US08875303B2
A method includes receiving a plurality of trusted assets, generating a first signature set for a known software application, and generating a second signature set for a subject software application. Each trusted asset is associated with at least a threshold number of trusted authors. Each signature in the first signature set corresponds to a known asset that is associated with the known software application. Each signature in the second signature set corresponds to a subject asset that is associated with the subject software application. The method further includes generating first and second filtered signature set based on the first and second signature sets, respectively, by excluding signatures corresponding to the trusted assets. The method also includes generating a similarity rating for the subject application based on a comparison of the first filtered signature set and the second filtered signature set.
US08875297B2
Analyzing a security specification. An embodiment can include identifying a downgrader in a computer program under test. Via a processor, testing on the downgrader can be performed in a first level of analysis. Responsive to the downgrader not passing the testing performed in the first level of analysis, a counter example for the downgrader can be automatically synthesized. Further, a test unit can be created for the downgrader using the counter example as an input parameter to the downgrader. The test unit can be executed to perform testing on the downgrader in a second level of analysis. Responsive to the downgrader passing the testing performed in the second level of analysis, a user can be prompted to simplify a model of the downgrader.
US08875289B2
A server receives from a mobile communication device information about a data object (e.g., application) on the device when the device cannot assess the data object. The server uses the information along with other information stored at the server to assess the data object. Based on the assessment, the device may be permitted to access the data object or the device may not be permitted to access the data object. The other information stored at the server can include data objects known to be bad, data objects known to be good, or both.
US08875286B2
Novel methods, components, and systems for detecting malicious software in a proactive manner are presented. More specifically, we describe methods, components, and systems that leverage machine learning techniques to detect malicious software. The disclosed invention provides a significant improvement with regard to detection capabilities compared to previous approaches.
US08875278B2
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for dynamic allocation of network security credentials for alert notification recipients are provided. Embodiments include receiving from a managed system, by an alert management system, an alert indicating one of a failure in the managed system and a pending failure in the managed system; selecting, by the alert management system, a remote device from a plurality of remote devices registered for remote access with the alert management system; preapproving, by the alert management system, network security clearance of the selected remote device, the network security clearance for remote access to the management system via a virtual private network (VPN) interface; and transmitting to the selected remote device, by the alert management system, an alert notification that includes an internet address corresponding to the VPN interface.
US08875277B2
A process is disclosed in which all network traffic between a mobile device and an untrusted network arriving before the establishment of a VPN tunnel are dropped in response to rules imposed by the mobile device's operating system. Once a VPN tunnel is established all communication from the mobile device is secured, without an intervention on the part of the user of the device. A device supporting such a process is also disclosed.
US08875269B2
A method for single sign-on with established federation includes triggering a single sign-on operation from a first service to a second service, retrieving, by the first service, an associated federation key and pseudo identification for a user agent, generating, by the first service, a token signed with a federation key for the user agent based on the pseudo identification, redirecting, by the first service, the user agent to the second service, wherein the user agent transfers the token to the second service, verifying, by the second service, the token and determining an associated identification in the second service, and returning, by the second service, a resource to the user agent.
US08875266B2
A virtualization system supports secure, controlled execution of application programs within virtual machines. The virtual machine encapsulates a virtual hardware platform and guest operating system executable with respect to the virtual hardware platform to provide a program execution space within the virtual machine. An application program, requiring license control data to enable execution of the application program, is provided within the program execution space for execution within the virtual machine. A data store providing storage of encrypted policy control information and the license control data is provided external to the virtual machine. The data store is accessed through a virtualization system including a policy controller that is selectively responsive to a request received from the virtual machine to retrieve the license control data dependent on an evaluation of the encrypted policy control information.
US08875262B2
Methods and apparatuses for secure communication are provided. The secure communication method includes receiving a first credential of a remote device; receiving first authentication information of the remote device; storing a user record including the first credential and the first authentication information; and evaluating a security level of the received first authentication information.
US08875259B2
Provided are mechanisms and methods for managing a risk of access to an on-demand service as a condition of permitting access to the on-demand service. These mechanisms and methods for providing such management can help prohibit an unauthorized user from accessing an account of an authorized user when the authorized user inadvertently loses login information. The ability to provide such management may lead to an improved security feature for accessing on-demand services.
US08875251B2
A secure messaging system provides a secure messaging exchange service to identified users.
US08875249B2
A flexible and extensible architecture allows for secure searching across an enterprise. Such an architecture can provide a simple Internet-like search experience to users searching secure content inside (and outside) the enterprise. The architecture allows for the crawling and searching of a variety of sources across an enterprise, regardless of whether any of these sources conform to a conventional user role model. The architecture further allows for security attributes to be submitted at query time, for example, in order to provide real-time secure access to enterprise resources. The user query also can be transformed to provide for dynamic querying that provides for a more current result list than can be obtained for static queries.
US08875240B2
Apparatuses, computer readable media, methods, and systems are described for generating a first measurement of a virtualization platform, receiving a create measured virtual machine request comprising authentication information, in response to the request, creating a measured virtual machine based on the authentication information, generating a second measurement of the measured virtual machine, and communicating a quote generated based on the first measurement and the second measurement for attesting to authenticity of the virtualization platform and of the measured virtual machine.
US08875231B1
A communications system comprising a service processing system configured to receive a privacy request indicating a communication comprising a first user associated with a first communication device and a second user associated with a second communication device, send a query indicating the communication to a privacy system, receive a privacy message indicating whether the second user is private, and send a privacy instruction to the first communication device; the privacy system configured to receive the query, determine a privacy list for the first user, process the query with the privacy list to determine whether the second user is on the privacy list, and send the privacy message to the service processing system indicating that the second user is private; and the first communication device configured to receive the privacy instruction, and update a log, wherein, according to the privacy instruction, the second user is not indicated.
US08875225B2
A method, apparatus and system for obtaining user information are disclosed by the present invention. The present invention solves the problem of lower security of user information. The method includes: obtaining the interactive state of the service requester in the service request process, wherein the interactive state is used for indicating the specific state in which the service requester and its service are during the process of interaction with each other; determining if the interactive state of the service requester, in the process of requesting the service, meets the preset access-authorized-policy of the user information in the service request; when the interactive state of the service requester, in the process of requesting the service, meets the preset access-authorized-policy of the user information in said service request, obtaining the user information and sending the user information to the service.
US08875213B2
A television or computer detects the presence of the other, and takes an action based on that detecting.
US08875212B2
The present invention describes a system and method for controlling interactive video, including a remote control device allowing the user to interact with the video. The method allows bringing the “lean-forward” hypervideo experience to a “lay-back” environment such as the TV screen. The method also allows for the creation of a single system that combines both the social aspects of the “lay-back” and the “lean-forward experience” into a new type of rich media viewing experience.
US08875209B2
A system and method for receiving data in a content processing system includes a receiving system receiving content and metadata, an incoming folder storing the content and a content management system receiving a notice signal corresponding to receiving of content and metadata. The content management system generates a material identification for the content, creating an inventory list at the content management system and communicating the matter identification to the workflow system. The workflow system processes the content into formatted files and storing the formatted files in a broadcast folder. The content management system communicates conditional access data to video transport processing system. The workflow system communicates a status message to the content management system when the formatted files are stored in the broadcast folder.
US08875208B1
Techniques are provided for transmitting high quality multimedia data from a mobile device for live and on-demand viewing. The mobile device adjusts the quality of a single multimedia data stream based on one or more factors, such as the available bandwidth of a wireless link with a server, whether there are any “live” subscribers of the multimedia data stream, whether any “live” subscribers are interacting with the mobile device, and a change in the privacy settings of the user of the mobile device. Any data that was removed from the multimedia data stream before it was transmitted to a server is subsequently sent to the server. The server generates multiple versions of the multimedia data stream that vary in terms of quality. The server selects which version of the multimedia data stream to transmit to a subscriber of the multimedia data stream based on one or more criteria.
US08875203B2
A method of data management for efficiently storing and retrieving data in response to user access requests. The method includes receiving a request from at least one client for a title not resident in a storage server, where the title includes a play track having a plurality of chapters. The retrieval from a secondary storage device of play track portions proximate chapter delineation points is initiated, and bandwidth capacity and quality-of-service (QoS) parameters associated with the secondary storage device is determined. In the case of a client request to begin presentation of the title at one of the chapters, streaming of retrieved portions of the play track chapter to the client is initiated, masking latency associated with the secondary storage device is provided, and retrieval of at least unretrieved portions of the play track chapter and subsequent play track portions from the secondary storage device is initiated.
US08875197B2
Systems, methods and computer products for mosaics of live views of traffic via Internet Protocol Television. Exemplary embodiments include a network-based method for providing traffic views, the method including receiving a request to display a traffic views mosaic on a communications device, retrieving traffic views data and providing the traffic views data to the communications device.
US08875190B2
A method and system for monitoring signals corresponding to a satellite having a first transponder generating a first plurality of channel signals, a plurality of integrated receiver decoders receiving the first plurality of signals and generating a first plurality of received channel signals corresponding to the first plurality of channel signals and a monitoring system displaying all of the first plurality of received channel signals corresponding to the first transponder.
US08875188B2
The various embodiments disclosed herein provide methods, systems, and devices for capturing broadcast streams, analyzing the broadcast streams to obtain information about the media content transmitted in the broadcast streams, obtaining additional information about the media content if available, and assigning a unique event identifier specific to the instance of broadcast of the broadcast stream and/or media segment transmitted in the broadcast stream. In other embodiments, the unique event identifier is broadcasted to broadcast receiving devices. With the unique event identifier, broadcast receiving devices can access the obtained information associated with the media content.
US08875186B2
Described herein is an apparatus that provides recommended program information based on a viewing history of an audience. The apparatus includes an extractor to extract, based on a specific performer whom a viewing audience likes, a similar performer. The extractor extracts the similar performer using a relation between a plurality of performers. The extractor selects a node satisfying a first condition that a number of links between a first node corresponding to the specific performer and one or more second nodes corresponding to the similar performer is not more than a predetermined upper limit and a second condition that the number of links between the first node and second nodes is not more than a threshold from the second nodes. The apparatus also includes a selector to select a recommended program from a plurality of broadcast planned programs, and a creator to create the recommended program information.
US08875184B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for personalized online video channels. Various embodiments of the present disclosure facilitate creation and transmission of user defined video channels for viewing television programs via the Internet. The application facilitates specification of at least one user-defined channel that transmits video content items to the client. The application maintains a data store of video content items. The application selects a subset of the video content items for inclusion in the user playlist. The application determines an order of transmission of each of the video content items in the user playlist. The application facilitates specification of at least one user-defined channel.
US08875174B1
Disclosed herein is a system and method for retrieving one of multiple media-components associated with a single traffic log entry. In one example, a method for retrieving a video-component (VC) in a television-broadcasting environment is disclosed. The method includes (i) associating an identifier with an evergreen VC, a time-sensitive VC, and an expiration time of the time-sensitive VC; (ii) determining whether the expiration time has lapsed; (iii) if the expiration time has lapsed, determining that the identifier corresponds to the evergreen VC; (iv) if the expiration time has not lapsed, determining that the identifier corresponds to the time-sensitive VC; (v) selecting a log entry; (vi) determining that the selected entry includes the identifier; and (vii) responsive to determining that the selected entry includes the identifier, retrieving from a data storage, the one of the evergreen VC and the time-sensitive VC that the identifier corresponds to.
US08875172B1
Content sorting and definition technology, in which input defining multiple content links to include in a channel is received from a content curator and supplemental channel information that facilitates user experience of content linked to by at least one of the multiple content links is determined. Channel information for the channel associated with the content curator is defined based on the multiple content links and the supplemental channel information and the defined channel information is published at a channel link to make the channel information available to user devices of a content delivery network. The channel link is a network address at which the defined channel information is made available to the user devices of the content delivery network.
US08875171B2
Method and system of inserting commercials or program within content feeds. The commercials may be inserted in an optimized manner on a host device so as to permit device level commercial insertion. Instructions or other information may be pre-loaded for a number of insertion opportunities so that processing demands on the host device at the time of insertion can be limited.
US08875170B1
A system for streaming media content to a remote media streaming device, wherein the system is operative to handle remote requests for the media content, and broker the authorization and broadcasting rights between a primary content provider and a secondary content provider, wherein the secondary content provider holds the rights to broadcast the requested content to the remote media streaming device.
US08875149B2
Resource constraints for a group of individual application products to be configured for shared resource usage of at least one shared resource within a single operating system instance are analyzed by a resource allocation module. An individual resource allocation for each of the group of individual application products is determined based upon the analyzed resource constraints for the group of individual application products. The determined individual resource allocation for each of the group of individual application products is implemented within the single operating system instance using local inter-product message communication bindings by the single operating system instance.
US08875148B2
Resource constraints for a group of individual application products to be configured for shared resource usage of at least one shared resource within a single operating system instance are analyzed by a resource allocation module. An individual resource allocation for each of the group of individual application products is determined based upon the analyzed resource constraints for the group of individual application products. The determined individual resource allocation for each of the group of individual application products is implemented within the single operating system instance using local inter-product message communication bindings by the single operating system instance.
US08875144B2
A method and system for scheduling the use of CPU time among processes using a scheduling tree having a yielding indicator. A scheduling tree represents a hierarchy of groups and processes that share central processing unit (CPU) time. A computer system assigns a yield indicator to a first node of the scheduling tree, which represents a first process that temporarily yields the CPU time. The computer system also assigns the yield indicator to each ancestor node of the first node in the scheduling tree. Each ancestor node represents a group to which the first process belongs. The computer system then selects a second process to run on the computer system based on the yield indicator in the scheduling tree.
US08875141B2
The present invention provides an improved method, device and system for task processing in a device management. In the present invention, when the current state or the operation of the terminal device is interrupted by an abnormal condition, the improved method includes the steps of checking if any scheduler task exists, prompting the user to select the processing procedure for the scheduler task based on the types of the scheduler task, or processing the impacted scheduler task based on user's selection or processing the scheduler task based on a predetermined process procedure.
US08875140B2
A method for managing jobs scheduled for execution on a target system in which some jobs may spawn additional jobs scheduled for execution on the target system including intercepting jobs scheduled for execution in the target system, determining whether there is resource sufficiency in the target system for executing jobs, responsive to an affirmative determination of resource sufficiency, releasing previously intercepted jobs for execution in the target system, computing a limit of a number of jobs which can be concurrently scheduled by an external system to the target system, and transmitting the computed limit to the external system.
US08875128B2
A host controller associates each virtual machine with at least one label from a hierarchy of labels, where each label represents a distinct virtual machine parameter. The host controller also associates a user with one or more roles and with one or more labels from the hierarchy of labels, where each role defines at least one action permitted to be performed with respect to virtual machines. The host controller further facilitates control over user actions pertaining to virtual machines based on the roles and the labels associated with the user.
US08875124B2
A software update manager running on an information handling system over a type 1 hypervisor operating system retrieves a virtual firmware update through a primary network interface. The virtual firmware update executes over the hypervisor to initiate a download of a firmware update to a management processor of the information handling system through a management network interface. The firmware update executes to update the firmware of the information handling system with an update process managed by an end user through the primary network interface and the software update manager.
US08875122B2
The current subject matter provides a method to upgrade an individual tenant by moving the individual tenant from a source computing system that implements an older software version to a target computing system that implements a newer software version. The movement of the individual tenant incorporates a movement of customer-specific data associated with the moved tenant. Instead of just upgrading a same multi-tenancy computing system implementing the tenant that needs to be upgraded, a new (target) multi-tenancy computing system implementing a newer software version is installed such that this tenant can be moved from the (source) multi-tenancy computing system to the new (target) multi-tenancy computing system. The data associated with the moved tenant is adjusted to new structures associated with the newer software version.
US08875120B2
A customer initiates a customer support request indicating that a bug exists in an particular application. An internal bug-fix tracking system includes a case status server that receives a notification event indicating that the bug has been fixed in an updated software release. The associated customer support request is then updated to reflect the bug fix, triggering a notification e-mail that is automatically and directly sent to the customer.
US08875117B2
A system for distributing and synchronizing objects. One or more embodiments of the invention provide for distributing copies of the objects locally. By copying objects into local address space, the object's methods may be executed locally thereby avoiding excessive network traffic. The state of the various object copies across a network may not be synchronized due to local changes and modifications. To synchronize the objects, one or more embodiments of the invention provide for the use of a policy that specifies conditions as to when objects are synchronized. Embodiments of the invention provide flexibility in setting the policy to accommodate varying applications. Alternatively, a policy may provide for synchronization based on the type or number of messages transmitted. In one or more embodiments, a default policy may be utilized that provides for the synchronization of local objects whenever a client issues a request from the remote server.
US08875107B2
Systems and computer program products for lock tracing at a component level are disclosed. The one or more embodiments of the invention include computer program instructions for associating one or more locks with a component of the operating system; initiating lock tracing for the component; and instrumenting the component-associated locks with lock tracing program instructions in response to initiating lock tracing. The locks are selected from a group of locks configured for use by an operating system and individually comprise locking code. The component lock tracing may be static or dynamic.
US08875101B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture wherein a determination is made of a subset of all possible interoperable combinations of components of a computing system, wherein the components comprise selected elements of the computing system. One or more testing criteria are stored, wherein a testing criteria provides indications of characteristics of one or more of the components of the computing system. A selection is made of a number of interoperable combinations of the components from the subset of interoperable combinations of the components, based on the stored one or more testing criteria. The selected interoperable combinations are tested, wherein the selected interoperable combinations are fewer in number than the subset of interoperable combinations.
US08875100B2
A performance accounting framework may be provided. Upon receiving a section of source code associated with an application, an evaluation may be performed on the section of source code. A performance metric may be calculated according to the at least one evaluation and a report of the calculated performance metric may be provided.
US08875083B2
Disclosed herein are rouging methods and devices for a flip-chip package. The flip chip includes several outer pads and several inner pads. The routing method includes: setting an outer sequence based on the arrangement order of the outer pads; setting several inner sequences based on the connection relationships between inner pads and the outer pads; calculating the longest common subsequence of each inner sequence and the outer sequence, defining the connection relationships between the inner pads and the outer pads corresponding to the longest common subsequence as direct connections, and defining the connection relationships between the inner pads and the outer pads that do not correspond to the longest common subsequence as detour connections; establishing the routing scheme of the flip chip based on the connection relationships between the inner pads and the outer pads.
US08875080B1
A design methodology is provided to fully automate the creation of multiple-personality programmable macros for use in metal/via programmable ICs. Programmability is achieved using programmable switches, each of which may include one or more metal traces and/or vias on one or more layers configured in series, in parallel, or in combination. Multiple overlapping switches may exist in the same location. That is, switches may be defined that use some of the same resources. Any one of the switches may be “turned on,” while the remaining switches remain turned off. As part of the design methodology, different nets or parts of an electrical circuit design are programmed by replacing the switches with hard connections that close the circuit, or with no connections so as to open the circuit, or cause the circuit to remain open. The methodology allows for sharing routing or programming resources to achieve optimize layout area usage.
US08875073B1
A method relating generally to computer aided design is disclosed. In such method, a block-based model of a hardware realizable system is obtained. An internal gateway-in and an internal gateway-out of a module of the block-based model are identified. An interface protocol is assigned for the internal gateway-in and the internal gateway-out. Data type and data propagation for the module at the internal gateway-in and the internal gateway-out are analyzed. The internal gateway-in and the gateway-out are transformed into an input/output interface. Integrated code is generated for subsequent realization of the input/output interface in hardware.
US08875072B2
An adaptive template system for an automated PCB manufacturing release package system includes a PCB database including PCB CAD data associated with a CAD file of PCB design. A shape engine is configured to read the PCB CAD data and display simultaneous views of a given PCB from the PCB database including different views of the PCB and configured to create reconfigurable objects displayed simultaneously in the form of different views of the PCB such that any change in the design of the PCB is reflected in the different views. One or more selectable adaptive templates, and an adaptive template object in the shape engine are configured to: read a selected adaptive template, generate a view of the adaptive template which provides for input of user-entered data, and retain the user-entered data in the adaptive template.
US08875063B2
A method for forming a mask layout is described. A plurality of phase shapes are formed on either side of a critical feature of a design layout of an intergrated circuit chip having a plurality of critical features. A plurality of transition edges are identified from the edges of each phase shape. Each transition edge is parallel to critical feature. A transition space is identified as defined by one of the group including two transition edges and one transition edge. A transition polygon is formed by closing each transition space with at least one closing edge. Each transition polygon is transformed into a printing assist feature. A mask layout is formed from the printing assist features and critical features.
US08875056B2
Provided is a display device including a display mode controller for controlling a transition to a whole screen display mode for displaying an image in an entire screen of a display section, a multiple content display mode for displaying, on the screen, multiple thumbnail images related to contents, or a panel display mode for displaying, on the screen, a panel on which information related to the contents is displayed, an arrangement determination section for arranging multiple thumbnail images displayed in the multiple content display mode by category to which the contents belong, an arrangement change section for changing an arrangement of multiple thumbnail images by a user, and a boundary line display section for displaying, between two thumbnail images, a boundary line indicating a difference of the category before the arrangement of the thumbnail images is changed by the user, and for not displaying the boundary line after changed.
US08875035B2
This is directed to differentiating between portions of a selection area that are within the boundary of displayed information and portions of the selection area that are beyond the boundary of the displayed information. In some embodiments, the graphical representation of the selection area can change based on the position of the selection area relative to the boundary of the displayed information. In particular, the representation of portions or regions of the selection area that are within the boundary of the displayed information can be different than the representation of the portions or regions of the selection area that extend beyond the boundary of the displayed information. For example, the electronic device can provide different fills in each of the regions, or different line patterns around the peripheries of each of the selection area regions.
US08875031B2
A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support the operation of a Virtual Media Room or Virtual Meeting Room (VMR), wherein each VMR can accept from a plurality of participants at different geographic locations a variety of video conferencing feeds of audio and video streams from video conference endpoints. The approach provides collaborative viewing of an event through the VMR so that the participants at geographically distributed locations are able to simultaneously participate and share the experience of the event together. An initiating participant of the event sharing is further offered with in-meeting management and control over the content to be shared at the event. A globally distributed infrastructure supports the sharing of the event among the participants at geographically distributed locations through a plurality of MCUs (Multipoint Control Unit), each configured to process the plurality of audio and video streams from the plurality of video conference endpoints in real time.
US08875026B2
The present invention is directed to directed communication in a virtual environment. A method for method for providing directed communication between avatars in a virtual environment in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes: determining a relative location of a first avatar and a second avatar in a virtual environment; and adjusting an aspect of a communication between the first avatar and the second avatar based on the relative location.
US08875025B2
A media-editing application of some embodiments allows a user of the application to group media clips displayed in the timeline into a single clip representation. A composite display area of the media-editing application often displays numerous clips at various instances in time and at various levels in the compositing hierarchy. To reduce the number of media clips in the timeline, the media-editing application of some embodiments allows the user to select several media clips and combine them into a one media clip representation. In this manner, the media-editing application reduces the congestion in the timeline. These single clip representations are referred to as “compound clips.” Compound clips can be viewed as containers that can include several media clips of the same type in some embodiments, or that can include several media clips of several different types in other embodiments.
US08875019B2
A method and system for presenting choices of different translations of a message and corresponding interpretations of the different translations. The message that is input by a sender to be sent to an intended recipient is received. Choices of the different translations of the message and different corresponding interpretations of the different translations are retrieved and presented. The different translations are in a language understood by the recipient. The different interpretations are specific to a culture of the recipient. A selection of a translation of the different translations is received. The selection of the translation is based on a review of the different interpretations by the sender. The selected translation is presented to the recipient.
US08875009B1
A Navigation Control File for XML (NCX) generation module receives an electronic media item comprising input text. The electronic media item may also comprise links, where each link comprises a source position and a target position. The NCX generation module generates an NCX file for the electronic media item based on the input text and whether the links within the electronic media item satisfy one or more rules.
US08874990B2
A method begins by a processing module receiving a data segment retrieval request regarding a data segment, which is stored in a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory. The method continues with the processing module processing the data segment retrieval request, determining pre-fetch segment buffering information, and when the pre-fetch segment buffering information indicates pre-fetching one or more other data segments, generating one or more pre-fetch segment retrieval requests for the one or more other data segments, receiving, one or more sets of at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices, decoding, in accordance with a dispersed storage error coding function, the one or more sets of at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices to reproduce the one or more other data segments, and updating a pre-fetch segment buffer with the one or more other data segments.
US08874989B2
According to one embodiment, a host controller includes a command generator and detector. The command generator generates a command having a retransmission flag in an argument, and transmits the generated command to a memory device. The detector detects timeout if a response from the memory device cannot be recognized within a defined time. When transmitting an initial command, the host controller clears the retransmission flag and transmits the command. If the detector detects timeout, the host controller sets the retransmission flag, and retransmits the same command as the initial command to the device. If a normal response corresponding to the initial command or retransmitted command is received, the host controller recognizes that the command is correctly executed.
US08874980B2
A chip applied to a serial transmission system includes an input terminal, a core circuit, an output terminal, a first transmission line, a second transmission line and a spare transmission line, where the input terminal is used to receive an input signal from a source outside the chip, the output terminal is used to output an output signal, the first transmission lines is coupled between the input terminal and the core circuit, the second transmission line is coupled between the core circuit and the output terminal, and the spare transmission line is coupled between the input terminal and the output terminal. When the core circuit cannot process the input terminal normally, the input signal is directly transmitted to the output terminal via the spare transmission line, and the input signal serves as the output signal to be outputted from the output terminal.
US08874979B2
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for bank sparing in a 3D memory device that includes detecting, by a memory controller, a first error in the 3D memory device and detecting a second error in a first element in a first rank of the 3D memory device, wherein the first element in the first rank has an associated first chip select. The method also includes sending a command to the 3D memory device to set mode registers in a master logic portion of the 3D memory device that enable a second element to receive communications directed to the first element and wherein the second element is in a second rank of the 3D memory device, wherein the first element and second element are each either a bank or a bank group that comprise a plurality of chips.
US08874978B2
An information processing apparatus includes a first parity production section for producing a first error detection code for detecting an error of data. A second parity production section produces a second error detection code for detecting an error of the data from the first error detection code. A first parity checking section detects an error of the retained data as a first error using the retained first error detection code. A second parity checking section detects an error of the retained data as a second error using the retained second error detection code. A control amount outputting section outputs, when an occurrence rate of a first error is equal to or lower than a first threshold value, a control amount for controlling a power supply voltage or a frequency using a second threshold value as a target value for an occurrence rate of a second error.
US08874977B2
Detection of degradation of a touch-based user input device may allow for notifying a user of an impending failure of the touch-sensitive user input device so that the device may be taken out of service or repaired. Systems for detecting degradation of a touch-based user input device may carry out one or more operations including, but not limited to: determining that a signal indicative of a user touch is erroneous; providing a user notification indicative of a degradation of the touch-based user input device in response to determining that a signal indicative of a user touch is erroneous.
US08874964B1
Detecting a problem in a content distribution is disclosed. Performance information associated with a first content player is received form a first client. Performance information associated with a second content player is received from a second client. The information received from the first client and the second client is aggregated. A determination is made, from the aggregated information, that a problem is indicated. Alternate techniques for detecting a problem in a content distribution are also disclosed.
US08874962B2
A diagnostic handling server is capable of supporting users without operator support, in which the proper handling of a problem, which users know through experience, can be reflected in the support. Preliminarily, data (e.g., dissatisfying item data) on the item with which a user feels dissatisfied and diagnostic data on the diagnoses of the electric appliances are collected from the electric appliances to be supported. The feature points of the respective electric appliances with which the user feels dissatisfied are then extracted from the collected diagnostic data. When the user feels dissatisfied with a specific electric appliance, the diagnostic data of the electric appliance is transmitted together with a search request for the proper handling, the transmitted diagnostic data is compared with the preliminarily extracted feature point, and information on the cause and the proper handling is provided to the user.
US08874954B1
Compatibility is provided between a high availability clustering system and a virtualization environment. A hardware level hypervisor runs on each host, and VM(s) run on each hypervisor. A shared virtual storage manager runs on each VM, and facilitates sharing virtual storage between VMs. Sharing virtual storage can be performed in the context of a failed application or VM. A shared virtual storage manager VM detects that the application is being failed over from the source VM to the target VM, detaches the virtual storage from the source VM, and attaches it to the target VM. The shared virtual storage manager can also enable sharing of the virtual storage when a monitored application is failed over in response to the failure of a hypervisor. Virtual storage can additionally act as an arbitrator to resolve an occurrence of split brain, when VMs become disconnected.
US08874949B2
Embodiments of systems, apparatuses, and methods for energy efficiency and energy conservation including enhanced temperature based voltage control are described. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor and a controller coupled with the processor. In one embodiment, the controller receives a temperature measurement corresponding to a current temperature of the processor. In one embodiment, the controller further determines an adjustment to a voltage being applied to the processor based at least in part on the temperature measurement and a plurality of internal limits of the processor, wherein the determined adjustment to the voltage is based on an inverse temperature dependence relationship between at least one of an operating frequency and a voltage of the processor, and temperature. In one embodiment, the controller provides the determined adjustment to the voltage to a voltage regulator interface.
US08874948B2
A device includes a first processor and a second processor. The first processor is configured to operate in accordance with a first power mode. The first processor includes a first transistor. The first processor is configured to, while operating in accordance with the first power mode, switch the first transistor at a first duty cycle. The second processor is configured to operate in accordance with a second power mode. The second processor includes a second transistor. The second processor is configured to, while operating in accordance with the second power mode, switch the second transistor at a second duty cycle. The second duty cycle is greater than the first duty cycle. The second processor consumes less power while operating in accordance with the second power mode than the first processor consumes while operating in accordance with the first power mode.
US08874945B2
The present disclosure relates to a system and a method of remote management of a construction equipment for controlling transmission and reception of data of the construction equipment in a a key-off state. To this end, a system of remote management of a construction equipment according to the present disclosure includes a server communicatable with a communication terminal through a communication network; and a construction equipment where the communication terminal, a equipment control unit, and a plurality of electronic control devices are installed, wherein the communication terminal, the equipment control unit, and the electronic control devices are supplied standby power from a battery provided in the construction equipment, when the equipment control unit receives a key-off signal, the equipment control unit transfers a sleep mode switching command to the communication terminal and the electronic control devices of which operation modes are switched to a sleep mode, when the communication terminal wakes up from the sleep mode state at the time of receiving an operation request from the server and thereafter, wakes up the equipment control unit and transfers the requested operation of the server, and the equipment control unit performs the operation singly when performing the operation singly and thereafter, switches over to the sleep mode when completing the operation, and when the operation is associated with at least one of the electronic control devices, the equipment control unit performs the operation by waking up the corresponding electronic control device and switches the waked up electronic control device to the sleep mode when completing the operation.
US08874926B1
An apparatus for increasing security in inter-chip communication includes a sending control module, a communication bus, and a receiving control module. The communication bus is coupled between the sending control module and the receiving control module. The sending control module operates to send data on the communication bus, disable the communication bus when threats are detected, or both.
US08874925B1
A computer-implemented method to scan memory for a threat is described. At least one application programming interface (API) is monitored. A back-trace operation is performed from the at least one API to identify a process that called the at least one API. An address in memory is retrieved for the identified process. At least a portion of the memory associated with the address of the identified process is scanned. A signature based on the scanned portion of the memory is generated.
US08874918B2
A method for conditionally allowing fruition of broadcast contents, broadcast by a contents broadcaster and received by a user by means of a receiving equipment, includes: performing, locally at the receiving equipment of the user, a first fruition entitlement check based on first fruition entitlement data available locally at the receiving equipment; having the receiving equipment provide to the contents broadcaster the first fruition entitlement data exploiting a return communications channel of the receiving equipment; having the contents broadcaster perform a second fruition entitlement check based on a comparison between the received first fruition entitlement data and second fruition entitlement data available locally to the contents broadcaster; and conditioned on a result of the second check, having the contents broadcaster provide to the receiving equipment, exploiting the return communications channel, a fruition entitlement confirmation notification; at the receiving equipment, conditioning the fruition of the broadcast contents based on the receipt of the fruition entitlement confirmation by the contents broadcaster.
US08874909B2
There is a system and method for storing data of others using a processor and a memory device. The system includes an account module configured to manage a plurality of accounts, each account associated with an entity. The system includes an avatar module configured to permit entities to generate avatars for their accounts, wherein an avatar associates data with an account that is not required to be consistent with the account and not required to be consistent with data in other avatars of that same account. The system includes a transaction module configured to facilitate a plurality of transactions using trusted entity data. The system includes an encryption module configured to encrypt, using a processor, the transaction data with a plurality of paired half-keys.
US08874905B2
Resource restrictions are associated with a user identifier. A resource restriction agent receives operating system calls related for resources and provides resource request data to a resource agent. The resource agent determines whether the resource is restricted based on the resource request data and resource restriction data and generates access data based on the determination. The resource restriction agent grants or denies the system call based on the access data.
US08874889B2
A method of switching between multiple operating systems of a computer system includes the following steps. Firstly, the computer system is in an environment of a first operating system. Then, a system management interrupt is triggered to allow the computer system to enter a system management mode, and a controlling authority of the computer system is transferred from the first operating system to a basic input output system. Then, a backup of a first environmental parameter of the first operating system is created. If the second environmental parameter is not included in the computer system, a second operating system is loaded in a normal mode. On the other hand, if the second environmental parameter is included in the computer system, the second operating system is booted according to the second environmental parameter.
US08874875B2
ICC-NCQ priority and deadline information in conjunction with an estimation of command access time that is specific to SMR drives are used improve command queue optimization. Estimated completion times are determined based on the internal subcommands that the drive has to execute to complete the host read or write command taking into account whether all or part of the data will be or already is stored in write-twice cache, E-region and/or I-region. The command processor selects the next command for execution based on calculated access times with adjusted priority based on the specified deadline for the command. As the deadline approaches, the priority of the command increases. For high priority data writes as specified by a host, an optimized storage plan is selected as appropriate using the “write-twice cache” (WTC) region, E-region or I-region.
US08874866B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods of reading data from and writing data to a memory, computer program products for performing such methods, and apparatus for reading data from and writing data to, a memory, which apparatus may be implemented, for example, as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). A key associated with data to be read from or written to the memory is converted into two separate values, which values are themselves converted into first and second index values, each having an associated signature value. The index values are used as indices to a signature table containing a signature value for each data entry stored in the memory from which data is to be read or to which data is to be written. In a read operation, a signature of the signature table which matches one of the signature values derived from the key is identified and a read address is calculated based on the index value associated with the matching signature value derived from the key. In a write operation, a signature value is written to the signature table at an address corresponding to one of the index values derived from the key, and a write address is calculated based on that index value.
US08874865B2
A computing system includes computer memory of a number of different memory types. An application program compiled for execution on the computing system controls access to a field of a record in the computer memory of the computing system by defining a record that includes one or more fields, the one or more fields including a restricted field having a specification of restricted accessibility when the restricted field is allocated in a particular memory type; allocating an instance of the record in memory of the particular memory type; and denying each attempted access of the restricted field while the record is allocated in the particular memory type.
US08874863B2
Systems and methods are provided for an asynchronous data replication system in which the remote replication reduces bandwidth requirements by copying deduplicated differences in business data from a local storage site to a remote, backup storage site, the system comprising: a local performance storage pool for storing data; a local deduplicating storage pool for storing deduplicated data, said local deduplicating storage pool further storing metadata about data objects in the system and which has metadata analysis logic for identifying and specifying differences in a data object over time; a remote performance storage pool for storing a copy of said data, available for immediate use as a backup copy of said data to provide business continuity to said data; a remote deduplicating storage pool for storing deduplicated data; and a controller for synchronizing the remote performance storage pool to have the second version of the data object using deduplicated data.
US08874854B2
A mechanism for selectively disabling and enabling read caching based on past performance of the cache and current read/write requests. The system improves overall performance by using an autonomic algorithm to disable read caching for regions of backend disk storage (i.e., the backstore) that have had historically low cache hit ratios. The result is that more cache becomes available for workloads with larger hit ratios, and less time and machine cycles are spent searching the cache for data that is unlikely to be there.
US08874853B2
A method, circuit arrangement, and design structure utilize broadcast prediction data to determine whether to globally broadcast a memory request in a computing system of the type that includes a plurality of nodes, each node including a plurality of processing units. The method includes updating broadcast prediction data for a cache line associated with a first memory request within a hardware-based broadcast prediction data structure in turn associated with a first processing unit in response to the first memory request, the broadcast prediction data for the cache line including data associated with a history of ownership of the cache line. The method further comprises accessing the broadcast prediction data structure and determining whether to perform an early broadcast of a second memory request to a second node based on broadcast prediction data within the broadcast prediction data structure in response to that second memory request associated with the cache line.
US08874852B2
In response to executing a deallocate instruction, a deallocation request specifying a target address of a target cache line is sent from a processor core to a lower level cache. In response, a determination is made if the target address hits in the lower level cache. If so, the target cache line is retained in a data array of the lower level cache, and a replacement order field of the lower level cache is updated such that the target cache line is more likely to be evicted in response to a subsequent cache miss in a congruence class including the target cache line. In response to the subsequent cache miss, the target cache line is cast out to the lower level cache with an indication that the target cache line was a target of a previous deallocation request of the processor core.
US08874850B1
A hierarchically tagged cache provides abstraction between access requests for data and the cached data. The cache is managed by hierarchical layers of indexes including reference to the data. Access requests indicate a header for the requested data, which is associated with one of the layers. Cache management determines what layer is associated with the header, and can traverse the indexes, beginning at the layer associated with the header, to access the data. If the header does not exist at the index of that layer, it can be created. Indexes can be appropriately updated with indexes at each layer being referenced by one or more indexes of the layer higher up in the hierarchy.
US08874839B2
An electronic system, and a method and an apparatus for saving data of the electronic system are provided. The electrical system includes a central processing unit (CPU), a temperature sensor, a first controller, a second controller, a first storage device and a second storage device. When the CPU enters a suspend mode and the first controller detects a temperature of the electronic system to be lower than a threshold value through the temperature sensor, the second controller notify the application program to trigger the CPU to enter a hibernation mode, and operation data is moved from the first storage device to the second storage device.
US08874836B1
A method of applying scheduling policies is provided. The method includes distributing user data throughout a plurality of storage nodes through erasure coding, wherein the plurality of storage nodes are housed within a single chassis coupling the storage nodes as a cluster. The method includes receiving operations relating to a non-volatile memory of one of the plurality of storage nodes into a plurality of operation queues. The method includes evaluating each of the operations in the plurality of operation queues as to benefit to the non-volatile solid-state storage according to a plurality of policies. For each channel of a plurality of channels coupling the operation queues to the non-volatile memory, the method includes iterating a selection and an execution of a next operation from the plurality of operation queues, with each next operation having a greater benefit than at least a subset of operations remaining in the operation queues.
US08874829B2
The device controller (a) executes a data I/O process with respect to a physical storage area in accordance with an I/O command, and (b) sends to the storage controller an I/O command-related response comprising status information subsequent to being changed in accordance with the I/O process. The storage controller (A) receives the response from the target physical storage device, and (B) based on the status information included in the response received in (A), makes a determination as to whether or not to execute internal processing, and in a case where the result of the determination is to execute internal processing, sends to the target physical storage device an internal processing execution command instructing the execution of internal processing. The device controller in the target physical storage device (c), upon receiving the internal processing execution command, executes internal processing in accordance with the internal processing execution command.
US08874821B2
A first expander comprises a first PHY to be connected by a link to a second PHY of a second expander. The first expander is controlled by a first zone manager and the second expander is controlled by a second zone manager. The first zone manager is to determine whether the first zone manager is a link reset master. Based on the first zone manager being a link reset master and a first control bit corresponding to at least one of the first and second PHYs being set, the first zone manager initiates a reset of the link interconnecting the first and second PHYs. The first control bit is indicative of whether the second expander intends to be included in a zoned portion of a fabric.
US08874812B1
A method for communicating media between a host and a display system. In one embodiment the method comprises acquiring, by the host and via a wireless connection between the host and the display system, display information of the display system; generating, by the host, an image sequence at a resolution and a frame rate, the resolution and the frame rate determined from the display information; communicating, from the host to the display system and via the wireless connection, an encoding of the image sequence; and displaying, by the display system, a decoding of the encoding.
US08874810B2
Efficient and convenient storage systems and methods are presented. In one embodiment a storage system includes a plurality of storage nodes and a master controller. The storage nodes store information. The storage node includes an upstream communication buffer which is locally controlled at the storage node to facilitate resolution of conflicts in upstream communications. The master controller controlls the flow of traffic to the node based upon constraints of the upstream communication buffer. In one embodiment, communication between the master controller and the node has a determined maximum latency. The storage node can be coupled to the master controller in accordance with a chain memory configuration.
US08874805B2
A mechanism is provided for offloading an input/output (I/O) completion operation. Responsive to a second processor identifying that a flag has been set by a first processor requesting assistance in completing an I/O operation, the second processor copies an I/O response from a first I/O response data structure associated with the first processor to a second I/O response data structure associated with the second processor. The second processor deletes the I/O response from the first I/O response data structure, clears the flag, and processes the I/O operation by addressing the I/O response in the second I/O response data structure. Responsive to completing the I/O operation, the second processor deletes the I/O response from the second I/O response data structure.
US08874803B2
Available buffers in the memory space of a guest operating system of a virtual machine are provided to a network interface controller (NIC) for use during direct memory access (DMA) and the guest operating system is notified accordingly when data is written into such available buffers. These capabilities obviate the requirement of using hypervisor memory as a staging area to determine which virtual machine to forward incoming data.
US08874796B1
Techniques for using a general query to circumvent specific query response failure in an IGMP system
Flexibility of handling of multicast information using an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is improved by overcoming failures to respond to group specific queries. Such failures occur when heterogenous host devices are used on a common network. When a failure to respond to a group specific query is experienced, a general query is used to obtain information that was not provided by the group specific query.
US08874787B2
Technologies are described herein for routing a service request to an appropriate web service. A first service request is routed from a first web service to a second web service. Routing factors associated with the second web service are monitored. A determination is made as to whether the routing factors indicate that the second web service is no longer appropriate for handling service requests. If the routing factors indicate that the first web service is no longer appropriate for handling service requests, then a second service request is routed from the first web service to a third web service. The first web service, the second web service, and the third web service are included in a composite service.
US08874784B2
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for controlling the delivery of a social networking service originated message directed to a mobile device are disclosed. According to one example, the method performed at a routing node includes intercepting a mobility management message that includes location information associated with a mobile device, storing the location information associated with the mobile device in a location database, and receiving a social networking service originated message directed to the mobile device, wherein the message includes media content. The method further includes extracting the location information associated with the mobile device from the location database and delivering the media content to the mobile device using the extracted location information from the location database.
US08874782B2
A system and method are provided for determining whether a transaction between a subscriber and a merchant website requires downloading and/or streaming digital objects. In response to a determination that the transaction does require downloading and/or streaming of digital objects, a subscriber is provided with various options for delaying such downloading and/or streaming in return for incentives of varying value.
US08874781B2
Systems and methods for delivering social network updates from popular entities to receiver devices via broadcast or multicast networks obtain updates from highly popular entities. Updates may be assembled by a server crawling social network sites. To enable selective reception, the obtained updates may be broadcast/multicast according to a schedule that is communicated to receiver devices in advance, such as a catalog file. Receiver devices receive the catalog file and use the included information to selectively receive updates that are relevant to a user of the receiver device. Updates received from broadcasts or multicasts are cached in memory of the receiver device. When a user requests to access a particular social network entity on the receiver device, that request may be satisfied by accessing social network updates cached on the receiver device. Broadcasting and/or multicasting highly popular social network updates may relieve burdens on unicast networks.
US08874777B2
A streaming media system employs dynamic rate adaptation. The method includes a file format compatible with legacy HTTP infrastructure to deliver media over a persistent connection. The method further includes the ability for legacy client media players to dynamically change the encoded delivery rate of the media over a persistent connection. The method provided works transparently with standard HTTP servers, requiring no modification and leverages standard media players embedded in mobile devices for seamless media delivery over wireless networks with high bandwidth fluctuations. A system is also specified for implementing a client and server in accordance with the method.
US08874775B2
Load-balancing a distributed system by replacing overloaded servers, including the steps of retrieving, by an assembling device using a fragment pull protocol, erasure-coded fragments associated with segments, from a set of fractional-storage servers. Occasionally, while retrieving the fragments, identifying at least one server from the set that is loaded to a degree requiring replacement, and replacing, using the fragment pull protocol, the identified server with a substitute server that is not loaded to the degree requiring replacement. Wherein the substitute server and the remaining servers of the set are capable of delivering enough erasure-coded fragments in the course of reconstructing the segments.
US08874772B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus, including software tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, involve executing file transfer protocol (FTP) operations. An FTP request is received, and a first sequence of FTP operations is executed in response to the request. The first sequence of FTP operations defines a first path in a knowledge network that includes multiple nodes. The first path includes a first subset of the nodes. A second sequence of FTP operations is executed. The second sequence of operations defines a second path in the knowledge network, and the second path includes a second subset of the nodes. The first sequence and/or the second sequence is selected as a preferred sequence of operations based at least in part on the execution of the first and second sequences of operations. An identification of the preferred sequence of operations is stored, for example, for use in responding to a subsequent FTP request.
US08874769B2
Methods and apparatuses are provided for facilitating group access controls in peer-to-peer or other similar overlay networks. A group administrator may create a group in the overlay network and may assign peer-specific certificates to each member of the group for indicating membership in the group. A group member peer node can access data objects in the overlay network using its respective peer-specific certificate to authenticate itself as a group member. The authentication is performed by another peer node in the network. The validating peer node can authenticate that the group member is the rightful possessor of the peer-specific certificate using a public key associated with the peer node to which the peer-specific certificate was issued. The validating peer node can also validate that the peer-specific certificate was properly issued to the group member using a public key of the apparatus that issued the peer-specific certificate.
US08874756B2
An information processing unit includes an application data receiving buffer to temporarily store data transmitted from a client device for initiating a connection, an application data receiving section to acquire the data transmitted from the client device from the application data receiving buffer and transmit the data to an upper layer application, and a flow control reception management section to transfer the data transmitted from the client device to the application data receiving buffer and monitor a free space in the application data receiving buffer and supply a data size receivable by the application data receiving buffer to the client device.
US08874751B2
A stream application uses small chunks of executable code configured to process data tuples flowing into a processing element. A scheduler allocates the processing elements to individual compute nodes or hosts for execution. However, the stream application may assign various constraints that stipulate which hosts are suitable for a particular processing element. If a host meets the constraints, it may be categorized as an unconditional candidate host. In addition, the scheduler may also track conditional candidate hosts that would be suitable for the processing element if a certain user action is performed—e.g., modifying a constraint, removing a constraint, modifying a stream element, and the like. The list of conditional candidate hosts may then be displayed to the user who can choose to perform the one or more actions to change the conditional candidate host to an unconditional candidate host for the processing element.
US08874750B2
Mechanisms are provided to allow efficient delivery of content through a content delivery network (CDN) without taxing an origin server while maintaining fine grained location based access control. Requests to a CDN are augmented with quantized and non-quantized versions of location information. A CDN can use quantized location information in a URI to identify and return content if content corresponding to the URI is available in cache. If the content is not available in cache, the CDN can contact an origin server to obtain a result for the request using non-quantized location information. The origin server examines the non-quantized location information to determine whether to respond to the client request with content. The origin server examines the area corresponding to the quantized location information to determine whether the content should be cached at the CDN.
US08874747B2
An approach is provided for providing load balancing in multi-level distributed computations. A distributed computation control platform determines closure capability data associated with respective levels of a computational architecture, wherein the respective levels include, at least in part, a device level, an infrastructure level, and a cloud computing level. The distributed computation control platform also determines functional flow information of the respective levels, one or more nodes of the respective levels, or a combination thereof with respect to at least one set of one or more computation closures. The distributed computation control platform further determines to cause, at least in part, processing at least the closure capability data, the functional flow information, or a combination thereof to determine: (a) a distribution of the one or more computation closures among the respective levels, (b) the one or more nodes, or (c) a combination thereof.
US08874746B1
Collaboration between discrete systems and a shared system to consolidate shared storage-related services. In one example, shared, consolidated storage-related services and high-availability are provided by pairing each of a plurality of discrete block storage virtualization modules residing on each discrete computer system to a shared block storage virtualization module residing on a shared computer system, and maintaining logical volume coherency locally by each of the plurality of discrete block storage virtualization modules, and globally by the shared block storage virtualization module. Additionally, allocation of a set of block storage virtualization functions to be performed by at least one of the plurality of discrete block storage virtualization modules or the shared block storage virtualization module can be made according to the pairing.
US08874744B2
A resource management system for a virtual machine computing environment includes a software component that optimizes capacity between server clusters or groups by monitoring the capacity of server clusters or groups and automatically adding and removing host systems to and from server clusters or groups. The software component may be implemented at a server cluster management level to monitor and execute host system moves between server clusters and/or at a higher level in the resource management hierarchy. At the higher level, the software component is configured to monitor and execute host system moves between sets of server clusters being managed by different server cluster management agents.
US08874743B1
Dynamic subscriber interfaces in a network device are provided. An input port receives data units from multiple subscribers. A primary interface extracts source identifiers from headers associated with the received data units and creates dynamic subscriber interfaces to allocate network device resources to each of the multiple subscribers based on the extracted source identifiers.
US08874740B2
A network monitoring system is provided that includes a plurality of tiers being arranged in a network having a plurality of hardware and software resources for executing a selective number of applications. The tiers include disparate technology stack formats. A platform resource receives monitoring information from the tiers in their respective disparate technology formats and stores the monitoring information where the monitoring information is normalized into a format that is universally recognized. An aggregation presentation module aggregates and analyzes the monitoring information from the platform resource to determine if there are any anomalies of the hardware and software resources, and formats the monitoring information to be presented as selected real-time performance analytics to a user.
US08874726B1
Servicing an access request using a plurality of replicas of data includes determining which of the replicas are available and selecting one of the replicas for servicing the access request based on which of the replicas are available. At least one other replica is indicated as not available in response to receiving a monitoring message indicating that the at least one other replica is subject to degraded performance. The monitoring messages are independent of the access request. The monitoring messages may be SNMP messages. Servicing an access request using a plurality of replicas of data may also include determining if each of the SNMP messages affects the availability of the replicas. The replicas may be selected in round robin fashion or randomly.
US08874716B2
Methods and systems for associating or pairing a mobile device with a local output device via a central or mobile connect server system are provided. Pairing is performed by initiating a pairing request from an output device that is passed to the mobile connect server for processing. The mobile connect server responds to the request with a pairing code that is displayed by the output device. A user of the mobile device then enters the displayed pairing code in the mobile device. The mobile device transmits the entered pairing code to the mobile connect server and, in response to a match, the mobile device is paired to the output device. Pairing can enable various functions, including an ability to apply stored user preference data to control programming or other information displayed by the output device in response to commands entered in the mobile device.
US08874713B1
Methods and systems for location correction are provided. In one exemplary method, a first routing identifier of a first location associated with a location correction may be identified. The first location and the first routing identifier may be stored. A second routing identifier associated with a location request may be identified. A second location based at least in part on a comparison of the first routing number and the second routing number may be predicted. Finally, the location request may be responded to with the second location.
US08874712B2
A system and method for differentiated services in adaptive streaming are provided. A method for server operations includes: determining an optimization of aggregated quality of experience scores for a set of candidate subscribers served by a server; adjusting a service rate of at least one subscriber based on the determined optimization of aggregated quality of experience scores; and streaming information to the at least one subscriber based on the adjusted service rate. The optimization is based on one or more of: a subscriber level for one or more of the plurality of subscribers; a current service rate; and available service rates.
US08874708B2
A system and method for allocating an interval to each of multiple locations within a network topology, where each interval indicates a range of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with the corresponding location. Each allocated interval is associated with a computing service that provides information about network services near the location associated with the allocated interval. The intervals are allocated into intermediate nodes, where each intermediate node includes at least two of the intervals. The intervals, associated computing services, and intermediate nodes are then organized into a modified B+ tree structure that facilitates the discovery of one of the network services near the allocated interval.
US08874705B1
A method and apparatus for identifying an optimal configuration of a resource is described. In one embodiment, the method for using a health scoring technique to improve a health of the computer comprises processing profile information and a health score associated with the computer having a resource, wherein the profile information indicates installed software and hardware configuration, wherein the health score represents a health of the computer and identifying an optimal configuration of the resource based on profile information and the health score.
US08874704B2
According to one general aspect, a method of semi-automatically discovering and generating useful service blueprints may include collecting, by an apparatus, a plurality of configuration information sets regarding a plurality of network service applications. The method may also include converting, by the apparatus, the plurality of configuration information sets into one or more normalized application instance graphs. The method may further include generating, by the apparatus, one or more application blueprint files based, at least in part, upon the one or more normalized application instance graphs.
US08874695B2
A cookie server generates a public cookie which uniquely identifies a client and is adapted for the client to access multiple operator servers that are recognized by the public cookie. When an operator server receives an access request from the client without a valid public cookie recognizing the operator server, it redirects the access request to the cookie server, which generates a public cookie, redirects the access request back to the operator server and passes along the public cookie. The operator server then writes the public cookie into the client and binds itself with the public cookie. A public cookie may include a group of related cookies identifying the common client that are generated this way to allow the same client's activities to be tracked by different operator servers having different domain names over the Internet.
US08874693B2
A method is disclosed that includes assigning a service address to a service of a private network. The service of the private network is accessible, via a gateway, by a client computer. The method also includes turning off duplicate address detection at the gateway. The gateway is associated with a public network address that is different from the service address.
US08874688B1
Disclosed are various embodiments for securing execution of page generation code supplied by customers. The page generation code may be instrumented with code that facilitates monitoring of one or more resources consumed by the page generation code. Various compile-time checks relating, for example, to code size and whether exception-handling code is present may be performed. The page generation code is executed to generate a network page in response to a request obtained from a client. One or more resource consumption limits are enforced upon the page generation code.
US08874683B2
A method of receiving and processing a broadcast signal including a Non-Real Time (NRT) service and a broadcast receiver are disclosed herein. A method of processing a Non-Real Time (NRT) service in a broadcast receiver, the method comprises receiving and processing first signaling information including content access information and second signaling information including content detail information, receiving and processing third signaling information including content update information, receiving and storing a content including at least one file through NRT based on the first signaling information and the second signaling information, identifying update availability of the content based on the content update information included in the third signaling information, and receiving at least one file included in the content by accessing a File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE) session transmitting the content when the update is available.
US08874679B2
A computer-implemented method includes generating a communication to be sent from a sender to a recipient who are related to one another by blood or employment; and scheduling delivery of the communication to the recipient based on a future location of the recipient. The content of the communication and the future location of the recipient are determined from an analysis of electronically-accessible resources by or about the sender, the recipient, or both.
US08874676B2
Rolling view optimization is initiated by receiving electronic mail data corresponding to a plurality of mail pieces, the electronic mail data including a first cycle and determining whether substantially all electronic mail data from the first cycle can be processed for mailing. In response to determining that substantially all of the electronic mail data from the first cycle cannot be processed for mailing, a determination is made whether a portion of the mail data from the first cycle can be processed for mailing and in response to determining that a portion of the mail data from the first cycle can be processed for mailing the electronic mail data corresponding to the first cycle for mailing is sent.
US08874673B2
A method for performing a communication using a virtual object includes displaying a dynamic virtual object on a display screen; identifying the dynamic virtual object in response to a selection input; determining a target to which the identified dynamic virtual object is to be transmitted; and performing a communication using the identified dynamic virtual object. A terminal to communicate using a virtual object includes a virtual object providing unit to provide a dynamic virtual object on a display screen; a virtual object managing unit to store the dynamic virtual object and target information of a target corresponding to the dynamic virtual object; a virtual object selection unit to select the dynamic virtual object in response to a selection input; and a channel establishing unit to establish a communication channel with the target using the dynamic virtual object.
US08874671B2
A system, method, electronic device and server are provided for metering electronic messages and for managing message traffic within an organization. An electronic message resistance value is stored for recipients within an organization. When a message is composed and addressed at a sending terminal, the electronic message resistance value may be retrieved and displayed at the sending terminal. The message server receiving the composed message for transmission to the recipient sends the message to the recipient in accordance with a priority determined based on the recipient's electronic message resistance; for example, the message may be sent with a low priority attribute, or the transmission of the message to the recipient may be delayed for a set period of time.
US08874665B2
Apparatus, methods and computer-readable storage media are provided for information management and display. In one embodiment, a method includes displaying, via a user interface of a communication device, a dynamically updatable wallpaper comprising a personalized theme personalized to a user of the communication device. The method also includes updating the dynamically updatable wallpaper to display one or more animated icons. Displaying the animated icons is based, at least, on detected activity of respective contacts associated with the one or more animated icons. In another embodiment, an apparatus comprises: a user interface component configured to display images indicative of contacts, wherein the plurality of contacts are predefined by a user of the apparatus. The apparatus also includes a messaging component configured to: integrate different types of text messages for one of the contacts; and provide concurrent display of the text messages and social media information for one of the contacts.
US08874663B2
A mechanism for efficiently determining similarity between documents. A set of reference data items is generated by processing a reference document. A similarity index representing similarity between a candidate document and the reference documents is obtained by counting segments of the candidate document matching the reference data items. The candidate document is a message transmitted in a communication system where the message is compared against one or more reference documents representing unwanted messages to filter and block unwanted messages from being transmittal or propagated.
US08874661B2
A method and system for allowing spectators to experience multimedia information over a network generated by an online video game running on a participant's device comprises a participant system and a universal spectator client system. A participant may utilize a device to experience game play. Each spectator may also have an associated device, which may allow the spectator to receive multimedia information generated by the participant system over a network. A spectator may experience multimedia information generated by a participant regardless of whether the spectator has the same title installed on an associated device and regardless of whether the associated spectator device provides the same capabilities and functionality as the participant device.
US08874659B2
A mechanism is disclosed for generating a composite email for an email conversation. The composite email includes content automatically extracted from a plurality of the emails in the email conversation, and may be generated in response to a user accessing just one of the emails in the email conversation. A mechanism is also disclosed for discovering and recovering lost emails in an email conversation. A mechanism is further disclosed for automatically moving emails from one container to another after an email has been read. These and other advantageous email generating, manipulation, and organization mechanisms are disclosed herein.
US08874653B2
Techniques are described for enhancing security, customization, and/or group interaction of users in vehicles. For instance, a mobile device of an owner of a vehicle may be registered in a manner that allows the mobile device to control operation of the vehicle and authorize guest user operation of the vehicle. In addition, the vehicle may be adapted to receive preferred vehicle settings from mobile devices positioned in the vehicle, such as a mobile device of a guest user, and customize the vehicle settings based on the retrieved preferences. Further, the vehicle may be equipped to communicate with in-pavement vehicle detection systems and enable interaction in an ad hoc group with other vehicles positioned to connect to the in-pavement vehicle detection systems.
US08874649B2
A system for determining a spammer includes a session division apparatus configured to acquire short message events associated with a user and divide them into a plurality of sessions in terms of time; a social network building and characteristic calculating apparatus configured to build a social network of the user in each of the sessions, and calculate at least one type of social network characteristic in each of the sessions, respectively; and a determination apparatus configured to determine whether the user is a spammer or not according to the social network characteristic.
US08874645B2
A system and a method share an experience with media content between multiple devices for providing access to electronic program guide information and/or multimedia metadata of the media content. Users share and/or view the electronic program guide information and/or the multimedia metadata associated with the media content by transferring and/or by publishing the electronic program guide information and/or the multimedia metadata via one or more networks. Two or more participating devices establish a connection via one or more networks for a sending device to transfer the electronic program guide information and/or the multimedia metadata to one or more receiving devices via one or more networks. The electronic program guide information and/or the multimedia metadata has communications and/or comments associated with consumption of the media content. The receiving devices consume the digital multimedia file for users of the receiving devices to share in an experience of the media content with a user of the sending device. The users of the sending device and/or of the receiving devices discuss and/or comment on the experience of the media content through an asynchronous message or a communication channel in real time.
US08874637B2
A server-based browser system provides a server-based browser and a client system browser. The client browser reports the position of a user click on its display screen, hotspot ID, or URL to the server-side browser which retrieves a Document Object Model (DOM) model and view tree for the client and finds the location on the Web page that the user clicked on using the coordinates or hotspot ID received from the client. If there is a script associated with the location, it is executed and the resulting page location is requested from the appropriate server. If there is a URL associated with the location, it is requested from the appropriate server. The response Web page HTML definition is parsed and a DOM tree model is created which is used to create a view tree model. The server-side browser retrieves a style sheet, layout algorithms, and device constraints for the client device and lays out the view model using them onto a virtual page and determines the visual content. Textual and positional information are highly compressed and formatted into a stream and sent to the client browser which decodes the stream and displays the page to the user using the textual and positional information.
US08874636B2
A service center receives a request from a remote device for a live support session of a product supported by the service center, where the service center provides support services for a plurality of products on behalf of a plurality of product providers. In response to the request, the service center determines one or more preferred agents that are known to a user of the remote device and transmits information representing the preferred agents to the remote device to allow the user to select one of the preferred agents for the live support session. In response to a user selection of an agent, a communications session is established between the user and the selected agent to enable the selected agent to provide live support.
US08874633B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for determining coefficients for a digital low pass filter, given cutoff and boost values for a corresponding analog version of the digital low pass filter. Coefficients are determined for a digital low pass filter by obtaining cutoff and boost values for a corresponding analog version of the digital low pass filter; and determining the coefficients for the digital low pass filter based on the obtained cutoff and boost values. The coefficients can be determined, for example, by generating a transfer function, H(s), for the corresponding analog version using the obtained cutoff and boost values: transforming the transfer function, H(s), to a frequency domain characterization, H(z), using one or more bilinear transforms to obtain a plurality of coefficients for an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter; generating the IIR filter using the plurality of coefficients for the IIR filter; and applying an impulse to the IIR filter to obtain the one or more coefficients for the digital low pass filter. In another variation, the coefficients are pre-computed and obtained from a look-up table.
US08874630B2
An apparatus and method for converting data between a floating-point number and an integer is provided. The apparatus includes a data converter configured to determine a sign of input binary data and an output format to which to convert the input binary data and convert the input binary data into a one's complement number based on the sign and the output format of the input binary data, a bias value generator configured to determine whether the input binary data has been rounded up based on a rounding mode of the input binary data and generate a bias value accordingly; and an adder configured to convert the input binary data into a two's complement number by adding the one's complement number and the bias value.
US08874629B2
Systems, devices, and methods for using an analog processor to solve computational problems. A digital processor is configured to track computational problem processing requests received from a plurality of different users, and to track at least one of a status and a processing cost for each of the computational problem processing requests. An analog processor, for example a quantum processor, is operable to assist in producing one or more solutions to computational problems identified by the computational problem processing requests via a physical evolution.
US08874627B2
One embodiment is a method that stores metadata about files separately from directories for the files in storage devices and represents the directories as a tree structure in which entries refer to separate storage blocks that include the metadata with each of the separate storage blocks storing metadata for only a single file.
US08874624B2
A system and method by which users via programs on one computer may seamlessly access files remotely stored on other computers that run a well known file access protocol. An operating system extension and an application level network access program are provided. The operating system extension receives file system requests for remote files from the operating system that were issued according to a well known application program interface. The operating system extension forwards the remote file system request to the network access program. The network access program reformats the request according to a well known application level network protocol extension and sends it over a network to a remote computer system.
US08874618B2
A computerized method and system to communicate information between a supported client computer and a remote support organization have been described. At the supported client computer, status information, generated by one or more client applications when executing on the supported client computer, may be retrieved. The status information may be stored in a client database on the supported client computer. A first client database definition for a client data item may be mapped to a first tag, the first client database definition may be associated with the client database and the client data item may include the status information. A client message document including the first tag may be communicated to a support server of the remote support organization. The status information may be stored in, and retrieved from, the client database via a functional abstraction layer comprising one or more customized application program interfaces (API).
US08874610B2
Methods and systems for identifying stability exceptions in a data log are disclosed. In one method, at least one key that is present in the data log is determined. The data log is comprised of at least one data set, at least one of which includes a plurality of iterations indicating states of the corresponding data set at different points in time. For each data set and for each key, a map is generated. The map indicates, for each iteration of the corresponding data set, whether the corresponding key is present in the corresponding iteration. Moreover, at least one expression pattern rule that models data item stability characteristics over data set iterations is compared to each of the maps to determine whether the corresponding map satisfies the one or more expression pattern rules. Further, at least one unstable data item is identified in the data log based on the comparison.
US08874607B2
According to certain embodiments, a set of samples of sensor data is accessed. The set of samples records measurements taken by one or more sensors. Each sample is represented as a minterm to yield a set of minterms. A characteristic function is generated from the set of minterms. The characteristic function indicates whether a given minterm is a member of the set of minterms.
US08874596B2
An image processing system and method receives one or more digital images in the form of image data, including selected object data of a digital image, and determines, by an electronic recognition process, if a recognition match is available between the selected object data of the digital image and image object library data associated with image descriptor library data. An automated library user interface presents selectable matched object descriptor data associated with the image descriptor library data when a recognition match occurs between the selected object data of the digital image and the image descriptor library data. In response, the automated library user interface provides user feedback data to confirm that the image descriptor library data corresponds with the selected object data of the digital image, or entered descriptor data if no match or an incorrect match occurs, to create library descriptor associated image data.
US08874582B2
A user may submit product title information to a server. The server may generate a phrase based on the product title information. The server may then search a database to find relevancies between the phrase and product categories corresponding to multiple nodes in a product category tree. Based on the relevancies, the server may select a node from the multiple nodes. The server may associate the product title information with the node corresponding to a product category when the node is a leaf node of the product category tree.
US08874568B2
One exemplary aspect comprises a computer system comprising: (a) a preprocessing unit that extracts text from a webpage to produce at least a first set of candidate keywords, applies language processing to produce at least a second set of candidate keywords, and combines said first and second sets of candidate keywords into a first candidate pool; (b) a candidate extraction unit that receives data from said preprocessing unit describing at least said first candidate pool and produces a second candidate pool; (c) a feature extraction unit that receives data describing at least said second candidate pool and analyzes said second candidate pool for general features and linguistic features; and (d) a classification unit that receives said data describing at least said second candidate pool and related data from said feature extraction unit, and determines a likelihood of each candidate in said second candidate pool being a primary or secondary keyword.
US08874557B2
Methods, apparatus, and computer-readable storage media for object retrieval and localization that employ a spatially-constrained similarity model. A spatially-constrained similarity measure may be evaluated by a voting-based scoring technique. Object retrieval and localization may thus be achieved without post-processing. The spatially-constrained similarity measure may handle object rotation, scaling and view point change. The similarity measure can be efficiently calculated by the voting-based method and integrated with inverted files. The voting-based scoring technique may simultaneously retrieve and localize a query object in a collection of images such as an image database. The object retrieval and localization technique may, for example, be implemented with a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) re-ranking method in or as a retrieval method, system or module. The k-NN re-ranking method may be applied to improve query results of the object retrieval and localization technique.
US08874553B2
Disclosed are methods for returning to a user an answer to the question “what is
US08874551B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media include actions of receiving a query, identifying, based on the query, one or more relevant elements from an overall data model, identifying, using an adapter mapping, one or more adapters based on the one or more relevant elements, the adapter mapping associating each relevant element with a particular adapter, querying, using the one or more adapters, one or more data elements in data sources of a plurality of disparate data sources, each adapter being specific to a data source of the plurality of data sources, receiving, at the one or more adapters, one or more data results, transforming each data result of the one or more data results into a unified data format to provide respective one or more transformed data results, storing the one or more transformed data results in a temporary data store and querying the temporary data store to generate a result.
US08874549B2
Systems and methods are described that calculate the interestingness of a set of one or more records in a database, either absolutely (i.e., compared to an overall collection of records) or relative to some other set of records. In one embodiment, the measure is a relative entropy value that has been normalized. Various applications of the measure are described in the context of an information retrieval system. These applications include, for example, guiding query interpretation, guiding view selection and summarization, intelligent ranges, event detection, concept triggers and interpreting user actions, hierarchy discovery, and adaptive data mining.
US08874546B2
In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a profile page of a user of an online social network, determining whether content on an external web site has been update by the user, and if the content on the external web site has been updated, then updating the profile page of the user to include the content.
US08874544B2
A system and method for exposing internal search indices to Internet search engines. The internal search indices are exposed to external search engines in such a way that the data may be segregated into at least two types including one layer of search data specifically for the search engines, and another for potential users of the application. This significantly improves the probability of discovery by search engines and also provides for presentation of discovered content to users in a manner consistent with the content itself, or consistent with the intended controls or presentations established by the content's owner. The system and method also includes one or more components that reproduce information about IP in a format that search engines can recognize and locate. The component also forwards users coming through the search engines to the actual IP graphical user interface (GUI) instead of the files that the search engine discovered. This allows control over the information that search engines see/view, while ensuring that a user's interface to the system stays constant.
US08874541B1
Methods, systems, and computer program products for identifying search keywords for searching for an online information resource are disclosed. The method involves receiving a request, from a business, for search keywords relating to the content of the business's online information resource. The method further involves generating a post including a link to a search keyword recommendation page; and publishing, using a social network application, the post to a newsfeed in a social network. Additionally, the method involves receiving, from social network users, a plurality of search keywords relating to the online information resource's content. In addition, the method involves ranking the received search keywords; and presenting, to the business, the most popular search keywords. Further, the method involves receiving, from the business, a selection of search keywords from the most popular keywords; and publishing the business's online information resource to include the search keywords that were selected by the business.
US08874540B2
A system and method for semantically classifying numerical data includes using semantic classification techniques on ‘nearby’ non-numerical data to identify a context whereby opaque data sets of numbers can be semantically classified inside of that context. An Electronic Knowledge Base is used to query against the context and determine the semantics of the opaque numeric data sets.
US08874539B2
Identifying a repository object is disclosed. An object identifying information usable to identify a repository object with respect to which an operation is desired to be performed is included in a request not specific to any one manner of identifying objects. The request is sent to a node associated with a repository in which the repository object is or will be stored. At the receiving end, e.g., a content server, the object identifying information included in the request is used to identify the repository object with respect to which the operation is desired to be performed, for example to retrieve the repository object.
US08874534B2
A coherent file system and method of operation for a file state authority coupled to file state sub-set satellites addresses congestion and latency effects on a plurality of peer workstation clients organized in neighborhoods. Very large files are versioned and metadata recorded in a file state view determines which file blocks make up each version of a committed file. Metadata may be requested from neighboring workstations to locate desired file blocks. File block transmission is minimized to fulfill read requests only when not accessible at a workstation's local file block store.
US08874522B2
Containers that store data objects that were written to those containers during a particular backup are accessed. Then, a subset of the containers is identified; the containers in the subset have less than a threshold number of data objects associated with the particular backup. Data objects that are in containers in that subset and that are associated with the backup are copied to one or more other containers. Those other containers are subsequently used to restore data objects associated with the backup.
US08874517B2
Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for summarizing file system operations with a file system journal. One embodiment includes a method that stores journal operations for files in a journal file system into a hierarchical tree. The method then summarizes changes made to the files in the hierarchical tree to determine which files require being read and backed up due to changes to content and which files have change but do not require being read and backed up.
US08874516B2
Replicating data in a distributed database having a plurality of nodes is disclosed. Replicating includes receiving a semantic command at a local version of the database at a node, interpreting the semantic command, and applying the semantic command to the local version of the database.
US08874510B2
An apparatus and method are disclosed for synchronizing states. A management module selects a file to synchronize between a base and a detachable device. The detachable device provides a display and a network connection for the base if the base and detachable device are connected. A synchronize module establishes a control connection and a data connection between the base and the detachable device and transmits the file to a memory space over the data connection in response to a command communicated over the control connection.
US08874509B2
A technique for appropriately managing a database in an apparatus with a limited storage capacity is described. A client apparatus includes a first storage unit storing part of a record set included in a database of a database server apparatus, and a second storage unit storing a copy of the record set stored in the first storage unit. The client apparatus usually searches the second storage unit. If data is not found, the client apparatus transmits a search request to the database server apparatus and stores a search result in the second storage unit. When the client apparatus receives update data from the database server apparatus, the client apparatus performs processing of updating the first storage unit.
US08874499B2
A system generates a consumer decision tree (“CDT”). The system receives customer purchasing data that includes transactions of a plurality of products each having at least one product attribute. For a product category, the system identifies a plurality of similar products from the purchasing data and one or more attributes corresponding to each similar product. The system assigns the product category as a current level of the CDT, and determines a most significant attribute of the plurality of attributes for the current level. The system forms a next level of the CDT by dividing the most significant attribute into a plurality of sub-sections, where each sub-section corresponds to an attribute value of the most significant attribute. The system then forms a next level of the CDT for each sub-section until a terminal node is identified.
US08874494B1
An improved technique for replacing storage elements in a redundant group of storage elements of a storage array dynamically selects a storage element type from among multiple candidates based on which storage element type produces the greatest service level of the redundant group. The technique includes selecting one of multiple storage element types using a random selection process that can be biased to favor the selection of certain storage element types over others. A storage element of the selected type is added to the redundant group. The selected storage element type is then rewarded based on the service level that results from adding the storage element of the selected type. The selection process is repeated, and a newly selected storage element type is put into use. Operation tends to converge on an optimal storage element type that maximizes the service level of the redundant group.
US08874491B2
The aspects of the disclosed embodiments include clustering a set of discrete user interface states into groups; presenting the groups on a display of a device; and enabling selection of any state within a presented group, wherein selection of a state returns the user interface to the selected state.
US08874478B2
A system and methods are developed for providing market data in an electronic trading environment. One example method includes determining a probability model comprising a probability corresponding to a change in relation to a market data parameter, then, using the probability to generate a compressed bit stream representing the market data parameter, and providing the compressed bit stream to the client terminal.
US08874471B2
Systems and methods are disclosed herein for estimating the risk of criminal activity in a retail setting. Using video data, biometric data for an individual may be obtained. A baseline biometric measurement is taken upon enqueuing of an individual, which may include entry of the individual into the field of view of a camera having a point of sale (POS) in its field of view. A biometric measurement is also taken when the individual is adjacent the POS. According to an analysis of these measurements, an estimate of risk is calculated, such as by comparing the baseline measurement to a POS measurement. Based on this risk assessment, an alert may be generated. The alert may be a graphical indicator displayed on the POS or transmitted to a device operated by a store representative. The risk assessment may also be used to select transactions for auditing in a self-checkout system.
US08874468B2
Potential content item slots (e.g., ad slots) in a media (e.g., video, audio, or both) are identified, and each content item slot is associated with a weight that indicates a degree of potential disruption to a flow of the media when a content item (e.g., ad) is inserted in the content item slot.
US08874466B2
A method of dynamically sizing incentive rewards for location-based actions by groups is disclosed. A first incentive reward that is to be provided based on a first number of times members of a group of users complete a location-based action is determined. A second incentive reward that is to be provided based on a second number of times members of the group of users complete the location-based action is determined. A magnitude of the second incentive reward is greater than a magnitude of the first incentive reward based on the second number of times being greater than the first number of times. The group of users is notified of the incentive reward and the additional incentive reward.
US08874455B2
An information management system providing a consolidated representation of a plurality of assets is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the information management system includes a data repository operable to store a plurality of global asset definitions which represent enterprise-owned assets and customer-owned assets. In one embodiment, one global asset definition is stored as a record of an asset of the plurality of assets. The global asset definition includes a functional specification of the asset and a physical attribute of the asset. The system further includes a work management application communicatively coupled to the data repository which provides a work flow manager that is operable to determine a work flow associated with the global asset definition. The work flow manager is further operable to manage the execution of the work flow.
US08874454B2
A damage assessment module operating on a computer system automatically evaluates a roof, estimating damage to the roof by analyzing a point cloud of a roof. The damage assessment module identifies individual shingles from the point cloud and detects potentially damaged areas on each of the shingles. The damage assessment module then maps the potentially damaged areas of each shingle back to the point cloud to determine which areas of the roof are damaged. Based on the estimation, the damage assessment module generates a report on the roof damage. The report may be used to determine the financial cost of the damage and/or determine whether the roof should be replaced or repaired. In addition to eliminating the need for an estimator to physically climb onto a roof for evaluation purposes, the damage assessment module improves the consistency and accuracy associated with estimating damage to a roof.
US08874453B2
A network for mediating the peer-to-peer transfer of digital patient medical data includes a plurality of distributed agents each associated with a health care provider and connected to a central system. Periodically the agents collect local information relating to patient medical files and/or data streams, for example diagnostic images and associated reports, and process that information into metadata files acting as pointers to the original files. The metadata files are transmitted to the central system where they are parsed and the attributes are stored on the central system in patient records with records from the same patient grouped together whenever possible. Registered users can search the central system, even in the absence of a unique identifier, to identify patient records pointing to the remote patient medical files. Upon finding a patient medical file, the invention provides a streamlined process for communicating access authorization from the patient to the hospital or facility storing the medical files. Once patient authorization is received, secure processes are provided for transferring the data in its entirety to or for viewing by the user in a peer-to-peer fashion.
US08874452B2
Method and system including receiving one or more parameters associated with an orthodontic condition, receiving a treatment goal information associated with the orthodontic condition, and providing a predefined template associated with the received treatment goal information, wherein the predefined template includes at least one orthodontic condition related information, are provided.
US08874440B2
A speech detection apparatus and method are provided. The speech detection apparatus and method determine whether a frame is speech or not using feature information extracted from an input signal. The speech detection apparatus may estimate a situation related to an input frame and determine which feature information is required for speech detection for the input frame in the estimated situation. The speech detection apparatus may detect a speech signal using dynamic feature information that may be more suitable to the situation of a particular frame, instead of using the same feature information for each and every frame.
US08874438B2
User and vocabulary-adaptive determination of confidence and rejecting thresholds. A confidence measure for voice recognition is provided, by which during a voice recognition, a theoretic identification result is deducible or already given. The recognition process is carried out based upon the theoretic identification result and a confidence measure of the theoretic identification result is further adapted based upon the recognition process.
US08874430B2
A method for preparing a multi-lingual personal identification card includes receiving a multi-lingual text comprising Latin-based characters in a Latin-based language and non-Latin-based characters in a non-Latin-based language. The multi-lingual text includes the name of the holder of the personal identification card in the Latin-based language and the non-Latin-based language. The method converts the non-Latin-based characters in the multi-lingual text to index values to produce a pseudo text. The conversion is based on a predefined mapping that converts the Unicode values of the non-Latin-based characters to index values having fewer digits than the corresponding Unicode values of the non-Latin-based characters. The method receives vector data for a personal image which includes a facial image, a finger print, or a combination of both of the holder of the personal identification card, and encodes the pseudo text and the vector data in the matrix-code symbol.
US08874428B2
Methods and systems for fast translation memory search include, in response to an input query string, identifying a plurality of hypothesis strings stored in a translation memory as candidates to match the query string. One or more candidates are eliminated, using a processor, where string lengths between the candidates and the query string are at least a cutoff value representing a string edit distance. One or more candidates are eliminated where differences in word frequency distributions between the candidates and the query string are at least the cutoff value. One or more candidates are eliminated by employing a dynamic programming matrix where string edit distances between the candidates and the query string are at least the cutoff value. A number of remaining candidates are outputted as matches to the query string.
US08874418B2
A multiple application automated test set (MAATS) system can simulate the operation of a power plant. To simulate the operation of the power plant, the MAATS system can be configured to “stand in” for the power plant by receiving the control signals from a controller and by generating electrical signals, readable by the controller, that represent the operating parameters and conditions of the power plant.
US08874416B2
A resource usage optimization server determines a degradation caused by a first resource. The resource usage optimization server determines a cleaning caused by a second resource. The resource usage optimization server calculates a ratio of the degradation and the cleaning.
US08874414B2
Systems and methods for populating a design model for engineering, design, and construction projects are described. The design model contains a 3D representation of an assembled structure. Each structural component within the assembled structure has a set of physical attributes that are electronically stored as design model objects. Additional information about each structural component is electronically supplied by a detailer as detailing model objects. The detailing model objects are imported into the design model using a utility tool. The utility tool comprises a processor and executable code that is configured to: (i) correlate the design and detailing model objects; and (ii) recommend to a user which detailing objects should be imported into the design model. The utility tool correlates physical attributes (e.g., location, section size, section type) rather than unique identification numbers, thus allowing the design model to be populated without relying on identification numbers.
US08874412B2
Data clustering is provided according to a dynamical framework based on quantum mechanical time evolution of states corresponding to data points. To expedite computations, we can approximate the time-dependent Hamiltonian formalism by a truncated calculation within a set of Gaussian wave-functions (coherent states) centered around the original points. This allows for analytic evaluation of the time evolution of all such states, opening up the possibility of exploration of relationships among data-points through observation of varying dynamical-distances among points and convergence of points into clusters. This formalism may be further supplemented by preprocessing, such as dimensional reduction through singular value decomposition and/or feature filtering.
US08874408B2
A low cost method of measuring parameters of a product in the field, such as the coating thickness on an individual vehicle, sends the measurement data set to a common pocket-size device also carried by the inspector, labels the data set, and transmits the data set to a remote computer to produce a product condition report. Alternately, the data can be transmitted directly to a remote buyer. The method is a low cost, practical and efficient because the inspector in the field only requires two pocket-size wireless devices. Inspectors are freed from carrying relatively bulky or heavy computers in the field. Furthermore, the method employs devices already owned by a numerous inspectors and the method requires no proprietary or expensive equipment. The remote computer permits the efficient addition of further information to create detailed reports that are organized or compiled and transmitted to customers.
US08874406B2
A system for measurement of spatial coordinates and/or orientation of a probe, comprising a first spatial direction sensor associated with a pattern of targets with known positions relative to each other and to the first spatial direction sensor, a second spatial direction sensor, and processing means for the computation of the orientation and/or spatial coordinates of the pattern of targets relative to the second spatial direction sensor based on the known positions of the targets relative to each other and a determination of the spatial directions of the targets with respect to the second spatial direction sensor, wherein at least three of the targets are in the field of view (FOV2) of the second spatial direction sensor irrespective of the orientation of the pattern of targets and wherein the first spatial direction sensor determines the spatial coordinates and/or orientation of the probe.
US08874393B2
A battery pack includes: a chargeable and dischargeable battery; and a microcomputer that acquires information on a voltage drop across the battery in a condition equivalent to no load and stores the information therein.
US08874392B2
A method for determining a power reduction due to ageing of a photovoltaic module includes measuring a variable associated with a performance of the module in one or more time periods within a given year, each time period defining a class, and constructing curves of discrete values, each power curve constructed from the measured electric variable at a plurality of times of a day within each class, and the curves constructed for a plurality of years. The method includes determining energy values based on the constructed curves for at least one class for each of the plurality of years, and determining a power reduction of the photovoltaic module with respect to one or several previous years by calculating a difference between the energy output values of a given class in a particular year and the energy output values of the given class in a year previous to the particular year.
US08874391B2
Techniques are disclosed for computing distance-to-fault (DTF) in communication systems. The techniques can be embodied, for instance, in a DTF system that provides a multi-port probing device and DTF functionality, including computing distances to faults and the fault magnitudes. In addition, the DTF system is further configured with the ability to accurately measure complex reflection coefficient of the UUT, and/or return loss of the UUT. The complex reflection coefficient and/or return loss of the UUT can be computed as a function of known scattering parameters of a multi-port measurement circuit included in the probe of the DTF system.
US08874386B2
A method for determining a load exerted on a tire, fitted on a vehicle, during running of the vehicle on a rolling surface, is disclosed. The method includes acquiring a first signal comprising a first signal portion representative of a radial deformation; measuring an amplitude of the radial deformation in the first signal portion; estimating a rotation speed of the tire corresponding to the radial deformation; estimating an inflation pressure of the tire corresponding to the radial deformation; and deriving the load exerted on the tire from the amplitude, the rotation speed, and the inflation pressure. The first signal portion is representative of the radial deformation to which a first tread area portion of the tire is subjected during passage of the first tread area portion through a contact region between the tire and the rolling surface. A system for determining the load exerted on the tire is also disclosed.
US08874385B2
The present invention provides, at low cost, a multilayer radiation detector whose position relative to a beam axis can be verified. The radiation detector includes a plurality of sensors that react to radiation and are stacked in parallel inlayers in a traveling direction of the radiation. The sensors are each sectioned into a central region including the center of the sensor and another region surrounding the central region. The radiation detector independently measures signals measured by the central regions and signals measured by the other regions. Thus, the position of the radiation detector can be verified.
US08874384B1
A method of standardizing ultrasonic flaw detectors utilizing electronic porosity standards which includes the steps of obtaining bandwidth characteristics of an ultrasonic flaw detector, obtaining broadband porosity attenuation characteristics of porosity samples, and generating porosity vs. attenuation curves calibrated to the apparatus using the bandwidth characteristics and the broadband porosity attenuation characteristics.
US08874382B2
Methods and systems are provided for controlling operational parameters of a CO2 compression surface facility or pipeline in order to maintain a CO2 stream having impurities flowing in the pipeline in a liquid or supercritical phase. Sensors may be provided to sense whether the flow is single-phase or two-phase flow, and feedback provided to adjust the pressure and/or temperature at the pipeline inlet. The system is preferably optimized to limit power consumption and/or cost.
US08874379B2
A method for displaying medical data includes receiving physiological data from a first medical monitoring device. The physiological data is obtained on a continuous basis. Physiological data is received from a second medical monitoring device. The physiological data from the second medical monitoring device is obtained on a non-continuous basis. The physiological data received from the first medical monitoring device and the physiological data received from the second medical monitoring device are displayed on a central display station. The central display station is located centrally within a care unit of a caregiving facility.
US08874377B1
A method for detecting biological aerosols using a photon counting technique to determine the presence of particles is described. A Schmitt trigger is used to prevent over counting of particle events and for greater stability and noise immunity. An alarm determination is made using time-based statistical data derived from the observed fluorescent and scattered photon data.
US08874372B1
Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to safe and effective use of autonomous vehicles. More specifically, objects detected in a vehicle's surroundings may be detected by the vehicle's various sensors and identified based on their relative location in a roadgraph. The roadgraph may include a graph network of information such as roads, lanes, intersections, and the connections between these features. The roadgraph may also include the boundaries of areas, including for example, crosswalks or bicycle lanes. In one example, an object detected in a location corresponding to a crosswalk area of the roadgraph may be identified as a person. In another example, an object detected in a location corresponding to a bicycle area of the roadgraph and identified as a bicycle. By identifying the type of object in this way, an autonomous vehicle may be better prepared to react to or simply avoid the object.
US08874368B2
To improve accuracy of determining whether route elements stored as a history are route elements familiar to the user, a navigation apparatus 100 includes: a passage history storage unit 9a that stores a history of route elements passed in the past; a memory cost determination unit 84 that determines memory costs indicative of how less likely a user still has in mind the route elements stored in the passage history storage unit 9a based on the history stored in the passage history storage unit 9a; a route search unit 85 that searches for a route leading to a destination by combining the route elements to minimize a route cost of the entire route including the memory costs determined by the memory cost determination unit 84; and a navigation unit 86 that performs a route guide in accordance with the route searched by the route search unit 85.
US08874364B2
In a navigation system, e.g., for a motor vehicle, for determining the route from a location of the navigation system to a destination point, the navigation system includes a display device for displaying the route in a map display or a map-type display, and/or a direction indication that corresponds to the route, and it is possible to simultaneously display a canonically oriented graphic or image of a prominent route point with the aid of the display device.
US08874354B2
A method and structure of estimating traffic in a network. A real-time estimate of the network traffic is calculated, based on limited real-time data about the network traffic calculated in an offline phase and limited real-time data received in a real-time phase.
US08874346B2
A brake system for a mobile machine is disclosed. The brake system may have an anti-lock braking subsystem configured to calculate a maximum allowable brake command. The brake system may have a stability control subsystem configured to generate a desired differential brake command. The brake system may have a brake command adjustment subsystem. The brake command adjustment subsystem may be configured to calculate an ideal solution of a left brake command and a right brake command to satisfy a combination of the desired differential brake command and a desired total brake command. When the ideal solution is valid, the brake command adjustment subsystem may output the ideal solution as an actual brake command. When the ideal solution is invalid, the brake command adjustment subsystem may calculate a non-ideal solution of the left brake command and the right brake command.
US08874344B2
Driver braking performance feedback may be conveyed to a vehicle operator as a braking efficiency score using a vehicle display system. The display system may include a vehicle display for displaying a braking efficiency indicator or gauge corresponding to the braking efficiency score. The braking efficiency score may be based on a comparison of the total regenerative braking energy recaptured during at least one braking event to a either a maximum amount of braking energy that may be recaptured during the at least one braking event or an actual total braking energy expended during the at least one braking event. The braking efficiency score may be displayed upon the completion of a braking event or upon a completion of a trip including a plurality of braking events. The display may also convey a distance corresponding to a portion of a trip distance achieved through regenerative braking.
US08874342B2
A collision avoidance support apparatus sets a side area right beside an own vehicle in an adjacent lane as a constant-speed target space, which is used for lane change at a constant speed, and also sets a diagonally-front area and a diagonally-rear area as alt-speed target spaces, which are used for lane change at an accelerated speed and at a decelerated speed. Then, a target space that is free of other vehicles is extracted by the apparatus. If there is no target space that is free of the other vehicles, the lane change is determined as unsafe. If there is no other vehicle in the constant-speed target space, the lane change is determined to be safe at the constant speed. If there is no other vehicle in at least one of the alt-speed target spaces, the lane change is determined to be safe at an accelerated speed or a decelerated speed.
US08874341B2
An electro-hydraulic brake-by-wire system includes a brake pedal, an electronic booster coupled to the brake pedal, a master cylinder coupled to the electronic booster, at least one hydraulic brake circuit disposed in fluid communication with the master cylinder, at least one front hydraulic brake disposed in fluid communication with the at least one hydraulic brake circuit and at least one rear hydraulic brake disposed in fluid communication with the at least one hydraulic brake circuit.
US08874333B2
In a control apparatus for an automatic transmission having two input shafts connected to an output shaft of a prime mover; two output shafts; and two drive force transmission paths including clutches and synch devices each of which is able to connect a speed gear to the associated one of the output shafts, it is configured to discriminate whether shifting required by an operator is a first shifting pattern or a second shifting pattern, supply fluid pressure to one of the drive force transmission paths associated with a desired speed gear, while engaging the lockup clutch, when the shifting is the first shifting pattern, and supply the fluid pressure to the one of the drive force transmission paths associated with the desired speed gear, while disengaging the lockup clutch, when the shifting is the second shifting pattern.
US08874324B2
The invention relates to a modular unit (10) comprising a sensor device (11) for actuating a movable part (1, 33), in particular a flap (1) of a motor vehicle. Said unit comprises a support element (12), on which the sensor device (11) comprising at least one sensor (21, 22, 23) is situated, in order to detect (3) an object (4) in a detection region (5, 6, 40) that borders the motor vehicle (2), the detection operation (3) initiating the actuation of the movable part (1, 33). According to the invention, the modular unit (10) is designed as an individual module (10) that is easily fitted in such a way that said unit (10) can be fixed to the motor vehicle (2).
US08874321B2
A display control apparatus for a vehicle includes a steering angle detector, an operation detector, a display section, and a setting section. The steering angle detector detects a steering angle of the vehicle. The operation detector detects an operation to an operation unit mounted on a steering wheel of the vehicle. The display section displays an operation image on a display unit located behind the steering wheel in such a manner that the operation image changes according to the operation detected by the operation detector. The setting section sets a display position of the operation image on the display unit according to the steering angle detected by the steering angle detector so that a driver of the vehicle views the operation image at a position adjacent to the operation unit.
US08874319B2
An inverted pendulum type vehicle with a tiltable rider mounting section has a first travel operation unit and a second travel operation unit, which are disposed with an interval provided therebetween in the longitudinal direction and which are capable of traveling in all directions. In a situation wherein a predetermined representative point of the vehicle or the first travel operation unit is to be moved rightward or leftward, the traveling operations of the first travel operation unit and the second travel operation unit are controlled such that the travel velocity of the first travel operation unit and the travel velocity of the second travel operation unit in the lateral direction are different from each other.
US08874309B2
A method for acquiring information from a driving operation of a vehicle, in which first information is acquired with respect to at least one operating state of the vehicle and additional second information is ascertained with respect to this at least one operating state using statistical methods, the first and second information concerning this at least one operating state being stored. A method for the assigning and diagnosis of at least one operating state of a vehicle, a control unit, a computer program and a computer-program product are also provided.
US08874307B2
A device for determining ageing of a hydraulic fluid in a hydraulic system with a multitude of hydraulic components is provided. The device comprises at least one temperature determination device and at least one ageing determination device, wherein the temperature determination device determines the respective temperature of each discrete fluid volume of the hydraulic fluid in the hydraulic system, and from the aforesaid the ageing determination device determines an increase in ageing. Generally, the temperature determination device carries out a numerical thermal simulation of the hydraulic system, component by component, including determining at least one temperature of at least one hydraulic component of the hydraulic system, which simulation is supported by measuring the temperatures of individual hydraulic components by means of temperature sensors.
US08874299B2
A vehicle control system of the electrically driven vehicle, wherein the engagement element slip process is carried out for the slipping of the transmission engagement element on the basis of the detection by the detecting section; and the control system has a clutch torque control section that is programmed to work as follows: during the engagement element slip process, the target motor/generator torque, which is increased from the drive torque of the motor/generator by a clutch slip accelerating torque portion for accelerating the slipping of the drive transmission engagement element for the drive torque of the motor/generator, is output from the motor/generator. In addition, when the preset slip accelerating torque suppression condition is met, the torque control for decreasing the drive torque of the motor/generator is carried out.
US08874280B2
In order to allow the broader selection of modules that configure a vehicle, this information processing system, which is for checking a vehicle configured by combining a plurality of vehicle modules, is characterized by being provided with: a first judgment means that judges whether or not each vehicle module has been certified; a second judgment means that judges whether or not the combination of the plurality of vehicle modules can be certified; and a determination means that determines the conditions necessary for the combination of the plurality of vehicle modules to receive certification.
US08874277B2
A method and system of power factor optimization and total harmonic distortion are provided under the premise of efficient power management and distribution on an electrical grid. The method and system include a novel optimization technique based on a novel current profiling methodology enabling real-time power management with power factor correction as a function of the optimization. The optimization can be performed under dynamic current constraints. When deployed on an electrical grid, the method and system can provide a new technique for power management targeting an efficiency of the electrical grid. The method and system can thus provide for reduced costs of energy production and reduced carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
US08874256B2
A system for in-vehicle monitoring and control of commodity loading, such a grain or loose or fluid materials, from a storage bin to a transport bin using a loading system, includes a loading system control device and a user interface device capable of mutual wireless communication. The system improves safety by eliminating the need for operators to crawl up the side of vehicle in order to check levels of commodity in the transport bin, while also trying to move the transport bin as required. The loading system control device includes a logic switching unit for selectively operating the loading system that transfers the commodity from the storage bin; one or more cameras providing visual feeds of the loading of commodity into the transport bin; and a security or safety feature. The user interface device includes a display for displaying the visual feeds and control switches for operating the loading system.
US08874251B2
According to one embodiment, a custom medical mask formed for a particular user from a three-dimensional electronic model includes a body formed from a polymerized photopolymer material. An interior surface of the body is configured to seat on the particular user's face and comprises a physical embodiment of a three-dimensional electronic model corresponding to unique facial features of the particular user. According to another embodiment, a method of creating a three-dimensional electronic model for use in forming a custom medical mask for a particular user includes scanning a portion of the particular user's face using an electronic scanning device, generating a three-dimensional electronic model of the portion of the particular user's face based on the scanning, and transmitting the three-dimensional electronic model of the portion of the particular user's face for use in forming the custom medical mask for the particular user from a photopolymer using a stereolithography apparatus.
US08874238B2
An ABI pad having a configuration and composition to provide the ABI pad with sufficient flexibility to permit the pad to be curved, molded or otherwise conformed to the cochlear nucleus, brainstem or other therapeutically-beneficial site, while ensuring the ABI pad maintains structural integrity over the anticipated operational life of the implant. The ABI pads are manufactured from silicone or other biocompatible material having a durometer sufficient to ensure the durability of the ABI pad over the anticipated operational life of the implant. To attain substantial flexibility, the thickness or cross section of the ABI pad is as minimal as possible to increase flexibility while not adversely affecting the noted durability of the pad. In one embodiment, the ABI pads are formed with an aperture in its interior region resulting in an ABI pad having minimal material mass while having sufficient structural integrity to reliably support the electrodes and associated wires. Thus, the ABI pads of the present invention may still be molded from, for example, industry standard 30 durometer silicone, and the wires and electrodes may be fabricated from industry standard platinum or a platinum/iridium alloy or other bio-compatible noble metals.
US08874236B2
A pacemaker lead includes a body and an insulation layer. The body includes at least one carbon nanotube yarn. The at least one carbon nanotube yarn includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotubes are interconnected along an axis of the body by van der Waals force. The insulation layer covers an outer surface of the body.
US08874234B2
An implantable device comprises a polymer structure having an outer surface facing a surrounding tissue when the implantable device is implanted in a subject body. At least a portion of the surface of the structure has a semi-random pattern of extending micropillars. The semi-random pattern of micropillars on the surface contributes to advantageous surface characteristics of the implantable device in terms of reducing adhesion viable cells to the implantable device as compared to regular patterns of micropillars.
US08874233B2
Systems and methods for modulating a physiological process are provided to enable precise delivery of signals to a predetermined treatment site. The systems may comprise an implantable device and an electrical lead body. The electrical lead body may comprise a plurality of transducer contacts in close proximity to an end of the electrical lead body, and a control unit positioned within the lead body in close proximity to the plurality of transducer contacts.
US08874224B2
The present invention is a flexible circuit electrode array for improved layer adhesions where the metal conductors overlap the polymer insulator. The steps to build the flexible circuit are as follows. Deposit a base polymer layer. Deposit a conductive trace over the base polymer layer. Deposit a top polymer layer over the trace and prepare a void in the top polymer layer smaller than the surface of the trace. Deposit an electrode on the trace through the void with a periphery larger than, and overlapping the void.
US08874222B2
Selective high-frequency spinal cord modulation for inhibiting pain with reduced side effects and associated systems and methods are disclosed. In particular embodiments, high-frequency modulation in the range of from about 1.5 KHz to about 50 KHz may be applied to the patient's spinal cord region to address low back pain without creating unwanted sensory and/or motor side effects. In other embodiments, modulation in accordance with similar parameters can be applied to other spinal or peripheral locations to address other indications.
US08874217B2
Selective high-frequency spinal cord modulation for inhibiting pain with reduced side effects and associated systems and methods are disclosed. In particular embodiments, high-frequency modulation in the range of from about 1.5 KHz to about 50 KHz may be applied to the patient's spinal cord region to address low back pain without creating unwanted sensory and/or motor side effects. In other embodiments, modulation in accordance with similar parameters can be applied to other spinal or peripheral locations to address other indications.
US08874212B2
A device produces at least two distinct temporal components (Vbip, Vuni) from two separate endocardial electrogram EGM signals concurrently collected in the same cavity. A 2D non-temporal characteristic is determined from the variations of one of the temporal components (Vuni) versus the other (Vbip). The analysis of this characteristic allows detection of the possible presence of an anodal stimulation, causing a depolarization in a second cavity after stimulation delivered to a first heart chamber, opposite to the first. One possibility is to proceed by observing whether the non-temporal 2D characteristic is included or not within a predetermined domain defined in a coordinate frame corresponding to the space of the two temporal components.
US08874200B2
A system and method for automated diagnosis of atrial fibrillation through remote monitoring is described. Physiological measures including data either recorded on a regular basis by a medical device or derived therefrom are stored. Physiological measures recorded during a baseline period are identified. Physiological measures including cardiac rhythm and changes to the cardiac rhythm originating subsequent to the baseline period are identified. Cardiac rhythm changes for palpitations are evaluated and a time course for the cardiac rhythm changes upon an indication of palpitations is determined. A patient status including an onset of atrial fibrillation conditioned on the time course comprising a short duration is formed.
US08874199B2
The estimated contour positions of the atrium and ventricle are obtained from multi-channel electrocardiographic waveforms. Information useful to predict the possibility of the occurrence of fatal arrhythmia, such as the position of the maximum excitation propagation point, the distribution of the late potential(LP) as an index of depolarization abnormality, and the distribution of the RT dispersion as an index of repolarization abnormality are displayed together with the estimated contour positions.
US08874185B2
A set of electrodes suitable for being attached to the skin of an animal or human being at locations normally used for attaching single-lead electrodes with a single sensor point. The electrodes of the set of electrodes have at least three sensors arranged to define two linearly independent directions, which allows sensing corresponding electrical potential differences in the two directions. Signals representing sensed potential differences can be transmitted wirelessly or via conductors to a processing apparatus for being transformed into electrical potentials that approximate traditional potentials obtained with wired single-sensor electrodes. A method is also presented.
US08874181B2
A pulse oximeter method and apparatus which provides (1) a notch filter at a distance between a modulation frequency and a common multiple of commonly used power line frequencies (50, 60, 100 and 120) and also (2) a demodulation frequency greater than a highest pulse rate of a person and lower than any harmonic of 50, 60, 100 or 120 Hz, to filter ambient light interference, while choosing an optimum demodulation frequency that avoids interference from the notch filter or from harmonics of the line interference. Also, ambient light for any low frequency interference, such as power line interference, is measured both before and after each of the light emitter wavelengths and the average of the ambient light is then subtracted from the detected signal.
US08874179B2
A mobile terminal is provided. The mobile terminal includes a body, a case and a label plate. The body has a socket into which an external device may be inserted. The case may be formed to cover the body. The label plate may have a label formed on one surface of the label plate and containing information that identifies a product. The label plate may be configured to slide in and out of a space located between the socket and the case. The label on the label plate may be exposed when the label plate slides out of the space. Alternatively, the label may be covered when the label plate slides in the space. The label may be a product identification label (“PID label”). The PID label may be a unique label that can confirm that the mobile terminal was manufactured by a particular company.
US08874178B2
A camera housing positionably coupled to an electronic appliance is disclosed. Preferably, the camera housing is positionable in two discrete positions such that the camera can be positioned to face towards or away from the user. The appliance includes a recess sized to receive the camera housing. A cellular telephone includes a camera housing which is positionable in two discrete positions. In the first position, the camera faces the user. In the second position, the camera faces away from the user. The camera housing is coupled to the cellular telephone by a hinge mechanism that latches the camera into one of the two positions.
US08874173B2
Provided is a mobile information terminal in which even a CPU having a low processing capability can realize a pseudo-multi task and understand the operation of an application program being started. The mobile information terminal includes: a display part (17), a storage part (13), a communication part (11), and a control part (12). Each time a document displayed on the display part (17) is updated, the control part (12) stores a display history of the document. When interrupting execution of the document display application, the control part (12) judges whether or not the acquisition destination information on the displayed document is stored in the storage part (13). If no, the acquisition destination information is stored in the storage part (13) separately from the display history the display part (17) controls to display the interrupted display information indicating that the document display by the document display application is interrupted. If yes, the acquisition destination information is not stored again in the storage part (13).
US08874172B2
A wireless communication system (20) includes an ability to discern whether an end of a communication link between a mobile station (22) and a base station (26) corresponds to the mobile station (22) tuning away from a first service to a second, different service. In a disclosed example, a radio network controller (28) includes a link monitoring portion that uses information regarding the mobile station from the second service to determine a pattern of expected tune aways by the mobile station to the second service. In one disclosed example, the link monitoring portion uses observed mobile station behavior to estimate the pattern of expected tune aways. Whenever an end of a communication link with the mobile station corresponds to an expected tune away, that end is not considered for purposes of service measurement parameters. The disclosed examples provide the ability to avoid mistakenly considering a mobile station-initiated tune away as a dropped link or handoff failure resulting from an issue with the system.
US08874169B2
Among other things, a method is described for the configuration of a communication device (10) as well as a communication device (10). In this method, a communication link (20) is created from the communication device (10) to an external configuration computer unit (30) and identification data (100), which are related to the communication device (10), are transmitted from the communication device (10) to the external configuration computer unit (30) for the purpose of authentication of the communication device (10), with chip card-related identification features (111) being transmitted as identification data (100), with the chip card-related identification features (111) being assigned to a chip card (11) for the identification thereof, and with the chip card (11) being assigned to the communication device (10), and, when authentication is successful, a configuration of the communication device (10) is carried out.
US08874167B2
A communication device comprises a single radio resource unit that is shared by a plurality of virtual modems (VMs), each uniquely associated with a single one of a plurality of SIM cards. Traffic related to the SIM cards are concurrently handled utilizing corresponding VMs. Available radio resource in the single radio resource unit are shared by the VMs based on corresponding VM states, namely, an active state, an idle state and a suspended state. VMs in an idle state concurrently monitor paging events and concurrently perform idle mode procedures such as location updating. VMs not related to an intended traffic are suspended. A VM related to the intended traffic is transitioned from an idle state to an active state to enable the communication for the intended traffic. Once the communication is complete, the suspended VMs are resumed to continue idle mode activities.
US08874164B2
Performance is improved in certain M2M devices by suppressing explicit network registration or attachment. The described techniques may be used, for example, by M2M devices that periodically or occasionally transmit event data using wireless communication networks without needing to receive periodic or on-demand communications from the network for regular operation. In some embodiments, an M2M device may continue to monitor pilot channels of available wireless networks, select a particular network for communication from among the available wireless networks, and monitor system information for the selected network without registering on the selected network. The M2M device may suppress explicit registration based on one or more explicit registration triggers associated with the selected network. The M2M device may be implicitly registered as part of the network access transmitting the captured or measured event data to the selected network. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US08874161B2
An apparatus and a method for reducing power consumption in a wireless communication system are provided. The apparatus includes an antenna, a Radio Frequency (RF) module, a first amplifier, an external power amplifier, and a controller. The RF module converts a baseband transmission signal to an RF signal. The first amplifier amplifies power of the RF signal inside the RF module. The external power amplifier amplifies power of an output signal of the first amplifier. When a transmission power level of a transmission signal is equal to or less than a maximum output level of the first amplifier, the controller controls to transmit the transmission signal amplified by the first amplifier via the antenna. When the transmission power level of the transmission signal is equal to or greater than the maximum output level of the first amplifier, the controller controls to transmit a transmission signal amplified by the external power amplifier via the antenna.
US08874160B2
A communication apparatus that is coupled to a mobile terminal through a wireless link and to a network through a wired link, and that is relaying communications between the mobile terminal and the network. The communication apparatus includes a first transmission-rate acquisition unit and a power control unit. The first transmission-rate acquisition unit acquires wired-link information related to a transmission rate in the wired link. The power control unit controls at least one of a first transmission power of the communication apparatus in downlink transmission to the mobile terminal and a second transmission power of the mobile terminal in uplink transmission from the mobile terminal so as to reduce the difference between a transmission rate in the wireless link and the transmission rate in the wired link.
US08874158B2
A method is provided of transmitting a plurality of signals from a primary station to a respective plurality of secondary stations, said primary station comprising at least two transmit antennas, wherein each of said plurality of signals is transmitted from a respective subset of said at least two transmit antennas to a respective secondary station, in which each subset is selected at least according to a predetermined characteristic of the respective secondary station.
US08874157B1
A method of operating a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes receiving power status information for resource blocks of a plurality of wireless links, where the resource blocks comprise frequency apportioned timeslots used for exchanging wireless communications between wireless access nodes and user devices. The method also includes processing the power status information to identify ones of the resource blocks which exceed a power threshold, determining scheduling instructions for the resource blocks to reduce the power status information for the ones of the resource blocks to below the power threshold, and transferring the scheduling instructions to at least a first wireless access node for controlling a first wireless link based on the scheduling instructions.
US08874155B2
In order to certainly acquire configuration information at the time of first startup, an evaluation unit (10) forming a base station device (1) evaluates whether or not the base station device (1) is started up for the first time based on a connection status of associated equipments (2—1 to 2—n). At this time, when one or more associated equipments connected to the base station device (1) include the associated equipment which should be connected at the time of the first startup and also does not include the associated equipment which should not be connected at the time of the first startup, the evaluation unit (10) evaluates that it is the first startup, and in other cases, evaluates that it is not the first startup. Further, when the evaluation unit (10) evaluates that it is the first startup, an acquisition unit (20) acquires configuration information (102) necessary for operations of the base station device (1) from a server (3).
US08874148B2
A first mobile device receives an input to send data via a text messaging protocol to a second mobile device. The data is marked up with one or more transparent text message characters to delimit fields in the data. The marked up data is transmitted via the text messaging protocol to the second mobile device.
US08874145B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for identifying a request to locate a user. The request identifies a network operator-independent personal location code (PLC) for the user. Identifying a first device associated with the user based on the PLC. The first device is associated with a first network operator. And obtaining the current location of the first device from the associated first network operator.
US08874135B2
A method for detecting a collector device in an indoor area associated with imaging devices covering the area includes a plurality of collector devices emitting markers to the imaging devices coupled to a server. The imaging devices capture the images of the collector devices including the markers. The images are processed in order to determine the current positions of the collector devices corresponding to the markers. The server and the collector device communicate with each other and match a current position corresponding to the collector device among the plurality of collector devices.
US08874125B2
A method implemented in an apparatus used in a radio access network (RAN) sharing system including a plurality of basestations is disclosed. The method includes estimating resource requirement or demand of one or more entities in each base station according to feedback from the plurality of basestations, computing resource allocation for said one or more entities, and enforcing the computed resource allocation using basestation-level virtualization. Other methods, apparatuses, and systems also are disclosed.
US08874120B1
A call loop avoidance capability is provided for preventing formation of a call loop resulting from handling of a mobile terminated (MT) call in parallel with a location update for a mobile device (MD) in a wireless communication network. The call loop avoidance capability prevents formation of a call loop between an old mobility and call management entity (MCME) and a new MCME when delivery of an MT call to an MD is performed while the MD is in the process of moving from the old MCME to the new MCME using a location update procedure. An enhanced call routing procedure supports direct delivery of the MT call from the new MCME to the MD (rather than delivery of the MT call by the new MCME to the MD via the old MCME) in order to prevent formation of a call loop between the old MCME and the new MCME.
US08874108B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products for use with a wireless communication network. A fixed communication network includes a device server and a fixed information technology (IT) device coupled with the device server. A mobile communication device is coupled by the wireless communication network with the device server and with the IT device. The device server is configured to store identification information for the IT device. The mobile communication device is configured to determine a current location of the mobile communication device, to request the identification information for the IT device from the device server over the wireless communication network, to receive the identification information for the IT device over the wireless communication network from the device server, and to transmit a service request, based upon the identification information, over the wireless communication network to the IT device.
US08874106B2
A method and apparatus for providing automatic international and local call dialing in a mobile communication terminal. The apparatus includes a country identification unit for receiving country identification information from a network in which the mobile communication terminal is currently located; a memory for storing country identification information, a country codes, and international access codes corresponding to the country codes; and a controller for extracting from the memory a country code corresponding to the country identification information received from the country identification unit, comparing the extracted country code with a country code included in a phone number for an outgoing call, and making a local call or an international call according to whether the country codes are identical.
US08874100B2
A mobile communication method according to the present invention includes a step in which, when a relay node RN, which is subordinate to a radio base station DeNB and is in an “RRC_CONNECTED state”, received an “RRC connection release message” from the radio base station DeNB, the relay node RN is transitioned to an “RRC_IDLE state” after transmitting an “RRC connection release message” to a mobile station UE, which is subordinate to the relay node RN and is in the “RRC_CONNECTED state”, and a predetermined time T2 elapses.
US08874093B2
A mobile device comprising a display for displaying a plurality of icons, wherein the icons include at least one event icon that defines a specific event and at least one function icon that defines a function of the mobile device; means for manipulating the icons to allow a sequence of icons to be generated to form a block diagram that includes at least one event icon and at least one function icon, wherein the at least one event icon defines the event that causes the function associated with the at least one function icon to be performed; and means for converting the sequence of icons into a form that is executable by the mobile device.
US08874089B1
A system comprising of at least one mobile communication device including at least one computer processor positioned within, and an application program comprising of computer executable instructions operative to perform any one or more of the following: activate at least one recording means to record a video; receive input of a description of a recorded video; activate the location determining means to orient itself and determine and store the absolute location of the at least one mobile communication device; link the recorded at least one video with the absolute location; convert the recorded at least one video as linked with the absolute location to create at least one video map location; and instruct the communication means to transmit the video map location for posting to a network site on a computer network where it is displayed as a clickable icon on a map display on the network site.
US08874085B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for managing mobile wireless communication devices. A method for managing a mobile wireless communication device includes generating a message that is based on a digital subscriber line (DSL) Forum protocol and providing the message to the mobile wireless communication device.
US08874083B2
Disclosed herein are techniques for inhibition of allowed closed subscriber group list. According to an aspect, a method may be implemented at a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU). The method may include identifying a public land mobile network (PLMN) in which the WTRU is operating. Further, the method may include controlling closed group subscriber (CSG) selection based on the identified PLMN. For example, on a per PLMN basis, the WTRU may display to the user all CSGs or only CSGs in an operator CSG list.
US08874077B2
There is provided a device comprising a mobile broadband module comprising radio communication means. The device further comprises at least a first SIM for providing user domain services and at least a second SIM for providing service domain services. The second SIM is isolated from an end user of the device. According to an embodiment, the first SIM is associated with the end user of the device, wherein the end user may be associated with a first identity, and wherein the second SIM is associated with a service provider, the service provider being associated with a second identity. A method comprising: identifying which of the first and the second communication paths a command is issued from; and continuing with the command or discontinuing with the command in dependence on the identified path, such that the end user is not able to perform operation on to access the isolated second SIM.
US08874050B1
A circuit and method for a saturation correction of a power amplifier (PA) is provided in order to maintain a desirable switching spectrum. The circuit includes a closed loop system that is responsive to a dynamic PA control signal known as VRAMP. The method samples a detector voltage that represents the output of the PA at the maximum voltage level of VRAMP. The sampled detector voltage is then reduced by a predetermined amount and applied as a fixed voltage PA control signal in the place of VRAMP. As a result, the closed loop system responds to the fixed voltage PA control signal to bring the PA out of saturation before VRAMP can begin a voltage decrease. Once the VRAMP voltage decreases, VRAMP is reapplied as a dynamic PA control signal in place of the fixed voltage control signal.
US08874047B2
The disclosed invention relates to a transceiver system having one or more receive antennas that receive a first radio frequency (RF) signal and a plurality of transmit antennas that wirelessly transmit a second RF signal. A local channel determination unit provides data corresponding to the environment of local communication channels (i.e., the communication channels between the transmit antennas and the receive antennas) to a beamforming element, which enables beamforming functionality within the transmit and/or receive antennas (e.g., by using analog or digital weights to vary the radiation pattern generated by the transmit antennas) so as to attenuate RF signals extending between the transmit antennas and the receive antennas. By attenuating signals extending between the transmit and the receive antennas, a high degree of isolation is achieved between transmission and reception paths.
US08874044B1
Systems, methods, and apparatus are provided for automated identification of signals and devices in a wireless communications spectrum, by identifying sources of signal emission in the spectrum by automatically detecting signals, analyzing signals, comparing signal data to historical and reference data, creating corresponding signal profiles, and automatically identifying signals and devices, comparing and storing data from a multiplicity of units and automatically generating reports for a wireless communications spectrum in near real time.
US08874041B2
An electronic device may contain wireless communication circuitry. The wireless communication circuitry may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry coupled to multiple antennas. The electronic device may use the multiple antennas to make received signal power measurements. The signal power measurements may be made for each frequency in a list of frequencies used most recently by the electronic device in conveying data traffic between the electronic device and a wireless network. Based on received signal power measurements, the electronic device may select which frequency to use in performing system acquisition operations to attempt to establish a wireless communications link between the electronic device and the wireless network. The device may make signal power measurements for each antenna in the device to determine which antenna should be used in performing the system acquisition operations or may rotate through antennas in sequence to identify an antenna that can successfully perform system acquisition operations.
US08874038B2
A system, method, and apparatus for negotiating a communication link between first and second near field communication (NFC) devices is disclosed. A third NFC device is placed in close proximity with a first host device operatively containing the first NFC device to determine communication information including at least one of a communication mechanism and a data transfer protocol usable by the first host device. The communication information usable by the first host device is stored in a portable device operatively containing the third NFC device. The third NFC device is momentarily placed in close proximity with the second NFC device. The stored communication information of the first host device is transferred from the portable device to a second host device operatively containing the second NFC device. A communication link is established between the first and second host devices to enable the first and second host devices to transfer data between them as a function of the determined communication information.
US08874028B2
A communication method includes at a relay device, receiving first data from the base station, the first data including first control information that represents a first communication mode from the base station to the relay device, adding second control information to the received first data, the second control information representing a second communication mode from the relay device to the terminal device, and relaying second data to the terminal device, the second data including the first data added with the second control information; and at a terminal device, receiving the first data of the first communication mode storing the first data in a buffer, performing reception processing on the second data based on the second control information included in the second data, performing reception processing on the first data based on the first control information included in the second data, and combining the first and second data.
US08874027B2
A method for controlling gain in a wireless repeater implementing echo cancellation determines a signal-to-interference-noise-ratio (SINR) of the input and output signals of the repeater and adjusts the gain of the repeater to optimize an achievable data rate and a coverage area of the repeater. The repeater gain may be decreased to increase the data rate and increase the achievable SINR of the output signal while the coverage area is reduced. Alternately, the repeater gain may be increased to decrease the data rate and decrease the achievable SINR of the output signal while the coverage area is increased.
US08874014B2
An image forming apparatus, including: an image bearing member; a charging device configured to charge a surface of the image bearing member; a power source configured to apply a voltage to the charging device; an exposure device configured to irradiate the surface of the image bearing member with a light beam to form an electrostatic latent image; a developing device configured to develop the latent image into a toner image; and a reading device configured to read a color registration toner image obtained by developing, by the developing device, a color registration electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image bearing member by the exposure device within a period from a time when the power source is started up to apply the voltage to the charging device to a time when a potential of the surface of the image bearing member reaches a potential for usual image formation.
US08874007B2
Provided are a developing unit alleviating fogging occurrence and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus providing images over long periods. The developing unit includes at least a toner of (1) and a developing roller of (2). (1) When a displacement amount when a load is applied at Y° C. and 9.8×10−5 N/sec to 2.94×10−4 N is X2(Y), a displacement amount when the toner is left to stand for 0.1 second is X3(Y), a displacement amount when the load is reduced at 9.8×10−5 N/sec to 0N is X4(Y), and percentage of (X3(Y)−X4(Y)) to X3(Y) is Z(Y), 40≦Z(25)≦80 and 10≦Z(50)≦55 are satisfied; when a gradient from the origin to the maximum load in the load-displacement curve at 25° C. is R(25), 0.49×10−3≦R(25)≦1.70×10−3 is satisfied; the toner has glass transition temperature TgA (40° C.-60° C.) and maximum endothermic peak temperature P1 (70° C.-110° C.), 15° C.≦(P1−TgA)≦70° C. is satisfied. (2) The developing roller includes a surface layer containing a urethane resin having structure (a), and one or both structures (b)-(c).
US08874002B2
A belt member driving device includes an arm configured to be movable with movement of a belt member in a width direction thereof while being in contact with an end of the belt member in the width direction thereof, a first detected portion provided on the arm, a second detected portion provided on the arm and disposed in a position different from that of the first detected portion in a direction perpendicular to a movement direction of the arm on a plane where the arm is moved, a first sensor configured to detect the first detected portion, and a second sensor configured to detect the second detected portion. The second sensor and the first sensor partly overlap each other in the movement direction of the arm as viewed in a direction perpendicular to the movement direction of the arm.
US08873999B2
A photosensitive drum is rotatably supported in a main body. A developing cartridge is detachably mountable on the main body in a state where the photosensitive drum is supported in the main body. The developing cartridge includes a developing device and a frame. The developing device includes a developing roller disposed in confrontation with the photosensitive drum to supply developer to the photosensitive drum when the developing cartridge is mounted in the main body, and a developer-accommodating portion configured to accommodate developer. The frame includes a waste-developer-accommodating portion configured to accommodate waste developer and supports the developing device that is movable relative to the frame. The frame is disposed on an opposite side of the developing roller from the photosensitive drum. An urging member is disposed between the frame and the developing device to urge the developing roller toward the photosensitive drum.
US08873996B1
A toner system according to one example includes a developer unit and a toner cartridge. The developer unit includes a toner reservoir, an inlet port and a shutter. The toner cartridge includes a toner reservoir, an outlet port and an engagement member having a first engagement surface and a second engagement surface. The first engagement surface is positioned to receive an actuation force from a feature of an image forming device. The second engagement surface is positioned proximate the outlet port to engage the shutter of the developer unit. The engagement member is movable from a first position to a second position upon receiving the actuation force. As the engagement member moves from the first position to the second position when the toner cartridge is mated with the developer unit, the second engagement surface protrudes from the front of the toner cartridge and opens the shutter of the developer unit.
US08873990B2
A toner density sensor comprising: a light emitting element that emits light; a light receiving element that receives reflected light emitted from the light emitting part and reflected at a detection target; a light path for passage of emitted and reflected light formed along the front surface of a printed substrate on which the light emitting element and the light receiving element are surface-mounted; and a diaphragm unit that is formed at and partially narrows this light path, wherein the diaphragm unit is divided into two portions, a diaphragm unit upper-portion and a diaphragm unit lower-portion, and these are disposed in an upper case covering the front surface of the printed substrate and in a lower case covering the rear surface of the printed substrate. In the printed substrate, a through hole is formed for protrusion of the diaphragm unit lower portion from the rear surface to the front surface.
US08873977B2
An image forming apparatus including an upper cover, an image forming unit including an image carrier and a developing device, a toner container detachably connectable to the developing device to supply toner to the developing device through an opening in the toner container, a shutter provided to the toner container and biased by a first elastic member in a direction to close the opening of the toner container, a link member integrated with the shutter, a shutter switching member to switch a position of the shutter to an open position by moving the link member to a pressing position, and an interlock mechanism to retract the shutter switching member from the pressing position in conjunction with opening of the upper cover. The opening is closed with the shutter by switching the shutter switching member to a retracted position in conjunction with the opening of the upper cover.
US08873966B1
An optical communication device, such as a transceiver, can send outgoing information over an optical link and receive incoming information via the link. The link, for example an optical fiber, can simultaneously transmit outgoing light carrying outgoing information and incoming light carrying incoming information. The communication device can comprise a detector outputting electrical signals in response to receiving optical signals, effectively converting signals from the optical domain to the electrical domain. The detector can receive a mixture of the incoming and the outgoing light, thereby producing an electrical signal containing imprints of both the incoming data and the outgoing data. The communication device can process the electrical signal to differentiate between the incoming data and the outgoing data. Knowing the outgoing data, the optical communication device can subtract from the electrical signal the portion of the signal associated with the outgoing light, thereby revealing the incoming data.
US08873965B2
LEDs that transmit or receive data in a VLC may create a flickering effect which is observed when the human eye is able to perceive the fluctuations of the light intensity in a LED. To prevent flickering, the LEDs may emit light based on a pattern of data and energy intervals. During the data intervals, a LED transmitting a message sends one or more data symbols to receiving LEDs. The receiving LEDs, however, are reversed bias and do not emit light. During the energy intervals, any LED in the VLC system may emit light. Each LED uses the energy interval to compensate for the light transmitted (or not transmitted) during the data interval. The combination of data and energy levels results in an observer seeing light with a constant intensity rather than changing intensity.
US08873962B2
A method includes determining a line rate selection for a flexible optical wavelength-division-multiplexing WDM network, determining a traffic routing in said network, and determining simultaneously a channel routing, wavelength assignment and spectrum allocation in said network based on an auxiliary graph.
US08873960B2
A method for detecting faults and their locations in an optical path between an optical line terminal (OLT) of and optical network units (ONUs) of a passive optical network (PON). The method comprises forming a maintenance optical link through the PON between the OLT and a collocated ONU, the OLT and its collocated ONU are each connected to an optical splitter; sending a ranging request from the OLT to the collocated ONU; in response to the ranging request, receiving, over the maintenance optical line, a ranging burst signal including at least a fault analysis detection pattern (FADP); and analyzing the FADP in the received signal by auto-correlating the FADP signal with an expected FADP signal, an uncorrelated event measured through the auto-correlation is indicative of a fault in the optical path of the PON and occurrence times of such events are indicative of the fault's location in the optical path.
US08873959B2
A method for small scale time increased bandwidth assignment to increase optical network unit ONU downstream energy efficiency includes splitting of downstream scheduling cycles into multiple rounds, using selective ones of the multiple rounds as probing rounds and other than said selective ones of the multiple rounds as fixed rounds, the probing rounds and fixed rounds being cooperatively selected for energy efficiency without limitations in length of the downstream scheduling cycles.
US08873954B2
A method and system for transmitting data over a Jacobi MIMO channel when using channel state feedback.
US08873948B2
A border node of an optical network receives optical channel traffic parameter(s) associated with an optical channel from an optical channel originator external to the optical network. The received parameters are used to determine the suitability of at least one optical path within the optical network for an externally originating optical channel. If a suitable optical path is determined, an optical channel availability message indicating the availability at the border node of an optical path within the optical network for the optical channel is sent to the optical channel originator. The optical channel originator determines an available optical channel status of the optical channel from the received optical channel availability message for the optical channel.
US08873945B2
An image pickup apparatus includes a camera body 1 including a monitor unit 11, a lens barrel 2 and a lens body 3 which include an image pickup optical system L, a rotary portion 8 provided between the camera body 1 and the lens body 3, and rotatably supporting the lens body 3 with respect to the camera body 1, absorption portions 12a and 12b attached to the camera body 1, and a cover portion 4 movably connected with respect to the camera body 1 and covering the absorption portions 12a and 12b.
US08873943B2
A lens system includes an operating unit for operating a lens apparatus, an operation-side communication unit performing bidirectional communication to/from the operating unit via a transmission line, and a lens-side communication unit performing bidirectional communication to/from the lens apparatus via a transmission line. The operation-side and lens-side communication units perform wireless communication to/from each other. The operation-side communication unit includes a command selecting unit selecting a command to be transmitted to the lens-side communication unit from commands input from the operating unit, and an answer interpolating unit generating an interpolated answer by interpolating answers with respect to commands that are not selected. The lens-side communication unit includes an answer selecting unit selecting an answer to be transmitted to the operation-side communication unit from answers input from the lens apparatus, and a command interpolating unit generating a command by interpolating commands received from the operation-side communication unit.
US08873942B2
The image capturing apparatus detects a rotational shake and translational shake produced by an apparatus by a rotational velocity meter and an acceleration meter. A rotational shake compensation coefficient calculation unit calculates a compensation (correction) coefficient in relation to rotational shake. A translational shake compensation coefficient calculation unit calculates a compensation (correction) coefficient in relation to translational shake. When calculating the compensation amount in relation to rotational shake and translational shake using the respective compensation (correction) coefficients, the camera CPU acquires information indicating a degree of focus of the imaging optical system, and suppresses variation in the compensation amount by reducing the compensation (correction) coefficient when the degree of focus is low. A driving unit drives the shake compensation unit in accordance with the compensation amount relative to the rotational shake and the translational shake, thereby compensating for image shake in the imaging surface of the imaging optical system.
US08873941B2
A humidifier includes a tub configured to contain a supply of water and a heater including a first polymer film having an electrically conductive circuit provided upon a surface. The first polymer film is electrically insulating and the tub is formed of molded resin and the heater is molded at least partially within the resin. A respiratory apparatus for delivering a flow of breathable gas to a patient includes the humidifier. A method of humidifying a flow of pressurized breathable gas includes passing the flow of pressurized breathable gas over a supply of water contained in a tub. The tub is formed of molded resin and a heater including a first polymer film having an electrically conductive circuit on a first surface is molded at least partially within the resin.
US08873935B2
A method and system for automatically capturing user edits in a digital recording are described. The method involves determining a beginning time stamp for an edit segment in a digital recording and an ending time stamp for the edit segment in the digital recording. The method then receives an indication from a user whether to modify the edit segment for subsequent viewing of the digital recording.
US08873933B2
A method for operating additional information related to video displayed on a display device by a terminal apparatus communicable with the display device, includes receiving first data related to the video from the display device, displaying information included in the first data on a built-in display and receiving at least one of the displayed information, which is selected by a user, generating an additional information request message for requesting the information selected by the user, sending the additional information request message to the display device, receiving from the display device second data including additional information corresponding to the additional information request message, and displaying the second data on the built-in display.
US08873930B2
A system for associating a non-linear video path with a video file includes: a controller adapted to: present a video file through the user interface; receive a command through the user interface to associate a first path point with a frame in the video file; receive a command through the user interface to associate a second path point with a second frame in the video file; receive a command through the user interface to associate a third path point with a third frame in the video file, wherein the first path point, second path point, and third path point define a non-linear path, wherein the non-linear path is associated with the video file such that, when presented to a user for playback through a device that receives user input, progress of the video file during playback is controlled by one or more user inputs related to the non-linear path.
US08873929B1
Apparatus and corresponding methods for storing video information. The apparatus includes a means for receiving video information, a means for converting the received video information into digital video information, and a means for storing the digital video information. Converting the received video information into digital video information can include converting it into an MPEG-compatible digital format. The apparatus can include an MPEG-compatible digital encoder, which can include separate audio and video MPEG encoders. The digital video information can be stored on an electromagnetically writable disk drive with an optimized MPEG file system (OMFS) configured to receive the digital video information and store the digital video information on the disk drive, where the OMFS is configured to divide the received digital video information into one or more packets, each packet having the same number of bytes as a sector on a disk in the disk drive. The OMFS can first accumulate one of the packets of digital video information in a cache memory. The OMFS, upon filling the cache memory with a completed packet of digital video information, then stores the completed packet on a single one of the sectors of the disk drive.
US08873917B2
An optical fiber includes a central glass core region comprising maximum refractive index delta percent Δ1, a first inner annular region surrounding said core comprising refractive index delta percent Δ2, a depressed annular region surrounding said inner annular region and comprising Δ3 and a third annular region surrounding the depressed annular region comprising refractive index delta percent Δ4; wherein the third annular region comprises chlorine an amount greater than 0.2 weight percent in a region which is within 5 microns from the depressed annular region, wherein Δ1MAX>Δ4>Δ2>Δ3. The difference between Δ4 and Δ2 is greater than 0.01 and profile volume, |V3| is at least 50% Δμm2.
US08873916B2
Various embodiments include large cores fibers that can propagate few modes or a single mode while introducing loss to higher order modes. Some of these fibers are holey fibers that comprising cladding features such as air-holes. Additional embodiments described herein include holey rods. The rods and fibers may be used in many optical systems including optical amplification systems, lasers, short pulse generators, Q-switched lasers, etc. and may be used for example for micromachining.
US08873913B2
A fiber optic cable comprises a jacket defining an outer peripheral surface and a radial thickness terminating at an inner periphery defining a surface, a multiplicity of optical fibers which are enclosed by and extend longitudinally through the jacket within the volume defined by the inner periphery of the jacket, and a plurality of plugs longitudinally spaced within the jacket, where each of the plugs envelops the optical fibers along a fixed longitudinal extent while being closely adjacent he surface defined by the inner periphery of the jacket. The system may further comprise the plugs being of a silicone-based material, and absorbent material disposed within the jacket between the plugs.
US08873904B2
A wavelength selective switch according to the present invention includes at least one input port for inputting wavelength-multiplexed light, a dispersive element which receives the light from the input port, and disperses the received light, a light converging element which converges dispersed light which has been dispersed for each wavelength, a light deflecting member having a plurality of reflecting optical elements which are capable of independently deflecting each dispersed light from the light converging element, and at least one output port which receives light which has been deflected by the light deflecting member. An area having a reflectivity higher than a central area of the reflecting surface is formed in at least a part of an end portion of the reflecting surface in the dispersive direction by the dispersive element.
US08873901B2
Optical input/output (I/O) devices, which include a substrate including a trench, a waveguide within the trench of the substrate; and a photodetector within the trench and optically connected to the waveguide. An upper surface of the photodetector is at a same level as an upper surface of the waveguide.
US08873900B2
An apparatus and method for determining an expanded diameter of a catheter balloon. An optical sensor includes an elongated optical fiber with at least one diffraction grating formed in a core of a distal portion thereof. The fiber distal portion is coupled to the inflatable balloon. Broadband light is transmitted to the diffraction grating by an optical interrogator. A portion of the light is reflected from the diffraction grating and is received by a wavelength detector. The wavelength of the reflected portion of light is dependent on the strain applied to the diffraction grating. The wavelength detector determines the strain in the balloon and correlates the strain to the diameter of the balloon.
US08873892B2
A handheld scanner incorporates vision software to allow the handheld scanner to be trained for OCR. The handheld scanner can include a user interface to allow a user to associate an image of a mark with electronic data for the mark. The user interface, along with a range finder, can also be used to influence variables that affect the quality of an image scan, thereby improving the quality of results for the image scan and/or decode process.
US08873878B2
An image processing apparatus includes: a rate control section that performs rate control of output data by preferentially deleting lower-level-side coded data, as necessary, from respective pieces of coded data where respective bit-planes with levels higher than a predetermined level of a bit-plane group, in which coefficient data obtained by orthogonally transforming image data is developed in a bit depth direction, are coded; and a synthesizing section that generates the output data by synthesizing the coded data, from which the lower-level-side coded data is preferentially deleted as necessary by the rate control section, and respective bit-planes with levels lower than the predetermined level of the bit-plane group.
US08873876B2
According to one embodiment, an image encoder configured to write coded image data in a memory includes an encoding module, a write address determining module, and a memory controller. The encoding module divides original image data including a plurality of pixels into a plurality of block lines, divides each block line into a plurality of sub-block lines, encodes the original image data in each sub-block line, and generates a plurality of coded sub-block lines. The write address determining module determines a write address of the memory in each coded sub-block line based on a number of the sub-block lines, an original image data size of the original image data, and image coding rate. The memory controller writes the coded sub-block line in the write address corresponding to the coded sub-block line.
US08873875B2
In one or more embodiments, a framework is provided in which image decoding can be delayed based on heuristics, and later initiated based on a use type associated with the image or the likelihood that the image is going to be used. For example, a use history and priority system can enable images that are currently being rendered and/or are likely to get rendered to be decoded before images that have a history of being downloaded but never used. Accordingly, by decoupling image download from image decoding, CPU resources and memory can be more efficiently utilized.
US08873860B2
A dynamically reconfigurable heterogeneous systolic array is configured to process a first image frame, and to generate image processing primatives from the image frame, and to store the primatives and the corresponding image frame in a memory store. A characteristic of the image frame is determined. Based on the characteristic, the array is reconfigured to process a following image frame.
US08873857B2
A computer-implemented system and method are described for image searching and image indexing that may be incorporated in a mobile device that is part of an object identification system. A computer-implemented system and method relating to a MISIS client and MISIS server that may be associated with mobile pointing and identification system for the searching and indexing of objects in in situ images in geographic space taken from the perspective of a system user located near the surface of the Earth including horizontal, oblique, and airborne perspectives.
US08873848B2
According to one embodiment, an image processing apparatus includes: a reduction module configured to reduce image data that is input to output reduced data; an extraction module configured to extract a diffuse reflection component from the reduced data; an enlargement module configured to enlarge the diffuse reflection component to a size before reduction of the input image data to output enlarged data; a high-frequency acquisition module configured to acquire a high-frequency component removed by reduction from difference between the input image data and the reduced data; a high-frequency addition module configured to output first data obtained by adding the high-frequency component acquired to the enlarged data; and a gloss component acquisition module configured to acquire a gloss component from difference between the input image data and the first data.
US08873845B2
Dominant color names may be extracted from an image by analyzing spatial-context of pixels contained in the image. A dominant color region may be defined by taking a double-threshold approach that addresses ambiguous color regions and a degree of confidence that each pixel belongs in the dominant color region. Affiliation maps and binary maps may be used to generate the dominant color region. Images may be converted to a saliency map, from which a region of interest may be assigned a dominant color name. Image search results may be filtered by the dominant color name associated with the image.
US08873840B2
A training set for a post-filter classifier is created from the output of a face detector. The face detector can be a Viola Jones face detector. Face detectors produce false positives and true positives. The regions in the training set are labeled so that false positives are labeled negative and true positives are labeled positive. The labeled training set is used to train a post-filter classifier. The post-filter classifier can be an SVM (Support Vector Machine). The trained face detection classifier is placed at the end of a face detection pipeline comprising a face detector, one or more feature extractors and the trained post-filter classifier. The post-filter reduces the number of false positives in the face detector output while keeping the number of true positives almost unchanged using features different from the Haar features used by the face detector.
US08873839B2
There are provided a characteristic obtaining unit configured to obtain a subject characteristic including a characteristic of a subject, an image processing unit configured to generate a duplicate subject image by performing an image process to an image of the subject according to the subject characteristic obtained by the characteristic obtaining unit, and a learning unit configured to learn a matching dictionary by using the duplicate subject image generated by the image processing unit. Thus, it is possible to reduce the number of subject images necessary for the learning.
US08873837B2
Contact-less remote-sensing crack detection and/quantification methodologies are described, which are based on three-dimensional (3D) scene reconstruction, image processing, and pattern recognition. The systems and methodologies can utilize depth perception for detecting and/or quantifying cracks. These methodologies can provide the ability to analyze images captured from any distance and using any focal length or resolution. This adaptive feature may be especially useful for incorporation into mobile systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or mobile autonomous or semi-autonomous robotic systems such as wheel-based or track-based radio controlled robots, as utilizing such structural inspection methods onto those mobile platforms may allow inaccessible regions to be properly inspected for cracks.
US08873833B2
A system for performing a scene representation procedure includes an image manager that processes source images from a given scene to define subscenes in the source images. The image manager creates an image understanding graph for each of the source images, and also creates a scene representation graph for each of the source images based upon the corresponding subscenes and certain image characteristics. The image manager further generates an integrated scene representation to represent all of the source images with a single representation. A processor of an electronic device controls the image manager to perform the scene representation procedure.
US08873829B1
Various embodiments of a method and system for capturing and utilizing item attributes are described. Various embodiments may include a mobile image capture apparatus, which may include a computer system configured to execute an image capture application. The image capture application may instruct an agent to capture an image of an item label. A data extraction component may be configured to process the images captured by the mobile image capture apparatus. For a given captured image, the data extraction component may in various embodiments be configured to perform OCR to determine one or more strings of characters from the image. The data extraction component may be further configured to determine whether one or more patterns match a determined string of characters. In response to the detection of a particular pattern matching a particular string of characters, the data extraction component may extract and store an attribute of the corresponding item.
US08873827B2
Exemplary embodiments enable determination of spatial proximity between two or more features in biological tissue. An exemplary method includes identifying a morphological feature in an image of the biological tissue based on expression levels of a first biomarker indicative of the morphological feature, and receiving a result of a segmentation analysis performed on the image of the biological tissue identifying a set of morphological units in the image external to the morphological feature. An exemplary method includes determining an expression level of a second biomarker corresponding to each unit in the set of morphological units in the image of the biological tissue, and determining a spatial distance between the morphological feature and each unit in the set of morphological units. An exemplary method further includes automatically determining a relationship between expression levels of the second biomarker and corresponding spatial distance from the morphological feature of the set of morphological units.
US08873822B2
In a magnetic resonance imaging display system, the brain parenchymal fraction, a clinical measure for brain atrophy, is found by selection of white matter, grey matter, and/or cerebrospinal fluid based on quantitative magnetic resonance properties.
US08873821B2
A machine/computer implemented system, method, and computer program product for scored pixel intensity value adjustment of a digital image is disclosed. The system is configured to obtain a digital image from data storage and perform pixel-by-pixel comparisons to generate per pixel scores. The types of comparisons include discovering minima and maxima per pixel scores by comparing to neighboring non-adjacent pixel pairs, delta pair scores by comparing to neighboring pixels, and multiple vector score types by comparing to vectors made up of individual pixels. This new information is applied to adjust each pixel's value. The system is further configured to generate a collection of such scores for a plurality of pixels in a digital image and to generate a multi-dimensional scored pixel adjusted image. The scored pixel adjustment yields a new digital image, wherein the value of a given pixel is adjusted based on one or more of the score types.
US08873819B2
A method for sorting CT image slices comprising, if no image slice comprises a target respiratory phase at a couch position, determining a target breathing feature value corresponding to the target respiratory phase based on a respiratory motion curve of a scanned patient, searching from a plurality of image slices at the couch position for one or more image slices comprising a breathing feature value close to the target breathing feature value to serve as candidate image slices, and selecting, based on a breathing feature value difference between the breathing feature value of each of the candidate image slices and the target breathing feature value and/or an image difference between each of the candidate image slices and at least one reference image slice, a single image slice from the candidate image slices for constructing the 3D CT image for the target respiratory phase.
US08873811B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for estimating and verifying translation motion and/or a scaling factor between face regions in respective frames during face tracking. A method determines translation motion between face regions in two successive frames based upon integral gradient projections of a face region in a first frame and a corresponding window in a second frame. The method also verifies the translation motion between the first and second frames utilizing integral gradient projections. A method also determines a transfer function relating integral projection curves of a face region in a first frame that has a predefined position and a predetermined size and a co-located window of same size in a second frame, determines a scaling factor based upon the transfer function and then verifies the scaling factor utilizing integral gradient projections.
US08873803B2
Disclosed is a road-shoulder detecting device including a distance-information calculating portion for calculating the presence of a physical object and the distance from the subject vehicle to the object from input three-dimensional image information relating to an environment around the vehicle, a vehicular road surface detecting portion for detecting a vehicular road surface with the subject vehicle from a distance image, a height difference calculating portion for measuring height difference between the detected vehicular road and an off-road region, and a road shoulder decision portion for deciding height difference as to whether the road shoulder is boundary between the surface and the region in a case where there is an off-road region lower than the vehicular road surface.
US08873802B2
A camera pose tracking apparatus may track a camera pose based on frames photographed using at least three cameras, may extract and track at least one first feature in multiple-frames, and may track a pose of each camera in each of the multiple-frames based on first features. When the first features are tracked in the multiple-frames, the camera pose tracking apparatus may track each camera pose in each of at least one single-frame based on at least one second feature of each of the at least one single-frame. Each of the at least one second feature may correspond to one of the at least one first feature, and each of the at least one single-frame may be a previous frame of an initial frame of which the number of tracked second features is less than a threshold, among frames consecutive to multiple-frames.
US08873801B2
Techniques related to identifying objects in a video are generally described. One example method for identifying a moving object in a video may include generating a background frame and a foreground frame based on the video, comparing the foreground and the background frames at each corresponding location, acquiring an object area based on the comparison, determining if object area contains a moving object based on size and shape of the object area, identifying the moving object against templates of target objects, and updating the background frame according to the comparison.
US08873797B2
The present disclosures relates generally to digital watermarking and data hiding. One claim recites an apparatus comprising: memory for storing data representing video; one or more electronic processors programmed for: embedding a first watermark signal in a first portion of the data, the first watermark signal comprising a first signal polarity and corresponding to first detection preconditioning; embedding a second watermark signal in a second portion of the data, the second watermark signal comprising a second signal polarity that is inversely related to the first signal polarity and corresponding to seconding detection preconditioning; controlling provision of the watermarked video for display in real time, in which temporal averaging of the first watermark signal and second watermark signal over time conceals the first watermark signal and the second watermark signal from a human observer of the video. Of course, other claims are provided too.
US08873795B2
A method that, when an image is edited by moving objects, causes a display apparatus to display a layout image in which a plurality of objects is arranged, sets a region containing specified objects in the displayed layout image based on positions where each of the specified objects is arranged in the layout image, determines a position to which the object of the specified objects is to be moved in the layout image according to the set region, and moves the object of the specified objects to the determined position.
US08873791B2
An earphone including a housing, a speaker, a plurality of porous materials and a tuning mechanism is provided. The housing has a containing space, a sound-output opening and a plurality of tuning holes, wherein the containing space communicates with outside of the housing through the tuning holes. Areas of the tuning holes are substantially the same. The speaker is disposed at the sound-output opening and located in the containing space. The air permeability of each porous material are different, and the porous materials cover the tuning holes correspondingly. The tuning mechanism is disposed at the housing and shields at least one of the tuning holes selectively.
US08873785B2
A hearing aid includes a speaker in a tip that is located in an ear canal. The tip includes a coupling, a retainer that mechanically engages the coupling, and a sleeve axially surrounding the retainer. The retainer attenuates lower frequencies than are attenuated by the sleeve. The sleeve is preferably a foam rubber and the retainer is preferably a composite material. A flange on the retainer reflects sound back into the sleeve for additional attenuation. It has been discovered that operation is improved if the outside diameter of the sleeve and the outside diameter of the retainer are in the ratio of approximately 1.75:1.
US08873781B2
A method of operating a hearing device monitors for a head movement of a hearing device wearer. When a head movement is detected, an acoustic signal acquired by a microphone is output in an amplified and phase-modulated manner with a receiver. Furthermore, a hearing device includes a motion sensor and a signal processing unit that is configured to execute the method.
US08873780B2
A method for operating a hearing system comprises the steps of: a) replacing the current settings by the former settings upon operation of a reset user control; and one of the steps of: b1) automatically replacing the former settings by new former settings upon receiving a request for adjusting at least one setting of the current settings, provided that no adjustment to the current settings has been carried out for at least a pre-defined time span up to the receiving of that request; or b2) automatically replacing the former settings by new former settings upon receiving a request for adjusting at least one setting of the current settings, provided that a difference between the current settings and the former settings caused by one or more adjustments to the current settings carried out during a pre-defined time span up to the receiving of that request is larger than a pre-defined difference.
US08873775B2
A thermoacoustic device comprise a substrate, a number of thermoacoustic units on the substrate, a number of switches, a driving integrated circuit, a scanning integrated circuit, and a common electrode. The switches are electrically connected to the thermoacoustic units. Each of the switches is electrically connected in series between the first electrode and the driving integrated circuit through a driving electrode. Each of the switches is electrically connected to the scanning integrated circuit through a scanning electrode. The common electrode is electrically connected to the second electrode of the number of thermoacoustic units.
US08873774B2
Managing audio of a device including transmitting a signal through a port of the device in response to an audio device coupling to the port, initializing an audio mixer of the device in response to detecting the signal, and configuring the audio mixer to manage audio transferred between the device and the audio device.
US08873773B2
A condenser microphone includes multiple condenser microphone units. Each unit includes an impedance converter. The condenser microphone units are connected in series such that outputs of the impedance converter in one of the condenser microphone units drive another of the condenser microphone units. A polarization voltage is accumulated to a DC voltage supplied from a DC voltage supply through a voltage adjuster to be applied to one of a diaphragm and a fixed electrode, and a voltage applied to the one of the diaphragm and the fixed electrode is adjusted by the voltage adjuster.
US08873772B2
The present invention relates to a process for adjusting the sound volume of a digital sound recording characterized in that it comprises: a step consisting of determining, in absolute values, for a recording, the maximum amplitude values for sound frequencies audible for the human ear, a step consisting of calculating the possible gain for a specified sound level setting, between the maximum amplitude value determined above and the maximum amplitude value for all frequencies combined, a step consisting of reproducing the recording with a sound card by automatically adjusting the amplification gain level making it possible to obtain a sound level for the recording of a specified value so that it corresponds to the gain calculated for this recording.
US08873768B2
A method for audio signal enhancement comprising obtaining (222) a first audio signal from a first physical microphone element and obtaining a second audio signal from a second physical microphone element. The audio signals are array processed (226) to generate a virtual linear first order element and a virtual non-linear even order element. The array processing (226) includes combining the virtual linear first order element and the virtual non-linear even order element to generate a directional audio signal having a primary audio beam. An apparatus is disclosed for implementing the method.
US08873764B2
An acoustic echo suppression unit according to an embodiment of the present invention includes and input interface for extracting a downmix signal from an input signal, the input signal including the downmix signal and parametric side information, wherein the downmix and the parametric side information together represent a multichannel signal, a calculator for calculating filter coefficients for an adaptive filter, wherein the calculator is adapted to determine the filter coefficients based on the downmix signal and a microphone signal or a signal derived from the microphone signal, and an adaptive filter adapted to filter the microphone signal or the signal derived from the microphone signal based on the filter coefficients to suppress an echo caused by the multichannel signal in the microphone signal.
US08873762B2
A system and method for generating virtual microphone signals having a particular number and configuration for channel playback from an intermediate set of signals that were recorded in an initial format that is different from the channel playback format. In one embodiment, an initial set of intermediate are Bark-banded such that each intermediate signal may lead to a corresponding power spectral density (PSD) signal representative of the initial intermediate signal. Further, one may generate cross-correlations signals for each pair of intermediate signals. Next, from the PSDs and cross correlations, one may more efficiently calculate corresponding channel signals to be used for playback on respective channel speakers. Thus, the PSDs of each channel signal may be generated at chosen angles (as well as other design factors). Further, each channel signal may also be further modified with a corresponding cancellation signal that further enhances the resultant signal in each channel.
US08873755B2
Wireless devices in proximity are securely paired with one another autonomously by generating a common cryptographic key directly from a time-varying wireless environment shared among the wireless devices. The shared key can be used by the wireless devices to authenticate each wireless device's physical proximity and then to facilitate confidential communication between the wireless devices. The algorithm used to create the shared key is secure against a computationally unbounded adversary and its computational complexity is linear in the size of the shared key.
US08873753B2
A network device is configured to receive information from a number of different types of data collection devices. The information may relate to operation of devices in a network and communications in the network. The network device is configured to further analyze the information and determine that an issue exists relating to operation of the network. The network device is configured further to send a message to a policy device based on determining that the issue exists relating to the operation of the network. The policy device may generate or change a rule or policy associated with the operation of the network, based on the message, to instruct one or more other network devices to change the operation of the network.
US08873752B1
An embodiment of the invention is directed to associating a wireless device with a basestation. A connection request is received from the wireless device. The wireless device is authenticated to the basestation. A token-transfer-request message is received. The wireless device is associated with the basestation by transferring a token associated with the wireless device to the basestation.
US08873748B2
The present invention relates to a method or system of generating a surrogate key using cryptographic hashing. One embodiment of the method of the present invention may have steps such as selecting a field or group of fields that is or are unique among all records in the database and for each record, extracting the data from the fields; concatenating the extracted data into an input message; running the input message through a hash generator, either in batches or one at a time, for testing purposes perhaps; and outputting a surrogate key.
US08873745B2
A method for protecting a calculation on an elliptic curve, by an electronic circuit, wherein a point of an elliptic curve is multiplied by a digital quantity, comprising the steps of: initializing a first variable with a value which is a function of a random quantity; initializing at least a second variable with a value which is a function of the digital quantity; at least for a bit at 1 of the digital quantity, the first variable is updated by: a) subtracting a multiple of the random quantity; and b) adding the content of the second variable; and once all the bits of the digital quantity have been processed, subtracting from the first variable the product of the point by the random quantity to provide the result.
US08873744B2
An electronic document processing system 900 includes a digital image generating unit 15 generating a digital image in a predetermined range of the electronic document; an image encrypting unit 11 generating an encrypted image by converting at least a partial area of the generated digital image; a data encrypting unit 21 generating encrypted data by extracting data contained in the predetermined range in pieces of data organizing the electronic document and encrypting the data; an encrypted data storing unit 22 storing the encrypted data; and an encrypted electronic document generating unit 23 generating an encrypted electronic document by replacing the data contained in the predetermined range in the electronic document with the encrypted image.
US08873734B2
An event logging and analysis system and method are disclosed. The event logging and analysis system are described as being configured to analyze decisions made by a work assignment engine in a contact center, map the decisions to one or more events for a contact center entity, and storing information about the event in a buffer associated with the contact center entity, the information stored in the buffer describing how the new decision affected the contact center entity.
US08873730B2
Methods and apparatus for forwarding communications, such as telephone calls over a voice network, are provided. A user accesses a data network to specify one or more rules for forwarding telephone calls. For example, the user may use an electronic calendar to specify patterns for forwarding their telephone calls. These patterns may include one or more rules for determining a forwarding pattern, and one or more time periods specifying when the pattern is effective. The rules are provided to a service center which provides configuration information to the voice network. The voice network then forwards calls based on the configuration information for the time periods specified by the user.
US08873724B2
A method of providing originator information to an intended communications recipient during establishment of a communication session includes reading, at an originating communication terminal, originator information carried by a device located with the originating terminal, and including at least some of the originator information in at least one signal transmitted by the originating communication terminal during establishment of the communication session for transmission to a communication terminal associated with the intended communications recipient.
US08873722B2
Provided is an integrated system having a medium printed with a dot pattern, a scanner remote controller that reads the dot pattern, a cradle, a mobile telephone, and audio-visual equipment. The cradle for the mobile phone of the invention is to be used with a scanner remote controller that reads a printed dot pattern, in which information is recorded, and transmits the information. The mobile phone cradle comprises: being capable of having a mobile phone placed thereon and holding the mobile phone and communicating with the placed mobile phone; receiving data from the scanner remote controller to cause the scanner remote controller to function as input means for the mobile phone; and communicating with audio-visual equipment and controlling the audio-visual equipment to cause the audio-visual equipment to function as output means for the mobile phone.
US08873707B2
An apparatus for preparing samples for measurement by x-ray fluorescence spectrometry. A plate has one or more holes passing through the plate. The holes are covered by a film on one side of the plate. The holes are less than 500 micrometers across in one dimension where the film covers the holes. The film is translucent to x-rays.
US08873693B2
In one embodiment, a method includes adjusting a first frequency of a first clock signal based on a frequency difference between the first frequency and a reference clock signal frequency of a reference clock signal, and further adjusting the first frequency and a first phase of the first clock signal based on a phase difference between the first clock signal and an input data bit stream and the frequency difference between the first frequency and the reference clock signal frequency to substantially lock the first frequency and the first phase of the first clock signal to the input data bit frequency and input data bit phase of the input data bit stream.
US08873691B2
Disclosed are various embodiments for circuitry that generates a sync code for wireless transmission. The system generates a sync word according to an identifier of the transmitter, the sync word being unique under a cyclic shift of the sync word. The system inserts a plurality of instances of the sync word into a data stream. The system also transmits, via the transmitter, the data stream to a receiver, the receiver being operable to perform a sliding correlation operation on the sync word.
US08873688B1
Systems and methods for transmitting data having a rate indicated by an associated clock signal, using a fixed rate transmission system are disclosed. One embodiment of the invention includes an unknown rate to fixed rate transmitter configured to receive unknown rate data and a clock signal that indicates the rate of the unknown rate data, and to transmit data at a fixed rate over a fixed rate link, a fixed rate to unknown rate receiver configured to receive fixed rate data including the unknown rate data via the fixed rate link, and to transmit the unknown rate data, and a recovered clock signal. In addition, the unknown rate to fixed rate transmitter is configured to insert idle data between the fixed rate data so that transmitting the combined unknown rate and idle data at the fixed rate over the fixed rate link results in the unknown rate data being transmitted over the fixed rate link at a rate corresponding to the rate indicated by the clock signal, and the fixed rate to unknown rate receiver is configured to accumulate the unknown rate data and generate a recovered clock signal based upon the rate at which the unknown rate data is accumulated by the fixed rate to unknown rate receiver.
US08873671B2
A system involves a transmitting device (for example, a first wireless communication device) and a receiving device (for example, a second wireless communication device). In the receiving device, LLR (Log-Likelihood Ratio) values are stored into an LLR buffer. LLR bit width is adjusted as a function of packet size of an incoming transmission to reduce the LLR buffer size required and/or to prevent LLR buffer capacity from being exceeded. The receiver may use a higher performance demodulator in order to maintain performance despite smaller LLR bit width. In the transmitting device, encoder code rate is adjusted as a function of receiver LLR buffer capacity and packet size of the outgoing transmission such that receiver LLR buffer capacity is not exceeded. Any combination of receiver LLR bit width adjustment, demodulator selection, and encoder code rate adjustment can be practiced to reduce LLR buffer size required while maintaining performance.
US08873664B2
The present invention relates to a transmission beamforming method and apparatus in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based MIMO wireless system. In particular, the present invention relates to a transmission beamforming method in an OFDM-based MIMO wireless system and an apparatus therefor, wherein the transmission beamforming method comprises: estimating a channel from a received pilot signal and obtaining time for the estimating channel and 2D channel correlation information of a frequency band; obtaining estimated channel information based on the channel correlation information; obtaining differential information that represents a difference between the current channel and the estimated channel and quantizing the differential information; and generating a transmission beam weight by using a predefined code book from the quantized differential information. The present invention may also provide a method and apparatus for reducing the channel quantization error and feedback load by employing the OFDM-based MIMO in a wireless communication system using a transmission beamforming scheme, wherein a receiver estimates current channel information by using time and 2D channel correlation information of a frequency based on the previous channel information, compares the estimated current channel information with an actual channel and then feeds back the differential channel information, i.e., the difference between the estimated channel and the actual channel, to a transmitter.
US08873663B2
A data transmission method includes, in the mobile station apparatus, selecting a PMI and an RI corresponding to an Hermitian transpose of a channel matrix indicative of channel characteristics and calculating a CQI from the PMI. The method further includes transmitting the PMI, the RI, and the CQI to the base station apparatus as feedback information. The method further includes, in the base station apparatus, calculating a first data rate of a case of performing SU-MIMO transmission based on the PMI transmitted from the mobile station apparatus as feedback and calculating a second data rate of a case of performing ZF MU-MIMO transmission based on the PMI. The method further includes selecting a transmission scheme corresponding to a higher data rate between the first and second data rates.
US08873662B2
Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) with multiple power amplifiers and antennas in a mobile transmitter, such as a user equipment for a cellular telephone communication system, has such great impacts on the transmitter's battery life, form factor, and complexity that it should not be used unless its benefits clearly outweigh its costs. Methods and apparatus enable the benefits of MIMO by beam-forming and antenna-switching to be obtained without incurring the drawbacks of increased current consumption due to multiple power amplifiers.
US08873659B2
A system for reduced pair Ethernet transmission. The system includes an interleaver that is operable to receive sets of four code symbols from a physical channel sub-layer (PCS) encoder, wherein each code symbol of each set of four code symbols is associated with one of four channels, and interleave the sets of four code symbols to generate a plurality of interleaved code symbols. The system further includes a serializer that is operable to serialize the plurality of interleaved code symbols to generate a plurality of interleaved and serialized code symbols. The system further includes a transmitter that is operable to transmit the plurality of interleaved and serialized code symbols over an Ethernet medium comprising a single twisted pair of wires.
US08873643B2
A signal adaptive filtering method for reducing blocking effect and ringing noise, a signal adaptive filter, and a computer readable medium. The signal adaptive filtering method capable of reducing blocking effect and ringing noise of image data when a frame is composed of blocks of a predetermined size includes the steps of: (a) generating blocking information for reducing the blocking effect and ringing information for reducing the ringing noise, from coefficients of predetermined pixels of the upper and left boundary regions of the data block when a frame obtained by deconstructing a bitstream image data for inverse quantization is an intraframe; and (b) adaptively filtering the image data passed through inverse quantization and inverse discrete cosine transform according to the generated blocking information and ringing information. Therefore, the blocking effect and ringing noise can be eliminated from the image restored from the block-based image, thereby enhancing the image restored from compression.
US08873641B2
A moving picture coding apparatus is provided, which controls coding of a following stream, according to virtual buffer occupancy determined by a generated amount of coded data and an amount of coded data transferred to an output destination, when generating the following stream, such that a preceding stream and the following stream, which both have an image stream multiplexed with other information, are reproduced seamlessly. The moving picture coding apparatus generates the preceding stream and the following stream by multiplexing the image stream and the other information to form the preceding stream and the following stream, and determines an initial value of the virtual buffer occupancy for the following stream according to an amount of delay resulting from the multiplexing, and the virtual buffer occupancy at an end of the preceding stream.
US08873640B2
A multi-format digital video production system enables a user to process an input video program to produce an output version of the program in a final format which may have a different frame rate, pixel dimensions, or both. An internal production format of 24 fps is preferably chosen to provide the greatest compatibility with existing and planned formats associated with HDTV standard 4:3 or widescreen 16:9 high-definition television, and film. Images are re-sized horizontally and vertically by pixel interpolation, thereby producing larger or smaller image dimensions so as to fill the particular needs of individual applications. Frame rates are adapted by inter-frame interpolation or by traditional schemes, including “3:2 pull-down” for 24-to-30 fps conversions. Simple speed-up (for 24-to-25 conversions) or slow-down (for 25-to-24 conversions) for playback, or by manipulating the frame rate itself using a program storage facility with asynchronous reading and writing capabilities. The step of converting the signal to a HDTV format is preferably performed using a modified upconversion process for wideband signals (utilizing a higher sampling clock frequency) and a resizing to HDTV format frame dimensions in pixels.
US08873633B2
A method and apparatus for encoding a skip macroblock by dividing the skip macroblock into smaller skip sub blocks and using predictive motion vectors predicted from motion vectors of blocks adjacent to the skip sub blocks, and a method and apparatus for decoding the skip macroblock is provided. Accordingly, by adding predetermined binary information indicating whether the skip macroblock is divided to the skip macroblock that generally transmits only prediction mode information, division of the skip macroblock can be adaptively applied, or all skip macroblocks can be divided into sub-blocks to be processed, so that pixel values in the skip macroblock can be predicted by using motion vectors of spatially adjacent blocks. Therefore, prediction efficiency increases.
US08873630B2
Several improvements for use with Bidirectionally Predictive (B) pictures within a video sequence are provided. In certain improvements Direct Mode encoding and/or Motion Vector Prediction are enhanced using spatial prediction techniques. In other improvements Motion Vector prediction includes temporal distance and subblock information, for example, for more accurate prediction. Such improvements and other presented herein significantly improve the performance of any applicable video coding system/logic.
US08873628B2
An electronic device and a method of operating the electronic device are provided. The method includes obtaining a first image including an interesting object and at least one peripheral object, obtaining relevance of the at least one peripheral object with respect to the interesting object based on at least one of attributes including a state, a motion, and a location of the interesting object, and replacing an area of the whole area of the first image, which is occupied by the interesting object and the other remaining peripheral objects than a specific peripheral object determined based on the relevance, with a second image. According to the embodiments of the present invention, the electronic device and method may provide a vivid video conference.
US08873627B2
A method and apparatus for encoding a video sequence comprising a plurality of pictures are disclosed. In video coding systems, the temporal redundancy is exploited using motion compensated prediction. The video sequence is often organized into multiple GOP (group of pictures) where different types of GOP may be used. In conventional coding systems, IPPP and IBBP GOP structure is often used. In H.264/AVC and the emerging High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), hierarchical GOP structure, including hierarchical P GOP structure and hierarchical B GOP structure, has been introduced to allow temporal scalability. Furthermore, low-delay IBBB GOP structure has been also introduced, for low-delay application. In the present invention, a low-delay hierarchical B GOP structure is disclosed. The new structure uses low-delay B-pictures only so as to minimize the processing delay while the hierarchical structure provides the temporal scalability. The low-delay hierarchical B GOP structure has been shown to result in substantial improvement in coding efficiency.
US08873625B2
Using fewer bits to indicate the prediction mode used for encoding some of the non-frame-edge blocks of a frame. In an embodiment, fewer bits are used in case of boundary blocks of a slice, or slice group. In another embodiment, fewer bits are used when adjacent blocks are encoded using inter-frame coding or switchable intra-frame coding and such adjacent block cannot be used in predicting a block.
US08873618B2
A communications system includes a first device with a first display, and a first processor configured to generate at least one coded image according to a selectable encoding scheme from among different encoding schemes, and display the coded image on the first display. A first communications device is coupled to the first processor. A second device includes a second camera configured to capture the coded image on the first display, a second communications device, and a second processor coupled to the second camera and the second communications device. The second processor is configured to send a status message, via the second and first communications devices to the first processor, related to whether the captured coded image is decodable based upon a currently selected encoding scheme.
US08873606B2
Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described for reducing the latency in a transceiver. A transceiver includes a high latency communication channel and a low latency communication channel that is configured to be a bypass channel for the high latency communication channel. The low latency communication channel may be utilized when implementing the transceiver is used in low latency applications. By bypassing the high latency communication channel, the high latency that is introduced therein (due to the many stages of de-serialization used to reduce the data rate for digital processing) can be avoided. An increase in data rate is realized when the low latency communication channel is used to pass data. A delay-locked loop (DLL) may be used to phase align the transmitter clock of the transceiver with the receiver clock of the transceiver to compensate for a limited tolerance of phase offset between these clocks.
US08873601B2
A laser (12, 18) with a laser resonator (13), the laser resonator (13) having a non-linear optical loop mirror (1, 1′), NOLM, which is adapted to guide counter-propagating portions of laser pulses, and to bring the counter-propagating portions of laser pulses into interference with each other at an exit point (4) of the NOLM (1, 1′). The non-linear optical loop mirror (1, 1′) has a non-reciprocal optical element (7, 7′).
US08873595B2
The present invention relates to a method of processing a metal thin film formed on a transparent substrate by radiating pulsed light onto the metal thin film, and having the steps of repeatedly outputting the pulsed light by directly modulating a semiconductor laser of the seed light source in accordance with electric signals, amplifying the pulsed light using an optical amplifier including an optical amplification medium, controlling the full width at half maximum of the pulsed light that is amplified and outputted by the optical amplifier to be 0.5 ns or less, and removing the metal thin film by radiating the pulsed light thus having the controlled full width at half maximum onto the metal thin film through the transparent substrate.
US08873592B1
A system and method is disclosed for adding a low data rate data channel to a 100Base-T Ethernet link without significantly impacting an IEEE defined 100Base-T protocol for the Ethernet link. A dual data channel transmitter encodes a high data rate data stream in an MLT-3 encoder and encodes a low data rate data stream using bit representations that are not valid bit representations in the MLT-3 encoder. The dual data channel transmitter transmits both of the encoded bit streams in a dual data stream. A dual data channel receiver receives the dual data stream and separates and decodes the two bit streams. A low data rate data channel is provided in conjunction with a high data rate data channel without significantly impacting the operation of the high data rate data channel.
US08873591B2
Input/output of network switches and the like are improved by a system including a gearbox, an inverse-gearbox, and a Gigabit Ethernet link coupling them. The gearbox and inverse-gearbox interconnect data streams received through wider lower rate Gigabit Ethernet interfaces through narrower faster rate interfaces. The gearbox is configured to bit-multiplex physical-layer data streams received through input interfaces to generate bit-multiplexed data streams. The inverse-gearbox is configured to demultiplex the multiplexed data streams and to output the recovered data streams through output interfaces. One of the output interfaces is selected for each recovered data stream according to a respective embedded physical-layer data stream identifier.
US08873579B1
A method for inserting ordered sets into a data stream converted from a first rate to a second rate NA times greater than the first rate, while conforming to a requirement that symbols be arranged in units of symbol length M, includes receiving, at the first rate, a data packet containing data symbols, receiving Y1 symbols of control information, and identifying an ordered set based on the Y1 symbols. The method also includes generating NA repetitions of each data symbol of the data packet, determining whether Y1*NA/M has a non-zero remainder, and, at least partially in response to determining that Y1*NA/M has a non-zero remainder, generating a number of repetitions of the ordered set containing either more or fewer than Y1*NA symbols. The method also includes outputting, at the second rate, the data symbol repetitions and first ordered set repetitions.
US08873578B2
A method of routing traffic in a communications network employing Proxy Mobile IP is disclosed. According to the method, a traffic flow has been transferred from a first interface of a multi-homed mobile node, having a first IP address, to a second interface of the multi-homed mobile node, having a second IP address. The method further involves, at the mobile node and at a mobility anchor function, performing forward and reverse address translation between the first IP address and the second IP address.
US08873576B2
A switch device that includes a switch pipeline stage to process packet data may selectively clock multiple pipeline sub-stages within the switch pipeline stage. The switch device may provide a first clock to processing logic of a first sub-stage independently of providing a second clock to a processing logic of second sub-stage within the switch pipeline stage. Clocking logic associated with a current switch pipeline stage may receive an event indication, such as an event indication from a previous pipeline stage responsive to processing of packet data by the previous pipeline stage. In response, the clocking logic associated with the current switch pipeline stage may determine a clocking time to issue a clock to a selected pipeline sub-stage in the current switch pipeline stage. The clocking logic may also issue the clock to the selected pipeline sub-stage at the clocking time.
US08873565B2
An apparatus for interconnecting a fiber-optic network and a coax network comprising a coax line terminal (CLT) configured to couple to an optical line terminal (OLT) at the fiber-optic network and a plurality of coax network units (CNUs) at the coax network and to cache data received from the CNUs and forward the cached data to the OLT upon receiving a message from the OLT that assigns a transmission cycle for a specified CNU, wherein the CLT forwards the cached data to the OLT upon receiving the message regardless of whether the cached data corresponds to the specified CNU.
US08873562B2
A media data classification is provided. A Serving GPRS Supporting Node (SGSN) for indicating an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) data flow in a mobile communication system includes a communication module for communicating with other nodes; and a media flow manager for communicating with the other nodes through the communication module, receiving a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context activation message, and transmitting a PDP context generation message by including information indicative of IMS data when there is the information indicative of the IMS data.
US08873554B2
A network device receives a packet with a multicast nexthop identifier, and creates a mask that includes addresses of egress packet forwarding engines, of the network device, to which to provide the packet. The network device divides the mask into two portions, generates two copies of the packet, provides a first portion of the mask in a first copy of the packet, and provides a second portion of the mask in a second copy of the packet. The network device also forwards the first copy of the packet to an address of a first egress packet forwarding engine provided in the first portion of the mask, and forwards the second copy of the packet to an address of a second egress packet forwarding engine provided in the second portion of the mask.
US08873548B1
Preferred embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods subscribing to receive a call forwarding status notification associated with a call forwarding service, receiving a call forwarding status notification when a state associated with the call forwarding service changes, and interpreting the call forwarding status notification.
US08873546B2
Method and system for a network switch element is provided. The switch element includes a plurality of megaports, each megaport uniquely identified by a unique megaport address identifier for network addressing. Each megaport includes a plurality of operational ports, each operational port identified by a unique operational port address identifier. The switch element also includes a local crossbar for communication between the plurality of operational ports, and a shared logic module configured to provide common control of the plurality of operational ports within a megaport to allow operational ports to share resource of a single megaport to route network packets there between. The switch element also includes a global crossbar configured to allow communication between the megaports.
US08873539B2
A method of controlling an establishment of a multimedia call between at least two communication equipments, a corresponding system, and a corresponding communication equipment comprise a set up of a bearer connection resulting in a creation of a data transmission channel between at least two communication equipments.A data stream is transmitted between the at least two communication equipments after the creation of the data transmission channel for maintaining synchronization of the data transmission channel. Predefined information elements are introduced in the data stream, wherein the predefined information elements indicate local protocol settings for the multimedia call. The predefined information elements are recognized from the data stream, and parameters of an application protocol used for the multimedia call are adjusted on the basis of the predefined information elements.
US08873530B2
Systems and methods are disclosed to provide a bridge for a wireless distribution system compatible with legacy equipment, including the use of a bridge device having two WLAN modules, with the first WLAN module associating with one or more stations and the second WLAN module configured to associating with a legacy access point. Frames received by the first WLAN module are forwarded to the second WLAN module for transmission and frames received by the second WLAN module are forwarded to the first WLAN module for transmission on the basis of address information in the frames.
US08873520B2
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for enabling two or more TDMA-based wireless networks to share a communication channel, each wireless network implementing superframes. The method comprises within each network, implementing active superframes separated by one or more inactive superframes and only implementing active superframes when the other networks are implementing inactive superframes, wherein a network only communicates during that networks active superframes and does not communicate during that networks inactive superframes.
US08873510B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a gateway selection method for heterogeneous networks, where the method includes: accessing, by a terminal, an access network 1; obtaining, by the terminal, an equipment identity of a core network element 1; accessing, by the terminal, an access network 2, where the access network 2 and the access network 1 are heterogeneous networks; and sending, by the terminal, the obtained equipment identity of the core network element 1 to a core network element 2, and if an equipment identity of the core network element 2 is different from the equipment identity of the core network element 1, selecting the core network element 1 as a target gateway. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present invention further provide a terminal, a core network element, and a communication system.
US08873505B2
Techniques for component carrier-specific reconfiguration are disclosed. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) is capable of transmitting or receiving via multiple component carriers. The WTRU may perform component carrier reconfiguration on a component carrier basis to add, remove or replace a component carrier. Discontinuous reception (DRX) and/or discontinuous transmission (DTX) may be performed on at least one component carrier, wherein DRX and/or DTX patterns on the component carriers may not overlap each other. A random access procedure may be performed at the target cell on one component carrier while other component carriers are inactive. The component carrier-specific reconfiguration or handover of a component carrier or a channel may be implemented in coordinated multiple point transmission (CoMP), wherein a handover of a control channel, not a traffic channel, may be performed. Alternatively, a handover of a traffic channel may be performed.
US08873503B2
The method for transmitting information in an ad hoc network comprises at least two transceiver nodes able to receive and transmit information and communicating with each other by sending information in random access time slots organized in frames.The nodes of the network are broken down into groups according to a distribution rule, the nodes of each group only having the right to transmit information in a predefined subset of frames specific to the group.
US08873497B2
There are provided an apparatus and method for transmitting information about power headroom in a multi-component carrier system. There is disclosed a method of configuring a plurality of component carriers combined from a candidate component carrier group, based on component carrier configuration information, triggering a power headroom report on the plurality of combined component carriers, calculating power headroom for the plurality of combined component carriers and transmitting combination power headroom information, including a value of the calculated power headroom, to a eNodeB. The power headroom report is triggered, when the power headroom on the plurality of combined component carriers is greater than or equal to a predefined threshold.Accordingly, uplink signaling overhead can be reduced because a power headroom report can be semi-persistently made without the need to additionally send information about the combination component carrier.
US08873496B2
A method is disclosed which is intended for use in multiple-input multiple-output wireless communication systems which have a plurality of adjacent cells (cell A, cell B, cell C, cell D), each containing one or more base stations which co-operatively transmit signals to, and receive signals transmitted from, a user equipment (UE). The user equipment is operable to feed back to the relevant base station(s) CSI reports relating to channel(s) between the relevant base station(s) and the users, the base stations are operable to adapt signals for transmission to users, based on the fed back channel state information. The method involves the UE being configured to select at least one cell to be the subject of a CSI report, and to send the CSI report with an indication of the subject cell(s). Feedback overhead on the uplink is reduced when many cells co-operate in transmission to the user equipment.
US08873487B2
The present invention relate to a wireless communication system; and, more particularly, to a communicating apparatus and method in a high rate wireless communication system.A transmitting method of data in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, as a transmitting method of data in a high rate wireless communication system, includes: allocating one or more bands among two or more multi-bands to each of users; and simultaneously transmitting data through the allocated bands to two or more users by using the multiple antennas for the allocated respective bands.
US08873484B1
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with a hybrid beamforming architecture are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes a beamforming mode detection logic configured to select a beamforming mode based, at least in part, on a packet received from a wireless device. The apparatus also includes a beamformee unit and a beamformer unit. The beamformee unit is configured to derive steering information from channel related information in the packet. The beamformer unit is configured to provide weights from a steering matrix to a transmitter performing transmit beamforming on a subsequent packet being transmitted to the wireless device. The beamforming mode detection logic routes at least part of the packet to one or both of the beamformee unit and the beamformer unit based, at least in part, on the selected beamforming mode.
US08873481B2
Method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving control information in a mobile communication system
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving control information in a mobile communication system. A User Equipment (UE) receives an UpLink Grant (ULG) signal from a BS, and transmits to the BS control information including state information indicating the absence of user data to be transmitted on a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH).
US08873479B2
In an embodiment, an application server receives a call message, from an originating user equipment (UE), that is configured to request initiation of a communication session, to be arbitrated by the application server, between the originating UE and at least one target UE. The application server selectively sends, in response to the call message, dummy data to a serving access network of a given UE associated with the communication session in order to facilitate a transition of the given UE to a dedicated-channel state. For example, the application server can selectively send the dummy data based on a size of the call message and/or based on a type of the communication session.
US08873476B2
A method for network entry in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes receiving an Advanced Air Interface Ranging Response (AAI_RNG-RSP) message including an unsolicited bandwidth indicator from a Base Station (BS), the unsolicited bandwidth indicator indicating that the BS will allocate an uplink bandwidth to the MS, for transmission of a Medium Access Control (MAC) message, without solicitation from the MS, and monitoring an Advanced MAP Information Element (A-A-MAP IE) for a predefined time after the reception of the AAI_RNG-REQ message.
US08873472B2
A method and system for allocating resources in a communication system are provided. The system includes a Base Station (BS) for allocating persistent resources included in a persistent resource area to one or more a Mobile Stations (MS) using the persistent resource area, for allocating an Identifier (ID) indicating an allocation order of the persistent resources to each of the one or more the MS using the persistent resource area, for transmitting resource allocation information including the ID and the number of slots included in the persistent resources to each of the one or more MSs using the persistent resource area, and for allocating dynamic resources to one or more MSs using a dynamic resource area, after the persistent resource allocation is completed for all of the one or more MSs using the persistent resource area. The persistent resource area includes successive persistent resources along a time axis and along a frequency axis.
US08873470B2
A wireless system and method including a medium access control (MAC) layer adapted to recover service in restricted channels.
US08873464B2
A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method for measuring power levels of signals provided by a receiver configured to scan radio frequency signals over a wide frequency band, calculating an average power level from at least a portion of the measured power levels, determining a threshold, detecting interference in the wide frequency band based on the threshold, the average power level, or both, and causing a null that substantially suppresses the interference received by the receiver. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08873459B2
A random access method in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The present invention includes transmitting a bandwidth request indicator and a quick access message from a mobile station to a base station and starting a timer having a timer value determined according to an acknowledgement from the base station.
US08873447B2
The present invention relates to an arrangement and method for content synchronization when broadcasting data from an infrastructure node in a communication network. The arrangement comprises a receiver receiving data sequences and a transmitter for transmitting data sequences. Each data sequence has a data size and comprises a sequence number (SN). The arrangement further comprises a processing arrangement configured to add byte numbered sequence numbers to said data sequences passed between layers in a protocol stack for transmission to a transceiver station.
US08873437B2
A base station apparatus in a mobile communication system allowing for user equipment terminals having different numbers of receiving antennas is disclosed. The base station apparatus includes a mapping unit mapping a reference signal, a primary broadcasting signal, a synchronization signal, and an L1/L2 control signal onto a predetermined signal format; and a transmission unit transmitting the mapped signals, in which, within a sub-frame, the mapping unit maps the L1/L2 control signal and the primary broadcasting signal so as to be time-domain multiplexed, maps the primary broadcasting signal and the synchronization signal within a predetermined bandwidth in a middle of a system bandwidth, maps a reference signal included in a predetermined transmission stream within the predetermined bandwidth, but does not map a reference signal included in a transmission stream other than the predetermined transmission stream within the predetermined bandwidth.
US08873435B2
In TDD-LTE wireless systems, an additional fourth preamble for the random access channel, called short RACH, may be used. If short RACH signaling is to be used, the random access preamble is transmitted in the uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) field in the special subframe. The location of the uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS) is next to a downlink subframe. Therefore, interference from neighbor base stations may interfere with the short RACH preamble within the uplink pilot time slot. The interference to the short RACH will prevent the eNodeB from detecting the short RACH preamble and thus prevent the UE from accessing the network. An interference level on an Uplink Pilot Time Slot (UpPTS) may be measured and when the interference level exceeds a threshold value a User Equipment (UE) is instructed to disable short Random Access Channel (RACH) signaling. The UE may then be instructed to enable normal RACH. When the interference level falls below the threshold value the UE is instructed to resume short RACH signaling.
US08873421B2
Systems, methods, and apparatus for generating data packets and testing a packet switching system are provided. For example, a data packet diagnostic system includes an input queuing subsystem comprising a set of data queues, an injecting unit, and a diagnostic unit. Each data queue is coupled with a separate functional read/write path and debug read/write path. The injecting unit injects test data packets into at least one of the data queues via its respective debug read/write path. The test packets can then be processed (e.g., routed) through a data packet processing environment. In some implementations, packets are communicated via the data packet processing environment back to the input queuing subsystem, where the diagnostic unit can read present contents of at least one of the data queues to determine whether the present contents satisfy a predetermined test profile according to the injected data packets.
US08873412B2
Methods and devices for characterizing the interconnection efficiency of a computer network based upon a static routing scheme are disclosed. The network comprises a plurality of items of equipment. After having determined (105) a plurality of types of links between said items of equipment, a theoretical number of routes per link and the associated number of links are determined (120, 125) for each type of at least one subset of said plurality of types of links according to the topology of said network. The determined theoretical number of routes per link and the associated number of links are then aggregated (135) to estimate at least one optimal routing point characterizing the theoretical efficiency of the network. Such optimal routing points can be compared with estimated actual routing points based upon the aggregation of actual numbers of routed per link and associated actual numbers of links to characterizes the network efficiency.
US08873406B2
A RACH-related system resource optimization method and apparatus is provided for a wireless communication system. Specifically, a method is provided in a user equipment for optimizing a system resource related to a random access channel in a wireless communication system. A downlink channel condition and a transmission capability for performing random access to a base station based on a stored message size parameter are measured. The measured downlink channel condition and the measured transmission capability are reported. When a new message size parameter determined based on the reported downlink channel condition and the reported transmission capability is received, the stored message size parameter is updated with the new message parameter.
US08873398B2
A method for implementing a control plane of an evolved packet core (EPC) of a third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) network in a cloud computing system, including initializing the plurality of control plane modules of the EPC within the controller, each control plane module in the plurality of control plane modules initialized as a separate virtual machine by the cloud manager; monitoring resource utilization of each control plane module and the control plane traffic handled by each control plane module; detecting a threshold level of resource utilization or traffic load for one of the plurality of control plane modules of the EPC; and initializing a new control plane module as a separate virtual machine by the cloud manager in response to detecting the threshold level, the new control plane module to share the load of the one of the plurality of control plane modules.
US08873386B2
A method of regulating traffic in a telecommunications network, including a first step of detecting a fault affecting a node or a link of the network. The second step below is then executed: the nodes located immediately upstream of said node/link that experienced the fault forward to the latter the registration requests sent by users of the network, to the extent that the throughput of said registration requests is below a predetermined clipping threshold associated with the registration requests; if the throughput of registration requests exceeds said clipping threshold, the excess requests are not forwarded to the node/link that experienced the fault, and the network sends to each user that sent a request refused in this way, a response prompting that user to observe a time-out period, said response specifying the recommended duration of said time-out period. Application in particular to IP networks using SIP signaling protocols.
US08873384B2
Disclosed in an example embodiment is an apparatus comprising a transmitter and processing logic coupled with the transmitter. The processing logic is configured to send data via the transmitter. The processing logic generates a request to send frame. The processing logic encodes data representative of a bandwidth parameter set in the request to send frame. The processing logic transmits the request to send frame via the transmitter.
US08873382B2
Mobile network services are performed in an appliance in a mobile data network in a way that is transparent to most of the existing equipment in the mobile data network. The mobile data network includes a radio access network and a core network. The appliance in the radio access network breaks out data coming from a basestation, and performs one or more mobile network services at the edge of the mobile data network based on the broken out data. The appliance has defined interfaces and defined commands on each interface that allow performing all needed functions on the appliance without revealing details regarding the hardware and software used to implement the appliance. The appliance includes overload detection and handling within the appliance. This appliance architecture allows performing new mobile network services at the edge of a mobile data network within the infrastructure of an existing mobile data network.
US08873378B2
A switching method for Ethernet path protection is provided in the disclosure. The method includes: setting a group of Traffic Engineering Service Instances (TESIs) protected by a protection group; detecting statuses of a working entity and a protection entity; implementing the path protection switching according to an outbound port configured for Ethernet Switching Path (ESP) of the TESI at the endpoint of the protection group and in conjunction with a corresponding protection switching mechanism selected in current status detection. A switching system for Ethernet path protection is also provided in the disclosure, wherein a switching unit is configured to implement the path protection switching according to the outbound port configured for the ESP of the TESI at the endpoint of the protection group and in conjunction with the corresponding protection switching mechanism selected in current status detection. The method and system of the disclosure can enhance the speed of fault recovery, reduce nodes for the protection switching, be beneficial to network optimization, and ensure the reliability of end-to-end traffic.
US08873375B2
Hypervisor functions, which may control operations of one or more virtual machines, may be distributed across a plurality of network devices. State information may be stored for the virtual machines on network devices for fault tolerance and resilience. The virtual machines may retrieve stored state information to recover from a fault. The hypervisor may control the storage of the state information. Resources of the network devices may be allocated for fault tolerance and resilience of the virtual machines based on network device parameters, which may include storage capacity, processor usage, access time, communication bandwidth, and/or latency. The state information may include program content, cache content, memory content, and/or register content information, may be stored on a continuous, periodic, or an aperiodic basis, and may be shared among the network devices to enable the processing of data by the virtual machines when a fault occurs, and may be incrementally updated.
US08873366B2
An OFDM system uses a normal mode which has a symbol length T, a guard time TG and a set of N sub-carriers, which are orthogonal over the time T, and one or more fallback modes which have symbol lengths KT and guard times KTG where K is an integer greater than unity. The same set of N sub-carriers is used for the fallback modes as for the normal mode. Since the same set of sub-carriers is used, the overall bandwidth is substantially constant, so alias filtering does not need to be adaptive. The Fourier transform operations are the same as for the normal mode. Thus fallback modes are provided with little hardware cost. In the fallback modes the increased guard time provides better delay spread tolerance and the increased symbol length provides improved signal to noise performance, and thus increased range, at the cost of reduced data rate.
US08873348B2
A write head includes a cavity configured to couple a laser diode to the write head. A bottom of the cavity includes a heat conductive element configured to contact the laser diode, a plurality of thermal studs disposed below the heat conductive element, and a substrate disposed below the thermal studs. The heat conductive element, thermal studs, and substrate are thermally coupled to draw heat from the laser diode.
US08873342B1
A wristwatch includes a face having a first area, in which the hour of the time associated with a first time zone is displayable; a second area, in which the hour of the time associated with a second time zone is displayable; and a third area, in which the minutes past the respective hours of the first and second time zones is displayable. The first area includes an analog display of an hour hand without a minute hand; the second area includes an analog display of an hour hand without a minute hand; and the third area includes an analog display of a minute hand without an hour hand. Each of the displays alternatively could be digital. Each of the areas preferably is compartmentalized and physically separated from the other areas on the face of the wristwatch.
US08873341B2
A cMUT-type capacitive electroacoustic transducer including: at least one membrane configured to oscillate under effect of an electric field and/or an acoustic wave, wherein the membrane is formed from one or more layers of juxtaposed nanotubes or nanowires or nanorods, and an acoustic imaging device or UHF sonar including such transducers.
US08873336B1
The transmission method utilizes multiple seismic acquisition units within an array as intermediate short range radio receivers/transmitters to pass collected seismic data in relay fashion back to a control station. Any one seismic unit in the array is capable of transmitting radio signals to several other seismic units positioned within radio range of the transmitting unit, thus allowing the system to select an optimal transmission path. Utilizing an array of seismic units permits transmission routes back to a control station to be varied as needed. In transmissions from the most remote seismic unit to the control station, each unit within a string receives seismic data from other units and transmits the received seismic data along with the receiving unit's locally stored seismic data. Preferably, as a transmission is passed along a chain, it is bounced between seismic units so as to be relayed by each unit in the array.
US08873333B2
A method of processing geophysical signals obtained by—monitoring the response of the earth to an source using a plurality of receivers is described including the evaluation of sums or integrals of functions of weighted signal values over a one or multidimensional domain such that the domain is split into a plurality of simplices and the signal values are interpolated across the simplices using a non-linear approximation of the function, the approximation including signals and gradients of the signals, and the evaluated sums or integrals are used to obtain a representation of characteristics of the earth.
US08873332B2
Method and system for improving offset/azimuth distribution. The system includes plural streamers towed by a streamer vessel; a central source towed by the streamer vessel; first and second front sources located in front of the plural streamers along a traveling direction of the streamer vessel; and first and second large offset front sources located in front of the first and second front sources along the traveling direction. The offset distance between the first and second large offset front sources, along a cross-line direction, is larger than an offset distance between the first and second front sources.
US08873328B2
A nonvolatile memory device includes a memory cell array comprising memory cells connected to bit lines and word lines; a word line decoder configured to apply word line voltages to the word lines; a bit line selector configured to select at least one bit line of the bit lines; a control logic configured to control the word line decoder and the bit line selector so that write data is programmed in the memory cell array; and a sudden power off (SPO) detection circuit, wherein the SPO detection circuit comprises: a sensing cell; a first driver configured to provide a first voltage to the sensing cell; and a second driver configured to provide a second voltage to the sensing cell, wherein a program state of the sensing cell becomes different depending on an order or a time difference between the first driver and the second driver being powered off.
US08873323B2
A method of executing wear leveling in a flash memory device includes determining whether a current temperature is in a normal operating temperature range of the flash memory device, and reprogramming data associated with data blocks to another location in a flash memory array when the current temperature is in the normal operating temperature range of the flash memory device, wherein the data is programmed in a temperature out of the normal operating temperature range of the flash memory device.
US08873321B2
A data split between a first data line and a second data line is caused to develop. At least one of the following sets of steps is performed: 1) a first power supply line of a sense amplifier is caused to rise towards a first power supply voltage value, and when the first power supply line reaches a first predetermined voltage value, the first power supply is caused to rise above the first power supply voltage value; and 2) a second power supply line of the sense amplifier is caused to fall towards a second power supply voltage value, and when the second power supply line reaches a second predetermined voltage value, the second power supply line is caused to fall below the second power supply voltage value.
US08873311B2
Electronic apparatus, systems, and methods can include a delayer having an inverter chain, where each inverter of the chain can be operatively regulated using current generators to control variation of the delay time of the delayer. In various embodiments, current generators can be arranged to provide reference voltages to each inverter stage of an inverter chain. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US08873308B2
A signal processing circuit that consumes less power by stop of supply of power for a short time. In a storage element, before supply of power is stopped, data in a first storage circuit is stored to a second storage circuit, and the data is read from the second storage circuit and a verification circuit can determine whether or not the data in the second storage circuit matches the data in the first storage circuit. After supply of power is restarted, the data in the second storage circuit is stored to the first storage circuit, and the verification circuit can determine whether or not the data in the second storage circuit matches the data in the first storage circuit. In such a manner, verification can be performed without requiring a time for verification.
US08873301B2
A semiconductor memory device and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The device includes a memory block and one or more peripheral circuits. The memory block includes a bit line, a common source line, a vertical channel layer coupled between the bit line and the common source line, word lines surrounding the bit line at different heights from a semiconductor substrate, and memory cells formed in portions where the word lines surround the vertical channel layer. The one or more peripheral circuits are configured to set the word lines to a floating state to supply holes to the vertical channel layer when a precharge voltage is applied to the common source line, and set word lines of memory cells to be erased to a ground state when an erase voltage is applied to the common source line.
US08873299B2
A semiconductor memory device includes memory cells and a voltage generating circuit for generating a voltage for memory cells. The first voltage generating circuit includes a first diode connected between first and second nodes, a first transistor connected between the output terminal and a third node and having a gate connected to the second node, a second transistor connected between the third node and a fourth node and having a gate connected to the second node, a third transistor connected between the output terminal and the first node and having a gate connected to the fourth node, a second diode connected between the first and fourth nodes, and a charge pump circuit configured to supply a voltage to the fourth node. The first voltage generating circuit functions to adjust the generated voltage when it overshoots a desired value which may be caused by capacitive coupling with adjacent wirings.
US08873290B2
A method of programming a non-volatile memory device including a plurality of strings arranged in rows and columns comprises activating all or a part of selection lines in one column at the same time depending upon data to be programmed, driving a bit line corresponding to the one column with a bit line program voltage, and repeating the activating and the driving until bit lines corresponding to the columns are all driven.
US08873285B2
Methods and devices for simultaneously verifying or reading multiple states in non-volatile storage are disclosed. Methods and devices for efficiently reducing or eliminating cross-coupling effects in non-volatile storage are disclosed. Methods and devices for efficiently performing reads at a number of voltages to search for the threshold voltage of a memory cell are disclosed. Memory cells on different NAND strings that are read at the same time may be tested for different threshold voltage levels. Memory cells may be tested for different threshold voltages by applying different gate-to-source voltages to memory cells being tested for different threshold voltages. Memory cells may be tested for different threshold voltages by applying different drain to source voltages to the memory cells. Different amounts of compensation for cross-coupling affects may be applied to memory cells on different NAND strings that are read or programmed at the same time. A binary search may be performed.
US08873283B2
A technique of writing, programming, holding, maintaining, sampling, sensing, reading and/or determining the data state of a memory cell of a memory cell array (for example, a memory cell array having a plurality of memory cells which consist of an electrically floating body transistor). In one aspect, the present inventions are directed to techniques to control and/or operate a semiconductor memory cell (and memory cell array having a plurality of such memory cells as well as an integrated circuit device including a memory cell array) having one or more electrically floating body transistors in which an electrical charge is stored in the body region of the electrically floating body transistor. The techniques of the present inventions may employ bipolar transistor currents to control, write and/or read a data state in such a memory cell. In this regard, the present inventions may employ a bipolar transistor current to control, write and/or read a data state in/of the electrically floating body transistor of the memory cell.
US08873281B2
A memory element capable of simultaneously satisfying the number of repeating operation times and a low-voltage operation characteristic which are in a tradeoff relation is provided. The memory element has a high-resistivity layer and an ion source layer between a bottom electrode and a top electrode. The high-resistivity layer is made of an oxide containing Te. Any of elements other than Te such as Al, Zr, Ta, Hf, Si, Ge, Ni, Co, Cu, and Au may be added. In the case of adding Al to Te and also adding Cu and Zr, the composition ratio of the high-resistivity layer is preferably adjusted in the ranges of 30≦Te≦100 atomic %, 0≦Al≦70 atomic %, and 0≦Cu+Zr≦36 atomic % except for oxygen. The ion source layer is made of at least one kind of metal elements and at least one kind of chalcogen elements of Te, S, and Se.
US08873275B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor storage device includes multiple memory cells that include a variable resistance element and a control circuit to control the voltage that is applied to the memory cell. The control circuit is configured so that, during the set operation in which the variable resistance element is changed to the set state, a set voltage of a first polarity is applied to the select memory cell. The control circuit is configured so that, during the reset operation in which the variable resistance elements are changed to the reset state, and a cancel voltage of the first polarity is applied to an unselected memory cell to which voltage that is less than the reset voltage was applied. The voltage value and the voltage application time of the set voltage and the voltage value and the voltage application time of the cancel voltage have a set relationship.
US08873268B2
Junction diodes fabricated in standard CMOS logic processes can be used as program selectors for One-Time Programmable (OTP) devices, such as electrical fuse, contact/via fuse, contact/via anti-fuse, or gate-oxide breakdown anti-fuse, etc. The OTP device has an OTP element coupled to a diode in a memory cell. The diode can be constructed by P+ and N+ active regions on an N well as the P and N terminals of the diode. By applying a high voltage to the P terminal of a diode and switching the N terminal of a diode to a low voltage for suitable duration of time, a current flows through an OTP element in series with the program selector may change the resistance state. The P+ active region of the diode can be isolated from the N+ active region in the N well by using dummy MOS gate, SBL, or STI/LOCOS isolations. If the resistive element is an interconnect fuse based on CMOS gate material, the resistive element can be coupled to the P+ active region by an abutted contact such that the element, active region, and metal are connected in a single rectangular contact.
US08873266B2
According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a first memory string including a first memory cell and a second memory cell aligned along a first axis, a source contact provided at a source-side end of the first memory string, a second memory string that extends along the first axis and includes a third memory cell that aligns with the first memory cell along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis, and a shield conductive layer. The shield conductive layer extends along the first axis between the first memory string and the second memory string and is electrically connected to the source contact.
US08873261B1
Systems and methods disclosed herein include a controller for a current source rectifier that is configured to facilitate operation in both continuous and discontinuous conduction modes. The controller comprises a discontinuous mode detection unit configured to determine when input current of the current source rectifier becomes discontinuous and a duty cycle calculation unit adapted to calculate duty cycles for the current source rectifier differently for operation in continuous or discontinuous mode. The controller is adapted to transition to a mode of operation to provide an input current that approximates a sinusoidal current during both the continuous and discontinuous modes of operation. The controller outputs control signals to turn on one or more of the electrical switches in the current source rectifier based on the calculated duty cycles.
US08873256B2
A method and apparatus of operating a controller usable for operating a wind turbine is provided. The wind turbine includes a voltage converter being connectable to a power grid via a filter arrangement. The method includes determining a line voltage and adding the determined line voltage to the output of the voltage converter with a time delay. The time delay is adjusted such that resonant effects occurring at the filter arrangement are decreased.
US08873252B2
Apparatus for extending a zero voltage switching (ZVS) range during DC/DC power conversion. The apparatus comprises a DC/DC converter, operated in a quasi-resonant mode, comprising (i) a transformer, (ii) a primary switch, coupled to a primary winding of the transformer, for controlling current flow through the primary winding, and (iii) a varactor, coupled to the transformer, for accelerating a downswing in a voltage across the primary switch.
US08873248B2
A decoration plate and an electronic apparatus having the same are provided. The decoration plate includes a cover plate, a conductive ring, an insulating layer, and a conductive element. The conductive ring is disposed on a surface of the cover plate. The insulating layer is disposed on the surface of the cover plate and covers the conductive ring, and the insulating layer has at least one opening. The conductive element is disposed in the opening.
US08873241B2
An intrinsically safe serviceable transmitter apparatus and method includes a sensor module composed of at least a sensor and a sensor electronic module in order to transmit an electrical signal from the sensor module to a dual cap electronic housing module. The dual cap electronic housing module includes an electronics module, a terminal block, and an intrinsically safe circuit and noise rejection unit. The electronic housing module includes a meter cap and a field-wiring cap in order to permit a user to open either side of the transmitter housing in an intrinsically sale environment. Once open, a local integral meter can be added to calibrate and reconfigure the apparatus and/or to replace a communications board. The terminal block located in a field-wiring compartment acts as an intrinsically safe barrier for the rest of the transmitter electronics and simplifies board replacement.
US08873238B2
A chassis system includes a body, a lid, a cavity, a backplane, and an electrically conductive connector. The lid is removably attached to the body such that when the lid is attached to the body a cavity within the body is completely enclosed by the body and the attached lid. The lid and the body are made of at least one material that does not allow electromagnetic waves to enter the cavity. The backplane is attached to the body or the lid. The electrically conductive connector is attached to the body or lid. The connector is in wired or wireless communication with the backplane for allowing electricity or data to flow between the electrically conductive connector and the backplane. The chassis system may be used to environmentally protect one or more electronic modules inserted into the cavity of the chassis system.
US08873226B1
An electronic device housing including a relatively thin and stiff support plate and including a relatively thick and low-density edge frame is described. The support plate may be composed of a composite material, such as carbon-fiber reinforced polymer or aluminum metal matrix composite, and the edge frame may be composed of a foam material, such as closed-cell aluminum foam.
US08873224B2
A parking lot power pedestal is described which has a single spring attaching a tubular body to a base. The spring flexes in response to a blow to enable the tubular body to be angularly offset relative to the base and the spring resiliently returns to its original state to reposition the tubular body in a position extending vertically relative to the base. The spring has a first end providing a weather seal with a central bore of the tubular body. The spring has a second end providing a weather seal surrounding an opening in the base. The spring is tightly wound to provide a weather seal for a central passage defined by the spring through which wires pass.
US08873213B2
A voltage swing decomposition circuit includes first and second clamp circuits and a protection circuit. The first clamp circuit is configured to clamp an output node of the first clamp circuit at a first voltage level when an input node of the voltage swing decomposition circuit has a voltage higher than the first voltage level. The second clamp circuit is configured to clamp an output node of the second clamp circuit at a second voltage level, higher than the first level, when the voltage of the input node is lower than the second voltage level. The protection circuit is coupled to the output nodes of the first and second clamp circuits, and is configured to selectively set an output node of the protection circuit to the first or second voltage level. The first and second clamp circuits are coupled together by the output node of the protection circuit.
US08873196B2
A base plate of a disk drive apparatus includes a motor base disposed around a central axis and a base body portion extending radially outward of the motor base. The motor base is made of a metallic material of a first type. The base body portion is made of a metallic material of a second type. The base body portion is a casting product in which the motor base is an insert component. An upper protruding portion and a lower protruding portion are defined in one of an outer end portion of a bottom plate portion of the motor base and an inner end portion of the base body portion.
US08873192B1
Techniques for operating tape heads are provided. In an example, a method includes detecting a potential at a sensor region, determining a target potential using a transfer function, and applying the target potential to an effector region.
US08873188B2
A hard disk drive or other storage device comprises a storage medium, a write head configured to write data to the storage medium, and control circuitry coupled to the write head. The control circuitry comprises degauss circuitry coupled to or otherwise associated with one or more write drivers. The degauss circuitry is configured to generate an asymmetric degauss signal to be applied to the write head. The asymmetric degauss signal has a waveform with upper and lower decay envelopes that are asymmetric about a specified degauss current level, such as a substantially zero current level.
US08873186B2
A method, and tape storage device configured to perform such method, according to various embodiments, includes writing data stored in a buffer onto a tape; writing an interval marker on the tape after the data stored in the buffer is written onto the tape; writing next data subsequent to the interval marker when the next data is stored in the buffer in a first round corresponding to a first-time write in a single track in the tape; writing data stored in the buffer in an area of the interval marker in a second round corresponding to a second-time write in the single track; and writing data stored in the buffer in an area of the interval marker in which no data is written in each of third and subsequent rounds corresponding to third- and subsequent-time writes in the single track.
US08873183B2
A system and method of writing servo write tracks to a rotating disk using a head having a read/write offset is disclosed. One embodiment utilizes a write element on the head to write the servo write tracks. A read element on the head is then positioned over the servo write tracks. The phase of a specific frequency component of the track shape error in the servo write track is measured during the positioning of the read element over the servo write track. A sine wave having a specific frequency and a phase is selected based on the measurement results. The sine wave is then applied to a servo system as a correction signal. A new servo write track is then written with the write element.
US08873179B1
A bit-patterned media (BPM) magnetic recording disk has two sizes of dots of magnetic material. The large and small dots are formed together in a hexagonal-close-packed (HCP) pattern. In the data regions none of the larger sized dots are adjacent one another; however in the servo regions some of the larger sized dots are adjacent one another. The adjacent larger sized dots form blocks that provide large amplitude “bursts” as the readback signal, as required for servo burst fields. The disk is made by imprint lithography using an imprint template, which can be made by directed self-assembly (DSA) of a block copolymer (BCP). The imprint template has two sizes of recesses, resulting in BPM disks with two sizes of dots. After the disks are imprinted they are exposed to a DC magnetic field, which magnetizes all the dots in the same direction.
US08873172B2
Provided is a linear motor comprising a magnet including a first region polarized to have a magnetic pattern for driving and a second region polarized to have a magnetic pattern for position detection, the first and second regions being arranged linearly in a direction of the driving; a drive coil that is provided opposite the first region and generates a drive force exerted on the magnet in the direction of the driving; a magnetic sensor arranged opposite the second region; and a base member that supports the magnet, the drive coil, and the magnetic sensor such that the magnet can be moved relative to the drive coil and the magnetic sensor in the driving direction.
US08873170B2
Embodiments relate generally to a replaceable lens cartridge for use with a face mask, for example a respirator. The cartridge comprises a plurality of molded lenses, each lens sized to extend over one or more eyes of a wearer and typically having a curved shape and a plurality of catches; and a molded carrier mounting the lenses in stacked arrangement, the carrier having a first set of catches receiving the catches on one of the lenses.
US08873161B2
A zoom lens includes a first lens group having a positive refractive power, a second lens group having a negative refractive power, an aperture stop, a third lens group having a positive refractive power, and a fourth lens group having a positive refractive power, which are disposed in order from an object side. The first lens group has a negative lens and a positive lens having a convex surface at an object side, which are disposed in order from the object side. An interval between the first lens group and the second lens group is increased and an interval between the second lens group and the third lens group is decreased when changing a magnification of the zoom lens from a wide angle end to a telephoto end. The first lens group and the third lens group are moved from positions at the wide angle end toward positions, which are at object sides thereof, at the telephoto end, respectively. Parameters are set so as to successfully correct chromatic aberration while achieving compact size, wide half field angle at the wide angle end, good performance, and a high magnification ratio.
US08873153B2
Provided is a camera apparatus including a lens apparatus which is attachable thereto and detachable therefrom, the camera apparatus including: an optical system; and an optical element which is insertable to and removable from an optical path of the optical system, in which: the optical element includes a surface having positive refractive power; and the optical system includes a surface having negative refractive power.
US08873149B2
Technology is described for a projection optical system which optically couples image light from an image source to a near-eye display (NED) of a wearable near-eye display device. The projection optical system and the image source make up a projection light engine. Light from the image source is directed to a birdbath reflective optical element which is immersed in high index glass. The image light is reflected and collimated by the birdbath element and travels outside a housing of the projection light engine forming an external exit pupil, meaning the exit pupil is external to the projection light engine. A waveguide optically couples the image light of the external exit pupil. An example of a waveguide which can be used is a surface relief grating waveguide.
US08873146B2
Attachment methods for daylighting sheets and a resulting optical construction enable daylighting microstructures to be secured to a light incident surface, such as a glazing. Applying an adhesive to selected portions of the daylighting microstructures creates a transparent, optical adhesive surface that enables the daylighting microstructures to be oriented outward, facing the incident light, and effectively seals the microstructures against the glazing to prevent ingress of dust and contaminants that would degrade optical efficiency.
US08873139B2
A microscope system and observation control method. An electric zoom consecutively changes a magnification for a sample. A revolver includes a plurality of objective lenses of different magnifications and switches the objective lens placed in an observation optical path to intermittently change the magnification for the sample. A control section calculates a total magnification at which the sample is observed based on a magnification provided by the electric zoom and the magnification of the objective lens currently placed in the observation optical path. The control section operates when the revolver switches the objective lens placed in the observation optical path, to determine a target magnification that is the magnification of the electric zoom required to keep the total magnification obtained after the switching of the objective lens equal to the total magnification obtained before the switching of the objective lens.
US08873131B2
An acousto-optic device includes an acousto-optic medium having a multi-layer nanostructure; and a sonic wave generator configured to apply sonic waves to the acousto-optic medium having the multi-layer nanostructure. The acousto-optic medium having the multi-layer nanostructure includes a second layer formed of at least two materials that have different dielectric constants and alternate with each other; and a first layer disposed on a first surface of the second layer and formed of a first material, and/or a third layer disposed on a second surface of the second layer and formed of a fourth material.
US08873129B2
A tetrachromatic color filter array comprises multiple pixels, each of which comprises first, second, third and fourth sub-pixels having first, second, third and fourth hues, P1, P2, P3 and P4 respectively, these first, second, third and fourth hues having first, second and third hue angles, h1, h2, h3 and h4 respectively. The hues of the sub-pixels such that h3 equals h1+(180°±10°) and h4 equals h2+(180°±10°) in the a*b* plane of the La*b* color space.
US08873128B2
A micromechanical mirror arrangement comprising a mirror plate (1) which forms a translation mirror, which is connected via at least one holding element (2), preferably two or more holding elements, to a frame structure (3) and is movable in translation relative to this frame structure, characterized in that the connection region (4) of at least one holding element (2), preferably of all holding elements, with the mirror plate (1) is arranged inwardly offset, viewed from the outer margin (5) of the mirror plate toward to the center (6) of the mirror plate.
US08873127B2
Electro-optic elements are becoming commonplace in a number of vehicular and architectural applications. Various electro-optic element configurations provide variable transmittance and or variable reflectance for windows and mirrors. The present invention relates to various thin-film coatings, electro-optic elements and assemblies incorporating these elements.
US08873121B2
Disclosed are an optical probe using a sensor and a method for controlling the same. The optical probe includes: an optical converter to change a light path of light generated from a light source; a vibrator to convert an electrical signal into a mechanical motion; a transmission member to transmit the motion of the vibrator to the optical converter; a position sensor to sense the position of the optical converter; and a controller to adjust the position of the optical converter by controlling the vibrator based on the position sensed by the position sensor.
US08873119B2
A system and a method perform buoyance of a 3D hologram image on a hologram display screen in a projection mode. A system of displaying a digital hologram includes: a composite hologram unit configured to generate a hologram array by receiving hologram data of a fringe pattern and by compositing background image and a foreground image using the received fringe pattern; a hologram projection unit configured to project a hologram image through a wide-angle lens by applying a light to the hologram array; and a hologram display unit configured to perform space buoyance of the hologram image projected by the hologram projection unit on a 3D hologram display screen. The digital hologram content is managed in real time, and transmission of the digital hologram content to a remote place and site adaptive display of hologram image media may be achieved.
US08873118B2
In order to perform printing by using a minimum of band buffer and correcting bending/inclination in a sub-scanning direction without making optical adjustments and using special hardware, 1-band image data are stored in the band buffer, images stored in the band buffer are corrected, images lying outside a band area are stored in an intermediate buffer, and images including images stored in the intermediate buffer and corrected images of a next band that lie inside the band area are output.
US08873115B2
An image reading apparatus includes: a contact glass provided at an upper surface of a main body of the apparatus to set a manuscript thereon, an image sensor being positioned below the contact glass and having a reading surface on contact glass side for reading an image from the manuscript on the contact glass, a carriage supporting the image sensor accommodated in a sensor container formed to have a recess open to the contact glass side, a rail member slidably supporting the carriage, and a biasing member biasing the image sensor to the contact glass side via a biased portion adjacent to the reading surface of the image sensor. An upper end of the biasing member is positioned below the contact glass and above the lower surface of the image sensor.
US08873114B2
A lens array including: a plurality of imaging portions arrayed in a first direction; wherein each of the plurality of imaging portions includes a first optical system configured to form an intermediate image of an object and a second optical system configured to re-form the intermediate image of the object in a first cross section parallel to the first direction and a direction of optical axes of the imaging portions, and wherein in each of the plurality of imaging portions, an optical flux from an object height at which a light available efficiency becomes 90% is restricted by at least one of a first aperture surface of the first optical system and a second aperture surface of the second optical system, and the optical flux from an object height at which the light available efficiency becomes 10% is restricted by the aperture surface which restricts the optical flux from the object height at which the light available efficiency becomes 90%.
US08873113B2
According to embodiments, an image reading apparatus and an image reading method are disclosed. The image reading method comprises receiving a signal of an image color of an image on an original, and based on the received signal, controlling an illuminating section comprising a red light source, a green light source and a blue light source so that one of the red, green and blue light sources is turned off, while the remaining light sources are turned on. The image reading method further comprises receiving, on an image sensor, light from the turned-on light sources that is reflected off of the original, and processing the light received by the image sensor to form a monochromatic image.
US08873102B2
A method for automatically generating a color separation at a digital press comprises defining a color ink array of n-color inks. A separation model is constructed at the digital press based on parameters of the digital press and ink parameters of each of the n-color inks. The constructed separation model is applied to an input digital file to enable printing an element of the input digital file using the n-color inks.
US08873099B2
Provided are a facsimile apparatus, a communication apparatus, and a communication method that perform communication using a session established according to a session initiation protocol (SIP). If an INVITE in which a media type is designated as “audio” is received, an INVITE in which a media type is designated as “image” is transmitted. If a success response is made to the transmitted INVITE, an image session is established and facsimile communication or image communication is executed. If an error response is made to the transmitted INVITE, calling processing for calling an operator is started.
US08873081B2
An image forming apparatus includes an application management unit that detects a restricted function of which use by a given user is inhibited from among functions within an application. The image forming apparatus further includes a function monitoring unit that registers the restricted function detected by the application management unit, and inhibits the user from executing the restricted function.
US08873080B2
In an image forming device including a processor unit, a first screen generating part generates a screen to be displayed on an operation panel and displays the screen on the operation panel. A second screen generating part generates screen data to be displayed on an information processing device and transmits the screen data to the information processing device. An application managing part selects, in response to a request of execution of an application, one of the first and second screen generating parts as a candidate for use of the application based on a source inputting the request. The first and second screen generating parts are configured to receive a request of generation of a screen using a common interface, and the application inputs through the common interface the request to the selected one of the first and second screen generating parts.
US08873077B2
A control portion of an image forming apparatus includes an internal control portion to execute a process predetermined for an internal command, a first application executing portion, and an application control portion to convert an application command output from one of second application executing portions into an internal command for output to the internal control portion. The application control portion includes a current task setting portion to set a second application executing portion to a currently selected state, and an arbitration portion to output operation identification information of a common operation accepted, to the second application executing portion currently selected. The first application executing portion includes a post-transition application determining portion which, when a process switching operation is accepted, determines a second application executing portion to be changed to the currently selected state next, on the basis of the process switching operation and the second application executing portion currently selected.
US08873073B2
An information processing device has a parts selection instruction receiving portion that receives from an operator a selection instruction of display object parts to be displayed on a screen for receiving an instruction from an operator. A job selection instruction receiving portion receives from an operator a selection instruction of a job that is executable by an electrical device and is associated with the display object parts indicated by the display object parts selection instruction. An external service selection instruction receiving portion receives from an operator a selection instruction of a service executable by an external device other than the electrical device and associated with the display object parts indicated by the display object parts selection instruction. A screen data generation portion generates screen data of the display screen based on content determined by the parts selection instruction, the job selection instruction, and the service selection instruction.
US08873064B2
A fiber-optic sensor can have a Michelson sensor portion and a Mach-Zehnder sensor portion. A first splitter-coupler can be configured to split incoming light between a first fiber portion and a second fiber portion. A first polarization-phase conjugation device can be configured to conjugate a polarization phase of incident light corresponding to the first fiber portion, and a second polarization-phase conjugation device can be configured to conjugate a polarization phase of incident light corresponding to the second fiber portion. Each of the first and second polarization-phase conjugation devices can be configured to reflect light toward a detector and through the respective first and second fiber portions. A coupler can be configured to join light in the first fiber portion with light in the second fiber portion, and a third fiber portion can be configured to receive light from the coupler and to illuminate a second detector.
US08873062B2
Described herein is a sensor for sensing reflective material. The sensor includes a housing with a transparent window and a sensor mount located in the housing and angled away from a housing wall. A radiation emitter is mounted in the sensor mount and emits radiation along an axis through the transparent window which has an amount of the reflective material located thereon. A radiation detector is mounted in the sensor mount and located adjacent the radiation emitter. The radiation detector is located to receive reflected radiation from the reflective material along another axis. The first axis is angled towards the second axis.
US08873059B2
A method for assessing an interaction of a sample with light beams having different wavelengths, the method comprising: generating a light beam having a wavelength and being intensity modulated according to a modulation function to create an intensity modulation in the light beam; irradiating the sample with the light beam; detecting a response light from the sample, the response light being released by the sample when the sample is irradiated with the light beam, the response light having intensity fluctuations caused by the intensity modulation; using the intensity fluctuations in the response light to identify the modulation function and associate the wavelength and the response light to each other; assessing the interaction of the sample with the light beam using the response light; stopping irradiating the sample with the light beam and performing the previous step with at least one other light beam having a different wavelength. The modulation functions provide wavelength information in the light beams by encoding the wavelengths in the light beams, the wavelength information being conveyed in the response lights to allow association of the response lights respectively with a respective wavelength.
US08873058B2
The invention relates to an optical sensor for monitoring a monitored zone having a detection device for observing a detection zone including the monitored zone, said detection device including a transmission device for transmitting transmission light into the detection zone and a receiver for receiving light reflected back or remitted back from the detection zone or transmitted through the detection zone and having at least one test object within the detection zone of the optical sensor. In accordance with the invention, the optical sensor has a device for avoiding and/or eliminating the contamination of the at least on test object.
US08873048B2
A spectrometer assembly (10), comprising an Echelle grating (18; 46) for dispersing radiation entering the spectrometer assembly (10) in a main dispersion direction, and a dispersion assembly (16; 40) for dispersing a parallel radiation bundle generated from the radiation entering the spectrometer assembly in a lateral dispersion direction, is characterized in that the dispersion assembly (16; 40) is reflective, and the dispersion assembly (16; 40) is arranged relative to the Echelle grating (18; 46) in such a way that the parallel radiation bundle is reflected in the direction of the Echelle grating. The Echelle grating (18; 46) may be arranged in such a way that the dispersed radiation is reflected back to the dispersion assembly (16; 40).
US08873046B2
A spectroscopic detection device including: a stop in which an aperture is formed; a first and second photodetectors which detect detection light; a collimator which converts the detection light emitted from the stop into substantially parallel light, and emits light to at least one of the first and second photodetectors; a dispersive element which is arranged between the collimator and the first photodetector, and disperses the detection light; a condensing optical system which condenses the detection light dispersed by the dispersive element to the first photodetector; and a wavelength selection filter which is arranged between the collimator and the second photodetector, and allows light in a specified wavelength range to enter the second photodetector. The collimator is configured so that the focal length for the detection light emitted to the first photodetector may be different from the focal length for the detection light emitted to the second photodetector.
US08873041B1
Raman spectrometers are provided that illuminate a sample with two or more different beams of light, each characterized by a different primary frequency. Scattered light from the sample is separated into multiple Raman spectra, one for each primary frequency. The multiple Raman spectra can be evaluated individually, or they can be added together to form a composite spectrum that is then evaluated.
US08873038B2
Embodiments of nanostructured, multilayered metal-dielectric particles suitable for use as Raman spectroscopic probes are disclosed, as well as methods of designing, making and using such multilayered nanoparticles, and kits including the multilayered nanoparticles. The multilayered nanoparticles include alternating metal and dielectric layers and an outer dielectric shell. One or more of the dielectric layers may include a plurality of reporter molecules. Embodiments of the multilayered nanoparticles are suitable for detecting target analytes in a sample. Some embodiments of the multilayered nanoparticles are suitable for use in multiplexed assays, including assays for multiple target analytes having differing concentrations.
US08873033B1
A cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) liner inspection system used to inspect a resin level in a CIPP liner that has been impregnated with resin using an inspection chamber having an optical sensor. The CIPP liner inspection system is also used to identify zones within an installed CIPP liner having lower mechanical strength due to inadequate distribution of resin using a robotic unit having an optical sensor. The optical sensor measures an optical property, which is used to determine a resin level or a mechanical property based on predetermined correlations between the optical property and the resin level and predetermined correlations between the optical property and the mechanical property.
US08873028B2
Apparatus, systems and methods for improving strength of thin cover glass for electronic devices are disclosed. Optical coherence tomography analysis may reveal fine details of a residual stress profile within chemically strengthened cover glass. One or more parameters of chemical strengthening treatments may be adjusted, based upon the analysis of the residual stress profile.
US08873027B2
A cell observation device is provided with a reflection interference shutter 106A which adjusts a light quantity of light emitted from a reflection interference measurement light source 106, a quantitative phase shutter 105A which adjusts a light quantity of light emitted from a quantitative phase measurement light source, a camera 110 which images reflected light from the reflection interference measurement light source 106 to generate a reflection interference image and which images transmitted light from a quantitative phase measurement light source 105 to generate a quantitative phase image, and a first extraction unit 204 and a second extraction unit 205 which extract first and second parameters from the reflection interference image generated by the camera 110. During generation of the reflection interference image, the quantitative phase shutter 105A blocks the light from the quantitative phase measurement light source 105. During generation of the quantitative phase image, the reflection interference shutter 106A blocks the light from the reflection interference measurement light source 106.
US08873020B2
The present disclosure provides an apparatus for fabricating a semiconductor device. The apparatus includes a lithography tool. The lithography tool includes: a first nozzle configured to dispense a developer solution to a wafer; a second nozzle configured to dispense a cleaning solution to the first nozzle; and a controller configured to operate the second nozzle according to a predefined program. The present disclosure also provides a method of fabricating a semiconductor device. The method includes performing a developing process, wherein the performing the developing process includes dispensing a developer solution on a wafer using a first nozzle. The method also includes cleaning the first nozzle with a second nozzle, wherein the cleaning the first nozzle is executed according to one of a plurality of program recipes that each specify a sequence and a duration for which the first nozzle and the second nozzle are to be selectively activated.
US08873016B2
A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device by applying a sealant using a dispenser to form plural seal patterns on a first substrate in a matrix, dropping liquid crystal, bonding a second substrate to the first substrate, and then cutting into individual liquid crystal display devices. A process of forming the seal patterns in a matrix includes (1) a first step of sequentially applying a sealant to one long side and one short side out of four sides of a seal pattern of each liquid crystal display device with a single stroke, and (2) a second step of sequentially applying the sealant to the remaining long side and the remaining short side out of the four sides of the seal pattern of each liquid crystal display device with a single stroke.
US08873011B2
In a liquid crystal display device of an IPS system, to realize reduction of manufacturing cost and improvement of yield by decreasing the number of steps for manufacturing a TFT. A channel etch type bottom gate TFT structure, where patterning of a source region and a drain region and patterning of a source wiring and a pixel electrode are carried out by the same photomask.
US08873010B2
According to one embodiment, a device includes a first substrate including a gate line, a source line which extends to intersect with the gate line, a pixel electrode which includes a primary pixel electrode extending substantially parallel to the source line, and a switching element located at the intersection of the gate line and the source line, a second substrate includes a common electrode which extends substantially parallel to the primary pixel electrode on both sides across the primary pixel electrode, and a liquid crystal layer including liquid crystal molecules held between the first and second substrates. The switching element includes a drain line which is electrically connected to the pixel electrode and which is located to overlap the gate line.
US08873008B2
In one embodiment, a liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate and a second substrate. The first substrate includes a first source line and a second source line extending in a first direction, a main pixel electrode arranged between the first source line and a second source line and extending in the first direction, and a pair of first main common electrodes arranged on the first source line and the second source line interposing an insulating layer and extending in the first direction, respectively. The second substrate includes a pair of second main common electrode arranged above the first main common electrode and extending in the first direction, and the first main common electrode is connected with the second main common electrode. A liquid crystal layer is held between the first substrate and the second substrate.
US08872989B2
A driving circuit applies a voltage according to an assigned grayscale during each unit period of each display period, in such a manner that the applied voltage to a liquid crystal element during one of the unit periods and the applied voltage to the liquid crystal element during the other of the unit periods are opposite in polarity during each of the display periods, and an overdrive control unit enables the drive circuit to perform overdrive of a compensation grayscale according to a display image during the corresponding display period and to a display image during the immediately preceding display period during each of the first and second unit periods of each of the display periods, during each of the display periods.
US08872988B2
A disclosed apparatus includes a display device having a polarizer, a liquid crystal panel having a first liquid crystal region and a second liquid crystal region of different liquid crystal orientations, and a lenticular lens having a cavity to contain a third liquid crystal region and a fourth liquid crystal region of different liquid crystal orientations, wherein the liquid crystal panel is disposed between the lenticular lens and the display device, and the first liquid crystal region corresponds to the third liquid crystal region, and the second liquid crystal region corresponds to the fourth liquid crystal region.
US08872985B2
Some embodiments provide for a modular video projector system having a light engine module and an optical engine module. The light engine module can provide narrow-band laser light to the optical engine module which modulates the laser light according to video signals received from a video processing engine. Some embodiments provide for an optical engine module having a sub-pixel generator configured to display video or images at a resolution of at least four times greater than a resolution of modulating elements within the optical engine module. Systems and methods for reducing speckle are presented in conjunction with the modular video projector system.
US08872980B2
A method and system for accumulating stillness characteristics is presented. The method and system generates field stillness characteristics for a current pixel of a current field. The field stillness characteristic is accumulated with an accumulated stillness characteristic that corresponds to a pixel location of the current pixel. The accumulated stillness characteristic includes stillness information regarding previous pixels of previous fields in the same pixel location as the current pixel.
US08872978B2
Provided herein are methods and systems that provide automatic compensation for frequency attenuation of a video signal transmitted over a cable. In accordance with an embodiment, a system includes an equalizer and a compensation controller. The equalizer receives a video signal that was transmitted over a cable, provides compensation for frequency attenuation that occurred during the transmission over the cable, and outputs a compensated video signal. The compensation controller automatically adjusts the compensation provided by the equalizer based on comparisons of one or more portions of the compensated video signal to one or more reference voltage levels. One or more values indicative of one or more levels of compensation provided by the equalizer are stored in memory and/or registers for each time, of a plurality of times. A monitor monitors for changes in the cable and/or the video signal transmitted over the cable based on the stored values. Additionally, the monitor can selectively trigger an alert based on changes in the one or more stored values.
US08872968B2
A method of determining a motion value for a missing pixel in an interlaced video field using an adaptive window. The method includes computing a first mean absolute difference (MAD) value for a pixel based on a 1×5 window, computing a second MAD value for the pixel using a 3×5 window, and selectively blending the first and second MAD values to form a resultant motion value.
US08872965B2
An image pickup apparatus that can reduce power consumption of the image pickup apparatus, and take high-definition moving images at high speed without bringing about decreases in recordable time and the number of still images taken. An image pickup processing unit is operated in a plurality of operation modes, and has an image pickup device and a plurality of processing units that process image pickup signals outputted from the image pickup device. An interval control circuit causes the image pickup processing unit to switch between a standby ON state and a standby OFF state in predetermined timing. A control signal is outputted to the interval control unit according to an operation mode of the image pickup processing unit. When the image pickup processing unit lies in a predetermined operation mode, a control signal for causing the interval control circuit to perform the switching is outputted to the interval control circuit.
US08872963B2
A lens drive unit drives a focus lens. An imaging element obtains an image signal. An evaluation value calculation unit calculates an AF evaluation value from the image signal read out based on an interlace system. A determination unit determines whether the continuous AF evaluation values have a distribution of continuous increases and decreases. If the AF evaluation values are determined to have the distribution of continuous increases and decreases, an in-focus position calculation unit calculates an in-focus position by obtaining an interpolation curve from an intermediate value of the AF evaluation values adjacent to each other, otherwise, calculates the in-focus position by obtaining an interpolation curve of the AF evaluation value. A control unit drives the focus lens to the in-focus position.
US08872962B2
The focus detection apparatus includes an image pickup part (101-107) including first and second pixels photoelectrically converting first and second images formed by light fluxes passing through different pupil area of an image-forming optical system to produce first and second image signals, a first signal processor (121) performing a first process to smooth the first and second image signals by using mutually different filters, a second signal processor (121) performing a second process to sharpen the first and second image signals by using mutually different filters. A calculating part (121) calculates a defocus amount by using the first and second image signals subjected to the first process when a contrast value is higher than a predetermined value, and calculates the defocus amount by using the first and second image signals subjected to the second process when the contrast value is lower than the predetermined value.
US08872956B2
An electronic camera having a plurality of functions including capturing and recording images is provided. The electronic camera includes an operation input unit for inputting external operations that designate corresponding functions of the camera to be performed, an image pickup unit for capturing the image of an object, and a recorder for recording the image captured by the image pickup unit. The electronic camera further includes a playback unit for at least playing back image information that is recorded on the recording medium and a mode selector for selecting one operation mode of the camera from a plurality of available operation modes that include an operation explanation mode. If the operation explanation mode is selected at the mode selector, the playback unit plays back an operation guide that is pre-stored in a memory, the operation guide explaining at least one of the camera operations and functions thereof.
US08872955B2
Provided are a digital photographing apparatus including a 3D touch panel through which various manipulation signals of a photographer are input, and a method of controlling the digital photographing apparatus. Accordingly, not only plane coordinates information of an object is determined but also a distance between the object and the digital photographing apparatus is recognized as depth information to thereby control execution of a predetermined operation according to the depth information.
US08872951B2
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided to form an image using an active pixel sensor imager (108). The method includes placing an active pixel sensor (202) in electrical contact with a column readout line (204), lacing a sample-and-hold capacitor into electrical contact with the column readout line, and placing the sample-and-hold capacitor (314 or 320) in electrical contact with an input capacitor (324 or 334) on an amplifier (222). All of the input capacitor (324 or 334), the sample-and-hold capacitor (314 or 320), and the active pixel sensor (202) are in electrical contact for an overlapping period of time. A differential output (228) from the amplifier (222) is digitized, and used to form an image.
US08872950B2
The capacitance of a charge-accumulating layer of an imaging pixel is made different from that of a charge-accumulating layer of a focusing pixel, thereby reducing the difference in saturation capacitance due to the difference between the light-reception efficiencies of the imaging pixel and the focusing pixel. The ratio between the capacitance of the charge-accumulating layer of the imaging pixel and that of the charge-accumulating layer of the focusing pixel is determined in consideration of a variation in ratio between the light-reception efficiencies of the imaging pixel and the focusing pixel with a change in at least one of the exit pupil distance and the aperture value.
US08872947B2
An apparatus, computer program product, and method for reducing persistent shadows within an image. The apparatus includes a camera configured to generate frames of the image. The apparatus also includes a computer processor. The computer processor calculates the average normalized brightness for each pixel in the image and adjusts the brightness of each pixel with the average normalized brightness.
US08872941B2
Disclosed herein is an imaging apparatus including: imaging means for imaging a scene that is in a direction in which a user sees to obtain image data of the scene; temporary storage means for storing the image data obtained by imaging by the imaging means; and control means for controlling the temporary storage means to store the image data obtained by imaging by the imaging means, and, when a predetermined storage condition has been satisfied, extracting image data to be stored from the temporary storage means and adding metadata to the extracted image data to perform a storage process.
US08872939B2
An image processing apparatus includes a storage unit for storing user information correlating user identification information and acknowledger information in advance; an image file acquiring unit for acquiring the image file; and a control unit for controlling a writing process in a detachable storage medium. The control unit includes a registration processing unit for correlating the user identification information and authentication information contained in an acknowledgement notice, and for registering the user identification information and the authentication information as acknowledgement information in the storage unit. The control unit further includes a determining unit for determining whether the user identification information and the authentication information received through an input unit are registered in the acknowledgement information, and for allowing the image file stored in the storage unit to be written in the detachable storage medium when the authentication notice is authenticated.
US08872932B2
An apparatus, computer readable medium, and method of processing an image of a data format having a plurality of color components, the method including generating a plurality of color component images corresponding to the plurality of color components; correcting lens distortion (LD) and chromatic aberration (CA) for each of the plurality of color component images; and generating a corrected image by integrating the corrected plurality of color component images.
US08872921B2
A vehicle rearview back-up system includes a backup camera, a display, a calculator, a storage unit, a detector, and a moving unit. The backup camera captures an image of a parking spot when the vehicle is backed-up to a predetermined position. The display displays the captured image and an outlined parking spot in the captured image defined by the driver. The calculator calculates an imaging ratio between the size of the captured image and the size of the outlined parking spot. The display displays a vehicle image in a predetermined region according to the calculated imaging ratio. The detector detects moving direction and moving distance of the vehicle. The moving unit moves the vehicle image in the display according to the moving direction and moving distance of the vehicle, and the calculated imaging ratio for implementing the back-up process of the vehicle.
US08872919B2
A vehicle surrounding monitoring device includes a first capturing device provided at a side of a vehicle in order to capture a first image, a second capturing device provided at front relative to the first capturing device in order to capture a second image, a displaying device for displaying the first image and the second image and for monitoring a vehicle surrounding, an image process device by which a borderline between the first image and the second image is defined in a combined image of the first image and the second image so as to be identical with a straight line connecting a position of the first capturing device and a position of the second capturing device.
US08872911B1
A method and apparatus for assessing at least one of motion linearity of a motion stage, stage motion straightness of a motion stage, image capture repeatability of a motion stage and camera and accuracy of a calibration plate used to assess motion stage characteristics, the method including using a line scan camera to generate two dimensional images of a calibration plate having a plurality imageable features thereon, examining the images to identify actual coordinates of the imageable features and using the actual coordinates to assess linearity, straightness, repeatability and/or plate accuracy.
US08872909B2
A system for extracting finger vein and finger texture images from a finger of a person at the same time, the device including an image capture device configured to capture at least one image of at least one finger in a contactless manner, a feature extraction module configured to extract unique finger vein features and finger texture features from the at least one captured image, and a processing module configured to normalize the at least one captured image and integrate the extracted finger vein features and finger texture features.
US08872904B1
A display apparatus is provided. The display apparatus includes: a display panel configured to include a plurality of pixels including a plurality of sub pixels and display an image frame; a visual field divider configured to be disposed on a front surface of the display panel; and a controller configured to render and display a first image frame to display a first view image in at least some of the plurality of sub pixels and a second image frame so that a second view image is shifted and displayed based on a position in which the first view image is displayed in the at least some of the sub pixels based on a distance between the display panel and the visual field divider.
US08872903B2
According to one embodiment, a stereoscopic video processor includes a mode setting module, an adjustment module, and a communication module. The mode setting module sets a mode from among a plurality of modes each specifying an adjustment amount related to the disparity between first stereoscopic video and second stereoscopic video. The adjustment module adjusts the disparity between the first stereoscopic video and the second stereoscopic video by an adjustment amount corresponding to the mode set by the mode setting module. The communication module communicates with stereoscopic glasses for viewing the first stereoscopic video and the second stereoscopic video the disparity between which is adjusted by the adjustment module.
US08872901B2
Stereoscopic glasses and a display apparatus including the same, which can reduce a user's eyestrain, are provided. The display apparatus includes: a signal processor which processes a three-dimensional (3D) video signal to have a predetermined depth effect; a display unit which displays a 3D image based on the video signal processed by the signal processor; and a controller which controls the signal processor to process a first area determined viewed by a user and a second area that is not determined to be viewed by the user, of the 3D image displayed by the display unit, such that the first area is different in level of a depth effect than the second area. Accordingly, a user's eyestrain is remarkably reduced to thereby increase convenience.
US08872899B2
Disclosed are systems, methods and circuits for human to machine interfacing using one or more 3D hand skeleton models, comprising an image acquisition circuit to acquire a 2D image of a hand, a hand feature identifier module to identify hand features in an acquired image and an image skeleton builder module to generate a 2D skeleton dataset of the hand using identified features. A 3D skeleton builder module is adapted to generate a 3D hand skeleton dataset by determining a configuration of some or all of the one or more 3D hand skeleton models whose 2D projection substantially corresponds to the generated 2D skeleton dataset.
US08872894B2
A video transcoder includes a deformatting module that generates a deformatted video signal based on a video signal in a source stereoscopic video format, and further based on device data that corresponds to a particular target device. A scaling module generates a scaled video signal, based on the deformatted video signal and further based on the device data. A formatting module generates a reformatted video signal in accordance with a target video format, based on the scaled video signal and further based on the device data.
US08872893B2
Systems and methods for managing distribution of three dimensional visual media to a plurality of displays. For example, there is a content server for managing distribution of three dimensional (3D) visual media to a client over a. network, where the client has a display.The content server comprises a server processor configured to determine a plurality of supported 3D) modes of the client, enable one the plurality of supported 3D modes, and provide the 3D visual media to the client for presentation on the display of the client.
US08872883B2
ViSTORE is a video teleconferencing system used with networked devices and is capable of storing all or parts of video conferencing sessions on demand that can be played back at a later time. The system consists of a web portal, where all multimedia data is stored, and a software application hosted in the networked devices. The networked devices can be any wired or wireless devices such as laptops and smart phones. The system is capable of hosting multiple videoconferencing parties and each user is capable of storing any part of a given user video session. The system also can play concurrently video feeds, such as a live TV channel, or video clips, such as those of news websites. In addition, the system can display simultaneously multimedia such as photos and images. Finally, the system allows user to create and display notes and MS Office applications files.
US08872866B2
A 3D display panel includes a plurality of first and second viewing angle pixels arranged along a first direction for displaying first and second viewing angle images respectively. The first viewing angle pixels and the second viewing angle pixels are interlacedly arranged along a second direction. A method for controlling pixel brightness of the 3D display panel includes determining a brightness value of a first block of a first viewing angle pixel according to a brightness value of the first viewing angle pixel and a brightness value of a second viewing angle pixel next to the first viewing angle pixel along the second direction, and determining a brightness value of a second block of the first viewing angle pixel according to the brightness value of the first block of the first viewing angle pixel and the brightness value of the first viewing angle pixel.
US08872860B2
A method for driving a display device includes cumulatively applying a reset pulse of a predetermined level to a first electrode and applying a common voltage to a second electrode opposed to the first electrode to form an initial state of a plurality of cholesteric liquid crystal capsules included in a liquid crystal layer between the first electrode and the second electrode. The method also includes cumulatively applying a data pulse of a predetermined level to the first electrode to display a grayscale.
US08872855B2
When the device is rotated from a portrait orientation to landscape orientation, or vice versa, the display device rotates the content items within distinct respective content regions of a page template (“slots”) that each appear to stay in their same position with respect to a frame of reference of the display device. While the content regions stay in their same positions, the content within each content region counter-rotates in place to offset the rotation of the display device. Thus, the content within the content regions maintains an orientation with respect to a constant (non-rotating) frame of reference, regardless of the orientation or rotation of the display device. In one embodiment, a slot's position, height, and width in a template in a second orientation are determined from the slot's position, height, and width in the template in a first orientation.
US08872850B2
Various technologies described herein pertain to juxtaposing still and dynamic imagery to create a cliplet. A first subset of a spatiotemporal volume of pixels in an input video can be set as a static input segment, and the static input segment can be mapped to a background of the cliplet. Further, a second subset of the spatiotemporal volume of pixels in the input video can be set as a dynamic input segment based on a selection of a spatial region, a start time, and an end time within the input video. Moreover, the dynamic input segment can be refined spatially and/or temporally and mapped to an output segment of the cliplet within at least a portion of output frames of the cliplet based on a predefined temporal mapping function, and the output segment can be composited over the background for the output frames of the cliplet.
US08872843B2
A method for adding image effects to an existing image, selectively deleting the added image effects or storing an image with various image effects added in a mobile terminal are provided. The method comprises: displaying an image; selecting a frame and adding the selected frame to the image; selecting at least one icon and adding the selected icon to the image; inputting at least one text message and adding the input text message to the image; repeating the addition of the image effects; and randomly selecting one or more of the image effects added to the image and deleting or modifying each selected image effect. There is also provided a method for storing an image, which comprises when saving an image is selected, extracting information about an image effect added to the image; and storing image information comprising the extracted image effect information and original image information.
US08872841B2
A method of producing a bit-map including rendering a bit-map of a first image using a first stochastic half-tone screen set, rendering a bit-map of a second image using a second stochastic half-tone screen set, wherein the first half-tone screen set and the second half-tone screen set have respectively associated stochastic half-tone screens, and wherein each half-tone screen of the second half-tone screen set is less than 100 percent correlated with, and not an inverse of, the associated half-tone screen of the first half-tone screen set; and merging the bit-map of the first image with the bit-map of the second image.
US08872837B2
To make it possible to display an application that is suitable for specific circumstances of a specific user, from among a large number of applications, without complicating a rule file and without increasing its capacity. An application execution terminal acquires context information from received sensor information, acquires an arrangement display rule file that matches the acquired context information from among arrangement display rule files in which a category indicating a type of an application and a display position of the application are defined, analyzes a category defined by the acquired arrangement display rule file, acquires a list of applications that match the category, links the applications indicated by the list of the applications to the acquired arrangement display rule file, and arranges and displays the applications in accordance with a description of the arrangement display rule file.
US08872833B2
The present invention systems and methods enable configuration of functional components in integrated circuits. A present invention system and method can flexibly change the operational characteristics of functional components in an integrated circuit die based upon a variety of factors, including if the die has a defective component. An indication of the defective functional component identification is received. A determination is made if the defective functional component is one of a plurality of similar functional components that can provide the same functionality. The other similar components can be examined to determine if they are parallel components to the defective functional component. The defective functional component is disabled if it is one of the plurality of similar functional components and another component can handle the workflow that would otherwise be assigned to the defective component. Workflow is diverted from the disabled component to other similar functional components.
US08872823B2
A method and system are disclosed for automatic instrumentation that modifies a video game's shaders at run-time to collect detailed statistics about texture fetches such as MIP usage. The tracking may be transparent to the game application and therefore not require modifications to the application. In an embodiment, the method may be implemented in a software development kit used to record and provide texture usage data and optionally generate a report.
US08872820B2
A system, method, and computer program for selecting modifications to a solid model that is manipulated in a computer having software instructions, comprising a computer system, wherein the computer system includes a memory, a processor, a user input device, and a display device; a computer generated geometric model stored in the memory in the memory of the computer system; and wherein the computer system selects a selecting point on a modification feature directly on a solid model using a computer peripheral input; sorts by distance a plurality of adjacent faces that are adjacent to a selection face determined by the selecting point; determines whether a convex condition exists wherein the plurality of adjacent faces are convex to the selection face; determines whether a candidate curves exists where the plurality of adjacent faces share a same surface with a previously visited face and the convex condition exists; imprints the candidate curve on the solid model to prepare the solid model for modification according to a modification intent from a user; modifies the solid model according to the modification intent that results in a modified solid model and modified visual display information; and displays the modified solid model using the modified visual display information to the user, and appropriate means and computer-readable instructions.
US08872812B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method comprising providing 2-D or 3-D graphics content to a graphics processing module; processing the graphics content to generate a stream of images (e.g., three dimensional images and/or two dimensional images) for display, the stream having a frame rate; and governing a rate of processing the graphics content to limit the frame rate of the generated stream of images to be less than or equal to a frame rate threshold. Other embodiments may also be described and claimed.
US08872796B2
A method of controlling a mobile terminal, and which includes entering into a touch-lock mode to lock an entire display area on a touch screen, receiving an unlock signal corresponding to a selection of a touch-lock release button on the terminal, and unlocking an area of the touch screen that includes at least one displayed icon when the unlock signal is received such that a touching of the at least one icon displayed on the touch screen executes a corresponding function of the icon, and maintaining other areas of the touch screen in the touch-lock mode.
US08872794B2
An information processing apparatus including a touch panel that detects a non-contact operation of an operation element by detecting an electrostatic capacitance of an operation surface of the touch panel; and a controller that determines a distance between the operation surface and the operation element based on the detected electrostatic capacitance, and controls a predetermined operation of the information processing apparatus based on the determined distance.
US08872778B2
An apparatus such as a touch screen display includes correlated emitter-detector pairs for determining the amount of electromagnetic radiation received at a detector from its paired emitter. The apparatus comprises an array of emitters operable to emit electromagnetic radiation, an array of detectors for detecting the electromagnetic radiation, and drive control circuitry configured to control the array of emitters so that they emit pulses of electromagnetic radiation. The amplitude of the pulses is modulated using mutually orthogonal binary vectors such as a Paley construction of the Hadamard matrix. Each emitter has a different vector associated with it. Detection circuitry is provided to detect the electromagnetic radiation reaching each particular detector in the array of detectors using the mutually orthogonal binary vector associated with the correlated emitter to produce a correlation between particular emitter-detector pairs. The arrangement can discriminate between near field and touching objects.
US08872775B2
An information processing apparatus of the present invention includes a touch panel for displaying predetermined information and accepting a touch operation input; and a control section for controlling operation of the information processing apparatus itself having the touch panel installed therein. The control section includes a processing occurrence detection means for detecting occurrence of a predetermined processing executed by the control section; and a panel control means for nullifying a touch operation input against the touch panel when the occurrence of the predetermined processing is detected by the processing occurrence detection means. The panel control means cancels nullification of the touch operation input against the touch panel after an elapse of a preset time from the occurrence of the predetermined processing, and sets, in association with the occurred predetermined processing, a touch operation input acceptable range allowing the touch panel to accept the touch operation input with respect to the predetermined processing.
US08872766B2
A display system comprises a transparent display device mountable on the head of a user. A scene of an environment is visible to the user through the transparent display device. The system further comprises a user interface image adapted for display on the display device. The user interface image remains fixed relative to the scene as the user and the display device move within the environment. The display system also comprises an indicator image adapted for display on the display device. The indicator is movable relative to the user interface image in response to movement of the user's head.
US08872760B2
A recording and reproducing apparatus includes: a recording means for storing a plurality of images in groups; a display means for displaying images stored in the recording means; a detecting means for detecting a part of a human body or an object in a predetermined form; and a display switching means for switching images to be displayed on the display means in accordance with a form of a part of a human body or a form of an object detected by the detecting means.
