US09572290B2
A modular data center includes a plurality of first containers and a plurality of second containers. The plurality of first containers and second containers are partitioned into a plurality of functional modules respectively, the functional modules of the plurality of first containers being arranged in parallel, and the functional modules of the plurality of second containers being arranged in parallel on one side of the plurality of first containers and corresponding to the functional modules of the plurality of first containers respectively. The present disclosure combines the functional modules of the plurality of first containers and the plurality of second containers into modular data centers with different forms, capacities, and data center usability tiers, and the assembly of the plurality of first containers and second containers with standardized sizes may facilitate the transportation and reduce the time and cost of assembling and delivery of the modular data center.
US09572286B2
A modular thermal isolation barrier for use in sealing gaps in a data processing equipment structure includes an extruded edge seal and a panel. The extruded edge seal has a seal portion and a base portion with one or more channels. An edge of the panel is disposed within one of the one or more channels of the base portion of the edge seal such that the edge seal is seated against the edge of the panel with the seal portion in position to abut, and establish a seal with, an adjacent structure.
US09572284B2
Small mobile computing devices place stringent requirements on the electronic modules integrated within. High temperatures inside these mobile computing devices are unavoidable; therefore good thermal management is important to insure proper module operation. Here a heat-dissipation structure for an indicia-reading module integrated within a mobile computing device is disclosed.
US09572277B2
A slide rail assembly includes a first rail, a second rail, a third rail, and an extension rail. The second rail can be longitudinally displaced relative to the first rail. The second rail includes a first section and a second section. The third rail is movably connected to the first section of the second rail and can be longitudinally displaced relative to the first rail by the second rail. The extension rail is located at the second section of the second rail.
US09572269B2
A support arm system for a load such as a display device. The system includes a support arm rotatable at its proximal end about a mid joint axis, monitor supporting head at the distal end of the support arm has an internal slider element and compression spring, and an arrangement of links and pivots which create a torque to oppose the torque created by a load on the head and keep a monitor plate in the same viewing plane relative to the vertical as the arm moves through its range of movement.
US09572268B2
To provide a display device that gives a viewer a strong stereoscopic effect or sense of depth or a natural stereoscopic effect or sense of depth in a two-dimensional image, a display device including a display portion having a curved surface is provided. The display portion may be bent in a horizontal direction or a vertical direction. Alternatively, the display portion may have a convex surface or a concave surface on a display surface side. The display device may include a frame portion. A display device including a frame portion and a display portion which has a display surface on a frame portion side, is located so as to be apart from the frame portion with a distance therebetween, and has a curved surface, in which the display portion overlaps with an opening of the frame portion, and an end portion of the display portion overlaps with the frame portion, is provided.
US09572243B2
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an air cooled, retract-start plasma cutting torch having improved performance. The torch comprises any one, or a combination of an improved nozzle, electrode, shield cap and swirl ring, where these components have improved geometries and physical properties which optimize plasma jet performance during cutting.
US09572241B1
A plurality of non-thermal plasma emitters is disposed on a rigid or flexible substrate. The rigid substrate enables the device to be pre-formed in any shape and the flexible substrate enables the device to conform to any surface topography at the time of treatment. The substrate is a dielectric material and in a preferred embodiment is made of thin FR-4. Each of the plasma emitters has a drive electrode on one side of the substrate and a ground electrode on the opposing side of the substrate. In the preferred embodiment both electrodes are centered over a through-hole in the substrate. A conductive drive track is connected to each drive electrode and a conductive ground track is connected to each ground electrode. A drive terminal is connected to the drive track and a ground terminal is connected to the ground track.
US09572240B2
Disclosed herein a light source apparatus that is capable of suppressing a light transmission rate of a debris trap to be lowered and a reflection rate in a light condenser mirror to be lowered. In the light source apparatus, a shielding member is provided having an aperture is provided in front of a stationary type foil trap to limit a solid angle of light emitted from a high temperature plasma. Furthermore, the stationary type foil trap is provided with a driving mechanism to allow the foil trap to be revolved such that an adhesion part of the debris of the foil trap is deviated from a position of the foil trap facing the aperture.
US09572232B2
The device consists of measuring aspects of human activity or emotion and then communicating that information to an adjustable lighting device or electronic display (as part of a phone, tablet, computer etc) such that the color temperature (or luminance) of the display or lamp is adjusted to match the mood of the user e.g. warmer in the evening close to the end of the day, and cooler in the morning for productivity.
US09572231B2
Illumination of an environment can be selected based on target colors that the illumination would provide for specific samples. One process for synthesizing the illumination includes repeatedly selecting settings for separate light sources in a luminaire system and determining a difference between the target colors of the samples and apparent colors of the samples under illumination that the luminaire system would produce with the settings selected. The differences thus determined can be used to identify a synthesized illumination, for example, the synthesized illumination that provides a smallest difference. A luminaire system can implement such a process in a luminaire or in a control system for luminaires.
US09572218B2
A light source system that generates stable optical power over time and temperature in which a feedback control circuit is operative to receive a temperature signal and a sample signal and in response thereto generate a control signal to a driver circuit to maintain a power level of the light output substantially constant over an operative temperature range defined by Tmin and Tmax.
US09572217B2
Devices, systems, software, and methods for control of light emitting diodes (LEDs) via an LED driver circuit that receives a dimmed AC input signal from a dimmer and generates an output signal to power and dim an LED element. The LED driver circuit comprises a dimmed input sense circuit, a microcontroller, and a power supply circuit. The power supply circuit generates a power supply from the dimmed AC input signal for powering the LED driver circuit. The dimmed input sense circuit detects an incoming duty cycle (Din) of the dimmed AC input signal. The microcontroller stores one or more dimming level parameters, receives the detected incoming duty cycle (Din) from the dimmed input sense circuit, and generates an output duty cycle (Dout) based on the detected incoming duty cycle (Din) and the one or more dimming level parameters. The LED driver circuit generates the output signal using the generated output duty cycle (Dout) for powering the LED element at a generated dimming level.
US09572215B2
A method is provided for detecting and correcting improper operation of a lighting system including a solid state lighting load. The method includes detecting first and second values of a phase angle of a dimmer connected to a power converter driving the solid state lighting load, the first and second values corresponding to consecutive half cycles of an input mains voltage signal, and determining a difference between the first and second values. When the difference is greater than a difference threshold, indicating asymmetric waveforms of the input mains voltage signal, a selected corrective action is implemented.
US09572207B2
Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide a dimming arrangement for a variable load, such as a lamp. The dimming arrangement is coupled to a drive circuit for the load and arranged to reduce a drive current associated with the drive circuit, based on a control voltage.
US09572192B2
A method of supporting incompatible channelization in a wireless communications system is provided. A coordinating device determines a first set of physical parameters of a first wireless channel. The first set of physical parameters includes a channel bandwidth, a central frequency, a transmit power limit, and a modulation and coding scheme. The coordinating device establishes communication with a first set of communications devices over the first wireless channel. The coordinating device then broadcasts a channel-adjustment message and determines a protection period. The channel-adjustment message comprises a set of instructions on how to adjust to a second set of physical parameters of a second wireless channel. A second set of communications devices adjust physical parameters based on the channel-adjustment message. Finally, the coordinating device communicates with the second set of communications devices over the second wireless channel during the protection period.
US09572187B2
An information processing apparatus includes a communication unit and a controller. The communication unit is configured to be capable of switching between a first mode for communicating with a different device by a first wireless communication system and a second mode for communicating with the different device by a second wireless communication system. The controller is configured to control the communication unit to select a radio-frequency range used in the first mode as a radio-frequency range used in the second mode, in a case where a communication system for communicating with the different device is switched from the first wireless communication system to the second wireless communication system.
US09572184B1
A set of portable devices may be paired together to share a combined set of connectivity options. Each of the portable devices may have one or more connections to external networks, and may be paired to each other such that one device may use the external connection of another device. The pairing system may evaluate connectivity strength, battery power, and other factors for routing connections between devices to external networks. Incoming connections, such as cellular telephone calls, may be selectively routed to one of the various devices in certain circumstances and a different device in other circumstances. An incoming phone call may be answered and responded to by any of the connected devices, even though the connection may have been originally received by a different device.
US09572183B2
There is provided a wireless communication apparatus including an obtaining unit configured to obtain parameter information, and a communication control unit configured to prioritize and select another wireless communication apparatus included in a connection history as a connection when a difference between the parameter information during a connection with another wireless communication apparatus included in the connection history and the parameter information obtained by the obtaining unit when not connected to the other wireless communication apparatus is at or less than a predetermined value.
US09572180B2
A method for exchanging data includes generating a usage indicator for an access window, the usage indicator including a first indication of if an allowed station in a list of allowed stations needs to receive information about its resource allocation and at least one of a second indication of a start time of the access window, and a third indication of the list of allowed stations, and broadcasting the usage indicator. The method also includes exchanging data with at least one of the allowed stations within the access window in accordance with the usage indicator.
US09572173B2
A method and system architecture for a self-organizing network (SON) includes a first cell having a first user equipment classifier for determining one of cell edge and cell central. The SON also includes a second cell having a second user equipment classifier for determining one of cell edge and cell central. The system architecture and method provide a first transmit time interval (TTI) schema for user equipment within the area of coverage associated with the first cell and a TTI schema for user equipment within the area of coverage associated with the second cell, the second TTI schema differing from the first TTI schema. The user equipment is classified as cell center or cell edge in dependence upon at least one of QoS requirement, geometry, periodic PSMM and CQI reports. The TTI schemas are used for “cell edge” user equipment by the respective cells.
US09572172B2
The present invention provides a technique for scheduling data, and in particular, scheduling real-time or voice data for transmissions during a transmit time interval in a multi-carrier communication environment. For each transmit time interval, channel condition indicia for multiple users is determined, and an iterative scheduling process is then implemented based in part on the channel condition indicia. The iterative scheduling initially pre-assigns select tones for each of the remaining users that have not been permanently assigned tones for the given transmit time interval. Next, the remaining user having the least favorable channel conditions is selected as an active user. The newly selected active user is then permanently assigned the select tones that were initially pre-assigned to that particular user. The permanently assigned tones are removed from consideration, and the process is repeated until all the remaining users are permanently assigned unique tones for scheduling.
US09572163B2
A hybrid band intelligent backhaul radio (HB-IBR) is disclosed that is a combination of two radios operating in different bands. Embodiments include a dual radio configuration wherein a first radio operates in a non-line of sight (NLOS) radio link configuration and a second ancillary radio operates in a near line of sight or line of sight configuration (n)LOS. For example, the HB-IBR may have an Intelligent Backhaul Radio (IBR) operating in the non-line of sight mode of operation within the 5.8 GHz unlicensed band, and have an ancillary radio link operating in the FCC part 101 E band of operation at 60 GHz. A common medium access control (MAC) block may be utilized between the dual radios.
US09572161B2
A method for transmitting uplink data in a wireless communication system, and a user equipment (UE) therefore are discussed. The method according to one embodiment includes configuring transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS) in a subframe of a first component carrier (CC) among a plurality of CCs; and transmitting the uplink data to a base station in the subframe of a second CC among the plurality of CCs. The SRS, whose transmission is configured in the first CC, is not transmitted in a symbol in the subframe of the first CC, when the transmission of the SRS and the transmission of the uplink data happen to overlap in the symbol.
US09572151B2
Methods and network devices estimate power of signals received from a user equipment in a sector of a cellular network cell using a data signal, which is not a predetermined reference signal. An exemplary method includes (1) saving a data signal received from the user equipment in a first sector of the cellular network cell, (2) acquiring a reference signal that corresponds to the data signal as received in a second sector of the cell and demodulated, and (3) comparing the saved data signal and the reference signal to estimate power of the data signal as received in the first sector.
US09572149B1
Disclosed is a method and system in which a PDSCH segment assigned to a UE in a particular TTI not only carries data to the UE but also carries an assignment to the UE of a PDSCH in a subsequent TTI for carrying additional data to the UE in that subsequent TTI. Such an arrangement can help make good use of possibly otherwise unused PDSCH capacity and can help to manage PDCCH capacity in the subsequent TTI.
US09572142B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and provides an efficient control information transmission method and apparatus for supporting a multiple antenna transmission technique. A method is provided for transmitting downlink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information related to an uplink multiple codeword transmission and includes receiving the uplink multiple codeword transmission, generating HARQ information related to each of the multiple codewords based on a result of decoding each of the multiple codewords, modulating the HARQ information, and transmitting the modulated HARQ information via one or more physical HARQ indicator channels (PHICHs).
US09572141B2
A method for bearing CS-domain service data over radio bearer is disclosed. The method includes: letting CS-domain service data be borne over a radio high-speed packet data access channel according to a channel mapping relation between CS-domain service data and the radio high-speed packet data access channel. An apparatus and a system are also provided herein.
US09572132B2
The present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for communicating data packets in a cloud cell. In one embodiment, a network node from which data packets are received is identified by the BS. If the data packets are received from a data gateway, a network node to which the data packets to be sent is identified. If the data packets are to be sent to a slave BS, partial processing, is performed on the data packets by the master BS. Furthermore, partially processed data packets are transmitted to the slave BS so that the slave BS performs complete processing on the partially processed data packets and transmits the completely processed data packets to the MS. If the data packets are to be sent to the MS, then complete processing of the data packets is performed by the BS and transmitted to the MS.
US09572127B2
A method using OTDOA for positioning a mobile station includes: transmitting to the mobile station an OTDOA capability request message to inquire about a communication system format supported by the mobile station and signal reception quality information of each base station of a communication system supported, where the OTDOA capability request message includes a plurality of communication formats existent in a current service area of the mobile station and corresponding signal reception quality information, provided for the mobile station to select based on the communication system format supported by the mobile station; receiving an OTDOA support capability message returned by the mobile station, where the OTDOA support capability message includes the communication system format supported by the mobile station and corresponding signal reception quality; sending to the mobile station auxiliary positioning information based on the communication system format supported by the mobile station and the corresponding signal reception quality.
US09572124B2
A method for determining whether a terminal is located inside a discovered Secure User Plane Location Platform (D-SLP) service area is disclosed. The method may comprise identifying a discovered Secure User Plane Location Platform (D-SLP). A terminal may receive from a home Secure User Plane Location Platform (H-SLP) an authorization to use the D-SLP. Additionally, the terminal may receive from the H-SLP a list of Area IDs within a Secure User Plane Location Platform (SLP) service area comprises a first group of Area IDs within the SLP service area. The method may comprise comparing an ID associated with a network access point for the terminal, and the list of Area IDs to determine if the terminal is inside the D-SLP service area. The method may comprise making a D-SLP use determination based on the comparison.
US09572117B2
A method for and apparatus for controlling transmission power in a wireless communication system is provided. A wireless device checks a duration in which a plurality of radio access technologies (RATs) for uplink resources overlaps, determines whether the transmission power of the UE is greater than a maximum power restriction of the UE in the duration, and controls power of at least one RAT based on priorities of the plurality of RATs so that the transmission power of the UE is under the maximum power restriction of the UE. Thus, dynamic and efficient transmission power is supported.
US09572114B2
A channel map generation method includes: performing a power spectrum density detection on a plurality of channels in a frequency band, to generate a first channel map; and performing a first smoothing operation on the first channel map by a first window size to generate a second channel map. The first smoothing operation includes: grouping channels of the first channel map into a plurality of channel groups according to the first window size; and according to the number of good channels or bad channels in each of the channel group, deciding to retain channel determinations in the first channel map of the channel group, or re-designating all the channels of the channel group, so as to generate the second channel map.
US09572107B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for power savings. In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include sending, by a user equipment (114B), an indication (220) to a network (202), wherein the indication (220) represents whether there is a preference for power savings at the user equipment (114B); and performing, at the user equipment (114B) when the indication (220) is sent, one or more power savings actions (225). Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.
US09572084B2
A method and system for route optimization during switching and an access network element. In a process that a terminal is switched from a source access network element to a target access network element, the target access network element obtains identity information of a correspondent node of the terminal from the terminal, and triggers an access network element of the correspondent node to update a correspondent node mapping relationship. In the present solution, information of a correspondent node is obtained by adding a signaling interaction procedure between the network and the terminal host, so that the information of the correspondent node which is performing data communication is obtained in real time, and a subsequent data stream route optimization process is performed in time, thereby solving the problem of low processing performance and poor real-time performance resulted from an access gateway monitoring, detecting and maintaining correspondent node information.
US09572082B2
A method for digital communication in a system including a gateway apparatus, a first radio communication apparatus, and a second radio communication apparatus, the method including: at the first radio communication apparatus, sending first data to the gateway apparatus during a first time slot of a radio frame, the radio frame including a common slot, the first time slot allocated to the first radio communication apparatus for data transmission, and a second time slot allocated to the second radio communication apparatus for data transmission; determining whether the first data has been received by the gateway apparatus; upon determining that the first data has not been received by the gateway apparatus, sending a relay request signal to the second radio communication apparatus during the common slot of the radio frame; in response to the relay request signal, receiving a response signal from the second radio communication apparatus.
US09572081B2
A node device for a wireless communications, includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: select an adjacent node device sending a packet to further adjacent node device prior to the node device, from among a plurality of adjacent node devices that communicate with the node device directly, based on record information regarding the further adjacent node device to which the plurality of adjacent node devices sent packets, the further adjacent node device communicating with the plurality of the adjacent node devices directly, and transmit the packet to the selected adjacent node device.
US09572079B2
A system and method are provided for intelligently incorporating a mmWave communication link in a heterogeneous cellular/Wi-Fi networking environment. The combination improves overall data transmission capacity of the heterogeneous networking environment, and also provides superior user Quality of Experience. The combination of the mmWave communication link with the cellular/Wi-Fi communication system is integrated in a synergistic manner that allows each of the individual communication technologies to complement the other. Using highly-directional beamforming antennas the mmWave communication link provides wide area network coverage by deploying a plurality of directional beams in sectors to complement the coverage area of the wide area network systems operating in other frequency bands.
US09572069B2
A radio base station including: a first interface configured to communicate with a different radio base station via a network among radio base stations, a second interface configured to wirelessly communicate with a radio terminal, and a processor configured to control a transmission of a first signal to the radio terminal when a load of the network among the radio base stations is higher than a given level, the first signal indicating to reject a second signal transmitted from the radio terminal, the second signal requesting to add a bearer between the radio base station and the radio terminal via the different radio base station.
US09572067B2
A user of a communications network is prevented from consuming an excessive amount of channel bandwidth by restricting use of the channel in accordance with the type of data being downloaded to the user. The user is provided an initial number of credits. As the user consumes the credits, the data being downloaded is checked to determine if is permissible or non-permissible. Non-permissible data includes file-sharing files and movie downloads if user subscription does not permit such activity. If the data is permissible, the user is provided another allotment of credits equal to the initial allotment. If the data is non-permissible, the user is provided an allotment of credits less than the initial allotment. Various restriction policies also can be applied, such as levying additional fees and/or terminating the user's access to the channel. Also, incentives can be provided to entice the user curb the misuse.
US09572054B2
A realization method, apparatus and system for remote monitoring, the remote monitoring technique is used between interphones, which includes the following contents: a monitored party receives a remote monitoring request from a monitoring party, the remote monitoring request includes a target control information; the monitored party answers confirming information to the monitoring party after receiving the remote monitoring request successfully, and analyzes the target control information, and then selects transmission mode; the monitored party enters monitored state, starts transmission automatically, and implements the transmission according to the selected transmission mode. Applying the embodiments of the present invention, the remote monitoring function of a interphone will be improved, and the monitoring party can initiatively control the transmission time of the monitored party; or transmission interval and times of the monitored party, so as to realize the repeat monitoring is realized. Furthermore, the target control information of the present invention is not set completely by Customer Program Software (CPS), it also can be set according to the human-computer interface operation, the transmission time of the monitored party is controlled agilely.
US09572053B2
A method in a network node, a network node, a method in a user equipment and a user equipment handle base sequences in a communications network. The network node is configured to communicate with a user equipment. The network node, which has information about a default base sequence and an alternative base sequence, determines that the alternative base sequence should replace the default base sequence for the user equipment. The network node then sends information about the alternative base sequence to the user equipment.
US09572037B2
A system and method for defending a mobile network from a fraud committed via GTP is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving receives information associated with a GTP request from a serving node to a gateway node in a mobile network. The information associated with the GTP request is a GTP control plane request or a CDR associated with the GTP request. The information associated with a GTP request is examined, and parameters contained in the information associated with the GTP request are analyzed. It is determined that the GTP request is a fraudulent GTP request if the parameters do not belong to an authorized subscriber of the mobile network. A GTP tunnel associated with the fraudulent GTP request is denied, an established fraudulent GTP tunnel is deleted, or network traffic established by a fraudulent GTP tunnel is redirected to a monitoring node.
US09572034B1
The disclosed computer-implemented method for securing wireless networks may include (1) receiving, at a physical access point, a request to improve the security of a wireless network that includes a client device and is serviced by an active virtual access point of the physical access point, (2) configuring a substitute virtual access point to service the wireless network by (a) configuring the substitute virtual access point to identify the wireless network using a substitute SSID and/or (b) secure the wireless network using a substitute passcode, (3) transmitting a notification that includes the substitute SSID and/or the substitute passcode to the client device that instructs the client device to connect to the wireless network via the substitute virtual access point, (4) connecting the client device to the substitute virtual access point, and (5) disabling the active virtual access point. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09572029B2
Representative embodiments of secure authentication to a resource in accordance with a predefined, electronically stored quorum-based authentication policy include causing electronic interaction among multiple devices that constitute a quorum in accordance with the policy, computationally determining whether the interaction satisfies the policy, and if so, electronically according access to the resource to one or more individuals associated with the interacting device(s).
US09572026B2
In an example embodiment, a wireless device is operable to advertise a policy on the inclusion of the wireless device in a radio frequency map. For example, the wireless device may transmit a signal comprising a field in an extended capabilities information that indicates whether mapping of the wireless device is permissible. As another example, the wireless device may perform certain actions, such as changing media access control address, changing transmit power, and/or vary response times to prevent accurate mapping of the location of the wireless device.
US09572015B2
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention include receiving subscriber identity information for a cellular network at a mobile communication device via a short-range wireless communication network. The subscriber identity information is received from a device issued by a provider of the cellular network. Exemplary embodiments further include storing the subscriber identity information at a subscriber identity module embedded in the mobile communication device. Exemplary embodiments additionally include transmitting the subscriber identity information from the subscriber identity module to a server of the provider for authenticating a subscriber of the cellular network. Exemplary embodiments still further include receiving, from the server of the provider, authorization for the subscriber to access the cellular network, and accessing the cellular network via the mobile communication device.
US09572012B2
An apparatus, system, and method of managing candidate counterpart terminal information, each of which determines, in response to a request for adding a candidate counterpart terminal to a candidate list of a request sender terminal, whether attribute information stored in association with the request sender terminal matches attribute information stored in association with the candidate counterpart terminal to be added, and stores counterpart terminal identification information that identifies the candidate counterpart terminal in association with terminal identification information of the request sender terminal to update the candidate list of the specific request sender terminal when a determination result indicates that the attribute information match.
US09572011B2
The present invention is provides towards a method and system for facilitating roaming tests for an operator in a telecommunication network. The method includes detecting a location update message of a subscriber to an HLR while switching from a first MSG/VLR to a second MSG/VLR, The method further includes holding by a value added module, a cancel location message being sent from the HLR to the first MSG/VLR. The method further includes conducting the roaming tests by the value added module, using the subscriber's profile data obtained from the first MSG/VLR. Further in the method the value added module releases the cancel location message to the first MSC/VLR.
US09571998B2
Systems and methods for event reporting are provided. In a method for event reporting in a system that includes an event source and a plurality of event consumers, notifications from the event source are received at an event reporter. The notifications are received at a first rate. The event reporter receives a plurality of desired sampling rates from the plurality of event consumers, where each of the desired the sampling rates indicates a rate at which an event consumer desires reporting of notifications from the event reporter. The notifications are filtered based on the first rate and the plurality of desired sampling rates. The filtering selects one or more of the notifications to be reported to one or more event consumers of the plurality of event consumers. The selected one or more of the notifications are reported.
US09571992B1
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, computer program products, and systems for priority message management. In one embodiment, users are associated with one or more identified networks, wherein the users connect to the one or more identified networks using one or more mobile devices. Embodiments of the present invention can detect the presence or absence of an associated user, and responsive to detecting a user's absence, can increase an amount of priority of a user's communications to a mobile device of a different user having an enabled screening feature. Increasing the amount of priority of users that have been identified as absent from the identified network can ensure important messages are delivered.
US09571982B2
A method and system is disclosed for providing continued of streaming content to a mobile device in a distributed wireless network. This includes receiving user location data; receiving user movement history data; receiving user profile data; determining a predicted coverage area based on the user location data and at least one of: the user movement history data and the user profile data; receiving static coverage data for the predicted coverage area; receiving dynamic signal data for the predicted coverage area; determining a predicted probability of network failure in the predicted coverage area based on the static coverage data and the dynamic signal data; determining if the predicted probability exceeds a set threshold value; retrieving desirable data for the predicted coverage area if the predicted probability exceeds a threshold; and storing the desirable data in a computer memory in the mobile device if the predicted probability exceeds the threshold.
US09571981B2
Numerous mobile devices report their respective locations to a server which collects the location reports to provide real-time pedestrian traffic information, e.g., as a map that shows locations of individual mobile devices. Distribution of mobile devices in a geographic area more closely represents overall population locations and densities. Each device is identified by a digital fingerprint, formed from a number of system and device configuration parameters. Each mobile device is configured to periodically report its location, e.g., at a predetermined time interval and/or whenever the mobile device determines its location for another reason. A known location of a wireless network access point to which a mobile device is connected can serve as an estimated location of the mobile device.
US09571978B1
The systems and methods of the disclosure relate to estimating the location of a remote device, e.g., a mobile phone or other user equipment (“UE”), that is in communication with equipment aboard a high altitude platform (“HAP”). Because the HAP is in motion, the location of the equipment aboard the HAP is not at a fixed location. While this breaks some forms of traditional UE location positioning techniques, it creates new information that can be used instead. Thus, when traditional GPS or ground-station based location services are unavailable, a remote device in communication with equipment aboard a HAP can still be positioned.
US09571977B2
The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and apparatuses for determining the likelihood that two wireless scans of a mobile computing device were performed in the same location. The likelihood is determined by scanning for wireless networks with a computing device. The scanning includes a receiving a plurality of network attributes for each wireless networks within the range of the mobile computing device. Further, the likelihood is determined by comparing the plurality of network attributes from the scanning with a reference set of network attributes. The comparing of network attributes is used to determine an attribute comparison. Finally, the likelihood between a position associated with the reference set of network attributes and the computing device, based on the attribute comparison, determines a position associated with the network.
US09571973B1
An apparatus and a method for determining distances between apparatuses are disclosed. The method in a first apparatus includes joining a network including a set of apparatuses; setting a first predetermined operating mode for the first apparatus after joining the network; receiving from at least one second apparatus belonging to the net-work a message indicating a support for a ranging service from the second apparatus. As a response to the message, a ranging process with the second apparatus is initiated. A second predetermined operating mode is set for the first apparatus after completing the ranging process with the second apparatus network; and a range-limited service discovery frame is broadcast.
US09571971B2
A system or computer usable program product for providing improved coverage of data acquisition in a crowd sourced data acquisition environment including determining respective locations of mobile devices within an area wherein data acquisition is desired; requesting transmission of desired data captured by sensors in the mobile devices within the area; comparing locations of mobile devices currently transmitting desired data to a desired coverage map of mobile device location to produce a map showing missing coverage; prioritizing acquisition of mobile devices in locations of missing coverage; and aggregating the transmitted desired data and providing the aggregated data to an entity.
US09571969B1
A media communications system enabling mobile and desktop devices to communicate with websites relevant to a query that is shallow parsed, associated to predetermined categories, and regenerated as a conflated query array that includes extracted entities, associated categories, a location, and a geo-limit parameter. The media communications system further enables real-time messaging between the mobile and desktop devices and the websites, as well as generation of well-formed websites, media, and multimedia, with pre-rendered embedded content, and enables to concurrently and automatically demographically and geographically distributed push notifications to the websites and devices, and embeds relevancy-amplified, geotargeted media and multimedia communications, which media are selected by real-time machine-learned, high-probability consumer interest weighting and relevancy functions that are continuously updated in response to monitored consumer actions. The system further enables geographically regional and inter-regional systems management to enable automated replication and regional and demographic testing of the geotargeted and relevant communications.
US09571967B2
To limit users to share information to those located within a certain area, a wireless communication system distributes data from a wireless base station device to a mobile station. The mobile station is a mobile station that transmits data to the wireless base station device of a cell where the mobile station is located, and includes an information identifier assigning unit for assigning an identifier when the data to transmit is of a predetermined kind. The wireless base station device is a wireless base station device that broadcasts a signal to the mobile station in the cell of the wireless base station device, and includes an information distribution determining unit for when the identifier indicating that data is of the predetermined kind is assigned to data received from the mobile station, removing the identifier from the data and generating the signal including the data from which the identifier is removed.
US09571965B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a check-in verification system (VCS) that verifies a check-in by a user using a smartphone to check-in at a venue, by verifying that a geolocation provided by the smartphone agrees with a location of the venue and that a password used by the user and the venue are the same.
US09571962B2
A system and method are provided for associating location data from one or more unique sources. The place and time of a unique location enabled device are associated with stored demographic information relating to the particular place and particular time. The place and time of the unique location enabled device are associated with a historical record of past locations and time of locations that the device has been. Based on the association of demographical information and historical information, the unique location enable device is assigned to one or more groups or tribes. The location of all members of the group or tribe can be aggregated and exported for further analysis or display, thereby showing all group or tribe members at a particular time and place.
US09571954B2
When an input device is connected via a communication interface, a mobile phone determines whether a local device can control the input device. When it is determined that the local device cannot control the input device, the mobile phone requests a server connected via a wireless communication network to control the input device. The mobile phone controls signal transfer between the input device and the server via the communication interface and the wireless communication network so that the server can control the input device by establishing communication between the input device and the server. In response to the request from the mobile phone, the server controls the input device via the established communication with the input device.
US09571952B2
Methods, systems, and devices are described for intercepting socket calls from applications installed on a mobile device while a first wireless interface is active. The first wireless interface is a cellular interface. Upon determining to release the intercepted socket calls to the socket layer, a second wireless interface is activated. The second wireless interface is a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) interface. The sockets calls are released to the socket layer and transmitted using the activated second wireless interface. Upon substantially completing the socket calls, the second wireless interface is deactivated. The intercepting of the socket calls and the activation of the second wireless interface occurs while the mobile device is in an idle mode.
US09571950B1
Systems and methods of audio reproduction are described. In one embodiment, one or more processors can be configured, for example, to receive an L channel signal and an R channel signal, to combine the L channel signal and the R channel signal, to average the combined signal, to detect an impulse signal in the averaged signal, to multiply the impulse signal, to scale the multiplied impulse signal, and to add the scaled impulse signal to the averaged signal to form a resultant signal. Sound can be generated, for example, by speakers based on at least the resultant signal.
US09571947B2
According to an embodiment, a hearing aid system is disclosed. The system includes an abutment, an extension member and a hearing aid device. The abutment is configured to mechanically attach into a skull bone of a hearing aid user. The extension member is configured to attach to the abutment and further comprising a hearing aid coupling surface adapted to attach with a hearing aid device. The hearing aid device includes a coupling adapted to mechanically attach to the hearing aid coupling surface. The extension member is configured to attach between the abutment and the coupling and to extend length between the abutment and the hearing aid coupling.
US09571942B2
A hearing device includes: a processing unit; a filter; and a wireless receiver; wherein the processing unit is configured to determine a time difference between a start of the wireless receiver and a reception of a corresponding data packet from a transmitter; wherein the filter is configured to determine a time period as a function of a plurality of time differences that include the time difference determined by the processing unit; and wherein the processing unit is further configured to control the wireless receiver such that the wireless receiver is started in the time period before reception of a subsequent data packet from the transmitter.
US09571938B2
A capacitive MEMS microphone element is described which may be used optionally for detecting acoustic signals (microphone mode) or for detecting ultrasound signals in a defined frequency range (ultrasound mode). In the layered structure of the MEMS microphone element, at least two carrier elements for the two electrode sides of a capacitor system are formed one above the other and at a distance from one another for signal detection. At least one of the two carrier elements is sound pressure-sensitive and at least one of the two electrode sides includes at least two electrode segments which are electrically contactable independent of one another, which together with the at least one electrode of the other electrode side form partial capacitances which are independent of one another.
US09571934B2
An acoustic device with an enclosure and a first passive radiator structure which includes a first passive radiator diaphragm. The first passive radiator structure has an effective radiating area and a first mass, and is mounted to the enclosure such that its diaphragm can vibrate relative to the enclosure. There is a second passive radiator structure which includes a second passive radiator diaphragm. The second passive radiator structure has substantially the same effective radiating area as the first passive radiator structure, and is mounted to the enclosure such that its diaphragm can vibrate relative to the enclosure. At least one active electro-acoustic transducer is mounted to the second passive radiator structure such that it moves when the diaphragm vibrates. The second passive radiator structure and the active transducer together have a second mass that is substantially greater than the mass of the first passive radiator structure. Passive radiators with the same effective radiating area results in force balancing of the device.
US09571930B2
Various techniques for detecting are described herein. In one example, a method includes detecting a position of a computing device and selecting a plurality of microphones to detect audio data based on the position of the computing device. The method can also include calculating location data corresponding to the audio data, the location data indicating the location of a user and modifying a far field gain value based on the location data.
US09571929B2
A sound accessory device is provided. A receiving unit of the sound accessory device receives a first sound from a first external device. A sound output unit outputs a first sound. A sensing unit senses a second sound for triggering an output control of the first sound from outside. A control unit controls the output of the first sound, if the second sound is received. The sound for triggering the output control of the first sound includes at least any one selected from a specific word, a voiceprint representing a speech of a specific person, a horn of a vehicle, an alarm sound, a notification sound of an external device, a sound of an animal, and a doorbell sound.
US09571924B2
A speaker array apparatus includes a speaker array, a beam forming portion that is configured to cause the speaker array to output the sound beam, a beam control portion that is configured to sweep with the test sound beam in a predetermined angle range in a vertical direction with respect to a horizontal direction, a microphone, a distance obtaining portion that is configured to obtain a distance between the speaker array and the microphone, and a storage portion that is configured to store pickup sound data that is associated with the output angle. The beam control portion sets a minimum output angle of the angle range to be larger as the distance obtained by the distance obtaining portion is smaller.
US09571922B2
An apparatus for controlling a beamforming microphone considering the location of a driver seat may include: a driver seat sensor configured to sense the location of the driver seat and output the sensed location as a driver seat signal; a directivity control unit configured to calculate a beamforming angle based on the driver seat signal; and a signal processing unit configured to process voice signals outputted from first and second microphones, respectively, and extract and output a voice signal generated from a direction which coincides with the beamforming angle.
US09571920B2
An external sound box includes a connecting member and a sound box. The connecting member includes a sound passage and is selectively attachable to a surface of an electronic device to cover a sounding hole of the electronic device. The sound box is mounted to the connecting member. The sound box defines a resonant chamber communicating with the sound passage and a sounding output hole. Sound generated by the electronic device moves from the sounding hole into the sound passage and the sound box. The sounding passage and the sound box are configured so that the sound from the sounding hole resonates before exiting the sound output hole with increased volume.
US09571919B2
A wearable sound box apparatus is disclosed. In one embodiment, the disclosed sound box apparatus may include a wearable element having both ends thereof extended to form two sound box accommodating areas. The wearable element may be structurally hollow, allowing for a printed circuit board (PCB), a battery, and a reflection tube to be placed therein. A sound unit placed within each of the sound box accommodating areas may be electrically connected to the PCB through a signal line. When the sound unit operates, sound waves from the sound unit are reflected within the wearable element and corresponding inverted sound waves are transmitted out of the wearable element by the reflection tube.
US09571916B2
The present invention discloses an audio codec with a jack detection function and an audio jack detection method. An embodiment of the audio codec comprises: a first-contact signal input end operable to electrically connect with a sleeve contact of a plug and receive a first-contact signal indicating the presence or absence of the plug; a second-contact signal input end operable to electrically connect with a ring contact or the sleeve contact of the plug and receive a second-contact signal indicating the presence or absence of the plug; a plug detecting circuit coupled to the first-contact or second-contact signal input end and operable to detect whether a voltage level of the first-contact or second-contact signal has changed to thereby generate a plug detection signal; and a control circuit coupled to the plug detecting circuit and operable to determine the presence or absence of the plug according to the plug detection signal.
US09571909B2
Speaker Cabinets are provided. In one embodiment, a speaker cabinet comprises: a core fabricated from a core material, the core material having an inner chamber defining an air cavity internal to the core; a baffle board having an internal side and an external side, wherein the internal side is mounted to the core at an opening to the air cavity; and a plurality of baffle board sonic coupling battens extending from the baffle board into the core material of the core.
US09571907B2
A discrete electrode telemetry device includes a single female snap receptor in a leadless body. The single female snap receptor attaches to a single male snap post of a single discrete standard circular disposable electrode patch, wherein the sensor comprises a plurality of plug-in interface ports for multiple use reference electrodes on the leadless body thereof. A multiplexor circuit is engineered to multiplex and combine a plurality of signal data collected from the interface ports as an output thereof. A wireless transmitter module is disposed in connection with the single female snap receptor, the wireless transmitter configured to transmit the piecewise multiplexed and combined signal data to a smart phone based on a connection and a disconnection of the single female snap receptor thereto. Furthermore, a spooled memory stores and relays the plurality of signal data for a multiplexed and a composite transmission from the wireless transmitter module.
US09571905B2
A pluggable module is provided which is configured to be connected into a pluggable port of a radio base station. The pluggable module is associated with at least one sensor for collecting external sensor data. The pluggable module comprises at least one communication interface, a processor, and a memory for storing software comprising computer program code which, when run in the processor, causes the pluggable module to collect pre-specified external sensor data from at least one sensor associated with the pluggable module and communicate the collected external sensor data to a centralized server via the at least one communication interface.
US09571903B2
Systems and methods for providing ball tracker snippets are provided. Data may be received over a wireless communication regarding movement of a ball within an event venue during an event. Such received data may be based on signals from an antenna coupled to the ball. A video of the event may be synchronized to the received data. A portion of the received data may be identified as meeting a threshold. A portion of the video may be determined to be associated with the identified portion of received data that meets the threshold. A video snippet may then be extracted for the determined portion.
US09571895B2
A method and system for multicasting Internet-protocol television (IPTV) channels is disclosed. In order to receive desired IPTV channels, a first-hop router (FHR) may send a join message to a last-hop router (LHR) establishing multiple paths across a backbone network. The join message may specify mapping at least one virtual IPTV channel to a plurality of multicast channels, along with the desired IPTV channels. The multicast channels may then be transmitted in a round-robin manner over the multiple paths from the LHR to the FHR. A number of virtual IPTV channels may be modified in response to determining a loading profile over the multiple paths to maintain a balanced load among the multiple paths.
US09571892B2
Techniques described herein enable searching for multimedia content and for downloading or scheduling the recording of the multimedia content. The multimedia content may have been previously stored on one or more databases. The client device may download or schedule the recording of multimedia content in one step, for example, in one touch. When desired multimedia content is not available, the multimedia content is added to the client device's wish list. When the client device's does not have a wish list, the client device's wish list may be created on the spot. During the scheduling of the recording, a tag associated with the multimedia content is checked to determine whether the multimedia content is live or delayed. When the tag indicates the multimedia content is live or delayed, the client device prompts with a suggestion to add extra time to the end of the recording of the multimedia content.
US09571891B2
Disclosed is a system, method and apparatus for opinion polling of broadcast or live streamed media. The scalable system enables real time analysis and display of continuously updated audience opinion data. A computing device with a touchscreen may be used to input personal opinion, view program content, and observe compiled audience reaction, simultaneously. Content and reaction may also be viewed separately. Granularity of data is substantially improved as is nuanced comprehension of responses. Iterative opinion input is enabled, in both numerical rating and textual comment. Unsolicited, top-of-mind audience reaction is accommodated while latency is reduced to a near conversational level. A rich consumer data base may be correlated to opinion. The apparatus enabling system function communicates tactilly to the user the opinion being output by the device.
US09571890B1
Methods, systems, and media for selectively presenting broadcast content based on user interests are provided. In some implementations a method for selectively presenting broadcast content is provided, the method comprising: receiving user information; associating one or more athletes, each on a roster of a team in a sports organization, with the user based on the user information; identifying broadcast programs that a user device can present; determining broadcast programs that depict a game between teams in the sports organization that are relevant to an athlete associated with the user based on program metadata; receiving event metadata for the relevant broadcast programs that is indicative of events in the game depicted therein; determining that a portion of the first broadcast program is relevant to a first entity based on the event metadata; and causing the user device to present the portion of the first broadcast.
US09571887B2
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a process that determines information from a first media stream including a number of keywords associated with viewing habits of a user. A second media stream of a media program is scanned for one of a word or phrase corresponding to a keyword of the number of keywords. A second keyword is determined based on the one of the word or phrase, and additional information associated with the second keyword is identified. Results associated with the additional information are provided to a multimedia device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09571885B2
One or more circuits may comprise at least one first-type analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and at least one second-type ADC. The circuit(s) may be operable to receive a plurality of signals, each of which may comprise a plurality of channels. The circuit(s) may be operable to digitize a selected one or more of the channels. Which, if any, of the selected channels are digitized via the at least one first-type ADC and which, if any, of the selected channels are digitized via the at least one second-type ADC, may be based on which of the plurality of channels are the selected channels and/or based on power consumption of the circuit(s). A bandwidth of each first-type ADC may be on the order of the bandwidth of one of the received signals. A bandwidth of each second-type ADC may be on the order of the bandwidth of one of the plurality of channels.
US09571880B2
This invention discloses circuits and methods for generating a pixel clock. The circuits utilize an image signal of a first format to generate a pixel clock, which can be utilized to generate an image signal of a second format. The circuits include a reference clock generation circuit, an image processing circuit, and a clock adjustment circuit. The reference clock generation circuit generates a reference clock. The image processing circuit processes the image signal of the first format to generate a control signal. The clock adjustment circuit, which is coupled to the reference clock generation circuit and the image signal processing circuit, generates the pixel clock according to the reference clock and the control signal. The control signal is substantially a periodic signal, whose frequency is proportional to the frequency of a synchronization signal of the image signal of the second format.
US09571878B2
A 3D pointing device for use with a content delivery system is provided. The pointing device can operate in one of at least one of two modes: a first 3D or scrolling mode, and a second non-3D mode that can also be referred to as an up-down-left-right (UDLR) mode. The pointing device can include one or more directional sensors, to provide orientation and movement information. For either of the at least two modes, an optical finger navigation module is provided that can detect movement of a user's finger or object across its screen, and provides a predetermined threshold that must be exceeded before movement information is generated from the OFN module. The pointing device can generate scroll and UDLR commands based on the information from the orientation and movement sensors, as well as the OFN module, or can provide the information from the orientation and movement sensors to a user interface that can generate the appropriate scrolling or UDLR commands for use by the content delivery system.
US09571877B2
Example systems, methods and machine readable media are disclosed. An example system includes a synchronizer to determine a total amount to offset first-neuro-response data gathered from a subject exposed to media to align the first neuro-response data with second neuro-response data simultaneously gathered from the subject. The first neuro-response data is associated with a first sensory component of the media and the second neuro-response data is associated with a second sensory component of the media. The total amount to offset is based on a first cognitive delay associated with the first neuro-response data and a second cognitive delay associated with the second neuro-response data. The synchronizer is to time shift at least one of the first neuro-response data or the second neuro-response based on the total amount to form aligned data. The example system includes an analyzer to determine an effectiveness of the media based on the aligned data.
US09571871B2
A client device receives streamed encoded content data, such as encoded video data, which has been encoded at a constant perceptual quality. Several different versions of the content are available to be streamed to the device, at different perceptual quality levels. In order to decide which quality level to request from a content server at intervals the device calculates the delivery rates that would be required for each level of quality. The calculation of the delivery levels is made in dependence on whether the actual delivery rate that has been received so far is greater than or less than a constant bit rate delivery schedule that decreases monotonically but which guarantees to deliver the encoded data in a timely manner such that no buffer underflow and interruption of reproduction takes place. The monotonically decreasing bit rate schedule is defined by one or more “critical points”, which are the points at which the bit rates are decreased, and correspond to the points where the delivery schedule is just equal to the decoding schedule of the encoded data. At such points there would be no encoded data in a buffer at the client. If the delivery rate has been greater than the constant bit rate schedule for a quality then the delivery rate required going forward for a particular quality level can be calculated from the critical point information, and no more complicated calculation is required.
US09571870B1
In an approach, a server computer receives a request from a client computer specifying particular content for a particular user, wherein the particular content is associated with an original audio language. In response to receiving the request, the server computer selects a preferred audio language and a preferred subtitle language for the particular content based on a particular record of a preference database. The server computer returns asset identifying data that the client computer uses to obtain a stream of the particular content using the preferred audio language and the preferred subtitle language from a content delivery network (CDN) or other asset location. The server computer receives a message from the client computer that identifies an presented audio language and a presented subtitle language that were presented to the particular user while the particular content streamed. In response to a determination that the presented audio language differs from the preferred audio language or that the presented subtitle language differs from the preferred subtitle language, the server computer updates the particular record in the preference database.
US09571865B2
A method is performed using a smart TV, which receives from a television signal source device a television signal feed encoding primary television content and then presents that content. The smart TV receives data via the computer network, including first data representing a to-be-replaced portion of the primary television content and second data representing secondary television content. Using the second data, the smart TV automatically presents the secondary television content in place of the to-be-replaced television content. The method includes the smart TV: (a) automatically monitoring, during presentation of the secondary television content, the television signal feed and comparing it with the first data; and (b) automatically altering presentation of the secondary television content in accordance with a user-control action with respect to the television signal source device, in response to detecting any difference between the television signal feed and the first data indicative of that user-control action.
US09571857B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for video image pruning. An apparatus includes a data pruner for pre-processing a picture prior to, and in preparation for, compression by encoding. The data pruner selectively removes, in the spatial domain, at least one region within the picture. At the decoder end, an apparatus includes a data restorer for receiving a decompressed picture subsequent to decompression by decoding, and post-processing the decompressed picture by selectively restoring, in the spatial domain, at least one region in the decompressed picture based on information indicating a removal of the at least one region prior to a previously performed encoding process.
US09571855B2
Coding techniques for a video image compression system involve improving an image quality of a sequence of two or more bi-directionally predicted intermediate frames, where each of the frames includes multiple pixels. One method involves determining a brightness value of at least one pixel of each bi-directionally predicted intermediate frame in the sequence as an equal average of brightness values of pixels in non-bidirectionally predicted frames bracketing the sequence of bi-directionally predicted intermediate frames. The brightness values of the pixels in at least one of the non-bidirectionally predicted frames is converted from a non-linear representation.
US09571852B2
A video encoding method includes: when an inter prediction mode corresponds to a merge mode, checking for whether predetermined candidate adding conditions are satisfied; adding into a merge candidate set including merge candidates corresponding to neighboring blocks of a current block, a combined bi-predictive motion parameter, the combined bi-predictive motion parameter generated by combining a list 0 motion parameter of a first available candidate block and a list 1 motion parameter of a second available candidate block, when the predetermined candidate adding conditions are satisfied; and predicting the current block in the merge mode by using a motion parameter corresponding to a merge candidate selected from the merge candidate set, to generate a predicted block for the current block, wherein the merge candidate set corresponds to a maximum number of the merge candidates, the maximum number of the merge candidates corresponding to information on the number of the merge candidates.
US09571849B2
Encoding input data including one or more frames includes: generating a residual block based on a difference between a first block of data for multiple pixels in a first frame and a second block of data derived from information in the input data; generating a first block of coefficients based on a transform performed on the residual block; generating reference information based on the second block of data; and determining portions of a code value representing respective portions of the first block of coefficients based on at least one value derived from at least a portion of the reference information.
US09571845B2
Provided are a video encoding method and a video decoding method according to spatial subdivisions based on splitting a picture into a first tile and a second tile, and splitting a current tile among the first tile and the second tile into at least one slice segment, encoding the first tile and the second tile, independently from each other, and encoding maximum coding units of a current slice segment among the at least one slice segment included in the current tile, with respect to the at least one slice segment included in the current tile.
US09571841B2
A method and a device for encoding/decoding an image are disclosed. The method for decoding an image comprises the steps of: decoding information on a quantization matrix; and restoring the quantization matrix on the basis of the information on the quantization matrix, wherein the information on the quantization matrix includes information indicating a DC value of the quantization matrix and/or information indicating differential values of quantization matrix coefficients.
US09571835B2
Example embodiments are directed toward a method of decoding a multi-view video signal using a video decoding apparatus including using a global motion vector of a non-anchor current picture in a current view to determine a corresponding block. A reference block in the current view is then determined using motion information of the current block that is generated from motion information of the corresponding block. A pixel value of the current block is predicted using the reference block in order to raise efficiency in signal processing of the multi-view video signal.
US09571833B2
The invention relates to a method for encoding, a method for decoding, an apparatus, computer program products, an encoder and a decoder for video information. The motion vector for a block in a video image is predicted from a set of motion vector prediction candidates determined based on previously-coded motion vectors. A motion vector prediction candidate is included in the set based on the location of the block associated with the first spatial motion vector prediction candidate and in comparison with motion vector prediction candidates already in the set.
US09571828B2
An image encoding apparatus includes an encoding unit which encodes an input image of a block, a calculating unit which calculates a plurality of evaluation values for the block, an identifying unit which generates identification information by comparing a plurality of evaluation values calculated by the calculating unit with a plurality of threshold values, and a controller which controls a quantization parameter on the basis of the identification information identified by the identifying unit.
US09571827B2
A video coding server may code a common video sequence into a plurality of coded data streams, each coded data stream representing the video sequence coded using coding parameters tailored for a respective transmission bit rate. The coding may cause a set of transmission units from among the coded data streams to include coded video data from a common point of the video sequence, and a first coded frame of each transmission unit of the set to be a synchronization frame. A manifest file may be built representing an index of transmission units of the respective coded data streams. The coded data streams and manifest file may be stored by the server for delivery to a client device. During download and decode, the chunks may be decoded efficiently even when switching among streams because the first frame in each chunk is a synchronization frame.
US09571823B2
A 3D video system is disclosed. The 3D video system includes a frame rate converter that stores an input video signal in a rate conversion frame memory included in the frame rate converter, then reads and outputs the input video signal at a doubled clock rate, a signal format converter that converts a pixel sequence of the video signal output from the frame rate converter and outputs the converted video signal, a controller that outputs a timing signal based on the converted video signal, 3D glasses that transmit light alternately to left and right eyes, and switch the transmission of the light to the left and right eyes, based on the converted video signal and the outputted timing signal, and a spatial modulator that spatially modulates light emitted from a light source, based on the converted video signal. The 3D video system enables the modulated light to be viewed stereoscopically.
US09571808B2
There is provided a video format determination device including a video input unit that receives video having a feature amount for each pixel, a region representative value calculation unit that divides a left-eye video region and a right-eye video region in a three-dimensional video format to be determined in input video into small regions, and then computes representative values of feature amounts of the respective small regions for each of the left-eye video region and the right-eye video region, a correction value calculation unit that calculates a correction value to correct the representative values, a data correction unit that corrects the representative values, an inter-region correlation calculation unit that calculates the correlation between the left- and right-eye video regions, and an evaluation determination unit that evaluates the correlation to determine whether input video is in the three-dimensional video format.
US09571804B2
Provided are an optical transmission system in which one can easily set a video signal cable, and an adapter that can be used in this system. There is provided an adapter for use in an optical transmission system in which an analog video signal or a digital video signal is transmitted between a pair of adapters using light. The adapter includes a first signal determination unit configured to make a determination as to whether a first electrical signal inputted to a common input terminal is an analog video signal or a digital video signal.
US09571800B2
A self-healing video surveillance system is described. The self-healing video surveillance system includes one or more surveillance cameras that are configured to store configuration data of a network video recorder in operable communication with the surveillance cameras. The network video recorder includes configuration data, and a module configured to store the configuration data on the surveillance cameras and/or retrieve configuration data stored on the surveillance cameras. A new network video recorder introduced into the network retrieves the stored configuration data to self-configure with minimal or no human interaction. In embodiments, configuration data is distributed among a plurality of surveillance cameras, and may be stored in encrypted format.
US09571799B2
An access point is connected with surveillance cameras through wireless communication means. In the access point, a packet identification unit identifies the surveillance camera. A receiving status measurement unit measures receiving speed of the image data for each surveillance camera, and a priority apparatus determination unit determines whether to prioritize receiving of image data from a surveillance camera with the receiving speed smaller than a reference speed. The receiving control unit transmits a CTS packet, indicating that data receiving from the surveillance camera determined by the priority apparatus determination unit will be prioritized, to all of the connected surveillance cameras. The surveillance cameras other than that indicated by the CTS packet pause the data transmission to the access point when the CTS packet is received.
US09571795B2
An image processing device includes: an image receiving part configured to receive an image of a target workpiece on a surface of a conveying path captured by means of the imaging unit; a position acquiring part configured to acquire a position of the target workpiece in the captured image; a tilt acquiring part configured to acquire, by using the position of the target workpiece in the captured image acquired by means of the position acquiring part, a tilt angle of an imaging plane of the imaging unit relative to the surface of conveying path; and an outputting part configured to output assistant information used for assisting in the adjustment of the posture of the imaging unit by using the acquired tilt angle.
US09571792B2
A method for interfacing a plurality of videoconferencing client devices the method comprising, in a computer server (5) connected to a client devices:—receiving a first client video stream (7) from the video routing client (4);—tagging a video image of the first client video stream received from the video routing client;—sending, through a bidirectional communication channel (14), the first client video stream (21) to a mixing client (2);—receiving, through the bidirectional communication channel with the mixing client, a mixed video stream (15) from said mixing client;—detecting in the mixed video stream received from the mixing client a video image portion which is different from the tagged video image of the first client video stream;—extracting the detected video image portion from the mixed video stream;—generating a second client video stream (23) from the extracted video image portion;—sending the second client video stream to the video routing client.
US09571788B2
A group routing server, communication devices, and related methods are described. The group routing server may comprise a processor operably coupled with communication elements and memory, and be configured to determine a destination communication device from among a plurality of communication devices to which an incoming call is to be routed, determine whether an assistive communication service is needed for providing interpretive services based, at least in part, on differing communication abilities between a far-end user associated with a far-end communication device initiating the incoming call and a near-end user associated with the destination communication device, route the incoming call to the assistive communication service according to the routing rules if the assistive communication device is determined to be needed, and route the incoming call directly to the communication service according to the routing rules if the assistive communication device is not determined to be needed.
US09571787B2
A system for ad hoc endpoint device association for multimedia conferencing may include one or more processors and memory. The one or more processors may prepare to provide sets of video streams corresponding to a multimedia conference to first, second, and third participant devices, where the set of videos streams prepared for each participant device includes video streams associated with the other participant devices. The one or more processors may determine that the first and second participant devices are in a same physical area and may generate, in response to the determining, a location association between the first and second participant devices for the multimedia conference. The one or more processors may exclude the video stream associated with the third participant device from set of video streams prepared for the first participant device based at least in part on the location association between the first and second participant devices.
US09571785B2
A system and method for fine-grained privacy control of image and video recordings uses a model-based approach to solve privacy issues. The method includes steps of: receiving a digital capture of a subject bound by privacy constraints; receiving information regarding the subject, the environment, and the privacy constraints; using the information to generate a model image of the subject within the environment; associating a disposition tag with an appearance of the subject in the model image; and comparing the model image with the digital capture to determine coordinates in the recording where a privacy control action, such as a blocking action, should be applied.
US09571776B2
A solid-state imaging device includes a plurality of pixels in a two-dimensional array. Each pixel includes a photoelectric conversion element that converts incident light into electric charge, and a charge holding element that receives the electric charge from the photoelectric conversion element, and transfers the electric charge to a corresponding floating diffusion. The charge holding element further includes a plurality of electrodes.
US09571769B2
A solid-state image pickup device which includes, on a semiconductor substrate, an image pickup area which includes plural columns of pixels, and plural column amplifier circuits each provided at each column of pixels or at every plural columns of pixels, wherein: each of the column amplifier circuits includes at least two amplifier circuit stages; a preceding amplifier circuit is a variable-gain amplifier circuit and the switchable gains include plural one or more gains; and a subsequent amplifier circuit is capable of amplifying, at one or more gains, the signal amplified at one or more gains in the preceding amplifier circuit.
US09571767B2
When the amplification ratio is low and strong incident light causes a large charge, the signal retrieved from regions where the incident light is weak is also weak, but when the amplification ratio is high in regions where the incident light is weak, the signal retrieved from regions where the incident light is strong becomes saturated. Therefore, the dynamic range of the imaging unit is narrow. Provided is an imaging unit comprising an imaging section that includes a first group having one or more pixels and a second group having one or more pixels different from those of the first group; and a control section that, while a single charge accumulation is performed in the first group, causes pixel signals to be output by performing charge accumulation in the second group a number of times differing from a number of times charge accumulation is performed in the first group.
US09571765B2
An imager including sub-imager pixel arrays having a plurality of four-side buttable imagers distributed on a substrate and an on-chip digitizing readout circuit. Pixel groupings formed from among the plurality of four-side buttable imagers. The readout electronics including a buffer amplifier for each of the pixel groupings and connected to respective outputs of each four-side buttable imager of the pixel grouping. A plurality of shared analog front ends, each shared analog front end connected to respective multiple buffer amplifiers from among the plurality of pixel groupings. An analog-to-digital converter located at a common centroid location relative to the plurality of shared analog front ends, the analog-to-digital converter having a fully addressable input selection to individually select an output from each of the plurality of shared analog front ends. An output of the analog-to-digital converter connected to a trace on a back surface of the wafer substrate by a through-substrate-via.
US09571761B2
The invention relates to image sensors, and more particularly to matrix sensors having active pixels in CMOS technology. According to the invention, a method for imaging a scene with a very short integration time, by using a standard image sensor comprising a matrix of pixels, comprising photodiodes, and charge storage nodes, is provided. Two images of the same scene are produced under identical light conditions, one of the images corresponding to integration of charges during a first time interval with a duration Tint and the other image corresponding to a second time interval with a duration T′int longer than Tint, and a difference between these two images is established, representing an image integrated during a time interval T′int−Tint. The light may be provided by a light pulse (IMP). This method may be used for observing points in a scene that lie at a well-determined distance, the brevity of the integration time allowing good precision of the observation distance.
US09571760B2
An electronic sensor and a method for controlling the electronic sensor are provided. The electronic sensor includes at least two pixels having different light-receiving efficiencies and at least two pixel groups having different exposure settings. At least one of the at least two pixels corresponds to at least one of the at least two pixel groups.
US09571759B1
Use of separate range tone mapping for combined images can help minimize loss of image information in scenes that have drastically different luminance values, i.e., scenes that have both bright and shadowed regions. Separate range tone mapping is particularly useful for combined images, such as those from spherical camera systems, which may have a higher probability of including luminance variability. The resulting increased bit depth of separate range tone mapping can make the transition between different images that make up a combined image more subtle. Each of a plurality of images that make up a combined image can use a different tone map that is optimized for the particular image data of the image. Multiple tone maps that are applied to overlapping regions of the plurality of images can subsequently be combined to expand the bit depth of the overlapping regions.
US09571754B2
Disclosed are a mobile terminal and a method of controlling the same. The mobile terminal includes a camera configured to photograph an external environment, a display unit configured to display an image captured by the camera, and a control unit configured to extract, from the image, at least one object corresponding to a face in the external environment and control the display unit to correct the image by modifying a certain region of the at least one object, based on a distance from a center of the image to the at least one object.
US09571748B1
Systems and method for controlling camera flash direction are provided. A system includes: a computing device including a processor; an image sensor operatively connected to the processor; a flash lighting system including at least one light emitting element; and a flash direction system including a fluidics system that is controllable to selectively adjust a position of the at least one light emitting element.
US09571747B2
An illumination apparatus includes a light emitting unit, a movable unit, including the light emitting unit, that is rotatable relative to a main body unit, an obtaining unit that obtains first distance information about a distance to a target in a shooting direction of the imaging apparatus to which the illumination apparatus is attached, and second distance information about a distance to a target in a direction different from the shooting direction, a determination unit that determines, based on the first distance information and the second distance information obtained by the obtaining unit, a lighting direction of the light emitting unit, wherein the obtaining unit obtains, in a case where a self-timer mode is set in the imaging apparatus, the first distance information after a lapse of a predetermined time following obtainment of the second distance information.
US09571746B2
An image pickup apparatus capable of obtaining a high AF accuracy while reducing unnecessary power consumption and a release delay when photographing while detecting a focusing state using auxiliary light. The image pickup apparatus is capable of mounting a light emission device with which a first light emitting section of which an irradiation direction can be changed with respect to a body of the light emission device and a second light emitting section of which an irradiation direction is fixed to the body are provided. An obtaining unit obtains information about the irradiation direction of the first light emitting section. A control unit controls one of the first light emitting section and the second light emitting section on the basis of the information about the irradiation direction obtained as a light emitting section for irradiating with auxiliary light at the time when the focus detection unit performs focus detection.
US09571739B2
Disclosed are devices, systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for displaying useful countdown timers on a media capture device. A media capture device can increase contrast between countdown timer and the video of a scene to be captured by a media capture device and adjust the position and size of a counter displayed on the device based on whether the object is determined to be closer or further than a predetermined threshold distance. Countdown timers can be triggered by detection of objects and gestures.
US09571733B2
A camera array and method are disclosed for capturing and processing images of an area of terrain. For each of a plurality of time-steps within a time period, using each of a plurality of cameras in a camera array, an exemplary method includes: generating an image of a respective portion of terrain, wherein the cameras in the camera array have substantially fixed positions relative to each other, and the portions of terrain are such that the whole of the area of terrain has been imaged by the end of the time period; selecting a subset of the images such that the whole of the terrain is covered by the portions of the terrain in the images in the subset; and for an image not in the subset, if an object of interest is in that image, extracting a sub-image containing the object from that image.
US09571732B2
A display device and a method for controlling the same are disclosed in which a threshold range for generating a panorama image is indicated in accordance with a bending angle of a bending portion provided between a first area of a body provided with a first camera and a second area of a body provided with a second camera, whereby the panorama image may be generated using the first camera and the second camera.
US09571731B2
Dual-aperture digital cameras with auto-focus (AF) and related methods for obtaining a focused and, optionally optically stabilized color image of an object or scene. A dual-aperture camera includes a first sub-camera having a first optics bloc and a color image sensor for providing a color image, a second sub-camera having a second optics bloc and a clear image sensor for providing a luminance image, the first and second sub-cameras having substantially the same field of view, an AF mechanism coupled mechanically at least to the first optics bloc, and a camera controller coupled to the AF mechanism and to the two image sensors and configured to control the AF mechanism, to calculate a scaling difference and a sharpness difference between the color and luminance images, the scaling and sharpness differences being due to the AF mechanism, and to process the color and luminance images into a fused color image using the calculated differences.
US09571727B2
Disclosed are techniques that provide a “best” picture taken within a few seconds of the moment when a capture command is received (e.g., when the “shutter” button is pressed). In some situations, several still images are automatically (that is, without the user's input) captured. These images are compared to find a “best” image that is presented to the photographer for consideration. Video is also captured automatically and analyzed to see if there is an action scene or other motion content around the time of the capture command. If the analysis reveals anything interesting, then the video clip is presented to the photographer. The video clip may be cropped to match the still-capture scene and to remove transitory parts. Higher-precision horizon detection may be provided based on motion analysis and on pixel-data analysis.
US09571722B2
Disclosed is a viewfinder utility. The viewfinder receives image information from a camera and displays it on a screen of the user's device. Also in the viewfinder's display are icons associated with applications that can accept image information from the camera. By selecting an icon, a user sends captured image information to the associated application. Because the initial user interaction is with the viewfinder rather than with the application itself, there is no confusion caused by disparate application user interfaces. The viewfinder can also prevent some “lost moments” because the viewfinder is ready to capture a fleeting image even before the application is fully up and running and ready to accept it. Finally, in some embodiments the user can concurrently select more than one icon and can thus send the same image information to more than one application.
US09571720B2
An image processing device includes: a determining unit configured to determine, in accordance with two images corresponding to temporally adjacent image data input from an external device, whether or not a field area at a time of imaging has been changed; and a suppressing unit configured to generate and output suppressed image data with an amount of visually recognizable information included in the images being suppressed by performing image processing of reducing at least one of a contrast and a chroma of the images at a time the determining unit determines that the field area at the time of imaging has been changed.
US09571706B2
A solid-state imaging device comprises an image sensor, a circuit board, a support plate, an IR cut filter, a taking lens, a lens holder, and a support barrel. The image sensor is mounted on the circuit board. The circuit board is fixed to the support plate with the image sensor placed inside an opening of a plate body of the support plate. The sides of the image sensor are surrounded by the support plate. The IR cut filter is fixed to the support plate so as to cover the opening. The image sensor is disposed on an exit surface side of the taking lens. The IR cut filter is disposed between the taking lens and the image sensor. A light-shielding layer is formed over entire periphery of an inner wall of the plate body. Harmful rays are blocked by the light-shielding layer.
US09571703B2
An image-displaying device includes an image output section, an image data generation section, and a display section. The image output section outputs output data corresponding to an image of a subject. The image data generation section converts the output data to image data by each line and converts image data of a line in a first period. The display section displays the image data the line in a horizontal synchronization period of the display section. The first period is shorter than the horizontal synchronization period.
US09571698B1
A computer-implemented method for compressing a data set, the method comprising receiving a first data block of the data set, selecting automatically by a compression management module a compression module from a plurality of compression modules to apply to the first data block based on projected compression efficacy or resource utilization, and compressing the first data block with the selected compression module to generate a first compressed data block.
US09571696B2
A print data generating apparatus executes color conversion on image data using a color conversion profile to generate print data. In the color conversion profile, each of a plurality of sets of specific color data defined in a specific color space are associated with a set of first ink color data defined in an ink color space. A part of the plurality of sets of specific color data are further associated with a set of second ink color data defined in the ink color space. In bi-directional printing, a print executing unit uses the first ink color data to execute one of forward print and backward print, and uses both the first ink color data and the second ink color data to execute another of forward print and backward print.
US09571694B2
A resolution of an image data needs to be higher than a predetermined value for character recognition. A control method in an image reading apparatus having a reading unit for reading an image of a document to generate image data, and a storing unit for storing the image data generated by the reading unit includes receiving from a user, after the image data is stored by the storing unit, an instruction for executing character recognition processing on the image data stored by the storing unit, executing character recognition processing on the image data stored by the storing unit according to a reception of the instruction by the receiving unit, and performing control, in a case where the image data generated by the reading unit is to be stored by the storing unit, to read an image of a document by the reading unit with a resolution that enables character recognition.
US09571691B2
An imager apparatus useful for a digital architecture lithographic printing system includes a first imager bank having at least one imager configured to produce a first output beam; and a second imager bank having at least one imager configured to produce a second output beam, the second imager bank being located at a first angle with respect to the first imager bank, the first output beam and the second output beam being separated by a second angle which is less than the first angle.
US09571689B2
In an image sensor unit, a frame includes a light blocking portion that protrudes toward one surface of a circuit board at a position between a light source and an image sensor. On the one surface of the circuit board, a conductive portion that continuously overlaps with external lines of the light blocking portion in a sub-scan direction in a view of the circuit board in a direction orthogonal to the one surface is formed.
US09571668B1
A device may detect a change in a connection being used for network access. The device may send a message, including a domain name, based on detecting the change in the connection. The device may receive a response from either a first device or a second device based on sending the message. The first device and the second device may be associated with the domain name and may have different network addresses. The device may selectively enable or disable a toll-free data service based on the response.
US09571665B2
The application is directed to a method for improving a user's experience on an electronic device. An application for modifying data service is displayed on a display of an electronic device. A request is received by the application from a user to modify a current data service with a new data service. The application evaluates the requested, new data service in view of predetermined information based upon the user. The application updates the electronic device with the new data service after its evaluation.
US09571662B2
Novel tools and techniques are provided for delivering plain old telephone service (“POTS”) telephony over high speed data networks. In particular, various embodiments provide tools and techniques for concurrent transmission of POTS voice signals and data signals over the same wire(s) of high-speed data lines or data cables. Various systems and methods might, in some instances, utilize upbanding or rebanding of the POTS voice band to a higher frequency band above the data stream band spectrum for transport of voice concurrent with data over the same wire(s) in the cable. The system might comprise interface devices at either end of a cable segment, one interface device to reband the voice signal and to combine the voice signal with the data signal for each dual-transport wire in the cable, and another interface device at the other end to separate the voice signal from the data signal.
US09571657B2
A shared voicemail system and method of operation in which the system comprises a computer processor configured in use to store a voice message received from a third party; in which the stored voice message is accessible to each user of a plurality of users of the shared voicemail system. The computer processor also configured in use to provide a copy of the stored message to a first user of the plurality of users, receive an indication from the first user that the message is intended to be accessed by a second user of the plurality of users and to provide a notification prompting the second user to access the message. In an embodiment, the voice message received from the third party is part of a call redirected to the shared voicemail system from a phone line shared by the plurality of users.
US09571651B2
Placing a call on hold provides advantages to the party initiating the hold. The party may engage in another call or perform another action and return to the call when convenient, provided the party placed on hold is still on the call. The party on hold monitors the inactive call and waits until the call is reactivated. The party on hold is provided with a means to alert the other party via a session initiation protocol (SIP) message formatted as a ring-ping message. The message is sent to the party who placed the call on hold and the user's device activates an indicator, such as to alert the holding party that the held party wishes to re-engage the call. If the holding party does not un-hold the call or otherwise acknowledge the ring-ping indicator, another action can be initiated, such as by inviting another party to join the call.
US09571639B2
A system or a method may be provided that automatically distinguishes between a hold status and when someone live is talking on the phone. For example, the caller's phone may detect when the call holding has ended and a customer service representative is now actually on the line. The phone may alert the user to pick up the call at that time, such as utilizing a call-back mechanism. In an embodiment, the system may analyze and learn the various call holding music or recordings of call centers. The system may detect when the call holding music or recording ends in a telephone call and may alert the user.
US09571636B2
Instructions are transmitted from a contact center builder system to a content provider system that, when executed, provide an interface for configuring a contact center for the content provider that includes a contact center telephone number, an agent pool, and an interaction site. Data associated with one or more contact center configuration parameters are received from the content provider. A contact center telephone number is assigned to the contact center based on the data. One or more agents are assigned to the agent pool of the contact center based on the data. The data includes a task to be handled by the communications system without using an agent of the agent pool is determined. In response to determining that the data includes the task to be handled by the communications system without using an agent of the agent pool, multiple interaction pages for the interaction site are generated.
US09571631B1
A mobile electronic device that is operable to at least partially disable functionality of the mobile electronic device in response to receiving an indication that a vehicle is in motion. In one or more implementations, the electronic device includes a memory operable to store one or more modules and a processor communicatively coupled to the touch-sensitive display and to the memory. The processor is operable to execute the one or more modules to detect presence of a lock-out device and to receive an indication that a vehicle is in motion. The processor is also operable to execute the one or more modules to cause the mobile electronic device to be at least partially inoperable in response to receiving the indication and detecting presence of the lock-out device.
US09571624B2
Some demonstrative embodiments include an apparatus, method and/or system of terminating a docking session between a mobile device and a docking device. For example, a mobile device may include a radio to communicate over a docking session via a wireless communication link between the mobile device and a wireless docking device; and an event classifier to determine a classification of an event of connectivity loss of the wireless communication link as an intentional disconnection or an unintentional disconnection, based on a comparison between at least one acceleration metric of the mobile device and at least one acceleration threshold, and to send to the wireless docking device an indication of the classification of the event of connectivity loss.
US09571622B2
A computer-implemented method for inputting data entries of a service for use with a portable electronic device having a touch screen. By detecting a continuous stroke moving on the touch screen to select desired items among multiple levels of menus which are displayed in a sequence for an object targeting to a service, the data entries according to the selected items are committed for the object when the continuous stroke ends. In addition, multiple items can be selected in one level of menu by using a pre-defined stroke indication in the continuous stroke. Furthermore, the selected items can be corrected by re-stroking back to the corresponding levels of menus.
US09571621B2
A dynamic unlocking method and an electronic apparatus using the same method are proposed. The method includes the following steps: recording an unlocking password combination including at least one unlocking password, where each unlocking password is characterized by a touch operation initiating from a specific icon and sliding toward a specific direction along a specific path by a specific distance; displaying an unlocking screen including a plurality of predetermined icons, where the predetermined icons are randomly arranged on the specific path; receiving at least one unlocking input performed on the predetermined icons; when the at least one received unlocking input completely matches the unlocking password combination, unlocking the electronic apparatus.
US09571620B1
A method and apparatus of processing a voice call are disclosed. One example method of operation may include recording at least a portion of a conference call and storing the portion of the conference call in memory. The method may also include processing the portion of the conference call to identify at least one segment of interest and processing the at least one segment of interest and creating at least one tag of interest to be associated with a third party application. The method may also include forwarding the at least one tag of interest to a third party computing device responsive to the identified segment of interest.
US09571613B2
A portable terminal device includes: a memory to store power data; and a processor to execute a process, the process including: receiving an instruction to execute sensing; specifying one or more sensors for executing the sensing or one or more drivers controlling the sensors so that devices including the specified sensor and driver are specified; calculating a power consumed for the sensing by the specified devices based on the power data; and selecting a combination of the driver and the sensor, having a minimum power consumed for the sensing by the specified devices.
US09571607B1
In a distributed object computing system, a server application may create multiple, uniquely identified, server contexts that each provide one or more services to a service consumer (client). Instead of creating a connection to a client for each server context, a single connection can be used. A service request handler may be configured to handle service requests for each server context. Service requests may be generated in the client with a service context identity. When a service request is received by the server application, the service request handler resolves the service context identity and forwards the service request to the appropriate server context.
US09571603B2
A redundancy network protocol system may include a server to manage one or more virtual internet protocol address (VIP) profiles. Each VIP profile may be shared across one or more neighboring servers. The neighboring servers may be in the same broadcast domain or distributed to be multiple Layer 3 hops away from one another. The redundancy network protocol system may monitor server health and reachability and further manage the server health and reachability to achieve redundancy. The system may be used to provide high availability to selected applications.
US09571600B2
A relay device includes: a processor; and a memory which stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to execute, receiving a page from a server device; partitioning a second region other than a first region of the page in which the page is displayed by a client terminal into one or more partition regions; calculating the number of partition regions transmitted to the client terminal during a time difference between an acquisition time taken to acquire the entire page from the server device and a transmission time taken to transmit the first region to the client terminal; and transmitting an image corresponding to the first region and images corresponding to the partition regions of the calculated number to the client terminal.
US09571596B2
Techniques for enabling push notifications from websites are described. In at least some embodiments, a push notification generally represents a way for a website to push information to a client device. For instance, a push notification may include content (e.g., text, images, video, audio, and so forth) that a website pushes to a client device. The content can be output via the client device, e.g., independently of an output of the website itself. According to one or more embodiments, a push notification channel is generated that enables notifications to be pushed from a website to a client device. Generally, a push notification channel represents a set of attributes and procedures that enable notifications to be securely and accurately pushed from a website to a client device.
US09571592B2
Social communities are recommended based on media affinity. When content is scheduled for recording, a media identifier is used to identify a social community expressing an affinity for the same media identifier. The social community may be any individual(s), clubs, and/or organizations that have expressed any affinity to terms or subject matter, such as the media identifier.
US09571574B2
The communications method may include opening a communication channel, e.g. a HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection, between a service event source and an event management platform, and at the event management platform, generating a request to the service event source, the request including information associated with the communication channel and requested event information related to a plurality of services offered by the service event source for a mobile wireless device associated with a given service user; sending the request to the service event source. The communication channel is maintained open to receive notifications transmitted from the service event source including requested event information related to the plurality of services offered by the service event source and related to the single service user. The notifications are provided to the mobile wireless device associated with the given service user.
US09571563B2
A method and apparatus for handling a data object accessible by more than one node. A server in a communication network stores information relating to the data object stored at a first node. The server then receives a subscription request message from a second node. This subscription request message subscribes to updates relating to the data object stored at the first node. A copy of the data object is accessible by the second node. The server subsequently receives a publication message relating to a change to the data object stored at the first node and which indicates an identity of the data object and an indication of the changes. The server sends a notification message relating to the change to the data object towards the second node, which is usable by the second node to make corresponding changes to the copy of the data object accessible by the second node.
US09571556B2
The present disclosure, pertaining to the field of computer Internet, discloses a browser kernel adaptation method and a browser therefor. The method includes: receiving, by a browser, a request for browsing a page from a user; acquiring, by the browser, information of the page from a server according to the request, and determining the type of the page according to the information of the page; and selecting, by the browser, a browser kernel according to the type of the page, and processing the request by using the selected browser kernel. The browser includes: a receiving module, a determining module, and a selecting module. The present disclosure implements an automatic adaptation function of the browser kernel during page browsing, and solves the problem that the browser kernel in the prior art cannot be automatically adapted.
US09571542B2
In a content providing system, in a case where the display of an advertisement is instructed during the playback of content data, a client device pauses the playback of content data and plays back the advertisement data. A content providing device, after the advertisement data is played, increases the amount of time for which the content data can be played by an amount predefined for the advertisement Also, the content providing device, after transmitting the advertisement data, transmits content data corresponding to the amount of time for which content data can be played.
US09571538B2
A computer-implemented method, computer program product, and computing system is provided for managing quality of experience for communication sessions. In an implementation, a method may include determining a change in an optimum video size for a streaming video. The method may also include determining one or more constraints of resizing associated with the change in the desired video size. The method may further include adaptively resizing the streaming video to a current desired video size when the one or more constraints of resizing exceed a threshold value.
US09571525B2
According to one embodiment, a policy management system includes a user terminal, an ID provider system which manages an identity of a user, and a service provider system which provides service data. The ID provider system stores a pair of an old policy and a new policy with respect to each service provider ID. The ID provider system stores information with respect to each service provider ID, the difference-adaptive definition information defining a first condition which is referred to when a date of transmission of an access request message is within a transition period from the old policy to new policy, and a second condition which is referred to when the date of transmission of the access request message is out of the transition period.
US09571517B2
A system, method, and device are presented for assessing a target network's vulnerability to a real cyberthreat based on determining policy-based synthetic tests configured to model the behavior of the cyberthreat. Real-time feedback from the target network (e.g., servers, desktops, and network/monitoring hardware and/or software equipment) are received, analyzed, and used to determine whether any modifications to the same or a new synthesized test is preferred. The technology includes self-healing processes that, using the feedback mechanisms, can attempt to find patches for known vulnerabilities, test for unknown vulnerabilities, and configure the target network's resources in accordance with predefined service-level agreements.
US09571516B1
A cloud service usage assessment system analyzes network traffic from an enterprise data network and generates cloud service usage analytics for the enterprise. In some embodiments, the cloud service usage analytics may include cloud service usage risk assessment. The cloud service usage assessment system is advantageous applied to assess network security in view of an enterprise's adoption of multiple cloud based services.
US09571509B1
A computer-implemented method for identifying variants of samples based on similarity analysis may include (1) collecting, from security agents on endpoint computing systems, metadata attributes that describe samples identified by the security agents over an initial period of time, (2) collecting metadata attributes that describe a current sample identified after the initial period of time, (3) comparing at least two of the metadata attributes that describe the current sample with corresponding metadata attributes of the samples identified over the initial period of time, (4) designating the current sample as related to another sample from the samples identified over the initial period of time based on the comparison of the two metadata attributes, and (5) performing a security action to protect a user from malware based on the designation of the current sample as related to the other sample. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09571505B2
A method and/or computer program product indicates a trustworthiness of data processed in accordance with a processing rule. A first trust weight is assigned to a data item to be processed to provide a weighted data item, the first trust weight representing a level of trust in the data item. A second trust weight is assigned to the processing rule to provide a weighted processing rule, the second trust weight representing a level of trust in the processing rule. The weighted data item is processed in accordance with the weighted processing rule to generate a data output and an indication of a level of trust in the data output.
US09571499B2
A method and apparatus for providing security of an electronic apparatus are provided. The method includes identifying an environment of a client to be provided with a cloud service from at least one cloud server, determining one of an address size and an address range of a memory of the client used to execute a cloud process of the cloud service, and executing the cloud process, determining and storing a process state of the cloud process in response to the executing the cloud process in the memory, monitoring the cloud process accessing the at least one cloud server, and preventing an unauthorized access according to a result of the monitoring.
US09571498B1
The disclosed computer-implemented method for protecting purpose-built appliances on local networks may include (1) identifying a purpose-built appliance that is installed at a physical site to enhance the physical site with a pre-programmed functionality and that is connected to a local network that operates at the physical site, (2) intercepting, by a router of the local network, a request from a requesting device to access the pre-programmed functionality of the purpose-built appliance via the local network, (3) querying, from the router, via an authorization channel that is separate from a communication channel used to transmit the request, an owner of the physical site for authorization for the requesting device to access the purpose-built appliance, (4) receiving, by the router, the authorization from the owner, and (5) forwarding, by the router, the request from the requesting device to the purpose-built appliance. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09571490B2
A method and an apparatus for distinguishing humans from computers. During user registration, a computer prompts a human user to provide a spoken response to certain authentication information for registration. The computer obtains registration voice data from the spoken response and establishes a registration voiceprint of the human user. During user logon, the computer identifies the user requesting to logon by the user's logon credentials, provides authentication information for logon to the user, and prompts the user to provide a spoken response to the authentication information for logon. The computer obtains logon voice data from the spoken response, and establishes a logon voiceprint of the user. The computer then determines whether the user requesting to logon is human by comparing the logon voiceprint with the registration voiceprint.
US09571489B2
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for secured execution of commands is described. Initially, a second electronic device authenticates a first electronic device and registers the first electronic device as a trusted device. Thereafter, up receipt of a message with one or more embedded commands, such commands are executed without any pre-established communication protocol if the message is from the registered first electronic device.
US09571488B2
Session-specific information stored to a cookie or other secure token can be selected and/or caused to vary over time, such that older copies will become less useful over time. Such an approach reduces the ability of entities obtaining a copy of the cookie from performing unauthorized tasks on a session. A cookie received with a request can contain a timestamp and an operation count for a session that may need to fall within an acceptable range of the current values in order for the request to be processed. A cookie returned with a response can be set to the correct value or incremented from the previous value based on various factors. The allowable bands can decrease with age of the session, and various parameter values such as a badness factor for a session can be updated continually based on the events for the session.
US09571484B2
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to configuring a computing appliance and provide a method, system and computer program product for device certificate based virtual appliance configuration. In one embodiment of the invention, a virtual appliance secure configuration method can be provided. The method can include mounting non-volatile storage to the virtual appliance, retrieving a device certificate from the mounted storage and extracting a signature from the device certificate, activating the virtual appliance in a network domain and acquiring an adapter address and unique identifier for the virtual appliance, and authenticating the signature with the adapter address and unique identifier to ensure a unique active instance of the virtual appliance.
US09571482B2
Embodiments of a mobile device and method for secure on-line sign-up and provisioning of credentials for Wi-Fi hotspots are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the mobile device may be configured to establish a transport-layer security (TLS) session with a sign-up server through a Wi-Fi Hotspot to receive a certificate of the sign-up server. When the certificate is validated, the mobile device may be configured to exchange device management messages with the sign-up server to sign-up for a Wi-Fi subscription and provisioning of credentials, and retrieve a subscription management object (MO) that includes a reference to the provisioned credentials for storage in a device management tree. The credentials are transferred/provisioned securely to the mobile device. In some embodiments, an OMA-DM protocol may be used. The provisioned credentials may include certificates in the case of certificate-based credentials, machine-generated credentials such as username/password credentials, or SIM-type credentials.
US09571479B1
A server computer system within a network of an organization receives a request from a user to access a cloud account. The request includes a user identifier. The server computer system authenticates the user for access to the cloud account based on the user identifier, identifies one or more predetermined roles associated with the cloud account for the user, and identifies one or more pseudo accounts associated with the cloud account. The server computer system further maps the user to the one or more pseudo accounts, and provides user access to the cloud account based on the mapping and with access privileges corresponding to the one or more pseudo accounts.
US09571476B1
Systems and methods of performing single sign-on authentication from multiple platforms when establishing a connection to a database are described. An application can securely access a database based on user credentials provided during a prior authentication. In an embodiment, single sign-on is accomplished by relying on existing and emerging authentication, security service, security mechanism, and wire protocols, enabling the creation of drivers to accommodate various platforms and databases. In another embodiment, a pure type 4 Java Driver is used, eliminating dependencies on native operating functionality.
US09571474B2
A method for providing a service by a server to a reader device is disclosed, the provision being based on the readout information of a readout operation by the reader device of a tag, the tag comprising information relating to the unique tag-ID of the tag, comprising reading out the unique tag-ID during the readout operation; communicating the unique tag-ID to the server; providing the service to the reader device, the service being determined at least partially based on the value of the unique tag-ID. Corresponding tags and tag reader devices have further also been disclosed.
US09571470B2
After an IP address of a concentrator is changed by a management server (management platform), a server and the concentrator acquire the changed IP address of the concentrator at each communication, and changes encryption settings so that a set encryption key will be associated with the changed IP address.
US09571458B1
A virtual private network (VPN) device is described that provides a strict anti-replay mechanism for packets in a group VPN. An example first VPN device includes one or more processors, one or more network interfaces configured to receive a packet having an encryption header that includes a group VPN member identifier association with a second VPN device and a sequence number, wherein the first and second VPN devices are members of a group VPN, a data repository configured to store a window of sequence numbers maintained by the first VPN device for the second VPN device, and a VPN session management module operable by the one or more processors to identify the window of sequence numbers based on the group VPN member identifier, determine whether the sequence number of the header is included in the window of sequence numbers, and process the packet based on the determination.
US09571456B2
The present disclosure provides solutions that may enable an enterprise providing services to a number of clients to determine whether to establish a client based SSL VPN session or a clientless SSL VPN session with a client based on an information associated with the client. An intermediary establishing SSL VPN sessions between clients and servers may receive a request from a client to access a server. The intermediary may identify a session policy based on the request. The session policy may indicate whether to establish a client based SSL VPN session or clientless SSL VPN session with the server. The intermediary may determine, responsive to the policy, to establish a clientless or client based SSL VPN session between the client and the server.
US09571451B2
A method, system, and program product for creating network isolation between virtual machines is provided, including receiving, by a security virtual machine (SVM), an outgoing network packet from a virtual machine (VM). The source internet protocol (IP) address and a source media access control (MAC) address is extracted from the outgoing network packet. A zone identifier table is searched for a zone id, whereby the zone identifier table includes the source IP address and the source MAC address. The outgoing network packet is sent to a physical Ethernet adapter connected to an external network switch whereby the external network switch is connected to an external network, based on the zone id not being found in the zone identifier table. The outgoing network packet is sent to a physical Ethernet adapter that is connected to an internal switch, based on the zone id being found in the zone identifier table.
US09571444B2
Computer systems and methods for generating a social network of users based on the users' devices being operably coupled are discussed herein. Specifically, techniques are described herein to determine the types of relationships between a plurality of users based on telemetry data collected at one or more server computers from the users' operably coupled client devices. The telemetry data describes, among other things, protocol(s) and network interface(s) used to operably couple the client devices, network operations performed by the client devices, and sensory data recorded by the client devices while the devices are operably coupled.
US09571441B2
A device set may interoperate to perform an action, such as providing a message to a user or storing photos taken by a user. Performing the action on all available devices may cause redundancy (e.g., presenting the same message to the user on each device), and depending on user selection (e.g., the user requesting to play music and specifically designating a device) may become onerous. A centralized, server-driven selection of the device to perform the action may be problematic if the server is inaccessible and/or inaccurate if not currently informed of the current state of each device. In accordance with the techniques presented herein, a requesting device broadcasts an action invitation to the device set. Each device provides a suitability report indicating its suitability to perform the action. The requesting device identifies one or more suitable devices, and sends an action request to identified devices to perform the action.
US09571438B2
A database includes one or more physical location identifiers such as postal addresses, delivery or street addresses, or geographic coordinates. A correlator correlates electronic addresses with physical location identifiers. The correlated electronic addresses can incorporate part or all of the corresponding physical location identifier. The correlated electronic addresses can further incorporate a reference to an individual, such as a name or title, or a reference to a group of individuals, such as by name. Correlated electronic addresses allow reception of electronic communication. Services offered with electronic delivery of correspondence to correlated electronic addresses include return receipt, insured delivery, certified delivery, forwarding, non-delivery notification, and non-electronic delivery. Costs associated with operation of the electronic mail may be covered by administration of postage or when the recipient elects electronic delivery of correspondence traditionally delivered by paper mail.
US09571434B1
A system and machine-implemented method is provided for generating an e-mail filter including receiving an indication of a selection of a simple filter representing a filter criterion and a placement of the simple filter icon within a display area displaying a visual representation of a collection of e-mail filters corresponding to the user, receiving an indication of a selection of an action icon representing an action to be performed with respect to an e-mail message and a placement of the action icon within the filter display area with respect to the simple filter icon, the placement representing a connection of the action icon with the simple filter icon, generating an e-mail filter comprising one or more filter criteria including the filter criterion in response to receiving the indication of the placement of the action icon and assigning the action to the e-mail filter.
US09571432B1
Aspects of the present invention disclose a method for sending a message. The method includes receiving a calendar of a user. The method further includes receiving an indication of a time. The method further includes determining one or more messages based on the calendar and the time. The method further includes receiving an indication from the user of selecting a message from the one or more messages.
US09571423B2
A management application can automatically coordinate the decommissioning of ports in a switch, ensuring that ports are gracefully taken out of service without unnecessary interruption of service and triggering of automatic recovery functionality that may occur during manual decommissioning of ports. Embodiments may provide for decommissioning of F_ports only, E_ports only, or both F_ports and E_ports. Where link aggregation is provided for in the fabric, decommissioning of a port in a link aggregation group may be performed if there are other operational links in the group. Decommissioning of a non-aggregated port (or the last operational port in a link aggregation group) may be performed if there is a redundant path available.
US09571422B2
In accordance with techniques presented herein, a packet is received at a forwarding device operating in a multi-service Low-power and Lossy Network (LLN). The forwarding device is configured to retrieve service requirements associated with the packet and obtain forwarding information from a plurality of networking layers associated with forwarding of the packet. The forwarding device is further configured to evaluate the service requirements in view of the forwarding information to dynamically adjust one or more parameters within the LLN for use in forwarding packets within the LLN.
US09571414B2
Methods and systems for implementing multi-tiered processing in a distributed strict queue are disclosed. Original messages are dequeued from a first set of queues using a first layer of queue clients, each of which transforms a subset of the original messages into a transformed message and enqueues the transformed message into a second set of queues. The transformed messages are dequeued from the second set of queues using a second layer of queue clients, each of which summarizes a subset of the transformed messages into a summarized message and enqueues the summarized message into a third set of queues. The summarized messages are dequeued from the third set of queues using a third layer of queue clients, each of which aggregates a subset of the transformed messages into an aggregated message. A final result is generated based on the aggregated messages.
US09571410B2
In one embodiment, a system includes a network having one or more devices interconnected therebetween, the network including a first device having a first port and logic integrated with and/or executable by a first processor, the logic being adapted to exchange credit exchange (CE) capabilities between the first port and a second port of a second device in the network, receive a credit grant packet from the second port, the credit grant packet indicating credits granted to the first port, and send one or more packets of data from the first port to the second port, the one or more packets corresponding with the granted credits. Other systems and methods for providing credit-based flow control are described according to more embodiments.
US09571403B2
Network devices facilitate flow management through packet marking. The network devices may be switches, routers, bridges, hubs, or any other network device. The packet marking may include analyzing received packets to determine when the received packets meet a marking criterion, and then applying a configurable marking function to mark the packets in a particular way. The marking capability may facilitate deadline aware end-to-end flow management, as one specific example. More generally, the marking capability may facilitate traffic management actions such as visibility actions and flow management actions.
US09571401B2
A technique for predicting network load in a communication network is described. For multiple subscriptions, a network load snapshot is provided. The network load snapshot comprises multiple network load records. Each network load record reflects network load caused by an associated subscription in the network at a particular point of time. Each network load record comprises at least one network load value reflecting a network load caused by the corresponding subscription and at least one network load influencing factor reflecting a parameter associated with the subscription which has the potential of influencing the network load value. The network load snapshot is transformed into a predicted network load snapshot comprising at least one predicted network load record, each predicted network load record reflecting estimated network load caused by the corresponding subscription at a particular point of time in the future. The transformation of a network load snapshot into a corresponding predicted network load snapshot is done based on both the network load values and the associated network load influencing factors.
US09571395B2
The invention describes the design of an interconnect element in a programmable network processor/system on-chip having multiple packet processing engines. The on-chip interconnection network for a large number of processing engines on a system can be built from an array of the proposed interconnect elements. Each interconnect element also includes local network lookup tables which allows its attached processing engines to perform lookups locally. These local lookups are much faster than the lookups to a remote search engine, which is shared by all processing engines in the entire system. Local lookup tables in each interconnect element are built from a pool of memory tiles. Each lookup table can be shared by multiple processing engines attached to the interconnect element; and each of these processing engines can perform lookups on different lookup tables in run-time.
US09571394B1
In general, techniques are described for enhancing operations of virtual networks. In some examples, a network system includes a plurality of servers interconnected by a switch fabric comprising a plurality of switches interconnected to form a physical network. Each of the servers comprises an operating environment executing one or more virtual machines in communication via one or more virtual networks. The servers comprise a set of virtual routers configured to extend the virtual networks to the operating environments of the virtual machines. A virtual router of the set of virtual routers is configured to aggregate a plurality of inbound tunnel packets according to a same virtual network identifier in order to generate an aggregate tunnel packet. The virtual router is further configured to route the aggregate tunnel packet to a host associated with a virtual network identified by the same virtual network identifier.
US09571391B2
A method in gateway node (100) for handling an address of a resource of a device (110) in a communications network, the method comprising: generating a first alias representing the address of the device (110) resource, storing the generated alias, in association with the address, receiving a request from an application (120) including the address of the device (110) resource, translating the address to the stored alias, and forwarding the request including the alias to the device (110), thereby enabling the device to resolve the request by use of the alias in said request.
US09571388B1
Techniques are described for separating control plane functions in a network device using virtual machines. The techniques include initializing multiple virtual machine instances in a control unit of a standalone router, and running different control processes for the router in each of the virtual machines. For example, in a root system domain (RSD)-protected system domain (PSD) system, a control unit of the standalone router may support a RSD virtual machine (VM) and one or more PSD VMs configured to form logical devices and execute logically separate control processes without requiring physically separate, hardware-independent routing engines to form the PSDs. Each of the RSD VM and PSD VMs includes a separate kernel, an operating system, and control processes for the logical device. When a software failure occurs in the PSD VM, the PSD VM may perform a software failover without affecting the operation of the RSD VM.
US09571387B1
Network devices can use maximally redundant trees (MRTs) for delivering traffic streams across a network, and for transitioning traffic to a new set of MRTs after a topology change, without dropping traffic. The disclosure describes distributed computation of a set of MRTs from one or more ingress devices to one or more egress devices of the network. In one example, network devices in a network compute a set of MRTs, and establish a set of LSPs along the paths of the set of MRTs. After a change to the network topology, convergence sequencing is managed by a central controller, which centrally orchestrates the sequence for moving traffic from being sent on the old MRT paths to being sent on newly computed MRT paths after the controller determines that all new MRT forwarding state has been installed on the network devices.
US09571385B2
There is provided an information processing apparatus including a distribution information acquisition section which acquires distribution information indicating that content-related data is distributed from a first user to a second user through a social network to which the first user and the second user belong, and a route information generation section which generates route information based on the distribution information, the route information indicating a route through which the content-related data is distributed among users belonging to the social network.
US09571381B2
A system, method and apparatus for causing network routers such as Area Border Routers (ABRs) to use a preferred tie-breaking mechanism to select one path in the event of an ERO expansion operation resulting in multiple equal cost paths.
US09571379B2
A computer system comprises: a forwarding node(s) that processes a packet received from any other apparatus based on a packet handling operation; a communication control server that controls the packet handling operation stored in the forwarding node(s); and a physical server(s) on which a virtual server operates, wherein the communication control server stores a topology of a communication network including the forwarding node(s) and the physical server(s) and an operating status of a virtual server(s) connected to the communication network, requests resuming an operation of a virtual server(s) in a suspended state upon occurrence of a communication request to the suspended virtual server(s), and sets a communication path for forwarding a packet for the communication request in the forwarding node(s), based on a location at which the suspended virtual server(s) is connected to the communication network after resumption of the operation.
US09571377B2
A method for providing dynamic denial-of-service (DoS) protection using a multicore processor is provided. The multicore processor includes a shared memory, a data processor core, a dynamic DoS processor core and a signaling processor core. The data path processor core receives a network packet addressed to a host computer, selects a target queue based on a traffic type of the network packet, and adds the network packet to the target queue. The target queue is selected from one of n queues, stored in the shared memory, associated with the traffic type. The dynamic DoS processor core services the target queue, including removing the network packet from the target queue and adding the network packet to the host queue. The signaling processor core services the host queue, including removing the network packet from the host queue and sending the network packet to the host computer.
US09571374B2
A method, system and computer program product for allocating compute nodes among cloud groups. Policies are created for cloud groups for specifying conditions when a compute node will need to be borrowed by a cloud group as well as when the borrowed compute node is to be returned. Furthermore, priorities are assigned to the conditions in the policies for borrowing a compute node as well as to the cloud groups concerning borrowing compute nodes. A compute node is allocated temporarily from a first cloud group to a second cloud group based on the priority assigned to the second cloud group and the priority assigned to the monitored condition invoking the borrowing of the compute node as well as based on the monitored condition satisfying a condition in the policy for the second cloud group as to when the compute node will need to be borrowed by the second cloud group.
US09571373B2
A performance monitoring and management system is provided for monitoring both server side and network side performance parameters of individual distributed transactions. The system uses correlation data which is transferred over a computer network to identify corresponding sender/receiver parts of a distributed transaction. Both server side tracing data and correlation data is transferred to an external correlation and monitoring server that creates per transaction end-to-end tracing data. Network probes are installed in the network infrastructures which monitor network conditions, like e.g. data transferred. Those network probes are configured in a way to identify and extract the correlation data used by the monitoring system and to tag created network measurements with this correlation data. Those tagged network measurements are then used to augment the per transaction end-to-end tracing data with corresponding network measurements.
US09571368B2
Analyzing communication network data set access of a data set group constituted by multiple data sets. The method includes the following steps: (i) determining, for a first interval, a first low access count value corresponding to an amount of data sets in the data set group that have been accessed, in the first interval, an amount of times that is no greater than a low access threshold value; (ii) determining, for a second interval, a second low access count value corresponding to an amount of data sets in the data set group that have been accessed, in the second interval, an amount of times that is no greater than the low access threshold value; and (iii) determining a delta value based, at least in part, on a difference between the first low access count value and the second low access count value.
US09571363B2
Novel tools and techniques are provided for testing performance of network connections. In some cases, a method for testing performance of a network connection might comprise establishing a plurality of test points within one or more segments in the network connection. With a computer, performance of a selected segment of the network connection at one or more first test points may be tested. The selected segment might have a first endpoint and a second endpoint. The performance of one or more sub-segments of the selected segment at one or more second test points may also be tested with the computer. The computer may also determine an isolated performance of a particular one of the sub-segments based on the testing. In some instances, the method might further comprise determining, with the computer, that performance of the one or more sub-segments has affected performance of the network connection.
US09571359B2
A system and method for monitoring network connection quality utilizes software installed on a user computer to monitor a first network connection to a target server used for a desired activity and a second network connection to a benchmark server. Various network quality metrics are recorded and compared for each of the connections and displayed on a visual display so that the user may easily and accurately judge the health of the connection to the target server.
US09571342B2
A method for generating transaction data from network traffic data for an application system which is distributed across a plurality of network connected nodes, comprising: gathering the network traffic data, the network traffic data including syntactic information; storing the network traffic data and the syntactic information in field-sets; deriving semantic information from the network traffic data and the syntactic information with a first module which implements a first semantic model relating to first transactions, and modifying the field-sets to include the semantic information; passing the field-sets to a second module; deriving additional semantic information from the network traffic data, the syntactic information, and the semantic information with the second module which implements a second semantic model relating to second transactions, and further modifying the field-sets to include the additional semantic information; and, outputting the field-sets from the second module to provide the transaction data for the application system.
US09571326B2
A Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) method and apparatus including a QAM transmit modulator with at least one unbalanced mixer, which creates an asymmetric two-dimensional (2-D) QAM symbol constellation. The asymmetrical symbol constellation provides baseband symbol clock signal leakage sufficient to facilitate quick and simple baseband symbol clock recovery and signal channel compensation at the QAM receiver without significantly degrading the system bit-error rate (BER). While slightly degrading static BER, overall system performance is improved when considering baseband symbol clock recovery and received signal compensation for an imperfect signal channel. This allows QAM to be deployed in systems where QAM is otherwise prohibitively expensive and improves overall system performance for any existing QAM system application without additional bandwidth, cost or complexity.
US09571321B2
In some embodiments of the invention, OFDM symbols are transmitted as a plurality of clusters. A cluster includes a plurality of OFDM sub-carriers in frequency, over a plurality of OFDM symbol durations in time. Each cluster includes data as well as pilot information as a reference signal for channel estimation. In some embodiments, a plurality of clusters collectively occupy the available sub-carrier set in the frequency domain that is used for transmission. In some embodiments of the invention data and/or pilots are spread within each cluster using code division multiplexing (CDM). In some embodiments pilots and data are separated by distributing data on a particular number of the plurality of OFDM symbol durations and pilots on a remainder of the OFDM symbol durations. CDM spreading can be performed in time and/or frequency directions.
US09571316B2
Provided herein is a method and apparatus for realizing a frequency-spatial filter with variable bandwidth, the method including generating M number of FFT channel blocks having N number of channels by performing an N point FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) processing using M number of array antenna inputs; combining some of the N number of channels of each FFT channel block according to a frequency bandwidth variable parameter value; combining some of spatial response vector channels in a combined channel of each FFT channel block according to a spatial bandwidth variable parameter value; and combining all the channels and outputting the same.
US09571314B1
A method for wireless communication is described. The method includes receiving a signal that is pattern-mapped and Gaussian frequency-shift keying (GFSK) modulated. The method also includes performing a joint demapping and demodulation of the received signal based on a stored accumulated phase. The method may further include updating the stored accumulated phase based on the joint demapping and demodulation.
US09571310B2
A method, a codebook, and a Base Station (BS) for precoding are provided. The precoding method includes: obtaining a total uplink power of a User Equipment (UE); if the total uplink power is greater than ¾ of a rated total transmit power of antennas, selecting a codeword from a first codebook with imbalanced power between layers; otherwise, selecting a codeword from the first codebook and a second codebook with balanced power between layers, so as for precoding data to be transmitted according to the selected codeword.
US09571307B2
The transmission and decoding of resource blocks (RBs) transmitted via a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna having a plurality of transmit antennas is disclosed. Each RB includes a plurality of resource elements (REs). Each RE is reserved for one of a common reference signal (CRS) associated with one of the transmit antennas, a dedicated reference signal (DRS) including a single beamformed or precoded pilot, a DRS including a composite beamformed or precoded pilot, and a data symbol. Each RB may include a “control type” data symbol that indicates a DRS mode associated with the RB. In one DRS mode, each DRS includes a single beamformed or precoded pilot. In another DRS mode, each DRS includes a composite beamformed or precoded pilot. In yet another DRS mode, single beamformed or precoded pilots, and composite beamformed or precoded pilots, may coexist and be transmitted simultaneously within the same RBs or in different RBs.
US09571304B2
Some embodiments provide a method for a first network controller located at a first domain that manages a logical network spanning several physical domains including the first domain. Upon reconnection to a second network controller located at a second physical domain of the several physical domains after a period of disconnect, the method receives a first set of updates indicating modifications to logical network state from the second network controller. The method reconciles any conflicts between (i) the logical network state stored at the first controller, (ii) the first set of updates received from the second network controller, and (iii) updates received from other network controllers located at different physical domains of the several physical domains. The method transmits a second set of updates to the second controller indicating modifications to the logical network state based on the reconciliation of conflicts.
US09571292B2
An approach is described for routing data to a plurality of output terminals via a integrated switch router including a crossbar switch having both a crossbar and a plurality of crossbar bypass lines. Whereas the crossbar may connect each input of the crossbar switch to each output of the crossbar switch, each of the plurality of crossbar bypass lines may connect a single input of the crossbar switch to a corresponding single output of the crossbar switch. According to such approach, a replicated copy of a multicast packet may be forwarded to an output terminal via a crossbar bypass line in parallel with other data forwarded via the crossbar, thus increasing integrated switch router bandwidth.
US09571273B2
A method and system for accelerated decryption of a cryptographically protected user data unit, wherein a transmitter initially generates a cryptographic key that is provided with a related key identification. The transmitter then performs asymmetrical encryption of the generated cryptographic key using a public cryptographic key and encryption of at least one user data unit using the generated cryptographic key. The encrypted user data unit, the asymmetrically encrypted cryptographic key and the related key identification of the cryptographic key are transported to a receiver that decrypts the received asymmetrically encrypted key using a private key, if verification of the received related key identification of the cryptographic key indicates the cryptographic key is not present in a decrypted state in the receiver. The receiver then decrypts the received cryptographically encrypted user data unit using the cryptographic key in the receiver or with the cryptographic key decrypted using the private key.
US09571272B2
An image forming apparatus using a service of a server apparatus decrypts encrypted common authentication information of the image forming apparatus based on secret key information for decrypting the common authentication information, and then requests encrypted individual authentication information of the image forming apparatus from the server apparatus based on decrypted common authentication information and identification information for identifying the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus obtains the individual authentication information from the server apparatus, requests the server apparatus for use permission information of the service based on the decrypted individual authentication information and on service use information, and obtains the use permission information from the server apparatus.
US09571260B2
The embodiment of the invention discloses a channel estimation method for a TD-SCDMA system. The channel estimation method comprises steps of: obtaining a coarse channel estimation of a channel 1 of an intra-frequency cell set by a single cell channel estimation algorithm; performing an interference cancellation on the coarse channel estimation to obtain a channel estimation; determining a channel environment according to the channel estimation; and determining a stop strategy for the interference cancellation according to the channel environment and controlling performing the interference cancellation according to the stop strategy. The embodiment of the invention also discloses a channel estimation apparatus for a TD-SCDMA system, a communication device and a computer program executing the channel estimation method.
US09571258B2
A system and process that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, an interference monitor configured to detect occurrences of unintended signals within a communications link. A communications link may carry a down-converted format of a satellite signal from an earth terminal to an integrated receiver and decoder for further network distribution. Depending upon the nature of any such detected unintended signals, the communications link can be “swapped out” for a redundant communications link carrying a down-converted format of the same satellite signal obtained by way of a redundant earth terminal. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09571251B2
Wireless device, method, and computer readable media are disclosed for determining which channel status information (CSI) report of a user equipment (UE) to drop from a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) packet. The method may include determining that a first CSI report and a second CSI report are to be sent in the PUCCH, where the first CSI report has a first reporting type and a first CSI sub-frame set, and the second CSI report has a second reporting type and a second CSI sub-frame set. The method may include determining to drop the first CSI report if the first CSI sub-frame set has a second lower priority than the second CSI sub-frame set. The determination to drop may be further based on a CSI processor index, serving cell index, and the CSI report priority.
US09571246B2
Methods and apparatus for enabling interference coordination in a communication network. A base station includes a plurality of antenna ports. Each antenna port is configured to transmit a reference signal, and each antenna port is associated with a respective cell. The base station determines a set of cells where transmissions of reference signals is to be performed from a reduced set of the plurality of antenna ports. The base station determines a subset of antenna ports in at least one cell of the determined set of cells to enable interference coordination in the network, and transmits the reference signal from the subset of antenna ports.
US09571239B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting channel information used by a station form among TV white space channels, and a method and apparatus for performing channel switching are disclosed. A method for transmitting information of a channel used by a station from among TV white space channels includes determining one or more channels used by the station from among channels contained in a plurality of OFDM blocks, wherein each OFDM block includes one or more contiguous channels from among the TV white space channels, generating a message including first information indicating the lowest channel number from among channels contained in a first OFDM block from among the plurality of OFDM blocks, second information indicating the lowest channel number from among channels contained in a second OFDM block, third information indicating the one or more channels used by the station as bitmap information, and fourth information indicating a total amount of bandwidth used by the station, and transmitting the generated message.
US09571235B2
A radio communications link is established between radio stations, and a semi-persistent radio resource is allocated to support data transmission over the communications link. The semi-persistent radio resource is associated with a corresponding automatic repeat request (ARQ) process identifier. Non-limiting examples of a semi-persistent radio resource include a regularly scheduled transmission time interval, frame, subframe, or time slot during which to transmit a data unit over the radio interface. Retransmission is requested of a data unit transmitted using the semi-persistent radio resource. The ARQ process identifier associated with the semi-persistent resource is used to match a retransmission of a data unit dynamically scheduled on the communications link with the requested data unit retransmission. In a preferred example embodiment, the ARQ process identifier is a hybrid ARQ (HARQ) process, where a retransmitted data unit is combined with a previously-received version of the data unit.
US09571234B2
A method is provided for receiving a realtime data stream transmitted at a given speed in the form of packets between a transmitter and a receiver in a telecommunication network. The receiver has a buffer memory for storing the received packets. The method includes the following steps after detection of a loss of packets: requesting retransmission of the lost packets at a speed that is higher than the given speed; receiving retransmitted packets and realtime packets, the retransmitted packets having been transmitted with priority in relation to the realtime packets; and storing the retransmitted packets in the buffer memory.
US09571232B2
A method for operating a receiving device includes determining reliability ratings for undecoded data streams in a received transmission, selecting an undecoded data stream in the received transmission in accordance with the determined reliability ratings, thereby producing a selected data stream, and decoding the selected data stream with a decoding trellis, thereby producing a data symbol. The method also includes updating the decoding trellis in accordance with the data symbol, and repeating the selecting, the decoding, and the updating for remaining undecoded data streams in the received transmission.
US09571230B2
A method begins by a first computing device generating an initial routing plan that identifies network paths for transmitting encoded data slices of an encoded data segment from the first computing device to a second computing device. The method continues with the first computing device sending a plurality of subsets of encoded data slices to network paths. Within a network path, the method continues by a relay unit determining whether the network path defined by the initial routing plan requires adjusting. When the network path requires adjusting, the method continues with the relay unit establishing an adjusted network path by at least one of adding a relay unit and deleting a relay unit. The method continues with the relay unit sending, via the adjusted network path, the corresponding subset of encoded data slices to the second computing device.
US09571225B2
Method and apparatus for optimizing target error rates for link adaptation in a communication system
A method and apparatus for optimizing target error rates for link adaptation in a communication system. The method includes estimating a data rate associated with transmission of a data stream over a communication link. A required target error rate is then selected from a plurality of pre-defined target error rate values based on whether the estimated data rate is within a range of at least one of a plurality of pre-defined threshold values, where each of the pre-defined target error rate values maps to one of the plurality of pre-defined threshold values. A link adaptation parameter associated with the communication link is then selected or updated to maintain the required target error rate and the data stream is transmitted over the communication link using the selected/updated link adaptation parameter.
US09571223B2
A network component comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising collecting wavelength availability information associated with a wavelength switched optical network (WSON), receiving a path computation request to transport a signal through the WSON, calculating at least one route through the WSON for the signal, and assigning at least one wavelength for the signal to use along the route. Also disclosed is a network comprising a first path computation element (PCE) configured to compute at least one route for a signal between a source and a destination, and a second PCE in communication with the first PCE, wherein the second PCE is configured to receive the route from the first PCE and assign at least one wavelength to the route.
US09571219B2
A WDDM includes a base substrate; a first mirror on the base substrate; a second mirror on said base substrate; a third mirror on the base substrate; a first optical splitter on the base substrate, wherein the first mirror is configured to reflect a first light beam to the first optical splitter, wherein the first optical splitter is configured to split the first light beam into a second light beam exiting from a first light exit surface of the first optical splitter and a third light beam reflecting to the second mirror; and a second optical splitter on the base substrate, wherein the second mirror is configured to reflect the third light beam to the second optical splitter, wherein the second optical splitter is configured to split the third light beam into a fourth light beam exiting from a second light exit surface of the second optical splitter and a fifth light beam reflecting to the third mirror.
US09571218B2
A multi direction variable transceiver including a transmitter comprising a subcarrier aggregator including at least one variable transmitter splitter and at least one variable transmitter coupler. The transceiver typically includes a receiver having at least one variable receiver splitter and at least one variable receiver coupler. In some examples, each of the transmitter and the receiver may include a controller for dynamically adjusting a splitting ratio for at least one of the variable receiver splitter, variable receiver coupler, variable transmission splitter and variable transmission coupler.
US09571211B2
A system, method, and enclosure for testing wireless devices. The enclosure includes a number of walls enclosing a testing space. The enclosure also includes a sliding cover secured between the two of the number of walls. The enclosure also includes one or more radio frequency layers disposed on the number of walls and the sliding cover.
US09571210B2
This disclosure relates to a signal processing device, a signal processing method, and a receiving device that are capable of detecting response information at a high degree of accuracy from a carrier signal that is load-modulated based on the response information. A positive DC generating unit 61 generates a positive threshold based on a load-modulated carrier signal. A positive selecting unit 62 compares the voltage of the carrier signal with the positive threshold, and outputs the value of the larger one to an adding unit 65. A negative DC generating unit 63 generates a negative threshold based on the load-modulated carrier signal. A negative selecting unit 64 compares the voltage of the carrier signal with the negative threshold, and outputs the value of the smaller one to the adding unit 65. The adding unit 65 adds the output of the positive selecting unit 62 and the output of the negative selecting unit 64, and outputs the addition result to an IQ detecting unit 53. As a result of the combining, a signal that has smaller Vpp than that of the original carrier signal and maintains the fluctuation portions of the voltage is obtained. This disclosure can be applied to non-contact communication systems.
US09571207B2
Digital communication systems utilizing entangled qubits are disclosed. The disclosed systems and component sending devices and receiving devices exploit selective entanglement swapping to transfer an entangled state between the sending device and the receiving device. Each device includes pairs of qubits that are independently entangled with pairs of qubits in the other device. By selectively entangling the qubits within a pair in the sending device, the qubits of the corresponding pair in the receiving device also are selectively entangled. When the qubits are entangled, they are projected onto a particular entangled state type. Though no information may be transferred through selective entanglement of one qubit pair, systems of the present disclosure determine whether a set of pairs of qubits are entangled by determining whether the distribution of pairs is a correlated or uncorrelated distribution (a probabilistic approach) and transform the distribution type to a classical bit of data.
US09571194B2
A system and method for wirelessly communicating between a host bus of a spacecraft and a secondary payload. In one configuration, the host bus and secondary payload each include a wireless interface for establishing a radio or optical communications link thereby allowing for the elimination of a complex wiring harness connected between the host bus and the secondary payload.
US09571188B2
An apparatus for inline monitoring of transmit signals is disclosed. The apparatus includes a processor, and one or more fiber optic lines for supplying a transmit signal to/from a remote transmission station. The processor is configured to receive input for selecting one or more fiber optic lines for examination, determine at least one property of the transmit signal to be monitored, and retrieve information corresponding to the at least one property for a predetermined period of time. The processor is further configured to output a visual representation of the retrieved information, perform an analysis of the retrieved information and the visual representation, and facilitate identification of at least one status associated with the transmit signal based, at least in part, on the analysis.
US09571181B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide improved systems and methods for a programmable portable electronic device for airborne operational communications. In one embodiment, a method comprises loading application configuration information onto a storage medium on the portable electronic device from an external storage medium, the application configuration information defining an application configuration for the avionic operational data communications application and configuring an avionic operational data communications application stored in the storage medium on the portable electronic device according to the application configuration information stored in the storage medium. Further, the method includes receiving avionic operational data from an airborne server; executing the avionic operational data communications application to process the avionic operational data, wherein the execution of the avionic operational data communications application produces operational communications according to the application configuration information stored in the storage medium; and communicating the operational communications with a ground peer.
US09571178B2
A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data in a wireless communication system that supports a relay node are disclosed, wherein an open-loop mode is provided between the relay node and a user equipment. A method for transmitting data from a relay node to a user equipment comprises the steps of receiving information on a first condition related to transmission of the data from a base station; receiving first data including a plurality of sequential codes from the base station; and transmitting second data corresponding a part of the first data to the user equipment in accordance with the first condition if decoding of the first code of the plurality of codes is successfully performed.
US09571174B2
Disclosed is a precoding method for generating, from a plurality of baseband signals, a plurality of precoded signals that are transmitted in the same frequency bandwidth at the same time. According to the precoding method, one matrix is selected from among matrices defining a precoding process that is performed on the plurality of baseband signals by hopping between the matrices. A first baseband signal and a second baseband signal relating to a first coded block and a second coded block generated by using a predetermined error correction block coding scheme satisfy a given condition.
US09571170B2
A method and apparatus for mapping/demapping a resource efficiently in a wireless communication system are provided. A resource mapping method of a transmitter in a wireless communication system includes precoding pairs of symbols, arranging the pairs of precoded symbols adjacently in a resource block, and transmitting the pairs of precoded symbols in the resource block.
US09571166B2
Methods and systems for determining one or more parameters of a tuned circuit forming part of a wireless energy transmission system in an implanted (or implantable) medical device are described. The method involves energizing the tuned circuit then receiving a signal back from it. This signal is then analyzed to determine a property of the circuit such as its quality factor (Q) or resonant frequency. Also described herein is a method and system for determining the implantation depth of a component of an implanted medical device. The method involves determining the position of a magnetic element which is mounted in a fixed physical relationship with the component of the medical device. The methods can be performed on an implanted medical device without the need to explant the device.
US09571162B2
A wireless power transfer system includes a transmission device that performs power supply by wireless power transfer to a power receiving device, a position acquiring section that acquires a current position of the power receiving device, and a control section that performs control to authorize the power supply in a case where the power receiving device is in a preset area and to not authorize the power supply in a case where the power receiving device is outside the preset area.
US09571156B2
An apparatus can include a detector configured to detect a burst event for a selected frequency of a digital input signal having a predetermined bandwidth. The detector can provide a burst trigger, in response to detecting the burst event relative to a threshold, and provide other burst data for the detected burst event. A signal analyzer can be configured to measure signal information for another selected frequency of the digital input signal in response to the burst trigger. The signal analyzer can provide corresponding analysis data based on the measured signal information, the burst trigger, the other burst data, and the corresponding analysis data can be stored in memory.
US09571150B2
An electronic device includes at least one screen. One or more bumpers are moveable between at least a stowed position where the bumper is flush or below the screen and a deployed position where at least a portion of the bumper projects above the screen. One or more sensors detect when the electronic device is subject to one or more drop events. When a drop event is detected, the bumper moves to the deployed position, protecting the screen. In various implementations, the bumper may be moveable by a push-push mechanism or a magnet assisted actuator mechanism. In other implementations, the bumper may include piezoelectric material to which voltage can be applied to move the bumper.
US09571143B2
Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer readable media are disclosed for providing interference rejection in ultra-wideband real time locating systems. In one embodiment, an ultra-wideband (UWB) receiver is configured to: receive a composite signal, the composite signal comprising a UWB signal transmitted from within a monitored region and an interference signal transmitted from a source positioned outside the monitored region; filtering at least a first component of the composite signal representing the interference signal with a tunable notch filter to generate a filtered signal; determining an interference level in the filtered signal; and adjust the tunable notch filter to reduce the interference level. Corresponding systems, methods, and computer-readable storage medium are also provided.
US09571141B2
A calibrator to process an output signal of an analog digital converter in a wireless communication device, the calibrator comprising a level filter to remove noise from the output signal of the analog digital converter using mask information regulating a signal level; a timing filter to remove pulses from the level-filtered signal that are beyond a reference duty ratio by using timing information; a pattern filter to remove pulses from the timing-filtered signal that are judged to not comprise a reference number of consecutive pulses by using pattern information; and a duty correction circuit to correct a duty of the pattern-filtered signal to improve performance of the wireless communication device by separately performing a filtering operation on noise and a damping component included in a normal signal.
US09571138B2
A base station device includes: a converting unit that converts a transmission signal with a multi-bit quantization bit rate to a signal with a quantization bit rate smaller than the quantization bit rate of the transmission signal; a first amplifier that amplifies the signal; an extracting unit that extracts a noise component generated in the signal due to the conversion; a second amplifier that amplifies the noise component; a combining unit that combines the signal amplified by the first amplifier with the noise component amplified by the second amplifier to remove a noise component included in the amplified signal; and an adding unit that adds, based on an error between the signal from which the noise component has been removed and the transmission signal, distortion to the signal that is input to the first amplifier or the noise component that is input to the second amplifier.
US09571137B2
A single tone RF signal generator and a method of generating a single tone RF signal. The single tone RF signal generator includes an output and a power amplifier that has an input. The power amplifier is operable to receive an RF signal including a first harmonic corresponding to a single tone signal to be produced by the signal generator. The power amplifier is also operable to amplify the RF signal. The power amplifier is further operable to provide the amplified RF signal to the output of the signal generator. The single tone RF signal generator further includes a feedback circuit connected between the output of the signal generator and the input of the power amplifier. The feedback circuit is configured to add one or more predistortion harmonics to the RF signal received by the power amplifier for cancelling harmonics in the amplified RF signal provided by the power amplifier.
US09571131B2
A transmission method of simultaneously transmitting a first modulated signal and a second modulated signal at a common frequency performs precoding on both signals using a fixed precoding matrix and regularly changes the phase of at least one of the signals. One of signal generation processing in which phase change is performed and signal generation processing in which phase change is not performed is selectable, thereby improving general versatility in signal generation.
US09571123B2
Data compression using a combination of content independent data compression and content dependent data compression. In one aspect, a system for compressing data comprises: a processor, and a plurality of data compression encoders wherein at least one data encoder utilizes asymmetric data compression. The processor is configured to determine one or more parameters, attributes, or values of the data within at least a portion of a data block containing either video or audio data, to select one or more data compression encoders from the plurality of data compression encoders based upon the determined one or more parameters, attributes, or values of the data and a throughput of a communications channel, and to perform data compression with the selected one or more data compression encoders on at least the portion of the data block.
US09571120B2
A digital to analog converter circuit includes a plurality of digital to analog converter cells. The digital to analog converter circuit further includes a control circuit configured to control an operation of a digital to analog converter cell of the plurality of digital to analog converter cells based on a first phase component of a digital signal comprising information to be transmitted during a first time interval and based on a second phase component of the digital signal comprising information to be transmitted during a second time interval.
US09571117B2
An apparatus and a method for digital-analog conversion are provided. The apparatus includes a first cell matrix for outputting a current of a signal corresponding to a number of Most Significant Bits (MSBs) of an input digital signal, a second cell matrix for outputting a current of a signal corresponding to a number of Least Significant Bits (LSBs) of the input digital signal, an amplifier for amplifying the output current of the second cell matrix at a preset amplification, and an adder for adding the output current of the first cell matrix and the output current of the amplifier.
US09571112B2
A stacked synthesizer for wide local oscillator (LO) generation using a dynamic divider. The phase locked loop can include a plurality of voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs), and a selector that can be configured to select an output of one of the plurality of VCOs. The selected output of one of the plurality of VCOs can be provided to an on-chip dynamic divider and to an off-chip dynamic divider for LO sharing. The dynamic dividers can be configured to generate synthesizer outputs based on a multiplication of the selected output of one of the plurality of VCOs by a factor (1+1/M), where M is a variable number.
US09571102B2
Disclosed herein is a semiconductor device that includes a first transistor unit coupled to the data terminal, and a plurality of second transistor units coupled to the calibration terminal. The first transistor unit includes a plurality of first transistors having a first conductivity type connected in parallel to each other so that an impedance of the first transistor unit is adjustable. Each of the second transistor units includes a plurality of second transistors having the first conductivity type connected in parallel to each other so that an impedance of each of the second transistor units is adjustable. The semiconductor device further includes an impedance control circuit that reflects the impedance of each of the second transistor units to the first transistor unit.
US09571088B2
A semiconductor device includes a transistor; a diode configured to be connected in reverse-parallel with the transistor; a sense transistor configured to generate a sense current depending on a current flowing in the transistor; a sense diode configured to generate a sense diode current depending on a current flowing in the diode; a resistor part configured to have one terminal connected with an emitter of the sense transistor and an anode of the sense diode, and another terminal connected with an emitter of the transistor and an anode of the diode, and to have the sense current or the sense diode current flow in the resistor part; and a resistance value control unit configured to differentiate a resistance value of the resistor part for a case where the sense current flows in the resistor part, and for a case where the sense diode current flows in the resistor part.
US09571087B2
According to an embodiment of a method, a semiconductor device is operated in a reverse biased unipolar mode before operating the semiconductor device in an off-state in a forward biased mode. The semiconductor device includes at least one floating parasitic region disposed outside a cell region of the device.
US09571078B2
According to an embodiment, an improved flying adder circuit, comprises a fine clock, a coarse pulse clock, a rising edge triggered output connected to both the fine clock and the coarse pulse clock, a pulse clock connected to the rising edge triggered output, an adder, a 12-bit register situated to receive a signal from the adder and the pulse clock, and a single bit register situated to receive a signal from the pulse clock.
US09571073B2
An integrated circuit includes a clock source tier and at least two clock distribution tiers disposed in a vertical stack with the clock source tier. The clock source tier includes a clock circuit. Each of the at least two clock distribution tiers includes a clock distribution circuit. Each clock distribution circuit includes at least one pair of cross-coupled inverters.
US09571069B2
A method and a clock receiver circuit for implementing low jitter and enhanced duty cycle, and a design structure on which the subject circuit resides are provided. The clock receiver circuit accepts single-ended complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and differential clock signals. The clock receiver circuit includes input circuitry coupled to a differential pair that biasing a reference clock and allows for single-ended or differential clock signals. The differential pair uses multiple current mirrors for switching the polarity of the input signals to achieve enhanced jitter performance, and cross coupled inverters for retaining signal symmetry.
US09571068B1
A power gating circuit and a control method for power gating switch thereof are provided. The power gating circuit includes a first switch, the power gating switch, a pre-charge circuit, and a control circuit. A first terminal and a second terminal of the first switch are coupled to a first voltage and the control terminal of the power gating switch, respectively. A first terminal and a second terminal of the power gating switch are coupled to a second voltage and a function circuit, respectively. An input signal defines a powered period of the function circuit. According to the input signal, the pre-charge circuit pre-charges the control terminal of the power gating switch during the first sub-period of the powered period, and the control circuit controls the first switch to charge the control terminal of the power gating switch by the first voltage during the second sub-period of the powered period.
US09571058B2
A filter for filtering a three-phase electrical power waveform produces a three-phase output power waveform. The filter has an inductor with three sets of first and second coils, each having a capacitor connected in series therewith. Each of the three sets of first and second coils has a tap intermediate the first and second coils where the output waveform is present, each tap capable of being connected to a load. In some embodiments, the inductor is passive adaptive and includes resistors for reducing current in-rush.
US09571054B2
Systems and methods for dynamically adjusting a volume are provided. A presentation of a media asset is generated with a user equipment device at a first volume level. A user request to adjust a volume level of the media asset is received. Subject matter of the media asset currently being presented is determined. A volume adjustment rate is automatically set based on the determined subject matter. The volume level of the media asset is gradually adjusted from the first volume level to a second volume level at a rate corresponding to the volume adjustment rate based on the user request.
US09571046B2
The invention relates to an amplifier circuit (10a, 10b) for a two-wire interface, comprising a first current path (1), comprising a voltage-controlled current source (T1) having a gate (GT1), which is connected to an input connection (E1) of the amplifier circuit. A second current path (2) of the amplifier circuit comprises a voltage-controlled current source (T2), which is connected in series with the second resistor (R2). The first resistor (R1) and a parallel connection of the first and second current paths (1, 2) are connected in series between an output connection (A) and a reference voltage connection (B) of the amplifier circuit. The amplifier circuit (10a, 10b) makes it possible to adjust the gain and to provide a supply voltage and a useful signal over a common conducting track (L).
US09571037B2
Diversity receiver front end system with impedance matching components. A receiving system can include a controller configured to selectively activate one or more of a plurality of paths between an input of the receiving system and an output of the receiving system. The receiving system can further include a plurality of amplifiers. Each one of the plurality of amplifiers can be disposed along a corresponding one of the plurality of paths and can be configured to amplify a signal received at the amplifier. The receiving system can further include a plurality of impedance matching components. Each one of the plurality of impedance matching components can be disposed along a corresponding one of the plurality of paths and can be configured to reduce at least one of an out-of-band noise figure or an out-of-band gain of the one of the plurality of paths.
US09571020B2
A motor drive control device includes: a deceleration start position calculating unit that calculates a deceleration start position indicating an address at which a pulse period is stored, the pulse period being equal to or larger than a pulse period at the time of forced stopping and closest to the pulse period at the time of forced stopping among the pulse periods included in a driving information; a stop pulse number calculating unit that calculates the number of pulses required for stopping the motor at an exciting position; and a driving control unit that outputs a total number of pulses of a counted number of pulses and the number of pulses from the deceleration start position until the motor is stopped in forcibly stopping the motor, and outputs a shortage of the number of pulses required for stopping the motor calculated by the stop pulse number calculating unit.
US09571017B2
[Object] To effectively improve torque of a motor, the maximum rotation rate in driving with no load, and output at a high rotation rate, while suppressing torque ripple, noise, or vibration of the motor.[Solution] A brushless motor 301 has an armature iron core 310 wound with armature windings including plural winding sets 311 and 312 each of which includes multi-phase windings. Voltage application means 302 applies voltages to the plural winding sets. Control means 303 calculates a voltage command for the plural winding sets, and controls the voltage application means based on the voltage command. The control means 303 controls the voltage application means 302 so that induced voltages generated in the plural winding sets by rotation of the brushless motor have a trapezoidal waveform and a phase difference between the voltages for the plural winding sets becomes a value that reduces torque ripple caused by the induced voltages.
US09571009B2
A generator includes a first member, a second member and a sliding mechanism. The first member includes a first electrode and a first dielectric layer affixed to the first electrode. The first dielectric layer includes a first material that has a first rating on a triboelectric series. The second member includes a second material that has a second rating on the triboelectric series that is different from the first rating. The second member includes a second electrode. The second member is disposed adjacent to the first dielectric layer so that the first dielectric layer is disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The sliding mechanism is configured to cause relative movement between the first member and the second member, thereby generating an electric potential imbalance between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US09571003B2
Within a non-isolated and efficient AC-to-DC power supply circuit: 1) a dep-FET is turned off to decouple an output voltage VO node from a VR node when a rectifier output signal VR on the VR node is greater than a first predetermined voltage VP and, 2) the dep-FET is enabled to be turned on so that a constant charging current flows from the VR node and onto the VO node when VR is less than VP (provided that VO is less than a second predetermined voltage VO(MAX) and provided that VR is adequately greater than VO). To speed turn off and on of the dep-FET, gate charge of the dep-FET is removed and is stored in a second capacitor when the dep-FET is to be turned off, and charge from the second capacitor is moved back onto the gate of the dep-FET when the dep-FET is to be turned on.
US09571002B2
In a voltage adjusting apparatus connected in series to a system, an output of an AC/DC converter thereof is reduced. The apparatus includes a second serial transformer having a primary side connected in series to a secondary side of a first serial transformer having a primary side connected in series between a power supply and a load and to a secondary side of a parallel transformer having a primary side connected in parallel between the power supply and the load; and a first AC/DC converter having an AC side connected to a secondary side of the second serial transformer. The first AC/DC converter has a switching element connected between an AC terminal and a DC terminal, an antiparallel diode, and a capacitor.
US09571000B2
A method for controlling a modular converter, having a plurality of M converter cells, including an active AC-to-DC converter operable in one of a plurality of modes; a DC-to-DC converter; a secondary side of said AC-to-DC converter and a primary side of said DC-to-DC converter connected in parallel with a DC-link capacitor, wherein the primary sides of the converter cells are connected in series, with a first converter cell connected to a line, preferably a medium voltage line, providing an AC line voltage an M-th converter cell connected to a ground; operated by a method placing the converters in bypassed, active or diode mode.
US09570992B2
Disclosed examples include multiple output DC to DC converters with a buck converter including a half bridge switching circuit and transformer primary winding to provide a first output voltage signal, as well as a boost converter to provide an isolated second output voltage signal. The boost converter includes a transformer secondary winding magnetically coupled with the primary winding to provide a boost converter inductor, a switching circuit, an output diode providing the second output voltage signal, and a PWM controller that synchronizes the boost converter switching with the low side switch of the buck converter based on a sensed voltage of the transformer secondary winding.
US09570969B1
An electricity generating utilizing rotatable arm having a permanent magnet that is consisted in rotation by an intermittently activated magnetic coil. The rotating arm is fixed to a pair of rotors that turn relative to a stator. The rotor includes a plurality of permanent magnets that interact with a plurality of electrical coils of the stator to produce electrical current.
US09570961B2
An electric motor system has a motor having motor windings and a motor housing. The motor is a variable speed permanent magnet motor configured to drive a load which is part of a residential or commercial machine. A motor control subsystem includes a power module electrically connected to the motor windings. A common mode inductor is electrically interposed between the motor control subsystem and the motor windings so as to present a high impedance obstacle to common mode transients and to reduce an electromagnetic interference effect of an inherent capacitance of each of the motor windings. The common mode inductor is an air core inductor located substantially within the motor housing, and takes the form of additional turns added to the end of each of the motor windings.
US09570948B2
A magnet plate used for a rotor core of a motor, includes a magnetic pole portion being set between an outer peripheral edge of a body portion and a magnet slot and having a radial width being smaller than a radial sectional width of the permanent magnet, and a higher hardness portion being formed into a hook shape along an end corner of the magnet slot and have a smaller width than the radial sectional width of the permanent magnet.
US09570941B2
Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to providing power from two or more power sources. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, a switching circuit includes a switching transistor connected between a backup power supply and both a primary power supply and an internal power rail. When power is provided via the primary power supply, the switching circuit operates in a blocking state in which back current is prevented from flowing to the backup power supply while the primary power supply couples power to the internal power rail. When the primary power supply is disconnected or interrupted, a voltage coupled to a gate/control terminal of the switching circuit drops and the switching circuit automatically switches to another state in which the internal power rail is powered by the backup power supply.
US09570937B2
A wireless power transmission device includes a main body, a first transmitter coil and a second transmitter coil. The second transmitter coil is stacked over the first transmitter coil. If the wireless power transmission device is operated in a detecting mode, a magnetic flux is generated by the first transmitter coil and oriented in the direction toward the top surface of the main body. The magnetic flux is attenuated by the overlying second transmitter coil. Consequently, the electromagnetic wave is inhibited. If the wireless power transmission device is operated in a charging mode, both the first transmitter coil and the second transmitter coil are controlled to transmit magnetic fluxes. Since the intensity of the electric power is increased, the charging efficiency is enhanced.
US09570934B2
A battery depassivation system includes a depassivation circuit, a battery connect/disconnect circuit, and a processor. The depassivation circuit is adapted to be electrically coupled in series with a battery. The depassivation circuit is also coupled to receive an ENABLE signal and is configured, upon receipt thereof, to draw current from the battery. The battery connect/disconnect circuit is adapted to be electrically coupled in series between the battery and one or more battery-powered electronic circuits. The battery connect/disconnect circuit is coupled to receive an ISOLATE signal and is configured, upon receipt thereof, to electrically disconnect the one or more battery-powered electronic circuits from the battery. The processor is adapted to couple to the battery and is configured, upon being coupled thereto, to determine if the battery needs depassivation and implement a depassivation routine if the battery is determined to need depassivation.
US09570930B2
A UPS control circuit and a UPS is provided. The UPS includes a rechargeable battery and a UPS control circuit connected with the rechargeable battery. The UPS control circuit includes an input filtering circuit, a rectification circuit, an inversion circuit, a static transfer switch, an output filtering circuit, a control circuit, and a multipurpose DC/DC circuit connected between the rechargeable battery and an output terminal of the rectification circuit. The multipurpose DC/DC circuit is controlled by the control circuit. In a battery mode, the rechargeable battery supplies an input voltage to the inversion circuit via the multipurpose DC/DC circuit. In a mains power mode, the rechargeable battery is charged by an output voltage of the rectification circuit via the multipurpose DC/DC circuit. Therefore, no independent charging circuit is needed to charge the rechargeable battery, causing a simpler circuit structure and a lower cost, and providing greater value to the customer.
US09570921B2
A power feeding coil unit includes a power feeding coil, and first and second auxiliary coils arranged so that a wire of the first auxiliary coil and a wire of the second auxiliary coil do not overlap a wire of the a power feeding coil when viewed from a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the power feeding coil. A direction of circulation of a magnetic flux generated by the first auxiliary coil and a magnetic flux generated by the second auxiliary coil are opposite to a direction of circulation of a magnetic flux generated by the power feeding coil. An axes of the first and second auxiliary coils are substantially perpendicular to a power feeding direction of the power feeding coil, and are not aligned with the axis of the power feeding coil.
US09570919B2
A power transmission device includes a reception unit configured to receive, from each of a plurality of power reception devices as power transmission objects, identification information for identification of the power reception device, a device determination unit configured to determine, based on the identification information, whether each of the power reception devices is a registered device that has been registered beforehand, and a power transmission unit configured to transmit power to the registered device.
US09570903B2
System and method are provided for protecting a power converter. The system includes a first comparator, and an off-time component. The first comparator is configured to receive a sensing signal and a first threshold signal and generate a first comparison signal based on at least information associated with the sensing signal and the first threshold signal, the power converter being associated with a switching frequency and further including a switch configured to affect the primary current. The off-time component is configured to receive the first comparison signal and generate an off-time signal based on at least information associated with the first comparison signal. The off-time component is further configured to, if the first comparison signal indicates the sensing signal to be larger than the first threshold signal in magnitude, generate the off-time signal to keep the switch to be turned off for at least a predetermined period of time.
US09570898B2
A wire protection structure includes a housing, a holder that is received in the housing through an opening of the housing, a cover that covers at least a part of the opening of the housing to define a wire-drawn port with the holder being received in the housing, and an electric wire that is drawn from the wire-drawn port. A flexible plate-shaped holder plate is provided to be extended from a surface of the holder toward the wire-drawn port. A deflection allowable space is formed between the holder plate and the housing to allow a deflection of the holder plate.
US09570890B2
A modular skid frame and device to reduce the potential for harm and injury from arc flashes. The modular skid frame comprises a plurality of frame members secured together to form the skid frame, and one or more hook members formed on one or more of the frame members to permit the receipt of a bucket or blade from a loader, scoop tram or other construction or mining equipment into the bowl portion and behind the bill portion of the hook member to facilitate the lifting and moving of the skid frame. Also disclosed is a device for racking a circuit breaker into and out of a circuit breaker cradle. The device comprises an actuator operatively connected to the circuit breaker cradle to permit the circuit breaker to be racked into and out of the cradle without direct or indirect contact on the part of an operator.
US09570887B2
A disclosed vertical cavity surface emitting laser device emits light orthogonally in relation to a substrate and includes a resonator structure including an active layer; and semiconductor multilayer reflectors disposed in such a manner as to sandwich the resonator structure between them and including a confinement structure which confines an injected current and transverse modes of oscillation light at the same time. The confinement structure has an oxidized region which surrounds a current passage region. The oxidized region is formed by oxidizing a part of a selective oxidation layer which includes aluminum and includes at least an oxide. The selective oxidation layer is at least 25 nm in thickness. The semiconductor multilayer reflectors include an optical confinement reducing section which reduces optical confinement in a transverse direction. The optical confinement reducing section is disposed on the substrate side in relation to the resonator structure.
US09570886B2
The invention relates to a tunable laser, the tunable laser comprising a first waveguide, a second waveguide and a semiconductor layer being arranged to separate the first waveguide from the second waveguide. The first waveguide comprises a first coupling portion and an active portion for generating a laser signal. The second waveguide comprises a second coupling portion and a tuning portion for tuning the wavelength of the laser signal. The first coupling portion and the second coupling portion are configured to couple the laser signal between the first waveguide and the second waveguide through the semiconductor layer.
US09570874B1
An optical system including a laser apparatus, a spatial light modulator to receive a laser beam, an optical-conditioning system to capture a propagating diffracted beam of the optical pattern and to form at least one of a magnified version and a demagnified version of the optical pattern and to control a quality of the optical pattern, a uniformity maintaining optical amplifier to receive the laser beam output from the spatial light modulator and generate an amplified laser beam such that a final optical pattern is an amplified version of the optical pattern as generated by the spatial light modulator, the amplified laser beam having a substantially uniform amplification across the cross-section of the beam, and at least one of a time-bandwidth pulse duration control mechanism including at least one of a pulse stretching element and pulse compression element, and a frequency conversion device.
US09570864B1
An electronic charging cable assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes a power connection end adapted to be electrically connected to an electrical power source and a device connection end adapted to be logically connected to an electronic device. The device connection end is electrically connected to the power connection end. A light source is located at the device connection end such that, when the power connection end is electrically connected to the electrical power source and the device connection end is not connected to the electronic device, the light source is illuminated and, when the power connection end is electrically connected to the electrical power source and the device connection end is connected to the electronic device, the light source is not illuminated. An exemplary electrical circuit used to provide this feature and a method of operating the electronic charging cable assembly are also disclosed.
US09570855B2
Patch cords are provided that include a communications cable that has at least first through fourth conductors and a plug that is attached to the cable. The plug includes a housing that receives the cable, a printed circuit board, first through fourth plug contacts, and first through fourth conductive paths that connect the first through fourth conductors to the respective first through fourth plug contacts. The first and second conductors, conductive paths, and plug contacts form a first differential transmission line, and the third and fourth conductors, conductive paths, and plug contacts form a second differential transmission line. Each of the first through fourth plug contacts has a first segment that extends longitudinally along a first surface of the printed circuit board, and the signal current injection point into the first segment of at least some of the first through fourth plug contacts is into middle portions of their respective first segments.
US09570844B1
A terminal block is disclosed. The terminal block includes a body that forms a chamber and an opening configured to facilitate passage of a lug terminal from an exterior environment into the chamber. A movable first ferromagnetic object is positioned in the chamber. An electrical contact is exposed to the chamber, and a second ferromagnetic object is configured to magnetically attract the movable first ferromagnetic object in a direction toward the electrical contact.
US09570829B2
A plug connector may comprise an expanding ring, a plug contact element, a first connector housing stop, and a locking ring. The plug contact element may comprise a coil spring with a first end and a second end, where the second end of the coil spring may be coupled to the expanding ring. The first connector housing stop may be configured to absorb a pressure in a first rotational direction and block the first end of the coil spring from rotating in the first rotation direction. The locking ring may be configured to absorb a pressure in a second rotational direction opposite the first rotational direction. The locking ring may be configured to block the expanding ring when the plug connector is in an open state and unblock the expanding ring when the plug connector is in a closed state.
US09570827B2
A contact member according to one aspect of the present disclosure comprises: a thin plate member having spring characteristics and electrical conductivity. The thin plate member comprises: a joint portion having a joint surface to be joined to a first member; a contact portion contactable with a second member; and a connecting portion having a length component in a direction intersecting the joint surface, and having a first end continuous to the joint portion and a second end continuous to the contact portion. The connecting portion comprises a narrow portion having a smaller dimension in a width direction than a dimension around the narrow portion.
US09570824B1
An information handling system (IHS) includes a reinforced edge card connector having a terminal block having a mounting surface attached to a surface of a first Printed Circuit Board (PCB). A connector housing has a connector opening aligned in parallel to the surface of the PCB to receive an edge of a second PCB. An upper row of upper conductors and a lower row of lower conductors are positioned in respective opposition to frictionally engage opposite sides of the edge of the second PCB, wherein the upper conductors are cantilevered pins. The connector housing exposes a bent portion of the cantilevered pins of the upper row of upper conductors. A flexible sheet is attached to an outward surface of the connector housing and to exposed surfaces of the upper row of upper conductors to create a binding force to multiple cantilevered pins to resist deformation.
US09570820B2
A coaxial connector and a connecting terminal thereof are provided. The connecting terminal includes a terminal body having a solder cup and defining a first end and a second end in a longitudinal direction of the terminal body; a pair of first clamping paws disposed at the first end of the terminal body, opposed to each other in a transverse direction of the terminal body, and adjacent to the solder cup; and a pair of second clamping paws disposed at the second end of the terminal body and opposed to each other in the transverse direction. The connecting terminal of the coaxial connector is high in reliability when being connected with a coaxial cable.
US09570804B2
Low-band radiators of an ultra-wideband dual-band dual-polarization cellular basestation antenna are provided. The dual bands include low and high bands. The low-band radiator includes a dipole with two dipole arms adapted for the low band and for connection to an antenna feed. At least one dipole arm of the dipole includes at least two dipole segments and at least one radio frequency choke. The choke is disposed between the dipole segments. Each choke provides an open circuit or a high impedance separating adjacent dipole segments to minimize induced high band currents in the low-band radiator and consequent disturbance to the high band pattern. The choke is resonant at or near the frequencies of the high band.
US09570792B1
A system/method describing a physically compact broadband radio frequency (RF) splitter/combiner is disclosed. The system and method provide an alternative to traditional broadband Wilkinson-style RF power splitter/combiners while reducing the overall size of the power divider/combiner to a significantly smaller form factor. The system and method utilize a serpentine impedance network (SIN) that incorporates a mirrored series of positive serpentine node (PSN) traces and negative serpentine node (NSN) traces. The PSN and NSN are coupled together within each isolated and mirrored SIN section with paired coupling traces (PCTs) located between the PSN and NSN traces that serve as both power transformers for the system and as an aid to impedance matching between the RF input port (RIP) and RF output ports (ROPs). The system is electrically symmetric and provides for power splitting and/or combining functionality between the RIP and ROPs.
US09570782B2
A storage element for a solid electrolyte battery is provided. The storage element has a main member having a porous matrix of sintered ceramic particles in which particles that are made of a metal and/or a metal oxide and jointly form a redox couple are embedded. Along a preferred direction, the storage element has a certain concentration gradient of the particles made of the metal and/or the metal oxide and/or a certain gradient of a pore density and/or a pore size, thereby allowing the diffusion behavior of oxygen ions within the main member to be controlled and thus the charge and discharge kinetics, the life and the capacity of the battery to be improved.
US09570776B2
Provided is a battery in which collector foil is unlikely to break.In a lithium-ion secondary battery, as for a distance from a connection section between a positive electrode tab and the positive electrode terminal to a boundary section between applying and non-applying sections of positive-electrode active material in a direction perpendicular to a stacking direction, compared with a reference positive electrode having the boundary section that is located farthest to the connection section by straight-line distance, a layer of a positive electrode that is stacked in such a way as to be farthest from the reference positive electrode has a smaller distance from a boundary of the applying and non-applying sections of the positive-electrode active material to a connection section with the positive electrode tab in a direction perpendicular to a stacking direction.
US09570774B2
Disclosed is a battery including a cathode in which cathode active-material coating layers provided on both surfaces of a cathode collector are longitudinally deviated from each other, and an anode having at least one anode active-material coating layer provided on an anode collector, the cathode and anode being wound to face each other with a separator interposed therebetween. At least one of a winding beginning portion and winding ending portion of the cathode is provided with a cathode uncoated part for installation of a cathode lead. An insulator tape is attached to the boundary of the cathode active-material coating layer at a position where the anode active-material coating layer faces a non-coating part of the cathode not containing the cathode active-material coating layer, achieving enhanced electrical insulation capability and consequential safety of the battery.
US09570773B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a polymer electrolyte membrane meeting power generation properties and physical durability at the same time and having high durability. A polymer electrolyte membrane comprising a microporous membrane and a fluorine-based polymer electrolyte contained in a pore of the microporous membrane, wherein pore distribution of the microporous membrane has a pore distribution with a center of distribution in a pore diameter range of 0.3 μm to 5.0 μm, and the fluorine-based polymer electrolyte composition contains a fluorine-based polymer electrolyte (component A) having an ion exchange capacity of 0.5 to 3.0 meq/g.
US09570772B2
The invention relates to an electric power generation system for a water storage tank and a storage structure system for a water storage tank wherein the electric power generation system for the water storage tank according to the invention comprises: a water storage tank for storing rainwater or water underground for a specific purpose; an electricity generation part for generating electricity by utilizing water stored in the water storage tank; a cooling part for cooling heat generated at the time of generating electricity by the electricity generation part; and a cooling water supply part for supplying the cooling part with the water stored in the water storage tank. Thereby, dispersed electricity generation facilities can be secured by utilizing open underground spaces of the water storage tank.
US09570768B2
A fuel cell system 100 includes a fuel cell 10, a cathode gas supply system 30, a supply valve 34, an exhaust valve 43 and a controller 20. The fuel cell 10 has a supply manifold M1, an exhaust manifold M2, and a power generation area GA connected with these manifolds M1 and M2. The cathode gas supply system 30 causes a gas to be flowed into the supply manifold M1. The supply valve 34 is operable to seal the supply manifold M1, whereas the exhaust valve 43 is operable to seal the exhaust manifold M2. The controller 20 closes the supply valve 34 and the exhaust valve 43 after operation stop of the fuel cell 10 to seal the fuel cell 10 under a specified pressure and then waits for a predefined time. The controller 20 subsequently opens the supply valve 34 to move water remaining in the power generation area GA on the flow of the gas toward outside of the power generation area GA.
US09570759B2
The present invention provides a manufacturing method of an electrode catalyst layer which contains a catalyst, carbon particles and a polymer electrolyte, wherein an oxide type of non-platinum catalyst is used as the catalyst and a fuel cell employing the electrode catalyst layer achieves a high level of power generation performance. The manufacturing method of the electrode catalyst layer of the present invention includes at least: preparing a first catalyst ink, in which a catalyst, first carbon particles and a first polymer electrolyte are dispersed in a first solvent, drying the first catalyst ink to form complex particles, preparing a second catalyst ink, in which the complex particles, second carbon particles and a second polymer electrolyte are dispersed in a second solvent, and coating the second catalyst ink on a substrate to form the electrode catalyst layer.
US09570757B2
Provided is a fuel cell catalyst layer which has a catalytic performance equivalent to or higher than fuel cell catalyst layers containing platinum alone and which is inexpensive. The fuel cell catalyst layer of the present invention includes a metal oxycarbonitride-containing layer (I) and a platinum-containing layer (II). It is preferable that the mass ratio per unit area of the metal oxycarbonitride in the layer (I) to platinum in the layer (II) (metal oxycarbonitride/platinum) is 2 to 500. It is preferable that the mass per unit area of platinum in the layer (II) is 0.005 to 0.2 mg/cm2.
US09570756B2
Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies (MEA's) are provided which have nanostructured thin film (NSTF) catalyst electrodes and additionally a sublayer of dispersed catalyst situated between the NSTF catalyst and the PEM of the MEA.
US09570750B2
An anode including; an anode active material; and a porous binder including a nanopore, wherein an anode mixture density is about 1.5 g/cc or greater, a lithium battery including the anode and a binder composition. A method of manufacturing the anode material using a polymer that is thermally decomposed in a vacuum at about 200° C. or higher for about 1 hour.
US09570749B2
A negative electrode includes a current collector; and a negative active material layer on at least a surface of the current collector. The negative active material layer includes a porous matrix including lithium titanium oxide particles and metal nanoparticles that are alloyable with lithium. An average particle diameter of the lithium titanium oxide particles is at least two times greater than an average particle diameter of the metal nanoparticles.
US09570741B2
A primary battery includes a cathode having an alkali-deficient nickel oxide including metals such as Ca, Mg, Al, Co, Y, Mn, and/or non-metals such as B, Si, Ge, or a combination of metal and/or non-metal atoms; a combination of metal atoms; an anode; a separator between the cathode and the anode; and an alkaline electrolyte.
US09570739B2
A composite positive active material including an over-lithiated lithium transition metal oxide, the over-lithiated transition metal oxide including a compound represented by Formula 1 or Formula 3: [Formula 1] xLi2-yM″yMO3-(1-x)LiM′O2, [Formula 3] xLi2-yM″yMO3-x′LiM′O2-x″Li1+dM′″2-dO4, x+x′+x″=1, 0
US09570735B2
Provided is a degassing method for an electrode paste that introduces the electrode paste formed by kneading a solid content containing an electrode active material and a dispersion medium into a decompressed container and degassing the electrode paste while a shear force is applied to the electrode paste. A ratio of the solid content in the electrode paste is set to be 55 mass % or more, and a pressure in the decompressed container is set to be −50 kPa or more. It is possible to suppress both remaining bubbles and dry of the electrode paste, thus enhancing a product yield.
US09570733B2
A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly including a first electrode tab protruded at a first end, and a second electrode tab protruded at a second end; a case having an open side and receiving the electrode assembly; a cap assembly including a cap plate covering the open side of the case, a first current collecting member coupled to a lower side of the cap plate and electrically connected to the first electrode tab, and a second current collecting member coupled to the lower side of the cap plate; and a safety member arranged on an outer surface of the electrode assembly, and the first electrode tab is protruded at the first end toward the cap plate, the second electrode tab is protruded at the second end away from the cap plate, and the second electrode tab is electrically connected to the second current collecting member through the safety member.
US09570728B2
An electricity supply element and the ceramic separator thereof are provided. The ceramic separator is adapted to separate two electrode layers of the electricity supply element for permitting ion migration and electrical separation. The ceramic separator is made of ceramic particulates and the adhesive. The adhesive employs dual binder system, which includes linear polymer and cross-linking polymer. The adhesion and heat tolerance are enhanced by the characteristic of the two type of polymers. The respective position of the two electrode layers are maintained during high operation temperature to improve the stability, and battery performance. Also, the ceramic separator enhances the ion conductivity and reduces the possibility of the micro-short to increase practical utilization.
US09570727B2
A battery separator is a microporous membrane. The membrane has a major volume of a thermoplastic polymer and a minor volume of an inert particulate filler. The filler is dispersed throughout the polymer. The membrane exhibits a maximum Z-direction compression of 95% of the original membrane thickness. Alternatively, the battery separator is a microporous membrane having a TMA compression curve with a first substantially horizontal slope between ambient temperature and 125° C., a second substantially horizontal slope at greater than 225° C. The curve of the first slope has a lower % compression than the curve of the second slope. The curve of the second slope is not less than 5% compression. The TMA compression curve is graphed so that the Y-axis represents % compression from original thickness and the X-axis represents temperature.
US09570721B2
A battery module including: a plurality of battery cells arranged in a direction and each including a terminal portion on a first surface thereof; a pair of end plates each configured to face a wide surface of a battery cell at a respective outer end of the plurality of battery cells; side plates configured to support side surfaces of the battery cells at respective sides of the plurality of battery cells; and a cover configured to cover the first surfaces of the battery cells or second surfaces of the battery cells opposite the first surfaces, and a side plate of the side plates includes a bent portion that is bent to overlap with an end portion of the cover, and the cover is configured to press the bent portion.
US09570715B2
A mask supported at a frame when a tensile force is applied in a first direction is provided. The mask includes a mask main body in a band shape extended in the first direction, and a plurality of pattern openings formed in the mask main body. the mask main body has ends supported by the frame, and the pattern opening are arranged in the first direction. The mask further includes a dummy opening provided between the pattern openings and one of the ends of the mask main body. The dummy opening has a form that is different from forms of the pattern openings.
US09570703B2
An organic light emitting display includes a first substrate; a second substrate opposing the first substrate; and an array of pixels disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The display further includes a seal member interposed between and bonded to the first and second substrates to seal a gap between the first and second substrates; a plurality of pillar members positioned between and bonded to the first and second substrates, the plurality of pillar members being positioned outside and spaced from the seal member when viewing in a direction perpendicular to a major surface of the first mother substrate; and a reinforcement member disposed between the first and second substrates, and comprising portions disposed between the seal member and the pillar members. The plurality of pillar members are spaced apart from each other.
US09570701B2
Disclosed is an organic light emitting device which facilitates to realize a long lifespan and to satisfy a color region, wherein the organic light emitting device may include an organic emitting layer including red, green and blue emitting layers, the organic emitting layer provided between first and second electrodes; and a plurality of dopants included in at least any one of the red, green and blue emitting layers, wherein a maximum intrinsic luminescence wavelength of any one dopant among the plurality of dopants is different from a maximum intrinsic luminescence wavelength of another dopant among the plurality of dopants.
US09570700B2
Disclosed are an organic electroluminescent device and a preparation method thereof. The organic electroluminescent device is a top-emitting organic electroluminescent device having a reversed structure, and the preparation method is: dissolving zinc oxide with acetic acid to obtain a zinc oxide solution with a concentration of 0.3 g/ml-0.6 g/ml, adding a phthalocyanine substance in a mass of 1%-10% of the mass of the zinc oxide to obtain a mixture, spin-coating the mixture on a glass substrate (1) and then drying to obtain a cathode (2), and then preparing by vapor deposition, an electron injection layer (3), an electron transport layer (4), a luminescent layer (5), a hole transport layer (6), a hole injection layer (7) and an anode (8), successively, so as to obtain the organic electroluminescent device.
US09570697B2
In the present invention, a light-emitting element operating at low driving voltage, consuming low power, emitting light with good color purity and manufactured in high yields can be obtained. A light-emitting element is disclosed with a configuration composed of a first layer containing a light-emitting material, a second layer, a third layer are formed sequentially over an anode to be interposed between the anode and a cathode in such a way that the third layer is formed to be in contact with the cathode. The second layer is made from n-type semiconductor, a mixture including that, or a mixture of an organic compound having a carrier transporting property and a material having a high electron donor property. The third layer is made from p-type semiconductor, a mixture including that, or a mixture of an organic compound having a carrier transporting property and a material having a high electron acceptor property.
US09570694B2
A transparent thin film transistor is fabricated on a substrate by first depositing a concentrated aqueous metallic carbon nanotube solution using an inkjet printer on the substrate to form source and drain electrodes with a channel therebetween. The deposited metallic carbon nanotubes are then cleaned in mild acid; and the source and drain electrodes are cured by heating. An aqueous semiconducting carbon nanotube solution is then deposited in the channel on the substrate using an inkjet printer on the substrate to form a channel semiconductor. The channel semiconductor is then cleaned using a mild acid. A dielectric gate of ionic gel dielectric is then deposited on the cleaned channel semiconductor using an inkjet printer; and the ionic gel dielectric is cured by heating.
US09570693B2
A display device includes a display panel, a top member, and a bottom member. The top member is disposed on the display panel, and has a first groove region where at least a portion of an upper surface of the display panel is exposed. The bottom member is disposed under the display panel, and has a second groove region where at least a portion of a lower surface of the display panel is exposed. The first and second groove regions are located at a bending region of the display device.
US09570692B2
A motherboard of flexible display panel and the method for manufacturing the flexible display panel are provided, the motherboard of flexible display panel includes a carrier substrate and at least one flexible display panel unit formed on the carrier substrate; the flexible display panel unit includes a liner layer, a flexible substrate and a display element; the liner layer includes a first zone and a second zone, the liner layer of the first zone has a laser absorptivity lower than that of the liner layer of the second zone, and the liner layer of the second zone has a critical energy no larger than that of the liner layer of the first zone; the first zone is located at the edge region of the flexible display panel unit.
US09570690B2
Provided is a novel heterocyclic compound which can be used for a light-emitting element, as a host material of a light-emitting layer in which a light-emitting substance is dispersed. A heterocyclic compound represented by a general formula (G1) is provided. In the formula, A represents any of a substituted or unsubstituted dibenzothiophenyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted dibenzofuranyl group, and a substituted or unsubstituted carbazolyl group, R11 to R19 separately represent any of hydrogen, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group having 6 to 13 carbon atoms, and Ar represents a substituted or unsubstituted arylene group having 6 to 13 carbon atoms.
US09570689B2
Provided herein are a compound of Formula 1, and an organic electric element comprised of a first electrode, a second electrode, and an organic material layer between the first electrode and the second electrode containing a compound of Formula 1, which has an improvement in driving voltage, luminous efficiency, color purity, stability, and life span.
US09570683B1
Providing for three-dimensional memory cells having enhanced electric field characteristics and/or memory cells located at broken interconnects is described herein. By way of example, a two-terminal memory cell can be constructed from a layered stack of materials, where respective layers are arranged along a direction that forms a non-zero angle to a normal direction of a substrate surface upon which the layered stack of materials is constructed. In some aspects, the direction can be orthogonal to or substantially orthogonal to the normal direction. In other aspects, the direction can be less than orthogonal to the normal direction. Where an internal angle of the memory cell forms a non-orthogonal angle, an enhanced electric field or current density can result, providing improved switching times and memory performance.
US09570681B2
A resistive random access memory may include a memory array and a periphery around the memory array. Decoders in the periphery may be coupled to address lines in the array by forming a metallization in the periphery and the array at the same time using the same metal deposition. The metallization may form row lines in the array.
US09570680B2
Devices and method based on disclosed technology include, among others, a method for capable of providing asymmetrical arrangement of hole patterns while improving non-uniformity of an electronic device. Specifically, a method for fabricating hole patterns in one implementation includes forming a mask pattern which is defined with hole patterns of an asymmetrical arrangement with different longitudinal and transverse intervals, over a layer to be etched; and etching the layer to be etched, using the mask pattern as an etch barrier.
US09570679B2
A semiconductor structure is described containing a deflector between a first nanoscale device and a second nanoscale device. The deflector is designed to deflect near-field radiation from emanating from the first nanoscale device to the second nanoscale device. In some embodiments, this may be accomplished using at least one nanoscale element located between the first and second nanoscale device, where the nanoscale element is tuned to the proper plasmon-polariton frequency to deflect the near field radiation.
US09570673B2
Methods of fabricating MRAM devices are provided along with a processing apparatus for fabricating the MRAM devices. The methods may include forming a ferromagnetic layer, cooling the ferromagnetic layer to a temperature within a range of between about 50° K to about 300° K, forming and oxidizing one or more Mg layers on the cooled ferromagnetic layer to form an MgO structure, forming a free layer on the MgO structure, and forming a capping layer on the free layer.
US09570670B2
Provided are a magnetic memory device and a method of fabricating the same. The device may include a magnetic tunnel junction including a lower magnetic structure, an upper magnetic structure, and a tunnel barrier interposed therebetween. The tunnel barrier may have a width greater than that of the lower magnetic structure.
US09570669B2
A piezoelectric component has at least one piezoelectric ceramic layer and at least one electrode adjacent the piezoelectric ceramic layer. The piezoelectric ceramic layer has a piezoelectric ceramic material of the general formula Pb1-x-y-[(2a-b)/2]-p/2V[(2a-b)/2-p/2]″CupBaxSry[(TizZr1-z)1-a-bWaREb]O3, where 0≦x≦0.035, 0≦y≦0.025, 0.42≦z≦0.5, 0.0045≦a≦0.009, 0.009≦b≦0.011, 2a>b, p≦2a−b, RE is a rare earth metal, and V″ is a Pb vacancy.
US09570663B2
An electro-optical device formed on a semiconductor substrate, includes: a first transistor controlling a current level according to a voltage between a gate and a source; a second transistor electrically connected between a data line and the gate of the first transistor; a third transistor electrically connected between the gate and a drain of the first transistor; and a light-emitting element emitting light at a luminance according to the current level, in which one of a source and a drain of the second transistor and one of a source and a drain of the third transistor are formed by a common diffusion layer.
US09570662B2
A method of encapsulating an optoelectronic device includes providing a surface intended to be encapsulated, the surface containing platinum, generating reactive oxygen groups and/or reactive hydroxyl groups on the surface, and depositing a passivation layer by atomic layer deposition on the surface.
US09570645B2
A photodiode and a method of manufacturing the same, and an X-ray detector and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The PIN photodiode includes a first doped layer, a second doped layer and an intrinsic layer between the first and second doped layers, the first doped layer is provided on a source/drain electrode layer of a thin film transistor of the X-ray detector. A heavily-doped region is provided in the second doped layer, has a dosage concentration larger than that of the second doped layer, and is electrically connected with a cathode of the PIN photodiode.
US09570638B2
A laser processing system can be utilized to produce high-performance interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cells. The laser processing system can be utilized to ablate, transfer material, and/or laser-dope or laser fire contacts. Laser ablation can be utilized to remove and pattern openings in a passivated or emitter layer. Laser transferring may then be utilized to transfer dopant and/or contact materials to the patterned openings, thereby forming an interdigitated finger pattern. The laser processing system may also be utilized to plate a conductive material on top of the transferred dopant or contact materials.
US09570636B2
Disclosed are a solar cell and a method of fabricating the same. The solar cell includes a molybdenum layer on a support substrate; an ohmic layer on the molybdenum layer; a light absorbing layer on the ohmic layer; and a front electrode layer on the light absorbing layer, wherein the ohmic layer comprises a first ohmic layer and a second ohmic layer having crystal structures different from each other.
US09570630B2
The invention provides a Schottky diode structure. An exemplary embodiment of a Schottky diode structure includes a semiconductor substrate having an active region. A first well region having a first conductive type is formed in the active region. A first doped region having the first conductive type is formed on the first well region. A first electrode is disposed on the active region, covering the first doped region. A second electrode is disposed on the active region, contacting to the first well region. A gate structure is disposed on the first well region. A second doped region, having a second conductive type opposite to the first conductive type, and is formed on the first well region. The gate structure and the second doped region are disposed between the first and second electrodes.
US09570625B2
To provide a semiconductor device which can be miniaturized or highly integrated. To obtain a semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor, which has favorable electrical characteristics. To provide a highly reliable semiconductor device including an oxide semiconductor, by suppression of a change in its electrical characteristics. The semiconductor device includes an island-like oxide semiconductor layer over an insulating surface; an insulating layer surrounding a side surface of the oxide semiconductor layer; a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer in contact with top surfaces of the oxide semiconductor layer and the insulating layer; a gate electrode layer overlapping with the oxide semiconductor layer; and a gate insulating layer between the oxide semiconductor layer and the gate electrode layer. The source electrode layer and the drain electrode layer are provided above the top surface of the oxide semiconductor layer. The top surface of the insulating layer is planarized.
US09570618B1
The present invention provides a TFT substrate manufacturing method and a TFT substrate. The TFT substrate manufacturing method of the present invention applies etching to source and drain contact zones of an active layer to have heights thereof lower than a height of a channel zone in the middle and configures the source and drain contact zones in a stepwise form so that charge carriers are affected by an electric field (Vds electric field) that is deviated in a direction away from a poly-silicon/gate insulation layer interface and the migration path thereof is caused to shift away from the poly-silicon/gate insulation layer interface thereby reducing the injection of high energy carriers into the gate insulation layer. Further, due to the formation of the steps in the drain contact zone, the peak intensity of the lateral electric field (Vds electric field) around the drain contact zone and the intensity of a longitudinal electric field (Vgs electric field) of the drain contact zone are both reduced, making a pinch-off point shifted toward an edge of the drain contact zone, reducing drifting of threshold voltage, and improving TFT reliability.
US09570614B2
Ge and III-V channel semiconductor devices having maximized compliance and free surface relaxation and methods of fabricating such Ge and III-V channel semiconductor devices are described. For example, a semiconductor device includes a semiconductor fin disposed above a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor fin has a central protruding or recessed segment spaced apart from a pair of protruding outer segments along a length of the semiconductor fin. A cladding layer region is disposed on the central protruding or recessed segment of the semiconductor fin. A gate stack is disposed on the cladding layer region. Source/drain regions are disposed in the pair of protruding outer segments of the semiconductor fin.
US09570613B2
Structures and formation methods of a semiconductor device structure are provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a semiconductor substrate and a fin structure over the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device structure also includes a gate stack over a portion of the fin structure, and the fin structure includes an intermediate portion under the gate stack and upper portions besides the intermediate portion. The semiconductor device structure further includes a contact layer over the fin structure. The contact layer includes a metal material, and the upper portions of the fin structure also include the metal material.
US09570611B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes providing a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a dummy gate structure formed thereon and an offset spacer formed on a sidewall of the dummy gate structure. The method further includes removing the dummy gate structure to form a gate trench, forming a high-k dielectric layer on the bottom and the sidewall of the gate trench, and forming a cover layer over the high-k dielectric layer. The cover layer has a thickness that is greater at the corners of the bottom of the gate trench than in the middle region of the bottom of the gate trench.
US09570604B2
A semiconductor device includes an active region, a gate conductor and a source electrode. The active region includes a drain region, a channel region stacked on the drain region, and a source region stacked on the channel region. The active region is formed of a silicon semiconductor layer. The gate conductor is embedded within a trench, which is formed from the source region to the drain region penetrating through the channel region. The source electrode is formed to come in contact with the source region and includes an adhesion layer. The source electrode is formed of a metal layer having a film thickness of 150 Å or smaller. The interface between the source electrode and the source region is silicidized.
US09570603B2
A semiconductor device of the present invention includes a semiconductor layer in which a gate trench is formed, a gate insulating film formed along an inner surface of the gate trench, a gate electrode that is buried in the gate trench through the gate insulating film and that has a lower electrode and an upper electrode that are separated upwardly and downwardly from each other with an intermediate insulating film between the lower electrode and the upper electrode, and a gate contact that is formed in the gate trench so as to pass through the upper electrode and through the intermediate insulating film and so as to reach the lower electrode and that electrically connects the lower electrode and the upper electrode together.
US09570594B2
A semiconductor device which is miniaturized while favorable characteristics thereof are maintained is provided. In addition, the miniaturized semiconductor device is provided with a high yield. The semiconductor device has a structure including an oxide semiconductor film provided over a substrate having an insulating surface; a source electrode layer and a drain electrode layer which are provided in contact with side surfaces of the oxide semiconductor film and have a thickness larger than that of the oxide semiconductor film; a gate insulating film provided over the oxide semiconductor film, the source electrode layer, and the drain electrode layer; and a gate electrode layer provided in a depressed portion formed by a step between a top surface of the oxide semiconductor film and top surfaces of the source electrode layer and the drain electrode layer.
US09570579B2
Semiconductor devices that each include a channel region and a gate stack are disclosed. The gate stack includes a gate insulator, a pair of spaced apart first metal gate layers, and a second metal gate layer. The gate insulator extends along the length of the channel region. The first metal gate layers have a first workfunction and extend from the gate insulator. The second metal gate layer is disposed between the first metal gate layers, has a second workfunction different from the first workfunction, and extends from the gate insulator. Methods of fabricating the gate stack are also disclosed.
US09570576B2
A method for forming a semiconductor device includes forming an electrical structure at a main surface of a semiconductor substrate and carrying out an anodic oxidation of a back side surface region of a back side surface of the semiconductor substrate to form an oxide layer at the back side surface of the semiconductor substrate.
US09570563B2
A device that includes: a substrate layer; a first set of source/drain component(s) defining an nFET (n-type field-effect transistor) region; a second set of source/drain component(s) defining a pFET (p-type field-effect transistor) region; a first suspended nanowire, at least partially suspended over the substrate layer in the nFET region and made from III-V material; and a second suspended nanowire, at least partially suspended over the substrate layer in the pFET region and made from Germanium-containing material. In some embodiments, the first suspended nanowire and the second suspended nanowire are fabricated by adding appropriate nanowire layers on top of a Germanium-containing release layer, and then removing the Germanium-containing release layers so that the nanowires are suspended.
US09570559B2
An electronic device can include a dielectric layer, and a graphene layer including a first surface located upon the dielectric layer. The electronic device can include a first electrode, a second electrode, and a third electrode each located upon the dielectric layer on a surface opposite the graphene layer. The first and second electrodes can be spaced apart along a longitudinal axis of the electronic device to define a first gap between the first and second electrodes, and the second and third electrodes are spaced apart along the longitudinal axis of the electronic device to define a second gap between the second and third electrodes. At least one of the first gap or the second gap can be angled so as to be neither parallel nor perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the electronic device.
US09570545B2
A method of forming a device is disclosed. A substrate defined with a device region is provided. A gate having a gate electrode, first and second gate dielectric layers is formed in a trench. The trench has an upper trench portion and a lower trench portion. A field plate is formed in the trench. First and second diffusion regions are formed. The gate is displaced from the second diffusion region.
US09570544B2
A semiconductor device includes: a silicon substrate that includes a high-concentration layer containing first conductivity type impurities; a low-concentration layer formed on the high-concentration layer and containing first conductivity type impurities; a first electrode and a second electrode formed on the low-concentration layer; a vertical semiconductor element that allows current to flow between the second electrode and the high-concentration layer; and a first trench unit that realizes electric connection between the first electrode and the high-concentration layer. The first trench unit consists of first polysilicon containing first conductivity type impurities, and a diffusion layer configured to surround the first polysilicon in a plan view and to contain first conductivity type impurities. The first polysilicon is configured to reach the high-concentration layer by penetrating the low-concentration layer. Respective concentrations of the first conductivity type impurities contained in the first polysilicon and in the diffusion layer are kept constant in a direction from the low-concentration layer to the high-concentration layer.
US09570542B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body with a first surface at a first side, a second surface opposite to the first surface and an edge surface connecting the first and second surfaces. An edge termination structure includes a glass structure and extends along the edge surface, at least from a plane coplanar with the first surface towards the second surface. A conductive structure extends parallel to the first surface and overlaps the glass structure at the first side.
US09570534B2
An organic light emitting diode display includes: a substrate including a first and a second gate electrode formed over a first and a second region, respectively, a first and a second gate insulator formed on the first and the second gate electrode, respectively, a first and a second semiconductor layer formed on the first and the second gate insulator, respectively, the first semiconductor layer including a first channel region, the second semiconductor layer including a second channel region, an interlayer insulator formed over the substrate and over at least part of the first and second semiconductor layers, a first and a second etching stop layer formed over the first and second channel regions, respectively, and surrounded by the interlayer insulator, and a first and a second source electrode and a first and a second drain electrode contacting the first and the second semiconductor layer, respectively, through the interlayer insulator.
US09570533B2
The present disclosure provides an organic light emitting diode array substrate and its manufacturing method, as well as a display device. The organic light emitting diode array substrate includes: gate lines, data lines, and a plurality of pixel units defined by the gate lines and the data lines. Each pixel unit comprises a first region which emits light and a second region which does not emit light. The first region is provided with an organic light emitting diode, and the second region is provided with a conductive unit which is electrically connected in parallel with the data line and created from the same layer from which a cathode of the organic light emitting diode is created.
US09570530B2
An AMOLED display backboard, a display device and a manufacturing method of an AMOLED display backboard are provided. In the AMOLED display backboard, the number of VDD lines (601) is less than that of sub-pixels in one row, thus reducing area occupied by the VDD lines (601), lessening occupation of VDD lines (601) on the area of circuit board, while realizing connection of circuit input terminals (603) of respective sub-pixels and VDD lines (601) by the VDD connecting line (602).
US09570528B2
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes: a thin film transistor including an active layer, a gate electrode, a source electrode, a drain electrode, a first insulating layer, and a second insulating layer; a pad electrode comprising a first pad layer and a second pad layer on the first pad layer; a third insulating layer covering the source electrode and the drain electrode and an end portion of the pad electrode; a pixel electrode comprising a semi-transmissive electrically conductive layer at an opening in the third insulating layer; a protection layer between the pixel electrode and the first insulating layer; a fourth insulating layer having an opening at a location corresponding to the opening formed in the third insulating layer and covering the end portion of the pad electrode; an emission layer on the pixel electrode; and an opposing electrode on the emission layer.
US09570525B2
An organic light emitting display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. The organic light emitting display apparatus includes, for example, a bus electrode, an insulating layer covering the bus electrode and having a bus electrode hole exposing at least a part of the bus electrode, a pixel electrode formed on the insulating layer and electrically coupled with the bus electrode, a pixel defining layer exposing a part of the pixel electrode and a part of the bus electrode, a first intermediate layer on the pixel defining layer and the pixel electrode, the first intermediate layer having a first opening to expose the part of the bus electrode, an emission layer disposed on the first intermediate layer, and an opposite electrode to correspond to the pixel electrode and the bus electrode and contacting the bus electrode through the first opening and the bus electrode hole.
US09570516B2
A method for fabricating 3-D cross-point memory arrays, and more particularly to fabricating phase change memory (PCM) and resistive RAM (ReRAM or RRAM) 3-D memory arrays having a cell size footprint of 4F2. The method for forming a plurality of layers of memory cells using a limited number of photolithographic patterning steps is applicable to memory devices having single or multiple storage bits per cell, such as cells having anywhere from one to eight bits per cell or more. These bits are stacked three dimensionally and include memory cells based on phase change material, on resistive change material, on magnetic field alignment, on mechanical switching, and on other memory cells based on other information storage technologies.
US09570499B2
A semiconductor device including a first semiconductor section including a first wiring layer at one side thereof, the first semiconductor section further including a photodiode, a second semiconductor section including a second wiring layer at one side thereof, the first and second semiconductor sections being secured together, a third semiconductor section including a third wiring layer at one side thereof, the second and the third semiconductor sections being secured together such the first semiconductor section, second semiconductor section, and the third semiconductor section are stacked together, and a first conductive material electrically connecting at least two of (i) the first wiring layer, (ii) the second wiring layer, and (iii) the third wiring layer such that the electrically connected wiring layers are in electrical communication.
US09570488B2
In some examples, techniques and architectures for fabricating an image sensor chip having a curved surface include placing a substrate on a first surface of an image sensor chip, wherein the first surface of the image sensor chip is opposite a second surface of the image sensor chip, and wherein the second surface of the image sensor chip includes light sensors to generate electrical signals in response to receiving light. Fabricating also includes modifying a volume of the substrate so as to impart forces on the image sensor chip to produce a curved image sensor chip.
US09570486B2
A solid-state imaging device includes: a photoelectric conversion unit which converts light into signal charges; an accumulation unit which accumulates the signal charges; a transfer transistor connected between the photoelectric conversion unit and the accumulation unit for transferring to the accumulation unit, the signal charges obtained through the conversion by the photoelectric conversion unit; an amplification transistor for amplifying the signal charges accumulated in the accumulation unit to generate a voltage signal, the amplification transistor having a gate connected to the accumulation unit; a reset transistor for resetting a voltage of the accumulation unit; a first amplification circuit for negatively feeding back the voltage signal generated by the amplification transistor to the reset transistor; and a second amplification circuit for positively feeding back the voltage signal generated by the amplification transistor to the amplification transistor.
US09570485B2
A solar-powered autonomous CMOS circuit structure is fabricated with monolithically integrated photovoltaic solar cells. The structure includes a device layer including an integrated circuit and a solar cell layer. Solar cell structures in the solar cell layer can be series connected during metallization of the device layer or subsequently. The device layer and the solar cell layer are formed using a silicon-on-insulator substrate. Subsequent spalling of the silicon-on-insulator substrate through the handle substrate thereof facilitates production of a relatively thin solar cell layer that can be subjected to a selective etching process to isolate the solar cell structures.
US09570484B2
The semiconductor device includes a gate electrode over a substrate, a gate insulating layer over the gate electrode, an oxide semiconductor layer over the gate insulating layer, and a source electrode and a drain electrode over the oxide semiconductor layer. A length of part of an outer edge of the oxide semiconductor layer from an outer edge of the source electrode to an outer edge of the drain electrode is more than three times, preferably more than five times as long as a channel length of the semiconductor device. Further, oxygen is supplied from the gate insulating layer to the oxide semiconductor layer by heat treatment. In addition, an insulating layer is formed after the oxide semiconductor layer is selectively etched.
US09570478B2
Provided is a flat panel display. A flat panel display includes: a lower panel defining a display area and a non-display area, a driver element and a line within the non-display area, a planar layer covering the lower panel, a first trench at the planar layer over the driver element and the line, a lower alignment layer on an upper surface of the planar layer and a lower surface of the first trench, the lower alignment layer exposing some upper surface of the planar layer at the first trench, and a sealant at the first trench.
US09570476B2
The array substrate comprises: data lines and scanning lines in an insulating crossing arrangement, where the data lines comprise first data lines and second data lines, the first data lines are arranged in a same layer with the scanning lines; the second data lines electrically connecting the first data lines via first via holes; first signal lines and common electrodes arranged on a substrate, where the first signal lines are arranged insulating from and in a same layer with the second data lines, the first signal line comprises a main portion and a bending portion which is arranged adjacently to the second data line; and a second insulating layer arranged between the first signal lines and the common electrodes, where second via holes are arranged in the second insulating layer, and the common electrodes are electrically connected to the first signal lines via the second via holes.
US09570471B2
Provided is an organic light emitting display device including: a substrate; a first anode and a second anode formed on the substrate; a first auxiliary electrode formed between the first anode and the second anode; a first organic light emitting layer and a second organic light emitting layer; a first bank including an undercut formed on an upper part of a first edge of the first auxiliary electrode; a second bank including an undercut formed on an upper part of a second edge of the first auxiliary electrode; a second auxiliary electrode disposed between the undercut of the first bank and the first auxiliary electrode; a third auxiliary electrode disposed between the undercut of the second bank and the first auxiliary electrode; a first cathode electrically connected with the second auxiliary electrode; and a second cathode electrically connected with the third auxiliary electrode.
US09570469B2
An active matrix substrate (100) includes: a gate electrode (12) formed on a substrate; an oxide semiconductor layer (16); a source electrode (14); a drain electrode (15A); a drain connecting portion (15B) as an extended portion of the drain electrode (15A); a first transparent conductive layer (22, 24); and a second transparent conductive layer (26), wherein: the drain connecting portion (15B) is arranged close to the drain electrode (15A); and the drain electrode (15A) extends from a connecting portion thereof for connection with the oxide semiconductor layer (16), across an edge of the gate electrode (12), and to the drain connecting portion (15B), where a width of the drain electrode (15A) is smaller than a width of the drain connecting portion (15B).
US09570466B2
Techniques for fabricating passive devices in an extremely-thin silicon-on-insulator (ETSOI) wafer are provided. In one aspect, a method for fabricating one or more passive devices in an ETSOI wafer is provided. The method includes the following steps. The ETSOI wafer having a substrate and an ETSOI layer separated from the substrate by a buried oxide (BOX) is provided. The ETSOI layer is coated with a protective layer. At least one trench is formed that extends through the protective layer, the ETSOI layer and the BOX, and wherein a portion of the substrate is exposed within the trench. Spacers are formed lining sidewalls of the trench. Epitaxial silicon templated from the substrate is grown in the trench. The protective layer is removed from the ETSOI layer. The passive devices are formed in the epitaxial silicon.
US09570460B2
A method of making a semiconductor device includes forming a stack of alternating layers of a first material and a second material over a substrate, etching the stack to form at least one opening in the stack such that a damaged region is located on a bottom surface of the at least one opening, forming a masking layer on a sidewall of the at least one opening while the bottom surface of the at least one opening is not covered by the masking layer, and further etching the bottom surface of the at least one opening remove the damaged region.
US09570458B2
Methods and structures for forming semiconductor channels based on gate fringing effect are disclosed. In one embodiment, a NAND flash memory device comprises multiple NAND strings of memory transistors. Each memory transistor includes a charge trapping layer and a gate electrode formed on the charge trapping layer. The memory transistors are formed close to each other to form a channel between an adjacent pair of the memory transistors based on a gate fringing effect associated with the adjacent pair of the memory transistors.
US09570453B2
Various embodiments provide memory devices and methods for forming the same. A substrate is provided, the substrate having one or more adjacent memory cells formed thereon. Each memory cell includes a gate structure, a control gate layer, and a first mask layer. A portion of the control gate layer is removed, to reduce a size of an exposed portion of the control gate layer in a direction parallel to a surface of the substrate. An electrical contact layer is formed on an exposed sidewall of the control gate layer and an exposed surface of the substrate. A barrier layer is formed on a sidewall of the memory cell. A conductive structure is formed on the substrate. The conductive structure has a significantly larger distance from control gate layer than from the gate structure, and the barrier layer forms an isolation layer between the conductive structure and the control gate layer.
US09570446B1
A semiconductor device includes a plurality of semiconductor devices, a plurality of metal lines electrically connected to at least one of the semiconductor devices, and a protective layer on the metal lines. The protective layer includes a plurality of open areas partially exposing the metal lines and which serves as pads. A first pad includes a first area that extends from at least one of the metal lines and at least one second area around and separated from the first area.
US09570430B2
Articles including bonded metal structures and methods of preparing the same are provided herein. In an embodiment, a method of preparing an article that includes bonded metal structures includes providing a first substrate. A first metal structure and a second metal structure are formed on the first substrate. The first metal structure and the second metal structure each include an exposed contact surface. A bond mask is formed over the contact surface of the first metal structure. A second substrate is bonded to the first substrate through the exposed contact surface of the second metal structure. The bond mask remains disposed over the exposed contact surface of the second metal structure during bonding of the second substrate to the first substrate. A wire is bonded to the exposed contact surface of the first metal structure.
US09570421B2
The embodiments described provide methods and structures for forming support structures between dies and substrate(s) of a three dimensional integrated circuit (3DIC) structures. Each support structure adheres to surfaces of two neighboring dies or die and substrate to relieve stress caused by bowing of the die(s) and/or substrate on the bonding structures formed between the dies or die and substrate. The cost of the support structures is much lower than other processes, such as thermal compression bonding, to reduce the effect of bowing of dies and substrates on 3DIC formation. The support structures improves yield of 3DIC structures.
US09570413B2
An integrated circuit structure includes a substrate, a PPI over the substrate, a solder region over and electrically coupled to a portion of the PPI, and a molding compound molding a lower portion of the solder region therein. A top surface of the molding compound is level with or lower than a maximum-diameter plane, wherein the maximum-diameter plane is parallel to a major surface of the substrate, and the maximum-diameter of the solder region is in the maximum-diameter plane.
US09570411B2
A pad structure usable with a semiconductor device may include an insulating layer pattern structure, a plug, and a pad. The insulating layer pattern structure has a plug hole and at least one via hole. The plug is formed in the plug hole. The pad is formed on the insulating layer pattern structure. The pad is electrically connected with the plug and has a lower surface and an uneven upper surface. The lower surface includes a protruded portion inserted into the via hole. The uneven upper surface includes a recessed portion and an elevated portion—to provide high roughness and firm connection.
US09570406B2
The present disclosure integrates electromagnetic shielding into a wafer level fan-out packaging process. First, a mold wafer having multiple modules is provided. Each module includes a die with an I/O port and is surrounded by an inter-module area. A redistribution structure that includes a shield connected element coupled to the I/O port of each module is formed over a bottom surface of the mold wafer. The shield connected element extends laterally from the I/O port into the inter-module area for each module. Next, the mold wafer is sub-diced at each inter-module area to create a cavity. A portion of the shield connected element is then exposed through the bottom of each cavity. A shielding structure is formed over a top surface of the mold wafer and exposed faces of each cavity. The shielding structure is in contact with the shield connected element.
US09570398B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a chip package which includes: a first substrate; a second substrate disposed thereon, wherein the second substrate includes a lower semiconductor layer, an upper semiconductor layer, and an insulating layer therebetween, and a portion of the lower semiconductor layer electrically contacts with at least one pad on the first substrate; a conducting layer disposed on the upper semiconductor layer of the second substrate and electrically connected to the portion of the lower semiconductor layer electrically contacting with the at least one pad; an opening extending from the upper semiconductor layer towards the lower semiconductor layer and extending into the lower semiconductor layer; and a protection layer disposed on the upper semiconductor layer and the conducting layer, wherein the protection layer extends onto a portion of a sidewall of the opening, and does not cover the lower semiconductor layer in the opening.
US09570396B2
A semiconductor device includes a first metal layer provided above a semiconductor substrate, an interlayer insulating film provided above the first metal layer, a second metal layer that is provided in an opening formed in the interlayer insulating film and is in contact with an underlying layer, the second metal layer being connected to the first metal layer, and a first barrier layer that is provided between the second metal layer and the interlayer insulating film and has a different main composition from that of the underlying layer.
US09570395B1
A semiconductor device includes: a substrate; a power rail on the substrate; an active layer on the substrate and at same layer as the power rail; and a contact electrically connecting the power rail to the active layer. The active layer includes source/drain terminals.
US09570388B2
Embodiments herein describe dummy gates disposed over a portion of a fin in finFETs. That is, instead of separating the dummy gates from the finFET structure, the fins may be extended and covered, at least partially, by the dummy gates. An insulative material is disposed between the dummy gate and the fin in order to form a decoupling capacitor. In one embodiment, the dummy gate overlaps a portion of the fin that is held at a voltage rail. Moreover, the dummy gate may be coupled to a different (e.g., opposite) voltage rail than rail coupled to the fin. For example, if the fin is coupled to VHIGH then the dummy gate is coupled to VLOW, or vice versa. Thus, the capacitor formed using the fin and the dummy gate provides a decoupling capacitance between the power sources generating the voltage rails (i.e., VHIGH and VLOW).
US09570381B2
Described herein are semiconductor packages having an insulating layer and the manufacturing methods thereof, wherein semiconductor packages include a die pad; a plurality of leads surrounding the die pad, wherein each of the leads comprises an inner lead portion and an outer lead portion, and wherein at least one lead further comprises a trace portion; a chip disposed on the die pad and electrically connected to the leads; a molding compound encapsulating the chip, the inner lead portions and the trace portion, where the outer lead portions and a first surface of the trace portion are exposed from the molding compound; and an insulating layer covering the first surface of the trace portion.
US09570378B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate including a circuit region, a dummy region, and a dummy clearance section surrounding the circuit region, and a plurality of dummy patterns formed in the dummy region, the plurality of dummy patterns comprising a first dummy pattern and a second dummy pattern, a distance between the first dummy pattern and the circuit region being less than a distance between the second dummy pattern and the circuit region, and a dummy pattern being absent between the first dummy pattern and the circuit region. The first dummy pattern includes an area which is greater than an area of the second dummy pattern.
US09570373B1
A heat source (single semiconductor chip or group of closely spaced semiconductor chips of similar height) is provided on a first side of a substrate, which substrate has on said first side a support member comprising a compressible material. A heat removal component, oriented at an angle to said heat source, is brought into proximity of said heat source such that said heat removal component contacts said support member prior to contacting said heat source. Said heat removal component is assembled to said heat source such that said support member at least partially absorbs global inequality of force that would otherwise be applied to said heat source, absent said support member comprising said compressible material.
US09570366B2
A packaged IC chip includes a testing pad, wherein the testing pad is electrically connected to devices in the packaged integrated circuit chip. The packaged IC chip further includes a first passivation layer over a portion of the testing pad, and a second passivation layer covering a surface of the testing pad and a portion of the first passivation layer surrounding the testing region of the testing pad. A distance between edges of the second passivation layer covering the surface of the testing pad to edges of the testing pad is in a range from about 2 mm to about 15 mm.
US09570357B2
Vertical field effect transistors (FETs) with minimum pitch and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The structure includes at least one vertical fin structure and gate material contacting with the at least one vertical fin structure. The structure further includes metal material in electrical contact with the ends of the at least one vertical fin.
US09570356B1
Various embodiments disclose a method for fabricating a semiconductor structure. In one embodiment, the method includes forming a masking layer over at least a first portion of a source contact layer formed on a substrate. At least a second portion of the source contact layer is recessed below the first portion of the source contact layer. The mask layer is removed and a first spacer layer, a replacement gate on the first spacer layer, a second spacer layer on the replacement gate, and an insulating layer on the second spacer layer are formed. First and second trenches are then formed. A first channel layer is epitaxially grown within the first trench. A second channel layer is epitaxially grown within the second trench. A length of the second channel layer is greater than a length of the first channel layer.
US09570355B1
A method of making a semiconductor device includes depositing a hard mask on a dielectric layer on a substrate, the dielectric layer being disposed around first, second, and third gates; removing a portion of the hard mask to form an opening that exposes the first, second, and third gates; forming a patterned soft mask on the first, second, and third gates within the opening, a first portion of the patterned soft mask being disposed on the first and second gates, and a second portion of the patterned soft mask being disposed on the second and third gates; removing portions of the dielectric layer to transfer the pattern of the patterned soft mask into the dielectric layer and form first and second contact openings between the first and second gates, and third and fourth contact openings between the second and third gates; and disposing a conductive material in the contact openings.
US09570352B2
A method of dicing a wafer may include forming a plurality of active regions in a wafer, each active region including at least one electronic component, the active regions extending from a first surface of the wafer into the wafer by a height and being separated by separation regions, the separation regions being free from metal, forming at least one trench in the wafer by plasma etching in at least one separation region from the first surface of the wafer. The at least one trench is extending into the wafer farther than the plurality of active regions. The method may further include processing a remaining portion of the wafer in the separation region to separate the wafer into individual chips.
US09570351B2
In example implementations, a plurality of material layers and a plurality of etch stop layers are grown on a first substrate. Ions are implanted through at least one material layer of the plurality of material layers into an etch stop layer of the plurality of etch stop layers to create defects in the etch stop layer. A first material layer of the substrate is bonded to a second substrate. The etch stop layer is split to remove the first substrate from the second substrate. The first substrate is reused to bond another material layer of the plurality of material layers to a third substrate.
US09570349B2
A method of an aspect includes forming a directed self assembly alignment promotion layer over a surface of a substrate having a first patterned region and a second patterned region. A first directed self assembly alignment promotion material is formed selectively over the first patterned region without using lithographic patterning. The method also includes forming an assembled layer over the directed self assembly alignment promotion layer by directed self assembly. A plurality of assembled structures are formed that each include predominantly a first type of polymer over the first directed self assembly alignment promotion material. The assembled structures are each adjacently surrounded by predominantly a second different type of polymer over the second patterned region. The first directed self assembly alignment promotion material has a greater chemical affinity for the first type of polymer than for the second different type of polymer.
US09570348B2
A method of forming a contact structure is provided. A silicon-containing substrate is provided with a composite dielectric layer formed thereon. An opening penetrates through the composite dielectric layer and exposes a portion of the source/drain region. A titanium nitride layer is formed in the opening, and the titanium nitride layer is in contact with the exposed portion of the source/drain region. The titanium nitride layer is annealed, so that the bottom portion of the titanium nitride layer is partially transformed into a titanium silicide layer. A conductive layer is formed to fill up the opening.
US09570342B1
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the via comprises one or more stacks, each stack comprising a seed layer of a first electrically conducting material formed on a smooth surface; a trace of a second electrically material that is electroplated on the seed layer; a column in electrical contact with the trace, the column comprising a third electrically conducting material that is electroplated on the trace; and an insulating material on the substrate and trace, the insulating material having a smooth upper surface in which the column is exposed. Additional vias may be stacked in tiers one on top of the other with the seed layer of one via making non-rectifying electrical contact with the exposed column of the via below it. Methods for forming the via structure are also disclosed.
US09570341B2
One method includes forming a conductive feature in a dielectric layer on a substrate for a semiconductor device. A hard mask layer and an underlying etch stop layer are formed on the substrate. The hard mask layer and the underlying etch stop layer are then patterned. The patterned etch stop layer is disposed over the conductive feature. At least one of the patterned hard mask layer and the patterned etch stop layer are used as a masking element during etching of a trench in the dielectric layer adjacent the conductive feature. A cap is then formed over the etched trench. The cap is disposed on the patterned etch stop layer disposed on the conductive feature.
US09570340B2
The invention provides a method of etching a crystalline semiconductor material (114), the method being characterized in that it comprises: at least one ion implantation performed by implanting a plurality of ions (121) in at least one volume (113) of the semiconductor material (114) in such a manner as to make the semiconductor material amorphous in the at least one implanted volume (113), and as to keep the semiconductor material (114) in a crystalline state outside (112) the at least one implanted volume (113); and at least one chemical etching for selectively etching the amorphous semiconductor material relative to the crystalline semiconductor material, so as to remove the semiconductor material in the at least one volume (113) and so as to keep the semiconductor material outside (112) the at least one volume (113).
US09570337B2
At the time of transporting a substrate into or from a space where a film formation process is performed, the space where the film formation process is performed, a space where a lower heater 16 is provided, and a space where an upper heater 19 is provided are made in an inert gas atmosphere.
US09570332B2
The invention discloses a regulation jig including a regulation part and a scale plate which are movably connected. The regulation part can simultaneously regulate positions of conveying rings having the same sequence, such that they are arranged into a line. The scale plate can accurately control the distance between the lines formed by the rings. The regulation jig not only can guarantee the straightness of a row of conveying rings around different conveying rollers and having the same sequence, but also can ensure that the transmission surface formed by the conveying rings for supporting and conveying the display substrates has a good flatness, in turn preventing the display substrates from deviating from its travelling direction during the transmission. As such, the regulation jig provided by the invention can efficiently and promptly regulate the positions of the conveying rings, so as to ensure the normal transmission of the display substrate.
US09570330B2
A substrate processing apparatus is presented having a transport chamber defining substantially linear substrate transport paths, a linear array of substrate holding modules, each communicably connected to the chamber. The substrate transport has at least one transporter capable of holding and moving the substrate on more than one substantially linear substrate transport paths. The transport chamber having different transport tubes at least one of which is sealable at both ends of the transport tube and configured to hold an isolated atmosphere different from that of the transport tubes, each of the different transport tubes having one of the substrate transport paths located therein different from another of the transport paths located in another of the transport tubes, and being communicably connected to each other, where at least one of the transport tubes is configured to provide uninterrupted transit of the substrate transport through the transport tubes.
US09570327B2
A substrate liquid treatment apparatus comprises a chuck (13) that holds and rotates a wafer, a back surface purging nozzle (15) that discharges a purge gas toward the back surface of the wafer, and a periphery purging nozzle 16 that discharges the purge gas onto the back surface of the wafer. The back surface purging nozzle has a slit-like opening part extending from a central side to a peripheral side of the substrate in a plan view. Vertical distance between the slit-like opening part and the substrate held by the substrate holding unit increases as approaching an end of the opening part on the central side of the substrate. The periphery purging nozzle discharges the purge gas, toward a central part of the substrate, toward a region on the back surface of the substrate, which region is located radially outside an end of the slit-like opening part of the back surface purging nozzle and radially inside an peripheral edge of the substrate.
US09570323B2
For so called film assisted moulding (FAM) device processing techniques there is provided lead frame for a semiconductor device, comprising a base portion and a connection lead, said base portion arranged for mounting a semiconductor die, said connection lead comprising a horizontal portion for external connection and an angled portion for connection to said semiconductor die, wherein the angled portion has a positive angle with respect to the base portion. The connection lead may comprise a recessed portion.
US09570316B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a first conductive structure on a substrate, forming an insulation layer on a sidewall of the first conductive structure, forming a second conductive structure a distance apart from the first conductive structure with the insulation layer therebetween, first removing a portion of the insulation layer by performing a first dry cleaning operation, second removing a reactant product used in the first dry cleaning operation or a first byproduct generated as a result of the first dry cleaning operation by performing a first purge operation, and third removing at least a portion of the remaining insulation layer by performing a second dry cleaning operation to form an air gap between the first and second conductive structures.
US09570315B2
A method of an interfacial oxide layer formation comprises a plurality of steps. The step (S1) is to remove a native oxide layer from a surface of a substrate; the step (S2) is to form an oxide layer on a surface of a substrate by piranha solution (SPM); the step (S3) is to cleaning a surface of the oxide layer by standard clean 1 (SC1), and the step (S4) is to etch he oxide layer by a solution comprising diluted hydrogen fluoride (dHF) and ozonized pure water (DIO3).
US09570299B1
Techniques for forming nanostructured materials are provided. In one aspect of the invention, a method for forming nanotubes on a buried insulator includes the steps of: forming one or more fins in a SOI layer of an SOI wafer, wherein the SOI wafer has a substrate separated from the SOI layer by the buried insulator; forming a SiGe layer on the fins; annealing the SiGe layer under conditions sufficient to drive-in Ge from the SiGe layer into the fins and form a SiGe shell completely surrounding each of the fins; and removing the fins selective to the SiGe shell, wherein the SiGe shell which remains forms the nanotubes on the buried insulator. A nanotube structure and method of forming a nanotube device are also provided.
US09570294B2
A preparation method of a graphene nanoribbon on h-BN, comprising: 1) forming a h-BN groove template with a nano ribbon-shaped groove structure on the h-BN by adopting a metal catalysis etching method; 2) growing a graphene nanoribbon in the h-BN groove template by adopting a chemical vapor deposition method. In the present invention, a CVD method is adopted to directly prepare a morphology controllable graphene nanoribbon on the h-BN, which helps to solve the long-term critical problem that the graphene is difficult to nucleate and grow on an insulating substrate, and to avoid the series of problems introduced by the complicated processes of the transferring of the graphene and the subsequent clipping manufacturing for a nanoribbon and the like.
US09570293B2
A method for making an epitaxial base includes the following steps. A plurality of grooves and a plurality of bulges are formed on an epitaxial growth surface of a substrate by etching the epitaxial growth surface. A carbon nanotube layer is located on the epitaxial growth surface, wherein the carbon nanotube layer defines a first part attached on top surface of bulges, and a second part suspended on the grooves. The second part of the carbon nanotube layer is attached on bottom surface of the grooves by treating the carbon nanotube layer.
US09570286B2
According to one embodiment, a supercritical drying method for a semiconductor substrate comprises introducing a semiconductor substrate, a surface of the semiconductor substrate being wet with a water-soluble organic solvent, to the inside of a chamber, hermetically sealing the chamber and increasing a temperature inside the chamber to not lower than a critical temperature of the water-soluble organic solvent, thereby bringing the water-soluble organic solvent into a supercritical state, decreasing a pressure inside the chamber and changing the water-soluble organic solvent in the supercritical state to a gas, thereby discharging the water-soluble organic solvent from the chamber, starting a supply of an inert gas into the chamber as the pressure inside the chamber decreases to atmospheric pressure, and cooling the semiconductor substrate in a state where the inert gas exists inside the chamber.
US09570282B2
A mass spectrometer is disclosed. The mass spectrometer may include an ion trap configured to trap and analyze an ionized sample. A first aperture may be provided having a first diameter, and a second aperture may be provided having a second diameter. The first aperture may be configured to receive electrons for the purpose of ionizing sample ions within the ion trap. The second aperture may be configured to receive photons for the purpose of ionizing sample ions within the ion trap.
US09570279B2
A mass analyzer includes two rotating electric field (REF) units, sinusoidal signal generators and a means for separation of dispersed ions. The REF units include a plurality of elongated electrodes surrounding a central axis, and are lined in tandem at elongated direction. Sinusoidal signals are applied to the electrodes to rotate electric fields within each REF unit. The means for separation is placed adjacent the downstream end of the 2nd REF unit. Ions enter the 1st REF unit, diverge outwards and leave the 1st REF unit on off-axis positions. The ions successively enter the 2nd REF unit and converge inwards because of 180 degrees phase difference from the 1st REF unit. Specified mass ions return to and travel along the central axis. However, unspecified mass ions deviate from the central axis and travel apart from the central axis. The means for separation separates specified ions from unspecified ions.
US09570277B2
A system and method for matrix assisted laser desorption time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. A method for MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry includes initiating a spectral analysis of a sample on a MALDI-TOF spectrometer. The sample is ionized, and a first ion spectrum is detected and stored. Thereafter, the spectrometer is reset, and the ionizing, detecting, storing, and resetting are repeated until a predetermined plurality of spectra of the sample is acquired.
US09570274B2
Methods of depositing a film on a substrate surface include surface mediated reactions in which a film is grown over one or more cycles of reactant adsorption and reaction. In one aspect, the method is characterized by intermittent delivery of dopant species to the film between the cycles of adsorption and reaction.
US09570272B2
A plasma processing apparatus includes: a reaction chamber; a stage which is disposed inside the reaction chamber and on which a conveyance carrier is mountable; an electrostatic chuck mechanism including an electrode portion that is disposed inside the stage; a support portion which supports the conveyance carrier between a stage-mounted position on the stage and a transfer position that is distant from the stage upward; and an elevation mechanism which elevates and lowers the support portion relative to the stage. In a case in which the conveyance carrier is mounted on the stage by lowering the support portion, the electrostatic chuck mechanism starts applying a voltage to the electrode portion before contact of an outer circumferential portion of a holding sheet which holds the conveyance carrier to the stage.
US09570265B1
We present a micro-x-ray fluorescence (XRF) system having a high-brightness x-ray illumination system with high x-ray flux and high flux density. The higher brightness is achieved in part by using x-ray target designs that comprise a number of microstructures of x-ray generating materials fabricated in close thermal contact with a substrate having high thermal conductivity. This allows for bombardment of the targets with higher electron density or higher energy electrons, which leads to greater x-ray flux. The high brightness/high flux x-ray source may then be coupled to an x-ray optical system, which can collect and focus the high flux x-rays to spots that can be as small as one micron, leading to high flux density at the fluorescent sample. Such systems may be useful for a variety of applications, including mineralogy, trace element detection, structure and composition analysis, metrology, as well as forensic science and diagnostic systems.
US09570263B2
There is provided a vacuum switching assembly for switching an AC or DC current. The vacuum switching assembly comprises a vacuum switch. The vacuum switch includes: first and second electrodes (20, 22) located in a vacuum tight enclosure, the vacuum tight enclosure containing a gas or gas mixture, the first and second electrodes (20, 22) defining opposed electrodes being separated by a gap, each of the first and second electrodes (20,22) being connectable to a respective electrical circuit carrying an AC or DC voltage; and a pressure controller (36) configured to control an internal pressure of the vacuum tight enclosure, wherein the pressure controller (36) is configured to selectively switch the internal pressure of the vacuum tight enclosure between: a first vacuum level that permits formation and maintenance of a glow discharge in the vacuum tight enclosure to allow a current to flow between the first and second electrodes (20, 22) via the glow discharge so as to turn on the vacuum switch; and a second vacuum level that inhibits formation and maintenance of a glow discharge in the vacuum tight enclosure to prevent a current from flowing between the first and second electrodes (20, 22) via the glow discharge so as to turn off the vacuum switch.
US09570252B2
A system for operating an on-load tap changer (OLTC) includes a plurality of legs that include mechanical switches. At least one leg switches from a first to a second tap of the OLTC on receipt of a tap change signal. At least one mechanical switch is activated to establish an electrical connection between one of the first and the second tap and a power terminal of the OLTC. Further, the system includes semiconductor switches that are parallel to the mechanical switches and when activated electrically couple one of the first and the second tap and the power terminal. The system includes a processing unit that selectively activates and deactivates the mechanical and semiconductor switches in such a way that electrical contact is maintained between at least one of the taps and the power terminal during the transition of at least one leg from the first tap to the second tap.
US09570247B2
The invention relates to a switch strip (10) for an apparatus for detecting an obstruction (210) in the movement range (221) of a closure element (220), in particular of an automotive vehicle (200). The switch strip (10) has an inner electrode (20), an outer electrode (30) approximately concentrically surrounding the inner electrode (20) at a distance (D), and a space (40) filled with air, which is arranged between the outer electrode (30) and the inner electrode (20) and which is dielectric. Furthermore, the switch strip (10) has a spacer (50) which is deformable in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction. The spacer (50) spaces and insulates the two electrodes (20, 30) from one another. The outer electrode (30) is deformable by a force (F) applied from the outside. The deformation of the outer electrode (30) is able to at least in portions bring the inner electrode (20) and the outer electrode (30) into contact with each other. Such a switch strip (10) is also referred to as a tactile switch strip (10).
US09570244B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a solid-state supercapacitor. The solid-state supercapacitor includes a first electrode, a second electrode, and a solid-state ionogel structure between the first electrode and the second electrode. The solid-state ionogel structure prevents direct electrical contact between the first electrode and the second electrode. Further, the solid-state ionogel structure substantially fills voids inside the first electrode and the second electrode.
US09570242B2
The present invention relates to a flexible transparent electrode for a dye-sensitized solar cell and a manufacturing method for same, and more specifically, to a flexible Ti—In—Zn—O transparent electrode for a dye-sensitized solar cell and a manufacturing method for same, and to a metal-inserted three-layer transparent electrode with high conductivity using the flexible transparent electrode and a manufacturing method for same, wherein compared with the conventional fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) and indium-tin oxide (ITO) transparent electrodes with a high deposition temperature, the flexible transparent electrode, despite being deposited at room or low temperature, has low surface resistance, high conductivity and transmittance, superior resistance against external bending, improved surface characteristics and better surface roughness performance.
US09570238B2
An ultra-wideband assembly is provided. The assembly includes a non-conductive tapered core having a conductive wire wound on an outer surface of the non-conductive tapered core, a low-frequency inductor coupled to the non-conductive tapered core via the distal end of the conductive wire and configured to allow mounting of the non-conductive tapered core at an angle with respect to the circuit board. The low frequency inductor is being disposed on a dielectric board configured to be coupled to the circuit board. The assembly includes an ultra-wideband capacitor coupled to the non-conductive tapered core via the proximate end of the conductive wire, the ultra-wideband capacitor being also coupled to the transmission line on the dielectric board.
US09570229B2
A power feeding coil unit includes a power feeding coil, and first and second auxiliary coils located outside of the region defined by a wire of the power feeding coil. The axis of the first auxiliary coil and the axis of the second auxiliary coil are substantially perpendicular to the axis of the power feeding coil. The power feeding coil and the first and second auxiliary coils simultaneously generate respective magnetic fluxes, each of which interlinks the corresponding one of the power feeding coil and the first and second auxiliary coils in a direction from the center to the outside of the power feeding coil unit.
US09570228B1
A transformer structure includes a winding cylinder which is a hollow tube, at least one limiting ring which is a ring sheet, multiple conductive sheets and at least one winding. The limiting ring is able to slide along the winding cylinder and to sleeve on the outside of the winding cylinder. The conductive sheets are sleeved on the outside of the winding cylinder. Two conductive sheets of the conductive sheets are attached to two end surfaces of the limiting ring while the two conductive sheets and the limiting ring form a winding space. The at least one winding is correspondingly disposed in the winding space. Thereby, the assembly of the transformer is simplified, and the winding area, as well as the voltage ratio of the transformer, is increased.
US09570227B1
Disclosed is a magnetic excitation coil structure including a magnetic coil sheet formed of a thin film and rolled as a cylindrical body with a hollow hole, and an insulation layer covering the outer surface of the cylindrical body formed by the magnetic coil sheet for protection. The magnetic coil sheet includes a flexible substrate, a dielectric layer attached to the flexible substrate, and a plurality of patterned circuit layers embedded in the flexible substrate and in contact with the dielectric layer. Each patterned circuit layer is separate, and the upper surfaces of the patterned circuit layers and the upper surface of the flexible substrate form a co-plane. The magnetic coil structure provides an electrical function of coil, which is enhanced by the patterned circuit layer due to its high aspect ratio of the electrical circuit, thereby greatly increasing the whole magnetic flux and electromagnetic effect.
US09570225B2
A magnetoelectric device includes at least one reluctance component, at least one damping capacitor, and a switching circuit. The reluctance component includes a capacitive and inductive magnetic core unit having a loop-shaped first segment and a second segment connected to the first segment, and at least one coil wound around and loosely coupled to the magnetic core unit. The damping capacitor cooperates with the coil to form a resonant circuit. The switching circuit makes and breaks electrical connection between the coil and a DC power source so that an eddy current flowing through the resonant circuit may be generated for storing energy in the damping capacitor.
US09570221B2
An apparatus usable as a chucking device to temporarily couple two mechanical objects together. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes an arbor configured to receive an at least partially ferromagnetic object; and a magnet assembly. The magnet assembly includes multiple permanent magnets mounted in a soft ferromagnetic enclosure. The magnet assembly is rotatably coupled to the arbor such that the magnet assembly and the arbor are positionable relative to one another in locking and unlocking positions upon relative rotation therebetween. The magnet assembly is configured to exert a pulling force on the object in the locking position and a lesser force in the unlocking position.
US09570204B2
A passive cooling system for a reactor core of a large-scale pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant includes a shield building having an outer wall and a through air inlet arranged on an upper part of the outer wall, a water tank arranged at an upper part of the shield building, a cooling water distribution plate arranged above a top of a containment within the shield building, a spray pipe arranged at an inside of the top of the shield building and having a water inlet end and a water outlet end, wherein the water inlet end is connected to a bottom of the water tank and the water outlet end is extended to be above the cooling water distribution plate, and an air deflector arranged between the shield building and the containment and having an upper end connected to an inside of the top of the shield building.
US09570201B2
Apparatus and methods for hybrid post package repair are disclosed. One such apparatus may include a package including memory cells and volatile memory. The volatile memory may be configured to store defective address data corresponding to a first portion of the memory cells that are deemed defective post-packaging. The apparatus may also include a decoder configured to select a second portion of the memory cells instead of the first portion of the memory cells when received current address data corresponding to an address to be accessed matches the defective address data stored in the volatile memory. The apparatus may also include non-volatile memory in the package. The apparatus may also include a mapping logic circuit in the package. The mapping logic circuit may be configured to program the replacement address data to the non-volatile memory subsequent to the defective address data being stored to the volatile memory.
US09570195B2
A circuit and method for memory characterization. The circuit includes first and second programmable delay lines, address and data registers, an output register and a finite state machine controller. The finite state machine controller supplies an address to the address register, data to the data register and controlling a delay of the first programmable delay line and the second programmable delay line in at least one predetermined sequence to determine an operating characteristic of the memory to be tested. The programmable delay lines may be connected as a ring oscillator. Determination of the frequency of the ring oscillator via a counter determines the delay of the delay line. The programmable delay lines, the address register and data registers, the output register, the finite state machine controller and the memory to be tested are preferably constructed on a same semiconductor substrate.
US09570191B2
A method of managing a memory in an electronic device is provided that includes calculating an indication of remaining life of a memory component that is used as a swap space by the electronic device; and adjusting the use of the memory component as a swap space based on the indication of remaining life, wherein the adjusting includes one of: (i) reducing a rate at which data is swapped in and out of the memory component, and (ii) discontinuing the use of the memory component as a swap space.
US09570189B1
A data storage device includes a nonvolatile memory device including a target memory cell and one or more adjustment memory cells sharing bit lines with the target memory cell, one or more of the adjustment memory cell are adjacent memory cells adjacent to the target memory cells, and suitable for reading out data therefrom or storing data therein; and a controller suitable for adjusting threshold voltages of the adjustment memory cells based on threshold voltages it of the target memory cell and the adjacent memory cells.
US09570185B2
A system and methods to find the threshold voltage distribution across a set of nonvolatile memory cells, such that embodiments may incorporate this distribution information into calculations that may change the read compare voltages used to read the memory cells, while ensuring adequate separation in read voltage between different data states at which the memory cells may be read.
US09570169B1
A memory device includes a plurality of memory cells and a control unit. The memory cells include a first segment including a resistive memory material for storing information in a plurality of resistance states, a second segment including a non-insulating material, a first terminal, a second terminal, and a third terminal. The first segment and the second segment are arranged in parallel between the first terminal and the second terminal. The control unit is configured to apply in a write mode a write voltage to the first and the second terminal for writing the resistance state, and to apply in a read mode a read voltage to the first and the second terminal for reading the resistance state, and to apply a control signal to the third terminal for adjusting the electrical resistance of the second segment. A related method and control unit are also disclosed.
US09570164B2
A resistive RAM (RRAM) device has a bit line, a word line, a source line carrying a bias voltage that is a substantially static and non-negative voltage, an RRAM cell, and a bit line control coupled to the bit line circuit. The RRAM cell includes a gate node coupled to the word line, a bias node coupled to the source line, and a bit line node coupled to the bit line. The bit line control circuit is configured to generate non-negative command voltages to perform respective memory operations on the RRAM cell.
US09570158B1
An integrated circuit (IC) is disclosed herein for accelerating memory access with an output latch. In an example aspect, the output latch includes a data storage unit, first circuitry, and second circuitry. The data storage unit includes a first input node configured to receive a first input voltage, a second input node configured to receive a second input voltage, a first output node configured to provide a first output voltage, and a second output node configured to provide a second output voltage. The first circuitry is configured to accelerate a voltage level transition of the first output voltage at the first output node responsive to the first input voltage at the first input node. The second circuitry is configured to accelerate a voltage level transition of the second output voltage at the second output node responsive to the second input voltage at the second input node.
US09570157B1
Various implementations described herein are directed to a device for dynamic capacitance balancing. The device may include a sense amplifier configured to receive complimentary data signals from complimentary bitlines and provide first and second sensed data signals based on received complimentary data signals. The second sensed data signal may be a compliment of the first sensed data signal. The device may include a balance coupler configured to receive the second sensed data signal from the sense amplifier and provide a modified second sensed data signal having capacitance similar to the first sensed data signal. The device may include a latch configured to receive the first sensed data signal from the sense amplifier, receive the modified second sensed data signal from the balance coupler, and provide a latched data signal based on the first and modified second sensed data signals.
US09570151B1
A semiconductor device may include a data output circuit configured to sense and amplify data of an input/output line and a complementary input/output line based on the sense amplification control signal. The semiconductor device may include a data output control circuit configured to delay a point of time that the input/output line and the complementary input/output line are sensed and amplified.
US09570150B2
A memory device may include: first to Nth cell blocks; first to (N−1)th bit line sense amplifiers, of which a Kth bit line sense amplifier amplifies a potential difference between a bit line of a Kth cell block and a bit line of a (K+1)th cell block; one or more first outermost bit line sense amplifiers suitable for amplifying a potential difference between a first node and a bit line of the first cell block, wherein drivability for driving the first node is different from drivability for driving the bit line of the first cell block; and one or more second outermost bit line sense amplifiers suitable for amplifying a potential difference between a second node and a bit line of the Nth cell block, wherein drivability for driving the second node is different from drivability for driving the bit line of the Nth cell block.
US09570148B2
An internal voltage generation circuit includes a charging unit suitable for charging electrical charges for a time corresponding to a control signal; a charge control unit suitable for generating the control signal, which is activated for a time corresponding to temperature information, and controlling a charging operation of the charging unit; and an output unit suitable for generating an internal voltage based on charge amount by the charging operation.
US09570141B2
To provide a memory device which can perform verification operation for detecting a memory cell whose data holding time is shorter than a predetermined length, accurately in a short time. Each memory cell includes at least a first capacitor, a second capacitor, and a transistor which functions as a switching element for controlling supply, storage, and release of charge in the first capacitor and the second capacitor. The capacitance of the first capacitor is thousand or more times the capacitance of the second capacitor, preferably ten thousand or more times the capacitance of the second capacitor. In normal operation, charge is stored using the first capacitor and the second capacitor. In performing verification operation for detecting a memory cell whose data holding time is shorter than a predetermined length, charge is stored using the second capacitor.
US09570126B2
Row activation operations within a memory component are carried out with respect to subrows instead of complete storage rows to reduce power consumption. Further, instead of activating subrows in response to row commands, subrow activation operations are deferred until receipt of column commands that specify the column operation to be performed and the subrow to be activated.
US09570125B1
Apparatuses and methods are provided that include a multiplexer configured to generate a plurality of sums of a plurality of data words, wherein the plurality of data words is received by the multiplexer and identified as unmasked based on a data mask. The multiplexer is also configured to determine whether each sum of the plurality of sums indicates that a corresponding data word of the plurality of data words is masked. The multiplexer is further configured to shift the plurality of data words to remove the corresponding masked data word from the plurality of data words. The multiplexer is also configured to output only the data words identified as unmasked based on the data mask.
US09570108B2
A system for presenting video and methods for manipulating and delivering the video are presented. An interface may be implemented to access data related to the creation and animation of the video, a reference to the creation data stored with the video itself. Upon selection a portion of the video, using the references stored with the video, the tools needed to edit the selected portion of the video may be presented. The objects and illustration assets utilized to animate a scene may be stored in a memory device such that the objects and assets may be retrieved using a hierarchy of references initially accessed via the reference stored with the selected portion of the video. According to an embodiment, the selected portion may be a frame or a pixel and the reference stored with the frame metadata, pixel value, or image channel or image layer.
US09570102B2
An information recording and reproducing apparatus including: a reproducing unit which generates a digital signal from an analog signal; a recording compensation unit which generates an expectation signal from the digital signal, detects a signal difference between the digital signal and the expectation signal, and adjusts a recording condition for recording the information; and a recording unit configured to record the information based on the recording condition. First recording compensation is performed for adjusting the recording condition using first recording where lengths of a preceding space and a succeeding space of a first recording mark and lengths of a preceding space and a succeeding space of a second recording mark are not in intersymbol interference; and second recording compensation is performed for adjusting the recording condition for the first recording mark using second recording data for changing a length of the second recording mark.
US09570101B2
A device having an air bearing surface and a method of forming the device are disclosed. The device can include a writer portion including a surface at the air bearing surface of the device, a magnetic adhesion layer disposed proximate at least a portion of the surface of the writer portion, and an overcoat disposed proximate at least a portion of the magnetic adhesion layer such that the magnetic adhesion layer is between the at least a portion of the surface of the writer portion and the overcoat.
US09570098B2
A method of forming a near field transducer (NFT), the method including the steps of depositing a plasmonic material; depositing an encapsulant material on at least a portion of the plasmonic material; and implanting ions into at least a portion of the plasmonic material through the encapsulant material.
US09570093B2
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a method for speech processing includes determining an unvoicing/voicing parameter reflecting a characteristic of unvoiced/voicing speech in a current frame of a speech signal comprising a plurality of frames. A smoothed unvoicing/voicing parameter is determined to include information of the unvoicing/voicing parameter in a frame prior to the current frame of the speech signal. A difference between the unvoicing/voicing parameter and the smoothed unvoicing/voicing parameter is computed. The method further includes generating an unvoiced/voiced decision point for determining whether the current frame comprises unvoiced speech or voiced speech using the computed difference as a decision parameter.
US09570092B2
Devices, systems, methods, media, and programs for detecting an emotional state change in an audio signal are provided. A number of segments of the audio signal are analyzed based on separate lexical and acoustic evaluations, and, for each segment, an emotional state and a confidence score of the emotional state are determined. A current emotional state of the audio signal is tracked for each of the number of segments. For a particular segment, it is determined whether the current emotional state of the audio signal changes to another emotional state based on the emotional state and a comparison of the confidence score of the particular segment to a predetermined threshold.
US09570086B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for intelligently cancelling user inputs. In one aspect, a requests input by a user is received by a dialog engine. A prompt or notification regarding the request is output by the dialog engine. That the user has taken an action in response to the prompt or notification is determined by the dialog engine. Based on the action taken by the user, that the response corresponds to a potential cancellation command is determined by the dialog system.
US09570082B2
A method, medium, and apparatus encoding and/or decoding a multichannel audio signal. The method includes detecting the type of spatial extension data included in an encoding result of an audio signal, if the spatial extension data is data indicating a core audio object type related to a technique of encoding core audio data, detecting the core audio object type; decoding core audio data by using a decoding technique according to the detected core audio object type, if the spatial extension data is residual coding data, decoding the residual coding data by using the decoding technique according to the core audio object type, and up-mixing the decoded core audio data by using the decoded residual coding data. According to the method, the core audio data and residual coding data may be decoded by using an identical decoding technique, thereby reducing complexity at the decoding end.
US09570078B2
Techniques and systems to provide speech recognition services over a network using a standard interface are described. In an embodiment, a technique includes accepting a speech recognition request that includes at least audio input, via an application program interface (API). The speech recognition request may also include additional parameters. The technique further includes performing speech recognition on the audio according to the request and any specified parameters; and returning a speech recognition result as a hypertext protocol (HTTP) response. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09570076B2
A method and system for voice recognition are disclosed. In one example embodiment, the method includes receiving voice input information by way of a receiver on a mobile device and performing, by way of at least one processing device on the mobile device, first and second processing operations respectively with respect to first and second voice input portions, respectively, which respectively correspond to and are based at least indirectly upon different respective portions of the voice input information. The first processing operation includes a speech-to-text operation and the second processing operation includes an alternate processing operation. Additionally, the method includes generating recognized voice information based at least indirectly upon results from the first and second processing operations, and performing at least one action based at least in part upon the recognized voice information, where the at least one action includes outputting at least one signal by an output device.
US09570073B2
One embodiment may take the form of a voice control system. The system may include a first apparatus with a processing unit configured to execute a voice recognition module and one or more executable commands, and a receiver coupled to the processing unit and configured to receive a first audio file from a remote control device. The first audio file may include at least one voice command. The first apparatus may further include a communication component coupled to the processing unit and configured to receive programming content, and one or more storage media storing the voice recognition module. The voice recognition module may be configured to convert voice commands into text.
US09570069B2
Systems, methods, and computer program products to detect a keyword in speech, by generating, from a sequence of spectral feature vectors generated from the speech, a plurality of blocked feature vector sequences, and analyzing, by a neural network, each of the plurality of blocked feature vector sequences to detect the presence of the keyword in the speech.
US09570067B2
According to an embodiment, a text-to-speech device includes a receiver to receive an input text containing a peculiar expression; a normalizer to normalize the input text based on a normalization rule in which the peculiar expression, a normal expression of the peculiar expression, and an expression style of the peculiar expression are associated, to generate normalized texts; a selector to perform language processing of each normalized text, and select a normalized text based on result of the language processing; a generator generate a series of phonetic parameters representing phonetic expression of the selected normalized text; a modifier modifies a phonetic parameter in the normalized text corresponding to the peculiar expression in the input text based on a phonetic parameter modification method according to the normalization rule of the peculiar expression; and a output unit to output a phonetic sound synthesized using the series of phonetic parameters including the modified phonetic parameter.
US09570066B2
A method of speech synthesis including receiving a text input sent by a sender, processing the text input responsive to at least one distinguishing characteristic of the sender to produce synthesized speech that is representative of a voice of the sender, and communicating the synthesized speech to a recipient user of the system.
US09570064B2
A conversation-sentence generation device according to the invention of this application includes: an input unit that receives, as input information, a conversation sentence given from a user to an agent, and clue information based on which a physical and psychological state of the agent is estimated; an agent state storing unit that stores the physical and psychological state of the agent as an agent state; an agent state estimating unit that estimates a new agent state based on the input information and the agent state; an utterance intention generating unit that generates, based on the input information and the agent state, an utterance intention directed from the agent to the user; a conversation sentence generating unit that generates, based on the input information, the agent state, and the utterance intention, a conversation sentence given from the agent to the user; and an output unit that outputs the conversation sentence generated by the conversation sentence generating unit.
US09570056B2
An audio data synthesis method including a time of a plurality of audio data is adjusted without using a device which can acquire the standard time. Specifically, audio data is obtained based on synchronized recording of the first and second recorders without using standard time. A time difference is calculated between an own terminal and another terminal, based on the time at which output of a first sound from the audio output module is started, a time at which input of a sound corresponding to the audio data to the audio input module is started, a time indicated by the first information, and a time indicated by the second information. Second and third audio data is synthesized after a time difference between the second and third audio data based on the third sound which is input to the audio input module is adjusted, based on the time difference.
US09570055B2
A method for converting textual messages to musical messages comprising receiving a text input and receiving a musical input selection. The method includes analyzing the text input to determine text characteristics and analyzing a musical input corresponding to the musical input selection to determine musical characteristics. Based on the text characteristic and the musical characteristic, the method includes correlating the text input with the musical input to generate a synthesizer input, and sending the synthesizer input to a voice synthesizer. The method includes receiving a vocal rendering of the text input from the voice synthesizer, generating a musical message from the vocal rendering and the musical input, and outputting the musical message.
US09570052B1
Apparatus for enhancing tunes produced out of single-reed wind music instrument are disclosed. Apparatus comprise one or more sound enhancing elements in form of a plurality of elongated ribs or grooves, or one or more studs affixed to a reed's table side. Patterns of the elongated ribs/grooves can be straight or wavy lines orientated in longitudinal, transverse or oblique direction with respect to the reed. Each stud contains a three-dimensional (3-D) geometric shape portion for altering sounds produced out of a single-reed wind music instrument when played by a player, and a base of the 3-D geometric shape portion for affixing the stud to the table side of a reed in an area directly opposite to the heart of the reed. Dimensions of the area are single-reed wind music instrument dependent.
US09570049B2
The semiconductor device includes: a select circuit which selects, from output signals of tiding generators, timing signals formed by one timing generator; another select circuit which is disposed in a stage after the select circuit, and selects the tiding signals selected by the first select circuit or signals regulated in polarity, and outputs the selected signals outward; and a control register provided for variably setting the polarities of the signals regulated in polarity in units of the signals. If abnormal power supply cutoff of the semiconductor device is detected, the second select circuit is switched from the state of selecting the timing signals to the state of selecting the signals regulated in polarity in response to the detection.
US09570043B2
The present invention relates to the art of color space conversion technique, and discloses a method for processing RGB data and a system for the same. The method comprises: S1: converting input values of three colors RGB into a HSV color space; S2: adjusting a brightness value V while keeping a hue value H and a saturation value S unchanged in the HSV color space; S3: converting the H, S, V values processed by step S2 from the HSV color space to the R, G, B, W color space to display. By converting the RGB color space to the HSV color space firstly, then enhancing the brightness V while keeping H, S unchanged in the HSV color space, and finally converting the HSV color space to the RGBW color space, it can be achieved that the brightness for display is enhanced while better hue, color saturation and natural color transition are maintained at the same time.
US09570042B2
Provided are a flexible display device and a method of controlling the same. The flexible display device includes: a display unit including a first display area and a second display area bendable with respect to the first display area; and a control unit correcting at least one of a brightness and color coordinate of an image to be displayed in at least one of the first display area and the second display area according to a degree of bending between the first display area and the second display area.
US09570040B2
A display device includes a color transformer and an image controller. The color transformer receives and transforms a three-color image into a four-color image. The four-color image includes a red image, a green image, a blue image, and a white image. The image controller calculates decrement offsets of the red image, the green image, and the blue image, and a compensation value of the white image. The image controller calculates gray level values of the red image, the green image, and the blue image when a value of the white image is zero. The image controller respectively calculates a red image control signal, a green image control signal, and a blue image control signal based on the gray level values and the decrement offsets, and the image controller calculates a white image control signal based on the gray level values and the compensation value of the white image.
US09570037B2
Technologies are generally described for controlling remote display. In some examples, a method for controlling a remote display device using a handheld computing device includes receiving, by a handheld computing device, one or more data from one or more remote display devices over a wireless communication network, selecting a remote display device based on the received data and sending a control signal to the selected remote display device.
US09570035B2
A display device includes a display unit including pixels in an area defined by a plurality of scan lines and a plurality of data lines, a scan driving unit configured to apply a plurality of scan signals to the scan lines, a data driving unit configured to apply a plurality of data signals to the data lines, an inspection circuit unit configured to apply a plurality of inspection signals to the data lines, a plurality of inspection pads configured to transmit a plurality of inspection control signals to the inspection circuit unit, a plurality of first inspection lines electrically connecting the inspection circuit unit to the inspection pads, and a plurality of second inspection lines branching off from the first inspection lines and electrically connecting the inspection circuit unit to the data driving unit.
US09570033B2
A driver, an electro-optical device, and an electronic device are provided with which a rise in a ground line voltage due to a discharge can be suppressed. The driver includes a voltage generating circuit 100 that generates a first voltage VA1 and a second voltage VA2 for driving a display panel, outputs the first voltage VA1 to a first node NA1, and outputs the second voltage VA2 to a second node NA2, and a discharge circuit 140 that performs a discharge operation if the voltage generating circuit 100 is deactivated. The discharge circuit 140 performs a first discharge operation of discharging the first node NA1, and thereafter performs a second discharge operation of discharging the second node NA2.
US09570031B2
An apparatus for monitoring pixel data includes a multiplexer configured to select pixel data applied to at least one of function blocks which is configured to convert the pixel data provided from an external device and adjust characteristics of a display device, a monitoring module configured to store the pixel data selected by the multiplexer, and an analyzing module configured to output a location selection signal to the multiplexer which provides the monitoring module with the pixel data based on the location selection signal, to read out the pixel data stored in the monitoring module by applying a pixel position signal to the monitoring module, and to analyze a variation of the read out pixel data.
US09570030B2
A gate driver (24) which is provided by an IGZO-GDM and a level shifter circuit (13) are connected to each other via a first through a fifth wires (OL1 through OL5). Each wire (OL) is connected to a discharge unit (190). If an electric power supply to a first through a fifth output circuits (OC1 through OC5) in the level shifter circuit (13) becomes lower than a lower operation limit value during a power-off sequence which is supposed to remove a residual charge from inside a panel, outputs from the first through the fifth output circuits (OC1 through OC5) assume a high-impedance state, whereupon a potential on each wire (OL) is drawn by a discharge unit (190) into a ground potential. Therefore, residual charge inside the panel is removed quickly and stably when power supply is shut off.
US09569987B2
A label with which, among other things, vegetables, for instance vine tomatoes, fruit and house plants, can be supplied with information. The label is a three-dimensional object obtained by folding and gluing a punched or cut piece of paper, cardboard or another type of thin-walled material, which object can be attached to one or more branches of a vine of tomatoes and whereby at least one surface area of the three-dimensional object is visible in such a way that it can serve as an information-bearing surface.
US09569968B2
A method for the automated braking and/or steering of a vehicle uses at least one sensor system for detecting the vehicle's surroundings, a potential collision object in the vehicle's surroundings, and a relative speed of the vehicle relative to the potential collision object. The activation and/or the sequence of an automated steering intervention and/or an automated braking intervention is determined based on the relative speed. The braking intervention is activated at first when the relative speed is below or equal to a predefined threshold, and the steering intervention is activated at first when the relative speed is above the predefined threshold.
US09569966B2
A bicycle tracking system for a bicycle rental system includes a number of bicycles each including a bicycle computer configured to record and transmit trip data information. The bicycle computer transmits the trip data to at least one communication hub that is part of the rental system. The communication hub is located at a bicycle rental kiosk. The kiosk includes a parking rack for securely storing a number of bicycles and includes a kiosk radio head configured to receive the trip data from the computer. The kiosk further includes a kiosk computer configured to transmit the trip data to a server, which may provide a user of the system with the trip data in the form of a route map. The system is configured to aggregate the user's trip data from ride-to-ride to provide the user with his or her ride statistics.
US09569960B2
An approach is provided for predicting starting points and/or ending points for traffic jams in one or more travel segments. The approach involves processing and/or facilitating a processing of probe data associated with at least one travel segment to cause, at least in part, a generation of at least one speed curve with respect to a distance dimension and a time dimension, wherein the probe data includes speed information, and wherein the at least one speed curve indicates at least one previous starting point, at least one previous ending point, or a combination thereof for one or more previous traffic jams based, at least in part, on the speed information. The approach also involves processing and/or facilitating a processing of the at least one previous starting point, the at least one previous ending point, or a combination thereof to determine at least one starting point trend curve, at least one ending point trend curve, or a combination thereof with respect to the distance dimension and the time dimension. The approach further involves determining at least one predicted evolution of at least one starting point, at least one ending point, or a combination thereof for at least one traffic jam in the at least one travel segment based, at least in part, on the at least one starting point trend curve, the at least one ending point trend curve, or a combination thereof.
US09569958B2
A method for prioritizing events on an electrical power system, including: (a) acquiring at least one data portion representative of the behavior of the electrical power system, the at least one data portion containing at least one power system event; (b) assigning at least one rank value to the at least one data portion based on the type of power system event, the rank value indicative of a priority of the event; and (c) conducting subsequent operations on the at least one data portion in accordance with the at least one rank value.
US09569939B2
A compact battery-free event detector having a switching element, which can be remagnetized in a bistable manner by a magnet in a sensor coil which then provides an event pulse and supplies a non-volatile memory circuit with a downstream non-volatile display, is designed to detect recurring movements by virtue of the switching element being able to be moved back and forth relative to the magnet between the activation and regeneration fields of its two poles. The manual operation of an inhalation or injection piston in a medicament dispenser can therefore be detected, in particular, and a dose of medicament, for instance, can be monitored thereby. The display is preferably created using e-paper or e-ink technology which, like the memory circuit which is operated only sporadically, obtains its energy needed to change the indication from the event pulse from the sensor coil.
US09569937B2
A machine (10) is operative to carry out financial transfers responsive to data included on data bearing records including user cards. The machine includes a user interface (15) including a display (24). The user interface includes a card reader (16) which is operative to read data on user cards which identify at least one of user and a user's financial accounts. Records of the financial transfers are provided by a printer (30). A touch screen display module (608) is operative to securely receive manual inputs and/or card data. The touch screen display module includes a contact surface that can be electronically contoured to provide outputs that can be perceived through finger contact with the contact surface.
US09569936B2
Gaming devices, gaming systems, methods of conducting wagering games, and computer programs for executing wagering games are disclosed. A gaming system is disclosed which includes one or more processors and one or more memory devices storing instructions that, when executed by at least one of the processors, cause the gaming system to: receive a wager to play a wagering game with symbol-bearing reels, each of which has distinct reel positions populated by various symbols, at least one reel bearing a symbol clump; and, display via a display device a randomly determined outcome of the wagering game. Each wagering-game outcome includes predetermined symbols occupying distinct array positions in a displayed array. Each reel position has a weighted probability of occupying an array position in the array. The weighted probabilities are configured such that the symbol clump, when part of a wagering-game outcome, can only land in its entirety in the array.
US09569934B2
Systems, apparatuses and methods for enhancing winning result opportunities in gaming activities. Embodiments involve identifying award-enhancing opportunities using dice during a current game to determine award-enhancing opportunities for subsequent games based on the dice results. Award-enhancing opportunities may continue over multiple games until a terminating condition is activated, or single bonus rolls of dice may be used to determine multipliers or other modifiers to enhance awards only in a single subsequent game. The award-enhancing opportunities may be triggered by a mystery or random selection process, or may be based on at least a portion of the outcome of the current game.
US09569931B1
A game provided to users of a game space may include a task to be performed by the users. A plurality of virtual chance items may be composed. Individual ones of the virtual chance items may be configured to be activated by the users in the game space to obtain virtual awards in the game space. The virtual awards may include one or more primary awards and one or more secondary awards. Composing the virtual chance items may include determining probabilities that the individual virtual chance items will provide a primary award and/or a secondary award upon activation. The virtual chance items may be distributed to the users that complete the task responsive to these users completing the task. The virtual awards may be provided to the users in accordance with the probabilities assigned to the virtual chance items in response to the users activating the virtual chance items.
US09569922B1
Systems and methods for providing a game related to fantasy sports is described herein where a database includes information associated with live sporting events, a user module receives information associated with the live sporting events, a gaming server communicatively coupled to the database and the computing device is configured to display a list of the live sporting events, receive selections from teams of event outcomes, receive event outcome information from the database, display event outcome information on the user module, and determine whether the team is a winning team or a losing team. Winning teams are awarded points based on the number of losing teams and a predetermined multiplier. Losing teams are deduced points based on the number of winning teams and a predetermined multiplier. Adjusted spreads associated with the live sporting events may be calculated and applied to confer a competitive advantage to the teams.
US09569909B2
A portable drum-type banknote box and an ATM having the portable drum-type banknote box. The portable drum-type banknote box includes a shell, a large winding drum gear, a small winding drum gear, a connecting socket and a self-locking mechanism. The self-locking mechanism includes an electromagnet, a first spring, a second spring, a first locking rod, a second locking rod and a pull rod. The upper end of the pull rod is installed to the electromagnet in a paired mode, and the lower end of the pull rod is movably connected with the first locking rod. The portable drum-type banknote box has a small size and light weight, is convenient to assemble/disassemble and move and is capable of performing audit work on multiple ATMs; and achieves a locking function so as to effectively prevent the banknotes from being exposed and rolled out by human.
US09569903B2
A vehicle control apparatus is disclosed, which includes an actuator that is provided on a vehicle and performs a door closing operation of the vehicle; a reservation part; a storage part that stores reservation information; a portable terminal; a communication apparatus that is provided on a vehicle to bi-directionally communicate with the portable terminal; and a controller that causes, when the reservation information is stored in the storage part, the actuator to start the door closing operation when a distance between the communication apparatus and the portable terminal is within a first predetermined range, and causes, during the door closing operation of the door, the actuator to stop the door closing operation when the distance is within a second predetermined range that is adjacent to the first predetermined range.
US09569902B2
A passenger counter that counts the number of persons who get on/off a vehicle comprising an imaging unit 2 installed at an inside of a vehicle platform; a setting unit 31 configured to set an inner area I corresponding to a passage inside the vehicle, one outer areas B surrounding the inner area I and inside the vehicle and other outer area A surrounding the inner area I and outside the vehicle; and a count determination unit 35 configured to count the number of persons who move from one outer area A(B) to the other outer area B(A) through the inner area I while a door of the platform is opened, not to count the number of persons while the door is closed, and to perform processing of determining a person existing in the inner area I when the opened (closed) door is closed (opened) to be counted.
US09569900B2
A timepiece is presented that is adapted for recording the times of important events throughout the day. The timepiece comprises a primary display for viewing the current time of day and a secondary display for sequentially viewing one of a plurality times logged throughout the day corresponding with the important event. Interactive buttons on the timepiece facilitate the viewing and logging of the times displayed on the secondary display. A first button is a push button mechanism that records a time within the memory of the timepiece. A second button facilitates the scrolling of times on the secondary display for viewing by an individual. The timepiece can be utilized for recording the times of meaningful events throughout the day. For instance, the present invention may be utilized for recording how often a loved one is thought of or for when medication was last taken.
US09569892B2
Systems and methods are provided for alternating projection of content and capturing an image. The method includes steps of projecting, by a projection device, content at a first rate, projecting, by the projection device, a capture frame at a second rate, and capturing, by an image capture device, an image including the capture frame at the second rate, wherein capturing the image comprises capturing the image when the capture frame is projected. Systems and methods provided herein may provide increased tracking accuracy by a projecting a capture frame that does not obscure features in the image.
US09569891B2
A method, an apparatus, an arrangement and a computer readable storage medium for determining an image based at least in part on first data having a first representation is provided. The approach comprises determining a projection of an imaging element on the first representation, the imaging element being arranged to at least partly overlap with the first representation, determining a first subset of data as the subset of the first data corresponding to the projection of the imaging element on the first representation, and determining the image based at least in part on the first subset of data.
US09569890B2
A method and device for generating a simplified geometric model of a real pair of spectacles. The model includes a frame, lenses, and a predefined number of surfaces and normals thereof. An orientation of these normals is taken as an exterior of a convex envelop to the real pair of spectacles. The model is obtained in a phase. A set of shots of the real pair of spectacles to be modeled is produced with different angles-of-view and using different screen backgrounds with and without the real pair of spectacles. The simplified geometric model is constructed, consisting of a predefined number of surfaces and their normal beginning with a non-dense surface mesh and using an optimization algorithm that deforms the model's mesh so that the projections of its silhouette in each of the views best match the silhouettes detected in the images.
US09569886B2
In some embodiments, a given frame or picture may have different shading rates. In one embodiment in some areas of the frame or picture the shading rate may be less than once per pixel and in other places it may be once per pixel. An algorithm may be used to determine how the shading rate changes across the frame.
US09569881B2
A method of processing ray tracing comprising acquiring information about a light source and a bounding box that are located in a three-dimensional graphics (3D) graphics environment, the bounding box containing an object; testing whether a ray generated by the light source intersects the bounding box along each of first to third coordinate axes that define the 3D graphics environment based on the acquired information; and rendering the object in response to a result of the testing being that the ray intersects the bounding box along all of the first through third coordinate axes.
US09569869B2
Techniques of consolidation and customization of graph-based models are disclosed. A first graph-based representation of a first model can comprise a first set of nodes corresponding to data items of the first model, and a second graph-based representation of a second model can comprise a second set of nodes corresponding to data items of the second model. Matching nodes between the first set of nodes and the second set of nodes can be identified. Matching topological features between the first set of nodes and the second set of nodes can be identified. Matching dependency characteristics between the first set of nodes and the second set of nodes can be identified. A third graph-based representation of a consolidated model can be created based on the matching nodes, the matching topological features, and the matching dependency characteristics.
US09569853B2
Light field images of a three-dimensional scene are transformed from an (image,view) domain to an (image,scale,depth) domain. Processing then occurs in the (image,scale,depth) domain.
US09569851B2
A method for sequencing products on a retail shelf, or other objects, recognized in an image of the retail shelf includes detecting products in the received image and calculating a final sequence position for each detected product. The final sequence position is calculated by generating a region of interest for each detected product in the received image, generating a plurality of unique raster numbers for each region of interest using a raster number equation by varying parameters of the raster number equation based on pixel coordinates of each region of interest, determining a plurality of sequence positions for each region of interest using the plurality of unique raster numbers, and determining the final sequence position for each region of interest using the plurality of sequence positions for each region of interest. The disclosure also includes systems for implementing the method.
US09569850B2
This invention provides a system and method for determining the pose of shapes that are known to a vision system that undergo both affine transformation and deformation. The object image with fiducial is acquired. The fiducial has affine parameters, including degrees of freedom (DOFs), search ranges and search step sizes, and control points with associated DOFs and step sizes. Each 2D affine parameter's search range and the distortion control points' DOFs are sampled and all combinations are obtained. The coarsely specified fiducial is transformed for each combination and a match metric is computed for the transformed fiducial, generating a score surface. Peaks are computed on this surface, as potential candidates, which are refined until a match metric is maximized. The refined representation exceeding a predetermined score is returned as potential shapes in the scene. Alternately the candidate with the best score can be used as a training fiducial.
US09569848B2
An enhanced vision system is provided for an aircraft performing a landing maneuver. Accordingly to non-limiting embodiments, a processor onboard the aircraft receives data from sensors or systems onboard the aircraft and determines a position of the aircraft relative to a runway using the data. Responsive to this determination, the processor adjusts the gain of a first vision system and a second vision system. Images from the first vision system and the second vision system are merged and displayed to the pilot until the completion of the landing maneuver.
US09569846B2
A method for selecting a representative image of an eye from a plurality of captured images, comprises associating neighboring images from the plurality of images with each other to determine a spatial relationship (shift) of the images and an initial quality value for each image. The method determines an accumulated quality value for at least one portion of each image using the initial quality values corresponding to those other images of the plurality of images that are spatially related with the portion. The spatial relationship between a portion of an image and the other images is identified based of the determined spatial arrangement of the images. The method selects a representative image from the plurality of images using, for each image, at least the initial quality value for the image and the accumulated quality value of at least one portion of the image.
US09569842B2
A medical imaging apparatus includes a reconstruction unit, a ROI setting unit, and a controller. The reconstruction unit receives projection data that is based on radiation detected by a detector, divides the projection data into a plurality of subsets, and apply a reconstruction process to the subsets by successive approximation to successively generate images. The ROI setting unit sets a ROI in the images. The controller obtains a variation value indicating a change in image quality from the images, and, when the variation value reaches a predetermined value, instructs the reconstruction unit on a new subset count less than the number of the subsets to sequentially reconstruct subsets as many as the new subset count into an image. The reconstruction unit assigns a weight to the projection data based on the ROI, and divides the projection data into the subsets based on the weight.
US09569835B2
A pattern extracting apparatus includes a first storing section storing plural target information pieces, a candidate pattern producing section producing candidate patterns each including two or more items different from each other based on each of the items included in the plural target information pieces, a candidate evaluation value calculating section calculating an extraction evaluation value of the candidate pattern based on a frequency of appearance at which the produced candidate pattern appears in the plural target information pieces, a pattern extracting section determining and extracting any of the candidate patterns having the calculated extraction evaluation value satisfying a predetermined threshold value, and a second storing section storing an association degree between the items. The candidate evaluation value calculating section calculates the extraction evaluation value based on a weight based on an identified association degree between the items included in the candidate pattern and the frequency of appearance.
US09569827B2
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and a program that are capable of displaying images more easily and effectively.A degree-of-blur detecting unit 21 detects the degree of blur of an input image. The selecting unit 22 selects an image processing operation to be performed on the input image on the basis of a detection result of the degree of blur, and supplies the input image to a block that performs the selected image processing operation among a comic-style conversion unit 23 to a sharpness processing unit 28. The block supplied with the input image among the comic-style conversion unit 23 to the sharpness processing unit 28 performs the image processing operation on the input image and outputs it to an output unit 29. The present invention can be applied to an image processing apparatus.
US09569822B2
In embodiments of removing noise from an image via efficient patch distance computations, weights are computed for patches of pixels in a digital image, and the computed weights are multiplied by respective offset values of offset images that are pixelwise shifted images of the entire digital image. The weights can be applied to the pixels in the digital image on a patch-by-patch basis to restore values of the pixels. Additionally, the digital image can be pixelwise shifted to generate the offset images of the digital image, and the digital image is compared to the offset images. Lookup tables of pixel values can be generated based on the comparisons of the digital image to the offset images, and integral images generated from the lookup tables. Distances to the patches of pixels in the digital image are computed from the integral images, and the computed weights are based on the computed distances.
US09569821B2
An image on which a noise reduction and a dynamic range expansion process have been performed is generated by a sequential synthesis process using continuous-photographed images of different exposure conditions. The continuous-photographed images of different exposure conditions are input, configuration pixels of an input image and an intermediate synthetic image are classified into a noise pixel, an effective pixel, or a saturation pixel, a synthesis processing method of a pixel unit is decided according to a combination of pixel classification results of the corresponding pixels, and the intermediate synthetic image is updated according to the decided method. A 3DNR process is performed when at least one of the corresponding pixels of the input image and the intermediate synthetic image is the effective pixel, the pixel value of the intermediate synthetic image is output without change when both of the corresponding pixels of the input image and the intermediate synthetic image are the saturation pixel or the noise pixel, and the 3DNR process is performed or the pixel value of the intermediate synthetic image is output when one is the saturation pixel, and the other is the noise pixel.
US09569818B2
There is provided an ultrasound image processing apparatus which displays an ultrasonic image with a higher resolution. In a received frame, a first pixel array, a second pixel array, and a third pixel array are defined in depths different from each other. For each pixel of interest on the first pixel array, a pattern matching process is applied between the first pixel array and the second pixel array, to calculate a mapping address on the second pixel array for the pixel of interest. In addition, for each pixel of interest on the third pixel array, a pattern matching process is applied between the third pixel array and the second pixel array, to calculate a mapping address on the second pixel array for each pixel of interest. The second pixel array is re-constructed into a high-density pixel array using pixel values and mapping addresses of a plurality of pixels of interest.
US09569811B2
In an example, a method for rendering graphics data includes rendering pixels of a first bin of a plurality of bins, wherein the pixels of the first bin are associated with a first portion of an image, and rendering, to the first bin, one or more pixels that are located outside the first portion of the image and associated with a second, different bin of the plurality of bins. The method also includes rendering the one or more pixels associated with the second bin to the second bin, such that the one or more pixels are rendered to both the first bin and the second bin.
US09569807B2
A memory card (103) for use in an electronic apparatus (101) is proposed. In order to control an electronic apparatus (101) with an inbuilt processor (301) incapable of exporting digital data externally of the electronic apparatus (101), a user local at the electronic apparatus (101) is required to operate the electronic apparatus (101). This is not always convenient. The proposed memory card (103) has a wireless module (207) for receiving an instruction wirelessly from a remote wireless-enabled apparatus (105), and also a central processor (201) for controlling the inbuilt processor (301) of the electronic apparatus (101) in accordance with the received instruction.
US09569802B2
Technologies are generally described for an invitation management scheme. In some examples, an application provider server may include an invitation request receiver unit configured to receive, from an account of a first user, a request to invite a second user to use an application; an interest determination unit configured to determine whether the second user is inclined to use the application based at least in part on behavior information regarding activity in an account of the second user that includes a number of invitations sent to the account of the second user that remain pending; a notification generation unit configured to generate an invitation to be sent to the account of the second user after the interest determination unit determines that the second user is inclined to use the application; and a notification transmitter unit configured to transmit the generated invitation to the account of the second user.
US09569794B2
An apparatus is configured to manage N data records for N associated seals from products. The apparatus includes a reception unit configured to receive a challenge message, sent by a capture appliance, with a code associated with one of the N seals. There is a checking unit configured to check the received code for validity and for a first breakage of the seal associated with the received code on the basis of the data record associated with the associated seal. A transmission unit is configured to send a response message, generated on the basis of the check, with a piece of status information pertaining to the first breakage of the seal associated with the received code to the capture appliance.
US09569789B2
A system and method provide rewards or loyalty incentives to transaction account customers. The system includes a computing platform comprising application programming interfaces that enable users to define marketing programs. The system thus enables an efficient, automated and extensible platform for creating, managing and executing rewards and other marketing related programs.
US09569787B2
System and methods are provided for analyzing and displaying digital content and advertisements over electronic networks. In accordance with one implementation, a method is provided that calculates, using at least one processor, an engagement metric (including, for example, click probability) for a specific combination of time, promotion slot, and user segment, for an individual promotion of a set of promotions, and calculates a value of a landing page associated with the promotion. The method then can multiply the engagement metric and the value to determine the valuation of the promotion. The method can operate recursively by using previous calculations in later runs of the same method.
US09569784B2
A method, system and computer program product for resolving values of parameters of tags. A map is created which includes the number of times each parameter is referenced by the tags in a web page requested by a client device. The parameters in the map are then sorted in a list in descending order based on the number of times referenced by the tags. The value for the parameter listed at the top of the list is looked up. If the value cannot be located, then those tags that are associated with this parameter are added to a list of tags to be ignored. By ignoring such tags in this list, the resolving of tag values for tags to be syndicated can occur more quickly and efficiently, including syndicating the tag data before the web page is completely loaded.
