US09338936B2

A workbench and an assistance method for manufacturing or checking electrical wiring harnesses. The workbench comprises: an assembly board; image projection devices on the assembly board; optical sensors arranged on the assembly board to provide information about its position; cameras arranged to capture gestures of the technician in charge of the workbench; a computer with a set of computer programs adapted to provide, through the image projection devices images in 1:1 scale of templates of the electrical wiring harness being manufactured or checked projected onto the assembly board and, superimposed on them, complementary images of aid requested by the technician, acting on virtual menus and/or buttons projected onto the assembly board.
US09338933B2

The present invention relates to a shielding system for conductor cables as well as to a method for producing said shielding system. The system is characterized in that it comprises a corrugated tube (20) coated with one or more thin films of high electrical conductivity material (30) which are reversibly adhered to the surface of said corrugated tube (20) so that said coating can be uncoupled from the corrugated tube due to high bending values of the tube itself. The shielding system according to the present invention therefore combines the excellent shielding efficacy values of a system having thin metal films with the excellent flexibility properties of a corrugated plastic tube.
US09338930B2

A shield reinforcing apparatus is provided. The shield reinforcing apparatus includes a printed circuit board, a shield member that covers the printed circuit board, and at least one shield reinforcing part provided in the printed circuit board and configured to contact the shield member to be pressed.
US09338929B2

A junction box for a vehicle is provided. The junction box includes at least one printed circuit board having a metal core and a heat transfer member formed at an edge of the printed circuit board. In addition, the junction box includes a case in which at least one printed circuit board is disposed. Further, the heat transfer member contacts the inner surface of the case.
US09338925B2

A device designed to reduce temperature rise in its control board. The device includes a switching element; a coil; a smoothing capacitor; an electrical connection member for electrically connecting the switching element with the smoothing capacitor and the coil; a control board that mounts a control element; a control signal line for electrically connecting the switching element with the control board; and a switching element placing portion for placing the switching element thereon. The electrical connection member is arranged between the switching element and the control board; the smoothing capacitor and the coil are arranged, with respect to the electrical connection member, on a side of the switching element; and end surfaces of the smoothing capacitor and the coil are positioned, with respect to the electrical connection member, apart from a plane where the switching element and the switching element placing portion are adjoined together.
US09338922B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a rack adapter apparatus. The rack adapter apparatus includes a shelf configured to be mounted in a rack frame having a front opening of a first width and a rear opening of the first width, the shelf being further configured to support a computing device thereon, the computing device having a second width less than then first width and having a back-side port disposed thereon, the back-side port facing the rear opening when the computing device is supported by the shelf and the shelf is mounted in the rack frame. The rack adapter apparatus also includes a pass-through jack having a front port facing the front opening and a rear port facing the rear opening, the front and rear ports being electrically coupled, and the rear port being configured to be communicatively coupled to the back-side port of the computing device.
US09338919B2

Base modules are provided over a backplane network for high availability control of industrial processes or machines. The base modules may include, for example, an I/O base module, which may control the industrial processes or machines and which may releasably receive an I/O function card, an adapter base module, which may communicate with an industrial controller over a separate control network, and a bus expansion base module, which may provide coupling to another bank of base modules. The base modules may be arranged side-by-side via electrical and mechanical connections. Logic of the I/O base module may detect the presence or absence of the I/O function card to allow coupling or bypassing of the I/O function card with respect to the backplane network.
US09338916B2

An integrated controller for electronic apparatuses includes a host and an AC/DC converting module. The host includes at least one power terminal set to connect to an electronic apparatus. The power terminal set includes a power input terminal, a power output terminal and a power neutral terminal. The power input terminal is connected to a fire wire to receive AC power. The power output terminal is connected to a wire-input end of the electronic apparatus, and the power neutral terminal is connected to a wire-output end of the electronic apparatus. Therefore, the AC/DC converting module receives the AC power via the power input terminal and the power neutral terminal and converts the AC power to DC power which is required by the integrated controller. The integrated controller is mounted in an original position for a wall-embedded switch is positioned to replace the wall-embedded switch.
US09338905B2

A curved display apparatus is provided. The curved display apparatus includes a fixing member which is curved; and a display panel which is attached to the fixing member and curved along the fixing member.
US09338904B2

A motor control center (MCC) unit for installation in a compartment of an MCC includes a frame, a bus contact assembly supported by the frame and comprising at least one moveable bus contact configured to releasably engage at least one power bus of the MCC, an auxiliary power input supported by the frame and configured to be connected to an external power source, and a control circuit supported by the frame. The MCC unit further includes an interlock circuit configured to selectively couple the control circuit to the at least one bus contact and the auxiliary power input responsive to positioning of the at least one bus contact. The interlock circuit may be configured to prevent power flow between the control circuit and the auxiliary power input when the at least one bus contact is engaged with the power bus.
US09338903B1

A cradle securely supports a mobile device with the display screen at an optimal viewing angle, while leaving virtually the entire front sides and back areas of the device open and exposed to ambient air for maximum heat dissipation. Structurally, the cradle can be carved out of a standard disposable coffee container, so that it can be inexpensively fabricated from a modified coffee container mold. The cradle material can be a light-weight plastic, such as styrofoam.
US09338900B2

A method of fabricating an interposer substrate is provided, including: providing a carrier having a first wiring layer and a plurality of conductive pillars disposed on the first wiring layer; forming a first insulating layer on the carrier, with the conductive pillars being exposed from the first insulating layer; forming a second wiring layer on the first insulating layer and the conductive pillars; disposing a plurality of external connection pillars on the second wiring layer; forming a second insulating layer on the first insulating layer, with the external connection pillars being exposed from the second insulating layer; forming at least a trench on the second insulating layer; and removing the carrier. Through the formation of the interposer substrate, which does not have a core layer, on the carrier, a via process is omitted. Therefore, the method is simple, and the interposer substrate thus fabricated has a low cost. The present invention further provides the interposer substrate.
US09338892B2

A screen printer includes: a mask with a pattern hole; a substrate holder that clamps and holds a substrate at sides of the substrate by a pair of clamping members below the mask; a substrate holder elevation mechanism that moves the substrate holder up and down to contact the substrate with a lower surface of the mask; a paste filling unit that fills the pattern hole with a paste; a mask contact member that is provided in the clamp member and that contacts with the mask in a state in which the substrate contacts with the mask; and an urging portion that is provided in the clamp member and that includes an urging unit that urges the mask contact member upward.
US09338890B2

A semiconductor device includes: a printed wiring board; plural semiconductor array elements mounted on the printed wiring board in a row with an adhesive, each of the semiconductor array elements including plural semiconductor elements arranged in a row, the semiconductor array elements including a first semiconductor array element and a second semiconductor array element adjacent to the first semiconductor array element, the first semiconductor array element having a first facing surface, the second semiconductor array element having a second facing surface facing the first facing surface; a first contact prevention member that is made of organic material and disposed to project from the first facing surface; and a second contact prevention member that is made of organic material and disposed to project from the second facing surface. The first and second contact prevention members are disposed to abut each other or face each other with a gap therebetween.
US09338888B2

A wired circuit board includes a wire and a terminal formed continuously to the wire and electrically connected to an electronic element at one surface thereof in a thickness direction. The terminal includes a first contact portion, and a second contact portion provided around the first contact portion to protrude more than the first contact portion toward one side in the thickness direction.
US09338886B2

A substrate for mounting a semiconductor includes a first insulation layer having first and second surfaces on the opposite sides and having a penetrating hole penetrating through the first insulation layer, an electrode formed in the penetrating hole in the first insulation layer and having a protruding portion protruding from the second surface of the first insulation layer, a first conductive pattern formed on the first surface of the first insulation layer and connected to the electrode, a second insulation layer formed on the first surface of the first insulation layer and the first conductive pattern and having a penetrating hole penetrating through the second insulating layer, a second conductive pattern formed on the second insulation layer and for mounting a semiconductor element, and a via conductor formed in the penetrating hole in the second insulation layer and connecting the first and second conductive patterns.
US09338884B2

Disclosed is a laminated body including a substrate having an unevenness with an aspect ratio of 1.5 to 100 in the surface thereof, and a conductive film that is laminated in an approximately uniform thickness on a bottom, side wall surfaces, and an apex of the unevenness, the conductive film being any one film selected from the group consisting of an ITO film, an FTO film, a SnO2 film, an ATO film, an AZO film, a GZO film, an IZO film, and an IGZO film.
US09338882B2

A broadside coupled differential design is described herein. The design may include a differential pair. Each trace of the differential pair includes a wide portion and a narrow portion. The wide portion of the first trace of the differential pair is to be aligned with a narrow portion of the second trace of the differential pair. Additionally, the wide portion of the second trace of the differential pair is to be aligned with a narrow portion of the first trace of the differential pair, such that the wide and narrow portions of the traces of the differential pair are staggered.
US09338879B2

A through-hole layout structure is suitable for a circuit board. The through-hole layout structure includes a pair of first differential through-holes, a pair of second differential through-holes, a first ground through-hole, a second ground through-hole, and a third ground through-hole, which are all arranged on a first line. The first ground through-hole is located between the pair of first differential through-holes and the pair of second differential through-holes. The pair of first differential through-holes is located between the first ground through-hole and the second ground through-hole. The pair of second differential through-holes is located between the first ground through-hole and the third ground through-hole.
US09338877B2

A power electronics assembly includes a semiconductor device, an insulated metal substrate, and a cooling structure. The insulated metal substrate includes a dielectric layer positioned between first and second metal layers, and a plurality of stress-relief through-features extending through the first metal layer, the second metal layer, the dielectric layer, or combinations thereof. The semiconductor device is thermally coupled to the first metal layer and the plurality of stress relief through-features is positioned around the semiconductor device. The cooling structure is bonded directly to the second metal layer of the insulated metal substrate. Insulated metal substrate assemblies are also disclosed. The insulated metal substrate includes a plurality of stress-relief through-features extending through a first metal layer, a second metal layer, and a dielectric layer. Vehicles having power electronics assemblies with stress-relief through-features are also disclosed.
US09338873B1

A gas diffusion screen assembly is adapted for residing in a torch cup of a gas shielded electric arc torch. The gas diffusion screen assembly comprises a first concave mesh screen, a second convex mesh screen, and an electrode collar. The collar interconnects the first and second mesh screens, and defines an opening for receiving an electrode of the electric arc torch.
US09338868B2

A filament current that is to be supplied to a filament of an x-ray tube under imaging conditions, from the imaging conditions of the tube current and the tube voltage that is to be supplied to the x-ray tube at the time of radiographic imaging, are stored as a filament current setting value in a storing portion, and the difference between an anticipated value for the tube current when x-ray emission is performed at a given filament current and a measured value for the tube current when x-ray emission is actually performed at that filament current is measured over time as a tube current value difference, and when the mean value for the tube current value difference over a specific time interval exceeds a setting value that has been set in advance, the filament current setting value that is stored in the storing portion is corrected.
US09338859B2

An illuminated makeup mirror set includes: a mirror unit; a surface light source for illumination with adjustable color and adjustable brightness; a memory unit in which illumination conditions corresponding to a plurality of scenes are stored; a detection unit for detecting the color and brightness of ambient light at an installation position of the makeup mirror set; a selection unit for selecting one of the plurality of scenes according to an input operation; an acquisition unit for acquiring, from the memory unit, illumination conditions corresponding to the scene selected through the selection unit; and an adjustment unit for adjusting the color and brightness of the surface light source according to the color and brightness of the ambient light detected by the detection unit and the illumination conditions acquired by the acquisition unit.
US09338858B2

Control of lighting fixtures in a lighting network may be distributed among the lighting fixtures. The lighting fixtures may be broken into groups that are associated with different lighting zones. At least some of the lighting fixtures will have or be associated with one or more sensors. Within the overall lighting network or the various lighting zones, the lighting fixtures may share sensor data from their sensors. Each lighting fixture may process sensor data provided by its own sensor, a remote standalone sensor, or lighting fixture, and process the sensor data according to the lighting fixture's own internal logic to control operation of the lighting fixture. The lighting fixtures may also receive control input from other lighting fixtures, control nodes, light switches, and commissioning tools. The control input may be processed along with the sensor data according to the internal logic to further enhance control of the lighting fixture.
US09338857B2

An electronic ballast circuit includes a power factor correction circuit, a control and amplifier circuit, a ballast controller circuit and a ballast driver circuit. The ballast driver circuit includes a resonant circuit that connects to a lamp and a strike voltage limiter circuit that regulates the behavior of the resonant circuit. An overcurrent sensor circuit may be included to indirectly the control the ballast controller circuit via the control and amplifier circuit. The strike voltage limiter circuit uses varistors to change the resonant frequency of the resonant circuit to limit the voltage to the lamp.
US09338850B2

A light fixture includes a dimmable light source that emits light downwardly, and a downward-looking rangefinder proximate and operatively coupled with the light source. When the rangefinder detects an object at a measured height that exceeds a first threshold, the light source dims according to the measured height. A light fixture that provides illumination with active glare control for a lighted area includes one or more first light sources that emit high-angle light, and one or more dimmable second light sources that emit low-angle light, into the lighted area. The system also includes a camera that captures images of the lighted area, and an controller that is (a) operable to identify one or more activity locations within the lighted area from the images, and (b) operatively coupled to dim one or more of the light sources that illuminate the one or more activity locations.
US09338847B2

There are provided a light driving apparatus capable of being commonly used in various types of dimmers, and a driving method therefor. The light driving apparatus includes: a driving unit supplying driving power to a light emitting device according to controlling to drive the light emitting device; and a general-purpose dimming controlling unit controlling dimming of the light emitting device by converting a range of a brightness control signal of an external dimmer into a first voltage range according to a preset ratio to control the supply of power from the driving unit.
US09338841B2

Lighting systems are disclosed, including a multi-die LED array; and LED driver electronics, which include voltage regulating electronics which regulate rectified low voltage AC. The voltage regulating electronics include: booster electronics that sense rectified low voltage AC and boost the LVAC to a predetermined voltage for powering the multi-die LED; power factor correcting electronics that sense the AC current and AC voltage in the driver and control the booster electronics to further regulate the voltage, thereby providing power factor correction; and constant current electronics which sense one or both of current and voltage through the driver and control the booster electronics to further regulate the voltage, thereby providing substantially constant current to the multi-die LED array.
US09338835B2

A liquid-cooled LED light, including a lamp head, a lamp core, and a lamp shell. The lamp shell covers the periphery of the lamp core. The cavity of the lamp shell is filled with silicone oil for radiating heat. One end of the lamp core is immersed in the silicone oil; at the other end of the lamp core, the lamp shell is connected hermetically to the lamp head.
US09338831B2

A heat generating element for an electrical heating device of a motor vehicle includes a positional frame which forms a receptacle in which a PTC element is accommodated, and two contact plates abutting on oppositely situated sides of the PTC element. A heat generating element has a sheet metal cover that is connected to the positional frame. Also provided are a frame, which has oppositely situated side openings for the passage of a medium to be heated, and a layer structure, which is arranged in the frame and which comprises layers of corrugated-rib and heat generating elements, such that the heat generating element has at least one PTC element arranged between two parallel contact plates. The electrical heating device is protected against EMC via sheet metal covers that are arranged on both sides of the heat generating element and between the corrugated-rib elements and the contact plates.
US09338828B2

A foam heat exchanger, for use in connection with hot melt adhesive or other thermoplastic material dispensing applicators, comprises a foam having an open cell reticulated foam structure. Due to the open cell reticulated structure of the foam, the surface area of the foam heat exchanger, with which the air comes into contact, is significantly increased. In addition, the open cell reticulated structure of the foam heat exchanger will also cause the air flow to experience resistance and turbulence so as to in turn enhance the heating efficiency of the heat exchanger, through means of enhanced thermal energy transfer from the heat exchanger to the processed air stream, whereby a significantly larger volume of air can be heated as compared to a conventional heat exchanger of similar size.
US09338825B2

A combination automobile seat heater and occupant sensor antenna is provided having a flexible substrate with the seat heater applied on one side of the substrate and the occupant sensor antenna applied on the other side of the substrate. Structure is provided to minimize interference in the performance of the antenna by operation of the seat heater, which can include advantageous positioning of the layers and/or the use of a layer defining air gaps between the seat heater and occupant sensor.
US09338812B1

A method and apparatus for routing packets from a home agent to a user equipment through a first access network and a second access network. The method includes sending a first binding update message from the user equipment over the first access network to create a first binding cache entry at the home agent. The user equipment uses a home address assigned to the user equipment as a source IP address of the first binding update message. The method further includes sending a second binding update message from the user equipment over the second access network to create a second binding cache entry at the home agent. The user equipment receives packets from the home agent through the first access network and the second access network based on the first binding cache entry and the second binding cache entry.
US09338811B2

Methods and apparatus for providing enhanced access options for wireless access points (e.g., cellular femtocells). These access options in one embodiment include various grades or levels of private and public access to available femtocell services. Each service may be separately assigned a various access type, such that a femtocell may service multiple users both within the “closed” group authorized by the femtocell white list, and non-members. In one variant, a femtocell broadcasts enhanced system information to all terminals (regardless of member/non-member status) such that a non-CSG (Closed Subscriber Group) member terminal or UE is capable of obtaining partial service access within the femtocell. Broadcast multimedia or other services can be delivered to both CSG members and non-members, advantageously without having to establish a dedicated connection for the non-member users.
US09338810B2

Systems and methods are provided for efficient communication through a fabric network of devices in a home environment or similar environment. For example, an electronic device may efficiently control communication to balance power and reliability concerns, may efficiently communicate messages to certain preferred networks by analyzing Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) packet headers that use an Extended Unique Local Address (EULA), may efficiently communicate software updates and status reports throughout a fabric network, and/or may easily and efficiently join a fabric network.
US09338805B2

A method of PS path selection is provided. A single SIM card with dual standby feature UE is equipped with a first modem operated in a first RAT for both PS and CS services, and a second modem operated in a second RAT for PS only service. The UE camps on a cell using the first modem in a mobile communication network. The UE attaches to the network for PS service using the second modem. The UE also selects the second modem to form a PS path for routing PS data via the second modem. The UE then triggers CS service via the first modem. The UE switches the PS path from the second modem to the first modem upon triggering the CS service if the first modem allows simultaneous PS and CS service. After the CS service is terminated, the UE optionally triggers the second modem recovery mechanism.
US09338791B2

There is provided a method and apparatus for allocating transmission resources in a wireless network in which some of the terminals communicate with the base station by exchanging communication frames that are compatible with a first communication protocol while other terminals receive communications from the base station that are compatible with a second communication protocol by using non-standardized communication frames or communication frames that are compatible with another standardized protocol. The base station transmits a plurality of frames, some of which are compatible with the first communication protocol while others—with the second communication protocol. The terminals that are operative to receive frames of the second communication protocol are capable of decoding frames that are compatible with both communication protocols, whereas terminals that are operative to receive frames of the first communication protocol are capable of decoding only standardized communication frames of the first communication protocol.
US09338787B2

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for optimizing radio coverage and power consumption within a mobile communication network (1). In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, radio measurements (UE_meas1; BS_meas1; BS_meas2) carried out by subscriber devices (11) and/or radio base stations (21; 23), as well as user geographical locations (UE_pos1; UE_pos2; UE_pos3) at the time the radio measurements have been carried out, are gathered. Antenna geographical locations (ant_pos22; ant_pos23) are then derived from the radio measurements and the user geographical locations, and radio propagation models (rpm22; rpm23) from the antenna geographical locations that best fit the radio measurements at the user geographical locations. The so-derived radio propagation models from the so-derived antenna geographical locations are then supplied to a radio resource controller (41) for activation of dormant cells (C22; C23).
US09338780B2

An ultra low energy (ULE) digital enhanced cordless telecommunication (DECT) base station that includes a scheduler that is arranged to dynamically determine a schedule of transmissions of broadcast messages and of paging messages to be received by DECT ULE devices; a dummy bearer generator arranged to generate dummy bearers in response to the schedule; wherein each dummy bearer comprises a multiple usage field and a usage indicative field; wherein the usage indicative field is indicative of a selected usage of the multiple usage field; wherein the selected usage purpose is selected out of at least a conveyance of a broadcast message and a conveyance of a paging message; a configuration module that is arranged to generate location information indicative of a location of at least one bit allocated within at least one dummy bearer for indicating, when flagged, of a presence of a paging message or a broadcast message aimed to at least one of the DECT ULE devices; and a transmitter that is arranged to transmit to the DECT ULE devices the dummy bearers and the location information.
US09338778B2

An apparatus and a method for feeding back data receiving status, applied to a system, are provided. The method includes sequencing, by a User Equipment (UE), downlink subframes for transmitting data with respect to each Component Carrier (CC), generating receiving status feedback information for the first X downlink subframes with respect to each CC according to the result of the sequencing, where X≦M, wherein M is the number of downlink subframes on each CC, and transmitting the receiving status feedback information generated with respect to each CC to a base station. Accordingly, the UE will not misinterpret the receiving status for the downlink subframes due to inconsistencies with the base station between transmitting and receiving feedback. This affects the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) transmission, saves the uplink overheads occupied by the receiving status feedback information, and increases the uplink coverage area.
US09338773B2

A method and apparatus for wireless communication manages virtual cell ID(s) for the common search. A UE determines a first virtual cell ID for a common search space (CSS) enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) and determines a second virtual cell ID for a user equipment search space (UESS) EPDCCH. The UE processes EPDCCH based on the determined first and second virtual cell IDs.
US09338769B1

A system and method of scheduling communication in a wireless communication network are provided. A first access node can receive an uplink scheduling request from a wireless device. The first access node can receive a first interference indicator from a second access node when the wireless device is located at the cell edge. A first scheduling scheme for the first access node and a second scheduling scheme for the second access node can be determined based on the uplink scheduling request and the interference indicator. The uplink portions of the first scheduling scheme do not overlap the uplink portions of the second scheduling scheme. The first access node can instruct the wireless device to communicate uplink data to the first access node during the uplink portions of the first scheduling scheme and to communicate uplink data to the second access node during the uplink portions of the second scheduling scheme.
US09338767B2

Wireless terminals and base stations support multiple modes of control channel operation wherein wireless terminals are allocated different amounts of uplink resources for reporting control information. A set of control channel segments is utilized by a wireless terminal to communicate uplink control information reports to its serving base station attachment point. Full tone and split-tone modes of control channel operation are supported. In full tone mode, a single wireless terminal is allocated each of the control channel segments associated with a single logical tone. In split tone mode, control channel segments associated with a single logical tone are allocated between different wireless terminals, with each of the multiple wireless terminals receiving a different non-overlapping subset of the control channel segments. Logical control channel tones can be dynamically reallocated for full-tone mode use or split tone mode use.
US09338754B2

The application discloses a method for performing interference coordination between adjacent cells supporting dynamic TDD uplink and downlink configuration by a first evolved Node B (eNB). The method includes that: receiving, downlink interference degree information from a second eNB, wherein the downlink interference degree information is used for indicating a degree that uplink transmission of the second eNB is interfered by downlink transmission in a conflict subframe; and determining, according to the downlink interference degree information, whether to adjust downlink transmit power in the conflict subframe, if the downlink transmit power in the conflict subframe is to be adjusted, transmitting a CSI report configuration to UE of current cell, and configuring the UE of current cell to report a set of CSI respectively for the conflict subframe and a non-conflict subframe. By the solution of the present application, serious uplink and downlink interference between the adjacent cells can be avoided when the adjacent cells use different TDD uplink and downlink configurations.
US09338753B2

A method and system is disclosed for managing performance of a wireless backhaul network through power management, which provides a practical approach to balancing data throughput and fairness. For each transmit frame, one or more power zones is defined, each power zone comprising a set of radio resources operating at one transmit power level Pi, and the same power zone being defined over the same set of radio resources across all other clusters. The method maximizes the value of weighted weighted-sum utility, using a rate expression based on a CINR function. The optimization comprises a summation of the weighted logarithm of the rate expression plus a non-negative constant value, using a Newton's method approach, for fast and reliable convergence. Optimization may be based on long term averaged channel gains measured for each link. The value of c is selected to achieve a required balance of fairness and data throughput.
US09338750B2

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for managing power of a connection point in a wireless communication system are provided. A connection point may discover a mobile node, send to a gateway a request to increase an amount of power that the connection point can consume to service the discovered mobile node, and receive from the gateway a response related to the request to increase the amount of power. In an aspect, a gateway receives from a first connection point a request to change an amount of power that the first connection point is allowed to consume to service a discovered mobile node, determines whether to accept the request from the first connection point, and sends a first command to increase the amount of power that the first connection point is allowed to consume to service the discovered mobile node if the request is accepted.
US09338743B2

Techniques for determining if it is safe for a mobile device to transition directly from a traffic session to a paging mode and for avoiding network re-synchronization procedures in stationary M2M devices are disclosed. It may be safe for direct transition if before-call and in-call network parameters correspond. If safe, the mobile device may transition from the traffic session directly to the paging mode to begin immediately monitoring the paging channel. In stationary M2M devices, paging information is stored before the traffic session and, once the traffic session is complete, the M2M device may be configured to receive paging messaging based on the stored paging information. The M2M device may also store system access information and confirm the validity of the information before returning to the sleep state. The stationary M2M device avoids network re-synchronization procedures. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09338735B2

An extended cell search procedure enables more inclusive measurement reports by mobile terminals operating in a heterogeneous network. The mobile terminal may be configured to conduct an extended cell search to enable better detection of signals transmitted from weaker cells. For mobile terminal with extended cell search capabilities, the network sends an extended cell search message to the mobile terminal when there is a need for an extended cell search. In response to the extended cell search message, the mobile terminal uses an extended cell search procedure rather than the normal cell search procedure (as specified in Rel-8 of the LTE standard) when performing cell searches.
US09338730B2

A method for transmitting resource allocation information to a wireless node in a communications system includes selecting a search space from one of a first search space and a second search space, the first search space associated with a first set of control channel parameters and the second search space associated with a second set of control channel parameters. The method also includes modulating the first control information, and mapping the modulated first control information onto the selected search space in a first subframe, where at least one of modulating the first control information and mapping the modulated first control information is according to a selected set of control channel parameters associated with the selected search space. The method further includes transmitting the first subframe to the wireless node, and transmitting a first parameter indicator identifying the selected set of control channel parameters to the wireless node.
US09338726B2

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. The apparatus provides or enables dynamic cooperative wireless data delivery service based on dynamic proximate locations of mobile nodes in wireless networks. A source wireless terminal may offload data for delayed transmission by a neighboring wireless terminal. The source may attempt delayed data transmission via any cooperating neighboring node (mule), whether mobile or stationary. A utility function may be used to compare costs of communicating via direct links or through opportunistically available links provided by mules. The mule may advertise availability of indirect data delivery service including probable latency time associated with the indirect delivery service.
US09338722B2

A mobile communication method is applied to a mobile communication system including a general base station and a specific base station. A distance between an edge closest to the general base station among edges of a coverage area of the specific cell and the general base station is a distance LMIN. A distance between an edge most distant from the general base station among the edges of the coverage area of the specific cell and the general base station is a distance LMAX. The mobile communication method comprises: a step A of instructing, by the general base station, a general mobile terminal, located in a belt-like annular area indicating a range from the distance LMIN to the distance LMAX in a connected state in the general cell, to perform handover to a frequency different from a frequency used in the specific cell.
US09338716B2

Methods and apparatuses are presented for piecewise aggregation of overhead messages. According to a method that is presented, that the method can include starting a timer having a time period during which a first radio access technology (RAT) of the UE attempts to obtain overhead messages from a cell. The method can also include obtaining, at a radio resource of the UE and during the time period, a first portion of the overhead messages from the cell. In addition, the method may include determining that the timer has expired and handing over the radio resource to a second RAT of the UE when the timer has expired. The method also may include aggregating the first portion of the overhead messages with a second portion of the overhead messages. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
US09338708B2

A method for parameter management in a wireless cellular communications system, which includes a first base station and a second base station equipped for communications in the communications system, records one or more paging area parameters broadcast by a base station serving a neighbor cell of a cell served by the first base station. The paging area parameters form part of a relation of the first base station and are maintained by the first base station. The method further includes transferring the recorded paging area parameters from the first base station to the second base station.
US09338700B2

Methods, systems, and devices are described for transitioning between different radio access technologies (RATs) utilizing system information messages to trigger the transition. Some embodiments may involve utilizing a system information message (e.g., SIB19, SI2quater) that may be received from a serving cell over a first radio RAT (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G) while in a connected mode with the serving cell. A transition may be initiated from the connected mode with the serving cell to an idle mode with the serving cell in response to the received system information message. A reselection may be performed from the idle mode with the serving cell to a target cell utilizing a second RAT (e.g., 3G, 4G, or 5G) in response to the received system information message.
US09338695B2

Techniques for signaling carrier bandwidths supported by a user equipment (UE) for carrier aggregation are disclosed. A UE may be configured with a plurality of carriers for carrier aggregation. Each carrier may have one carrier bandwidth of a set of possible carrier bandwidths. The set of possible carrier bandwidths may be dependent on a band in which the carrier belongs. Multiple combinations of carrier bandwidths for the plurality of carriers may be possible. The UE may identify at least one supported carrier bandwidth combination for the plurality of carriers. Each of the supported carrier bandwidth combinations may include a particular carrier bandwidth for each configured carrier. The UE may send signaling indicative of the at least one supported carrier bandwidth combination. The UE may thereafter communicate on the plurality of carriers based on a carrier bandwidth combination selected from the supported carrier bandwidth combination(s).
US09338683B2

A method, a user equipment, and a base station device for transmitting indication information. A method comprises: initially setting an indication information feedback mode of a user equipment to a deactivation state, where the user equipment in the deactivation state does not transmit indication information to a base station; after receiving an indication information feedback request transmitted by a network side, setting the indication information feedback mode of the user equipment to an activation state, where the user equipment in the activation state uses an indication information feedback cycle to transmit the indication information to the base station. Embodiments of the present disclosure initially set a user equipment to a deactivation state of not transmitting indication information to the base station, set a user equipment to an activation state of transmitting indication information when a network side has transmitted an indication information feedback request, reducing unnecessary uplink indication information feedback.
US09338673B2

Various devices and methods are provided that use enhanced downlink demodulation reference signals (DMRS) to facilitate inter-cell interference cancellation and suppression. Coordinated configuration of DMRS port assignments for transmission from cells in a group of neighboring cells is provided. Each cell's physical cell identification (PCID) is mapped with its corresponding assigned antenna port(s).
US09338670B2

The method comprising measuring by an interfered base station (BS2) the uplink interference and when said uplink interference exceeds a given threshold performing a cancellation process by: discovering and identifying a serving base station (BS1) to which an interfering user device (UE1) is wirelessly connected; requesting to the serving (BS1) the RF fingerprints of the one or more interfering user devices served thereby and using the same frequency resource blocks (RB) of said interfered (BS2); receiving the RF fingerprint of said interfering user device (UE1); consulting said received RF fingerprint in a register; selecting the RF fingerprint more similar to the received one and taking the information of level of interference associated thereto; and using said taken level of interference information for performing said cancelling of said uplink interference.
US09338668B2

In a wireless communication system, carrier aggregation may be used to provide desired amounts of bandwidth, where a primary carrier and one or more secondary carriers are aggregated. At the receive side of a system in which the aggregated carriers are in a single frequency band, an amplifier may be used to apply a common gain to the aggregated carriers in the single frequency band, and the common gain may be determined as a function of indications of received signal quality associated with groups of aggregated carriers containing one or more of the aggregated carriers, where one group contains the primary carrier and possible one or more secondary carriers and another group contains only secondary carriers.
US09338664B2

A wireless communication unit is described that includes a transceiver; at least one antenna port operably coupled to the transceiver via at least one antenna switch; a radio frequency part of the transceiver that includes at least one tuneable radio frequency (RF) component; and a test signal generator for generating an RF test signal for receiver calibration. The radio frequency part includes a coupler located between the at least one tuneable RF component and the at least one antenna switch for coupling the RF test signal to or from the radio frequency part for calibration.
US09338663B2

The present invention provides a method for facilitating roaming management of a host network. The method includes obtaining at a gateway associated with the host network, signaling messages of one or more roamers. The roamers are subscribers of either the host network or one or more non-host networks. The method further includes determining by the gateway, the host network's roaming arrangement with the non-host networks, based on analysis of one or more signaling messages from the obtained signaling messages.
US09338655B2

There are provided measures for access control of a relay node with a closed subscriber group, said measures exemplarily comprising retrieval of setting information relating to a closed subscriber group of a base station function of a relay node, said relay node requesting access to a relay-enhanced cellular system via a donor base station, acquisition of setting information relating to a closed subscriber group of the donor base station, and execution of access control of the base station function of the relay node based on the setting information relating to the closed subscriber groups of the base station function of the relay node and the donor base station.
US09338650B2

An apparatus for cooperating with a mobile device having an embedded transceiver is disclosed. The apparatus includes a housing and a mechanical connector on the housing, the mechanical connector being configured to mechanically retain the mobile device. At least one port within the housing conveys energy to at least one auxiliary wireless transceiver associable with the apparatus. The apparatus is configured to cooperate with the mobile device when the mobile device is retained on the housing by the mechanical connector, to enable transmission of a first portion of a data stream over the at least one auxiliary transceiver while a second portion of the data stream is simultaneously transmitted over the embedded transceiver.
US09338644B2

A communication method includes the steps of transmitting, by means of a first communication apparatus, personal information to a second communication apparatus; receiving, by means of the second communication apparatus, the personal information and searching, by means of the second communication apparatus, whether or not personal information having the same content as the received personal information exists in the second communication apparatus; and notifying, by means of the second communication apparatus, the first communication apparatus of a search result.
US09338639B2

Systems and methods for interacting with a portable electronic device are provided. In this regard, a representative system includes: a cover sized and shaped for removable attachment to an exterior of the portable electronic device; a first antenna disposed on the cover; and a first wireless controller coupled to the first antenna and disposed on the cover and configured for transmitting a first data from the cover to the portable electronic device via the first antenna to identify the cover to the portable electronic device.
US09338636B2

A method for wireless communication provisioning is disclosed. A first wireless communication provisioning state associated with one or more identifiers is defined. A second wireless communication provisioning state associated with one or more identifiers is defined. A state transition rule is defined, wherein the state transition rule defines a transition between the first wireless communication provisioning state and the second wireless communication provisioning state, wherein the first wireless communication provisioning state and the second wireless communication provisioning state are based on the lifecycle of the service of a wireless communication device associated with the first and second wireless communication provisioning states.
US09338635B2

In an example embodiment, a method includes measuring, by an apparatus, signal strength of wireless device discovery messages received from a wireless communication device, the wireless discovery messages including a device address of the wireless communication device; storing, by the apparatus, the device address of the wireless communication device and the measured signal strength of the received wireless discovery messages; detecting, by apparatus, other wireless device discovery messages having a different device address; measuring, by apparatus, received signal strengths of the other wireless device discovery messages; and if no messages are received including the device address of the wireless communication device, comparing, by apparatus, the stored signal strength of the wireless discovery messages received from the wireless communication device with the measured received signal strength of the other wireless device discovery messages to determine whether a source of the other wireless device discovery messages is the wireless communication device.
US09338617B2

The present invention provides devices, systems, and methods for remotely alarming an intelligent hand held device when a sensor on a stair assist device is made thereby signaling an event which is of concern for a patient caregiver. In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a remote transmitter for use with a smart phone or tablet connectable to sensors such as end of travel sensors for a stair climbing assist device or a mat, a photoelectric sensor, toilet or chair sensor and providing that information via wireless peer to peer communication to a smart phone or tablet so that a caregiver can react appropriately to the information. The remote transmitter device contains a conventional switch detection circuit and a peer to peer communications circuit such as Bluetooth.
US09338614B2

A mobile terminal supporting a voice messaging method includes a microphone for capturing sound waves and converting the sound waves into an audio signal, a storage unit for storing the audio signal, an audio data generation unit for generating audio data packets with the audio signal, a packet data communication network interface unit for providing a packet data communication network, and a control unit for controlling the microphone, audio storage unit, audio data generation unit, and packet data communication network interface unit to capture the audio signal and transmit the audio signal as audio data packets in response to audio message transmission request entered during a mobile messenger service session.
US09338610B2

A flow line management apparatus includes a usage information acquisition unit configured to acquire usage information of an apparatus disposed at a predetermined position, a positional information acquisition unit configured to acquire positional information of a wireless terminal held by a user using the apparatus, and a flow line determining unit configured to determine a flow line when the user uses the apparatus based on the usage information acquired by the usage information acquisition unit and the positional information acquired by the positional information acquisition unit.
US09338607B2

There is provided an information delivery apparatus including a receiving portion to receive location information of a mobile communication terminal at a given time and acquired date and time of the location information from the terminal, an event information storage portion to store event information including an event place, date and time, a delivery terminal selecting portion to select the mobile communication terminal to which the event information is to be delivered based on the location information and the acquired date and time of the location information and on the event place, date and time, and an event information delivery portion to deliver the event information to the selected mobile communication terminal. The delivery terminal selecting portion selects the mobile communication terminal whose location indicated by location information is within a predetermined range and whose acquired date and time of the location information are before the event date and time.
US09338605B2

Systems, methods, and devices for determining the location of one or more mobile devices within a vehicle comprising: (a) a controller located within the vehicle and configured to transmit at least two audio signals, a first audio signal directed generally into a driver space within the vehicle and a second audio signal directed generally into a passenger space within the vehicle, and (b) software code stored in memory of the mobile device and having instructions executable by a processor that performs the steps of: (i) detecting the at least two audio signals, (ii) sampling the at least two audio signals for a predetermined period of time; (iii) performing digital signal processing on the sampled at least two audio signals; and (iv) based on the results of the digital signal processing, determining whether the mobile device was located within the driver space of the vehicle during the predetermined period of time.
US09338597B2

Methods and systems for communicating alert messages to target communications devices in a target physical location are disclosed. The target devices may not be preconfigured to be discovered or to receive the alert message. Network sources are queried to identify accessible logical locations, which are associated with physical locations in a database. The logical locations include an intelligent network source which, having received the alert message, detects nearby devices in the target physical location. The system prepares and communicates the alert message to the target device. The intelligent network source may be configured to prepare and communicate the alert message without any intermediate system step of formulating a list of recipients. Auto-discovery and message delivery methods employ protocol packet injection, network and access point spoofing, and Bluetooth signaling. Auto-discovery and unconfigured delivery methods can be used to reveal the presence of devices in an area.
US09338595B1

A method for location-based service migration is provided. The method may include monitoring, by a processor, a location of a mobile device. The method may also include checking the location against a geo-location profile, whereby the geo-location profile includes at least one of a service, a plurality of migration rules, a plurality of data, an application, a security, and a plurality of access frequency criteria. The method may further include transferring the at least one service and a plurality of data objects used by the at least one service from a first server with a server location outside a bounds for the location to a second server within a bounds for the location in response to detecting a service in the geo-location profile meets a migration criteria.
US09338591B1

Systems and methods are described for determining an inter-frequency handover condition for a wireless device. A serving frequency for a location based service (LBS) operating on a wireless device at a first location may be determined. A controller node may determine a path for the wireless device. The path may begin at the first location and continue through a plurality of access node clusters. Each access node cluster may comprise a positioning reference signal (PRS) frequency. The PRS frequency of the access node clusters may be different from the serving frequency. A set of criteria for performing a handover from the serving frequency to the PRS frequency of the access node cluster may be determined. One of the criteria may be performing a periodicity scan of the LBS. An inter-frequency handover of the wireless device from the serving frequency to the PRS frequency of the access node cluster may be requested.
US09338590B2

A situational and global context aware calendar, communications, and/or relationship management method and system is disclosed. The system is configured to receive non-calendaring related context information, and, based on that context information, to automatically determine one or more parameters of a meeting request.
US09338588B1

In a wireless network, a method for operating a wireless device including at least a cellular modem, a wireless local area network (WLAN) controller, and a Bluetooth (BT) controller, the method comprising facilitating a voice call with another device; generating a signal, from the cellular modem, indicating whether the cellular modem is active during the voice call; and selectively suppressing background scanning operations based, at least in part, on the signal.
US09338586B2

First communication circuitry of a first device is made discoverable by a second device via a short-range wireless protocol. A device name for the first communication circuitry is set to a user identifier that is specific to a user of the first device. The second device discovers the first device and the user identifier is transmitted to the second device. A response message can also be included with the user identifier and can be appended to the user identifier. The second device stores the user identifier, and the response message if included, in a log to record a presence of the user of the first device within a range between the first and second devices of the short-range wireless protocol.
US09338583B2

When monitoring a patient in a healthcare environment, a location of a battery-powered mobile aggregator (MA) sensor (22), which is mounted on a patient with one or more other patient-mounted sensors (12, S1, S2, S3), is monitored. The MA (22) maintains a personal area network (PAN) (24) for the sensors (12, S1, S2, S3) and wirelessly transmits signals from patient mounted sensors (12, S1, S2, S3) to a wired network (18). When the MA (22) comes within range of a mains-powered fixed aggregator (FA) (16), the MA (22) is informed of the availability of the FA (16), transfers patient data communication duties to the FA (16), and shuts down its PAN to conserve battery power. If the patient moves out of range of the FA (16), then the MA (22) regenerates the PAN (24) and resumes wireless patient data transmission.
US09338579B2

The invention relates to a system for simulating stereophonic sound (1), comprising the following: a core module (10) having a space simulation module (11), an echo module and an interface module (15), a control module (20), a digital audio delay matrix module (21), and a digital audio/network system (30). The invention is characterized in that said system provides an echo and/or directional acoustic irradiation on the basis of a system latency less than 2.5 ms by means of the core module (10), the control module (20), and the digital audio network system. A system for simulating stereophonic sound is thus provided, which system operates with a reduced number of loudspeakers and without dedicated components and/or proprietary hardware and provides a plurality of different functions, such as extension of the echo time and directional acoustic irradiation.
US09338574B2

Higher-order Ambisonics HOA is a representation of spatial sound fields that facilitates capturing, manipulating, recording, transmission and playback of complex audio scenes with superior spatial resolution, both in 2D and 3D. The sound field is approximated at and around a reference point in space by a Fourier-Bessel series. The invention uses space warping for modifying the spatial content and/or the reproduction of sound-field information that has been captured or produced as a higher-order Ambisonics representation. Different warping characteristics are feasible for 2D and 3D sound fields. The warping is performed in space domain without performing scene analysis or decomposition. Input HOA coefficients with a given order are decoded to the weights or input signals of regularly positioned (virtual) loudspeakers.
US09338559B2

A microphone system has a package with an interior chamber and an inlet aperture for receiving an acoustic signal, and a microphone die having a backplate and a diaphragm. The microphone is positioned within the package interior to form a front volume between the diaphragm and the inlet aperture. Accordingly, the microphone is positioned to form a back volume defined in part by the diaphragm within the interior chamber. The system also has a stop member positioned in the back volume so that the diaphragm is between the stop member and the backplate.
US09338550B2

A microphone includes a first signal input, a second signal input and a control unit coupled to the first signal input and the second signal input. The control unit is configured to, upon receiving a support signal at one of the first signal input and second signal input, process a signal received at the other of the first signal input and second signal input as an incoming data signal.
US09338546B2

A circuit assembly and a method for processing an input signal are disclosed. In one embodiment a circuit assembly comprises a voltage provider configured to receive a supply voltage and to provide an internal supply voltage higher than the supply voltage and a signal follower coupled to an output port of the voltage provider, the signal follower being configured to receive the internal supply voltage and the input signal, and to provide an output signal depending on the input signal.
US09338541B2

A game headset receives a plurality of channels of game and/or chat audio during game play, monitors the plurality of channels, and detect one or more sounds on the channels during the monitoring. The game headset determines characteristics of the detected one or more sound and outputs one or more signals for generating a visual representation of the detected one or more sounds based on the determined characteristics. The game headset output the signals to a game console that provides the game play. The game console displays the visual representation during the game play based on the communicated visualization information. The one or more signals is a video stream of an in-game visualization. The game headset outputs the one or more signals to a second screen communication device that generates the visual representation during the game play based on the signals.
US09338534B2

A miniature speaker includes a frame having a sidewall including a first upper thinner portion and a first lower thicker portion, a magnetic circuit unit, a voice coil having a lead wire, and a diaphragm driven by the voice coil. The magnetic circuit unit has a yoke, a magnet mounted on the yoke, a pole plate attached to the magnet, and a magnetic gap. The yoke further includes a lower plate and a side extending from the lower plate, the side including a second thinner portion and a second lower thicker portion. A recess is accordingly formed by the thinner portions and the thicker portions for accommodating the lead wire of the voice coil. The recess defines a bottom formed by the thicker portions and an opening formed by the thinner portions thereby providing an enlarged space to the lead wire.
US09338532B2

Disclosed is a speaker having a suspension. The suspension includes a vibrating arm having at least a pair of layer structures and an insulating layer sandwiched between the two layer structures. Each layer structure has a foil signal transmission layer, a hardness reinforcement layer and a glue layer for connecting the foil signal transmission layer with the hardness reinforcement layer and a conductive portion for electrically connecting the foil signal transmission layers of each of layer structures. The suspension of the disclosure can prevent the signal layer from being broken. The suspension disclosed has at least two layer structures, which makes the signal transmitted in each layer structures at the same time, even if one of the layer structures is broken, the rest of the layer structures can still be working.
US09338528B2

Reflecting optical devices are optimally positioned by an all optical switch in an optically-connected system by transmitting optical power readings taken from an optimal monitoring module that are transmitted to the all optical switch for optimal positioning of a reflecting optical device in order to produce maximum optical output power.
US09338526B2

The invention provides for an upgrading of equipment without the potential problems in replacing the existing system. A relay mechanism is interposed between the existing remote sensor and the existing controller, and between the existing controller and the existing remote operational mechanism. The relay mechanism permits the existing system to perform as before while allowing the signals from both the existing remote sensor and the existing controller to be monitored by a new and isolated replacement controller until such time that the existing controller is isolated allowing the replacement controller assumes operational duties. In this manner, the upgrading of the system is done without the costs of down time nor the potential for catastrophic results.
US09338506B2

Systems and methods are provided for presenting ad content with electronic content. In one implementation a method is provided that includes receiving, from a user device, a request that identifies a segment of electronic content, and selecting a set of ad metadata for the identified segment of electronic content, the selected set of ad metadata including information defining how ad content is to be presented. The method also includes selecting a set of content metadata for the identified segment of electronic content, the selected set of content metadata including information related to presenting the segment of electronic content, and instructing the user device to generate a presentation based on the selected set of ad metadata and the selected set of content metadata, the presentation including the segment of electronic content and at least one ad content element.
US09338478B2

Classifying a series of quantized transform coefficients of a block of image data into one of a pre-defined plurality of classes for entropy coding, and entropy coding the block. A class is defined by at least the size of the block and typically but not necessarily one or more other factors. The classified series is coded by one of a set of pre-defined entropy coding methods, e.g., variable length coding methods for the pre-defined classes.
US09338477B2

Method and apparatus for recovering a pruned version of a picture in a video sequence are disclosed. The apparatus includes a divider for dividing the pruned version of the picture into a plurality of non-overlapping blocks. The apparatus also includes a metadata decoder for decoding metadata for use in recovering the pruned version of the picture. The apparatus further includes a patch library creator for creating a patch library from a reconstructed version of the picture. The patch library includes a plurality of high resolution replacement patches for replacing the one or more pruned blocks during a recovery of the pruned version of the picture. The apparatus additionally includes a search and replacement device for performing a searching process using the metadata to find a corresponding patch for a respective one of the one or more pruned blocks from among the plurality of non-overlapping blocks and replace the respective one of the one or more pruned blocks with the corresponding patch. The signature is respectively created for each of the one or more pruned blocks, and the pruned version of the picture is recovered by comparing respective distance metrics from signatures for each of the plurality of high resolution patches to signatures for each of the one or more pruned blocks, sorting the respective distance metrics to obtain a rank list for each of the one or more pruned blocks, wherein a rank number in the rank list for a particular one of the one or more pruned blocks is used to retrieve a corresponding one of the plurality of high resolution patches in the patch library to be used to replace the particular one of the one or more pruned blocks. A patch dependency graph having a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges is used to recover the pruned version of the picture. Each of the plurality of nodes represents a respective one of the plurality of overlapping blocks, and each of the plurality of edges represents a respective dependency of at least the respective one of the plurality of overlapping blocks.
US09338471B2

A video decoding method including: extracting, from a bitstream of an encoded video, at least one of information indicating independent parsing of a data unit and information indicating independent decoding of a data unit; extracting encoded video data and information about a coded depth and an encoding mode according to maximum coding units by parsing the bitstream based on the information indicating independent parsing of the data unit; and decoding at least one coding unit according to a coded depth of each maximum coding unit of the encoded video data, based on the information indicating independent decoding in the data unit and the information about the coded depth and the encoding mode according to maximum coding units.
US09338469B2

Images are divided into image regions. The image regions are processed in encoding cycles such that during an encoding cycle, entropy encoding is carried out in a plurality of parallel encoding branches. In each encoding branch the symbols of an image region are encoded by entropy encoding, which is based on one or more probability models, which take into account the frequencies of symbols occurring in image regions. The probability models are adapted on the basis of the symbols occurring in the image region. A common set of probability models is updated at predetermined time intervals on the basis of frequencies that are adapted in at least one temporally preceding encoding cycle.
US09338468B2

Various methods and systems are provided for latency aware priority based decoding. In one embodiment, among others, a method includes providing coded frames of a first input stream to a multiple channel (multi-channel) decoder for decoding. A second input stream is obtained and a latency priority associated with the second input stream is determined. Coded frames from the first and second input streams are provided to the multi-channel decoder for decoding in an order based upon the latency priorities associated with the first and second input streams. In another embodiment, a multi-channel decoding system includes a multi-channel decoder configured to decode coded frames and a decoder input scheduler configured to provide coded frames from a plurality of input streams to the multi-channel decoder for decoding. The coded frames are provided to the multi-channel decoder in an order based at least in part upon latency priorities associated with the input streams.
US09338467B1

A system and method provides transcoding a video in parallel by multiple transcoders based on a measure of video coding complexity (VCC). The system has a video pre-processing module, a master transcoder, a transcoding controller and multiple transcoders. The video pre-processing module transcodes a source video into an intermediate video. The master transcoder partitions the intermediate video into multiple transcoding units, where a transcoding unit identifies a portion of data of the intermediate video for transcoding. The master transcoder further generates a transcoding request for each transcoding unit. The transcoding controller distributes the transcoding units to the multiple transcoders, which transcode the data of the transcoding units in parallel into transcoded data.
US09338464B2

Adaptively indicating field and frame encoding of coded pictures, such as but not necessarily limited to those transmitted in accordance with High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) (ISO/IEC 23008-2)/ITU-T Recommendation H.265, is contemplated. The field and frame encoding indications may be provided at various levels of granularity, such as on a per picture basis, a per slice basis and/or a per slice segment basis.
US09338462B2

An image decoding apparatus is provided. The image decoding apparatus includes a processor which obtains information about a color representation from a bitstream, obtains a residue, which corresponds to a difference between a current image and a predicted image of the current image, from the bitstream, and reconstructs the current image by using the residue and the predicted image, based on the information about the color representation.
US09338450B2

Methods and apparatus for determining encoding parameters of an encoder or a transcoder which yield an encoded signal of optimal measurable properties are disclosed. For a video signal, the encoding parameters may include quantization granularity, a measure of display resolution, and a frame rate. The measurable properties of an encoded signal may include a fidelity index, a relative size, and a relative flow rate. Reference data records quantifying properties of sample signals encoded according to experimental sets of encoding parameters are used to define parameters of conjectured analytical functions characterizing the encoding or transcoding functions. The analytical functions are then used to generate granular tables of estimated measures of encoded-signal properties. A fast search mechanism relies on the granular tables, together with sorted arrangements of the granular tables, to determine, in real-time, preferred encoding parameters for multimedia data streams received at an encoder or a transcoder.
US09338445B2

Method and apparatus for displaying full resolution, high definition (HD) three-dimensional (3D) images in a liquid crystal display (LCD) device by alternating polarization (or spectrum) of pixels present in a 4K LCD device. A first method comprises spatially dividing pixels by alternating polarization of pixels present in a 4K LCD device utilizing vertical, horizontal and checkerboard interlacing techniques. Another method comprises spatially alternating two sets of narrow band-pass color filters RGB1 and RGB2. RGB1 and RGB2 are balanced to minimize need for color balancing processing.
US09338442B2

System and method for a visual display system with a two-way mirror, which is between the observation zone and the image display device, positioned at an angle to reflect a backdrop surface that may be wider than the image display device or a backdrop with mirrored sides to extend the visual perception of the backdrop surface. A camera may be included with the visual display system for telepresence applications. The two-way mirror may extend into wall panels on the sides to form a room that appears to extend in depth by the reflection of the wall panels and a backdrop panel.
US09338438B2

A range-finding system includes two imaging devices to capture multiple images from two different viewpoints and a parallax calculator to calculate parallax based on the multiple images captured by the two imaging devices. The parallax calculator includes an estimation unit to estimate a correction value based on the amount of image deviation in a lateral direction corresponding to pixel position in the images captured by the two imaging devices and a correction unit to correct a pre-correction parallax or an image based on the correction value estimated by the estimation unit.
US09338433B2

A method and apparatus are provided for displaying a 3D image using a 2D image in an electronic device. Information related to an inclination of the electronic device is detected from a motion of the electronic device. The 3D image is generated by moving each of a plurality of image layers, which are derived from the 2D image, based on the detected information and motion parallax corresponding to the detected information. The 3D image is displayed.
US09338424B2

A signal processing device for processing three-dimensional image data, having two-dimensional (2D) image data and 2D depth data, includes an input for receiving the 2D image data and the 2D depth data. Further, a first outlier detector is used for establishing a statistical depth deviation of a depth value from other depth values in a first spatial neighborhood of the 2D depth data. A second outlier detector is used for establishing a statistical image deviation of an image value from other image values in a second spatial neighborhood of the 2D image data. The signal processing device also includes a depth value generator for, in dependence on the statistical depth deviation and the statistical image deviation, providing a replacement depth value when the statistical depth deviation exceeds the statistical image deviation.
US09338422B2

The present technology relates to a display control method, a recording medium, and a display control device with which a subtitle forced display function can be implemented on the basis of TTML (Timed Text Markup Language). TTML data in which predetermined attribute information pertaining to subtitle forced display is described in a tag defining an element of text is used. At a content playback side, control is performed on the basis of the predetermined attribute information in the TTML data, in such a way that characters based on text data designated by the tag in which the attribute information is written are displayed on a display unit regardless of whether a subtitle display setting is ON or OFF. Owing to this kind of configuration, text data serving as a predetermined text element from among text elements (text data serving as subtitles) within the TTML data can be displayed regardless of whether a subtitle display setting is ON or OFF. In other words, a subtitle forced display function can be implemented on the basis of TTML.
US09338420B2

In general, techniques are described for capturing multi-channel audio data. A device comprising one or more processors may be configured to implement the techniques. The processors may analyze captured audio data to identify audio objects, and analyze video data captured concurrent to the capture of the audio data to identify video objects. The processors may then associate at least one of the audio objects with at least one of the video objects, and generate multi-channel audio data from the audio data based on the association of the at least one of audio objects with the at least one of the video objects.
US09338419B2

An image processing apparatus is provided that allows accurate white balance gains to be obtained by accurately estimating the illuminant colors of various objects in an image. The white balance gains are obtained based on values of white pixels that have been extracted from an input image and have colors included in an extraction range, and the white balance gains are obtained based on specular reflection components included in the input image, are mixed in accordance with a mix ratio. The mix ratio is determined in accordance with, for example, a degree of reliability of extraction of the white pixels.
US09338411B2

The system and method for remote utility meter reading are include a camera positioned adjacent the face of a utility meter for generating an analog optical image signal representative of a the utility meter having a visual identifier associated with the utility meter. The visual identifier may be a label, a bar code or the like for identifying the location of the particular utility meter. An analog-to-digital converter is in communication with the camera for receiving the analog optical image signal and generating an associated digital image signal. The original analog optical image signal is preserved, so that a transmitter in communication with the camera may transmit both the analog optical image signal and the digital image signal to a remote host associated with the utility company for remote reading of the utility meter.
US09338410B2

Method, device, and storage medium for logging on to a network that provides a streaming service for content pertaining to video cameras located at customers' premises; attempting to receive streaming content from a video camera located at a customer's premises based on one of a request to open a port on a routing device located at the customer's premises or a request to open a pinhole on a routing device located at a location remote to the customer's premises; and determining whether a success or a failure occurred as to receiving the streaming content from the video camera located at the customer's premises.
US09338408B2

An image obtaining apparatus includes: a light source configured to irradiate a biological sample having a fluorescent label with excitation light, the excitation light exciting the fluorescent label; an optical system including an objective lens, the objective lens being configured to magnify an imaging target of the biological sample; an image sensor configured to form an image of the imaging target magnified by the objective lens; a movement controller configured to move a focus position of the optical system in an imaging range including at least a range corresponding to the thickness of the imaging target; and a data processing unit configured to exposure the image sensor to light while moving the focus position in the imaging range and obtain a fluorescent image of the biological sample, to thereby calculate distribution information of the fluorescent label in a thickness direction of the imaging target based on the fluorescent image.
US09338405B2

A method of decrypting a scrambled digital data item at a client is disclosed, the method including: receiving actual control messages at the client, wherein each actual control message includes control word generating information for generating a control word associated with the actual control message; storing the actual control messages at the client; receiving the scrambled digital data item at the client independently of the actual control messages, wherein the scrambled digital data item includes a plurality of segments of scrambled digital data, each segment of scrambled digital data being associated with one of the actual control messages and being scrambled with the control word associated with the one of the actual control messages, and wherein the scrambled digital data item further includes a plurality of reference control messages, each segment of scrambled digital data comprising one of the reference control messages, each of the reference control messages including a control message reference value identifying the actual control message associated with the segment of scrambled digital data; and decrypting the scrambled digital data item using the plurality of actual control messages.
US09338401B2

Examples hybrid topologies of a conferencing system are disclosed. An example of a hybrid topology may comprise a plurality of endpoints and a central entity. Each of said plurality of endpoints may provide its primary video stream and audio stream to said centralized entity. The centralized entity provides the primary speaker stream and the mixed audio stream to each of said plurality of endpoint participants. In addition, some of plurality of endpoint establishes low bandwidth/low resolution media streams with other of said plurality of endpoint participants for non-speaker video.
US09338396B2

An example method may include displaying first image data associated with a first participant on a first screen; comparing a first affinity associated with the first participant to a second affinity associated with a second participant; and displaying second image data associated with the second participant on a second screen if the second affinity matches the first affinity. In certain implementations, the first data is displayed as a result of the first participant being an active speaker in a videoconference. The method may also include determining the first affinity and the second affinity based on corresponding uniform resource indicators (URIs) associated with the first affinity and the second affinity.
US09338394B2

A method is provided in one example and includes receiving audio data at a microphone array that includes a plurality of microphones. The microphone array is provisioned at a first endpoint, which includes a camera element configured to capture video data associated with a video session involving the first endpoint and a second endpoint. The method also includes formatting the audio data into a time division multiplex (TDM) stream, and communicating the stream to a port for a subsequent communication over a network and to the second endpoint.
US09338391B1

Media device systems and methods synchronize video content with audio content presented by a plurality of wireless audio headsets. In an exemplary embodiment, a first time delay corresponds to a first duration of time between communication of the audio content from the media device and presentation of the audio content by a first wireless audio headset. A second time delay corresponds to a second duration of time between communication of the audio content from the media device and presentation of the audio content by a second wireless audio headset, wherein the first time delay is greater than the second time delay. Video content communicated to a display is delayed by the first time delay. Audio content communicated to the second wireless audio headset is delayed by a time delay difference between the first time delay and the second time delay.
US09338381B2

A solid-state image pickup device according to one aspect of the present invention includes, but is not limited to: first and second substrates on which circuit elements constituting a pixel; a coupler electrically coupling the first and second substrates; a first photoelectric conversion element on the first substrate; a first amplifier circuit on the first substrate; a first storing unit on the second substrate; and an output circuit on the second substrate. The first photoelectric conversion element performs photoelectric conversion on a first incident light to generate a first signal. The first amplifier circuit is coupled in series to the first photoelectric conversion element. The first amplifier circuit amplifies the first signal to generate a first amplified signal and output the first amplified signal to the coupler. The first storing unit stores the first amplified signal. The output circuit sequentially outputs the first amplified signal stored.
US09338377B2

Dark current from a transfer transistor is suppressed and power-supply voltage in a second semiconductor substrate is lowered. A solid-state image pickup device includes a pixel array, a plurality of common output lines receiving signals read out from a plurality of pixels, a transfer scanning unit sequentially driving the plurality of transfer transistors, a signal processing unit processing the signals output to the common signal lines, and a level shift unit making amplitude of a pulse supplied to a gate of the transfer transistor larger than amplitude of a pulse supplied to a gate of a transistor constituting the signal processing unit. The pixel array and the level shift unit are arranged on a first semiconductor substrate, whereas the plurality of common output lines and the signal processing unit are arranged on a second semiconductor substrate.
US09338376B2

As a reset transistor is turned on, an FD (Floating Diffusion) is reset to VDD and then stores charges transferred from a light receiving element. By a source-follower circuit formed by an amplifying transistor, a selection transistor and a current source, a voltage in accordance with a potential of FD is output to a data line. A second output circuit generates an output voltage VOUT in accordance with the potential of FD at an output node. Output transistors in output circuit are configured to generate a potential difference equivalent to the potential difference between FD and data line caused by the amplifying transistor and selection transistor, between data line and output node.
US09338375B2

An imaging apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an image forming optical system; an image sensor including a plurality of pixels; an image fiber including a plurality of optical fibers that guides light from the image forming optical system to the image sensor; and a processing unit that applies processing for compensating for illumination unevenness of the image sensor caused by the image fiber, wherein at least some of the light propagating inside a first one of the optical fibers and at least some of the light propagating inside a second one of the optical fibers are guided to one of the pixels.
US09338370B2

A visual system including a near-to-eye display supported by a frame adapted to be worn by a user such that each display is positioned proximate an eye of a wearer, a set of cameras supported by the frame, the cameras having different overlapping fields of view, and a processor coupled to receive images from the cameras and adapted to integrate and transform images from the set of cameras to provide a mosaic image for viewing on the display having a wider field of view than an individual camera provides.
US09338369B2

A driving circuit for controlling a driving current is provided. A D/A converter has a precision of N bits and outputs a control signal for a driving current to a current driver. A logic unit receives input control data of M bits (M>N) and outputs intermediate control data of N bits to the D/A converter. A data extraction unit divides the input control data into a first data having N bits from the MSB and a second data having (M−N) bits from the LSB. A counter accumulatively adds the second data to generate a count. A carry detection unit asserts a carry signal when a carry at the MSB of the count is generated by the counter. An output control unit 66 converts the intermediate control data into the first data or a third data, in which 1 LSB is added to the first data, according to the carry signal.
US09338354B2

A method for processing a blurred image (16) that includes a captured light trail (24) includes the steps of: (i) displaying the blurred image (16) on an image display (36); (ii) manually identifying an image patch (25) that includes the captured light trail (24) in the displayed blurred image (16); (iii) calculating a point spread function for the captured light trail (24) with a control system (28); and (iv) deblurring at least a portion of the blurred image (16) with the control system (28) utilizing the calculated point spread function.
US09338351B2

An imaging device includes a power operation switch, a shooting operation switch, an imaging module, a memory, and a control unit. The shooting operation switch is in any one of a plurality of states including a first state and a second state. After the imaging device is activated, a shooting instruction operation is not received in the first state, and is received in the second state. The memory stores first shooting mode information and second shooting mode information. The control unit activates the imaging device in the first shooting mode when the shooting operation switch is in the first state during a power source transitions from the OFF state to the ON state. The control unit activates the imaging device in the second shooting mode when the shooting operation switch is in the second state and the power source transitions from the OFF state to the ON state.
US09338344B2

The defocus amount of an imaging optical system is detected based on a pair of image signals that are obtained from an image sensor and are used for phase-difference detection automatic focusing. In a first mode, the drive of a focusing lens is controlled so that the focusing lens is driven at a first speed if the reliability of the pair of image signal is at a first level, and at a second speed lower than the first speed if the reliability of the pair of image signals is at a second level higher than the first level.
US09338340B2

A system includes a wearable device (102) such as a smartwatch and a wireless device (104) such as a smartphone. A user provides to the wearable device a user input indicating a user desire to launch a camera of the wireless device. The wearable device is separate from the wireless device but communicates wirelessly with the wireless device. The user input can take various forms such as a particular gesture (e.g., the user shaking his or her wrist back and forth twice). In response to the user input, an indication is sent to the wireless device to launch the camera of the wireless device. In response to receipt of the indication from the wearable device, the wireless device launches the camera of the wireless device.
US09338332B2

Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention implement one-dimensional array cameras, as well as modular array cameras using sub-array modules. In one embodiment, a 1×N array camera module includes: a 1×N arrangement of focal planes, where N is greater than or equal to 2, each focal plane includes a plurality of rows of pixels that also form a plurality of columns of pixels, and each focal plane not including pixels from another focal plane; and a 1×N arrangement of lens stacks, the arrangement of lens stacks being disposed relative to the arrangement of focal planes so as to form a 1×N arrangement of cameras, each configured to independently capture an image of a scene, where each lens stack has a field of view that is shifted with respect to that of each other lens stack so that each shift includes a sub-pixel shifted view of the scene.
US09338324B1

Embodiments of a computer-implemented method for thin-line enhancement in electronic images are disclosed. The methods include receiving a halftone image comprising multiple pixels, and associating a predefined kernel with at least a portion of the halftone image. The kernel includes multiple check cells and a processing cell, each capable of being toggled between an active state and an inactive state; detecting a state of each of the pixels in the neighborhood of an inactive pixel associated with the processing cell based on one or more predetermined rules being applied to the kernel, wherein the inactive pixel is in communication with a contiguous set of active pixels; and selectively activating the inactive pixel by activating the processing cell based on the predetermined rules, provided the inactive pixel upon being activated is separated from a neighboring active pixel.
US09338323B2

In a case of a first function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from a user of a multifunction peripheral (10), the user is set as an execution user. In a case of a second function of carrying out a cooperative processing in accordance with an instruction from an application, a user instructed by the application is set as an execution user. Further, in a case where an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the first function and an execution user of a cooperative processing carried out using the second function are identical, use history information of the execution user is managed as use history information of a single user. This makes it possible to appropriately manage use history information of a cooperative processing.
US09338322B2

An image reading device includes a platen on which an original is to be placed, an illuminating unit configured to illuminate the original, a linear sensor configured to receive light from the original, an optical unit configured to guide the light from the original to the linear sensor, and an aligning portion configured to determine a position of the original in a long-side direction of the linear sensor. The illuminating unit includes a light-guiding member extending in the long-side direction of the linear sensor, and a light source provided only at one long-side end of the light-guiding member. The aligning portion is provided on a side opposite to the light source in the long-side direction of the light-guiding member.
US09338315B2

A present image communication apparatus performs voice communication with an external apparatus via a network, acquires image communication information indicating an image communication capability of the external apparatus, displays an operation screen that is related to image communication and includes at least information indicating whether or not voice communication can be continued when performing image communication based on the acquired image communication information, and controls image communication in accordance with user input that has been made via the operation screen.
US09338314B2

A user terminal apparatus is provided, which connects to an image forming apparatus, which is driven by an operating system (O/S, and which includes a storage to store the image forming apparatus and a metro application to perform a job. A display displays a background screen of the including a user interface (UI) area corresponding to a job option, a controller implements the metro application, if the UI area is selected, and a communication interface transmits a command to perform the job to the image forming apparatus according to the job option corresponding to the UI area, by using the metro application.
US09338311B2

An image handling support system extracts an image corresponding to a support target image from images associated with a user with use of information indicating association established between the user and the images, from a user's activity on an SNS. Then, the image handling support system supports handling of the support target image based on the extracted image. The image handling support system provides support for acquisition of an output image that matches various image conditions and complies with a user's preference without requiring a complicated operation to be performed in advance.
US09338303B2

An indicator of a channel capacity of a wireless link between a wired telephone and a wireless hands free device is measured. Based on the indicator of the channel capacity, a call server decides whether to route a call to the wired telephone. The indicator of channel capacity may be is based on measurements of channel capacity between the telephone and the wireless hands free device taken at different times and at different locations. The measurements of channel capacity may be used to construct a map relating physical location and time to channel capacity available between one or more wired telephones and wireless hands free devices. The available channel capacity can also be used to cause indicators associated with low channel capacity to be displayed by the wired telephone or signaled to the wireless hands free device.
US09338288B2

A network component comprising a communications portion and a processor portion is disclosed. The communications portion may be configured to detect a signal indicative of a call associated with a mobile device. The processor portion may be configured to detect at least one record cue in the signal. The processor portion may be also be configured to respectively capture at least one portion of the call upon the at least one record cue being detected. The processor portion may also be configured to respectively associate at least one identifier with the at least one captured portion of the call. The identifier may respectively identify the at least one captured portion of the call.
US09338281B2

According to certain aspects, the present invention relates to methods and apparatuses to identify and locate a line-cuts in a loop that may or may not also contain bridgetaps. In embodiments, different bands of SELT signal data are analyzed separately using a TDR method, to effectively detect any potential bridgetaps. In these and other embodiments, by combining information from the separate bands, bridgetap locations and lengths are determined. Methodology is also established to distinguish legitimate line cut or bridgetap signal data from spurious data. According to certain aspects, embodiments of the invention also incorporate baselining, which includes tests to make sure that there are no inconsistencies or imperfections that can corrupt the SELT data.
US09338280B2

A system and method for managing an endpoint repository of a communication platform that includes managing a set of telephone endpoints that can be in an allocated state or an unallocated state; classifying endpoints of the set of telephone endpoints with a set of classifiers; evaluating endpoint inventory across a set of endpoint classification groupings and detecting at least one classification grouping that, based in part on the allocated and unallocated state of corresponding endpoints, satisfies an inventory update condition; generating an endpoint transfer request that specifies the endpoint classifiers of the classification grouping; and selectively adding endpoints from the inventory source to the endpoint repository.
US09338277B2

A method and system for responding to an emergency situation from a mobile communication device (100) is provided. The method includes initiating (306) a call to an emergency services number using a first modem (202) of the mobile communication device. The first modem communicates with a communication system via a first air interface. Further, the method includes detecting (308) the initiating of the call to the emergency services number. Furthermore, the method includes initiating (310) automatically an emergency transmission using a second modem (204) of the mobile communication device in response to detecting the call to the emergency services number. The second modem uses a second air interface for emergency transmission. The emergency transmission is performed concurrently with initiating the call to the emergency services number.
US09338275B2

The solution relates to the field of wireless communications. It provides the possibility of transmitting voice data over existing wireless networks via a terminal for wireless voice communication to other similar devices or groups thereof and/or hardware and software systems combined therewith immediately after the occurrence of a transmission activation event, thus the range of technical means for online voice communication extends. The terminal comprises a wireless communication device and a module for monitoring transmission activation events, which device and module are connected to a control module, is designed to be capable, of reacting to a transmission activation event in respect of the transmission of digitized voice data to other similar devices or to groups thereof and/or hardware and software systems combined therewith once a transmission activation event has taken place. Furthermore, the transport medium used comprises wired and/or wireless data transmission networks.
US09338268B2

A wireless docking system in a shared radio spectrum environment includes a docking station (220) configured with a radio (224) connected to an antenna (222), a dockee (210) configured with a radio (214) connected to an antenna (212) and using a radio standard with a carrier sense mechanism for communications with the docking station, and a system to reduce sensitivity of the carrier sense mechanism in at least one of the radio (214) of the dockee (210) and the radio (224) of the docking station (220).
US09338262B2

Disclosed are an IPv4/IPv6 dual stack software/hardware apparatus for processing an Internet packet and a method thereof. The IPv4/IPv6 dual stack software/hardware apparatus for processing an internet packet includes: a hardware type packet processor configured to process the Internet packet by a system logic circuit; a software type packet processor configured to process the Internet packet according to execution of a previously prepared program; and a packet process controller configured to receive the Internet packet to control the hardware type packet processor to process the Internet packet of a preset protocol, and to control the software type packet processor to process the Internet packet of another preset protocol.
US09338261B2

Methods, apparatus and systems for implementing Physical Media Attachment (PMA) alignment and rapid transition from a link training mode to a data mode for next-generation high-speed Ethernet links including a 100 Gbps Ethernet link. Training frames are transmitted between first and second Ethernet interfaces on opposing ends of the link in a pair-wise manner, with a first training frame being sent from a first Ethernet interface and a second training frame being returned from the second Ethernet interface. The training frames have a length that is different that the length of Physical Media Attachment (PMA) frames, and the returned training frames include receiver readiness status indicia identifying a readiness status of a local receiver port, frame alignment offset data identifying a relative offset between a training frame and a predetermined location in a PMA frame, and countdown data.
US09338259B2

A zero-added-jitter protocol for transmission of datagrams over packet-switched networks between two or more connected microprocessor devices with negligible packet delay variation and negative acknowledgment datagram recovery. A method for the analysis and preservation of the instantaneous bitrate and packet spacing provides for the output of the datagrams to a network facing provider edge device matching in timing and inter-packet spacing, that which was originally received, along with a pre-configured time-delay for error correction. Additional embodiments provide duplication of path for reduction of re-requests; the splitting of path for faster transport between transmitter and receiver; encryption for more secure transport between transmitter and receiver; compression for more efficient transport between transmitter and receiver; and encryption and compression, for more secure, efficient transport between transmitter and receiver.
US09338258B2

Methods and network devices for communicating data packets in a set of transmissions between a transmitter and a receiver of a communications network are described. The method includes prior exchanging transmitter-provided packet information and receiver-provided packet information between the transmitter and the receiver, generating an initial compression dictionary before the first transmission, based on the exchanged transmitter-provided packet information and the exchanged receiver-provided packet information. At the transmitter, the method further includes compressing the data packets of the first and subsequent transmissions of the set using the initial compression dictionary, and sending the compressed data packets over the communications network to the receiver. At the receiver, the method further includes receiving compressed data packets from the transmitter via the communications network, and decompressing the compressed data packets received in the first and subsequent transmissions of the set, using the initial compression dictionary. Improved compression of the first transmission is thus obtained.
US09338252B2

An apparatus and method for maintaining an Internet Protocol (IP) connection in a portable terminal is provided. The method includes when there is a request for registration of a service or an application having a push function, determining whether a first service quality interval corresponding to the service or application, registration of which has been requested, has been stored in the memory, and periodically transmitting a keep-alive message for maintaining the IP connection by using the first service quality interval when the first service quality interval has been stored in the memory.
US09338250B2

A social networking system receives contact information from a social networking system user. The received contact information is stored and associated with a user profile in the social networking system including information matching at least a portion of the stored content information. This increases the information associated with the user profile. Subsequently received content information is compared to user profiles and stored contact information associated with one or more user profiles. User profiles including information matching at least a portion of the subsequently received content information or associated with stored contact information matching at least a portion of the subsequently received content information are identified as potential connections for the user providing the subsequently received contact information.
US09338249B2

A reasoning apparatus (101) is arranged to determine device locations for user profile elements of a distributed user profile. A user profile processor (201) receives a user profile which comprises a plurality of user profile elements. Each user profile element furthermore comprises associated metadata. The apparatus (101) also comprises a device profile receiver (203) that receives device profiles for a plurality of devices. A device location processor (205) proceeds to determine device locations for the user profile elements in response to the associated metadata and the device profiles. Specifically, a user profile element may be assigned to a specific device if the device profile for that device matches the metadata for the user profile element. The reasoning apparatus (101) may furthermore comprise a user profile element synchronizer (207) which synchronizes the user profile elements with the appropriate devices.
US09338245B2

A variety of techniques and devices for acquiring user status information at a transmitting device to a receiving device, or vice versa, are provided.
US09338240B2

A method, system, and device for naming a location at which a user is present with a mobile communication device, including retrieving general information relating to the location, the general information managed by or for an entity other than the user; comparing the retrieved general information relating the location to user-specific information managed by or for the user; identifying an atemporal correlation between the retrieved general information and the user-specific information; generating at least one name for the location based on the atemporal correlation between the retrieved general information and the user-specific information providing the at least one name for the location for selection; and storing the name selected for the location from the at least one name.
US09338233B2

Embodiments of methods, systems and apparatuses for distributing content by generating and preloading queues of content, are disclosed. One content distribution system includes at least one network content server coupled over one or more communication networks to a plurality of user devices, and a one or more storage elements associated with the plurality of user devices, wherein each of the plurality of user devices is associated with at least one of the one or more storage elements. The at least one network content server includes at least one processor configured to generate a queue of content for each of the plurality of user devices based on parameters of a plurality of available content, and based on storage capabilities of the at least one of the one or more storage elements associated with each of the plurality of user devices, and assist preloading at of least a portion of the queue of content of each of the plurality of user devices to the at least one of the one or more storage elements associated with the user device.
US09338232B2

A system for synchronizing a state of a member server with a state of other member servers belonging to a same replication group, the system including: a server sequence storage unit storing a first server sequence; a message receiving unit receiving an external message from a service server and receiving a second state update message from a second member server belonging to the same replication group including the member server, the second state update message including a second server sequence; an external message processing unit, in response to the receiving the external message, increasing the first server sequence by a predetermined value, generating a first state update message including the first server sequence, and transmitting the first state update message to the second member server; and a state update message processing unit, in response to the receiving the second state update message, changing the first server sequence to the second server sequence when the second server sequence included in the second state update message is larger than the first server sequence stored in the server sequence storage unit.
US09338226B2

The embodiments herein provide a system architecture, application model and methods to write Big Data programs using actor systems and asynchronous messaging middleware akka and scala language. The system comprises an actor network connected to a cloud network and to a distributed virtual machine (DVM) network. The actors are connected respectively to the DVMs based on a predefined protocol. A scheduler is provided to schedule the resources to an actor in the actor network. A stop and start mechanism is provided to change a connection between the actors and the DVMs. The system server sends a message to the actor to disconnect an actor connected to one DVM and to connect the actor to another DVM based on a load of a process agent present in each DVM to balance a load on the actor. The system server adds three fundamental operations over actor systems.
US09338224B2

Integrated nodes, such as programmable logic controllers, computer program products, computer readable media, and computer implemented methods are provided for process automation and subsystem communications, allowing a remote host to interface with a plurality of remote and in-plant subsystems and services using a wired or wireless network interface and having a database server and a protocol translator or translation server to convert and manipulate various industrial interfaces and protocols. Embodiments of the integrated node time-synchronize the plurality of remote subsystems, acquire and archive time-stamped process data, report exceptions therein to the remote host, and extract and transmit time-stamped process data to the remote host.
US09338221B2

Distributed conferencing systems and methods provide local meeting contents to remote participants. In accordance with various example embodiments, a plurality of authorized source units generate media content responsive to and representative of respective content for a meeting. In response to the generated media content, one or more data streams are developed at each authorized source, each stream being a separately-decodable real-time representation of at least a portion of the media content generated at the respective authorized source. The separate data streams are transmitted by each authorized source to a common multicast IP group address for retrieval/access by remote participants.
US09338215B2

A search engine to index web content with user content. A server computer receives, from a first client computer operated by a first user, an identification of first web content displayed by a web browser of the first client computer in a main browser window. The identification of the first web content is transmitted by the first user to the server computer via a user interface separate from the main browser window. The server computer then indexes the first web content. In response to receiving a search query from a web browser of a second client computer operated by a second user, the server computer transmits search results to the web browser of the second client computer. The search results include the first web content identified by the first user in a position relative to identifications of other web content received from other users.
US09338214B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for orchestrating a business process in a computer network. A script describing a business process is received from a client machine over the computer network. The script is compiled into executable program instructions. A reference to the script and data to be operated on by the script is received from the client machine over the computer network. The data is processed in accordance with the script. The result of the data processing is returned to the client machine over the computer network.
US09338210B2

Systems and methods for providing content items to users. A first content item is divided into an opening portion and a remainder portion. The opening portion begins at a chronological beginning of the first content item and ends a predetermined number of digital units from the chronological beginning of the first content item. The opening portion may be encoded according to an encoding format. The opening portion may be stored at a first remote data storage location. In response to a request for the content item from a user device, the first remote data storage location is instructed to stream the opening portion to the user device. The remainder portion may be encoded according to the encoding format and streamed to the user device.
US09338207B2

Systems and methods for remotely viewing medical images on a client device having a zero-client web application with a buffering module. The zero-client web application receives an image series selection from a user and receives corresponding series details from a web server. The zero-client web application generates an off-screen image array according to the series details. The buffering module outputs image requests based on the series details to a web server. The web server is in communication with a medical image database storing images in a non-web browser compatible format (e.g., DICOM). The buffering module then populates the off-screen image array with converted medical images received from the web server. The zero-client web application further includes an on-screen image and a display module. The display module sequentially sets converted medical images of the off-screen array as the on-screen image to stream the converted medical images.
US09338202B2

Managing a collaborative space includes providing a collaborative space in which a number of users collaborate from respective client devices, monitoring content of the collaborative space to determine a context of collaboration in the collaborative space, and changing an operation of at least one functionality of the collaborative space based on the determined context of collaboration in the collaborative space.
US09338200B2

Disclosed herein are a metaverse client terminal and method for providing a metaverse space capable of enabling interaction between users. The metaverse client terminal includes a sensing data collection unit, a motion state determination unit, a server interface unit, and a metaverse space provision unit. The sensing data collection unit collects sensing data regarding a motion of a first user. The motion state determination unit determines a motion state of the first user, and generates state information data of the first user. The server interface unit transmits the state information data of the first user to a metaverse server, and receives metaverse information data and state information data of a second user. The metaverse space provision unit generates a metaverse space, generates a first avatar and a second avatar, incorporates the first and second avatars into the metaverse space, and provides the metaverse to the first user.
US09338198B2

An example system includes: a first memory in which a plurality of first objects each corresponding to a content included in a plurality of contents is stored; a second memory in which a plurality of second objects each corresponding to a user is stored; an association unit that associates a content with a second object; a first display controller that displays one or more first objects each corresponding to a content selected from the plurality of contents; and a second display controller that displays a second object adjacent to a first object corresponding to a content associated with the second object.
US09338193B2

Embodiments relate to providing remote procedure calls (RPC) with call-by-reference semantics using remote direct memory access (RDMA). An aspect includes establishing a session between a client and a server. A client session heap memory and a server session heap memory are initialized with a RDMA provider. A parameter is then stored in the session heap memory. A handle for the parameter is passed to the server which permits access to the parameter responsive to an on-demand request from the server.
US09338185B2

A method and system for service provision, comprising: a web browser (4) in a first communications device (e.g. a personal computer) (2) running a script (8) that is from a remote source (e.g. a remote web server) (30); sending, from the first communications device (2) to a second communications device (e.g. a smart phone) (16), a service request for a service required by the script (8) running on the web browser (4); sending a user authorization request from the second communications device (16) to the first communications device (2); the first communications device (2) obtaining authorization from a user (12); sending a user authorization from the first communications device (2) to the second communications device (16); and the second communications device (16) providing the requested service only if the user authorization is received.
US09338182B2

Techniques are provided to enable a network device, such as a switch, to perform global server load balancing (GSLB) while operating as a proxy to a domain name system security extensions (DNSSEC)-capable authoritative DNS server. The network device preserves an original signature generated by the DNSSEC-capable authoritative DNS server for a resource record set contained in a DNSSEC reply.
US09338176B2

The present disclosure generally provides systems and methods of providing identification and access management. The system could include a network security zone having access rules for a network resource object associated with the network. The system could also include a module to collect information related to an attempt to access the network resource object and to generate an alert if the collected information fails to meet certain requirements related to the access rules. The module could change the access rules to prevent possible future unauthorized access attempts based on the collected information.
US09338172B2

A method for authenticating an Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) packet, wherein the method comprises, receiving the IPsec packet via an input port, performing a Sequence-Integrity Check Value (SEQ-ICV) check that validates a sequence number within the IPsec packet, and performing an Integrity Check Value (ICV) check that validates a checksum within the IPsec packet, wherein the SEQ-ICV check is performed before the ICV check. In yet another example embodiment, an apparatus for transmitting an IPsec packet, comprising a processor, and a transmitter coupled to the processor, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit an IPsec packet that comprises a header that comprises a sequence number field that provides a sequence number, and a payload that comprises one or more SEQ-ICV segments used to authenticate the sequence number within the IPsec packet.
US09338171B2

An approach is provided for controlling access to resources according to social connections and/or characteristics of the resources. An access control platform determines one or more resources associated with at least one user, at least one device associated with the at least one user, or a combination thereof. The access control platform further processes and/or facilitates a processing of social networking information associated with the at least one user, the at least one device, or a combination thereof to determine one or more social networking groups. The access control platform also causes, at least in part, a controlling of access to the one or more resources for one or more other users, one or more other devices associated with the one or more other users, or a combination thereof based, at least in part, on membership in the one or more social networking groups.
US09338153B2

An authentication credentials push service (ACPS) that securely pushes non-privileged authentication credentials to registered client entities. The ACPS comprises a classification server and a push server to provide access to non-privileged authentication credentials absent a pull transaction. The classification server in the ACPS classifies authentication credentials as either privileged (i.e. private, forgeable) or non-privileged (i.e. non-forgeable, non-sensitive). Credentials identified as being of a privileged nature are treated with restricted access. Alternatively, credentials classified as being of a non-privileged nature are made available for the push service. Authentication servers register with the ACPS to become consumers of the push service. A push server within the ACPS pushes non-privileged authentication credentials to registered authentication servers at predetermined intervals. Individual authentication credentials push services (ACPS) have access to different authentication credentials. An authentication server can use a dynamic name service (DNS) lookup to find a specific authentication credentials push service (ACPS).
US09338150B2

Methods of content-centric networking, a client, a server and a non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing a computer program product are disclosed. A method of establishing a secure session for transfer of a stream of data packets between a client and a server of a content-centric network is performed by exchanging information in such a way that the namespace of each data packet changes and is related to the previous data packets. The namespaces daisy-chain from one to the other, without the need for any additional authentication needing to take place between the two nodes when transferring a subsequent data packet. As long as both the client and the server derives the correct namespace for each subsequent data packet, it can be assumed that the session between the client and the server is still secure, which significantly improves performance while maintaining security.
US09338149B2

A process for converting a DTCP-IP transport stream into HLS format, comprising receiving an encrypted DTCP-IP transport stream comprising DTCP frames at a secondary device from a source device, with each of the plurality of DTCP frames comprising encrypted 16-byte portions, forming chunks from the DTCP frames by grouping encrypted 16-byte portions into a chunk, adding HLS padding bytes to the end of each chunk and encrypting the HLS padding bytes to form an encrypted chunk, loading each of the encrypted chunks and a playlist to a media proxy server at the secondary device, loading a DTCP key onto a security proxy server, and providing the playlist, each of the encrypted chunks, and the DTCP key to a native media player on the secondary device, such that the native media player follows the playlist to decrypt the encrypted chunks using the DTCP key and plays back the chunks.
US09338147B1

Embodiments are directed to sharing secure communication secrets with a network monitoring device (NMD). The NMD may passively monitor network packets communicated between client computers and server computers. If a secure communication session is established between a client computer and a server computer, a key provider may provide the NMD a session key that corresponds to the secure communication session. The NMD may buffer each network packet associated with the secure communication session until the NMD is provided a session key for the secure communication session. The NMD may use the session key to decrypt network packets communicated between the client computer and the server computer. The NMD may then proceed to analyze the secure communication session based on the contents of the decrypted network packets.
US09338139B2

A method and system for securing data transmitted between a client device and a server by obtaining input text at an intermediate module, processing the input text to obtain processed text, and transmitting the processed text to the server. Embodiments of the invention include securing data between a client device and a server by processing the input text at the intermediate module by applying an order-preserving transformation, the order-preserving transformation comprising: generating order information based on the input text, the order information indicative of a relative order of the input text within a set of possible input texts according to a collation rule.
US09338137B1

Systems and methods can detect the unintended transfer of confidential data or confidential information over wireless networks. Further, systems and methods can prevent, wholly or in part, the loss of confidential user data during transfer of data through a wireless network. A protection rule or option can be selected according to a certain security level of a wireless network. Additionally, data can be subsequently transferred in accordance with the selected protection option.
US09338125B2

Systems and methods for automatically locating web-based social network members are provided. According to one embodiment, contact content including an associated GPS identifier and status for web-based social network members located at or near the same location automatically appears on a GPS-enabled device. A further exemplary system includes a GPS-enabled device configured to receive a GPS identifier and a status representing a location and a current state for a web-based social network member, a processing module that associates the received GPS-identifier and the received status, and a communications module that sends the associated GPS-identifier and status to a server comprising a web-based social network database. Contact content in a web-based social network database record in the web-based social network database is updated to include the associated GPS identifier and status for the web-based social network member.
US09338123B2

An exemplary method includes a content hub subsystem receiving a content posting from an access device connected to a wireless network and associated with a first user. The content posting includes data representative of a content instance and a geographic location associated with the content instance. The exemplary method further includes the content hub subsystem storing the content posting and selectively distributing the content instance to at least one other access device connected to the wireless network based on the geographic location, the at least one other access device associated with a second user. A past or present physical location of the at least one other access device within a predefined proximity of the geographic location is requisite to the distribution of the content instance to the at least one other access device. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US09338119B2

Techniques for enabling improved electronic mail handling in communication networks include a method of handling an electronic mail message in an electronic mail system. The method includes establishing a secure connection between a client of a message sender and a server of a message recipient in the electronic mail system. The method also includes participating in an authentication exchange to verify the identity of the message sender. The method further includes the message sender depositing an electronic mail message with the server of the message recipient upon successful verification of the identity of the client of the message sender.
US09338109B2

A method for presenting information contained in messages in a terminal (MS). In the method, the message includes at least one component. The message is transmitted to a terminal (MS) in a system for transmitting multimedia messages. In the method, a presentation model (SMIL) is formed to contain information related to the presentation of each component attached in the message. The aforementioned presentation model (SMIL) is supplemented with a reference about the location of each component in the message, and the aforementioned presentation model (SMIL) is attached to the aforementioned message.
US09338106B2

Embodiments described herein provide approaches for integrating and searching electronic communications received from a plurality of different communication platforms. Specifically, a consolidated communication/messaging platform integrates and consolidates bi-directional communications/messages from individuals, groups, or other entities from various channels (e.g., text messaging, instant messaging, social networking platforms, e-mail, and the like), and enables end users to search and locate content or substance of a specific communication via a user interface and locally stored repository.
US09338104B2

The disclosed embodiments include a system, method, and computer program product for tracking conformance of user traffic with a bandwidth profile. For example, in one embodiment, throughput is measured during an observance window and an average for offered throughput is determined based on the measured throughput. A determination is made as to whether the average exceeds a bandwidth profile in response to a determination that packets are being discarded. An alarm is sent in response to a determination that the average exceeds the bandwidth profile.
US09338100B2

A method and apparatus aggregate a plurality of input data streams from first processors into one data stream for a second processor, the circuit and the first and second processors being provided on an electronic circuit substrate. The aggregation circuit includes (a) a plurality of ingress data ports, each ingress data port adapted to receive an input data stream from a corresponding first processor, each input data stream formed of ingress data packets, each ingress data packet including priority factors coded therein, (b) an aggregation module coupled to the ingress data ports, adapted to analyze and combine the plurality of input data steams into one aggregated data stream in response to the priority factors, (c) a memory coupled to the aggregation module, adapted to store analyzed data packets, and (d) an output data port coupled to the aggregation module, adapted to output the aggregated data stream to the second processor.
US09338096B2

Method, device and apparatus for delivering video telephony by using a media controller and a software defined networking (SDN) controller to enable multicasting for multi-party video conferencing. A media controller generates a video sending rate for each of the plurality of client devices based on a received video conference request and received network information. The media controller determines and independently constructs a maximum-rate delay-bounded multicast tree for each of the plurality of client devices that supports the largest possible multicast rate. The media controller determines a common congested link in the multicast trees, re-routes the multicast tree with the common congested link for the client device with the lowest weight of utility divided by its video sending rate and creating two subtrees, and iteratively re-routes the multicast trees until an aggregate video sending rate of the multicast trees sharing the common congested link meets a link capacity of the common congested link.
US09338092B1

A method and apparatus for configuring an overlay network are provided. In the method and apparatus, a plurality of applications are deployed for execution on one or more computing systems. The plurality of applications may be part of an application group. Credentials information is provided to the one or more computing systems, whereby the credentials information is usable for securing communication between at least two applications of the plurality of applications that are executed on different computing systems. Further, configuration information that is usable for establishing a routing path for data sent by or addressed to a first application of the plurality of applications is provided to at least one computing system.
US09338091B2

A method of providing efficient access to cloud services in a network that includes a several tenant logical networks and a set of service logical networks. The method receives, from a particular tenant VM, a first packet that specifies a destination address associated with a service VM of a service logical network. The method, based on the destination address of the first packet, replaces the source network address and source port number of the first packet with one of a set of network address and port number pairs allocated for accessing service VMs. The method receives from the particular VM a second packet that specifies a destination address outside the tenant logical network but not associated with any service VM. The method, without modifying the source address and port number of the second packet, forwards the second packet to a network element outside the host for network NAT processing.
US09338084B2

Techniques are presented herein for optimizing traffic routing in overlay networks. At a first edge device located at a first site in a network, a message is received that indicates address information of a network device. The address information of the network device is stored in an address table. The address information is associated with a site identifier that identifies a second site at which the network device is located. The site identifier is mapped to an identifier associated with a second edge device that is responsible for routing traffic to network devices at the second site.
US09338078B2

A link state information correction scheme is implemented by the present disclosure. In one embodiment, the correction scheme is implemented by a reload logic module that cooperates with link state protocol logic configured on a reload routing element (or routing element that has reloaded or hard restarted). The reload logic module is configured to receive a database descriptor message at a reload routing element, where the database descriptor message is received from a neighbor routing element during an adjacency formation. The reload logic module is also configured to determine whether the database descriptor message identifies a stale version of a link state advertisement (LSA), where the LSA is self-originated by the reload routing element. The reload logic module is also configured to generate a new version of the LSA during the adjacency formation.
US09338067B2

Techniques are described which simplify and/or automate many of the tasks associated with the configuration, deployment, and management of network resources to support cloud-based services.
US09338048B2

The invention relates to a mobile communications terminal for use in a plurality of wireless local networks. Said terminal comprises a log on memory, in which an access address that is designed to be used for a new log on process is stored. According to the invention, information concerning the access addresses that were received by the mobile communications terminal in previous log on operations and the network among the plurality of wireless local networks that was used, is stored in an allocation memory. The terminal is configured in such a way that when a new access request is received for a sought network among the plurality of wireless local networks, it searches for a previous access address that was allocated for the sought network and is also configured in such a way that when said previous access address for the sought network has been found, it writes the address to the log on memory and permits the log on operation. The invention also relates to a method for managing log on information that is designed for the mobile communications terminal.
US09338044B2

Gain variations during a packet can lead to significant performance degradation in communications systems that use high order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). A method and the associated apparatus track such variations in an OFDM system and completely eliminate any performance degradation. Gain estimation and compensation is employed with the use of pilot subcarriers in the payload of an OFDM data packet. Estimated pilot magnitude ratios are averaged, throughout the processing life of a packet, to yield accurate gain estimations. A gain compensation factor is used to adjust data carriers. An exclusion method is also employed to eliminate pilot carriers which contribute to noise.
US09338040B2

A short reach communication system includes a plurality of communication SERDES that communicate data over a short reach channel medium such as a backplane connection (e.g., PCB trace) between, for example, chips located on a common PCB. A multi-level modulated data signal is generated to transmit/receive data over the short reach channel medium. Multi-level modulated data signals, such as four-level PAM, reduce the data signal rate therefore reducing insertion loss, power, complexity of the circuits and required chip real estate.
US09338039B1

In an example, an apparatus for signal classification in a digital pre-distortion (DPD) system includes a positive frequency path including a first half-band low pass filter (LPF) operable to filter samples of an input digital samples after positive frequency translation; a negative frequency path including a second half-band LPF operable to filter the samples of the input digital samples after negative frequency translation; a power estimation circuit coupled to the positive frequency path and the negative frequency path, the power estimation circuit operable to determine a first average power based on output of the first half-band LPF, a second average power based on output of the second half-band LPF, and a total average power of the input digital samples; and a controller operable to determine a frequency content metric from the first average power and the second average power, and to select a set of filter coefficients for the DPD system based on the frequency content metric and the total average power.
US09338037B2

Described are integrated-circuit die with differential receivers, the inputs of which are coupled to external signal pads. Termination legs coupled to the signal pads support multiple termination topologies. These termination legs can support adjustable impedances, capacitances, or both, which may be controlled using an integrated memory.
US09338023B2

In one embodiment, a router gateway in a first Local Area Network (LAN) hosts both an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) Rapid Deployment (6rd) Customer Edge (CE) as well as a 6rd Border Router (BR). In one specific example embodiment, upon registering the BR to a global computer network, the router gateway may then accept a 6rd tunnel from a device hosting a second 6rd CE of a second LAN, such that the 6rd tunnel joins the first and second LANs into a single LAN. The second CE may then communicate, via the router gateway, between the first and second LANs as a single LAN (e.g., site-to-site), accordingly.
US09338021B2

An electronic communication network includes a connectivity subsystem. The connectivity subsystem registers a control subsystem with the connectivity subsystem. The control subsystem requests that network traffic be redirected from the connectivity subsystem to the control subsystem. In response to the request, the connectivity subsystem redirects network traffic from the connectivity subsystem to the control subsystem.
US09338017B2

A method for controlling a transmitter, comprising: awaking and initiating the transmitter by a trigger signal generated by a timer; detecting whether the transmitter receives an input control parameter from outside of the transmitter, and if yes, updating an input control parameter stored in the transmitter by using the received input control parameter; reading the input control parameter currently stored in the transmitter; performing operations based on the read input control parameter so as to control the transmitter to select one sensor signal from a plurality of sensor signals, amplify the selected sensor signal with a gain within a first gain range, and output the amplified sensor signal; and after determining that the transmitter has accomplished a task specified by the read input control parameter, resetting the timer, and entering into a sleeping state until the timer generates the trigger signal.
US09338016B2

A method and an apparatus for communicating with a second apparatus. The apparatus includes a controller and a transceiver for exchanging a predetermined number of data fields between the apparatuses by transmitting and receiving frames having one or more data fields and including in each frame a field indicating which data fields the apparatus has not yet received successfully.
US09338011B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for document authentication. An electronic document is presented to a user. The electronic document has data representing a signed state and a current state. A disallowed difference between the signed state and the current state is detected, based on one or more rules that are associated with the electronic document. A digital signature associated with the electronic document is invalidated in response to the detecting.
US09338006B2

Systems and methods for authenticating electronic transactions are provided. The authentication methods employ a combination of security features and communication channels. These security features can be based, for example, on unique knowledge of the person being authenticated, a unique thing that the person has, unique personal features and attributes of the person, the ability of the person to respond, and to do so in a fashion that a machine cannot, and so forth. Methods for enrolling the person prior to authentication are also provided, as well as systems for enrollment and authentication.
US09337997B2

A method for performing multi-wire signaling encoding is provided in which a clock signal is encoded within symbol transitions. A sequence of data bits is converted into a plurality of m transition numbers. Each transition number is converted into a sequential symbol number from a set of sequential symbol numbers. The sequential symbol number is converted into a raw symbol that can be transmitted over a plurality of differential drivers. The raw symbol is transmitted spread over a plurality of n wires, wherein the clock signal is effectively embedded in the transmission of raw symbols since the conversion from transition number into a sequential symbol number guarantees that no two consecutive raw symbols are the same. The raw symbol is guaranteed to have a non-zero differential voltage across all pairs of the plurality of n wires.
US09337991B2

A wireless communication unit includes at least one antenna port; a transmitter and a receiver operably coupled to the at least one antenna port via a duplexer; wherein the duplexer includes a dynamically reconfigurable phase shift network that includes: at least one tunable radio frequency (RF) component; and at least one switch operably coupled to the tunable RF component and controllable to reconfigure the dynamically reconfigurable phase shift network to selectively support both normal and reverse duplexer modes of operation for RF signals passing there through.
US09337987B1

A method includes determining a first measure of a benefit of disallowing transmission during a time period within a time frame. The benefit of disallowing transmission includes an immediate benefit of disallowing transmission during the time period, and a future benefit of having, for use in a subsequent portion of the time frame, a decremented number of opportunities to disallow transmission. The method also includes determining a second measure of a benefit of not disallowing transmission during the time period. The benefit of not disallowing transmission includes an immediate benefit of not disallowing transmission during the time period, and a future benefit of having, for use in the subsequent portion of the time frame, a non-decremented number of opportunities to disallow transmission. The method also includes determining whether to disallow transmission during the time period at least in part by comparing the first measure to the second measure.
US09337985B2

A method includes receiving in a mobile communication terminal signals from multiple cells that coordinate transmission of the signals with one another in a Cooperative Multipoint (CoMP) scheme. At least first and second Channel Quality Indicators (CQIs), for respective communication channels over which the signals are received, are calculated in the terminal based on the received signals. The second CQI is differentially encoded relative to the first CQI. Feedback information, including the first CQI and the differentially-encoded second CQI, is transmitted from the terminal.
US09337982B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus for adaptive antenna management in LTE. Devices and networks capable of transmitting and receiving signals using a variable number of transmitting or receiving antennas using LTE radio access technology are described.
US09337980B2

Provided are a method for controlling uplink transmission power and a wireless device. The wireless device decides a first transmission power of a first uplink channel, which is transmitted through a first wireless resource from a first serving cell, and decides a second transmission power of a second uplink channel, which is transmitted through a second wireless resource from a second serving cell. The first serving cell belongs to a first timing advance (TA) group, and the second serving cell belongs to a second TA group that differs from the first TA group. All or a portion of the first wireless resource and the second wireless resource overlap, wherein the sum of the first and second transmission powers in the overlapping portion is decided so as not to exceed a maximum transmission power.
US09337979B2

Feedback information is conveyed between a wireless device and a base station in a cellular communications network via selection and detection of radio resources utilized for an uplink reference signal transmitted from a wireless device to a base station. In this manner, additional feedback information may be sent from the wireless device to the base station without sacrificing any bandwidth available for data transfer between the wireless device and the base station. The radio resources utilized for the uplink reference signal may include cyclic shift and/or time and frequency resources. The uplink reference signal may be an uplink sounding reference signal for a long term evolution network (LTE), or its evolution, such as LTE-Advanced.
US09337975B2

The present invention is designed to effectively apply carrier aggregation and Coordinated Multiple Point (CoMP) transmission/reception in a system band that is formed with a plurality of fundamental frequency blocks. A radio communication system where carrier aggregation is applicable in the same frequency band, and, this radio communication system includes the first radio base station apparatus and a second radio base station apparatus that perform coordinated multiple point transmission to a user terminal using cells having the same frequency band, and the first radio base station apparatus and the second radio base station apparatus perform retransmission control for uplink signals from the user terminal on a shared basis, and perform mapping of downlink signals to radio resources separately.
US09337968B2

A wireless communication apparatus (a) generates a transmission symbol; (b) assigns, to the transmission symbol, a given number of units each formed of a symbol and a subcarrier in a frame which is formed of M (M is a positive integer) symbols and N (N is a positive integer) subcarriers and includes M×N units, and the given number being not more than M×N, to obtain the given number of identical transmission symbols; (c) multiplies the identical transmission symbols by a code sequence including a plurality of different elements; and (d) transmits the identical transmission symbols multiplied by the code sequence.
US09337953B1

A method and apparatus for controlling data transfer between a data providing device and an aircraft equipment. The method includes operating in a device mode, wherein the device mode allows the transfer of data between the data providing device and a storage medium of an intermediate device and disallows the transfer of data between the aircraft equipment and the storage medium. The method also includes operating in an avionics mode, wherein the avionics mode allows the transfer of data between the aircraft equipment and the storage medium and disallows the transfer of data between the data providing device and the storage medium. Furthermore, the method includes no more than one of operating in the device mode or operating in the avionics mode occurring at any particular time.
US09337952B2

Described is an apparatus that comprises: a first sequential unit; a first queue coupled in parallel to the first sequential unit such that the first queue and first sequential unit receive a first input, the first sequential for double sampling the first input; a compare unit to receive an output from the first sequential unit; and a first selection unit controllable by a write pointer of a previous cycle, the first selection unit to receive outputs of each storage unit of the first queue, wherein the first selection unit to generate an output for comparison by the first compare unit.
US09337948B2

Processing a received optical signal in an optical communication network includes equalizing a received optical signal to provide an equalized signal, demodulating the equalized signal according to an m-ary modulation format to provide a demodulated signal, decoding the demodulated signal according to an inner code to provide an inner-decoded signal, and decoding the inner-decoded signal according to an outer code. Other aspects include other features such as equalizing an optical channel including storing channel characteristics for the optical channel associated with a client, loading the stored channel characteristics during a waiting period between bursts on the channel, and equalizing a received burst from the client using the loaded channel characteristics.
US09337930B2

An apparatus, in accordance with particular embodiments, includes an interface configured to establish connections within a copper network. The apparatus also includes a receptacle configured to receive a conventional small form-factor pluggable (SFP) module or a compact SFP module and to direct the SFP modules to a first connector. The first connector connects either of the SFP modules to the node. A pin of the first connector is configured to receive a module detection signal and to transmit data to the compact SFP module. The apparatus also includes a low pass filter coupled to the pin of the first connector that passes the module detection signal to the node. The apparatus is further configured to establish two duplex connections with an optical fiber network if the compact SFP module is connected and to establish one duplex connection with the optical fiber network if the conventional SFP module is connected.
US09337929B2

Embodiments of the present invention exploit the existing capabilities of the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) MAC layer, designed for fiber optics communications, to provide a low cost MAC layer with upper layer connectivity over a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) network. In particular, embodiments allow for the EPON MAC to be used end-to-end (i.e., from an optical line terminal (OLT) to a coaxial network unit (CNU)) in a HFC network, thereby fully leveraging the packet processing capabilities, QoS functions, and management features of the EPON MAC. Furthermore, embodiments enable unified provisioning and management for both fiber and coaxial network units in a HFC network.
US09337927B2

A transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus for visible light communication, and a visible light communication system are provided. The visible light communication system includes a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus. The transmitting apparatus includes two transmitting modules. The transmitting modules include a plurality of visible light sources and a transmitting polarization plate. Polarizations of the two transmitting polarization plates are orthogonal to each other. The receiving apparatus includes two receiving modules. The receiving modules include a plurality of light detecting diodes and a receiving polarization plate. Polarizations of the paired receiving polarization plate and transmitting polarization plate are the same.
US09337922B2

A waveform reconstruction device (140) includes: a phase-spectrum calculation unit (143) which (i) simulates, for each intensity of an input optical signal assumed to have a given phase spectrum, propagation of the input optical signal through an optical transmission medium, to calculate a power spectrum of an output optical signal, and (ii) performs iterations of simulating the propagation while changing the given phase spectrum to reduce differences between calculated power spectra and measured power spectra of the input optical signal having the intensities, to search for a phase spectrum of the input optical signal; and a waveform reconstruction unit (144) which reconstructs a time waveform of the input optical signal using the phase spectrum found through the search, wherein the phase-spectrum calculation unit (143) changes the given phase spectrum or simulates the propagation, based on a nonlinear optical effect or a dispersion effect.
US09337920B2

A cabinet is provided with a housing releasably mounted on one side of the cabinet and including a power cord having an AC power plug for connecting to an external power source; and a power supply module electrically connected to the power cord and disposed in the housing, the power supply module including at least one socket disposed on a top of the housing so that one or more electronic devices can be connected thereto for charging.
US09337908B2

A method, apparatus, and computer program for carrying out channel sounding are provided. Said method comprises: causing, by an apparatus, transmission of a request for space-time channel sounding to at least one unassociated access node; receiving, in the apparatus as a multi-antenna transmission and in response to said request, at least one message comprising space-time sounding information from at least one unassociated access node; determining, by the apparatus, at least one parameter describing space-time channel quality from the received space-time sounding information; and causing, by the apparatus, transmission of the at least one determined parameter to an associated access node or causing selection of an unassociated access node for further communication based at least partly on the determined at least one parameter.
US09337893B2

System, methods and apparatus are described that facilitate communications circuit design. A first response of a channel to a first signal transmitted through the channel and a second response of the channel to a second signal transmitted through a neighboring channel are determined and a first signal analysis based on the first response and the second response is calculated. A modified second response is determined after modifying the magnitude or timing of the second response to simulate a change in a characteristic of the second signal. A second signal analysis performed using the first response and the modified second response may identify differences in the effects of the second signal and the modified second signal on the first signal. A physical relationship between a pair of connectors of a circuit may be modified based on the magnitude of a scaling factor or phase difference used to obtain the second response.
US09337886B1

A system for digital pre-distortion includes: a transmitter configured to transmit at least one transmission data signal; a receiver configured to receive at least one receive data signal and to receive the at least one transmission data signal; and at least one amplifier, associated with the transmitter, configured to receive at least one pre-distortion control signal sent from the receiver; wherein the at least one pre-distortion control signal is related to the at least one transmission data signal.
US09337865B2

Described embodiments provide a media controller to read data stored in a media. The media controller determines a value for each bit of a shortened codeword from the media. The shortened codeword includes a plurality of non-shortened bits of a full codeword, where the full codeword includes the plurality of non-shortened bits and one or more shortened bits. Shortened bits correspond to bits unused in the shortened codeword. The media controller converts the determined values for each bit of the shortened codeword into a first set of log-likelihood ratio (LLR) values. The full codeword is decoded using the first set of LLR values for the shortened codeword. The media controller dampens one or more LLR values corresponding to non-shortened bits of the codeword to produce a second set of LLR values and decodes the second set of LLR values.
US09337863B1

Methods and apparatus are provided for rational compression of numbers. One or more numbers are compressed by obtaining a plurality of numbers (e.g., integer numbers and/or floating point numbers), wherein each of the plurality of numbers is represented using zero or more bits to indicate an exponent at a given base of the given number and has a length representing a number of significant bits of the given number; for each of the plurality of numbers, obtaining a pair of values comprised of the length and the exponent and counting occurrences of the pair; generating a Huffman encoding comprising at least one Huffman tree based on the counting of the occurrences; generating one or more encoding maps comprising an array mapping each of the pair to a corresponding Huffman prefix code; and encoding at least one of the plurality of numbers using the one or more encoding maps.
US09337862B2

A compression algorithm based on Huffman coding is disclosed that is adapted to be readily implemented using VLSI design. A data file may be processed to replace duplicate data with a copy commands including an offset and length, such as according to the LV algorithm. A Huffman code may then be generated for parts of the file. The Huffman code may be generated according to a novel method that generates Huffman code lengths for literals in a data file without first sorting the literal statistics. The Huffman code lengths may be constrained to be no longer than a maximum length and the Huffman code may be modified to provide an acceptable overflow probability and be in canonical order. Literals, offsets, and lengths may be separately encoded. The different values for these data sets may be assigned to a limited number of bins for purpose of generating usage statistics used for generating Huffman codes.
US09337861B2

Systems, methods, and stored coded instruction sets for reducing the amount of data captured, i.e., retained, by a computerized system, such as an aircraft flight control or monitoring system. Such systems can, for example, be used in monitoring and/or controlling the operation of one or more aircraft engines, flight controls, or other aircraft systems, in order to optimize storage required for collected data, and/or to reduce or otherwise control the time required to off-load captured data to another computer system, such as a land-based analysis system. The amount of data collected, e.g., captured or retained in memory, may be reduced by discarding data points that are within a specified tolerance of, for example, a previously observed or expected value in a manner which assists with preserving the accuracy and precision of the original measured data.
US09337859B2

Methods and systems are provided for controlling signal processing outputs. In signal processing circuitry, searching through a plurality of quantization levels for a quantization level that matches an analog input, and when the search fails within a particular amount of time, adjusting at least a portion of an output of the signal processing circuitry. The adjusting comprises setting the at least portion of the output to a predefined value. Setting the output, or portions thereof, may comprise selecting between output of a normal processing path and output of a code generation path configured for handling search failures. Timing information may be generated for use in controlling generating of the output of the signal processing circuitry. The timing information may be used in measuring per-cycle operation time during the search through the plurality of quantization levels.
US09337854B1

Present disclosure describes an improved mechanism for addressing component mismatch in a DAC. The mechanism is based on carefully selecting the first DAC unit of an ordered sequence of DAC units that are switched on to convert a particular digital value to an analog value. The mechanism benefits from recognition that selecting the first DAC based on a value of a band-limited dither signal, where the band of the dither signal is selected to be sufficiently removed from the band of the signal of interest, allows shifting effects of DAC units mismatch away from the signal of interest in a manner that is easy to implement and control. Because dither signal is not added to the signal of interest, but is only used to control which DAC units are turned on, drawbacks of a traditional dithering method can be avoided while benefiting from the use of dither.
US09337845B2

A method for configuring a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with a Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) assignment having multiple constraint expressions, the method comprising: setting each of the multiple constraint expressions as a configurable logic block (CLB) in the FPGA, to yield multiple CLBs; setting an assignment vector in the FPGA, wherein the assignment vector is a number vector configured to store a candidate solution to the CSP assignment; and forming a feedback loop by connecting the assignment vector to inputs of the multiple CLBs, and connecting outputs of the multiple CLBs to the assignment vector. Further disclosed is a design structure for the FPGA, optionally residing on a storage medium as a data format used for the exchange of layout data of integrated circuits.
US09337838B2

In a device including a programmable circuit, the programmable circuit is connected to a non-volatile memory in which configuration information is stored, and another memory having a faster reading speed than the non-volatile memory, and the programmable circuit includes a configuration memory control circuit, and a signal line group for performing reading with respect to the other memory such as a volatile memory and an embedded memory from the non-volatile memory by the configuration memory control circuit, and copies a part of circuit configuration information which is required to be subjected to fast restoration from failure into the other memory.
US09337835B2

An IC die transmits command signals, address signals and data signals to a flash memory device at respective times via a time-multiplexed external signaling line, the data signals representing data to be stored within an array of non-volatile storage elements of the flash memory device. The IC die additionally transmits a control signal to the flash memory device via one or more external control signal lines, the control signal directing the flash memory device to switchably couple an on-die termination element to the time-multiplexed signaling line.
US09337832B2

A vehicle proximity switch and method are provided having sensitivity control. The switch includes a proximity sensor, such as a capacitive sensor, installed in a vehicle and providing a sense activation field. Control circuitry processes the activation field to sense user activation of the switch by comparing the activation field to a threshold. The threshold is adjusted down when a substantially stable sensor signal is detected below the threshold for a minimum time period, and the threshold is adjusted up when a sensor signal greater than the threshold by a predetermined value is detected.
US09337827B2

An electronic circuit includes a reverse-conducting IGBT and a driver circuit. A first diode emitter efficiency of the reverse-conducting IGBT at a first off-state gate voltage differs from a second diode emitter efficiency at a second off-state gate voltage. A driver terminal of the driver circuit is electrically coupled to a gate terminal of the reverse-conducting IGBT. In a first state the driver circuit supplies an on-state gate voltage at the driver terminal. In a second state the driver circuit supplies the first off-state gate voltage, and in a third state the driver circuit supplies the second off-state gate voltage at the driver terminal. The reverse-conducting IGBT may be operated in different modes such that, for example, overall losses may be reduced.
US09337822B2

To provide a switch circuit in which ON/OFF control can be realized even in a state where high voltage is not applied, and high voltage can be completely lowered to the ground.Provided is a switch circuit that includes plural MOS switches connected in series in such a manner that the source of one element is connected to the drain of another between high voltage and a system ground and that switches a connection state between the high voltage and the system ground, the switch circuit including: a MOS switch 101 the source of which is connected to the system ground among the plural MOS switches; a MOS switch 102 the source of which is connected to the drain of the MOS switch 101 in a shared manner and the drain of which is connected to the high voltage side among the plural MOS switches; a MOS switch 103 the drain of which is connected to the gate of the MOS switch 102 in a shared manner; and a resistor 104 that is connected in parallel between the gate and the source of the MOS switch 102.
US09337821B2

In an embodiment, a method of generating a pulse-width modulated signal from an input signal includes calculating a finite number of basis functions of a first pulse-width modulated signal based on the input signal, and forming an electronic output based on the calculated finite number of basis functions.
US09337816B2

A delay circuit using a capacitor with an MOS structure as a delay component, includes a clamp circuit operating a clamp operation and a clamp release operation in response to levels of an input signal, the clamp circuit clamping a voltage applied to the capacitor to a specified charging initiation voltage during the clamp operation; a charging circuit charging the capacitor with a constant current when the clamp operation is released; and a delayed signal producing circuit producing a delayed signal when the voltage of the capacitor being charged reaches a voltage of a predetermined value.
US09337815B1

A method for generating an embedding for a signal, which is invariant to an operator, by first measuring the signal with each vector from a set of measurement vectors to produce a corresponding set of coefficients, wherein the measuring compares and transforms each measurement vector and the signal using the operator. A set of one or more matching coefficients according to predefined criteria are selected. Then, the matching coefficients are combined to produce the embedding for the signal, wherein the embedding is operator invariant.
US09337814B2

A variable frequency microwave pulse generator that includes a high voltage charger for charging with a high voltage, a high pressure gas tank for supplying insulation gas, and an electrode discharge unit. The electrode discharge unit includes a case, an accommodation section defined inside the case, and a pair of electrode sections disposed at one side and the other side of the accommodation section so as to face each other. The pair of electrode sections is spaced apart from each other to define a spark gap therebetween where the insulation gas supplied from the high pressure gas tank is loaded. An annular resonance recess is defined at the central portion of one electrode section of the pair of electrode sections, the depth of the resonance recess being variable in response to an adjustment knob disposed on the case being manipulated.
US09337804B2

An impedance matching network having a plurality of reactance elements is disclosed. Each of the plurality of switching circuits comprises a first node and a second node; a first diode having an anode coupled to the first node and a cathode coupled to the second node; a second diode having an anode to couple to the second voltage line and a cathode to couple to the first node; and a transistor having a first, second, and control terminals. Each of the plurality of reactance elements is switched into the impedance matching network when the transistor in the respective one of the plurality of switching circuits is on and switched out after the transistor in the respective one of the plurality of switching circuits is off.
US09337803B2

A piezoelectric device includes a vibrator, a piezoelectric drive unit, and a first piezoelectric detector. The vibrator includes a first surface, a first groove formed along a first axis direction, and a second groove formed to be parallel to the first groove. The piezoelectric drive unit includes a first electrode pair provided in the first groove and opposed to each other in a second axis direction orthogonal to the first axis direction and parallel to the first surface, and a first piezoelectric body provided between the first electrode pair, and is capable of vibrating the vibrator. The first piezoelectric detector includes a second electrode pair provided in the second groove and opposed to each other in the second axis direction, and a second piezoelectric body provided between the second electrode pair, and is capable of detecting a vibration of the vibrator.
US09337801B2

A vibration element includes a piezoelectric substrate including a vibrating section and a thick section having a thickness larger than that of the vibrating section. The thick section includes a first thick section provided along a first outer edge of the vibrating section, a second thick section provided along a second outer edge thereof, and a third thick section provided along a third outer edge thereof. When a maximum size of the second thick section in the vibration direction is Lmax and a minimum size thereof is Lmin, an average size expressed by (Lmax+Lmin)/2 is 100 μm or smaller.
US09337799B2

This disclosure provides implementations of methods, apparatus and systems for producing acoustic wave devices and for selectively modifying one or more acoustic or electromechanical characteristics of such devices. In one aspect, a method includes depositing a structural layer over a substrate. The structural layer includes a plurality of structural portions, each being positioned over a corresponding device region. The method also includes arranging a mask layer over the structural layer. The mask layer includes a plurality of mask portions, each including a number of mask openings that expose a corresponding region of the structural portion. The method also includes accelerating dopant particles toward the mask layer. The accelerated dopant particles that proceed through the mask openings are impacted into the corresponding structural portion. The impacted dopant particles modify material properties in the structural portion, which then effect a change in the acoustic or electromechanical characteristics of the acoustic wave device.
US09337795B2

A signal path may operate in one of a plurality of gain modes such that for each gain mode, the product of a digital gain and an analog signal gain of the signal path associated with the particular gain mode are approximately equal to a fixed path gain. During each of one or more calibration phases, a calibration system may measure analog signals at a plurality of nodes of the first path portion, calculate an actual analog gain associated with the gain mode based on the analog signals measured at the plurality of nodes, calculate an error between the fixed path gain and a mathematical product of the actual analog gain associated with the gain mode and the digital gain associated with the gain mode, and modify at least one of the digital gain and the analog gain associated with the gain mode in conformity with the error.
US09337784B2

An apparatus of a power amplifier is provided. The apparatus includes an input boosting circuit configured to match a second harmonic input signal using a harmonic control circuit of an input stage to maximize an efficiency and an output power, a die cell configured to receive and amplify an output signal of the input boosting circuit, and an output boosting circuit configured to receive an output signal of the die cell and to match a second harmonic output signal of the output signal of the die cell using a harmonic control circuit of an output stage to maximize the efficiency and the output power.
US09337778B2

A bias circuit may include an envelope detecting unit detecting an envelope of an input signal, a source voltage generating unit generating a source voltage using a power supply voltage, and an envelope amplifying unit receiving the power supply voltage and the source voltage as a driving voltage and amplifying an envelope signal detected by the envelope detecting unit to generate a first bias voltage.
US09337777B2

An amplifier includes a first FET having a first back-gate end, a second FET having a second back-gate end, a third FET having a third back-gate end, a first power supply terminal configured to apply a voltage to the first back-gate end, a second power supply terminal configured to apply a voltage to the second back-gate end, and a third power supply terminal configured to apply a voltage to the third back-gate end. In the stated amplifier, the first through third power supply terminals are configured such that different voltages can be set to the first through third power supply terminals.
US09337774B2

An embodiment of a packaged radio frequency (RF) device includes a device substrate with a voltage reference plane, a first input lead coupled to the device substrate, a first output lead coupled to the device substrate, a first transistor die coupled to a top surface of the device substrate with a solder bond, a second die coupled to the top surface of the device substrate with a conductive epoxy that electrically couples at least one component of the second die to the voltage reference plane, and non-conductive molding compound over the top surface of the device substrate and encompassing the first transistor die, the second die, a portion of the first input lead, and a portion of the first output lead.
US09337769B2

A method of diagnosing DC fan motor performance is provided in which normal operation of the motor is periodically and temporarily suspended in order to verify that the motor is operating within an acceptable performance range. When normal fan motor operation is suspended, the back EMF of the motor is used to determine (i) whether the motor is seized and/or (ii) whether the rate of deceleration after interrupting power to the motor is indicative of a failing motor.
US09337760B2

An alternator control apparatus includes a first controller that controls an alternator; and a second controller that transmits an instruction signal to the first controller at a first predetermined cycle, the instruction signal being related to electric power generation of the alternator, wherein the first controller controls the alternator such that an amount of the electric power generated by the alternator is greater than 0, if the first controller does not receive the instruction signal from the second controller over a predetermined time period that is longer than the first predetermined cycle, and the second controller stops transmitting the instruction signal over the predetermined time period, if the second controller determines that the instruction signal from the second controller is received at the first controller as an abnormal instruction signal that does not meet a predetermined communication specification.
US09337758B2

A method for determining the position of an at least two-phase, in particular three-phase bmshless electric drive comprising at least two phase windings, each of which has a first and a second terminal, a second terminal of a first phase winding being electrically connected to the first terminal of a second phase winding at a common connecting terminal. In order to be able to reliably determine the position of the electric drive even at low speeds, a voltage pulse is applied between the first terminal of the first phase winding and the second terminal of the second phase winding, the resulting voltage at the connecting terminal or at a third phase winding connected thereto is detected and the voltage ratio between the first phase winding and the second phase winding is determined therefrom, and the ratio between the variable inductances is determined from said voltage ratio.
US09337753B2

A system and method for a cold start of a vehicle are provided. The method includes setting a target electrical angle by adding a setting angle to a previously stored initial electrical angle of a driving motor and applying an electric current value that corresponds to the set target electrical angle to the driving motor.
US09337751B2

Provided is a piezoelectric power generator that has an overall compact size and in which a plurality of piezoelectric elements having a low natural frequency of vibration and that generate a large amount of power can be arranged in a compact manner.A piezoelectric power generator includes a first and second piezoelectric elements, which each have a cantilever structure, fixed to the top of two opposing side walls of a housing. The first piezoelectric element and the second piezoelectric element are arranged so as to oppose each other in an alternating manner and respectively have a first weight and a second weight joined to free ends thereof. Unused spaces formed below the fixed end sides of the piezoelectric elements are used as spaces in which the weights can move by positioning one of the weights under the fixed end side of the other of the piezoelectric elements.
US09337749B2

An electronic circuit includes a failure detection circuit that detects an abnormality of the gate potential of a transistor of a bridge circuit. The failure detection circuit monitors an output voltage of a drive circuit that is to be the gate potential of the transistor of the bridge circuit and, when detecting an abnormality, stops the drive circuit.
US09337741B2

According to the DC-DC conversion circuit and conversion method, variation of an input voltage is reflected by detecting a voltage at a secondary winding of a transformer, a reference voltage is adjusted by using the detected input voltage signal, a feedback voltage signal is compared with the reference voltage, a duty cycle control signal is adjusted according to a comparison result, and conduction and shutting-down of switching transistors are controlled according to the duty cycle control signal to adjust an output voltage of the DC-DC conversion circuit, so as to enable the output voltage to vary with the input voltage.
US09337733B2

A voltage converting device includes a feedback module, for generating a comparing signal according to a feedback voltage and a reference voltage; a pulse-width-modulation module, for generating a driving signal according to comparing signal; a voltage-converting module including a low-side switch for controlling a connection between a node and ground according to driving signal, a high-side switch for controlling a connection between the node and an output end according to a control signal, an inductor coupled between the node and an input end, a feedback-voltage-generating unit for generating feedback voltage according to an output voltage of output end and a ratio, an adaptive current-generating unit for generating a current signal according to an adjusting signal, and a control unit for selecting driving signal or current signal as the control signal according to output voltage and an input voltage; and a current-adjusting module for generating adjusting signal according to comparing signal.
US09337727B2

In one aspect, a circuit includes a switching regulator configured to provide power to a load, a current regulator circuit coupled to the load and a response circuit configured to provide a control signal to the switching regulator in response to electrical changes of the current regulator circuit. The control signal changes non-linearly with respect to the electrical changes at the current regulator circuit. In another aspect, a circuit includes an adaptive regulation voltage circuit configured to provide a regulation voltage to a first input of an amplifier to maintain operability of a current regulator circuit. The adaptive regulation voltage circuit replicates electrical characteristics of the current regulator circuit.
US09337725B2

A switching power converter has an input voltage source. An output load is coupled to the input voltage source. An inductive element is coupled to the load. A switch is coupled to the inductive element. A control circuit is coupled to the switch and the inductive element for activating and deactivating the switch, the control circuit activating and deactivating the switch based on a negative voltage drop across a resistive element of the control circuit.
US09337722B2

The present invention relates to a DC bias voltage circuit comprising a DC bias voltage generator adapted to supply a first DC voltage. A low-pass filter has an input operatively coupled to the first DC voltage to produce a second DC voltage at a low-pass filter output. The low-pass filter comprises an adjustable switched capacitor resistor setting a cut-off frequency of the low-pass filter and a controller is adapted to controlling a resistance of the adjustable switched capacitor resistor.
US09337721B2

Provided is a power factor correction circuit correcting a power factor of AC voltage. The power factor correction circuit includes: a rectifying unit stopping rectifying the AC voltage in a transient state and generating an rectified voltage by rectifying the AC voltage in a steady state; a power factor correction unit generating a power-factor-corrected voltage by correcting the rectified voltage; a smoothing unit generating a smoothed voltage by smoothing the power-factor-corrected voltage; and an inrush current limiting unit providing a limited current by limiting an inrush current generated by the AC voltage in the transient state and stopping providing a current to the smoothing unit.
US09337719B2

A power converter control device includes an alarm signal generation circuit which detects information necessary for a protection operation of a semiconductor element configuring a power converter, and generates and externally outputs an alarm signal with a pulse width responding to a protection factor; a temperature signal generation circuit which detects a temperature of the semiconductor element, and generates a PWM signal, correlated with the temperature, the cycle of which is different from the pulse width of the alarm signal; and an output control circuit which selects the PWM signal in normal time, and selects and externally outputs the alarm signal in place of the PWM signal when the alarm signal is generated.
US09337714B2

A power converter with fast discharging to adapt to a load disconnect. The power converter comprises a magnetic component coupled between an input of the power converter and an output of the power converter. The magnetic component includes a primary winding and a secondary winding. A switch controls transfer of energy from the primary winding to the secondary winding according to on and off times of the switch. A discharge circuit is coupled to the output of the power converter. The discharge circuit is adapted to receive a signal indicative of whether the load is disconnected and to decrease an output voltage at the output of the power converter based on the signal indicative of whether the load is disconnected.
US09337708B2

The present invention relates to a magnetic gear type electric rotating machine. Specifically, the purpose is to provide a magnetic gear type electric rotating machine with which the intensity of a permanent magnetic field can be improved without increasing material and manufacturing costs, and deterioration of torque transmission characteristics can be prevented. To this end, in the present invention, concave and convex sections are provided on a surface of at least one of cores (12, 22) for a first permanent magnetic field (1) and a second permanent magnetic field (2). The convex sections (13) are arranged along the circumferential direction at the center sections of permanent magnetic poles (11a, 11b), and the concave sections (14) are arranged along the circumferential direction at the edge sections of the permanent magnetic poles (11a, 11b).
US09337706B2

An inverter apparatus is incorporated integrally into a non-load-side of a motor such that an inverter cooler is interposed, and a non-load-side end frame of the motor includes: a flat base portion; a cylindrical non-load-side bearing portion that is disposed so as to protrude axially from near a center of a front surface of the base portion that faces a rotor, and that houses and holds a non-load-side bearing into which a non-load-side end portion of a rotating shaft of the rotor is mounted; and an annular first flange portion that is disposed so as to protrude axially from an outer circumferential edge portion of the front surface of the base portion so as to contact a non-load-side end surface of a cylindrical portion and a cylindrical member.
US09337702B2

A method for manufacturing an electric motor stator, including: attaching a hollow bracket to an end of a hollow stator core and allowing a lead connected to the winding to pass through an opening formed in a peripheral surface of the bracket to take out the lead to an outside of the bracket; placing a core material inside the stator core and the bracket; attaching a sealing member to an outer peripheral surface of the bracket so as to block the opening while allowing the lead to pass through the through-hole; and filling a molten resin into an annular space between the stator core and the core material and between the bracket and the core material, to form a resin unit.
US09337701B2

A generator motor connected to an output shaft of an engine mounted in a work machine includes a terminal box that houses a plurality of connectors for connecting an exterior electric-power-supplying cable to the generator motor. While the terminal box is provided to the generator motor, the plurality of connectors are juxtaposed in a direction intersecting an orthogonal plane that is orthogonal to a rotation shaft of the generator motor.
US09337700B2

A terminal assembly includes a terminal board with an interrupted aperture to receive a passthrough.
US09337692B2

A flux barrier includes a radially outer proximate part and a radially inner proximate part that are a rotor radially outer side surface and a rotor radially inner side surface extending from a communicating part, at least one of the radially outer proximate part and the radially inner proximate part is connected to an end part of a magnet fixing part of a magnet hole in an inward direction of the magnet hole, and a projecting part projecting in an inward direction of the flux barrier is provided on at least one of the radially outer proximate part and the radially inner proximate part connected to the magnet fixing part. A constricted part in which a width of the flux barrier is narrower than on a side closer to the communicating part than the projecting part is formed by the projecting part.
US09337672B2

Disclosed are a displaying apparatus, a mobile electronic device, and a displaying frame. The displaying apparatus includes a mobile electronic device and a displaying frame. The mobile electronic device includes an electrical power contact, a circuit-breaking contact, and a battery circuit. The electrical power contact is electrically connected to the battery circuit, and the circuit-breaking contact is positioned corresponding to a control point of the battery circuit. The displaying frame includes a conductive part and an insulation part. When the mobile electronic device is disposed in the displaying frame, the conductive part is configured to press against the electrical power contact for transmitting electric power to the mobile electronic device, and the insulation part is configured to be inserted into the circuit-breaking contact to push the control point for breaking the battery circuit.
US09337670B2

A battery equalization circuit is provided, including: a positive battery node connecting to a positive node of a battery cell in a battery circuit with a plurality of other battery cells; a negative battery node connected to a negative node of the battery cell; a transformer winding receiving an AC voltage, the transformer winding having an upper transformer node and a tower transformer node; an upper triac connected between the positive battery node and the upper transformer node; a lower triac connected between the negative battery node and the lower transformer node; a control circuit for controlling the upper triac and the lower triac based on a measured cell voltage between the positive battery node and the negative battery node, and a total battery voltage of the battery circuit; and an isolation element connected between the control circuit and a data bus.
US09337660B1

Some of the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a system comprising a functional block; a plurality of power sources, each of the plurality of power sources being maintained at a corresponding voltage; and a switching module having a plurality of switches, the switching module configured to supply power from at least one of the plurality of power sources to the functional block, each of the plurality of switches being controlled by a corresponding switching signal having a voltage value that is one of (i) a ground voltage and (ii) a high max voltage, the high max voltage corresponding to a highest voltage among the voltages of the plurality of power sources. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09337656B2

A method for forecasting wind energy production is disclosed. The method includes collecting power data indicative of power output from a set of wind energy installations with a first wind energy installation at a first site and a second wind energy installation at a second site, and estimating the available power output at a forecasting site located at a geographic position. The estimating is based on power data from the set of wind energy installations by projecting the power data towards the future and/or the geographic position of the forecasting site. Further disclosed is a method for scheduling wind energy production for an electricity grid and a wind energy production forecasting system configured for forecasting output power of a wind energy installation.
US09337655B2

A method for the directional transmission of electrical energy in an electricity grid and to a method for transmitting electrical energy via an electricity grid having at least at least one generator for electrical energy, at least one network node and at least one consumer. A method and a system are provided for transmitting electrical energy, which method and system are highly flexible and make it possible to design the energy distribution in a grid dynamically so as to deal with even short-term fluctuations both on the supply side and on the demand side. A method for the directional transmission of electrical energy in an electricity grid is included, which method comprises the following steps: receiving a data packet, receiving an energy packet associated with the data packet, determining a receiver from the information contained in the data packet, transmitting the data packet to the previously determined receiver and transmitting the energy packet, which is defined by the voltage U(t), the electric current I(t) and the duration T of the packet, associated with the data packet to the same previously determined receiver.
US09337650B2

A protective circuit for a process control device such as a valve actuator, for example, prevents damage to device components. In particular, a protective circuit allows an analog current loop (e.g., 4-20 mA) to provide to a device component a secondary operating voltage, derived from the analog current loop, in the absence of a primary operating voltage source (e.g., during a power failure), such that the device component is not damaged when a signal from the analog current loop is applied to the process control device in the absence of the primary operating voltage source.
US09337648B2

A device, method, and system includes an integrated battery power controller configured to monitor a voltage difference between a first output terminal and a second output terminal; disconnect, via a switch, at least one of the first output terminal and the second output terminal from a power source if the voltage difference between the first output terminal and the second output terminal is less than a predetermined voltage threshold; and connect, via the switch, both the first output terminal and the second output terminal to the power source if the voltage difference between the first output terminal and the second output terminal is equal to or greater than the predetermined voltage threshold.
US09337642B2

A surge protection apparatus includes a first surge protection device (10) having a number of first transient suppressing elements, a second surge protection device having a number of second transient suppressing elements, and a circuit coupled to the surge protection devices. The circuit has a number of display elements, wherein the circuit is structured to receive input signals from the first and second surge protection devices and (i) responsive to any one of the first transient suppressing elements failing, causes the number of display elements to provide a first indication indicating that at least one of the first transient suppressing elements has failed, and (ii) responsive to any one of the second transient suppressing elements failing, cause the number of display elements to provide a second indication indicating that at least one of the second transient suppressing elements has failed.
US09337638B2

A clamp mechanism for a power distribution line sensor including a drive rod having a first rod portion with a spiral thread formed in a first-handed thread direction, a second rod portion with a spiral thread formed in an opposite-handed thread direction, and a coupling end portion. The mechanism also includes a first clamp portion having a first drive block engaged with the first rod portion and a first clamp arm having a pin-in-slot connection to that drive block, as well as a second clamp portion having a second drive block engaged with the second rod portion and a second clamp arm having a pin-in-slot connection to that drive block. The first clamp arm and the second clamp arm are secured to each other, yet rotatable with respect to each other, at a proximal end of each respective clamp arm. A clamp block may function as part of the securement.
US09337636B2

A modular fastening kit is provided. The kit includes at least one first connecting unit having a first end including a male connector and an opposite second end including a female connector. The kit includes at least one second connecting unit having a first end including a female connector and an opposite second end including a female connector. The kit includes at least one third connecting unit having a first end extending along a first axis and including a male connector and an opposite second end extending along a second axis and including a male connector. The first axis extends transverse to the second axis. The male connectors each have an exterior fluted surface and the female connectors each have an interior fluted surface. The female connectors are each configured and dimensioned to removably receive one of the male connectors. Systems and methods are disclosed.
US09337626B2

The present invention discloses a corona discharge assembly, an ion mobility spectrometer, an computer program and an computer readable storage medium. The corona discharge assembly includes: an ionization discharge chamber, wherein the ionization discharge chamber includes a metal corona cylinder, and the metal corona cylinder is provided with an inlet of a gas to be analyzed and a trumpet-shaped front port which is conductive to forming a gathered electric field; multiple corona pins, in which on-off of a high voltage can be independently controlled, are installed at the center of the metal corona cylinder in an insulating manner. The present invention further discloses an ion mobility spectrometer using the above-mentioned corona discharge assembly. The present invention can be used to prolong the service life of the integral corona discharge assembly; the discharge voltage of the ion source can be reduced and the discharge stability thereof can be improved; in comparison with the suspended installation of a pin-shaped electrode, since the multiple corona pins are fixed on the PCB, during installation, the position of the electrode can be accurate and stable, thus mass manufacture is easier to achieve.
US09337622B2

Ultra compact DBRs, VCSELs incorporating the DBRs and methods for making the DBRs are provided. The DBRs are composed of a vertical reflector stack comprising a plurality of adjacent layer pairs, wherein each layer pair includes a layer of single-crystalline Group IV semiconductor and an adjacent layer of silicon dioxide.
US09337615B2

The present invention concerns new designs of VCLs with high contrast gratings (HCG) combined with diamond layer as a bottom mirror. They can be realized either with a classical V-shaped pumping scenario, or through the introduction of the pumping beam from the bottom direction, through the HCG that can be designed to be transparent at the wavelength of the pumping light. They can also be completed by a HCG combined with diamond layer as top mirror, reflecting the pump diode laser and transparent to the VCL emission in the case the pumped and emitted beams are collinear.
US09337601B2

A child monitoring system is provided for supervising a child from a remote location. The system includes a child-observation unit and a device for controlling the child-observation unit from a remote location.
US09337596B2

A motor control center system is provided. The system includes an electrical enclosure configured to house one or more compartments. The electrical enclosure includes a vertical ground bus adjacent to the one or more compartments. The component unit is removably disposed within a compartment of the electrical enclosure. The system also includes a ground stab system disposed on an exterior surface of the component unit. The ground stab system is configured to operatively couple with the vertical ground bus when the component unit is inserted into the compartment of the electrical enclosure, and the ground stab system includes an alignment bracket configured to align the ground stab system with the vertical ground bus.
US09337590B2

A cable electrical connector assembly includes an electrical connector, a cable soldered with the electrical connector, and an insulative body. The electrical connector includes a printed circuit board having a number of conductive pads, two of the conductive pads forming a differential signal pair for differential signal transmission. The cable has a number of core wires soldered with the conductive pads. The insulative body encloses a soldering area of the conductive pads and the cable core wires. The insulative body has a slot between the two conductive pads of the differential signal pair, the slot running through the insulative body along an up-to-down direction. The slot improves impedance in the soldering area of the core wires and the conductive pads.
US09337585B1

A terminal structure includes ground terminals, signal terminals, connection elements, and ground electrical connection elements. The connection elements connect the ground terminals to the signal terminals, respectively. The ground electrical connection elements are in connection with connection elements and in electrical contact with at least a ground terminal. An electrical connector includes two terminal structures and a casing. The connection elements are connected to each other. An insertion slot is disposed on the front side of the casing. The terminal structure is disposed at the casing. The resilient ground electrical contact segments and the resilient signal electrical contact segments face the insertion slot. The ends of the ground electrical connection segments and the ends of the signal electrical connection segments are exposed from the casing. The terminal structure and the electrical connector improve resonance, adjust impedance, reduce signal loss, simplify die structures, and extend service life of a die.
US09337582B2

A connector unit has a male connector that includes a cylindrical proximal portion in which a female terminal is accommodated, and a female connector that includes a tubular proximal portion in which a male terminal is held. The cylindrical proximal portion has a cylinder side marking portion including a flat surface formed on a part of an outer circumferential surface thereof, and a cylinder side rotation restricting portion including a groove portion or a projecting portion formed on the outer circumferential surface thereof. The tubular proximal portion has a tube side marking portion including a flat surface formed on an inner surface circumferential surface of the tubular proximal portion, and a tube side rotation restricting portion including a projecting portion projected from the inner circumferential surface or a groove portion formed in the inner circumferential surface.
US09337569B2

A fluid-tight contact implementation includes a plastic body and a flat contact(s). The plastic of the plastic body is composed of a non-shrinking, duroplastic material. The flat contact has a region encapsulated by the plastic body. The encapsulated region of the flat contact has a cross-sectional width which varies along an axial direction of the flat contact. Longitudinal edges of the encapsulated region of the flat contact along the axial direction are rounded.
US09337563B2

A holder assembly includes long terminals and a holder that includes long grooves in which the terminals are installed. Each of the long grooves is positioned between sidewalls which stand on both sides of the long groove. Each of the sidewalls includes engagement lock arms at a plurality of places arranged in a longitudinal direction of the long groove. Engagement claws are formed on each of the engagement lock arms.
US09337561B2

A contact element for a plug type connector is provided a contact body having a pair of guiding faces and a catch opening. The contact body is prepared from electrically conductive contact material. The pair of guiding faces provide a reinforced region with each guiding face having a plurality of layers overlapping each other transversely with respect to a length of contact body. The catch opening is disposed between the pair of guiding faces.
US09337555B2

A data center physical infrastructure management system has a cabinet having rack spaces and a sensor. A data communication system transmits signals to a management database. Personal or automated intervention is determined algorithmically by a data processor. A human interface for the data center management system is provided. Removable electronic assets contained in the rack spaces each have an identifier tag. An identifier tag reader is installed on the cabinet body. A door sensor provides a signal responsive to whether a cabinet door is closed, open, locked, or unlocked. Also, a secure contact arrangement has a base terminal formed of electrically conductive material, and first and second electrically conductive elements. A resilient non-conductive element is interposed between the first and second electrically conductive elements, and a compression element compresses the resilient non-conductive element to cause the first and second electrically conductive elements to communicate with one another.
US09337547B2

An internal antenna having a wideband characteristic includes a printed circuit board, a first antenna unit fed with electricity from a feeding unit of the printed circuit board, and a second antenna unit spaced apart from the first antenna unit by a predetermined distance and indirectly fed with electricity by means of coupling to the first antenna unit, wherein the second antenna unit is indirectly fed with electricity with a phase difference from the first antenna unit due to an electric distance from a feeding point of the first antenna unit.
US09337544B2

A reflector support system is provided that includes a backing structure having a plurality of struts. The backing structure may have a plurality of hubs, each of the plurality of hubs may be configured to couple to two or more of the plurality of struts, each of the plurality of hubs may be configured to couple to another one of the plurality of hubs using one of the plurality of struts, each of the plurality of struts is configured to couple to at least two of the plurality of hubs. The backing structure may have a plurality of feet, each of the plurality of feet configured to couple to a corresponding one of the plurality of hubs, the plurality of feet are configured to couple to a reflector. In addition, a synthesis for mechanical adjustment of the reflector support system is provided.
US09337537B2

Electronic devices may be provided that include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and antennas. An antenna may be formed from an antenna resonating element and an antenna ground. The antenna resonating element may have a shorter portion that resonates at higher communications band frequencies and a longer portion that resonates at lower communications band frequencies. The resonating element may be formed from a peripheral conductive electronic device housing structure that is separated from the antenna ground by an opening. A parasitic monopole antenna resonating element or parasitic loop antenna resonating element may be located in the opening. Antenna tuning in the higher communications band may be implemented using an adjustable inductor in the parasitic element. Antenna tuning in the lower communications band may be implemented using an adjustable inductor that couples the antenna resonating element to the antenna ground.
US09337536B1

A hybrid satellite antenna comprises an ESA with two steerable dimensions connected to a motor. The motor rotates the antenna about an axis to position the antenna such that a satellite signal can be sufficiently resolved using the two steerable dimensions of the ESA.
US09337534B2

A receiver for radio communication comprises: four antennas; an antenna tuning apparatus for simultaneously tuning the four antennas, the antenna tuning apparatus comprising adjustable impedance devices, each of the adjustable impedance devices having a reactance at a frequency, the reactance of any one of the adjustable impedance devices being adjustable by electrical means; four single-input and single-output low-noise amplifiers; four analog processing and conversion circuits; a multiple-input signal processing device delivering a signal to a destination, the multiple-input signal processing device delivering a tuning instruction; a tuning control unit, the tuning control unit receiving the tuning instruction from the multiple-input signal processing device, the tuning control unit delivering tuning control signals to the antenna tuning apparatus as a function of the tuning instruction.
US09337532B2

An antenna comprising a plurality of carrier blocks, wherein each carrier block is coupled to at least one other carrier block, and a plurality of radiators, wherein each radiator is connected to at least one carrier block. Further, an antenna comprising a plurality of carrier blocks, wherein each carrier block is coupled with at least one other carrier block, and a radiator connected to at least two of the plurality of carrier blocks.
US09337525B2

A vehicle slot antenna wherein an electro-conductive coating is applied to the surface of a glass ply. The peripheral edge of the conductive coating is spaced from the vehicle window edge and connected to a high conductive bus bar to define an annular slot antenna with low resistance loss and improved antenna efficiency. The slot antenna is fed by a thin conductive line located in the middle of the slot and parallel to the bus bar. The thin line along with the conductive coating and window frame form a coplanar waveguide (CPW). The CPW feed provides a convenient feed for the antenna at any point around the perimeter of the window slot and affords antenna tuning and impedance matching. The antenna design can use the characteristic impedance of the CPW line to match the impedance of the slot antenna to the impedance of a coaxial cable or other input impedance.
US09337519B2

An air battery containing an electrode and a polymer film, wherein the polymer film is disposed on the air intake side of the electrode, and the polymer film is a film of a polymer comprising a repeating unit represented by the following formula (1), wherein R1, R2, and m are defined in the specification.
US09337517B2

A solar powered cart is provided with a cabinet including a plurality of drawers, a plurality of doors, and a plurality of wheels mounted under the cabinet; a pivotal solar photovoltaic panel disposed on the cabinet and being capable of converting energy of light directly into electricity; a plurality of rechargeable batteries disposed in the drawers and capable of storing the electricity supplied from the solar photovoltaic panel; a controller electrically connected to the rechargeable batteries and capable of regulating charging and discharging of the rechargeable batteries and protecting overload; a transformer electrically connected to the controller for outputting DC voltage or AC voltage; and an air compressor disposed in the cabinet and electrically connected to the transformer, the air compressor being configured to output pressurized air.
US09337511B2

Disclosed is a nonaqueous secondary battery using a positive electrode containing a transition metal and lithium. The battery is prevented from deterioration due to elution of the transition metal from the positive electrode and thereby capable of maintaining small internal resistance and high electrical capacity even after high temperature storage or high-temperature charge and discharge cycles. The battery includes a negative electrode capable of intercalating and deintercalating lithium, a positive electrode containing a transition metal and lithium, and a nonaqueous electrolyte having a lithium salt dissolved in an organic solvent, the nonaqueous electrolyte containing a polycarboxylic ester compound represented by general formula (1) or (2).
US09337505B2

A process of reforming a liquid fuel comprising from greater than 50 ppmw sulfur to less than 400 ppmw sulfur, the process comprising contacting a liquid hydrocarbon fuel comprising one or more organosulfur compounds in a concentration from greater than 50 ppmw to less than 400 ppmw sulfur with an oxidant and steam or water, the contacting occurring in a catalyst bed comprising a reforming catalyst deposited on an ultra-short-channel-length metal substrate, such that the process is conducted at a peak catalyst temperature greater than 950° C. so as to produce a reformate mixture comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
US09337504B2

A fuel cell system (100) is provided with a voltage detection device (41) that detects a cell voltage of a cell group containing one or more cells (11), a current density detection device (42) that detects a generated current density of the cell group, and a determination portion (52) that determines the presence or absence of an inflection point of a change in the cell voltage relative to the generated current density based on the detection results of the voltage detection device and the current density detection device.
US09337494B2

A fuel cell includes a first electrode and a second electrode with an ion conducting polymer membrane positioned between these electrodes. The fuel cell further comprises a first OER catalyst-containing ionic layer positioned between the first electrode and the ion conducting polymer membrane. The first OER catalyst-containing layer includes an OER catalyst-containing compound, an ion conducting polymer and carbon. Characteristically, the weight ratio of ion conducting polymer to carbon is from about 10 to about 100. A method for forming the fuel cell is also provided.
US09337490B2

A lithium ion secondary battery 100A has negative electrode active material particles 710A which include graphite particles that are at least partially covered by an amorphous carbon film 750. The negative electrode, active material particles 710A have a TG weight-loss-on-heating onset temperature T1 which satisfies the condition 500° C.≦T1≦615° C. and a micro-Raman G-band half-width Gh which satisfies the condition 20≦Gh≦28. This configuration makes it possible to obtain a lithium ion secondary battery 100A in which the reaction resistance in a low-temperature environment can be kept low.
US09337488B2

A method of manufacturing a multicomponent lithium phosphate compound particle with an olivine structure of formula LiyM11-ZM2ZPO4, M1 is Fe, Mn or Co; Y satisfies 0.9≦Y≦1.2; M2 is Mn, Co, Mg, Ti or Al; and Z satisfies 0
US09337482B2

A composite nitride, a method of preparing the composite nitride, an electrode active material including the composite nitride, an electrode including the electrode active material, and a lithium secondary battery including the electrode, the composite nitride including a core material including a bronze-phase titanium oxide; and a nitrogen atom doped on at least part of the core material.
US09337475B2

A power storage device in which silicon is used as a negative electrode active material layer and which can have an improved performance such as higher discharge capacity, and a method for manufacturing the power storage device are provided. A power storage device includes a current collector and a silicon layer having a function as an active material layer over the current collector. The silicon layer includes a thin film portion in contact with the current collector, a plurality of bases, and a plurality of whisker-like protrusions extending from the plurality of bases. A protrusion extending from one of the plurality of bases is partly combined with a protrusion extending from another one of the plurality of bases.
US09337474B1

The electrode (10) includes an electrically conductive surface (14) with a galvanic pellicle, or carbon nanotube mat (18), secured to the conductive surface (14). The pellicle (18) has a first surface (20) and an opposed outer surface (22) and defines an uncompressed thickness dimension (24) as a longest length of a straight axis (26) extending from the first surface (20) to the outer surface (22) of an uncompressed section (28) of the galvanic pellicle (18). Uncompressed sections (28) of the pellicle are defined between connected areas (30) and continuous connected areas (32) of the pellicle (18). Any point (35) within any uncompressed section (28) is no more distant from one of a nearest connected area (30) and or a nearest segment (34) of a continuous connected area (32) than about ten times the uncompressed thickness dimension (24) of the pellicle (18), thereby achieving significantly reduced contact resistance.
US09337473B2

The present invention provides a nonaqueous electrolyte battery that exhibits high energy density and excellent cycle characteristics, as well as a cathode for use in such a battery, and a cathode active material for use in such a cathode. The cathode active material of the present invention has a composition represented by the formula (1) and a crystallite size in the (110) plane of not smaller than 85 nm: LixCo1-y-zNbyMzO2  (1) wherein M stands for at least one element selected from Mg, Y, rare earth elements, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, B, Al, Ga, C, Si, Sn, N, S, F, and Cl; and 0.9≦x≦1.1, 0.0002≦y≦0.01, and 0≦z≦0.05.
US09337472B2

An electrode for an electrochemical cell including an active electrode material and an intrinsically conductive coating wherein the coating is applied to the active electrode material by heating the mixture for a time and at a temperature that limits degradation of the cathode active material.
US09337470B2

A method of drying casted slurries that includes calculating drying conditions from an experimental model for a cast slurry and forming a cast film. An infrared heating probe is positioned on one side of the casted slurry and a thermal probe is positioned on an opposing side of the casted slurry. The infrared heating probe may control the temperature of the casted slurry during drying. The casted slurry may be observed with an optical microscope, while applying the drying conditions from the experimental model. Observing the casted slurry includes detecting the incidence of micro-structural changes in the casted slurry during drying to determine if the drying conditions from the experimental model are optimal.
US09337466B2

A power terminal connector includes a flexible conductor having a first mounting portion, a second mounting portion and a flexible section between the first and second mounting portions. The first mounting portion is terminated directly to a power terminal of a first battery module. A female terminal is coupled to the second mounting portion. The female terminal has a terminal body having a receptacle receiving a power terminal of a second battery module. The terminal body is terminated to the second mounting portion to mechanically and electrically connect the terminal body to the flexible conductor. A contact spring is received in the receptacle and is electrically connected to the terminal body. The contact spring has spring beams defining interfaces for the power terminal to create a power path to the power terminal of the second battery module.
US09337464B2

The disclosure includes specifying an electrical connection arrangement, in particular for a rechargeable battery arrangement, having an electrical connecting element which permits the electrical energy to be transmitted between the rechargeable battery cells with as little loss as possible. In addition, there is disclosed an advantageous electrical connecting element in the form of a sheet-metal strip for the electrical connection arrangement.
US09337460B2

A battery module includes a cell unit, a first end plate, and a binding band. The cell unit includes a plurality of battery cells arranged in a first direction. The first end plate is located on one side of the cell unit in the first direction. The binding band extends in the first direction and is coupled with the first plate so as to bind the first end plate and the cell unit. The first end plate has an external terminal surface directed to an opposite side with respect to the cell unit in the first direction. An external terminal is connected to the external terminal surface. The binding band is located on a side surface of the cell unit and is coupled with the external terminal surface.
US09337456B2

A frame member for housing a battery cell, frame assembly and frame/battery cell assembly made therefrom, as well as respective methods of making the same, are disclosed. A frame member for housing a battery cell includes an integral frame having a peripheral wall, the peripheral wall having an attachment face and an opposed cooling face, and an attachment feature located on the attachment face and a complementary attachment feature located on the attachment face that is symmetrically opposed to the attachment feature about a plane of symmetry of the frame, the peripheral wall defining an opening that is configured to matingly receive a battery cell therein. A pair of frame members having a cooling member placed therebetween and attached to the respective attachment faces comprises a frame assembly. A frame/battery cell assembly includes a pair of frame assemblies having at least one battery cell placed therebetween.
US09337453B2

A battery pack (10; 110) for a power tool includes a housing (18) made of a rigid material. The housing contains a cooling air passage (54), which is in gaseous communication with the outside environment, and at least one isolated space (52). At least one isolating wall (44) is disposed inside the housing so as to physically separate and isolate the cooling air passage from the at least one isolated space. A plurality of battery cells (32) is disposed within the housing such that an end portion (32a) thereof is disposed within the at least one isolated space and an intermediate portion (32b) thereof is disposed adjacent the cooling air passage. First portions (78) of the at least one isolating wall respectively contact the plurality of battery cells and are comprised of a material that is more flexible and/or elastic than the rigid material of the housing (18).
US09337446B2

Methods of making an integrated barrier stack and optical enhancement layer for protecting and improving the light out coupling of an encapsulated OLED are described. The method includes optimizing the thickness of various layers including the initial inorganic barrier layer and the inorganic barrier layer and polymeric decoupling layer for the barrier stack. The thickness is optimized for at least one of maximum efficiency, minimum dispersion, or minimum spectral shift so that the encapsulated OLED has enhanced light outcoupling compared to the bare OLED.
US09337444B2

Disclosed is an organic light emitting display device in which water is prevented from externally permeating thereinto. The organic light emitting display device comprises a first substrate on which an organic light emitting diode and a driving device designed to drive the organic light emitting diode are formed; a second substrate facing the first substrate; a viscosity layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate to cover entire areas of the first substrate and the second substrate, the viscosity layer including a filler capable of water absorption; and a first adhesion layer arranged to adhere the viscosity layer to the first substrate, wherein the viscosity layer is a material including a cross-linkage functional group and having a viscosity characteristic at room temperature.
US09337437B2

A photoelectric conversion element is formed by laminating, in order, a substrate, a lower electrode, an organic layer which generates electric charge by light irradiation, an upper electrode which transmits light, a buffer layer and a protective film. The buffer layer is formed from hydrogenated silicon oxide containing hydrogen ions, and has a thickness of 1 to 100 nm. The protective film contains hydrogenated silicon nitride containing hydrogen ions or hydrogenated silicon oxynitride containing hydrogen ions and has a thickness of 30 to 500 nm.
US09337434B2

A novel electronic device including a flexible display is presented. The electronic device has a flexible display including an organic light emission diodes and a plurality of columnar bodies linked together. Users can transform the shape of the electronic device into a tablet, an eBook, or a hand-held gaming device. The electronic device is configured to resize its main display area in accordance with the selected mode.
US09337424B2

A Magnetoresistive Tunnel Junction (MTJ) includes a magnetic reference layer disposed between a first electrode and a resistive layer. The junction also includes a magnetic free layer disposed between the resistive layer and a second electrode. The surface area of the free layer is less than the surface area of the reference layer.
US09337422B2

Disclosed is a method for manufacturing a chalcogenide switching device, which includes forming a first electrode on a substrate, forming a chalcogenide material composed of Gex and Se1-x formed on the first electrode, and forming a second electrode on the chalcogenide material, wherein the value x is greater than 0 and smaller than 1. A chalcogenide switching device manufactured by this method is also disclosed.
US09337421B2

The present invention relates to a phase-change memory device structure and the materials used. The structure comprises a substrate, a single or multiple sandwich-memory-unit(s), a first electrode, and a second electrode. The sandwich-memory-unit contains an upper barrier layer, a lower barrier layer, and a memory layer therebetween. The thickness of the memory-layer is less than 30 nm. The present invention provides a phase-change memory device with a high Tc and a low volume changing rate during phase-change.
US09337419B2

A method of manufacturing a magnetic memory cell, includes forming a tunnel barrier layer over a first magnetic layer, forming a second magnetic layer over the tunnel barrier layer, forming a mask over the second magnetic layer, etching an unmasked part of the second magnetic layer to an intermediate position of the second magnetic layer in a thickness direction of the second magnetic layer, and forming a metallic oxide layer by oxidizing an unetched part of the unmasked part of the second magnetic layer.
US09337416B2

A memory element has a layered structure, including a memory layer that has magnetization perpendicular to a film face in which a magnetization direction is changed depending on information, and includes a Co—Fe—B magnetic layer, the magnetization direction being changed by applying a current in a lamination direction of the layered structure to record the information in the memory layer, a magnetization-fixed layer having magnetization perpendicular to a film face that becomes a base of the information stored in the memory layer, and an intermediate layer that is formed of a non-magnetic material and is provided between the memory layer and the magnetization-fixed layer, a first oxide layer and a second oxide layer.
US09337413B2

One embodiment of the present invention includes a multi-state current-switching magnetic memory element that includes a stack of two or more magnetic tunneling junctions (MTJs), each MTJ having a free layer and being separated from other MTJs in the stack by a seeding layer formed upon an isolation layer. The stack is for storing more than one bit of information, wherein different levels of current applied to the memory element cause switching to different states.
US09337410B2

An element body having a first and second internal electrodes exposure surface comprising a piezoelectric active area, wherein a first internal electrode faces a second internal electrode sandwiching piezoelectric body layer in-between along laminating direction, and a piezoelectric inactive area, wherein the piezoelectric body layer contacts only first or second internal electrode at one face along laminating direction, or the first internal electrodes or the second internal electrodes respectively face each other sandwiching piezoelectric body layer in-between along laminating direction, an insulating layer which covers the piezoelectric active area of the first and second internal electrodes exposure surface, and a resistance layer which is isolated from the piezoelectric active area by the insulating layer, placed at the first and second internal electrodes exposure surface connecting at least a part of the first and that of the second internal electrode in the piezoelectric inactive area and has lower electrical resistance value relative to that of the piezoelectric body layer.
US09337403B2

Disclosed is a light emitting device package with improved light extraction efficiency. The light emitting device package includes a substrate, a light emitting device disposed on the substrate, and a light transmission unit disposed above the light emitting device, the light transmission unit being spaced from the light emitting device, wherein a distance between an upper surface of the light emitting device and the light transmission unit is 0.15 mm to 0.35 mm.
US09337401B2

A light emitting device package according to one exemplary embodiment includes a sealing material and organic particles. The organic particles enhance a heat discharge rate and thus reliability of the light emitting device package due to excellent thermal characteristics thereof. Moreover, the organic particles achieve an optical distribution effect to enhance light extraction efficiency of the light emitting device package.
US09337391B2

A semiconductor light emitting device includes an n-type semiconductor layer, a border layer disposed on the n-type semiconductor layer, having band gap energy decreasing in a single direction, and represented by an empirical formula AlxInyGa1−x−yN (0≦x≦0.1, 0.01≦y≦0.1), an active layer disposed on the border layer and having a structure in which one or more InGaN layers and one or more GaN layers are alternately stacked, and a p-type semiconductor layer.
US09337387B2

A profiled surface for improving the propagation of radiation through an interface is provided. The profiled surface includes a set of large roughness components providing a first variation of the profiled surface having a characteristic scale approximately an order of magnitude larger than a target wavelength of the radiation. The set of large roughness components can include a series of truncated shapes. The profiled surface also includes a set of small roughness components superimposed on the set of large roughness components and providing a second variation of the profiled surface having a characteristic scale on the order of the target wavelength of the radiation.
US09337384B2

A light-emitting diode includes a substrate; a light-emitting epitaxial layer, laminated by semiconductor material layers and formed over the substrate; a first current spreading layer over the light-emitting epitaxial layer; an adhesive layer with alternating second current spreading layers and first metal barrier layers over the first current spreading layer, including three structure layers; a second metal barrier layer over the adhesive layer with alternating second current spreading layers and metal barrier layers; and a metal electrode layer over the second metal barrier layer.
US09337381B2

A semiconductor buffer structure includes a silicon substrate, a nucleation layer formed on the silicon substrate, and a buffer layer formed on the nucleation layer. The buffer layer includes a first layer formed of a nitride semiconductor material having a uniform composition rate, a second layer formed of the same material as the nucleation layer on the first layer, and a third layer formed of the same material with the same composition ratio as the first layer on the second layer.
US09337379B2

The present invention aims to provide a method of producing a solar cell which can produce a porous inorganic oxide layer that has a high porosity and contains less impurities even by low-temperature firing. The present invention also aims to provide a solar cell produced by the method of producing a solar cell. The present invention directs to a method of producing a solar cell. The method includes: applying an inorganic oxide paste that contains inorganic oxide fine particles, a binder resin, and an organic solvent to a surface of a base to form an inorganic oxide layer on the base, the base including a conductive layer as an outermost layer thereof, the surface being a conductive layer-side surface; firing the inorganic oxide layer; irradiating the inorganic oxide layer with active energy rays or subjecting the inorganic oxide layer to ozonolysis to form a porous inorganic oxide layer; and laminating a semiconductor on the porous inorganic oxide layer.
US09337377B2

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) or ALD-like deposition processes are used to fabricate dilute nitride III-V semiconductor materials. A first composition of process gases may be caused to flow into a deposition chamber, and a group V element other than nitrogen and one or more group III elements may be adsorbed over the substrate (in atomic or molecular form). Afterward, a second composition of process gases may be caused to flow into the deposition chamber, and N and one or more group III elements may be adsorbed over the substrate in the deposition chamber. An epitaxial layer of dilute nitride III-V semiconductor material may be formed over the substrate in the deposition chamber from the sequentially adsorbed elements.
US09337373B2

A photovoltaic light guide solar concentration apparatus has a deflecting layer, a light-guide layer optically coupled to the deflecting layer, a secondary optic and a photovoltaic cell. The photovoltaic concentration apparatus has a central optical axis that, in operation, is parallel to incident sunlight. A deflecting layer includes a plurality of focusing elements symmetrically arranged with respect to the central optical axis. The light-guide layer is optically coupled to the plurality of focusing elements of the deflecting layer. The light-guide layer has a reflective surface and a plurality of opposite facets symmetrically arranged with respect to the central axis and focused sunlight from the deflection layer enters the light-guide layer and is directed and trapped by the reflective surface and the opposite facets and guided inside the light-guide layer towards an exit aperture through total internal reflections. A secondary optic is coaxially located with respect to the central optical axis and is coupled to the light guide layer the secondary optic that has at least one reflective surface. The secondary optic redirects the light towards the exit aperture. A photovoltaic cell is located at the exit aperture and on the central axis to receive sunlight from the secondary optic within an acceptance angle relative to the central axis.
US09337372B2

A photovoltaic device may be provided having a semiconductor substrate, an i-type amorphous layer or an i-type amorphous layer formed over a front surface or a back surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a p-type amorphous layer or an n-type amorphous layer formed over the i-type amorphous layer or the i-type amorphous layer. The i-type amorphous layer or the i-type amorphous layer has an oxygen concentration profile in which a concentration is reduced in a step-shape from a region near an interface with the semiconductor substrate and along a thickness direction.
US09337366B2

Textured optoelectronic devices and associated methods of manufacture are disclosed herein. In several embodiments, a method of manufacturing a solid state optoelectronic device can include forming a conductive transparent texturing material on a substrate. The method can further include forming a transparent conductive material on the texturing material. Upon heating the device, the texturing material causes the conductive material to grow a plurality of protuberances. The protuberances can improve current spreading and light extraction from the device.
US09337358B2

Benzodithiophene-containing polymers, as well as related photovoltaic cells, articles, systems, and methods, are disclosed.
US09337349B2

A thin film transistor including a gate, a channel, a stopper layer, a source and a drain is provided. The channel and the gate are overlapped. The stopper layer covers a portion of the channel and has a ring-shape hole exposing two opposite connecting portions of the channel. A portion of the stopper layer is disposed between the source and the channel and between the drain and the channel. The source and the drain are filled in the ring-shape hole of the stopper layer and electrically connected to the connecting portions of the channel. Moreover, a pixel structure including the thin film transistor is provided.
US09337347B2

A semiconductor element having high mobility, which includes an oxide semiconductor layer having crystallinity, is provided. The oxide semiconductor layer includes a stacked-layer structure of a first oxide semiconductor film and a second oxide semiconductor film having a wider band gap than the first oxide semiconductor film, which is in contact with the first oxide semiconductor film. Thus, a channel region is formed in part of the first oxide semiconductor film (that is, in an oxide semiconductor film having a smaller band gap) which is in the vicinity of an interface with the second oxide semiconductor film. Further, dangling bonds in the first oxide semiconductor film and the second oxide semiconductor film are bonded to each other at the interface therebetween. Accordingly, a decrease in mobility resulting from an electron trap or the like due to dangling bonds can be reduced in the channel region.
US09337343B2

To provide a semiconductor device having a high aperture ratio and including a capacitor with a high charge capacitance. To provide a semiconductor device with a narrow bezel. A transistor over a substrate; a first conductive film over a surface over which a gate electrode of the transistor is provided; a second conductive film over a surface over which a pair of electrodes of the transistor is provided; and a first light-transmitting conductive film electrically connected to the first conductive film and the second conductive film are included. The second conductive film overlaps the first conductive film with a gate insulating film of the transistor laid between the second conductive film and the first conductive film.
US09337332B2

A field-effect transistor (FET) includes a plurality of semiconductor layers, a source electrode and a drain electrode contacting one of the semiconductor layers, a first dielectric layer on a portion of a top semiconductor surface between the source and drain electrodes, a first trench extending through the first dielectric layer and having a bottom located on a top surface or within one of the semiconductor layers, a second dielectric layer lining the first trench and covering a portion of the first dielectric layer, a third dielectric layer over the semiconductor layers, the first dielectric layer, and the second dielectric layer, a second trench extending through the third dielectric layer and having a bottom located in the first trench on the second dielectric layer and extending over a portion of the second dielectric, and a gate electrode filling the second trench.
US09337325B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a buffer layer made of a nitride semiconductor, forming a channel layer made of a nitride semiconductor over the buffer layer, forming a barrier layer made of a nitride semiconductor over the channel layer, forming a cap layer made of a nitride semiconductor over the barrier layer, forming a gate insulating film so as to in contact with the cap layer; and forming a gate electrode over the gate insulating film, wherein compression strains are generated at an interface between the cap layer and the barrier layer and an interface between the channel layer and the buffer layer and a tensile strain is generated at an interface between the barrier layer and the channel layer by controlling compositions of the cap layer, the barrier layer, the channel layer, and the buffer layer.
US09337321B2

A semiconductor device in which fluctuation in electric characteristics due to miniaturization is less likely to be caused is provided. The semiconductor device includes an oxide semiconductor film including a first region, a pair of second regions in contact with side surfaces of the first region, and a pair of third regions in contact with side surfaces of the pair of second regions; a gate insulating film provided over the oxide semiconductor film; and a first electrode that is over the gate insulating film and overlaps with the first region. The first region is a CAAC oxide semiconductor region. The pair of second regions and the pair of third regions are each an amorphous oxide semiconductor region containing a dopant. The dopant concentration of the pair of third regions is higher than the dopant concentration of the pair of second regions.
US09337314B2

A method to selectively process a three dimensional device, comprising providing a substrate having a first surface that extends horizontally, the substrate comprising a structure containing a second surface that extends vertically from the first surface; providing a film on the substrate, the film comprising carbon species; and etching a selected portion of the film by exposing the selected portion of the film to an etchant containing hydrogen species, where the etchant excludes oxygen species and fluorine species.
US09337304B2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes epitaxially-growing a strained material in a cavity of a substrate comprising a major surface and the cavity, the cavity being below the major surface. A lattice constant of the strained material is different from a lattice constant of the substrate. The method also includes forming a first metal layer over the strained material, and forming a dielectric layer over the first metal layer, wherein the dielectric layer has a thickness ranging from 1 nm to 10 nm. The method further includes forming a dummy poly-silicon over the dielectric layer, and forming an interlayered dielectric layer (ILD) surrounding the dummy poly-silicon. The method additionally includes removing the dummy poly-silicon over the dielectric layer, and forming a second metal layer over the dielectric layer.
US09337302B2

An integrated circuit features a FET, an UTBOX layer plumb with the FET, an underlayer ground plane with first doping plumb with the FET's gate and channel, first and second underlayer semiconducting elements, both plumb with the drain or source, electrodes in contact respectively with the ground plane and with the first element, one having first doping and being connected to a first voltage, the other having the first doping and connected to a second bias voltage different from the first, a semiconducting well having the second doping and plumb with the first ground plane and both elements, a first trench isolating the first FET from other components of the integrated circuit and extending through the layer into the well, and second and third trenches isolating the FET from the electrodes, and extending to a depth less than a plane/well interface.
US09337301B2

Semiconductor structures and techniques are described which enable forming aluminum nitride (AIN) based devices by confining carriers in a region of AIN by exploiting the polar nature of AIN materials. Embodiments of AIN transistors utilizing polarization-based carrier confinement are described.
US09337297B2

A replacement metal gate transistor structure and method with thin silicon nitride sidewalls and with little or no high-k dielectric on the vertical sidewalls of the replacement gate transistor trench.
US09337291B2

Deep gate-all-around semiconductor devices having germanium or group III-V active layers are described. For example, a non-planar semiconductor device includes a hetero-structure disposed above a substrate. The hetero-structure includes a hetero-junction between an upper layer and a lower layer of differing composition. An active layer is disposed above the hetero-structure and has a composition different from the upper and lower layers of the hetero-structure. A gate electrode stack is disposed on and completely surrounds a channel region of the active layer, and is disposed in a trench in the upper layer and at least partially in the lower layer of the hetero-structure. Source and drain regions are disposed in the active layer and in the upper layer, but not in the lower layer, on either side of the gate electrode stack.
US09337280B2

A transistor, a display device, and associated methods, the transistor including a substrate; an active layer pattern disposed on the substrate, the active layer pattern including silicon and graphene; a gate insulating layer disposed on the active layer pattern; a gate electrode disposed on the gate insulating layer; an insulating interlayer covering the active layer pattern and the gate electrode; and a source electrode and a drain electrode in contact with the active layer pattern.
US09337274B2

A method for transfer of a two-dimensional material includes forming a spreading layer of a two-dimensional material on a first substrate. The spreading layer has at least one monolayer. A stressor layer is formed on the spreading layer. The stressor layer is configured to apply stress to a closest monolayer of the spreading layer. The closest monolayer is exfoliated by mechanically splitting the spreading layer wherein at least the closest monolayer remains on the stressor layer. The at least one monolayer is stamped against a second substrate to adhere remnants of the two-dimensional material on the at least one monolayer to the second substrate to provide a single monolayer on the stressor layer. The single monolayer is transferred to a third substrate.
US09337269B2

A fin field effect transistor (FinFET), and a method of fabrication, is introduced. In an embodiment, trenches are formed in a substrate, wherein a region between adjacent trenches defines a fin. A dielectric material is formed in the trenches. The fins are doped to form source, drain and buried channel regions. A gate stack is formed over the buried channel regions. Contacts are formed to provide electrical contacts to the source/drain regions and the gate.
US09337247B2

A display may have an array of organic light-emitting diode display pixels. Each display pixel may have a light-emitting diode that emits light under control of a drive transistor. Each display pixel may also have control transistors for compensating and programming operations. The array of display pixels may have rows and columns. Row lines may be used to apply row control signals to rows of the display pixels. Column lines (data lines) may be used to apply display data and other signals to respective columns of display pixels. A bottom conductive shielding structure may be formed below each drive transistor. The bottom conductive shielding structure may serve to shield the drive transistor from any electric field generated from the adjacent row and column lines. The bottom conductive shielding structure may be electrically floating or coupled to a power supply line.
US09337242B2

A display device is provided including a display region arranged with a plurality of main pixels formed from a group including a red pixel, green pixel, blue pixel and white pixel, wherein the main pixel includes an arrangement in which the white pixel is adjacent to a pixel other than the blue pixel, and the display region is arranged so that white pixels in each of the main pixels are mutually adjacent. In the main pixel, the white pixel may be adjacent to the green pixel. In addition, in the main pixel, the blue pixel may be adjacent to the red pixel.
US09337238B1

Selector elements that can be suitable for nonvolatile memory device applications are disclosed. The selector element can have low leakage currents at low voltages to reduce sneak current paths for non-selected devices, and higher leakage currents at higher voltages to minimize voltage drops during device switching. The selector element can be based on multilayer film stacks (e.g. metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) stacks). The semiconductor layer of the selector element can include a photo-luminescent or electro-luminescent material. Conductive materials of the MSM may include tungsten, titanium nitride, carbon, or combinations thereof.
US09337234B2

A photoelectric converter includes a first pn junction comprised of at least two semiconductor regions of different conductivity types, and a first field-effect transistor including a first source connected with one of the semiconductor regions, a first drain, a first insulated gate and a same conductivity type channel as that of the one of the semiconductor regions. The first drain is supplied with a second potential at which the first pn junction becomes zero-biased or reverse-biased relative to a potential of the other of the semiconductor regions. When the first source turns to a first potential and the one of the semiconductor regions becomes zero-biased or reverse-biased relative to the other semiconductor regions, the first pn junction is controlled not to be biased by a deep forward voltage by supplying a first gate potential to the first insulated gate, even when either of the semiconductor regions is exposed to light.
US09337232B2

The present invention relates to a substrate stacked image sensor having a dual detection function, in which when first to fourth photodiodes are formed in a first substrate, a fifth photodiode is formed in a second substrate, and the substrates are stacked and combined with each other, the first to fourth photodiodes and the fifth photodiode are combined with each other to obtain a complete photodiode as an element of one pixel, and signals individually detected in each photodiode are selectively read or added to be read according to necessity. To this end, the first to fourth photodiodes are formed in the first substrate, the fifth photodiode is formed in the second substrate, the first to fourth photodiodes and the fifth photodiode make electrical contact with each other, and pixel array sizes of the first substrate and the second substrate are allowed to be different from each other, so that sensor resolution of the first substrate and sensor resolution of the second substrate are different from each other.
US09337224B2

A CMOS image sensor has a photodiode including first and second impurity layers sequentially formed on a substrate, an isolation layer on the second impurity layer, and a transfer gate structure through the second impurity layer. The transfer gate structure contacts a top surface of the first impurity layer and a portion of the second impurity layer and includes a bottom surface having a step shape.
US09337218B2

In the liquid crystal display device in which a guest-host liquid crystal layer is provided between a first substrate having a reflective film which is a pixel electrode layer (also referred to as a first electrode layer) and a second substrate having a common electrode layer (also referred to as a second electrode layer), the reflective film which is a pixel electrode layer is projected into the liquid crystal layer, and a micron-sized first unevenness and a nano-sized second unevenness on the first unevenness are provided.
US09337209B1

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, including the following steps. A plurality of fin structures are formed on a substrate. There is a trench between the fin structures. At least two times of circulating processes are performed. The circulating processes include: a deposition process and an etching process. The deposition process is performed to fill a first conductor material layer in the trench. The first conductor material layer covers top parts and sidewalls of the fin structures. The etching process is performed to remove a part of the first conductor material layer.
US09337205B2

The present disclosure relates to an SRAM memory cell. The SRAM memory cell has a semiconductor substrate with an active area and a gate region positioned above the active area. A butted contact extends from a position above the active area to a position above the gate region. The butted contact contains a plurality of distinct regions having different widths (i.e., the smaller dimensions of the butted contact), such that a region spanning the active area and gate region has width less than the regions in contact with the active area or gate region. By making the width of the region spanning the active area and gate region smaller than the regions in contact with the active area or gate, the etch rate is reduced at a junction of the gate region with the active area, thereby preventing etch back of the gate material and leakage current.
US09337199B2

A semiconductor device may include a substrate having a first region and a second region on a surface thereof, and a first semiconductor fin on the first region of the substrate with the first semiconductor fin including a first trench therethrough. A first gate electrode may be provided in the first trench, and first and second source/drain regions may be provided in the first semiconductor fin, with the first gate electrode between the first and second source/drain regions. A second semiconductor fin may be provided on the second region of the substrate with the second semiconductor fin including a second trench therethrough, a second gate electrode may be provided in the second trench, and third and fourth source/drain regions may be provided in the second semiconductor fin with the second gate electrode being between the third and fourth source/drain regions.
US09337197B1

In one aspect there is set forth herein a semiconductor structure having fins extending upwardly from an ultrathin body (UTB). In one embodiment a multilayer structure can be disposed on a wafer and can be used to pattern voids extending from a UTB layer of the wafer. Selected material can be formed in the voids to define fins extending upward from the UTB layer. In one embodiment silicon (Si) can be grown within the voids to define the fins. In one embodiment, germanium based material can be grown within the voids to define the fins.
US09337192B2

An integrated circuit device includes a semiconductor substrate; and a gate stack disposed over the semiconductor substrate. The gate stack further includes a gate dielectric layer disposed over the semiconductor substrate; a multi-function blocking/wetting layer disposed over the gate dielectric layer, wherein the multi-function blocking/wetting layer comprises tantalum aluminum carbon nitride (TaAlCN); a work function layer disposed over the multi-function blocking/wetting layer; and a conductive layer disposed over the work function layer.
US09337191B2

A transistor whose channel region includes an oxide semiconductor is used as a pull down transistor. The band gap of the oxide semiconductor is 2.0 eV or more, preferably 2.5 eV or more, more preferably 3.0 eV or more. Thus, hot carrier degradation in the transistor can be suppressed. Accordingly, the circuit size of the semiconductor device including the pull down transistor can be made small. Further, a gate of a pull up transistor is made to be in a floating state by switching of on/off of the transistor whose channel region includes an oxide semiconductor. Note that when the oxide semiconductor is highly purified, the off-state current of the transistor can be 1 aA/μm (1×10−18 A/μm) or less. Therefore, the drive capability of the semiconductor device can be improved.
US09337187B2

A semiconductor device includes a logic circuit and an active element circuit. The logic circuit is provided with semiconductor elements formed in a semiconductor substrate. The active element circuit is provided with transistors formed using semiconductor layers formed over a diffusion insulating film formed above a semiconductor substrate. The active element circuit is controlled by the logic circuit.
US09337165B2

The present disclosure is directed to a method for making a microelectronic package that includes assembling a microelectronic unit with a substrate, and electrically connecting redistribution contacts on the microelectronic unit and terminals on the substrate with a conductive matrix material extending within at least one opening extending through the substrate.
US09337161B2

A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit package system includes: attaching a first die to a first die pad; connecting electrically a second die to the first die through a die interconnect positioned between the first die and the second die; connecting a first lead adjacent the first die pad to the first die; connecting a second lead to the second die, the second lead opposing the first lead and adjacent the second die; and providing a molding material around the first die, the second die, the die interconnect, the first lead and the second lead, with a portion of the first lead exposed.
US09337158B2

An integrated circuit (IC) device includes an IC and an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device. The IC has a substrate, a core and a power mesh. The power mesh has a power electrode, a grounding electrode and a seal ring. The core is formed inside the grounding electrode. The power electrode is formed between the seal ring and the grounding electrode. The ESD protection device has multiple switch triggering units, multiple switching units and multiple discharging units formed on the substrate and electrically connected between the power electrode and the grounding electrode. The switching units turn on corresponding discharging units upon detecting occurrence of ESD to guide static electricity on the power electrode to the grounding electrode, thereby preventing the core from being damaged by static electricity.
US09337154B2

A semiconductor device includes a substrate comprising a front surface, side surfaces, a back surface, and a recessed edge between the side surfaces and either the front surface or the back surface, the front surface comprising an active region, the active region comprising at least one contact pad, a polymeric member disposed and contacted with the recessed edge of the substrate, a mold disposed over the front surface of the substrate and the polymeric member, and an interface between the mold and the polymeric member.
US09337149B2

Semiconductor devices may include a substrate including an active region defined by a device isolation layer, source/drain regions in the active region, word lines extending in a first direction parallel to the active region and being arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction, a bit line pattern extending in the second direction and crossing over a portion of the active region positioned between the word lines, and a graphene pattern covering at least a portion of the bit line pattern.
US09337144B2

The present disclosure generally provides for an e-fuse structure and corresponding method for fusing the same and monitoring material leakage. The e-fuse structure can include a metal dummy structure and an electrical fuse link substantially aligned with a portion of the metal dummy structure, wherein the metal dummy structure cools at least part of the electrical fuse link in response to an electric current passing through the electrical fuse link.
US09337142B2

Provided are a semiconductor device including an oscillator and a manufacturing method thereof, in which cost is low and design flexibility is high. The semiconductor device includes a wiring structure region and an oscillator region. The semiconductor device also includes, in the oscillator region, a metal resistive element as the same layer as a conducting film over uppermost metal wiring in the wiring structure region.
US09337139B2

Disclosed herein is a device that includes: first and second memory cell arrays arranged in a first direction; a plurality of first bump electrodes disposed between the first and second memory cell arrays and arranged in line in a second direction crossing the first direction; a plurality of second bump electrodes disposed between the first bump electrodes and the second memory cell arrays and arranged in line in the second direction; a first area being between the first and second bump electrodes; a plurality of third bump electrodes disposed in the first area; and a first capacitor formed in the third area.
US09337137B1

Methods and systems for solder shielding of ball grid arrays are disclosed and may include placing an array of solder balls onto a substrate, where the substrate may comprise a contact pad for each of the solder balls and a subset of the contact pads may be coupled via a solder mask opening. A subset of the array of solder balls may be coupled utilizing a solder reflow process and via the solder mask opening. The coupled subset may comprise an outer perimeter of the array. The substrate may comprise an interposer or an integrated circuit die, where the coupled subset shields circuitry from receiving electromagnetic interference. The substrate may comprise a packaging substrate or a printed circuit board (PCB) and the coupled subset may be coupled to a ground plane. The subset of the array of solder balls may be utilized to generate one or more reactive elements.
US09337134B2

Reliability of a semiconductor device is improved. A semiconductor device has a base material comprised of insulating material having a through hole, a terminal formed on a lower surface of the base material, and a semiconductor chip mounted on an upper surface of the base material in a face-up manner. Further, the semiconductor device has a conductive member such as a wire, which electrically connects a pad of the semiconductor chip with an exposed surface of the terminal which is exposed from the through hole of the base material, and has a sealing body for sealing the conductive member, inside of the through hole of the base material, and the semiconductor chip. An anchor means is provided in a region of the exposed surface of the terminal which is exposed from the through hole of the base material except for a joint portion joined with the conductive member such as the wire.
US09337133B2

An integrated circuit includes a conductive pad disposed over a substrate. A first passivation layer is disposed over the conductive pad. A second passivation layer is disposed over the first passivation layer. A stress buffer layer is disposed over the second passivation layer. A conductive interconnect layer is over and coupled to the conductive pad and over the stress buffer layer with the conductive interconnect layer adjoining sidewalls of the first passivation layer and the stress buffer layer.
US09337126B2

An integrated circuit and a method of fabricating the integrated circuit are provided. In various embodiments, the integrated circuit includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and a bump pad. The first substrate has at least one active device and a plurality of first metallic pads electrically connected to the active device. The first substrate has front-end-of-line processing layers without back-end-of-line processing layers over the front-end-of-line processing layers. The second substrate has a semiconductor substrate and an interconnect structure disposed on the semiconductor substrate, and the interconnect structure has at least one second metallic pad. The second substrate does not include any active devices. The bump pad is sandwiched by the first substrate and the second substrate. The active device and the first metallic pad of the first substrate are electrically connected to the second metallic pad of the second substrate through the bump pad.
US09337125B2

Integrated circuit devices are provided. The integrated circuit devices may include a via structure including a conductive plug, a conductive barrier layer spaced apart from the conductive plug, and an insulating layer between the conductive plug and conductive barrier layer. Related methods of forming integrated circuit devices are also provided.
US09337119B2

Semiconductor die assemblies having high efficiency thermal paths. In one embodiment, a semiconductor die assembly comprises a package support substrate, a first semiconductor die electrically mounted to the package support substrate, and a plurality of second semiconductor dies. The first die has a stacking site and a peripheral region extending laterally from the stacking site, and the bottom second semiconductor die is attached to the stacking site of the first die. The assembly further includes (a) a thermal transfer structure attached to the peripheral region of the first die that has a cavity in which the second dies are positioned and an inlet, and (b) an underfill material in the cavity. The underfill material has a fillet between the second semiconductor dies caused by injecting the underfill material into the cavity through the inlet port of the casing.
US09337116B2

A semiconductor substrate has a plurality of different size recesses formed in the substrate to provide a stepped interposer. A conductive via can be formed through the stepped interposer. An insulating layer follows a contour of the stepped interposer. A conductive layer is formed over the insulating layer following the contour of the stepped interposer. A first semiconductor die is partially disposed in a first recess and electrically connected to the conductive layer. A second semiconductor die is partially disposed in a second recess and electrically connected to the conductive layer. The first semiconductor die is electrically connected to the second semiconductor die through the conductive layer. The first and second semiconductor die can be flipchip type semiconductor die. An encapsulant is deposited over the first and second semiconductor die. A portion of the stepped interposer can be removed to reduce thickness.
US09337111B2

A semiconductor package includes an RFID chip positioned between a first die and a second die attached to a support substrate. The RFID chip is free of electrical connections to the dice and the support substrate. The RFID chip is sized to correspond to an interposer board. Data pertaining to operating characteristics of the dice are stored to and read from the RFID chip during back-end processing to determine abnormalities and improve yield. Said data may be stored to a database corresponding to the RFID chip in the package. A method of making a semiconductor package having an RFID chip positioned between dice is provided. The package is traceable by customers via the data stored to the RFID chip and the database.
US09337106B2

A process for forming at least two different doping levels at the surface of a wafer using one photo resist pattern and implantation process step. A resist layer is developed (but not baked) to form a first resist geometry and a plurality of sublithographic resist geometries. The resist layer is baked causing the sublithographic resist geometries to reflow into a continuous second resist geometry having a thickness less that the first resist geometry. A high energy implant implants dopants through the second resist geometry but not through the first resist geometry. A low energy implant is blocked by both the first and second resist geometries.
US09337102B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device comprises, including forming a plurality of fins on a substrate, forming, a dummy gate stack on the fins forming a gate spacer on opposite sides of the dummy gate stack, forming source/drain trenches by etching the fins with the gate spacer and the dummy gate stack as a mask, forming source/drain extension regions on the bottom and sides of the trenches by performing lightly-doping ion implantation; and by performing epitaxial growth in and/or on the source/drain trenches, removing the dummy gate stack to form a gate trench; and forming a gate stack in the gate trench.
US09337101B1

One illustrative method disclosed herein includes, among other things, forming a plurality of fins in a semiconducting substrate, each of which has a corresponding masking layer feature positioned thereabove, forming a masking layer that has an opening that exposes at least two fins of the plurality of fins, performing an angled etching process through the opening in the masking layer so as to remove the masking layer feature formed above one of the at least two exposed fins, and thereby define an exposed fin, while leaving the masking layer feature intact above the other of the at least two exposed fins, and performing an anisotropic etching process through the opening in the masking layer to remove the exposed fin while leaving the other of the at least two exposed fins intact.
US09337096B2

Methods and apparatus for performing molding on die on wafer interposers. A method includes receiving an interposer assembly having a die side and an opposite side including two or more integrated circuit dies mounted on the die side of the interposer, the interposer assembly having spaces formed on the die side of the interposer between the two or more integrated circuit dies; mounting at least one stress relief feature on the die side of the interposer assembly in one of the spaces between the two or more integrated circuit dies; and molding the integrated circuit dies using a mold compound, the mold compound surrounding the two or more integrated circuit dies and the at least one stress relief feature. An apparatus is disclosed having integrated circuits mounted on a die side of an interposer, stress relief features between the integrated circuits and mold compound over the integrated circuits.
US09337088B2

An semiconductor structure, method of fabrication therefor, and design structure therefor is provided. A thermal grid is formed over at least a portion of a substrate. An insulating layer is formed over at least a portion of the thermal grid. A resistor is formed over at least a portion of the insulating layer. A buried interconnect is connected to the thermal grid via at least one contact. The buried interconnect is adapted to receive thermal energy from the thermal grid via the at least one contact.
US09337083B2

A method for forming metal contacts within a semiconductor device includes forming a first-layer contact into a first dielectric layer that surrounds at least one gate electrode, the first-layer contact extending to a doped region of an underlying substrate. The method further includes forming a second dielectric layer over the first dielectric layer and forming a second-layer contact extending through the second dielectric layer to the first-layer contact.
US09337082B2

A dielectric material stack including at least a via level dielectric material layer, at least one patterned etch stop dielectric material portion, a line level dielectric material layer, and optionally a dielectric cap layer is formed over a substrate. At least one patterned hard mask layer including a first pattern can be formed above the dielectric material stack. A second pattern is transferred through the line level dielectric material layer employing the at least one etch stop dielectric material portion as an etch stop structure. The first pattern is transferred through the line level dielectric material layer employing the at least one etch stop dielectric material portion as an etch stop structure while the second pattern is transferred through the via level dielectric material layer to form integrated line and via trenches, which are filled with a conductive material to form integrated line and via structures.
US09337075B2

A chemical mechanical polishing fixture having lateral perforation structures includes: a holder and a retaining ring. The holder includes: an annular substrate, a plurality of third holes and a plurality of lateral perforation structures. The annular substrate has a first joint surface, an outer periphery and an inner periphery. The third holes are annularly arranged on the first joint surface, and each third hole includes a first inner thread structure for individually providing a screw to be locked to a semiconductor machine. The lateral perforation structures penetrate from the outer periphery to the inner periphery of the annular substrate, where the lateral perforations are selected from: a converse U-shaped cube structure, an converse U-shaped cube structure, a cuboid structure, a cylinder structure, an elliptic cylinder structure, a flat cuboid structure or a hybrid structure of at least one cuboid structure and the above.
US09337070B2

A particle level varied depending on a drying processing condition can be suppressed to be stably lowered. A batch type substrate processing apparatus include a cleaning processing unit 62 having a cleaning tank 69 that stores therein a cleaning solution for cleaning a substrate, and a drying processing unit 61 disposed above the cleaning tank 69 and having a drying chamber 65 configured to perform therein a drying process on the substrate. Based on a previously investigated relationship, an internal temperature of the drying chamber is set as an internal temperature of the drying chamber when loading the substrate thereinto corresponding to the batch size of a next batch process performed in the drying chamber, and the internal temperature of the drying chamber is adjusted to be identical to the set internal temperature of the drying chamber before loading the substrate into the drying chamber.
US09337055B2

A method includes passing a chemical solution through a metal-ion absorber, wherein metal ions in the metal-ion absorber are trapped by the metal-ion absorber. The chemical solution exiting out of the metal-ion absorber is then used to etch a metal-containing region, wherein the metal-containing region includes a metal that is of a same element type as the metal ions.
US09337044B2

Oxide growth of a gate dielectric layer that occurs between processes used in the fabrication of a gate dielectric structure can be reduced. The reduction in oxide growth can be achieved by maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth of the gate dielectric layer between at least two sequential process steps used in the fabrication the gate dielectric structure. Maintaining the gate dielectric layer in an ambient effective to mitigate oxide growth also improves the uniformity of nitrogen implanted in the gate dielectric.
US09337023B1

A method of fabricating a multi-layer epitaxial buffer layer stack for transistors includes depositing a buffer stack on a substrate. A first voided Group IIIA-N layer is deposited on the substrate, and a first essentially void-free Group IIIA-N layer is then deposited on the first voided Group IIIA-N layer. A first high roughness Group IIIA-N layer is deposited on the first essentially void-free Group IIIA-N layer, and a first essentially smooth Group IIIA-N layer is deposited on the first high roughness Group IIIA-N layer. At least one Group IIIA-N surface layer is then deposited on the first essentially smooth Group IIIA-N layer.
US09337020B2

A method for processing a resist mask includes: (a) a step of preparing, in a processing chamber, a target object to be processed having a patterned resist mask provided thereon; and (b) a step of generating a plasma of the hydrogen-containing gas by supplying a hydrogen-containing gas and supplying a microwave into the processing chamber. The hydrogen-containing gas may be, e.g., H2 gas.
US09337019B2

Provided is a method for producing an electronic component, which is capable of forming a cured adhesive layer easily with high accuracy.The method for producing a curable film electronic component according to the present invention includes an application step in which an adhesive is applied onto a first electronic component body using an ink jet device to form an adhesive layer, a first light irradiation step in which an adhesive layer is irradiated with light from a first light irradiation part, an attachment step in which a second electronic component body is disposed on the adhesive layer irradiated with light and attached, and a step in which the adhesive layer is cured by heating, thereby giving an electronic component, the ink jet device includes an ink tank to store the adhesive, a discharge part, and a circulation flow path part, and in the application step, the adhesive is applied while being circulated in the ink jet device.
US09337016B2

An upper surface of a plug (PL1) is formed so as to be higher than an upper surface of an interlayer insulating film (PIL) by forming the interlayer insulating film (PIL) on a semiconductor substrate (1S), completing a CMP method for forming the plug (PL1) inside the interlayer insulating film (PIL), and then, making the upper surface of the interlayer insulating film (PIL) to recede. In this manner, reliability of connection between the plug (PL1) and a wiring (W1) in a vertical direction can be ensured. Also, the wiring (W1) can be formed so as not to be embedded inside the interlayer insulating film (PIL), or a formed amount by the embedding can be reduced.
US09337012B2

Disclosed is a fluorine-containing resin film which is formed from a fluorine-containing resin composition and has a thickness of 10 to 50 μm, wherein the fluorine-containing resin composition is prepared by adding 10 to 30 parts by mass of titanium oxide or a composite-oxide-type inorganic pigment to 100 parts by mass of a resin component comprising 60 to 95 parts by mass of a vinylidene fluoride resin and 5 to 40 parts by mass of a methacrylic acid ester resin, and wherein the peak intensity ratio of a II-type crystal, which is expressed by (A)/((A)+(B))×100 wherein A represents the peak height at 840 cm−1 and B represents the peak height at 765 cm−1 in a measurement chart produced by an infrared absorption spectrum, is 60% or more and the total crystallinity is 30% or more as calculated from an X-ray diffraction profile.
US09336994B2

A charged particle beam writing apparatus includes a storage unit to store each pattern data of plural figure patterns arranged in each of plural small regions made by virtually dividing a writing region of a target workpiece to be written on which resist being coated. The charged particle beam writing apparatus further including an assignment unit to assign each pattern data of each figure pattern to be arranged in each of the plural small regions concerned, and a writing unit to write, for each of plural groups, each figure pattern in each of the plural small regions concerned by using a charged particle beam.
US09336986B2

The present disclosure provides for many different embodiments of a charged particle beam data storage system and method. In an example, a method includes dividing a design layout into a plurality of units; creating a lookup table that maps each of the plurality of units to its position within the design layout and a data set, wherein the lookup table associates any repeating units in the plurality of units to a same data set; and exposing an energy sensitive layer to a charged particle beam based on the lookup table.
US09336985B2

An improved method and apparatus for S/TEM sample preparation and analysis. Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide improved methods for TEM sample creation, especially for small geometry (<100 nm thick) TEM lamellae. A novel sample structure and a novel use of a milling pattern allow the creation of S/TEM samples as thin as 50 nm without significant bowing or warping. Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide methods to partially or fully automate TEM sample creation, to make the process of creating and analyzing TEM samples less labor intensive, and to increase throughput and reproducibility of TEM analysis.
US09336974B2

A pair of arcing contacts 3 and 5 facing each other are placed in a tank 1 to perform opening and closing operation, and a puffer cylinder 7 is coaxially provided on the circumference of one arcing contact 5. A puffer chamber 9 is comprised of the puffer cylinder 7, a fixed piston 6, and a hollow rod 8. An insulating nozzle 4 forming a space communicating with the puffer chamber 9 is provided. An exhaust tube 2 for exhausting and cooling hot gas discharged from an arc produced in the insulating nozzle 4 is provided on the circumference of the other arcing contact 3. A structure 11 for temporarily reducing the flow path area is provided on the inner circumferential surface at short of the end portion of the exhaust tube 2.
US09336964B2

The invention relates to an electrical circuit breaker comprising an arc formation chamber and an arc extinguishing chamber, the arc formation chamber being at least partially bounded by a side flange or at least a part of a side wall consisting of a polymeric composition comprising a thermoplastic polymer, a triazine based flame retardant, at most 0-5 wt. % of phosphorous or halogen containing flame retardants, and 0-15 wt. % of a reinforcing agent, wherein thermoplastic polymer comprises a polyamide with a melting temperature of at least 260° C. and the triazine based flame retardant comprises at least 20 wt. % of melam, wherein the weight percentages (wt. %) are relative to the total weight of the polymeric composition.
US09336962B2

The claimed embodiments contemplate methods, systems and apparatuses directed to an active display button. In various embodiments, an active display button may generally be a button containing one or more elements that move when the button is engaged. By example, and not limitation, these elements may include one or more reels, be they mechanical or video, or perhaps a rotating indicator. The active display button may also include lights, vibratory motors and other experience-enhancing implements. The active display button may be installed on a gaming machine and operated in conjunction with the gaming device, separate from the gaming machine on which it is installed or perhaps as part of the operation of the gaming machine.
US09336960B2

A method is disclosed of manufacturing a push rod for switching a vacuum interrupter by moulding the push rod with a plastic material. The push rod can include a core component configured for receiving a spring element. The push rod can also include a rod component which may include another second material, wherein a core component is embedded in the rod component to form the push rod.
US09336953B2

The present invention generally relates to methods for increasing the lifetime of MEMS devices by reducing the number of movements of a switching element in the MEMS device. Rather than returning to a ground state between cycles, the switching element can remain in the same state if both cycles necessitate the same capacitance. For example, if in both a first and second cycle, the switching element of the MEMS device is in a state of high capacitance the switching element can remain in place between the first and second cycle rather than move to the ground state. Even if the polarity of the capacitance is different in successive cycles, the switching element can remain in place and the polarity can be switched. Because the switching element remains in place between cycles, the switching element, while having the same finite number of movements, should have a longer lifetime.
US09336951B2

There is provided a multilayer ceramic capacitor including: a ceramic body including a plurality of dielectric layers and having first and second main surfaces opposing each other, first and second side surfaces opposing each other, and first and second end surfaces opposing each other; first internal electrodes each having a first lead part exposed to the first side surface of the ceramic body; second internal electrodes respectively disposed to face the first internal electrodes, having at least one dielectric layer among the plurality of dielectric layers interposed therebetween, and each having a second lead part exposed to the first side surface of the ceramic body; first and second external electrodes connected to the first and second internal electrodes, respectively; a first conductive pattern connected to the second external electrode; and a second conductive pattern connected to the first external electrode.
US09336949B2

The invention provides an integral high-voltage capacitor assembly that yields very low self inductance and provides voltage and current multiplication. The capacitor assembly has two or four capacitors connected in series, with each capacitor made up of a stack of capacitor cells (40) also connected in series. Each of the capacitor cells (40) includes an arrangement of a pair of elongate foil electrodes (10) separated by dielectric (20, 30), and multiply-folded in a substantially flat, wound configuration. In the case of the two-capacitor assembly, in one embodiment the adjacent capacitor cells of the first capacitor (11) are connected in series by joining their foil electrodes on only one longitudinal side of the foil electrodes, while the adjacent capacitor cells of the second capacitor (12) are connected in series by joining their foil electrodes on both longitudinal sides of the foil electrodes. By connecting two units of the two-capacitor assemblies in different ways, various four-capacitor assemblies (80; 90) can be configured to provide enhanced voltage and current multiplication.
US09336947B2

There is provided a dielectric composition for low-temperature sintering including BaTiO3 as a main ingredient, and xB2O3-(1-x)BaO as an accessory ingredient, wherein x ranges from 0.25 to 0.8, and the content of the accessory ingredient ranges from 0.1 to 2.00 mol %, based on 100 mol % of the main ingredient.
US09336934B2

Provided is a method of selective activation for a magnetic nanoparticle having a magnetic vortex structure. The method of selective activation for a magnetic nanoparticle in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure includes providing a magnetic nanoparticle having a magnetic vortex structure; applying a first magnetic field to the magnetic nanoparticle so that the magnetic nanoparticle has a resonance frequency; and activating the magnetic nanoparticle by applying a second magnetic field having the resonance frequency to the magnetic nanoparticle.
US09336933B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a ferrite magnetic material which can provide a permanent magnet retaining high Br and HcJ as well as having high Hk/HcJ. The ferrite magnetic material according to a preferred embodiment is a ferrite magnetic material formed of hard ferrite, wherein a P content in terms of P2O5 is 0.001% by mass or more.
US09336932B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for creating magnetic material. One of the methods may make a compound that includes at least one of: i) an amount of Nd in a range of [6.1717, 11.8917] (at. %), inclusive, ii) an amount of Pr in a range of [1.5495, 4.821] (at. %), inclusive, or iii) an amount of Dy in a range of [0.2132, 5.3753] (at. %), inclusive, and an amount of Co in a range of [0, 4.0948] (at. %), inclusive, an amount of Cu in a range of [0.0545, 0.2445] (at. %), inclusive, and an amount of Fe in a range of [81.1749, 85.867] (at. %), inclusive.
US09336922B2

A fabrication method of thermoelectric materials using core-shell structured nano-particles and thermoelectric materials fabricated by the same are provided. The method includes preparing core-shell structured nano-particles having thermoelectric elements coated on the surface thereof (step 1); adding and mixing the prepared core-shell structured nano-particles of step 1, bismuth (Bi) salts, tellurium (Te) salts and a surfactant in a solvent (step 2); adding and dispersing a reducing agent in the mixture of step (step 3); and heating the mixture of step 3 in which reducing agent is added and dispersed (step 4). According to the present invention, thermoelectric materials, nano-phase is homogeneously dispersed inside of thermoelectric grain boundary, can be fabricated and if the fabricated materials are used after sintering and bulking, the thermoelectric materials are maintained in a state that the nano-particles remain in dispersed phase even after sintering.
US09336916B2

Methods for producing Tc-99m radioisotope by proton irradiation of a fluid target matrix. A method of producing Tc-99m includes irradiating a fluid target matrix comprising Mo-100 with a proton beam to transform at least a portion of Mo-100 to Tc-99m. Optionally, the fluid target matrix further includes at least one of O-18, O-16, or N-14, which upon exposure to the proton beam concurrently transform at least a portion of O-18 to F-18, at least a portion of O-16 to N-13, at least a portion of the O-16 to O-15, or at least a portion of N-14 to C-11. The method further includes isolating Tc-99m and optionally at least one of F-18, N-13, O-15, or C-11 from the irradiated fluid target matrix. An additional source of Tc-99m is available from the decay of Mo-99 that is co-produced from the Mo-100 during irradiation with the proton beam.
US09336915B2

A target apparatus for a radioisotope production system. The target apparatus includes a production chamber that is configured to contain a starting liquid. The production chamber is configured to receive a particle beam that is incident upon the starting liquid thereby generating radioisotopes and transforming a portion of the starting liquid into vapor. The target apparatus also includes a condensing chamber and a fluid channel that fluidly couples the production and condensing chambers and is configured to allow the vapor to flow from the production chamber to the condensing chamber. The condensing chamber is configured to transform the vapor into a condensed liquid.
US09336911B2

According to an embodiment, core thermal limit monitoring device is provided with calculating units, and signal input processing units, synchronization processing units and signal output processing units, corresponding to the calculating units. The calculating unit determines if it is necessary to output a signal to the control unit by calculating the thermal state values of the monitoring regions based on a signal representing the state of the core. The synchronization processing unit, if it is necessary to output a signal to the control unit, transmits a signal-output stop signal to the other synchronization processing units, and otherwise, the synchronization processing unit transmits a signal-output stop cancellation signal to the other synchronization processing units. The signal output processing unit, when the synchronization processing unit does not receive a signal stop signal, outputs a signal representing the calculation results of the calculating unit to the control unit.
US09336909B2

A zirconium alloy nuclear reactor cylindrical cladding has an inner Zr substrate surface (10), an outer volume of protective material (22) consisting of Zr—Al, and an integrated middle volume (20) of zirconium oxide, zirconium and protective material, where the protective material is applied by impaction at a velocity greater than 340 meters/second to provide the integrated middle volume (20) resulting in structural integrity for the cladding.
US09336908B2

A pressurized water reactor (PWR) includes a vertical cylindrical pressure vessel having a lower portion containing a nuclear reactor core and a vessel head defining an integral pressurizer. A reactor coolant pump (RCP) mounted on the vessel head includes an impeller inside the pressure vessel, a pump motor outside the pressure vessel, and a vertical drive shaft connecting the motor and impeller. The drive shaft does not pass through the integral pressurizer. The drive shaft passes through a vessel penetration of the pressure vessel that is at least large enough for the impeller to pass through.
US09336906B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array, a repair control circuit and a refresh control circuit. The memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cells and a plurality of redundancy memory cells. The repair control circuit receives a repair command and performs a repair operation on a first defective memory cell among the plurality of memory cells during a repair mode. The semiconductor memory device may operate in a repair mode in response to the repair command. The refresh control circuit performs a refresh operation on non-defective ones of the plurality of memory cells during the repair mode.
US09336905B2

A repair circuit includes a fuse set latch array including a plurality of fuse set latches, and configured to store fuse informations in target fuse latches selected among the plurality of fuse set latches in response to fuse latch select signals; a fuse information control unit configured to generate the fuse latch select signals by using boot-up source signals generated by differently combining boot-up mode region select informations according to a region determination signal; and a repair processing unit configured to compare an address inputted from an exterior and the fuse informations, and access a normal memory cell corresponding to the external address or a redundant memory cell.
US09336901B2

A system and method of providing feedback control to a pulsed RF generator includes an RF generator having an RF output and a feedback input. An RF electrode is coupled to the RF output and an RF sampling circuit having a sampling input coupled to the RF electrode. The sampling circuit including a feedback signal output coupled to the feedback input of the RF generator. A method of providing feedback control to a pulse RF generator includes receiving an RF sample of an RF pulse, sampling the RF sample multiple sampling times to produce multiple feedback levels during the duration of the RF pulse and coupling the multiple feedback levels to a feedback input on an RF generator, the RF generator outputting the RF pulse.
US09336898B2

Provided are a shift register unit, a gate driver and a display device. The shift register unit comprises: a pull-up control module, a pull-up module, a reset module, and a denoise module for holding a signal output from the first output terminal when the signal has a level higher than a first preset threshold and outputting the held signal from a second output terminal when a signal input from a denoise control signal input terminal has a level higher than a second preset threshold. The signal output from the first output terminal is filtered by using the signal output from the first output terminal and the signal input from the denoise control signal input terminal, and thus burrs in the signal output from the first output terminal are eliminated, that is, noise is eliminated, solving the problem that a defective display picture due to the noise in the output signal.
US09336895B2

A semiconductor unit with memory devices, each of the memory devices includes: a first semiconductor layer; second and third semiconductor layers; a first dielectric film and a first conductive film; first, second, and third electrodes electrically connected to the second semiconductor layer, the third semiconductor layer, and the first conductive film, respectively, the third electrode being electrically connected to the first electrode. In the memory devices, when a voltage equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value is applied between the first and second electrodes, a filament that is a conductive path electrically linking the second and third semiconductor layers is formed in the region between the second and third semiconductor layers, and thereby, writing operation of information is performed.
US09336892B1

Read disturb due to hot electron injection is reduced in a 3D memory device by controlling the magnitude and timing of word line and select gate ramp down voltages at the end of a sensing operation. In an example read operation, the magnitude of a selected word line voltage is increased to be equal to pass voltages of unselected word lines, and the selected and unselected word line are ramped down at the same time, to avoid creating a channel gradient. In an example verify operation, the above procedure can be followed when the selected word line is at a source-side or middle range among all word lines. When the selected word line is at a drain-side among all word lines, a source-side select gate can be ramped down before the selected word line and a drain-side select gate can be ramped down after the selected word line.
US09336891B2

A read operation for selected memory cell on a selected word line compensates for program disturb which is a nonlinear function of the data state of an adjacent memory cell on an adjacent word line. When a command to perform a read operation for the selected memory cell is received, a read operation is first performed on the adjacent memory cell to determine its data state, or to classify the adjacent memory cell into a threshold voltage range which includes one or more data states, or a portion of a data state. The selected memory cell is then read using a baseline control gate voltage which does not provide compensation, and one or more elevated control gate voltages which provide compensation, to distinguish between two adjacent data states. An optimal sensing result is selected based on the data state or threshold voltage range of the adjacent memory cell.
US09336887B2

A nonvolatile memory device includes a memory cell array having multiple memory blocks. Each memory block includes memory cells arranged at intersections of multiple word lines and multiple bit lines. At least one word line of the multiple word lines is included in an upper word line group and at least one other word line of the multiple word lines is included in a lower word line group. The number of data bits stored in memory cells connected to the at least one word line included in the upper word line group is different from the number of data bits stored in memory cells connected to the at least one other word line included in the lower word line group.
US09336883B2

A method of operating a semiconductor memory device includes, applying a read voltage to a selected word line to which a selected memory cell is coupled and applying a pass voltage to non-selected word lines to which non-selected memory cells are coupled, reading data stored in the selected memory cell by sensing the voltage of a bit line associated with the selected memory cell and the non-selected memory cells, discharging the non-selected word lines, and discharging the selected word line after the non-selected word lines are discharged.
US09336880B2

A nonvolatile memory device comprises a memory cell comprising a variable resistance element connected between a couple of wirings and a control circuit applying a voltage between the couple of wirings connected to the memory cell. In data rewriting, the control circuit repeats a first voltage application step of applying a first write voltage between the couple of wirings and a first verify step of applying a first voltage lower than the first write voltage between the couple of wirings and comparing a cell current through the cell with a first threshold current, the steps repeated until a magnitude relation of the cell current and the first threshold current satisfies a first condition. If the first condition is satisfied, the circuit performs a second voltage application step of applying a second write voltage between the couple of wirings.
US09336870B1

The present invention is directed generally to resistive random-access memory (RRAM or ReRAM) devices and systems, as well as methods of employing a thermal resistive model to understand and determine switching of such devices. In particular example, the method includes generating a power-resistance measurement for the memristor device and applying an isothermal model to the power-resistance measurement in order to determine one or more parameters of the device (e.g., filament state).
US09336869B2

A memory cell and the associated array circuits are disclosed. The memory array circuit includes a plurality of memory units, in which each of the memory units includes a storage device and a field-effect transistor. The storage device includes a top electrode, a bottom electrode and an oxide-based dielectric layer. The top electrode is formed by metal or metallic oxide dielectrics and connected to a word line. The bottom electrode is formed by metal, and the oxide-based dielectric layer is placed between the top electrode and the bottom electrode. The field-effect transistor includes a gate terminal connected to the bottom electrode, a source terminal connected to a ground line, and a drain terminal connected to a bit line. The resistance of the storage device is configured to be adjusted according to a first voltage applied to the word line and a second voltage applied to the bit line.
US09336863B2

A static random-access memory (SRAM) memory cell includes a pair of cross-coupled inverters and a gating transistor coupled to a first node of a first inverter of the pair of cross-coupled inverters. A gate of the gating transistor is coupled to a first wordline. The gating transistor is configured to selectively couple a bitline to the first node of the first inverter responsive to a first wordline signal. The first inverter has a second node coupled to a second wordline. The first wordline and the second wordline are each independently controllable.
US09336858B2

A semiconductor device which stores data by using a transistor whose leakage current between source and drain in an off state is small as a writing transistor. In a matrix including a plurality of memory cells in which a drain of the writing transistor is connected to a gate of a reading transistor and the drain of the writing transistor is connected to one electrode of a capacitor, a gate of the writing transistor is connected to a writing word line; a source of the writing transistor is connected to a writing bit line; and a source and a drain of the reading transistor are connected to a reading bit line and a bias line. In order to reduce the number of wirings, the writing bit line or the bias line is substituted for the reading bit line in another column.
US09336857B2

A semiconductor memory device includes: a master chip suitable for generating a plurality of first control signals and a second control signal based on a read command; and a plurality of slave chips each suitable for latching data read from a plurality of memory cells included in a corresponding slave chip and transmitting the latched data to the master chip based on a correspond control signal of the first control signals, wherein the master chip latches the data transmitted from the slave chips based on the first control signals and outputs the data latched in the master chip based on the second control signal.
US09336847B2

Methods and apparatus for generating a reference for use with a magnetic tunnel junction are provided. In an example, provided is a magnetoresistive read only memory including a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) storage element, a sense amplifier having a first input coupled to the MTJ storage element, and a reference resistance device coupled to a second input of the sense amplifier. The reference resistance device includes a plurality of groups of at least two reference MTJ devices. Each reference MTJ device in a respective group is coupled in parallel with each other reference MTJ device in the respective group. Each group is coupled in series with the other groups. This arrangement advantageously mitigates read disturbances and reference level variations, while saving power, reducing reference resistance device area, and increasing read speed.
US09336846B2

MRAM element having a magnetic tunnel junction including a reference layer, a storage layer, a tunnel barrier layer between the reference and storage layers, and a storage antiferromagnetic layer. The storage antiferromagnetic layer has a first function of exchange-coupling a storage magnetization of the storage layer and a second function of heating the magnetic tunnel junction when a heating current in passed in the magnetic tunnel junction. The MRAM element has better data retention and low writing temperature.
US09336843B2

Subject matter disclosed herein relates to memory operations regarding programming bits into a memory array.
US09336836B2

A semiconductor memory device in which capacitance of a capacitor is lower and integration degree is higher. A plurality of memory blocks is connected to one bit line BL_m. A memory block MB_n_m includes a sub bit line SBL_n_m, a write switch, and a plurality of memory cells. A sub bit line SBL_n+1_m adjacent to the sub bit line SBL_n_m is connected to an amplifier circuit AMP_n/n+1_m including two inverters and two selection switches. A circuit configuration of the amplifier circuit can be changed with the selection switches. The amplifier circuit is connected to the bit line BL_m through a read switch. Because of a sufficiently low capacitance of the sub bit line SBL_n_m, potential change due to electric charges of the capacitor in each memory cell can be amplified by the amplifier circuit AMP_n/n+1_m without an error, and the amplified data can be output to the bit line BL_m.
US09336832B1

An apparatus comprises a spindle to rotate a magnetic recording medium and a magnetic field generator to expose a track of the medium to a DC magnetic field. The magnetic field generator is configured to saturate the track during an erase mode and reverse the DC magnetic field impinging the track during a writing mode. A laser arrangement heats the track during the erase mode and, during the writing mode, heats the track while the track is exposed to the reversed DC magnetic field so as to write a magnetic pattern thereon. A reader reads the magnetic pattern and generates a read signal. A processor is coupled to the reader and configured to measure one or more magnetic properties of the track using the read signal. The apparatus can further comprise a Kerr sensor that generates a Kerr signal using the magnetic pattern.
US09336824B2

In one embodiment, a method includes analyzing characteristics of a media program to label parts of the media program with a plurality of labels where parts of the media program that are determined to be substantially similar are labeled with a same label. The method then analyzes different partitionings of a sequence of the labels to determine partitions for the media program based on a weighting function that is configured to weight the different partitionings based on portions created from the partitions in the different partitionings. Then, a partitioning for the media program is outputted based on comparing the different partitionings of the sequence of labels using the weighting function. The outputted partitioning partitions the media program into a set of portions and provides points for insertion of information for a service in the media program.
US09336815B1

A data storage library is described that essentially provides a write once and read many (WORM) conversion station located inside of the data storage library. After receiving a request to store data in a WORM arrangement on a tape cartridge in the data storage library and appropriate tape cartridge is selected from a scratch pool of tape cartridges, brought by a robotic transporter to a WORM station where the tape cartridge is converted into a WORM tape cartridge. The WORM tape cartridge can be converted back to a non-write disabled tape cartridge at the WORM station.
US09336809B2

A method to fabricate an imprint template for bit-patterned magnetic recording media using block copolymers (BCPs) integrates data region patterning and servo region patterning. A heat sink layer is formed on the imprint substrate only in the data regions. A sublayer for the BCP is deposited over both the data regions and the servo regions and patterned to form stripes in the data regions and servo features in the servo regions. A BCP is then deposited in both the data and servo regions. Only the BCP in the data regions is heated, which causes phase separation of the BCP in the data regions into the two BCP components. The selective heating may be accomplished by directed controlled laser radiation to only the data regions. The heat sink layer below the data regions absorbs the heat from the laser radiation, confining it to the data regions.
US09336805B2

A product according to one embodiment includes a magnetic recording tape having at least one first servo track, and a supplemental servo track positioned in a spare area located within a data band of the magnetic recording tape. An apparatus according to one embodiment includes a magnetic head and at least one module having an array of transducers. The apparatus is configured to read and/or write to magnetic recording media having at least one first servo track, and a supplemental servo track positioned in a spare area located within a data band of the magnetic recording tape.
US09336804B2

Systems and methods relating generally to sensing information, and more particularly to systems and methods for utilizing multiple readers to sense information.
US09336798B1

A main pole includes a main body and a lower protrusion. The lower protrusion is located at a distance from a medium facing surface. The main body includes a front portion and a rear portion. The front portion has a first side surface and a second side surface. The lower protrusion has a third side surface and a fourth side surface. A first side shield has a first sidewall opposed to the first side surface. A second side shield has a second sidewall opposed to the second side surface. A bottom shield includes a receiving section. The receiving section has a third sidewall opposed to the third side surface, and a fourth sidewall opposed to the fourth side surface. The receiving section and the lower protrusion are formed in a self-aligned manner by using the first and second side shields.
US09336797B2

The present disclosure generally relates to a high-frequency oscillator for use in a recording device having a microwave-assisted magnetic recording head. The microwave-assisted magnetic recording head achieves a large assist effect by using an extended spin torque oscillator disposed between a main magnetic pole and a pole opposite the main magnetic pole. The spin torque oscillator obtains a strong high-frequency magnetic field and comprises a first non-magnetic spin scatterer, a reference layer, a first non-magnetic spin transfer layer, a first magnetic field generating layer, a second non-magnetic spin transfer layer, a second magnetic field generating layer, and a second non-magnetic spin scatterer. The spin torque oscillator has a drive current flowing though in the direction from the first magnetic field generating layer to the reference layer.
US09336778B2

A method and system for using conversational biometrics and speaker identification and/or verification to filter voice streams during mixed mode communication. The method includes receiving an audio stream of a communication between participants. Additionally, the method includes filtering the audio stream of the communication into separate audio streams, one for each of the participants. Each of the separate audio streams contains portions of the communication attributable to a respective participant. Furthermore, the method includes outputting the separate audio streams to a storage system.
US09336759B2

The present invention provides an electronic pad, including: a struck body, including a first struck portion and a second struck portion; a first and a second vibration sensor, detecting a vibration of the first struck portion and the second struck portion. In the electronic pad, a partitioning portion is interposed between the first struck portion and the second struck portion for partitioning. The partitioning portion includes: a first upright portion, protruding further than at least one of an upper surface of the first struck portion and a lower surface opposite the upper surface; a second upright portion, separated from the first upright portion by a predetermined spacing and protruding further than at least one of an upper surface of the second struck portion and a lower surface opposite the upper surface; and a connection portion connected between the first upright portion and the second upright portion.
US09336754B2

A method and an apparatus for controlling a display refresh rate of a display device are provided. The control method comprises: obtaining a display parameter of current display content of the display device; determining, based on the display parameter, whether a reduction condition of a display refresh rate is met, so as to obtain a first determination result; controlling the display device to reduce the display refresh rate from a first display refresh rate to a second display refresh rate, when the first determination result indicates that the reduction condition of the display refresh rate is met. The above schemes may collect automatically the display parameter of the current display content of the display device, and determine, depending on the display parameter, whether the display refresh rate needs to be reduced. When it is determined that the display refresh rate needs to be reduced, the display refresh rate will be automatically reduced. All of the processes may be completed automatically without participation of the user. This may significantly improve flexibility of adjusting the display refresh rate.
US09336750B2

Embodiments provide a backlight control method and device and a liquid crystal display device, which relate to the liquid crystal display field and are used to achieve the purposes of meeting the requirements on different image quality enhancements in different display regions of the liquid crystal screen and improving the display quality and the sense of display layering of pictures. The method comprises: dividing n backlight subregions into m backlight regions; acquiring an average backlight value of each backlight region among the m backlight regions; searching, from a pre-acquired gain search table, a gain value corresponding to the average backlight value of each backlight region among the m backlight regions; adjusting backlight values of backlight subregions contained in each backlight region correspondingly according to the gain value corresponding to each backlight region; and outputting adjusted backlight values of the n backlight subregions. The embodiments are applicable to backlight adjustment scenes.
US09336746B2

An image display device is provided in which a difference in color appearance between visual angles can be reduced. The image display device includes: a light-emitting unit including a first light source configured such that a peak wavelength of a spectral spectrum of the light source is within a wavelength region in which a difference between color matching functions of different visual angles is small and a second light source that differs from the first light source; a control unit configured to switch a light source to be lighted to one of the first light source and the second light source based on an instruction; and a display panel that is illuminated by the light-emitting unit.
US09336742B2

A display device and a driving method thereof are disclosed. In one aspect, the display device includes a display panel including a plurality of pixel rows, a data driver configured to transfer data voltages to the display panel, a gate driver configured to transfer gate signals to the display panel, and a signal controller configured to control the data driver and the gate driver. The pixel rows are divided into i (i is a natural number of 2 or more) pixel row groups including a plurality of pixel rows, respectively. The display panel displays one still image for one frame set including the i sequential frames, and each of the i pixel row groups is charged by receiving the data voltage for each frame of the frame set, and the frames in which the i pixel row groups are charged are different from each other.
US09336740B2

A shift register is disclosed which includes, at respective stages, unit circuits (11) each including (i) a flip-flop (11a) including first and second CMOS circuits and (ii) a signal generation circuit (11b) for generating an output signal (SROUTk) for the current stage with use of an output (Q, QB) of the flip-flop (11a), the shift register including a floating control circuit (11c) between a gate terminal of an output transistor (Tr7) of the signal generation circuit (11b) and a Q terminal. This makes it possible to reduce a circuit scale of a display driving circuit without causing a shift register to malfunction.
US09336736B2

Provided is a liquid crystal display device with reduced power consumption employing a CS drive method.A CS driver (500) consists of a CS shift register (510) and a CS output portion (520). The CS shift register (510) outputs control signals (COUT(1) to COUT(m)) in accordance with a CS clock signal CCK. The CS output portion (520) outputs auxiliary capacitance signals (CSS(1) to CSS(m)) in accordance with the control signals (COUT(1) to COUT(m)), respectively. An idle period (T2) is set following a scanning period (T1). During the idle period (T2), the CS driver (500) is driven in accordance with the CS clock signal (CCK) at an idle-period CS frequency (fcck2). The idle-period CS frequency (fcck2) is lower than a scanning-period CS frequency (fcck1).
US09336726B2

A liquid crystal display device includes: a light emitting diode array unit including at least two groups of light emitting diode arrays for emitting light; a light emitting diode driving unit for supplying at least two pulse width modulation signals having different phases from each other to the at least two groups of light emitting diode arrays, respectively; a liquid crystal display panel for displaying images using the light from the light emitting diode array unit; and a timing controller for controlling the light emitting diode driving unit and the liquid crystal display panel.
US09336724B2

A backlight unit, a method for driving the same, and a liquid crystal display device using the same are disclosed, in which a feedback voltage received in a controller to adjust a driving voltage to be supplied to a light-emitting diode string is smaller than a difference between the driving voltage and a string voltage, the backlight unit comprising a driving-voltage supplier; an LED string for receiving a driving voltage from the driving-voltage supplier, and generating a voltage drop corresponding to a string voltage; a feedback voltage generator for generating a first feedback voltage whose value is smaller than a difference between the driving voltage and the string voltage; and a controller for supplying a control signal to control the driving-voltage supplier based on the first feedback voltage.
US09336723B2

A touch screen having touch circuitry integrated into a display pixel stackup. The touch screen can include a transistor layer, an LED layer and a first layer. The first layer can operate as an LED cathode during a display phase and as touch circuitry during a touch sensing phase. The transistor layer can be at least partially utilized for transitioning between the display phase and the touch sensing phase. The touch screen can be fabricated to reduce or eliminate damage to the LED layer.
US09336717B2

A system for controlling a display in which each pixel circuit comprises a light-emitting device, a drive transistor, a storage capacitor, a reference voltage source, and a programming voltage source. The storage capacitor stores a voltage equal to the difference between the reference voltage and the programming voltage, and a controller supplies a programming voltage that is a calibrated voltage for a known target current, reads the actual current passing through the drive transistor to a monitor line, turns off the light emitting device while modifying the calibrated voltage to make the current supplied through the drive transistor substantially the same as the target current, modifies the calibrated voltage to make the current supplied through the drive transistor substantially the same as the target current, and determines a current corresponding to the modified calibrated voltage based on predetermined current-voltage characteristics of the drive transistor.
US09336703B2

A pixel array structure for populating the display area of a display device includes a repeated first pixel group that consists of one or more first colored subpixels, three or more second colored subpixels and two or more third colored subpixels. The respective numbers of the first colored subpixels, the second colored subpixels, and the third colored subpixels that are provided within the first pixel group are in a respective ratio of 1:3:2. In one embodiment, an input RGB image is remapped to have luminance values corresponding to Cyan-Magenta-Yellow coordinates and the latter are used in combination with subpixel rendering (SPR) to drive the colored subpixels of the pixel array structure.
US09336701B2

A pixel circuit includes an organic light emitting diode, a first PMOS transistor coupled between a first power voltage and an anode electrode of the organic light emitting diode, a second PMOS transistor coupled between a first node and the anode electrode of the organic light emitting diode, a first capacitor coupled between a second node and the first node, a second capacitor coupled between the first power voltage and the second node, a third PMOS transistor coupled between a data line and the second node, a fourth PMOS transistor coupled between a third node and the second node, a third capacitor coupled between the third node and a gate terminal of the third PMOS transistor, and a fifth PMOS transistor coupled between the data line and the third node.
US09336699B2

A sign apparatus includes a front display panel and a solid halo panel that are illuminated by a light module. The front display panel is arranged along one side of a frame and the solid halo panel is arranged on the other side of the frame. The light module is disposed within the frame between the front display panel and the solid halo panel. The solid halo panel follows a contour of the front display panel and extends beyond a periphery of the front display panel such that the solid halo panel forms a halo border along the periphery of the front display panel when viewed from a direction toward the front display panel.
US09336694B2

A dynamically-changeable abdominal simulator system comprises a patient manikin having an abdominal cavity covered by a sheet of synthetic skin, an array of inflatable elements emplaced within the abdominal cavity covering respectively distinct areas of pressurization of the abdominal cavity and supplied with pressurized medium under separate and independent inflation control for each of the inflatable elements in order to simulate a wide range of abdominal ailments and/or conditional expressions thereof. An inflation manifold and an electronic control module operable therewith control the supply of pressurized medium to the inflatable elements. The electronic control module can communicate with an external computer that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for the user to control the training simulation routines to be performed on the manikin.
US09336687B2

A service center receives a request from a remote device for accessing a learning course describing operations of a product that has been registered with the service center. In response to the request, a media stream representing the learning course is transmitted to the remote device to allow a user of the remote device to navigate the learning course, without requiring the user to directly access a training facility of a product provider associated with the registered product. User interaction with the learning course is tracked and analyzed to generate an analysis result, where the analysis result is utilized to generate or identify a subsequent learning course specifically tailored to the user. The analysis result is transmitted to the product provider to allow the product provider for the purpose of determining customer satisfaction.
US09336686B2

Embodiments of the present invention pertain to a computer program product and processor based computing system that provides processing means for executing coded instructions and input means for interacting with said processing means to create a virtual welding environment. The system establishes an objective to change a functional or operational state of a virtual article, and directs the end user to perform at least one virtual welding operation for changing its functional state. The system trains new users and inexperienced welders on the fundamental aspects of welding and other technical aspects.
US09336683B2

A travel distance measurement device includes a transmitting antenna that is disposed in a vehicle and emits a transmission signal, as a radio wave, toward a ground surface, a receiving antenna that is disposed in the vicinity of the transmitting antenna, and receives a radio wave reflected from the ground surface and acquires a reflection signal, a distance calculator (an IQ demodulator and a phase conversion integrator) that calculates the travel distance of the vehicle on the basis of the acquired reflection signal, a gyro sensor that measures a predetermined parameter regarding curve traveling of the vehicle, and a correcting operation unit that corrects the calculated travel distance on the basis of the measured parameter.
US09336672B2

A system that monitors various conditions of a plurality of hospital beds located in different rooms of a healthcare facility is provided. Alternatively or additionally, other types of equipment may be monitored by the system. Various configurations of network interface units that are coupleable to or integrated into a hospital bed are also disclosed. The system receives data from the hospital beds and/or other equipment and initiates a communication to a wireless communication device of at least one designated caregiver in response to the received data being indicative of an alarm condition.
US09336671B2

This fire detector is provided with a light-emitting portion that repeats stopping of light emission and light emission a plurality of number of times in predetermined light emission periods during a predetermined smoke detection operation time set for each first period; a light-receiving portion that receives the light emitted from the light-emitting portion and outputs a light reception signal during the smoke detection operation time; a light reception signal detecting portion that detects as a zero-point light reception signal the light reception signal that the light-receiving portion outputs at each light emission stop timing of the smoke detection operation time, and detects as a smoke light reception signal the light reception signal that the light-receiving portion outputs at each light emission timing; a smoke detecting portion that detects a smoke detection signal based on the zero-point light reception signals of a plurality of number of times and the smoke light reception signals of a plurality of number of times detected by the light reception signal detecting portion; and a noise assessing-processing portion that assesses the presence of mixing-in of noise to the light reception signal based on the zero-point light reception signals of a plurality of number of times and the smoke light reception signals of a plurality of number of times, and carries out noise removal processing in a case of having assessed that the noise is mixed in.
US09336654B2

A gaming system enables players of a group of gaming devices to wager on progressive or other awards for that group and tracks an amount of player activity at the group. If player activity of the group exceeds an upper reconfiguration threshold, the gaming system disassociates one or more gaming devices from the group to reduce the amount of player activity. If the player activity of the group falls below a lower reconfiguration threshold, the gaming system associates one or more additional gaming devices with that group to increase player activity. Reallocation of gaming devices can occur following a player winning the award for the group. The system can incrementally increase an award reset amount, while reducing the odds of winning the award, to maintain a desired range of gaming experiences. The system can also enable a player to select an initial groups based on a characteristic of that player.
US09336646B2

A networked gaming system and method with a central true random number generator (“TRNG”) for generating random numbers (“RNs”). The RNs are supplied to electronic gaming machines (“EGMs”) on a network and are used to determine game outcomes. The system and method are configured to gather requests for RNs from EGMs in batches that are coordinated by a RNG server where the RNG server receives RN requests from EGMs and routes the requests in batches to the central TRNG. The central TRNG responds to the RNG server with a batch of RNs that are then distributed to the EGMs within an acceptable response time.
US09336645B2

A gaming system including a game which utilizes a plurality of symbol generators. Each of the symbol generators is linked to at least another one of the symbol generators, such that the plurality of symbol generators are linked with each other to form a group of coupled symbol generators. In operation, for a play of a game, the gaming system activates (i.e., spins) one of the symbol generators. Due to the symbol generators being directly or indirectly coupled with one another, this activation of one of the symbol generators causes an activation of each of the linked symbol generators. Following the activation of the symbol generators, one of the symbol generators is deactivated (i.e., stopped) at a randomly selected orientation which causes each of the symbol generators to also be deactivated. The gaming system then evaluates any indicated symbols associated with the stopped symbol generators and provides one or more awards based on the evaluated symbol generators.
US09336644B2

A system and method for controlling an electronic gaming machine (“EGM”) from a mobile device during a remote access play session. The EGM is switched between a local access mode in which the inputs on the EGM are active and a remote access mode in which the inputs on the EGM are de-activated and a player interfaces the EGM using a mobile device such as a smartphone or a tablet computer. During remote access play sessions, all critical game play operations continue to be performed exclusively on the EGM and not on the mobile device. Critical game play operations include random number generation and determination of game outcome. Game content, including video, screenshot images and audio of the game are transmitted to the mobile device for display to the player. Player input and selections are made on the mobile device.
US09336639B2

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag has an electronic identification circuit coupled to an antenna, wherein the RFID tag is arranged to communicate with a RFID tag reader via the antenna, using RF energy. The tag comprises means sensitive to light (such as a photodiode, phototransistor, photocell or a solar cell) for controlling (in particular inhibiting) communication between the RFID tag reader and the RFm tag. The tag can for example be embedded in or on a high-value object such as a banknote. The existence of the banknote cannot be detected e.g. by criminals in the absence of light (e.g. while the banknote is located in a wallet), but the authenticity of the banknote can be verified in legitimate use.
US09336634B2

The present invention discloses a system and methods for biometric security using multiple biometrics in a transponder-reader system. The biometric security system also includes a biometric sensor that detects biometric samples and a device for verifying biometric samples. In one embodiment, the biometric security system includes a transponder configured with a biometric sensor. In another embodiment, the system includes a reader configured with a biometric sensor. In yet another embodiment, the present invention discloses methods for proffering and processing multiple biometric samples to facilitate authorization of transactions.
US09336627B2

Generating a scanned-surface model representing a scanned surface includes various steps. For example, instrument model coordinates may be obtained that represent a position of the instrument in the 3D model. In addition, surface-distance measurements may be derived describing a distance from the scanned surface. Inertial measurements are also recorded. The instrument model coordinates, surface-distance measurements, and inertial measurements are correlated and filtered by a rules based selection process to determine scanned-surface model coordinates.
US09336625B2

Digitizing objects in a picture is discussed herein. A user presents the object to a camera, which captures the image comprising color and depth data for the front and back of the object. The object is recognized and digitized using color and depth data of the image. The user's client queries a server managing images uploaded by other users for virtual renditions of the object, as recognized in the other images. The virtual renditions from the other images are merged with the digitized version of the object in the image captured by the user to create a composite rendition of the object.
US09336613B2

An apparatus for generating assignments between image regions of an image of an object and element classes includes an assigning unit (13) for assigning element classes to image regions of an element image of the object, which is indicative of a distribution of the element classes, depending on region and/or boundary features, which are determined depending on image values of a provided object image and provided first preliminary assignments. Thus, the resulting element image with the assignments to the element classes is not necessarily based on the provided object image only, but can also be based on the provided preliminary assignments. If the quality of the assignments defined by the element image would be restricted due to restrictions of the provided object image, these restrictions of the provided image can therefore be compensated by the preliminary assignments such that the quality of the resulting element image can be improved.
US09336612B2

A method for processing one or more reconstructed images includes receiving a first reconstructed image having a first image resolution and receiving a second reconstructed image having a second image resolution. The first resolution is greater than the second resolution. The method further includes generating a contrast-dependent resolution image by combining the first and second reconstructed images single image so that the first reconstructed image contributes to a greater degree to the contrast-dependent resolution image for higher contrasts regions of the images and the second reconstructed image contributes to a greater degree to the contrast-dependent resolution image for lower contrasts regions of the images.
US09336611B2

A method for reconstructing multiple images of a subject depicting multiple different contrast characteristics from medical image data acquired with a medical imaging system is provided. Multiple image data sets are acquired with one or more medical imaging systems and the image data sets used to estimate hyperparameters drawn from a prior distribution, such as a prior distribution of image gradient coefficients. These hyperparameters and the acquired image data sets are utilized to produce a posterior distribution, such as a posterior distribution of image gradients. From this posterior distribution, multiple images with the different contrast characteristics are reconstructed. The medical imaging system may be a magnetic resonance imaging system, an x-ray computed tomography imaging system, an ultrasound system, and so on.
US09336609B2

An image and message encoding system, encoding method, decoding system and decoding method are provided. The encoding method includes the following steps. An original image having a first resolution is provided. A message data is provided. The original image and the message data are combined to be an integrated image having a second resolution. The second resolution is greater than the first resolution.
US09336607B1

Techniques are described for identifying suitable surfaces within a room upon which visual content may be displayed. One or more images of the room are obtained and used to identify planar surfaces. The images may also be analyzed to determine the visual textures of the surfaces within the room. Suitable projection surfaces may then be selected from the identified planar surfaces, based on the visual textures of the planar surfaces.
US09336603B2

An information processing device includes, a processor; and a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute, acquiring images which includes a target object, and the images captured by a plurality of cameras on a time series basis; calculating a plurality of distance from the plurality of each cameras to a target object by using the images; and correcting, in a case where the target object has reached a predetermined x-y plane and a difference in an area of the target object between the images is equal to or less than a predetermined first threshold, the distance that has been calculated to a distance from the cameras to the x-y plane.
US09336597B2

A three-dimensional position and orientation tracking system comprises one or more pattern tags, each comprising a plurality of contrasting portions, a tracker for obtaining image information about the pattern tags, a database with geometric information describing patterns on pattern tags; and a controller for receiving and processing the image information from the tracker, accessing the database to retrieve geometric information, and comparing the image information with the geometric information. The contrasting portions are arranged in a rotationally asymmetric pattern and at least one of the contrasting portions on a pattern tag comprising a perimeter with a polygonal shape. The pattern tags may be borne on tracking markers that have a three-dimensional shaped surface. The tracking system can be implemented in a surgical monitoring system in which the pattern tags are attached to tracking markers or are themselves tracking markers. A method associated with the system employs the rotationally asymmetric patterns on the tags to determine the three-dimensional locations and orientations of items bearing the tags using non-stereo image information.
US09336589B2

The paper feeder comprises a first transport unit (5) to transport a sheet (S) on top of a paper stack (2) on a paper loading table (3), and a second transport unit (6) to discharge sheets transferred from the first transport unit toward a binding device. The first transport unit begins transporting the next sheet each time a sheet is discharged from the second transport unit. Image data for a specified printed portion on the first sheet in the paper stack is stored in memory (19) as reference data. A camera (14) is disposed above the paper stack and photographs a region corresponding to the specified printed portion on the topmost sheet. A control unit (18) compares the image data for the paper photographed by the camera with the reference data, and if the image data matches the reference data, the first transport unit operations are paused.
US09336582B1

A computing device may obtain an input image. The input image may have a white point represented by chrominance values that define white color in the input image. Possibly based on colors of the input image, the computing device may generate a two-dimensional chrominance histogram of the input image. The computing device may convolve the two-dimensional chrominance histogram with a filter to create a two-dimensional heat map. Entries in the two-dimensional heat map may represent respective estimates of how close respective tints corresponding to the respective entries are to the white point of the input image. The computing device may select an entry in the two-dimensional heat map that represents a particular value that is within a threshold of a maximum value in the heat map, and based on the selected entry, tint the input image to form an output image.
US09336567B2

A method in a computing device for performing intelligent weighted image manipulations is described. The method includes determining whether edge image features are distributed evenly across an image. When the edge image features in the image are not distributed evenly across the image, the method further includes cropping the image at the bounds of an overlay region of a desired size that is set at a position within the image to include a largest number of the edge image features. According to an embodiment, when the edge image features in the image are distributed evenly across the image, the method further includes cropping the image at the bounds of the overlay region of a desired size that is set at the center of the image.
US09336562B2

A data processing method that includes: detecting a maximum data cell having a maximum value and a minimum data cell having a minimum value in a compression unit cell; converting the maximum data cell and the minimum data cell into a non-compressed data format; converting remaining data cells of the compression unit cell except for the maximum and minimum data cells into a compressed data format; and generating stream data in which the converted data cells are arranged, wherein the non-compressed data format and the compressed data format include a header field with different values and the non-compressed data format includes a data field corresponding to the value of the converted maximum or minimum data cell.
US09336561B2

A color buffer cache may be implemented in a way that reduces memory bandwidth. In one embodiment this may be done by determining whether a corresponding tile being rendered is completely inside a triangle. If so, the cache lines that correspond to this tile may be marked as “less useful”. As a result of being marked as less useful, those cache lines may be replaced before other cache lines in one embodiment. Thus a color buffer cache is used for those tiles that overlap with at least one triangle edge. The use of such a color buffer cache scheme may be more efficient and therefore may reduce memory bandwidth in some embodiments.
US09336560B2

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates seamlessly switching between graphics-processing units (GPUs) to drive a display. In one embodiment, the system receives a request to switch from using a first GPU to using a second GPU to drive the display. In response to this request, the system uses a kernel thread which operates in the background to configure the second GPU to prepare the second GPU to drive the display. While the kernel thread is configuring the second GPU, the system continues to drive the display with the first GPU and a user thread continues to execute a window manager which performs operations associated with servicing user requests. When configuration of the second GPU is complete, the system switches the signal source for the display from the first GPU to the second GPU.
US09336558B2

In the video encoders described herein, blocks of pixels from a video frame may be encoded (e.g., using CAVLC encoding) in a block processing pipeline using wavefront ordering (e.g., in knight's order). Each of the encoded blocks may be written to a particular one of multiple DMA buffers such that the encoded blocks written to each of the buffers represent consecutive blocks of the video frame in scan order. A transcode pipeline may operate in parallel with (or at least overlapping) the operation of the block processing pipeline. The transcode pipeline may read encoded blocks from the buffers in scan order and merge them into a single bit stream (in scan order). A transcoder core of the transcode pipeline may decode the encoded blocks and encode them using a different encoding process (e.g., CABAC). In some cases, the transcoder may be bypassed.
US09336557B2

Methods and apparatus for processing media signals. In one embodiment, a data processing device processes fixed and variable rate data using a first and second processing unit. The processing comprises real-time processing of audio/video signals by a graphics processing unit (GPU) and/or central processing unit (CPU). The processing units process data efficiently by establishing one processor as always processing variable rate data, and using one or more schemes for determining processor will process fixed rate data. A shared memory enables the processors to communicate with one another in order to determine which will process the fixed rate data. In one scheme for determining which of the processors will process the fixed rate data the second processor need merely be unlocked. In another embodiment, the second processor must be unlocked and immediately available.
US09336556B2

Pattern information of a color filter array and algorithm information of color interpolation processing used in photography of input image data are obtained. Comparative image data is generated from the input image data using the pattern information and algorithm information. The comparative image data and input image data are compared to detect alteration of the input image data.
US09336553B2

A social networking system generates a newsfeed for a user to view when accessing the social networking system. Candidate stories associated with users of the social networking system are selected and attributes of each story are determined. The candidate stories are ranked so that the ranking of a candidate story having one or more common attributes with another candidate story is modified. This reduces the likelihood of the newsfeed presenting candidate stories with common attributes proximate to each other.
US09336551B1

Systems and methods involve managing exhaustible electronic resources, such as IPv4 addresses. A spot market for the electronic resources is operated to enable users to obtain units of the electronic resources. Potential users may provide pricing criteria. When a spot price for units of the electronic resources satisfies the pricing criteria for a potential user, the potential user may be given access to a requested number of units of the electronic resources.
US09336528B2

A system and method for overlay advertising and purchasing utilizing on-line and streaming media. In at least one embodiment, a viewer user receiving on-line video or streaming media is able to pause content and be directed, on the same media player, to a product panel to select product(s) to be purchased, customized, or to receive additional static or dynamic information. The method and system also provides for network connectivity to other web-based and physical services and tracking systems to determine traffic to and from the on-line video or streaming media content.
US09336515B2

A computer-implemented method and system for enabling network communication using common search queries and sponsored chat links is disclosed. Various embodiments relate to a computer-implemented system and method for receiving a sponsored concept from a sponsoring company, receiving a search query from a user, determining if the sponsored concept and the user search query fit within match criteria, generating for the user, if the sponsored concept and the user search query fit within match criteria, a link enabling the user to initiate a private conversation between the user and an agent of the sponsoring company, the link being a user interface element that can be activated by the user, the private conversation being accessible only to the user and the agent of the sponsoring company, and initiating a private conversation between the user and the agent of the sponsoring company upon activation of the link.
US09336507B2

A method and system for computing the price for shipping goods. The method includes causing a computer to deliver first information to a user prompting the user to enter at the computer information about a rail transportation service for shipment of goods by one or more railcars. Information about a basic pool of railcars is received and filtered based on one or more filtering criteria to produce a filtered pool of railcars. The computer is then caused to deliver second information to the user prompting the user to select at the computer one or more railcars among the filtered pool of railcars for the shipment of goods. A price for the shipment of the goods is then computed at least in part on the basis of the rail transportation service and the one or more characteristics of the railcars in the filtered pool of railcars selected by the user.
US09336501B2

The same priority is applied to all resources assigned to an incident. A first dispatch system in a first network assigns a network resource in the first network to an incident that occurred in a first jurisdiction. The first dispatch system requests a mutual aid resource from a second dispatch system in a second network subsequent to identifying a resource gap in the first network. The first dispatch system obtains the mutual aid resource from the second dispatch system. A first policy component in the first network receives, from at least one of a first prioritization service in the first network and the at least one second network, at least one of an incident information or a mutual aid information. The first policy component correlates the mutual aid resource with obtained incident information and assigns a same priority to the network resource and the mutual aid resource.
US09336498B2

An apparatus and a method are provided for learning a program with a large number of parameters. In one embodiment, a method not only distorts the input values, but also distorts some of the parameters in the program model. Such an approach not only forces the learned program to acquire parameter values to predict missing or desired data, but also to correct errors in the input data and the program parameters themselves, thereby rendering the learned program more resilient to overfitting and falling into local optima.
US09336491B2

A method for analyzing an electrical power system using fuzzy logic includes: (a) acquiring data representing a signal of interest of the power system; (b) analyzing the signal using at least one fuzzy logic rule; and (c) based on the analysis, detecting and classifying at least one power system event within the power system.
US09336488B2

The present inventions generally relate to a leaf node ranking method in decision trees for spatial prediction and its recording medium. The leaf node ranking method in decision trees includes a learning step to form a decision tree having one root node, in which each parent node has multiple child nodes, using training data sets for spatial prediction; and a leaf node ranking step from the decision tree that finishes the learning. In the learning step, each node of the decision tree stores both the number of classes according to class distribution of training data and structures for storing the number. In the leaf node ranking step, a rank of a leaf node is determined using the number of classes according to class distribution, which is stored in each node on a path from the root node to the leaf node.
US09336487B2

System, methods, and computer-program products include receiving requests for a web page, retrieving predictive information related to the requests, and determining one or more predictive factors for an object presented with the web page, the one or more predictive factors being determined using the retrieved predictive information. The systems, methods, and computer-program products further include generating a plurality of predictive models for the object using the one or more predictive factors, determining a score for each predictive model, selecting a group of predictive models from the plurality of predictive models using the score of each predictive model in the group, and generating a representative predictive model for the object using the group of predictive models, the representative predictive model being associated with the object.
US09336485B2

Mechanisms are provided for generating an answer for an input question when the answer is not directly present in a corpus of information. An input question is received from a computing device and analyzed to determine whether the input question is requesting an answer that is calculable. In response to a determination that the input question is requesting an answer that is calculable, one or more constituent data values are retrieved, from a corpus of information, for calculating the requested answer to the input question. A value corresponding to the requested answer is calculated based on the one or more retrieved constituent data values and is then output as the requested answer to the input question.
US09336484B1

An efficient method and system for real-time or offline analysis of multivariate sensor data for use in anomaly detection, fault detection, and system health monitoring is provided. Models automatically derived from training data, typically nominal system data acquired from sensors in normally operating conditions or from detailed simulations, are used to identify unusual, out of family data samples (outliers) that indicate possible system failure or degradation. Outliers are determined through analyzing a degree of deviation of current system behavior from the models formed from the nominal system data. The deviation of current system behavior is presented as an easy to interpret numerical score along with a measure of the relative contribution of each system parameter to any off-nominal deviation. The techniques described herein may also be used to “clean” the training data.
US09336483B1

Dynamically updating neural network systems may be implemented to generate, train, evaluate and update artificial neural network data structures used by content distribution networks. Such systems and methods described herein may include generating and training neural networks, using neural networks to perform predictive analysis and other decision-making processes within content distribution networks, evaluating the performance of neural networks, and generating and training pluralities of replacement candidate neural networks within cloud computing architectures and/or other computing environments.
US09336482B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for predicting likelihoods of conditions being satisfied using recurrent neural networks. One of the systems is configured to process a temporal sequence comprising a respective input at each of a plurality of time steps and comprises: one or more recurrent neural network layers; one or more logistic regression nodes, wherein each of the logistic regression nodes corresponds to a respective condition from a predetermined set of conditions, and wherein each of the logistic regression nodes is configured to, for each of the plurality of time steps: receive the network internal state for the time step; and process the network internal state for the time step in accordance with current values of a set of parameters of the logistic regression node to generate a future condition score for the corresponding condition for the time step.
US09336478B2

The device contains a flat card, a microcircuit, a dielectric substrate onto which the microcircuit is installed, and an antenna, which is made of an electrical conductor provided along the periphery of and in the plane of the flat card and connected to the microcircuit. The antenna is in the form of a frame, made of an electrical conductor, and a dielectric layer, provided within the electrical conductor, with a hollow space being formed within the frame. At least one partition is installed in the hollow space within the frame, forming through-openings which run transversely relative to the plane of the flat card. One end of the partition is connected to the dielectric layer of the frame. The electrical conductor of the antenna is made of a noble metal.