US09693487B2
This patent disclosure describes heat management and removal assemblies for electronic devices that generate heat during use. The disclosed assemblies are particularly useful for cooling insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). The disclosed assemblies provide a low-resistance parallel cooling circuit for efficiently delivering coolant to one or more electronic devices. The disclosed parallel cooling circuits and assembly designs reduce the pump power required to deliver coolant to one or more electronic devices.
US09693481B2
A thermally conductive dielectric interface includes a relatively hard polymer base, and a polymer upcoat disposed at first and second sides of the base. The upcoat has an intermediate condition that is relatively soft and facilitates thermal joints with respective components of an electronic assembly. Curing the upcoat layer to a finished condition solidifies such thermal joints.
US09693478B2
A half-rack electronics cabinet coupled to a wall mount by two doubly-nested four bar mechanisms that are operable to articulate the cabinet by ninety degrees to bring the back planes of any installed electronic modules to the top for easy access. The function of admitting outside signal and power cables is apportioned to the wall mount. The unit is compact, as the wall mount is no wider than the cabinet. For a half-rack cabinet of sufficient height, crossbars are provided that enable vertical mounting of full-rack electronic modules in the half-rack cabinet along with, preferably, at least one half-rack module.
US09693476B2
A power conversion apparatus has a configuration in which plate-like bus-bars are laminated via an insulating material to define a pair of bus-bars. A laminated bus-bar, in which the pair of bus-bars is disposed vertically so that a width direction thereof is in a vertical direction, includes a pair of voltage measuring terminals that is correspondingly branched from a part of the pair of bus-bars to extend toward a circuit board. The pair of voltage measuring terminals is arranged symmetrically with respect to the pair of bus-bars to extend upward toward the circuit board, while extending in an intersecting direction intersecting with the pair of bus-bars, to be electrically connected to the circuit board.
US09693470B2
An electric device includes: a device body; and a frame guard. The device body has a plurality of surfaces for defining a three-dimensional configuration. The frame guard is configured to guard the device body. The frame guard is connected to the device body and disposed outside the device body. The plurality of surfaces is all disposed inside the frame guard.
US09693468B2
A method of manufacturing a package substrate is provided. A first copper layer and a first plating copper layer formed thereon, a first dielectric layer, a second copper layer and a second plating copper layer formed thereon, a second dielectric layer, a third copper layer and a third plating copper layer formed thereon are provided and laminated, so that the first and the second dielectric layers encapsulate edges of the second copper layer and the second plating copper layer to form a temporary carrier. Two circuit structures are formed on two opposite surfaces of the temporary carrier. The temporary carrier and the circuit structures are cut to expose the edges of the second copper layer and the second plating copper layer, and separated along the exposed edges of the second copper layer and the second plating copper layer to form two package substrates independent from each other.
US09693453B2
A wiring board includes a base layer, a plurality of connection terminals and a surface layer. The base layer is electrically insulative. The plurality of connection terminals are conductive and formed on the base layer. The surface layer is electrically insulative, and fills gaps between the plurality of connection terminals on the base layer. The connection terminals include a base portion made of a conductive first metal and a coating portion made of a conductive second metal that is different from the first metal. The coating portion penetrates the surface layer, and coats the base portion to the base layer.
US09693435B2
A discharge lamp driving device includes: a discharge lamp drive unit configured to supply a drive current to a discharge lamp having two electrodes; a voltage detection unit configured to detect an inter-electrode voltage of the discharge lamp; and a control unit configured to control the discharge lamp drive unit, wherein the control unit executes first measurement drive in which a polarity of the drive current is maintained constant at a first polarity, the voltage detection unit measures the inter-electrode voltage multiple times in a first measurement period in which the first measurement drive is executed, and the control unit determines states of the electrodes of the discharge lamp based on a plurality of the inter-electrode voltages measured in the first measurement period.
US09693432B2
A lighting device includes: a metal casing; a power supply circuit which is disposed in the metal casing and supplies power to a light source; an antenna disposed in the metal casing; a radio circuit which is disposed in the metal casing and receives a radio signal via the antenna; a control circuit which controls the power supply circuit according to the radio signal received by the radio circuit; at least one opening that communicatively connects an inside and an outside of the metal casing; and a line which is inserted in the at least one opening and insulated from the metal casing, the line being conductive and having open ends.
US09693426B2
Technologies are generally described herein for controlling and using integrated occupancy and ambient light sensors. In some examples, a lighting device includes an illumination source, a light sensor, and a transceiver. A determination can be made to determine if the illumination source is operating in an on mode of operation or an off mode of operation. In response to determining that the illumination source is operating in the off mode of operation, an instruction can be received at the lighting device to pulse operation of the illumination source to emit a light pulse. The lighting device can also be configured to receive an instruction to compressively sense, using the light sensor, a light level associated with an area illuminated by the light pulse. The lighting device can output data indicating the light level compressively sensed by the light sensor.
US09693419B2
An LED substrate (light source substrate) includes: a substrate; a plurality of LEDs (light sources) mounted on the substrate; a power supply wiring line on the substrate that can supply power to the plurality of LEDs by connecting the plurality of LEDs in series; and an inspection wiring line that is disposed on the substrate and connected to a portion of the power supply wiring line that connects adjacent LEDs included in the plurality of LEDs.
US09693418B2
A light emitting diode driving chip includes: a current regulating circuit arranged to selectively outputting four currents to four pins respectively; a current control circuit coupled to the current regulating circuit and a fifth pin, arranged to receive an adjusting signal at the fifth pin to control the four currents; a feedback voltage control circuit arranged to output a feedback voltage to a sixth pin according to a first specific voltage selected from four voltages corresponding to the four pins; and a protection circuit arranged to determine whether a voltage difference between a second specific voltage selected from the four voltages and the first specific voltage is larger than a threshold value. If the first specific voltage is larger than the threshold value, the protection circuit controls the current regulating circuit to stop conducting current to a specific pin corresponding to the first specific voltage.
US09693413B2
An apparatus for controlling an LED-based lighting system includes a comparison circuit configured to compare at least one signal representative of a supply voltage with at least one other signal representative of a series voltage drop over at least some of a plurality of LEDs connected electrically in series. The apparatus includes a controller, connected to the comparison circuit; and a power section connected to the controller. The power section is configured to operate at least one switch such that the number of LEDs operated in series may be changed in response to the comparison circuit.
US09693411B1
LED driver configuration and dimming interface for dynamic adjustment of driver operating parameters
An LED driver circuit is provided with a dynamic operating range which can be set using an offline tuning interface. During an online mode of operation, a controller for a power converter is configured to regulate the output voltage and the output current generated by the power converter based on a dimming control signal from a dimming control interface, a sensed output from the power converter, and programmed maximum output voltage and maximum output current values. During an offline mode of operation, the tuning interface may be coupled to the dimming control interface and provides a sequence of digital pulses corresponding to a desired maximum output voltage, maximum output current, or operating parameter. The controller then modifies the programmed maximum output voltage and the maximum output current values based on the predetermined sequence of digital pulses received via the tuning interface circuit.
US09693408B2
A light source apparatus including a light-emitting module and a control unit is provided. The light-emitting module is configured to provide a light. The control unit makes the light emitted from the light-emitting module switched between a first light and a second light. A spectrum of the first light is different from a spectrum of the second light, and color temperatures of the first light and the second light are substantially the same as each other.
US09693399B1
A method is provided for the detection of melt adjacent to the exterior of a bushing in an induction channel furnace. An electrically conductive mesh is disposed around the exterior surface of the bushing facing a refractory that separates the bushing from a channel in which molten metal (melt) flows. The mesh is connected to a grounded voltage source so that when an electrically conductive melt at ground potential in the channel breaches the refractory and penetrates the electrically conductive mesh an electrical circuit is completed through the melt and the grounded voltage source.
US09693394B2
Disclosed is an electrical heating device for heating the interior of a vehicle, comprising a plurality of PTC heating rods each comprising ceramic PTC heating resistors, heat sinks for transferring heat from the PTC heating rods to an air flow, and a holder holding the PTC heating rods. The PTC heating rods are connected in series to an NTC heating rod comprising at least one NTC resistor, wherein the NTC heating rod is held by the holder.
US09693391B2
A flexible display apparatus includes a flexible substrate; a display layer on the flexible substrate and including a plurality of pixels; a cover layer which covers the display layer; a heating electrode layer on a surface of the flexible substrate opposite to the display layer, between the flexible substrate and the display layer, between the display layer and the cover layer, or on a surface of the cover layer opposite to the display layer; and a temperature sensing unit configured to sense an external temperature to the flexible display apparatus.
US09693386B2
Some embodiments provide a system that includes a sensor management module and a visualization module. The sensor management module may be configured to manage a plurality of sensors. The plurality of sensors may be configured to measure values associated with inputs therein. The visualization module may be configured to provide a graphical user interface (GUI) that includes a time chart tool for selecting a time period associated with a sensor of the plurality of sensors. The visualization module may be further configured to create an event with a start time based on the time period associated with the sensor.
US09693378B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a MIMO wireless communication system, a MIMO transmission method, and an apparatus, which relate to the field of communications technologies and are invented to effectively improve transmission efficiency and decrease a transmission delay. The MIMO wireless communication system includes: a base station, a first user equipment, and at least one second user equipment, where the first user equipment performs cellular uplink communication with the base station, and performs device-to-device communication with the at least one second user equipment, and the same time-frequency resource is used in the cellular uplink communication between the first user equipment and the base station and the device-to-device communication between the first user equipment and the second user equipment. The present invention is applicable to wireless communication technologies.
US09693376B2
Disclosed are a signal transmission method and device, which are used to realize a technical solution whereby UE find one another under the control of a mobile communication network. The signal transmission method provided in the present invention comprises: UE acquiring resource location information from a network side, which is used for indicating the UE to send an identification signal of the UE; and the UE determining a specific resource which sends the identification signal according to the resource location information, and sending the identification signal of the UE over the specific resource.
US09693372B2
The embodiments herein relate to a method in an eNB for handling MBSFN area configuration information. The eNB receives, from a MME, a MBMS session start request. Based on the received request, the eNB computes a first time for a start of the MBMS session. The first time is a first MCC, update time. The eNB periodically sends, from the first time, the configuration information to a user equipment. The eNB stops the sending of the configuration information to the user equipment when the MBMS session is a last MBMS session. The eNB sends updated configuration information to the user equipment when the MBMS session is not the last MBMS session. The updated configuration information is updated MBSFN area configuration information.
US09693370B2
One embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a method for transmitting a random access preamble in a transmitting sub-frame at a terminal device. The method comprises: creating a random access preamble such that it comprises a plurality of random access sequences; dividing the plurality of random access sequences into a number Nc of groups, each of groups including two or more random access sequences; performing code division multiplexing with respect to the groups of the plurality of random access sequences in a frequency domain, based on an orthogonal cover code selected for the terminal device from a pre-defined code set; and transforming signals after the code division multiplexing into the time domain. According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there are provided corresponding methods and devices.
US09693365B2
A communication control apparatus including a processor is provided. The processor is configured to calculate a first predicted communication quality of a mobile station apparatus in a state not including an interference signal from one or more cells among surrounding cells in accordance with measurement results of a quality of reception of a signal from a serving cell and strength of interference signals from the surrounding cells as measured by the mobile station apparatus, and judge permission for transmission of signals by the one or more cells in a radio resource of communication of the mobile station apparatus based on the first predicted communication quality.
US09693361B2
An SUOC radio employs: (1) Spectrum sensing and parameter estimation methods to characterize potential FUOCs; (2) A rate pair prediction tool to guide it's choice of FUOC to target along with the appropriate rate pair (SUOC and FUOC achievable rates); (3) Machine learning methods to automatically and on the fly advantage experience/history; (4) A decision maker with multiple possible procedures that govern steps of interaction; (5) Multiuser detection receiver to deal with the interference once information-bearing transmission has commenced by the SUOC radios. (6) a radio capable of full transmit-processing chain to accomplish modulation and full receive-processing chain to accomplish demodulation, as well as other radio functions necessary for successful wireless communications such as medium access control, networking and other functions.
US09693352B2
Wireless communication under IEEE 802.11 standards utilizing carrier specific interference mitigation where an AP or UE employs an ultra-wideband tuner to evaluate available spectrum between several communication bands. Rather than being constrained to communicate in a single communication band, the AP and UEs may utilize more than one communication band to communicate with one another. In doing so, the AP and UE search across several bands and measure interference on a carrier-by-carrier basis across those bands. Either of the AP and UE may select a cluster of carriers for communication, where the cluster of carriers may comprise 1) contiguous carriers in a single sub-channel, 2) contiguous carriers spanning across more than one sub-channel, 3) discontinuous carriers in a single sub-channel, or 4) discontinuous carriers spanning across more than one sub-channel. The mapping between a cluster and its carriers can be fixed or reconfigurable.
US09693333B2
A system and method for determining the location of a target mobile device in a communications network. A set of mobile devices in proximity to the target mobile device may be determined as a function of a common parameter of information observed by mobile devices in the set. Measurement data may be shared for the set of mobile devices and the target mobile device, and a location of the target mobile device determined as a function of the shared measurement data. This sharing of measurement data may occur amongst the set of mobile devices and the target mobile device or may also occur at a communications network entity.
US09693332B2
There is provided a method of enabling identification of a wireless device in a wireless communication environment, the wireless device being attached to a cellular radio communication network. The method comprises the step of the wireless device sending, to a network node in a Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN, an identifier of the wireless device valid in the cellular radio communication network before or when contacting the WLAN for association of the wireless device in the WLAN. The identifier of the wireless device valid in the cellular radio communication network is signaled in a WLAN message to the network node in the WLAN.
US09693320B2
A high-frequency signal processing apparatus and a wireless communication apparatus can achieve a decrease in power consumption. For example, when an indicated power level to a high-frequency power amplifier is equal to or greater than a second reference value, envelope tracking is performed by causing a source voltage control circuit to control a high-speed DCDC converter using a detection result of an envelope detecting circuit and causing a bias control circuit to indicate a fixed bias value. The source voltage control circuit and the bias control circuit indicate a source voltage and a bias value decreasing in proportion to a decrease in the indicated power level when the indicated power level is in a range of the second reference value to the first reference value, and indicate a fixed source voltage and a fixed bias value when the indicated power level is less than the first reference value.
US09693318B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, for wirelessly controlling electrical loads. In an aspect, a system include a wireless controller with a communication subsystem that communicates with a plurality of power control devices over a first network, communicates with a wireless smart metering device over a second network, communicates with a system controller over a third network. The system receives an event message from one or more of the wireless smart metering device over the second network or the system controller over the third network, generates one or more power commands for the power control devices, the one or more power commands configured to cause the power control devices to adjust one or more power loads in response to the event message, and transmits the one or more power commands to the power control devices over the first network.
US09693312B2
A communication terminal is described comprising a transceiver configured to communicate using carrier aggregation according to a first carrier aggregation setting, a detector configured to detect a need for the communication terminal to reduce its power consumption and a controller configured to initiate a switch from the first carrier aggregation setting to a second carrier aggregation setting with reduced power consumption compared to the first carrier aggregation setting if the detector has detected a need for the communication terminal to reduce its power consumption.
US09693311B2
Method of providing user with battery power notification in mobile device and mobile device therefor
A method of providing a user with a battery power notification in a mobile device and the mobile device therefor are provided. The method includes determining a future application to be run on the mobile device, determining whether a remaining battery life of the mobile device is enough to run the future application, based on a power consumption of a preceding application running before the future application, and outputting a notification indicating a battery insufficiency of the mobile device in response to the determining that the remaining battery life is not enough.
US09693299B2
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, a method comprises determining at a base station an activity level, and selecting an availability mode based at least in part on the activity level, wherein the availability mode is one of a full-availability mode, a semi-availability mode and a minimum-availability mode. The method also comprises configuring radio resources for at least the minimum-availability mode and switching to the selected availability mode.
US09693298B2
The presently disclosed subject matter provides a method of analyzing a plurality of cells of a cellular telecommunication network, the plurality of cells providing telecommunication services to a service area and being set with one or more cell configuration parameters enabling a cell rating for mobile stations in the service area. The method comprises selecting one or more cells among the plurality of cells; changing at least one cell configuration parameter of at least one of the plurality of cells during an intervention period so as to make the selected cells the least rated cells for the mobile stations in the service area; monitoring traffic events communicated using the selected cells during the intervention period; and detecting whether the selected cells can be deactivated without causing substantial radio coverage hole in the service area based on an amount of monitored traffic events.
US09693297B2
Systems and methods for optimizing data communication in a network of moving things. As non-limiting examples, various aspects of this disclosure provide systems and methods for communicating delay tolerant information in a network of moving things, for example comprising any of a variety of types of vehicles (e.g., autonomous vehicles, vehicles controlled by local operators, vehicles controlled by remote operators, etc.).
US09693296B2
The present disclosure describes a network connection apparatus and establishment of a network connection for a terminal. A network connection apparatus may select a wireless access point and generate terminal information of a terminal that is seeking network access via the wireless access point. The terminal information may include a terminal identifier and a terminal media access control (MAC) address of the terminal. The network connection apparatus may send the terminal information to the selected wireless access point, which in turn may forward the terminal information to a network provision server. The network provision server may store the terminal identifier and add the terminal MAC address into a network access white list of the selected wireless access point. The selected wireless access point may enable a network connection for the terminal in response to the terminal MAC address being in the network access white list.
US09693295B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a SON-based terminal selection method related to the field of communications technologies, where a target terminal is selected pertinently to participate in implementation of a SON algorithm. The method provided by the embodiments of the present invention includes: determining a terminal selection criterion under a requirement of implementing different SON algorithms; and performing target terminal selection from managed terminals according to the terminal selection criterion. A system and a network entity corresponding to the method are also provided. By applying the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention, a target terminal can be selected pertinently to participate in implementation of the SON algorithm, which avoids waste of resources of terminals that do not need to participate in implementation of the SON algorithm, and improves user experience of these terminals.
US09693288B2
A method and apparatus for obtaining information related to beacon transmission in a wireless communication system is provided. A node of a primary radio access technology (RAT) system obtains first information related to beacon transmission including information on a start point of a beacon interval of each entity of a secondary RAT system, and transmits second information related to the beacon transmission based on the obtained first information related to the beacon transmission to a general device through the primary RAT system.
US09693279B2
An electronic device, and a method and computer readable medium, for use of subsets of coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission cells. The device includes processing circuitry configured to select a plurality of transmission cells as the subset of the CoMP set of transmission cells used to support wireless communications with a user equipment (UE). The processing circuitry selects the plurality of transmission cells based on a message from the UE that includes aggregate channel quality information (CQI) for at least two communication channels between the UE and corresponding transmission cells of the plurality of transmission cells.
US09693276B1
In some embodiments, a device for network connection selection may include a network connection selector configured to obtain historical connection information related to previous network connections utilized by a device. The historical connection information may include connectivity disruptions indicating whether connectivity was disrupted for one or more network connections that were previously established by the device. The network connection selector may be configured to select a network connection for the device among a plurality of available network connections based on an evaluation of the historical connection information such that the selected network connection substantially maintains connectivity to a network for a future period of time.
US09693270B2
A control device includes: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory and configured to: acquire congestion information indicating a congestion state of communication of wireless local area networks (LANs) which are connection destination candidates of a mobile terminal configured to switch a state thereof between a first state and a second state, in the first state the mobile terminal being wirelessly connected to a radio base station of a mobile communication network and not performing a detection operation of a wireless LAN among the wireless LANs, and in the second state the mobile terminal performing the detection operation and being wirelessly connected to a detected wireless LAN, and perform switching control for switching a state of the mobile terminal from the first state to the second state when the congestion information satisfies a given condition.
US09693265B2
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided herein to enable a current release timer value to be transferred to a target access point (e.g. target cell) in an instance in which a mobile terminal is performing a handover or has recently attached to a target access point. In some example embodiments, a method is provided that comprises determining that a handover condition exists for a mobile terminal. The method of this embodiment may also include determining a release timer value for the mobile terminal. The method of this embodiment may also include causing the release timer value to be transmitted to a target access point. In some example embodiments, the release timer value is configured to trigger a release timer in the target access point.
US09693264B2
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for transmitting signals over an unlicensed band phase of a base station in a wireless communication system, which comprises the steps of: transmitting a physical down-link control channel (PDCCH) from a licensed band; and transmitting a physical down-link shared channel (PDSCH) over a time interval of the unlicensed band corresponding to the sub-frame transmitted by the PDCCH, wherein a reservation signal can be transmitted to a pre-set point from the point the unlicensed band is available to the base station, if the base station performs wave transmission sensing for the unlicensed band for transmission of the PDSCH, and the pre-set point is earlier than the point at which the unlicensed becomes available from the transmission sensing results.
US09693261B1
A first network device including a physical layer (PHY) module and a medium access control (MAC) module. The MAC module, in a sub-1 GHz band, transmits the capabilities element to a second network device. The capabilities element includes: a multi-bit field indicating whether transmission of a packet with a traveling pilot is supported by the first network device; or a field indicating whether transmission of a spatial stream over a 1 MHz channel to the second network device is supported by the first network device. The MAC module, subsequent transmitting the capabilities element, forwards data to the PHY module. The PHY module: generates the packet to include the data, where the packet includes the traveling pilot if the capabilities element indicates transmission of the packet with the traveling pilot is supported; and according to the capabilities element, transmits the packet to the second network device via the spatial stream.
US09693258B2
A method in a base station for adapting link adaptation of a transmission between a user equipment and the base station is provided. The link adaptation relates to an initial value of a Block Error Rate, BLER, related to the transmission. The base station decides that the user equipment is in congestion responsive to a scheduling bit rate for the transmission in relation to a rate of data packets arriving to or being sent by the user equipment being below a first threshold. Responsive to the user equipment being in congestion, the base station adapts the link adaptation by increasing the value of the BLER of the link adaptation in relation to the initial value, until the user equipment is out of congestion or until the base station detects that any one of the user equipment and the base station tries to send high priority data.
US09693254B2
Provided is a method for reporting a denied connection in a wireless communication system. The method comprises generating denied connection information, which is information on a connection establishment attempt that is denied, when an attempt to establish the connection to a network is denied, and then reporting the denied connection information to the network. The denied connection information becomes an operation base for the network.
US09693250B1
Disclosed is a Link 16 terminal having a receiver and a transmitter. The receiver may be configured to process received signals in a receive mode to produce digitized samples, which may then be processed in a digital signal processor. The transmitter may be configured to produce a transmit signal that is provided to an antennas for transmission during transmit mode. The transmit signal may also be provided to the receiver in transmit mode to produce digitized samples of the transmit mode, may then be processed in a digital signal processor for compliance with requirements for Link 16 transmissions.
US09693248B2
A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for detecting a tethering function being performed by an endpoint device in a communications network are disclosed. For example, the method analyzes a data packet directed towards the endpoint device, detects a signature based upon analyzing the data packet, and identifies the endpoint device as performing the tethering function based upon detecting the signature.
US09693235B2
A method for securing radio resources for a Long Term Evolution-unlicensed, LTE-U, data transmission is disclosed. The method includes transmitting a plurality of bits in an unlicensed frequency band which are inserted before the LTE-U data transmission. Related communication devices, methods by devices, and systems are disclosed.
US09693231B2
A wireless gateway controls access through a communication portal to a shared communication link. By way of non-limiting example, the wireless gateway receives input (such as a passcode) from a user operating a communication device in a subscriber domain. The user provides the input to communicate through the communication portal or wireless gateway over the shared communication link. The wireless gateway maps the received input to corresponding access profile information stored in a repository of the wireless gateway hardware. The wireless gateway then provides the communication device access to a remote network over the shared communication link through the communication portal in a manner as specified by the corresponding access profile information.
US09693230B2
A method and apparatus for providing a masked short message service in a wireless network are disclosed. For example, the method receives a message from a first endpoint device directed to a second endpoint device, wherein the message indicates that the message is a masked short message service message, and forwards the masked short message service message with a code towards the second endpoint device. In one example, the second endpoint device parses the message and executes instructions contained therein, e.g., for sending a regular SMS with content derived from masked SMS, making a call, playing music, finding location by invoking an API, sending a file or a picture and any other functions that the second endpoint device may be capable of doing. The masked short message service provides a method for remotely controlling a 2G/3G mobile device through a computer or another mobile device.
US09693229B2
A mobile hub can receive from a mobile device a request to authenticate a user of the mobile device with the mobile hub. Responsive to receiving the request, a user profile of the user can be identified. A first of a plurality of mobile networks indicated in the user profile as being available to the user can be identified. The first mobile network can satisfy at least one user specified criterion associated with the user profile. A subscriber authentication associated with the user profile can be selected. The subscriber authentication can be configured to authenticate the user with the first of the plurality of mobile networks and configured to be processed by the first mobile device to automatically establish presence on the first mobile network. The subscriber authentication can be communicated to the mobile device.
US09693213B2
Computer systems, according to various embodiments, are adapted to assist emergency services providers in determining the location of an individual who is in need of help. In various embodiments, the system may be adapted to determine a current dispatchable location for the individual who is in need of help, use the determined dispatchable location to determine which particular public-safety answering point will be handling an emergency call regarding the individual, update a data structure associated with the particular public-safety answering point to indicate the individual's current location, and then initiate and/or mediate a call between the individual and the emergency services provider. In various embodiments, updating the database may provide more accurate information regarding the individual's location than would otherwise be available for the individual.
US09693209B2
A base station communicates with a mobile station. The base station includes a wireless communication unit and a control unit. The wireless communication unit transmits an alert periodically to the mobile station using a first channel, receives, from the mobile station, alert reception information related to reception of the alert, and transmits at least a part of the alert to the mobile station using a second channel different from the first channel. The control unit instructs the wireless communication unit, in response to the alert reception information, to transmit to the mobile station at least a part of the alert using the second channel.
US09693200B2
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for controlling data service for a user of a telecommunication network. The method comprising: retrieving data associated with historical behavior of the user within the network; predicting, based on said data and on a current user location within the network, a future user location within the network; performing a determination of network capability at the future user location; and modifying, in response to the determination, a configuration of the network and/or a service parameter associated with the user. A network element, system and computer program product are also provided.
US09693198B2
Methods and systems for location determination and navigation using textual information may comprise in a wireless communication device: capturing one or more images of one or more sources of textual information in the vicinity of the wireless communication device, extracting text from the one or more sources of textual information, and determining a position of the wireless communication device by, at least in part, determining a distance to a letter at a beginning of the one or more sources of textual information, determining a distance to a letter at an end of the one or more sources of textual information, and triangulating the position using the determined distances. An orientation of the text in the captured one or more images may be sensed relative to the wireless device. An orientation of the wireless device may be utilized in conjunction with the extracted text for the position determining.
US09693196B2
Techniques for locating a power transmission unit (PTU) in a system, method, and apparatus are described herein. For example, an apparatus may include a power detector to detect a low battery condition of the apparatus. The apparatus may also include a PTU locator to perform a PTU scan in response to the low battery condition, the PTU scan to identify a location of the PTU. The apparatus may also further include a PTU location displayer to display a location of the PTU based on the results of the PTU scan.
US09693195B2
Systems and methods for detecting the presence of a body in a network without fiducial elements, using signal absorption, and signal forward and reflected backscatter of RF waves caused by the presence of a biological mass in a communications network.
US09693187B2
A passive geo-location method for determining the location of a wireless device. The method includes receiving, by a measuring receiver at a first position, a first beacon transmitted to the measuring receiver by the wireless device, and receiving, by the measuring receiver at a second position, a second beacon transmitted to the measuring receiver by the wireless device. When the first position differs from the second position by less than a predetermined distance, the method further includes determining a relative drift between a clock associated with the wireless device and a clock associated with the measuring receiver, and determining a location of the wireless device based at least on the determined relative drift.
US09693185B2
Method and Over The TOP (OTT) service providing node for retrieval of geographic location information of a communication device communicatively coupled to the OTT service providing node. A request for an OTT service is received from the communication device, and an identifier of the communication device is determined. An operator of the communication device is determined, by utilizing the determined identifier of the communication device. An identifier of an Operator Location Service (OLS) node of the operator is determined. A location request is sent to the OLS node for requesting geographic location information of the communication device, the location request comprising the identifier of the communication device, the identifier of the communication device to be utilized by the OLS node for retrieving the requested geographic location information from a location server, and the retrieved geographic location information to be sent by the OLS node to the OTT service providing node.
US09693170B2
A process and system for generating three dimensional sound conferencing includes generating a virtual map with a plurality of positions, each participant selecting one of the positions, determining a direction from each position to each other position on the map, determining a distance from each position to each other position on the map, receiving sound from each participant, mixing the received sound, transforming the mixed sound into binaural audio, and directing the binaural audio sound to each participant via a speaker associated with the virtual position of the speaking participant. The result is a clarified sound that gives to the listening participant a sense of where the speaking participant is positioned relative to the listening participant.
US09693162B2
A system, an audio output device, and a method for automatically adjusting a firing direction of an upward firing speaker are disclosed. The system includes the audio output device and an audio receiver. The audio output device includes the upward firing speaker. During testing, the device controls the speaker to output a test audio signal at each of multiple testing angles of elevation. The audio receiver within a receiving area receives the test audio signal and generates a received audio waveform for creating reception information. The audio output device selects one testing angle as a preset angle of elevation according to the reception information. At playing, the audio output device is controlled by a mode selection signal and chooses a correction value from a mode lookup table to adjust the preset angle. The speaker is controlled to output an audio signal at the adjusted preset angle.
US09693158B2
An in-ear monitor and a method for manufacturing the in-ear monitor from a block of solid medium made from a combination of wood and acrylic and finished with an acrylic coating. The manufacturing process utilizes computerized numerical control techniques to subtractively manufacture the in-ear monitor from the block of solid medium. Acrylic pieces are embedded into the wood randomly or in a desired pattern so that each block has a unique design pattern. Each in-ear monitor is manufactured from a block of solid medium, will therefore, have a unique design pattern as well.
US09693155B2
Arrangements are described for generating electrode stimulation signals for stimulation contacts in implanted electrode arrays of a bilateral hearing implant system having electrode arrays on both the left- and right-sides. Left-side and right-side audio input signals are processed to generate corresponding left-side and right-side band pass signals, which each represent an associated band of audio frequencies in the audio input signal. Frequency-specific interaural time delays (ITDs) are estimated for the band pass signals, and the estimated ITDs are used to adjust interaural level differences (ILDs) in the band pass signals. The adjusted band pass signals then are used to generate left-side and right-side electrode stimulation signals for the stimulation contacts in the corresponding left-side and right-side electrode arrays.
US09693153B2
An audio system includes a transient suppression circuit that rectifies an input signal representing target sounds and transient sounds and produces a threshold envelope of the rectified input signal. The transient suppression circuit accumulates the difference between the rectified input signal and the threshold envelope, and normalizes the accumulated difference using the rectified input signal. A gain is calculated using this normalized accumulated difference and applied to the input signal to suppress the transient sounds without substantially affecting the target sounds.
US09693148B1
An acoustic hailing device includes an outer housing and a pair of compression drivers oriented in the outer housing adjacent one another. Each of the compression drivers includes two diaphragms oriented facewise relative to one another within each compression driver. One or more waveguide housings are coupled to the outer housing, the one or more waveguide housings forming a portion of a waveguide associated with each of the compression drivers. A pair of driver covers are each coupleable to one of the compression drivers, each of the driver covers forming another portion of the waveguide associated with each of the compression drivers.
US09693142B2
A speaker includes a shell and a vibration device. The vibration device is fixed on the shell. The shell defines a closed space. The closed space is filled with gas. The vibration device can drive the shell to vibrate to produce sound. A speaker is also provided.
US09693139B1
Example systems and methods for electronic sound enhancement tuning are disclosed. An example disclosed method includes sampling, with a microphone, an audio profile of engine noises in a cabin of a vehicle. The example method also includes comparing the sampled audio profile to a model audio profile. Additionally, the example methods includes, when the sampled audio profile does not satisfy a similarity threshold, applying a convergence function to the sampled audio profile to generate a target audio profile, and iterating until the target audio profile satisfies a similarity threshold.
US09693115B2
Described herein is a system and method of ad targeting that automatically matches advertisements to media based on the demographic signatures of each. The method and system include calculating a match score between historical buyer demographics and media demographics. Media which is similar to the demographic of the product buyers is targeted for advertising.
US09693114B2
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving registration information indicating a plurality of registered communication devices in proximity to a set-top box, the plurality of registered communication devices being registered according to a communication exchange between the set-top box and each of the plurality of registered communication devices, identifying a group of users associated with the plurality of registered communication devices, and determining characteristics for the group of users according to the identifying of the group of users, correlating the characteristics for the group of users, selecting a directed advertisement according to the correlating of the characteristics, and providing the directed advertisement to the set-top box for presentation. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09693111B2
A video analysis system includes memory having stored therein video analysis software and a processor configured to execute the video analysis software to receive from a mobile video system a dynamic network address, to associate the dynamic network address with a unique identifier of the mobile video system in the memory, and to communicate with the mobile video system using the dynamic network address based on selection by a user of the unique identifier.
US09693103B2
Methods and apparatus for collection and processing of data relating to users of a content-delivery network. In one embodiment, the content delivery network is a cable or satellite or HFCu network, and the apparatus includes an architecture for routinely harvesting, parsing, processing, and storing data relating to the activities of the users (e.g., subscribers) of the network. In one variant, at least portions of the data are anonymized to protect subscriber privacy.
US09693100B1
Provided is a method and system for displaying video streams, including receiving video data from a plurality of video stream by a frame controller in communication with a television display including a first picture and a second picture, and also receiving a television program summary list. The television program summary list includes television program data corresponding to the received video streams, and displaying the television program summary list in the second picture, and allowing the selection of a program from the television program summary list by a consumer, and displaying the selected video stream in the first picture.
US09693099B2
Apparatus and methods are provided which facilitate the resolution of recording conflicts of a digital video recorder (DVR). A DVR identifies a recording conflict between a first recording timer associated with a first television program and a second recording timer associated with a second television program. A communication is initiated to a communication device associated with a user of the digital video recorder to inform the user of the recording conflict. Responsive to the communication, the user provides information to the DVR via the communication device requesting to resolve the recording conflict. The DVR utilizes the provided information to modify one or more of the conflicted recording timers to resolve the conflict.
US09693091B2
Electronic program guides in which program listings may be graphically presented and in which sponsors and celebrities of those programs may be identified are provided. The electronic programs guides may be passive television program guides, interactive television, program guides, and/or on-line television program guides. Television show text information, logos and/or trademarks, celebrity images, affiliation indicators, and advertisements may be present in the program listings to enhance the electronic program guides.
US09693088B2
A rendering device dynamically varies how audio and visual information is rendered by a rendering device responsive to changes in distance between the rendering device and a mobile device carried by a user. As the user moves about, the distance between the rendering device and the mobile device carried by the user will vary. As the distance between the mobile device and the rendering device changes, the rendering system can dynamically adapt how the audio and visual information is rendered. For example, the rendering device can increase or decrease the volume of an audio output, depending on changes in the distance. Also, the rendering device can change how visual information is rendered on a display responsive to changes in distance. In some embodiments, when the distance between the mobile device and rendering device exceeds a predetermined distance, the audio and/or visual information may be sent to the mobile device.
US09693086B2
A targeted advertising system selects an asset (e.g., ad) for a current user of a user equipment device (e.g., a digital set top box in a cable network). The system can first operate in a learning mode to receive user inputs and develop evidence that can characterize multiple users of the user equipment device audience. In a working mode, the system can process current user inputs to match a current user to one of the identified users of that user equipment device audience. Fuzzy logic and/or stochastic filtering may be used to improve development of the user characterizations, as well as matching of the current user to those developed characterizations. In this manner, targeting of assets can be implemented not only based on characteristics of a household but based on a current user within that household.
US09693080B2
A system distributes, to a communication terminal, first frame data reproduced singly by the terminal or second frame data as a difference with the previous frame data distributed to the terminal. The system includes a generating unit configured to generate the first or the second frame data from certain frame data; and a transmitting unit configured to transmit third frame data with the contents not updated or non-update information indicating that the contents are not updated, in place of the first or the second frame data, to the terminal when contents of the certain frame data are not updated over a certain range as compared with contents of the frame data previously generated. The transmitting unit is configured to transmit fourth frame data higher in image quality than the first frame data to the terminal before the third frame data or the non-update information is transmitted to the terminal.
US09693076B2
A video encoding and decoding methods and apparatuses for performing the methods thereof are provided. The video encoding method includes: determining a region in a current image having a change in at least one of a scale and an angle with respect to a reference image; generating variation information representing a variation in at least one of the scale and the angle between the region in the current image and a reference region in the reference image corresponding to the region in the current image; and encoding residual information representing a difference between a predicted sample value from the reference image and a sample value of the current image based on the generated variation information.
US09693071B1
A system for video decoding includes an interface, a set of cores, an allocator, and a load metric measurer. The interface is to receive a set of encoded video frames. The set of cores is to process data. The allocator is to determine an assignment of the set of video decoding modules to the set of cores. The load metric measurer to measure load metrics for each module of the set of modules during decoding of the set of encoded video frames. The allocator is to determine a reassignment of the set of modules to the set of cores based at least in part on the load metrics.
US09693067B2
An image decoding method for decoding a bitstream including a coded signal resulting from coding slices into which an image is partitioned and each of which includes coding units, includes decoding the coded signal, wherein each of the slices is either a normal slice having, in a slice header, information used for another slice or a dependent slice which is decoded using information included in a slice header of another slice, the image includes rows each of which includes coding units, and when the normal slice starts at a position other than the beginning of the first row, the second row immediately following the first row does not start with the dependent slice.
US09693063B2
A content receiver and a method for controlling the same are provided. The content receiver, for example, may include, but is not limited to, a communication system configured to receive video content comprising a plurality of video frames from a content source, and a video analyzer configured to determine when compression of the video content is causing blockiness in one or more of the plurality of video frames, and trigger at least one content receiver response when the compression of the video content is causing blockiness in one or more of the plurality of video frames.
US09693060B2
An apparatus configured to code video information includes a memory unit and a processor in communication with the memory unit. The memory unit is configured to store video information associated with a base layer and an enhancement layer. The video information comprises at least one enhancement layer (EL) block and at least one co-located base layer (BL) block. The co-located BL block has motion information associated therewith. The processor is configured to, in response to determining that the size of the EL block is smaller than a threshold size, either (1) use less than all of the motion information associated with the co-located BL block to code the EL block, or (2) refrain from using any motion information associated with the co-located BL block to code the EL block. The processor may encode or decode the video information.
US09693059B2
A moving picture coding apparatus includes a motion compensation coding unit for deciding a coding mode for coding a current block to be coded and for generating predictive image data based on the coding mode, and includes a direct mode enable/disable judgment unit for judging whether or not scaling processing can be performed when the coding mode decided by the motion compensation coding unit is a temporal direct mode. When it is judged that the scaling processing cannot be performed, the motion compensation coding unit performs motion compensation either by using another coding mode or without the scaling processing.
US09693053B2
A video encoding device uses motion-compensated inter-frame prediction by dividing an image into blocks, each block a predetermined size, designating a first component value of a plurality of component values of a motion vector (MV) between an encoding target block and a neighboring block, designating a second component value, and encoding each first and second component values; a first component encoding means encodes a difference value of a first component and a second component encoding means, which obtains a probability of occurrence of a candidate value for the second component value of the MV of the encoding target block, based on a difference value between the first component value of the neighboring block MV and the first component value of the encoding target block MV and the second component value of the neighboring block MV, specifies a codeword of the second component value, encoding it based on the occurrence probability.
US09693051B2
A predictive video coder performs gradient prediction based on previous blocks of image data. For a new block of image data, the prediction determines a horizontal gradient and a vertical gradient from a block diagonally above the new block (vertically above a previous horizontally adjacent block). Based on these gradients, the encoder predicts image information based on image information of either the horizontally adjacent block or a block vertically adjacent to the new block. The encoder determines a residual that is transmitted in an output bitstream. The decoder performs the identical gradient prediction and predicts image information without need for overhead information. The decoder computes the actual information based on the predicted information and the residual from the bitstream.
US09693036B2
Provided is an imaging apparatus including an imaging section that generates, from a single scene, captured image data including reference image data, first parallax image data having a first parallax in one direction relative to a subject of the reference image data, and second parallax image data having a second parallax in another direction that is opposite the one direction; an adjustment condition acquiring section that acquires an adjustment condition relating to parallax amount adjustment; and an image processing device that processes the reference image data, the first parallax image data, and the second parallax image data, based on the adjustment condition, to generate third parallax image data having a third parallax that is in the one direction and different from the first parallax and fourth parallax image data having a fourth parallax that is in the other direction and different from the second parallax.
US09693026B2
In a projection type display apparatus, a lighting device includes two reflection type cutoff filters (first cutoff filter and reflective second cutoff filter) which block out ultraviolet range light on an output optical path from a light source. A cut on wavelength of the second cutoff filter on the front side is longer than that of the first cutoff filter on the rear side. The two cutoff filters are formed on planar-shaped first faces of a first integrator lens and a second integrator lens. For this reason, both input faces of the two cutoff filters are orthogonal to an apparatus optical axis.
US09693018B1
A system and method for producing a publically viewable video-based group conversation for viewing over a network. The system is configured to generate a display at a first user computer which includes a plurality of sections in a single screen display, including at least a preview section configured for displaying an indicator for each of one or more viewers who are viewing the video-based conversation, and a media player section configured for displaying a video signal including at least some of the video feeds. The creator of the publically viewable video-based group conversation controls which users can participate in the publically viewable video-based group conversation by enabling video streams provided by those users to be displayed on the screen and viewable to other users who access the group conversation.
US09693016B2
A data processing method, a data processing apparatus and an electronic device are provided. The method includes: receiving second communication data from a second communication device, in the case where a data path is established between the first communication device and the second communication device; displaying, by the first display unit, a second content corresponding to the second communication data; collecting, by the first input unit, a first operation of a user of the first communication device; determining, based on the first operation, a second processing instruction for transforming the second content, in the case where the first operation meets a first predetermined condition; and controlling, in response to the second processing instruction, the first display unit and/or a second display unit to display third content associated with the second content.
US09693014B2
Embodiments of the present application relate to a method for implementing video calls, a system for implementing video calls, and a computer program product for implementing video calls. A method for implementing video calls is provided. The method includes maintaining persistent connections with a plurality of terminals used to make video calls, each terminal having a universally unique identifier, receiving a video call request from a calling terminal via one of the persistent connections, the video call request including the universally unique identifier of the calling terminal, equipment descriptive information of the calling terminal, and the universally unique identifier of a called terminal, notifying the called terminal via one of the persistent connections, the notification being based on the universally unique identifier of the called terminal, receiving a response from the called terminal, and establishing a video call channel based on the received response.
US09693012B2
Super-resolution of dynamic scenes using sampling rate diversity, processes and systems thereof are provided. The method implementing the processes includes: in a first stage, super-resolving secondary low-resolution (LR) images using a set of primary LR images to create LR dictionaries to represent polyphase components (PPCs) of high resolution (HR) patches of images; and, in a second stage, reverting to a single frame super-resolution (SR) applied to each frame which comprises an entire image, using the HR dictionaries extracted from the super-resolved sequence obtain in the first stage.
US09693007B2
Provided is a television apparatus including: a display panel which displays an image; a front cover which covers a front side of the television apparatus such that the display panel is exposed; a rear cover which is opposed to the front cover; a power supply which is supported between the front cover and the rear cover and includes an input connector mounted thereon to receive an input AC power for the display panel; an output connector configured to detachably coupled with the input connector to supply the input AC power, wherein the rear cover includes an inwardly-depressed portion at which a cover insertion hole is formed such that the output connector is coupled to the input connector through the cover insertion hole.
US09693004B2
Provided are a signal emitting apparatus, a signal receiving apparatus a signal processing method and a display system, wherein a remote controller can be deformed by applying a force to it, and a remote controlling signal is transmitted to a display apparatus to perform image displaying. The signal emitting apparatus comprises: a first receiving unit configured to receive a deformation operation input by a user, wherein the signal emitting apparatus is deformed under the deformation operation to generate a deformation quantity; a signal generating unit configured to generate a control signal according to the deformation quantity; and a signal transmitting unit configured to transmit the control signal to the signal receiving apparatus.
US09693003B1
A system includes a processor to initiate a timer in response to an action-execution command. The processor identifies expiration of the timer. In response to expiration of the timer, the processor transmits one or more commands to one or more controllable output devices to simultaneously ramp down the sound volume and gradually dim the display brightness generated by said one or more controllable audiovisual output devices over a predetermined ramp-down period of time.
US09693001B2
A method of operating an image processing system includes storing differences between first analog pixel signals and second analog pixel signals and converting the stored differences to one-bit digital signals, the first analog pixel signals being output from a plurality of pixels and corresponding to a previous frame, and the second analog pixel signals being output from the plurality of pixels and corresponding to a current frame.
US09693000B2
A first area of an image is generated from a plurality of pixels existing on a line of interest that is set so as to pass through a pixel corresponding to a correction target pixel. A plurality of second areas are generated, each second area based on the positions of a plurality of pixels existing on at least one reference lines that are set so as not to pass through the correction target pixel. The value of the pixel corresponding to the correction target pixel is corrected using a value of a pixel on each of the at least one reference lines, the value being determined based on the amounts of correlation between the respective second areas and the first area.
US09692993B2
Illumination estimation device includes: target object area extraction unit which extracts an object area from a multispectral image, the object area being an area, including specular reflection, of an object; distribution characteristics estimation unit which estimates information representing a subspace that approximates a distribution of observation values in a spectral space, as distribution characteristics, the distribution characteristics being characteristics of a spreading manner of the observation values in the object area within the spectral space; dimension reduction unit which selects a distribution characteristic to be used from among the distribution characteristics estimated by the distribution characteristics estimation unit depending on the number of dimensions to be reduced, the number of dimensions to be reduced being determined in advance by a light environment; and illumination estimation unit which estimates spectral characteristics of illumination based on the subspace information to be represented by the distribution characteristic selected by the dimension reduction unit.
US09692991B2
Systems and methods for multispectral imaging are disclosed. The multispectral imaging system can include a near infrared (NIR) imaging sensor and a visible imaging sensor. The disclosed systems and methods can be implemented to improve alignment between the NIR and visible images. Once the NIR and visible images are aligned, various types of multispectral processing techniques can be performed on the aligned images.
US09692989B2
A method of validating or verifying a process for cleaning a surface contaminated with at least one chemical substrate, comprising the steps of: capturing an infrared image of the surface using infrared chemical imaging; utilizing at least one algorithm to interpret the captured image to extract an infra-red signal from the at least one chemical substrate to determine the amount of the at least one chemical substrate present on the surface; and determining if the amount of the at least one detected chemical substrate exceeds a threshold value, thereby indicating that a repeat cleaning process is required or thereby indicating that no further cleaning is required.
US09692986B2
The present disclosure relates to a display device and a method for shooting and displaying an image. The display device includes a displayer and a camera installed in the displayer and configured to shoot images of an external object directly facing the displayer. The camera includes a plurality of lens components installed at intervals on a surface of the displayer, a plurality of photosensitive components matched with the plurality of lens components respectively, and a set of image processing chips configured to process the images generated by the camera.
US09692985B2
An image processing apparatus includes: a reduced image generation unit configured to obtain a reduced image; a gain data generation unit configured to obtain gain data; and a determination unit configured to determine a control gain required to amplify the input image based on the generated gain data, and letting first gain data be the gain data for an image having a relatively high frequency, and second gain data be the gain data having a relatively low frequency, the determination unit determines the control gain based on a first addition result and a second addition result.
US09692981B2
An image pickup apparatus capable of obtaining focusing information at the time of photometry for emission control and of controlling an emission quantity appropriately. An image pickup device receives a pair of light beams that pass through different pupil division areas of an imaging optical system with a pair of photoelectric conversion sections. An extraction unit extracts candidates from a pre-emission image. A calculation unit finds focused areas and defocus areas in the pre-emission image. A selection unit selects a light-control target area from the candidates according to information about the focused areas. A control unit controls emission quantity so that luminance in the light-control target area becomes predetermined luminance. The calculation unit finds the information about the focused areas based on difference information between a first phase difference signal read from one photoelectric conversion section and a second phase difference signal read from the other photoelectric conversion section.
US09692978B2
There is provided an image capturing apparatus. A detection unit detects a position that has been designated by a user on a first display screen. A display unit displays, on the first display screen, a captured image generated by a image capturing unit. A transmission unit transmits the captured image to an external apparatus, the external apparatus being configured to display the captured image on a second display screen and detect a position that has been designated by the user on the second display screen. An obtaining unit configured to obtain, from the detection unit or the external apparatus, position information based on the position designated by the user. A selection unit selects a partial region of the captured image based on the position information if the position designated by the user is within an effective range.
US09692975B2
Embodiments of the disclosure compensate for global movement and in-scene movement during image capture by a computing device. A sequence of images is accessed by the computing device. Accelerometer readings and/or gyroscope readings corresponding to each of the accessed images are used by the computing device for calculating global movement among each of the accessed images. Each of the accessed images is re-aligned based on the calculated global movement. The re-aligned images are combined into a single output image. The intensity values of each of the pixels in the re-aligned images are compared with the intensity values of each of the corresponding pixels in a reference image. Based on the comparison, the intensity values associated with the pixels in the re-aligned images are selectively accumulated to generate an output image that is blur-free, low-light enhanced, and high dynamic range.
US09692972B2
In one embodiment, a method includes determining a maximum exposure time for capturing one or more image frames of a video clip. The maximum exposure time represents an exposure time below which the captured image frames are substantially free of motion-blur artifacts and above which the captured image frames exhibit motion-blur artifacts. The method also includes capturing the image frames with an exposure time that is less than or equal to the maximum exposure time.
US09692971B2
An image capturing apparatus includes a mode switching unit which, in response to an instruction from a user, switches an operation mode of the apparatus, a display control unit which controls such that a reproduced image is displayed in a reproduction mode, and a control unit controls such that, when a reproduced image is displayed in the reproduction mode, in response to accepting a specific instruction, based on attribute information of the reproduced image being displayed, at least a part of settings from shooting settings for when the reproduced image was shot are set in the apparatus, switching from a reproduction mode to a shooting mode is performed, and a live view image in which the part of settings are reflected is displayed.
US09692970B2
An image pickup apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store a relation between an aperture value and a shutter speed for image restoration, a control unit configured to set the aperture value and the shutter speed based on a shooting condition and the relation stored in the storage unit, and an image pickup unit configured to photoelectrically convert an optical image formed via an image pickup optical system with the set aperture value and shutter speed to output an image, and the image restoration is processing to reduce a deterioration of the image caused by an aberration of the image pickup optical system.
US09692969B2
A lens apparatus, which is communicatable with an image capturing apparatus and includes a lens, comprises a communication unit configured to receive information concerning a driving amount of the lens which is used to move the lens to a focus position, and a controller having a first mode and a second mode of controlling the lens, wherein the controller selects one of the first mode and the second mode based on the received information, and wherein the controller decelerates the lens in the first mode slower than in the second mode.
US09692962B2
A control device configured to track a subject by controlling a correcting lens so that the subject is moved to a target position of a photographed image. The control device performs feedback control so that a difference between a position of the subject and a target position of the subject in the photographed image becomes small. The control device detects a photographing condition and changes a degree of tracking of the subject by changing a control gain in the feedback control based on the detected photographing condition.
US09692959B2
An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes an image sensor including at least one phase detection pixel, and a control unit operatively coupled to the image sensor. The control unit is configured to obtain image information and phase difference information about at least one subject through the image sensor, to identify a plurality of pieces of distance information corresponding to a plurality of regions associated with the image information, based on the phase difference information, and to process the image information, based on the distance information.
US09692942B2
Example systems and related methods may relate to a way to efficiently incorporate authentication to cloud-based review and approval processes. In an example embodiment, a workflow service operating on a network may send a request for document approval to a mobile computing device. The request may correspond to a document. The mobile computing device may be configured to display a graphical identifier that relates to the document for review. The graphical identifier may be scanned via a multi-function printer (MFP) device, which may send an authentication query to the workflow service. The workflow service may determine an authenticated user based on the authentication query and provide a printable version of the document. The MFP may thereafter print the document for a user's signature. After signature, the signed document may be scanned in at the MFP and uploaded to the workflow service.
US09692940B2
Jaggies in an edge portion are reduced while suppressing deterioration of an image to a minimum. There are provided a determination unit configured to determine an edge of an object from input image data, a unit configured to generate edge correction data used to correct a pixel value of a pixel constituting the edge, a screen data generation unit configured to generate screen data by performing screen processing on the input image dada, and an image combination unit configured to generate output image in which a screen dot existing in the edge in the screen data is shifted into the inside of the object.
US09692939B2
Devices, systems, and methods of blind deblurring and blind super-resolution utilizing internal patch recurrence. Small signal patches tend to repeat “as is” across multiple scales of a natural signal. This fractal-like behavior is utilized for signal processing tasks, including “Blind Deblurring” or “Blind Super-Resolution”, namely, removing signal blur or increasing signal resolution without a-priori knowledge of the underlying blur kernel. While the cross-scale patch recurrence is strong in signals taken under ideal conditions, the cross-scale patch recurrence significantly diminishes when the acquisition blur deviates from an ideal blur. These deviations from ideal patch recurrences are used for recovering the underlying (unknown) blur kernel. The correct blur kernel is recovered by seeking the kernel which maximizes the patch similarity across scales of a related “reference” signal. For example, this reference signal may be the low-resolution input signal, the sharp deblurred-version of a blurry input signal, or the like. Quantitative and qualitative experiments indicate that this approach yields improved or superior results, in “Blind Deblurring” and in “Blind Super-Resolution”.
US09692938B2
An image forming apparatus includes a document reading unit, an image forming unit, an image data saving unit, a correction instruction detection unit, an image correction unit, and a controller. The document reading unit reads an image on a source document and acquires image data. The image forming unit prints an image on a recording sheet according to the image data. The image data saving unit saves the image data of image printed by the image forming unit on the recording sheet. The correction instruction detection unit detects the correction instruction written on the recording sheet on which the image is printed. The image correction unit corrects the image data stored in the image data saving unit, according to the correction instruction detected by the detection unit. The controller causes the image forming unit to print an image representing the image data corrected by the image correction unit.
US09692932B2
An information conveying method is implemented by an information conveying system coupled to a first electronic device associated with a service provider and a second electronic device associated with a user. The system is programmed to: receive a reference image; create a data packet based, on to-be-conveyed information associated with the service provider, and link the data packet to the reference image; upon receiving a captured image from the second electronic device, generate a characteristic code of the captured image; determine whether the captured image matches the reference image; and when the determination made is affirmative, transmit the data packet to the second electronic device.
US09692915B2
An image forming apparatus 176 capable of easy log-in to a desired cloud service includes a print engine communicable with a cloud server 170 for printing a print job received from cloud server 170, a reader/writer 174 capable of proximity communication with a portable terminal 172, and a log-in executing device receiving log-in information to cloud server 170 from portable terminal 172 through reader/writer 174, for executing the log-in process to cloud server 170 using the log-in information.
US09692911B1
Methods, systems, and computer readable media for using user defined session description protocol (SDP) rules are disclosed. According to one method, the method occurs at a policy and charging rules function (PCRF). The method includes receiving at least one user defined SDP rule, wherein the user defined SDP rule includes at least one SDP parameter reference for referencing at least one SDP parameter. The method also includes receiving SDP information in an SDP related message associated with setting up a session. The method further includes determining, using the at least one user defined SDP rule and the SDP information, a policy related rule associated with the session.
US09692905B2
A communication system includes logic to detect a second communication device in proximity to a first communication device engaged in a call, and to provide a substantially uninterrupted transfer of selected parties to the call to the second communication device. A proximate device may be identified as one capable of rendering a particular data type, and a substantially uninterrupted transfer may be performed to the proximate device of data of the communications having the data type. An application associated with communication data may be identified, as well as a proximate device capable of providing the application, and a substantially uninterrupted transfer may be performed to the proximate device of data associated with the application.
US09692899B1
Techniques for benchmarking pairing strategies in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for benchmarking pairing strategies in a contact center system including determining results for a first plurality of contact-agent interactions, determining results for a second plurality of contact-agent interactions, and determining combined results across the first and second pluralities of contact-agent interactions corrected for a Yule-Simpson effect.
US09692898B1
Techniques for benchmarking pairing strategies in a contact center system are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for techniques for benchmarking pairing strategies in a contact center system comprising: cycling, by at least one processor, among at least two pairing strategies; and determining, by the at least one processor, a difference in performance between the at least two pairing strategies.
US09692896B2
The method and system of the present invention include, responsive to a receipt of a customer input, customizing an agent interface menu. The customizing includes selecting a plurality of action items for the agent interface menu, and ordering the plurality or more action items in the agent interface menu. The customizing is performed using the customer input and an item of stored customer information. The method further includes presenting an item of the customer input in an agent interface. The agent interface includes the agent interface menu, a communication window, and a customer attributes display. Responsive to a selection of one of the plurality of action items, wherein the plurality of action items is presented by the agent interface menu, an input field in a form provided in support of an action selected from the agent interface menu is populated with the customer input received from the customer interface.
US09692895B1
A call center compliance system is used to ensure that agents adhere to call center policies and applicable regulations when handling calls. A call handler processing a call between an agent and a remote party bridges on a speech analytics component. A keyword set is used by the speech analytics component to analyze the remote party's or the agent's speech. If a keyword is detected, an event notification is provided from the speech analytics component to the call handler. A logic script executing in the call handler defines what actions are to occur in response to receiving the event notification. The call handler can provide information to the agent, record a violation, or await further event notifications. In one embodiment, detection of a first keyword in a first keyword set spoken by a remote party causes the agent's speech to be monitored using a second keyword set.
US09692890B2
Disclosed is a call transfer setting method, terminal and system, wherein the method includes: two terminals pre-establishing a pairing relationship via a network side; when one of the terminals enables a call transfer function according to a demand of the other terminal paired therewith, the terminal initiating an enabling call transfer request to the network side; the network side searching for the other terminal paired therewith according to the enabling call transfer request of the terminal, and enabling the call transfer function of the other terminal to transfer all calls of the other terminal to the terminal; compared with the conventional call transfer function, the implementation of the abovementioned technical solution is more flexible, and the function can be remotely enabled after the paired terminal is set, without being affected by situations such as whether the phone currently has a signal or not or whether the phone is powered on.
US09692884B2
Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein relate to covertly monitoring call audio and obtaining other communications of a source device with a target device. For example, a source, with a mobile phone configured as the source device, and working in cooperation with an agency agrees to the interception communications at the source device. A covert application provided to the source device manages configuration of the source device and covert interception of the communications. The intercepting of communications at the source device is performed covertly to protect the source in instances where the source is an undercover informant with the agency.
US09692881B2
An electronic device includes a first display unit which displays information about an active application, which is an application being executed; a touch sensor which is overlapped on the first display unit and which detects a touch thereto; and a control unit which, in a state where information about the active application is being displayed on the first display unit, performs processing on the active application when a touch to the touch sensor is determined as a first touch, and executes, as the active application, another application different from the application being executed when the touch to the touch sensor is determined as a second touch which has a wider region than the first touch.
US09692878B1
Systems and methods of device management are disclosed. Aspects relate to systems and methods that may be implemented to control usage of one or more devices. In one embodiment, a device management system includes a memory, an interface, at least one processor coupled to the memory and the interface, and a control component executable by the at least one processor and configured to determine, at a predetermined time, whether a connection exists between a managed device and the device management system via the interface, generate, in response to determining that the connection did not exist at the predetermined time, a notification indicating that the connection does not exist, and transmit, in response to determining that the connection did not exist at the predetermined time, a request to the managed device to restrict at least one function of the managed device.
US09692877B2
To reduce the number of erroneous detections and power consumption and increase the speed of a response to an operation, a portable terminal (10) includes (i) a determining unit (22) configured to determine whether a sensing signal output from at least one of a first electrode (1A) and a second electrode (1B) has an absolute value of not less than a first threshold or not greater than a second threshold and (ii) a determination period control unit (23) configured to perform a process of shortening a determination cycle in a case where the determining unit has initially determined that the absolute value of the output is not less than the first threshold or in a case where the determining unit has initially determined that the absolute value of the output is not greater than the second threshold.
US09692858B2
Systems and methods for providing information services are disclosed. A method includes passing an instance an object, invoked by a user, to a memory device at a hardware layer of a network information system, the object being hosted for a tenant of a network information service. The method further includes determining by a processing unit of the memory device that storage of the object is not authorized by the tenant based on a security map provided by the tenant and accessible by the processing unit within the hardware layer. The method further includes preventing storage of the instance in the memory device based on the result of the determining.
US09692849B2
The present invention provides a method and a caching node entity for ensuring at least a predetermined number of a content object to be kept stored in a network, comprising a plurality of cache nodes for storing copies of content objects. The present invention makes use of ranking states values, deletable or non-deletable, which when assigned to copies of content objects are indicating whether a copy is either deletable or non-deletable. At least one copy of each content object is assigned the value non-deletable. The value for a copy of a content object changing from deletable to non-deletable in one cache node of the network, said copy being a candidate for the value non-deletable, if a certain condition is fulfilled.
US09692844B2
Methods, systems and devices are provided for automatically linking a device to an activity tracking device. One method includes receiving, at a device, an identifier from a website. The identifier is for an activity tracker that has been paired to a user account of the website. The method also includes scanning, by the device, for identifiers advertised by one or more activity trackers and identifying the activity tracker by matching the advertised identifier to the identifier obtained from the website. The method then includes automatically establishing a link between the activity tracker and the device.
US09692840B2
Shareable links can be created to share content items and information pertaining to activity on those shareable links can be monitored and stored in an online content management service. Based on this activity information, predetermined actions can be executed. These actions can include sending notifications regarding link activity, disabling shareable links, and/or updating sharing limitations related to the shareable links. Using the activity information, popular shared content items can be identified and recommendations for sharing unshared content items can be provided to the user. Additionally, advertisements can be tailored to the relative popularity of the shared content items.
US09692837B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a request from an application for access to a service. The application is one of a number of applications that each includes software for accessing the service. The method includes selecting one of the applications to use to access the service, and providing the requesting application access to the service through the selected application's software for accessing the service.
US09692831B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for pausing interactive sessions. One of the methods includes initiating a live interactive session between a first user and a second user over a data communication network; during the interactive session, determining that the quality of the interactive session has become unacceptable to the first user; pausing the interactive session; while the session is paused, recording a segment of video captured by a user device of the second user; and providing the segment of video for presentation to a user device of the first user with acceptable quality.
US09692826B2
A content management system for collecting files from one or more submitters in a collection folder. A collector, who generates the collection folder, can invite one or more submitters to submit one or more files to the collection folder via a customizable file request. The one or more submitters have limited rights to the collection folder. The limited rights can include uploading rights and prohibiting a submitter from viewing files that other submitters associated with the collection folder submitted. Thus, the collection folder is able to store files from the one or more submitters, but prevent them from viewing other's submissions.
US09692825B2
A data storage system including a central storage system, at least one endpoint computer system in network communication with the central storage system by a network infrastructure, and a storage accelerator in communication with a CPU of the computer system, wherein the storage accelerator provides endpoint caching of data on the central storage system that is accessible to the at least one endpoint computer. Preferably, the storage accelerator is positioned at a location where a throughput of data from the CPU to the storage accelerator is greater than the throughput of data through a connection from the CPU to the central storage system.
US09692824B1
Methods and apparatus to create with user input a first isolation zone in a block in a cloud computing environment, the block comprising first and second VSANs, a virtualization management VLAN, a file storage VLAN, and identity pools. The isolation zone can be applied to one or more services. The user can achieve a desired isolation between block components, such as VSANs and/or VLANs, in services.
US09692820B2
The present disclosure is directed towards a system and method for handling limit parameters for spillover conditions of virtual servers across multiple nodes in a cluster system. The cluster system may comprise a plurality of nodes, wherein one node may be elected as a master node and the remaining nodes are designated as slave nodes. The master node may monitor the cluster system and establish limit parameters for the cluster system and apply them to the plurality of nodes. The limit parameters may be based upon the number of open connections in the cluster system and the number of nodes. The master node may establish an ideal quota value for each node to balance the number of open connections in the cluster.
US09692811B1
Optimization preferences are defined for optimizing execution of a distributed application. Candidate sets of application parameter values may be tested in test execution environments. Measures of performance for metrics of interest are determined based upon the execution of the distributed application using the candidate sets of application parameter values. Utility curves may be utilized to compute measures of effectiveness for metrics of interest. A multi-attribute rollup operation may utilize the computed measures of effectiveness and weights to compute a grand measure of merit (MOM) for the candidate sets of application parameter values. An optimized set of application parameter values may then be selected based upon the computed grand MOMs. The optimized set of application parameter values may be deployed to a production execution environment executing the distributed application. Production safe application parameters might also be identified and utilized to optimize execution of the distributed application in a production execution environment.
US09692810B2
The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and computer program products for generating user interface layouts. One computer-implemented method includes dividing an available vertical space associated with a graphical user interface into a plurality of allowed vertical space allocations based on a priority of a plurality of data display fields, calculating, by a computer, slack following each data display field expanding to fill an allowed vertical space allocation associated with the data display fields, allocating the slack among the plurality of data display fields, re-calculating, by a computer, slack following allocation of slack among the plurality of data display fields, and finalizing display of the plurality of data display elements in the graphical user interface.
US09692805B2
An apparatus and method for providing a broadcasting and communication convergence service are provided. The method includes acquiring address information about an Internet server configured to provide an application customized based on user information and/or device information about a terminal, transmitting an application request message to the Internet server using the address information, receiving the customized application on a broadcast channel from the Internet server in response to the application request message, and consuming the customized application.
US09692800B2
A streaming video playback system is provided to generate locally a manifest file associated with a streaming video for a media player of a client device. The locally generated manifest file helps reduce startup time for the media player and the manifest file is locally generated based on streaming metadata associated with the streaming video and the manifest files includes HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) based master playlists and media playlists. The locally generated manifest file also provides better adaptive bit rate control by enabling pre-fetching of video segments of a streaming video and caching during playback. The streaming video playback system reduces the size of media playlist transmitted to a content sharing service using index of the last video segment and makes it practical to have DVR-able live video streaming with a larger seek window.
US09692796B2
Provided is an apparatus and method for setting disposition with respect to document information share. To this end, once a transmission-side server forwards a document forward request message including a document disposition rule with respect to a document to a reception-side server, the reception-side server checks a preference with respect to the document forward request message by using a preset user preference to notify a document change, and stores document data together with a disposition rule regarding the document data, such that efficient management and disclosure of private information forwarded to a user become possible and thus a CAB service can be easily and rapidly provided according to user's selection.
US09692788B2
A method at a mobile device for creating a managed domain on the mobile device, the method initializing a container on the mobile device to house the managed domain; retrieving, from the mobile device, a management agent for the management domain; establishing policies to govern the creation of the managed domain; and configuring the container for the domain based on the established policies.
US09692782B2
Systems and methods for detecting malicious resources by analyzing communication between multiple resources coupled to a network are provided. According to one embodiment, a method is performed for client reputation monitoring. A monitoring unit within a network observes activities relating to multiple monitored devices within the network. For each observed activity, the monitoring unit assigns a score to the observed activity based upon a policy of multiple polices established within the monitoring unit. For each of the monitored devices, the monitoring unit maintains a current reputation score for the monitored device based upon the score and a historical score associated with the monitored device. The monitoring unit classifies one of the monitored devices as potentially being a malicious resource based upon its current reputation score.
US09692775B2
Methods implemented in a network are disclosed for dynamically distributing tasks of traffic anomaly monitoring and detecting traffic anomalies. The method starts collecting traffic statistics of large blocks of traffic flows as traffic aggregates. Based on the traffic statistics of traffic aggregates, a traffic anomaly is detected. Then for a traffic aggregate with a traffic anomaly, increased traffic sampling rate is applied to a smaller set of traffic flows within the traffic aggregate. If the smaller set of traffic flows does not contain a percentage of the traffic within the traffic aggregate, the sampling rate is further increase to an even smaller set of traffic flows until a small set of traffic flows are identified as the ones cause the traffic anomaly.
US09692773B1
Systems and methods for identifying detection-evasion behaviors of files undergoing malware analyses
The disclosed computer-implemented method for identifying detection-evasion behaviors of files undergoing malware analyzes may include (1) monitoring, by a plurality of monitor components related to an automated execution environment, a file that is undergoing a malware analysis in the automated execution environment, (2) detecting a suspicious discrepancy among the monitor components with respect to computing activity observed in connection with the malware analysis by (A) identifying a monitor component that has observed the computing activity in connection with the malware analysis and (B) identifying another monitor component that has not observed the computing activity in connection with the malware analysis, and then (3) determining, based at least in part on the suspicious discrepancy, that the file demonstrates a detection-evasion behavior that led to the other monitor component not observing the computing activity in connection with the malware analysis. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09692769B2
Embodiments of the present application relate to a method for data communication, a system for data communication, and a computer program product for data communication. A method for data communication is provided. The method includes identifying one or more first users located within a present range of a location of a second user, comparing an authorization code with one or more exchange codes pre-allocated to the one or more first users, and verifying validity of the authorization code, and in the event that, among the one or more exchange codes of the one or more first users within a definite range of the second user location, an exchange code matching the authorization code of the second user exists, and the authorization code of the second user is determined to be valid, performing a data exchange between the second user and the first user.
US09692764B1
A method includes generating a database query in a database; receiving a first request to execute the database query on behalf of a first user; in response to the first request, executing the database query to generate a first set of results such that the first set of results is limited to data with which there is a semantic relationship in the database to a first datum representing the first user; receiving a second request to execute the database query on behalf of a second user; in response to the second request, executing the database query to generate a second set of results such that the second set of results is limited to data with which there is a semantic relationship in the database to a second datum representing the second user, where the first set of results and the second set of results are at least partially non-overlapping.
US09692752B2
Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for ensuring information security using one-time tokens are presented. In one or more embodiments, a computing platform may receive, from a user device, a request to access an online banking portal using a user account. Based on the request, the computing platform may generate and send a notification to a registered mobile device linked to the user account. After sending the notification, the computing platform may generate a one-time token message that includes a prompt for authorizing the user device to access the online banking portal using the user account. The computing platform then may send the one-time token message to the mobile device and receive token response input from the mobile device. Based on the input, the computing platform may prevent the user device from accessing the online banking portal or, alternatively, may provide the user device with access to the online banking portal.
US09692749B2
Internet user passwords are securely managed. A formation component can enable a user to create a master account on a web server, the master account comprising a master username and password. An access component can enable the user to access a plurality of password protected websites from a web browser or non-browser software application resident on the user's computing device when the user logs into the master account by entering the valid master username and password. A selection component can log the user into a website of the plurality of password protected websites when the user selects a hyperlink associated with the website, selects a linked image associated with the website, or selects the website from a pulldown list contained in a toolbar of a web browser. A display component can open a web browser or tab associated with the website.
US09692742B1
A system enables end user devices to receive audio announcements from third party cloud-based resources. For example, the system may include a first party cloud-based resource providing tokens to the third party cloud-based resource in order to prevent the third party cloud-based resource from causing audio announcements to be output by user devices without authorization. In some cases, the tokens may be time based and prevent the third party cloud-based resource from causing audio announcements to be output by user devices after a predefined amount of time. In other examples, the tokens may be use based and prevent the third party cloud-based resource from causing the user device to output more than a predetermined number of audio announcements.
US09692736B2
An infrastructure delivery platform provides a RSA proxy service as an enhancement to the TLS/SSL protocol to off-load, from an edge server to an external cryptographic server, the decryption of an encrypted pre-master secret. The technique provides forward secrecy in the event that the edge server is compromised, preferably through the use of a cryptographically strong hash function that is implemented separately at both the edge server and the cryptographic server. To provide the forward secrecy for this particular leg, the edge server selects an ephemeral value, and applies a cryptographic hash the value to compute a server random value, which is then transmitted back to the requesting client. That server random value is later re-generated at the cryptographic server to enable the cryptographic server to compute a master secret. The forward secrecy is enabled by ensuring that the ephemeral value does not travel on the wire.
US09692733B2
A peer device may determine a reliability level of a connection with another peer device during a learning duration at instances in a communication session. The connection can be established using key establishment and management protocols. The peer device can adjust a frequency with which the peer device determines the reliability level of the connection during the communication session. The peer device can determine an updated reliability level of the connection in view of the adjusted frequency, and then optimize resource utilization by key establishment and management protocols.
US09692727B2
A context-aware distributed firewall scheme is provided. A firewall engine tasked to provide firewall protection for a set of network addresses applies a reduced set of firewall rules that are relevant to the set of addresses associated with the machine. A hypervisor implements a search structure that allows each virtual machine's filter to quickly identify relevant rules from all of the received rules. The search structure is constructed as a binary prefix tree, each node corresponding to an IP CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) block. A query for relevant rules traverses nodes of the search structure according to a queried IP address and collect all rules that are associated with the traversed nodes.
US09692721B2
Techniques for invitations for establishing relationships are described. In at least some embodiments, an architecture is implemented which provides simple and integrated ways for establishing relationships between various entities. The architecture includes invitations that can be used to invite users to establish relationships with entities. A user that receives an invitation can interact with the invitation, such as to accept or decline an invitation to establish a relationship with an entity. If a user accepts an invitation, a relationship can be established between the user and an inviting entity. In at least some embodiments, the relationship can enable the user to perform various actions and/or access resources associated with the entity.
US09692720B1
In an approach for preventing the modification of an email by the recipients of the email, a processor receives an indication that an email message is composed. A processor receives an indication that modification of contents of the email message, by one or more recipients of the email message, is to be prevented. A processor converts the contents of the email message from editable text to a non-editable format. A processor sends the converted email message to a recipient.
US09692719B2
An email is received. The email consists of a common content, at least one recipient for the common content, a private content, and at least one recipient for the private content. Each of the at least one recipients for the private content is a recipient of the common content. The common content is stored in a first storage location, and the private content is stored in a second storage location.
US09692718B2
An inmate communication system is configured to manage the sending and receiving of messages on a messaging service between an inmate incarcerated in a correctional institution and other inmates, or between the inmate and a contact located outside of the facility. Example messaging services include SMS and MMS. Inmates are provided access to a messaging terminal. The inmates interact with the messaging terminal to compose messages for transmission and view received message transmissions. The message communications of the inmates and contacts are analyzed prior to transmission to the recipient. Message contents are analyzed for flagged key-words and flagged sender/recipients. Flagged messages may be placed in an approval queue prior to their delivery for approval or rejection.
US09692717B2
In accordance with an embodiment, described herein is a system and method for supporting detachable administration commands for use with a cloud computing environment. In accordance with an embodiment, a job manager service provides an application program interface which receives administrative commands to be processed within the cloud environment as jobs, wherein each instance of the administrative commands is associated with a unique job identifier. A command line interface allows a user to issue a command to be processed within the cloud environment as a job, detach the command line interface from the job being processed, and subsequently reattach the command line interface to the job being processed by indicating the job's unique job identifier. For example, several independent parallel commands can be executed together from one console or one script, and users can check on, or wait for a result of some task.
US09692696B2
Embodiments relate to managing data flows at a virtual forwarding element. A method for managing data flows at a virtual forwarding element executing in a host that has a network interface card (NIC) is provided. The method receives, from a virtual machine executing in the host, a packet that belongs to a data flow originating from the virtual machine. The method identifies a network identifier for the data flow based on a mapping between a plurality of virtual machines executing in the host and a plurality of network identifiers. The mapping is provided by a network controller that configures the virtual forwarding element. The method encapsulates the packet with the network identifier and a tunnel header that includes network addresses of the host. The method sends the encapsulated packet to the NIC. The NIC transmits the encapsulated packet out of the host and towards a destination of the packet.
US09692690B2
A method for path monitoring is disclosed. The method includes receiving, at the network device, a packet from a SDN controller to monitor a path for a service between the network device and another network device. The method includes sending the packet to at least a first and a second port, where a first instance of the packet is transmitted to the first port to the other network device to monitor the path, and a second instance is transmitted to the second port that loops back the second instance to the network device at a transmission interval so that the packet is sent to the first port repetitively at the transmission interval. The method also includes determining whether or not the packet is received from the other network device within a timeout interval and discarding the packet upon determination that the packet is received within the timeout interval.
US09692682B2
There is provided a method performed by a first network node (101) for handling handover failures for a target cell (112), which target cell is applicable for handover of a wireless device (121) in a wireless communications network (100) from a source cell (111) to the target cell. The target cell is associated (202) with an indication indicating that the target cell is unsuitable for handover, when an amount of failed handovers from the source cell to the target cell exceeds (201) a failure threshold.
US09692677B2
Multicast link trace Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) is implemented in an Ethernet network by causing nodes on the network which perform Reverse Path Forwarding Check (RPFC) based on packet Source Address (SA) to not update the packet SA when updating the content of the CFM message. Alternatively multicast CFM is implemented by causing nodes on the network to update the packet SA when the content of the CFM message is updated, but cause a secondary RPFC process to be implemented by a control process in connection with processing the CFM message. The secondary RPFC process is based on a combination of source and content contained in the payload of the CFM message.
US09692675B1
An activity stream based interaction model is disclosed. To cause a desired application level action to be performed at a remote system, such as automatically retrieving and displaying a document in a viewer or other portion of a user interface at the remote system, a text-based tag, such as a hash tag, is inserted into an activity stream. The activity stream is sent to the remote system, which is configured to respond to the text-based tag by performing, at least in part automatically, the corresponding application level action.
US09692673B2
Consideration of system jitter in selecting a “message passing collectives algorithm” used in a message passing interface. A set of multiple message passing collectives algorithms are ranked against each other with at least some consideration of relative jitter-related performance as between the algorithms. The consideration of jitter includes consideration of “system jitter” (OS jitter and/or network jitter). In some embodiments, multiple rankings are performed for different levels of system jitter.
US09692661B2
There is provided a bandwidth prediction apparatus. An acquisition unit is configured to acquire position information indicating a first position at which a bandwidth is to be predicted. A prediction unit is configured to predict a bandwidth at the first position by using respective measured values of bandwidths measured in advance at a plurality of second positions.
US09692659B2
A method for managing mapping in a network includes: programming mapping relationships between a VSAN and a VLAN of a fabric in advance, which include mapping relationships between VSANs and VLANs programmed in advance for each FCoE switch needed by the fabric; obtaining mapping relationships between the VSANs and the VLANs configured currently for all the FCoE switches of the fabric, when obtained mapping relationships are inconsistent with the programmed-in-advance mapping relationships, automatically updating mapping relationships between the VSANs and the VLANs configured in FCoE switches corresponding to the inconsistent mapping relationships, and/or mapping relationships between the VSANs and the VLANs programmed in advance for the FCoE switches corresponding to the inconsistent mapping relationships.
US09692649B2
Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and for determining a recommendation relating to a configuration of a plurality of server nodes of a computing system. In one embodiment, in accordance with the present invention, the computer implemented method includes the steps of, for each server node, storing a first performance parameter value, wherein each first performance parameter value is a benchmarked value that corresponds to a measured actual performance parameter of its associated server node, and applying a first configuration rule based, at least in part, on the first performance parameter values of the plurality of server nodes to obtain a first configuration recommendation. In another embodiment, the method further includes the step of presenting the first recommendation to a human user.
US09692648B2
A method and system for managing servers. A message received by a first server specifies multiple servers to be updated via an update. The message identifies a server type of each specified server, an old server name of each specified server prior to the update, and a corresponding new server name of each specified server after the update. First servers of the multiple servers are identified based on the first server being a consumer of services provided by a server type corresponding to each specified server of the first servers. Second servers that have a corresponding old server name within a local configuration of the first server are identified. For each server of the second servers, local configuration changes are scheduled to update the corresponding old server names with corresponding new server names at corresponding specified times. Each corresponding old server name is replaced with corresponding new server names.
US09692640B1
Techniques are disclosed for configuring a server to establish a secure network communication session. An application monitors one or more resource utilization metrics of the server. Upon determining that at least one of the monitored resource metrics satisfies a specified condition, an optimization algorithm is selected based on the resource metrics and a configuration of the server. The optimization algorithm determines an updated configuration of the server while maintaining the security at par or better. The selected optimization algorithm is performed to modify determine the updated configuration of the server. Once determined, the application applies the updated configuration to the server.
US09692639B1
Systems and methods of configuring a computer network are provided. A first stage having F switches and a second stage having S switches can be provided. Each switch in the first stage of switches can form M communication links with switches in the second stage of switches. Each switch in the second stage can form N communication links with switches in the first stage of switches. Communication links between respective switch pairs can be assigned. Each switch pair can include one witch in the first stage of switches and one switch in the second stage of switches. The number of communication links assigned to at least one switch pair can differ from the number of communication links assigned to at least a second switch pair.
US09692638B2
A communications system and method includes a database for storing problem magnitudes relating to failed attempts at accessing servers using connection engines. An intelligent routing engine could be a server operative with the database, which queries the database and delays any further attempts at accessing the server using the first connection engine if the problem magnitude exceeds a predetermined threshold. Reattempts can be made after a sufficient delay. A plurality of connection engines can be used by a client for accessing a server. The connection engines are preferably distributed among a plurality of subnets and/or IP addresses and a different connection engine can be chosen based on a desired route with minimum problems.
US09692637B2
The present invention relates to a fault protection method and a fault protection device for an inter-domain link of a multi-domain network. The invention may be particularly applied to multi-domain networks providing end to end services such as an Ethernet service. Embodiments of the invention use a link protection group for an inter-domain link. Link protection group information relating to the link protection group is used to identify a replacement inter-domain link for a faulty inter-domain link that is configured for an inter-domain service. Once the replacement link is identified, the routing of the inter-domain service may be re-configured from the network element ports of the faulty inter-domain link to the network element ports of the identified second inter-domain link.
US09692630B2
A receiver for receiving data in a broadcast system includes a broadcast receiver that receives via the broadcast system a receiver input data stream including plural channel symbols represented by constellation points in a constellation diagram, a demodulator that demodulates the channel symbols into codewords, and a decoder that decodes the codewords into output data words. A redundancy calculator determines a required amount of redundancy data required for correct demodulation and decoding by use of the originally received channel symbol and additional redundancy data. A broadband request unit requests, if demodulation of a channel symbol and/or decoding of a codeword is erroneous or likely to fail, a required amount of redundancy data via a broadband system, that is received by a broadband receiver via said broadband system. The demodulator and/or the decoder is configured to use the redundancy data for demodulation and decoding, respectively.
US09692628B2
Various embodiments of wireless communication systems and methods in which the system seamlessly dual-uses a receiver chain for incoming transmissions and for other signal sensing purposes. The system is configured such that there are multiple receiver chains, and at least one receiver chain alternates between receiving a communication signal with information payload and receiving other signals solely for the purposes of monitoring and/or improving some aspects of the system. In various embodiments, the alternating receiver chain receives alternatively signals with information payloads and signals which have passes through a power amplifier with amplifier distortion characteristics. In various embodiments, the alternating receiver chain receives alternatively signals with information payloads and signals which may be associated with background noise, or other radio transmissions.
US09692624B2
A communication device is configured to perform symbol mapping of bits to generate modulation symbols using one or more modulations. The device may employ a blended modulation composed of bit labels or symbols having different numbers of bits per symbol and different modulations. For example, the device may symbol map bit labels/symbols having first number of bits per symbol to first modulation, and the device may symbol map labels/symbols having second number of bits per symbol to second modulation. The device may be configured to perform forward error correction (FEC) or error correction code (ECC) and coding of information bits to generate coded bits that subsequently undergo symbol mapping. The device may be configured to operate based on different operational modes based on substantially uniform steps of rates, or bits per symbol, and energy per bit or symbol to noise spectral density ratio (Eb/N0 or Es/N0).
US09692622B2
Systems and methods related to improved coherent demodulation and, in particular, improved channel equalization that accounts for variation in an effective channel estimation error with transmitted symbols are disclosed. In one embodiment, a wireless node includes a receiver front-end, a channel estimator, and an equalizer. The receiver front-end is adapted to output samples of a received signal. The channel estimator is adapted to estimate a channel between a transmitter of the received signal and the wireless node based on the samples of the received signal. The equalizer is adapted to process the samples of the received signal according to a modified equalization scheme that compensates for variation in an effective channel estimation error with transmitted symbols to thereby provide corresponding bit or symbol decisions. In this manner, channel equalization is improved, particularly for a wireless system that utilizes a modulation scheme with varying amplitude.
US09692618B2
Circuits, devices, methods for decision feedback equalization are described. A decision feedback circuit can include L N-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) branches. The L N-tap DFE branches can include K unrolled DFE branches, and L−K unfolded DFE branches. Each DFE branch can include a pre-computation stage configured to generate a set of tap-adjusted inputs, each tap-adjusted input corresponding to a possible value for at least one previous output of the same DFE branch. Each unrolled DFE branch can include a multiplexer circuit having selection lines for selecting from the set of tap-adjusted inputs for the unrolled DFE branch, the selection lines being connected to outputs of other DFE branches. Each unfolded DFE branch can include a multiplexer circuit configured to select at least one output from the set of tap-adjusted inputs based on tap-adjusted inputs from other DFE branches.
US09692609B2
A local router stores a content distribution map that specifies a plurality of permitted multicast groups. The local router receives communications from user devices on an access-network side of the local router. Those received communications identify multicast groups for which user devices wish to receive data. The local router ascertains if those identified multicast groups are permitted multicast groups specified by the stored content distribution map. For multicast groups ascertained to be permitted multicast groups, the local router sends communications across a network-side interface requesting membership in those multicast groups. The local router may then receive data for those multicast groups and forward that data to user devices. For multicast groups identified in user device communications ascertained not to be permitted multicast groups, the local router sends no communications across the network-side interface requesting membership.
US09692604B2
Method and system of key distribution by trusted nodes for a vehicular ad hoc network, the nodes of said network having at least one pair of public-private keys and the corresponding certificates, issued by a CA, said method comprising each vehicle node, on entering said network region, requesting a set of keys from an RSU node that is within range and within that region, said RSU node sending said vehicle node a set of private keys, selected from a pool of private keys, and a list with the key identifiers of the private keys shared by said vehicle node and the other vehicle nodes that have most recently contacted said RSU for a predetermined period of time; such that two nodes are able to establish a secure connection without further interaction by deriving a shared secret which is a cryptographic hash function of the keys shared by said two nodes.
US09692599B1
Techniques for security module endorsement are provided. An example method includes receiving a generalized endorsement key at a security module, wherein the security module is associated with a computing device and wherein the generalized endorsement key is independent of characteristics of the computing device, automatically extending integrity measurements stored in one or more registers of the security module with information characterizing the computing device, wherein the integrity measurements are based on one or more software processes at the computing device, digitally signing the extended integrity measurements with a digital signature, and generating a specialized endorsement credential as a combination of the digitally signed extended integrity measurements, the digital signature and the generalized endorsement key, wherein the specialized endorsement credential is used to validate authenticity of the security module.
US09692591B2
A method of formatting data for transmission to another party including the step of incorporating in the data a flag indicative of the absence of data for authentication of the sender. An authentication tag length is also included to permit variable length tags to be used.
US09692583B2
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a duplexer for a radio frequency antenna, comprising: a radio frequency signal transmitter port arranged for connection to a radio frequency signal transmitter; a radio frequency signal receiver port arranged for connection to a radio frequency signal receiver; a switch arranged selectively to adopt either one of: a first state which connects the transmitter port to a common input/output port of the switch arranged for connection to a radio frequency antenna; and a second state which connects the receiver port to the common input/output port; a switch control unit arranged to monitor radio frequency power at the common input/output port and to receive a transmission gate signal; wherein the switch control unit is arranged to control the switch to adopt the first state upon receipt of the transmission gate signal, and, subsequently, to control the switch to adopt the second state when the monitored radio frequency power falls below a threshold level.
US09692578B2
A communication method applicable for a LTE TDD system is disclosed. The communication method includes: if a radio frame has a plurality of UL sub-frames, adopting a flexible TTI bundling operation on at least one of the UL sub-frames in the radio frame; and when the radio frame is changed from a first configuration into a second configuration, the HARQ timing for a eNB to transmit ACK/NACK messages for the bundled UL sub-frames is the same as the HARQ timing for the eNB to transmit ACK/NACK messages for the last sub-frame of the bundled UL sub-frames in the second configuration.
US09692574B2
A method and device for detecting control signaling and a method and device for implementing control signaling detection are provided, wherein blind detection times or the amount of enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channels (ePDCCH) allocated by each ePDCCH resource set is determined, so that the ePDCCH needed to be detected in each ePDCCH resource set can be determined.
US09692571B2
A first cell transmits a virtual cell identifier and state information associated with the virtual cell identifier over an interface to a second cell. The first cell and one or more third cells use the virtual cell identifier for transmissions to first user equipment. The state information indicates one of a plurality of states that indicate whether the virtual cell identifier is associated with at least one non-virtual reference signal for the first cell, the second cell, or one or more third cells. The second cell receives the virtual cell identifier and the state information and transmits the virtual cell identifier and state information over an air interface to second user equipment served by the second cell. The second user equipment performs interference cancellation or suppression of transmissions to the first user equipment based on the virtual cell identifier and the state information.
US09692567B1
An example method for targeted service request for small data communication in a network environment is provided and includes receiving an extended service request indicating an evolved packet system (EPS) bearer identity for small data communication over a packet data network connection including one or more EPS bearers, where the one or more EPS bearers includes at least one small data bearer configured for small data communication, selectively activating the small data bearer, and facilitating the small data communication. In specific embodiments, the one or more EPS bearers includes a default EPS bearer and one or more dedicated EPS bearers, where the small data bearer is the default EPS bearer. In other embodiments, the one or more EPS bearers includes a default EPS bearer and one or more dedicated EPS bearers, where the small data bearer is one of the dedicated EPS bearers.
US09692565B2
An automatic frequency calibration method and a small cell using the same are provided. The automatic frequency calibration method comprises the following steps. A set of at least one broadcasting message in a surrounding environment is received. Whether part of the at least one broadcasting message is transmitted from at least one first type base station is determined. If part of the at least one broadcasting message is transmitted from the first type base station, then a frequency of the small cell is calibrated according to one of the at least one first type base station whose signal strength is maximum among all of the at least one first type base station. If all of the at least one broadcasting message are not transmitted from the first type base station, the frequency of the small cell is calibrated according to at least one second type base station.
US09692563B2
An example method for upstream contention measurement and reporting in Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) remote physical layer (R-PHY) network environments is provided and includes receiving, at a Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) core from a R-PHY node over a converged interconnect network (CIN) in the DOCSIS R-PHY network environment, an indication of a collision level in an upstream network between the R-PHY node and a plurality of cable modems (CMs), calculating a congestion level in the upstream network based on the collision level indicated by the R-PHY node, adjusting back-off window parameters for cable modem retransmissions based on the calculated congestion level, and adjusting a contention transmission opportunity density in a downstream Media Access Protocol (MAP) message based on the adjusted back-off window parameters.
US09692560B1
Methods and systems for network communication are provided. One of the methods includes receiving an out of order packet at a requestor device that is communicably connected to a responder device; storing the out of order packet at an out of order buffer location; and sending a lossy reliable connection (LRC) packet to the responder device when selective acknowledgement (SACK) is supported between the requestor device and the responder device, with information regarding an updated sequence number in a LRC extended header (LRCETH) that indicates to the responder information regarding in-order packets that have been received by the requestor device.
US09692553B2
The present invention relates to a device and method of decoding code blocks of a transport block of a communication signal using a decoder. The method comprises making an assumption about how many decoder iterations should be used for different code blocks of the code blocks of the transport block, wherein the assumption is made based on a study of code block soft-bits. The method also comprises decoding the transport block using different numbers of decoder iterations for the different code blocks, based on the made assumption about how many decoder iterations should be used for the different code blocks.
US09692552B2
Systems, apparatus, methods, and manufactures for performing link adaptation in a communications system are described. The methods may employ an error rate table that has a channel condition value dimension and a transmission parameter dimension. The elements of the error rate table include expected error rates for data transmitted at various channel conditions according to various transmission parameters. Also, the various transmission parameters may each be associated with a data transmission rate. For a given channel condition value, the methods may determine expected throughputs for each of the transmission parameters according to the associated expected error rates and data transmission rates. A transmission parameter may be selected according to the expected throughputs.
US09692550B2
Systems, methods, and apparatuses for providing waveform adaptation are provided. In an example, a method is provided for identifying a plurality of candidate waveforms, and selecting one of the candidate waveforms for data transmission. The candidate waveforms may be identified in accordance with one or more criteria, such as a transmission capability of the transmitting device, a reception capability of the receiving device, a desired Peak-to-Average-Power-Ratio (PAPR) characteristic, adjacent channel interference (ACI) rejection requirements, spectrum localization requirements, and other criteria. The waveform selected for data transmission may be selected in accordance with one or more waveform selection criteria, such as traffic characteristic, application types, etc.
US09692548B2
A blind equalization technique of high-order QAM signals is provided. A method implemented at a receiver-side in an optical communication network receives an optical signal and performs a two-step polarization tracking process on the received optical signal. Using another method, a polarization multiplexed optical transmission is received by a receiver and a polarization tracking process is performed by applying two different algorithms in parallel. One algorithm may be a decision directed least means square (DD-LMS) algorithm. Another algorithm may be a constant modulus algorithm (CMA).
US09692540B2
A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining an interference based on a channel gain for each signal of a group of signals received at a receiver from a group of transmitters. A determination is made as to whether the interference satisfies a threshold range of an analog-to-digital converter of the receiver for each of the group of transmitters. An analog time domain cancellation is performed responsive to a determination that the interference does not satisfy the threshold range, and a digital time domain cancellation is performed responsive to a determination that the interference satisfies the threshold range. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09692538B2
A network including a plurality of wireless communication devices capable of operating according to a wireless protocol that imposes no common timebase at the network level, the plurality of devices comprising: an initiator device configured to detect an event and in response transmit an event message having a payload comprising a time field; and a set of appliance devices configured to receive and automatically retransmit messages received from others of the devices, each appliance device being associated with an appliance supplementary to its wireless communication function and being configured to, on receiving an event message comprising a time field, cause their respective associated appliance to perform a function at a time indicated by the content of the time field in the received message.
US09692537B2
In one embodiment, there is presented a method for processing data. The method comprises receiving a bitstream, said bitstream comprising a first data stream and a second data stream, wherein the first data stream comprises data that is intended to be consumed at a substantially constant bit rate; and controlling the processing rate of the second data stream based at least in part on the rate of receipt of the first data stream.
US09692530B2
An active antenna test system is described. The active antenna test system comprises an active antenna unit comprising: a plurality of antenna elements; at least one processor; a plurality of transceiver modules operably coupled to the at least one processor and arranged to receive at least one first baseband signal for transmission via at least one of the plurality of antenna elements and arranged to pass at least one second baseband signal thereto received and down-converted from at least one of the plurality of antenna elements; and at least one switching module operably coupling the plurality of antenna modules to the plurality of transceiver modules. The active antenna test system also comprises at least one communication test equipment, such as a radio frequency, RF, test module and at least one baseband processor. The active antenna unit further comprises at least one externally connectable radio frequency, RF, test port operably coupled to the at least one switching module and arranged to externally couple the at least one communication test equipment to at least one of the plurality of transceiver modules for conductive testing.
US09692529B1
A system, method and computer program product for signal emitter identification using Higher-Order Cumulants (HOC) is presented. At least one transient signal is received from an emitter when the emitter turns on. The at least one transient signal is processed using at least one Higher-Order Cumulant (HOC) to provide a set of entries for a vector table. A feature vector is derived from the vector table, the feature vector identifying the emitter. The feature vector is used to identify an emitter.
US09692527B2
Provided is an apparatus for an interference signal cancellation of a central station. The apparatus includes: a communication unit; a storage unit configured to store a transmission signal of the central station received via the communication unit; and a signal processor configured to extract first time synchronization information (NCR) of a current time and second time synchronization information (NCR) included in an overlapping signal and calculate a difference value between the two time synchronization information, when the overlapping signal which is an overlapped signal of a terminal station is received on the same channel as a channel of the transmission signal of the central station, and to extract the transmission signal of the central station stored in a previous time in the storage unit based on the difference value and remove an interference signal included in the overlapping signal.
US09692518B2
A DP-QPSK optical transmitter includes an outer MZM comprising a first parent MZM comprising a first child MZM and a second child MZM that modulates a QPSK signal with a first polarization. A second parent MZM includes a first child MZM and a second child MZM that modulates a QPSK signal with a second polarization. The outer Mach-Zehnder modulator multiplexes the first and second polarization embedded into a dual-polarization QPSK signal generation. A first optical detector detects the QPSK signal generated by the first parent MZM with the first polarization. A second optical detector optical detects the QPSK signal generated by the second parent Mach-Zehnder modulator with the second polarization. A bias control circuit generates bias signals on at least one output that stabilize the DP-QPSK signal in response to signals generated by the first and second optical detector using electrical time division multiplexing.
US09692516B2
An optical transceiver, including a coupling assembly and a condensing assembly, is provided. The coupling assembly includes a first surface and a second surface; and multiple first lenses are disposed on the first surface. The condensing assembly includes a fastener, multiple filters, a reflector, and a light passing region; the condensing assembly is fastened to the second surface; the filters are optically aligned with the first lenses separately; the coupling assembly receives light of different wavelengths; and the light of different wavelengths enters the fastener through the multiple filters and is multiplexed or demultiplexed by the reflector and the filters, and multiplexed or demultiplexed light enters the coupling assembly through the light passing region. The optical transceiver provided in the present invention has advantages of low power consumption and high coupling efficiency.
US09692515B2
A multimode optical transmission system and method that employs a higher-order-mode (HOM)-filter fiber. The system includes a transmitter has a light source that generates modulated light and that has a spatially non-uniform light emission. The system also has an optical receiver with a photodetector that receives and detects the modulated light. A multimode optical fiber link that includes a multimode optical fiber optically connects the light source and the photodetector. At least one HOM-filter fiber is optically connected to the multimode optical fiber. The HOM-filter fiber is configured to gives rise to an optical loss of 1 dB or less while increasing the modal bandwidth of the system by at least 10% as compared to using only the multimode optical fiber.
US09692513B2
System and method to extend the upstream data capacity of an HFC CATV system by extending a “shadow” optical fiber network deeper into the various CATV cable neighborhoods, with coax fiber terminals (CFT) spaced roughly according to the distribution of CATV active devices such as RF amplifiers. The CFT can intercept local upstream data from various neighborhood sub-regions and transform this upstream data into upstream optical data, thus relieving upstream data congestion in the 5-42 MHz CATV frequency region. The system can produce an order of magnitude improvement in upstream capability, while maintaining high compatibility with legacy HFC equipment. The CFT may exist in multiple embodiments ranging from low-cost “dumb” CFT to sophisticated CFT that can additionally provide GigE to the home (GTTH) service. Methods to maintain good compatibility with legacy CMTS devices, and methods to utilize DOCSIS MAP data for more efficient data transmission are also discussed.
US09692511B1
A reconfigurable and redundant electro-optical connector and corresponding method are provided. The connector may include a first plurality of transducers in communication with a first port and a second plurality of transducers in communication with a second port, the first port and the first transducers defining a first channel and the second port and the second transducers defining a second channel. The connector may include a selective combiner to combine the first optical signals and the second optical signals, and a controller in communication with each of the transducers. The controller may transmit at least a first portion of a first datalink on at least the first channel in a first configuration. The controller may redistribute the first portion of the first datalink onto at least the second channel in a second configuration.
US09692505B2
Techniques are described for identifying a rogue network interface device whose laser is not under control of a controller of the network interface device. The techniques identify the rogue network interface device based on reception of a predefined data pattern in a timeslot that is not reserved for any of the network interface devices without needing to disable upstream data transmission from the network interface devices during their assigned timeslots. The techniques also relate to a network interface device determining whether the network interface device is transmitting optical signals at a wavelength different than the wavelength that the OLT to which the network interface device is associated receives.
US09692502B2
A microwave antenna terminal for two-way, in-motion communication systems using geostationary or other orbit satellites, and capable of supporting two-way communication in two different frequency ranges, for example Ku and Ka frequency ranges, is provided.
US09692499B2
An air-to-ground communications system includes at least one base station to be positioned on the ground and including a ground-based transceiver, a phased array antenna coupled to the ground-based transceiver, and a beamforming network coupled to the ground-based transceiver. The ground-based transceiver is configured to provide data traffic and control information to an aircraft. The beamforming network is configured to simultaneously generate at least one narrow antenna beam for the data traffic and at least one wide beam for the control information.
US09692495B2
Determination of channel state information (CSI) feedback by mobile devices is disclosed in which the mobile device receives one or more configuration parameters, that may include one or more control channel parameters for configuring a mobile device control channel. The UE uses the configuration parameters to determine an assumption of overhead resources. Using this overhead assumption, the mobile device derives the CSI index and transmits the CSI index to a serving base station.
US09692488B2
A computing device comprises a head that can be physically attached to a base. The head may be capable of functioning as a type of computing device independent of the base. The base may include a base transceiver to receive data from a first component of the base, encode the data into a signal, and transmit the signal. The base may include a base waveguide to guide the signal to a head waveguide of the head. The head may include a head transceiver to receive the signal from the head waveguide, decode the data from the signal, and send the data to a second component of the head.
US09692480B2
A method and an apparatus for coordinating a cell on a plurality of resource blocks, and a method for selecting, by a central control device, a mode for coordinating a cell on a plurality of resource blocks in a communication system including a base station and the central control device are disclosed. The method for coordinating a cell comprises: determining whether the cell needs to be muted on at least one resource block; determining a ratio of the resource block on which the cell is muted to the plurality of resource blocks, in a case where the cell needs to be muted on the at least one resource block; and determining, based on the ratio, the resource block on which the cell is muted among the plurality of resource blocks, the resource block being a time resource block, a frequency resource block or a time-frequency resource block.
US09692472B2
An antenna subsystem receives an analog desired signal, noise, and interference via a communication channel. The desired signal includes modulated encoded digital information. A local oscillator (LO) modulation subsystem generates a modulated LO. The LO modulation subsystem generates a modulated LO to maximize the symbol signal-to-noise ratio of the decoded digital information based on a plurality of: the desired signal, the interference and the noise expected in the communication channel, the characteristics of the converter, and the ability of the DSP to remove the Modulated LO from the converted signal. A mixer mixes the received signal and the modulated LO. A converter converts the mixed signal from analog to digital. A digital signal processor (DSP) removes the modulated LO and desired signal modulation, and decodes the desired signal encoded digital information.
US09692471B2
A wireless receiver with high linearity, having an out-band signal bypass filter, a mixer, and a baseband circuit. The out-band signal bypass filter has a first terminal and a second terminal respectively receiving a positive differential signal and a negative differential signal from a former-stage circuit, and the out-band signal bypass filter provides an out-band signal bypass path from the first terminal to the second terminal. The mixer receives a filtered signal from the out-band signal bypass filter. The baseband circuit is coupled to the mixer for generation of an in-phase signal and a quadrature phase signal.
US09692466B2
A radio reception circuit that allows for preventing the S/N ratio from being degraded due to the spurious of high-output adjacent channel signals, comprises: a variable bandpass filter for passing one of received signals that has a particular frequency and that is of a particular bandwidth; a demodulation circuit for demodulating the received signal having passed through the variable bandpass filter, thereby outputting an ultimate output signal; a frequency characteristic table that stores a plurality of different parameters about frequencies and bandwidths in advance; an S/N ratio measurement circuit for calculating the S/N ratio of the output signal in a case where one of the plurality of different parameters is applied to the variable bandpass filter; and a control unit for setting, to the variable bandpass filter, a parameter, for which the best S/N ratio can be obtained, out of the plurality of different parameters.
US09692462B2
A transmitter includes a first pre-distortion circuit, a second pre-distortion circuit, a transmitting circuit and a pre-distortion parameters generating circuit. The first pre-distortion circuit uses a plurality of first pre-distortion parameters to perform a pre-distortion operation upon a first input signal to generate a pre-distorted first input signal. The second pre-distortion circuit uses a plurality of second pre-distortion parameters to perform a pre-distortion operation upon a second input signal to generate a pre-distorted second input signal. The transmitting circuit is arranged to process the pre-distorted first input signal and the pre-distorted second input signal to generate an output signal. The pre-distortion parameters generating circuit generates the first pre-distortion parameters and the second pre-distortion parameters according to the first input signal, the second input signal and the output signal.
US09692459B2
A communication device communicates with other communication devices in a wireless network using a first and a second frequency band. In accordance with some embodiments, inter-band beamforming assistance may be provided by the lower frequency band.
US09692452B2
Example apparatus and methods combine erasure coding with data deduplication to simultaneously reduce the overall redundancy in data while increasing the redundancy of unique data. In one embodiment, an efficient representation of a data set is produced by deduplication. The efficient representation reduces duplicate data in the data set. Redundancy is then added back into the data set using erasure coding. The redundancy that is added back in adds protection to the unique data associated with the efficient representation. How much redundancy is added back in and what type of redundancy is added back in may be controlled based on an attribute (e.g., value, reference count, symbol size, number of symbols) of the unique data. Decisions concerning how much and what type of redundancy to add back in may be adapted over time based, for example, on observations of the efficiency of the overall system.
US09692445B1
A system includes a storage device containing machine instructions and a plurality of digital values of an oversampled sinuisoidal signal. The system also includes a core coupled to the storage. The core is configured to execute the machine instructions, wherein, when executed, the machine instructions cause the core to implement a sigma-delta modulator that retrieves the plurality of digital values from the storage device as input to the modulator. The sigma-delta modulator is configured compute an output bit stream. The system further includes an analog filter configured to receive the output bit stream from the core and to low-pass filter the output bit stream to produce a sinusoidal output signal.
US09692444B1
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a method of neutralizing voltage kickback associated with a reference buffer of a switched capacitor based data converter having a first switched capacitor coupled to an output node of the reference buffer wherein the first switched capacitor comprises at least one first capacitor and at least one first switch may be provided. The method may include coupling a passive network to the output node of the reference buffer in response to a presence of a condition for encountering the voltage kickback in order to create an approximately equal and opposite voltage kickforward by the passive network to at least partially neutralize the voltage kickback.
US09692442B1
A device, system, and method of a programmable circuit configured to operate in a buffered drive mode and blanking mode is disclosed. The programmable circuit includes a continuous-time digital-to-analog converter (CTDAC), a continuous-time block (CTB), coupled to the CTDAC, and a sample and hold (SH) circuit coupled to the CTDAC and the CTB. The programmable circuit is configured to operate in a buffered drive mode to buffer an output signal from the CTDAC. The programmable circuit, in buffered drive mode, is further configured to operate in a blanking mode to cause the SH circuit to perform a blanking operation on the CTDAC output signal.
US09692427B2
Provided herein are apparatus and methods for phase-locked loops (PLLs). In certain configurations, a clock system includes a PLL, a control circuit, and a holdover circuit that is electrically coupled to an input of the PLL's loop filter via a holdover switch and a variable resistor. The control circuit generates an input clock signal for the PLL based on a selected reference clock signal. When the control circuit determines that the selected reference clock signal is unreliable, the control circuit disables the PLL's feedback loop and turns on the holdover switch. After the selected reference clock signal is changed or otherwise becomes reliable, the control circuit enables the PLL's feedback loop while keeping the holdover switch turned on, and controls a resistance of the variable resistor over time to provide a soft transition from holdover to reacquiring phase lock.
US09692422B2
In a programmable logic integrated circuit, providing a spare circuit in preparation for the occurrence of a defective element results in a redundant circuit configuration. A programmable logic integrated circuit according to the present invention has: a plurality of logic blocks; a switch block for switching the connections between row and column wires by nonvolatile switch elements for switching; and a shifter block for connecting an input/output wire to said switch block. The shifter block includes a redundant wire and is equipped with nonvolatile switch elements for shifting that control the connections of the wires constituting said redundant wire and said row wires.
US09692421B2
A novel non-volatile latch circuit and a semiconductor device using the non-volatile latch circuit are provided. The latch circuit has a loop structure in which an output of a first element is electrically connected to an input of a second element and an output of the second element is electrically connected to an input of the first element through a second transistor. A transistor using an oxide semiconductor as a semiconductor material of a channel formation region is used as a switching element, and a capacitor is provided to be electrically connected to a source electrode or a drain electrode of the transistor, whereby data of the latch circuit can be retained, and a non-volatile latch circuit can thus be formed.
US09692417B1
A transition glitch suppression circuit can be used to remove unwanted glitches occurring within a time delay of the rising edge or falling edge of a signal. The transition glitch suppression circuit has a delay element that can delay the input signal by the time delay to generate a delayed input signal. The transition glitch suppression circuit also has first and second logic circuits that process the input signal and the delayed input signal to generate corresponding outputs. A multiplexer provides the output signal for the suppression circuit by selecting between the output of the first logic circuit and the output of the second logic circuit based on the value of the output signal.
US09692405B2
A switching circuit switches a first IGBT and a second IGBT. A control circuit is equipped with a first switching element that is configured to be able to control a gate current of the first IGBT, a second switching element that is configured to be able to control a gate current of the second IGBT, and a third switching element that is connected between an electrode of the first IGBT and an electrode of the second IGBT. The control circuit controls a turn on timing and turn off timing.
US09692398B2
An apparatuses and methods for buffering a voltage from a circuit without current drive ability are described. An example apparatus includes a voltage buffer that includes two identical stages. The first stage is configured to receive an input voltage and produce an intermediate voltage as an output. The second stage is configured to receive the intermediate voltage and provide an output voltage that is equal to the input voltage. The voltage buffer may be coupled to a current source. The second stage of the voltage buffer may have current drive ability.
US09692390B2
A filter device includes a piezoelectric substrate, an IDT arranged on a major surface of the piezoelectric substrate to define a surface acoustic wave resonator, a wiring electrode that is electrically connected to the IDT, and an acoustic member located on a major surface of the piezoelectric substrate near or adjacent to the IDT and that has an acoustic impedance different from that of the piezoelectric substrate. The wiring electrode that is to be disposed in the vicinity of the IDT is located on the acoustic member.
US09692380B2
Systems and techniques are provided for dynamic volume adjustment. A signal including a detected distance to a person may be received from a proximity sensor of a smart home environment. A volume adjustment for a speaker of the smart home environment may be generated based on the detected distance to the person and a sound level associated with the detected distance to the person. The volume of the speaker may be adjusted based on the volume adjustment. A signal from a sensor of the smart home environment indicating that the sensor has been tripped may be received. The proximity sensor may be triggered based on the received signal indicating the sensor has been tripped to detect a distance to the person to generate the detected distance. An alarm may be sounded through the speaker.
US09692359B1
Pulse shaping biasing circuitry includes square wave generator circuitry, first inverse ramp signal generator circuitry, and second inverse ramp signal generator circuitry. The square wave generator circuitry is coupled between an input node and signal summation circuitry, and is configured to generate a square wave signal. The first inverse ramp signal generator circuitry is coupled in parallel with the square wave generator circuitry and configured to generate a first inverted ramp signal. The second inverse ramp signal generator circuitry is coupled in parallel with the square wave generator circuitry and the first inverse ramp signal generator circuitry and configured to generate a second inverted ramp signal. The square wave signal, the first inverted ramp signal, and the second inverted ramp signal are combined by the signal summation circuitry to provide a pulse shaping bias signal for a radio frequency (RF) power amplifier.
US09692356B2
The systems and methods of oscillator frequency tuning using a bulk acoustic wave resonator include a relaxation oscillator, a BAW oscillator, a frequency counter, and an adjustment module. The BAW oscillator provides an accurate time reference even over temperature changes. The BAW oscillator is turned on periodically and the relaxation oscillator is calibrated with the BAW oscillator. A temporary and periodic enablement of the BAW oscillator maintains a low current consumption. The frequency counter counts a number of full periods of the BAW oscillator that occur in one period of the relaxation oscillator. Since each frequency is known, the number of pulses of the BAW oscillator that should occur during one period of the relaxation oscillator is known. If the count is different from what should be counted, a correction may be made by adjusting an input parameter of the relaxation oscillator.
US09692354B2
An oscillator circuit comprises a first, high-Q crystal oscillator and a second, low-Q oscillator arranged for kick-starting the crystal oscillator at switch-on by coupling the second oscillator to the first oscillator for a time period. The oscillator circuit is arranged to select the frequency of the second oscillator by placing the second oscillator in a phase locked loop with the first oscillator providing a reference frequency, and adjusting the frequency of the second oscillator towards the frequency of the first oscillator.
US09692352B2
A solar array for collecting sunlight that is converted into electricity. The array includes an arrangement of solar collectors strategically positioned on a frame to maximize the amount of sunlight collected in relation to the size of the array. The collectors are plate like members with a reflective side and shaped so that sunlight collected by the reflective side is concentrated at a location away from the reflective side. The collectors are recumbently positioned in rows with their respective reflective sides directed away from the array frame. The collectors are spaced apart so that no collector casts shade on any part of another collector and substantially no sunlight between adjacent collectors.
US09692350B2
An ECU, which acts as a “electrical rotating machine controller”, controls driving of a motor unit having two winding sets. In the ECU, components having different heat dissipation properties are used as switching elements between two systems of inverters (electric power conversion circuit). For example, “component X” is used as switching elements of a first inverter acting as a “normal circuit”, and “component Y” which has superior heat conductivity is used as switching elements, different from the switching elements of the first inverter, of a second inverter acting as a “particular circuit”. As a result, the switching element (component Y) of the second inverter is more likely to have a longer lifespan than the switching element (component X) of the first inverter. Accordingly, the likelihood of both systems failing at the same time may be reduced.
US09692348B2
A motor control device includes a load torque estimation unit configured to estimate a load torque applied to a motor, a torque comparison unit configured to compare the load torque with a reference torque, a time measurement unit configured to measure a time span during which the load torque is higher than the reference torque, a time comparison unit configured to compare the time span with a reference time, and a decision unit configured to decide that the motor is subjected to an excessive load when the time span exceeds the reference time.
US09692347B2
Systems and methods involve controlling a variable-speed blower in a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system to ensure the setting of a blower-proving switch to confirm airflow in a building. In one instance, a method involves ramping up the variable-speed blower so that the associated static pressure reaches a making point pressure of the blower-proving switch and then reducing the power to a desired power level. The method may also include maintaining the power level above a breaking point pressure. Other systems and methods are presented.
US09692339B2
A self-commissioning method for estimating differential inductances in an electric machine, such as e.g. a synchronous reluctance machine or interior permanent magnet machine, with cross-magnetization effects is provided. The electric machine is driven with PWM voltages to explore current plurality of operating points of the currents in the electric machine while keeping the electric machine at standstill or quasi-standstill. At each operating point PWM switching voltage transients are used as a small-signal excitation. Currents of the electric machine are measured by means of oversampling, which permit the reconstruction of the waveforms including the current ripple within a PWM period caused by the PWM switching transients. Finally, the differential inductances at each operating point are determined based on the determined direct and quadrature current waveforms and voltages.
US09692335B2
A motor driving apparatus for causing drive current to flow in first and second armature coils of two-phases to rotate a rotator, includes a drive unit configured to give first and second PWM pulse signals to ends of the first and second armature coils. The drive unit includes a first shift unit configured to, when a difference between pulse widths of the first PWM pulse signals given to the ends of the first armature coil is less than or equal to a first predetermined value, shift forward any one of pulses of the first PWM pulse signals, and a second shift unit configured to, when a difference between pulse widths of the second PWM pulse signals given to the ends of the second armature coil is less than or equal to a second predetermined value, shift backward any one of pulses of the second PWM pulse signals.
US09692329B2
The present teaching relates to a magnetic sensor comprising an input port, a magnetic field detecting circuit that generates a magnet detection signal, an output control circuit that controls operation of the magnetic sensor, and an output port. The magnetic field detecting circuit includes a magnetic sensing element that detects an external magnetic field and output a detection signal, a signal processing element configured to amplify the detection signal and removing interference from the detection signal, and an analog-digital conversion element configured to convert the processed detection signal into a magnet detection signal, and the output control circuit controls the magnetic sensor to operate in at least one of a first state and a second state responsive to at least the magnet detection signal, wherein the signal processing element comprises a folded cascode amplifier.
US09692327B2
A controller for controlling a multi-phase motor is described. The controller may include a torque control module and a current control module. The current control module may be configured to receive a reference current from the torque control module, determine a reference voltage, determine a flux correction value based on the reference voltage, a maximum available voltage, and a speed of the multi-phase motor, and output the flux correction value. The torque control module may be configured to receive the flux correction value and update the reference current based on the flux correction value.
US09692310B2
A power converter that can supply constant voltage to a load even upon fluctuation of voltage of an AC power source includes an inverter circuit resulting from connecting switching elements in series, the inverter circuit being connected to both ends of a DC power source series circuit resulting from connecting in series two DC power sources; an AC output terminal that is connected to a connection point of the switching elements; another AC output terminal that is connected to a connection point of the DC power sources; and a bidirectional switch element including one end connected to the AC output terminal U and another end connected to a terminal of an AC power source.
US09692301B2
A voltage converter includes a high side transistor, a low side transistor coupled to the high side transistor at a switching node, and an inductor coupled to the switching node and providing an output node. A controller is provided that is coupled to the high side transistor and the low side transistor. The controller is configured to selectively turn on and off the high and low side transistors in a repeat cycle. The controller is configured to control the high and low side transistors to cause a sequence of packets of charge to be delivered to the inductor. Also included is an adaptive timer circuit coupled to the output node and the controller and configured to adaptively adjust the amount of charge in each packet based on the voltage ripple of the output node.
US09692299B2
Disclosed is a voltage-current characteristic generator that includes: a voltage source; a current source; a selector for selecting and outputting the output of either the voltage source or the current source; a sensing portion, connected to an output of the selector, for outputting the output of the selector and for sensing, and feeding back, the voltage and current of the output; and a controller for receiving the voltage and current detected by the sensing portion and for setting the subsequent outputs in the voltage source and the current source, wherein, in addition to setting the subsequent outputs, the controller evaluates an operating mode wherein the subsequent output from the selector is to be from either the voltage source or the current source.
US09692291B2
A noise filter is assembled to an electric power conversion device and has a metal housing casing and two capacitors connected to an external terminal of the device through which an electric power conversion circuit is connected to an external device. The two capacitors, the housing casing and the external terminal make a current loop. A magnetic flux of an alternating magnetic field generated in a part of the electric power conversion circuit penetrates in a first area and a second area formed in the current loop. A first induced noise current is induced in the current loop when the magnetic flux of the generated magnetic field penetrates in the first area. A second induced noise current is induced in the current loop when the magnetic flux penetrates in the second area so that the first induced noise current flows in a reverse direction to the second induced noise current.
US09692279B2
An electrical rotating machine, such as a generator or motor, communicates power from a stationary location to the rotating rotor of the rotating machine via opposed pairs of capacitor plates, one plate of each pair rotating with the rotor and one plate of each pair fixed not to rotate. In one embodiment, separation between the plates of the pair is provided by a cushion of entrapped air.
US09692265B2
A variable magnetic flux-type rotary electric machine includes a stator and a rotor. The stator includes a stator coil wound on teeth. The rotor defines an air gap between the rotor and the stator. The rotor has at least one permanent magnet arranged in the d-axis magnetic path. The stator and the rotor are arranged relative to the permanent magnet to set a characteristic of d(Kt(I))/dI≧0 in a range of at or below magnetic saturation of a core material of at least one of the stator and the rotor, where KT represents a torque constant, and I represents an applied current, and a function of KT with respect to I is represented by KT=Kt(I) for a torque Tr acting on the rotor that is represented by Tr=KT×I.
US09692261B2
Provided is a rotating electric machine including a rotor and stator fitted with various numbers of poles and slots and adapted to reduce vibration/noise of the machine. The rotating electric machine in accordance with an aspect of the present invention includes a stator having an S number of teeth, and a rotor disposed in the stator with a gap intervening between the stator and the rotor. The plurality of teeth in the stator are grouped in units of the number of teeth that is equal to a value “m” or a value “d”, the value “m” being obtained by dividing the number of stator slots, S, by the greatest common divisor N of the number of poles, P, and the number of stator slots, S, the value “d” being an aliquot of “m”. At least one tooth in each of the tooth groups has a distal end different in shape from distal ends of other teeth belonging to the same tooth group, and the plurality of tooth groups have the same configuration.
US09692252B2
A lock wireless charging system includes a gateway (10) and a door lock (20). The gateway (10) includes a first micro-processing unit (101), a first signal-fetching unit (102), a first charging unit (103), a first signal-processing unit (104) and a first antenna unit (105). The door lock (20) includes a second micro-processing unit (201), a second signal-fetching unit (202), a second charging unit (203), a second signal-processing unit (204), a second antenna unit (205) and a storage unit (206). The first antenna unit (105) outputs the identification and sensing signals. The door lock (20) fetches and transmits the identification signal to the second micro-processing unit (201) to determine. The second micro-processing unit (201) responds to the first micro-processing unit (101) with a responsive identification signal. If the identification is successful, the sensing signal is converted into electricity, so the second charging unit (203) charges the storage unit (206).
US09692248B2
A wirelessly powered device and operating method to aid in locating the device in relation to an energy transmitter. A device positioning aid processor places at least one component into a high electrical current consumption mode and determines, based on placing the at least one component into a high electrical current consumption mode, an amount of electrical current induced in a receiving coil that is adapted to inductively couple to a transmission coil external to the wirelessly powered device. An indicator, which is communicatively coupled to the device positioning aid processor, is configured to provide, in response to a determination of the amount of electrical current, an indication corresponding to the amount of electrical current.
US09692238B2
A power transmitting device includes a power transmitting circuit that converts second DC power input from a DC power supply to AC power, a power transmitting antenna and a control circuit that receives a voltage value of the first DC power from the power receiving device. The control circuit changes a frequency of the AC power that is transmitted to the power receiving antenna, detects, from the received voltage values, a first frequency corresponding to a local minimum value of the voltage values and a second frequency corresponding to the voltage value that takes a local maximum value at a frequency higher than the first frequency, and sets the frequency of the AC power transmitted to the power receiving antenna to a frequency between the first frequency and the second frequency.
US09692236B2
Systems and methods for the creation of a centrally controlled DC and AC power rail system within a structure. The rails utilize a centralized controller along with a plurality of distributed controllers to allow for power in the rails to be selectively distributed or not distributed to outlets attached to the rails. This allows for power to be distributed without the need for users to utilize hardwired switches, but to instead utilize generally wireless switch modules, which may be implemented in hardware and/or software to control the outlets. It also allows for devices designed to utilize DC power to be directly supplied with such power from the DC power rail without the need to include onboard AC-DC converters with each device.
US09692226B2
An extinguishing branch (28) for an electrical circuit (32) includes: a snubber circuit (36) including an energy storage limb (40), wherein the energy storage limb (40) includes first and second energy storage limb portions separated by a first junction (46) to define a first voltage divider, and each energy storage limb portion includes at least one energy storage device (48,50); and an arrester limb (38) connected across the energy storage limb (40), wherein the arrester limb (38) includes first and second arrester limb portions separated by a second junction (52) to define a second voltage divider, and each arrester limb portion includes at least one arrester element (54,56), wherein the first and second junctions (46,52) are connected to define a voltage divider bridge, and the voltage divider bridge is electrically coupleable to the electrical circuit (32) so as to provide, in use, a driving voltage to drive the electrical circuit (32).
US09692213B2
A panelboard is composed of modular units. Each unit has compartments for circuit breakers, side walls, and wiring gutters. A main circuit breaker unit has a main cable compartment having separate compartmentalized routing for power cables, and a compartment for the main breaker. A branch circuit breaker unit is edge connected to the main breaker unit. More branch breaker units may be added. Each branch breaker unit has a bus plane for line power, with pin-shaped stabs extending perpendicularly from its busses. The bus plane is covered by circuit breaker compartments in front and an insulative backplane in back. Branch wiring exit slots in the circuit breaker compartments lead to wiring gutters. Each unit is shaped and dimensioned to be mechanically and electrically connected together to form the whole panelboard. Caps for the wiring gutters are front accessible and constitute a front surface of the finished panelboard.
US09692210B2
A laser diode arrangement having at least one semiconductor substrate, having at least two laser stacks each having an active zone and having at least one intermediate layer. The laser stacks and the intermediate layer are grown monolithically on the semiconductor substrate. The intermediate layer is arranged between the laser stacks. The active zone of the first laser stack can be actuated separately from the active zone of the at least one further laser stack.
US09692209B2
High-concentration active doping in semiconductors and semiconductor devices produced by such doping
In a method of forming a photonic device, a first silicon electrode is formed, and then a germanium active layer is formed on the first silicon electrode while including n-type dopant atoms in the germanium layer, during formation of the layer, to produce a background electrical dopant concentration that is greater than an intrinsic dopant concentration of germanium. A second silicon electrode is then formed on a surface of the germanium active layer. The formed germanium active layer is doped with additional dopant for supporting an electrically-pumped guided mode as a laser gain medium with an electrically-activated n-type electrical dopant concentration that is greater than the background dopant concentration to overcome electrical losses of the photonic device.
US09692195B2
Apparatus for substantially eliminating exposure to live parts on a busway plug-in unit enclosure includes a power take-off with male-terminal stabs which are capped with nonconductive material. A nonconductive structure covers the bus assembly and allows only the stabs to pass into the interior of a plug-in unit enclosure. A shutter assembly in each plug-in unit enclosure has a nonconductive shutter plate that moves only longitudinally along the stabs when a plug-in unit device is inserted into the enclosure. Inserting the plug in unit device into the enclosure causes a shutter plate latch to open and depress the shutter. When the plug in unit device is removed from the plug in unit enclosure, the shutter plate is biased upward and latched in a position over the stabs. No live touch points are available in the enclosure.
US09692194B2
A modular equipment mount to enable quick relocation of the piece of equipment. The piece of equipment is secured to a mount. A track system is secured to multiple locations where the piece of equipment may be secured. Power and data connections are included with the track system to provide power and data to the piece of equipment through connectors on the mount.
US09692192B2
Disclosed are a multi connector, a wiring method thereof and a display apparatus having the same that is configured to use a common interface (CI) module for data communication between an electronic apparatus and an external apparatus or a plug used for an electronic connection of elements, regardless of standard conditions such as the number of terminals. The multi connector includes a body portion including a first slot portion and a second slot portion; a substrate portion including a substrate having a first surface; a plurality of first connection terminals provided on the first surface and extending to an inside of the first slot portion; and a plurality of second connection terminals provided on the first surface and extending to an inside of the second slot portion.
US09692185B2
The present invention provides a shielded connector that can reduce the entire size thereof while preventing an increase in the number of components. A shielding shell includes a shell body provided to an outer side of a housing, and a thermally conductive holding member that supports an insulating container portion of a fuse, so the heat generated by the fuse is dissipated to outside, thereby reducing the space between the housing and the fuse and reducing the entire size of the shielded connector. Also, the shielding shell functions as both a heat dissipation member and a magnetic shield, thus, an increase in the number of components can be prevented.
US09692182B2
A signal transmission cable of the present invention comprises a terminal part electrically connectable to an external device, and a cable including metal wires of eight or more channels that are electrically connectable to the terminal part, the terminal part has a substrate including a plurality of connection parts that are electrically connectable to the external device and connected respectively to the metal wires of the individual channels included in the cable, and the metal wires of the mutually different channels that are adjacently connected at the plurality of connection parts are arranged so as not to be adjacent to each other inside the cable.
US09692180B2
An electrical connector that includes a circuit board having a board substrate that has opposite board surfaces and a thickness measured along an orientation axis that extends between the opposite board surfaces. The circuit board has associated pairs of input and output terminals and signal traces that electrically connect the associated pairs of input and output terminals. The input and output terminals being configured to communicatively coupled to mating and cable conductors, respectively. Each associated pair of input and output terminals is electrically connected through a corresponding signal trace that has a conductive path extending along the board substrate between the corresponding input and output terminals. At least two signal traces form a broadside-coupling region in which the conductive paths of the at least two signal traces are stacked along the orientation axis and spaced apart through the thickness and extend parallel to each other for a crosstalk-reducing distance.
US09692177B2
An electrical connector assembly and a connecting member thereof, the connecting member comprises: a base portion having an upper surface and a lower surface which are opposite. A first connecting portion comprising two first protruding ribs spaced apart from each other and protruding upwardly from the upper surface of the base portion and two first latching grooves respectively provided at opposite inner sides of the two first protruding ribs, and the two first latching grooves extends along a front-rear direction. A second connecting portion comprising four upright extending walls spaced apart from each other and extending downwardly out from the lower surface of the base portion and four first latching flanges respectively extending horizontally out from the four upright extending walls. A resilient latching arm extending out from one end of the base portion, having a first positioning portion provided to an upper surface thereof and a second positioning portion provided to a lower surface thereof. The connecting member can assemble two cable connector assemblies together and then fix them to an application device, which is convenient during assembling.
US09692170B2
A connection device and method of manufacturing the same is provided. The connection device includes a housing that includes a first face, into which a plug is introduced, and a second face that is formed to be in contact with the first face, a connection hole that extends to the inside of the housing from the first face, an opening that extends from the first face to the second face to partially expose the connection hole on at least the second face, and a sealing member that is arranged on an outer peripheral surface of the housing to surround a region where the opening is formed. When mounted on the case member of the electronic device, the sealing member may form a dustproof and waterproof structure between the inner peripheral surface of the case member and the outer peripheral surface of the housing.
US09692167B2
A connector is mountable on a circuit board and mateable with a mating connector along a mating direction. The connector comprises a contact, a housing, an enclosing portion and a coupling portion. The housing holds the contact. The enclosing portion encloses an outer circumference of the housing in a plane perpendicular to the mating direction. The coupling portion directly or indirectly couples the enclosing portion with the housing so as to allow the enclosing portion to move along the mating direction relative to the housing.
US09692165B2
A coaxial connector is manufactured to have a structure in which a first resin member is not easily separated from an external terminal. A coaxial connector according to the present disclosure includes a first resin member, a second resin member attached to the first resin member, a fixed terminal and a movable terminal disposed between the first resin member and the second resin member, and an external terminal attached to outer peripheries of the first resin member and the second resin member. The external terminal includes a cylindrical accommodating portion that accommodates the first resin member, and the first resin member includes a resin engagement portion. The resin engagement portion is engaged with the accommodating portion, so that separation of the first resin member is prevented.
US09692162B2
An electric contact includes a bulge-shaped contact having a bulge shape, and a plate-shaped contact that has a plate shape and comes into electrical contact with an apex portion of the bulge-shaped contact. The bulge-shaped contact has a silver-tin alloy layer and a silver coating layer that coats the surface of the silver-tin alloy layer and is exposed at an outermost surface. The plate-shaped contact has a silver layer that does not have a silver-tin alloy layer directly below and is exposed at the outermost surface. Also, a connector terminal pair has such an electric contact in a contacting portion.
US09692154B2
A clamp includes a first and second handle parts that are pivotable relative to each other and biased closed. A first electrical contactor is associated with the first handle part, and a second electrical contactor is associated with the second handle part. The first electrical contactor and the second electrical contactor are positioned such that in the closed position of the clamp, a circuit connection between the first electrical contactor and the second electrical contactor is open, and in the open position, the circuit connection is closed.
US09692151B2
Provided is a switch attached coaxial connector that improves an isolation characteristic between a common terminal and a closed terminal. In a normal state where a coaxial plug is not connected to the switch attached coaxial connector, a movable contact portion biased by a leaf spring piece portion elastically contacts a fixed contact piece portion so that a closed terminal and a common terminal are electrically connected to each other. When the coaxial plug is connected to the switch attached coaxial connector, the movable contact portion moves rearward from the fixed contact piece portion by the plug pin abutting against a plug contact portion so that the contact with respect to the fixed contact piece portion is disconnected and the electrical connection of the common terminal is switched from the closed terminal to the plug pin.
US09692147B1
An electronic device connection system includes a first electrical device and a second electrical device. The first electrical device includes a plurality of electrical connectors disposed in, on, or about at least a portion of an exterior surface of the first electrical device. The second electrical device includes a plurality of electrical contacts disposed in, on, or about at least a portion of an exterior surface of the second electrical device. A mechanical compressor exerts a force on at least one of the first electrical device or the second electrical device such that the electrical connections on the first electrical device physically and conductively couple to the electrical contacts on the second electrical device. The device casing may function as the mechanical compressor. The electrical connectors and/or electrical contacts may include injection molded connectors that include a conductive material dispersed in a thermoplastic matrix.
US09692139B2
Methods and apparatus for an OAM system having simultaneous OAM states. In embodiments, m data streams are encoded and split into n copies each of which is delayed to produce a distinct RF orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode. The delayed copies are combined using wave division multiplexing. The combined m data streams are transmitted using n antenna elements.
US09692132B2
An antenna apparatus includes a dielectric substrate, a ground plate, a patch antenna provided with a patch radiating element, and a plurality of EBGs (Electromagnetic Band Gaps). The EBGs are composed of patch-shaped patterns formed on a surface of the substrate and connecting conductors electrically connecting the patch-shaped patterns and the ground plate. Each EBG is arranged to provide an EBG absent region having no EBG on the surface of the substrate. The patch radiating element is arranged within the EBG absent region. The EBG absent region is formed such that distances (absent distances) in a dominant polarized wave direction changes into a plurality of types depending on the position on a vertical patch line, where the distances range, to the boundary of the region, from an arbitrary position on the virtual patch line which is perpendicular to the dominant polarized wave direction of the patch antenna.
US09692128B2
An antenna device includes a first coil antenna and a second coil antenna. The first coil antenna includes a coil conductor having a rectangular or substantially rectangular spiral shape and located on a non-magnetic insulating base member. The second coil antenna includes two coil conductors located on a non-magnetic insulating base member. The two coil conductors are disposed and wound such that loops of a magnetic field that is generated by applying a current to the two coil conductors are perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to a coil axis of the coil conductors.
US09692127B2
An antenna device includes: a ground plate; a first patch, provided on one surface side of the ground plate and including two first power feeding portions provided in a region surrounded by a first contour at positions spaced away from a first position with a first distance, configured to resonate with a first frequency; a second patch, provided between the ground plate and the first patch and including two second power feeding portions provided in a region surrounded by a second contour at positions spaced away from a second position with a second distance and a slit formed in the region, configured to resonate with a second frequency lower than the first frequency; and an inter-patch connection portion configured to electrically couple the first position of the first patch and the second position of the second patch.
US09692125B1
Antenna structures and methods of operating the same are described. One antenna structure having a stacked patch antenna including a first patch structure disposed in a first plane and a second patch structure disposed in a second plane, a first parasitic patch antenna that is coplanar with the second patch structure, and a second parasitic patch antenna that is coplanar with the second patch structure. The first patch structure includes a first substrate with a ground plane and a first patch element. The second patch structure includes a second substrate with a second patch element. The first parasitic patch antenna is disposed adjacent a first side of the second patch structure in the second plane. The second parasitic patch antenna is disposed adjacent a second side of the second patch structure in the second plane.
US09692116B2
An antenna arrangement including: a conductive ground element having a first end and a second end; an antenna element at a first end; a first conductive part extending from the conductive ground element and a second conductive part extending from conductive ground element and separated from the first conductive part by a gap.
US09692108B2
An antenna apparatus for a portable terminal which is light, thin, compact, and small. The antenna apparatus preferably includes a main board equipped with a power feeding part for feeding power and a ground surface for grounding the main board and at least one sub-board, each sub-board which has a ground surface and electrically communicates with the main board, wherein the ground surface of each sub-board receives power from the power feeding part of the main board and resonates.
US09692103B2
Aspects of this disclosure relate to a radio frequency coupler and a switch between a port of the radio frequency coupler and an adjustable termination impedance circuit. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a radio frequency (RF) coupler, a termination impedance circuit, and a switch circuit. The RF coupler can provide an indication of forward RF power at a coupled port in a forward power state and provide an indication of reverse RF power at an isolated port in a reverse power state. The termination impedance circuit can provide an adjustable termination impedance. The switch circuit can electrically connect the termination impedance circuit to the isolated port in the forward power state and electrically isolate the termination impedance circuit from the isolated port of the RF coupler in the reverse power state.
US09692091B2
In a battery pack having an improved cooling structure, unit cells, an internal cooling fan and a drive motor are arranged in an inside space of a housing. The inside space of the housing is completely sealed. The drive motor drives the internal cooling fan to supply cooling air. The cooling air circulates in the inside space of the housing to cool the unit cells. Radiation fins are formed on at least one specific exterior surface of the housing. The specific exterior surface has a superior radiation capability which is higher than that of each of the other exterior surfaces of the housing. The cooling air is supplied in turn surfaces of the unit cells and interior surface of the housing corresponding to the exterior surface on which the radiation fins are formed.
US09692084B2
An electrolyte for a magnesium cell contains a solute, which is phenoxyl-Mg—Al-halogen complex, and an ether solvent. With respect to the entire electrolyte, the solute concentration is 0.2 to 1 mol/L. The electrolyte is capable of staying stable in the air. Also provided is a magnesium cell containing the electrolyte.
US09692077B2
This invention is directed to aqueous redox flow batteries comprising ionically charged redox active materials and ionomer membranes, wherein the charge of the redox active materials is of the same sign as that of the ionomer, so as to confer specific improvements.
US09692076B2
The invention provides an electrolyte composition for solid oxide fuel cells, and a solid oxide fuel cell. The electrolyte composition has high electrical conductivity over a wide temperature range and is capable of imparting excellent output characteristics to a solid oxide fuel cell. Specifically, the invention provides a scandium oxide-stabilized zirconium oxide-based electrolyte composition used in a solid oxide fuel cell. The composition contains a compound represented by chemical formula (1): (ZrO2)1-x-a(Sc2O3)x(M2O3)a (1), wherein 0.09≦x≦0.11 and 0
US09692075B1
The present invention provides a multilayer anode/electrolyte assembly comprising a porous anode substrate and a layered solid electrolyte in contact therewith. The layered solid electrolyte includes a first dense layer of yttrium-doped barium zirconate (BZY), optionally including another metal besides Y, Ba, and Zr (e.g., a lanthanide metal such as Pr) on one surface thereof, a second dense layer of yttrium-doped barium cerate (BCY), and an interfacial layer between and contacting the BZY and BCY layers. The interfacial layer comprises a solid solution of the BZY and BCY electrolytes. The porous anode substrate comprises at least one porous ceramic material that is stable to carbon dioxide and water (e.g., porous BZY), as well as an electrically conductive metal and/or metal oxide (e.g., Ni, NiO, and the like).
US09692074B2
A solid oxide fuel cell structure includes an anode, a cathode arranged oppositely relative to the anode and electrolyte located between the anode and the cathode and at least two air paths each having a distal end provided with a turn and a continuous surface on the inner surface of the distal end.
US09692068B2
A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell; a coolant path connected to the fuel cell and allowing a coolant that cools the fuel cell to flow therethrough; a temperature detection unit configured to detect a temperature of the coolant in the coolant path; a temperature correction unit configured to calculate a temperature correction value by correcting the temperature of the coolant detected by the temperature detection unit; and a lower limit voltage control unit configured to control a lower limit voltage of the fuel cell based on the temperature correction value, wherein the temperature correction unit calculates the temperature correction value based on a following equation: T filt = T filt _ old + T - T filt _ old τ where Tfilt represents the temperature correction value, Tfilt_old represents a last temperature correction value, T represents the temperature of the coolant, and τ represents a coefficient, and the coefficient when the temperature of the coolant is less than a first predetermined value is set to be greater than the coefficient when the temperature of the coolant is equal to or greater than a second predetermined value.
US09692065B2
A hydrogen supply unit is provided with an inflow block having an inflow passage for hydrogen gas, an outflow block having an outflow passage for hydrogen gas, injectors for adjusting a flow rate and a pressure of hydrogen gas, a secondary pressure sensor for detecting hydrogen gas pressure in the inflow passage, and a tertiary pressure sensor for detecting hydrogen gas pressure in the outflow passage. An inlet side of each injector is connected to the inflow passage and an outlet side of each injector is connected to the outflow passage. The hydrogen gas allowed to flow in the inflow passage is injected by each injector into the outflow passage and thereby reduced in pressure. Each of the injectors, secondary pressure sensor, and tertiary pressure sensor are held between the inflow block and outflow block.
US09692061B2
An organic electrolyte solution including a metal-ligand coordination compound, wherein the ligand is an organic phosphate compound.
US09692057B2
A negative electrode collector using a copper-covered steel foil for carrying a negative electrode active material for lithium ion secondary batteries has a steel sheet as the core material thereof and has, on both surfaces thereof, a copper covering layer having a mean thickness tCu of from 0.02 to 5.0 μm on each surface, and of which the total mean thickness, t, including the copper covering layer 7 is from 3 to 100 μm with tCu/t of at most 0.3. The steel sheet can be common steel, austenitic stainless steel, or ferritic stainless steel. The copper covering layer can be a copper electroplating layer (including one rolled after plating). On the surface of the copper covering layer, for example, a carbon-based active material layer that has been densified through strong roll pressing is formed, and the copper-covered steel foil and the carbon-based active material layer constitute the negative electrode collector.
US09692053B2
Provided are a mixed cathode active material having improved power characteristics and safety, and a lithium secondary battery including the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mixed cathode active material which may assist power in a low SOC range to widen an available state of charge (SOC) range and may simultaneously provide improved safety by blending substituted LFP, in which operating voltage is adjusted by substituting a portion of iron (Fe) with other elements such as titanium (Ti), in order to prevent a rapid increase in resistance of manganese (Mn)-rich having high capacity but low operating voltage in a low SOC range (e.g., a SOC range of 10% to 40%), and a lithium secondary battery including the mixed cathode active material.
US09692037B2
A rechargeable battery includes: an electrode assembly; a case housing the electrode assembly; a cap plate closing and sealing an opening of the case; an electrode terminal at an outside of the cap plate with respect to the case, extending through an opening in the cap plate, and electrically connected to the electrode assembly; and an insulating member between the electrode terminal and the cap plate. The electrode terminal includes: a first plate terminal electrically connected to the electrode assembly; a second plate terminal spaced from the first plate terminal; and a fuse connecting the first plate terminal and the second plate terminal and being at least partially surrounded by the insulating member.
US09692036B2
An article including: a battery support containing battery lead wires attached to terminals; an opposing battery support attached to the battery support to create a battery closure; one or more batteries having battery contacts in the opposing battery support; and one or more activation tabs; wherein the terminals are attached to spring-loaded members; wherein the one or more activation tabs are spaced between the terminals and the battery contacts; wherein the spring-loaded members provide a biasing force that biases the terminals against the activation tabs keeping the one or more activation tabs in place in either a first position or a second position of the opposing battery support; wherein the opposing battery support is securely connected to the battery support in both the first position and the second position; and wherein the biasing force is greater in the second position than in the first position.
US09692032B2
A thin film is used in a metallic collector in order to increase the volume energy density. However, the strength of the thin film is low, so when a negative plate or a positive plate is directly joined to a terminal base portion, even an insignificant load might cause damage, such as cutting of the metallic collector. Even in a structure where the metallic collector is joined to a highly-conductive plate-like metal or a highly-conductive plate-like resin, and where the collecting plate is joined to a terminal base portion, the connection between the collecting plate and the terminal base portion affects the battery properties. The present invention provides a rechargeable battery including an electrode group in which a metallic collector having a negative active material layer formed on a surface, a separator retaining an electrolyte, and another metallic collector having a positive active material layer formed on a surface are alternately disposed in a layered manner into a strip shape such that the separator is interposed between the two kinds of metallic collectors, and electrode plate tabs formed at ends of the two kinds of metallic collectors are joined to each of metallic collecting plates by a predetermined number, and the metallic collecting plates are joined together with pressing plates, by fitting between a bolt and a nuts, to a terminal base portion having a through-hole for the bolt.
US09692029B2
A connecting piece includes a stamped metal sheet for conductively connecting poles of two batteries or battery cells, which connecting piece has a main body with a recess, wherein at least one insert element is arranged in the inner region of at least one recess. Either the insert elements have a groove on the circumferential face thereof, said groove running at least in regions of the circumference, or the main body has a groove on the inner face of the at least one recess therein, said groove running at least in regions of the circumference. The respectively corresponding component has a projection which is generated by material displacement when the two or one of the two components are/is pressed and which engages in the groove in an interlocking manner, so that the main body and each insert element are connected to one another, in an interlocking manner at least in regions, along the circumference of the insert element.
US09692021B2
An electrical storage device includes a case, an electrode assembly accommodated in the case, an electrode terminal, a terminal insulating member, and an annular sealing member. The electrode terminal has a base located inside the case and a polar column portion, which projects from the base. An inner surface of the case at the circumference of the through hole and/or a tip end of the terminal insulating member on the side corresponding to the base has a tapered portion. A cross-sectional shape of the tapered portion in a direction in which the base and the inner surface face of the case each other is inclined to the outside in the radial direction of the through hole from the side corresponding to the base toward the through hole.
US09692019B2
To provide an element manufacturing method and element manufacturing apparatus for efficiently manufacturing an element such as an organic semiconductor element. First, an intermediate product, which includes a substrate and a protrusion extending in a normal direction of the substrate, is formed. Next, the intermediate product is covered, at a side where the protrusion is provided, with a first surface of a lid member. After the covering of the intermediate product, a gas is injected into an enclosed space formed at a side of a second surface of the lid member that is present on an opposite side of the first surface. This enhances an internal pressure of the enclosed space, thus bringing the first surface of the lid member into close contact with the intermediate product.
US09692017B2
An organic light emitting diode can include a first electrode and a second electrode; an organic light emitting layer between the first electrode and the second electrode; and a auxiliary light emitting layer between the first electrode and the organic light emitting layer or between the organic light emitting layer and the second electrode, wherein a difference between a main peak wavelength of light emitted from the organic light emitting layer itself and a main peak wavelength of light out-coupling between the first and second electrodes is within a predetermined range.
US09692014B2
A display device includes a substrate; a transistor provided on the substrate; a first insulating film provided on the substrate and the transistor; a second insulating film provided on the first insulating film; an individual pixel electrode provided on the second insulating film; a light emitting layer provided on the individual pixel electrode; a common electrode provided on the light emitting layer; and a contact hole running through the first insulating film and the second insulating film and connecting a source or a drain of the transistor with the pixel electrode. The second insulating film has at least one recessed portion reaching the first insulating film; and the individual pixel electrode is provided along a top surface of the second insulating film and the first recessed portion.
US09692001B2
The display device includes a first organic electroluminescence element which includes an anode and a cathode which form a pair, and a light emitting layer which is formed between the anode and the cathode on a substrate. The light emitting layer includes a plurality of sub-light emitting layers which perform light emitting of colors which are respectively different. Each of the plurality of sub-light emitting layers is doped with a quantum dot light emitting material corresponding to a color to be emitted. A current with current density corresponding to a position of a sub-light emitting layer of a desired color among the plurality of sub-light emitting layers is injected to the light emitting layer, and the sub-light emitting layer of the desired color performs light emitting.
US09691997B2
A semiconductor device can be prepared with a gate dielectric layer that comprises: (1) a photochemically or thermally crosslinked product of a photocurable or thermally curable thiosulfate-containing polymer that has a Tg of at least 50° C. and that comprises: an organic polymer backbone comprising (a) recurring units comprising pendant thiosulfate groups; and further comprises charge balancing cations, and (2) optionally, an electron-accepting photosensitizer component.
US09691984B2
A semiconducting polymer and electronic devices comprising such polymer, in which the polymer has one or more repeat units, a first of the repeat units having the structure wherein R12 to R17 independently comprise H or a polyether group having at least five ethoxy repeat units, and in which at least one of R12 to R17 has a polyether group.
US09691981B2
The present disclosure includes memory cell structures and method of forming the same. One such method includes forming a memory cell includes forming, in a first direction, a select device stack including a select device formed between a first electrode and a second electrode; forming, in a second direction, a plurality of sacrificial material lines over the select device stack to form a via; forming a programmable material stack within the via; and removing the plurality of sacrificial material lines and etching through a portion of the select device stack to isolate the select device.
US09691973B2
A semiconductor device according to an embodiment includes a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer, and a dielectric film provided between the first and the second conductive layers. The dielectric film including a fluorite-type crystal and a positive ion site includes Hf and/or Zr, and a negative ion site includes O. In the dielectric film, parameters a, b, c, p, x, y, z, u, v and w satisfy a predetermined relation. The axis length of the a-axis, b-axis and c-axis of the original unit cell is a, b, and c, respectively. An axis in a direction with no reversal symmetry is c-axis, a stacking direction of atomic planes of two kinds formed by negative ions disposed at different positions is a-axis, the remainder is b-axis. The parameters x, y, z, u, v and w are values represented using the parameter p.
US09691969B2
The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit which includes a substrate, a first patterned conductive layer, a first magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) stack and a second MTJ stack. The first patterned conductive layer is over the substrate. The first MTJ stack, which is over the first patterned conductive layer, has a first size. The second MTJ stack, which is over the first patterned conductive layer, has a second size different from the first size.
US09691967B2
Magnetic memory cells include a magnetic tunnel junction and a first electrode, which is electrically coupled to the magnetic tunnel junction by a first conductive structure. This conductive structure includes a blocking layer and a seed layer, which extends between the blocking layer and the magnetic tunnel junction. The blocking layer is formed as an amorphous metal compound. In some of the embodiments, the blocking layer is a thermally treated layer and an amorphous state of the blocking layer is maintained during and post thermal treatment.
US09691965B2
A method is provided for making electrical contact with an electronic component in the form of a stack formed from a plurality of material layers, which react upon application of an electric field, and a plurality of electrode layers, wherein each material layer is arranged between two of the electrode layers. An insulation structure is generated on at least one stack circumferential region of the stack, which exposes each second electrode layer of the at least one stack circumferential region for electrical contact to be made. Also, a contact-making structure is applied to the at least one stack circumferential region which is provided with the insulation structure. Before the step of generating the contact-making structure, the material layers are partially removed by a material-removing method such that the electrode layers are exposed close to the surface.
US09691964B2
A piezoelectric element unit comprises an element body having an active part and an inactive part; and a first resin part bonding one end surface in the laminating direction of the element body to a mounting surface of a joint member placed to face the one end surface. The first resin part covers the mounting surface up to an outer side surface of the element body corresponding to an interface between the active part and the inactive part, a second resin part covers an outer surface of the first resin part covering the outer side surface of the element body at a position corresponding to the interface between the active part and the inactive part, and the second resin part also integrally covers the outer side surface of the element body corresponding to the active part.
US09691963B2
A capacitive coupled resonator device includes a substrate, a bottom electrode, a piezoelectric layer, a top electrode, and at least one set of support pillars positioned between the piezoelectric layer and the top electrode and/or between the piezoelectric layer and the bottom electrode. The top electrode includes a first top comb electrode having a first top bus bar and first top fingers extending in a first direction from the first top bus bar, and a second top comb electrode having a second top bus bar and second top fingers extending in a second direction from the second top bus bar, the second direction being substantially opposite the first direction such that the first and second top fingers form a top interleaving pattern. The at least one set of support pillars separates at least one of the top and bottom electrodes from the piezoelectric layer, respectively, thereby defining corresponding air-gaps.
US09691954B2
A light-emitting diode (LED) package includes a light-emitting structure including a first conductive-type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second conductive-type semiconductor layer; an isolating insulation layer; a first connection electrode portion and a second connection electrode portion electrically connected to the first conductive-type semiconductor layer and the second conductive-type semiconductor layer, respectively; a first electrode pad and a second electrode pad electrically connected to the first connection electrode portion and the second connection electrode portion, respectively; a first molding resin layer provided between the first electrode pad and the second electrode pad; a first pillar electrode and a second pillar electrode electrically connected to the first electrode pad and the second electrode pad, respectively; and a second molding resin layer provided on the first molding resin layer, the first electrode pad, and the second electrode pad, and between the first pillar electrode and the second pillar electrode.
US09691953B2
A light emitting element includes a semiconductor stack including an n-side semiconductor layer, and a p-side semiconductor layer disposed in a portion of an area above the n-side semiconductor layer, the semiconductor stack having a plurality of first lateral surfaces and a plurality of second lateral surfaces; an n-pad electrode disposed in an area different from an area where the p-side semiconductor layer is disposed above the n-side semiconductor layer, the n-pad electrode being electrically connected to the n-side semiconductor layer, and the n-pad electrode having a plurality of lateral surfaces that oppose the first lateral surfaces of the semiconductor stack; a first light transmissive film disposed in contact with the first lateral surfaces of the semiconductor stack; and a second light transmissive film disposed in contact with the second lateral surfaces of the semiconductor stack. A refractive index of the second light transmissive film is lower than a refractive index of the semiconductor stack, and higher than a refractive index of the first light transmissive film.
US09691950B2
A light emitting device includes a light emitting element configured to emit visible light; a fluorescent substance excited by light from the light emitting element and configured to emit visible light; a translucent member containing a translucent base material, which provided on the fluorescent substance or configured to contain the fluorescent substance, and provided on the light emitting element; and a film provided on an upper surface of the translucent member, and configured as an agglutination of nanoparticles having a different refractive index from the base material.
US09691949B2
Submount based light emitter components and related methods are disclosed. In some aspects, light emitter components include a ceramic submount, at least a first pair of electrical traces disposed on a first side of the submount, at least a first pair of electrical contacts disposed on a second side of the submount, at least one light emitter chip disposed on the first side of the submount, and a non-ceramic reflector disposed about the at least one light emitter chip. The first pair of electrical contacts is configured to electrical communicate with the first pair of electrical traces. The at least one chip is configured to electrically communicate with the first pair of electrical traces. At least a portion of the reflector is configured to conceal a portion of each trace of the first pair of electrical traces.
US09691942B2
The present invention relates to a single-crystalline aluminum nitride wherein a carbon concentration is 1×1014 atoms/cm3 or more and less than 3×1017 atoms/cm3, a chlorine concentration is 1×1014 to 1×1017 atoms/cm3, and an absorption coefficient at 265 nm wavelength is 40 cm−1 or less.
US09691930B2
The present disclosure provides a method of manufacturing a solar cell including: providing a first substrate and a second substrate; depositing on the first substrate a sequence of layers of semiconductor material forming a solar cell including a top subcell and a bottom subcell; forming a back metal contact over the bottom subcell; applying a conductive polyimide adhesive to the second substrate; attaching the second substrate on top of the back metal contact; and removing the first substrate to expose the surface of the top subcell.
US09691926B2
A solar panel includes a plurality of solar cells, a bypass diode unit, and a heat spreader. The bypass diode unit includes a bypass diode coupled in an electrical shunting configuration across at least a first solar cell of the plurality of solar cells to bypass current around at least the first solar cell in an event of failure of the first solar cell. The heat spreader is disposed over a portion of one or more of the solar cells. The bypass diode unit is disposed on a first side of the heat spreader with the bypass diode in thermal contact with the heat spreader. A second side of the heat spreader is mounted in thermal contact with the one or more of the solar cells to dissipate heat generated in the bypass diode to the one or more of the solar cells.
US09691924B1
Solar cell interconnects with multiple current paths. A solar cell interconnect may include a plurality of in-plane slits arranged in several rows. The in-plane slits may be spaced to provide strain relief without unduly increasing the electrical path resistance through the solar cell interconnect. The in-plane slits may be staggered, for example.
US09691918B2
Provided is a solar battery cell with low price, high reliability, and high conversion efficiency. A manufacturing method for the solar battery cell including the following processes. That is: forming and laminating a second conductive-type layer and an antireflection film on a first conductive-type semiconductor substrate; applying a conductive paste containing a conductive particle and a glass frit to a predetermined position of the antireflection film; firing the semiconductor substrate with the conductive paste applied thereto; and forming an electrode penetrating the antireflection film and electrically connected to the second conductive-type layer. The semiconductor substrate with the conductive paste applied thereto is consecutively subjected to heat treatment just after the firing instead of being returned to room temperature.
US09691916B2
The invention relates to three-dimensional crystalline foams with high surface areas, high lithium capacity, and high conductivity for use as electrode materials and methods for their fabrication. In additional embodiments, the invention also relates to the use of three-dimensional crystalline foams as supercapacitors for improved charge and energy storage.
US09691914B2
The following configuration is adopted in order to provide a highly reliable optival sensor device which enhances the reliability of devices without making the devices unsuitable for size and thickness reductions. The light sensor comprises an element-mounting portion (3) having a cavity and a lid member closely attached thereinto, the lid member being composed of: a window (2) constituted of a phosphate-based glass to which properties approximate to a spectral luminous efficacy properties have been imparted by compositional control; and a frame (1) constituted of a phosphate-based glass having light-shielding properties. The lid member is aLaminated glass member obtained by cutting the phosphate-based glass having the spectral luminous efficacy properties into individual pieces, fitting the glass piece into the opening of the phosphate-based glass (1) having light-shielding properties, the opening having been formed so as to have a size approximately equal to the cavity size, and melting and integrating the glasses member.
US09691913B2
A solar cell module is provided with: a plurality of solar cells, each of which comprises a first electrode and a second electrode that are formed on a photoelectric conversion unit; and a wiring material that is fitted on the first electrode and the second electrode using an adhesive and connects the solar cells with each other. The adhesive is provided so as to extend beyond a region (R) directly below the wiring material and to adhere to a lateral surface of the wiring material. The solar cell module has a pore in the region (R) directly below the wiring material.
US09691910B2
A schottky barrier diode element having a silicon (Si) substrate, an oxide semiconductor layer and a schottky electrode layer, wherein the oxide semiconductor layer includes a polycrystalline and/or amorphous oxide semiconductor having a band gap of 3.0 eV or more and 5.6 eV or less.
US09691902B2
A semiconductor device includes a first pattern on a first active region, a second pattern on a second active region, and a third pattern on a third active region. The first pattern is spaced from the second pattern by a first interval corresponding to the width of a first recess between the first and second active regions. The second pattern is spaced from the third pattern by a second interval corresponding to the width of a second recess between the second and third active regions. The first, second, and third patterns includes gate patterns, and the first and second recesses include semiconductor material with a conductivity type different from the active regions. The semiconductor material in one recess extends higher than the semiconductor material in the other recess. The first, second, and third patterns have the same width, and the first and second recesses have different depths.
US09691898B2
The present disclosure relates to a transistor device having a strained source/drain region comprising a strained inducing material having a discontinuous germanium concentration profile. In some embodiments, the transistor device has a gate structure disposed onto a semiconductor substrate. A source/drain region having a strain inducing material is disposed along a side of the gate structure within a source/drain recess in the semiconductor substrate. The strain inducing material has a discontinuous germanium concentration profile along a line extending from a bottom surface of the source/drain recess to a top surface of the source/drain recess. The discontinuous germanium concentration profile provides improved strain boosting and dislocation propagation.
US09691889B2
A semiconductor device that includes a plurality of isolated half-bridges formed in a common semiconductor die.
US09691868B2
Methods for fabricating devices on a die, and devices on a die. A method may include patterning a first region to create a first gate having a first gate length and a first contacted polysilicon pitch (CPP) with a first process. The first CPP is smaller than a single pattern lithographic limit. The method also includes patterning the first region to create a second gate having a second gate length or a second CPP with a second process. The second CPP is smaller than the single pattern lithographic limit. The second gate length is different than the first gate length.
US09691865B2
A high frequency semiconductor device includes a stacked body, a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode. The gate electrode includes a bending gate part and a straight gate part. The bending gate part is extended in a zigzag shape and has first and second outer edges. The source electrode includes a bending source part and a straight source part. The bending source part has an outer edge spaced by a first distance from the first outer edge of the bending gate part along a normal direction. The drain electrode includes a bending drain part and a straight drain part. The bending drain part has an outer edge spaced by a second distance from the second outer edge of the bending gate part along the normal direction.
US09691858B2
A silicon carbide semiconductor device includes trenches formed in a lattice shape on the surface of a silicon carbide substrate on which a semiconductor layer is formed, and gate electrodes formed inside of the trenches via a gate insulating film. The depth of the trenches is smaller in a portion where the trenches are crossingly formed than in a portion where the trenches are formed in parallel to each other. Consequently, the silicon carbide semiconductor device is obtained that increases a withstand voltage between the gate electrodes and corresponding drain electrodes on the semiconductor device rear surface to prevent dielectric breakdown and, at the same time, has a large area of the gate electrodes, high channel density per unit area, and low ON resistance.
US09691847B2
A method for forming nanostructures includes bonding a flexible substrate to a crystalline semiconductor layer having a two-dimensional material formed on a side opposite the flexible substrate. The crystalline semiconductor layer is stressed in a first direction to initiate first cracks in the crystalline semiconductor layer. The first cracks are propagated through the crystalline semiconductor layer and through the two-dimensional material. The stress of the crystalline semiconductor layer is released to provide parallel structures including the two-dimensional material on the crystalline semiconductor layer.
US09691840B2
A device includes a substrate having a front surface and a back surface opposite the front surface. A capacitor is formed in the substrate and includes a first capacitor plate; a first insulation layer encircling the first capacitor plate; and a second capacitor plate encircling the first insulation layer. Each of the first capacitor plate, the first insulation layer, and the second capacitor plate extends from the front surface to the back surface of the substrate.
US09691834B2
The present disclosure provides an active matrix organic light-emitting diode array substrate comprising: a substrate; a plurality of pixel units located on the substrate and arranged in an array, each of the plurality of pixel units comprising a thin film transistor, an organic light-emitting diode and a bottom plate of a storage capacitor; a pixel definition layer spacing apart two adjacent pixel units from each other; and a top plate of the storage capacitor provided on the pixel definition layer, the top plate of the storage capacitor being spaced apart from the bottom plate of the storage capacitor by the pixel definition layer. The bottom plate is arranged above a gate electrode of the thin film transistor and electrically connected to the gate electrode of the thin film transistor.
US09691817B2
A method of forming a line of magnetic tunnel junctions includes forming magnetic recording material over a substrate, non-magnetic material over the recording material, and magnetic reference material over the non-magnetic material. The substrate has alternating outer regions of reactant source material and insulator material along at least one cross-section. The reference material is patterned into a longitudinally elongated line passing over the alternating outer regions. The recording material is subjected to a set of temperature and pressure conditions to react with the reactant of the reactant source material to form regions of the dielectric material which longitudinally alternate with the recording material along the line and to form magnetic tunnel junctions along the line which individually comprise the recording material, the non-magnetic material, and the reference material that are longitudinally between the dielectric material regions. Other methods, and lines of magnetic tunnel junctions independent of method, are disclosed.
US09691816B2
Magnetic memory devices are provided. A magnetic memory device includes a Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) structure on a contact. Moreover, the magnetic memory device includes an insulating structure and an electrode between the MTJ structure and the contact. In some embodiments, a first contact area of the electrode with the MTJ structure is smaller than a second contact area of the insulating structure with the MTJ structure.
US09691807B2
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a logic gate structure, a photosensitive gate structure, a hard mask layer, a first spacer, a first source, a first drain, a second spacer, a second source and a second drain. The logic gate structure and the photosensitive gate structure are disposed on a surface of the substrate. The hard mask layer covers the logic gate structure, the photosensitive gate structure and the surface of the substrate. The first spacer overlies the hard mask layer conformal to a sidewall of the logic gate structure. The first source and drain are respectively disposed in the substrate at two opposite sides of the logic gate structure. The second spacer overlies the hard mask layer conformal to a sidewall of the photosensitive gate structure. The second source and drain are respectively disposed in the substrate at two opposite sides of the photosensitive gate structure.
US09691800B2
An image sensor includes a substrate including photoelectric conversion elements for a plurality of unit pixels, which are two-dimensionally arranged in a pixel array; a light transmission member on the substrate; a grid structure in the light transmission member and having multiple layers; and a light collection member on the light transmission member, wherein the grid structure is tilted for respective chief ray angles of the plurality of unit pixels according to locations of the plurality of unit pixels in the pixel array.
US09691799B2
The present disclosure relates to a thin film transistor substrate having two different types of thin film transistors on the same substrate, and a display using the same. A display includes a first thin film transistor including a polycrystalline semiconductor layer, a first gate electrode on the polycrystalline semiconductor layer, a first source electrode, and a first drain electrode; a second thin film transistor including a second gate electrode, an oxide semiconductor layer on the second gate electrode, a second source electrode, and a second drain electrode; and an intermediate insulating layer including a nitride layer and an oxide layer on the nitride layer, the intermediate insulating layer disposed on the first gate electrode and the second gate electrode and under the oxide semiconductor layer.
US09691795B2
An exemplary embodiment of the described technology relates generally to a display apparatus including a plurality of pixels and corresponding to one area of a substrate for displaying an image, and a pad area corresponding to another area of the substrate, the pad area including a lower electrode configured to transmit an electric signal to the pixels, and a plurality of pad electrodes electrically connecting the lower electrode and a driving chip, wherein each of the pad electrodes includes a first contact surface for contacting the lower electrode, a second contact surface for contacting the driving chip, and an oxide layer on a surface of the pad electrode that is exposed to the outside, and that connects the first contact surface and the second contact surface.
US09691794B1
The present application discloses a conductive layer in a semiconductor apparatus, comprising a metal sub-layer and an anti-reflective coating over the metal sub-layer for reducing light reflection on the metal sub-layer; wherein the anti-reflective coating comprises a light absorption sub-layer on the metal sub-layer for reducing light reflection by absorption and a light destructive interference sub-layer on a side of the light absorption layer distal to the metal sub-layer for reducing light reflection by destructive interference; and the metal sub-layer is made of a material comprising M1, wherein M1 is a single metal or a combination of metals; the light absorption sub-layer is made of a material comprising M2OaNb, wherein M2 is a single metal or a combination of metals, a>0, and b≧0; the light destructive interference sub-layer is made of a material comprising M3Oc, wherein M3 is a single metal or a combination of metals, and c>0; the light absorption sub-layer has a refractive index larger than that of the light destructive interference sub-layer.
US09691789B2
An object is to establish a processing technique in manufacture of a semiconductor device in which an oxide semiconductor is used. A gate electrode is formed over a substrate, a gate insulating layer is formed over the gate electrode, an oxide semiconductor layer is formed over the gate insulating layer, the oxide semiconductor layer is processed by wet etching to form an island-shaped oxide semiconductor layer, a conductive layer is formed to cover the island-shaped oxide semiconductor layer, the conductive layer is processed by dry etching to form a source electrode, and a drain electrode and part of the island-shaped oxide semiconductor layer is removed by dry etching to form a recessed portion in the island-shaped oxide semiconductor layer.
US09691788B2
A display device according to an exemplary embodiment includes: a first insulation substrate; a thin film transistor disposed on the first insulation substrate; and a pixel electrode coupled to the thin film transistor. The pixel electrode includes a first subpixel electrode that is divided into two regions configured to arrange liquid crystal molecules while including one first horizontal stem portion, and a second subpixel electrode that includes a plurality of second horizontal stem portions.
US09691785B2
A 3D structured nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices and methods for manufacturing are disclosed. One such device includes an n+ region at a source/drain region; a p+ region at the source/drain region; and a diffusion barrier material between the n+ region and the p+ region. The n+ region is substantially isolated from the p+ region.
US09691782B1
A non-volatile memory device includes a substrate, a memory cell array on the substrate, a plurality of bonding pads, and a pad circuit. The memory cell array includes a plurality of gate conductive layers stacked on the substrate in a vertical direction and a plurality of channels penetrating into the plurality of gate conductive layers on an upper portion of the substrate. The plurality of bonding pads are on at least part of an upper portion of the memory cell array. The plurality of bonding pads are configured to electrically connect the non-volatile memory device to an external device. The pad circuit is between the substrate and the memory cell array. The pad circuit is electrically connected to at least one of the plurality of bonding pads.
US09691780B2
The present disclosure relates to an inter-digitated capacitor that can be formed along with split-gate flash memory cells and that provides for a high capacitance per unit area, and a method of formation. In some embodiments, the inter-digitated capacitor has a well region disposed within an upper surface of a semiconductor substrate. A plurality of trenches vertically extend from the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate to positions within the well region. Lower electrodes are arranged within the plurality of trenches. The lower electrodes are separated from the well region by a charge trapping dielectric layer arranged along inner-surfaces of the plurality of trenches. A plurality of upper electrodes are arranged over the semiconductor substrate at locations laterally separated from the lower electrodes by the charge trapping dielectric layer and vertically separated from the well region by a first dielectric layer.
US09691774B2
The present disclosure provides a static random access memory (SRAM) cell. The SRAM cell includes a first and a second pull-up devices; a first and a second pull-down devices configured with the first and second pull-up devices to form two cross-coupled inverters for data storage; and a first and second pass-gate devices configured with the two cross-coupled inverters to form a port for data access, wherein the first and second pull-down devices each includes a first channel doping feature of a first doping concentration, and the first and second pass-gate devices each includes a second channel doping feature of a second doping concentration greater than the first doping concentration.
US09691769B2
A memory device includes a substrate including active areas and isolation areas, trenches in the isolation areas, active patterns in the active areas, the active patterns protruding from the substrate, isolation layers filling the trenches, gate trenches crossing the active patterns and the isolation layers, and gate line stacks filling the gate trenches, a first width of the gate trench in the isolation layer being greater than a second width of the gate trench in the active pattern.
US09691766B1
A fin field effect transistor (FinFET) including a substrate, a plurality of insulators, and a gate stack is provided. The substrate includes a plurality of trenches and at least one semiconductor fin between the trenches. The insulators are disposed in the trenches and include doped regions distributed therein. The gate stack partially covers the at least one semiconductor fin and the insulators. A method for fabricating the aforesaid FinFET is also discussed.
US09691756B2
The nonvolatile memory device includes a memory cell having a transistor in which an insulating isolation layer is formed in a channel region. The nonvolatile memory device includes a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor as a basic component. An insulating isolation layer is formed in at least a channel region, and a gate insulating layer includes an insulating layer or a variable resistor and serves as a data storage. A gate includes a metal layer formed in a lower portion thereof. First source and drain regions are lightly doped with a dopant, and second source and drain regions are heavily doped with a dopant.
US09691746B2
Method for packaging a semiconductor die assemblies. In one embodiment, a method is directed to packaging a semiconductor die assembly having a first die and a plurality of second dies arranged in a stack over the first die, wherein the first die has a peripheral region extending laterally outward from the stack of second dies. The method can comprise coupling a thermal transfer structure to the peripheral region of the first die and flowing an underfill material between the second dies. The underfill material is flowed after coupling the thermal transfer structure to the peripheral region of the first die such that the thermal transfer structure limits lateral flow of the underfill material.
US09691744B2
A semiconductor module includes a module substrate, a line pattern provided to the module substrate, first and second semiconductor chips on the module substrate and coupled to the line pattern, and a termination resister on the module substrate and coupled to the line pattern, the termination resistor being located between the first and second semiconductor chips.
US09691741B2
A method for producing optoelectronic semiconductor components and an optoelectronic semiconductor component are disclosed. In an embodiment the method includes: A) creating a blank by pultrusion from a glass melt, B) shaping the blank into a billet-shaped optical element with a longitudinal axis, the optical element having a mounting side and a light outlet side, C) producing conductor tracks on the mounting side, D) mounting a plurality of optoelectronic semiconductor chips on the mounting side of the optical element and connecting them to the conductor tracks and E) separating the optical element into the optoelectronic semiconductor components, wherein each optoelectronic semiconductor component comprises at least two of the semiconductor chips, and wherein at least steps A) to D) are performed in the stated sequence.
US09691718B2
A physical unclonable function (PUF) semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate extending along a first direction to define a length and a second direction opposite the first direction to define a thickness. At least one pair of semiconductor structures is formed on the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor structures include a first semiconductor structure and a second semiconductor structure. The first semiconductor structure includes a first gate dielectric layer having a first shape that defines a first threshold voltage. The second semiconductor structure includes a second gate dielectric layer having a second dielectric shape that is reversely arranged with respect to the first shape and that defines a second threshold voltage different from the first threshold voltage.
US09691710B1
A semiconductor package includes a substrate, a plurality of pin pads, a radio frequency (RF) pad, a semiconductor component, at least one surface mount device (SMD) component, a mold compound, a printed circuit board (PCB) antenna and a conductive solder. The RF pad is used to receive or transmit an RF signal on the top side of the substrate. The SMD component is mounted on the RF pad. The mold compound on the top side of the substrate covers the semiconductor component and the SMD component. The PCB antenna is located on the mold compound. Wherein, the conductive solder and the SMD component are stacked between the RF pad and a feeding structure of the PCB antenna.
US09691705B2
An electrical device including an opening in a low-k dielectric material, and a copper including structure present within the opening for transmitting electrical current. A liner is present between the opening and the copper including structure. The liner includes a superlattice structure comprised of a metal oxide layer, a metal layer present on the metal oxide layer, and a metal nitride layer that is present on the metal layer. A first layer of the superlattice structure that is in direct contact with the low-k dielectric material is one of said metal oxide layer and a final layer of the superlattice structure that is in direct contact with the copper including structure is one of the metal nitride layers.
US09691692B2
A semiconductor device in which the electrical connection is established using conductive pins and a printed wiring board, wherein the printed wiring board is mounted parallel to an insulated circuit board to prevent poor bonding of the conductive pins. A third-type conductive pin is arranged in such a manner as to be connected to a first metal layer at a position farther than a first-type conductive pin arranged at a position farthest from a side that is in contact with a gap between island regions. Similarly, another third-type conductive pin is arranged in such a manner as to be connected to another first metal layer at a position farther than another first-type conductive pin arranged at a position farthest from another side that is in contact with the gap between the island regions.
US09691689B2
A lead frame for mounting semiconductor element includes a protrusion that is horizontally projects from edges of the upper and lower surfaces of a semiconductor-mounting part or a terminal part of the lead frame and that is provided on a lateral side of at least one of the semiconductor-mounting part or the terminal part of the lead frame, wherein the top end of the protrusion is substantially flat or the profile of the cross section of the top end is arc-shaped, and the top end of the protrusion is thick.
US09691688B2
A method of making electronic packages includes providing a leadframe strip that includes a plurality of leadframes, wherein the leadframes comprise a plurality of leads, etching a surface of each of the leadframes to form an opening, wherein each of the leads has a lead tip that connects to a die paddle within the opening, isolating each of the leads from the die paddle, adhering a tape to a bottom side of the leadframe strips, leads, and die paddle, attaching a die to the die paddle, placing ball bumps on each of the lead tips, and connecting the die to the ball bumps. The electronic package includes a leadframe having a plurality of leads, wherein each of the leads has a lead tip, an opening formed within the leadframe, a die paddle that is disposed within the opening and is isolated from each of the lead tips, a tape that is adhered to a back side of the leadframe, leads, and die paddle, and a die, wherein the die is attached to the die paddle and is connected by wires to a bump disposed on each of the lead tips.
US09691671B2
The present invention provides a test key array including a lower conductive pattern, and the lower conductive pattern includes a plurality of first L-shaped traces parallel to each other, an upper conductive pattern, where the upper conductive pattern includes a plurality of second L-shaped traces parallel to each other, the lower conductive pattern crosses to the upper conductive pattern, and a plurality of cross regions are defined between the lower conductive pattern and the upper conductive pattern, and a plurality of conductive plugs, disposed on parts of the cross regions, electrically connecting to the lower conductive pattern and the upper conductive pattern.
US09691662B2
Selective deposition of a silicon-germanium surface layer on semiconductor surfaces can be employed to provide two types of channel regions for field effect transistors. Anneal of an adjustment oxide material on a stack of a silicon-based gate dielectric and a high dielectric constant (high-k) gate dielectric can be employed to form an interfacial adjustment oxide layer contacting a subset of channel regions. Oxygen deficiency can be induced in portions of the high-k dielectric layer overlying the interfacial adjustment oxide layer by deposition of a first work function metallic material layer and a capping layer and a subsequent anneal. Oxygen deficiency can be selectively removed by physically exposing portions of the high-k dielectric layer. A second work function metallic material layer and a gate conductor layer can be deposited and planarized to form gate electrodes that provide multiple effective work functions.
US09691658B1
A method of forming an electrical contact in an integrated circuit, and an integrated circuit are disclosed. In an embodiment, the integrated circuit comprises a substrate, an insulating layer, and a metal layer. An opening is formed through the insulating layer to expose an active area of the substrate. The metal layer forms a cusp at a top end of the opening, narrowing this end of the opening. In embodiments, the method comprises depositing a conductive layer in the opening to form a liner, applying a filler material inside the opening to protect a portion of the liner, removing the cusp to widen the top of the opening while the filler material protects the portion of the liner covered by this material, removing the filler material from the opening, re-lining the opening, and filling the opening with a conductive material to form a contact through the insulating layer.
US09691648B2
A particle supply device according to one embodiment includes a housing and a particle supplier. The housing seals a space between a substrate carry-out port provided in a FOUP and a substrate carry-in port provided at a load port of a substrate processing device. A particle supplier supplies particles to an inside of the housing.
US09691643B2
An etching apparatus includes a controller configured to control a high frequency power supply to supply a high frequency power to a mounting table for etching a polymer layer formed on a base layer placed on the mounting table, using plasma generated from a predetermined gas supplied from a gas supply source by the high frequency power, the polymer layer having a periodic pattern of a first polymer and a second polymer formed by self-assembling the first polymer and the second polymer of a block copolymer that is capable of being self-assembled, the high frequency power being set for etching the polymer layer using the generated plasma such that the second polymer is removed and a pattern of the first polymer is formed for subsequently etching the base layer using the pattern of the first polymer as a mask.
US09691641B2
An apparatus for cleaning wafers includes a chamber, a rotatable substrate holder inside the chamber, a nozzle above the rotatable substrate holder, a cover facing downward and fluidly coupled with the nozzle. The rotatable substrate holder is configured to mount one or more semiconductor wafers on the rotatable substrate holder. The nozzle is configured to spray a cleaning medium onto the one or more semiconductor wafers. The cover is of a shape having a top edge with a top cross-sectional area and a bottom edge with a bottom cross-sectional area.
US09691638B2
Provided are an apparatus for treating a substrate and a method for discharge a supercritical fluid, and more particularly, an apparatus for treating a substrate using a supercritical fluid and a method for discharging the supercritical fluid using the same. The apparatus for treating the substrate includes a container for providing a supercritical fluid, a vent line through which the supercritical fluid is discharged from the container, and a freezing prevention unit disposed in the vent line to prevent the supercritical fluid from being frozen.
US09691631B2
There is provided an etching method, including: disposing a target substrate within a chamber, the target substrate having a first silicon oxide film formed on a surface of the target substrate and a second silicon oxide film formed adjacent to the first silicon oxide film, the first silicon oxide film being formed by an atomic layer deposition method and the second silicon oxide film being formed by a method other than the atomic layer deposition method; and selectively etching the first silicon oxide film with respect to the second silicon oxide film by supplying one selected from the group consisting of HF gas and alcohol gas; HF gas and water vapor; HF gas, F2 gas, and alcohol gas; HF gas, F2 gas, and water vapor, into the chamber.
US09691623B2
A semiconductor structure with low resistance conduction paths and methods of manufacture are disclosed. The method includes forming at least one low resistance conduction path on a wafer, and forming an electroplated seed layer in direct contact with the low resistance conduction path.
US09691619B2
A laser annealing device of the present invention includes a stage on which a heating object is placed, a first laser element which emits first continuous laser light, a first optical system which leads the first continuous laser light to the heating object to form a first application region on the heating object, a second laser element which emits second continuous laser light having a wavelength shorter than that of the first continuous laser light, a second optical system which leads the second continuous laser light to the heating object to form a second application region on the heating object, and a system controller which executes scanning with the first application region and the second application region so that each portion of the heating object is scanned with at least part of the first application region before being scanned with the second application region.
US09691613B2
Method and devices are disclosed for device manufacture of gallium nitride devices by growing a gallium nitride layer on a silicon substrate using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) followed by rapid thermal annealing. Gallium nitride is grown directly on silicon or on a barrier layer of aluminum nitride grown on the silicon substrate. One or both layers are thermally processed by rapid thermal annealing. Preferably the ALD process use a reaction temperature below 550° C. and preferable below 350° C. The rapid thermal annealing step raises the temperature of the coating surface to a temperature ranging from 550 to 1500° C. for less than 12 msec.
US09691612B2
Provided is a process for preparing graphene on a SiC substrate, based on metal film-assisted annealing, comprising the following steps: subjecting a SiC substrate to a standard cleaning process; placing the cleaned SiC substrate into a quartz tube and heating the quartz tube up to a temperature of 750 to 1150° C.; introducing CCl4vapor into the quartz tube to react with SiC for a period of 20 to 100 minutes so as to generate a double-layered carbon film, wherein the CCl4 vapor is carried by Ar gas; forming a metal film with a thickness of 350 to 600 nm on a Si substrate by electron beam deposition; placing the obtained double-layered carbon film sample onto the metal film; subsequently annealing them in an Ar atmosphere at a temperature of 900 to 1100° C. for 10-30 minutes so as to reconstitute the double-layered carbon film into double-layered graphene; and removing the metal film from the double-layered graphene, thereby obtaining double-layered graphene. Also provided is double-layered graphene prepared by said process.
US09691609B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes alternately performing supplying a first process gas containing silicon and a halogen element to a substrate having a surface on which monocrystalline silicon and an insulation film are exposed and supplying a second process gas containing silicon and not containing a halogen element to the substrate, and supplying a third process gas containing silicon to the substrate, whereby a first silicon film is homo-epitaxially grown on the monocrystalline silicon and a second silicon film differing in crystal structure from the first silicon film is grown on the insulation film.
US09691596B2
An electrostatic ion trap for mass analysis includes a first array of electrodes and a second array of electrodes, spaced from the first array of electrode. The first and second arrays of electrodes may be planar arrays formed by parallel strip electrodes or by concentric, circular or part-circular electrically conductive rings. The electrodes of the arrays are supplied with substantially the same pattern of voltage whereby the distribution of electrical potential in the space between the arrays is such as to reflect ions isochronously in a flight direction causing them to undergo periodic, oscillatory motion in the space, focused substantially mid-way between the arrays. Amplifier circuitry is used to detect image current having frequency components related to the mass-to-charge ratio of ions undergoing the periodic, oscillatory motion.
US09691591B2
The microwave plasma processing apparatus includes a power feeding rod that applies high frequency wave for RF bias, the upper end of which is connected to a susceptor, and the lower end of which is connected to a high frequency output terminal of a matcher in a matching unit; a cylindrical external conductor that encloses around the power feeding rod serving as an internal conductor; and a coaxial line. The coaxial line is installed with a choke mechanism configured to block undesired microwave that enters the line from a plasma producing space in a chamber, and leakage of the microwave to an RF feeding line is prevented in the middle of the line, thereby suppressing the microwave leakage.
US09691590B2
Systems and methods for processing a substrate include arranging a substrate including a film layer on a substrate support in a processing chamber. The film layer includes a boron doped carbon hard mask. A plasma gas mixture is supplied and includes molecular hydrogen, nitrogen trifluoride, and a gas selected from a group consisting of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Plasma is struck in the processing chamber or supplied to the processing chamber for a predetermined stripping period. The plasma strips the film layer during the predetermined stripping period and the plasma is extinguished.
US09691587B2
A method for forming a dimension measurement apparatus calibration standard over a substrate is provided. The method includes forming strip structures over the substrate. The method includes depositing a calibration material layer over the substrate and the strip structures. The calibration material layer and the strip structures are made of different materials. The method includes removing the calibration material layer over top surfaces of the strip structures to expose the strip structures. The method includes removing the strip structures. The calibration material layer remaining over sidewalls of the strip structures forms linear calibration structures.
US09691586B2
A multi-beam apparatus for observing a sample with high resolution and high throughput is proposed. In the apparatus, a source-conversion unit changes a single electron source into a virtual multi-source array, a primary projection imaging system projects the array to form plural probe spots on the sample, and a condenser lens adjusts the currents of the plural probe spots. In the source-conversion unit, the image-forming means is on the upstream of the beamlet-limit means, and thereby generating less scattered electrons. The image-forming means not only forms the virtual multi-source array, but also compensates the off-axis aberrations of the plurality of probe spots.
US09691572B2
Disclosed is key button (4) that includes a display surface on which character section (A) is formed, and a side face extending in a direction to intersect the display surface. The key button further includes transmission section (6) made of a light transmissive material, which constitutes the display surface and the side face, and shielding section (7) made of a light shielding material, which covers only a part of transmission section (6) other than character section (A) of the display surface.
US09691570B1
Modular button components are described that comprise a tactile switch coupled to a center portion of the modular button component and at least one electrical contact. A bracket extends beyond a length of the center portion of the modular component. In various embodiments, the tactile switch, the bracket and the at least one electrical contact are insert molded into a single assembly to form the modular button component that is detachably coupled to a printed circuit board.
US09691568B2
The electrical circuit breaker includes a circuit breaker block including at least an electrical conductor equipped with a first fixed pastille. The circuit breaker block also includes a bridge equipped with at least a second pastille, a unit for controlling the mobile bridge and an actuator of the control unit. This actuator is able to switch between an armed configuration in which it activates the control unit and a disarmed configuration in which it does not activate the control unit. The circuit breaker block also includes a first electrical coupling module. The electrical circuit breaker also includes a trip block including an electronic trip circuit and a second module for electrically coupling with the first coupling module of the circuit breaker block. This circuit breaker is provided with an actuator arming latch.
US09691550B2
A multi-layer capacitor has dielectric layers and electrode layers arranged therebetween. The multi-layer capacitor has a number of segments that are connected to one another. At least one relief region is provided between the segments. The invention furthermore provides a method for producing such a multi-layer capacitor.
US09691548B2
A high-voltage capacitor includes a gas-tight enclosure containing interleaved electrodes. The dielectric of the capacitor is a pressurized gas at a pressure of at least 6 bar, and preferably 10 or 15 bar. In order to withstand this level of internal pressure, the insulating body section of the capacitor may be formed of a high-strength polymeric material.
US09691547B2
A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes an element body, a first terminal electrode, a second terminal electrode, a plurality of first internal electrode groups, and a plurality of second internal electrode groups. The plurality of first internal electrode groups each include a first number of first internal electrodes connected to the first terminal electrode and arranged in the first direction inside the element body. The plurality of second internal electrode groups each include a second number of second internal electrodes connected to the second terminal electrode and arranged in the first direction inside the element body. The first internal electrode groups and the second internal electrode groups are arranged alternately in the first direction. One of first internal electrodes included in each of the first internal electrode groups and one of second internal electrodes included in each of the second internal electrode groups are opposed to each other.
US09691542B2
An inductor configured to be mounted on a printed circuit board is provided. The inductor includes a drum core including a cylindrical body and first and second flanges extending from opposite ends of the cylindrical body, a coil wound around the cylindrical body, a plurality of pins on which opposite ends of the coil are wound, wherein each of the plurality of pins has one end fixed to the second flange and another end configured to be fixed to the printed circuit board, and at least one projection which protrudes from the second flange and is configured to support the inductor to stand vertically on the printed circuit board.
US09691527B2
A shielding structure includes a conductive resin molded product, and a non-metallic fiber braid which is formed in a tubular shape by using multiple ultrathin strands made of conductive non-metallic fibers. A distal end of the non-metallic fiber braid is welded to the conductive resin molded product in the shielding structure.
US09691525B2
A coaxial cable is disclosed that may include an inner conductor and an outer conductor surrounding the inner conductor in a coaxial relationship. The coaxial cable may also include an insulative material located between the inner conductor and the outer conductor. A thickness of the insulative material between the inner conductor and the outer conductor may be increased in every direction at a bent portion of the coaxial cable as compared to the thickness of the insulative material between the inner conductor and the outer conductor at a non-bent portion of the coaxial cable.
US09691523B2
An electromechanical cable that is crush-resistant and torque balanced is provided as well as a method for manufacturing a crush-resistant and torque balance electromechanical cable. The cable can include a core having a conductor surrounded by a first jacket layer, a second jacket layer surrounding the first jacket layer, a first armor layer surrounding second jacket layer, a third jacket layer surrounding the first armor layer, a second armor layer surrounding the third jacket layer, and a fourth jacket layer surrounding the second armor layer. The first armor layer can be constructed as a plurality of wires and compressed partially into the second jacket layer. The second armor layer can be constructed from a plurality of three-wire strands and/or single wires and compressed partially into the third jacket layer. The three-wire strands can symmetric or asymmetric and can be compacted or non-compacted.
US09691520B2
The present invention relates to a method for preparing polymer-nanoparticles having a core-shell structure by uniformly coating a polymer on metal and inorganic particles, polymer-nanoparticles prepared thereby, and a polymer-nanoparticle composite comprising the same, and more specifically, a method for preparing polymer-nanoparticles having a core-shell structure by uniformly coating a polymer on metal and inorganic particles, polymer-nanoparticles prepared thereby, and a polymer-nanoparticle composite including the same, wherein when forming a polymer coating layer on surfaces of particles that are not subjected to separate surface treatment, excessive polymers uncoated on nanoparticles are easily removed by adding to an ionic liquid or an apolar solvent so that the polymer coating layer is formed with a nanometer-scale uniform thickness and a dense coating density, thereby showing excellent dispersibility in a polymer matrix.
US09691504B2
A method of operation in an integrated circuit (IC) memory device is disclosed. The method includes refreshing a first group of storage rows in the IC memory device at a first refresh rate. A retention time for each of the rows is tested. The testing for a given row under test includes refreshing at a second refresh rate that is slower than the first refresh rate. The testing is interruptible based on an access request for data stored in the given row under test.
US09691496B1
Disclosed is a ROM memory including a first bitcell including a transistor to store two bits and first and second bit lines to read data stored in the bitcell, a second bitcell including a second transistor connected to the first transistor and sharing the first and second bit lines, and a virtual ground line adjacent the bit lines configured to ground the bitcells.
US09691495B2
A memory array with RAM and embedded ROM including multiple RAM cells, a ROM cell, and a ROM enable circuit. Each RAM cell has a RAM cell structure with a first and second power terminals and configured to operate as a RAM cell when the memory array is in a RAM mode. The ROM cell has the same RAM cell structure in which at least one transistor is modified to cause the ROM cell to have a predetermined logic state. The ROM enable circuit enables bit lines of the ROM cell to control supply voltages provided to the power terminals of the RAM cells so that they settle to predetermined logic states in a ROM mode. The modified transistor has a pseudo transistor structure having a modified substrate that operates as a resistance, such as a doping region in the substrate having the same polarity type as the substrate.
US09691481B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure describe techniques and configurations for word-line path isolation in a phase change memory (PCM) device. In one embodiment, a memory device includes a memory cell of a memory device, a bit-line coupled to the memory cell, a word-line coupled to the memory cell, a bit-line electrode coupled to the bit-line, a word-line electrode coupled to the word-line, current-limiting circuitry of a selection module coupled to one of the word-line electrode and the bit-line electrode having a lower potential, the current-limiting circuitry to facilitate a selection operation of the memory cell by the selection module, sensing circuitry coupled to the one of the word-line electrode and the bit-line electrode having the lower potential, the sensing circuitry to perform a read operation of the memory cell, and write circuitry coupled to the one of the word-line electrode and the bit-line electrode having the lower potential, the write circuitry to perform a write operation of the memory cell. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09691478B1
A memory architecture has improved controllability of operations for bipolar current directions used to write data in programmable resistance memory cells, including ReRAM cells based on metal oxide memory materials. Instead of a fixed gate voltage on a specific decoder transistor or cell selection device, and a control voltage set to values that cause the decoder transistor or cell selection device to operate in a fully-on mode for one current direction or in a current moderating mode with opposite current direction. Using this technology allows symmetrical or close to symmetrical operation in both current directions with little or no effect on the array complexity.
US09691473B2
A three dimensional nonvolatile memory system includes a sensing unit configured to sense bit line current and/or voltage for bit lines of a plurality of separately-selectable portions of a block and to compare respective results with a reference and an adjustment unit configured to individually modify operating parameters for one or more of the plurality of separately-selectable portions in response to the comparing of respective results with the reference.
US09691468B2
A memory device includes a per bank refresh counter applicable to multiple banks in a group. The memory device increments a row address counter only when the per bank refresh counter is reset. The memory device receives a per bank refresh command from an associated memory controller, and performs a per bank refresh in response to receiving the per bank refresh command. The memory device refreshes a row identified by a row address counter for a bank identified by the per bank refresh command. The memory device increments the per bank refresh counter in response to receiving the per bank refresh command, and increments the row address counter when the per bank refresh counter is reset, either by rolling over or by a reset condition.
US09691462B2
Systems and methods relate to operations on a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) bit cell using a circuit configured in multiple phases. In a sensing circuit phase, the circuit configured to determine a first differential voltage between a data voltage across the bit cell and a reference voltage. In a pre-amplifying phase, the circuit is configured to pre-amplify the first differential voltage to generate a pre-amplified differential voltage, which does not have offset voltages that may arise due to process variations. In a sense amplifier phase, the circuit is configured to amplify the pre-amplified differential voltage in a latch. Generation of the pre-amplified differential voltage cancels offset voltages which may arise in the latch. In a write phase, the circuit is further configured to write a write data value to the MRAM bit cell.
US09691459B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a shorted variable resistor element in a memory cell. The semiconductor memory device includes main cells and reference cells each including a cell transistor and a variable resistor element. The variable resistor element of the reference cell is shorted by applying a breakdown voltage of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) element, connection in parallel to a conductive via element, connection to a reference bit line at a node between the cell transistor and the variable resistor element, or replacement of the variable resistor element with the conductive via element. A sense amplifier increases a sensing margin of the main cell by detecting and amplifying a current flowing in a bit line of the main cell and a current flowing in the reference bit line to which a reference resistor is connected.
US09691456B2
A reconfigurable semiconductor memory apparatus may include a memory cell array including a plurality of sub arrays. The reconfigurable semiconductor memory apparatus may include an information storage unit configured to store status information for each sub array, and a reset address according to the status information.
US09691454B2
In an illustrative embodiment, the memory circuit includes first and second data paths on which data is transferred for read and write memory operations and first and second mixer circuits for adjusting the phase of clock signals applied to their inputs. The mixer circuits are cross-coupled so that the outputs of the first and second mixers are both available to both the first and second data paths. One mixer is used to provide a first phase adjusted clock signal for use by the operating circuit and the other mixer is used to provide a second phase adjusted clock signal for use by a following operation whatever that may be.
US09691451B1
A circuit includes a first driver to provide a first driver signal at an output. The first driver signal corresponds to a voltage operatively coupled to a VSS terminal of the first driver when driving a logic low. A first capacitor includes a first terminal coupled to the VSS terminal of the first driver. A boost circuit includes a first input coupled to the output of the first driver and a first output coupled to a second terminal of the first capacitor. The boost circuit is configured to cause the first capacitor to provide a boosted voltage at the VSS terminal.
US09691450B1
A memory circuit, such as an embedded DRAM array, stores information as groups of bits or data using information coding in storage and retrieval data, instead of each bit being stored separately. Write data words can be mapped to storage format words that are stored and defined by a Hadamard matrix. The storage format word is stored as charge levels in an addressable memory location. For retrieving stored data, charge levels are read from the storage cells and interpreted to a valid storage format word. Hadamard code maximal likelihood decoding can be used to derive a read data word corresponding to a previously written write data word. The write data word is then output as the result of a read of the selected addressable location, or a portion thereof. The mapping can be two or more Hadamard matrix mappings concatenated for each of a plurality of storage format words.
US09691445B2
A gain cell includes a write bit line input, a read bit line output, a write trigger input and a read trigger input. The gain cell also includes a write transistor, retention element and read transistor. Each of the transistors includes a respective first diffusion connection, gate connection and second diffusion connection. The write transistor first diffusion connection is connected to the write bit line input and the write transistor gate connection is connected to the write trigger input. The read transistor first diffusion connection being connected to the read bit line output and the second diffusion connection is connected to the read trigger input. The retention element buffers between write transistor and the read transistor during data retention. The retention element also connects or disconnects a write transistor diffusion connection to/from a constant voltage in accordance with a retained data level at the read transistor gate connection.
US09691442B2
In some examples, a memory device includes multiple memory banks equipped with an isolation switch and dedicated power supply pins. The isolation switch of each memory bank is configured to isolate the memory bank from global signals. The dedicated power supply pins are configured to connect each of the memory banks to a dedicated local power supply pads on the package substrate to provide local dedicated power supplies to each of the memory banks and to reduce voltage transfer between memory banks over conductors on the device, the device substrate, or the package substrate of the memory device.
US09691439B2
A circuit structure for suppressing electromagnetic interference (EMI) of DDR SDRAM signals, applied to a memory interface unit (MIU) of a DDR SDRAM, includes: a first conducting line, coupled to a reference level; a second conducting line, parallel to the first conducting line, coupled to the reference level; a third conducting line, between and parallel to the first and second conducting lines, transmitting a signal, the first, second and third conducting lines located on a same plane; and a connecting component, having two ends, one of the two ends electrically connected to the first conducting line and the other of the two ends electrically connected to the second conducting line, the connecting component crossing and electrically insulated from the third conducting line.
US09691438B2
A semiconductor device includes: first and second memory cell regions disposed adjacent to each other in a first direction, and suitable for sharing a sub-word line driving signal, and a first sub-word line driving unit disposed in a crossing area that is disposed between the first and second memory cell regions in a diagonal direction. The first sub-word line driving unit includes a first sub-word line driver for driving the first memory cell regions, a second sub-word line driver for driving the second memory cell regions, and an interconnection for transmitting the sub-word line driving signal, which extends in the first direction.
US09691433B2
A medical image diagnosis apparatus including an image collection system that collects first dynamic images extending over a first period and a display control circuit that uses the first dynamic images and time information related to an image corresponding to a first predetermined time phase in the first period to simultaneously display the first dynamic images, the first predetermined time phase, and a relationship of the image currently displayed with a time phase in the first period at least in a predetermined period going back from the predetermined time phase in a monitor.
US09691423B2
Devices that include a near field transducer (NFT), the NFT having at least one external surface; and at least one adhesion layer positioned on at least a portion of the at least one external surface, the adhesion layer including oxides of yttrium, oxides of scandium, oxides of lanthanoids, oxides of actionoids, oxides of zinc, or combinations thereof.
US09691419B1
Electrostatic discharge protection can be afforded to a data recording head in accordance with various embodiments. A data recording head may consist of a circuit having a preamp ground connected to a ground substrate via a ground trace. The ground trace can consist of a first leg connected to the ground substrate and a second leg with an open connection extending from a dice line.
US09691410B2
The present invention relates to a frequency band extending device and method, an encoding device and method, a decoding device and method, and a program, whereby music signals can be played with higher sound quality due to the extension of frequency bands.A bandpass filter 13 divides an input signal into multiple sub-band signals, a feature amount calculating circuit 14 calculates feature amount using at least one of the multiple divided sub-band signals and the input signal, a high frequency sub-band power estimating circuit 15 calculates an estimated value of a high frequency sub-band power based on the calculated feature amount, a high frequency signal generating circuit 16 generates a high frequency signal component based on the multiple sub-band signals divided by the bandpass filter 13, and the estimated value of the high frequency sub-band power calculated by the high frequency sub-band power estimating circuit 15. A frequency band extending device 10 extends the frequency band of the input signal using a high frequency signal component. The present invention may be applied to a frequency band extending device, for example.
US09691406B2
The invention introduces a new concept for hierarchical coding of HOA content. A method for encoding a hierarchical audio bitstream comprises rendering a HOA input signal to surround sound, encoding the surround sound for a base layer output signal, decoding the encoded surround sound to obtain a reconstructed surround sound signal, performing dimensionality reduction on the received HOA input signal, calculating a residual between the dimensionality-reduced HOA signal and the reconstructed surround sound signal, encoding the residual signal, and multiplexing structural information about the HOA input signal, the encoded residuals and the encoded surround sound into a bitstream to obtain a hierarchical audio bitstream.
US09691403B1
The present invention relates to a new method and apparatus for improvement of High Frequency Reconstruction (HFR) techniques using frequency translation or folding or a combination thereof. The proposed invention is applicable to audio source coding systems, and offers significantly reduced computational complexity. This is accomplished by means of frequency translation or folding in the subband domain, preferably integrated with spectral envelope adjustment in the same domain. The concept of dissonance guard-band filtering is further presented. The proposed invention offers a low-complexity, intermediate quality HFR method useful in speech and natural audio coding applications.
US09691402B1
The present invention relates to a new method and apparatus for improvement of High Frequency Reconstruction (HFR) techniques using frequency translation or folding or a combination thereof. The proposed invention is applicable to audio source coding systems, and offers significantly reduced computational complexity. This is accomplished by means of frequency translation or folding in the subband domain, preferably integrated with spectral envelope adjustment in the same domain. The concept of dissonance guard-band filtering is further presented. The proposed invention offers a low-complexity, intermediate quality HFR method useful in speech and natural audio coding applications.
US09691401B1
The present invention relates to a new method and apparatus for improvement of High Frequency Reconstruction (HFR) techniques using frequency translation or folding or a combination thereof. The proposed invention is applicable to audio source coding systems, and offers significantly reduced computational complexity. This is accomplished by means of frequency translation or folding in the subband domain, preferably integrated with spectral envelope adjustment in the same domain. The concept of dissonance guard-band filtering is further presented. The proposed invention offers a low-complexity, intermediate quality HFR method useful in speech and natural audio coding applications.
US09691395B1
A system and method are provided for taxonomically distinguishing grouped segments of signal data captured in unconstrained manner for a plurality of sources. The system comprises a vector unit constructing for each of the grouped signal data segments at least one vector of predetermined form. A sparse decomposition unit selectively executes in at least a training system mode a simultaneous sparse approximation upon a joint corpus of vectors for a plurality of signal segments of distinct sources. The sparse decomposition unit adaptively generates at least one sparse decomposition for each vector with respect to a representative set of decomposition atoms. A discriminant reduction unit executes during the training system mode to derive an optimal combination of atoms from the representative set. A classification unit executes in a classification system mode to discover for an input signal segment a degree of correlation relative to each of the distinct sources.
US09691384B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus for determining that a software application installed on a user device is compatible with a new voice action, wherein the new voice action is specified by an application developer of the software application. One or more trigger terms for triggering the software application to perform the new voice action are identified. An automatic speech recognizer is biased to prefer the identified trigger terms of the new voice action over trigger terms of other voice actions. A transcription of an utterance generated by the biased automatic speech recognizer is obtained. The transcription of the utterance generated by the biased automatic speech recognizer is determined to include a particular trigger term included in the identified trigger terms. Based at least on determining that the transcription of the utterance generated by the biased automatic speech recognizer includes the particular trigger term, execution of the new voice action is triggered.
US09691383B2
This invention is directed to providing voice feedback to a user of an electronic device. Because each electronic device display may include several speakable elements (i.e., elements for which voice feedback is provided), the elements may be ordered. To do so, the electronic device may associate a tier with the display of each speakable element. The electronic device may then provide voice feedback for displayed speakable elements based on the associated tier. To reduce the complexity in designing the voice feedback system, the voice feedback features may be integrated in a Model View Controller (MVC) design used for displaying content to a user. For example, the model and view of the MVC design may include additional variables associated with speakable properties. The electronic device may receive audio files for each speakable element using any suitable approach, including for example by providing a host device with a list of speakable elements and directing a text to speech engine of the host device to generate and provide the audio files.
US09691378B1
Systems and methods for selectively ignoring an occurrence of a wakeword within audio input data is provided herein. In some embodiments, a wakeword may be detected to have been uttered by an individual within a modified time window, which may account for hardware delays and echoing offsets. The detected wakeword that occurs during this modified time window may, in some embodiments, correspond to a word included within audio that is outputted by a voice activated electronic device. This may cause the voice activated electronic device to activate itself, stopping the audio from being outputted. By identifying when these occurrences of the wakeword within outputted audio are going to happen, the voice activated electronic device may selectively determine when to ignore the wakeword, and furthermore, when not to ignore the wakeword.
US09691369B2
An adjustable guitar effects pedalboard for anchoring guitar effects pedals. More specifically, a pedalboard having an upper level and a lower, telescoping level that is configured to allow users to adjust the width of the pedalboard to fit their needs. The upper level and the lower, telescoping level are curved and further contain a plurality of holes on which users can use cable ties to anchor their guitar effects pedals. The lower, telescoping level is comprised of a first telescoping section and a second telescoping section, and the plurality of holes in each of the telescoping sections align with each other in various positions of expansion and contraction.
US09691368B2
An electronic musical instrument includes a database including timbre data corresponding to a plurality of musical instruments an acoustic data input unit configured to display an acoustic data input position corresponding to a selected one of the musical instruments, detect whether the acoustic data input position is touched, and receive information on the touched acoustic data input position a mouthpiece detachably provided and having a shape corresponding to a shape of a mouthpiece of the selected musical instrument a wind sensor unit configured to measure an amount of air to generate loudness data a control unit configured to receive timbre data corresponding to the information on the touched acoustic data input position, receive the loudness data from the wind sensor unit, and synthesize the timbre data and the loudness data to output an acoustic sound signal of the selected musical instrument and a power supply unit configured to supply power.
US09691367B2
A drum foot pedal apparatus is provided which can effectively prevent, by a spike member, positional displacement of the apparatus from occurring due to depression of a foot board and permits adjustment of a projected amount of the spike member with a simple construction. The apparatus includes: a base member fixed at one end to a frame section and fixed at the other end to a heel member, thereby interconnecting the frame section and the heel member; and a spike member provided on the base member in such a manner as to be projectable downward beyond the lower surface of the base member. The spike member is disposed at a position where it does not positionally overlap the foot board, and the spike member is constructed so that the projected amount of the spike member is adjustable by an operation from above the upper surface of the foot board.
US09691363B2
Aspects disclosed herein relate to an instrument trigger system and methods of using such a system. In one aspect, the instrument trigger system includes a plurality of triggers, where each trigger is vibrationally isolated from the other triggers and/or from vibrations of the instrument to prevent unintended actuation of a trigger. In another aspect, the instrument trigger system includes one or more triggers that are easily accessible by a musician such that trigger actuation can be naturally integrated into the musician's play. In some embodiments, a sound module is integrated with the instrument trigger system.
US09691358B2
An electronic apparatus and a method of outputting content of the electronic apparatus outputs a synchronized content to a display apparatus and a projection-type display apparatus and a method of outputting a content of the electronic apparatus. The electronic apparatus includes an input/output unit connected with a display apparatus and a projection-type display apparatus, and a control unit configured to control the input/output unit, wherein the control unit outputs a synchronized content to the display apparatus and the projection-type display apparatus through the input/output unit.
US09691353B2
A display device and method of adjusting luminance of a logo region of an image displayed on the same are disclosed. In one aspect, the display device includes a display panel configured to display an image including a logo region and a display driving integrated circuit configured to detect a logo estimate region of the image and determine a logo surrounding region that surrounds the logo estimate region. The integrated circuit is further configured to analyze a histogram of the logo surrounding region so as to determine a background maximum luminance, determine a high-gray-scale maximum luminance of the logo estimate region based on the background maximum luminance and adjust a gamma curve of the logo estimate region.
US09691352B2
A control method and a device thereof are provided, which are applied to an electronic device. The electronic device includes a display module and a projection module, and is capable of displaying output content through the display module or projecting the output content to a projection screen. The method includes: detecting a state of the projection module; acquiring a current display brightness of the display module as a first display brightness, in the case that it is detected that the projection module is controlled to perform projection; and controlling a display brightness of the display module to switch from the first display brightness to a second display brightness which is lower than the first display brightness.
US09691350B2
A display apparatus includes: a pixel part including a plurality of pixels arranged substantially in a matrix form, where the matrix form includes a unit matrix having X columns in a horizontal direction and Y rows in a vertical direction, where X and Y are natural numbers; and a plurality of light controlling parts inclined with respect to the vertical direction of the pixels on the pixel part at an inclined angle of θ, where the inclined angle of θ satisfies the following equation: θ=tan−1((M×X)/(N×Y)), where M and N are different natural numbers.
US09691347B2
An image processing apparatus includes a reference value calculating section configured to generate a value that is a weighted average of values of R data, G data, and B data of original RGB data as a reference value. Regarding each of color data such as the R data, the G data, and the B data, a value is calculated that is coincident with a value obtained by adding the value of the color data of the original RGB data to a product of a difference obtained by subtracting the reference value from the value of the color data of the original RGB data and a predetermined coefficient, as a value of the color data of RGB data after saturation expansion.
US09691339B2
A display apparatus includes: a display device; a display device driver which drives the display device; a compression section adapted to an operation of generating compression data by compression processing performed on image data; and a transmission section which, when receiving compressed data from the compression section, transmits the compressed data to the display device driver by using a serial data signal. The compression section performs the compression processing with a data compression ratio selected in response to a frame rate with which the display device driver drives the display device. The display device driver receives the serial data signal from the transmission section, generates decompressed data by decompressing the compressed data transmitted by the serial data signal, and drives the display device in response to the decompressed data. The data compression ratio used in the compression processing is set so that the transmission rate of the serial data signal from the transmission section to the display device driver is kept constant independently of the frame rate.
US09691336B2
Disclosed are a flat panel display and a method for fabricating the same to connect defective sub-pixels to normal sub-pixels adjacent thereto, drive defective sub-pixels using thin film transistors of the normal sub-pixels and thereby repair the defective sub-pixels.
US09691333B2
An electrophoretic display includes an electrophoretic panel, a substrate, and a processor. The electrophoretic panel includes a plurality of charged particles. A conductive layer is deposed on the substrate, and the conductive layer is coupled to the electrophoretic panel. The processor is coupled to the conductive layer for generating a background signal to drive the plurality of charged particles to display a background and a foreground signal to drive the plurality of charged particles to display a foreground. The background signal is longer than a period for the foreground signal displaying the foreground.
US09691328B2
The present disclosure relates to a pixel driving circuit, a pixel driving method and a display apparatus. In addition to a storage unit in a conventional pixel driving circuit, the pixel driving circuit comprises an auxiliary storage unit, which is charged to a data voltage in a charging phase and stables a gate potential of a driving unit when a data voltage write switch is turned off in a threshold voltage compensation phase, so that there is enough time for the storage unit of the driving unit to acquire the data voltage and a threshold voltage of the driving unit through self-discharge and the storage unit of the driving unit compensates for the driving unit in a driving phase. In this way, operating current of the driving unit is not influenced by the threshold voltage.
US09691323B2
The organic light emitting display may include a plurality of pixels for generating light components with predetermined brightness components while controlling the amount of current that flows from a first power source to a second power source via organic light emitting diodes (OLED), a first power source controller for extracting data of the highest gray level among input data items of one frame and for outputting a control value having voltage information corresponding to the highest gray level data, and a first power source generator for generating a controlled voltage value corresponding to the control value and outputting the controlled voltage value to the first power source.
US09691319B2
Various arrangements of color sub-pixels in a group of pixels for use in a color display are disclosed. The same group of pixels is repetitively arranged in rows and columns in the color display. In particular, each group of pixels has four pixels arranged on the four quadrants of a rectangle or square. A pixel group may have two sub-pixels in R, two sub-pixels in G, two sub-pixels in B and two sub-pixels in W, but each of the pixels has two different color sub-pixels. In each of the four pixels in a pixel group, the two sub-pixels can be adjacent to each other along the column direction or along the row direction, but the two sub-pixels in at least one pixel are adjacent to each other along the column direction. A pixel group may have two pixels with R, G sub-pixels and two pixels in B.
US09691314B2
A display panel includes a plurality of display signal lines positioned in a display area. A plurality of test pads are positioned in a peripheral area around the display area and are respectively connected to the plurality of display signal lines. The plurality of test pads include a first test pad positioned at an edge of the peripheral area and a second test pad positioned at the middle of the peripheral area. A shorting bar is connected to the plurality of test pads through a contact assistant. The first test pad is connected to the second test pad through a connection line.
US09691309B2
A method and apparatus for the self-illumination of various objects designed for use in sports, entertainment, safety, and emergency related activities. The objects are caused to self-illuminate by chemiluminescence to facilitate usage of the objects during non-daylight hours or in areas that are otherwise surrounded by darkness. Chemiluminescence may be activated through injection, acceleration, tactile manipulation, through the process of attaching various portions of the self-illuminating objects together, or through the use of a mechanical activator. Activation is utilized to cause emission of visible light from within one or more cavities of the objects, from exterior portions of the objects, or from various inserts of the objects. Subcutaneous packets are also provided that may be caused to emanate visible light through chemiluminescence.
US09691308B2
A lighted mounting apparatus for a promotional glass holder including a channel which is lined on the bottom by a LED strip, a pair of extrusions to receive and hold a promotional glass, and a low voltage power supply.
US09691307B2
Apparatus networked system of intelligent devices including illuminated street signs. Street signs include: address, name, direction and message signs. Apparatus controller interfacing: sensors, street signs, operator, remote controllers. Interface includes: wireless network and INTERNET. Controller maintains status of a community, including: ambient environment, safety and status of routes within the community. Status provided by: sensors, authorized operator, remote controllers. Apparatus based on respective status executes control algorithm of street signs providing general illumination and visual information, improving safety within the community. Additionally, during emergency status, controller performs emergency control of illuminated street signs, including: direction signs, message signs, and the controls include manipulating illumination features of respective street signs with an objective to provide real-time visual navigation to minimize response time of first responders entering the community and reaching location in need of help. Apparatus configuration including closed-loop control system operating within optimization criteria and retaining functionality during power outage.
US09691306B2
The present invention relates to a transparent electric billboard having a multilayer structure and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly, to a transparent electric billboard having a multilayer structure that have high insulation and soundproof effect by having a multilayer structure with spaces therein, and a method of manufacturing the transparent electric billboard.
US09691305B2
Pixel interleaving configurations for use in high definition electronic sign displays where each and every scan line includes full red, green, and blue color representation to provide for high resolution electronic video sign displays.
US09691302B2
A recording apparatus comprises a plurality of supporting materials, a plurality of labels, and an unpacking recordation form. The supporting materials supports and fixes components of a specific device. The amount of the labels is at least the amount of the supporting materials plus two, wherein the labels comprises a starting-label and an ending-label pasted on the unpacking recordation form. The unpacking recordation form comprises several recording columns between the starting-label and the ending-label, wherein the amount of the recording columns is corresponding to that of the supporting materials. When unpacking the supporting materials from the device, the labels is removed from the supporting materials to paste to the recording columns. Therefore, user can determine if all supporting materials in the device are unpacked completely by checking if all of the recording columns are pasted by the labels.
US09691289B2
System and methods are provided to promote effortless automatic recognition of common sight words. A subject performs a game-like task that generates novel non-verbal visual stimuli that triggers visual attention shifts that enhance foveal and parafoveal recognition of non-verbal and verbal stimuli laterally presented in the right or left visual field. The present invention engages a shared motor-perceptual-cognitive neural network involving oculomotor, visuo-motor and selective executive cognitive behaviors on both brain hemispheres. The present invention has applications to a wide range of non-verbal pre-orthographic visual processes and early lexical processes, not only contributing to enabling reading fluency to dyslexics, reluctant and slow readers, but also to beginning readers. The present invention has wide applications in learning disabilities and normative individuals learning to read.
US09691270B1
Intuitive methods of automatically configuring a remote control for multiple electronic devices are disclosed. The remote control can be automatically configured with the help of a first electronic device that is connected to one or more additional electronic devices. The first electronic device aids in the configuration of the remote control by gathering information about the one or more additional electronic devices and configuring the remote control in accordance. The information about the one or more additional electronic devices may be gathered from the devices themselves, from additional remote controls associated with the devices, and/or from a user, among other possibilities.
US09691267B2
The present invention provides a communication recovery method using an isolator in a communication system through a power line of land and marine equipment, wherein the method promptly senses situations, such as a disconnection or a short-circuit of a communication line, and restores the communication line for sensing and warning fire or gas in a larger sized space such as an inside/outside of a ship and an inside/outside of a plant or a building.
US09691239B2
Systems and methods for marking and locating objects in crowded environments, and more particularly, systems and methods that include a remote configured to communicate with a beacon having audio and visual indicators, are shown and described. One system comprises a remote including a housing, a tool extending from the housing, a movable sleeve configured to cover the tool, a first control circuit, a selection button coupled to the control circuit, a first transceiver, and a beacon including a second transceiver configured to communicate with the first transceiver, a second control circuit, an indicator electrically coupled to the second control circuit, and a latch mechanism, the tool configured to interact with the latch mechanism to securely couple the beacon.
US09691236B1
Aspects of direct to systems and methods for controlling LEDs by a backplane or enclosure management controller. A controller has multiple output ports, including M ports connecting to M row control lines and N ports connecting to N column control lines. At least (M*N) LEDs respectively connected to the M row control lines and N column control lines to form a virtual LED matrix. In operation, the controller monitors N storage drives of the system, and determines at least M states for each storage drive. Based on the M states for each storage drive, the controller determines a state of each LED being ON or OFF, and outputs control signals to the at least M row control lines and the at least N column control lines through the output ports based on the state of each LED, such that the LEDs display the states of the storage drives.
US09691232B2
A method of gaming comprising: awarding a plurality of game rounds in response to occurrence of a trigger event; and conducting at least two of the plurality of game rounds concurrently in separate display areas.
US09691228B2
Methods and systems are provided for keno game play. A keno board is displayed having a plurality of spots. A player selection of a plurality of player spots is received. One or more modifications to a three-dimensional structure of the keno board are determined, with the one or more modifications including changes in position of one or more spots from the plurality of spots. The display of the keno board is updated with the one or more modifications to the three-dimensional structure of the keno board. A plurality of draws are determined and displayed on the keno board. Three dimensional movement of a draw, from the plurality of draws, landing on a spot included in the one or more spots whose positions changed is displayed.
US09691223B2
A selectable intermediate result interleaved wagering system is disclosed. The system includes an interactive controller operatively connected to an application controller, and constructed to: communicate application telemetry; receive an intermediate offer; communicate an indication to accept the intermediate offer; receive an application resource associated with the intermediate offer; and receive a wager outcome. The system also includes a wager controller operatively connected to the application controller, the wager controller constructed to: receive the wager request; generate a wager outcome; and communicate the wager outcome. The system also includes the application controller operatively connecting the interactive controller to the wager controller by a network, the application controller constructed to: receive the application telemetry; generate the intermediate offer; communicate the intermediate offer; receive the indication to accept the intermediate offer; communicate the application resource associated with the intermediate offer; communicate the wager request; receive the wager outcome; and communicate the wager outcome.
US09691222B2
The present system incorporates mobile computing devices to play games, such as electronic pull-tabs, in a plurality of venues, each having a local wireless network. Each network communicates with a central system that generates decks of game outcomes and associated awards. All wagers and awards for each game are tracked on the central system, which also provides each game award and associated outcome from a deck stored on the central system.
US09691209B2
A coin delivering device includes plural coin tubes, a coin base, a payout slide, a payout link, and a change slide. At least one of the coin tubes is a multiple-coin delivering coin tube from which plural coins are pulled out in one time of pulling out the payout slide. A recess portion sized for housing a coin is provided at a position corresponding to the multiple-coin delivering coin tube, on the coin base. A vertical wall portion is provided around a coin housing hole corresponding to the multiple-coin delivering coin tube, on the payout slide, protrudes to the side of the coin base, and, in a standby mode, is positioned in the recess portion of the coin base. An upper surface of the change slide corresponding to the multiple-coin delivering coin tube is positioned similar to a bottom surface of the recess portion of the coin base in height.
US09691208B2
Mechanisms for validating the authenticity of an item. A reader device records authentication data that is obscured in a label. The authentication data is provided to a remote authentication server via a network. The reader device receives, from the remote authentication server, an authentication response based on the authentication data. Based at least in part on the authentication response, the reader device displays an indication that identifies whether the item is authentic.
US09691203B1
A door access control system permitting electronic and mechanical unlocking includes a lock mounted to a door and an unlocking device matched with the lock. The lock can be set to be in a normal mode or an away mode. The unlocking device can be used to input a real-time unlocking identification information that is transmitted to the lock for comparison purposes. The lock can also be unlocked by a key. When the lock is set to be in the away mode, an alarm device is activated if the key is used. In this case, a first input device of the lock can be used to input a real-time alarm deactivating information to deactivate the alarm device. When the lock is set to be in the normal mode, the alarm device does not operate even if the key is used to unlock the lock.
US09691202B2
A command can be input into an electronic lock by holding a data carrier in range of a reader of the lock. The lock provides an indicator for one or more commands. An indicated command can be selected using the data carrier.
US09691200B2
A method and an apparatus are provided for protecting a secured space. The method includes the steps of providing a secured space including a first secured area and a second secured area accessed through the first secured area, wherein the second secured area has a relatively higher security level than the first secured area, controlling access into each of the first and second secured areas via at least one access controller, and deactivating a portion of the at least one access controller in accordance with a predetermined event and a security level.
US09691198B2
A wireless access control system to lock or unlock a first door at a dwelling of a user. A user remote access device transmits a first signal and a second signal. The user remote access device includes a vibration mode that provides an alert to the user of the remote access device. The user remote access device is configured to be in communication with an intelligent door lock system at the dwelling with the first door. The intelligent door lock system includes: a drive shaft, a circuit coupled to an engine configured to cause a rotation of the drive shaft, and an energy source coupled to the drive shaft, the user remote access device configured to provide the first signal to the intelligent lock system for locking or unlocking of the first lock, the intelligent door lock system configured to allow controlled access to the dwelling that includes an occupant of the dwelling as well as a designated third person granted access rights by the occupant. The user remote access device is configured to be in communication to a second lock at a vehicle of the user or at an office of the user. The user remote access device is configured to communicate with the second lock with the second signal to cause the second lock to lock or be unlocked. The remote access device has a controller for generating the first and second signals.
US09691194B2
Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a fleet management system configured for capturing and evaluating vehicle telematics data, such as data captured from one or more vehicle telematics devices indicative of one or more vehicle dynamics, and service data, such as data captured from one or more portable data acquisition devices indicative of one or more service dynamics. In certain embodiments, the fleet management system is configured to associate captured vehicle telematics data with captured service data based on the contextual attributes of each, such as the time, date, and location of data capture. By synching the vehicle telematics data to the service data, the operational data can be uniquely assessed for various operational efficiencies.
US09691193B2
A system includes a processor configured to receive remote vehicle identification information and a user-confirmable vehicle variable value from a remote vehicle computing system. The processor is also configured to receive vehicle identification information and user-confirmable variable value user-input, input in conjunction with a remote process remote access request. Further, the processor is configured to compare the user-input variable value to the remotely received variable value. The processor is additionally configured to provide access to the remote process upon a correspondence between the user-input variable value and the remotely received variable value.
US09691187B2
A control system for vehicle hiring includes a control device and a wireless smart key. The control device includes a first microprogram control unit. The wireless smart key includes a second microprogram control unit, a positive electrode and a negative electrode both electronically coupled to the second microprogram control unit. When the first microprogram control unit receives a first sensing signal or a second sensing signal, the first microprogram control unit is electronically coupled to the positive electrode and the negative electrode.
US09691174B2
A method for detecting main body vessels (e.g., the aorta) in a medical volume includes refining the result of a bone removal algorithm.
US09691171B2
Systems and processes providing a tool for visualizing parallel dependency graph evaluation in computer animation are provided. Runtime evaluation data of a parallel dependency graph may be collected, including the start time and stop time for each node in the graph. The visualization tool may process the data to generate performance visualizations as well as other analysis features. Performance visualizations may illustrate the level of concurrency over time during parallel dependency graph evaluation. Performance visualizations may be generated by graphing node blocks according to node start time and stop time as well as the level of concurrency at a given time to illustrate parallelism. Performance visualizations may enable character technical directors, character riggers, programmers, and other users to evaluate how well parallelism is expressed in parallel dependency graphs in computer animation.
US09691162B2
The invention relates to an endoscopic image processing system, which includes an optical digital camera, in particular having great depth of field, and means which, in the detection range of the optical digital camera, generate distance information which is processed together with the image information and is then detected and used in order to generate additional geometric data relating to the image content. The measurement information is obtained from an image of an auxiliary instrument which may be designed as a normal surgical instrument, wherein the image of a section of the auxiliary instrument is extracted from the camera image and serves as a reference parameter for the image scale. On this basis a piece of geometric information is then inserted, true to scale and in fixed relation to the auxiliary instrument, into the current camera image as a virtual measuring or display element. Said element can be an image scale, for example, which appears suspended on the auxiliary instrument in the image and can be “operated” therewith.
US09691161B1
The recognition of objects such as clothing items can be improved by capturing image data that represents the material characteristics and true color of the object. A high resolution image can be captured that shows the individual threads and/or fibers, among other possible pattern or texture characteristics. Various approaches are discussed for determining the scale of these features to more accurately determine the way the material is made. Further, approaches are discussed that enable the true color of the material to be determined, through hardware and/or software, to further improve the accuracy of such a determination. The material and color properties can be combined with a conventional object recognition process to provide accurate object identification and/or authentication results.
US09691158B1
Systems and methods track one or more points between images. A point for tracking may be selected, at least in part, on a determination of how discriminable the point is relative to other points in a region containing the point. A point of an image being tracked may be located in another image by matching a patch containing the point with another patch of the other image. A search for a matching patch may be focused in a region that is determined based at least in part on an estimate of movement of the point between images. Points may be tracked across multiple images. If an ability to track one or more points is lost, information about the points being tracked may be used to relocate the points in another image.
US09691156B2
The invention relates to a labeling apparatus (1) for labeling structures of an object shown in an object image. A probability map providing unit (3) provides a probability map, the probability map indicating for different labels, which are indicative of different structures of the object, and for different positions in the probability map the probability that the respective structure, which is indicated by the respective label, is present at the respective position, wherein the probability depends on the position in the probability map. The probability map is mapped to the object image by a mapping unit (4), wherein a label assigning unit (5) assigns to a provided contour, which represents a structure in the object image, a label based on the mapped probability map. This allows automatically labeling structures of the object, which are indicated by provided contours in the object image, with relatively low computational efforts.
US09691147B2
Apparatus and methods comprise examination of a subject using images of the subject. The images can provide a non-invasive analysis technique and can include a plurality of images of a portion of the subject at different times a temperature stimulus applied to the subject. An image of the portion of the subject can be aligned such that each pixel of the image corresponds to the same point on the subject over a sequence of images of the portion. The sequence of images can be processed after aligning the images such that data is extracted from the images. The extracted data can be used to make decisions regarding the health status of the subject. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US09691143B2
A first output value evaluation device obtains an average value of output values of optical image data for each of unit regions and creates a distribution map of an average value in an inspected region. A first defect history management device creates a distribution map related with the shape of the pattern from the distribution map of the average value and holds the created distribution map. A second output value evaluation device obtains at least one of a variation value and deviation of the output value of each pixel in the unit region. A defect determination device compares the obtained value with a threshold value. A second defect history management device holds information of the output value determined as a defect in the defect determination device. A defect/defect history analysis device analyzes, and checks the information from the first defect history management device and the second defect history management device.
US09691142B2
An image generating device that generates a composite image based on partial images cut out from captured images having photographic subject regions partially overlapping with each other, includes: a correction device that corrects each target partial image by setting one of first and second adjacent partial images as a reference partial image; a generation device that generates first and second conversion tables for approximating a concentration characteristic of each target partial image in overlapping first and second common regions to the first and second adjacent partial images, respectively; and a mixture conversion device that converts a concentration of each target partial image to make an influence of the first conversion table larger as a position of a pixel is closer to the first adjacent partial image, and to make the influence of the second conversion table larger as the position of the pixel is closer to the second adjacent partial image.
US09691136B2
Sub-regions within one or more face images are identified within a digital image, and enhanced by applying an artificial glint symmetrically and/or synchronously to image data corresponding to sub-regions of eyes within the face image. An enhanced face image is generated including an enhanced version of the face that includes certain original pixels in combination with pixels corresponding to the one or more eye regions of the face with the artificial glint.
US09691130B2
Voice commands and gesture recognition are two mechanisms by which an individual may interact with content such as that on a display. In an implementation, interactivity of a user with content on a device or display may be modified based on the distance between a user and the display. An attribute such as a user profile may be used to tailor the modification of the display to an individual user. In some configurations, the commands available to the user may also be modified based on the determined distance between the user and a device or display.
US09691127B2
In an example embodiment a method, apparatus and computer program product are provided. The method includes calculating directionality values for pixels of a first image and pixels of a second image, where a directionality value for a pixel is calculated based on gradient differences between the pixel and a plurality of neighboring pixels. The method includes determining a plurality of similarity values between the first image and the second images for a plurality of alignment positions of the first image and the second image based on the directionality values for the pixels of the first image and the directionality values for corresponding pixels of the second image. The method further includes selecting an alignment position from among the plurality of alignment positions for aligning the first image and the second image based on comparison of the plurality of similarity values.
US09691125B2
A user position can be detected or determined using a sensor. A transformation can be applied to the image data based on the user position. The transformed image data can be displayed on a display.
US09691123B2
Embodiments of graphics instruction instrumentor (“GII”) and a graphics profiler (“GP”) are described. The GII may facilitate profiling of execution of graphics instructions by one or more graphics processors. The GII may identify target graphics instructions for which execution profile information is desired. The GII may store instrumentation graphics instructions in a graphics instruction buffer. The instrumentation graphics instructions may facilitate the GP in collecting graphics profile information. For example, timestamp-storage instructions may be store timestamps before and after execution of the target graphics instructions. The GII also may store an interrupt-generation instruction to cause an interrupt to be sent to the GP so that the GP may begin collection of graphics profile data. The GII may store an event-wait instruction to pause the graphics processors until an event is received. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09691115B2
Systems and methods are provided for context determination. In one implementation one or more indications can be received, each of the one or more indications corresponding to a perception of one or more access points in relation to a user device. The one or more indications can be processed to determine one or more characteristics of at least one of the one or more access points. Based on the one or more characteristics, a context of the user device can be determined.
US09691111B2
A system, method, and apparatus for determining energy savings are provided. The method may include repeatedly measuring energy usage of a load, determining that a demand response load control event exists, modifying the cycle of operation based at least in part on determining that a demand response load control event exists, and determining an energy savings based on comparing the measured energy usage of the load with an energy usage statistic. The determining that the demand response load control event exists may include receiving a demand response load control notification. The modifying the cycle of operation may include reducing a power draw of the load.
US09691107B2
A user agent of a user selects another user having a user agent. The user agents exchange personal information about the user and personal information about the other user. The user agent determines whether a common interest exists between the two users based on the exchange of personal information. The other user is added to a social networking webpage of the user when the user agent determines that a common interest exists.
US09691105B2
Techniques of analyzing a calendar to generate financial information are disclosed. In some embodiments, scheduled event data for at least one scheduled event is extracted from an electronic calendar. The scheduled event data can comprise corresponding time data and text for each one of the at least one scheduled event. A financial accounting entry for each one of the at least one scheduled event can be generated based on the extracted scheduled event data. The financial accounting entry can comprise an electronic record of business-related activity that can be used for a financial accounting purpose. Generating the financial accounting entry can comprise populating the financial accounting entry using the time data of the corresponding scheduled event.
US09691102B2
The disclosed embodiments relate to implementation of a trading system, which may also be referred to as a trading system architecture, having improved performance which further assures transactional determinism under increasing processing transaction loads while providing improved trading opportunities, fault tolerance, low latency processing, high volume capacity, risk mitigation and market protections with minimal impact, as well as improved and equitable access to information and opportunities.
US09691101B2
A system for generating and processing an electronic funding application is disclosed. The system includes a memory storing instructions and a processor configured to execute the instructions to transmit the electronic funding application to a client and enter financial data into the funding application. The financial data includes a magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line, a currency amount, and an account identifier. The instructions further transmit the financial data to a server, validate at least a portion of the financial data by comparing a portion of the financial data to data representing valid demand deposit accounts, convert the MICR line to an item compatible with an automated clearing house (ACH) network, and submit the item and the currency amount to the ACH network. The currency amount is transferred from the demand deposit account of the customer to the financial account of the customer.
US09691100B2
An improved auto auction layout places all active auctions within sight of a centralized location. Three or more auctioneer stations placed near the perimeter of the centralized location each correspond to an auto auction lane. Even as lanes independently advance through cars at varying rates, the improved layouts enables bidders and consigners to monitor both the lane with which they are actively engaged and all other lanes, or to participate in multiple simultaneous auctions.
US09691096B1
Customer interactions with one or more pages associated with an online marketplace may be aggregated into historical navigational patterns, which may be associated with one or more items available for purchase at the online marketplace. Where a series or sequence of customer interactions is subsequently received from a customer, such interactions may also be aggregated into a pattern, which may be compared to one or more of the historical navigational patterns. An item recommendation may be identified for the customer based at least in part on the comparison of the received navigational pattern to one or more of the historical navigational patterns. The item recommendation may include an item previously purchased following one of the historical navigational patterns, or an item related to one or more such items.
US09691079B2
Delivery of content such as advertisements to audience members. Profile data is collected regarding audience members to whom advertisements may be delivered, such that a given audience member has an established profile data. Upon receiving a request to serve an advertisement to an audience member, a recognition that the target of the request is the given audience member is made. Then it is determined that a particular advertisement should be served to the given audience member. The determination includes recognition of the given audience member and corresponding selection advertisements optimized for the recognized audience member. A configurable delivery decision making mode allows pre-optimized as well as delivery time factoring for determining advertisements. Performance criteria and revenue allocation based upon data provider participation are also provided.
US09691076B2
A demand response management system having a participation predictor. There may be a storage device having information collected about past behavior, related to participation in a demand response program, about a customer. The information may incorporate determining a period of time since the customer last participated in a demand response program, a frequency of participation in demand response events by the customer, and a size of energy loads of the customer. A model of the customer may be developed from this and other information. A processor may be used to collect and process the information, develop a model, and to make a prediction of a customer's being selected to participate in an event based on the various operator selectable criteria.
US09691071B2
An aggregation device in a home network accumulates information from audio video apparatuses in the network that the apparatuses require enablement of respective licensable components for which no license event has yet occurred. The aggregation device sends an indication of the license events to a server so that appropriate royalties may be paid post-sale of the various devices.
US09691062B2
Systems and methods are disclosed which may allow a merchant to wirelessly transmit accepted forms of payment using a beacon installed in the merchant location or near the merchant location. A consumer having a device capable of receiving the wireless transmission may receive the accepted forms of payment and have them displayed on a screen of the device. The device may also send the accepted forms of payment to a remote server that has issued the consumer a programmable credit card such that the remote server can program the credit card based on the forms of payment accepted by the merchant.
US09691055B2
A digital wallet that facilitates fast, convenient, and secure commerce using a mobile electronic device (or non-mobile electronic device) and stores information associated with transactions, such as purchase confirmations and receipts. The digital wallet can store information for use in transactions, including information associated with one or more financial accounts, user information, and shipping information. To complete an online purchase, the digital wallet can interact with a merchant's website to obtain information regarding the purchase. The digital wallet provides a user interface for the user to review and confirm the purchase information. The user interface also allows the user to select from multiple payment options, customize shipping information, or provide information requested by the merchant. The digital wallet can transmit user confirmation to the merchant's website and receive a receipt for the purchase. The digital wallet can store the receipt and synchronize the receipt with a remote storage location.
US09691049B2
Master BOM creation may include extracting BOM data from first and second BOMs, and determining which BOM extracted data is greater. If the first or second BOM is a CAD BOM and the other BOM is a non-CAD BOM, the CAD BOM and non-CAD BOMs may be respectively used as a first and a second source BOM data for a master BOM table. If the first and second BOMs are non-CAD BOMs, or both of the first and second BOMs are CAD BOMs, the greater and lesser of the first and second BOM extracted data may be respectively used as the first and as the second source BOM data. A master BOM may be created based on mapping of the master BOM table to the second source BOM data.
US09691043B2
A sample, which is embedded in a paraffin block, is placed on a tissue cassette (22) which carries a label (20) which may a bar code. When the sample is to be processed, the cassette is given to a microtome operator who scans the label (20) with, for example, a bar code reader (4). Scanning causes information to be displayed on a screen (12) and the operator verifies that what is on the screen matches what was on the label. The paraffin block is then placed in a microtome chuck (26) and sections are cut from the block. Concurrently with, or prior to sectioning, a number of slides (18) are dispensed (2) and are printed with a label (16) so that the sections can be mounted thereon. The slide label (16) is related to the cassette label (20). If the operator does not verify that the information displayed on the screen matches the information on the cassette label (20) and/or does not place the paraffin block in the microtome chuck (26) within an allocated time interval after scanning the cassette label (20), dispensing and labelling of slides (18) and/or operation of the microtome is prevented. This ensures accurate identification of samples within a laboratory as it does allow the operator the opportunity lose track of which samples were being processed.
US09691036B2
A method for a dynamic adapter design pattern is described. The method comprises a series of tour components being selected for a user from a plurality of tour components. This selection may be based on interaction information of a plurality of past participants with the plurality of tour components. A selected tour component, from the plurality of tour components, is received from the user. The series of tour components are adapted in real-time based on the selected component. This adaptation occurs by determining the user's prior interaction with the plurality of tour components, comparing the user's prior interaction and the selected tour component with the interaction information of the plurality of past participants, and modifying the series of tour components based on the comparison.
US09691035B1
A network-based enterprise or other system that makes items available for selection to users may implement real-time updates to item recommendation models based on matrix factorization. An item recommendation model may be maintained that is generated from a singular value decomposition of a matrix indicating selections of items by users. A user-specific update to the item recommendation model may be calculated in real-time for a particular user such that the calculation may be performed without performing another singular value decomposition to generate an updated version of the item recommendation model. Item recommendations may then be made based on the user-specific update and the item recommendation model. In various embodiments, the item recommendations may be made in response to an indication or request for item recommendations for the particular user.
US09691034B2
A machine-learning accelerator (MLA) integrated circuit for extracting features from signals and performing inference computations is disclosed. The MLA integrated circuit includes a framework of finite state machine (FSM) kernels that are machine-learning algorithms implemented in hardware. The MLA integrated circuit further includes a kernel controller having mathematical structures implemented in hardware in communication with the framework of FSM kernels. An arithmetic engine implemented in hardware within the MLA integrated circuit is in communication with the kernel controller to perform computations for the mathematical structures. In at least one embodiment, the MLA integrated circuit includes a compression decompression accelerator (CDA) implemented in hardware and coupled between a memory and the kernel controller for compressing data to be stored in the memory and for decompressing data retrieved from the memory.
US09691026B1
Computer-implemented systems and methods are disclosed for data driven expertise mapping. The systems and methods provide for obtaining data sets from data sources, wherein the data sets include services related data, analyzing the data sets, wherein the analysis generates information representative of the services related data, and generating training sets related to the data sets, wherein the training sets are based on known values. The systems and methods further provide for generating models, wherein the models are based on determining services provided by service providers using a combination of the services related data, the analysis of the data sets and the training sets, and provide a mapping of at least one service to service providers. The systems and methods additionally include evaluating the models based on known values and storing an indication for providing to a graphical user interface based on more models.
US09691018B2
A method for providing interaction over a communication network between a user and network entities are described. The method includes at the interface apparatus end, adjusting the interface apparatus to operating conditions of the communication network, including network availability, and reconfiguring and controlling functionality of the network entities for adjusting operation of the network entities to predetermined requirements imposed on the external entities for cooperation with the interface apparatus. The method further includes receiving verbal and visual user input information and user state information related to a state of the user from the user; processing the obtained input information and forwarding the corresponding processed signal to one or more network entities. The method also includes receiving coded information output signals from one or more network entities, and processing thereof to obtain user information output signals in a format suitable for outputting to the user.
US09691017B2
The invention provides, inter alia, recombinase-based systems that provide for integrated logic and memory in living cells.
US09691015B2
Memory card adapters and/or a memory apparatuses may be provided. For example, a memory card adapter including a main housing section that corresponds to a memory card socket of a first standard, the main housing section including a card housing section, the card housing section configured to house a memory card of a second standard different from the first standard therein, a first surface of the main housing section defining a through-hole, the through-hole configured to expose a connection pin of the memory card to be housed in the housing section to an outside of the housing section, and a second surface of the main housing section defining a card insertion hole, the second surface being different from the first surface, the card insertion hole configured to receive the memory card into the card housing section may be provided.
US09691013B2
The present invention is an electronic circuit of a microprocessor of a proximity document, including the microprocessor, the transceiver antenna and the touch switch, characterized in that the switch includes an active graphene element, where the switch contacts are led to the surface of the document and so are electrically connected to the microprocessor and the antenna that touches them closes the circuit and allows communication between the microprocessor and the antenna, while in the opposite case the circuit is opened, and the communication between the microprocessor and the antenna is not possible. The invention further includes the proximity document containing such an electronic circuit.
US09691012B2
In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method and communication device with an emulated mag stripe capability. Information is transmitted in the mag stripe data indicating that the communication device has chip capability as well. This information is used by a server on the back-end (acquirer, issuer, network) to take advantage of that chip capability. For example, additional fields can be used for security measures and communication over the telecommunications network with the device can be performed to provide a more secure communication with a terminal. In one embodiment, the additional information is provided in the service code, using a unique 3 digit code other than 2xx.
US09691006B2
Some embodiments are directed to a method of cloud point simplification that includes implementing recursive spatial partitioning of the set of points into a hierarchy of clusters and, for each cluster, calculating a tangent plane estimate for the points in the cluster and deriving a confidence factor for the calculated tangent plane estimate. The method further includes identifying representative points within each cluster in the hierarchy and, for each representative point, defining a point-pair that consists of the representative point and a representative point of an immediate parent cluster; calculating a contraction error metric for each point-pair that is weighted by the inverse of the confidence factors calculated for the clusters associated with each representative point; and iteratively contracting the point-pair with the lowest contraction error metric, updating remaining point-pairs as a result of the contraction, and revising the contraction error metric of the updated point-pairs accordingly.
US09690996B2
An on-vehicle image processor includes an imager mounted on a vehicle, an image convertor and compositor that converts images imaged by the imager into overhead images, a white line candidate area detector that detects a white line candidate area estimated to constitute a parking frame, an endpoint position detector that detects positions of endpoints, a vehicle behavior measurer that measures a movement amount of the vehicle, an endpoint movement position predictor that predicts moved positions of the endpoints detected by endpoint position detector, an endpoint movement amount judger, an endpoint position storage, a distance calculator that judges a degree of proximity of the endpoints, an information output device, an endpoint position oblivion judger that deletes the position of the endpoints satisfying a predetermined condition, a parking frame detector that detects a parking frame from the image, an accelerator opening degree detector and a vehicle behavior controller.
US09690995B2
For a lane line search range set in a captured image obtained through imaging of the travel direction of a vehicle, a first lane line detection process detects a lane line based on a luminance image for more than half of rows within the search range, and detects a lane line based on a color difference image for the other rows, while a second lane line detection process detects a lane line based on the color difference image for a greater number of rows than in the first process. Then, a mode switchover control process performs mode switchover determination between the first and second modes based on the number of rows where a lane line of a predefined width or wider has been detected, from among the rows where a lane line has been detected, and performs mode switchover control based on the determination result.
US09690980B2
The disclosed subject matter relates to computer implemented methods for automatic curation of digital images. In one aspect, the method includes selecting one of every two or more duplicate digital images of a plurality of digital images. The method further includes calculating an image quality score for each of the selected digital images. The method further includes associating a ranking with each of the selected digital images based on its respective calculated image quality score.
US09690979B2
Embodiments described herein facilitate or enhance the implementation of image recognition processes which can perform recognition on images to identify objects and/or faces by class or by people.
US09690977B2
The claimed subject matter provides for systems and/or methods for identification of instances of an object of interest in 2D images by creating a database of 3D curve models of each desired instance and comparing an image of an object of interest against such 3D curve models of instances. The present application describes identifying and verifying the make and model of a car from a possibly single image—after the models have been populated with training data of test images of many makes and models of cars. In one embodiment, an identification system may be constructed by generating a 3D curve model by back-projecting edge points onto a visual hull reconstruction from silhouettes of an instance. The system and methods employ chamfer distance and orientation distance provides reasonable verification performance, as well as an appearance model for the taillights of the car to increase the robustness of the system.
US09690964B2
A method for filtering scanned objects displayed on a reader is provided. The reader may scan one or more transponders, and obtain, from a database, an image for each scanned transponder. Each transponder may be associated with an object (e.g., an item of retail inventory). The obtained image for each object may be presented on an interface, and a selection of an object category may be received using the obtained images. A determination may be made as to which objects are associated with the selected object category. A display screen may display data associated with only the objects associated with the selected object category.
US09690963B2
A hand-held antenna system allows medical personnel to ascertain the presence or absence of objects (e.g., medical supplies) tagged with transponders in an environment in which medical procedures are performed. In use, the hand-held antenna system may be positioned proximate a patient at a time after a medical procedure, such as after childbirth, so the system can scan the patient's body to determine the presence of objects tagged with transponders. The antenna system includes two sets of three antenna elements arranged mutually orthogonal to each other to transmit and receive signals in at least three coordinate directions. A controller is coupled to the antenna elements to transmit signals to the transponders and to receive response signals. The antenna system may operate in a static scan mode wherein the antenna system is held in a fixed position by a user and a dynamic scan mode wherein the antenna system is moved by a user.
US09690962B2
The present invention relates to radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that produce a unique radar signature by passive reflection of an electromagnetic signal. In particular, provided herein are frequency-, phase-, and/or amplitude-shift encoded RFID tags, and methods of use and manufacture thereof.
US09690959B2
RFID-to-Bluetooth selective adapter with multiple RFID integrated chips mounted on RFID elevator controller, having customized RFID transponders, a bluetooth module, and an extended I/O connector is disclosed. Customized RFID transponders include RFID Integrated chips, RFID sensor coils, and a SPNT switch. Extended I/O connector is configured to allow connection of customized RFID transponders by coupling to SPNT switches. Bluetooth module instructs which one of SPNT switches is to be opened or closed, which then connects one RFID sensor coil with one corresponding RFID Integrated chip, while other RFID sensor coils and remaining RFID Integrated chips are disconnected. Selection criteria of chosen RFID IC by Bluetooth module is in accordance with preconfigured allocated access right given to each user by an administrator and is programmed on flash memory, EEprom memory of Bluetooth module, in APP, or on cloud authentication server. More than one customized RFID transponder can be chained together.
US09690955B2
An electronic system includes a computer and a power adapter. The computer includes an embedded controller (EC) coupled to a computer power delivery (PD) controller. The power adapter includes a power adapter PD controller connected to a slave device and is configured to communicate with the computer over a communication link. The computer PD controller is configured to receive a command from the EC and, to transmit a universal serial bus (USB) vendor defined message (VDM) header and one or more vendor defined objects (VDOs) including the information of the payload of the transmit command. The power adapter PD controller responds to the one or more VDOs either by changing an output signal to the slave device connected to the power adapter PD controller, reports a state of a general purpose input/output (GPIO) pin of the power adapter PD controller, or changes the state of the GPIO pin.
