US09027613B2

A heavy duty tire comprises a tread portion provided with tread blocks each provided in the ground contact surface thereof with a single zigzag sipe. A ratio A/B of a block length (A) which is the circumferential length of the block measured along a straight line passing through the centroid of the ground contact surface to a maximum block width (B) which is the axial distance between the axial extreme ends of the ground contact surface is 0.8 to 1.7. The zigzag sipe is disposed within a central region which is defined as extending from the centroid of the ground contact surface towards each side in the tire circumferential direction by 25% of the block length (A). The zigzag sipe is composed of a pair of major straight segments extending axially inwardly from both sides of in the tire axial direction of the block, and a minor straight segment extending between the inner ends of the respective major straight segments, so that the circumferential distance between the circumferential extreme ends of the sipe is in a range of from 10 to 35% of the block length (A).
US09027596B2

A fluids management apparatus is disclosed herein that enables management of multiple volumes of different fluids when drilling and/or producing oil and/or gas with an oil and gas well drilling platform. The apparatus includes a structural, transportable frame that has upper and lower reservoir sections, each with a plurality of tanks for holding fluid. The upper reservoir section is easily lifted and transported, such as by crane. A docking station on the lower reservoir section is receptive of the upper reservoir section. A piping system enables a selected fluid volume contained in a tank of the upper reservoir section to be selectively transmitted to a selected tank of the lower reservoir section. The lower reservoir section has its own piping system that enables a user to withdraw fluid from any selected one of its tanks.
US09027595B2

A method for channeling hot/warm working fluid includes coupling a first fluid supply path in flow communication with an inlet of a first transparent fluid reservoir to a fluid inlet valve, coupling an outlet of the first transparent fluid reservoir in flow communication to a fluid outlet supply path, coupling a second fluid reservoir in flow communication with the first transparent fluid reservoir, and coupling a second fluid supply path in flow communication with an outlet of the second fluid reservoir to a fluid outlet valve. The method also includes directing working fluid of a temperature that is above a minimum threshold temperature from the fluid inlet valve to the fluid outlet supply path through the first transparent fluid reservoir, and directing working fluid of a temperature that is below the minimum threshold temperature from the first transparent fluid reservoir to the fluid outlet valve through the second fluid reservoir.
US09027594B2

A fuel system valve assembly may include a housing, a spring, and a body. The housing may have a fuel passage defined in part or more by a fuel passage wall. The fuel passage wall may have a seat and a cylindrical section. The cylindrical section may have a constant diameter and may be located downstream of the seat. In use, the body may reciprocate linearly in the housing between an open position and a closed position. The body may be biased to the closed position by the spring. The body may abut the seat when the body is in the closed position.
US09027590B2

A ventilation arrangement for the head space of the fuel tank of a vehicle comprises a switchable main valve intended for adjusting an arbitrary pressure in the head space of the tank. By way of the opening position of the main valve, a connection between a connection (5) intended for connection to the head space and a connection (6) intended for connection to the surrounding atmosphere is established, wherein the main valve is assigned a pilot valve, which opens during a first path element of a switching movement, wherein the main valve only opens following this first path element. Because of the small cross section of the pilot valve and the pressure relief that materialized through its opening, the switching power can be reduced and a smaller size drive can be employed.
US09027587B2

In a method for operating a fluid valve for controlling or regulating a fluid, having at least one movable valve component is displaceable with the aid of at least one electrical actuating signal which contains at least one first actuating signal portion which causes an oscillating valve motion of the valve component. Pressure oscillations generated in the fluid due to the oscillating valve motion are detected, and are used for regulation of the oscillating valve motion caused by the first actuating signal portion.
US09027582B2

A flush adaptor for use with a valve fitment assembly for dispensing liquids from a container; wherein the flush adaptor comprises an outer ring-collar; a flange with an edge molded to the bottom of the outer ring-collar; an interior ring-collar adjacent to the outer ring-collar; a ridge molded in the interior ring-collar; a seat molded onto the interior ring-collar and a pin molded into the interior ring-collar which keeps the valve in an open position; and a hollow tube molded into the adaptor to allow the flow of liquid through the adaptor and into the fitment assembly; whereby the flush adaptor allows for cleaning of the assembly and any tubes connected thereto.
US09027579B2

A surface cleaning head is provided comprising a dome-shaped, downwardly open housing, in which at least one spray arm is mounted for rotation about an axis of rotation, wherein the spray arm bears at a distance from the axis of rotation a nozzle which can be acted upon with cleaning fluid subject to pressure and revolves around the axis of rotation together with the spray arm, and comprising a protective disk which covers the at least one spray arm towards the open underside of the housing and defines a ring-shaped fluid passage for a stream of fluid to pass through, said fluid passage being penetrated by retaining bars, wherein the at least one spray arm is rotatable relative to the protective disk. The retaining bars are arranged so as to be distributed unevenly in circumferential direction.
US09027575B2

A fluid screen for a washing machine, and a washing machine including a fluid screen, is provided. The fluid screen includes a generally planar member including a first end and a second end extending from the first end. The first end is mounted within the wash tank of the washing machine at a location generally in proximity to an operating fluid level within the wash tank. During operation of the washing machine, fluid circulates within the wash tank to create a rolling wash action and the second end of the fluid screen extends from the first end generally in the direction of fluid flow across the surface of the wash tank.
US09027572B2

An ergonomic eyelash curler, cosmetic applicator, container, and mascara remover compromising of a grip type device with anatomical features and a fixed ellipsoid curvature tongue at one end. The tongue and grip are shaped to fit the anatomy of the hand to allow free movement of the thumb and index fingers. This device has an ergonomic design that optimizes human wellbeing and overall hand coordination allowing the user to apply precise and natural motion when beautifying and maintaining the eyelashes. The thumb's tactile sense allows the user to apply measured pressure on the eyelash against the curling edge to provide a prolonged and continuous curvature of the eyelash. The thumb and index finger tactile sense allows the user to effectively remove mascara from the eyelash without irritating the eye area. Multiple eyelash beautifying and maintenance functions can be performed with this invention including mascara application.
US09027556B2

A cushion module provided to a frame module for delivery of a supply of gas at positive pressure to be delivered to a patient's airways, the cushion module comprising a main body and a cushion, the main body defining a breathing chamber and having an exterior surface adapted to directly engage with a surface of the frame module, wherein the main body and the cushion together comprise a co-molded, integrated component, the main body comprising a molded polycarbonate material adapted to directly contact the frame module and the cushion comprises a molded silicone material adapted to interface with patient's face, and wherein the molded polycarbonate material of the main body is a more rigid material than the molded silicone material of the cushion.
US09027554B2

A filtering face mask 10 that has a harness 14 and a mask body 12. The mask body 12 includes a filtering structure 18 and a cup-shaped shaping layer 20 where the latter comprises a closed cell foam layer that has a plurality of fluid permeable openings 22 located in it. The openings 22 are surrounded by recessed regions 31. The filtering structure 18 does not make substantial contact with the shaping layer 20 at the recessed regions. The shaping layer 20 makes contact with the wearer's face at the mask body perimeter 19 when the respirator is being worn. The use of a foam shaping layer that has openings surrounded by recessed regions provides sufficient structural integrity or stiffness to prevent mask body collapse during respirator use while also exhibiting a low pressure drop and rapid fluid distribution of air within the mask to allow for low breathing resistance and extended wearer comfort.
US09027553B2

A respiration appliance (10), system (40), and method (62, 72, 86) for supporting the airway of a subject (12) as the subject (12) breaths. The flow of gas from the lungs of the subject (12) during exhalation is leveraged to provide support to the airway. In particular, a body (14) that encloses one or more external orifices of the subject (12) provides a resistance differential between inhaled gas flows and exhaled gas flows that supports the subject's airway.
US09027552B2

This disclosure describes systems and methods for monitoring and evaluating ventilatory parameters, analyzing those parameters and providing useful notifications and recommendations to clinicians. That is, modern ventilators monitor, evaluate, and graphically represent multiple ventilatory parameters. However, many clinicians may not easily recognize data patterns and correlations indicative of certain patient conditions, changes in patient condition, and/or effectiveness of ventilatory treatment. Further, clinicians may not readily determine appropriate ventilatory adjustments that may address certain patient conditions and/or the effectiveness of ventilatory treatment. Specifically, clinicians may not readily detect or recognize the presence of asynchrony during ventilation. According to embodiments, a ventilator may be configured to monitor and evaluate diverse ventilatory parameters to detect asynchrony and may issue notifications and recommendations suitable for a patient to the clinician when asynchrony is implicated. The suitable notifications and recommendations may further be provided in a hierarchical format.
US09027549B2

A method for providing battery security in a breathing assistance system configured to provide breathing assistance to a patient is provided. A battery security system of the breathing assistance system receives battery data from a battery received in the breathing assistance system, and analyzes the received battery data to determine whether the battery is approved for use in the breathing assistance system. If the battery is determined to be approved for use in the breathing assistance system, the battery is allowed to provide power to the breathing assistance system. If the battery is not determined to be approved for use in the breathing assistance system, the battery is prevented from providing power to the breathing assistance system.
US09027546B2

A solar collector receiver tube containing an improved getter system is described. The solar collector receiver tube has a base, pills of getter material that are uniform in height, and a containment metallic mesh having a non-uniform height and presenting at least one depression.
US09027542B2

A novel cutting method and apparatus includes a cutting blade adapted to consistently and easily form a desirable kerf in a concrete substrate while capturing substantially all resulting concrete dust.
US09027540B2

A bowstring release having a removable safety pin that when engaged, allows for training. The safety pin physically preventing the release mechanism from fully releasing, while allowing enough movement to provide a tactile response that the release has been activated.
US09027526B2

A three cylinder engine includes a vibration alleviation unit for alleviating vibrations in a vehicle. The vibration alleviation unit is disposed at least one of upon the crankshaft and upon a part that operates in unison with the crankshaft. The three cylinder is supported by engine mounts that are positioned upon at least both ends of the engine in the direction of the crankshaft axis. Given that KV and KH represent spring constants of one of the engine mounts in the pitch and yaw directions of the crankshaft, MV and MH represent components of a primary couple that occurs in the three cylinder engine in the pitch and yaw directions, and MV0 represents the sum of MV and MH, then spring constants of the engine mounts are set such that KV >KH and the vibration alleviation unit is set so as to satisfy the condition 0
US09027524B2

A spark plug capable of preventing a separation of a noble metal tip and capable of extending a service-life of the spark plug.
US09027515B2

A slider device includes a slider frame having a top rail and a bottom rail. A first parallel member connects the top and bottom rails and arranges generally perpendicular to the top and bottom rails, but lies in a common plane. A second parallel member disposes or arranges at an end of the frame opposite from the first parallel member. The second parallel member links or connects between the top and bottom rails. A third parallel member arranges intermediate to the first and second parallel member. A D-shaped ringlet couples to the frame adjacent to the first parallel member. The ringlet and frame lie in a common plane.
US09027512B2

A chew toy for canine dental care formed of a plurality of elongated rawhide strands, each strand defining a width within the range of about 0.20 to 7.5 millimeters and a thickness within the range of about 0.20 to 3.0 millimeters. The strands are braided together so as to define at least one rawhide braid of a desired size. The rawhide braid is wound or twisted and tied to define a desired chew toy size and shape that, upon be chewed by a dog, provides a messaging of the dog's gums and a cleaning and flossing of the dog's teeth. The chew toy can be soaked in an aqueous solution containing one or more therapeutic agents and/or an animal attractant and baked dry to impregnate the agent(s) or attractant within the rawhide for release when chewed by a dog.
US09027503B2

A multi-purpose reflective collar for attachment to a fire hydrant that increases the visibility of the hydrant to motorists and others, and that indicates the hydrant's flow rate, water source and pressure rating to firefighters and other first responders through the use of color coded reflective tape webs that can be removably attached to the collar. The multi-purpose reflective collar of the present invention is adjustable to accommodate fire hydrants of different shapes and sizes, and is useful in increasing safety and the efficiency of firefighting procedures.
US09027486B1

A portable collapsible writing desk for a notebook computer preferably includes an arm rest assembly, a desktop assembly, a column assembly and a base assembly. The base assembly is attached to a bottom of the column assembly. The arm rest assembly is attached to a top of the column assembly. The desktop assembly is moveably retained by the arm rest assembly. The collapsible writing desk may rest on the base assembly, or rest on an end of the desktop assembly and an edge of the column assembly. A retractable handle may be extended to carry the portable collapsible writing desk for a notebook computer like a suitcase.
US09027477B2

A web printing system automatically detects the location of a wrinkle in a moving web. The web has a plurality of marked reference positions including an inboard position, a center position, and an outboard position. A plurality of contact image sensors detect the reference positions after the web passes through a spreader and an inboard distance and an outboard distance are respectively measured from the center position. If the inboard distance is less than a nominal inboard distance, the wrinkle is identified as inboard of the center position. If the outboard distance is less than a nominal outboard distance, the wrinkle is identified as outboard of the center position. The machine operator is notified of the fault condition and takes action to remedy the situation.
US09027470B1

The inventive food holding apparatus comprises a holding area that accommodates food and warms the food with heat radiated by a bottom surface and with warm convection air. Part of the convection air forms an air curtain having a Bernoulli effect that removes excess moisture from the external surface of the food and maintains the food in a warm, crisp condition. The apparatus conditions food to attain a biologically safe noncooking temperature and to retain its freshly cooked texture and internal moisture for more than two hours. This lets restaurants serve the food longer to its customers, allowing efficient batch cooking and significantly decreasing food waste.
US09027464B1

The two-piece electric coffee maker includes a Dallah (a traditional Arabian coffee pot for making Arabian coffee) and an electric stove. The coffee pot has a temperature sensor that extends from the base of the coffee pot handle into the pot. The base of the handle also has an electrical connector extending downward from the handle. The electric stove has a housing, a ceramic heating element or plate, a display console, and a mating electrical connector facing upward so that the connectors engage each other when the pot is placed on the heating element. An electronic control unit in the stove housing regulates boiling water for the coffee, reducing the heat after the water has started to boil, annunciating an alarm signal when the temperature of the water is suitable to add coffee grounds to the pot, and monitors brewing time for the coffee.
US09027454B2

A ground pressure detonation device includes a housing, a foot coupled to the housing, and an oscillation subsystem associated with the housing configured to oscillate the housing such that the foot impacts the ground with sufficient oscillating force to ensure detonation of one or more pressure sensitive explosive devices in and/or on the ground.
US09027449B2

A circular saw including a saw blade (36) which may be rotatingly driven about a rotational axis, and at least one first splitting wedge is described. The circular saw is configured so that the first splitting wedge is movable relative to the rotational axis of the saw blade.
US09027447B2

Pliers include upper structure including an upper jaw and handle extending therefrom, and lower structure including a lower jaw and handle. The lower jaw may pivot relative to the upper jaw, and the lower handle may pivot relative to the lower jaw. An overcenter linkage operatively connects between the upper and lower structure, biasing the lower handle and jaw away from the upper handle and jaw, respectively, when in a jaw-opening position, and enabling the lower jaw and handle to be retained in a closed configuration when the linkage is in a jaw-closing position. A lock member is movable between a locking configuration preventing pivoting of the lower handle from the closed configuration and retaining the jaws in a closed position, and a release configuration enabling the lower handle to be moved away from the closed configuration, allowing the jaws to move to an open position.
US09027444B2

A ratchet wrench includes a wrench body, a ratchet rotatably mounted in the wrench body and defining therein a through hole for accommodating a screw nut, a magnetic member mounted in the through hole, and one or multiple limiters mounted in the through hole of the ratchet to hold the magnetic member in place. Thus, the opposing ends of the ratchet can be selectively used to accommodate a mating screw nut and the accommodated screw nut can be secured in place inside the ratchet by the magnetic attractive force of the magnetic member, avoiding screw nut displacement or falling and facilitating the use of the ratchet wrench. Further, the ratchet can be configured to have a stepped through hole for selectively accommodating different sizes of screw nuts.
US09027438B1

An improved eccentric used in walking mechanism sub-assemblies used in heavy equipment, specifically drag line excavators. The walking assemblies include a power driven output shaft which engages and rotates an eccentric fitting journaled within a leg housing which is in turn pivotally secured to the walking assembly shoes and through a support linkage to the excavator frame imparting a modified elliptical travel path thereto. The improvement is directed to the eccentric which is of a multiple component fabrication for increased performance and use durability and extended life.
US09027434B2

An actuator for pulling and releasing a bicycle control cable, including an actuator body including a hollow interior. A plunger is disposed in the hollow interior and is axially movable. The plunger includes at least one driving lug and at least one latching lug. A latching ring is rotatably disposed in the hollow interior, the rotation of which by the plunger lugs creates a cable pull and a cable release state of the actuator.
US09027433B2

A control device for a bicycle, has a first body adapted to be associated with a bicycle handlebar, at least one control member of at least one bicycle component, and a second body, distinct from the first body, associated with the first body to increase a grip surface of the control device and/or to vary the relative position of the at least one control member with respect to the handlebar of the bicycle, so as to adapt the control device to the size of the cyclist's hand.
US09027415B2

A force sensing kickboxing apparatus and methods of manufacture are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a body including an externally facing first side and an internally facing second side, an electronic device connected to the body and configured to provide information associated with the body, a sensor housing attached to a portion of the second side of the body forming a pocket between the sensor housing and the portion of the internally facing second side, and a sensor positioned within the pocket and communicatively coupled to the electronic device, the sensor configured to detect an object contacting a portion of the first side of the body in proximity to the sensor.
US09027414B2

An ultrasonic flow rate measurement device capable of sensing and correcting a temperature without use of a sensor specifically designed for measuring a temperature is provided. The ultrasonic flow rate measurement device includes a first ultrasonic transducer and a second ultrasonic transducer that re disposed in a flow volume measurement block and arranged in such a way that ultrasonic waves are transmitted from one transducer and received by the other transducer; a counter for measuring a propagation time consumed for exchanging the ultrasonic waves between the first ultrasonic transducer and the second ultrasonic transducers; a flow volume computing block that calculates a flow volume from a measurement value of the counter; an oscillation circuit used as a time counter when the counter calculates the propagation time; and a temperature sensing block for sensing a temperature by utilization of a frequency change attributable to a temperature of the oscillation circuit.
US09027391B2

Chromatography assembly for multi-dimensional chromatography, includes a first separating column (12; 112) for separating a sample into components; a second separating column (13; 114) having different separating characteristics for further separating the components separated in the first separating column (12; 112); a collecting volume (20; 120, 121) for collecting the components from the first separating column (12; 112) before entering the second separating column (14; 114); a switching assembly (22, 24; 122, 124) for switching from a first state (FIG. 1; FIG. 3), where the components leaving the first separating column (12; 112) are collected in the collecting volume (20; 120, 121) to a second state (FIG. 2; FIG. 4) where the components collected in the collecting volume (20; 120, 121) are transferred to the second separating column (14; 114); and a detector (18; 118) for detecting sample components leaving the second separating column (14; 114). The volume of the collecting volume (20; 120, 121) is variable. A further collecting volume (121) may be provided and fluid flow can be through the first collecting volume (120) in the first state and through the second collecting volume (121) in the second state.
US09027388B2

Method for measuring a target particle property. A suspended microchannel resonator is calibrated to determine the relationship between a detected mass and a resonance frequency shift of the resonator. The target particle is suspended in a fluid and introduced into the resonator, and the resonator frequency shift due to the particle is measured. Target particle mass is calculated from the resonator frequency shift, the target particle density, and the fluid density. A target particle property such as size or volume is determined from the calculated target particle mass.
US09027372B2

A lock assembly includes a coupling mechanism connected to a spindle assembly. The coupling mechanism has an outer sleeve having a longitudinal interior opening that extends along a first axis. An operator handle includes a proximal lock core opening, and a distal shaft portion having an axial opening configured to receive the outer sleeve. The distal shaft portion and the outer sleeve are configured to define a through path oriented across the longitudinal interior opening of the outer sleeve. A portion of the through path at the outer sleeve is configured to threadably receive a setscrew to fasten the operator handle to the outer sleeve. A keyed lock core has a tailpiece that is positioned in the longitudinal interior opening of the outer sleeve to obstruct the through path and block access to the setscrew via the through path to prevent unauthorized removal of the operator handle.
US09027363B2

An economizer is provided in a multistage compression refrigeration system including a refrigerant circuit in which a multistage compressor, a condenser, a multistage expansion mechanism, and an evaporator are sequentially connected. The economizer includes: a tank having an introducing portion for introducing a refrigerant of the refrigerant circuit, a liquid outlet for guiding a liquid refrigerant into the evaporator, and a gas outlet for guiding a gas refrigerant into a medium pressure portion of the multistage compressor; and a float expansion valve, which forms part of the multistage expansion mechanism and is attached to the liquid outlet, and whose throttle amount is adjusted according to a level of the liquid refrigerant in the tank. Multiple ones of the liquid outlet and multiple ones of are provided.
US09027359B2

A modular heat exchange system having a refrigerant system for cycling a refrigerant through a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator, a heat source circulation system which circulates a heat exchange fluid between a heat source and the evaporator, a heat sink circulation system which circulates a heat absorption fluid between a heat sink and the condenser, a fluid management system having temperature gauges for respectively reading core temperatures of the heat source and the heat sink, and a thermal energy source from which thermal energy is transferred to the heat exchange fluid when the core temperature of the heat source falls below a threshold temperature while the core temperature of the heat sink is maintained at a constant temperature.
US09027348B2

A method for retrofitting a fossil-fueled power station is provided. The power station includes a multi-housing stream turbine with a carbon dioxide separation device. As per the method, a suction capability of the steam turbine is adapted for an operation of the carbon dioxide separation device to a process steam to be removed. The carbon dioxide separation device is connected via a process steam line to an intermediate superheating line. Further, an auxiliary condenser is connected to the carbon dioxide separation device. On failure or deliberate switching off of the carbon dioxide separation device surplus process steam is condensed in the auxiliary condenser.
US09027346B2

The present invention relates to a combustion engine system having a balance arm, first and second sets of opposed combustion cylinders, and a set of opposed worked devices. The balance arm has a pivot point, and is configured so that an exploitable energy is taken from a kinetic energy of the balance arm. The first set of working combustion cylinders being interconnected by a common first piston rod that is connected to the balance arm. The second set of working combustion cylinders being interconnected by a common second piston rod that is connected to the balance arm so that the pivot point is between the first and second piston rods. The worked devices are interconnected by a common worked piston rod that is connected to the balance arm so that the worked devices are between the first and second sets of combustion cylinders.
US09027342B2

A supplementary intercooler cools engine air after it has passed through the turbocharger of a vehicle's turbocharged internal combustion engine, but before it enters the engine. The unit has an inlet for capturing the turbo's air charge and an outlet for routing the air charge to the engine after passing through the intercooler. A container stores water until it is needed and a water pump transfers water from the container to the unit. This loosened bond of water is then sprayed on capacitor plates under turbo pressure to be converted into hydrogen and injected into the air intake stream making it a totally “hydrogen-on-demand” intercooler.
US09027340B2

A brake booster with regenerative brake force generation comprising a force input element coupled to a brake pedal. A chamber arrangement having a vacuum chamber and a working chamber that are separated from one another by a movable wall. A control valve actuated in accordance with a displacement of the force input element. The working chamber is connectable selectively to the vacuum chamber and the atmosphere to generate and reduce a differential pressure at the movable wall. The control valve has a control valve housing that is connected for joint movement to the movable wall. In a first actuation phase of the brake booster from its rest position, the force input element is displaceable relative to the control valve housing by an idle travel, in which the control valve remains non-actuated to suppress a build-up of a differential pressure at the movable wall.
US09027339B2

A thermo-magnetic engine apparatus includes a magnetic element having a high temperature end to which hot energy is supplied and a low temperature end to which cold energy is supplied, a magnetic-field applier device, and a power source device. Curie temperature of the magnetic element is set between a temperature of the high temperature end and a temperature of the low temperature end. The power source device gains a magnetic power generated between the magnetic element and the magnetic-field applier device as kinetic energy.
US09027337B2

The present invention relates to a system for adding energy comprising a plurality of pedaling devices wherein each pedaling device being configured: to receive a force in up and down directions and allow for the flow of compressed air from the corresponding pedaling device to an air storage tank, wherein connection of the air storage tank to the pedaling devices allows storing of the compressed air and the summing of the energy generated by each pedaling device. Each pedaling device comprises, a plurality of air compression cylinders and pistons for generating air pressure; wherein the pistons are provided with an escapement device.
US09027333B2

Methods and systems for reducing hydrocarbon emissions from an internal combustion engine. The engine's exhaust aftertreatment system has at least a particulate matter (soot) filter and means for actively regenerating the particulate matter filter. During operation of the engine, the soot loading state of the particulate matter filter is monitored. The filter is regenerated when required, but the regeneration is controlled so that the particulate matter filter retains a small level of soot loading. This soot “pre-loading” ensures hydrocarbon reduction during the next cold start.
US09027331B2

A burner for an exhaust aftertreatment system may include a housing assembly and an ignition device. The housing assembly may include an inner shell surrounded by intermediate and outer shells. The inner shell may at least partially define a combustion chamber. The housing assembly may include an airflow passage having an opening extending through the outer shell. The airflow passage may extend between the outer shell and the intermediate shell as well as between the intermediate shell and the inner shell. The airflow passage may provide fluid communication between the opening and the combustion chamber. The ignition device may be at least partially disposed within the housing assembly and may ignite fuel received from a fuel source and air received from the airflow passage to produce a flame in the combustion chamber. The airflow passage may be in a heat transfer relationship with the flame in the combustion chamber.
US09027330B2

A catalytic muffler for an internal combustion engine of a portable working tool, e.g. a chain saw or a trimmer, having a housing designed to be directly attached to an exhaust port of an engine. The housing further includes a front chamber and a rear chamber divided from each other by an intermediate baffle. The housing further having an inner housing having a first open end constituting the exhaust gas inlet located in the rear chamber. The inner housing includes a catalyst body through which essentially all exhaust gas flows when in use. A second open end of the inner housing is arranged in one of said front and rear chambers and the exhaust gas outlet of the muffler is arranged in the other chamber such that treated gas in use flows through at least one aperture in the intermediate baffle from one chamber to the other.
US09027329B2

A particulate filter is monitored for a particulate matter load when fluidly coupled to an internal combustion engine. Monitoring of the particulate filter is achieved by determining a rate of production of particulate matter from the internal combustion engine, a rate of capture of the particulate matter within the particulate filter, a regeneration rate for the particulate filter, and an amount of particulate matter collected in the particulate filter.
US09027325B2

An ambient NOx adsorption catalyst that can adsorb NOx contained in an exhaust gas in the presence of CO under standard conditions is placed in an engine exhaust gas passage, in an internal combustion engine. Until an engine post-initiation catalyst is activated, the amounts of a high-boiling-point hydrocarbon and an unsaturated hydrocarbon that are contained in the exhaust gas flowing into the catalyst are reduced so that the NOx-adsorbing activity cannot be deteriorated by the adhesion activity of the hydrocarbons while maintaining the CO concentration in the exhaust gas flowing into the catalyst at a level higher than the concentration required for the adsorption of NOx.
US09027322B2

An integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant includes an air separation unit configured to discharge a nitrogen flow and an oxygen flow. A first heat exchanger is attached to the air separation unit and heats the discharged nitrogen flow. A second heat exchanger is attached to the air separation unit and heats the discharged oxygen flow. A third heat exchanger is attached to a steam cycle of the IGCC and heats a condensate stream received from the steam cycle. A first adiabatic air compressor is attached to the first, second, and third heat exchangers. The adiabatic air compressor is configured to discharge a compressed air flow comprising a first flow and a second flow. The first flow is channeled to the first and third heat exchangers, and the second flow is channeled to the second and third heat exchangers.
US09027321B2

Integrated systems and methods for low emission power generation in a hydrocarbon recovery processes are provided. One system includes a control fuel stream, an oxygen stream, a combustion unit, a first power generate on system and a second power generation system. The combustion unit is configured to receive and combust the control fuel stream and the oxygen stream to produce a gaseous combustion stream having carbon dioxide and water. The first power generation system is configured to generate at least one unit of power and a carbon dioxide stream. The second power generation system is configured to receive thermal energy from the gaseous combustion stream and convert the thermal energy into at least one unit of power.
US09027320B2

Hollow ornaments in the form of closed links with ornamental and functional openings for producing rings, earrings, pendant bangles necklaces or bracelets and in the form of continuous array of closed links with functional and ornamental openings, which are joint free; and process for producing them.
US09027304B2

A wall system (110) is disclosed which is mounted onto girts (114) on a building. Rectangular foam blocks (126) are installed between the outer flange of the girts, and the inside surfaces of the wall panel (112). Some vertically spaced apart blocks are located behind the wall seams, and other blocks are located intermediate the seams. The spacing created by the blocks allows for a blanket of insulation (118) between the blocks and the support members to be expanded, improving the system's insulative properties.
US09027302B2

A universal corner panel includes a first surface comprising a first portion and a second portion. The first portion has a first surface topography with a first delta and the second portion has a second surface topography with a second delta. The first delta is substantially different than the second delta.
US09027297B2

A temporary radiotherapy facility for use during renovation, upgrading, and/or modernization of an existing facility. The radiotherapy facility is integrated with radiation producing equipment and radiation shielding vaults. The structural elements and their arrangement enable compliance with applicable codes for this type of facility and provide an ability to maintain radiotherapy treatment continuity during equipment transition.
US09027284B2

A sealing member for a vehicle opening includes a first co-extrusion layer formed from a first elastomeric composition, a second co-extrusion layer formed from a second elastomeric composition, and a third co-extrusion layer formed from a thermoplastic vulcanizate composition. The first co-extrusion layer defines a mounting channel, a window channel, and a front face spaced from the mounting channel and the window channel. The second co-extrusion layer has a portion disposed on the front face of the first co-extrusion layer and a sealing lip disposed on the first co-extrusion layer abutting the portion and extending away from the first co-extrusion layer towards a distal end. The third co-extrusion layer is disposed on the portion and the sealing lip of the second co-extrusion layer for covering segments of the second co-extrusion layer that are visible from an exterior of the vehicle.
US09027281B2

A novel electric door opener for a garage, or equivalent structure, which uses a rail fixed at one end to a drive assembly and the other end to a mounting support, in which the drive assembly is mounted on the wall over the garage doorway with a pivotable mount, rather than the uniform practice wherein the drive assembly is suspended from the garage ceiling, thus significantly enhancing safety during installation and over the lifetime of the unit. In addition, the means whereby prior art rail type garage door openers, including their drive assemblies and overall mounting methods, are redesigned to reduce the invention to practice. The simplification of mounting hardware and process with this design makes it much easier and safer to install, remove, and replace an assembled rail type garage door opener, using only three removable pins.
US09027280B2

A universal locking device for securing flat or corrugated hurricane storm panels in place to avoid unauthorized removal and entry into a building. The locking device includes a combination of brackets removably secured between the building and the storm panels, and an adjustable locking bar locking these elements securely together.
US09027275B2

A fully collapsible, double articulated gaff for retrieving fish when fishing from high bridges, piers and high banks. The device collapses to approximately 5 inches in diameter by 1 inch high to enable it to be carried in a tackle box. It has three double articulated, weighted gaff hooks. The fishing line is threaded thru the overlap in guide mechanism, then lowered to the fishes head gripping it with the gaff hooks, then by pulling up on the rope lifting the device and the fish. Materials and method of construction used to help reduce manufacturing cost.
US09027271B2

The present invention relates to a poster holder (10,10′,10″,10′″,1000) comprising a support (3,3′,3″,3*, 3000) intended to be suspended on a wall and provided with at least one engagement seat (6, 600,6″,6*,6′″) and with a bar (4,4′,4″) comprising in turn a fixed length lower portion (18, 18′,18″) comprising a gripping device for engaging an edge of a poster (5) and at least one slider (11,11′,11″,11′″,1100) slidably associated to said lower portion (18, 18′,18″), said slider (11,11′,11″,11′″,1100) being insertable into said engagement seat (6, 600,6″,6*,6′″) such to make a connection between said support (3,3′,3″,3*) and said bar (4, 4′,4″).
US09027268B2

Disclosed are various exemplary embodiments of a retainer system for a ground engaging tool. The retainer system may include a lock having a lock rotation axis and including an outer surface extending about the lock rotation axis and a retainer bushing having a retainer axis and an inner surface extending about the retainer axis. The inner surface may be configured to rotatably receive the outer surface of the lock. At least a portion of the outer surface may have a varying radius with respect to the lock rotation axis.
US09027261B2

A motorcycle boot comprises a sole or tread (22), a rigid shell (20) and an upper (52) associated with the rigid shell; the upper has furthermore a base insole (54) formed by a plurality of tubular channels (56) which extend over most of the bottom surface of the sole (54) and allow the air to pass at right angles to their axis; the shell has at the front an air intake communicating with the front end of the tubular channels.
US09027252B2

A tooth for a blade of a hair cutting apparatus includes a root secured to a base of the blade, a tip opposite the root, and a longitudinal axis of the tooth defined between the root and the tip. A lower, planar cutting surface is provided on the tooth, as is an upper surface opposite the lower surface, and sidewalls separating the upper surface from the lower surface. At least a portion of the upper surface and the sidewalls is elliptical in the direction of the longitudinal axis, beginning at the tip.
US09027240B2

For the production of a flexible circuit configuration, which contains a layer sequence and a film connected thereto, for the creation of through contacts through the film up to terminal surfaces of the layer sequence, it is proposed that the film be connected unstructured to the layer sequence provided in a defined position on the substrate and then, while the composite of layer sequence and film remains on the substrate, perforations be created through the film up to terminal surfaces of a conductive layer of the layer sequence and contact metal be deposited in structured form on the film and in the perforations as through contacts.
US09027237B2

A method for producing optoelectronic components, the method comprising the steps of: providing optical components; picking up, by means of a robot arm, the optical components provided; subsequent to picking up the optical components, mounting the optical components directly on a first wafer by means of the robot arm; wherein the first wafer has optoelectronic components attached, and the optical components being positioned individually or in groups relative to the position of the optoelectronic components of the first wafer using the robot arm; and utilizing, as the first wafer, a glass wafer having i) spectrally filtering glass being an infrared filter glass and ii) an infrared filter coating, the glass wafer having a thickness in the range of 50 to 500 micrometers.
US09027236B2

A resonator in the Swiss-roll structure, method of making the resonator structure and the system employing the resonator are disclosed. The resonator includes a plurality of layers, including a ceramic layer and a metallic layer. The ceramic and metallic layers are configured in a Swiss-roll form such that the neighboring ceramic layers are separated by the metallic layer. Further, the ceramic layer includes materials that have a dielectric constant of at least about 10 and dielectric loss tangent less than about 0.01 in the frequency range of about 1 KHz to about 100 MHz. The method of forming the resonator includes the steps of disposing a metallic layer, depositing a dielectric ceramic layer, and forming a Swiss-roll structure of the metallic and ceramic layers. Alternate method includes swaging the dielectric material filled metal tubes and forming into Swiss-rolls. Further steps include heat treating the resultant Swiss-roll structure in vacuum, inert atmosphere, or reducing atmosphere to form a monolithic Swiss-roll structure, such that the air gap between turns of the Swiss-roll structure is less than about 1 μm.
US09027235B2

The invention relates to a method for the production of a strand (11) of several wires (12), consisting of an electrically conductive material, which are hard drawn to a final diameter in at least a single or multiblock wire-drawing machine (19, 28) or drawing apparatus in a last drawing step before the stranding, so that in each case the wire or wires (12) have a tensile strength of at least 300N/mm2, and that subsequently the hard drawn wires (12) or a mixture of hard drawn wires (12) and soft-annealed wires are stranded into a strand (11) in a stranding machine (21), without a subsequent annealing process, as well as a strand which is produced according to the present method.
US09027229B2

Coil assembly (1) comprising a planar coil (2) comprising a plurality of turns (15) arranged in a trench (10) in a first magnetic core plate (3) and a second magnetic core plate (8), where the first magnetic core plate (3) and second magnetic core plate (8) are in direct contact with each other or separated by an electrically insulating insulator layer (5) with a thickness (t) equal to or less than 50 μm and least one tap (6) extends from the coil (2) in a respective via hole (11) through the first magnetic core plate (3) to a respective contact pad (7), wherein the coil (2) and the tap (6) are integrally formed.
US09027215B2

A production apparatus for producing a component assembly by sequentially performing predetermined processes in a plurality of processing areas (A1 to A6) arranged in a ring formation and then, by separating a jig. The apparatus includes a rotational table main body (20), a plurality of holding/transfer units (30) rotatable integrally with the rotational table main body and capable of holding an object and transferring the same onto processing tables in the plurality of processing areas, a plurality of loading portions (40) provided on the rotational table main body corresponding to the plurality of holding/transfer units and capable of loading the jig, and a plurality of processing units (60 to 110) provided for performing predetermined processes in the plurality of processing areas.
US09027207B2

A removable device for holding or clipping at least two pieces of paper, cardboard, plastic film or other sheets of material together. The paper clip includes a self biasing spring member for providing spring tension to hold an article to a flat substrate such as a piece of paper or papers and may include locking elements for removable engagement and holding of sheets of paper or the like together.
US09027190B2

The system for removing snow from vehicles removes snow, ice and other debris from the roof of a vehicle, such as a truck, trailer, van or the like, as the vehicle drives therethrough. The system includes a frame defining an open inner region dimensioned and configured for passage of the vehicle. The frame includes a pair of laterally opposed posts and an upper crossbeam extending between upper ends of the posts. A pair of arms are pivotally attached to the posts, the pair of arms extending orthogonal to the plane of the frame. A pivotally mounted forward crossbar extends between forward ends of the pair of arms. A blade is mounted on the forward crossbar so that the blade removes the snow, ice and other debris from the roof of the vehicle as it passes through the frame.
US09027176B2

An example bathing area surround includes panels having a slot flange and a hook flange. A hook-like projection on the hook flange of a first panel is extendable into a slot on the slot flange of a second panel. Another example bathing area surround includes the slot flange on a first bathing panel and the hook flange on a second bathing panel, and a seal located on at least one of the slot flange or the hook flange. The seal may comprise foam. The foam may be compressed.
US09027167B2

The present disclosure refers to an elasticized structure and a method for making such an elasticized structure. The elasticized structure, includes a first piece and at least one second piece. The first piece is superimposed and fixed onto the second piece in at least a first fixing zone and at least a second fixing zone. The second piece is at least partially made of an elastic material and has an internal zone comprised between the first fixing zone and the second fixing zone. The elasticized structure is able to assume a tensioned position and a rest position. In the rest position, the first piece has a hump comprised between the first fixing zone and the second fixing zone and flat parts alongside said first fixing zone and said second fixing zone, respectively.
US09032546B2

Techniques are described herein that are capable of enforcing conditions of use associated with disparate data sets. For example, content may be published. Conditions of use that are associated with the published content may be specified. The published content may include disparate data sets. Each data set may be associated with its own condition(s) of use. The condition(s) of use associated with each data set may be enforced.
US09032543B2

Methods and systems for providing access to content are disclosed. The method is performed at least in part at a client computer system having a processor and memory. The method includes executing a host application associated with a first party. In some implementations, the host application is a media player. The method further includes initiating a secure communication channel between the host application and a server associated with the first party. The method further includes executing a supplemental application associated with a second party. The method further includes accessing, with the supplemental application, content licensed to the first party, wherein the licensed content is accessible to the supplemental application via the secure communication channel subject to terms of a licensing agreement. In some implementations, the content is media content, such as music, movies, and the like.
US09032535B2

A storage device and method for providing a scalable content protection system are disclosed. In one embodiment, a storage device is provided comprising a memory operative to store a plurality of versions of content, wherein each version of the content is of a different quality and is associated with a different level of content protection. The storage device receives information from the host identifying a level of content protection supported by the host. The storage device sends, to the host, a version of the content that is associated with the level of content protection supported by the host, wherein the version of the content is sent to the host using the level of content protection that is supported by the host. In another embodiment, different levels of content protection are applied to different types of content.
US09032528B2

Detecting security vulnerabilities in web applications by interacting with a web application at a computer server during its execution at the computer server, identifying client-side instructions provided by the web application responsive to an interaction with the web application, where the client-side instructions are configured to be implemented by a client computer that receives the client-side instructions from the computer server, evaluating the identified client-side instructions, and identifying a security vulnerability associated with the client-side instructions.
US09032526B2

The subject disclosure is directed towards a technology for efficiently emulating program code that is protected by one or more various code virtualization techniques to detect the presence of malware. An emulation engine emulates a program containing a mix of native code, custom (e.g., virtualized obfuscated) code, and at least one emulator and/or interpreter that understands the custom code, by building a custom emulation component that is built by detecting and analyzing the internal emulator or interpreter. The custom emulation component may access a translation table built from the analysis, and also may simplify a plurality of instructions in the program into a lesser number of instructions in an intermediate language used for emulation.
US09032522B1

The various technologies presented herein relate to the determination of unexpected and/or malicious activity occurring between components communicatively coupled across a backplane. Control data, etc., can be intercepted at a backplane where the backplane facilitates communication between a controller and at least one device in an automation process. During interception of the control data, etc., a copy of the control data can be made, e.g., the original control data can be replicated to generate a copy of the original control data. The original control data can continue on to its destination, while the control data copy can be forwarded to an analyzer system to determine whether the control data contains a data anomaly. The content of the copy of the control data can be compared with a previously captured baseline data content, where the baseline data can be captured for a same operational state as the subsequently captured control data.
US09032518B2

A monitoring and alerting system for detecting a disruptive event on the Internet includes a data collection and wrapping module configured to process input data that includes messages produced by a network routing protocol, including a live stream of messages on the network, historical dumps of the message to a computer's file system, or both. An automated analysis engine includes analysis modules configured to analyze routing information and selected Internet behaviors from the input data. User output includes automated alerts to the user and an interactive analysis module. The analysis modules include a probabilistic origin hijack analysis module; a probabilistic route hijack analysis module; a Hidden Markov Model analysis module; a tensor decomposition and analysis module and a static topology analysis module; and a dynamic topology analysis module.
US09032514B1

A reporting system, method, and computer program product are provided with respect to occurrences of potential data leakage. In use, a plurality of occurrences of potential data leakage is identified based on user behavior. In addition, a report is provided based on a determination of whether an aspect of the plurality of occurrences exceeds a predetermined threshold.
US09032505B1

A computing device includes: a processing unit; and memory encoding instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to: receive a request from a client computing device; establish a first secured connection to the client computing device; select a server computing device from a plurality of server computing devices to service the request from the client computing device, selection being made based, at least in part, upon load balancing considerations; establish a second secured connection to the server computing device, the second secured connection being separate from the first secured connection; and allow the client computing device to securely communicate with the server computing device through the first and second secured connections.
US09032504B2

A system and a method for operating a plurality of information handling systems forming a network are provided. The system includes a host computer processing unit (CPU); a band management controller (BMC); and a switch having a first port coupled to the host CPU, a second port coupled to the BMC, and an external port coupled to a network; wherein the switch is configured to perform lookups and send an ingress traffic including an internet content to the host CPU, and to send the ingress traffic including a management content to the BMC accordingly. A computer program product including a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable and executable code for instructing a processor in a management unit for a plurality of information handling systems forming a network to perform a method using a system as above is also provided.
US09032489B2

Disclosed are a method and device for a proxy access of an open platform for solving technical problems that resource occupancy is excessive, a password security is low, and a local file cannot be uploaded. In the present invention, an official application is established in a user terminal, and the official application interacts with the open platform by an SDK provided by the open platform; the official platform is bound by applying for a protocol with the URL format from an operating system of the user terminal, and provides an interaction interface for the third party application through the protocol with the URL format. Therefore, the present invention reduces the system resource which the third party application occupies in the user terminal and the development cost of the third party application, and protects the security of the user's account.
US09032488B2

In accordance with disclosed embodiments, there are provided methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementing a cross instance user authentication architecture in an on-demand service environment including, for example, means for receiving a login request at a global Virtual Internet Protocol (VIP) address for the host organization from a client device; forwarding the login request received at the global VIP address to one of a plurality of datacenters within the host organization; determining the selected datacenter is a non-home-geo datacenter for a user associated with the login request received from the client device; establishing a back-end link from the non-home-geo datacenter to a home-geo datacenter for the user; forwarding the login request from the non-home-geo datacenter to the home-geo datacenter via the back-end link for authentication of the client device at the home-geo datacenter responsive to the login request received from the computing device; and returning a response to the client device from the non-home-geo datacenter upon successful authentication of the login request at the home-geo datacenter, wherein the response specifies a re-direct to the home-geo datacenter for the user. Other related embodiments are disclosed.
US09032485B2

The disclosure provides an anchor authenticator relocation method and system. The method includes: after an old authenticator accepts an anchor authenticator relocation request of a Mobile Station (MS), a new authenticator sends an authenticator relocation request to an AAA server; when the AAA server's verification on the new authenticator is passed and the old authenticator confirms that the new authenticator is trusted, the anchor authenticator is relocated to the new authenticator. The disclosure provides a detailed solution to perform anchor authenticator relocation without re-authentication.
US09032478B2

A method of managing security in a network is described. A data anomaly at a first location on a network is detected. A source of this data anomaly is identified. The source is compared with a plurality of access control policies, wherein each of the plurality of access control policies comprises at least one access restriction instruction associated with one or more sources. Based on the comparing, the source is associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of access control policies.
US09032475B2

Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for configuring application control rules. The system creates a new application control rule that specifies restrictions or permission on execution a software application, a function of an application or a category of applications. The system then collects information about one or more computers in a network, including information about software applications deployed on the computers and existing application control rules. The system then tests the new application control rule using the collected information to determine verdicts rendered by the new application control rule that restrict or permit execution of an application, certain function of an application or a category of applications. The system then compares verdicts rendered by the new application rule with the verdicts rendered by the existing application control rules to identify conflicting rules, and reconfigures the new application control rule to eliminate conflicts.
US09032472B2

To allow viewer to adapt audiovisual content to their attention level, the audiovisual signal processing arrangement (104, 106), comprising an audiovisual signal processing unit (104) arranged to receive from a control unit (106) at least one complexity setting value (S_Inf-c) specifying a complexity of information in an audiovisual signal, the audiovisual signal processing unit (104) being arranged to process an inputted audiovisual signal S(A, V) to decrease or increase its information complexity as determined by the complexity setting value (S_Inf-c), wherein the audiovisual signal processing unit (104) is arranged to process at least an audio component (A) of the audiovisual signal S(A, V).
US09032469B2

A media playback apparatus and a method for providing a multimedia content using the same are disclosed. In accordance with the apparatus and the method, a content reception information stored in a disk media is read and a connection to an external apparatus is established based on the content reception information to receive and provide the multimedia content.
US09032463B2

A method and apparatus for providing content in a broadcast system is provided. Upon receipt of a request for synchronization from a mobile terminal, a set-top box creates a recommended content list based on user information received from the mobile terminal and delivers the recommended content list to the mobile terminal. The set-top box receives from the mobile terminal a content list, selected from the recommended content list and included in a Personal Information Management System (PIMS) updated using the recommended content list. The set-top box determines whether a user of the mobile terminal intends to view content from the received content list at a start time of the content. Upon receipt of view acceptance information from the mobile terminal, the set-top box sends a request for the content to a service provider at the start time, receives the requested content from the service provider, and provides the received content to the mobile terminal.
US09032462B2

The present invention relates to a method for transmitting/receiving through a network such as the Internet, and to a transmitter/receiver using same, the transmission method comprising: converting content stored in a file format into a delivery format; and including the content converted into the delivery format in a payload of an IP packet and transmitting same, wherein one or more mdats, which are included in an mdat box of the file format, are cut according to a time window and sequentially included in the delivery format in the transforming step.
US09032460B1

A method of operating a first networking device includes receiving, from a media server, a cable length request message. The cable length request message includes data indicative of a length of a first networking cable arranged between the media server and the first networking device. The method includes determining a cumulative cable length based on the length of the first networking cable and a length of a second networking cable arranged between the first networking device and a media client. The method includes, in response to presence of a second networking device between the first networking device and the media client, sending a further cable length request message to the second networking device indicating the cumulative cable length. The method includes, in response to absence of the second networking device, sending a cable length response message to the media server indicating the cumulative cable length.
US09032459B2

A system and method for adjusting one or more signal delays. The signal delays are adjusted by obtaining delay amounts of video signals associated with respective camera units and respective camera control units, the camera units being coupled to respective ones of the camera control units via an asynchronous network, and adjusting one or more of the delay amounts.
US09032458B2

A content distribution system includes a distribution center, a processor, a switch, and first and second multiplexers. The distribution center receives and applies program content on program channels. The processor identifies subsets of the program channels in response to a respective score associated with the program channels. The switch couples the distribution center to the multiplexers. The switch applies program channels to respective inputs of the first and second multiplexers in response to the processor. A method for optimizing a multiplexed transport channel includes the steps of identifying a set of program channels designated for distribution via the multiplexed transport channel, arranging the set of program channels in subsets, the program channels within a subset grouped in accordance with a viewing score, multiplexing the program channels of the subsets to a respective transport channel and applying the respective transport channels to a distribution medium for delivery to the destination.
US09032455B2

The invention relates to a method of management of trick mode commands destined to control a digital content streaming server. In order to manage the transmission of trick mode commands from multiple trick mode command issuers, the method comprises: a step of reception of at least one trick mode command from at least one command issuer, a step of determination of elapsed time between the received command and a last transmitted command, and a step of transmission of the received command to the at least a digital content streaming server if none of determined conditions applies, whereby the determined conditions comprises: if the elapsed time is smaller than a determined first delay; and if the command issuer of the received command does not have highest issuer rights allowing the issuer to derogate from respecting of the determined first delay.
US09032454B2

In a particular embodiment, a method includes receiving a request for interactive content at a mediation device, the request sent from a set-top box device via a secure network. The method also includes receiving the interactive content at the mediation device from at least one content provider via an unsecured network. The method also includes removing at least one unapproved element from the interactive content. The method also includes sending the interactive content to the set-top box device via a video head-end.
US09032450B2

A method is provided comprising: receiving a constant bit rate video stream representing a single video from a video source via a managed broadband connection; converting the constant bit rate video stream into a single non-adaptive bit rate video stream by modifying a video transport stack of the video to be compatible with a home device media player video transport stack; modifying a video control stack of the video to be compatible with a device in a home network; adding a home networking transport stack to the video stream, wherein the home networking transport stack is such that it would appear to the device in the home network as if the video stream came from a server local to the home network; and delivering the video stream to a device in the home network.
US09032448B2

A broadcast system provides consumers with inducement to consume portions in which they may not have an active interest, such as commercials. To dissuade consumers from leaving the vicinity of the broadcast receiver or from switching to other broadcasts while a first broadcast airs such a portion, the first broadcast is augmented by a second content entity calculated to be of interest to the consumer. Interaction is required of the consumer in order for him to receive the second content entity, which necessitates his presence and attention.
US09032447B1

A method for capturing viewer attention concerning a product depicted in a color motion video is provided wherein a frame in the plurality of image frames rendering the motion video on a display, is elongated. While elongated sections of the video frame showing products or services are highlighted and a user interface is provided to request information about or order the product.
US09032442B2

The present invention is a method, system, and computer-readable medium for acquiring a channel map in a cable receiver. The channel map associates physical analog and digital channels in an RF spectrum to channel identification data, where the channel identification data includes physical RF channel numbers, modulation type, virtual channels, and channel names. The method obtains a list of available channels from an electronic program guide service provider, and initializes the channel map based on the list of available channels. The method performs a channel scan to detect clear channels, and collect identification information for each detected clear channel. Based on the identification information, the method updates the channel map for each detected channel. The method receives changes to the channel map from a user of the cable receiver device, updates the channel map based on the changes to the channel map from the user, and uploads the channel map to the electronic program guide service provider.
US09032435B2

In a streaming video system, a method determining a sequence of video programs playing on an interactive player device may include streaming a first video program including an ad break from a computer server to an interactive player device during a first streaming session. The method may further include automatically selecting a video advertisement or next program from a set of prospective video advertisements for play during the ad break or available programs, based at least in part on the first video program exclusive of any parameter based on user identity. The method may include providing the video advertisement to the interactive player device in the first streaming session at the ad break. Bases for selecting the next ad or program may include program popularity, rate of change in popularity, or other parameter. The method may be embodied in a computing apparatus or system.
US09032427B2

A monitoring system includes a video network analyzer processes the packet data to generate network and media session data relating to the distribution of video content via the data distribution network in at least one media session, wherein the network and media session data includes at least one session metric, location data, protocol identification data, video encoding parameter data, and audio encoding parameter data. An analytics database stores the network and media session data for generation of report data.
US09032426B2

A medium processing device may include a head which reads or writes data to a recording medium; and a flexible cable which is connected with the head. The flexible cable may be formed in a multilayer structure including a data signal layer formed with a data signal pattern and disconnection detecting signal layers which cover a front face and a rear face of the data signal layer and are formed with a disconnection detecting signal pattern. The flexible cable may also include a terminal connecting part formed with a through hole into which a signal terminal of the head is inserted and a terminal covering part folded to cover the terminal connecting part and fixed to the terminal connecting part.
US09032421B2

A computation device includes a data path element (300) including a function processing unit (4000) that executes a computation specified in a function using input data included in an event (1000) as an argument; and a control path element (2000) that detects the event (1000) by use of a return value (ret) of the function. The function processing unit (4000) includes a data calculation unit (4001) that executes a computation and outputs a first result (d0); and a control comparison unit (4002) that outputs, to the control path element (2000), a result of comparison between the input data and data for specifying the event (1000), as the return value (ret).
US09032418B2

A service may be provided that reads sensors, and that communicates information based on the sensor readings to applications. In one example, an operating system provides a sensor interface that allows programs that run on a machine to read the values of sensors (such as an accelerometer, light meter, etc.). A service may use the interface to read the value of sensors, and may receive subscriptions to sensor values from other programs. The service may then generate messages that contain the sensor value, and may provide these messages to programs that have subscribed to the messages. The messages may contain raw sensor data. Or, the messages may contain information that is derived from the sensor data and/or from other data.
US09032417B2

A information processing apparatus having a processor is controlled to execute a procedure of reading from the memory attribute information indicating a usage frequency of a register used by a process to be executed as a next process by the processor when the processor switches a process currently being executed, saving a value of the register used by the next process to be executed by the processor to the memory when the usage frequency of the register indicated by the attribute information is larger than a certain frequency, reading from the memory owner information indicating a process using the register to be used by the next process when the usage frequency of the register indicated by the attribute information is larger than the certain frequency, and restoring a register value saved in the memory to the register when the owner information indicates a process other than the next process.
US09032413B2

Systems, methods, and apparatus for separately loading and managing foreground work and background work of an application. In some embodiments, a method is provided for use by an operating system executing on at least one computer. The operating system may identify at least one foreground component and at least one background component of an application, and may load the at least one foreground component for execution separately from the at least one background component. For example, the operating system may execute the at least one foreground component without executing the at least one background component. In some further embodiments, the operating system may use a specification associated with the application to identify at least one piece of computer executable code implementing the at least one background component.
US09032409B1

A method, system and program product for remote scheduling of at least one job to run on a plurality of computers in a computer network. The job scheduler enables selection of a domain that includes at least a subset of the computers on which the job is to run. A list of computers in the selected domain is automatically generated. The computers on which the job is to run can be selected from the generated list of computers. A configuration file is created for storing an identification of the selected domain and the job to be run on the selected computers in the domain.
US09032403B1

Embodiments of systems and methods are described for instant provisioning (e.g., cloning, copying, replicating, migrating, backing up, restoring, etc.) of virtual machines, virtual machine files, or other types of files (e.g., database files). In some implementations, a cloned virtual machine file can present an illusion to multiple applications accessing the cloned file that the cloned file contains all the appropriate data (e.g., a file system volume), even while the clone file is still being filled with relevant data. In some embodiments, the systems and methods use a file system filter driver to intercept and redirect certain input/output (I/O) requests to the cloned file. The file system filter driver may use a data structure (e.g., a bitmap) to determine which logical units of the clone file have already been filled with data. In some embodiments, the systems and methods use the operating system to handle cached I/O requests, which may improve efficiency.
US09032390B2

Various embodiments are directed to framework versioning for a mobile computing device. The described embodiments may include a web browser, a plurality of application frameworks, one or more applications compatible with one or more of the plurality of application frameworks, and a loader module operative to select and load one of the plurality of application frameworks into the web browser for each of the one or more applications based on an identifier in each of the one or more applications. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09032389B2

A method for generating a Set Top Box (STB) code download step sequence includes the steps of retrieving a code object from a Software Download Generator (SDG) memory in response to an instruction signal, generating at least one of a control message and a decoder conditional command using a SDG processor in response to the code object, accessing information in a channel map in the SDG memory, combining the at least one of a control message and a decoder conditional command with the code object to generate the STB code download step sequence for a target STB, transmitting the at least one STB code download step sequence from the SDG memory to a Digital Addressable Controller (DAC), re-transmitting the STB code download step sequence from the DAC to a Remote Addressable DANIS/DLS (RADD), and re-transmitting the STB code download step sequence from the RADD to the target STB.
US09032376B2

A method is provided to evaluate impact of a change in code of a depended upon component of a system stored in a computer readable storage device, upon a dependent component of the system, the method comprising: identifying a dependency relationship between a first component stored in a computer readable storage device and a second component stored in the computer readable storage device; in response to a determination that the second component depends upon the first component, configuring a computer system to obtain a first property evaluation corresponding to the first component; and in response to obtaining the first property evaluation corresponding to the first component, configuring the computer system to associate the first property evaluation with the second component, and obtain a second property evaluation corresponding to the second component, wherein the second component is associated with the first property evaluation.
US09032374B2

A method, system and computer program product for software debugging using annotation metadata. A set of metadata comprising source code annotation information for a software program is maintained, together with data/metadata relationships between individual units of the metadata and individual units of the source code. A software debugging point is set that is associated with debugging point metadata comprising one or more units the metadata. A debugging action is performed when execution of the software program reaches said debugging point.
US09032370B2

A system and method is disclosed to estimate both, the time and number of resources required to execute a test suite or a subset of test suite in parallel, with the objective of providing a balanced workload distribution. The present invention partitions test suite for parallelization, given the dependencies that exists between test cases and test execution time.
US09032357B1

Aspects of the invention relate to techniques of generating guiding patterns for via-type feature groups. A guiding pattern may be constructed for a via-type feature group that comprises two or more via-type features in a layout design. A backbone structure may then be determined for the guiding pattern. Based on the backbone structure and a self-assembly model, simulated locations of the two or more via-type features are computed. The simulated locations are compared with targeted locations. If the simulated locations do not match the targeted locations based on a predetermined criterion, the simulated locations adjusted to derive modified locations. Using the modified locations, the above operations may be repeated until the simulated locations match the targeted location based on a predetermined criterion or for a predetermined number of times.
US09032351B2

A relationship between distance from a back bias control section which outputs a control signal for controlling a back bias of a transistor and an amount of noise in the control signal outputted from the back bias control section is found. An increase of jitter corresponding to the amount of the noise in a clock transmitted on a clock path connected to a circuit section (IP macro) is found on the basis of the relationship between the distance from the back bias control section and the amount of the noise. The circuit section and the clock path are placed on the basis of the increase of the jitter and an allowable jitter value for the circuit section.
US09032350B2

A method for bypassing a defective through silicon via x in a group of n adjacent through silicon vias, includes receiving a plurality of relief signals to identify the defective through silicon via x, activating x−1 switch circuits to connect x−1 data circuits to through silicon vias 1 to x−1 in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias, activating n-x switch circuits to connect n-x data circuits to through silicon vias x+1 to n in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias, and activating a switch circuit to connect a data circuit to an auxiliary through silicon via which is adjacent through silicon via n in the group of n adjacent through silicon vias.
US09032345B2

A method, a system and a computer readable medium for providing information relating to a verification of a digital circuit. The verification may be formal verification and comprise formally verifying that a plurality of formal properties is valid for a representation of the digital circuit. The method comprises replacing at least a first input value relating to the representation of the digital circuit by a first free variable, determining if at least one of the plurality of formal properties is valid or invalid after replacing the first input value by the first variable and indicating if the at least one of the plurality of formal property is valid or invalid. The use of a free or open variable that has not determined value can be directly in the description or representation of the digital circuit. It is not necessary to insert errors or to apply an error model.
US09032344B2

A plurality of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), high performance transceivers, and memory devices provide a verification module for timing and state debugging of electronic circuit designs. Signal value compression circuits and gigabit transceivers embedded in each FPGA increase the fanout of each FPGA. Ethernet communication ports enable remote software debugging of processor instructions.
US09032342B2

A method of patterning a plurality of layers of a work piece in a series of writing cycles in one or a plurality of write machines, the workpiece being deviced to have a number of N layers and layers of the workpiece having one or a plurality of boundary condition(s) for pattern position, the method comprising the steps of: determining the boundary conditions of layers 1 to N, calculating deviations due to the boundary conditions and calculating a compensation for the deviation of the first transformation added with the assigned part of the deviation due to the boundary conditions.
US09032338B2

An electronic device displays text of an electronic document on a display; displays an insertion marker at a first position in the text of the electronic document; detects a first horizontal gesture on a touch-sensitive surface; in response to a determination that the first horizontal gesture satisfies a first set of one or more predefined conditions: translates the electronic document on the display in accordance with a direction of the first horizontal gesture, and maintains the insertion marker at the first position in the text; and, in response to a determination that the first horizontal gesture satisfies a second set of one or more predefined conditions, moves the insertion marker by one character in the text from the first position to a second position in the text in accordance with the direction of the first horizontal gesture.
US09032336B2

The present invention provides an input interface that a human can operate naturally and intuitively using a human gesture (motion), by including means for acquiring motion information based on a gesture and input interface means for generating information for operating an object on a desktop of a computer on the basis of motion information. In this case, the motion information is matched against a template for recognizing a motion of a user and a matched event is outputted so that the object is operated. The object includes a pie menu in which a menu item is disposed in a circular form. A user is allowed to selects a desired menu item in the pie menu in accordance with an angle at which the user twists a wrist thereof.
US09032327B2

An approach is described for supplementing a scrolling region of an item user interface (UI) presentation with scrolling-region information. For example, the scrolling region can be enhanced by presented information regarding a flattened list of containers. The approach may also involve varying a representation of a collection of items displayed in an item presentation region of the item UI presentation based on at least one emphasis-related attribute associated with the collection of items. The various features of the item UI presentation facilitate a user's navigation through a large collection of items.
US09032318B2

A widget security system, method and computer-readable medium detects a security event associated with a widget, assesses the risk associated with the security event, and initiates a security action based on the assessed risk.
US09032316B1

Computer-implemented methods for proposing actions to a user to select based on the value of the actions to the user are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving content selected by a user from a device, and identifying a plurality of actions to be executed that are associated with a referent entity identified from the selected content, wherein each action has an associated value to the user. The method also includes providing, for display, an identifier of each of at least a subset of the actions based on their associated values. Systems and machine-readable storage media are also provided.
US09032310B2

This document discusses, among other things a server interface to bridge communications between a desktop application and a web server. In an example embodiment, the server interface translates a communication from the desktop application (e.g., in a desktop programming language) to HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and transfers the translated communication over a network to a web server.
US09032308B2

Systems and methods for providing a manufacturer portal are disclosed. More specifically, in one embodiment a content distribution system, as a central location for user generated content may also provide manufacturers with a portal to monitor, and participate in, the process of content generation and distribution. This portal may provide the manufacturers with the ability to: view generated content related to that manufacturer and to filter this user generated content utilizing a wide variety of criteria and to generate content which may be responsive to presented generated content. Content generated by a manufacturer through their portal may subsequently be incorporated into one or more retailer's site utilizing the content distribution system.
US09032307B2

Data defining an avatar is received over a network. A sprite sheet comprising a plurality of sprites is created, using the data defining the avatar. Each sprite includes a partial rendering of the respective avatar and at least one run-time parameter including a sprite attribute. A plurality of requests are received, over the network, for the avatar from a plurality of user applications. The data defining the avatar and the sprite sheet are transmitted, over the network, to each of the requesting user applications, enabling each respective user application to display the sprites in the sprite sheet and to set the run-time parameter associated with each of the sprites in the sprite sheet such that each respective sprite is thereby customized to the application.
US09032306B2

Method or system for allowing a social networking system to retain users of a social networking system by identifying low-activity users who are likely to become inactive/dormant users and prompting users to initiate interactions with the low-activity users. The low-activity users are identified by monitoring activities and interactions of the users via the social networking system. If the pattern of activities and interactions satisfy one or more criteria, a computer device for providing the social networking system initiates an intervention scheme where users are induced to initiate interactions with the low-activity users. In response to the interactions, the low-activity users are likely to resume interactions via the social networking system.
US09032303B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products for facilitating web-based interaction with a local system are disclosed. Such systems, methods, and computer program products provide an approach that allows a web client within in a web browser environment to access local hardware and local software—via a web server contained in the local system—in a local computer system. In response to a user input, the web client directs local hardware and local software to perform actions (e.g., writing files and taking pictures). Information related to such actions is returned to the web client via the local web server. The local computer system may be remotely located from the web client and such returned information may be stored and/or executed at a remote site (e.g., cloud database). Security layers may be provided to authenticate the user as well as user permissions for accessing the local computer system.
US09032278B2

A method for performing data shaping is applied to a controller of a Flash memory, where the Flash memory includes a plurality of blocks. The method includes: performing a program optimization operation according to original data and a plurality of shaping codes, in order to generate trace back information corresponding to a Trellis diagram and utilize the trace back information as side information; and dynamically selecting at least one shaping code from the shaping codes according to the side information to perform data shaping on the original data.
US09032275B2

An encoding method and encoder of a time-varying LDPC-CC with high error correction performance are provided. In an encoding method of performing low density parity check convolutional coding (LDPC-CC) of a time varying period of q using a parity check polynomial of a coding rate of (n−1)/n (where n is an integer equal to or greater than 2), the time varying period of q is a prime number greater than 3, the method receiving an information sequence as input and encoding the information sequence using Equation 1 as a g-th (g=0, 1, . . . , q−1) parity check polynomial to satisfy 0.
US09032271B2

In some embodiments of the present invention, a data storage system includes a controller and a non-volatile memory array having a plurality of memory pages. The controller performs a method that efficiently resolves the lower page corruption problem. In one embodiment, the method selects programmed lower page(s) for which paired upper page(s) have not been programmed, reads data from those selected lower page(s), corrects the read data, and reprograms the read data into those lower page(s). Since the number of lower pages in this condition is typically low (e.g., several pages in a block with hundreds or thousands of pages), this is a much more efficient method than reprogramming the entire block. In another embodiment, a similar reprogramming method is applied as a data recovery scheme in situations in which only lower pages are programmed (e.g., SLC memory, MLC memory in SLC mode, etc.).
US09032268B1

A digital broadcast communication system includes an upload system further comprising digital transceivers that upload a plurality of voice sources from any one of announcers, players, referees, coaches, and sportscasters from a broadcast booth utilizing a synchronized multicast communication protocol. At least one access point is configured to communicate with the digital transceivers using synchronized multicast communication protocol. The system utilizes error control coding and decoding that is based upon a quasi-orthogonal maximal sequence code.
US09032259B1

Systems and methods involve prioritizing information based at least in part on test results for tests. A computing device may administer one or more tests and/or may receive test results for one or more tests. Multiple executions of one or more tests may be administered over a period of time. A device administering a test may evaluate the functionality of at least a portion of an application programming interface (API) or at least a portion of a user interface. Test results may be analyzed to determine a failure pattern and/or pass rate for one or more tests. Test results may be analyzed to determine an error signature and/or error signature frequency for one or more test results. A report can be generated that prioritizes information based at least in part on the tests, test results, and/or any determined information.
US09032255B2

Provided is a semiconductor device including: a first memory that stores multiple instructions; a second memory that stores multiple data items; first and second buses; a microprocessor that fetches, through the first bus, an instruction at a specified address among the multiple instructions stored in the first memory, executes the instruction, and accesses the second memory through the second bus based on a result of the execution; and a trace information output unit that acquires, when a branch instruction is generated in the microprocessor, address information of the first memory specified before branching, and outputs the information as trace information. The trace information output from the trace information output unit is written into the second memory through the second bus in a period in which the microprocessor does not access the second memory during execution of the branch instruction.
US09032254B2

The presently disclosed subject matter includes a system and method which enable to identify one or more causes for excessive energy consumption in a computer executing one or more processes. Information indicating that consumption of a computer-resource of at least one of said processes is greater than a predefined threshold is obtained and one or more threads of said at least one process which are in running state are identified. Thread performance information of at least one thread in running state is collected and used for identifying one or more functions that are the cause for said state of the respective thread. The identified functions are associated with their respective modules in order to identify one or more modules of said process, which are the cause for said excessive energy consumption.
US09032250B1

A power delivery system includes a power supply unit, a secondary power unit, a controller, and a monitor. The power supply unit is configured to receive primary power and provide operating DC power to a DC load. The secondary power unit is configured to store energy from the primary power. The controller is configured to control the secondary power unit during a testing period such that the secondary power unit uses the stored energy to provide secondary DC power to the load instead of the operating DC power. The monitor is configured to monitor the operation of the secondary power unit during the testing period and provide a signal indicative of whether the secondary power unit operated within defined parameters during the testing period.
US09032244B2

The techniques discussed herein identify failed segments of memory in a memory region. The techniques may then manage the failed segments of memory by logically clustering the failed segments of memory at an outlying portion of the memory region using a remapping process. The remapping process may include creating and storing remapping metadata defining segment remapping entries for the memory region. Accordingly, the failure clustering logically eliminates or reduces the memory fragmentation so that a system can allocate larger portions of contiguous memory for object storage.
US09032240B2

A method and system for providing high availability services to SCTP applications is disclosed. In one embodiment, a high availability (HA) server system includes an active server and a standby server with a primary redundancy module and a secondary redundancy module, respectively, which are operable for performing a method including forming a control channel between the active server and the standby server, forwarding IP addresses of the active server and the standby server to a client device when an association between the client device and the active server is established, synchronously mirroring a state of a SCTP stack and a state of an application of the active server to the standby server using the control channel, and servicing the client device using the standby server based on the state of the SCTP stack and the state of the application if a failure of the active server is detected.
US09032236B2

A semiconductor device includes an internal circuit, a power supply control circuit which controls supply of a power supply to the internal circuit upon receipt of a first control signal, and a control signal generation circuit which outputs the first control signal upon receipt of a second control signal. The control signal generation circuit does not deactivate the first control signal when an inactive period of the second control signal is equal to or less than a first period and deactivates the first control signal when the inactive period of the second control signal is more than the first period.
US09032226B2

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor having a plurality of cores and a control logic to control provision of a voltage/frequency to a first core of the plurality of cores independently of provision of a voltage/frequency to at least a second core of the plurality of cores. In some embodiments, the voltages may be provided from one or more internal voltage regulators of the processor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09032222B2

A data entry device including a housing formed of at least two portions, data entry circuitry located within the housing, at least one case-open switch assembly operative to sense when the housing is opened and tamper indication circuitry operative to receive an input from the at least one case-open switch assembly and to provide an output indication of possible tampering with the data entry circuitry located within the housing, the at least one case-open switch assembly including an arrangement of electrical contacts including at least first, second and third contacts and a displaceable conductive element, the tamper indication circuitry and the third contact together being operative such that when the third contact is short circuited to at least one of the first contact, the second contact and another contact, an output indication of possible tampering is provided.
US09032220B2

Data is secured on a device in communication with a remote location using a password and content protection key. The device stores data encrypted using a content protection key, which itself may be stored in encrypted form using the password and a key encryption key. The remote location receives a public key from the device. The remote location uses the public key and a stored private key to generate a further public key. The further public key is sent to the device. The device uses the further public key to generate a key encryption key, which is then used to decrypt the encrypted content protection key. A new content encryption key may then be created.
US09032216B2

Techniques for dynamic generation and management of password dictionaries are presented. Passwords are parsed for recognizable terms. The terms are housed in dictionaries or databases. Statistics associated with the terms are maintained and managed. The statistics are used to provide strength values to the passwords and determine when passwords are acceptable and unacceptable.
US09032215B2

Management of access control in wireless networks known as smart spaces includes a framework that presents non-expert users with a consistent and intuitive interaction mechanism to manage access to devices they own in the smart space without exposing to them the complexity of the underlying security infrastructure. Access control of devices in a network can include providing an interface between a user-level tool on a first device connected to a network and security components associated with the network, communicating a passlet between the user-level tool and the interface, verifying access permission at a second device on the network where access permissions are based on the passlet, and providing a response to the first device based on the verification of the access permission in the passlet. The passlet provides access permissions based on a particular user rather than a particular device.
US09032213B2

A method may include receiving data and first path-metadata. The first path-metadata may include a first entity identifier. The first entity identifier may be associated with a first receiving entity that receives the data and the first path-metadata from an originating entity. The first path-metadata may also include a first digital signature associated with the originating entity. The method may further include receiving second path-metadata that may include the first path-metadata and a second entity identifier associated with a second receiving entity. The second path-metadata may also include a second digital signature associated with the first receiving entity. The method may additionally include verifying that the data was communicated by the originating entity to the first receiving entity and from the first receiving entity to the second receiving entity based on the first path-metadata, the second path-metadata, the first digital signature, and the second digital signature.
US09032208B2

A communication terminal that can adjust which section of a one-time pad cipher key is used and achieve cipher communication when there is a possibility that the one-time pad cipher keys are not completely matched between communication terminals. A cipher key transfer device acquires a one-time pad cipher key from a key sharing system, divides the acquired one-time pad cipher key with a predetermined number of bits, and transfers the same to a mobile communication terminal after converting the same into one-time pad cipher key cartridges. Along with the partner's terminal, the mobile communication terminal negotiates which one-time pad cipher key cartridge will be used to perform cipher communication, decides the one-time pad cipher key cartridge to be used, and begins cipher communication.
US09032200B2

Method, system, and storage media for remotely installing a virtual service processor (VSP) to a computing device are disclosed. The computer device initiates a preboot execution environment (PXE) client and receives a VSP installation file from a PXE server. The VSP installation file includes a VSP file, a universal plug and play (UPnP) service file, and a remote procedure call (RPC) service file. The UPnP service is discoverable by a management station in a network through UPnP. The computer device initiates a RPC service based on the RPC service file, sends hardware information of the computing device to the management station through the RPC service, receives configuration parameters for the VSP through the RPC service. The RPC service installs the VSP based on the VSP installation file and the configuration parameters.
US09032199B1

Embodiments relate to systems, devices, and computer-implemented methods for creating a loadable image and using the loadable image for restarting an application. The method can include starting, by a computing device, initialization of the application, and identifying upon initialization of the application, a plurality of resources associated with the application. The method can further include determining checkpoints associated with the plurality of resources. In addition, the method can include creating an optimized image corresponding to the application based on the checkpoints and an optimization of an application image, and storing the optimized image in a memory. Further, the method can include restarting the application by replacing a current process image with a new process image, and updating the new process image with one or more elements of the optimized image.
US09032190B2

A leading thread and a trailing thread are executed in parallel. Assuming that no transient fault occurs in each section, a system is speculatively executed in the section, with the leading thread and the trailing thread preferably being assigned to two different cores. At this time, the leading thread and the trailing thread are simultaneously executed, performing a buffering operation on a thread local area without performing a write operation on a shared memory. When the respective execution results of the two threads match each other, the content buffered to the thread local area is committed and written to the shared memory. When the respective execution results of the two threads do not match each other, the leading thread and the trailing thread are rolled back to a preceding commit point and re-executed.
US09032184B2

A method, apparatus and a data storage device are provided for implementing drive list mode for read and write transfers on a recordable surface of a storage device. Drive List mode provides a queue in a linked list to chain together multiple independent transfers on a single track. The multiple drive independent transfers include at least one of sequential transfers, near-sequential transfers, and random transfers on the single track. A drive list mode transfer of multiple independent transfers on the single track is enabled in one disk revolution, and requiring a single hardware setup for the drive list mode transfer.
US09032183B2

Apparatus and method for placing data based on the content of the data in random access memory such that indexing operations are not required. A strong (e.g., cryptographic) hash is applied to a data element resulting in a signature. A weaker hash function is then applied to the signature to generate a storage location in memory for the data element. The weaker hash function assigns multiple data elements to the same storage location while the signature comprises a unique identifier for locating a particular data element at this location. In one embodiment a plurality of weak hash functions are applied successively to increase storage space utilization. In other embodiments, the assigned storage location can be determined by one or more attributes of the data element and/or the storage technology, e.g, long-lived versus short-lived data and/or different regions of the memory having different performance (e.g., access latency memory lifetime) characteristics.
US09032180B2

A primary processing unit entitlement is determined for a logical partition. A smaller secondary processing unit entitlement is also determined. A partition manager allocates primary processing units to the logical partition from a primary shared processor pool, and the logical partition is activated. The secondary processing units are reserved for the logical partition from a secondary shared processor pool, and the logical partition can be relocated to the secondary shared processor pool in response to a condition such as a hardware failure. The logical partition can continue to process its workload with the fewer processor resources, and can be restored to the primary processing unit entitlement.
US09032177B2

Managing data returns to a host in response to read commands, an operation monitor of a solid-state drive (SSD) manages counters used to hold metrics that characterize the estimated time to complete a read operation on a corresponding flash die. A timer generates a periodic event which decrements the counters over time. The value stored in each counter is generated for flash operations submitted to the corresponding die and is, generally, based on the operational history and the physical location of the operation. Whenever a read command is scheduled for submission to a particular die, the time estimate for that particular read operation is retrieved and, based on this information, the optimum order in which to return data to the host is determined. This order is used to schedule and program data transfers to the host so that a minimum number of read commands get blocked by other read commands.
US09032173B2

A method according to one embodiment includes receiving instruction to change from an original target storage subsystem in a disaster recovery configuration-to a new target storage subsystem. Second copy services relationships are created between one or more new target volumes on the new target storage subsystem and one or more source volumes on a source storage subsystem using multi-target functionality. Existing first copy services relationships between the source storage subsystem and the original target storage subsystem are terminated after all of the second copy services relationships are full duplex.
US09032169B2

A method, system and computer-usable medium which provides a format in which data is written to a dump data set to allow use of Fast Replication technology for both backing up and restoring of both datasets and volumes. Such a format allows any data that can be captured at a track level to be written to the dump data set via Fast Replication. When using this methodology of backing up and restoring, backups should be made to devices that support Fast Replication technology and restoration of the data should be to devices which are capable of being the target of a Fast Replication for that backup device.
US09032164B2

The splitting of storage applications and functions into a control path (CP) component and a data path (DP) component is disclosed. Reads and writes may be handled primarily in the DP. The CP may be responsible for discovery, configuration, and exception handling. The CP can also be enabled for orchestrating complex data management operations such as snapshots and migration. Storage virtualization maps a virtual I/O to one or more physical I/O. A virtual target (vTarget) in the virtual domain is associated with one physical port in the physical domain. Each vTarget may be associated with one or more virtual LUNs (vLUNs). Each vLUN includes one or more vExtents. Each vExtent may point to a region table, and each entry in the region table may contain a pointer to a region representing a portion of a pExtent, and attributes (e.g. read/write, read only, no access) for that region.
US09032151B2

To ensure that the contents of a non-volatile memory device cache may be relied upon as accurately reflecting data stored on disk storage, it may be determined whether the cache contents and/or disk contents are modified during a power transition, causing cache contents to no longer accurately reflect data stored in disk storage. The cache device may be removable from the computer, and unexpected removal of the cache device may cause cache contents to no longer accurately reflect data stored in disk storage. Cache metadata may be managed during normal operations and across power transitions, ensuring that cache metadata may be efficiently accessed and reliably saved and restored across power transitions. A state of a log used by a file system may be determined prior to and subsequent to reboot of an operating system in order to determine whether data stored on a cache device may be reliably used.
US09032142B2

Methods, systems, and computer readable storage medium directed to efficiently storing value ranges in TCAM or other memory are disclosed. Storing a range of integer values in a memory includes determining a subrange within the range, so that, in a first and a second plurality of bit subsequences from binary representations respectively of a start value and an end value of the subrange, all except at most one bit subsequence in the first plurality is either equal in value to a corresponding bit subsequence in the second plurality or has a value of 0 and a corresponding bit subsequence of the second plurality has a maximum value. The storing a range of integer values in a memory further includes forming a first bit string based upon values of the first and second plurality of bit subsequences, and storing the first bit string in the memory.
US09032136B2

A memory controller, system including the memory controller and method of controlling the memory. The memory controller receives requests for memory and content sensitively allocates memory space in a mixed cell memory. The memory controller allocates sufficient space including performance memory storing a single bit per cell and dense memory storing more than one bit per cell. Some or all of the memory may be selectable by the memory controller as either Single Level per Cell (SLC) or Multiple Level per Cell (MLC).
US09032135B2

A data protecting method for a rewritable non-volatile memory module having physical blocks is provided, a plurality of logical block addresses is mapped to a part of the physical blocks. The method includes, configuring a plurality of virtual block addresses to map to the logical block addresses, grouping at least one virtual block address into a virtual block address area, and allocating the virtual block address area to an application. The method also includes, receiving an access command which is configured to instruct accessing a first virtual block address from the application. The method also includes: determining whether the first virtual block address belongs to the virtual block address area, if not, sending an error message to the application. Accordingly, the method can effectively prevent an application from accessing the data which can not be accessed by the application program.
US09032134B2

A method of operating a memory system includes receiving a read command from a host, where the read command is associated with a logical sector of a memory, determining whether the logical sector of the memory is indicated as being erased in a sector allocation table, if the logical sector of the memory is indicated as being erased, outputting a data pattern from the sector allocation table to the host, and if the logical sector of the memory is not indicated as being erased, reading a physical sector of the memory and outputting data from the physical sector of the memory to the host.
US09032132B2

The USB device (e.g. an audio class device) comprises a USB bus interface that connects to an upstream USB port and a USB logical device that provides first USB endpoints for upstream communication on a first channel. The USB host comprises a USB host controller that connects to a downstream USB port, and a USB driver that provides second USB endpoints for downstream communication on a second channel; wherein the USB host operates concurrently with the USB device. The processor is configured to communicate data between the first channel and the second channel via the first USB endpoints and the second USB endpoints, respectively.
US09032131B2

An audio system including a first audio unit and a second audio unit coupled to the first audio unit through an audio bus. A first processor is coupled to the first audio unit. The first processor is configured to transmit bits comprising audio content to the second audio unit over the audio bus. The first processor is further configured to receive a control command selected from a plurality of control commands, and in response, interrupt the bits comprising audio content and send a preamble and a control message on the audio bus, wherein the control message corresponds to the control command. A second processor is coupled to the second audio unit. The second processor is configured to monitor the audio bus for a preamble, and if a preamble is detected, then process the control message and execute the corresponding control command.
US09032127B2

A method of balancing input/output (I/O) device interrupt service loading in a computer system comprises: assigning priorities to a plurality of I/O device interrupts of a processing unit of the computer system; servicing the plurality of interrupts according to the assigned priorities thereof; collecting data on the interrupt servicing of the plurality of interrupts over a time interval; reassigning the priorities of the plurality of interrupts based on the collected interrupt service data; and repeating the collecting and reassigning steps to balance input/output (I/O) device interrupt service loading of the processing unit.
US09032126B2

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for accessing a task stored in an entry of a task queue that identifies the task and a first core of a processor on which the task has been scheduled, reassigning the task to a coldest idle core of the processor, and sending the task to the coldest idle core and maintaining the processor in a turbo mode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09032120B2

A device and method for writing/reading a piece of data in/from a memory register shared by a plurality of peripherals, each peripheral having a peripheral clock signal, when two or more of the plurality of peripherals need to write/read such piece of data at the same time, the digital device including a central unit having the memory register and a bank of SL modules in signal communication with the central unit, the bank of SL modules being designed to write/read the piece of data. The bank of SL modules comprises a plurality of writing/reading modules whose priority value ranges between maximum and minimum priority values, each module being connected to a respective peripheral, the central unit includes a multiplexer in signal communication on the one hand with the plurality of writing/reading modules, and on the other hand with the memory register, each module comprises an arbitration cell, such that the first module is identified by the maximum priority value (Prmax′) and the other N−1 modules are identified by decreasing priority values, the central unit operating at a predetermined main clock frequency to write/read the piece of data in the memory register.
US09032115B2

The disclosure provides a method for passing a parameter between processors. The method comprises the following steps: in a source program of a slave processor, directly introducing a static configuration parameter to be passed; obtaining a relative address of the static configuration parameter when converting the source program of the slave processor into a target program of the slave processor; and configuring directly, by a master processor, a parameter value of the static configuration parameter in the target program of the slave processor according to the obtained relative address of the static configuration parameter. The disclosure also provides a system for passing a parameter between processors. The system has no need to use external hardware such as a dual-port Random Access Memory (RAM) and a register, thus, the requirement of parameter transmission on the external hardware is reduced, and further the area and static power consumption of a chip are reduced. The disclosure reduces the cycle delay of the slave processor in accessing the dual-port RAM and the register, thereby effectively reducing the dynamic power consumption of the chip, improving the processing capability of the slave processor and enhancing the effective performance of the slave processor.
US09032085B1

Techniques are described for identifying the use of software applications, such as to determine an identity of a user interacting with a Web site or other electronic information service based on information regarding an application copy used by the user. When a communication is received from a software application, the communication is analyzed to attempt to identify a particular software application copy that sent the communication. Various types of information about a client software application copy may be used in the analysis, including information about particular configuration settings for the client software application and for the client computing device on which the client software application is executing. After a matching software application copy is identified for a received communication, possible inappropriate activities related to the received communication may be identified in various ways, including based on previous communications received from the same software application copy.
US09032080B2

A central terminal may receive from a user a first message, which may be transmitted from a communication terminal, identifying particular media content on a particular content server, and in response the central terminal may transmit a second message to a particular application server if the central terminal determines that the first message is associated with the application server. The application server may generate and transmit to the communication terminal accessing information that may be used by the user to retrieve, via the communication terminal, the media content from the content server. Submitting content requests in this manner may enable routing content requests through a particular system, such as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), thereby making use of filtering features of the particular system for user authentication and access control, and obviating need for separate proprietary access control mechanisms for the content server.
US09032079B2

Systems and methods of managing and diagnosing enterprise telephonic devices are disclosed. A provisioning request can be received from an enterprise telephonic device. The provisioning request can include a domain name system lookup request. An enterprise network address of a device management server can be provided to the enterprise telephonic device. A voice data link can be established with the enterprise telephonic device so as to permit the enterprise telephonic device to communicate over a data network with endpoint telephonic devices. The device management server can periodically receive heartbeat data from the enterprise telephonic device. The heartbeat can be indicative of a status of at least one functionality of the enterprise telephonic device. The enterprise telephonic device can provide diagnostic logs when requested by the device management server. In addition, the enterprise telephonic device can be configured to periodically request software updates.
US09032077B1

Methods and apparatus for client-allocatable bandwidth pools are disclosed. A system includes a plurality of resources of a provider network and a resource manager. In response to a determination to accept a bandwidth pool creation request from a client for a resource group, where the resource group comprises a plurality of resources allocated to the client, the resource manager stores an indication of a total network traffic rate limit of the resource group. In response to a bandwidth allocation request from the client to allocate a specified portion of the total network traffic rate limit to a particular resource of the resource group, the resource manager initiates one or more configuration changes to allow network transmissions within one or more network links of the provider network accessible from the particular resource at a rate up to the specified portion.
US09032074B2

A method and apparatus for controlling a home network access using phone numbers, and a system thereof, which enables a sharing user to simply set and manage sharing environment based on a telephone number capable of being easily recognized by the sharing user, and enables sharing users to simply access a sharing device inside a home using telephone numbers previously recognized by the sharing users when sharing contents of a UPnP device connected to a home network with the sharing users outside the home. The system includes a phone number management server for managing phone number information and a linked home gateway identifier, an access list management server for managing an access list, a home gateway management server for managing state information and access information of a home gateway, and a service server for receiving a service request from a remoter terminal and processing the received service request.
US09032071B2

An example provides potential solutions for SAS fabrics. The example includes identifying one or more devices directly attached to an entry point switch. The example also includes identifying one or more SAS switches that are not directly attached to the entry point switch. The example further includes receiving a request for SAS fabric information. Additionally, the example includes generating a data model in a format adapted to direct a client to generate a representation of the SAS fabric. The data model includes the one or more devices directly attached to the entry point switch, and the one or more SAS switches that are not directly attached to the entry point switch.
US09032067B2

In one embodiment, a method includes dynamically crawling an event-driven application in a plurality of client-tier environments; for each of the client-tier environments, generating a behavioral model of the event-driven application based on the dynamic crawling; for each of the behavioral models, determining one or more pairwise equivalences with respect to one or more other ones of the behavioral models; and, for each of the client-tier environments, determining one or more differences in an end-user experience of the event-driven application in the client-tier environment with respect to one or more other end-user experiences of the event-driven application in one or more other ones of the client-tier environments.
US09032060B2

A mobile device, such as a smartphone or a laptop, connects to a network based on the available bandwidth (throughput) of the network rather than on signal strength. The device may send a request containing the device's location to a service provider who has data on networks in the device's location and specifically on bandwidth or pipe performance. This data is used to determine which network in the area would be best to connect to. The network may be a network that does not necessarily have the highest signal strength (often shown as bars on a handset device). The service provider can cause the device to transition to the network having the higher bandwidth. It can also direct the user so that blackout areas are avoided using the network data maintained by the provider. The provider uses testers to obtain current bandwidth data of networks.
US09032058B2

Methods, devices, and systems are provided for managing and controlling small footprint devices with a lightweight control protocol, such as SNMP. Relatively small control messages are employed that have a compact command portion included in an object identifier portion, thereby circumventing the need for a separate command portion as well as a data body. Also, methods, devices, and systems for improving the security and privacy of processing SNMP messages on SNMP-managed devices by moving this processing together with the sensitive data that the process employ such a cryptographic keys inside the tamper-resistant and tamper-evident boundary of an integrated circuit card.
US09032057B2

A method of configuring a stack includes: connecting stacking ports of a plurality of stackable devices using one or more stacking links; connecting a user console to a first one of the stackable devices; transmitting a stack setup command from the user console to the first stackable device; and establishing a stack in response to the stack setup command. The stack is established by initiating a discovery process with the first stackable device in response to the stack setup command, wherein the first stackable device requests and receives identifying information from the stackable devices over the stacking links during the discovery process. The topology of the stackable devices is displayed with the user console in response to the identifying information. The stackable devices are authenticated during the discovery process such that the stack setup is secure. The first stackable device becomes the active controller of the stack by default.
US09032042B2

Aggregated data associated with a geographic area may be obtained. The aggregated data may be dynamically distilled to obtain a presentation set of data based on a dynamically changing geographic location associated with the geographic area. A transmission of a stream of personalized audio data that is based on the presentation set of data may be initiated, via a device processor, to a receiving device associated with a user that is associated with the dynamically changing geographic location.
US09032035B2

Apparatus, and an associated method, for alerting a respondent that generates a reply to a received mail message of addressing of the reply message to a non-secure address. A detector detects reception of a received mail message, and a correlator determines whether any of the entries on a distribution list associated with the received mail message is of selected characteristics, i.e., non-secure. If determined to be non-secure, an annunciator generates an annunciation requiring the respondent to elect whether to include the identified address as a recipient of the reply message.
US09032032B2

Architecture for efficiently ensuring that data is stored to the desired destination datastore such as for replication processes. A copy of data (e.g., messages) sent to a datastore for storage is stored at an alternate location until a received signal indicates that the storage and replication was successful. As soon as the feedback signal is received, the copy is removed from the alternate location, and hence, improves input/output (I/O) and storage patterns. The feedback mechanism can also be used for monitoring the status of data transport associated with log shipping, for example, and taking the appropriate actions when storage (e.g., replication) is not being performed properly.
US09032029B2

Some embodiments include a communication hub for presenting audio-visual data from electronic devices. Other embodiments of related systems and methods are disclosed.
US09032026B2

A method for providing, by a remote machine, access to a desk band associated with a resource on a local machine includes receiving, by a first agent on the remote machine, an identification of a desk band associated with a resource on a local machine. The first agent, in communication with a shell on the remote machine, maintains a taskbar window in a remote desktop environment. The taskbar window includes at least one window associated with a resource provided by the remote machine and a window region representing the desk band by using graphical data stored on the remote machine. The first agent transmits, to a second agent on the local machine, window attribute data and output data associated with the taskbar window in the remote desktop environment. The second agent displays at least a portion of the received output data in a local window on a local desktop environment.
US09032017B1

Roughly described, a database query router is installed transparently in a network between database client systems and a database server cluster. One subset of the servers is designated to handle read queries only and a second subset is designated to handle write queries. The query router receives, through a network port, the database queries made by a client system, and directed to the IP address and port assigned to the query router. The query router determines whether the query is a read or a write query, and forwards read queries to servers in the first subset and write queries to servers in the second subset of servers. By installing the query router transparently in the network, no modifications are required to the software in either the client systems or the database servers in order to add query routing functionality to a client/server database environment.
US09032012B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for configurable pacing in messaging systems. In an embodiment of the invention, a configurable message pacing method has been provided. The method includes receiving a message directed for placement in a repository of an intermediate messaging system into which messages are placed by message producing applications and from which messages are retrieved by message consuming applications. Thereafter, it can be determined if the placement of the received message into the repository will result in a breach of an associated threshold value for the repository. Consequently, a message pacing action can be triggered responsive to the determination that the placement of the received message into the repository will result in a breach of the associated threshold value for the repository.
US09032007B2

Distributed processing system and method for discrete logarithm calculation. The speed and resource efficiency of discrete logarithm calculation may be improved by allowing a plurality of operation agents to distributively process an operation of generating a modulo multiplication auxiliary table, an operation of generating a pre-calculation table, and an operation of searching for an answer by applying an iterated function for discrete logarithm calculation in a discrete logarithm calculation operation using the pre-calculation table.
US09032003B2

Method, apparatus, and program means for performing a conversion. In one embodiment, a disclosed apparatus includes a destination storage location corresponding to a first architectural register. A functional unit operates responsive to a control signal, to convert a first packed first format value selected from a set of packed first format values into a plurality of second format values. Each of the first format values has a plurality of sub elements having a first number of bits The second format values have a greater number of bits. The functional unit stores the plurality of second format values into an architectural register.
US09031999B2

A method for generating a concept database respective of a plurality of multimedia data elements (MMDEs) comprises generating a plurality of items from a received MMDE of the plurality of MMDEs; determining the items that are of interest for signature generation; generating at least one signature responsive to at least one item of interest of the received MMDE of the plurality of MMDEs; clustering a plurality of signatures received from the signature generator responsive of the plurality of MMDEs; reducing the number of signatures in each cluster to a create a signature reduced cluster (SRC) of the cluster; associating metadata with the SRC to a concept structure comprised of a plurality of SRCs and their associated metadata; and generating at least one index for mapping the received MMDE to at least one concept structure, wherein the concept database includes concept structures and the generated indices for the plurality of MMDEs.
US09031998B2

A method and system, the method may include generating a change notification in response to a change of at least one attribute associated with at least one node of a host business object (BO); and updating, based on the generated change notification, an analytic enablement object (AEO) class of business object having derived attributes based on the at least one attribute of the host BO and representing transformations of the at least one attribute.
US09031994B1

Techniques for improved partitioning of a database for distribution in a data processing system. In one example, a method comprises the following steps. A database and a workload set associated with the database are analyzed. A hyper-graph is generated based on the analysis of the database and the workload set. The hyper-graph is partitioned into a partitioned hyper-graph. The partitioned hyper-graph is evaluated based on one or more partitioning constraints and/or one or more partitioning effect metrics. The partitioned hyper-graph is repartitioned when warranted by the evaluation step. A mapping is generated based on the partitioned hyper-graph that assigns at least one or more portions of the database to one or more nodes of a data processing system. The analyzing, hyper-graph generating, partitioning, evaluating, repartitioning and mapping generation steps are executed via at least one processor device.
US09031988B2

A system and method for the automatic generation of a website. The website is created upon a user request, where the user provides identification information that is used to search an information database. The information will provide a reference to a code that relates to a template that is used to specify the layout, style and content of the website that is to be generated, and the website is then generated in accordance with the structure of the template, based on content contained in the information database. The user may engage the system and method by means of e-mail or a dedicated website or other such suitable means.
US09031984B2

Multiple computers are connected to a data storage unit that includes a file system, which further includes multiple data entities, including files, directories and the file system itself. The file system also includes, for each data entity, an owner field for indicating which computer, if any, has exclusive or shared access to the data entity, along with a time field for indicating when a lease of the data entity began. When a computer wants to lease a data entity, the computer uses a disk reservation capability to temporarily lock the data storage unit, and, if the data entity is not currently leased, the computer writes its own identification value into the owner field and a current time into the time field for the data entity, to claim the data entity for a renewable lease period. If a prior lease of a data entity has expired, another computer may break the lease and claim ownership for itself.
US09031982B2

A service delivery platform receives a request for a catalogue. The system obtains subscriber-specific multi-media catalogue entries based on profile information stored with the service delivery platform. The system sends the subscriber-specific catalogue entries along with service details of the subscription back to the subscriber.
US09031961B1

A user device presents passages of an electronic publication. The user device tracks a user's access behavior for the passages of the electronic publication. The user device identifies the user's favorite passages of the electronic publication based on the user's access behavior and stores an identification of the user's favorite passages.
US09031957B2

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods, and computer readable media for presenting updates to associated records to publish on an information feed in an on-demand database service environment. In one embodiment, data is received at a computing device configured to provide computing services via a network. The data may be separated into a plurality of data entries to define structured data. Each data entry may have a plurality of data fields. Each data field may be capable of being assigned a respective data value. The structured data may be stored in a database in an on-demand computing services environment. References to the structured data may be capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in a database. The feed items may be capable of being published in an information feed displayed on a display device.
US09031952B2

Methods and apparatuses are provided for user interest modeling. A method may include accessing logged interactive user history data for a user data for a user. The method may additionally include determining at least one user interest topic for the user by utilizing a topic model acting upon at least a portion of the logged interactive user history data and one or more seed documents generated from a topic feature source. Corresponding apparatuses are also provided.
US09031946B1

A processor engine for affecting a website's position on at least one Internet search engine's page ranking comprises at least one processor. The at least one processor is arranged to: load (425) at least one search term into a program (425) running on the at least one processor; load (445) a target list comprising at least one website that is to be promoted; and create (420) an Internet connection. The at least one processor is further arranged to request a search of the at least one search term on the at least one Internet search engine; identify at least one website search hit that matches at least one website on the target list; and access the identified at least one website a plurality of times, affecting the at least one website's position on the Internet search engine's page ranking.
US09031933B2

A semantic query over an RDF database is received with RDF database statistics and access methods for evaluating triple patterns in the query. The semantic query is expressed as a parse tree containing triple patterns and logical relationships among the triple patterns. The parse tree and access methods create a data flow graph containing a plurality of triple pattern and access method pair nodes connected by a plurality of edges, and an optimal flow tree through the data flow graph is determined such that costs are minimized and all triple patterns in the semantic query are contained in the optimal flow tree. A structure independent execution tree defining a sequence of evaluation through the optimal flow tree is created and is transformed into a database structure dependent query plan. This is used to create an SQL query that is used to evaluate the semantic query over the RDF database.
US09031929B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for determining a first count of unique queries, received by a search engine, that are categorized as referring to a particular site; determining a second count of unique queries, received by the search engine, that are associated with the particular site, wherein a query is associated with the particular site when the query is followed by a user selection of a search result that (a) was presented, by the search engine, in response to the query and (b) identifies a resource in the particular site; and determining, based on the first and second counts, a site quality score for the particular site.
US09031925B2

The present description refers to a computer implemented method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving a resource request at an in-memory database platform that includes an application server and an in-memory database, generating a Hadoop connection function call based on the resource request, forwarding the Hadoop connection function call to a function call conversion service, identifying which of a plurality of Hadoop interface services correspond to the Hadoop connection function call, generating a Hadoop interface service function call corresponding to the Hadoop connection function call based one or more parameters included in the Hadoop connection function call, and forwarding the Hadoop interface service function call to the identified Hadoop interface service to initiate processing by a Hadoop cluster.
US09031918B2

A method for providing per-user aggregation of content accessible via a personalized user site may generally include receiving a request for metadata and determining whether the requested metadata is expired. The method may further include returning at least a portion of queried metadata prior to verifying whether the metadata is expired. The method may then include querying a change log for metadata modifications. The method may further include, if metadata has been modified since a previous query, sending a query to a community site for metadata that meets change criteria. The method may also include receiving the changed metadata and returning the changed metadata to a content group container within the personalized user site.
US09031909B2

Techniques are described herein that are capable of provisioning and/or synchronizing a data store using common metadata. For instance, a common instance of metadata may be used in lieu of multiple instances of the metadata that correspond to respective items in the data store for indicating a time at which the data store was provisioned. Each time a change occurs with respect to an item in a data table of the data store after provisioning of the data store, a record may be added or updated in a corresponding tracking table. When a request is made for changes that have occurred with respect to the items in a data table, the common instance of the metadata may be used to generate a record in the corresponding tracking table for each item in the data table that did not change since the data store was provisioned.
US09031905B2

A computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and on which instructions are stored for execution by the processing circuit for, upon receipt of a command relating to a file stored at a remote location, synchronizing the file between the remote location and a local device, determining whether a list of files linked to the file is stored in the local device, and, in an event the list is stored in the local device, synchronizing the files included in the list between the remote location and the local device.
US09031897B2

Techniques for evaluation and/or retraining of a classification model built using labeled training data. In some aspects, a classification model having a first set of weights is retrained by using unlabeled input to reweight the labeled training data to have a second set of weights, and by retraining the classification model using the labeled training data weighted according to the second set of weights. In some aspects, a classification model is evaluated by building a similarity model that represents similarities between unlabeled input and the labeled training data and using the similarity model to evaluate the labeled training data to identify a subset of the plurality of items of labeled training data that is more similar to the unlabeled input than a remainder of the labeled training data.
US09031896B2

An apparatus and method are disclosed for analysing a process. An exemplary method includes: generating a process template; and determining a probabilistic model specifying the process template. The method can include use of task nodes for tasks of the process; observables nodes for observables that may be caused by performance of the tasks; and a background activities node, wherein observables may further be caused by background activities of the background node. The method can include use of task nodes for tasks of the process; observables nodes for observables that may be caused by performance of the tasks; and a background activities node, observables may further be caused by background activities of the background node. The method can include measuring values of an observable corresponding to one of the observables nodes; and updating a probabilistic estimate of the process state using the measured values.
US09031893B2

An input combination of at least one condition value to be evaluated against at least one rule of a decision table is received. The at least one rule includes at least one condition and the rule is associated with a result. The at least one rule is evaluated against the input combination to determine conditions fulfilled for the at least one condition value. In one aspect, a rule from the at least one rule that best matches the input combination is determined and a result associated with the rule that best matches the input combination is outputted.
US09031885B2

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to predicting and using search engine switching behavior. In aspects, switching components receive a representation of user interactions with at least one browser. The switching components derive information from the representation that is useful in predicting whether a user will switch search engines. The derived information and information about a user's current interaction with a browser is then used by a switch predictor to predict whether the user will switch search engines. This prediction may be used in a variety of ways examples of which are given herein.
US09031879B2

A method of generating a digital signature at a postage meter, in which method a postal imprint is printed on a mail item once said mail item has been weighed and once its postage amount has been determined, said postal imprint being associated with a digital signature generated by means of a secret key on the basis of constant data and variable data, said variable data comprising only a fingerprint code extracted upstream of the weighing from a three-dimensional structure of the fibers of the mail item.
US09031876B2

A system administrator, while logged into a system-administrator account, creates and configures a key-administrator account and a member account. A key administrator, while logged into said key-administrator account, creates a group private key, a group public key, and a group symmetric key, a member private key, and a member public key. The key administrator encrypts the group private key with the group symmetric key, and encrypts said group symmetric key with the member public key. A publisher encrypts a document using the group public key. The publisher distributes the resulting encrypted group document so that it is accessible via said member account but not through said key-administrator account.
US09031857B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for customizing digital media marketing messages using biometric data. In one embodiment, data is received from a set of biometric devices associated with a retail facility to form the biometric data. The biometric data is associated with a given customer. The biometric data is processed to form dynamic data. The dynamic data is analyzed using a data model to identify personalize marketing message criteria for the customer. A customized marketing message is generated using the personalized marketing message criteria.
US09031848B2

Methods and apparatus for providing a search interface for an electronic device including a tuner configured to tune the electronic device to receive scheduled programming content. A search query is received and one or more data sources including information about media content are searched based, at least in part, on the search query. The results of the search are presented on a user interface using a time-based axis and a time-independent axis.
US09031846B2

Method and apparatus for a user to access a systems interface to back-end legacy systems using voice inputs. Generally, a user such as a technician accesses a systems interface to legacy systems via a front-end voice server. The user dials-in to the voice server using a portable access device. Preferably, the portable access device is a cellular phone. Preferably, the voice recognition server performs voice authentication, speech recognition, and speech synthesis. The voice server authenticates the user based on a voice exemplar provided by the user. Using speech synthesis, the voice server provides a menu of operations from which the user can select. By speaking into the access device, the user selects an operation and provides any additional data needed for the operation. Using speech recognition, the voice server prepares a user request based on the spoken user input. The user request is forwarded to the systems interface to the legacy systems. Preferably, the systems interface includes a protocol server for providing a protocol interface and a transaction server for receiving user requests and generating legacy transactions based on the user requests. The systems interface retrieves information from the legacy systems based on the user request and forwards this information to the voice server. The voice server formats the information and outputs the information to the access device. Preferably, the outputted information may be synthesized speech and/or text presented on a display of the access device.
US09031845B2

Mobile systems and methods that overcomes the deficiencies of prior art speech-based interfaces for telematics applications through the use of a complete speech-based information query, retrieval, presentation and local or remote command environment. This environment makes significant use of context, prior information, domain knowledge, and user specific profile data to achieve a natural environment for one or more users making queries or commands in multiple domains. Through this integrated approach, a complete speech-based natural language query and response environment can be created. The invention creates, stores and uses extensive personal profile information for each user, thereby improving the reliability of determining the context and presenting the expected results for a particular question or command. The invention may organize domain specific behavior and information into agents, that are distributable or updateable over a wide area network. The invention can be used in dynamic environments such as those of mobile vehicles to control and communicate with both vehicle systems and remote systems and devices.
US09031841B2

A apparatus includes: a storage unit to store a model representing a relationship between a relative time and an occurrence probabilities; a first detection unit to detect first speech period of a first speaker; a second period detection unit to detect second speech period of a second speaker; a unit to calculate a feature value of the first speech period; a detection unit to detect a word using the calculated feature value; an adjustment unit to make an adjustment such that in detecting a word for a reply by the detection unit, the adjustment unit retrieves an occurrence probability corresponding to a relative position of the reply in the second speech period, and adjusts a word score or a detection threshold value for the reply; and a second detection unit to re-detect, using the adjusted word score or the adjusted detection threshold value, the detected word by the detection unit.
US09031840B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving (i) audio data that encodes a spoken natural language query, and (ii) environmental audio data, obtaining a transcription of the spoken natural language query, determining a particular content type associated with one or more keywords in the transcription, providing at least a portion of the environmental audio data to a content recognition engine, and identifying a content item that has been output by the content recognition engine, and that matches the particular content type.
US09031835B2

In a method of improving perceived loudness and sharpness of a reconstructed speech signal delimited by a predetermined bandwidth, performing the steps of providing (S10) the speech signal, and separating (S20) the provided signal into at least a first and a second signal portion. Subsequently, adapting (S30) the first signal portion to emphasize at least a predetermined frequency or frequency interval within the first bandwidth portion. Finally, reconstructing (S40) the second signal portion based on at least the first signal portion, and combining (S50) the adapted first signal portion and the reconstructed second signal portion to provide a reconstructed speech signal with an overall improved perceived loudness and sharpness.
US09031833B2

Provided is a communication apparatus for direct communication between networks of different types. The communication apparatus includes a transmission data selector determining whether or not data input from a first communication network is speech data, a data processor digitizing and packetizing the data transferred from the transmission data selector, and a modem for converting the digitized and packetized data into analog data and then directly transmitting the analog data to a second communication network different from the first communication network through a speech channel.
US09031821B2

A production simulator (2), for simulating a mature hydrocarbon field, providing quantity produced (Qφktb) per phase, per well, per layer (or group of layers) and per time as a function of production parameters (PP), wherein the production simulator (2) matches history data (HD) of the mature hydrocarbon field and verifies a Vapnik condition.
US09031815B2

A method detects a “misfire” condition in an internal-combustion engine including a control unit, a driving shaft and phonic wheel that is splined to the shaft and coupled to a sensor. The method comprises steps of: detecting intensity of a signal generated by passage of teeth of the wheel by the sensor, sampling the signal generated by the passage of the teeth, processing the sampled signal by applying a discrete Fourier transform, representing the sampled signal processed by a virtual phasor that represents in a vector form the signal that has been sampled and processed, determining a corresponding theoretical phasor for the virtual phasor that represents theoretical evolution of the signal that has been sampled and processed over time, comparing the theoretical phasor with the virtual phasor, and determining presence of a “misfire” condition by comparing the theoretical phasor with the virtual phasor that represents the signal that has been sampled and processed.
US09031810B2

A system and method for enhanced and expanded localized geometry characterization. Objects of interest are enhanced, detected, and classified according to user-defined parameters, and this enables enhanced contrast and more accurate feature detection, as well as more accurately defined feature object regions for feature geometry measurement and characterization.
US09031804B2

In a method for determining measured values from a time-dependent graph of specified values, a measurement is carried out using a measuring device, and a point in time (TM) that is associated with this measurement is determined. Furthermore, the measured value (yE) is determined by using at least two value pairs (t1, y1; t2, y2) on the time-dependent graph, each value pair (t1, y1; t2, y2) being composed of a point in time (t1; t2) and a value (y1; y2) that is associated with this point in time (t1; t2). The measured value (yE) is determined based on a corrected point in time (TK) which is determined by correcting the point in time (TM) that is associated with the measurement by using a correction term that accounts for a dead time (TT) of the measuring device.
US09031798B2

The present disclosure relates generally to computational solution algorithms (and associated systems and methods) applied to a stochastic unit commitment problem. In one example, the computational solution algorithms (and associated systems and methods) may be applied to the energy industry.
US09031796B2

A continuous flow structural health monitoring system for detecting a crack in a component or structure comprises a pressure source, a fluidic circuit and a measurement system. The pressure source supplies fluid at a regulated pressure relative to ambient pressure. The fluidic circuit couples at one end to the pressure source and opens at an opposite end to ambient pressure. The pressure source produces a substantially constant and continuous flow of fluid through the fluidic circuit. The fluidic circuit has a first passage having a first surface portion of the component or structure. The measurement system monitors perturbations in the flow of fluid through the first passage to provide an indication of structural health of the component or structure.
US09031792B2

A system and device are provided which include a gene regulatory system controlling expression of one or more expression cassettes present in or released by the device, by emitting one or more stimulations. An expression cassette includes a regulatable transcription control element that is responsive to the emitted stimulations linked to an open reading frame of interest. The system optionally includes a sensor to sense a parameter indicative of a need, a telemetry module to receive an external command, or a programmable device, for regulating gene expression of the open reading frame.
US09031784B2

According to navigation systems and methods, when a detected current position has deviated from a guidance route, a navigation device transmits a reroute calculation condition to an information distribution center including the current position and the destination. Based on the reroute calculation condition, the information distribution center determines whether a distance from the current position to a closest adjacent link is equal to or shorter than a predetermined distance. When the distance from the current position to the closest adjacent link is longer than the predetermined distance, the information distribution center distributes to the navigation device reroute prohibition information including information regarding the adjacent link and a maximum waiting time. The maximum waiting time is a time that must elapse before the navigation device can again transmit the reroute calculation condition.
US09031780B2

When an exit road from a rotary is a road inside of the rotary, a right/left turn branch display is performed instead of performing a rotary guidance display. Thus, a driver is enabled to correctly recognize the exit road which advances inward of the rotary.
US09031776B2

A vehicle intersection monitoring method includes exchanging host vehicle information and remote vehicle information between a host vehicle and a remote vehicle, with the host vehicle information including information pertaining to a host vehicle location, a host vehicle heading and a host vehicle intended next maneuver and the remote vehicle information including information pertaining to a remote vehicle location, a remote vehicle heading and a remote vehicle intended next maneuver. The method further includes identifying a road intersection relating to the host vehicle heading and the remote vehicle heading, selecting an intersection scenario from a plurality of intersection scenarios based on the host vehicle information and the remote vehicle information, and monitoring, by operation of a processor, a location relationship between the host vehicle and the remote vehicle according to an algorithm that is determined based on the selected intersection scenario.
US09031775B2

In certain embodiments, an apparatus comprises an input and one or more processors. The input receives known locations of wireless mobile nodes over a wireless link. The one or more processors determine geometric features associated with the locations, and calculate an apparatus location of the apparatus from the known locations and the geometric features.
US09031774B2

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for predicting a moving direction of another vehicle running on a carriageway adjacent to a user's vehicle using periodically acquired image information around the user's vehicle, and performing a control process of preventing collision of the user's vehicle when a moving direction of the user's vehicle crosses the moving direction of the other vehicle.
US09031773B2

An apparatus for detecting a narrow road in front of a vehicle includes: a narrow road determination processor configured to generate circular arcs passing between obstacles, select a circular arc closest to the middle of the obstacles among the generated circular arcs, and generate an offset curve which is a circular arc having the same central point as the selected circular arc and contacting a corresponding obstacle at left/right sides of the selected circular arc, based on driving information and specification information of the vehicle, and then to determine that a road is a narrow road when a width between the two offset curves does not exceed a threshold value.
US09031770B2

A display device for a vehicle is provided in a vehicle having idling stop function and includes: a fuel economy display unit to display fuel economy information on the vehicle; an first fuel economy display unit to calculate a first fuel economy based on a distance traveled and fuel consumption in a first period; and a second fuel economy calculation unit to calculate an second fuel economy based on a distance traveled and fuel consumption in a second period shorter than the first period. The device also includes a display control unit to control display of the fuel economy display unit based on a fuel economy difference between the first and second fuel economies. When the second fuel economy reaches a reference value before performing idling stop, the fuel economy display control unit controls the fuel economy display unit based on the last fuel economy difference without updating the difference.
US09031766B2

A method for controlling the operation of an engine of a vehicle is disclosed in which a torque request signal supplied to control the supply of torque from the engine is adaptively modified based upon a desired maximum acceleration limit for the currently engaged gear and variations in the sum of forces resisting motion of the vehicle.
US09031763B2

A system and attendant structural assembly operative to establish a coordinated mixture of gaseous and distillate fuels for an engine including an electronic control unit (ECU) operative to monitor predetermined engine data determinative of engine fuel requirements and structured to regulate ratios of the gaseous and distillate fuel of an operative fuel mixture for the engine. The system and assembly includes at least one mixing assembly comprising an integrated throttle body and air gas mixer directly connected to one another, wherein the throttle body is disposed in fluid communication with a pressurized gaseous fuel supply and the air gas mixer is disposed in fluid communication with a flow of intake air to a combustion section of the engine. In use, the throttle body is structured to direct a variable gaseous fuel flow directly to the air gas mixer for dispensing into the intake air flow to the combustion section.
US09031750B2

When an extension pattern selection device is activated, a normal mode is displayed on a screen of a monitor. An operator presses a manual mode switch key of an operation unit to switch the display mode of the screen from the normal mode to an extension pattern manual rearrangement mode. In the extension pattern manual rearrangement mode, the operator rearranges extension patterns so that frequently selected extension patterns P may be displayed at upper positions. Thus, the frequently selected extension patterns P are more preferentially displayed than the other extension patterns P.
US09031745B2

A system for correcting steering wheel angle errors of a motor vehicle of the present disclosure may include a steering wheel angle sensor, an actuator angle sensor, and at least one of a wheel speed sensor and a lateral acceleration sensor. The system may further include a controller configured to receive signals from the steering wheel angle sensor, actuator angle sensor, and at least one of the wheel speed sensor and lateral acceleration sensor. The controller may be configured to calculate a correction angle based on the signals, and adjust a steering wheel angle of a steering wheel, as observed by a driver of the motor vehicle, based on the correction angle.
US09031740B2

The present invention relates to a vehicle control device that is communicably connected to other control devices so that controller area network (CAN) communication can be performed through a communication bus and a diagnostic method thereof. The vehicle control device includes a CAN data transmission unit that can generate and transmit CAN data, a transmission stop unit that stops transmission of the CAN data transmitted from the CAN data transmission unit to the communication bus when a transmission stop signal is inputted, an abnormality detection unit that outputs the transmission stop signal to the transmission stop unit when detecting an abnormality in the vehicle control device, and a diagnostic unit that causes the abnormality detection unit to output the transmission stop signal regardless of the detection of abnormality, causes the CAN data transmission unit to transmit the CAN data, and diagnoses a transmission stop function that stops the transmission of the CAN data to the communication bus on the basis of a result of comparison between the transmitted CAN data and data on the communication bus.
US09031734B2

A method for managing an airplane fleet is described. The method includes: (i) developing a gold body database for an airplane model for each non-destructive inspection system implemented to detect defects; (ii) inspecting, over a period of time, a plurality of candidate airplanes of the airplane model, using different types of non-destructive inspection systems and the gold body database associated with each of the different types of non-destructive inspection systems, to identify defects present on the plurality of candidate airplanes; (iii) repairing or monitoring defects detected on the plurality of candidate airplanes; (iv) conducting a trend analysis by analyzing collective defect data obtained from inspecting of plurality of candidate airplanes; and (v) maintaining the airplane fleet, which includes plurality of candidate airplanes, by performing predictive analysis using results of trend analysis.
US09031726B2

A method and a device are provided for operating a pre-lubrication system for an internal combustion engine of a hybrid electrical vehicle after vehicle start up, wherein the hybrid electrical vehicle also comprises. The electric engine is turned on at vehicle start up and the internal combustion engine is turned on at vehicle start up or after a period of time after vehicle start up. The pre-lubrication system comprises an engine control function for controlling the internal combustion engine, monitoring the torque requested by a driver and storing information regarding when the driver requests torque equal to or higher than a predetermined torque threshold. The cranking operation of the internal combustion engine, in order to build up oil pressure and fill the oil circuit with oil, is initiated based on the stored information or when the electrical hybrid vehicle reaches a predetermined vehicle speed threshold.
US09031707B2

An energy management system in a smart grid environment includes: an electrical power producing apparatus for collecting and analyzing real time price information and electrical power production environment information inputted through a communication network interface to thereby determine a control of an electrical power production; a micro grid, connected to the electrical power producing apparatus, for supplying an electrical power in a local micro grid environment; an electrical power grid, connected to the micro grid, for supplying a main power; and an energy routing service apparatus for transmitting an electrical power and processing an energy information packet for a control of an electrical power flow.
US09031704B2

In a charging process of a shaft furnace, in particular of a blast furnace, batches of charge material are typically discharged in cyclical sequence into the furnace from a top hopper using a flow control valve. A method and system is proposed for adjusting the flow rate of charge material in such a process. Pre-determined valve characteristics for certain types of material are provided, each indicating the relation between flow rate and valve setting for one type of material. According to the invention, a specific valve characteristic is stored for each batch of charge material, each specific valve characteristic being bijectively associated to one batch and indicating the relation between flow rate and valve setting of the flow control valve specifically for the associated batch. In relation to discharging a given batch of the sequence the invention proposes: using the stored specific valve characteristic associated to the given batch for determining a requested valve setting corresponding to a flow rate setpoint and using the requested valve setting to operate the flow control valve; determining an actual average flow rate for the discharge of the given batch; correcting the stored specific valve characteristic associated to the given batch in case of a stipulated deviation between the flow rate setpoint and the actual average flow rate.
US09031699B2

A predictor usable for rapid and accurate calculation of joint commands of an articulated mechanism describes relationship between the joints in the form of a differential equation. The predictor solves this differential equation by direct substitution of a power series for each of its variables and the combining of selected sets of coefficients of these power series into linear systems of equations which may be solved to determine power series coefficients to arbitrary order.
US09031694B2

An entry detection device includes first light marks and second light marks. A control signal corresponding to a part of the first light marks is an error detection code of the control signal corresponding to the other part of the first light marks. A first inspection value is generated based on a first part of a light receiving signal corresponding to the other part of the first light marks. A second inspection value is generated based on a reverse bit string of a third part of the light receiving signal corresponding to a part of the second light mark paired with the other part of the first light marks. An entry is detected based on the first inspection value and the second inspection value.
US09031674B2

A method of optimizing production of wells using choke control includes generating, for each well, an intermediate solution to optimize the production of each well. The generating includes using an offline model that includes a mixed-integer nonlinear program solver and includes using production curves based on a choke state and a given wellhead pressure. The method further includes calculating, using a network model and the intermediate solution of each well, a current online wellhead pressure for each well. The method further includes setting the intermediate solution as a final solution based on determining that a difference between the current online wellhead pressure of each well and a prior online wellhead pressure of each well is less than a tolerance amount. The method further includes adjusting, using the final solution of each well, at least one operating parameter of the wells.
US09031669B2

Various implantable medical device embodiments stimulate an autonomic neural target from within a pulmonary artery, and comprise at least one electrode, a power supply, a neural stimulator connected to the power supply, and an anchor structure. The neural stimulator is configured to generate a neural stimulation signal for delivery to the neural stimulation target through the at least one electrode. The anchor structure is configured to chronically and securely implant the neural stimulator, the power supply and the at least one electrode within the pulmonary artery. The anchor structure, the neural stimulator, the power supply and the at least one electrode are configured to be implanted through a pulmonary valve into the pulmonary artery. In various embodiments, the neural stimulator is configured to be operational to implement a neural stimulation protocol when chronically implanted within the pulmonary artery without a wired connection through the pulmonary valve.
US09031668B2

Disclosed is a device positioner for guiding and positioning energy delivery devices during a surgical procedure. The energy delivery device positioner includes a body, a plurality of legs coupled to the body and a plurality of ribs connected to the body. The body includes a body facing surface and a plurality of device positioner apertures defined therein. The device positioner apertures are configured to receive an energy delivery device therethrough. The plurality of legs includes at least one foot extending beyond the patient facing surface of the body with the distal end of the foot configured to contact patient tissue and elevate the patient facing surface of the body such that the patient facing surface is spaced away from patient tissue. The plurality of ribs form one or more air flow aperture.
US09031664B2

The present disclosure provides a medical device that includes a neurostimulator. The neurostimulator includes one or more channels. Each channel includes a digitally-controlled switch coupled to a voltage source. The switch is in one of an “on” state and an “off” state in response to a first control signal. Each channel also includes a digitally-controlled current sink coupled to the switch. The current sink is coupled between the switch and the voltage source. The current sink draws a variable amount of electrical current in response to a second control signal. Each channel further includes a conductor coupled to the switch and the current sink. The conductor is configured to be coupled to an electrode that is operable to deliver the electrical current drawn by the current sink to a target tissue area.
US09031653B2

A unit configured for implantation in a subject's body may include a carrier, an implantable circuit associated with the carrier, an antenna arranged on the carrier and configured to wirelessly receive energy from a location external to the subject's body and to provide at least a portion of the energy to the implantable circuit, and at least one component associated with the carrier for receiving energy from the implantable circuit. Wherein the implantable circuit and the antenna have an internal resonant frequency mismatched from an external resonant frequency of an external circuit, to account for resonance frequency variation as a result of implantation in the subject's body.
US09031651B2

In an example, a system includes a cardiac pulse generator configured to generate cardiac paces to pace the heart, a sensor configured to sense a physiological signal for use in detecting pace-induced phrenic nerve stimulation where the pace-induced phrenic nerve stimulation is phrenic nerve stimulation induced by electrical cardiac pace signals, and a phrenic nerve stimulation detector configured to analyze the sensed physiological signal to detect PS beats where the PS beats are cardiac paces that induce phrenic nerve stimulation. The detector may be configured to correlate signal data for sensed beat signals to a PS template to detect PS beats, or may be configured to analyze morphological features of sensed beat signals to detect PS beats, or may be configured to detect PS beats using a combination that both correlates signal data for sensed beat signals to a PS template and analyzes morphological features of sensed beat signals.
US09031650B2

Various aspects of the present subject matter relate to a method. According to various method embodiments, cardiac activity is detected, and neural stimulation is synchronized with a reference event in the detected cardiac activity. Neural stimulation is titrated based on a detected response to the neural stimulation. Other aspects and embodiments are provided herein.
US09031634B2

A new and improved method for tracking and/or spatial localization of an invasive device in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is provided. The invention includes providing an invasive device including a marker having a chemically shifted signal source with a resonant frequency different from the chemical species of the subject to be imaged, applying a pulse sequence, detecting the resulting RF magnetic resonance signals, and determining the 3D coordinates of the marker. The invention also includes generating scan planes and reconstructing an image from the detected signals to generate an image having the marker contrasted from the subject. The invasive device includes a marker having a chemically shifted signal source which has a resonant frequency different from the chemical species of the subject to be imaged for use in tracking the device during imaging.
US09031632B2

A method for detecting a virus in a patient based on imaging data includes scanning a region of interest of the patient with an imaging device and generating imaging data indicative of the region of interest, identifying at least one marker in the image data that corresponds to the virus based on the identified at least one marker and a set of predetermined imageable markers that correspond to the virus, classifying the virus as a particular strain of the virus based on a set of classification rules, and generating a signal indicative of the particular strain. The method optionally includes generating a signal indicative of the classification and electronically conveying the signal to at least one entity.
US09031629B2

The present invention provides a non-contact photoplethysmographic (PPG) pulse measurement device, and oxygen saturation and blood pressure measurement devices using the PPG pulse measurement device. The PPG pulse measurement device includes a sensing unit including at least two light emitting units for emitting light into a human body without making direct contact with skin, and a light receiving unit for sensing reflected light. A signal separation unit separates output of the sensing unit into a ripple component and a ripple-free component. A microprocessor unit monitors the ripple-free component and compares the ripple-free component with a DC signal value. A luminance adjustment unit adjusts luminance of the light emitting units. A filter and amplification unit eliminates noise from the ripple component. An A/D conversion unit converts output of the filter and amplification unit into a digital signal. A signal transmission unit transmits output of the A/D conversion unit.
US09031622B2

An electronic device includes a housing defining a receiving space framed by a plurality of side walls with an opening defined on a top surface of the housing. A cover is movable relative to the top surface. A connecting mechanism connects the housing with the cover. The connecting mechanism includes a transmission apparatus received in the housing and is exposed out of the housing via the opening, engaging with the cover, a moveable position apparatus is assembled with the transmission apparatus moving along the transmission apparatus, a latching apparatus is arranged on one side wall of the housing to latch the position apparatus. When the cover is moved to a first side of the housing, the position apparatus latches the latching apparatus. When the latching apparatus is released from the position apparatus, the cover slides to a second side opposite to the first side of the housing automatically.
US09031606B2

A method and system is provided to control a mobile device. The method includes initially determining whether 4G network service is available. The network switch is set to a 4G baseband processor upon determining that 4G network service is available. The 4G network connection is monitored to determine whether a fault occurs. If so, the 4G baseband processor is reset. However, if 4G network service is not available, whether 3G network service is available is determined. If so, the network switch is set to a 3G baseband processor. When in 3G mode, the 3G network connection is monitored to determine whether a fault occurs. If so, whether a 4G network service is available is determined. Even if there is no fault with the 3G network, the mobile device switches to use the 4G network when the 4G network becomes available.
US09031603B1

The communication device comprising a voice communication implementer, a digital mirror implementer, a non-digital mirror implementer, a remote controlling implementer, an audiovisual communication implementer, and an incoming communication ID implementer.
US09031599B2

A method of operating base station includes determining a first transmit power of a user equipment (UE), which includes determining a serving base station receive power, determining a path loss of the UE to the base station, determining a downlink signal to noise and interference ratio (SNIR) at the UE, and forming the first UE transmit power. Forming the first UE transmit power comprises summing the serving base station receive power, the path loss of the UE to the base station and the downlink SNIR. The method further includes instructing the UE to transmit at the first UE transmit power.
US09031580B2

A method of and system for estimating temporal demographics of mobile users is disclosed. A method of estimating demographic information associated with a selected geographical area includes, for at least one individual, determining a selected geographical area along a portion of a track of travel of the individual and determining demographic information associated with the at least one individual. The method also includes estimating a ratio of individuals transiting into the area versus individuals that are residents of the area and estimating demographic information associated with the area based on the estimated ratio and based on demographic information associated with the at least one individual.
US09031579B2

A computer-implemented method including executing instructions stored on a computer-readable medium is provided. The method includes receiving a request for location services from a user, the request including one or more request parameters. The method also includes formatting the request as a single uniform resource locator (URL) string including the one or more request parameters and transmitting the formatted request to a first of a plurality of geolocation service providers. The method also includes receiving from the first of a plurality of geolocation service providers one or more geographic coordinates related to the request and the one or more request parameters. The method includes outputting the one or more geographic coordinates to the user.
US09031578B2

The present invention is directed to systems and methods for generating information regarding demographic composition of a location using mobile devices associated with individuals at the location. A method of the present invention comprises receiving information indicating presence of one or more mobile devices associated with one or more individuals at a given location and identifying one or more attributes of the individuals. Information regarding demographic composition of the location is generated through use of the one or more attributes of the one or more individuals with which the one or more mobile devices are associated, wherein the one or more attributes may comprise one or more of age, relationship status, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, race, hobbies, occupation or religion.
US09031571B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for improved coverage verification schemes in a wireless sensor network that do not require information about the location of sensor nodes in the wireless sensor network. Coverage holes are detected by a first node in a wireless sensor network by obtaining an estimate of a distance to each of a plurality of additional nodes in a transmission radius of the first node; determining a relative location of each of the plurality of additional nodes in the coordinate system of the first node; identifying border segments of a sensing border of the first node, where each of the border segments comprises a section of a sensing border of the first node that is covered by a sensing radius of at least one of the additional nodes; and determining if a coverage hole exists for the first node by determining if a plurality of the border segments comprise a cyclic segment sequence. The coordinate system comprises r-map coordinates of the first node and the additional nodes, where r is based on a transmission radius of the first node.
US09031565B2

The present invention discloses a static mesh network in or for a cabin of a vehicle, in particular an aircraft, the cabin having a predetermined, known cabin layout, comprising at least three different network levels which are arranged hierarchically in relation to one another, respectively adjacent network levels in the hierarchy being in wireless communicative connection with one another, and comprising a plurality of network nodes which operate mutually independently and of which the position in the cabin layout is fixedly predetermined by the configuration of a respective network node, the network nodes within a respective network level having an equal logic. The present invention furthermore discloses an aircraft and a method for data communication using such a network in an aircraft.
US09031564B2

An indication of the speed of movement of a UE in a radio communications system is received (801) at a network node of the radio communications system. The parameters of the radio communications system are then analyzed (803) using the speed of movement indication. The system parameters are then adjusted (805) using the analysis.
US09031560B2

A method includes sending a message from a first base station to another entity in a radio network. The message includes one or more indications one or more conditions have been met. The one or more conditions include one or both of: a duration the user equipment is connected to a first cell served by the first base station, prior to handover from the first cell to a second cell served by a second base station, is less than a threshold; or the signal strength of the second cell as measured by the user equipment and reported to the first base station is better than a signal strength of the first cell for a threshold duration of time. The entity may receive the message, e.g., and use the message to determine whether to effect changes to the radio network. Apparatus, program products, and software are also disclosed.
US09031554B2

The present invention relates to a method for managing cell informations received from neighbor cells for MDT (Minimization of Drive Text) in the 3GPP system and terminal for performing the method, the terminal including a transceiver which receives cell informations transmitted by at least one neighbor base station; a controller which checks at least one cell information for generating location prediction information to check current location of the terminal among the cell informations received by the transceiver; and a memory which stores the at least one cell information for generating the location prediction information as Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) measurement sample for reporting radio environment under the control of the controller. The terminal is capable of logging the neighbor cell measurement information efficiently depending on whether the terminal logs RF fingerprint information in the idle mode.
US09031552B2

A method for testing at least one of an inbound or an outbound roaming functionality of a first public land mobile network and a second public land mobile network includes: assigning a first Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN) as a testing number in the first public land mobile network; triggering a simulated initiation of the first MSISDN in the second public land mobile network; assigning a second MSISDN as a testing number in the first public land mobile network; activating Call Forwarding on Not Reachable (CFNRc) functionality on the first MSISDN with forwarding to the second MSISDN; forwarding a Provide Roaming Number (PRN) request for the first MSISDN to a Visitor Location Register (VLR) of the second public land mobile network; and receiving a Mobile Station Roaming Number (MSRN) from the VLR of the second public land mobile network.
US09031548B2

A method for obtaining a configuration profile, including obtaining test results for customer-tested configuration profiles, including operable configuration profiles, from customer mobile devices. A shared data repository is populated with the test results and the customer-tested configuration profiles. The customer-tested configuration profiles are related to customer mobile device profiles of the customer mobile devices. A target mobile device profile, describing mobile device properties, is received from a target mobile device. A subset of the customer mobile device profiles having a threshold degree of similarity to the target mobile device profile are selected from the shared data repository. For each of the operable configuration profiles in the subset, a probability of compatibility is calculated, and the operable configuration profiles in the subset are tested on the target mobile device in an order defined by the probability of compatibility. The shared data repository is updated with the modified test result.
US09031522B2

The present disclosure relates to envelope power supply calibration of a multi-mode RF power amplifier (PA) to ensure adequate headroom when operating using one of multiple communications modes. The communications modes may include multiple modulation modes, a half-duplex mode, a full-duplex mode, or any combination thereof. As such, each communications mode may have specific peak-to-average power and linearity requirements for the multi-mode RF PA. As a result, each communications mode may have corresponding envelope power supply headroom requirements. The calibration may include determining a saturation operating constraint based on calibration data obtained during saturated operation of the multi-mode RF PA. During operation of the multi-mode RF PA, the envelope power supply may be restricted to provide a minimum allowable magnitude based on an RF signal level of the multi-mode RF PA, the communications mode, and the saturation operating constraint to provide adequate headroom.
US09031521B2

A power amplifier system includes an input operable to receive an original value that reflects information to be communicated and an address data former operable to generate a digital lookup table key. The power amplifier system also includes a predistortion lookup table coupled to the address data former and a power amplifier having an output and coupled to the predistortion lookup table. The power amplifier system further includes a feedback loop providing a signal associated with the output of the power amplifier to the predistortion lookup table and a switch disposed in the feedback loop and operable to disconnect the predistortion lookup table from the output of the power amplifier.
US09031518B2

A concurrent hybrid matching network is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes a phase shifting coupler having a first terminal connected to an antenna, a second terminal connected to a receive signal path, and third terminal connected to a transmit signal path. The apparatus also includes at least one switch to configured to enable one of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path to communicate with the antenna.
US09031515B2

A transceiver includes a local oscillation module, a transmitter section, and a receiver section. The local oscillation module is operable to generate a transmit local oscillation and a receive oscillation. The transmitter section includes a transmit mixing module and a transmit weaved connection that is operable to high frequency filter the transmit location oscillation. The transmit mixing module mixes the filtered transmit location oscillation with a transmit signal to produce an up-converted signal. The receiver section includes a receive mixing module and a receive weaved connection that is operable to high frequency filter the receive location oscillation. The receive mixing module mixes the filtered receive location oscillation with an RF received signal to produce a down-converted signal.
US09031512B2

In a mobile communication network, technologies are provided for determining power consumption of a communication site. An OSS system receives power consumption information of one or more devices and traffic volume information from a communication site. Then, the OSS determines power consumption of one or more virtue devices of the communication site, which are listed on a pre-configured device list according to power of the virtue devices, traffic volume information of the communication site, or both, wherein the a virtue device is not capable of monitoring power consumption, reporting power consumption, or both. Then the OSS determines power consumption of the communication site according to the power consumption information of the one or more devices received from the communication site and the power consumption of the virtual device in the communication site.
US09031511B2

Methods and systems having improved capabilities are described for providing communications to a plurality of cellular mobile devices through generating m different sets of fixed position patterns of N RF beams across four contiguous one-millisecond LTE sub-frames from an agile beam forming antenna system of a cellular LTE base transceiver station. The cellular LTE base transceiver station is in RF frequency division duplexing (FDD) communication with the plurality of cellular mobile devices within a cell coverage area of the cellular LTE base transceiver station. Each RF beam illuminates a non-contiguous sub-area of the cell coverage area. A number m sets of RF beam patterns illuminate the area of the cell coverage area, wherein 1≦m≦4.
US09031509B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method for analyzing a wide frequency band with respect to signal power levels in specified narrow frequency bands, detecting narrow band signal power levels received in the specified narrow frequency bands, determining an average composite wideband power level from the narrow band signal power levels, and determining an adaptive threshold from the narrow band signal power levels for detecting narrow band interferers in the wide frequency band. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09031498B1

A processor-implemented method is provided. The method comprises a communications control device installed in a motor vehicle receiving a wireless communication from a short range wireless device. The method also comprises the communications control device selecting a first radio from a plurality of radios available to transmit the wireless communication to the destination specified in the wireless communication, wherein the radios are components of the communications control device. The method also comprises the communications control device determining that a second radio is connected to a physical expansion slot, wherein the physical expansion slot is a component of the communications control device. The method also comprises the communications control device selecting the second radio for transmission of the wireless communication based on applying at least one decision criterion to the first radio and the second radio and the device transmitting the wireless communication to the specified destination using the second radio.
US09031490B2

As a typical configuration of a cleaning device and an image forming apparatus according to the invention, the cleaning device includes a cleaning blade which cleans an image bearing member, a plurality of compression coil springs which apply a force from the cleaning blade to the image bearing member, and a plurality of bosses provided to fix the plurality of compression coil springs to a frame. The particular boss that attaches to one of the compression coil springs is selectable from the plurality of bosses, which are disposed at different positions. As a result, the abutting pressure of the cleaning blade to the image bearing member is adjustable by changing the boss to which a particular compression spring is attached.
US09031487B2

A fixing device includes a heating member pressed by a pressing member to form a nip part, an excitation coil generating a magnetic flux induction-heating the heating member, a magnetic core and a magnetism shielding member. The magnetic core is located opposite to the heating member across the excitation coil and provides a magnetic path passing through the excitation coil and heating member. The magnetism shielding member partially shields the magnetic path and includes a rotatable belt member allowing the magnetic flux to pass through, and a magnetism shielding layer arranged on a surface of the belt member. In the magnetism shielding layer, gap parts extending in a width direction of the belt member are arranged along a circumference direction of the belt member. When the magnetism shielding member is located to shield the magnetic path, inner wall faces of the gap part are brought into contact with each other.
US09031484B2

Certain embodiments provide a fuser including a cylindrical fixing belt, a heating unit configured to heat the fixing belt, a pressurized section, a first nip forming section, a second nip forming section, and a moving mechanism. The pressurized section is arranged in contact with the fixing belt. The first nip forming section is fixed in a position where the first nip forming section presses the fixing belt against the pressurized section. The second nip forming section is configured to be movable between a position where the second nip forming section can press the fixing belt against the pressurized section and a position where the second nip forming section is separated from the fixing belt. The moving mechanism moves the second nip forming section.
US09031479B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a belt position detection unit to detect a position of a transfer belt in a rotating shaft direction of a driving roller, and a roller driving unit to tilt a steering roller to control the position of the transfer belt in the rotating shaft direction of the driving roller. In addition, a storage unit stores a reference position of the steering roller and a reference position of the transfer belt, and a control unit controls a formation position of the latent image, in a rotation axis direction of each photosensitive member, formed on each of a plurality of photosensitive members by the image forming unit based on a position of the transfer belt, in the rotating shaft direction of the driving roller, with respect to a detected reference position of the transfer belt and a tilt amount of the steering roller controlled by the roller driving unit with respect to the reference position of the steering roller.
US09031477B2

A toner case includes a case body, a cover, and a conveying member. The cover covers the outer surface of a wall at an end of the case body. The conveying member, including a first attaching assembly, a second attaching assembly and a linking assembly, is rotatably attached to the case body and feeds toner. The first attaching assembly is rotatably attached to the wall. The second attaching assembly is rotatably attached to a wall at the other end of the case body. One end and the other end of the linking assembly are respectively linked to the first attaching assembly and second attaching assembly. One end is slidable in the longitudinal direction of the conveying member. The linking assembly rotates together with the first and second attaching assemblies. The first attaching assembly engages the cover's inner surface, preventing the first attaching assembly from coming off the one-end wall.
US09031475B2

An object is to smoothly convey toner from a developer containing chamber to a developing chamber even when an opening that provides communication between the developer containing chamber and the developing chamber has a connecting part for adding strength to the apparatus. A sheet member that conveys a developer from an opening to the outside of a developer containing chamber has an entering portion that is formed by a first slit extending from a free end of the sheet member and positioned to cross a connecting part as viewed in a direction orthogonal to a longitudinal direction of a shaft member. The entering portion is configured to enter the outside of the developer containing chamber from the inside of the developer containing chamber. The entering portion overlaps in position with the connecting part as viewed in the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the shaft member.
US09031474B2

A powder feeding device includes a powder container, a feeding tank in communication with the powder container, a negative pressure room in communication with the feeding tank via a suction port communicating tube; an air suction device in communication with the negative pressure room via a negative pressure room communication tube; a suction port opening and closing unit that opens and closes the suction port communicating tube; a negative pressure room opening and closing unit that opens and closes of the negative pressure room communication tube; an output port opening and closing unit that opens and closes an output port of the feeding tank; and a controller that performs negative pressure generation control, powder supply control, and powder discharge control. Further, the controller simultaneously starts the negative pressure generation control and the powder discharge control.
US09031471B2

A development device having a development portion with a developer spout, to develop a latent image formed on an image carrier with developer including toner and carrier particles. The development unit also includes a circulation unit to convey developer collected from the development portion to the developer spout, a developer container, provided in the circulation unit, to contain the developer at a position upstream from the development portion in a developer circular direction, the developer container having a cylindrical upper portion and a funnel-shaped lower portion continuous with the cylindrical upper portion through a joint so that a level of the developer contained in the developer container at rest is positioned near the joint between the cylindrical upper portion and the funnel-shaped lower portion. An agitator is provided inside the developer container, to agitate and mix the collected developer and fresh toner supplied to the developer container.
US09031460B2

In an image forming apparatus, a drum supporting member integrally supports a plurality of photosensitive drums. A moving member detachably supports the drum support member. The moving member moves between a mounted position, in which the moving member is mounted in a main body of the image forming apparatus, and a pulled-out position, in which the moving member is pulled out of the main body of the image forming apparatus. A belt is disposed above the moving member and is capable of contacting with the plurality of photosensitive drums when the moving member is disposed in the mounted position. The drum supporting member is detached upward from the moving member when the moving member is in the pulled-out position. The drum supporting member rotatably supports each of the photosensitive drums.
US09031453B2

The present invention provides a retainer device capable of preventing a unit such as a transfer device from dropping when detached from an image forming apparatus. The retainer device includes a transfer device detachably attached to the image forming apparatus; a guide member to supportably guide the transfer device with respect to the image forming apparatus when the transfer device is detached from the image forming apparatus; and a stopper, disposed on the guide member, configured to contact the transfer device when the transfer device is moving in a direction separating from the image forming apparatus and stop the transfer device from dropping from the image forming apparatus. The guide member is switchable between a separation regulating state and a guidable state so that the transfer device is prevented from dropping when detached from the image forming apparatus.
US09031450B2

A toner collection unit, which can be included in an image forming apparatus, includes a collected toner container having an opening and storing collected toner, a flexible seal sealing the opening of the collected toner container, having a shape of a recess in an initial condition before toner is collected in the container, and being flexible to change the shape to inflate outwardly due to a pressing force exerted from the toner stored in the container, a moving unit disposed outside the flexible seal and movable both in a positive direction to approach the opening of the container and in an opposite direction to move away from the opening when contacting the flexible seal inflating outwardly, a detector detecting movement of the moving unit, and a regulator regulating the moving unit from coming into the recess of the flexible seal in the initial condition.
US09031446B2

An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a heating roller having an electrode to receive power disposed at an outer circumference thereof and a connection unit to supply the power to the heating roller via the electrode. The connection unit includes a connection member connected to the electrode, the connection member being rotated along with the heating roller, an annular friction bush disposed at the connection member, and at least one wire having one fixed end and the other end contacting an outer circumference of the friction bush. The connection member is rotated along with the heating roller, and therefore, no friction occurs between the electrode and the connection member, thereby preventing damage to the electrode.
US09031445B2

An image forming apparatus that is capable of coping with both a high power saving effect and a quick response. A reading unit reads an image of an original. A printing unit prints out image data. A control unit controls units including the reading unit and the printing unit. A detection unit detects an original placed in the reading unit. A power control unit restores the control unit and the reading unit from a sleep state when the detection unit detects an original, and further restores the printing unit from the sleep state before receiving a job when a sheet of the same size as the original concerned is stored.
US09031438B2

An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming section that forms an image on a recording medium; a fixing section that includes a heat roller with a heater inside and fixes a toner image on the recording medium; a temperature detecting section for detecting the temperature of an end region of the heat roller in a direction of a rotary axis thereof; a control section that controls the operation of the heater based on the detected temperature; and a post-drive time calculating section that calculates a post-drive time for a post-drive of the fixing section after a successive image formation on recording media, depending upon the sizes of the recording media and through a subtraction using a correction factor set according to a condition of conveyance of the recording media. The control section causes the fixing section to perform the post-drive for the calculated post-drive time.
US09031433B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a density-corrected image forming unit, a measurement unit, an image correction unit, and a fixing unit. The image forming unit forms an image represented by image data as a toner image. The density-corrected image forming unit forms a density corrected image. The measurement unit measures the density of the density corrected image. The image correction unit performs image correction such that a non-halftone image is formed as a halftone image whose halftone percentage is less than 100%. The fixing unit, in a case where the image correction unit performs image correction for image data, fixes a toner image on a recording medium with at least one of an increased fixing temperature, an increased fixing time period, and an increased fixing pressure, the toner image being based on the image data for which image correction has been performed.
US09031428B2

An image forming apparatus includes a image forming unit; an image bearing member having a surface to bear a toner image and a test pattern; the surface having a first time-surface positioned identical to the test pattern, an integer multiple of revolutions upstream or downstream from the test pattern in a surface movement direction, and a second time-surface positioned different from the test pattern, shorter than one revolution upstream or downstream from the test pattern; a reflection light detector to detect the amount of light reflected from the test pattern and the first and second time-surfaces of the image bearing member; and a controller to control the image forming unit based on the detection result and determine whether to execute a first-surface control to detect at least the first time-surface or a second-surface control to detect only the second time-surface based on use condition of the image forming apparatus.
US09031427B2

An image forming apparatus includes: an image formation portion; a fixing portion that includes an exciting coil for inductively heating member and a temperature detection member: a main control portion that stops a printing operation when a temperature abnormality is recognized; a notification portion; a power supply portion that supplies power to the exciting coil; and a heating control portion that controls power supply to the exciting coil and detects the power abnormality. When the heating control portion detects a power abnormality, the heating control portion stops the induction heating, provides stop notice; when the main control portion determines, based on the history of the stop notice, whether the temperature abnormality is due to the stop of the induction heating or is not due to the stop of the induction heating.
US09031425B2

A cartridge plug for a CRUM-enabled ink or toner cartridge includes a CRUM device seated in an annular position, secured in a recess at a center of the cap. The recess is formed in a mounting surface of the cap that extends above a peripheral surface of the cap that the surrounds the mounting surface. The mounting surface is contiguous with the peripheral surface, being interposed by flexible walls that compress under load. The mounting surface is compressible under load by way of the flexible walls, and springs back to a resting position as a load is decreased.
US09031423B2

A printing system includes: a printing unit that performs printing on a sheet; a conveyance mechanism that has a printing path for guiding a sheet to a printing position of the printing unit and a reverse path for reversing the sheet passing through the printing position and guiding the sheet again to the printing position; a control unit that performs double-side printing processing depending on a plurality of methods in which maximum numbers of the sheets existing in the conveyance mechanism at the same time are different from each other; and a determination unit that determines a probability of sheet jamming occurring in the conveyance mechanism. When the determination unit determines that the jamming occurrence probability is high, the control unit selects the method in which the maximum sheet number is small, and performs the double-side printing processing in accordance with the selected method.
US09031417B2

A modulator device for converting digital data into modulation of an optical signal includes an electronic input for receiving an input data word of N bits and an electrically controllable modulator for modulating the intensity of an optical signal, the modulator including M actuating electrodes where M≧N. An electrode actuating device, most preferably a digital-to-digital converter, operates actuating electrodes so that at least one electrode is actuated as a function of values of more than one bit of the input data word. According to an alternative, or supplementary, aspect of the invention, the set of electrodes includes at least one electrode having an effective area which is not interrelated to others of the set by factors of two. In one preferred implementation, a Mach-Zehnder modulator also provides phase modulation to give QAM functionality. Another implementation employs a semiconductor laser.
US09031409B2

A headend communications device communicates via a network to downstream network elements, such as cable modems coupled behind optical network units, and allocates and grants timeslots for upstream transmissions from the network elements. The headend communications device has a scheduler for managing and controlling timeslot allocations in a manner avoiding interference such as optical beat interference or FM carrier collisions. The scheduler identifies two or more cable modems or like customer network elements served by the headend communications device that will cause at least a pre-determined intolerable level of interference when allocated overlapping timeslots for upstream transmissions and prevents these two or more cable modems or network elements from being allocated and granted overlapping timeslots.
US09031402B1

A viewfinder 3 includes a finder optical system S2 including first and second lens groups L1, L2; a zoom frame 6 provided with first and second cam grooves 63, 64 configured to rotate about an optical axis A2 to move the first and second lens groups L1, L2 in the optical axis direction in accordance with the shapes of the first and second cam grooves 63, 64; and a diopter adjuster 9 configured to adjust the diopter of the finder optical system S2. The diopter adjuster 9 changes the position of the zoom frame 6 in the optical axis direction to adjust the diopter of the finder optical system S2, and adjusts, during rotation of the zoom frame 6, the position of the zoom frame 6 in the optical axis direction such that the diopter of the finder optical system S2 is maintained.
US09031399B2

A computation & control unit defines, as first and second voltages, A+B_signal voltages at distances which give the maximum and minimum voltages of an S_signal voltage, respectively. The unit further defines the higher one of the first and second voltages as an S_signal validity determination voltage and defines a distance at which the S_signal voltage takes on an in-focus determination voltage. The unit defines first and second lower limit voltages, defines the higher one of the first and second lower limit voltages as a lower limit voltage, and defines, as an upper limit voltage, an A+B_signal voltage at a distance which gives an in-focus determination voltage between the maximum and minimum positions of the S_signal voltage. An input and output unit outputs the upper and lower limit voltages as the upper and lower limit values of a settable range of the S_signal validity determination voltage.
US09031398B2

A wireless camera apparatus includes a power supply track and a wireless camera device detachably installed on the power supply track. The wireless camera device has a camera module and a linking module fixed on the camera module. The linking module has a connecting unit and a conductive unit electrically connected to the camera module. When the wireless camera device is installed on the power supply track, the connecting unit is coupled to the power supply track, and the conductive unit is electrically connected to the power supply track. Thus, the instant disclosure provides the wireless camera apparatus, which is adjustable to any position of the power supply track according to the user's demand. Besides, the instant disclosure further provides a wireless camera device.
US09031394B2

An image capture apparatus comprises an inclination detection unit which detects an inclination of the image capture apparatus, a display unit which displays the inclination of the image capture apparatus, and a predetermined reference orientation set for the image capture apparatus, a still state determination unit which determines that the image capture apparatus is in a still state, if a variation of the inclination falls within a predetermined range, and a reference orientation setting unit which sets the reference orientation of the image capture apparatus, wherein the reference orientation setting unit does not set the reference orientation if the still state determination unit determines that the image capture apparatus is not in the still state.
US09031391B2

A liquid control apparatus that controls a spread of a liquid has a main body that has a supply subject surface onto which the liquid is supplied. The apparatus also has a mesh form body that is woven into a mesh form and provided to contact the supply subject surface and a guiding member that is provided to contact an opposite side of the mesh form body to the main body side.
US09031384B2

An interesting section identifying device for identifying an interesting section of a video file based on an audio signal included in the video file, the interesting section being a section in which a user is estimated to express interest, includes an interesting section candidate extracting unit that extracts an interesting section candidate from the video file, the interesting section candidate being a candidate for the interesting section, a detailed structure determining unit that determines whether the interesting section candidate includes a specific detailed structure, and an interesting section identifying unit that identifies the interesting section by analyzing a specific section when the detailed structure determining unit determines that the interesting section candidate includes the detailed structure, the specific section including the detailed structure and being shorter than the interesting section candidate.
US09031381B2

Systems and methods are provided for generating a composite video based on a plurality of asynchronously recorded input video streams. A plurality of segments of the input video streams are identified. A number of the input video streams that were recording during the particular segment are determined. A video display configuration for the particular segment is determined based on the number of video streams that were recording, where the video display configuration includes a display sub-region for each of the number of video streams that was recording. A composite video is generated, where the composite video includes a portion of video associated with each of the segments, where the composite video portion associated with the particular segment is formatted according to the video display configuration and displays the video streams that were recording during the particular segment in the display sub-regions of the video display configuration.
US09031378B2

A method and a playback control device are provided. The method, performed by the playback control device, includes: receiving a first request to playback a first data of a first wireless multimedia data type having a first priority; and playing back the first data if no other data of a wireless multimedia data type having a priority higher than the first priority is received.
US09031377B2

When reproducing a binocular 3D video, noises with random parallax are reduced by appropriately controlling the intensity of noise reduction.A reproduction apparatus includes: a noise processing circuit for applying noise processing to a video signal of a video content based on a given control signal; and a control section for receiving an output format identification signal which identifies an output format of the video content, and generating the control signal in accordance with the output format identification signal, the control section generating a control signal which causes the noise processing performed in the noise processing circuit to vary depending on whether an output format of the video content is a two-dimensional video or a three-dimensional video.
US09031376B2

A method and apparatus for providing additional information included in a video displayed on a display device using visible light communication (VLC). A data packet including video data and additional information for an object included in the video data is received. The video data is extracted from the data packet, and the video data is decoded. The additional information from the data packet is extracted, and the additional information decoded. The decoded video data is output through the display device, and at the same time, the additional information is transmitted for a particular object included in a video based on a VLC protocol using a light emitting device prepared in the display device. The additional information providing apparatus includes an image sensor module, a display module, a visible light receiving module, an additional information manager and a controller.
US09031371B2

The present invention relates to a GI-type multi-mode optical fiber in which the outer diameter of the core is 47.5 to 52.5 μm or 60 to 65 μm, or to a bend resistant multi-mode optical fiber provided with resistance against property fluctuation caused by the bending of the multi-mode optical fiber by providing a trench portion having a low refractive index at the outer periphery of the core. In the multi-mode optical fiber, both the maximum tensile stress and the maximum compressive stress in the optical axis direction remaining in the core are 50 MPa or less.
US09031364B1

The present invention provides a fiber optic jack for routing optical signals. In another aspect, the present invention provides a fiber optic connector with accurate alignment that may be used with, among other things, the fiber optic jack.
US09031360B2

A process of manufacturing an optical flexible circuit comprising: (a) disposing an adhesive layer on at least a portion of a carrier film, said adhesive layer having a downward adhesive face and an upward adhesive face, said downward adhesive face and said carrier film being configured such that said carrier film is removable from said downward adhesive face without disruption of said downward adhesive face; (b) routing one or more fibers on said upward adhesive layer; (c) coating said fibers to define an optical circuit; and (d) optionally parting said carrier film to separate said optical circuit from other optical circuits on said carrier film.
US09031347B2

A method for correcting overfocus of a digital image created from coherent imaging using centered fractional Fourier transforms or mathematical equivalents is described. A received image is presented to a numerical processor, and a first numerical value for an imaginary power variable is selected and used in an iterative algorithm, numerical procedure, system architecture, etc. A centered discrete fractional Fourier transform of an imaginary power and a phase restore operator associated are applied to the image file to produce a modified image. A change in mis-focused is determined and used in adjusting the specified imaginary power for a next iteration.
US09031331B2

A classification system and method enable improvements to classification with nearest class mean classifiers by computing a comparison measure between a multidimensional representation of a new sample and a respective multidimensional class representation embedded into a space of lower dimensionality than that of the multidimensional representations. The embedding is performed with a projection that has been learned on labeled samples to optimize classification with respect to multidimensional class representations for classes which may be the same or different from those used subsequently for classification. Each multidimensional class representation is computed as a function of a set of multidimensional representations of labeled samples, each labeled with the respective class. A class is assigned to the new sample based on the computed comparison measures.
US09031327B2

An information processing device includes: a recognizer configured to recognize a predetermined part of a body of a person from an input image including the person; an evaluator configured to evaluate a difference between a recognized input part and a reference part serving as a basis; and a notifying unit configured to notify information relating to the difference of the input part from the reference part based on an evaluation result.
US09031319B2

Systems, methods, and devices for sharpening image data are provided. One example of an image signal processing system includes a YCC processing pipeline that includes luma sharpening logic. The luma sharpening logic may sharpen the luma component while avoiding sharpening some noise. Specifically, a multi-scale unsharp mask filter may obtain unsharp signals by filtering an input luma component, and sharp component determination logic may determine sharp signals representing differences between the unsharp signals and the luma component. Sharp lookup tables may “core” the sharp signals, which may prevent some noise from being sharpened. Output logic may determine a sharpened output luma signal by combining the sharp signals with, for example, luma component or one of the unsharp signals.
US09031318B2

A mark object that serves as a marker for a guidance point on a set route is specified, and coloration information related to a coloration of the mark object is acquired. Based on the coloration information, a correction information creating object before the mark object on the route having a coloration similar to the coloration of the mark object is specified. An image of the correction information creating object while a vehicle travels the route is acquired as a correcting image, and color correction information is calculated based on acquired color information and existing color information. A recognition template is then corrected based on the calculated color correction information to create a correction template. Thus, because the recognition template used for recognizing the mark object is corrected to a color more closely resembling the actual appearance of the mark object, the recognition accuracy of the mark object can be improved.
US09031312B2

A computerized inspection system is described for detecting the presence of non-uniformity defects and providing output indicative of a severity of each type of non-uniformity defect. Techniques are described that increase the throughput of the inspection system. Algorithmic and hardware approaches are described to significantly decrease the average amount of time required to inspect a given quantity of material that is expected to be mostly uniform. The techniques described herein involve dynamic selection of which image features to compute by starting with a base feature set and only triggering additional feature computations as needed until the features are sufficient to compute a severity for each type of non-uniformity defect. The number of features extracted and the order in which the features are extracted is dynamically determined in real-time to reduce a cost associated with the feature extraction.
US09031311B2

A method and apparatus for identifying a position of a surface on an aircraft. Image data for an image of the surface on the aircraft is received. The image data is processed to determine whether the position of the surface on the aircraft is a desired position. A surface position identification report comprising information identifying whether the position of the surface on the aircraft is the desired position is generated.
US09031308B2

Embodiments of the present invention relates to systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer program products for capturing and storing elements of a negotiable instrument for use in image recreation. In some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) receive an image of the negotiable instrument, wherein the image of the negotiable instrument comprises one or more elements that are used for processing the negotiable instrument and non-element portions that are not used in processing the negotiable instrument; (b) capture, using the image capture device, images of one or more elements of the negotiable instrument; (c) store the images of the one or more elements of the negotiable instrument in the database; and (d) store, as white space, the non-element portions of the image of the negotiable instrument in the database.
US09031300B1

According to some embodiments, an emission tomography scanner may acquire emission scan data. One or more anatomical images may be generated using an anatomical imaging system, and the anatomical images may be processed to obtain an initial attenuation image. An emission image and a corrected attenuation image may be jointly reconstructed from the acquired emission scan data, the corrected attenuation image representing a deformation of the initial attenuation image. A final reconstructed emission image may then be calculated based on the reconstructed emission image and/or the corrected attenuation image. The final reconstructed emission image may then be stored in a data storage system and/or displayed on a display system.
US09031293B2

Features, including one or more acoustic features, visual features, linguistic features, and physical features may be extracted from signals obtained by one or more sensors with a processor. The acoustic, visual, linguistic, and physical features may be analyzed with one or more machine learning algorithms and an emotional state of a user may be extracted from analysis of the features. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09031285B2

A method and system for detecting floating objects in maritime video is disclosed. The horizon is detected within the video. Modeling of the sky and water is performed on the video. Objects are detected that are not water and sky within the video.
US09031283B2

A mobile device uses vision and orientation sensor data jointly for six degree of freedom localization, e.g., in wide-area environments. An image or video stream is captured while receiving geographic orientation data and may be used to generate a panoramic cylindrical map of an environment. A bin of model features stored in a database is accessed based on the geographic orientation data. The model features are from a pre-generated reconstruction of the environment produced from extracted features from a plurality of images of the environment. The reconstruction is registered to a global orientation and the model features are stored in bins based on similar geographic orientations. Features from the panoramic cylindrical map are matched to model features in the bin to produce a set of corresponding features, which are used to determine a position and an orientation of the camera.
US09031277B2

Disclosed inventions relates to methods and systems for encoding at least one watermark into a stereoscopic conjugate pair of images. An example method comprises the step of encoding the at least one watermark by shifting selected pixels of said pair of images in one or more directions. The one or more directions include a horizontal direction. In the disclosed embodiments, ancillary information is not required to support decoding of encoded watermarks in addition to the transmitted left and right images.
US09031274B2

Provided are bone conducting hearing devices having a normal force that secures the device to a user. A removable adhesive anchor secures an external component of the bone conducting hearing device to the user and provides reliable connecting that is comfortable, such as by a substantially uniform force generation over the contact area between the device and the user. Because the adhesive anchor is removable, a user can readily and reliably remove the device or connect the device, as desired. Also provide are methods of connecting any of the bone conducting hearing devices provided herein to a user, including the mastoid process of the user.
US09031273B2

Apparatuses that provide a bone-conduction speaker arranged to be located behind the ear are described herein. An exemplary apparatus may include: (a) a glasses-style support structure comprising a front section and at least one side section; (b) at least one bone-conduction speaker; and (c) a member having a proximate end and a distal end, wherein the proximate end is attached to the at least one side section, and wherein the at least one bone-conduction speaker is attached to the member at or near the distal end; wherein the member is arranged on the at least one side section such that when the glasses-style support structure is worn the member: (a) extends to the anterior of the at least one side section and (b) locates the bone-conduction speaker posterior to an ear.
US09031271B2

The present invention relates to a listening device for a hearing impaired person. The present invention furthermore relates to a corresponding operating method of operating a listening device and to a corresponding computer program. In particular, the present invention relates to a listening device that comprises a signal processing unit that is controlled by a controller configured to implement a combined feed-forward and feed-back control in order to ensure that both an electric input signal and a processed electric output signal have at least almost identical modulation index values. Thereby, speech intelligibility is increased, in particular for a hearing impaired person being capable of perceiving sound pressure levels in a substantially decreased dynamic range.
US09031262B2

A distributed self-scaling network audio processing system includes end nodes interconnected by packet-switched network and operating as peers on the network. Each of the end nodes supports local input processing, mixing, and output processing. The input processing includes the option of dual input channels for supporting separate front-of-house and monitor workflows. End nodes are added to the system to support specific audio processing applications, based on the number of audio sources, the number of output mixes required, and the number of locations from which users choose to interact with the system.
US09031249B1

An electrolarynx includes a cylindrically shaped handheld case having an inner wall that defines a hollow interior. A circuit board within a mid portion of the hollow interior drives a sound-producing transducer component within a distal end portion. Two wires electrically connect the circuit board to the transducer component. First and second wire-guiding structures are provided that have been integrally molded with the rest of the case at diametrically opposite locations along the inner wall of the distal end portion, where they maintain bends in the two wires from longitudinally extending wire paths coming from the circuit board to circumferentially extending wire paths going to wire attachment points on the transducer, thereby facilitating fabrication while avoiding wire interference with transducer operation.
US09031248B2

An RPM signal representing a current RPM of a vehicle engine is received. An instant magnitude and an instant phase are determined for each of N harmonics of a target engine sound based on the RPM signal. The instant magnitude and the instant phase are each smoothed to generate a smoothed harmonic magnitude and a smoothed harmonic phase for each of the N harmonics. A magnitude perturbation signal and a phase perturbation signal are generated for each of the N harmonics. An individual harmonic signal is also generated for each of the N harmonics based, at least in part, on the smoothed harmonic magnitude, the magnitude perturbation signal, the smoothed harmonic phase, and the phase perturbation signal. The individual harmonic signals are summed to generate an engine harmonic enhancement signal, and the engine harmonic enhancement signal is transduced to acoustic energy.
US09031239B2

An information processing apparatus includes an encrypting unit that encrypts a value to be kept secret with a predetermined cipher key. The information processing apparatus includes a converting unit that converts, when the value to be kept secret is an initial value written at the time of initialization of a storage device in which a value encrypted by the encrypting unit is stored, the value encrypted by the encrypting unit into a value which is reversibly convertible and is independent of the cipher key used by the encrypting unit. The information processing apparatus includes a storing unit that stores the value converted by the converting unit in the storage device.
US09031234B2

According to one embodiment, an encryption device includes a storage unit, an input unit, first to fourth partial encryption units, a generation unit, and an output unit. The first partial encryption unit calculates first intermediate data from input plain data to store in the storage unit. The generation unit generates a round key, which is used in calculations for the first intermediate data and N-th intermediate data, from the secret key. The second partial encryption unit calculates (i+1)th intermediate data from i-th intermediate data (i is smaller than N) and the round key to store in the storage unit. The third partial encryption unit performs an arithmetic operation including predetermined conversion for mixing the N-th intermediate data, and calculates (N+1)th intermediate data to store in the storage unit. The fourth partial encryption unit obtains encrypted data by performing an arithmetic operation including inverse conversion of the conversion on the (N+1)th intermediate data.
US09031230B2

A reduction in the size of encryption processing configuration applying generalized Feistel structures is achieved. The encryption processing configuration applies a generalized Feistel structure for dividing and inputting data into multiple lines, and repeatedly executing data transformation processing applying a round function on the data transferred to each line, and during the execution cycle of a matrix operation by a matrix operation executing unit for executing linear transformation processing applying a matrix on the data in a first line, an operation is executed on the matrix operation processing data from the initial cycle and data in a second line. This configuration enables a register to be used for both the storage of the data for the second line and the storage of the results of the matrix operation on the first line of data in progress, a reduction in the total number of registers, and thus a reduction in size.
US09031229B1

A homomorphic encryption algorithm is performed that encrypts at least a portion of a plurality of plaintext data items at a client computing device into homomorphic queries, each query including a cryptographically safe representation of one of the data items. The queries are transmitted to at least one discrete homomorphic encryption (DHE) server. An identifier is received from each query from the DHE server. The identifiers are transmitted to at least one computing server that maintains a database including data structures. The computing server is requested to requesting the computing server to insert the received identifiers into the database. At least one of the identifiers is processed: the computing server is requested to find the identifiers in the data structures that match the at least one identifiers and to perform at least one equality-based operation on the matching identifiers. A result of the at least one operation is received.
US09031227B2

A method is described for defining a reserved pattern of symbols, receiving in a crypto-module an input stream including sequential input symbols, applying a cipher to the input stream in the crypto-module so as to generate an intermediate stream including sequential output symbols corresponding respectively to the input symbols, and converting the intermediate stream to an output stream from the crypto-module by comparing successive groups of the input symbols and the corresponding output symbols to the reserved pattern and, upon finding a match to the reserved pattern in a given group, substituting the input symbols in the group into the intermediate stream in place of the corresponding output symbols. Related hardware and systems are also described.
US09031226B2

A method and device for streaming the output of one or more audio sources to one or more smart headsets includes establishing a secure connection with a smart headset, associating an audio channel of the one or more audio sources with the smart headset, and streaming the associated audio channel to the smart headset. The audio streaming device may selectively stream one or more audio channels from one or more audio sources to one or more of the smart headsets as a function of a streaming policy.
US09031221B2

A system for automated audio quality testing, having various endpoint emulators, call engines, audio generator devices, and head and torso simulator devices. The call engine utilizes reference audio samples to simulate customer interactions with a contact center. The endpoint manager utilizes reference audio samples to simulate contact center agents' interactions with customers.
US09031219B2

According to various embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods for routing telephone calls from host switch to remote switch in a Voice Over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) network. In one embodiment, a system includes a host switch in a voice over internet protocol (“VoIP”) network communicably coupled with a plurality of remote switches and a public switched telephone network (“PSTN”), the host switch to receive a call from the PSTN having signaling including a location routing number (“LRN”) field, and a database communicably coupled to the host switch to identify a target remote switch of the plurality of remote switches that is associated with at least a portion of the LRN field. In addition, the host switch is to send the call to the target remote switch based on the identification by the database. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US09031218B2

Agencies issue multiple devices to personnel for maintaining distinct identities over the course of assigned investigations. To provide flexible capabilities to agencies, a phone is converted for use with multiple attached telephone numbers. Accordingly, a single phone may be used to manage multiple identities over the course of one or more investigations. Using a multiple attached number, a given device can place and receive calls over the network to and from contacts. In addition to providing multiple attached numbers, calls using the multiple attached numbers may be monitored live and recorded to establish evidence.
US09031213B2

A method of providing validation data associated with a subscriber line of a telecommunication network. The method includes obtaining line data of the subscriber line wherein the line data is suitable for interrogating a line identification database (LIDB). The method interrogates the LIDB with the line data to obtain reference subscriber data associated with the line data, and processes the reference subscriber data to obtain validation data associated with the subscriber line. The invention extends to a subscriber line validation system to validate a subscriber line of a communication network.
US09031208B2

A method and system for providing context of a caller to a callee when a call is initiated is provided. The context system executing on the calling device collects context for the call. The calling device initiates the call and sends a message to the callee that includes the context. Upon receiving the message, the callee device notifies the caller that a call has been initiated and displays the received context. The callee can decide based on the received context whether to answer the call or not answer the call.
US09031207B2

A system and method for communicating location information of a VoIP subscriber to a public-safety answering point may include receiving an E-911 telephone call from a VoIP telephone. Location information associated with the VoIP telephone stored in a database may be requested. The location information may be received in a signal formatted substantially the same as a signal format for communicating caller identification information. The location information may be displayed at a public-safety answering point. In one embodiment, the location information may be displayed on a video display.
US09031205B2

An automatic ambient environmental detection and lockout system that recognizes unacceptable background noise for agents and a method that requires agents and/or supervisors to take corrective action on detected noise issues prior to work assignment facilitates an effective and efficient environment appropriate for agents to handle contact center work.
US09031195B2

An imaging detector includes a scintillator having a scintillator pixel that is configured to emit light. The detector also includes a photosensor that defines a photosensor pixel that is configured to absorb light emitted by the scintillator pixel. A lens is positioned between the scintillator pixel and the photosensor pixel for directing light emitted from the scintillator to the photosensor pixel. The lens is configured to converge light emitted from the scintillator pixel toward the photosensor pixel.
US09031194B2

An X-ray imaging apparatus comprises: an obtaining unit configured to obtain an operational state of a connected apparatus; and a display control unit configured to control a transition to a hide display state in accordance with the obtained operational state, wherein the hide display state comprises performing display while hiding at least part of information displayed on a display device.
US09031190B2

An X-ray imaging apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an X-ray sensor unit that detects X-rays, and a control unit that controls driving of an X-ray generator and the X-ray sensor unit. The control unit performs alignment imaging for imaging a still image of a subject. The still image is used as a reference for alignment of at least one of the X-ray generator and the X-ray sensor unit. After the alignment imaging, the control unit performs main imaging for imaging a moving image of the subject. The alignment imaging and the main imaging are performed under the same driving condition of the X-ray sensor unit.
US09031182B2

A method for clock recovery and data recovery from a data stream on a communication channel includes sampling a data stream on the communication channel at a sampling frequency determined by a clock signal and generating a sampled signal. The method further includes determining a phase shift between the communication data stream and the sampled signal and modifying the phase of the clock signal on the basis of the phase shift to obtain a desired phase difference between the sampled signal and the data stream.
US09031181B1

A multi-port information communication system includes a reference clock signal generator configured to generate a reference clock signal. The system also includes a phase controller configured to generate a plurality of information communication clock signals based on the reference clock signal by staggering a phase of each of the information communication clock signals. The phase controller includes a delay-locked loop configured to generate a plurality of delay-locked loop signals based on the reference clock signal, and a plurality of time delay elements. Each time delay element is configured to produce a respective one of the information communication clock signals by adding a respective delay to a respective one of the delay-locked loop signals. The system includes information communication devices each including a respective transmitter. Each of the transmitters is configured to operate in response to a respective one of the information communication clock signals.
US09031179B2

Embodiments include systems and methods for calibrating effective clock path mismatches in a receiver circuit. For example, a serializer/deserializer (SERDES) circuit includes a data slicer that generates data sampler decisions by sampling an input signal according to a clocking signal, and an error slicer that generates error slicer samples by sampling the input signal according to the clocking signal. Each of the data slicer and error slicer has an associated clock path delay, and the delays are typically different (e.g., due to manufacturing differences). A calibrator performs iteratively shifted sampling and comparing of the data sampler decisions and the error slicer samples over a plurality of clocking locations to determine an effective clock path mismatch. The calibrator can then determine and apply a clocking offset to the data slicer and/or the error slicer to effectively shift data and error sampling, thereby compensating for the effective clock path mismatch.
US09031177B2

A receiver is disclosed that is capable of correcting for harmonic distortion injected into received analog signals. The receiver splits the analog signal in the analog front-end and modifies the split analog signals with a difference signal. After amplification and/or sampling, the modified analog signals are recombined in a main data pathway and are kept separate in a secondary pathway. Utilizing the difference signal, a feedback loop that includes distorters and an LMS filter detects the distortion coefficient of the harmonic distortion. A distorter in the main data pathway utilizes the detected distortion coefficient to correct the harmonic distortion in the analog signal.
US09031175B2

A method of performing Automatic Gain Control, AGC, in a receiver of a device is provided. The device is served on a serving carrier of a multi-carrier communication network. Measurement gaps are scheduled on the serving carrier for inter-carrier measurements on a non-serving carrier. The method comprises the step of determining a first time interval, in which a predefined signal portion is transmitted on the non-serving carrier; the step of estimating, for the first time interval, received signal power on the non-serving carrier; the step of computing a receiver gain based on the estimate signal power; the step of performing, over a second time interval, an inter-carrier measurement on the non-serving carrier; and the step of applying the receiver gain to the receiver after the second time interval.
US09031173B2

A receiving apparatus for receiving signals in a transmission system transmitted based on a frame structure including signaling data and payload data. The receiving apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive a transmission signal, a frame demapper configured to demap signaling data blocks and payload data patterns from the frames of the frame structure of the received transmission signal, wherein a signaling data block is assumed to include a number of data corresponding to a number of a signaling data pattern, wherein the signaling data patterns are split into n signaling data portions, n being a positive integer, in which n signaling portions are mapped onto n or less frames, and a demodulation decoder is configured to separately demodulate and decode the signaling data blocks and payload data patterns to obtain signaling data and payload data.
US09031166B2

Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate dynamically allocating demodulation resources of a wideband receiver to provide improved demodulation of simultaneously received signals. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and/or packet error rate (PER) can be measured for the plurality of carriers to determine which demodulators related to the carriers require more resources than others to demodulate signals at a specified signal quality. Where the SNR of a related carrier is high and/or PER is low, the demodulator can require fewer resources than where the SNR of a related carrier is low and/or PER is high. In this regard, the resources are dynamically allocated among the demodulators and reallocated where SNR/PER changes and/or additional resources are made available.
US09031163B2

Transmission outputs of a plurality of transmission branches (101, 102) are extracted by coupler sections (161, 162). Branch detectors (121, 122) respectively detect the levels of the extracted signals of the respective transmission branches and a combination detector (130) detects an output obtained by combining two extracted outputs from the transmission branches by a signal combining section (110). An amplitude error is detected and corrected by comparing output levels of the branch detectors (121, 122), and a phase error is detected and corrected by an output level of the combination detector (130).
US09031154B2

A transmission device 100 has an inverse fast Fourier transform converter 104 (first circuit) that acquires plural multi-value symbol data each of which is assigned to a dedicated subcarrier, and generates waveform data on the basis of the acquired plural multi-value symbol data, and a digital frequency converter 107 (second circuit) that shifts frequency of the waveform data generated by the inverse fast Fourier transform converter 104.
US09031153B2

A duty-cycle modulated bit signalling method and circuit, comprising: signaling bits by virtue of a duty-cycle ratio; wherein the duty-cycle ratio is varied dependent upon the transmission rate of the signalling. A bit period comprises a long phase and a short phase and the duty-cycle therebetween is varied such that the ratio between the duration of the long phase and the duration of the short phase is increased for decreasing transmission rate. The duty-cycle ratio is varied dependent upon the transmission rate of the signalling according to one or more ranges of transmission rate. In a higher transmission rate range the duty-cycle is defined as a fixed ratio, and in a lower transmission range the duty-cycle is defined by a fixed length of the short phase of the bit period.
US09031148B2

Embodiments herein relate to a method in a radio base station (12) for transmitting a data signal to a user equipment (10) in a radio communications network. The radio base station (12) is connected to an active antenna array of a number of active transmitting antennas and the radio base station (12) serves the user equipment (10) in the radio communications network. Each active transmitting antenna comprises sub elements. The radio base station (12) transforms a precoded data signal using a transformation, which transformation directs signals vertically. Furthermore, the radio base station (12) transmits the transformed data signal over at least one sub element to the user equipment (10). The transmitted data signal is enabled to be directed vertically, and the transformed data signal is limited to be transmitted in a direction within a range of elevation angles.
US09031137B2

A method for signaling sample adaptive offset (SAO) band offset syntax elements in a video encoder is provided that includes receiving a plurality of band offset syntax elements, entropy encoding an absolute value of a magnitude of each band offset syntax element in a compressed video bit stream, and entropy encoding a sign of each non-zero band offset syntax element in the compressed video bit stream following the absolute values of the magnitudes.
US09031134B2

An apparatus and method of evaluating whether an image under test is similar to a reference image, the method comprising performing a test on pairs of blocks in turn, each pair of blocks comprising a block of the image under test and a corresponding block of the reference image, the test comprising calculating a difference measure indicative of the difference between the blocks and comparing the difference measure to a threshold, wherein the test is passed if the difference measure betters the threshold, and the image under test and the reference image are deemed to be similar if the test is passed by all of the pairs of blocks.
US09031131B1

Systems and methods for converting a picture frame rate from a source video at a first rate to a target video at a second rate via interpolation of an intermediate frame. In one implementation, the system includes a phase plane correlation calculator including a low pass filter and a high pass filter for receiving previous frame data and current frame data where the phase plane correlation calculator is configured to generate a first motion vector based upon low pass representations and high pass representations. The system may also include a motion compensated interpolator that receives the first motion vector and an additional input motion vector and determines a final motion vector for use in interpolation. The system may further include an intermediate frame generator configured to generate the intermediate frame utilizing the final motion vector.
US09031128B2

A method for use in encoding video data, including generating metric values for the video data based on a metric function and respective encoding parameters. At least one of the encoding parameters is selected on the basis of a desired quantity of encoded video data and a predetermined relationship between metric values and respective quantities of encoded video data.
US09031127B2

A method includes receiving a data signal that includes a plurality of encoded frames in a first access unit, receiving a data message indicative of a similarity between a portion of a first one of the plurality of encoded frames and a portion of a non-successive second one of the plurality of encoded frames in a second access unit, and decoding the portion of the second one of the plurality of encoded frames from the portion of the first one of the plurality of encoded frames when the data signal is corrupted.
US09031126B2

A system and method for video encoding using noise level estimates from vertical blanking interval lines. A video signal may be received by an encoding system. Information may be extracted from the video signal and may be analyzed. The extracted information may be vertical blanking intervals. The extracted and analyzed information may be utilized to estimate a noise level of the video signal. The estimated noise level may then be utilized in encoding the video signal by being inserted into the video signal or used to change parameters used in video encoding.
US09031124B1

A method of generating a hypothesis and estimating a CFO includes receiving a signal including a set of radio frames, dividing each received radio frame of the set into a set of received sub-sequences, dividing, each of reference radio frames from a reference signal stored in the receiver into a set of reference sub-sequences, correlating the set of received sub-sequences with the set of reference sub-sequences to obtain a set of correlation values, generating, a first value set and a second value set of hypothesis based on the correlation values, generating a first and a second hypothesis based on the first value and the second value set, and averaging the first and the second hypothesis to obtain an averaged hypothesis, performing a DFT on the averaged hypothesis to obtain a DFT sequence, determining a peak position of the DFT sequence, and estimating the CFO based on the peak position.
US09031118B2

In one embodiment, a correlator of a global positioning system receiver in a global positioning system receives a sample satellite signal. The correlator includes a signal comparator configured to receive the sample signal, a first normalized estimate signal, and a second normalized estimate signal. The signal comparator generates a first accumulated output and a second accumulated output. The first accumulated output represents the integration of a correlation of the sample signal and the first normalized estimate signal. The second accumulated output represents the integration of a correlation of the sample signal and the second normalized estimate signal. Using time-multiplexing, the high speed of a digital signal processing core is leveraged to perform calculations of the signal comparator and threshold comparator in real time.
US09031114B1

An intra-cavity frequency doubled OPS-laser includes a laser-resonator terminated by a plane mirror and a mirror-structure of an OPS-chip. The resonator is folded by three fold-mirrors. The fold-mirrors are supported on a vibration-isolation plate supported by isolation posts above a base-plate. The plane mirror and the mirror-structure of the OPS-chip are mounted back to back on opposite parallel surfaces of a mounting block. The mounting-block is supported on the base-plate and extends through an aperture in the vibration-isolation plate. Movement of the vibration-isolation plate with respect to the base-plate does not change the resonator length.
US09031100B2

Implementations and examples of fiber lasers based on fiber laser cavity designs that produce self-similar pulses (“similaritons”) to achieve a pulse spectral bandwidth greater than a gain spectral bandwidth based on a spectral broadening fiber segment and a spectral filter to ensure the proper similariton conditions.
US09031096B2

A multimedia data system comprising a synchronization unit. The synchronization unit receives a demodulated bitstream, checks whether a FAW pattern corresponding to a candidate of the bitstream exists, checks whether an additional information corresponding to the candidate of the bitstream is valid when the FAW pattern exists, determines a hit weighting corresponding to the candidate according to the checking result, determines whether the hit weighting meets a criterion and outputs a synchronization signal when the hit weighting meets the criterion.
US09031093B2

Methods, apparatus and systems for implementing for implementing Energy-Efficient Ethernet (EEE) refresh and wake signaling for high-speed Ethernet links. During an EEE refresh or wake signaling period, ALERT frames are transmitted between first and second Ethernet interfaces on opposing ends of the link, with a first ALERT frame being sent from a first Ethernet interface and a second ALERT frame being returned from the second Ethernet interface. The ALERT frames have a length that is different that the length of Physical Media Attachment (PMA) frames, and the returned ALERT frames include frame alignment offset data identifying a relative offset between an ALERT frame and a predetermined location in a PMA frame, and countdown data. The frame alignment offset data and countdown data are employed to facilitate a rapid transition from the link training mode to the data mode.
US09031091B2

Operations of a building facility monitoring device and an IP network monitoring device are coordinated with each other. In a connection system of a building facility device managing system, when a status of the IP network monitoring device is changed, a monitoring-device-status managing unit 301 provides parameter information unique for a BACnet protocol to the changed status and stores it. If the status is not an operation command, a coordinated-packet-generation transmitting/receiving unit 302 generates a packet of the BACnet protocol based on a status and parameter information of a specific IP network monitoring device to transmit it to a building facility device managing system 103. If the status is the operation command, it acquires a status and parameter information of the specific IP network monitoring device from a management database 401, and generates a packet of the BACnet protocol based on the status and the parameter information to transmit it to the building facility device managing system 103.
US09031089B2

A vehicle communication system providing, in one embodiment, wirelessly transmitting and receiving messages regarding the status of parking spaces, such as empty or occupied. Only vehicles belonging to a predetermined set are able to decrypt such messages, in one embodiment. Message formats to comprise a group of parking spaces are described. An embodiment includes a communication mode specific for vehicles in a parking lot. An embodiment includes messages describing the shape and size of vehicle entering or leaving a parking space. Efficient methods of coding vehicle type are described. Methods of improving the operational efficiency of a vehicle communication system, including passive RF reflectors, audio and video messages, safety, courtesy and social messages, and compliance with vehicle restrictions are in some embodiments.
US09031087B2

A system for optimizing response time to events or representations thereof waiting in a queue has a first server having access to the queue; a software application running on the first server; and a second server accessible from the first server, the second server containing rules governing the optimization. In a preferred embodiment, the software application at least periodically accesses the queue and parses certain ones of events or tokens in the queue and compares the parsed results against rules accessed from the second server in order to determine a measure of disposal time for each parsed event wherein if the determined measure is sufficiently low for one or more of the parsed events, those one or more events are modified to a reflect a higher priority state than originally assigned enabling faster treatment of those events resulting in relief from those events to the queue system load.
US09031083B2

A communication management system includes a measuring unit, an assigning unit, and a distribution controller. The measuring unit measures, for each of clients, a traffic pattern representing a pattern of temporal changes in an amount of communication traffic regarding the client. The assigning unit assigns, to each of plural communication channels, one or more clients that use the communication channel, on the basis of the traffic patterns of the clients measured by the measuring unit. The distribution controller performs control of selecting, as a communication channel with which distribution data is to be distributed to one or more of the clients, at least one of the plural communication channels to which the assigning unit has assigned the clients.
US09031081B2

A local manager in a local networking domain may configure a plurality of logical switches by combining switching functions available in network devices and/or network switches in the local networking domain. The configuration may utilize vertical and/or horizontal combinations of the switching functions. The switching functions may comprise network switch-based switching functions, and/or hypervisor-level switching functions and/or network adapter-level switching functions available in network devices which may be configured as virtualized platforms. The local manager may provide interfacing services to enable exposing configured logical switches. The interfacing services may comprise an internal interface, which may be utilized, via the local manager, to control the switching functions corresponding to logical switches and/or to route messages sent to and/or from the logical switches. The interfacing services may also comprise an external interface, which may be used by external entities, such as remote management entities, to manage and/or interact with configured logical switches.
US09031077B2

A system for passing data, the system including multiple data producers passing processed data, wherein the processed data include discrete data units that are each consecutively numbered, each of the data producers calculating insertion indices for ones of the data units passing therethrough; a circular buffer receiving the data units from the producers, the data units placed in slots that correspond to the respective insertion indices; and a consumer of the data units that receives the data units from the circular buffer in an order that preserves sequential numbering of the data units, wherein the multiple data producers follow a protocol so that a first one of the data producers, upon failing to place a first data unit in the circular buffer, does not lock other data producers from placing other data units in the circular buffer.
US09031070B2

Methods for controlling a Designated Forwarder (DF) election in a multicast network are described herein. The multicast network includes a plurality of multicast network devices, including a first network device and a second network device. A Designated Forwarder is determined. It is determined whether to initiate a Designated Forwarder election based on a comparison of a metric measuring a distance to a Rendezvous Point Address from a first network device and a metric measuring the distance to the Rendezvous Point Address from the second network device.
US09031064B2

In one embodiment, a converged protocol stack can be used to unify communications from a first communication protocol to a second communication protocol to provide for data transfer across a physical interconnect. This stack can be incorporated in an apparatus that includes a protocol stack for a first communication protocol including transaction and link layers, and a physical (PHY) unit coupled to the protocol stack to provide communication between the apparatus and a device coupled to the apparatus via a physical link. This PHY unit may include a physical unit circuit according to the second communication protocol. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09031058B2

Apparatus includes a communication predelivery receiver, configured to communicate with and relay both IP addressed overhead and IP addressed payload data from an originating communication device. The communication predelivery receiver includes a screener configured to, when the communication predelivery receiver is in communication with the originating communication device, receive certain data including first IP addressed data and second IP addressed data of corresponding first and second initiated communications. The communication predelivery receiver is configured and connected within a network so the first IP addressed data and the second IP addressed data are processed differently. For the first initiated communication, the first payload data is converted, after the point in time at which the screener received the first IP addressed data, from IP addressed first payload data to another network signal. For the second initiated communication, the second payload data is delivered without so converting the second payload data.
US09031054B2

In one embodiment, in absence of transmitting from an apparatus a reservation request frame, the apparatus receives a reservation response frame on an assigned channel. The reservation response frame indicates a duration of a frame transmission. In response to receiving the reservation response frame, the apparatus transmits a frame on the assigned channel during the frame transmission. In another embodiment, in response to receiving a reservation request frame on a first channel at an apparatus, the apparatus transmits a reservation response frame on the first channel and on at least one second channel. The reservation request frame indicates a duration of a frame transmission. The reservation response frame indicates the duration of the frame transmission. After transmitting the reservation response frame, this apparatus receives during the frame transmission a first frame on the primary channel and a second frame on the at least one secondary channel.
US09031051B2

According to one embodiment, a method for a wireless local area includes: generating a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU) to be transmitted to a target station; generating a physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) by attaching a PLCP preamble to the MPDU; selecting a transmission channel; and transmitting the PPDU to the target station over the transmission channel. Selecting the transmission channel includes: performing clear channel assessment (CCA) on a first channel to determine whether the first channel is idle; and only after it is determined that the first channel is idle, selecting the first channel and at least one idle second channel as the transmission channel. The PLCP preamble includes channel allocation information indicating a bandwidth of the transmission channel.
US09031045B2

A mobile station device set to communicate with a base station device over a plurality of subframes using a plurality of cells is provided. When ACK/NACK for reception of data transmitted from the base station device is to be transmitted to the base station device using a PUCCH and the PUCCH is set to select one resource from a plurality of PUCCH candidate resources to transmit with prescribed transmit power using the selected resource, the mobile station device determines a parameter value related to prescribed transmit power in accordance with the number of cells used for data communication in the plurality of subframes.
US09031033B2

Transmission capacity for a control channel sent to multiple mobile wireless devices in a wireless network is increased by transmitting the control channel using multi user multiple input multiple output transmissions (MU MIMO). Received signal quality measured at mobile wireless devices in a radio sector are communicated to a radio node and used to determine one or more sets of mobile wireless devices to share transmission of control channel elements on the same time and frequency resource element. The radio node indicates the use of MU MIMO and the selection of precoding matrices to each of the mobile wireless devices in the each set of mobile wireless devices.
US09031019B2

A system access method of a narrowband terminal is provided for supporting both wideband and narrowband terminals in a cellular radio communication system. The method includes broadcasting a Shared CHannel (SCH) for a terminal to acquire system synchronization; transmitting a Low-end Master Information Block (L-MIB) including control information on an L-subframe configuration for supporting a second type terminal and a sub-band configuration of the L-subframe; transmitting a Low-end System Information Block (L-SIB) including information on downlink reception and uplink transmission of the second type terminal; and performing a random access procedure, when an attach request is received from one of the first type terminals and the second type terminals.
US09031015B2

A method and apparatus for allocating downlink resources and implementing downlink data reception in a broadband evolution system are disclosed in the present invention, so as to implement the allocation of resources in case of carrier resource expansion and implement the reception of downlink data in case of carrier resource expansion. A method for receiving downlink data includes that: emission bandwidth resources are divided into multiple frequency-domain Resource Blocks (RBs), and every frequency-domain Resource Block (RB) corresponds to an RB serial number, wherein the frequency-domain RBs corresponding to Release-8 (Rel-8) compatible frequency-domain resources are numbered in a numbering mode of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, and the frequency-domain RBs corresponding to incompatible frequency-domain resources are orderly numbered based on the largest serial number corresponding to the Rel-8 compatible frequency-domain resources; when receiving a downlink control signaling including RB serial numbers transferred from a network side, a broadband evolution terminal obtains frequency-domain RBs corresponding to the RB serial numbers, and can receive downlink data from the obtained frequency-domain RBs.
US09031010B2

Transmission management is provided with separate resource partitioning management for control and data transmissions. An evolved node B (eNB) generates separate resource partition schedules for the transmission stream, in which a first schedule is used for data transmissions while a second schedule is used for control signal transmissions. The two separate schemes may have different periodicities or different subframe type assignments that benefit either data or control transmissions or that allow for coordination of both data and control. The eNBs may broadcast the different schedules in regular system information messages, in which the UEs served by these eNBs will configure data and control signal transmissions according to the appropriate resource partition schedules.
US09030986B2

Methods of combining semi-persistent resource allocation and dynamic resource allocation are provided. Packets, such as VoIP packets, are transmitted on the uplink and downlink using respective semi-persistent resources. For each mobile device, awake periods and sleep periods are defined. The semi-persistent resources are aligned with the awake periods so that most of the time the mobile device can turn off its wireless access radio during the sleep periods. In addition, signalling to request, and to allocate, resources for additional packets are transmitted during the awake periods, and the resources allocated for the additional packets are within the awake periods. Methods of extending the awake periods in various embodiments are also provided. Methods of determining the first on period are also provided.
US09030973B2

Hybrid Automatic Retransmit ReQuest-Acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) index mapping and uplink resource allocation is performed and controlled for channel selection transmission. A method for transmitting HARQ-ACK information to an eNode-B (eNB) by a User Equipment (UE) includes identifying KPCell as a number of downlink subframe(s) of a Pcell associated with an uplink subframe and identifying KSCell as a number of downlink subframe(s) of an Scell associated with the uplink subframe; generating Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) response information for a cell having a smaller number of downlink subframes between the Pcell and the Scell; generating HARQ-ACK information including the generated DTX response information and response information on data received by the UE from the eNB; and transmitting the generated HARQ-ACK information to the eNB through the uplink subframe.
US09030968B2

The invention relates to a system and method for controlling an aspect of a communication session. The method processes the session through a subscriber terminal that also controls a separate a video signal. The method comprises: analyzing call data for the session to determine whether a calling party can initiate the session with a called party; if the calling party is allowed to initiate the session, sending information about the session to the terminal; generating a GUI session from the information for a video monitor connected to the terminal; allowing further processing of the session through the terminal through the GUI session; if a command is received to further process the session, providing a message to the network to process the command; and if a command is received to change an aspect of the video signal, providing an appropriate message to the terminal to process the command.
US09030967B2

The present disclosure describes rapid convergence of an Access Network (AN). A VLAN forwarder is allocated to a first Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) and traffic for the first VLAN is forwarded to and from the AN via the VLAN forwarder. When detecting that the VLAN forwarder satisfies a VLAN reallocation condition, the VLAN forwarder blocks traffic of the first VLAN to and from the AN via the VLAN forwarder, and calculates a characteristic value of the VLAN forwarder. A packet carrying the characteristic value of the VLAN forwarder is transmitted to each neighbor VLAN forwarder such that VLAN reallocation is performed by a VLAN allocator if the characteristic value of the VLAN forwarder is the same as that of each neighbor VLAN forwarder. After receiving information that the VLAN forwarder is reallocated to a second VLAN, the VLAN forwarder allows the traffic of the second VLAN to and from the AN via the VLAN forwarder.
US09030961B2

A method comprising establishing a wireless link with at least one endpoint. The wireless link comprises at least one connection. The method also includes determining an application profile associated with a first connection of the wireless link. The method further includes dynamically selecting at least one parameter for the wireless link based on the detected application profile.
US09030953B2

Systems, methods and apparatus for securely transmitting a data stream by dividing a data stream into a plurality of sub-streams; associating each substream with a respective spectral fragment; encrypting at least some of the sub-streams; and modulating each sub-stream to provide a respective modulated signal adapted for transmission via a respective spectral fragment.
US09030949B2

A Mobile Station (MS) apparatus and a Base Station (BS) apparatus, and methods for their operation in a wireless communication system, are provided. The method for operating the MS includes receiving Precoding Matrix Index (PMI) subset information from a BS, determining downlink channel quality of the BS, determining a PMI for the BS based on the PMI subset information and the determined downlink channel quality of the BS, and transmitting the determined PMI to the BS.
US09030947B2

A method implemented in a network component for an in-service software upgrade (ISSU), the method comprising selecting a forwarding core (FC) for upgrade from a plurality of FCs that run at a data plane on a printed circuit board of the network component to process and forward a plurality of packets, and resetting the selected FC with a software upgrade, wherein at least one of the other FCs continues processing and forwarding packets when the selected FC is upgraded.
US09030943B2

Methods of detecting and recovering from communication failures within an operating network switching device that is switching packets in a communication network, and associated structures. The communication failures addressed involve communications between the packet processors and a host CPU over a shared communications bus, e.g., PCI bus. The affected packet processor(s)—which may be all or a subset of the packet processors of the network switch—may be recovered without affecting hardware packet forwarding through the affected packet processors. This maximizes the up time of the network switching device. Other packet processor(s), if any, of the network switching device, which are not affected by the communication failure, may continue their normal packet forwarding, i.e., hardware forwarding that does not involve communications with the host CPU as well as forwarding or other operations that do involve communications with the host CPU.
US09030942B2

A method and apparatus is provided for transmitting and receiving data using a Contention-Based (CB) access to prevent successive collisions due to an HARQ operation and improve the probability of successful reception in a mobile communication system. In a method for transmitting data using a CB access, it is determined whether it is possible to transmit data provided from an upper layer to a Node B using a CB access method. If it is possible to transmit the data using the CB access method, a CB grant is acquired from the Node B. Upon acquiring the CB grant, a transmit power is determined by selecting a smaller value among a value obtained by adding a predetermined first margin value to an uplink power Required_uplink_power required to transmit the data, and a maximum transmit power of a UE.
US09030939B2

In one embodiment, an intermediate node in a computer network may receive one or more reactive routing route requests (RREQs) from an originating node and, based on those RREQs, may build a first directed acyclic graph (DAG) in the computer network that may be rooted at the originating node. The intermediate node may then forward the RREQs towards a target node in the computer network. The intermediate node may then receive one or more reactive routing route responses (RREPs) from the target node. Based on those RREPs, the intermediate node may then build a second DAG in the computer network that may be rooted at the target node. The intermediate node may then forward the RREPs towards the originating node. In this manner, the intermediate node may then forward traffic from the originating node toward the target node according to the second DAG (with alternate routes to the target node).
US09030930B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, an apparatus, and a system for switching a communication path. The method for switching a communication path includes: receiving, by an access network device, a data packet for implementing a communication service between a terminal and a first media source; learning, by the access network device, according to the data packet, that a local exchange path between the terminal and the first media source is unavailable; and transferring, by the access network device, the data packet via a detour path, where the data packet is also used by a channel control device on the detour path to control the terminal to disconnect from the detour path and establish a local exchange path between the terminal and a second media source, and where the second media source is in coverage of an access network device currently providing a service for the terminal.
US09030919B2

The invention provides a broadband ocean bottom seismograph with a single glass sphere. The seismograph comprises an anchor at its bottom having a frame structure with a rigid ring for accommodating a seismometer chamber. The seismometer chamber comprises a bell-shaped protective hood opening downward where a seismometer sealed chamber is suspended to the inner surface of the protective hood by cables. The bottom of the seismometer sealed chamber protrudes through the opening of the protective hood to be seated in direct contact with the seabed. A functional chamber comprises a plastic instrument chamber and a glass global instrument chamber secured in the plastic chamber. The plastic instrument chamber is fixedly mounted on top of the protective hood. A release mechanism is mounted on the top of the functional chamber, and connected to frame of the anchor via fusible tensioning steel wires.
US09030918B2

A method for mobile underwater acoustic communications includes double differentially (DD) encoding a communication signal to produce a DD-encoded communication signal, applying direct sequence spread spectrum (SS) to the DD-encoded signal to produce a DD-SS communication output signal, and transmitting the DD-SS communication output signal. The method i) increases the SNR via processing gain, ii) eliminates the ISI through multipath suppression, and iii) enables bandwidth efficiency improvement via data multiplexing. The method is shown capable of facilitating simple receiver processing and offering performance robustness against unpredictable channel fluctuations.
US09030913B2

The disclosure describes a method and apparatus for effectively communicating data along an acoustic transmission path. The method comprises driving an acoustic transmitter to send a data signal along the acoustic transmission path, where the signal is distorted by ambient noise. The distorted signal is input to a spaced apart plurality of sensors so that consequent time-delayed signals provide reinforcement of the basic signal and attenuation of the ambient noise component when combined.
US09030907B2

A semiconductor device includes a first internal clock generation unit suitable for generating a first internal clock for synchronizing a first signal in response to a first external clock; a second internal clock generation unit suitable for generating a second internal clock for synchronizing a second signal in response to a second external clock; and a delay amount information provision unit suitable for providing delay amount information corresponding to a phase difference between the first internal clock and the second internal clock to an external device.
US09030905B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, a refresh control circuit, an address counter and an address converter. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cells. The refresh control circuit is configured to receive a refresh command and output m refresh control signals during one refresh cycle for refreshing all the memory cells of the semiconductor memory device. The address counter is configured to generate counting signals for refreshing memory cells in response to the m refresh control signals. The address converter is configured to receive the counting signals and output refresh addresses by converting the counting signals in response to a cycle select signal. The address converter is configured to output refresh addresses such that the number of m refresh control signals during one refresh cycle is variable.
US09030903B2

A memory controller to implement targeted refreshes of potential victim rows of a row hammer event. In an embodiment, the memory controller receives an indication that a specific row of a memory device is experiencing repeated accesses which threaten the integrity of data in one or more victim rows physically adjacent to the specific row. The memory controller accesses default offset information in the absence of address map information which specifies an offset between physically adjacent rows of the memory device. In another embodiment, the memory controller determines addresses for potential victim rows based on the default offset information. In response to the received indication of the row hammer event, the memory controller sends for each of the determined plurality of addresses a respective command to the memory device, where the commands are for the memory device to perform targeted refreshes of potential victim rows.
US09030902B2

Methods for programming memory cells. One such method for programming memory cells includes generating an encoded stream using a data stream and programming the memory cells using the encoded stream to represent the data stream. A particular bit position of the encoded stream has a first voltage level when the particular bit position of the data stream has a particular logical state, and the particular bit position of the encoded stream has either a second voltage level or a third voltage level when the particular bit position of the data stream has a logical state other than the particular logical state.
US09030897B2

A memory may comprise a first bank configured to include first to Nth word lines and first to Mth redundancy word lines to replace M number of word lines among the first to Nth word lines, a second bank configured to include first to Nth word lines and first to Mth redundancy word lines to replace M number of word lines among the first to Nth word lines, and a control circuit configured to activate, in the case where a word line corresponding to an inputted address among the first to Nth word lines in a bank selected between the first bank and the second bank is replaced with a Kth (1≦K≦M) redundancy word line among the first to Mth redundancy word lines during an operation in a first mode, at least one adjacent word line adjacent to the Kth redundancy word line of the selected bank.
US09030895B2

A random access memory includes a data signal line, a data-synchronization signal line for a data synchronization signal which provides a synchronization signal when data is transmitted to the data signal line, and a setting module. The setting module determines whether the data signal line is set to be a data signal line for common input/output use, a data signal line for output-only use, or a data signal line for input-only use, and further determines whether the data-synchronization signal line is set to be a data-synchronization signal line for common input/output use, a data-synchronization signal line for output-only use, or a data-synchronization signal line for input-only use.
US09030894B2

A memory system includes multiple (N) memory banks and multiple (M) ports, wherein N is greater than or equal to M. Each of the memory banks is coupled to each of the ports. Access requests are transmitted simultaneously on each of the ports. However, each of the simultaneous access requests specifies a different memory bank. Each memory bank monitors the access requests on the ports, and determines whether any of the access requests specify the memory bank. Upon determining that an access request specifies the memory bank, the memory bank performs an access to an array of single-port memory cells. Simultaneous accesses are performed in multiple memory banks, providing a bandwidth equal to the bandwidth of one memory bank times the number of ports. An additional level of hierarchy may be provided, which allows further multiplication of the number of simultaneously accessed ports, with minimal area overhead.
US09030886B2

A memory device includes a memory array, an array gap, a voltage provider, and a voltage divider. The voltage provider is disposed in the array gap and coupled to a column of memory cells of the memory array for providing a first voltage to the column of memory cells when a memory cell of the column is selected at a write cycle. The voltage provider is coupled to the voltage provider and the column of memory cells for providing a second voltage lower than the first voltage to the column of memory cells when the memory of the column is half selected at the write cycle.
US09030883B2

Methods and systems are disclosed for adaptive erase recovery of non-volatile memory (NVM) cells within NVM systems. The adaptive erase recovery embodiments adaptively adjust the erase recovery discharge rate and/or discharge time based upon the size of NVM block(s) being erased and operating temperature. In one example embodiment, the erase recovery discharge rate is adjusted by adjusting the number of discharge transistors enabled within the discharge circuitry, thereby adjusting the discharge current for erase recovery. A lookup table is used to store erase recovery discharge rates and/or discharge times associated with NVM block sizes to be recovered and/or operating temperature. By adaptively controlling erase recovery discharge rates and/or times, the disclosed embodiments improve overall erase performance for a wide range of NVM block sizes while avoiding possible damage to high voltage circuitry within the NVM system.
US09030881B2

According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises memory cells each which stores data with two or more levels. Each of the memory cells includes a semiconductor layer, a first insulating layer on the semiconductor layer, a charge storage layer on the first insulating layer, a second insulating layer on the charge storage layer, and a control gate electrode on the second insulating layer, and the second insulating layer includes a ferroelectric layer.
US09030878B2

A semiconductor memory device includes first cell strings connected to first bit lines and second cell strings connected to second bit lines corresponding to the first bit lines, respectively. Data is stored in memory cells of the first cell strings, and the second cell strings are configured as a data non-storage region. At least one memory cell of each of the second cell strings is in a programmed state.
US09030872B2

Methods of maintaining a state of a memory cell without interrupting access to the memory cell are provided, including applying a back bias to the cell to offset charge leakage out of a floating body of the cell, wherein a charge level of the floating body indicates a state of the memory cell; and accessing the cell.
US09030870B2

Threshold voltages in a charge storage memory are controlled by threshold voltage placement, such as to provide more reliable operation and to reduce the influence of factors such as neighboring charge storage elements and parasitic coupling. Pre-compensation or post-compensation of threshold voltage for neighboring programmed “aggressor” memory cells reduces the threshold voltage uncertainty in a flash memory system. Using a buffer having a data structure such as a lookup table provides for programmable threshold voltage distributions that enables the distribution of data states in a multi-level cell flash memory to be tailored, such as to provide more reliable operation.
US09030868B2

A nonvolatile memory device includes bit and source lines alternately arranged parallel to each other and even strings and odd strings alternately arranged between the bit lines and the source lines and each including drain selection transistors, memory transistors, and a source selection transistor. The drain selection transistors include a first drain selection transistor with the same structure as the memory transistors and a second drain selection transistor with the same structure as the source selection transistor. The nonvolatile memory device further includes an even drain selection line connected to the first drain selection transistors of the even strings and the second drain selection transistors of the odd strings and an odd drain selection line connected to the second drain selection transistors of the even strings and the first drain selection transistors of the odd strings.
US09030865B2

In various embodiments, a circuit arrangement may be provided including a data cell. The circuit arrangement may further include a first transistor and a second transistor. The first controlled electrode of the first transistor and the first controlled electrode of the second transistor may be coupled to the first electrode of the data cell. The second controlled electrode of the first transistor may be configured to electrically connect to a first reference voltage such that the first electrode of the data cell is electrically connected to the first reference voltage when the first transistor is activated. The second controlled electrode of the second transistor may be configured to electrically connect to a second reference voltage, such that the first electrode of the data cell is electrically connected to the second reference voltage when the second transistor is activated.
US09030864B2

Magnetic tunnel junctions having a specular insulative spacer are disclosed. The magnetic tunnel junction includes a free magnetic layer, a reference magnetic layer, an electrically insulating and non-magnetic tunneling barrier layer separating the free magnetic layer from the reference magnetic layer, and an electrically insulating and electronically reflective layer positioned to reflect at least a portion of electrons back into the free magnetic layer.
US09030857B2

The multi-level DC/AC converter, comprising: an input (5,7) connectable to a direct voltage source (3), with a first connection (5) and a second connection (7) between which can be applied an input voltage (Vi); a half-bridge with a first controlled switch (21) and a second controlled switch (25) between which is positioned an output (U) of the converter; a first connecting branch (15) between the first controlled switch (21) and the first connection (5) and a second connecting branch (17) between the second controlled switch (25) and the second connection (7); a third controlled switch (59) associated to the first controlled switch (21), connectable in series to the first controlled switch to generate an output voltage exceeding a first limit value (Vi/2); a fourth controlled switch (61) associated to the second controlled switch (25), connectable in series to said second controlled switch to generate an output voltage below a second limit value (−Vi/2).
US09030852B2

A power conversion device according to the aspects of the present technique is presented. The device includes a first converter and a second converter operatively coupled to the first converter. Moreover, the device includes a phase leg operatively coupled between the first converter, the second converter, where the phase leg includes a first unidirectional switch, a second unidirectional switch operatively coupled to the first unidirectional switch, and a first bidirectional switch, where a first end of the first bidirectional switch is operatively coupled to at least one of the first unidirectional switch and the second unidirectional switch.
US09030850B2

A switching power supply of certain aspects of the invention includes a minimum dead time generating circuit that generates a minimum dead time from an OFF timing of an ON pulse detected from the voltage across an auxiliary winding of the transformer by a differentiating circuit. An ON width-determining means of a voltage control oscillator is started, after this minimum dead time, into operation to determine the ON width of the semiconductor switch.
US09030849B2

In a switching power supply device which intermittently executes a switching operation, a power loss which occurs in resumption of the switching operation is reduced. A semiconductor device works as a control circuit for the switching power supply device, and includes: an intermittent oscillation control circuit which alternately gives an instruction for execution and suspension of the switching operation of a switching element; a bottom detecting circuit which detects a bottom of a ringing voltage that develops when the switching element is OFF; a bottom-monitoring time period timing circuit which times a bottom-monitoring time period starting as soon as the instruction for the execution of the switching operation is given; and a turn-on control circuit which turns ON, before the timing of the bottom-monitoring time period ends, the switching element only when the bottom of the ringing voltage is detected.
US09030847B2

An inverter and driving method of the inverter are disclosed. The inverter includes an active clamp forward (ACF) converter and a flyback converter. One of a forwarding operation of delivering current from a primary side to a secondary side by using the ACF converter and a backwarding operation of delivering current from the secondary side to the primary side by using the flyback converter is selected to generate a rectified AC.
US09030843B1

A minimalized power converter has a square-wave voltage source operating at 100 percent duty-ratio, a series inductance and a rectifier. A high frequency square-wave power distribution system comprises a plurality of minimalized power converters connected by a common ac power distribution link. Because the ac power distribution link carries current at a high frequency, the square-wave may be degraded by the stray inductance with distance. Re-squaring circuits along the length of the ac power distribution link operating synchronously restore and preserve the integrity of the square-wave. The minimalized power converter is very flexible and has very fast dynamic response, being able to make very fast controlled current transitions from any current to any other current, including zero or current reversal (same voltage, opposite current flow).
US09030842B2

An electronic apparatus partially overmolded with a overmold sealing material that seals the circuit board, protects the electrical components on the circuit board and provides seals between the circuit board and mating devices is disclosed. The electronic apparatus may be an engine controller. The electrical components may be an electrical edge connector, a sensor, and a heat sink. The sensor may be a pressure sensor. The controller may be connected to a throttle body such that the overmold sealing material provides a first seal between the controller and the throttle body allowing the pressure sensor to be in fluid communication with the interior of the throttle body. A wire harness may be connected to the controller such that the overmold sealing material provides a second seal between the wire harness and the controller protecting the electrical connection. The overmold sealing material may also be translucent.
US09030836B2

An apparatus capable of selectively applying different types of connectors to a substrate is disclosed. The memory apparatus includes a substrate having a controller. First and second connector pads may be arranged on edges of top and bottom surfaces of the substrate. A via hole may be arranged between the controller and the first and second connector pads. A first passive device pad may be arranged between the via hole and the first connector pads. A second passive device pad may be arranged between the via hole and the second connector pads. A passive device may be coupled to only one of the first passive device pad or the second passive device pad.
US09030826B2

Chip-on-film packages are provided. A chip-on-film package includes a film substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other, a semiconductor chip on the first surface, and a thermal deformation member adjacent to the second surface. The thermal deformation member has a construction that causes its shape to transform according to a temperature. Related devices and device assembles are also provided.
US09030825B2

The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for fastening a power semiconductor using an integral springy (elastic) clip, capable of fixing a power semiconductor, such as a diode and a MOSFET, using elasticity of a U-shaped clip by integrally molding the clip onto a housing of a plastic module. The apparatus includes an elastic (springy) clip integrally molded onto a lower surface of the housing and downwardly curved into a U-like shape in a bridge module in which a bridge of the power semiconductor protrudes through a through hole of the housing to be connected to a printed circuit board, whereby the power semiconductor is fixed by a force that the housing presses the power semiconductor.
US09030824B2

At least one cooling channel is positioned adjacent to an electronic component. The cooling channel communicates with plenums at each of two opposed axial ends. A dielectric fluid is received in the cooling channel. The cooling channel is provided with at least one electrode. A potential is applied to the at least one electrode such that an electric field magnitude at the downstream end of the channel is less than an upstream electric field magnitude, and such that a dielectrophoretic force on a bubble in the cooling channel will force it downstream.
US09030823B2

Disclosed herein is a heat dissipation system for a power module, including: first cooling medium flow parts and second cooling medium flow parts allowing cooling media to flow in first and second directions, respectively.
US09030819B2

A mounting apparatus includes a mounting piece and a drive bracket. A first restricting piece is formed on a top side of the mounting piece. A first sliding member is formed on the first restricting piece. The drive bracket includes a side piece which defines a sliding groove. The sliding groove includes a guiding portion and a restricting portion. The drive bracket includes a handle pivotally mounted thereon. The handle includes a locking portion. The locking portion defines a cutout. The handle is rotated between a first position and a second position. In the first position, the cutout is aligned to the guiding portion to receive the first sliding member in the cutout and the guiding portion. In the second position, the sliding member is restricted in the restricting portion by the locking portion to mount the drive bracket on the top side of the mounting piece.
US09030809B2

A housing for a switchgear assembly module of a switchgear assembly forms a common gas space suitable for accommodating an insulating gas and three gas-insulated busbar nominal conductors of the switchgear assembly module. The housing includes three first busbar openings, which are arranged areally in a first opening plane and along a first straight line, three second busbar openings, which are arranged on a side, which is opposite the three first busbar openings, of the housing, and three outgoing conductor openings which are arranged areally in a second opening plane and along a second straight line.
US09030807B2

A process for preparing a solid electrolytic capacitor comprising application of coverage enhancing catalyst followed by application of a conducting polymer layer wherein the conductive polymeric cathode comprises the coverage enhancement catalyst wherein the conductive polymeric layer has improved coverage of the corners and edges. Coverage enhancing catalyst is removed after coating and curing.
US09030806B2

A improved process for preparing a conductive polymer dispersion is provided as is an improved method for making capacitors using the conductive polymer. The process includes providing a monomer solution and shearing the monomer solution with a rotor-stator mixing system comprising a perforated stator screen having perforations thereby forming droplets of said monomer. The droplets of monomer are then polymerized during shearing to form the conductive polymer dispersion.
US09030799B2

Processes comprising: melting a mixture comprising a valve metal precursor and a diluting agent in at least one first vessel under a first set of temperature and residence time conditions; transferring the mixture to at least one second vessel; and initiating, in the at least one second vessel, a reaction of the valve metal precursor to form a valve metal under a second set of temperature and residence time conditions; valve metal powder prepared thereby and uses therefor.
US09030796B2

A system for supplying direct current and DC voltage is provided. The system comprise a first supply branch having a first DC voltage source and a power field-effect transistor of a current limiter which are connected in series, and a second supply branch having a second DC voltage source. The power transistor has a current/voltage characteristic with a first inverse polarization area without current limitation, and a second conduction area with current limitation based on a current threshold. The power field-effect transistor is connected to the first voltage source with an inverse polarization when the voltage source of the first branch is operating normally.
US09030788B2

When an earth faulting has occurred in a driving device for driving a motor, a high voltage noise enters a high voltage detector through a connection node of the Y capacitor constituted by a pair of capacitors in DC/DC converter. A controller of the DC/DC converter limits the duty of switching elements constituting a full-bridge circuit on a primary side, in the case where a defect due to an earth faulting of the driving device is detected by a detection value of high voltage detector.
US09030784B2

A magnetic head including a magnetoresistive junction and an oxide layer. The magnetoresistive junction includes a pinned layer, a free layer, and a barrier layer residing between the pinned and free layer. The magnetoresistive junction includes at least one side having a smooth profile. The oxide layer is on the at least one side. The oxide layer is less than one nanometer thick at the free layer.
US09030777B2

A spin torque oscillator generates a strong high-frequency magnetic field stably and has high reliability. A magnetic recording head includes a main magnetic pole and a spin torque oscillator. A magnetization control layer is antiferromagnetically coupled via a non-magnetic coupling layer with an interface contacting a high-frequency magnetic field generation layer of the spin torque oscillator.
US09030776B1

A magnetic head includes a main pole, a write shield, and first and second nonmagnetic layers. The main pole has a top surface including an inclined surface portion. The inclined surface portion includes a first portion and a second portion, the first portion being closer to a medium facing surface. The write shield includes an inclined portion facing toward the top surface of the main pole. The first nonmagnetic layer is interposed between the inclined portion and the second portion of the inclined surface portion. The second nonmagnetic layer is interposed between the inclined portion and a combination of the first portion of the inclined surface portion and the first nonmagnetic layer.
US09030759B2

Disclosed herein is an imaging lens, including: a first lens having positive (+) power and being biconvex; a second lens having negative (−) power and being concave toward an image side; a third lens having positive (+) power and being biconvex; a fourth lens having positive (+) power and being convex toward the image side; and a fifth lens having negative (−) power and being concave toward the image side, wherein the first lens, the second lens, the third lens, the fourth lens, and the fifth lens are sequentially disposed from an object side.
US09030752B2

The zoom lens includes at least five lens groups including first, second, third, fourth and fifth lens groups respectively having positive, negative, negative, positive and positive refractive powers. At least four movable lens groups are moved during zooming. At least two movable lens groups placed further on an image side than an aperture. C1 and C2 lens groups are moved so as to draw mutually different loci and such that a distance therebetween becomes maximum at a middle zoom position. The C1 and C2 lens groups are located further on a same side at the telephoto end than at a wide-angle end. At least one of D1 and D2 lens groups is moved during the zooming so as to be located further on an object side at a telephoto end than at the wide-angle end. A distance therebetween at the telephoto end becomes larger than that at wide-angle end.
US09030749B2

A bifocal head-up display system includes a projector, at least one projection surface in an intermediate image plane, and relay optics to direct a display image to a reflector in a vehicle operator's field of view. The display image includes two image portions focused at different distances from the vehicle operator. A first image portion focused at a first distance may include information related to vehicle operation, and a second image portion focused at a second distance may include to information related to extra-vehicular objects.
US09030748B2

A brightness enhancement film includes a substrate; and a microlens structure formed on the substrate, wherein the microlens structure comprises a plurality of microlenses, each of the microlenses comprising a bottom surface contacting with the substrate, the bottom surface of each of the plurality of microlenses being of a polygonal shape such that at the substrate each of the plurality of microlenses is in close contact with adjacent microlenses surrounding it, without gaps leaving between them. The present invention also discloses a backlight module and a display apparatus comprising the above brightness enhancement film. The brightness enhancement film can improve optical gain property, reduce the thickness of the display apparatus and expand the view angle.
US09030742B2

Optical components and systems comprising combined optical filters and diffraction gratings are generally described. In certain embodiments, an optical filter is in contact with a diffraction grating. In certain embodiments, the optical filter and the diffraction grating can be used to diffract and direct a first portion of electromagnetic radiation incident upon the grating and filter toward a receiver while filtering a second portion of the electromagnetic radiation incident upon the grating and filter.
US09030730B2

A method for amplifying optical signals includes determining a source optical signal, generating a first resultant signal including a pump signal and the source optical signal, sending the first resultant signal through a non-linear element to generate a second resultant signal including the first resultant signal and an idler signal, and sending the second resultant signal through a non-linear element to perform phase-sensitive amplification. The phase-sensitive amplification results in a third resultant signal including an amplified source optical signal, the pump signal, and the idler signal. The method also includes filtering the third resultant signal to remove the pump signal and the idler signal and outputting the amplified source optical signal.
US09030727B2

A manufacturing method of an electrowetting display apparatus, in which a pixel electrode is formed on a substrate including pixel areas, a first mixture including a hydrophobic material and a solvent is disposed on the substrate to form a hydrophobic insulating layer, and a first heat process is performed to remove a portion of the solvent. Then, a second mixture including a material for a barrier and the solvent is disposed on the hydrophobic insulating layer, and the second mixture is patterned to form a barrier wall surrounding the pixel electrode in each pixel area. A second heat process is performed to remove the solvent in the hydrophobic insulating layer and the barrier wall, and a polar fluid and a non-polar fluid are disposed on the pixel electrode to form an electrowetting layer.
US09030725B2

Controllers and control methods apply a drive voltage to bus bars of a thin film optically switchable device. The applied drive voltage is provided at a level that drives a transition over the entire surface of the optically switchable device but does not damage or degrade the device. This applied voltage produces an effective voltage at all locations on the face of the device that is within a bracketed range. The upper bound of this range is associated with a voltage safely below the level at which the device may experience damage or degradation impacting its performance in the short term or the long term. At the lower boundary of this range is an effective voltage at which the transition between optical states of the device occurs relatively rapidly. The level of voltage applied between the bus bars is significantly greater than the maximum value of the effective voltage within the bracketed range.
US09030721B2

A mirror driving device can include: a mirror part having a reflection surface configured to reflect light; mirror support parts formed at portions of the mirror part diagonal to each other; and a first actuator and a second actuator placed so as to surround the mirror part, wherein the first actuator and the second actuator each have a structure in which a plurality of first piezoelectric cantilevers with a longitudinal direction oriented to a direction of a first axis and a plurality of second piezoelectric cantilevers with a longitudinal direction oriented to a second axis are coupled together so as to be folded, and each of the first actuator and the second actuator has one end connected to the mirror part via a relevant one of the mirror support parts and another end connected to a fixing part near the mirror support part to which the one end is coupled.
US09030718B1

A book scanner includes a loading mechanism, a pickup mechanism, a page-turning mechanism, a page-pressing mechanism and an image capturing mechanism. The pickup mechanism is disposed at one end of the loading mechanism. The page-turning mechanism is disposed at the end of the loading mechanism. The page-turning mechanism includes a swing arm and a supporting arm. One end of the swing arm swings reciprocally and the other end of the swing arm is connected with the supporting arm. The supporting arm is capable of rotating into a gap between a ruckled uppermost page and the other pages of the book. The swing arm rotatably turns the ruckled uppermost page. The page-pressing mechanism is partially disposed above and facing the loading mechanism. The image capturing mechanism is disposed above and facing the loading mechanism.
US09030716B2

An image forming apparatus to set a wallpaper includes providing a user interface (UI) for wallpaper editing of each program, and changing and displaying a wallpaper of a respective program according to items selected from the UI. Accordingly, a user-desired wallpaper is applied to each widget program used according to a user's purpose.
US09030712B2

Nozzles in a print head are arrayed in a density of 600 dpi. Moreover, a dither matrix has a size of 16 pixels×16 pixels in 600 dpi. The dither matrix is repeatedly used. In the meantime, each of rectangles represents an HS processing unit. WHS=3 pixels. As a consequence, the relationship of a least common multiple below is established in a nozzle array direction: 3×WD=16×WHS. In this case, the cycle of interference unevenness can be prolonged to the least common multiple between WD and WHS, that is, 48 pixels (3WD). In this manner, the size of the dither matrix is not an integral multiple of the HS processing unit width, so that the cycle of interference unevenness can be prolonged more than the size of the dither matrix. Thus, the interference unevenness can be hardly recognized.
US09030711B2

According to an embodiment, provided is a controller that controls an image forming unit forming an image on a recording medium based on image data in which densities of a plurality of colors are specified for each pixel. The controller includes: a setting unit that sets a common representative value to a density of a specific color indicating one of the colors in each of a plurality of pixels included in a specific area indicating a specific area represented in the image data; and a determining unit that determines a density of each of the colors so that a sum of densities of the respective colors other than the specific color in the pixels included in the specific area becomes equal to or lower than a value acquired by subtracting the representative value from a reference value indicating a total amount restriction target of a total amount of toners.
US09030709B2

An information processing apparatus includes a drawing receiving unit to receive a page start command and a drawing command from an OS, a transparency processing unit to generate a bitmap upon receiving the page start command, to alpha blend a first image with a second image existing on the bitmap to generate a blended image upon receiving the drawing command that includes the first image with an alpha channel, and to duplicate the alpha blended image, and a drawing processing unit to convert the drawing command that includes the first image with the alpha channel, into a print command to draw the duplicated alpha blended image.
US09030707B2

A log image creating system includes a job type determining unit and a log image creating unit. If the job type determining unit determines that the job is a heterogeneous multicasting transmission job for transmitting images created from the same draft by a plurality of communication methods, and is also a different-image heterogeneous multicasting transmission job, in which the plurality of communication methods include a plurality of communication methods in which at least one of a color and a resolution differs among images to be transmitted, the log image creating unit creates a log image in the different-image heterogeneous multicasting transmission job based on an image of a type selected under a specific condition from a plurality of types of images that are eligible for being transmitted in the different-image heterogeneous multicasting transmission job and mutually differ with respect to at least their color or resolution.
US09030691B2

In tandem printing, in accordance with a printing process executed in one printing apparatus, the printing process in the other printing apparatus is automatically changed. The first printing apparatus inputs a third print job including a first print job and a second print job. An image is formed on the basis of the first print job, and on the basis of a result of the image formation, a page with a change amount in the characteristic of a recording medium after printing at a predetermined threshold value or more is detected. The second print job in which the information is changed in accordance with the change amount in the characteristic of the detected page is transmitted to the second printing apparatus.
US09030690B2

An image forming apparatus capable of changing the execution order of jobs to thereby suppress occurrence of downtime caused when an operator cannot replenish or replace a consumable. A print queue manages the execution order of jobs. A paper-out prediction section predicts a time at which replenishment or replacement of a consumable to be consumed by the execution of the jobs becomes necessary. An operator absence schedule input section receives an input of a time period during which an operator who is to replenish or replace the consumable cannot replenish or replace the consumable. A job order automatic changing section changes the execution order of the jobs such that the predicted time will not come during the time period, when possible.
US09030688B2

A system for transmission of files, which files are generated by a first user at a first client station, which first client station is connected by a first computer network such as a Local Area Network (LAN) to one or more local servers, which first server performs communication to a number of computer systems connected to the first LAN. Worldwide net scalable files transferring processes without the need for transferring the files over the wide area net, but to retain the user's full access to any file are achieved and storage of large files at a plurality of servers during and after data transmission prevented.
US09030687B2

A printing system high in flexibility and/or user-friendliness which make it possible to use only post processing by a post-processing unit connected to a printing unit without requiring printing by the printing unit. An execution request receiving unit receives a request for execution of one of an inline job requiring post processing by the sheet processing unit after execution of printing by the printing unit, and an offline job requiring post processing by the sheet processing unit connected to the printing unit, without requiring printing by the printing unit. A controller performs control such that the offline job is executed by the sheet processing unit prior to an inline job associated with an execution request received earlier by the execution request receiving unit than an execution request associated with the offline job.
US09030686B2

A display device has a registration portion which accepts input of a message created by a user, a storage portion which stores the message inputted via the registration portion, a determination portion which extracts information on a display period of the message from the content of the message and which determines, based on the extracted information, an end time of display of the message, a time counting portion which counts time, and a display portion which displays the message stored in the storage portion until the end time determined by the determination portion.
US09030685B2

A POS system 1 includes a POS terminal 10, first printer 60, and second printer 20. The first printer 60 includes a USB interface 64 to which a POS terminal 10 connects, and a first printer print unit 71 that prints, and can output information related to the second printer 20 through the USB interface 64 to the POS terminal 10.
US09030671B2

A measuring assembly for measuring an inside of a lens frame of a spectacle frame, said lens frame at least partially delimiting an inscribed surface area F that corresponds to a lens shape, comprising a holding device for mounting the spectacle frame, at least one light source for generating a light beam to be projected on a region of the lens frame to be evaluated, and at least one sensor that can be coupled to an evaluation unit for detecting the reflected light beam, wherein the holding device can be rotated about a rotational axis r and moved in the direction of a movement axis x, and the movement axis x comprises at least one movement component in a direction perpendicular to the rotational axis r. The holding device is used to fix the spectacle frame by spectacle frame bows, wherein at least one free space is provided in the region of the holding device, said free space being used to receive the spectacle frame bows of a spectacle frame to be held which are not folded in or cannot be folded in.
US09030670B2

A method of tracking the position of an object, comprising using reference interference data from first output beam, reference interference data from a second output beam, measurement interference data from the first output beam, measurement interference data from the second output beam, and knowledge of the difference between the absolute phase offset of the first output beam and the absolute phase offset of the second output beam for both a reference interferometer (15′) and a measurement interferometer (15) to calculate a parameter indicative of the absolute phase offset of the measurement interferometer (15) for the first output beam. The calculated parameter is used to calculate the ratio of the optical path differences of the measurement interferometer (15) and the reference interferometer (15′).
US09030668B2

Fringe patterns at first and second spatial frequencies are projected onto a work piece surface and a reference surface, respectively. An image of the projected fringe patterns is obtained and a measurement signal associated with work piece displacements and a reference signal are obtained based on the first and second spatial frequencies. The image of the projected fringe patterns can exhibit substantial or complete overlap of the fringe patterns at the first and second spatial frequencies, and the overlapping patterns can be separated based on the spatial frequencies. Fringe pattern shifts at one or both of the first and second spatial frequencies can be used to adjust a pattern transfer system to permit accurate pattern transfer.
US09030659B2

A spark-induced breakdown spectroscopy apparatus can have a housing with an inlet and an outlet that define an analyte flow path. A laser can define a laser pathway generally transverse to an intersecting the analyte flow path. A pair of electrodes, which can have insulating shields, can be mounted within the housing and can define a spark path. An optical detection element defines an optical path. The apparatus can be used to identify an aerosolized analyte.
US09030656B2

Disclosed is an inspection device for inspecting deformation of a substrate holding member of a substrate transport apparatus. The substrate holding member is moved in the forward-and-backward direction relative to the transport base to pass across a light path of the detection light formed by an optical detection unit. The position, with respect to a direction transverse to the forward-and-backward direction, of the substrate holding member is detected based on a detection signal of the optical detection unit. Based on a correlation data expressing the relationship between a first parameter indicative of a change of a position of the substrate holding member with respect to the forward-and-backward direction and a second parameter indicative of the change of the position of the substrate holding member with respect to the direction transverse to the forward-and-backward direction, whether or not deformation occurs in the substrate holding member is judged.
US09030653B1

The features of the system are: fiber optic cables (instead of human sensory receptor) and low cost CMOS or CCD image sensor (which can be found in a conventional webcam, camcorder, digital camera etc.) are used by pairing each pixel of the image sensor with corresponding fiber optic cable, which is assured to transfer all light beams to the processor on a single photo frame where the coordinates and the level of displacements are detected precisely by the aid of image processing techniques, in order to provide tactile sensing. The system can work with a computer or it can work individually with an electronically circuit that contains an independent processor.
US09030648B2

A dual wafer stage exchanging system for a lithographic device is disclosed, said system comprises two wafer stages running between an exposure workstation and a pre-processing workstation, and said two stages are set on a base and suspended above the upper surface of the base by air bearings. Each wafer stages is passed through by a Y-direction guide rail respectively, wherein one end of said guide rail is connected with a main driving unit and another end of said guide rail is detachably coupled with one of the two X-direction auxiliary driving units with single degree of freedom, and said two wafer stages are capable of moving in Y-direction along the guide rails and moving in X-direction under the drive of the auxiliary driving units with single degree of freedom. The position exchange of said two wafer stages can be enabled by the detachment and connection of the Y-direction guide rails and the auxiliary units with single degree of freedom.
US09030647B2

An optical imaging arrangement includes an optical projection system and a support structure system. The optical projection system includes a group of optical elements configured to transfer, in an exposure process using exposure light along an exposure light path, an image of a pattern of a mask supported by a mask support structure onto a substrate supported by a substrate support structure. The mask support structure and the substrate support structure form a primary source of vibration. The support structure system includes a base support structure, an optical element support structure and at least one secondary vibration source support structure of a secondary vibration source other than the primary source of vibration. The optical element support structure supports the optical elements.
US09030644B2

The disclosure relates to a projection exposure apparatus for semiconductor lithography which includes an actuator system to mechanically actuate a component of the projection exposure apparatus. The actuator system has at least one mechanism to reduce and/or dampen the heat input into the component that is due to heat arising during the operation of the actuator system.
US09030640B2

In an electro-optical device, an electro-optical material is doubly sealed with a first seal member and a second seal member. In the second seal member, first particles are located in a gap between a first substrate and a second substrate, and second particles are located outside of the gap between the first substrate and the second substrate, so as to cover the opening of the gap.
US09030639B2

Reduction in the reliability of a seal portion is prevented. The reduction is caused by a light shielding portion formed on the seal portion of a TFT substrate to hamper curing an ultraviolet curable sealing material. A sealing material has a two-layer structure of an ultraviolet curable sealing material that is an inner sealing material and a thermosetting and ultraviolet curable sealing material or a thermosetting sealing material that is an outer sealing material. A light shielding portion is formed on a TFT substrate under the outer sealing material, and is not formed on the TFT substrate under the inner sealing material. When ultraviolet rays are applied from the TFT substrate side, the inner sealing material is cured in a short time. The outer sealing material is then cured by heating. Thus, the overall seal portion can be sufficiently cured, and a highly reliable seal portion can be formed.
US09030621B2

Provided is a liquid crystal display (LCD) with improved heat dissipation and reduced thickness. The LCD includes for an embodiment: a lower housing; a heat-dissipating member which is disposed in the lower housing; a plurality of point light sources which are disposed on the heat-dissipating member; a plurality of electric wires which supply power to the point light sources; and a light guide plate (LGP) which is disposed in the lower housing in such a way that side surfaces of the LGP face the point light sources.
US09030617B2

An LCD panel is disclosed which includes: gate and data lines formed to cross each other and define a pixel region; a thin film transistor connected to the gate and data lines; a plurality of pixel electrodes formed to be in partial contact with a drain electrode of the thin film transistor; a common electrode formed in a shape alternating with the pixel electrodes; and a passivation layer formed between the pixel electrodes and the common electrode, wherein the pixel electrodes and the common electrode are formed through a single process.
US09030616B2

A retention capacity in which a first electrode, a lower side capacity insulation film, a second electrode, an upper side capacity insulation film, and a third electrode are laminated is formed between a pixel electrode and a TFT. The lower side capacity insulation film and the upper side capacity insulation film respectively include a plurality of insulation films, and the lamination order thereof is the same.
US09030615B2

A display substrate includes a data line disposed on a base substrate, a first pixel electrode disposed at a first side of the data line, a second pixel electrode disposed at a second side of the data line and a storage electrode overlapping with the data line. The storage electrode overlaps with the first pixel electrode by a first overlapping width, and overlaps with the second pixel electrode by a second overlapping width larger than the first overlapping width.
US09030611B2

A method for controlling a bidirectional remote controller is provided. The method includes receiving, at the bidirectional remote controller, menu information from a display apparatus; generating, at the bidirectional remote controller, a menu screen based on the received menu information for controlling the display apparatus; and displaying the generated menu screen on a display of the bidirectional remote controller.
US09030609B1

A system transmits video content from a single video source or multiple independent video sources by transmitting at least one data information segment (DIS) followed by a plurality of video data information segments (VDIS). Each DIS includes information that corresponds to a video source and to the plurality of VDIS transmitted subsequently. A receiver system receives at least one DIS followed by a plurality of VDIS, and processes the received VDIS in accordance with the information in the received DIS. The receiver system stores processed video content of the processed VDIS into a memory queue, and a separate memory queue is used for each video source. A display interface receives and processes video content of each memory queue to generate video pixels of a respective output image in accordance with preselected preferences, e.g., corresponding video source, video format, resolution, and/or starting location of the respective output image.
US09030600B2

A method and an apparatus for controlling a flash are disclosed. The method includes obtaining a statistical gray value of a preview image. If the statistical gray value of the preview image is less than a preset threshold, a corresponding fill light parameter is searched for in a preset dynamic fill light table according to the statistical gray value of the preview image and the fill light drive current is set according to the fill light parameter. The fill light drive current is configured to drive a flash lamp to fire a pre-flash. A corresponding exposure drive current in the preset exposure parameter table is configured according to the fill light parameter and the exposure drive current is configured to drive the flash lamp to flash.
US09030598B2

A method includes producing a first layer of optical liquid, shaping contactlessly the first layer of the optical liquid according to a desired form, and curing the shaped first layer of the optical liquid with electromagnetic radiation to generate a first optically refracting surface.
US09030587B2

A solid-state image sensor comprising a photoelectric conversion portion, a MOS transistor, a first insulating layer, a second insulating layer whose refractive index is higher than that of the first insulating layer, and a light-guiding portion including a first portion and a second portion formed on the first portion, wherein an angle that the side face of the first portion makes with a plane parallel to a light-receiving face of the photoelectric conversion portion is smaller than an angle that a side face of the second portion makes with the parallel plane, and a boundary between the first portion and the second portion is positioned higher than an upper face of a gate electrode of the MOS transistor, and lower than a boundary between the first insulating layer and the second insulating layer.
US09030583B2

An electronic device may have a camera module. The camera module may include a camera sensor capable of capturing foveated images. The camera sensor may be hardwired to capture foveated images with fixed regions of different quality levels or may be dynamically-reconfigurable to capture foveated images with selected regions of different quality levels. As one example, the camera module may be hardwired to capture a center region of an image at full resolution and peripheral regions at reduced resolutions, so that a user can merely center objects of interest in the image to capture a foveated image. As another example, the camera module may analyze previous images to identify objects of interest and may then reconfigure itself to capture the identified objects of interest at a high quality level, while capturing other regions at reduced quality levels.
US09030581B2

A solid-state imaging device includes: a device portion in which unit constituent elements, each of which includes a charge detection unit detecting a charge that is generated on the basis of changes in physical information and a transfer unit transferring a signal charge detected by the charge detection unit, are arranged in a predetermined direction; and a supplied voltage control portion capable of transferring a part of the charge detected by the charge detection unit through supplying of a control voltage for suppressing blooming to the transfer unit and capable of transferring the signal charge detected by the charge detection unit through supplying of a first control voltage that is different from the control voltage for suppressing the blooming to the transfer unit.
US09030578B2

An image pickup apparatus includes a plurality of optical systems, each having a different focal length, an image pickup element which picks up an image of an object by the optical system, and a zoom control section which changes an angle of field of an output image by at least one optical system from among the plurality of optical systems, and a part of the angle of field which changes is same as an angle of field of another optical system, and the image pickup apparatus further includes a control section which changes a control position of a display image at the time of zooming to be directed toward an optical-axial center of the another optical system for which the part of the angle of field is same.
US09030568B2

Disclosed herein is a data processing apparatus including: a data sort block configured to sort, into multiple groups by information data of a same type, input data including information data of multiple types formed by multiple bits; a maximum value extraction block configured to extract a maximum value of the information data in each of the groups sorted by the data sort block; and a bit position decision and bit reduction block configured to determine a reduction position of bits common to the information data of the same type in each group on the basis of the maximum value extracted by the maximum value extraction block and reduce the common bits in accordance with the determination.
US09030552B2

A method for calibrating measurement instruments of an optronic system in motion, with positions P1, P2, . . . , Pi, . . . , comprises: a device for acquiring images of a scene comprising a fixed object G0; and means for tracking the fixed object G0 during the acquisition of these images; means for obtaining the positions P1, P2, . . . ; at least one instrument for measuring the distance and/or an instrument for measuring angles of orientation and/or of attitude between this measurement instrument and the fixed object G0, according to a line of sight LoS. It comprises the following steps: acquisition at instants t1, t2, . . . of at least two images, each image being acquired on the basis of different positions P1, P2, . . . of the system, the fixed object G0 being sighted in each image, but its position being unknown; acquisition at the instants t′1, t′2, . . . of measurements of distance and/or of angle; synchronization of the measurements of distance and/or of angle with the positions P1, P2, . . . established at instants t1, t2, . . . ; estimation of the measurement defects which minimize the dispersion of at least two points of intersection Gij between the LoS at the position Pi and the LoS at the position Pj, as a function of said measurements and of the known positions Pi, Pj of the system.
US09030549B2

A method of distinguishing individual plants within a row of plants, including directing radiation at the row of plants at an angle selected to illuminate a portion of the plant and cast a shadow at the plant center, collecting an image from the radiation reflected off of two or more contiguous plants with a detector, identifying a continuous foreground region indicative of a plant within the image, identifying points of interest within the region, classifying the points of interest as plant centers and non-plant centers, and segmenting the region into sub-regions, each sub-region encompassing a single point of interest classified as a plant center.
US09030542B2

An image pickup apparatus includes: an image pickup device for picking up an image of an object; a reception portion that is provided in a processor including a signal processing portion processes an image signal obtained by picking up the object with the image pickup device, and that receives a first synchronization signal generated in a first synchronization signal generation portion and is transmitted through a cable; a calculation portion that sequentially detects a plurality of periods of the first synchronization signal that the reception portion receives, and carries out processing to perform a calculation that determines an average value of the detected plurality of periods of the first synchronization signal; and a second synchronization signal generation portion that generates a second synchronization signal taking a value based on a calculation result of the calculation portion as a period, and supplies the second synchronization signal to the image pickup device.
US09030540B2

The present disclosure describes systems and methods for reducing ghosting in a three-dimensional (3-D) image system. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a 3-D image generation system may comprise a first pixel disposed on a semiconductor element that emits light in a first color spectrum and a second pixel disposed on a semiconductor element that emits light in a second color spectrum. A controller may be coupled to the first pixel and the second pixel. The controller may cause the 3-D image generation system to display a first stereoscopic image using the first color spectrum and a second stereoscopic image using the second color spectrum. A filter may be coupled to at least one of the first pixel and the second pixel, and alter at least one of the first color spectrum and the second color spectrum.
US09030537B2

An image display apparatus includes a signal control unit for receiving an input of an image signal, and converting to a signal for displaying each of a right eye image and a left eye image at least two times continuously; and a display panel, input with the signal converted by the signal control unit, for alternately displaying the right eye image continuing two or more times, and the left eye image continuing two or more times.
US09030531B2

A method for multiplexing a stream of stereoscopic image source data into a series of left images and a series of right images combinable to form a series of stereoscopic images, both the stereoscopic image source data and series of left images and series of right images conceptually defined to be within frames. The method includes compressing stereoscopic image source data at varying levels across the frame, thereby forming left images and right images, and providing a series of single frames divided into portions, each single frame containing one right image in a first portion and one left image in a second portion. Alternately, single frames may contain two right images in a first two portions of each single frame and two left images in a second two portions of each single frame, wherein each set of right and left images may be processed differently. Multiplexing processes such as staggering, alternating, filtering, variable scaling, and sharpening from original, uncompressed right and left images may be employed.
US09030510B2

A color erasing apparatus according to an embodiment comprises a paper feeding section configured to supply to a conveying path a paper on which images are formed by a heat-erasable coloring material, a sensor configured to output a sensor signal indicative of a thickness of the paper, and a paper thickness detector configured to determine the thickness of the paper based on the sensor signal. The color erasing apparatus further comprises a color erasing section including a heat source configured to heat the paper; and a heat source temperature controller configured to control the heat source in the color erasing section to a predetermined temperature based on the determined thickness of the paper.
US09030471B2

According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus sets, as the three-dimensional image display area, a first area corresponding to a window of a first application program such that a three-dimensional image is displayed in the first area. The apparatus sets as the three-dimensional image display area, if a 3D request is received from a second application program, one of the first area and a second area corresponding to a window of the second application program, and causes the other one of the first application program and the second application program to render a single two-dimensional image such that the single two-dimensional image is displayed in the other one of the first area and the second area.
US09030469B2

Methods for generating depth maps from monocular still image or monocular video and systems using the same are provided. First, an initial depth map is estimated or arbitrary defined. For video inputs, motion information can be used, for still image the initial background can be arbitrary set by default, chosen by the user or can be estimated. Estimation of the initial depth map can be based on a contrast map or a blur map. The initial depth map defines initial depth values for the respective pixels of the monocular image or monocular motion picture frames. The respective pixels of the original image or video frame data are mapped to the initial depth map according to positions of the pixels, in order to obtain corresponding initial depth values. An image data space of the image is subdivided into a plurality of sub-image spaces, and the initial depth value of each of the pixels of the image is filtered according to the initial depth values of the pixels located in the same sub-image space, in order to obtain depth information for the pixels.
US09030464B2

A paint simulation system described herein includes a brush component that outputs a three-dimensional computer-implemented model of an image editing tool. A paint component receives the three-dimensional computer-implemented model and generates a two-dimensional map corresponding to a footprint of the three-dimensional model with respect to a computer-implemented canvas, wherein resolution of the two-dimensional map is substantially similar to resolution of a paint map of the computer-implemented canvas.
US09030457B2

A display with wireless power charging function, an operation method thereof and a corresponding portable electronic apparatus are provided. The display includes a RFID read/write module and is applicable to electrically charge a portable electronic apparatus with a RFID tag. The operation method includes steps of: displaying an image on the display surface of the display panel of the display; transmitting data between the Radio Frequency Identification read/write module of the display and the Radio Frequency Identification tag of the portable electronic apparatus and electrically charging the energy storage unit of the portable electronic apparatus while the portable electronic apparatus is placed in the readable/writable area; and adjusting, while the portable electronic apparatus is placed in the readable/writable area, the image to an updated image having no overlap with the readable/writable area if the image has an overlap with the readable/writable area.
US09030447B2

A surface acoustic wave touch panel includes a flexible substrate, an acoustic wave transmitting layer, an adhering layer, a piezoelectricity layer, and an electrode layer. The acoustic wave transmitting layer is made of nano-diamond and formed on the flexible substrate. The adhering layer is formed on the acoustic wave transmitting layer. The piezoelectricity layer is formed on the acoustic wave transmitting layer in an interdigitated electrode pattern. The electrode layer is formed on the piezoelectricity layer. A method of manufacturing the surface acoustic wave touch panel is also provided.
US09030445B2

Techniques are provided to improve interaction between a user and a projection system. In some embodiments, an image of a user in front of a display screen is captured. An inference can then be made as to whether a user is touching a display screen based on an analysis of shadows and/or variation of brightness (i.e., intensities) across pixels in the image. For example, it may be inferred that the object is: (1) approaching the screen when a region surrounding a top of the object is characterized by a relatively small brightness variation; (2) hovering near the screen when the brightness variation is large and the region includes a dark extremum (caused by a shadow); and (3) touching the screen when the brightness variation is large and the region includes a light extremum.
US09030441B2

Provided is a touch panel system (1) capable of reliably removing a wide variety of noises. The touch panel system (1) includes a main sensor (31) which detects a touch operation, a sub sensor (32) which does not detect a touch operation but detects a noise component, and a subtracting section (41) which subtracts, from an output signal of the main sensor (31), an output signal of the sub sensor (32). The subtracting section (41) performs a subtracting operation to remove a noise component from the output signal of the main sensor (31), thereby extracting a signal derived from the touch operation itself.
US09030420B2

A display device includes: a display section having a plurality of pixel electrodes; and a plurality of drive electrodes extending in a first direction and arranged side-by-side in a second direction. Each of the drive electrodes has a width in the second direction corresponding to a size of the two or more pixel electrodes, and has one or more slits extending in the first direction.