcarriers between the two adjacent base carriers to a traffic channel when a center frequency spacing between two adjacent base carriers is an integer multiple of a subcarrier spacing. Accordingly, the method can be used to support backward compatibility with the narrowband system. Further, the method can be equally used when the narrowband system co-exists with the wideband system in a guard band defined in a narrowband of a new system.
US08654712B2

Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate scheduling via a power control algorithm that dynamically update a scheduling metric (e.g., adjusting transmission power for sub-carriers) based on a prediction function and/or inference model of expected power requirements. In one aspect, the power prediction component can include two further components, namely: the data channel component and the control channel component—wherein a carrier to interference ratio (C/I) information is being transmitted on such control channel and the power is adjusted to obtain performance requirements. Accordingly, an efficient scheduling of users on a reverse link in an orthogonal manner can be provided, to optimally use system resources, while simultaneously: maintaining a predetermined and/or arbitrary fairness metrics, maintaining quality of service and maximizing throughput.
US08654710B2

A base station (100) reduces overhead created by the notification of user allocation information (individual control information) in performing multi-user MIMO transmission. The base station (100) has spatial multiplex signal forming units (individual data sequence creation unit (120) and beam formation unit (123)) that form signals that are spatial multiplex transmitted from multiple antennas, a common control signal formation unit (111) that forms common control signals that are transmitted in common from multiple antennas, and an individual control signal appending unit (122) that includes an individual control signal for each terminal address in a spatial multiplex transmitted signal.
US08654702B2

The present invention relates to a method and to an apparatus for controlling the scheduling in a radio communication system, which comprise calculating a first resource value for a first data packet using packet information of the first data packet, determining an MCS level and a transmission power density for the first data packet and a second data packet using a resource allocation parameter for the first data packet and packet information of the second data packet, calculating a second resource value for the first data packet and the second data packet using the MCS level and the transmission power density determined in the previous step, and allocating the second resource value for the first data packet and the second data packet as an uplink resource if the second resource value is not greater than the total number of allocable resources of an uplink frame.
US08654701B2

A method of supporting frequency-selective repeaters (eNodeRs) in a wireless telecommunication system. A base station (eNodeB) classifies User Equipments (UEs) into two categories or lists of users: a white list containing UEs that may need the assistance of repeaters, and a black list containing UEs that do not need repeater assistance. The eNodeB transmits one of these two lists to the eNodeRs. The eNodeRs do not amplify resource blocks (RBs) scheduled for black list UEs. Each repeater may decide on its own whether to amplify signals for a non-black list UE by measuring signals from the UE and comparing them with predefined criteria.
US08654690B2

Embodiments are directed to supporting a multicast session in a wireless communications network are provided. A request to register for an announced multicast session (e.g., a push to talk (PTT) session) is sent from an access terminal to an access network. The access terminal has a traffic channel on a first carrier. The access network determines whether the announced multicast session is being carried on the first carrier. The access network transmits a traffic channel assignment message allocating the access terminal a traffic channel on a second carrier if the determining step determines that the given multicast session is not being carried on the first carrier and is being carried on the second carrier. Thus, the access terminal need not send a connection request to be allocated a traffic channel on the second carrier, thereby reducing a channel outage during the carrier switch.
US08654687B2

A system and method to use existing Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) based signaling to effectuate dual-channel Time Division Duplex (TDD) communication between two transceivers giving preference to one type of subframes (either downlink or uplink) for data transmission. In backhaul communications between pico (or femto) and macro base stations, using LTE and WiMAX's TDD mode in such a manner effectively reduces unnecessary transmissions of pilot and synchronization sequence in downlink signaling, thereby reducing the level of pilot overhead and minimizing interference when data is not being transmitted. Similarly, the use of existing LTE (or WiMAX) implementations of TDD radio frames in this manner may achieve radio silence for some duration (e.g., when no uplink sub-frames are transmitted) when operating in a license-exempt spectrum, thereby allowing other license-exempt devices to potentially share the radio channel during the silence period.
US08654686B2

In an embodiment, an application server receives a request to initiate a group communication session (GCS) over a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) with a communication group. The application server obtains location information of a set of devices participating in the GCS and determines that the GCS can be supported between the set of devices via a Personal Area Network (PAN), after which the application server transitions support for the GCS from the WWAN to the PAN. In another embodiment, an originator begins a periodic broadcast of a local PAN signal announcing the GCS after failing to set-up the GCS via the WWAN. Target device(s) in the communication group receive the local PAN signal, determine not to transmit their own local PAN signal and then convey a session acceptance message to the originator. The GCS is then established between the target device(s) and the originator over the PAN.
US08654681B2

System and method for support multiple topology in Label Distribution Protocol of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network are disclosed. The system includes a number of network elements and a communication mechanism used to connect the network elements. The network elements discover LDP peers within the network topology, and create and maintain LDP sessions for each of the network topologies. The network elements further establish LSPs by mapping network layer routing information within each network topology to data link layer switches paths. Furthermore, the communication mechanism enables the network elements to advertise the multi-topology capability and exchange the mapping information of label and FECs within each network topology.
US08654677B2

A method and apparatus for registering a remote network device with a network control device. In one embodiment, the method comprises determining a network identification code stored within the remote network device and determining if the network identification code comprises a default network identification code. If the network identification code comprises a default network identification code, transmitting a message indicative of a request to join an existing network and determining whether a first response to the transmitted message was received. If a first response to the transmitted message was received, determining a second network identification code from the first response, and assigning the second network identification code to the remote network device.
US08654675B2

An interface detection device in electronic communication with a network tester to receive network packets includes a plurality of local area network (LAN) interfaces, a signal control unit and a path distribution unit. The LAN interfaces are in electronic communication with the network tester and are electrically connected in pairs. The signal control unit provides preset test data for the LAN interfaces and controls the LAN interfaces to generate corresponding verification data. The signal control unit compares the verification data with the test data, and controls the path distribution unit to automatically figure out corresponding transmission paths. The LAN interfaces are electronically communicating with each other through the connected LAN interfaces and the transmission paths to transfer the network packets.
US08654670B2

A method and system for analyzing deficiencies in a packet-switched network is described. In one example, network measurement data pertaining to components within a packet-switched network are obtained. Reliability estimates of access networks and associated access links coupled to the packet-switch network are conducted. Lastly, an end-to-end direct measure of quality (DMOQ) is calculated from the network measurement data and network estimation data derived from the reliability estimates.
US08654666B2

Disclosed is a communication method in a multi-carrier system, including: allocating radio resources for transmitting signals to a middle guard band; and transmitting the signals through the radio resources; wherein the middle guard band is a frequency band positioned between used bands of a plurality of carriers, respectively, within an aggregated carrier formed by aggregating the plurality of carriers and a unit allocating the radio resources of the middle guard band is different from a unit allocating the radio resources of the used bands. A multi-carrier system uses the guard bands between the carriers to improve channel estimation performance or increase efficiency of radio resources.
US08654665B2

A mobile terminal and a handover method for the mobile terminal are disclosed. A mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the invention may include: a communication unit configured to receive from a base station multiple frames, each belonging to one of two or more frame in a set order of priority; and a control unit configured to control the mobile terminal to perform a handover to a base station based on the occurrence pattern of frame types of the multiple frames.
US08654661B2

Embodiments of method and apparatus for reception of multicast and broadcast (MBS) transmissions in a wireless communication system including a set of receiving devices is disclosed. A method embodiment includes encoding, by a transmission device, a plurality of MBS data bits to generate a plurality of MBS data versions, and transmitting, to the set of receiving devices, the plurality of MBS data versions, wherein the plurality of MBS data versions are transmitted in a predefined transmission pattern. The method also includes transmitting, to the set of receiving devices, identification and decoding information associated with each of the plurality of MBS data versions.
US08654654B2

There is disclosed apparatus and processes for generating simulated network test traffic from a stored test traffic definition. A network test system or a user may select arbitrary ways to group flows of test traffic into streams, and to modify these streams before and during transmission of the test traffic by network test equipment.
US08654652B2

A system and method for managing a hardware routing table comprising monitoring usage of entries in said routing table and deleting entries based on usage criteria so as to generally keep the number of entries within a size limit, thereby conserving power.
US08654635B2

A method of operating in a network in which a plurality of stations communicate over a shared medium, comprising providing a physical layer (e.g., PHY) for handling physical communication over the shared medium; providing a high level layer (e.g., PAL) that receives data from the station and supplies high level data units (e.g., MSDUs) for transmission over the medium; providing a MAC layer that receives the high level data units from the high level layer and supplies low level data units (e.g., MPDUs) to the physical layer; at the MAC layer, encapsulating content from a plurality of the high level data units; dividing the encapsulated content into a plurality of pieces (e.g., segments) with each piece capable of being independently retransmitted; and supplying low level data units containing one or more of the plurality of pieces.
US08654632B2

In a method for fast switching traffic in a hierarchical virtual private LAN service for use in a User-facing Provider Edge (UPE) device, a shared logic port number is assigned to each pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire. A MAC address associated with a pair of primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire is associated with a logic port number shared by the primary pseudo wire and standby pseudo wire. Filling, in a logic port table, for each logic port entries containing: a logic port number, a primary pseudo wire inbound-label, a standby pseudo wire inbound-label, a primary pseudo wire outbound-label, a standby pseudo wire outbound-label and information of leaving a public network. Setting the corresponding information of leaving the public network in the logic port table depending upon whether the primary pseudeo wire is active or inactive.
US08654627B2

The method and mobile ad hoc network include the use of a plurality of mobile nodes. A main communication path is established from a source node through intermediate nodes to a destination node. Alternative communication paths are established among intermediate nodes defined as standby nodes to define a multipath communication pathway from the source node to the destination node. The nodes include a controller and a wireless communications device cooperating therewith. Link quality is monitored by at least one intermediate node to neighboring nodes in the multipath communication pathway, and the main communication path is reconfigured within the multipath communication pathway to at least one of the alternative communication paths based upon monitored link quality.
US08654623B2

A method for wireless communications is provided. The method includes determining a set of physical layer cell identities and analyzing a current set of scrambling sequences. The method increases the current set of scrambling sequences to account for increases in the physical layer cell identities.
US08654622B2

An information recording medium in which bottoms of a guide groove and a pit array formed on a disc substrate are allocated on a same flat plane and shaped in flat. Further, in a transition area from a pit array to a guide groove or from a guide groove to a pit array, the information recording medium is provided with an intermediate area composed of a pit array of which height changes from a height between a bottom and a side of a groove to another height between the bottom and a side of the pit array.
US08654621B2

A data recovery method includes the following steps. Firstly, plural sampling values are classified into a first group, a second group, a third group and a fourth group. A first channel estimation value and a second channel estimation value are generated according to the sampling values of the second group and the third group. A judging step is performed to judge whether a first sampling value of the first group is lower than the first channel estimation value or a second sampling value of the fourth group is higher than the second channel estimation value. If the judging condition is satisfied, a polarity of the first sampling value or the second sampling value is changed and then the plural sampling values are outputted. If the judging condition is not satisfied, the plural sampling values are directly outputted.
US08654616B1

A visual alert device includes a keypad for a user to enter a primary follow-up time period for which a user desires to be visually reminded of its progressive expiration. Based on the entered primary follow-up time period, the visual alert device computes a preliminary and a final follow-up time value, which are associated with a level of response priority that is visually represented by the illumination of corresponding illuminable color segments. Thus, when a timer of the visual alert device reaches each of the preliminary follow-up time value, the primary follow-up time period, and the final follow-up time value, the corresponding color segments are illuminated to indicate the current response priority level.
US08654611B2

A method for detecting series of substantially periodic bursts of substantially sinusoidal signals, in particular, but not exclusively, series of bursts of signals transmitted recurrently (by pingers for example), this method making it possible to ensure the quick and reliable detection of such signals in the presence of significant interference noise. This method includes slightly delayed processing of received signals, spectral analysis and time integration, and presentation of the results in the form of a two-dimensional image of the successive recurrences of the bursts according to time slots of the received signals.
US08654607B2

A system and a method for determining one or more wave characteristics from a moving platform are disclosed. A sonar system, such as an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, can profile the water motion relative to the platform, and an earth reference can determine a measure of the platform motion relative to a fixed earth reference. Both water profile and earth reference measurements can be synergistically employed to compensate for motion of the platform. Directional wave spectra and non-directional wave spectrum can be computed and translated via linear wave theory to surface height spectra and used to calculate characteristics, such as significant wave height, peak period, and peak direction.
US08654602B2

A circuit made on a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate. The circuit includes a first transistor having a first channel, a second transistor having a second channel, with the transistors provided in serial association between first and second terminals for applying a power supply potential, each of the transistors comprising a drain region and a source region in the thin layer, a channel extending between the source region and the drain region, and a front control gate located above the channel. Each transistor has a back control gate formed in the base substrate below the channel of the transistor and capable of being biased in order to modulate the threshold voltage of the transistor. At least one of the transistors is configured for operating in a depletion mode under the action of a back gate signal which will sufficiently modulate its threshold voltage.
US08654598B2

A redundancy scheme for Non-Volatile Memories (NVM) is described. This redundancy scheme provides means for using defective cells in non-volatile memories to increase yield. The algorithm is based on inverting the program data for data being programmed to a cell grouping when a defective cell is detected in the cell grouping. Defective cells are biased to either “1” or “0” logic states, which are effectively preset to store its biased logic state. A data bit to be stored in a defective cell having a logic state that is complementary to the biased logic state of the cell results in the program data being inverted and programmed. An inversion status bit is programmed to indicate the inverted status of the programmed data. During read out, the inversion status bit causes the stored data to be re-inverted into its original program data states.
US08654592B2

Memory devices and methods of programming and forming the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, a memory device has memory cells contained within dielectric isolation structures to isolate them from at least those memory cells in communication with other bit lines, such as to facilitate forward-bias write operations. The dielectric isolation structures contain an upper well having a first conductivity type and a buried well having a second conductivity type. By forward biasing the junction from the buried well to the upper well, electrons can be injected into charge-storage nodes of memory cells that are contained within the dielectric isolation structures.
US08654589B2

A memory includes a word line, a charge pump coupled to the word line, and a charge pump control circuit coupled to the charge pump. The charge pump control circuit is configured to turn on the charge pump if the word line voltage is lower than a first threshold voltage and turn off the charge pump if the word line voltage is higher than a second threshold voltage.
US08654587B2

Non-volatile memory device channel boosting methods in which at least two strings are connected to one bit line, the channel boosting methods including applying an initial channel voltage to channels of strings in a selected memory block, floating inhibit strings each having an un-programmed cell among the strings, and boosting channels of the floated inhibit strings.
US08654581B2

The disclosure relates to an integrated circuit electrically powered by a supply voltage and comprising a memory electrically erasable and/or programmable by means of a second voltage greater than the supply voltage. The integrated circuit comprises means for receiving the second voltage by the intermediary of a reception terminal of the supply voltage or by the intermediary of a reception or emission terminal of a data or clock signal. Applicable in particular to electronic tags comprising a reduced number of interconnection terminals.
US08654579B2

A non-volatile memory device includes a plurality of memory cells stacked along a channel protruded from a substrate, a first select transistor connected to one end of the plurality of memory cells, a first interlayer dielectric layer for being coupled between a source line and the first select transistor, and a second interlayer dielectric layer disposed between the first select transistor and the one end of the plurality of memory cells, and configured to include a first recess region.
US08654574B2

An SRAM having two capacitors connected in series between respective bit storage nodes of each memory cell. The two inverters of the memory cell are powered by a positive voltage and a low voltage. The two capacitors are connected to each other at a common node. A leakage current generator is coupled to the common node. The leakage current generator supplies to the common node a leakage current to maintain a voltage which is approximately halfway between the voltages of the high and low SRAM supplies.
US08654573B2

A memory module that includes a buffer and a plurality of synchronous memory devices. The memory module also includes bidirectional bus lines, and each of the synchronous memory devices has bidirectional data terminals. The buffer is configured to regenerate signals received on the bus lines for receipt by the synchronous memory devices, and to regenerate signals received from any one of the synchronous memory devices for receipt by the bus lines. The memory module may further include command lines and a clock line for providing commands and a clock signal to the synchronous memory devices via a command buffer. The combined data bus width of the memory module may be greater than the data bus width of any single one of synchronous memory device, and the total address space provided by the memory module may be larger than the data space for any single synchronous memory device.
US08654570B2

A memory cell is formed by storage latch coupled between a true bit line node and a complement bit line node. The latch has an internal true node and an internal complement node. The cell additionally includes a first transistor that is source-drain coupled between the internal true node and a word line node. A control terminal of the first transistor is coupled to receive a signal from the complement bit line node and functions to source current into the true node during write mode. The cell further includes a second transistor that is source-drain coupled between the internal complement node and the word line node. A control terminal of the second transistor is coupled to receive a signal from the true bit line node and functions to source current into the complement node during write mode.
US08654566B2

The semiconductor device includes a memory cell including a first transistor including a first channel formation region, a first gate electrode, and first source and drain regions; a second transistor including a second channel formation region provided so as to overlap with at least part of either of the first source region or the first drain region, a second source electrode, a second drain electrode electrically connected to the first gate electrode, and a second gate electrode; and an insulating layer provided between the first transistor and the second transistor. In a period during which the second transistor needs in an off state, at least when a positive potential is supplied to the first source region or the first drain region, a negative potential is supplied to the second gate electrode.
US08654564B2

A resistive memory device comprises a memory cell array comprising a plurality of memory cells connected to a plurality of word lines and a plurality of bit lines, a row selector connected to the plurality of word lines, and a column selector connected to the plurality of bit lines. In a program or erase operation, the row selector provides a selected word line with program or erase pulse and a verification pulse in each of multiple program loops, wherein the verification pulse has a substantially fixed level through the program loops and the program or erase pulse has a negative value that decreases incrementally between successive program loops.
US08654561B1

A memory device can include a plurality of programmable elements; at least one sense circuit that generates sense data values from detected impedances of accessed programmable elements; and at least one data store circuit that stores initial data values from the at least one sense circuit, and stores output data values from the at least one sense circuit after check conditions have been applied to at least one programmable element. The check conditions can induce a change in impedance for programmable elements programmed to at least one predetermined state. Methods can include reading data from at least one memory cell of a memory device comprising a plurality of such memory cells; if the read data has a first value, providing such data as an output value; and if the read data has a second value, repeating access to the memory cell to confirm the read data value.
US08654549B2

An input power circuit for a battery-powered device, such as a toy or consumer electronic device, includes a polarity correction circuit portion. The device includes a first input terminal and a second input terminal, a first output terminal and a second output terminal, and a diode with a forward voltage drop of about 0.5 volts or less. In embodiments, the polarity correction circuit portion is configured to provide a positive voltage polarity at the first output terminal and a negative voltage polarity at the second output terminal for any polarity of power at the first input terminal and the second input terminal. The polarity correction circuit portion can include a diode bridge, and the diode may include a Schottky diode or a germanium diode.
US08654544B2

An electronic apparatus includes: a first casing; a second casing; a support member, disposed on the second casing, to support the first casing; a slide rail, engaged with the support member, to support the first casing such that the first casing becomes slidable; and a slide stopper, disposed on the slide rail, to include a stopper surface for the support member and a projecting portion that separates a first end side of the first casing from the second casing.
US08654542B2

In a high-frequency switch module, a switch IC is mounted on a multilayer board to define a high-frequency switch module. The multilayer board includes two internal wirings and two internal ground electrodes. The internal ground electrodes are spaced apart from each other at an interval when viewed from a lamination direction of the multilayer board. The first internal wiring is located on the upper surface side of the first internal ground electrode, and is entirely separated from an RF wiring, and the first internal wiring includes a power supply wiring for supplying power to the switch IC. The second internal wiring is located on the upper surface side of the second internal ground electrode, and is entirely separated from the power supply wiring, and the second internal wiring includes a signal wiring through which an RF signal propagates.
US08654533B2

A power cord (14) for an electronic product (10) such as a set-top box or the like provides a reduced thermal resistance path from a heat generating portion of the set-top to the ambient air to improve heat dissipation. In a preferred embodiment, the power cord includes a ground wire having a size in excess of that necessary to carry ground current to as to increase heat conduction from the ground plane of the set-top box circuit board.
US08654531B2

An electronic device includes a housing unit, a first electronic component, a heat-dissipating module, and an air-guide passage. The first electronic component, the heat-dissipating module, and the air-guide passage are disposed in the housing unit. The heat-dissipating module includes a fan unit and a heat-dissipating sink. The fan unit has a first air outlet zone and a second air outlet zone. The heat-dissipating sink is for dissipating heat generated by the first electronic component. The heat-dissipating sink is substantially aligned with the first air outlet zone. The air-guide passage is in spatial communication with the second air outlet zone and is formed with a passage air outlet. Air through the first air outlet zone flows in a first direction. Air through the passage air outlet is directed into the housing unit and flows in a second direction different from the first direction.
US08654530B1

A heat transfer apparatus and method are provided for transferring heat between integrated circuits. In use, a heat transfer medium is provided with a first end in thermal communication with a first integrated circuit and a second end in thermal communication with a second integrated circuit. Furthermore, a single casting formed about the heat transfer medium and defining at least one heat sink is provided for thermal communication with the first integrated circuit or the second integrated circuit.
US08654527B2

This present invention provides a high power electronic device which is used for transforming the alternating current into the direct current, or transforming the direct current into the alternating current: a thyristor valve module, there are two same thyristor valve segments in the whole thyristor valve module; each segment includes saturated reactor, thyristor valve unit, direct current equalizing resistor unit, acquiring energy unit, damped resistor unit, damped capacitor unit, gate series unit and water cooling system. This device series connects the thyristor valves to meet different transmission powers and different voltage ranks. This device is the key element of the high voltage direct current transmission. It can be used for different voltage ranks AD transmission system and can also be used for different voltage ranks DC system, including the ultra-high voltage 800 kV and above system.
US08654522B2

A support device includes a base, a fitting portion, a first holding portion and a second holding portion. The fitting portion, to which a portable device is fitted, is provided in the base, the fitting portion includes a support surface that supports the portable device and a side surface continuous with the support surface. The first holding portion is provided at a first distance from the support surface and fixed to the side surface. The second holding portion is provided at a second distance from the support surface and is projected from and retracted into the side surface, the second distance being smaller than the first distance.
US08654517B2

Various embodiments are described relating to mounting chassis for the assembly and support of display devices. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a mounting chassis for an interactive display device. The mounting chassis includes a plurality of sides defining an opening, wherein the plurality of sides including a lip extending into the opening, the lip being configured to support an electronic display panel. The chassis also includes one or more display panel fastening features disposed on the plurality of sides, and one or more integrated stand mounts integrated into one or more of the sides.
US08654512B2

A mobile electricity generator comprising a telescopic boom, a first retractable support leg, and a base. The telescopic boom comprises a first end and a second end. A wind turbine is attached to the second end of the telescopic boom and the wind turbine is capable of transforming wind into electricity. The first end of the telescopic boom and the first retractable support leg are attached to the base. The mobile electricity generator can further comprise a first solar panel that is capable of transforming light into electricity, the base can further comprise an external surface, and the first solar panel can be attached to the external surface of the base. The mobile electricity generator can further comprise a battery in electric communication with the wind turbine and first solar panel and the battery can be capable of at least temporarily storing the electricity.
US08654509B2

An electrode-foil includes a foil having a metal layer on the surface thereof, a first dielectric film formed on the metal layer, and a second dielectric film formed on the first dielectric film. The first dielectric film is composed of a metal oxide of a metal constituting the metal layer. The thickness of the first dielectric film is greater than 0 nm and less than 10 nm. The second dielectric film is predominantly composed of a metal compound different from the metal oxide of the first dielectric film.
US08654504B2

In a monolithic ceramic electronic component, given that an interval between outer-layer dummy conductors adjacent to each other in an outer layer portion is d1, and that an interval between first and second inner electrodes adjacent to each other in an inner layer portion is d2, 1.7d2≦d1 is satisfied. By reducing a density of the outer-layer dummy conductors in the outer layer portion on that condition, pressing of the inner electrodes through the outer-layer dummy conductors is relieved in a pressing step before firing. As a result, a distance between the inner electrodes can be prevented from being locally shortened. It is hence possible to effectively reduce and prevent degradation of reliability of the monolithic ceramic electronic component, e.g., a reduction of BDV.
US08654498B2

An electromechanical device includes a rotor, a stator having a magnetic coil, a sensor adapted to detect an electric angle of the rotor, a control section adapted to perform a PWM drive on the magnetic coil based on a signal from the sensor, a resistor connected in series to the magnetic coil when measuring temperature of the electromechanical device, and a voltage measurement section adapted to measure a voltage between both ends of the resistor, and the control section calculates an electric resistance of the magnetic coil using the voltage between the both ends of the resistor measured by the voltage measurement section, and then determines the temperature of the magnetic coil using the electric resistance of the magnetic coil in a measurement period in which application of a drive voltage to the magnetic coil is stopped in the PWM drive.
US08654489B2

One embodiment includes an integrated circuit including an input circuit, a first diode including a first anode and a first cathode, with the first cathode coupled to a first voltage, the first anode coupled to the input circuit at a node via a first mechanical switch, a second diode including a second anode and a second cathode, with the second cathode coupled to the node via a second mechanical switch, the second anode coupled to a ground and a resistor coupled to the input circuit between the integrated circuit and the node, wherein in a first mode of operating, the first mechanical switch and the second mechanical switch are conducting, and in a second mode of operating, the first and second mechanical switches are nonconducting.
US08654487B2

In one aspect, a method for detecting arc faults with a dynamically-changeable slope threshold is disclosed. The method may include monitoring a current waveform to determine a peak amplitude of a half cycle and a slope at a zero crossing of a half cycle. An arc fault counter may be incremented if the maximum amplitude of the half cycle and the slope at a zero crossing are greater than a preset magnitude threshold level and the dynamically-changeable slope threshold, respectively. In another aspect, a decay of the amplitude of a predetermined number of half cycles of the current waveform is measured and an arc counter is not incremented, even if the conditions would otherwise indicate an arc counter increment, when the decay is above a decay threshold for greater than a predetermined number of half cycles. An arc fault detection apparatus adapted to carry out the methods, and systems including the arc fault detection apparatus are disclosed, as are various other aspects.
US08654478B2

There are provided a rotating member assembly and a spindle motor including the same. The rotating member assembly includes: a rotating member including a shaft and a hub fixed to an upper portion of the shaft, wherein perpendicularity of the hub with regard to the shaft at a position spaced apart from the center of rotation of the shaft in an outer diameter direction by an axial length or more for which the shaft is fitted into the sleeve is less than double a distance of a gap of a bearing clearance formed by fitting the shaft into the sleeve.
US08654475B2

A stamper according to an embodiment includes a guide including: a first portion provided in regions to be boundaries between the servo region and the data regions in the bit-patterned medium, the first portion extending in a radial direction; and a second portion connected to the first portion, the second portion having protrusions regularly arranged at predetermined intervals in the radial direction, each of the protrusion having and being located on sides of regions to be the data regions, wherein, of angles formed between at least one of two sides of the triangular shape and a straight line extending in the radial direction, the smaller angle is in the range of 10 to 50 degrees, the two sides extending from a vertex of one of the protrusions.
US08654465B2

A method, apparatus, and system are provided for implementing spin-torque oscillator (STO) sensing with a demodulator for hard disk drives. The demodulator measures an instantaneous phase of the readback signal from a STO sensor and converts the readback signal into a signal that is proportional to the magnetic field affecting the STO frequency during a bit time. The converted signal is used for processing by conventional data detection electronics.
US08654460B2

A lens barrel comprises an optical system forming an optical image of a subject, a tube supporting at least one lens included in the optical system, a fixed member disposed on an outer peripheral side of the tube, the fixed member including a wall formed along an outer peripheral face of the tube, an electrical part disposed on an inner peripheral side of the tube, and a flexible printed cable electrically connected to the electrical part. The tube is incorporated into the fixed member by being moved in a specific direction. The wall includes a slit with an inclination of 45 degrees or less with respect to the specific direction, the slit is open at one end in the specific direction. The flexible printed cable is guided to an inner face of the wall and pulled out through the slit to outside of the fixed member.
US08654455B2

A plurality of blade members is overlapped and disposed in the shape of scales in a ring-shaped board having an optical-axis aperture at the center, and is held from above by a driving ring so that each blade member performs open/close motion. At this point, an elastic member is disposed between the blade members and the board to press each blade member against the driving ring side, or an elastic member is disposed between the blade members and the driving ring to press the blade members against the board side, and in this state, the blade members are opened and closed.
US08654451B2

A variable magnification optical system consists of first lens group having negative refractive power and second lens group having positive refractive power, which are in this order from an object side, and a distance in an optical axis direction between the first lens group and the second lens group changes when magnification is changed. The second lens group consists of a positive sixth lens, a negative seventh lens, a positive eighth lens, and a cemented lens composed of a negative ninth lens and a positive tenth lens cemented together, which are in this order from the object side, and all of the three positive lenses, which are the sixth lens, the eighth lens and the tenth lens, are double-convex lenses. A predetermined formula is satisfied.
US08654445B2

The image light entering the image take-out section is reflected by the first reflecting surface and the second reflecting surface in a two-stage manner. It is not only possible to make the light beam with a small total reflection angle out of the image light directly enter the side near to the light entrance section out of each of the reflecting units, but also to make the light beam with a large total reflection angle directly enter the side far from the light entrance section out of each of the reflecting units to thereby make it possible to take out the image light to the outside. Therefore, the image light is emitted as the effective virtual image light for the observer in the condition in which the brightness variation and the picture variation are prevented and a high light efficiency can be obtained.
US08654442B2

A screen which reflects light emitted from a projector includes a light diffusion layer through which light incident from a specific angular region is diffused and transmitted and through which light incident from the other angular region is transmitted straight; area pairs having a mirror forming area and a non-mirror forming area; a light transmissive layer having a back surface, on which the area pairs are disposed, and an opposite surface being bonded to a back side of the light diffusion layer; and a specular reflection film formed on a back surface of each mirror forming area. An inclination of the mirror forming area with respect to a normal line of the screen close to the projector becomes larger than the inclination of the mirror forming area far from the projector within a cross section perpendicular to the mirror forming areas inside the screen.
US08654435B2

The present invention provides a transmissive Spatial Light Modulator with fast response speed and higher brightness using micro-windows having switching transistors on said window so that the fill factor of light transferring area can be maximized. Conventional systems have transistors out of windows which substantially reduce the area to pass incoming light, because transistors are usually opaque and block light transmission. Transmissive Spatial Light Modulator requires simpler and smaller optics than reflective Spatial Light Modulator.
US08654431B2

A method of manufacturing an active matrix electrochromic device includes preparing a first substrate including a thin film transistor including a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a drain electrode, and a pixel electrode electrically connected to the drain electrode. An electrochromic layer is formed on the pixel electrode by an electrophoretic process which includes immersing the first substrate and a mesh spaced apart from each other in a solution. While the first substrate is immersed in the solution so that the pixel electrode is soaked therein, a channel of the thin film transistor is opened by applying a voltage to the gate electrode, a potential difference between the pixel electrode and the mesh is generated by connecting a voltage source between a terminal electrically connected to the source electrode and the mesh, and materials in the solution are deposited on the pixel electrode, thereby forming the electrochromic semiconductor layer.
US08654424B2

A multibeam deflector includes a plurality of optical deflection devices formed on a single substrate and an output optical system. Each of the optical deflection devices includes a slab optical waveguide formed by a material having an electro-optic effect. The output optical system is configured to separate beams output from the optical deflection devices from each other.
US08654421B2

There is provided an exposure device including: a light-emitting element array in which plural light-emitting elements are arrayed in a predetermined direction; and a hologram element array in which plural hologram elements are multiplex-recorded, in correspondence with the plural light-emitting elements, at a recording layer that is disposed above the light-emitting element array such that collected-light points, that are formed on a surface to be exposed by converging of diffracted lights that exit due to illumination of lights from the plural light-emitting elements, are aligned in the predetermined direction, and such that intersection points between optical axes of reference lights and optical axes of signal lights that record the plural hologram elements respectively are not aligned in the predetermined direction.
US08654414B2

An illumination system for a scanner according to one example embodiment includes an array of visible light emitting diodes including a red, a blue and a green light emitting diode and an ultraviolet light emitting device configured to emit light predominantly in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. During a scan sequence of the red, blue and green light emitting diodes, at least one of the visible light emitting diodes and the ultraviolet light emitting device are positioned to simultaneously illuminate an object being scanned. In one form, during the sequence, the blue light emitting diode and the ultraviolet light emitting device are simultaneously illuminated while in another the red light emitting diode and the ultraviolet light emitting device are simultaneously illuminated.
US08654410B1

A document scanner is disclosed. The document scanner includes a document bed having a document positioning surface. The document scanner further includes a scanner module slidably attached to the document bed. The scanner module includes an optical movement sensor configured to detect movement of the scanner module relative to the document positioning surface. A method of operation of the scanner module is disclosed as well.
US08654405B2

A method for producing a multi-layered film wherein an engraving layer is partially printed onto a support film. Said engraving layer may be made of a UV-cured printing ink and a cover layer is applied to the entire surface above the partial engraving layer, optionally, directly to the partial engraving layer. The cover layer may be made of a UV-curable printing ink and may be printed over the engraving layer. A film produced by such method is also disclosed.
US08654403B2

An advantage of the invention is to provide an image processing apparatus and a medium therefor, which enable shortening of processing time necessary for performing the whole color conversion in the case where only one of LUTs used for the color conversion can be stored in a storage means having a high access rate. In the image processing apparatus, for image data including a plurality of pixels and being a target for a color conversion, when performing the color conversion of the image data, a value of a counter for pictures, which indicates a predicted total number of references to an LUT for pictures, and a value of a counter for texts, which indicates a predicted total number of references to an LUT for texts, are derived.
US08654401B2

A process for receiving data comprising multiple-bit pixel values and deriving therefrom 1-bit image data comprising “on” and “off” pixel values, each corresponding to a pixel on an output medium, which an output device would attempt to mark when printing the 1-bit image data if the pixel value were “on”, the 1-bit image data producing when printed an image constituted by a plurality of densities of dots, the dots being arranged such that, at least for densities of dots greater than a first threshold density, at least a majority of dots form a pair with at least one horizontally or vertically adjacent dot, and for densities of dots less than a second threshold density, the image is substantially free of blocks of 2*2 horizontally and vertically adjacent dots, the second threshold density being greater than the first threshold density. Additionally or alternatively dot arrangements are disclosed.
US08654381B2

An image processing system in which an image forming device and a server device are connected via a network, the image forming device including an acquisition unit operable to acquire a maximum optional configuration that indicates all optional functions that can be implemented on another image forming device; a creation unit operable to create an external use screen, which is a customized screen for display on an operation panel of the other image forming device, in accordance with the maximum optional configuration; and a transmission unit operable to transmit external setting information corresponding to the external use screen to the server device, and the server device including a customized screen storage unit that stores the external setting information. With this structure, a customized screen for use on the other image forming device can be created to include functions not implemented on the image forming device.
US08654372B2

An apparatus, method, system, and computer program and product each capable of activating an image forming apparatus according to configuration information approved by an authorized user are disclosed.
US08654370B2

An image forming apparatus accepts input of transfer sheet identification information, forms an image on a transfer sheet based on a control value corresponding to the accepted transfer sheet identification information, and accepts input of a correction value of the control value and stores the correction value in correspondence with the transfer sheet identification information in a storage unit. The image is formed on the transfer sheet based on the control value that is corrected by the correction value when the control value is stored in correspondence with the accepted transfer sheet identification information.
US08654369B2

An apparatus and method detect defects in a captured image of output from a printing device. The captured image is filtered using a source image for the output, wherein specific defects of interest are detected using the filtered image.
US08654363B2

An information processing system includes a peripheral device at least having a printer function and an information processing apparatus controlling the peripheral device. The peripheral device includes: a display portion; a process execution portion to execute prescribed processing; a storage portion to store user-specific data; and a metadata return portion to refer to the user-specific data in response to reception of a metadata request from the information processing apparatus and to extract and return metadata associated with user identification information included in the received metadata request. The information processing apparatus includes: a first authentication portion to authenticate a user; an execution portion to execute an execution application selected from a plurality of application programs; a metadata request portion to transmit a metadata request; and a reference setting portion to set whether to display a plurality of execution setting items that can be set in the execution application program.
US08654351B2

An offset amount calibrating method that obtains the offset amount between a contact-type detector and an image probe for a surface profile measuring machine is provided. The method includes: setting on a stage a calibration jig that has a surface being provided with a lattice pattern with a level difference; measuring the lattice pattern of the calibration jig by the contact-type detector to obtain a first reference position of the lattice pattern; capturing the image of the lattice pattern of the calibration jig by the image probe to obtain a second reference position of the lattice pattern; and obtaining the offset amount from a difference between the first and second reference positions.
US08654348B2

The application relates to a method for analyzing the wave surface of a light beam from a source to the focus of a lens. The beam illuminates a sample on the analysis plane and having a defect. A diffraction grating of the plane is a conjugate of an analysis plane through a focal system. An image is formed in a plane at a distance from the grating plane and analyzed by processing means. The invention encodes this grating by a phase function resulting from the multiplication of two phase functions, a first exclusion function defining a meshing of useful zones transmitting the beam to be analyzed in the form of light pencil beams, and a second phase fundamental function which creates a phase opposition between two light pencil beams coming out of adjacent meshes of the exclusion grating.
US08654347B2

The invention relates to controllable Fabry-Perot interferometers which are produced with micromechanical (MEMS) technology. The prior art interferometers have a temperature drift which causes inaccuracy and requirement for complicated packaging. According to the invention the interferometer arrangement has both an electrically tuneable interferometer and a reference interferometer on the same substrate. The temperature drift is measured with the reference interferometer and this information is used for compensating the measurement with the tuneable interferometer. The measurement accuracy and stability can thus be improved and requirements for packaging are lighter.
US08654342B2

In a distance-measuring method comprising a distance-measuring apparatus having at least one frequency-modulatable laser source for producing chirped laser radiation. The laser radiation has radiation components with opposite chirp as time dependency of the modulated wavelengths, the simultaneous oppositeness of the frequency curve being realized via an optical delay path (3) for one of the two radiation components. The radiation produced is passed in a measuring interferometer (5) to a target (6) and parallel via a local Oscillator. After reception of the laser radiation scattered back from the target (6) and passed via the local oscillator path, the laser radiation received is converted into signals and the distance to the at least one target (6) is determined from the signals on the basis of interferometric mixing.
US08654337B2

A turbidity sensor for sensing the turbidity of a fluid in a working chamber in a household appliance is disclosed to include a light-transmissive body shell defining therein an accommodation chamber and covered with a cover member, and a sensor module, which includes a circuit board mounted in the accommodation chamber inside the body shell, a holder block a set of light-transmitting devices and a set of light-receiving devices on the circuit board in a right angle relationship for emitting light onto the fluid and picking up reflected light from suspended particles/impurities in the fluid for determination of the turbidity of the fluid.
US08654324B2

The invention relates to a device for inspecting the edge of semiconductor wafers, including a chromatic confocal microscope with a lighting pathway and an analysis pathway, the lighting pathway including a polychromatic light source, a slot and an axial chromatism objective lens comprising a lens at least made of a material having an Abbe number lower than 50, and the analysis pathway includes said objective lens, a chromatic filtering slot with a light intensity sensor in that order, the slot of the lighting pathway and the slot of the analysis pathway being provided at substantially the same optical distance from the edge of the wafer to be inspected.
US08654323B2

An analyzing apparatus includes a microchip, a detecting unit and an analyzing-measuring unit. The microchip is formed of a light transmissive material formed with a separation fluid channel that is a light measuring part. The detecting unit includes an emitted-light guiding unit that emits light to the separation fluid channel, and a received-light guiding unit that receives light through the separation fluid channel. The emitted-light guiding unit or the received-light guiding unit placed at a position facing a microchip support table via the microchip abuts the microchip, and pushes the microchip in a direction toward the microchip support table. The analyzing-measuring unit includes the detecting unit, the emitted-light guiding unit and the received-light guiding unit, and detects a constituent of a sample filled in the separation fluid channel.
US08654319B2

A low cost sensing system that can measure both chlorophyll concentration and turbidity is provided. The system is an optical system that utilizes at least three light sensors for measuring side-scattered and forward scattered light, as well as fluorescence. The system is able to take optical density measurements, steady state fluorescence measurements and maximum fluorescence measurements, and can be configured for wireless control and data transmission. The system may also be housed in one or more fluidtight housings so as to make it submersible.
US08654315B2

An apparatus and a method for ascertaining a gap between a stationary member and a rotating member are disclosed. At least a reference beam and a signal beam, which have different focal lengths or which diverge/converge at different rates, are fixed to the stationary member and proximate to each other. The beams are projected across a gap between the stationary member and the rotating member toward the rotating member. The reference and signal beams are reflected by the translating member when it intersects the reference and signal beam, and the reflected reference and signal pulses are obtained. One or more features of the reflected reference pulse and the reflected signal pulse, such as a rise time of the pulses, a fall time of the pulses, a width of the pulses and a delay between the reflected reference pulse and the reflected signal pulse, among other factors, are obtained. The width of the gap is obtained using at least one of these factors.
US08654314B2

The system includes a rotary turret platform for aiming of a high power laser beam. The system further includes a turret payload device coupled to the rotary turret platform. The system further includes an off-axis telescope coupled to the turret payload, having an articulated secondary mirror for correcting optical aberrations, and configured to reflect the high power laser beam to a target through a first of at least two conformal windows. The system further includes an illuminator beam device configured to actively illuminating the target to generate a return aberrated wavefront through the first of the at least two conformal windows. The system further includes a coarse tracker coupled to the turret payload, positioned parallel to and on an axis of revolution of the off-axis telescope, and configured to detect, acquire, and track the target through the second of the at least two conformal windows.
US08654311B2

A lithographic apparatus and method for simultaneously exposing two patterning devices onto a substrate is disclosed. In an embodiment, a lithographic apparatus includes a plurality of illumination systems for receiving and conditioning a pulsed radiation beam, a beam director arranged between a source of the pulsed radiation and the illumination systems for alternately directing pulses of the radiation beam to the respective illumination systems, a support table for holding a plurality of patterning devices, each of the patterning devices being capable of imparting a respective conditioned radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a plurality of patterned radiation beams, and a projection system configured to project each of the plurality of patterned radiation beams coincidentally onto a target portion of a substrate. In an embodiment, the substrate is covered with a phase change material.
US08654301B2

Inter-substrate connection terminals are provided between four corners of an opposed substrate and a TFT substrate. Lines are provided between first and second terminals in the TFT substrate and an external circuit connection terminal. Lines are provided between first and second terminals, between first and third terminals, between the third and fourth terminals, and between second and fourth terminals, respectively. Lines bypassing the first terminal are provided between lines. A line bypassing the second terminal is provided between lines.
US08654298B2

An oblique vapor deposition substrate having an oblique vapor deposition layer formed thereon is provided, wherein a plurality of pixel sections is arranged in a matrix of intersected straight lines of two directions with each pixel section being spaced apart from each other, and has been relatively rotated in a plane of the oblique vapor deposition substrate taking into consideration the distribution of the vapor deposition directions in the oblique vapor deposition layer.
US08654295B2

A pixel structure includes a scan line, a first data line, a second data line, a first active device, a second active device, a first pixel electrode, a second pixel electrode, a common line, and a first capacitance upper electrode. The first and the second data lines intersect the scan line. The common line is parallel to the scan line. The first pixel electrode is electrically connected to the first data line through the first active device. The second pixel electrode is electrically connected to the second data line through the second active device. A difference between a first voltage of the first pixel electrode and a second voltage of the second pixel electrode constitutes a driving electric field to drive a display medium. The first capacitance upper electrode is electrically connected to the first pixel electrode and located above the common line to form a first storage capacitor.
US08654294B2

A liquid crystal display includes an insulation substrate; a gate line, a gate electrode, and a reference voltage line positioned on the insulation substrate; a reference electrode contacting the reference voltage line; a gate insulating layer disposed on the gate line and the reference electrode; a semiconductor disposed on the gate insulating layer and positioned on the gate electrode; a data line and a drain electrode disposed on the semiconductor; a passivation layer disposed on the data line and the drain electrode; and a pixel electrode connected to the drain electrode and overlapping the reference electrode.
US08654293B2

A liquid-crystal apparatus has an element substrate. This element substrate contains depressions inside, and these depressions are sealed with an insulating film, a silicon dioxide coating. To this end, the insulating film is formed by chemical vapor deposition, and this coating process lasts until voids formed in the depressions are closed at the top by the insulating film. Then, the insulating coating is ground. This grinding process lasts until the insulating film is flat, but should be terminated before the voids are opened.
US08654292B2

A liquid crystal display device using a liquid crystal exhibiting a blue phase and having a novel structure, and a method for manufacturing the liquid crystal display device. A plurality of structure bodies (also referred to as ribs, protrusions, or projecting portions) are formed over the same substrate, and a pixel electrode and an electrode (a common electrode at a fixed potential) corresponding to the pixel electrode are formed thereover. An electric field is applied to the liquid crystal layer exhibiting a blue phase by using the pixel electrode that has an inclination and the electrode corresponding to the pixel electrode, which also has an inclination. A shorter distance between the adjacent structure bodies allows a strong electric field to be applied to the liquid crystal layer, which results in a reduction in power consumption for driving the liquid crystal.
US08654288B2

A method for fabricating a liquid crystal display device includes providing an LCD panel that includes a photopolymerizable compound in its liquid crystal layer; and forming alignment sustaining layers by polymerizing the photopolymerizable compound in the liquid crystal layer of the LCD panel with the liquid crystal layer irradiated with light and supplied with a voltage simultaneously. The forming the alignment sustaining layers includes the steps of: i) applying a predetermined voltage between a pixel electrode and a counter electrode while a switching element is in ON state; and ii) changing the voltage at a storage capacitor counter electrode into a voltage, of which the polarity is opposite to a voltage at the storage capacitor counter electrode in the step i), after the switching element in ON state has been turned OFF.
US08654278B2

The present invention discloses a backlight module and a liquid crystal display (LCD). A backlight module comprising an optical film, at least one light source, at least one reflecting housing and a reflecting surface. The reflecting surface and the optical film are symmetrically disposed with respect to the light source, and are disposed in identical side of the light source; the reflecting housing comprises a first reflecting layer and a second reflecting layer; the reflecting surface has a predetermined trajectory, and corresponds to the first reflecting layer and the light source. In the predetermined trajectory, the lights entering into the reflecting surface are reflected by the reflecting surface and enter into the optical film.
US08654266B2

An optical sensor is provided with a photodiode (D1) which receives light in a first range, including light to be detected, and a photodiode (D2) which receives light in a second range other than the light to be detected. For instance, the photodiode (D1) receives light at all the incident angles, and the photodiode (D2) has a light blocking film on an incident light path so as to selectively receive only the incident light from the oblique directions. The differential between the output from the photodiode (D1) and that from the photodiode (D2) is read out as sensor output.
US08654262B2

A simple antenna is connected to the RF input port on a conventional digital TV to receive video content from a plurality of video content sources wirelessly. The wireless RF transmission by a local transmitter has a range generally limited to within a home or room. The low power RF transmission is on a carrier frequency that is legally authorized by the FCC in frequency and power level. To identify the open channels for the RF transmission, a tuner scans for weak channels, and the transmitter is tuned to transmit on the detected weak channels.
US08654260B2

An image processing apparatus according to the present invention extracts a characteristic value of a luminance in relation to respective fields of an input video, and determines the presence of a scene change between adjacent fields. A gamma curve is then generated on the basis of the magnitude of the characteristic value. When a difference in the characteristic value between fields is larger than a predetermined value and a scene change does not exist, the gamma curve to be applied to a subsequent field is modified such that the correction characteristic of the gamma curve does not vary rapidly. The luminance is then corrected using the modified gamma curve.
US08654254B2

An apparatus for driving a display panel includes: a time variant signal (TVS) generator configured to generate a time variant signal group; a common pulse signal generator configured to generate a plurality of pulse signals; a selector configured to receive the time variant signal, the plurality of the pulse signals, and video data and select a grayscale voltage corresponding to the video data; and a buffer configured to buffer and transfer an output of the selector. Herein, the selector and the buffer are provided to each of a plurality of channels, and the time variant signal and the plurality of the pulse signals are inputted in common to the selector of each channel.
US08654234B2

A bidirectional screen alternately switches between a display mode showing conventional graphics and a capture mode in which the LCD backlight is disabled and the LCD displays a pinhole array or a tiled-broadband code. A large-format image sensor is placed behind the liquid crystal layer. Together, the image sensor and LCD function as a mask-based light field camera, capturing an array of images equivalent to that produced by an array of cameras spanning the display surface. The recovered multi-view orthographic imagery is used to passively estimate the depth of scene points from focus.
US08654233B2

A The CMOS image sensor includes a pixel array including pixels arranged in a matrix of rows and columns and a row selection unit configured to generate selection signals for simultaneously or concurrently selecting at least two rows from the rows of the pixel array in response to a received row address. An analog-to-digital conversion unit is configured to convert pixel data output from the at least two rows selected from the pixel array into a digital video signal and output the digital video signal. The pixel array outputs the pixel data in response to the selection signals.
US08654231B2

In a CMOS image sensor in which a plurality of pixels is arranged in a matrix, a transistor in which a channel formation region includes an oxide semiconductor is used for each of a charge accumulation control transistor and a reset transistor which are in a pixel portion. After a reset operation of the signal charge accumulation portion is performed in all the pixels arranged in the matrix, a charge accumulation operation by the photodiode is performed in all the pixels, and a read operation of a signal from the pixel is performed per row. Accordingly, an image can be taken without a distortion.
US08654227B2

A focus detection apparatus includes: an image sensor that has a first pixel group which receives a luminous flux passing a first pupil area of an imaging optical system, and a second pixel group which receives a luminous flux passing a second pupil area different from the first pupil area; a storage unit that stores first and second distribution functions corresponding to the first and second pupil areas, respectively; a calculation unit that generates a first image signal by performing calculations on a first subject image, obtained from the first pixel group, using the second distribution function, and generates a second image signal by performing calculations on a second subject image, obtained from the second pixel group, using the first distribution function; and a focus state detection unit that detects a focus state of the imaging optical system based on the first and the second image signals.
US08654218B2

An imaging technology having high reproducibility of a document and making image correction possible, without being influenced by a way of placing the document or a position of a camera, and irrespective of paper color and despite of damage of a corner portion. By printing positioning symbols on document paper in advance when the document is photographed by a digital camera or a portable phone with a camera, such as a smart phone, and by processing the image based on these positioning symbols, image processing having high reproducibility of the document and making image correction (keystone correction) possible can be implemented irrespective of paper color and despite damage to a corner portion.
US08654217B2

A system and method for detecting dust (18) on an image sensor (20) from a single captured image (14) of an actual scene (12) includes a control system (22) that evaluates at least one of a hue channel (466), a value channel (470), and a saturation channel (468) of the captured image (14) to determine if there is dust (18) on the image sensor (20). For example, the control system (22) can evaluate the hue channel (466) and the value channel (470) of the captured image (14) to determine if there is dust (18) on the image sensor (20). With information from the hue channel (466) and the value channel (470), the control system (22) can compute a computed probability (572) of dust (18) for a plurality of pixels (362) of the captured image (14).
US08654216B2

A camera system includes a lens unit, a mount, a camera body, and a control unit. The lens unit includes at least one lens unit operation portion and changes the magnification of an optical image electrically. The mount supports removably the lens unit. The camera body includes at least one camera body operation portion. The control unit controls the lens unit so as to change the magnification of an optical image electrically in response to either one of the operation of the camera body operation portion or the operation of the lens unit operation portion. The control unit controls the lens unit so as to execute an operation that is different from the operation which changes the magnification of an optical image, in response to the other of the operation of the camera body operation portion or the operation of the lens unit operation portion.
US08654215B2

Methods and apparatus for combining a mobile communication device having a camera (150) that includes a curved sensor (160) are disclosed. The present invention offers higher quality pictures that conventional phones that incorporate a flat sensor. These higher quality pictures are obtained without the need for large, bulky and expensive lenses. Higher light gathering capacity is provided, which reduces or eliminates the need for a flash to enhance ambient illumination. Longer battery life is obtained, since the need for a flash is reduced or eliminated. The combination of a mobile communication device with a camera that utilizes a curved sensor renders dedicated pocket cameras obsolete. The present invention, which, for the first time, combines a mobile communication device with a high performance camera, will reduce or eliminate the need to carry a separate stand-alone camera.
US08654205B2

A storage medium storing an image processing program in which the image processing program obtains a plurality of images and displacement information indicating a positional displacement between the plurality of images, calculates weighting information for performing weighting processing on the displacement information for each of a plurality of color components, performs the weighting processing on the displacement information for each of the plurality of color components, calculates a pixel value of a color component of a calculation target based on local inflection information of a color component other than the color component of the calculation target and the weighting information after conducting the weighting processing, and generates a composite image based on a calculation result. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce a processing time in image processing which generates, from the plurality of images having the positional displacement, the composite image having a higher resolution than those images.
US08654204B2

A digital photographing apparatus includes a handshake correction module and a method of controlling the digital photographing apparatus. As a first image and a second image that is input by minutely adjusting a photographing direction from the first image are captured by using a pre-mounted handshake correction module, the second image that is accurately continuous from the first image may be obtained. As such, highly reliable panorama shooting may be enabled and an ultra-wide-angle image having a viewing angle greater than that of a currently mounted lens may be obtained without exchanging the currently mounted lens for an expensive lens used in wide-angle shooting.
US08654201B2

A method for deblurring an image. A first image is captured. A second image is captured, wherein the second image is more blurred and more exposed than the first image. The second image is deblurred based on the first image.
US08654200B2

In an imaging apparatus, a control unit can operate in one of a first mode which corresponds to an image capturing mode and which controls an image-blur correcting unit, and a second mode corresponding to a playback mode. When the image capturing mode is switched to the playback mode, the control unit operates in the first mode during a predetermined time after switching to the playback mode, and then operates in the second mode after the predetermined time period has elapsed. This makes it possible to immediately obtain an anti-shake effect even if the playback mode is switched to the image capturing mode.
US08654199B2

In a display apparatus connected to an image processing apparatus which detects the change amount in an input image and stores, as a detected image, an image during a period with a change amount equal to or more than a predetermined amount, the change log of the change amount and the detected image are received, the change log is displayed by using a graph, and information related to the detected image is displayed on the graph in a superposed manner.
US08654187B2

A work recognition device, which recognizes processes in a user's work, includes a whole-state observation time determination unit that determines, as a whole-state observation time, from among observation times of chronological first observation values generated by a first sensor to represent movements of a user's hand, an observation time of observing a first observation value representing a predetermined movement of the hand; and an observation value selection unit that selects a second observation value corresponding to the time determined by the determination unit from among chronological second observation values generated by a second sensor to represent scenes in the user's work. Additionally, a process recognition unit specifies a process in the work, by comparing the second observation value selected by the selection unit to pieces of knowledge data associated with work processes in which the user performs predetermined movements of the hand.
US08654185B2

Provided is a fluorescence observation apparatus including an illumination unit that irradiates an object with illumination light and excitation light; a fluorescence-image acquisition unit that captures an image of the fluorescence generated by the object, thereby acquiring a fluorescence image; a return-light-image acquisition unit that captures an image of the return light returning from the object, thereby acquiring a return-light image; a light-distribution-characteristics-information storage unit that stores information with regard to the light distribution characteristics of optical systems; an image correcting unit that corrects at least one of the fluorescence image and the return-light image using the information so that the light distribution characteristics contained in the fluorescence image and the return-light image are made equal to each other; and an image normalizing unit that normalizes the fluorescence image on the basis of the return-light image, using the corrected fluorescence image and return-light image.
US08654184B2

An electronic endoscope includes an insertion portion including an insulative distal end hard portion main body at a distal end thereof, an operation portion provided at a proximal end portion of the insertion portion and including a connector connection electrically connected to a ground portion, a ground metal member provided between the main body and the operation portion, forming a structure of the insertion portion, and being electrically conductive to the ground portion through the connector connection, an observation optical system including an optical element and a frame member having conductive properties and holding the optical element, and being extended from the distal end of the insertion portion toward the operation portion, and a conductive connecting portion allowing the frame member of the observation optical system to become electrically conductive with respect to the ground metal member.
US08654183B2

A system and a method for evaluating a crosstalk of a stereoscopic image display are discussed. The crosstalk evaluation system according to an embodiment includes a display element that alternately display left and right eye images each having an i-gray level and a j-gray level, where “i” and “j” are an integer, a luminance meter sensing luminances of the left and right eye images displayed on the display element, and a computer that calculates a 3D crosstalk at the i-gray level of the left eye image affected by the j-gray level of the right eye image and a 3D crosstalk at the i-gray level of the right eye image affected by the j-gray level of the left eye image based on a luminance information received from the luminance meter while changing the i-gray level and the j-gray level.
US08654180B2

A method for preparing an article of lenticular imaging. The method comprises receiving a plurality of source images, superimposing at least one deghosting element on the plurality of source images, the deghosting element being formed to reduce an estimated ghosting artifact from the article, interlacing the plurality of processed source images so as to form a spatially multiplexed image, and preparing the article by attaching an optical element to the spatially multiplexed image.
US08654169B2

An image forming device includes: an exposure head that includes a light emitting element and a light emission controller that causes the light emitting element to emit light on the basis of a control signal; a photoreceptor that is exposed to the light emitted by the light emitting element included in the exposure head so that a latent image is formed on the photoreceptor; a correcting section that corrects the control signal on the basis of the spectral sensitivity of the photoreceptor to a spectral distribution of the light emitting element; and a developing section that develops the latent image formed on the photoreceptor.
US08654166B2

Disclosed is a receiving device that includes a differential input circuit having an inverting input terminal and a non-inverting input terminal to which the differential signal is input; an abnormality detection circuit that detects an abnormality in a wiring connected to the inverting input terminal and the non-inverting input terminal; and a control circuit that sets an output signal of the receiving device in a predetermined status when the abnormality is detected. The abnormality detection circuit detects the abnormality if a status, in which a potential difference between a voltage of the inverting input terminal and a voltage of the non-inverting input terminal is less than a minimum potential difference in a predetermined range of the potential difference between the voltage of the inverting input terminal and the voltage of the non-inverting input terminal, continues for a predetermined time or more.
US08654155B2

Disclosed is a display device including a first storage unit having driving data for driving a display panel and a first check SUM data on the driving data stored therein, a second storage unit for retrieving the driving data and the first check SUM data from the first storage unit and storing the driving data and the check SUM data in response to the instruction of a ROM interface, and a data error detection/correction unit generating a second check SUM data with reference to the driving data stored in the second storage unit.
US08654151B2

An apparatus and method for providing Augmented Reality (AR) corresponding to objects that are hidden from view of a user. The apparatus includes a first extraction unit to extract a first environment map corresponding to a location of a terminal; a second extraction unit to determine an expanded area enclosing the location of the terminal and to extract a second environment map corresponding to the expanded area; and a synthesization unit to generate a synthesized environment map by synthesizing the first environment map and the second environment map.
US08654148B2

A display apparatus including an information selecting unit, a retrieval range deciding unit, and a retrieving unit. The information selecting unit selects at least one piece of information from a plurality of pieces of information stored in a memory, each of the plurality of pieces of information being attached with additional information. The retrieval deciding unit decides a retrieval range on the basis of the additional information attached to each piece of the information selected by the information selecting unit. The retrieving unit retrieves and outputs additional pieces of information of the plurality of pieces of information corresponding to the retrieval range decided by the retrieval-direction/retrieval-range deciding unit from the memory.