US09877404B1

An adapter apparatus and method of forming the adapter apparatus includes providing a substrate with a plurality of layers. The layers include at least one socket contact holding layer that includes a plurality of holding structures positioned between a plurality of other layers. A plurality of socket contacts (e.g., each including an end connection portion and first and second deflectable element coupled thereto) are held in corresponding openings defined through the substrate at least in part by the plurality of holding structures.
US09877392B2

There are provided PCB capacitor variable device and method. The PCB capacitor variable device includes: a PCB forming any parallel capacitor by disposing a dielectric layer between a first pattern and a second pattern; and a switch unit connected to a pattern of one of the capacitors to switch the pattern of one of the capacitors so as to control equivalent capacitance of the capacitor. According an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the capacitor is implemented using the PCB pattern and the dielectric substance and therefore the miniaturization and weight lightening of the wireless communication system may be implemented. Further, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the capacitor may be selectively switched and therefore the optimized frequency required in the output of the amplification unit may be implemented.
US09877388B2

A transmission module includes an electrically insulative substrate body, a first card edge connector provided at a first end of the substrate body, a second card edge connector provided at a second end of the substrate body, a circuit element mounted on the substrate body, a control element mounted on the substrate body and provided with a built-in memory which controls the circuit element, a first wiring pattern formed on the substrate body for connecting an electrode of the first card edge connector and the control element together, and a second wiring pattern formed on the substrate body for connecting an electrode of the second card edge connector and the control element together.
US09877386B2

A substrate structure is provided, including: a carrier having at least a wiring area defined and positioned on a portion of a surface of the carrier; a first insulating layer formed on the wiring area; a wiring layer formed on the first insulating layer formed on the wiring area; and a second insulating layer formed on the wiring area. Therefore, a contact surface between the carrier and the first and second insulating layers is reduced by reducing the areas of the first and second insulating layers, whereby a substrate warpage due to mismatch of coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) is avoided. The present invention further provides a method of manufacturing the substrate structure as described above.
US09877381B2

A composite electronic composite includes a plurality of multilayer ceramic capacitors each including a ceramic body in which dielectric layer and internal electrodes are alternately disposed and first and second external electrodes disposed on a lower surface of the ceramic body, a tantalum capacitor including a body part including a sintered tantalum powder material and a tantalum wire of which a portion is embedded in the body part and disposed on the plurality of multilayer ceramic capacitors, and a molding portion enclosing the tantalum capacitor and the plurality of multilayer ceramic capacitors.
US09877372B2

The present invention relates to a driving circuit of organic light emitting diode comprising an electricity storage unit having a positive polarity at a first terminal and a negative polarity at a second terminal, and a signal input unit having opposite polarities at the first and second terminals, the signal polarity of the signal input unit being changed according to a preset frequency; a control unit, which causes the first terminal of the signal input unit to transmit negative charges to the anode of the organic light emitting diode and causes the second terminal of the signal input unit to transmit positive charges to the cathode of the organic light emitting diode, when the signal polarity at the first terminal of the signal input unit is negative and the signal polarity of the second terminal thereof is positive, and causes the first terminal of the electricity storage unit to transmit positive charges to the anode of the organic light emitting diode and causes the second terminal of the electricity storage unit to transmit negative charges to the cathode of the organic light emitting diode, when the signal polarity at the first terminal of the signal input unit is positive and the signal polarity of the second terminal thereof is negative. The embodiments of the application can make the cathode of the organic light emitting diode accumulate electrons during the non-excitation period, so that when the electricity storage unit drives the organic light emitting diode to emit light, more electrons can pass through the light emitting layer, so that the excitation subjected by the light emitting layer is improved and more light is emitted.
US09877371B2

A light emitting device display, its pixel circuit and its driving technique is provided. The pixel includes a light emitting device and a plurality of transistors. A bias current and programming voltage data are provided to the pixel circuit in accordance with a driving scheme so that the current through the driving transistor to the light emitting device is adjusted.
US09877366B2

The present disclosure provides an LED dimming driver circuit, which includes: a TRIAC dimmer configured to adjust an inputted alternating voltage; and a RCC connected to the TRIAC dimmer and configured to adjust the alternating voltage from the TRIAC dimmer to provide a driving current for an LED load.
US09877365B1

The prevent invention provides a light-emitting device for providing a flash light source comprising a light-emitting module and a control module. The light-emitting module comprises a circuit substrate and a plurality of light-emitting elements disposed on the circuit substrate and electrically connected to the circuit substrate. The control module comprises a semiconductor switch element having a MOSFET for turning the light-emitting elements on or off, wherein the semiconductor switch element is electrically connected to the light-emitting elements thereby the light-emitting elements can flash via the semiconductor switch element alternately turning on and off the light-emitting elements.
US09877350B2

Beamformed directional wireless communications are described that provide for spatial re-use that allows multiple pairs of peer-to-peer (P2P) links to communicate simultaneously over the same channel in the same spatial vicinity, without contention, and independent of centralized control. The spatial re-use improves network throughput by sharing spectrum resource among multiple links. Beamformed training includes obtaining best sector and least sector information by all stations. Prior to performing an independent P2P communication, antenna array sector information is checked, to assure that the sector to be selected is not impinging interference on other P2P interactions, then a request is made to a target station. The target station also refers to its sector information, and if no conflict is found it accepts and acknowledges the request, upon which it receives the P2P communication.
US09877333B2

Apparatus and method for signalling are provided. The solution includes reserving resources for communication of a set of nodes (114, 116, 118) organized into one or more scheduling groups having a predetermined group identity, each node in a scheduling group having a unique identity. Scheduling messages are transmitted to all nodes, the messages including the group identity designating the scheduling group the message is intended, an information element indicating identity of the node allowed to transmit, a bitmap indicating identities of nodes instructed to receive, and information on parameters needed to transmit and receive data utilizing the resources allocated for communication.
US09877332B1

A wireless access node to facilitate increased quality of service in consideration of medical information comprises a wireless communication transceiver and a processing system. The wireless communication transceiver is configured to receive medical data transmitted from a wireless communication device served by the wireless access node, wherein the wireless communication device senses the medical data from a user of the wireless communication device. The processing system is configured to determine a quality of service level for the wireless communication device based on the medical data, and implement the quality of service level for the wireless communication device.
US09877331B2

The present application discloses a resource determining method and apparatus, which relates to the communications field and can reduce co-channel interference between systems of different standards that share a wireless spectrum resource. The method includes: acquiring relationship information of interference imposed on a first cell by a second cell, where the relationship information of interference is used to indicate interference imposed on the first cell by the second cell in a time-frequency domain, and the second cell and the first cell have different standards; and determining time-frequency resource information of the second cell according to the relationship information of interference, where the time-frequency resource information of the second cell is used for the second cell to perform time-frequency resource allocation.
US09877330B2

A method includes, in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) device, communicating on a given communication channel using one or more primary transmission/reception (TX/RX) chains. Concurrently with communicating on the given communication channel using the primary TX/RX chains, signal activity is evaluated on one or more alternative communication channels using an auxiliary reception (RX) chain whose hardware is partially shared with one of the primary TX/RX chains.
US09877329B2

Uplink signals transmitted from each of a plurality of UE devices being served by a serving eNB are received at a neighbor cell eNB. Information regarding the uplink signals received by the neighbor cell eNB is then sent to the serving eNB. The UE devices are identified based on the information. An aggregate load level of the UE devices is determined based on resource load requirements of each UE device. In some instances, it is determined which of a plurality of deactivated neighbor cells should be activated based on load levels associated with one or more UE devices that are determined to be near each of the plurality of deactivated neighbor cells.
US09877323B1

A method for communicating a signaling field in a wireless communications system comprises transmitting, by a wireless device, a frame through a medium. Transmitting the frame includes transmitting a first portion of a signaling field in the frame using a first channel and transmitting a second portion of the signaling field in the frame using a second channel. The first channel includes a first frequency and the second channel includes a second frequency different from the first frequency. Contents of the first portion are different from contents of the second portion. In an embodiment, transmitting the frame further includes transmitting a third portion of the signaling field using a third channel. The third channel includes a third frequency different from the first and second frequencies. Contents of the third portion are different from the contents of each of the first and second portions.
US09877320B2

A wireless local area network (WLAN) communication method and apparatus using multiple transmission speed partitioning and cooperative transmission are disclosed. The WLAN communication method includes transmitting, by access point to the nodes, transmission time slots, partitions and internal transmission priorities using transmission time slot information, partition information and internal transmission priority information, receiving uplink packet from one node, determining whether downlink data to be transmitted to the high speed or the low speed node is present, or not in the download queue, transmitting, if present, the downlink packet to the nodes, removing downlink data from the download queue for ACK, and transmitting, if not present, transmitting ACK to the nodes.
US09877310B2

An apparatus and method for transmitting Uplink Control Information (UCI) over a Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH) in a communication system. A method includes acquiring, by a UE, at least one PRB information for a first PUCCH format and a second PUCCH format; selecting, by the UE, one of the first PUCCH format and the second PUCCH format, wherein the second PUCCH format is selected, by the UE, for multiple cells from an eNB; generating, by the UE, UCI to be transmitted; encoding, by the UE, the UCI; performing, by the UE, an FT operation on the encoded UCI if the second PUCCH format is selected; performing, by the UE, an IFT operation on the encoded UCI or on the Fourier transformed UCI; and transmitting, by the UE, the inverse Fourier transformed UCI based on the selected PUCCH format and the at least one PRB information.
US09877300B2

Described herein are techniques for determining a location of a disconnected device. In an example, a method includes instructing a first access point to sniff a wireless channel for probe request packets from disconnected devices, and instructing the first access point to send a distance-probing packet to a disconnected device after receiving a probe request packet from the disconnected device. The method further includes receiving, from the first access point, a MAC address of the disconnected device determined from the received probe request packet. After receiving the MAC address from the first access point, a group of access points is instructed to send distance-probing packets to the disconnected device. The method further includes receiving, from the first access point and the group of access points, time-of-flight measurements associated with the disconnected device. A location of the disconnected device can be determined using the time-of-flight measurements.
US09877292B2

Various aspects of the present disclosure provide for a control scheme of trigger based collaborative data capturing operations utilizing a plurality of time-synchronized data capturing devices. These data capturing devices are synchronized to the same time reference so that their inputs and outputs can be coordinated and controlled in a deterministic manner.
US09877291B1

A wireless transceiver apparatus includes a power detector, an analog signal receiving circuit at wireless signal reception side, and a processing circuit. The power detector is configured at wireless signal transmission side and used for detecting power of a power amplifier on a transmitting path of wireless signal transmission side. The analog signal receiving circuit is couple to the power detector and used for receiving a wireless signal form an antenna. Under signal reception mode, the analog signal receiving circuit transmits the received wireless signal to the processing circuit. Under interference detection mode, the analog signal receiving circuit transfers the received wireless signal (as interference) to the power detector, and the power detector is used for detecting the power of wireless signal to measure an interference power value and transmit the value to the processing circuit.
US09877289B2

A user apparatus in a mobile communication system including a base station and the user apparatus, including: reception means configured to receive a plurality of prioritized signaling values corresponding to a band that the user apparatus uses from the base station; selection means configured to select a signaling value of the highest priority from among signaling values that the user apparatus can apply in the plurality of signaling values; and control means configured to perform control of transmission power by applying the signaling value selected by the selection means.
US09877285B2

A non-transitory computer readable medium includes instructions. The instructions, when executed by one or more hardware processors, causes performance of operations including receiving, at an access point, data targeted for a device, and determining whether an amount of the data targeted for the device is above a threshold. The operations further include, responsive at least to determining that the amount of data is below the threshold, transmitting a notification frame falsely indicating that the access point does not have the data targeted for the device.
US09877276B2

A method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a power save-polling (PS-Poll) frame and response frame in a wireless LAN (WLAN) system are disclosed. The method for transmitting a frame by a station (STA) in a wireless LAN (WLAN) system includes awakening at a predetermined time, and transmitting a Power Save (PS)-Poll frame to an access point (AP); and receiving information in response to the PS-Poll frame from the access point (AP), wherein information indicating an access category (AC) of the PS-Poll frame is provided from the access point (AP) to the station (STA).
US09877275B2

A mobile transceiver having multiple subscriber identity module (SIM) cards and a method of selection is provided. In accordance with one embodiment, there is provided a method of operating a mobile transceiver, comprising: waking up the mobile transceiver from a low power mode in response to a wakeup event; determining whether a SIM card has been pre-selected for a location of the mobile transceiver or the wakeup event; when a SIM card has been pre-selected, selecting the pre-selected SIM card as a first subscriber identity module (SIM) card, activating a cellular transceiver using the first SIM card, and searching, via the cellular transceiver, for available wireless services associated with the first SIM card; and when a wireless service is available, sending at least a portion of a data log to an asset tracking service using the wireless service.
US09877274B2

An access control method includes: obtaining, by a protocol-stack upper layer of a terminal, an override identifier; starting, by the protocol-stack upper layer of the terminal, an application specific congestion control for data connectivity ACDC check according to a service initiated by the terminal; and, if the protocol-stack upper layer of the terminal confirms that the service initiated by the terminal can pass the ACDC check and determines that the override identifier corresponding to an application identifier of the service passing the ACDC check is overriding an access class barring ACB check, sending, by the protocol-stack upper layer of the terminal, an RRC establishment request message to an access layer of the terminal, where the request message carries an indication of not performing an ACB check. Therefore, even if the terminal cannot pass the ACB check, the terminal can still perform services of some particular applications.
US09877272B2

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for wireless communication are provided. In one aspect, an apparatus includes a processor configured to send a request to at least one station associated with the apparatus to scan for information related to at least one neighboring access point (AP) operating in a neighborhood of the apparatus and report the information to the apparatus, receive from the at least one associated station a report including the information, generate a neighborhood report related to the at least one neighboring AP, the neighborhood report including the information received from the at least one associated station, and transmit the neighborhood report to one or more other stations not associated with the apparatus to facilitate discovery of an AP of interest to the one or more other stations.
US09877271B2

A method using multiple receivers of a wireless communication device to accelerate cell selection and reselection is disclosed. Multiple receivers of the wireless device are used to implement carrier aggregation in LTE connected mode. The multiple receivers of the wireless device are used to search for cells concurrently across multiple radio frequency bands and/or multiple radio access technologies during cell selection and/or cell reselection procedures. A first receiver and a second receiver of the wireless device each search for cells over different radio frequency bands simultaneously, and accordingly the cell selection and reselection time is effectively reduced compared to using only one receiver. Multiple receivers are also used concurrently, in parallel, to accelerate inter-frequency cell detection and measurement and for inter-RAT searches and measurements.
US09877252B2

A mobile station in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication network transmits Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocol data units to a base station and the base station transfers corresponding PDCP service data units to a core network. The mobile station is configured to support handover from a source base station to a target base station. The mobile station generates new PDCP protocol data units for missing PDCP service data units, and transmits the new PDCP protocol data units to the target base station, responsive to signaling from the target base station that indicates which PDCP service data units have been successfully received at the target base station. The new PDCP protocol data units are generated using ciphering specific to the connection with the target base station, from corresponding PDCP service data units buffered at the mobile station.
US09877248B2

A communications apparatus and method for camping on a serving cell. The apparatus includes a radio frequency (RF) signal processing device, processing a plurality of RF signals to generate a plurality of baseband signals, a baseband signal processing device, processing the baseband signals, and a processor, measuring a signal quality or power of the serving cell and determining whether a first predetermined threshold value related to cell reselection of the serving cell is greater than a second predetermined threshold value related to cell reselection of a predetermined neighbor cell. When the first predetermined threshold value is greater than the second predetermined threshold value, the processor further determines whether the signal quality or power of the serving cell is greater than the second predetermined threshold value. Also, at times, the processor further determines whether to perform cell measurement on the predetermined neighbor cell.
US09877247B2

A wireless communication system using cells to provide wireless access to services, comprising a first base station installed on board a public transportation vehicle to provide a moving cell, and a second base station installed at a stop at which users enter or leave the vehicle, to provide a fixed cell. A central controller guides handovers of users entering or leaving the vehicle. The first and second base stations to provide data concerning users to the central controller, and the central controller, over many journeys of the vehicle, gathers profile data of users based on the data provided by the base stations. As the vehicle approaches a stop, the central controller makes predictions about users likely to enter and leave the vehicle, and, provides guidance to the first and second base stations for performing handovers.
US09877246B2

A radio base station (10) of the present invention comprises: a determination unit (101) that determines whether to perform an off-the-air of a cell (11) managed by the local radio base station (10); a communication unit (102) that communicates with the other radio base stations (10) managing peripheral cells and with a communication provider apparatus (20) managing the bearer information of a user terminal (2); and a communication control unit (103). When it is determined that the off-the-air of the cell of the local radio base station (10) is to be performed, the communication control unit (103) transmits, to the other radio base stations (10) managing the peripheral cells, the authentication code of the user terminal (2) existing in the cell of the local radio base station (10). When a reconnection request is received from the user terminal (2), the communication control unit (103) determines, on the basis of authentication codes received from the other radio base stations (10), whether to authenticate the reconnection request. If the reconnection request is to be authenticated, the communication control unit (103) acquires, from the management apparatus (20), the bearer information of the user terminal having transmitted the reconnection request, and establishes, on the basis of the acquired bearer information, a connection with the user terminal having transmitted the reconnection request.
US09877245B2

Techniques are disclosed for determining a threshold value for determining whether to steer a particular node (such as, a client device) from one node (such as, an access point ((AP)) to another node (such as, another AP). A particular node associated with a current node in a wireless environment is identified. One or more parameters associated with the particular node, the current node, a candidate node to which the particular node may be steered, and/or the wireless environment is identified. Based on the parameters, a threshold value is determined. The threshold value is the minimum improvement in quality of one or more links if the particular node is steered from the current node to the candidate node. If the improvement in quality is greater than the determined threshold value, then the particular node is steered to associate with the candidate node rather than the current node.
US09877243B2

A method and an apparatus for determining a location of a mobile device. The location of a mobile device is determined accurately according to information which includes call data records of the mobile device. By employing a partial ellipse integral model, two physical world factors are taken into consideration in reducing the location uncertainty in call data records. The factors include: spatiotemporal constraints of the device's movement in the physical world and the telecommunication cell area's geometry information, which increase the accuracy of determining the location of a mobile device.
US09877241B2

A user terminal includes: a controller configured to perform, in accordance with one selection rule of a first selection rule and a second selection rule, as a selection rule applied to a cell reselection in an idle mode. The first selection rule is a selection rule for selecting an appropriate cell irrespective of whether the user terminal has an interest in a D2D proximity service. The second selection rule is a selection rule for preferentially selecting, as an appropriate cell, a cell belonging to a frequency available for the D2D proximity service, in case that the user terminal has the interest in the D2D proximity service. The controller applies, in accordance with configuration, the second selection rule instead of the first selection.
US09877236B2

An evolved NodeB (eNB), user equipment (UE) and mobility management entity (MME), as well as method of communicating using a power saving mode (PSM) are generally described. A PSM configuration indication of the UE may be received at the eNB from the UE or MME in an Initial UE Context Setup Request, a UE Context Modify Request, core network assistance information, or a dedicated message to the eNB. The eNB may adjust the time for transmitting to the UE an RRC connection release message based on the PSM configuration indication. The eNB may determine whether the UE is in a connection mode and the inactivity timer of the eNB having reached the activation timer of the PSM configuration indication, transmit the RRC connection release message to the MME. The PSM configuration may be provided between eNBs during handover.
US09877234B2

An apparatus and method capable of creating and controlling voice bearer in reverse single radio voice call continuity comprise performing a handover request action S64 of generating a request to a mobile management entity for a handover of a mobile communication call of a user equipment from circuit switched mobile communication to packet switched mobile communication in response to an indication of required handover S61 by a radio access network controller entity; performing a notification action S62 of notifying an access transfer control function to prepare for the transfer of media to packet switched mobile communication by allocating media ports on an access transfer gateway; and performing an obtaining action S63 of obtaining the allocated media ports from the notified access transfer control function, wherein both the notification action S62 and the obtaining action S63 are performed after the indication of required handover S61 is obtained from the radio access network controller entity and before the performing of the handover request action S64, and information on the allocated media ports is included into the request S64 to the mobile management entity.
US09877223B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of simultaneously communicating with a group of wireless communication devices. For example, a wireless communication unit may assign a plurality of wireless communication devices to at least one Space-Division Multiple Access (SDMA) group based on traffic-specification (TSPEC) information corresponding to the plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein the wireless communication unit is to simultaneously transmit a plurality of different wireless communication transmissions to the plurality of wireless communication devices of the group, respectively. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09877220B2

This disclosure pertains to a method in a network node, a method in user equipment, a network node and user equipment in a wireless communications network. More particularly, there is provided methods and platforms for network based control of report messages comprising logged measurements in a wireless communications network. In accordance with some example embodiments, a UE (30) that has stored logged data i.e. logged measurements that are bigger than a single transmission packet, i.e. report message, segments the logged measurements and sends only a portion of the logged measurements that fits into a single report message. The UE (30) also indicates to a network node (28) that additional logged measurements exist at the UE buffer (44).
US09877218B2

According to the embodiments of the present invention, a report measurement can be implemented between a radio network controller and a user equipment in a CELL_FACH state by using a current MC message and a current MR message; and in a process of implementing the report measurement, coordination between the report measurement and a cell reselection measurement executed by the user equipment can be implemented to minimize an impact of the report measurement on the cell reselection measurement.
US09877204B1

Systems and methods for determining a multi-layer tracking area code assignment in a wireless communication network are disclosed. A controller node is configured assign a first code to a first group of access nodes located in a geographic area. A signal load of updates for the first group of access nodes is monitored by the communication network. The controller node determines a set of criteria for assigning a second code to at least one access node in a second group of access nodes. The second group of access nodes are located in the same geographic area as the first group of access nodes. The controller node assigns the second code to the at least one access node for a predetermined period of time.
US09877203B2

Methods, systems, and devices are described for wireless communication. A device may use enhanced reporting mechanisms to support control information reporting on shared spectrum. In some cases, a device may utilize enhanced component carriers (eCCs) for data transmissions. In one example, the device may transmit control information (e.g., ACK/NACK, CSI, etc.) to a corresponding device using a CCA exempt transmission (CET). In another example, a device may report control information quasi-periodically. For instance, a device may be assigned a specified interval and a control feedback window for reporting control information (e.g., CSI). The window may provide a duration prior and subsequent to the specified interval during which a UE may transmit control information. For example, the device may perform a CCA reserving the channel for a duration that does not include the specified interval but may transmit feedback information based on determining the specified interval falls within the assigned window.
US09877197B2

There is provided a method for use by a client device having a client address in a network for communication with a host device having a host address in the network. The method includes retrieving a first subset of a plurality of images, displaying the first subset of the plurality of images, receiving a selection of a second subset of the first subset of the plurality of images from a user of the client device, determining a number based on the second subset of the first subset of the plurality of images, replacing a portion of the client address with the number to obtain the host address, and connecting to the host device using the host address obtained by the replacing of the portion of the client address with the number.
US09877190B1

A wireless communication service subscriber authentication platform includes a processor, memory, and an application stored in the memory that, when executed by the processor: receives a request to authenticate a user from an enterprise (the request identifies a phone number of a user equipment device (UE) and an identity of a mobile communication service subscriber associated with the UE); determines a wireless communication service provider that provides wireless communication service to the UE based on the phone number of the UE; sends a request for information about the mobile communication service subscriber to the wireless communication service provider (the information request comprises the phone number of the UE and the identity of the subscriber); receives information from the wireless communication service provider determined to provide service to the UE; and sends an authentication response to the enterprise. The enterprise completes a transaction with the subscriber based on the authentication response.
US09877185B2

Techniques for phone number and data management are described. A storage module may be configured to store contact information for a plurality of users, which may be members of a social network. A server device may be configured to receive a SIM change event from a mobile device associated with a first user of the plurality of users. The SIM change event may include updated contact information for the first user. The server may further be configured to identify one or more users from the plurality of users associated with the first user, and provide the updated contact information to one or more mobile devices associated with the one or more identified users.
US09877183B2

The present invention provides a terminal which includes a program determining unit configured to determine at least one associated application program corresponding to a designated contact person in an address book of the terminal, and a displaying unit configured to simultaneously display head portraits of the designated contact person in the address book and the at least one associated application program under the condition that the address book or a designated interface provided by any of the at least one associated application program is displayed. The present invention further provides a processing method for head portraits of a contact person.
US09877180B2

Discovery of devices in a network of devices includes assigning resources for the discovery, and providing accordingly at least two discovery patterns of transmission and reception phases for the devices in the network for communication of information between the devices. A device can transmit or receive information in accordance with a dedicated discovery pattern of transmission and reception phases allocated from a set of different discovery patterns.
US09877169B1

Software techniques are described for optimizing resource assignments among assignees of those resources, by using dynamic priority updating over a plurality of rounds of resource assignment. In particular, in example implementations, a greedy algorithm is used to optimize the resource assignments over multiple rounds based on ranked selections within each selection set of each assignee, including dynamically updating the priority of the assignees at each round, based on assignment results from one or more preceding assignment rounds.
US09877163B2

Disclosed is a method for detecting a synchronized terminal with a pose similar to reference pose data. In the embodiments, a method includes: enabling a detection server to receive reference pose data from a mobile terminal requesting the detection of a synchronized terminal; enabling the detection server to receive position data providing a reference for detecting the synchronized terminal; enabling the detection server to receive the respective pose data of the surrounding terminals present within a given radius from the reference position determined based on the position data; enabling the detection server to detect one of the surrounding terminals as the synchronized terminal that has pose data similar to the reference pose data; and enabling the detection server to transmit the result of detecting the synchronized terminal to the mobile terminal.
US09877159B2

A user terminal apparatus is provided. The user terminal apparatus includes a sensor configured to sense a movement of the user terminal apparatus, a storage configured to store a plurality of movement patterns and place information for each time period matching with each movement pattern, and a processor configured to, in response to the movement sensed by the sensor corresponding to one of the plurality of movement patterns, determine a place where the user terminal apparatus is located using a movement pattern corresponding to the sensed movement and place information matching with a present time.
US09877154B2

A method and apparatus for providing target location reminders for a mobile device may take into account the estimated time that it will take the mobile device to reach a target location based on a current location of the mobile device, based on a current mode of transportation of the mobile device and also based on current traffic conditions to reach a target location (808). In another example, a method and apparatus for providing target location reminders for a mobile device may dynamically change a geo-fence perimeter to include an area larger than a previously set geo-fence in response to a determined frequency of location visits of the mobile device (810). In another example, an apparatus and method may operate in a mode that automatically provide target location reminders taking into consideration common mobile device locations also referred to as an extension mode from favorite locations (812).
US09877145B2

Information on the belongings of a nearby-present person is easily acquired. An information processing apparatus comprises a reception unit and a control unit. Herein, the reception unit is directed for receiving belongings information of the user of other information processing apparatus transmitted from the other information processing apparatus by use of wireless communication. Further, the control unit is directed for causing the received belongings information to be output and controlling evaluation information on the belongings information to be transmitted to the other information processing apparatus by use of wireless communication on the basis of a user operation for the belongings information.
US09877142B2

Techniques are disclosed for reducing interference, in a network device, among multiple radio circuits operating in a same or similar frequency band and in close physical proximity. In some embodiments, a network device includes a first and a second wireless network circuit. The network circuits operate in a same radio frequency band and are collocated. The second network circuit is assigned a higher priority than the first network circuit. The device further includes a coexistence controller coupled to the network circuits via a communication bus and configured to selectively suppress transmitting operations of the first network circuit during receiving operations of the second network circuit. Among other benefits, the embodiments can increase wireless network bandwidth and reduce mobile device power consumption by providing coordination among the radio circuits so that the transmitting and receiving operations are performed in a way that they do not interfere with their respective antennas.
US09877137B2

There is provided a system and method for playing a venue-specific object-based audio in a venue, the system comprising a memory, and a processor configured to receive an object-based audio including a plurality of audio components and create a venue-specific object-based audio based on a modification metadata by adjusting a level of at least one of the plurality of audio components of the object-based audio, the processor executing the object-based audio rendering software to render the venue-specific object-based audio in the venue.
US09877136B2

The derivation of personalized HRTFs for a human subject based on the anthropometric feature parameters of the human subject involves obtaining multiple anthropometric feature parameters and multiple HRTFs of multiple training subjects. Subsequently, multiple anthropometric feature parameters of a human subject are acquired. A representation of the statistical relationship between the plurality of anthropometric feature parameters of the human subject and a subset of the multiple anthropometric feature parameters belonging to the plurality of training subjects is determined. The representation of the statistical relationship is then applied to the multiple HRTFs of the plurality of training subjects to obtain a set of personalized HRTFs for the human subject.
US09877128B2

An electronic device (200) includes a user interface (205), a communication circuit (206), and an audio capture device (212) to receive ambient audio signals from an environment about the electronic device. A voice control interface engine (214) is operable with the audio capture device to process signals received from the audio capture device to identify at least some speech from the ambient audio signals. One or more processors (203) are operable with the voice control interface engine to compute a noise index as a function of the ambient audio signals and the at least some speech. The one or more processors can optionally identify a source of the at least some speech. Where the noise index exceeds a predefined criterion, the one or more processors can execute a communication operation on one or more of the user interface or the communication circuit.
US09877127B2

A method and system for testing a temperature tolerance limit of a loudspeaker. The method includes: selecting a test signal, and determining a test output voltage as a rated voltage of the loudspeaker, so that the loudspeaker reaches a rated amplitude; determining a gain boosting frequency point according to a resonant frequency of the loudspeaker; performing a plurality of tests for the loudspeaker, and in each test controlling the test signal to maintain the gain constant in a frequency band lower than the gain boosting frequency point and increase the gain in a frequency band higher than the gain boosting frequency point, testing and recording a temperature of the loudspeaker till the loudspeaker fails, and recording a temperature at the time of the failure; and determining a highest temperature that is tolerable by the loudspeaker before the loudspeaker fails.
US09877126B2

According to one aspect, an electronic device for detecting an audio accessory. The electronic device includes an audio jack having at least two detection terminals. The detection terminals are spaced apart and positioned within a socket of the audio jack so when an audio plug of the accessory is inserted into the socket of the audio jack, the detection terminals will be shorted. The presence of a short between the detection terminals is indicative that the audio accessory is present.
US09877125B2

A measurement device (10) is for evaluating an acoustic device (100) that allows sound to be heard via vibration transmission by having a housing (101) provided with a vibrating element (102) be held by a head including a human ear. The measurement device (10) includes an ear model unit (50) modeled after a human ear, a model of a human body that holds the acoustic device (100), and a vibration detector (55) disposed in the ear model unit (50).
US09877123B2

A hearing device includes: a processing unit configured to compensate for hearing loss of a user of the hearing device; a memory unit; and an interface; wherein the memory unit has a hearing device certificate stored therein, the hearing device certificate comprising: a hearing device identifier, a plurality of hearing device keys, at least one hearing device key identifier indicative of one of the hearing device keys.
US09877119B2

A hearing aid includes: a microphone configured to receive sound; a processing unit configured to provide a processed audio signal for compensating a hearing loss of a user; a printed circuit board comprising a first layer; an antenna provided as an electrically conductive material on the first layer; a wireless communication unit for wireless communication; one or more flexible printed circuit board having a first flexible printed circuit board; and a polarization element configured for forming a polarization of the antenna, where the polarization element is on the first flexible printed circuit board.
US09877118B2

A method for frequency-dependent noise suppression in an input signal is particularly suited for a hearing device. The input signal is distributed to a main signal path and an ancillary signal path. The presence of a useful signal component and, if a useful signal component is present, a parameter for a frequency of the useful signal component are assessed in the ancillary signal path. Noise in the input signal is suppressed in the main signal path by at least one infinite impulse response filter whose frequency response is implemented with a maximum absolute value in the range of that frequency of the useful signal component that is assessed using the parameter by determining a complex pole of the transfer function. The complex pole of the transfer function is determined by using the assessed parameter for the frequency of the useful signal component.
US09877115B2

The use of a dynamic Relative Transfer Function (RTF) between two or more microphones may be used to improve multi-microphone speech processing applications. The dynamic RTF may improve speech intelligibility and speech quality in the presence of environmental changes, such as variations in head or body movements, variations in hearing device characteristics or wearing positions, or variations in room or environment acoustics. The use of an efficient and fast dynamic RTF estimation algorithm using short burst of noisy, reverberant mic recordings, which will be robust to head movements may provide more accurate RTFs which may lead to a significant performance increase.
US09877111B2

Embodiments are provided for configurations of a loudspeaker and assembly of the loudspeaker. The loudspeaker may include a frame, a voice coil, a magnetic structure that includes a magnetic gap, a surround, a spider, and a circumferential spacer element. The circumferential spacer element may include a first tier attached to an outer rim of the surround; and a second tier attached to an outer rim of the spider, wherein the circumferential spacer element is coupled to the frame such that the voice coil is suspended at least partially within the magnetic gap.
US09877105B2

A wireless audio system includes microphone devices that are established as part of a wireless communication network. A common radio signal is selected by the microphone devices from radio signals available in the environment. Respective sampling clocks are derived by the microphone devices based on the common radio signal. Audio signals are recorded by the microphone devices based on the respective sampling clocks that were derived. Related sampling microphone methods, devices and systems are described.
US09877094B2

Provides is a waterproof sound-permeable membrane (10) adapted to permit passage of sound and prevent entry of water. The waterproof sound-permeable membrane (10) includes a sound-permeation region (11) having a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane (20). The polytetrafluoroethylene membrane (20) has an average pore diameter of 0.02 μm or more and 0.1 μm or less as measured according to ASTM F316-86 and has a porosity of 5% or more and 25% or less. The waterproof sound-permeable membrane (10) is suitable for application to an electronic device containing an acoustic device.
US09877081B2

Disclosed is a multimode set top box and a mode management method thereof. The method includes: a multimode set top box using a first play resource to play in a main mode a channel program of a first service system associated with the main mode by default, and using a second play resource to play in an auxiliary mode a channel program of a second service system associated with the auxiliary mode by default; when receiving a mode switching instruction, keeping the first play resource and the second play resource in a non-released state, and keeping an accessing state with the first service system and an accessing state with the second service system; and using the first play resource to play in the auxiliary mode the channel program of the first service system, and using the second play resource to play the channel program of the second service system.
US09877079B2

Techniques of providing an interactive programming guide with a personalized lineup are disclosed. In some embodiments, a profile is accessed, and a personalized lineup is determined based on the profile. The personalized lineup may comprise a corresponding media content identification assigned to each one of a plurality of sequential time slots, where each media content identification identifies media content for the corresponding time slot. A first interactive programming guide may be caused to be displayed on a first media content device associated with the profile, where the first interactive programming guide comprises the personalized lineup.
US09877077B2

Systems, methods, and media for managing an entertainment system are provided. In some implementations, systems for managing an entertainment system are provided, the systems comprising: at least one hardware processor configured to: detect a first instruction; select a component of the entertainment system; determine a first state of the component; store an indication of the first state; detect a second instruction; retrieve the indication of the first state; generate a third instruction based on the indication of the first state; and transmit the third instruction to the component of the entertainment system.
US09877073B2

A method for placeshifting media content with the use of a suspend mode includes the steps of receiving media content at a placeshifting device, receiving a request at the placeshifting device from a mobile device to initiate transmission of the media content from the placeshifting device to the mobile device, and in response to the request, transmitting the media content from the placeshifting device to the mobile device. The method further includes the steps of detecting an interruption of the transmission of the media content and based on the detecting the interruption, entering a suspend mode at the placeshifting device wherein transmission of the media content is temporarily suspended. Still further, the method includes the steps of detecting a resumption of ability to transmit media content and based on the detecting the resumption, exiting the suspend mode and resuming transmitting the media content from the placeshifting device to the mobile device. The resumed transmission begins a point in time of the media content at which entry into the suspend mode occurred.
US09877058B2

A method for presenting advertisements based on emotion of a viewer is provided. A first emotional state of a viewer wearing smart glasses is detected using first sensor data captured by a sensor of the glasses. A rate is set according to the detected first emotional state. A set of advertisements is displayed on the smart glasses according to the set rate while a movie is played so that the advertisements are perceived by the viewer as overlaying the movie.
US09877057B2

Systems and methods for providing and receiving addressable content may include an electronic device for receiving the content. The electronic device may receive a first data stream including targeting data criteria for a plurality of assets at the electronic device. The electronic device may determine a subset of the plurality of assets for storage on the electronic device. The electronic device may also receive a second data stream including the plurality of assets. The electronic device may identify each asset of the subset of the plurality of assets within the second data stream, and may store each asset of the subset of the plurality of assets at the electronic device.
US09877056B1

A video hosting service receives and processes a source video to generate an efficiently compressed media file. The source video is transcoded to an intermediate video and corresponding audio. The video hosting service selects a subset of video frames from the intermediate video as still images and identifies the timing information associated with each selected still image. The selection process may be dependent on information associated with the video such as a video classification. The video hosting service encodes the selected still images and the audio data of the source video, and generates a compressed media file for transmission to a client device. The compressed media file does not include motion data associated with the selected still images to reduce the size of the compressed media file. A client device receives the compressed media file and plays the still images and associated audio data.
US09877055B2

A system and method for streaming video with dynamic user features enable content distribution systems to increase a user's total watch time. A user behavior server proposes additional watch recommendations to a user in response to detecting certain user behavior. Autoplay and autoscroll functionality is provided that permits a user to browse a video feed during playback of selected content. Global play and pause modes are disclosed that allow a user to select a preferred playback mode and have that mode persist across session and application launches.
US09877047B2

Sampled data is packaged in checkerboard format for encoding and decoding. The sampled data may be quincunx sampled multi-image video data (e.g., 3D video or a multi-program stream), and the data may also be divided into sub-images of each image which are then multiplexed, or interleaved, in frames of a video stream to be encoded and then decoded using a standardized video encoder. A system for viewing may utilize a standard video decoder and a formatting device that de-interleaves the decoded sub-images of each frame reformats the images for a display device. A 3D video may be encoded using a most advantageous interleaving format such that a preferred quality and compression ratio is reached. In one embodiment, the invention includes a display device that accepts data in multiple formats.
US09877040B2

A predictive coding system can encode motion vectors by determining a motion vector of a target partition in a frame picture of an encoding target; determining a first motion vector predictor candidate from a motion vector or motion vectors of one or more partitions belonging to a left-neighboring region to the target partition; determining a second motion vector predictor candidate from a motion vector or motion vectors of one or more partitions belonging to an above-neighboring region to the target partition; selecting an optimum motion vector predictor and outputting motion vector predictor indication information to specify the selected optimum motion vector predictor, the optimum motion vector predictor selected based on comparison between one or more motion vector predictor candidates including the first motion vector predictor candidate and the second motion vector predictor candidate, and the motion vector of the target partition; and encoding the motion vector predictor indication information.
US09877039B2

Provided is an apparatus for encoding a moving picture that determines a quantization step size of a previous coding block according to scan order as the quantization step size predictor of the current coding block when a quantization step size of a left coding block of a current coding block and a quantization step size of an above coding block of the current coding block are unavailable and determines an available motion vector encountered first when retrieving motion vectors in the order of motion vector of a first predetermined position and motion vector of a second predetermined position in a reference picture as a temporal motion vector candidate. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the amount of coding bits required to encode motion information and the quantization step size of the current prediction block.
US09877030B2

The present disclosure provides an apparatus for encoding additional intra-information includes an intra prediction mode selecting unit for performing an intra prediction by applying at least one of one or more predetermined types of partitions and one or more prediction modes with respect to a coding unit, and for selecting at least one of a partition among the one or more types of partitions and a prediction mode among the one or more prediction modes; a partitioning and prediction mode table lookup unit for looking up a table, and for generating a table hit signal if the table has at least one of a partition corresponding to the selected partition and a prediction mode corresponding to the selected prediction mode; and an entropy encoding unit for performing an encoding based on the table, if the table hit signal is received.
US09877029B2

An example method of coding video data includes determining, for a current block of video data, a palette that includes a plurality of entries that each corresponds to a respective color value; determining a particular entry in the palette that is predicted to correspond to a color value of a current pixel of the current block; selecting a binarization from a plurality of binarizations; and coding, using the selected binarization, an index that indicates which entry in the palette corresponds to a color value for a current pixel of the current block, wherein coding the index using a first binarization of the plurality of binarizations comprises coding a syntax element that indicates whether the index is equal to the particular entry, and wherein coding the index using a second binarization of the plurality of binarizations comprises coding the index using a variable length code without coding the syntax element.
US09877028B2

Provided are encoding and decoding methods and apparatuses for a video by selectively determining and using a scan mode. The video encoding method includes: generating transformation coefficients by performing transformation based on a transformation unit to encode an image; determining a scan mode, from among a plurality of scan modes, indicating a scanning direction of the generated transformation coefficients, based on characteristics of the transformation coefficients; and determining and outputting an encoding order of the generated transformation coefficients based on the scanning direction of the determined scan mode.
US09877022B2

A method of analyzing an array of pixel-to-pixel dissimilarity values to identify a pixel which has a low pixel-to-pixel dissimilarity value and which has neighboring pixels which have a low pixel-to-pixel dissimilarity value; the method comprising filtering the pixel-to-pixel dissimilarity values and varying the spatial extent of the filter aperture in dependence upon a picture spatial activity measure.
US09877016B2

Systems and methods are described include defining, at a computing device, a set of images based on captured images, projecting, at the computing device, a portion of the set of images from a planar perspective image plane onto a spherical image plane by recasting a plurality of viewing rays associated with the portion of the set of images from a plurality of viewpoints arranged around a curved path to a viewpoint, determining, at the computing device, a periphery boundary corresponding to the viewpoint and generating updated images by removing pixels that are outside of the periphery boundary, and providing, for display, the updated images within the bounds of the periphery boundary.
US09877015B2

The present application discloses a user information extraction method and a user information extraction apparatus. The method comprises: acquiring an image comprising at least one digital watermark; acquiring user related information corresponding to a user and comprised in the at least one digital watermark in the image; and projecting the user related information to a fundus of the user. In the present application, user related information used in a certain scenario is extracted in the corresponding scenario and projected onto a fundus of a user, and therefore, the user does not need to memorize the user related information, thereby avoiding inconvenience caused when the user forgets the user related information.
US09877011B2

An image display apparatus for converting an image into a virtual viewpoint image so that the image of an object is not distorted.
US09877006B2

An image pickup apparatus is an image pickup apparatus capable of acquiring an image of an object in gas and in liquid, the image pickup apparatus including: an image pickup optical system; an image pickup device; a controlling portion configured to make an in-gas judgment if a vignetting portion is detected in an image signal and make an in-liquid judgment if a vignetting portion is not detected in the image signal; and a display data generating portion configured to generate certain display data corresponding to in-gas image pickup if the in-gas judgment is made and generate other display data corresponding to in-liquid image pickup if the in-liquid judgment is made.
US09876994B2

According to one aspect, personalized vehicle ambient lighting on a vehicle is provided. Presence information associated with a user is detected. Image color information is captured from an image is taken by a camera such that the user is within the image. Image color information associated with the user is extracted from the image. Red, green, blue (RGB) color values indicative of a color associated with the user are created. A light emitting diode (LED) activation scheme based on the RGB color values associated with the user is generated. Portions of a plurality of RGB LEDs are activated based on the LED activation scheme.
US09876992B2

An imaging apparatus in an embodiment includes lens optical systems each including a lens whose surface closest to the target object is shaped to be convex toward the target object, imaging regions which respectively face the lens optical systems and output a photoelectrically converted signal corresponding to an amount of light transmitting the lens optical systems and received by the imaging regions, and a light-transmissive cover which covers an exposed portion of the lens of each of the lens optical systems and a portion between the lens of one of the lens optical systems and the lens of another one of the lens optical systems adjacent to the one of the lens optical systems, the cover having a curved portion which is convex toward the target object. The optical axes of the lens optical systems are parallel to each other.
US09876989B2

A striped composed video image is disclosed, in which a main segment image is displayed with a strip of small strip segments. The strip of small strip segments is composed from a plurality of video images from a plurality of video streams. A user may pull video from the strip into the main segment. The strip of small strip segments may scrolled without affecting the main segment.
US09876983B2

An accessory component for a standardized component without a power source output is provided. The standardized component includes a communication device. The accessory component includes a data input port and a power input port. The data input port is configured to receive a data signal from the standardized component. The power input port is configured to receive a transmit signal from the communication device. The accessory component is configured to process the data signal using power provided by the transmit signal.
US09876980B2

Vehicle exterior images are captured sequentially by an imaging portion of an imaging-equipped mobile terminal used in a first vehicle and stored temporarily in an image temporary-storage portion in the first vehicle. The first vehicle receives vehicle information from a second vehicle different from the first vehicle, through inter-vehicle communication. When it is determined that a sudden deceleration arises in the second vehicle based on the vehicle information received by the first vehicle, the vehicle exterior images stored in the image temporary-storage portion are read and saved in a memory.
US09876977B2

A solid-state imaging device includes a plurality of pixels arrayed in a matrix, a plurality of first latch circuits, a first read bit line, a plurality of first driver circuits, a first amplifier, a second latch circuit, a second driver circuit, and a column scanning circuit. Each of the plurality of first latch circuits holds first pixel data which is obtained from a pixel located on the corresponding unit column. Each of the plurality of first driver circuits outputs the first pixel data, which is held in a corresponding one of the first latch circuits, to the first read bit line. The first amplifier amplifies a voltage of the first read bit line to generate first data. The second latch circuit holds the first data. The column scanning circuit sequentially outputs a plurality of the first pixel data by sequentially selecting the plurality of first driver circuits and selecting the second driver circuit. The second driver circuit outputs the first data to a read bit line different from the first read bit line.
US09876974B2

An endoscope is an endoscope connectable to a processor provided with a high frequency component enhancement circuit configured to perform, for an image pickup signal having an attenuated high frequency component, enhancement correction of the high frequency component, the endoscope including: a CMOS image sensor provided with an image pickup portion configured to pick up an optical image of a subject and generate an analog image pickup signal and an A/D converting portion configured to convert the analog image pickup signal to a digital image pickup signal and output the digital image pickup signal; a cable for transmitting the digital image pickup signal; and a filter having frequency characteristics equalizing frequency characteristics of the high frequency component enhancement circuit.
US09876969B2

An apparatus and method for characterization of a directed beam of electromagnetic radiation is provided. An exemplary embodiment of the invention can include an apparatus and measuring technique method which uses a model for blackbody radiation that includes consideration all the degrees of freedom due to translation, vibration, and rotation of molecules or atoms that make up the absorber and a heat transfer term which averages the behavior of all the atoms of the material as a function of temperature. This apparatus and method provides an advantage of increased accuracy, substantial reductions of time required for processing, simplification of measuring processes, and reduction required equipment.
US09876966B2

An image processing method applied to an image processing system comprising an image sensor. The image processing method comprises: (a) capturing a plurality of first images via the image sensor applying a first resolution; (b) computing an image variation tendency for the first images; and (c) controlling the image sensor to apply a second resolution higher than the first resolution if the image variation tendency matches a predetermined tendency. An image processing system applying the image processing method is also disclosed.
US09876955B2

A standby process controller includes a mode control unit which is on standby without starting a standby-in process when a power-off signal is detected, stops audio and image output of an operation execution unit, sets a pre-standby mode to an electronic device so as to allow a standby-in process to be started and ended at any time, and releases the setting of the pre-standby mode when a power-on signal is detected, and a standby-in process start control unit which starts the standby-in process when a predetermined time elapses since the pre-standby mode is set. A standby-out process can be immediately performed in a case where a user performs a power-on operation within several seconds after a power-off operation is performed.
US09876954B2

Example apparatus and methods produce image correction data for a lens or sensor based on individual images acquired under different operating parameters. Example apparatus and methods then produce strip correction data based on a strip of images pieced together from the individual images. Example apparatus and methods then produce panoramic image correction data based on a panoramic image pieced together from two or more strips of images. The strip of images is produced without using a hemispherical mirror and thus accounts more accurately for issues associated with making a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional spherical volume. Images are acquired using different imaging parameters (e.g., focal length, pan position, tilt position) under different imaging conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, pan rate, tilt rate) to account for aberrations that may appear or be exacerbated under operating conditions. Example apparatus and methods then correct images using the correction data.
US09876952B2

A multi-aperture imaging system comprising a first camera with a first sensor that captures a first image and a second camera with a second sensor that captures a second image, the two cameras having either identical or different FOVs. The first sensor may have a standard color filter array (CFA) covering one sensor section and a non-standard color CFA covering another. The second sensor may have either Clear or standard CFA covered sections. Either image may be chosen to be a primary or an auxiliary image, based on a zoom factor. An output image with a point of view determined by the primary image is obtained by registering the auxiliary image to the primary image.
US09876949B2

A camera module and array camera module with circuit board unit and photosensitive unit and manufacturing method thereof is provided. The array camera module comprises two or more camera lenses and a circuit unit. The circuit unit comprises a circuit board portion for electrically connecting two or more photosensitive sensors of the array camera module, and a conjoined encapsulation portion integrally encapsulated on the circuit board portion. The camera lenses are respectively arranged along the photosensitive paths of the photosensitive sensors.
US09876943B2

A system and method for color management of a color printer for correcting color drift using a single unified calibration tone reproduction curve (TRC). The unified calibration TRC may be applied to destination profiles for all halftones during printing. When printer drift occurs, only the unified calibration TRC is recalibrated to create a new unified calibration TRC which is subsequently applied to the destination profiles for all color halftones during printing to correct the color output of the color printer.
US09876937B1

Methods and devices create a first halftone image and a different second halftone image from a continuous tone image. A third halftone image is produced by identifying pixels that are common to both the first and second halftone images. A toner reduction mask is applied to the third halftone image to produce a fourth halftone image (the fourth halftone image has only holes and remaining ones of the common pixels). The holes are added to the first halftone image to create a reduced-toner halftone image. Further, edges of features within the continuous tone image are detected (to identify edge pixels of the edge features) and such edge pixels are added to the reduced-toner halftone image to produce a print-ready halftone image. Finally, such methods print the print-ready halftone image on print media.
US09876933B2

A job processing system includes: a job processing apparatus configured to execute an input job; and a plurality of terminals configured to receive an operation to set a job to be input to the job processing apparatus including: a processor configured to have a function of acquiring setting information indicating setting contents of a job for which a terminal has received a setting operation from a user by a first method and a second method; and a saving unit configured to save job setting information, the processor being configured to determine whether a first job setting operation is to be taken over by another terminal, and combine first job setting information with setting information about a job corresponding to a job setting operation received from a user by another terminal, and the job processing apparatus accepting an input of the first job.
US09876929B2

An image output device includes a transmitting unit and a receiving unit. The transmitting unit transmits, via visible-light communication, information for identifying the image output device as a destination of second communication different from the visible-light communication. The receiving unit receives a print instruction from a mobile information processing device via the second communication in accordance with the information. The transmitting unit stops emission of light for the visible-light communication in response to receipt of the print instruction by the receiving unit.
US09876924B2

An image reading device includes an accommodation section, an aligning member, a reading member, and a width detector. The accommodation section accommodates at least one document. The aligning member is provided in the accommodation section, is supported in a movable manner in a width direction intersecting a transport direction of the document, and aligns a widthwise edge of the document. The reading member reads an image of the document passing through a read position preset in a transport path. The width detector detects a width of the document based on a widthwise position of the aligning member if the document is of a typical size, and detects the width of the document based on the image read by the reading member if the document is of an atypical size.
US09876922B2

Provided is an image forming apparatus that is able to concentrate user access, and maintain a high degree of usability. The image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus with a short-range wireless communication antenna that includes a main unit that performs image formation, and an operation unit that includes a touch-panel device and that is attached to the front of the main unit. The antenna is located in a space at the top inside a housing of the operation unit where the touch-panel device is not located.
US09876904B2

A method of communicating information describing a voice call from a caller device to a recipient device. Call subject information describing the call is obtained from the caller device and sent to the recipient device to inform the recipient about the subject of the call. The call subject information is can be presented as a subject line displayed to on the recipient device to inform the recipient about the nature of the call and/or its urgency, thereby enabling the recipient to better determined whether to answer the call. The call subject information can be input by the caller or extracted automatically from an application from which the call was initiated.
US09876901B1

Aspects of the disclosure simulate a conversation over a real-time communication system and a reference script shared between the communication devices serves as a basis for comparison against the received speech-recognized conversation. A method of evaluating call quality of a real-time communication system that includes at least two communication devices is disclosed that includes receiving a reference script, the reference script containing linguistic contents of an audio signal being sent to one of the communication devices; generating an evaluation transcript by applying speech recognition to the audio signal being received; comparing the reference script with the evaluation transcript; and generating a call quality metric of the real-time communication system based on the comparison. The call quality metric may also include a communication delay which may be evaluated by determining a duration of a speaking turn; determining a duration of a listening turn from the audio signal being received by one of the communication devices; and estimating a communication delay of the audio signal based on the duration of the speaking turn and the listening turn.
US09876898B2

A system and method for providing a user interface that allows users to change the active line on which an outgoing call may be placed. In example embodiments, upon detecting call screen interaction a line selection menu is displayed. The line selection menu contains a plurality of line identifiers, each line identifier uniquely identifying a corresponding one of the multiple communication lines accessible at the mobile device. A system and method is also presented for providing a call log for identifying call activity associated with a plurality of communication lines.
US09876897B2

A communication apparatus includes a controller that prohibits data communication by default, receives a request for data communication from an application, permits data communication of the application in accordance with a UID of the application issuing the request, and prohibits data communication of the application depending on an ID of a group to which the application issuing the request belongs.
US09876891B2

The invention is directed to handshake determination. An exemplary method comprises: receiving first handshake information associated with a first device; receiving second handshake information associated with a second device; determining a handshake occurred between a first person associated with the first device and a second person associated with the second device based on the first handshake information and the second handshake information; sharing the first person's contact information with the second person; and sharing the second person's contact information with the first person.
US09876888B2

A wearable device, such as a smart watch, detects a movement by a user, and the wearable device may compare the detected user movement to known movement patterns to identify a social interaction. The wearable device may forward a notice to an associated mobile device, such as a smart phone paired to the wearable device, and the notice may identify the detected social interaction. The mobile device identifies another user involved with the social interaction, such as another user performing a movement similar to the movement detected by the wearable device. The mobile device may exchange contact information with another mobile device associated with the other user.
US09876876B2

A client computer batch message transaction group is created that includes a set of client computers from which messages are committed as a batch messaging transaction to a single message reception queue. In response to receiving separate messages from at least two of the set of client computers within the client computer batch message transaction group, the separate messages are grouped under the batch messaging transaction as a single unit of work to commit to the single message reception queue. A single batch transaction commit decision is computed based upon whether a write of each of the separate messages grouped within the single unit of work to the single message reception queue is successful.
US09876873B1

In some implementations, caching techniques may be employed by a web server that receives various requests from remotely-located client devices, retrieves requested results from an on-site database server, and transmits the results back to the client devices. These caching techniques generally relate to caching retrieved results at the web server such that the web server may be able to directly provide client devices with results without having to retrieve them from the database server every time a request is received. Application of these techniques may improve response times and provide back-end bandwidth savings.
US09876872B1

A method for self-notification avoidance in a push notification system is provided. The method includes receiving, at a server configured to provide a push notification service, a notification from one of a plurality of endpoint devices to be pushed to the plurality of endpoint devices, wherein the plurality of endpoint devices has a shared identifier, and wherein the one of the plurality of endpoint devices has a globally unique identifier (GUID). The method includes identifying, at the server, the globally unique identifier in the notification and pushing the notification from the server to each of the plurality of endpoint devices having the shared identifier except the one of the plurality of endpoint devices that has the globally unique identifier.
US09876867B2

Technologies for informing a user of available social information about the user include detecting the presence of a friend of the user within proximity to the user, identifying social information that has been published by the user to one or more social networking sites and accessible by the friend, and displaying the identified social information to the user. The social information may be identified based on the social networking sites on which the user and friend are interconnected. Additionally, social information marked by the friend may be determined as having been accessed by the friend. The social information may be displayed in the user in a various ways and may be arranged based on relevancy, recency, importance, or other criteria.
US09876865B1

Systems and methods for efficient prioritized restoration of services implemented in a node in a network utilizing a control plane include, responsive to detecting a fault on a link adjacent to the node, releasing higher priority services affected by the fault immediately via control plane signaling such that the higher priority services mesh restore; maintaining a list of the released higher priority services; tracking mesh restoration of the released higher priority services; and releasing lower priority services based on the tracking, subsequent to the immediate mesh restoration of the higher priority services.
US09876863B2

Method, device, network and network entity for providing at least one Internet Protocol, IP, service application from a subscriber's multimedia device in an IP multimedia network. The method comprises executing at least one IP service application on the device and/or on an auxiliary device associated with the device. A Domain Name System, DNS, service is provided being executed on the device the DNS service relating to a domain associated with the subscriber. The DNS service has a memory associated therewith. In the memory information is stored relating to DNS resource records in accordance with the at least one IP service application that is being executed on the device and/or in the auxiliary device at that moment. An indication of the device's capability to execute a DNS service is deposited with the IP multimedia network. The indication comprises a network address on which the DNS service can be reached for a DNS query.
US09876858B2

The invention relates to a method for configuring a connection between a second device (110) and a first device (130). The first device (130) requests (302) a broker system (140) by providing a unique IDentifier identifying the First device (130), ID-F, to supply a Uniform Resource Locator associated with the First device (130), URL-F, wherein URL-F points to a resource at a data storage device (120). The second device (110) detects (402) from a computer readable medium (840) associated with the first device (130), the ID-F of the first device (130), and requests (403) the broker system (140) by providing the detected ID-F and a unique IDentifier identifying the Second device (110), ID-S, to add (406) a resource for the second device (110) at the data storage device (120), the second resource having a Uniform Resource Locator URL-S, and to supply (411) the URL-S to the second device (110).
US09876845B2

Embodiments of this disclosure belong to the data processing field and disclose a method and apparatus for data transmission. The method comprises sending a first request to a server in response to a first file locally cached having expired. The first request is for obtaining a first file in a new version, and the first request containing a first version identifier. The first version identifier being for indicating a version of the first file locally cached. Receiving a first response includes difference information and a second version identifier. The difference information makes it possible to obtain the first file in the new version based on the first file locally cached, and the second version identifier is for indicating the new version. The first file in the new version is obtained based on the difference information and the first file locally cached. Using the technical solution provided by the present embodiment(s), pressures on network transmission are reduced.
US09876839B2

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with data stream classification are described. One example method includes identifying packets associated with the data stream. The example method may also include updating a set of characterization data associated with the data stream based on information associated with a packet. The example method may also include assigning a data stream classifier to the data stream by comparing characterization data to identification data upon determining that the set of characterization data indicates that the data stream is able to be classified. The example method may also include providing a signal associated with the data stream classifier.
US09876838B2

A method, a device, and a non-transitory storage medium having instructions to store data that provides mappings between criteria information and lists of codecs; receive an indication that one of an audio session, a video session, or an audio and video session is to be initiated with another device; obtain one or more criteria metric values in response to a receipt of the indication; select one of the lists of codecs from the data based on one of the mappings and the one or more criteria metric values; transmit the one of the lists of codecs to the other device via a wireless network; receive a response, via the wireless network, from the other device, wherein the response indicates one of the codecs; and use the one of the codecs during the one of the audio session, the video session, or the audio and video session.
US09876837B2

A processor that processes encoded media is configured so as to apply constraints to the encoded bitstream. Such constraints are not those required by a specification of a standard with which the encoded media is compliant; instead such constraints reflect portions of the standard that are insufficiently constrained and are applied by the processor to ensure that the processor does not experience performance degradation or errors. The constraints can be applied, for example, as a preprocessing step before reading, writing or decoding the bitstream, or while the bitstream is being decoded, or while the bitstream is being received from a transmission.
US09876828B1

Various implementations related to collaborative design are described. In one such implementation, a computer-implemented method includes receiving, using one or more computing devices, input from a second user selecting to remix an existing design of a first user; generating, using the one or more computing devices, a new version of the existing design including one or more layers from the existing design; receiving, using the one or more computing devices, one or more design inputs from the second user, the one or more design inputs remixing at least one of the one or more layers included from the existing design; applying, using the one or more computing devices, the one or more design inputs to the new version of the existing design to create a remixed design; and sharing, via a computer network, the remixed design with one or more other users.
US09876823B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, in a system of an external verifier of a first network, a plurality of attestation reports and a plurality of attestation values from a plurality of reporting nodes of the first network, each of the plurality of attestation values randomly generated in the corresponding reporting node based on a common random seed value; determining whether at least a threshold number of the plurality of attestation values match; responsive to at least the threshold number of the plurality of attestation values matching, decrypting the plurality of attestation reports, processing the decrypted plurality of attestation reports to obtain aggregated telemetry data of the plurality of nodes, where identity of the plurality of nodes remains anonymous to the external verifier; and enforcing a security policy based at least in part on the aggregated telemetry data. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09876822B2

A cloud infrastructure is enhanced to provide a context-based security assurance service to enable secure application deployment. The service inspects network and cloud topologies to identify potential security capabilities and needs. Preferably, these options are then surfaced to the user with easy-to-understand, pre-configured templates representing security assurance levels. When a template (e.g., representing a pre-configured assurance level) is selected by the user, the system then applies specific capabilities and controls to translate the user-selected generalized specification (e.g., “high security”) into granular requirements for a specific set of security resources. Preferably, the identification of these security resources is based on system configuration, administration, and information associated with the pre-configured template.
US09876821B2

A communications system is provided. A network device (9) controls the setting up of a device to device communication link, as sent between a device in the core network (7) and the base station(s) (5) servicing the relevant mobile devices (3), including disclosure of the common security information for two mobile devices to communicate securely over the direct device to device communications link.
US09876816B2

A system for detecting security vulnerabilities in web applications, the system including, a black-box tester configured to provide a payload to a web application during a first interaction with the web application at a computer server, where the payload includes a payload instruction and an identifier, and an execution engine configured to detect the identifier within the payload received during an interaction with the web application subsequent to the first interaction, and determine, responsive to detecting the identifier within the payload, whether the payload instruction underwent a security check prior to execution of the payload instruction.
US09876814B2

Apparatus and techniques for determining whether a domain name has been generated by a domain generation algorithm (DGA) are disclosed. A first domain name is classified as either a likely domain generation algorithm (DGA) domain name or a likely non-DGA domain name, based on one or more features of the first domain name. In addition, statistics are determined regarding requests for the first domain name. Additional domain names are identified that share an infrastructure with the first domain name. A determination is made regarding whether the first domain name and/or one or more of the additional domain names are likely to have been generated by a DGA, based on a result of one or more of the classifying, the statistics, or the identifying. A security vulnerability related to one or more of the likely DGA domain names is then mitigated.
US09876808B2

A method for detecting an intrusion in a network is disclosed. The network includes a plurality of nodes for data transmission/reception and switches for relaying flow transmission/reception between the nodes, and an intrusion detection system (IDS) is combined with the network to form a system The method includes: installing SDN-enabled switches for flow sampling in the network to connect them to SDN controllers; determining, by the SDN controller, the number of network flows and the number of switches; deriving a sampling rate for each of the SDN-enabled switches; forwarding, by the switches, packet information sampled at respective sampling rates to the IDS; and identifying, by the IDS, malicious data based on the packet information to update the sampling rate of each of the SDN switches.
US09876802B2

There is disclosed a computing apparatus including a first context within which first processing activity may be performed and a second context within which second processing activity may be performed independent of the first processing activity, the apparatus further may include input and/or output channels with which the first and second contexts may communicate and a switch function operated by a selector; whereby operation of the selector by a user selectively allows communication between the first context and/or the second context (of the first part) and the input and/or output channels (of the second part). An indicator is provided to indicate which context is in communication with the input/output channels.
US09876801B1

Methods, systems, apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable media are described for identifying users who are likely to have unauthorized access to secure data files in an organizational network. Various aspects may include presenting the identified users on a display for a system administrator and/or security analyst to resolve. For example, the display may include a graph data structure with users represented as nodes and connections between users represented as edges. Each connection may be a pair of users belonging to a same security group. Nodes of the graph data structure may be clustered according to a clustering coefficient. Moreover, the graph data structure display may be organized and color coded in such a manner, that a system administrator and/or security analyst may quickly and easily view the users who are most likely to have unauthorized access to secure data files. The authorized access may then be remedied or taken away.
US09876782B2

A system and method for facilitating users to obfuscate user credentials in credential responses for user authentication are disclosed. A string sequence may be presented to a user for prompting the user to input credential characters sequentially but not continuously. The string sequence may comprise a set of prompt strings containing a prompt character sequence associated with the user and a set of noise strings that do not contain the prompt character sequence. The individual prompt strings in the set of prompt strings may be composed by obfuscating the prompt sequence among noise characters. A user credential response may be received and a user provided credential may be extracted from the received user credential for user authentication.
US09876767B2

User equipment decrypt information received in a first frame over an air interface during device-to-device (D2D) communication with another user equipment. The information is decrypted using a cryptographic function that is applied to a security key and a first frame number of the first frame.
US09876761B2

A method of determining an address corresponding to a most probable physical location of an electronic device associated with a user is executable on a computer device and comprises receiving geolocation data from the electronic device. Based on received geolocation data, at least two probable physical locations of the electronic device will be found, with each of the at least two probable physical locations corresponding to a physical entity. Each physical entity is selected from a predetermined list and is associated with a physical entity type. A user interaction history is established, with respect to the at least two physical entities.
US09876760B2

A relay service enables two peers attempting to communicate with one another to each connect to a publicly-accessible relay server, which servers are associated with an overlay network and are selected by a directory service. After end-to-end connectivity is established, preferably the hosts communicate with each other by relaying data packets via the overlay network relay servers. Communications (both connection control messages and data being relayed) between a host and a relay server occurs at an application layer using a modified version of the TURN protocol.
US09876759B2

Described herein are techniques for providing carrier grade dynamic network address translation (NAT). The disclosed techniques allow for dynamic switching from regular NAT to network address ports translation (NAPT) based on system load. Under the NAPT mode, the disclosed techniques allow the ports of a public IP address to be broken up into contiguous blocks of ports (e.g., of the same size and/or of varying size) such that each block can be assigned to an associated (e.g., different) private IP address. For each new connection from the private IP address, if the port used is the next port sequentially, the NAT device can store an offset from the starting public/private IP address ports. If the port is not the next port sequentially, the network address translation device can associate a new block of public ports to the private IP address.
US09876744B2

An information sending method and an information sending apparatus are provided, which relate to the field of wireless communication processing technologies. A method includes receiving target information sent to at least one target receiving device by a sender, and determining, according to state information of a receiver device corresponding to the at least one target receiving device, a forwarding policy of forwarding the target information to the receiver device. A sending policy can be determined according to state information of a receiver device, so that a receiver acquires information as much as it does not change a current state, thereby improving user experience of the receiver.
US09876742B2

Techniques to select and prioritize the application of spam filtering rules in a way that reduces processing time may include receiving an email message for a recipient at a spam filter and extracting email characteristics from the message. Global filtering rule statistics and a profile for the recipient may be retrieved. The technique may include selecting a subset of rules from a set of filtering rules according to the email characteristics, the global filtering rule statistics, and/or the recipient characteristics. The subset of rules may be prioritized and applied to the message from highest priority to lowest until a determination of whether the message is spam is reached. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09876740B2

Techniques are disclosed for improving management of user information in instant messaging systems. Expiration criteria are defined, whereby one or more users or user groups may be considered as having “expired” from consideration by instant messaging functions such as presence determination. In particular, instant messaging activity is preferably used as an expiration criterion. Absence of inbound or outbound messages for a specified amount of time (or since a particular date/time) can therefore be used as a trigger for treating a user or group of users as expired. As a result, efficiency of an instant messaging system is improved by omitting the expired users and groups from subsequent management operations. Optionally, an expired user or group may be revived upon occurrence of certain events (such as a newly-arriving instant message from, or a change in presence status of, the user or group).
US09876737B2

Methods and systems for supporting efficient load balancing among a plurality of switches and a plurality of end nodes arranged in a tree topology in a network environment. The methods and systems can sort the plurality of end nodes, wherein the plurality of end nodes are sorted in a decreasing order of a receive weight. The method and system may further route, in the decreasing order of receive weights, the plurality of end nodes, wherein the routing comprises selecting at least one down-going port and at least one up-going port. Further, the method and system can increase an accumulated downward weight on each selected down-going port by the receive weight of the routed end node, and increase an accumulated upward weight on each selected up-going port by the receive weight of the routed end node.
US09876733B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of communications technologies, and disclose a resource reservation method and system, and a convergence device. The method includes: receiving, by a convergence device, a first resource reservation request message based on a format of a first interface and that is from a policy server (PS); converting, by the convergence device, the first resource reservation request message into a second resource reservation request message based on a format of a second interface; and sending, by the convergence device, the second resource reservation request message based on the format of the second interface to a modulation and demodulation system, so that the modulation and demodulation system performs resource reservation according to the second resource reservation request message.
US09876731B2

A system and method for on demand provisioning of applications to clients, the system providing on demand access to applications by clients and their users over a computer communication system such as the Internet, thereby eliminating the need for clients to independently purchase, install, integrate and maintain the applications on their own systems. The system and method designed to create and install a separate, stand alone, dedicated copy or instance of the applications for each new client and to provide the clients with on demand access to provisioning and management functions allowing the clients to purchase, manage and maintain the applications on demand.
US09876729B1

An emulation system for efficient data streaming is provided. The emulation system comprises a first device configured to product machine readable binary data, and a second device configured to receive the data. The emulation system further comprises a centralized first-in first-out (FIFO) memory unit. The centralized FIFO memory unit interfaces between the first device and the second device. The centralized FIFO memory unit is configured to receive the data from the first device, and transmit to the second device on receiving a transfer request from the first device or the second device.
US09876721B2

A method provides for the dynamic traffic prioritization in a communication network. The method electronically monitors traffic in a communication network and determines when traffic exceeds configured thresholds on the links of the communication network. Thus, the method determines a link which is potentially about to be congested in the communication network. The method categorizes the traffic on this link by an end system attached to one end of the potentially congested link into a plurality of priority categories using application layer parameters. Using a re-direct capability of the end system, the method re-directs at least one of the pluralities of priority categories of traffic to an alternate Internet Protocol address. The method uses preconfigured Quality of Service mechanisms on the provider edge router attached to the other end of the potentially congested link to guarantee a predetermined amount of bandwidth capacity of the link to traffic destined to the alternate Internet Protocol address.
US09876719B2

A forwarding engine in a network device selects one or more groups of multiple egress interfaces of the network device for forwarding packets received by the network device. An egress interface selector in the network device selects individual egress interfaces within the one or more groups selected by the forwarding engine. The egress interface selector includes a table associated with a first group of multiple egress interfaces, wherein elements in the table include values indicate individual egress interfaces in the first group. When the forwarding engine selects the first group, a table element selector of selects an element in the table to identify the individual egress interface for forwarding the packet.
US09876714B2

In order to enable dynamic scaling of network services at the edge, novel systems and methods are provided to enable addition of add new nodes or removal of existing nodes while retaining the affinity of the flows through the stateful services. The methods provide a cluster of network nodes that can be dynamically resized to handle and process network traffic that utilizes stateful network services. The existing traffic flows through the edge continue to function during and after the changes to membership of the cluster. All nodes in the cluster operate in active-active mode, i.e., they are receiving and processing traffic flows, thereby maximizing the utilization of the available processing power.
US09876707B2

Interest in multicast group membership may be advertised via a routing system on an Ethernet network along with an indication of an algorithm to be used by the nodes on the network to calculate the distribution tree or trees for the multicast. Each node, upon receipt of the advertisement, will determine the algorithm that is to be used to produce the multicast tree and will use the algorithm to calculate whether it is on a path between nodes advertising common interest in the multicast. Example algorithms may include shortest path algorithms and spanning tree algorithms. This allows multicast membership to be managed via the routing control plane, while enabling spanning tree processes to be used to forward multicast traffic. Since spanning tree is able to install multicast state per service rather than per source per service, this reduces the amount of forwarding state required to implement multicasts on the routed Ethernet mesh network.
US09876699B2

A system and method for generating a report in real-time from a resource management system includes: receiving a plurality of parameters related to the report from a user; identifying required data from the resource management system based on the plurality of parameters; extracting refined data from the resource management system based on the identified required data using a data mining algorithm; and generating a report in real-time based on the extracted refined data.
US09876698B2

Methods, systems, and computer program product embodiments for controlling congestion in a storage grid, by a processor device, are provided. In a storage grid, a storage request transmit queue length is monitored. Upon reaching at least one of a certain threshold, a watermarked message is transmitted to a receiving node, the receiving node altering storage requests based upon the watermarked message.
US09876689B1

Systems, methods, and software for providing a virtualized communication networking environment are provided herein. In one example, a method includes identifying a media access control address for a network interface of a virtual machine, the media access control address comprising at least one communication network indicator associated with a virtualized local area network. If a virtual network element has not been generated for handling traffic associated with the network interface of the virtual machine, then generating the virtual network element and associating the virtual network element with the virtualized local area network based on the communication network indicator. When the virtual network element has been generated, then assigning the network interface of the virtual machine to the virtual network element associated with the virtualized local area network based on the communication network indicator of the media access control address.
US09876686B2

The invention provides a set of mechanisms by which a wireless mobile mesh node equipped with a directional antenna may self form and self adapt its steady-state communications schedule. A link establishment handshake is carried out over an ongoing subtemplate-based discovery scan. During time not reserved for steady-state communications with previously discovered neighbors, nodes continue to search for an establish links with new neighbors. Initial and subsequent bandwidth allocation protocols may be utilized to allow peer nodes to coordinate communication opportunities between the peer nodes without impacting or having knowledge about reservations for communications with other peers. The link establishment and initial bandwidth allocation protocols may be piggy-backed for readily establishing an initial steady-state schedule with a peer upon link establishment without impact on previous steady state reservations by other nodes or on ongoing link establishment attempts elsewhere.
US09876685B2

A system for configuring one or more flows of captured data packets through a hybrid communication network is provided. The system includes first and second segments of the hybrid communication network. The first segment includes a stacked topology of communicatively coupled plurality of network captured traffic distribution devices. The second segment includes one or more OpenFlow switches configured for an OpenFlow protocol. The system also includes a management server communicatively coupled to the first and second segments of the hybrid communication network. The management server includes logic adapted to configure one or more data flows of captured data packets with respect to forwarding the captured data packets between the first and second segments of the hybrid communication network.
US09876684B2

A system maintains, generates, and manages infrastructure layouts. The infrastructure layouts interconnect infrastructure components and capture relational aspects between the components within the interconnections. The infrastructure layouts map northbound services, which are service outputs, to southbound services, which are service capabilities, for fulfilment. The system may traverse a mapping from a northbound service to a fulfilling southbound service to generate a workflow to support deployment of the northbound service. In various implementations, the system may compare a path, which maps a northbound service to a southbound service, to a policy model to determine compliance with the policy.
US09876678B2

A system for managing the operation of different components within a cloud system to accomplish various tasks, including the implementation of build features within the cloud system to achieve specific operational goals. The system may include a data defined infrastructure (DDI) tool installed within a data defined infrastructure (DDI) to manage certain features or tasks within the cloud system. The DDI may include an environment configuration database (ECDB), an orchestration engine, an automation engine, and/or other hardware and software components within the cloud system, such that the DDI tool installed on the DDI infrastructure may control operation of the ECDB, the orchestration engine, the automation engine, or other hardware and software components within the cloud system based on a set of data that fully describes the operational goal.
US09876677B1

In a distributed object computing system, a server application may create multiple, uniquely identified, server contexts that each provide one or more services to a service consumer (client). Instead of creating a connection to a client for each server context, a single connection can be used. A service request handler may be configured to handle service requests for each server context. Service requests may be generated in the client with a service context identity. When a service request is received by the server application, the service request handler resolves the service context identity and forwards the service request to the appropriate server context.
US09876676B1

Methods, systems, and computer readable mediums for managing computing systems by a management orchestration module. An example method includes determining that a projected computing load placed on a management computing system by one or more existing tenant computing systems and a new tenant computing system exceeds a threshold computing load, and in response, configuring the new tenant computing system as a remote tenant of the management computing system by deploying remote management software onto the new tenant computing system.
US09876674B1

Techniques for detecting localized changes in a distributed service based on aggregate device signals. Certain implementations may leverage a plurality of networked nodal devices to serve as an ad-hoc sensor network for detecting changes in a service provided to the nodal devices. For example, status changes at each nodal device indicative of a disruption in a service provided to the nodal device may be reported and utilized to diagnose regional or localized disruptions in a common service received by a large group of devices. In some implementations, the service provided to the nodal devices may be a distributed service, for example, electric power or Internet access. The device signals may include reports from or based on status changes of mobile devices or other network-enabled electronic devices, such as changes in battery-charging status or network-connectivity of the respective mobile device.
US09876671B2

A method and apparatus for the processing of at least one command concerning at least one component of a cluster is disclosed. The cluster comprises several components, the at least one component having a dependency link, according to the at least one command, with at least one other component, is disclosed.
US09876665B2

A transmitter transmitting payload data using OFDM symbols includes a frame builder configured to receive the payload data and to receive signalling data for use in detecting and recovering the payload data at a receiver, and to form the payload data and the signalling data into frames for transmission. A modulator can modulate a first OFDM symbol with the signalling data forming a first of the frames and modulate one or more second OFDM symbols with the payload data forming one or more other frames, and a transmission unit transmits the first and second OFDM symbols. The first OFDM symbol is combined before transmission with a signature sequence that can be configured to allow for detection of the first OFDM symbol at the receiver and decoding the signalling data before the one or more second OFDM symbols carrying the payload data and at lower signal to noise ratios.
US09876660B2

An apparatus for estimating carrier frequency offset includes an Mth power circuit, a spectrum generating circuit, a peak frequency determining circuit and a frequency offset determining circuit. The Mth power circuit performs an Mth power calculation on an input signal to generate an Mth power calculation result. The spectrum generating circuit generates an Mth power spectrum according to the Mth power calculation result. The peak frequency determining circuit determines a peak frequency corresponding to an amplitude peak from the Mth power spectrum. The frequency offset determining circuit determines an estimated carrier frequency offset according to the peak frequency.
US09876657B1

An integrated circuit (IC) includes a downlink unit including an input to receive a first plurality of frequency domain (FD) symbols associated with data symbols for a plurality of users, and an iteration unit to perform a plurality of iterations based on adjustment values. Each iteration includes generating a second plurality of FD symbols by performing a precoding process based on the first plurality of FD symbols, generating a third plurality of time domain (TD) symbols by performing a first modulation process based on the second plurality of FD symbols, generating a fourth plurality of TD symbols by performing a dynamic range reduction process based on absolute values of the third plurality of TD symbols, and updating the adjustment values. The downlink unit further includes a decision unit configured to generate transmit TD symbols for transmission through a channel to the plurality of users.
US09876644B2

Provided is a method of authenticating and verifying data packet transmission, and apparatuses for performing the same. The method and corresponding apparatus are configured to encode data packets through erasure coding. The method and corresponding apparatus are also configured to generate authentication packets for the encoded data packets based on hash images of the encoded data packets.
US09876643B2

A method of increasing communication security may include determining, responsive to receiving a first message from a first computer system, whether said first computer system is authorized to communicate with a second computer system, wherein said determining is performed at a third computer system. The method may also include generating a first data portion associated with a security token, wherein said generating said first data portion includes accessing data, wherein said data includes a first instance of a session key, and wherein said generating said first data portion further includes encrypting, using a key associated with said second computer system, said data to generate said first data portion. The method may further include communicating, if said first computer system is authorized to communicate with said second computer system, a second message from said third computer system for delivery to said first computer system.
US09876641B2

A system and method for using mixing functions to generate and manipulate authentication keys based on the data being decrypted to mitigate the effect of side channel attacks based on differential power analysis (DPA). The mixing function may be based on a XOR tree, substitution-permutation networks, or double-mix Feistel networks. The mixing function uses some secret key material, which diversifies its behavior between different instantiations.
US09876638B2

Compressed Level-Ordered Edge Sequence (CLOES) encodings are described. These techniques enable more aggressive compression of a state-set representation.
US09876635B2

In representative embodiments, a system and method to calculate a security reliance score is illustrated. The security reliance score is calculated from an aggregation of property sub-scores. The property sub-scores are, in turn, based on scores for attributes that make up the properties. A learning model is employed to adjust scores over time based on collected information. Additionally, statistical sampling can adjust scores based on context, including geo-location context. Security reliance scores can be used to identify weaknesses that should be fixed in cryptographic material and/or configurations. The system can also make recommendations for changes that will have the biggest impact on security reliance scores. Additional uses are also identified.
US09876632B2

There is provided a data transmission/reception system for performing a data communication using interleaving, comprising: a transmission apparatus configured to transmit data in which a synchronization signal including identification data is included; and a reception apparatus configured to extract the synchronization signal from the data received from the transmission apparatus, wherein upon detecting that the extracted synchronization signal is not coincident with any one of a plurality of predetermined code strings, the reception apparatus replaces the extracted synchronization signal with one predetermined code string among the plurality of predetermined code strings, wherein an inter-code word distance between the one predetermined code string and the extracted synchronization signal is the smallest among the calculated inter-code word distances; and the reception apparatus identifies a storage unit for storing the data received from the transmission apparatus based on the identification data included in the replaced synchronization signal.
US09876629B2

A communication apparatus (13) according to the present invention is provided with: a storage unit (131) that stored in advance difference information (1311), which is the difference between first time information (t1) and second time information (t2), said first time information (t1) being received from a synchronization source communication apparatus (11) as a time synchronization source connected to a transmission system (12) wherein transmission delay time is different depending on the direction of transmission, and said second time information (t2) obtained from a time synchronization origin (14) other than the transmission system (12); and a time synchronization means (132) that carries out, when the second time information (t2) cannot be obtained from the time synchronization origin (14), time synchronization with the synchronization source communication apparatus (11) using the difference information (1311) read out from the storage unit (131).
US09876627B2

A method for communication processing are provided. The method comprises: a User Equipment (UE) reports capability indication information to a network side device in order to indicate whether the UE supports a dynamic Time Division Duplex (TDD) uplink/downlink configuration; and if the dynamic TDD uplink/downlink configuration is supported, when a TDD uplink/downlink configuration indication is received, one is selected from the indicated TDD uplink/downlink configuration and the currently used TDD uplink/downlink configuration, and a transmission direction of each sub-frame is determined according to the selected TDD uplink/downlink configuration. The method can address the problem that the transmission direction of sub-frames can not be determined in the scenario.
US09876625B2

A method and a first base station are described for setting measurement resources. Information about setting of a blank subframe of a second base station among a plurality of subframes is received. Resources are set in which a terminal will perform measurement using the information about setting of the blank subframe of the second base station. The information about setting of the blank subframe of the second base station includes a bitmap indicating blank subframes and non-blank subframes of the second base station. In addition, the resources in which the terminal will perform measurement are determined among the blank subframes indicated by the bitmap.
US09876619B2

Disclosed is a method for transmitting and receiving a signal, by a terminal, in a wireless communication system. More particularly, the method comprises the steps of: receiving information about a plurality of reference signal resources from a base station; receiving information about one channel state information (CSI) process from the base station; and reporting CSI on the basis of the information about the one CSI process, wherein the information about the one CSI process comprises information indicative of at least one of the plurality of reference signal resources.
US09876616B2

A transmission apparatus including: a transport stream generation unit configured to generate a transport stream in which a first transport packet containing transport media in a payload and a second transport packet containing information about the transport media in a payload, are time-division multiplexed; a transport stream transmission unit configured to transmit the transport stream to a receiver through a predetermined transmission channel; and a time information insertion unit configured to insert time information for allowing the receiver to obtain decoding time and/or presentation time into the first transport packet or the second transport packet.
US09876615B2

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for transmitting data and a method and apparatus for receiving data, wherein said methods transmit/receive a reference signal in sub-frames bundled for data transmission/reception using at least an identical precoding matrix, an identical reference signal sequence, an identical reference signal generating identifier, or an identical reference signal scrambling sequence.
US09876614B1

A method for transmission of media access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) over a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication channel is described. A first physical layer (PHY) data unit is generated at a first communication device. The first PHY data unit has i) a data field that includes a first MPDU to be transmitted to a second communication device, and ii) a PHY signal field that includes a transmission version field set to indicate an initial transmission of the first MPDU. The first PHY data unit is transmitted over the WLAN communication channel to the second communication device. It is determined, at the first communication device, whether a first acknowledgment to the first MPDU has been received from the second communication device. In response to determining that the first acknowledgment has not been received, a second PHY data unit is generated at the first communication device. The second PHY data unit has i) a data field that includes the first MPDU, and ii) a PHY signal field that includes a transmission version field set to indicate a retransmission of the first MPDU. The second PHY data unit is transmitted over the WLAN communication channel to the second communication device.
US09876612B1

A method of data bandwidth overhead reduction in a protocol based communication over a Wide Area Network (WAN) includes transmitting, through a sender device of a source location, data packets of a sequence to a receiver device of a destination location communicatively coupled to the sender device through the WAN and storing a copy of the transmitted data packets in the sender device for a first threshold duration of time. When the receiver device receives a non-consecutive data packet, the receiver device waits for a second threshold period of time before transmitting a NAK message to the sender device related to non-receipt of one or more out-of-order data packet(s). The sender device interprets the NAK message and retransmits the one or more out-of-order data packet(s) to the receiver device after which the one or more out-of-order data packets are removed.
US09876608B2

In an encoding method, data segments and encoding information which indicates encoding patterns each representing a set of data segments used for a predetermined encoding calculation are acquired. An encoded data piece is generated by performing the predetermined encoding calculation based on each encoding pattern, and is stored in the memory. A first encoding pattern for generating the encoded data piece is compared to a second encoding pattern for a next encoding calculation, and the next encoding calculation is performed by using the encoded data piece corresponding to the first encoding pattern when at least a part of the second pattern is common with the first encoding pattern.
US09876606B2

A transmitting device encodes information bits of a first type of information and a second type of information into a codeword. The transmitting device interleaves the encoded information bits of the first type of information according to a first interleaving pattern and the encoded information bits of the second type of information according to a second interleaving pattern, thereby changing an order of the encoded information bits of at least one of the first type of information and the second type of information in the codeword and generating an interleaved encoded information bit sequence. At least one of the first and the second interleaving pattern is designed to allow the information bits of a first type of information to be decoded without knowing a length of the codeword. The transmitting device then transmits the interleaved encoded information bit sequence to a receiving device.
US09876605B1

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a launcher that includes a hollow waveguide that guides a first electromagnetic wave conveying data from a transmitting device. A dielectric stub coupler receives the first electromagnetic wave from the hollow waveguide to form a second electromagnetic wave that propagates along a portion of the dielectric stub coupler adjacent to a transmission medium, wherein second electromagnetic wave propagates along the dielectric stub coupler via a first guided wave mode and a second guided wave mode, and wherein the portion has a length that supports a coupling of the second guided wave mode for propagation along an outer surface of the transmission medium.
US09876594B1

A content projection solution includes a first device paired with an IVI system, a second device, instances of an application running on these devices, and a corresponding application server. The first device registers an application on an IVI. The application notifies the server of the registration. The IVI may broadcast IDs of registered applications over BLE. An application on the second device searches for a target to present/control application content on the IVI via the first device, either through linking of application users logged into its server from first and second devices or by detecting presence of its ID in a BLE broadcast. In response to selection of a target, the IVI requests authorization. If authorized, control inputs received on the second device are transmitted to application server, which processes them and provides content or instructions to the first device, which invokes presentation or execution thereof by the IVI.
US09876592B2

Systems, methods, and processor readable media are disclosed for detection of signal quality problems and errors in digital radio broadcast signals. First monitoring equipment is located in an over-the-air coverage area of a first radio station. Second monitoring equipment is located in an over-the-air coverage area of a second radio station. The first and second monitoring equipment are configured to receive digital radio broadcast signals from the respective first and second radio stations. A computing system is configured to receive data from the first monitoring equipment and the second monitoring equipment, the data being indicative of one or more attributes of a digital radio broadcast signal received at respective monitoring equipment. The computing system analyzes received data to detect a signal quality problem or error in the digital radio broadcast signals received at the first and second monitoring equipment.
US09876591B2

A transceiver and a method operating the transceiver are provided. The transceiver includes a first communication module configured to receive a first signal based on a first communication scheme; a second communication module configured to receive a second signal based on a second communication scheme; a reception module having a low-power circuit configured to detect a signal in a frequency band which can be used by the first communication module and the second communication module; and a controller configured to establish channels for the first communication module or the second communication module based on a strength of the signal detected by the reception module.
US09876583B2

A timing recovery system generates a sampling clock to synchronize sampling of a receiver to a symbol rate of an incoming signal. The input signal is received over an optical communication channel. The receiver generates a timing matrix representing coefficients of a timing tone detected in the input signal. The timing tone representing frequency and phase of a symbol clock of the input signal and has a non-zero timing tone energy. The receiver computes a rotation control signal based on the timing matrix that represents an amount of accumulated phase shift in the input signal relative to the sampling clock. A numerically controlled oscillator is controlled to adjust at least one of the phase and frequency of the sampling clock based on the rotation control signal.
US09876581B2

A circuit and method for mitigating multi-path interference in direct detection optical systems is provided. Samples of an optical signal having a pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) E-field are processed by generating a PAM level for each sample. For each sample, the sample is subtracted from the respective PAM level to generate a corresponding error sample. The error samples are lowpass filtered to produce estimates of multi-path interference (MPI). For each sample, one of the estimates of MPI is combined with the sample to produce an interference-mitigated sample.
US09876575B2

A device may include a substrate. The device may include a carrier mounted to the substrate. The device may include a transmitter photonic integrated circuit (PIC) mounted on the carrier. The transmitter PIC may include a plurality of lasers that generate an optical signal when a voltage or current is applied to one of the plurality of lasers. The device may include a first microelectromechanical structure (MEMS) mounted to the substrate. The first MEMS may include a first set of lenses. The device may include a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) mounted to the substrate. The PLC may be optically coupled to the plurality of lasers by the first set of lenses of the first MEMS. The device may include a second MEMS, mounted to the substrate, that may include a second set of lenses, which may be configured to optically couple the PLC to an optical fiber.
US09876574B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an optical repeater and an optical fiber communications system. An implementation solution of the optical repeater includes: a first input end of the optical repeater, a first output end of the optical repeater, a first erbium doped fiber, a first coupler, a second coupler, and a first pump light processing component, where the first input end of the optical repeater is connected to an input end of the first erbium doped fiber, an output end of the first erbium doped fiber is connected to an input end of the first coupler, a first output end of the first coupler is connected to a first input end of the second coupler, and an output end of the second coupler is connected to the first output end of the optical repeater.
US09876567B2

Exemplary embodiments described herein include a bi-directional Free Space Optical (FSO) communication unit that may be used in a multi-node FSO communication system. The bi-directional FSO unit may include a co-boresighted optical unit such that received and transmitted beams are coincident through a common aperture. Embodiments described herein may be used to correct or accommodate the alignment errors of the received and transmitted beams.
US09876562B2

Systems and methods to generate virtual spot beams are provided. The system includes a first antenna that provides a first physical spot beam that represents a radio frequency (RF) signal received from a remote source. The system also includes a second antenna that provides a second physical spot beam that represents the RF signal received from the remote source. The system further includes a beam formation module that is communicatively to the first and second antennas and that performs a beam formation operation on the first and second physical spot beams to generate one or more virtual spot beams.
US09876561B2

A communication system, an apparatus and a method to route an Internet Protocol (IP) datagram with a standard internet routing protocol over a space link. The method including: routing according to the standard internet routing protocol including a current routing table including routing via the space link; receiving an Internet Protocol (IP) datagram including a destination; querying the routing stack to determine whether the destination is linked via the space link; and forwarding the IP Datagram to a space link address when IP datagram's destination is linked via the space link.
US09876553B2

A multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication system using a first codebook and a second codebook is provided. The first codebook and the second codebook may independently exist, or may exist in a form of an overall codebook in which the first codebook and the second codebook are integrated with each other. A receiver may extract a first precoding matrix indicator from the first codebook, and may extract a second precoding matrix indicator from the second codebook. The receiver may also extract the first precoding matrix indicator and the second precoding matrix indicator from the overall codebook. The first precoding matrix indicator and the second precoding matrix indicator may be fed back to a transmitter. The transmitter may determine a precoding matrix based on the first precoding matrix indicator and the second precoding matrix indicator.
US09876542B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure propose transmitting a feedback message to an access point. The feedback may comprise a beamforming extension field, which may carry per tone signal to noise ratio of a station. For certain aspects, the station transmitting the per-tone SNR may be a single user (SU)-capable device. For certain aspects, the station may indicate to the access point whether or not it has a maximum likelihood (ML) receiver.
US09876537B2

A reader device includes an array of antenna coils configured to electromagnetically couple with devices implanted beneath or within skin of a human body. An implanted device can include a loop antenna or other means configured to couple with at least one antenna coil of the reader device to receive radio frequency energy from the reader device. The antenna coil array is configured to mount to the skin surface to improve the coupling between the implanted device and coils of the array. Further, the reader device is configured to select two or more antenna coils of the array and to operate the selected antenna coils to emit radio frequency power at respective amplitudes and relative phases to provide radio frequency power to the implanted device while increasing efficiency of the power transfer and reducing the exposure of the skin to radio frequency energy.
US09876534B2

A communication device includes a first processing unit that detects a target and receives a first command for activating an interface upon a detection of the target. The communication device also includes a second processing unit that exchanges data with the target through the first processing unit. Further, the communication device includes an interface between the first processing unit and the second processing unit. The first processing unit selects a predetermined interface level from among a plurality of interface levels based on the first command and exchanges data with the second processing unit based on the predetermined interface level.
US09876533B2

Methods, systems, and an integrated Broadband over Power Line (BPL) module cover assembly for communicating data between an aircraft and a ground-based network are provided. The assembly includes a power receptacle cover plate and a BPL module coupled to said power receptacle cover plate.
US09876520B2

The present publication discloses a communication chip integrated with a SIM card, comprising: a baseband CPU, a first protocol interface, selector switch, and a SIMZone unit; said baseband CPU being connected to the first protocol interface; said selector switch being connected to the SIMZone unit, the first protocol interface, and an IF1 interface. The selector switch and said SIMZone unit are always in a state of communication with each other, and when said selector switch is in a state of communication with said first protocol interface, said SIMZone unit is used for providing SIM card functionality to said baseband CPU; when said selector switch is in a state of communication with said IF1 interface, said SIMZone unit is used for receiving data written by means of said IF1 interface. In the embodiments of the present publication, by means of integrating a SIM card in the communication chip of a terminal equipment, the area occupied by the SIM card on the PCB of the terminal equipment is reduced, the SIM card is prevented from serving as an independent hardware entity, the swapping process is avoided, and reliability and security are increased, security being not lower than that of a conventional SIM card.
US09876519B1

One embodiment relates to a method of automated adaptation of a transmitter equalizer. A multi-dimensional search space of tap settings for the transmitter equalizer is divided into multiple single-dimensional search spaces, each single-dimensional search space being associated with a single tap of the transmitter equalizer. The multiple single-dimensional search spaces are searched in series, and a tap for a single-dimensional search space is set before searching a next single-dimensional search space. Another embodiment relates to a transceiver with adaptation circuitry configured to implement the above-described method. Other embodiments, aspects, and features are also disclosed.
US09876517B2

A radio frequency (RF) receiver includes a digital tuning engine; and I-path and Q-path analog filters, tuned by the digital tuning engine. The digital tuning engine gets an I/Q imbalance difference, and the digital tuning engines tunes the I-path analog filter and/or the Q-path analog filter based on the I/O imbalance difference.
US09876514B1

In some example implementations, there may be provided methods for beamforming calibration of active electronically steered arrays (AESA). In some implementations, one or more adders may generate a phase offset by adding phase calibration data from non-volatile memory and phase command data from static memory, and/or generate a gain offset by adding gain calibration data from the non-volatile memory and gain command data from the static memory. Further, a phase-shift circuit can modify, based on the phase offset, a phase of a first output signal, and an amplitude gain circuit can modify, based on the gain offset, an amplitude of the first output signal. In accordance with these implementations, the modified phase of the first output signal and the modified amplitude of the first output signal are provided to enable pre-calibration of the first output signal and/or a first antenna. Related systems, methods, and articles of manufacture are also described.
US09876504B2

A semiconductor device includes a 3-input NAND decoder having six MOS transistors arranged in a line. The MOS transistors of the decoder are formed in a planar silicon layer disposed on a substrate and each have a structure in which a drain, a gate, and a source are arranged vertically and the gate surrounds a silicon pillar. The planar silicon layer includes a first active region having a first conductivity type and a second active region having a second conductivity type. The first and second active regions are connected to each other via a silicon layer on a surface of the planar silicon layer.
US09876503B2

A threshold logic element (TLE) is disclosed. The TLE includes a first input gate network, a second input gate network, and a differential sense amplifier. The first input gate network is configured to receive a first set of logical signals and the second input gate network configured to receive a second set of logical signals. The differential sense amplifier is operably associated with the first input gate network and the second input gate network such that the differential sense amplifier is configured to generate a differential logical output in accordance with a threshold logic function. To obfuscate the TLE, any number of obfuscated transmission gates can be provided in one or both of the input gate networks. The obfuscated transmission gates are obfuscated such that obfuscated transmission gates are incapable of effecting the threshold logic function of the TLE and thus hide the functionality of the TLE.
US09876501B2

A switching power amplifier includes: a first transistor controlled by a first digital signal to selectively output a first output signal; a second transistor controlled by a second digital signal to selectively output a second output signal; and a control circuit arranged to generate the second digital signal according to the first digital signal and a third digital signal; wherein the first output signal and the second output signal are outputted on a common connected node of the first transistor and the second transistor.
US09876500B2

A semiconductor circuit includes a first circuit, a second circuit, a third circuit, and a fourth circuit. The first circuit determines a value of a first node based on a voltage level of a clock signal, and a voltage level of an enable signal or a voltage level of a scan enable signal. The second circuit determines a value of a second node based on the voltage levels of the first node and the clock signal. The third circuit determines a value of a third node based on a voltage level of the second node. The fourth circuit determines a value of a fourth node based on the voltage levels of the second node and the clock signal. The third circuit includes a first transistor and a second transistor connected in series with each other and gated to the voltage level of the second node to determine the value of the third node. The fourth circuit includes a third transistor that is gated to the voltage level of the clock signal to electrically connect the third node and the fourth node.
US09876492B1

A circuit device includes a comparator and a flag signal generation circuit. The comparator includes a first voltage-time conversion circuit to which at least a first input signal is input and which outputs a first time information signal, a second voltage-time conversion circuit to which at least a second input signal is input and which outputs a second time information signal, and a determination circuit that determines magnitude relation of the first input signal and the second input signal, based on the first time information signal and the second time information signal. The flag signal generation circuit generates a flag signal indicating that a voltage difference between the first input signal and the second input signal is a predetermined voltage or less, based on the first time information signal and the second time information signal.
US09876490B2

Systems and methods for providing an approximate differentiation and integration of an input continuous-time signal are provided. The disclosed systems include a continuous-time delay block configured to receive an input continuous-time signal and to delay the input continuous-time signal by a predetermined delay factor to generate a delayed input continuous-time signal, a processing block configured to determine a difference or a sum between two continuous-time signals, and a multiplication block configured to multiply an input continuous signal to provide a multiplied input continuous signal.
US09876488B2

A flip-flop circuit includes a D flip-flop and a gating controller. The D flip-flop generates an output signal according to a data signal and a gated clock signal. The gating controller receives an original clock signal. The gating controller further compares the output signal with the data signal. If the output signal is the same as the data signal, the gating controller will maintain the gated clock signal at a constant logic level. If the output signal is different from the data signal, the gating controller will use the original clock signal as the gated clock signal.
US09876486B2

Aspects of the disclosure provide a data storage circuit. The data storage circuit includes a first latch, a second latch, and a clock gating and buffer circuit. The first latch is configured to provide an intermediate output to the second latch in response to a data input when a clock signal is in a first state and to hold the intermediate output when the clock signal is in a second state, and the second latch is configured to provide a data output in response to the intermediate output and the clock signal. The clock gating and buffer circuit is configured to provide the clock signal, and to suppress providing the clock signal to one or both of the first latch and the second latch when the intermediate output stays unchanged.
US09876484B2

In an elastic wave device, a plurality of elastic wave elements that include IDT electrodes are provided on a piezoelectric substrate, and a support layer that surrounds the elastic wave elements is provided on the piezoelectric substrate to define hollow portions in which the elastic wave elements are located. A cover member is stacked on the support layer, so that the hollow portions, in which the elastic wave elements are located, are provided, and the support layer includes a first support layer and a second support layer. The first support layer extends along an outer peripheral edge of the piezoelectric substrate, and the second support layer is located in a region surrounded by the first support layer and disposed around the elastic wave elements so as to have the hollow portions, in which the elastic wave elements are located. A hollow path is provided between the first support layer and the second support layer and arranged to allow communication between at least two of the hollow portions.
US09876482B2

A matching unit includes a directional coupler for detecting a travelling wave and a reflected wave; a matching circuit including a first variable capacitance capacitor, a second variable capacitance capacitor and an inductance; and a control unit for controlling VC1 and VC2 of the first and the second variable capacitance capacitor by calculating a reflection coefficient based on the travelling wave and the reflected wave. When a distance between the calculated reflection coefficient and a circle described by a trace of the reflection coefficient which passes through a matching point on a Smith chart is greater than a predetermined value, the control unit changes VC2 of the second variable capacitance capacitor and the calculated reflection coefficient to make the distance within the predetermined value. When the distance becomes within the predetermined value, the control unit changes VC1 of the first variable capacitance capacitor and makes the calculated reflection coefficient smaller.
US09876475B2

Embodiments of circuits for use with an amplifier that includes multiple amplifier paths include a first circuit and a second circuit in parallel with the first circuit. The first circuit includes a first input coupled to a first power divider output, a first output coupled to a first amplifier path of the multiple amplifier paths, and a first adjustable phase shifter and a first attenuator series coupled between the first input and the first output. The second circuit includes a second input coupled to a second power divider output, a second output coupled to a second amplifier path of the multiple amplifier paths, and a second adjustable phase shifter coupled between the second input and the second output.
US09876463B2

Disclosed is a system and device (10, 100, 200, 300) for mounting a solar panel (11) to a roof (43). The device (10, 100, 200, 300) allows for the mounting of solar panels (11) with various thicknesses using an end clamp (12) and base (13) assembly where the end clamp (12) is height adjustable along an alignment portion (20) that projects vertically upward from a planar top surface (19) of the base (13). The end clamp (12) includes an end portion (18) with a three-angle bearing surface (27) that engages both a side surface and a groove (23) within a side surface of the alignment portion (20). The solar panel (11) frame is secured from the top by an upper clamping surface of the end clamp (12) to the alignment portion (20) and the top surface of the base (13).
US09876461B2

A control and protection apparatus for an electric motor, comprising an inverter (3), a first converter (1), a temperature detection apparatus (7), and a second converter (2). The first converter (1) is used for generating, on the basis of an input signal, a first control signal to control working of the inverter (3). The temperature detection apparatus (7) is used for detecting the temperature of the electric motor (4) and for acquiring a temperature signal. The second converter (2) is used for generating a second control signal on the basis of the temperature signal detected and for providing the second control signal to the inverter (3). The inverter (3) is used for controlling wording of the electric motor (4) on the basis of the first control signal and of the second control signal. The control and protection apparatus for the electric motor is low in costs and high in safety and reliability.
US09876460B2

In an automobile equipped with a drive motor, a positive value is set to a distribution factor during EV driving in a first CD mode. During EV driving in a second CD mode (a mode in which driving performance is limited as compared to the first CD mode), a value 0 is set to the distribution factor. First and second boosting converters are controlled such that an electric current (discharge power from the second battery) of a reactor of a second boosting converter when the distribution factor is small becomes smaller as compared to that when the distribution factor is large.
US09876452B1

Implementations of a system for sensing rotor position of a PMSM may include: a controller which may be coupled with the PMSM. The controller may be configured to apply a plurality of voltage vectors to the PMSM to generate a plurality of sensing signals from a stator of the PMSM in response. A comparator may be coupled to the PMSM configured to receive and to compare each one of the plurality of sensing signals with a threshold voltage. A rise time measurement circuit may calculate a plurality of rise times using the plurality of sensing signals in response to receiving a signal from the comparator. The rotor-angle estimation circuit may be configured to identify from the plurality of rise times a shortest rise time and a voltage vector corresponding with the shortest rise time and thereby identify the position of the rotor of the PMSM.
US09876449B2

A drive circuit for a synchronous motor including a rotor having ten magnetic poles formed by a permanent magnet, and a stator in which a winding is wound in a concentrated manner around nine teeth facing the rotor, the drive circuit including: an inverter including a plurality of switching elements in bridge connection; and a control unit that controls the inverter in such a manner that a square-wave-shaped current flows to the winding, wherein the control unit operates in such a manner that an energization phase at which to pass the square-wave-shaped current falls within a range of electric angles of −10° to +5° from an energization phase at which the current is minimum when a target torque of the synchronous motor is generated.
US09876448B2

A tandem control method is applied to a position control apparatus. The tandem control method controls one object to be controlled by individually driving a first driving shaft and a second driving shaft. A speed difference between the first driving shaft and the object to be controlled is amplified and added to a torque command value of the first driving shaft. A speed difference between the second driving shaft and the object to be controlled is amplified and added to a torque command value of the second driving shaft.
US09876445B2

Provided are a piezoelectric energy harvester and a wireless switch including the piezoelectric energy harvester. The wireless switch uses energy generated in a piezoelectric energy harvester as a source of driving power, thereby transmitting communications signals to an external electronic device without requiring a battery. In addition, the piezoelectric energy harvester generates displacement in a piezoelectric element through a magnetic force generated in a magnet, thereby generating a constant level of energy when generating the driving power.
US09876443B2

In an example embodiment, a textile-based energy generator includes first and second electrode substrates, each of the first and second electrode substrates including a textile structure and an energy generation layer between the first and second electrode substrates, the energy generation layer on at least one of the first and second electrode substrates, the energy generation layer configured to generate electrical energy by at least one of generating friction between different materials and contacting and separating the different materials.
US09876441B2

In some embodiments, a control power supply device for an inverter may include a main switched-mode power supply (SMPS) for supplying rated voltages to a controller and an auxiliary circuit of the inverter, an auxiliary SMPS configured to be operated when the main SMPS is interrupted to supply the rated voltages to the controller and the auxiliary circuit of the inverter; and an SMPS controller configured to sense an output voltage from the main SMPS, determine whether the sensed voltage is within a normal range and interrupt the main SMPS and operate the auxiliary SMPS if not, and transmit trip information to the controller.
US09876440B1

Disclosed herein is an active rectifier. The rectifier includes a rectifier unit, a driver unit, and a switching device control circuit unit. The rectifier unit includes first and fourth transistors configured to become conductive when the voltage of an alternating current (AC) input is negative and apply the current of the AC input to a rectifier capacitor, and second and third transistors configured to become conductive when the voltage of the AC input is positive and apply the current of the AC input to the rectifier capacitor. The driver unit outputs first to fourth drive control signals, and drives the first to fourth transistors. The switching device control circuit unit compares the first drive control signal and the second drive control signal with the AC input, and outputs switching device control signals to delay the first to fourth drive control signals based on the extents to delay.
US09876435B2

A method comprises providing a resonant converter comprising a switching network comprising a first high-side switch, a second high-side switch, a first low-side switch and a second low-side switch, a resonant tank coupled between the switching network and a transformer and a rectifier coupled to a secondary side of the transformer, coupling a driver to the switching network and the rectifier, wherein the driver includes a first winding coupled to the rectifier, a second winding coupled to the first high-side switch and a third winding coupled to the second high-side switch, detecting a signal indicating a soft switching process of the driver and adjusting a resonant frequency of the driver until the resonant frequency of the driver approximately matches a switch frequency of the resonant converter.
US09876434B2

The present invention relates to a bi-directional DC-DC converter comprising: a first terminal, a second terminal, a transformer circuit, a first high voltage side coupled to said first terminal, and a second low voltage side coupled to said second terminal; wherein said first high voltage side and said second low voltage side are coupled to each other by means of said transformer circuit, and said first high voltage side comprises a resonant tank circuit coupled between a first bridge circuit of said first high voltage side and a high voltage side of said transformer circuit. Furthermore, the invention also relates to a system comprising at least two such bi-directional DC-DC converters.
US09876431B2

A control method used in a four-switch buck-boost converter includes: sensing the output voltage and generating a feedback signal; generating a compensation signal based on a reference signal and the feedback signal; sensing the current flowing through the inductor and generating a current sensing signal; comparing the current sensing signal with the compensation signal; turning on the first and third transistors and turning off the second and fourth transistors when the current sensing signal reduces to be lower than the compensation signal; turning off the first transistor and turning on the second transistor when the on-time of the first transistor in one switching period reaches a first time threshold; and turning off the third transistor and turning on the fourth transistor when the on-time of the third transistor reaches a second time threshold.
US09876425B2

A circuit for controlling a first field-effect transistor of a power converter, intended for a converter including at least one first and one second transistor connected in series between two terminals for applying a first voltage, the circuit including a circuit for detecting the opening of the second transistor.
US09876416B2

Method for making an electrical machine (10), especially a three-phase generator for vehicles, that comprises a stator (16) and a rotor (20). The rotor (20) comprises a first and a second claw pole (22, 23) from which claw pole fingers (24) respectively extend in the axial direction from claw pole roots (60). A centering point (74) for a tool is located on a rear radius (72) of the claw pole roots (60).
US09876406B2

A stator winding pattern of a hairpin drive motor includes a stator with 8 poles and 48 slots of a distribution winding where a hairpin-type of flat coil is inserted into a slot of a stator core and configured by a full pitch winding implementing 6 pitches of 3 phases and 2 in parallel, the pitch being a distance between adjacent slots, characterized in that: first to fourth layers are formed in the slot of the stator core in a radial direction of the stator core; and when a first layer or a fourth layer is set as a draw out part of one phase in an optional reference slot, a first draw out of a different phase is formed in a draw out slot having 16 pitches in a slot forward direction in a same layer based on the reference slot, and a second draw out of the different phase is formed in a draw out slot having 32 pitches in the slot forward direction in the same layer based on the reference slot.
US09876405B2

A stator winding pattern of a hairpin drive motor includes a stator with 8 poles and 48 slots of a distribution winding where a hairpintype of flat coil is inserted into a slot of a stator core and configured by a full pitch winding implementing 6 pitches of 3 phases and 2 in parallel, the pitch being a distance between adjacent slots, characterized in that: first to fourth layers are formed in the slot of the stator core in a radial direction of the stator core; and when a first layer or a fourth layer is set as a draw out part of one phase in an optional reference slot, a first draw out part of a different phase is formed in a draw out slot having 28 pitches in a slot forward direction in a same layer based on the reference slot, and a second draw out part of the different phase is formed in a draw out slot having 20 pitches in a slot reverse direction in the same layer based on the reference slot.
US09876404B2

The rotor includes a shaft, and a rotor core that is fitted and fixed to the shaft. The shaft includes a knurled portion on an end side and a small-diameter portion formed in a tip side via a first stepped surface. The rotor core includes a small diameter hole formed in a tip side end portion of the fitting hole press-fitted onto the small diameter portion, a large diameter hole formed in an end side of the small diameter hole via a second stepped surface, and a press-fitting portion press-fitted onto the knurled portion and is formed on an end side end portion of the large diameter hole. A space part is disposed between the first stepped surface and the second stepped surface.
US09876399B2

The invention concerns a stator for an electric machine, comprising a plate stack comprising a plurality of superposed stator plates, the plate stack being delimited at the ends by cover plates and an insulating plate being disposed on at least one cover plate in the plate stack, the insulating plate interlocking with the adjacent cover plate.
US09876396B2

A wireless power transmitting apparatus includes: a loop conductor for power transmission having an inductance; an inverter circuit configured to receive a DC voltage, convert the DC voltage into an AC voltage, and apply the AC voltage to the loop conductor; a capacitor connected between one end of the loop conductor and at least one end of the inverter circuit; and a metal layer covering one of the faces formed by the loop conductor farthest from a power receiving apparatus.
US09876393B2

The present invention discloses a direct current (DC) voltage control method. The present invention further discloses an apparatus for implementing the method. With the present invention, DC voltage oscillation of a system, which is caused when a DC voltage primary control station stops running, may be reduced.
US09876392B2

The present disclosure provides a reversible powering device for an electronic equipment including a first power input port and a second power input port. Said reversible powering device including: a power input determining module configured to determine whether the first power input port or the second power input port of the electronic equipment has a power input respectively, and send a control signal to a switch controlling module if it is determined that the first power input port has a power input and the second power input port has no power input; and the switch controlling module configured to control a switch device according to said control signal such that the power input into the first power input port is output from the second power input port in a reverse direction to power another electronic equipment.
US09876383B2

A method, apparatus and computer program product for wireless charging are provided. An indicator displayed on a wireless device may assist a user in placing the device in a more efficient position on a wireless charger. The indicator may comprise an image, and moving the device such that the image aligns with an image on a wireless charger places the device is in a more efficient charging position. Other types of indicators may be displayed to assist a user in moving a device to a more efficient position on the wireless charger.
US09876380B1

A wireless power distribution system for military applications is disclosed. The system includes a wireless power transmitter coupled with a power source. The transmitter may form pockets of energy using controlled radio frequencies. Electrical equipment coupled with an electronic receiver may utilize pockets of energy formed by the transmitter to charge or power the electrical equipment. The transmitter coupled with a power source may be used in a fixed position or may be carried in a vehicle for portability.
US09876373B2

A storage device includes a frame and a plurality of adjusting structures. The frame includes a base and a plurality of partition components. The partition components stand on the base so that the partition components and the base form a plurality of accommodation spaces together. Each of the adjusting structures includes a sliding component and a blocking component that are connected to each other. The sliding components are slidable on the base. The blocking components are located within the accommodation spaces, respectively. The blocking components protrude from the base so that the base, the partition components and the blocking components form a plurality of storage compartments together. The sliding components are for sliding relative to the base so as to respectively adjust depths of the storage compartments.
US09876369B2

A battery system and a method for determining an open circuit fault condition in a battery module are provided. The method includes measuring a first voltage between first and second electrical sense lines while a first transistor in a first cell balancing circuit is turned off, and measuring a second voltage between the first and second electrical sense lines while the first transistor is turned on. The method further includes retrieving a first resistance value from a table stored in a memory device. The method further includes determining a first cell balancing current based on the first and second voltages and the first resistance value. The method further includes determining a first open circuit fault condition between the first battery cell and the first cell balancing circuit if the first cell balancing current is greater than a first threshold current.
US09876368B2

Disclosed herein is an alternating current linked power converting apparatus, including: a direct current power unit including a plurality of cells, which provide a direct current (DC) voltage and are connected in series, wherein the direct current power unit has both ends connected to an inverter which converts the direct current voltage to an alternating current (AC) voltage; a cell balancing charger/discharger connected to the plurality of cells and balancing the direct current voltage or an amount of charging between the plurality of cells; and a ripple removing capacitor that is positioned between the cell balancing charger/discharger and the inverter and that includes a first terminal and a second terminal that are respectively connected to a first output terminal and a second output terminal of the cell balancing charger/discharger so as to remove ripples of the direct current voltage.
US09876367B2

Apparatus for a modular battery management system for a battery having a main load and an auxiliary load across a portion of the battery. The system includes interchangeable slave modules connected to each cell and a master module controlling the system. All the modules receive power through a transfer switch that selectively switches between external sources and the battery. The external sources provide capacity information used by the master module. Each slave module is configured to charge and monitor its associated cell individually. Each slave module is electrically isolated from the other modules. The slave modules are autonomous and shut down the battery and disconnect the module when a critical parameter of the cell is reached. When the battery is in service and a cell parameter approaches the critical level, the master controller instructs the corresponding slave module to charge the cell using battery power.
US09876364B2

This power receiving device includes a magnetic shield, and the magnetic shield includes: a first magnetic sheet located beside the power receiving unit; a conductive sheet located opposite to the power receiving unit with the first magnetic sheet interposed therebetween; and a second magnetic sheet located opposite to the first magnetic sheet with the conductive sheet interposed therebetween.
US09876361B2

A method controls the operation of electric energy generators. A correction signal is sent to the control device and indicates a deviation of a current energy requirement of a supply network from a planned energy requirement. The control device transmits control signals to the energy generators, the correction signal being used for determining the control signals. To react to a correction signal, a control energy quantity is determined which indicates an energy quantity to be jointly provided by all energy generators, and a first energy generator is selected for providing a proportion of the control energy quantity. Further energy generators are sequentially selected, until the extent of the control energy quantity has been completely assigned to respective selected energy generators, and control signals are generated for the selected energy generators, which control signals indicate the proportions of the control energy quantity to be provided by the energy generators.
US09876358B2

A converter arrangement and a method of controlling a three-phase converter arrangement connected to a transmission grid are provided. The converter arrangement includes three phase legs and an energy transfer circuit. The method includes providing a varying respective output phase voltage to the transmission grid by selecting energy storage elements of both the phase legs and the energy transfer circuit and connecting the selected energy storage elements to the transmission grid output. The method further includes selecting energy storage elements for performing a transfer of energy between the energy storage elements during the control period.
US09876346B2

A refrigerant compressor includes an electric motor. A current sensor measures current to the electric motor. A switching device is configured to close and open to allow and prevent current flow to the electric motor, respectively. A maximum continuous current (MCC) device generates an output that one of: (i) is an MCC for the electric motor and (ii) is a value indicative of the MCC for the electric motor. A motor protection module: is remote from the MCC device; receives the output wirelessly from the MCC device via an antenna; one of sets a first MCC to the MCC for the electric motor and determines the first MCC based on the value indicative of the MCC for the electric motor; selectively sets a predetermined MCC to the first MCC; and controls the switching device based on a comparison of the current to the electric motor and the predetermined MCC.
US09876342B2

Compositions comprising ferrosoferric oxide dispersed in a polymer matrix. Such compositions may exhibit properties suitable for achieving both resistive field grading effects and capacitive field grading effects e.g. in electrical stress control devices and surge arrestor devices. Such compositions may optionally include one or more capacitive field grading additives and/or conductive additives.
US09876341B2

A cable and flexible conduit gland assembly includes a mounting member mounted in a predetermined object, one or multiple connection members, an outer cap, and one packing device and one or multiple auxiliary clamping sleeves mounted in the mounting member between the connection members and the outer cap and compressible by the outer cap and the connection members to wrap about the periphery of an inserted cable and to provide multiple packing effects. Thus, the cable and flexible conduit gland assembly has high IP rating, and is practical for dynamic mechanical application, or application in a deep-water environment or high explosive atmosphere.
US09876330B1

A light source having a gain chip, a retro reflecting prism and a first actuator is disclosed. The gain chip amplifies light passing therethrough. The retro reflecting prism is characterized by a pivot axis within the retro reflecting prism, an input light direction, an output light direction, and a diffraction grating that receives light emitted by the gain chip traveling in the input direction, returns a diffracted light beam to the gain chip along the input light direction and generates an output light beam. The first actuator causes the retro reflecting prism to rotate about the pivot axis in response to a control signal being coupled to the first actuator.
US09876323B1

An electrical connector for use with wires is disclosed that includes an electrical contact and an insulated housing. The electrical contact includes a wire contact portion and a connector contact portion. The wire contact portion connects the electrical connector to a wire. The connector contact portion includes a male contact prong and a female contact socket. The electrical contact may be positioned within an insulated housing that is designed to connect both the male contact prong and the female contact socket when mated with another electrical device.
US09876313B2

A connector includes an outer housing, an inner housing, and a sliding member. The inner housing includes a protrusion catch and a slide channel including a slide surface, and to be engaged with the outer housing. The sliding member includes a protrusion to latch the protrusion catch, and a lower surface. The lower surface faces with the slide surface, and includes a plane part, and a thickened part upraised from the plane. The thickened part is formed with an offset surface offset from the plane of the lower surface, formed at a position contacting the slide surface, and formed as a plane.
US09876300B2

Disclosed is a fluid conduit (1) comprising a pipe (2) and a conduit connector (3) which is connected to the electrically conductive pipe (2). In order to be able to keep the risk associated with electricity being on the fluid line as low as possible with little effort, an electrical connecting element (9) which is electrically connected to the pipe (2) is provided in the region of the conduit connector (3).
US09876291B2

A method for the tension proof closing of the end of an energy cable in which an energy cable is used whose center axis containing the electrical transmission elements is surrounded by a tension proof reinforcement of metal wires. Initially, the reinforcement at the end of the energy cable is removed over a predetermined length. Subsequently, a pipe piece of metal, which tightly surrounds the end of the remaining reinforcement, is placed onto the end of the remaining reinforcement. Finally, a cup shaped tubular elongated sleeve of metal is pushed onto the end of the energy cable and is connected in a tension proof manner to the pipe piece which has, at its free end facing away from the pipe piece, a device suitable for mounting a tension element. In addition, a device manufactured by the method is proposed.
US09876290B2

An apparatus (1) for making contact with an electrical conductor (10, 20), in particular a cable conductor of a power supply cable, has a connecting body (4) that delimits a receiving space (6) into which the conductor (10, 20) with which contact is to be made can be inserted by way of its end. The apparatus (1) has a contact medium (30) with which electrical contact can be made with the end of the conductor (10, 20) under the action of a contact force. The contact medium (30) has a large number of electrically conductive contact bodies (32) introduced into the receiving space (6) and bearing against one another. At least some of the contact bodies can be brought into electrical contact-making contact with the ends of the conductors (10, 20).
US09876281B2

A system and method are for reducing the probability of detection of a Line of Sight type communication and sensor mast. The mast has an upper portion extending upwardly relatively the ground, and a lower portion closer to the ground than the upper portion. The mast at the upper portion is equipped with at least a communication or sensor element. The mast is equipped with an actuator that, based on calculated instructions, is designed to alter the elevation above ground of the mast upper portion so as to achieve an acceptable signal quality with the upper portion of the mast at the lowest possible elevation.
US09876279B2

A monolithic, wideband, millimeter-wave radome is provided. The radome includes a solid layer formed of a single material and a lattice layer formed of the single material and disposed on an exterior surface of the solid layer. The lattice layer includes void regions formed from selective omission of the single material during lattice layer buildup.
US09876277B2

An omni circularly-polarized antenna comprises: upper and lower layers of metal strips placed horizontally and having identical spoke-like shapes, each of the layers of said metal strips composed of a center and a plurality of spokes connected to the center, the plurality of spokes, at a circumferential position of the spoke-like shape, having extensions extending towards an identical direction along the circumference, wherein extending directions of the extensions of the spokes in the upper and lower layers of metal strips are opposite; metal poles with a number being identical with a number of the spokes in the metal strips, the metal poles vertically interconnecting ends of the extensions of the spokes in the upper and lower layers of metal strips; a coaxial connector comprising an elongated inner conductor and an outer conductor, wherein the elongated inner conductor is connected to the center of the upper layer of metal strip, and the outer conductor is connected to the center of the lower layer of metal strip.
US09876271B2

Embodiments described herein relate a mobile communication device and techniques to suppress deterioration of antenna characteristics. The mobile device includes metallic members that are disposed around, or in portions of a casing of the mobile device. The metallic member is grounded directly to a ground plane of the mobile device at a first predetermined position. The grounded metallic member forms a stub line that cancels a flow of electric current though the metallic member. Furthermore, the metallic member is also connected to the ground plane, at a second predetermined location, via a resonant circuit. The mobile device is capable of adjusting a phase of the antenna current flowing through the device, when the mobile device is being operated by a user, and thus suppresses deterioration of antenna characteristics in certain desired frequency bands.
US09876269B2

A device may include a housing, a wireless transceiver carried by the housing, and an antenna element carried by the housing and having first and second feeds, and a split antenna feed network carried by the housing and providing a phase shift between the first and second feeds. The split antenna feed network may include a first capacitor having a first terminal coupled to the first feed and a second terminal coupled to the wireless transceiver, a second capacitor having a first terminal coupled to the second feed and a second terminal, a first inductor having a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first capacitor and a second terminal coupled to the second terminal of the second capacitor, and a second inductor having a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the second capacitor and a second terminal coupled to a voltage reference.
US09876265B2

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a metal foil laminate which may be used for example to produce an antenna for a radio frequency (RFID) tag, electronic circuit, photovoltaic module or the like. A web of material is provided to at least one cutting station in which a first pattern is generated in the web of material. A further cutting may occur to create additional modifications in order to provide additional features for the intended end use of the product. The cutting may be performed by a laser either alone or in combinations with other cutting technologies.
US09876248B2

Provided is a solid electrolyte made of yttrium-doped barium zirconate having hydrogen ion conductivity, a doped amount of yttrium being 15 mol % to 20 mol %, and a rate of increase in lattice constant at 100° C. to 1000° C. with respect to temperature changes being substantially constant. Also provided is a method for manufacturing the solid electrolyte. This solid electrolyte can be formed as a thin film, and a solid electrolyte laminate can be obtained by laminating electrode layers on this solid electrolyte. This solid electrolyte can be applied to an intermediate temperature operating fuel cell.
US09876241B2

A fuel supply unit including injectors to adjust a flow rate and a pressure of fuel gas and an outflow passage of which the fuel gas injected from the injectors will flow out, wherein the fuel supply unit further includes: a branch passage that branches off from the outflow passage and communicates with an injection port of the injector; a specified injector defined as N−1 or less pieces of the injectors when N pieces of the injectors are provided, in which N denotes an integer more than 1; and a pressure reduction member provided in the branch passage that communicates with an injection port of the specified injector, only the specified injector is operated during idling, and the pressure reduction member is configured to decompress injection pressure of the fuel gas which will be injected from the specified injector.
US09876234B2

A reinforced catalyst layer assembly, suitably for use in a fuel cell, said reinforced catalyst layer assembly comprising: (i) a planar reinforcing component consisting of a porous material having pores extending through the thickness of the material in the z-direction, and (ii) a first catalyst component comprising a first catalyst material and a first ion-conducting material, characterised in that the first catalyst component is at least partially embedded within the planar reinforcing component, forming a first catalyst layer having a first surface and a second surface is disclosed.
US09876227B2

The sealed nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery includes a nonaqueous electrolyte containing a gas generator that is decomposed to generate a gas when a prescribed battery voltage is exceeded, and a battery case that includes a current interrupt device that operates when the pressure within the battery case rises accompanying the gas generation. A positive electrode (10) has a positive electrode mixture layer (14) that contains at least a positive electrode active material (16). This positive electrode mixture layer (14) contains, as conductive agents, electroconductive carbon particles (18) and an expanded graphite (17) that has an average pore diameter of 0.2 μm to 0.5 μm.
US09876225B2

Anode active materials, anodes, and batteries are provided. In one embodiment, an anode active material includes particles consisting essentially of a material selected from the group consisting of silicon and an alloy of silicon. An average degree of circularity of the particles is 90% or less.
US09876224B2

Provided herein are nanostructure networks having high energy storage, electrochemically active electrode materials including nanostructure networks having high energy storage, as well as electrodes and batteries including the nanostructure networks having high energy storage. According to various implementations, the nanostructure networks have high energy density as well as long cycle life. In some implementations, the nanostructure networks include a conductive network embedded with electrochemically active material. In some implementations, silicon is used as the electrochemically active material. The conductive network may be a metal network such as a copper nanostructure network. Methods of manufacturing the nanostructure networks and electrodes are provided. In some implementations, metal nanostructures can be synthesized in a solution that contains silicon powder to make a composite network structure that contains both. The metal nanostructure growth can nucleate in solution and on silicon nanostructure surfaces.
US09876217B2

A battery electrode manufacturing apparatus including: a front end die which cuts a strip-shaped electrode material into an electrode shape; a hand which grasps the electrode material and conveys the electrode material to the cutting position of the front end die; and a first suction conveyor which is disposed upstream of the front end die in a conveying direction and has a supporting surface for supporting the electrode material during the cutting by the front end die. The hand includes a first grasper and a second grasper, and the first suction conveyor is disposed between the first grasper and the second grasper. The hand carries the electrode material to the cutting position, at such a position that the electrode material does not contact the front end die and the first suction conveyor.
US09876207B2

The present invention proposes a structure of a battery module in which a spacer can slide by means of a guide member constituting the battery module and can be positioned. A battery module according to the present invention is a battery module 9 provided with a battery block 8 in which a plurality of rectangular battery cells 1 are arranged and laminated, and includes a spacer 2 which intervenes between the plurality of battery cells 1, guide members 4 and 5 which slidably support the spacer 2 along a laminating direction of the battery cells 1, and end plates 3 as a pair which are respectively arranged on one side and the other side of the guide members 4 and 5 in a sliding direction and which sandwich the battery block 8 from both sides in the sliding direction.
US09876205B2

A battery module includes a plurality of battery cells each having a vent portion located in a first surface thereof, the plurality of battery cells being aligned in a first direction; a plurality of barriers each covering at least a portion of the first surface so that the vent portion is exposed, the barriers being located between adjacent ones of the plurality of battery cells; an insulating member mounted on the first surface, the insulating member having a plurality of first openings each corresponding to a respective one of the vent portions; a cover provided above the insulating member to cover the vent portions and the insulating member; and a pressing member located between the insulating member and the cover, wherein the insulating member includes a first sealing portion protruding toward the cover, and a second sealing portion protruding toward the first surface.
US09876200B2

A microbattery structure for hermetically sealed microbatteries is provided. In one embodiment, the microbattery structure includes a first silicon substrate containing at least one pedestal which houses a cathode material of a microbattery and at least one depression which houses A FIRST sealant material of the microbattery. The structure further includes a second silicon substrate containing at least one pedestal which houses an anode material of the microbattery and at least one depression which houses a second sealant material of the microbattery. An insulated centerpiece is bonded to the first sealant material present in at least two depressions on the first silicon substrate. An interlock structure is formed by aligning and superimposing the second silicon substrate on the first silicon substrate in a mortise and tenon fashion and sealing the two substrates using a high force.
US09876199B2

A multilayer dielectric and sealing film is disclosed. The multi-layer dielectric sealing film comprises a layer of dielectric material and at least one layer of sealing material. The multilayer film may be positioned between the current collector tabs and the packaging material of a thin film battery to prevent shorting between the tabs and the edge of a metal foil layer in the packaging material. The multi-layer film also provides additional sealant which can flow around and seal around the terminals. By combining the sealing material and the dielectric material into one multi-layer assembly, manufacturing steps can be eliminated.
US09876196B2

A novel light-emitting device is provided. A novel light-emitting device with high emission efficiency, low power consumption, and small viewing angle dependence of chromaticity is provided. The light-emitting device includes at least one light-emitting element and one optical element. A spectrum of light emitted from the light-emitting element through the optical element in a range of greater than 0° and less than or equal to 70° with respect to a normal vector of the light-emitting element has a first local maximum value in a wavelength range of greater than or equal to 400 nm and less than 480 nm and a second local maximum value located on a longer wavelength side than the first local maximum value. The intensity ratio of the second local maximum value to the first local maximum value is less than or equal to 15%.
US09876194B2

An apparatus includes a plurality of pixels on a substrate; a gate driver disposed outside of the plurality of pixels; a common voltage line disposed outside both of the gate driver and the plurality of pixels, the common voltage line having a first cross-sectional width; a dam structure configured to surround the plurality of pixels and disposed on at least a portion of the common voltage line, the dam structure having a second cross-sectional width narrower than the first cross-sectional width; a first inorganic encapsulation layer configured to cover the plurality of pixels, the gate driver, the common voltage line and the dam structure; a cover layer disposed on the first inorganic encapsulation layer and configured to be surrounded by the dam structure; and a second encapsulation layer disposed on the first encapsulation layer and the cover layer.
US09876193B2

A thin-film device may include a carrier, a release layer, a stacking structure, and a flexible substrate. The release layer may be overlaid on the carrier, and the stacking structure is overlaid on the release layer. The stacking structure may include a first protective layer and a second protective layer, wherein the refractive index of the first protective layer exceeds that of the second protective layer. The flexible substrate may be overlaid on the release layer.
US09876183B2

The present teachings relate to charge-transporting metal oxide-polymer blend thin films which can be incorporated as the semiconductor component or one of the conductor components of a thin film transistor. Generally, the present charge-transporting metal oxide-polymer blend thin film includes a semiconducting or conducting metal oxide lattice and an electrically insulating polymer dispersed within the lattice. The electrically insulating polymer is present at about 20% or less by weight of the metal oxide.
US09876181B2

The present invention relates to electron-deficient heteroaromatic compounds which are substituted by dibenzofuran or dibenzothiophene derivatives and by carbazoles or amines, in particular for use as triplet matrix materials in organic electroluminescent devices. The invention furthermore relates to a process for the preparation of the compounds according to the invention and to electronic devices comprising these compounds.
US09876172B2

The present invention relates to oxocarbon-, pseudooxocarbon- and radialene compounds as well as to their use as doping agent for doping an organic semiconductive matrix material, as blocker material, as charge injection layer, as electrode material as well as organic semiconductor, as well as electronic components and organic semiconductive materials using them.
US09876171B2

The present invention relates to an electronic device comprising one or more compounds of a formula (I) or (II). Furthermore, the invention encompasses the use of a compound of the formula (I) or (II) in an electronic device, and the provision of certain compounds of the formula (I) or (II).
US09876163B2

A device and a method of forming a device are presented. A substrate is provided. The substrate includes circuit component formed on a substrate surface. Back end of line processing is performed to form an upper inter level dielectric (ILD) layer over the substrate. The upper ILD layer includes a plurality of ILD levels. A magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) stack is formed in between adjacent ILD levels of the upper ILD layer. The MTJ stack includes a free layer, a tunneling barrier layer and a fixed layer. The fixed layer includes a polarizer layer, a composite texture breaking layer which includes a first magnesium layer and a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) layer.
US09876161B2

A method of fabricating a flexible piezoelectric energy harvesting device is provided. The method includes forming a piezoelectric layer to include a plurality of first piezoelectric lines spaced apart from each other in one direction and a plurality of second piezoelectric lines respectively filling spaces between the first piezoelectric lines, then placing the piezoelectric layer on a first flexible electrode substrate to come in direct contact with the first flexible electrode, and forming a second flexible electrode substrate on the piezoelectric layer.
US09876160B2

A process for producing a corrugated electrode for use in an electroactive polymer cartridge is disclosed. A laminated web comprising a support sheet laminated to a dielectric elastomer film is positioned. The support sheet defines areas exposing portions of the dielectric elastomer film. A force is applied to the positioned laminated web to stretch the laminated support sheet-dielectric elastomer film web in a direction that is orthogonal to a plane defined by the web. An electrically conductive material is applied to the laminated support sheet-dielectric elastomer film web while the laminated support sheet-dielectric elastomer film web is in a stretched state. The laminated support sheet-dielectric elastomer film web is relaxed to form the corrugated electrode on the dielectric elastomer film portion of the web.
US09876145B2

A flip-chip light emitting diode chip includes a first semiconductor structure, which includes a P-type semiconductor layer, a N-type semiconductor layer, openings, a reflective layer, a barrier layer, a passivation layer, and an electrical contact layer. The openings penetrate the P-type semiconductor layer and a part of the N-type semiconductor layer so as to partially expose the N-type semiconductor layer. The reflective layer is disposed on the P-type semiconductor layer. The barrier layer is disposed on the reflective layer, and the area of the barrier layer is smaller than that of the reflective layer therefore the reflective layer is exposed from the barrier layer. The passivation layer is disposed on the barrier layer and partially fills in the openings. The electrical contact layer disposed on the passivation layer partially penetrates through the passivation layer to contact the exposed part of the N-type semiconductor layer.
US09876123B2

An apparatus includes a metal gate, a substrate material, and an oxide layer between the metal gate and the substrate material. The oxide layer includes a hafnium oxide layer contacting the metal gate and a silicon dioxide layer contacting the substrate material and contacting the hafnium oxide layer. The metal gate, the substrate material, and the oxide layer are included in a one-time programmable (OTP) memory device. The OTP memory device includes a transistor. A non-volatile state of the OTP memory device is based on a threshold voltage shift of the OTP memory device.
US09876122B2

Various embodiments provide a memory cell that includes a vertical selection gate, a floating gate extending above the substrate, wherein the floating gate also extends above a portion of the vertical selection gate, over a non-zero overlap distance, the memory cell comprising a doped region implanted at the intersection of a vertical channel region extending opposite the selection gate and a horizontal channel region extending opposite the floating gate.
US09876110B2

Methods and structures for forming highly-doped, ultrathin layers for transistors formed in semiconductor-on-insulator substrates are described. High dopant concentrations may be achieved in ultrathin semiconductor layers to improve device characteristics. Ion implantation at elevated temperatures may mitigate defect formation for stoichiometric dopant concentrations up to about 30%. In-plane stressors may be formed adjacent to channels of transistors formed in ultrathin semiconductor layers.
US09876109B2

Some embodiments include a construction having a second semiconductor material over a first semiconductor material. A region of the second semiconductor material proximate the first semiconductor material has strain due to different lattice characteristics of the first and second semiconductor materials. A transistor gate extends downwardly into the second semiconductor material. Gate dielectric material is along sidewalls and a bottom of the transistor gate. Source/drain regions are along the sidewalls of the transistor gate, and the gate dielectric material is between the source/drain regions and the transistor gate. A channel region extends between the source/drain regions and is under the bottom of the transistor gate. At least some of the channel region is within the strained region.
US09876102B2

A semiconductor device includes a layered structure forming multiple carrier channels including at least one n-type channel formed in a first layer made of a first material and at least one p-type channel formed in a second layer made of a second material and a set of electrodes for providing and controlling carrier charge in the carrier channels. The first material is different than the second material, and the first and the second materials are selected such that the n-type channel and the p-type channel have comparable switching frequency and current capability.
US09876099B2

To suppress change in electric characteristics and improve reliability of a semiconductor device including a transistor formed using an oxide semiconductor. A semiconductor device includes a transistor including a gate electrode, a first insulating film, an oxide semiconductor film, a second insulating film, and a pair of electrodes. The gate electrode and the oxide semiconductor film overlap with each other. The oxide semiconductor film is located between the first insulating film and the second insulating film and in contact with the pair of electrodes. The first insulating film is located between the gate electrode and the oxide semiconductor film. An etching rate of a region of at least one of the first insulating film and the second insulating film is higher than 8 nm/min when etching is performed using a hydrofluoric acid.
US09876085B2

An array substrate comprises a base substrate on which data lines and gate lines intersecting with each other are formed to define pixel units, and a switching element is provided in each of the pixel units and comprises a gate electrode, an active layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode, and end parts of the source electrode and the drain electrode located directly on the active layer are opposite to each other to define a channel region. An extension conductive part is formed close to the source electrode or the drain electrode and to electrically contact the source electrode or the drain electrode, one end of the extension conductive part extends toward the channel to protrude from the source electrode or the drain electrode contacting with the extension conductive part and to contact the active layer at least within the channel region.
US09876083B2

Semiconductor devices, FinFET devices and methods of forming the same are disclosed. One of the semiconductor devices includes a substrate, a gate over the substrate and a gate dielectric layer between the gate and the substrate. The gate dielectric layer includes an oxide-inhibiting layer having a dielectric constant greater than about 8 and being in an amorphous state.
US09876082B2

An apparatus includes a channel layer, a first layer, a hole barrier layer and a second layer. The channel layer may be configured to carry a drain current in response to a voltage at a gate node. The first layer may be between the channel layer and the gate node. The first layer generally has a first bandgap. The hole barrier layer may be in contact with the first layer. The hole barrier layer generally has a second bandgap that (i) forms a valence band offset relative to the first bandgap and (ii) is configured to impede holes generated in one or more of the channel layer and the first layer from reaching the gate node. The gate node may be in contact with the second layer. The apparatus generally forms a field effect transistor.
US09876079B2

A method of manufacturing a nanowire device is disclosed. The method includes providing a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises a pair of support pads, a recess disposed between the support pads, a second insulating layer disposed on the support pads, a third insulating layer disposed on a bottom of the recess, and at least one nanowire suspended between the support pads at a top portion of the recess; forming a first insulating layer on the nanowire; depositing a dummy gate material over the substrate on the first insulating layer, and patterning the dummy gate material to form a dummy gate structure surrounding a channel region; forming a first oxide layer on laterally opposite sidewalls of the dummy gate; and extending the nanowire on laterally opposite ends of the channel region to the respective support pads, so as to form a source region and a drain region.
US09876076B2

An integrated circuit may include an SOI substrate having a buried insulating layer, and a semiconductor film above the buried insulating layer. The semiconductor film may have first patterns in a first zone defining gate regions of first MOS transistors and also first dummy gate regions. The first zone may include two domains having a space therebetween, and the space may be filled by at least one insulating material and be situated between two dummy gate regions above a region of the supporting substrate without any insulating trench.
US09876069B1

A high-voltage semiconductor device is provided. The device includes a semiconductor substrate including a high-voltage well region. The device further includes a gate dielectric structure and a gate. The gate dielectric structure includes a first dielectric layer over the high-voltage well region and a second dielectric layer over the first dielectric layer. The second dielectric layer has a U-shaped or ring-shaped contour as viewed from a top-view aspect, so as to form an opening exposing the first dielectric layer. The gate is disposed over the second dielectric layer and extends onto the exposed first dielectric layer via the opening. The device further includes a drift doping region in the high-voltage well region and a source/drain doping region in the drift doping region. A method for fabricating the high-voltage semiconductor device is also provided.
US09876067B2

The invention provides a dielectric layer having high relative permittivity with low leakage current and excellent flatness. A dielectric layer 30a according to the invention is made of multilayer oxide including a first oxide layer 31 made of oxide consisting of bismuth (Bi) and niobium (Nb) or oxide consisting of bismuth (Bi), zinc (Zn), and niobium (Nb) (possibly including inevitable impurities) and a second oxide layer 32 made of oxide of one type (possibly including inevitable impurities) selected from the group of oxide consisting of lanthanum (La) and tantalum (Ta), oxide consisting of lanthanum (La) and zirconium (Zr), and oxide consisting of strontium (Sr) and tantalum (Ta).
US09876059B2

A highly reliable display device. A first flexible substrate and a second flexible substrate overlap each other with a display element positioned therebetween. Side surfaces of at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate which overlap each other are covered with a high molecular material having a light-transmitting property. The high molecular material is more flexible than the first substrate and the second substrate.
US09876057B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an organic EL panel having a display pattern that allows low power consumption, high emission uniformity, and high emission luminance ratio and makes it possible to reduce the manufacturing process time and provide high productivity, a method for manufacturing the organic EL panel, an organic EL module, and an information device. The organic EL panel of the present invention includes an organic EL device including an organic EL element having a pattern A including at least a light-emitting part and a non-light-emitting part; and at least one auxiliary member, wherein the organic EL element has an emission luminance ratio of the light-emitting part to the non-light-emitting part of 5:1 to 50:1, and the at least one auxiliary member has a pattern B being geometrically similar to the pattern A and including a light-transmitting part and a light-blocking part.
US09876056B2

A light-emitting device, an electronic device, or a lighting device with low power consumption and high reliability is provided. The light-emitting device includes a first light-emitting element, a second light-emitting element, a third light-emitting element, and a fourth light-emitting element. The first to fourth light-emitting elements include the same EL layer between an anode and a cathode. The EL layer includes a first light-emitting layer and a second light-emitting layer. The first light-emitting layer contains a fluorescent substance. The peak wavelength of an emission spectrum of the fluorescent substance in a toluene solution of the fluorescent substance is 440 nm to 460 nm, preferably 440 nm to 455 nm. The second light-emitting layer contains a phosphorescent substance. The first light-emitting element exhibits blue emission. The second light-emitting element exhibits green emission. The third light-emitting element exhibits red emission. The fourth light-emitting element exhibits yellow emission.
US09876051B2

In one aspect, a method includes providing a lens substrate having an array of lenses. The lens substrate includes an overflow region next to each lens of the array. Each overflow region includes an overflow lens material. The method also includes separating the lens substrate into a plurality of smaller lens substrates. Each of the smaller lens substrates has one of the single lens and the plurality of stacked lenses. Separating the lens substrate into the smaller lens substrates may include removing or substantially removing the overflow regions. In one aspect, the method may be performed as a method of making a miniature camera module. Other methods are also described, as are miniature camera modules.
US09876042B2

The present disclosure provides an image sensor. An image sensor may include: a transfer gate formed over a first substrate, and having a through-hole; a column-shaped epitaxial body having a first portion filled in the through-hole and a second portion formed over the transfer gate; a photoelectric conversion element formed in the second portion of the epitaxial body; and a floating diffusion region formed in the first substrate, and contacting the first portion of the epitaxial body.
US09876040B1

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a TFT substrate, in which after induced crystallization is conducted by implanting ions into an amorphous silicon layer, there is no need to completely remove the ion induction layer formed on the surface of a poly-silicon layer so obtained and instead, a half-tone mask based operation is applied to remove only a portion of the ion induction layer corresponding to a channel zone and there is no need for re-conducting ion implantation subsequently for source/drain contact zones, thereby saving the mask necessary for re-conducting ion implantation. Further, the source/drain electrodes are also formed with the half-tone mask based operation so as to save the mask necessary for making the source/drain electrodes. Further, the source/drain electrodes are formed first so that the formation of an interlayer insulation layer can be omitted thereby saving the mask necessary for forming the interlayer insulation layer. Through the adoption of a half-tone mask base operation, the method for manufacturing a TFT substrate according to the present invention can reduce the nine masks that are involved in the prior art techniques to only six masks, thereby effectively simplifying the manufacturing process, improving manufacturing efficiency, and saving manufacturing cost.
US09876026B2

The present disclosure provides a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device with a controlled doped concentration of a channel film that is run-through a plurality of memory stacks. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the method may include forming a hole, forming a channel film on an inner surface of the hole, forming a buffer film on an inner surface of the channel film, forming a dopant supply film to fill the hole, and doping the channel film via a dopant diffusion from the dopant supply film into the channel film.
US09876017B2

Static random access memory (SRAM) bit cells with wordline landing pads split across boundary edges of the SRAM bit cells are disclosed. In one aspect, an SRAM bit cell is disclosed employing write wordline in second metal layer, first read wordline in third metal layer, and second read wordline in fourth metal layer. Employing wordlines in separate metal layers allows wordlines to have wider widths, which decrease wordline resistance, decrease access time, and increase performance of SRAM bit cell. To employ wordlines in separate metal layers, multiple tracks in first metal layer are employed. To couple read wordlines to the tracks to communicate with SRAM bit cell transistors, landing pads are disposed on corresponding tracks inside and outside of a boundary edge of the SRAM bit cell. Landing pads corresponding to the write wordline are placed on corresponding tracks within the boundary edge of the SRAM bit cell.
US09876011B2

A semiconductor device comprising: a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type; a second semiconductor region of a second conductivity type provided on the first semiconductor region; an insulating portion provided on the first semiconductor region; a third semiconductor region of the second conductivity type provided on the second semiconductor region and having a higher carrier concentration of the second conductivity type than that of the second semiconductor region; and a first electrode provided on the insulating portion and the third semiconductor region, the first electrode having a portion which is aligned with the second semiconductor region in a second direction perpendicular to a first direction being from the first semiconductor region to the second semiconductor region, and the first electrode being in contact with the second semiconductor region and the third semiconductor region.
US09876005B2

An Electro-Static Discharge (ESD) protection circuit includes a plurality of groups of p-type heavily doped semiconductor strips (p+ strips) and a plurality of groups of n-type heavily doped semiconductor strips (n+ strips) forming an array having a plurality of rows and columns. In each of the rows and the columns, the plurality of groups of p+ strips and the plurality of groups of n+ strips are allocated in an alternating layout. The ESD protection circuit further includes a plurality of gate stacks, each including a first edge aligned to an edge of a group in the plurality of groups of p+ strips, and a second edge aligned to an edge of a group in the plurality of groups of n+ strips.
US09876004B2

A semiconductor component including a short-circuit structure. One embodiment provides a semiconductor component having a semiconductor body composed of doped semiconductor material. The semiconductor body includes a first zone of a first conduction type and a second zone of a second conduction type, complementary to the first conduction type, the second zone adjoining the first zone. The first zone and the second zone are coupled to an electrically highly conductive layer. A connection zone of the second conduction type is arranged between the second zone and the electrically highly conductive layer.
US09876000B2

Light emitting devices and methods of integrating micro LED devices into light emitting device are described. In an embodiment a light emitting device includes a reflective bank structure within a bank layer, and a conductive line atop the bank layer and elevated above the reflective bank structure. A micro LED device is within the reflective bank structure and a passivation layer is over the bank layer and laterally around the micro LED device within the reflective bank structure. A portion of the micro LED device and a conductive line atop the bank layer protrude above a top surface of the passivation layer.
US09875997B2

The present disclosure provides semiconductor packages and methods for fabricating PoP semiconductor packages. The PoP semiconductor package may comprise a first semiconductor package, the first semiconductor package comprising an anodized metal lid structure comprising (i) a central cavity having a central cavity opening direction and (ii) at least one perimeter cavity having a perimeter cavity opening direction facing in an opposite direction of the central cavity opening direction, a first semiconductor device arranged in the central cavity of the anodized metal lid structure, a redistribution layer electrically coupled to the first semiconductor device, wherein a conductive trace formed in the redistribution layer is exposed to the at least one perimeter cavity, and solder material arranged in the at least one perimeter cavity, and a second semiconductor package, the second semiconductor package comprising at least one conductive post, wherein the at least one conductive post is electrically coupled to the solder material arranged in the at least one perimeter cavity.
US09875996B2

The invention relates to a composite substrate for light emitting device and a LED module equipped with the composite substrate for light emitting device. The composite substrate for light emitting device includes a metal substrate, an insulating carrier and an electrode, the metal substrate and the insulating carrier respectively have a front side and a back side that are opposite, the insulating carrier is disposed on the periphery of the metal substrate and connected to the metal substrate, the electrode is disposed on the insulating carrier, the electrode penetrates the insulating carrier, the electrode has a front side and a back side that are opposite, the heights of the back sides of the insulating carrier and the electrode are less than that of the back side of the metal substrate. The present invention also provides a LED module. The composite substrate for light emitting device can reduce costs.
US09875992B2

An embodiment includes a semiconductor package comprising: a substrate; a first semiconductor chip mounted on the substrate; a second semiconductor chip mounted on a top surface of the first semiconductor chip; a connecting bump disposed between the first and second semiconductor chips to electrically connect the second semiconductor chip to the first semiconductor chip; and a first heat dissipation part disposed on the top surface of the first semiconductor chip between the first and second semiconductor chips and spaced apart from a bottom surface of the second semiconductor chip.
US09875991B2

A package module includes a power module, a first thermal dissipating component and a packaging plastic. The power module includes a substrate and at least one power semiconductor component disposed on the substrate. The first thermal dissipating component is disposed over the power module. The packaging plastic covers the power module and the first thermal dissipating component, wherein a portion of the first thermal dissipating component is exposed from the packaging plastic.
US09875989B2

A semiconductor device structure is provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface. The semiconductor substrate has an active region. The semiconductor substrate is doped with first dopants with a first-type conductivity. The active region is adjacent to the first surface and doped with second dopants with a second-type conductivity. The semiconductor device structure includes a doped layer over the second surface and doped with third dopants with the first-type conductivity. A first doping concentration of the third dopants in the doped layer is greater than a second doping concentration of the first dopants in the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device structure includes a conductive bump over the doped layer.
US09875988B2

A semiconductor device has a first semiconductor die disposed over a substrate. A plurality of composite interconnect structures are formed over the semiconductor die. The composite interconnect structures have a non-fusible conductive pillar and a fusible layer formed over the non-fusible conductive pillar. The fusible layer is reflowed to connect the first semiconductor die to a conductive layer of the substrate. The non-fusible conductive pillar does not melt during reflow eliminating a need to form a solder resist over the substrate. An encapsulant is deposited around the first semiconductor die and composite interconnect structures. The encapsulant flows between the active surface of the first semiconductor die and the substrate. A second semiconductor die is disposed over the substrate adjacent to the first semiconductor die. A heat spreader is disposed over the first semiconductor die. A portion of the encapsulant is removed to expose the heat spreader.
US09875987B2

An electronic device includes a semiconductor die having a lower surface, a sintered metallic layer underlying the lower surface of the semiconductor die, a conductive layer underlying the sintered metallic layer, and a conductive substrate underlying the conductive layer.
US09875983B2

A sintering paste includes solvent and nanomicrocrystallite (NMC) particles. Each NMC particle is a single crystallite having at least one dimension in the range of 1 nm to 100 nm and at least one dimension in the range of 0.1 μm to 1000 μm. The sintering paste may be used in a pressureless sintering process to form a low porosity joint having high bond strength, high electrical and thermal conductivity, and high thermal stability.
US09875981B2

A semiconductor device is provided, including: a substrate having opposing first and second surfaces and a plurality of conductive vias passing through the first and second surfaces; an insulating layer formed on the first surface of the substrate and exposing end portions of the conductive vias therefrom; and a buffer layer formed on the insulating layer at peripheries of the end portions of the conductive vias, thereby increasing product reliability and good yield.
US09875975B2

A semiconductor device includes a first driver configured to pull up a voltage level of a pad to a first power voltage in response to a driving signal, a second driver configured to pull down the voltage level of the pad to a second power voltage in response to the driving signal, a switch protection resistor configured to change an electrical resistance between the pad and the second driver in response to a switch control signal, and an ESD detector configured to detect a voltage level of the first or second power voltage and generate the switch control signal.
US09875950B2

A semiconductor device includes a heat source and a heat detection element which are formed on a semiconductor substrate; and a heat conductive member formed across both of the heat source and the heat detection element, a thermal conductivity of the heat conductive member being higher than a thermal conductivity of the semiconductor substrate, and wherein the heat source, the heat detection element and the heat conductive member are integrated on the semiconductor substrate.
US09875949B2

An electronic package is provided, which includes: a circuit structure having opposite first and second sides; at least an electronic element disposed on the first side of the circuit structure; an encapsulant formed on the first side of the circuit structure for encapsulating the electronic element; a dielectric layer formed on portions of the second side of the circuit structure; and a metal structure formed on the dielectric layer and the circuit structure. The metal structure has a first metal layer bonded to the circuit structure and a second metal layer formed on the first metal layer and the dielectric layer. Therefore, by replacing a conventional silicon interposer with the circuit structure, the invention eliminates the need to fabricate through silicon vias so as to greatly reduce the fabrication difficulty and cost. The invention further provides a method for fabricating the electronic package.
US09875946B2

Methods and systems for performing semiconductor metrology directly on device structures are presented. A measurement model is created based on measured training data collected from at least one device structure. The trained measurement model is used to calculate process parameter values, structure parameter values, or both, directly from measurement data collected from device structures of other wafers. In some examples, measurement data from multiple targets is collected for model building, training, and measurement. In some examples, the use of measurement data associated with multiple targets eliminates, or significantly reduces, the effect of under layers in the measurement result, and enables more accurate measurements. Measurement data collected for model building, training, and measurement may be derived from measurements performed by a combination of multiple, different measurement techniques.
US09875938B2

An integrated circuit device includes: a first fin-type active region in a first area of a substrate, the first fin-type active region having a first recess filled with a first source/drain region; a first device isolation layer covering both lower sidewalls of the first fin-type active region; a second fin-type active region in a second area of the substrate, the second fin-type active region having a second recess filled with a second source/drain region; a second device isolation layer covering both lower sidewalls of the second fin-type active region; and a fin insulating spacer on the first device isolation layer, the fin insulating spacer covering a sidewall of the first fin-type active region under the first source/drain region.
US09875935B2

A method for producing a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes providing a semiconductor substrate, providing at least one semiconductor device on the substrate, having a back face opposite the semiconductor substrate and a front face towards the semiconductor substrate, providing a contact layer on the back face of the semiconductor device, bonding the contact layer to an auxiliary carrier, and separating the at least one semiconductor device from the substrate. Further, a semiconductor device produced according to the method and an intermediate product are provided.
US09875933B2

In an embodiment, a substrate includes semiconductor material and a conductive via. The conductive via includes a via in the substrate, a conductive plug filling a first portion of the via and a conductive liner layer that lines side walls of a second portion of the via and is electrically coupled to the conductive plug. The conductive liner layer and the conductive plug have different microstructures.
US09875931B2

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor pattern on a semiconductor substrate, a three-dimensional memory array on the semiconductor pattern, and a peripheral interconnection structure between the semiconductor pattern and the semiconductor substrate. The peripheral interconnection structure includes an upper interconnection structure on a lower interconnection structure. The upper interconnection structure includes an upper interconnection and an upper barrier layer. The lower interconnection structure includes a lower interconnection and a lower barrier layer. The upper barrier layer is under a bottom surface of the upper interconnection and does not cover side surfaces of the upper interconnection. The lower barrier layer is under a bottom surface of the lower interconnection and covers side surfaces of the lower interconnection.
US09875925B2

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a doped polysilicon layer on a substrate, forming a barrier layer on the doped polysilicon layer, forming an oxidized barrier layer by oxidizing a surface of the barrier layer, and forming a metal layer on the oxidized barrier layer.
US09875924B2

A spray coater is used to spray a photoresist on a front surface of a wafer. The spray coater includes a vacuum chuck, a flow guiding ring, and a positioning ring. The vacuum chuck has a top surface and a side surface adjacent to the top surface. The wafer is located on the top surface and protrudes from the top surface of the vacuum chuck. The flow guiding ring is disposed around the vacuum chuck and has a groove. The wafer protruding from the top surface covers the flow guiding ring, and an opening of the groove faces a back surface of the wafer opposite to the front surface. The positioning ring is disposed around the flow guiding ring, such that the flow guiding ring is between the positioning ring and the side surface of the vacuum chuck.
US09875923B2

A control system that includes deflection sensors which can control clamping forces applied by electrostatic chucks, and related methods are disclosed. By using a sensor to determine a deflection of a workpiece supported by an electrostatic chuck, a control system may use the deflection measured to control a clamping force applied to the workpiece by the electrostatic chuck. The control system applies a clamping voltage to the electrostatic chuck so that the clamping force reaches and maintains a target clamping force. In this manner, the clamping force may secure the workpiece to the electrostatic chuck to enable manufacturing operations to be performed while preventing workpiece damage resulting from unnecessary higher values of the clamping force.
US09875920B1

A substrate processing apparatus includes: a plurality of modules configured to process a substrate; a transfer chamber adjoining the modules; a transfer part configured to transfer the substrate to one of the modules; a reception part configured to receive process information of the substrate; a detection part configured to detect quality information of the respective modules; a table in which the process information corresponds to the quality information; a memory part configured to store the table; and a controller configured to compare the process information received by the reception part with the quality information detected by the detection part using the table, configured to select one of the modules corresponding to the process information, and configured to instruct the transfer part to transfer the substrate to the selected module.
US09875919B2

A flash heating part in a heat treatment apparatus includes 30 built-in flash lamps, and irradiates a semiconductor wafer held by a holder in a chamber with a flash of light. Thirty switching elements are provided in a one-to-one correspondence with the 30 flash lamps. Each of the switching elements defines the waveform of current flowing through a corresponding one of the flash lamps by intermittently supplying electrical charge thereto. Radiation thermometers measure an in-plane temperature distribution of the semiconductor wafer during flash irradiation. Based on the results of measurement with the radiation thermometers, a controller individually controls the operations of the 30 switching elements to individually define the light emission patterns of the 30 flash lamps.
US09875911B2

A semiconductor device has an interposer mounted over a carrier. The interposer includes TSV formed either prior to or after mounting to the carrier. An opening is formed in the interposer. The interposer can have two-level stepped portions with a first vertical conduction path through a first stepped portion and second vertical conduction path through a second stepped portion. A first and second semiconductor die are mounted over the interposer. The second die is disposed within the opening of the interposer. A discrete semiconductor component can be mounted over the interposer. A conductive via can be formed through the second die or encapsulant. An encapsulant is deposited over the first and second die and interposer. A portion of the interposer can be removed to that the encapsulant forms around a side of the semiconductor device. An interconnect structure is formed over the interposer and second die.
US09875907B2

Methods of etching silicon nitride faster than silicon oxide are described. Exposed portions of silicon nitride and silicon oxide may both be present on a patterned substrate. A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) is selectively deposited over the silicon oxide but not on the exposed silicon nitride. Molecules of the self-assembled monolayer include a head moiety and a tail moiety, the head moiety forming a bond with the OH group on the exposed silicon oxide portion and the tail moiety extending away from the patterned substrate. A subsequent gas-phase etch using anhydrous vapor-phase HF may then be used to selectively remove silicon nitride much faster than silicon oxide because the SAM has been found to delay the etch and reduce the etch rate.
US09875905B2

FinFET devices and methods of fabricating a FinFET device are provided. An exemplary method of fabricating a FinFET device includes providing a semiconductor substrate with a plurality of fins and a multi-layered hardmask stack formed thereover. The multi-layered hardmask stack is patterned to form a patterned multi-layered hardmask stack having a tapered fin masking configuration with a shortened region and an elongated region. A region of fins adjacent to the shortened region is masked with a second mask. The region of fins masked with the second mask is free from the patterned multi-layered hardmask stack. Fins in unmasked areas are etched after forming the second mask. The second mask is removed with at least one layer of the patterned multi-layered hardmask stack remaining after etching the fins in the unmasked areas. End portions of the fins adjacent to the shortened region are etched after removing the second mask.
US09875899B2

The semiconductor transistor according the present invention includes an active layer composed of a GaN-based semiconductor and a gate insulating film formed on the active layer. The gate insulating film has a first insulating film including one or more compounds selected from the group consisting of Al2O3, HfO2, ZrO2, La2O3, and Y2O3 formed on the active layer, and a second insulating film composed of SiO2 formed on the first insulating film.
US09875893B2

The present disclosure relates to the deposition of dopant films, such as doped silicon oxide films, by atomic layer deposition processes. In some embodiments, a substrate in a reaction space is contacted with pulses of a silicon precursor and a dopant precursor, such that the silicon precursor and dopant precursor adsorb on the substrate surface. Oxygen plasma is used to convert the adsorbed silicon precursor and dopant precursor to doped silicon oxide.
US09875891B2

Methods of selectively inhibiting deposition of silicon-containing films deposited by atomic layer deposition are provided. Selective inhibition involves exposure of an adsorbed layer of a silicon-containing precursor to a hydrogen-containing inhibitor, and in some instances, prior to exposure of the adsorbed layer to a second reactant. Exposure to a hydrogen-containing inhibitor may be performed with a plasma, and methods are suitable for selective inhibition in thermal or plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of silicon-containing films.
US09875884B2

An ion source includes a plasma generator for supplying plasma at an ionization region proximate to a sample surface. The plasma generator applies energy that may be utilized for desorbing analytes from the sample surface as well as for generating plasma by which analytes are excited or ionized. Desorption and ionization/excitation may be controlled as individual modes. The ion source may be interfaced with an ion-based or optical-based spectrometer. A sample support may be provided, which may be capable of performing analytical separation.
US09875876B2

A charged particle beam writing apparatus according to an embodiment starts a wiring operation when the sum of the amount of shot data stored in a buffer memory of a transfer control calculator, the amount of shot data being transferred by a transfer unit, and the amount of shot data stored in a buffer memory of a deflection control circuit reaches the amount of data for one stripe region.
US09875856B2

An aspect of a capacitor comprises an exterior package case housing an electrolyte along with a capacitor element, a sealing plate where an external terminal is disposed, the sealing plate sealing the exterior package case, a current collecting plate disposed between an electrode protruding portion formed on an element end surface of the capacitor element and the external terminal, a gas releasing mechanism disposed in the sealing plate to release a gas in the exterior package case, and a blocking mechanism disposed on at least one of the sealing plate and the current collecting plate to block the electrolyte from the gas releasing mechanism.
US09875852B2

Described are methods for the production of a capacitor, comprising the process steps: a) the provision of an electrode body (1) of an electrode material (2), wherein a dielectric (3) covers one surface (4) of this electrode material (2) at least partly under formation of an anode body (5); b) the introduction of a dispersion comprising a dispersing agent, a foreign-doped conductive polymer and counter-ions which are not covalently bonded to the foreign-doped conductive polymer into at least a part of the anode body (5); c) the at least partial removal of the dispersing agent under obtaining a solid electrolyte (6) in a capacitor body; wherein a self-doped conductive polymer is additionally introduced into at least a part of the anode body (5). Also described are capacitors obtainable by these methods, capacitors, electronic circuits, the use of these capacitors and dispersions.
US09875851B2

A ceramic multi-layer capacitor includes a main body, which has ceramic layers arranged along a layer stacking direction to form a stack, and first and second electrode layers arranged between the ceramic layers. The multi-layer capacitor also includes a first external contact-connection arranged on a first side surface of the main body and electrically conductively connected to the first electrode layers, and a second external contact-connection arranged on a second side surface of the main body. The second side surface is situated opposite the first side surface and is electrically conductively connected to the second electrode layers.
US09875849B2

A multilayer ceramic electronic component includes: a main body; and a first external electrode disposed on a first surface of the main body and a second external electrode disposed on a second surface of the main body. The first external electrodes include a first base electrode forming an edge portion of the first surface of the main body and a first terminal electrode disposed on a portion of the first base electrode. The second external electrodes include a second base electrode forming an edge portion of the second surface of the main body and a second terminal electrode disposed on a portion of the second base electrode.
US09875847B2

A multilayer ceramic electronic component includes a plurality of dielectric layers; and internal electrodes disposed on the dielectric layers and containing an additive. The additive contains lithium (Li) and a dielectric material.
US09875845B2

A coupling device serves for the contact-free transmission of data signals between signal conductors of two signal lines with the aid of a coupling structure. At least one signal conductor is a signal core of a signal cable. Coupling portions of the two signal conductors are positioned parallel in relation to one another in a defined way with the aid of the coupling structure. At least a first signal conductor preferably being free from galvanically connected coupling elements lies in a coupling aid. The contact-free coupling dispenses with connecting additional coupling elements at the ends to a signal cable in an electrically conducting manner. By obviating the need for special connector fabrication, this achieves the effect of simplifying assembly and at the same time also improving data transmission reliability, since faults that occur for example in a crimping or soldering process are ruled out.
US09875843B2

An electric coil device includes a terminal unit and a coil module. The terminal unit includes a block and multiple terminals. The coil module is mounted to the block and includes first and second winding cores, two first wires and two second wires. Each of the first wires has a transformer wire segment wound on the first winding core, and an inductor wire segment wound on the second winding core. The transformer wire segment of each of the first wires is electrically connected to a respective one of the terminals, and the inductor wire segment of each of the first wires is electrically connected to the respective one of the terminals, thereby achieving the functions of a transformer and a common-mode choke.
US09875842B2

The present disclosure discloses an inductor and a converter having the same. The inductor includes a magnetic core and a winding, the winding is provided within a window of the magnetic core, the winding includes a main body part and a sampling part, the main body part and the sampling part are connected in series, and a length ratio of the sampling part to the main body part is less than 2; wherein the main body part is formed of a low resistivity conductive material, the sampling part is formed of a low temperature coefficient conductive material, and a current flowing through the inductor is sampled across two ends of the sampling part. The inductor can obtain a current detection signal with high accuracy and low temperature drift with a compact structure, without increasing detection loss.
US09875840B2

A chip coil component may include: a ceramic body including a plurality of first to fourth insulating layers, and an internal coil including a first internal pattern part having the plurality of first insulating layers on which first pattern portions are disposed and a second internal pattern part having the plurality of second insulating layers on which second pattern portions are disposed. The first pattern portions disposed on the plurality of first insulating layers are disposed to correspond to each other and are connected to each other by two first connection terminals each having one via electrode, and the second pattern portions disposed on the plurality of second insulating layers are disposed to correspond to each other and are connected to each other by two second connection terminals each having one via electrode.
US09875836B2

A diode accommodation core, for use in solenoids of starter engines and accommodation of the diodes in these solenoids without thereby affect the structural configuration of the diodes or the structures of starter engines. The diode accommodation core includes a structural body having opening for the accommodation of body of diode, and two contact sides opposite each other, wherein each side is provided with accommodation guide of the respective terminals of the diode, which has a surface portion in which at least one of the terminals is supported and at least partially exposed regarding the surface of the corresponding contact side of structural body, in order to promote electrical contact with at least one adjacent component by pressure.
US09875834B2

A flexible printed circuit may include a flexible body portion and a flexible head end portion, where conductors and/or elongated cut outs may be formed in a pattern. The flexible body may include a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the proximal end is configured to be connected to a stationary object and the distal end is configured to be connected to a moving object that moves in relation to the stationary object. The head end of the flexible printed circuit may be located at the distal end of the flexible body. The head end may include a plurality of elongated cut-outs, and/or a plurality of electrical connection pads suspended from the flexible body by the plurality of elongated cutouts.
US09875833B2

A superconducting coil device includes at least one coil winding, including at least one first and one second superconducting strip conductor, the first and second strip conductors each having a superconducting layer and a contact side provided with a contact layer; at least one first contact electrically connecting the contact side of the first strip conductor to an external circuit via a first contact piece; at least one second contact electrically connecting the contact side of the second strip conductor to the external circuit via a second contact piece; and a third contact electrically connecting the first and second strip conductors via the contact layer of the first and the second strip conductor within the coil winding, wherein the contact side of the first strip conductor has a different orientation relative to a center of the coil winding than the contact side of second strip conductor.
US09875832B2

Provided is a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet, with reduced iron loss by magnetic domain refining treatment, exhibiting an excellent noise property and effectively reducing noise generated when stacked in an iron core of a transformer. In a grain-oriented electrical steel sheet including a forsterite film and a tension coating on both surfaces, magnetic domain refining treatment has been performed to apply linear thermal strain to the grain-oriented electrical steel sheet, the magnitude of deflection in the rolling direction of the steel sheet is 600 mm or more and 6000 mm or less as the curvature radius of the deflected surface with the surface having the strain applied thereto being the inner side, and the magnitude of deflection in the direction orthogonal to the rolling direction is 2000 mm or more as the curvature radius of the deflected surface with the surface having the strain applied thereto being the inner side.
US09875830B1

A surge protection system provides surge protection to one or more circuits. Each circuit is connected to power and a surge protection module bridges the circuit such that the surge protection module absorbs surges from the power and/or the circuit. Being that, after exposure to certain amounts of surges, the surge protection modules lose effectiveness for surge protection, each surge protection module is independently removable and replaceable by a user without risk of personal injury from shock caused by making personal contact with the power and/or circuit. In some embodiments, a filter circuit is provided to filter out noise on the circuit. It is anticipated that the protection module includes indicators to inform a user that the protection circuit is operational and whether protection has been lost. Further, in some embodiments, a fuse is provided to protect the circuit from over current.
US09875825B2

Compositions, devices, and methods for providing shielding communications cables are provided. In some embodiments, compositions including electrically conductive elements are disclosed. In other embodiments, cable separators, tapes, and nonwoven materials including various electrically conductive elements are disclosed.
US09875819B2

A reactivity control device for storing nuclear fuel includes a top tube sheet, plurality of neutron absorber rods fixedly attached to the sheet, and a floating guide plate slideably mounted on the absorber rods for upward and downward movement between a lower position and an upper position. The reactivity control device is insertable into a spent fuel assembly in either wet storage in a spent fuel pool or dry storage in a canister. The absorber rods are inserted into empty guide tubes when the fuel assembly is removed from the nuclear fuel core normally occupied by control rods when in the reactor vessel. During installation, the device is lowered to insert the absorber rods into the guide tubes. The guide plate first engages the fuel assembly as the rods continue to slide through the plate until the tube sheet then engages the plate signaling the device is fully installed.
US09875817B2

A nuclear reactor including a lateral seismic restraint with a vertically oriented pin attached to the lower vessel head and a mating pin socket attached to the floor. Thermally insulating materials are disposed alongside the exterior surface of a lower portion of the reactor pressure vessel including at least the lower vessel head.
US09875809B2

A memory device includes a controller, a multiplexer, a deserializer, a data modifier, a memory cell array and an error detector. The controller is configured to generate signals in response to an address signal and a command signal. The multiplexer is configured to output a clock signal as internal data signals when the test mode signal is activated. The deserializer is configured to deserialize N bit values included in the internal data signals to generate deserialized signals. The data modifier is configured to invert the deserialized signals to generate bit line signals in response to an inversion control signal and the data modifying signals. The memory cell array is configured to store the bit line signals to memory cells corresponding to the address signal. The error detector is configured to determine if an error exists in signals read from the memory cells and to output an error detecting signal.
US09875804B2

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array. The memory cells of the memory cell array can be programmed to have different threshold voltages. A word line is connected to the memory cells. A controller is configured to receive a first command and perform a first read sequence and a second read sequence to read data from the memory cell array. In the first read sequence, a series of different voltage levels are applied to the word line and data is read from the array at each voltage level. In the second read sequence, a read voltage level is set based on the data obtained during the first read sequence. The read voltage level is applied to the word line to read the data to be output from the memory cell array.
US09875802B2

Memory devices are configured to store a number of access line biasing patterns to be applied during a memory device operation performed on a particular row of memory cells in the memory device. Memory devices are further configured to support modification of the stored bias patterns, providing flexibility in biasing access lines through changes to the bias patterns stored in the memory device. Methods and devices further facilitate performing memory device operations under multiple biasing conditions to evaluate and characterize the memory device by adjustment of the stored bias patterns without requiring an associated hardware change to the memory device.
US09875790B1

A negative bit line boost circuit for a memory is configured to control a write multiplexer and a write assist transistor so that charge from a boost capacitor positively charges a bit line following a write assist period.
US09875787B2

A memory stack comprises at least two memory components. The memory components have a first data link interface and are to transmit signals on a data link coupled to the first data link interface at a first voltage level. A buffer component has a second data link interface coupled to the data link. The buffer component is to receive signals on the second data link interface at the first voltage level. A level shifting latch produces a second voltage level in response to receiving the signals at the second data link interface, where the second voltage level is higher than the first voltage level.
US09875785B2

A memory controller is configured to communicate to a DRAM an indication of when a most-recent memory-controller-triggered refresh cycle occurred prior to a transition to a self-refresh mode of operation in which the DRAM self-triggers its refresh cycles.
US09875777B2

A semiconductor memory device includes: an enable signal generation portion suitable for generating a data output enable signal activated at a predetermined first moment corresponding to column address strobe (CAS) latency based on a read command, a strobe signal generation portion suitable for generating a data strobe signal which has a preamble section until the data output enable signal is activated from a predetermined second moment ahead of the first moment based on the read command and toggles based on a source clock during an activated section of the data output enable signal, and a data output portion suitable for outputting internal data in synchronization with the data strobe signal during the activated section of the data output enable signal.
US09875776B1

Maskable level shifter circuits and memories are provided. Memories may include a plurality of memory cells and a bitline coupled to the plurality of memory cells. The memories includes a maskable level shifter configured to receive write data and a mask signal. A maskable level shifter includes a level shifter configured to level shift the write data and output the level shifted write data to the bitline when the mask signal is inactive and a masking circuit configured to remove power from the level shifter when the mask signal is active. Another maskable level shifter includes a level shifter configured to level shift the write data and output the level shifted write data to the bitline when the mask signal is inactive and a masking circuit configured to output a predetermined state to the bitline when the mask signal is active.
US09875768B2

A recording tape cartridge includes a reel including a reel hub having an outer diameter of an upper end portion which is smaller than that of a lower end portion, and including a lower flange in which plural through holes are radially formed. Inclined surfaces, formed at one edge portion and another edge portion of each of the through holes, are directed toward a flange circumferential direction. The one edge portion is directed in a rotational direction of the reel, when a recording tape is wound on the reel. The other edge portion is directed in the rotational direction when the recording tape is led out of the reel. An inclination angle with respect to a bottom surface of the lower flange of the inclined surface at the one edge portion is smaller than that of the inclined surface of the other edge portion.
US09875760B2

A slider of a magnetic recording head comprises a media-facing surface, an upper surface opposing the media-facing surface, a leading edge, and a trailing edge. A plurality of electrical bond pads is disposed in a spaced-apart relationship on the trailing edge of the slider. An interconnect interposer is connected to the trailing edge of the slider. The interposer comprises a back side comprising a plurality of electrical contacts in contact with the plurality of bond pads on the trailing edge of the slider. The interposer also comprises a front side comprising a plurality of electrical interposer pads corresponding in number to the plurality of electrical contacts on the back side. The interposer further comprises a plurality of conductors each of which electrically couples one of the plurality of electrical contacts on the back side with one of the plurality of interposer pads on the front side.
US09875757B1

An offset from track center of a writer that is writing to a track of a magnetic recording medium is determined. A write current applied to a write coil of the writer is adjusted to compensate for the offset. The adjusting of the write current affects a width of the track.
US09875752B2

A device includes a receiver, a memory, and a processor. The receiver is configured to receive a remote voice profile. The memory is electrically coupled to the receiver. The memory is configured to store a local voice profile associated with a person. The processor is electrically coupled to the memory and the receiver. The processor is configured to determine that the remote voice profile is associated with the person based on speech content associated with the remote voice profile or an identifier associated with the remote voice profile. The processor is also configured to select the local voice profile for profile management based on the determination.
US09875732B2

An apparatus, system, and method for an electronic handheld musical instrument that generates electronic signals for processing by a processor-based module to generate musical sounds adapted to replicate non-electronic traditional hand percussion and other handheld instruments, is provided. A piezoelectric-based trigger is secured in an enclosed volume or enclosure formed in the electronic handheld musical instrument. When manipulated by a musician in a normal fashion, freely moving beads float or travel within the enclosure of the electronic handheld musical instrument and strike against a sensitive face of the piezoelectric transducer device to create a desired sound effect.
US09875729B2

Methods for using at least one musical instrument mute for electronic modification of sound emitted from a musical instrument. A mute body is positionable within a bell or horn of the musical instrument, and the body has a proximal end portion and is configured to at least partially occlude the bell or horn. A microphone is positioned at the proximal end portion of the mute body and is configured to transduce a sound produced by the musical instrument. A speaker is positioned in the mute body as well. A microcontroller is configured to receive a signal from the microphone and to electronically modify the sound of the instrument when emitted through the speaker. Some mutes also provide a communication transceiver, sensors, and input devices to remotely control and manipulate sound produced by the mute.
US09875727B2

A circuit arranged in a gate drive area on a display panel comprises control lines. Each control line is connected with multiple gate lines, and the gate lines connected with each control line are distributed at intervals on the display panel. A switch-on level can be provided sequentially to the control lines in a preset time interval when the display panel is being shut down. The circuit mitigates or otherwise eliminates a shutdown afterimage phenomenon and also avoids delivery of a relatively large instantaneous current generated at shutdown.
US09875725B2

There is provided an information processing device including an operation acceptance unit configured to accept a user operation related to an image based on image data received from another information processing device using short-range wireless communication when the image is displayed on a display unit, and a controller configured to perform control in a manner that notification information for issuing a notification that the user operation is accepted is output when the user operation is accepted, and control data corresponding to the user operation is transmitted to the other information processing device.
US09875723B2

A data processing apparatus includes a compressor and an output interface. The compressor generates a plurality of compressed pixel data groups by compressing pixel data of a plurality of pixels of a picture based on a pixel data grouping setting of the picture. The output interface packs the compressed pixel data groups into an output bitstream, records indication information in the output bitstream, and outputs the output bitstream via a display interface. The indication information is indicative of at least one boundary between consecutive compressed pixel data groups packed.
US09875718B1

In one general aspect, a computing device can include a base, and a lid coupled to the base, the lid housing a display device that includes a first electrochromic material, a second electrochromic material, and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display. The OLED display can be located between the first electrochromic material and the second electrochromic material.
US09875710B2

A gate driving circuit includes first and second driving stages respectively driving first and second gate lines of a display panel. The first driving stage includes output transistors, a first control transistor controlling an electric potential of a control node in response to a signal provided from the second driving stage through an input terminal before a first gate signal is output, and a second control transistor applying a first carry signal to the input electrode of the first control transistor while the first gate signal is output.
US09875709B2

The invention provides a GOA circuit for LTPS-TFT, using a resistor (R1) and a tenth TFT (T10) to replace the second capacitor in known technology, and change the diode-style connection of the ninth TFT (T9) in known technology to connect one end of the resistor (R1) to the constant high voltage (VGH) and the other to the gate of the ninth TFT (T9) so that during the output end (G(n)) staying at low, the voltage of the second node (P(n)) follows the (M+1)-th clock signal (CK(M+1)) to switch between high and low, that is, following a fixed frequency to pull down the voltage of the second node (P(n)), prevents the second node from staying at high for long duration and prevents the sixth TFT (T6) and the seventh TFT (T7) from prolonged operation to cause threshold voltage shift and improve GOA circuit stability.
US09875705B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a display apparatus and a method of driving the display apparatus. The display apparatus includes a display panel, a visual state acquiring module, and a visual acuity correcting module. The display panel includes M×N sub-pixels arranged in a matrix for displaying an image signal. The visual acuity correcting module is disposed in a display area of the display panel and includes a plurality of light blocking structures, the plurality of light blocking structures form M×N grid holes in one-to-one correspondence with the sub-pixels, and the visual acuity correcting module is configured to adjust sizes of the grid holes.
US09875699B2

A liquid crystal display device 10 includes a liquid crystal panel 11, a driver 21, panel-side output terminals 24, image signal lines 30, and control signal lines 31. The driver 21 is configured to generate output signals by processing input signals supplied by a control circuit board 12 and transmit the output signals to a display area AA to drive the display panel 11. The panel-side output terminals 24 are connected to the driver 21. The panel-side output terminals 24 include panel-side image output terminals 24A and panel-side control output terminals 24B disposed along a ling edge 21L of the driver 21. The image signal lines 30 are routed so as to extend from the panel-side image output terminals 24A, to cross a long edge 21L of the driver, and to spread in a fan-like form toward the display area AA. The control signal lines 31 are routed so as to extend from the panel-side control output terminals 24B toward the display area AA and to cross the short edge 21S of the driver 21.
US09875693B2

A data driver includes a data signal converter to convert image data to a data signal, an output buffer to output the data signal to a data line, a first cascode circuit connected to the output buffer and including a plurality of transistors, a first noise attenuator connected to a first node between the output buffer and the first cascode circuit, and to attenuate a first current noise, a second cascode circuit connected to the output buffer and including a plurality of transistors, a second noise attenuator connected a second node between the output buffer and the second cascode circuit, and to attenuate a second current noise, a current integrator to generate an integrated voltage by integrating a first current flowing through the first cascode circuit and a second current flowing through the second cascade circuit, and an analog-digital converter (ADC) to convert the integrated voltage to a digital signal.
US09875687B2

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention disclose a display device, and a method of driving the same. The display device includes a display unit including pixels included in one or more deterioration region groups and pixels included in one or more reference groups corresponding to the deterioration region groups, a sensing unit configured to sense a current flowing through an organic light emitting diode of each of the deterioration region groups and each of the reference groups and provide current information about the deterioration region group and current information about the reference group. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention also provide a compensation circuit configured to convert first data supplied from the outside into second data by using compensation data corresponding to a compensation prediction curve and output the second data, and compare the current information about the deterioration region group and the current information about the reference group and correct the compensation prediction curve for the deterioration region group; and a data driver configured to supply the second data to the display unit through data lines as data signals.
US09875678B2

An image display method is disclosed. In one aspect, the image display method includes receiving image data including a black region and a white region, determining a boundary between the black and white regions, determining a pixel to be corrected which is adjacent to the boundary, and determining a direction of the boundary and an arrangement of the black and white regions with respect to the boundary. The method also includes converting pixel data corresponding to the pixel into corrected pixel data based at least in part on the boundary direction and the arrangement and displaying images on a display device based at least in part on corrected image data including the corrected pixel data.
US09875671B2

Method for providing augmented user interface (AUI). AUI is provided in response to a request. AUI configuration information is received, stored in preference file, and sent to remote server. Remote server receives request from computer to login user. Remote server authenticates user, retrieves and sends preference file to computer. Preference file contains information that allows computer to implement and configure AUI by directing output to AUI component. Remote server sends computer web-based API to enable browser to interface with an AUI application. API can include target callable by event handler to respond to HTML document browsing event by invoking AUI application. Remote server can send computer web-based, native, or browser plug-in AUI application. Computer can provide content rich navigation via API, AUI application and content navigation rules that define plural navigation paths through HTML document. Navigation paths providing AUI functionality to particular type of special needs user or user task.
US09875667B2

The system is an interactive control system that uses multiple control points to manage a user toward a desired state through coaching, feedback, and feed-forward mechanisms. They system uses push and pull from a user to dynamically determine which control points to utilize and emphasize to guide the user to a desired state. The system creates Topics that are generated out of Content Elements. These topics are referenced by Rules and are arranged in a queue so that a planned succession of Topics can be presented proactively to a user in a prioritized and logical manner to guide the user to a desired state. The Rules include Dynamic Rules that allow real time modification of the queue to present Topics relevant to user state and progress toward the desired state.
US09875666B2

A medication confirmation method and apparatus. The method of an embodiment of the invention includes the steps of capturing one or more video sequences of a user administering medication via a medication administration apparatus, storing the captured one or more video sequences, and analyzing at least one of the stored video sequences to confirm that the user has properly administered the medication, and has properly positioned the medication administration apparatus.
US09875664B2

This disclosure provides an augmented Virtual Trainer (VT) method and system. According to an exemplary system, a video based physiological metric system is integrated with a VT system to provide health and/or safety related data associated with a user of the VT system. According to an exemplary embodiment, the disclosed augmented VT system modifies an exercise routine based on the physiological metrics and/or provides audio signals to the user.
US09875659B2

A system and method are provided for displaying a strategic navigational overview of a vehicle, including a navigational map and a marker icon thereon representing an entity pertinent to navigation of the vehicle. A vertical line contacting the marker icon has, contiguous thereto, a current altitude icon representing the current altitude of the vehicle, and a trending icon indicating a direction of a change in altitude of the vehicle.
US09875654B2

A traffic control monitoring and abnormality determination system and associated methods are disclosed for receiving and analyzing traffic controller input/output data during a learning phase to determine a model indicative of normal or healthy operation of the traffic controller in regulating traffic flow at an intersection and receiving and evaluating additional traffic controller input/output data against the model during an evaluation phase to determine whether an abnormality exists in operation of the traffic controller. If an abnormality is detected during the evaluation phase, the system may initiate a corrective action to resolve the abnormality such as sending an alarm signal to a traffic controller to cause the traffic controller to alter an operating state to resolve the abnormality.
US09875649B2

A system includes a base station, a communications device, and a fob. The base station is configured to control a vehicle function in response to receiving a command via a first wireless link. One of the communications device and the fob is configured to transmit a request via a second wireless link different than the first wireless link. The other one of the communications device and the fob is configured to transmit the command to the base station via the first wireless link in response to receiving the request via the second wireless link.
US09875645B1

A method for sensory alert notification comprises retrieving an uncharacterized event record associated with a first user and a second user. The method comprises characterizing the uncharacterized event record by assigning a value to the uncharacterized event record based on an event impact value that characterizes an impact of the uncharacterized event record, a first user identifier, and a second user identifier. The method comprises generating a notification record comprising the characterized event record and a notification urgency value and generating a sensory alert notification, comprising one or more of a repeat and intensity rate of vibrating pulses, a repeat and a pitch rate of beeps of sound, and a repeat rate and a color of blinks of light, based on the notification record. The method further comprises transmitting the sensory alert notification to a mobile computing device of the second user.
US09875642B2

Methods and systems to notify a party at a given premise when a particular event, such as a fire, an intrusion, an emergency or another event, occurs at another premise. One method comprises: obtaining an indication of a particular event at a first end-user premise, the first end-user premise including first end-user equipment connected to a communications network via a first communication link; establishing a wireless communication link between the first end-user equipment and second end-user equipment at a second end-user premise, the second end-user equipment being connected to the communications network via a second communication link; and causing the first end-user equipment to transmit information to the second end-user equipment via the wireless communication link to instruct the second end-user equipment to issue a notification concerning the particular event. Also provided are apparatus and computer-readable media containing a program element executable by a computing system to perform such a method.
US09875631B2

According to one embodiment, a hazard detector may include a back plate and a front casing coupled to the back plate to define a housing having an interior region and an opening through which air flows into the interior region. A circuit board may be coupled to the back plate and have a plurality of components mounted thereon. A smoke chamber may be mid-mounted on the circuit board, mid-mounting being characterized in the smoke chamber extending through a hole formed in the circuit board such that a top surface of the smoke chamber is positioned above a top surface of the circuit board and a bottom surface of the smoke chamber is positioned below a bottom surface of the circuit board, whereby an interior region of the smoke chamber is accessible to smoke from both the top and bottom surfaces of the circuit board.
US09875630B2

A notification appliance is disclosed. The notification appliance may be a strobe notification appliance, such as an LED strobe notification appliance. The notification appliance may be wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted. Further, the notification appliance may include an optic that is configured to shape the light output from the notification appliance. For example, in a wall-mount, the optic may be mounted off-axis of a plane defined by a back plate of the notification appliance. Further, the notification appliance may be composed of a back plate, a driver board, and a front housing, with the front housing being attached to one or both of the back plate and the driver board. Moreover, the notification appliance may be used with an adapter bracket, which may be used to connect the notification appliance with one or more types of junction boxes.
US09875627B2

A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method for detecting, by a system including at least one processor, a presence of an object from sensor data generated by a sensor device, retrieving, by the system, from a memory device a plurality of profiles biometrically descriptive of approved objects, asserting, by the system, an alarm responsive to determining from the sensor data that the detected object is not biometrically correlated to any of the plurality of profiles, classifying, by the system, the detected object as an authorized object responsive to determining from the sensor data that the detected object is biometrically correlated to at least one of the plurality of profiles, and notifying, by the system, at least one neighboring device responsive to asserting the alarm or responsive to classifying the detected object as the authorized object. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09875618B2

A gaming system which includes a plurality of overlapping game plays each configured to activate zero, one or more features. Following any activation of one or more features of at least one of the overlapping game plays, the gaming system causes such activated features to also be activated in one or more of the other overlapping game plays independent of which specific game play such features were activated initially for.
US09875617B2

An apparatus for implementing a game having a deterministic component and a non-deterministic component wherein a player uses the game through at least one player interface unit. Each player interface unit generates a player record indicating player-initiated events. A random number generator provides a series of pseudo-random numbers and a rules library stores indexed rules for one or more games. An interface registry stores mapping records where the mapping records are used to associate the player-initiated events to pre-selected rules in the rules library. A control means is coupled to the player interface to receive the output of the player interface unit, coupled to the interface registry, the rules library, and the random number generator. The control means processes the player record and returns an output record to the player interface unit where the output record is determined by executing the game's rules with reference to the pseudo-random numbers and predefined combinatorial algorithms for selecting sets of the pseudo-random numbers. In various embodiments, random numbers may be generated for use in a particular game or set of games, but not for use in all games.
US09875606B2

An apparatus, method, and system to present at least one game offering on a display of a gaming machine may include a portable electronic device having a processor operative with a spontaneous interest data application to acquire spontaneous interest data. A memory may store the spontaneous interest data and the spontaneous interest data application. The spontaneous interest data application may save the spontaneous interest data to the memory, and a data transfer interface can transfer the spontaneous interest data to a second device.
US09875600B2

Disclosed is a method of displaying augmented reality gaming information associated with a user-specific card using mobile device in an augmented reality gaming system. In one embodiment, the method includes: enabling a user to view a live image of a user-specific card through a display of a mobile device; acquiring user-specific identification information from the user-specific card; sending the user-specific identification information via a network to a server; retrieving user-specific information from the server using the mobile device; and displaying the user-specific information in conjunction with the user-specific card when viewing the user-specific card through the display of the mobile device using augmented reality.
US09875597B2

Techniques for processing user information in wagering game systems are described herein. In some embodiments, a system includes a first wagering game system to assign a first set of access credentials to a user, wherein the first wagering system is connected to a first set of wagering game machines. The system can also include a second wagering game system to assign a second set of access credentials to the user, wherein the second wagering system connected to a second set of wagering game machines. The systems can also include a master identifier controller to receive and store the first and second sets of access credentials, to receive requests to access the first wagering game system based on the second set of user access credentials, and to facilitate access the first wagering game system based on the second set of user access credentials.
US09875596B1

A fee collection device has a tube, a chamber in the tube, a bonnet that covers and locks the top of the tube, and a collection bag that attaches to the bottom of the chamber. The tube is mounted vertically in the ground. The chamber is removable from the tube. The chamber has three vertically spaced, angled plates with serrated lower edges projecting inwardly alternately from the front and back of the chamber. The lower two angled plates are hinged. The chamber has support arms that allow the chamber to rest above the tube while the collection bag is emptied. The bonnet locks with a puck lock.
US09875593B1

Currency processing systems, coin processing machines, coin sorting and recycling assemblies, and methods of making and methods of using the same are presented herein. A currency processing system is disclosed which includes a housing with a coin input area for receiving coins and coin receptacles for stowing processed coins. A disk-type coin processing unit includes a rotatable disk for imparting motion to input coins, and a sorting head for separating and discharging coins from exit stations. An automated coin chute receives coins from one of the exit stations. The automated coin chute includes a movable diverter plate that selectively transitions between a first position, whereby coins received from the exit station of the disk-type coin processing unit are redirected through a coin-recycling output passage to a coin-recycling receptacle, and a second position, whereby coins received from the exit station are redirected through a coin-depositing output passage to a coin-depositing receptacle.
US09875589B1

Responsive to location information received from a positioning system indicating a vehicle location corresponding to a predefined location, a controller of a vehicle broadcasts a notification including the vehicle location. Responsive to receiving a request including a device location from a mobile device having interpreted the broadcast, the controller permits access to the vehicle responsive to a difference between the device location and the vehicle location being less than a predefined threshold distance.
US09875586B2

An inductive coded lock system includes an inductive lock mechanism, and a conductive key/target. The inductive lock mechanism includes multiple inductor coils and sensor circuitry. Each inductor coil is operable to project a magnetic field defining a sensing area proximate to the inductor/coil, the inductor coils being spatially arranged to define a key/target sensing area incorporating each inductor coil sensing area. The sensor circuitry drives inductor coils, and measures sensor response (such as with an inductance comparator) to a key/target inserted within the key/target sensing area, including detecting an unlock condition corresponding to a pre-defined coded lock pattern. The key/target includes active and inactive areas (such as conductive/nonconductive) corresponding spatially to the sensing areas in the key target sensing area, the active and inactive areas arranged in a pre-defined coded key pattern corresponding to the pre-defined coded lock pattern. The coded lock and key patterns can be binary coded.
US09875582B2

An apparatus is provided that measures usage of a motor unit having a motor and a motor cable leading to the motor to provide operational power to the motor. The apparatus includes a housing that attaches to the motor cable such that the motor cable passes through an interior region of the housing. A sensor is situated in the interior region of the housing and is operable to sense current that flows in the motor cable. The apparatus has a counter that logs accumulated time of operation of the motor based on an amount of time that current is sensed by the sensor to be flowing in the motor cable.
US09875581B2

The disclosure relates to a method of automatically producing a three-dimensional (3D) segmentation of a heart chamber, the method comprising: obtaining data sets from cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasound, generating a 3D segmentation of the heart chamber from the data sets using an active contour method, modifying the 3D segmentation by adding a plurality of intra-chamber structures; and identifying an enclosing myocardium using the 3D segmentation generated by the method.
US09875580B2

A system, method and program product for collecting image data from within a metaverse. A system is provided that includes: a graphical user interface (GUI) for allowing a user to install and administer a camera within the metaverse; a system for collecting image data from the camera based on an occurrence of a triggering event associated with the camera; and a system for storing or delivering the image data for the user.
US09875576B2

A visualization of pavement conditions that are evaluated with respect to weather, pavement, and sub-surface variables provides users responsible for roadway infrastructure maintenance and monitoring with information such as depths of accumulated precipitation across “slices” of a roadway for each particular time in a given time period. The accumulated precipitation information contains the depths for each of several different types of precipitation and is shown in three dimensions, where x represents the lane of the roadway, y represents the depths of precipitation, and z represents time. A visualization model generates an appearance of a roadway lane upon which the accumulated precipitation increases or decreases over time corresponding to the results of weather and maintenance acting on that lane.
US09875561B2

A system and method are presented that store graph data in a database as nodes, edges that link nodes, and profiles that contain properties that provide additional context for the nodes and edges. Computerized methods are described that provide for the dynamic creation of graph data based on the properties stored on the profiles related to each node, including the ability to predetermine which properties are used within a CSS-like language. Methods for visually focusing on a portion of a graph are also disclosed that allow a user to select one or more base nodes and limit the display of related nodes to those nodes within a defined degree of separation from the base node(s). The user can control the desired degree of separation, can select multiple base nodes, and can predetermine the base nodes to be used (and desired degree of separation for each) using a CSS-like language.
US09875550B2

A method and device generates a trajectory. The method includes receiving a plurality of tracklets indicative of movement of a plurality of targets over a predetermined temporal interval. The method includes determining a plurality of context data for a pair of tracklets based upon at least one additional tracklet. The method includes computing a probability that the pair of tracklets relate to a first one of the targets. The method includes generating a trajectory for the first target based upon a concatenation of select ones of the tracklets. The concatenation maximizes the probability that the pair of tracklets correspond to the first target based upon the context data associated with the pair of the tracklets.
US09875546B1

Techniques to determine the three-dimensional structure of wearable items are disclosed. A scanning device can project waves at a wearable item and receive reflections of the waves. In embodiments, the scanning device projects light pulses and detects reflections of the light pulses. Depth measurements from the scanning device to the wearable item can be used to determine points corresponding to locations on the wearable item. A point cloud can be generated of the points, which can convey the three-dimensional structure of the wearable item. In embodiments, another wearable item can be determined to have a corresponding three-dimensional structure based on point cloud comparisons. The second wearable item can be suggested to a user as a wearable item having an appropriate fit for the user.
US09875540B2

A medical data processing method of matching a medical image of an anatomical structure of a patient's body with an atlas-based representation of the anatomical structure, the method being constituted to be executed by a computer and comprising the following steps; acquiring patient image data describing a medical image representation of the anatomical structure in the medical image; determining, based on the patient image data, patient substructure data describing a plurality of patient substructure representations each describing a different patient substructure of the anatomical structure; acquiring general substructure data describing a general substructure representation of each of a plurality of general substructures for each of the patient substructures; determining, for each of the patient substructures and based on the patient substructure data and the general substructure data, substructure matching data describing a matching general substructure representation which matches the respective patient substructure representation; determining, based on the general substructure data and the substructure matching data, anatomical structure atlas data describing an atlas representation of the anatomical structure; determining, based on the patient image data and the anatomical structure atlas data, matching transformation data describing an atlas-patient matching transformation between the medical image representation of the anatomical structure and the atlas representation of the anatomical structure.
US09875538B2

A device and method integrates a lesion stager in a reporting tool. The method includes receiving a user input. The user input is image data including at least one variable value. The variable value is indicative of a variable parameter of the image data. The method includes associating each of the at least one variable value with a corresponding variable parameter to generate at least one variable-value pair. The method includes determining a computed output value as a function of select ones of the at least one variable-value pair.
US09875530B2

An apparatus and a method implemented in a computer system for obscuring a first region of an image composed by a plurality of pixels. The method comprising obtaining a mask, the mask defining an obscurity level for each pixel in the first region of the image, and obscuring pixels in the first region of the image based on the mask's obscurity level for each pixel.
US09875517B2

A data processing method performed by a first processor configured to control a second processor that performs a process of creating an image and has a plurality of operation modes with different power consumption levels, the data processing method includes setting a number related to a second period following a first period based on a number of first images created by the second processor during the first period; and switching an operation mode of the second processor to an operation mode in which power consumption is lower than a power consumption of an operation mode during creating the image, among the plurality of operation modes, when the number of second images created during the second period reaches the set number.
US09875508B1

System and methods provide customizable insurance according to consumer preferences. Demand simulators guide the creation of optimized packages of features, which consumers may select from to form an insurance package appropriate for their particular needs. Packages may be formed with a particular appeal to consumers with common needs, wants, or characteristics. In addition, methods and systems are provided for presenting insurance packages for consideration by customers over a network. Presented insurance packages may be formed through an optimization process or according to customer preferences.
US09875507B2

On a display terminal of an electronic trading system, a graph is displayed having a first axis and a second axis, wherein the graph includes a curve corresponding to a range of values of a financial instrument. A user is allowed to select a portion of the graph. In response to the user selection of the portion of the graph, a trading dialog box is displayed on the display of the workstation, the dialog box being automatically populated with values for trading, the values based on the values of the selected portion of the graph.
US09875505B2

Systems and methods of allocating transactions among business objects are described. The systems and methods include storing transaction data characterizing the plurality of transactions, producing a plurality of generated allocation rules, using relationships between nodes of a data structure, and executing a plurality of queries on the stored transaction data, using the plurality of generated allocation rules.
US09875499B2

Various aspects described or referenced herein are directed to different methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing On Demand Services in Casino gaming establishments utilizing a Communications Network.
US09875497B1

Described herein are techniques for providing information regarding brands of items offered for acquisition by an offering service. The items may comprise tangible or intangible goods, products (e.g., electronics, sporting goods, digital music, etc.), services, or the like. A brand, meanwhile, may refer to a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that distinguishes a designer, maker, manufacturer, seller or the like from other entities.
US09875488B2

A system and method for providing targeted marketing to a user based on the user's social media interaction. The system includes one or more computing platforms providing computer-automated functionality performing method steps for accepting a digital media and digital media related data from a publisher, generating associated information unique identifiers, monitoring social media networks for member-user rankings of the digital media after it is posted, and communicating to a member-user targeted marketing information based on the user rankings. A data storage device persists the digital media, digital media related data, and information unique identifier, which may include a linking hash character, a unique identifier, an account identifier, and/or social media network system-defined elements. The publisher selects digital media and information representing digital media elements, and posts the digital media on the social media network website. Edits, if applied to the selected digital media, are persisted in the data storage.
US09875481B2

A computer extracts traffic data from one or more traffic servers and stores the traffic data in a database. The computer also extracts and stores customer wait time, resource management, and point of sale (POS) data from one or more retail store servers in the database, and each of the retail store servers can correspond to a retail store. Extract and store subroutines may be executed in parallel using multithreading. Upon achieving synchronization of the parallel subroutines, the computer transforms the traffic, customer wait time, resource management, and POS data from the database by determining one or more metrics for each of the retail stores. Next, the computer loads the one or more determined metrics into the database. Finally, the computer aggregates the one or more determined metrics on at least one of a district level, region level, area level, and nation level to determine one or more aggregated metrics.
US09875480B2

Provided are systems and methods for using an existing management server infrastructure to deliver video-on-demand or streaming content, including real-time live streaming. Existing client content playback devices, such as IPTVs, may be employed to stream content items, obtain advertisements, track user's viewing behaviors, and the like. By reusing existing client devices, there is no need for additional hardware purchases on the user side. By reusing existing management server infrastructures, capital expenses are also reduced. In such a system, a user can watch both video-on-demand and streaming audiovisual content.
US09875474B2

A method is provided for securing a transaction made by bank card, the transaction involving a remote provision, by a user, of data existing in a bank card in his possession. The method includes: obtaining data existing in the bank card to be used, called textual data; obtaining at least one portion of the textual data in the form of an audio data stream, called a sound sample, resulting from reading the data existing in the bank card to be used; computing a current voice signature from said sound sample; comparing said current voice signature with a reference voice signature pre-recorded and associated with the textual data of the bank card; and when the reference voice signature differs from the current voice signature by a value greater than the first value defined by a predetermined parameter, for rejecting the transaction.
US09875473B2

A payment module with one or more processors, memory, a short-range wireless transceiver (e.g., BLE), and a first interface module configured to couple the payment module with a control unit of an offline-payment operated machine that includes a coin receiving switch. The payment module receives a transaction request via the short-range wireless transceiver from a respective mobile device to perform a transaction with the offline-payment operated machine. In accordance with receiving the request, the payment module causes the offline-payment operated machine to perform the requested transaction by issuing one or more electronic pulses emulating one or more signals issued by the coin receiving switch to perform the transaction to the control unit of the offline-payment operated machine via the first interface module.
US09875470B2

An email payment gateway configured to enable users to receive @PAY offers using print media quick response (QR) codes. A consumer views an advertisement or product having packing with a QR code and scans the QR code. Scanning the QR code generates an email addressed to the email payment gateway requesting information on the product, which is sent to the email payment gateway. The email payment gateway receives the email and responds to the consumer with an email that includes information on the products in the advertisement. Included in the email from the email payment gateway is a button enabling the recipient to purchase the relevant item. The button preferably includes a mail-to hyperlink as that generates an outgoing email reply requesting to purchase the product.
US09875466B2

A system and method are disclosed for maintaining a whitelist, including: obtaining message data based on an email message sent by a user; extracting recipient information from message data; updating the whitelist using the recipient information.
US09875461B2

An RFID cabinet system is provided for monitoring items having an RFID tag. System includes cabinet having open interior where items are stored and at least one door providing access to items. Static RFID system is provided for reading and identifying data embedded on RFID tag located on at least some of the items placed within cabinet. Static RFID system is configured to monitor substantially all items located within the interior of cabinet when door is closed. Transaction RFID system is provided for reading one of the RFID tags upon removal or return of the associated item from cabinet. Transaction RFID system is operable when door is open. Computer system is configured to sense opening and closing of door. Computer system is configured to receive input that identifies user, and computer system is configured to periodically record data read from RFID tags by static RFID system and transaction RFID system.
US09875459B2

The present disclosure introduces methods and systems for tracking pieces of wellsite equipment. Such tracking includes receiving first identification information and first location information for a first module associated with a first piece of wellsite equipment at a first location, receiving second identification information for a second module associated with a second piece of wellsite equipment at the first location, and determining a tracking event associated with the second piece of wellsite equipment based on the first identification information, the first location information, and the second identification information. A utilization state associated with the second piece of wellsite equipment is then determined based on at least the tracking event.
US09875458B2

An apparatus for tracking a plurality of built components is provided. The apparatus comprises a reading gate configured to identify at least one fabricated building component arrived at the point of entry of the building site by reading an ID tag of each fabricated building component arrived at the point of entry of the building site and by associating the ID tag with a number imprinted on each fabricated building component. The reading gate is configured to record the timing of arrival of the identified fabricated building component at the point of entry of the building site.
US09875457B2

A system and method is presented for gathering data concerning harvests. Data tickets are generated when the harvest is received at a point of origination (i.e., the field), local storage, processing, or a customer location. Data tickets can be manually generated using apps running on mobile devices. Users of the mobile devices input the data tickets when harvest is received at these locations. Data tickets are transmitted to a remote server over a wide area network. Analysis of the data tickets is possible through a web interface to the remote server. Beacons that identify various equipment or locations can be used to trigger the automatic generation of data tickets.
US09875455B2

An automated storage and retrieval system for customers and vendors/service providers to pick up and drop off packages such as parcels, dry-cleaning/laundry, and the like. The present invention may provide a convenient point for users to pick up or drop off items. In varying embodiments, the system may be particularly useful in multi-unit residential buildings, retail stores and other store-fronts, as stand-alone kiosks in popular locations such as department stores, train stations, malls, street corners, and the like.
US09875454B2

A device receives a request for a flight path for a UAV to travel from a location to an anticipated location associated with a mobile device, and determines capability information for the UAV based on component information associated with the UAV. The device receives information associated with a current location, a direction of travel, and a speed of the mobile device, and calculates the flight path from the location to the anticipated location associated with the mobile device based on the capability information and based on the information associated with the current location, the direction of travel, and the speed of the mobile device. The device generates flight path instructions for the flight path, and provides the flight path instructions to the UAV to permit the UAV to travel from the location to the anticipated location associated with the mobile device, based on the flight path instructions.
US09875449B1

A system comprises one or more modules to access a business rule, deconstruct the business rule into a condition and an associated action, determine a set of questions relevant to the condition, place the set of questions into a question queue, order the question queue, and present the question queue to a user. A system comprises one or more modules to determine a subject of the request received from a user, use the subject to obtain a set of relevant questions, examiner each question and determine whether an answer to a current question is available in a storage area, and present the current question when the answer is not available. A system comprises one or more modules to access a decision tree, determine a current node, determine an estimated number of nodes between the current node and a leaf node, and present a representation using the estimated number of nodes.
US09875442B2

Methods, apparatus and artificial intelligence (AI) editors for implementing an AI behavior are provided herein. In an exemplary method, an AI behavior configuration file can be obtained. The AI behavior configuration file can be configured using at least one preset component, and the AI behavior configuration file matches logic of a preset AI behavior. It can be tested whether a result of running the AI behavior configuration file reaches a preset effect. When the result of running the AI behavior configuration file reaches the preset effect, the preset AI behavior can be implemented according to the AI behavior configuration file.
US09875439B2

A license plate radio electronic identifier is provided. Through an isolated space defined between an RFID tag in an elongate frame of an identifier and a license plate to form a resonant cavity at a slot of a metal film antenna on the RFID tag, the metal film antenna can resonate and sense an electromagnetic wave signal reflected by the surface of the license plate through the resonant cavity. The electromagnetic wave signal of a frequency band is transmitted to a radio frequency identification chip under the action of the frequency band and the field pattern adjustment of the slot and a groove. The overall structure of the identifier serves as radio identification for a vehicle. The identifier is resistant to a metal interference and capable of long distance reading and can be put into mass production and is cost-effective.
US09875438B1

Embodiments are directed to a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC) having a first circuit block electrically coupled to first and second antenna contacts. The first antenna contact is disposed on a first surface of the IC and the second antenna contact is disposed on a second surface of the IC different from the first surface. The first and second antenna contacts are electrically disconnected from each other.
US09875437B2

Dynamic magnetic stripe communications devices are provided as magnetic stripe emulators. A magnetic stripe emulator may include a coil. Drive circuits may be coupled to this coil in order to produce electromagnetic fields from the coil operable to communicate with a magnetic stripe reader.
US09875430B1

A first image is received. An initial label is assigned to at least some pixels in the first image, including by assigning a first label to a first pixel. A determination is made, based at least in part on labels of spectral neighbors of the first pixel, that the first pixel's label should be replaced with a different label. The first pixel's label is updated with the different label.
US09875423B2

An image pickup apparatus capable of calculating a light amount change characteristic of light from an object according to a state of the object. In the image pickup apparatus, the luminance change-based flicker detection for detecting flicker of a light source by calculating the light amount change characteristic of light from a photographing object based on sequential image data obtained by an image pickup device, and the luminance distribution-based flicker detection for detecting flicker by calculating the light amount change characteristic based on luminance distribution data generated from the image data are selectively performed according to the brightness of the photographing environment.
US09875422B1

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for compressing rows of data stored in a first matrix using run length encoding (RLE) to produce an RLE encoded matrix. Compressing columns of the RLE encoded matrix into a set of arrays by differentially encoding data count values of the RLE encoded matrix, wherein each array in the set of arrays represents a column of the RLE encoded matrix.
US09875410B2

A camera system includes: a camera configured to capture an image of a surveillance area; a microphone array which includes at least one microphone; and at least one processor configured to implement: a video processor which designates at least one subject in the image as a target; a beam-former which calculates a rotation angle of the microphone array based on a location of the subject; and a driving controller which rotates the microphone array toward the subject based on the rotation angle of the microphone array, wherein the beam-forming unit further performs signal processing on an audio input signal received through the microphone array rotated toward the subject and outputs an audio output signal corresponding to the audio input signal.
US09875393B2

An information processing apparatus, method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium are disclosed. The information processing apparatus may include a memory storing instructions; and one or more processors configured to process the instructions to extract color information from a face image sequence, determine temporal variations in the extracted color information, and determine whether a face contained in the face image sequence is a spoofing based on the determined temporal variations.
US09875392B2

According to an example, a face capture and matching system may include a memory storing machine readable instructions to receive captured images of an area monitored by an image capture device, and detect one or more faces in the captured images. The memory may further store machine readable instructions to track movement of the one or more detected faces in the area monitored by the image capture device, and based on the one or more tracked detected faces, select one or more images from the captured images to be used for identifying the one or more tracked detected faces. The memory may further store machine readable instructions to select one or more fusion techniques to identify the one or more tracked detected faces using the one or more selected images. The face capture and matching system may further include a processor to implement the machine readable instructions.
US09875390B2

A method of recognizing an object includes controlling an event-based vision sensor to perform sampling in a first mode and to output first event signals based on the sampling in the first mode, determining whether object recognition is to be performed based on the first event signals, controlling the event-based vision sensor to perform sampling in a second mode and to output second event signals based on the sampling in the second mode in response to the determining indicating that the object recognition is to be performed, and performing the object recognition based on the second event signals.
US09875384B2

A method for reading symbols forming a code, the symbols each being marked on one face of a number of glass sheets in proximity to the same edge face of the glass sheets, the glass sheets being arranged in a stack. The method includes acquiring, with a camera, at least one image via the edge face of the glass sheets, the observation direction being non-perpendicular and inclined relative to the edge face of each of the glass sheets the code of which is read with the image; and an image processing step in which the acquired image is processed by a processor programmed to extract information present in at least one code visible in the image and having to be read.
US09875382B2

In some embodiments, a tracking fastener may include a plastic tracking fastener. The plastic tracking fastener may include a plastic tracking staple or a plastic tracking nail. The plastic tracking fastener may include at least one elongated member comprising at least one distal end, and a proximal end. The distal end(s) may penetrate, during insertion, a surface of an object. The tracking fastener may include a wireless identification device. The wireless identification device may contain electronically stored information associated with an item to which the plastic tracking fastener is coupled. The plastic tracking fastener may have a primary antenna electrically coupled to the wireless identification device. The plastic tracking fastener may have a secondary antenna electromagnetically coupled to the primary antenna of the wireless identification device. The secondary antenna may provide higher read range/distance relative to the primary antenna itself. The tracking fastener may communicate information to an interrogator.
US09875376B1

Database management and security is implemented in a variety of embodiments. In one such embodiment, data sets containing sensitive data elements are analyzed using aliases representing sensitive data elements. In another embodiment, the sensitive data elements are stored in an encrypted form for use from a secure access, while the alias is available for standard access.
US09875372B2

Restricted content of a data file is identified. The restricted content is removed from the data file, and a redacted version of the data file is generated. The restricted content is stored separate from the redacted version of the data file.
US09875361B2

A method for providing a social network service includes: (a) setting an access threshold value for a content belonging to a content owner and a weight value for one or more communities of which the content owner is a member; (b) extracting a community of which a content requester is a member from among the communities of which the content owner is a member, when a request for the content is received from the content requester, and calculating an activity value of the content requester for the extracted community; (c) calculating a reputation value for the content requester by using one or more of a number of the extracted communities, a weight value set for the extracted communities, and the calculated activity value; and (d) providing the content requester with authorization to access the content according to a comparison result between the reputation value and the access threshold value.
US09875359B2

Various embodiments of the present technology provide methods for activating a security module of a rack system prior to the loading of an operating system. The security module can be configured to examine server platform security, communicate with an administrator through a baseboard management controller (BMC), certify signatures of firmware pieces on a motherboard of the rack system, exclude malware by isolating unsigned UEFI images, examine a signature list and security key installed on the motherboard, and/or report status of security management to a controller of the rack system (e.g., BMC). When the security module determines that an uncertified firmware or a bootable storage with malware is loaded onto the rack system, the security module can stop process(es) associated with the uncertified firmware and/or the bootable storage, and subsequently send a report the administrator.
US09875358B2

The subject disclosure is directed towards protecting code in memory from being modified after boot, such as code used in a dedicated microprocessor or microcontroller. Hardware, such as in logic or in a memory protection unit, allows a range of memory to be made non-writeable after being loaded, e.g., via a secure boot load operation. Further, startup code that is used to configure the hardware/memory may be made non-executable after having run once, so that no further execution may occur in that space, e.g., as a result of an attack. A function in the runtime code may allow for a limited, attack-protected reconfiguration of sub-regions of memory regions during the runtime execution.
US09875355B1

A method and system are disclosed for detecting malicious software on host server computers or instances running on the host server computers. A pattern of behavior of how the malicious software makes Domain Name System (DNS) requests and/or responses can be used to detect the malicious software. The pattern of behavior can be based on actions that the tenants take in order to make the DNS requests, such as repeating the same requests at fixed time intervals, or requesting a plurality of DNS requests in batches, wherein at least a threshold percentage of which are not resolvable, or using statistically random domain names with the requests. The pattern of behavior can also be associated with responses to the DNS requests, such as when the response includes a text message, and the text message includes encrypted or statistically random data.
US09875352B2

A user manages security of one or more user devices by manipulating one or more sensors located in the user's mouth in a predetermined pattern corresponding to a password. The matching of the predetermined pattern to the password unlocks at least a portion of at least one user device.
US09875351B2

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are herein provided for hiding access to information in an image. A method may include receiving user input indicating a desire of a user to magnify a region within an image to a level of magnification. The method may further include causing the region to be magnified to the level of magnification. The method may further include determining whether the region is associated with at least one of an application or information and determining whether the level of magnification satisfies a level of magnification threshold. The method may further include causing the at least one application to be launched or information to be opened in an instance in which the region is associated with the at least one of an application or information and the level of magnification satisfies the level of magnification threshold. Corresponding apparatuses and computer program products are also provided.
US09875347B2

A system, apparatus, method, and machine readable medium are described for performing authentication using data analytics such as machine learning. For example, one embodiment of a method comprises: selecting a set of parameters related to user activity on a client device; receiving a request to authenticate the user for a current transaction; responsively calculating a distance between parameters associated with the current transaction and historical parameters from an existing dataset; determining a risk level associated with the current transaction based on the calculated distances between the parameters associated with the current transaction and the historical parameters; selecting one or more authentication techniques required to authenticate the user based on the risk level; performing the one or more authentication techniques to attempt to authenticate the user and generating an authentication result; and updating the historical parameters using the parameters associated with the current transaction and the authentication result.
US09875341B2

To verify that a mobile gaming device is in communications with an intended server that provides activities and/or services to a player through the mobile gaming device and maintains information related to these activities and/or services, a verification server determines one or more pieces of the maintained information and sends the determined information to a verification device as a confirmation that the mobile gaming device is in communication with the intended server.
US09875325B2

A computer implemented system and method of identification of useful untested states of an electronic design, comprising, parsing at least one netlist of a representation of the electronic design comprised at least in part of at least one analog portion, determining at least one instrumentation point based on the at least one netlist, generating at least one instrumented netlist based on the at least one instrumentation point and determining an analog verification coverage utilizing the at least one instrumented netlist.
US09875312B2

A device includes a memory for storing digital media, a transfer module, and a processor. The media includes first data that associates the media with the device, second data authorizing the device to play back the media, and third data authorizing the device to transfer a copy of the media. A transfer includes transfer data identifying the copy uniquely relative to the device. The processor implements instructions to receive a request to transfer a copy of the media to a peer device, create a copy of the media that includes the first data and the transfer data, and direct the transfer module to transfer the copy to the peer device and send a transaction record including the first data and the transfer data to a server.
US09875310B2

An invention is disclosed for systems, methods, processes, and products of providing information to users based on their relationships with other users. Such a system, method, process, or product provides a more reliable, accurate, or otherwise effective way of determining and presenting relevant information to users, consumers, and the like.
US09875299B2

A system and method for identifying relevant search results via an index is provided. A search query is received. A semantic representation of query substructures and a list of key terms is generated for the query. Each key term includes a term in the search query or a term related to the query. An inverted index having key terms each associated with a semantic representation and a link to a source reference is accessed. The inverted index is queried using a subset of key terms. A result set for the subset key terms is identified within the inverted index. Each result is scored and a subset of the result set is identified as retrieval candidates based on the scoring. One or more of the retrieval candidates are selected based on a comparison of the query semantic representation with the semantic representations for the retrieval candidates.
US09875297B2

Methods and apparatus related to associating a task with a user based on the user selecting a task suggestion that is provided to the user in response to a user query. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on similarities between the words and/or phrases of the user query and a task suggestion that is associated with a task. In some implementations, the task may be identified based on user data associated with the user. In some implementations, the task may be associated with additional information related to completing the task.
US09875294B2

Described are a method and an apparatus for classifying an object based on a social networking service. Feature information of an object may be acquired; a semantic vector of the feature information may be computed, the semantic vector being used to reflect a relevancy feature when segmented words exist in the feature information simultaneously; and the semantic vector of the feature information of the object may be input to a predetermined classifier, to obtain an initial category of the object after the object is classified.
US09875289B2

An apparatus and method for processing an ontological query for data from any of a plurality of different databases on a network coupled to a computer that includes loading a ontological data model comprising a plurality of logical models based on data from the plurality of different databases, compiling the ontological query and optimizing 48 the compiled ontological query according to join and combination rules based on the logical models and describing meta-properties of the data and meta-relationships based on the meta-properties between the data from the plurality of different databases, and processing logical operations on the compiled ontological query.
US09875286B1

A message sent by a message sender to a message receiver can be, e.g., upon arrival at a message system server, ranked or scored based on attributes of the message sender such as influence and engagement. Influence can relate to a determination of how influential the message sender is. Engagement can relate to a determination of how interested the message sender is in content published or syndicated by the message receiver. The message score can reflect a combination of an influence score and an engagement score. Scored messages can be sorted or filtered according to a desired element and a presentation of messages stored by the message system can be updated (e.g., ordered and scored) according to the desired element.
US09875285B2

Prioritizing items based on user activity includes determining a user interest based on a current user activity and prioritizing items in a list presented in a display based on the user interest. A method for prioritizing items based on user activity includes: determining a user interest based on a current user activity where said current user activity is an online collaboration activity with at least one collaborator and said user interest is based on group memberships shared with said at least one collaborator; and prioritizing items in a list presented in a display based on said user interest.
US09875281B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure include a method, a system, and a computer program product for determining wait times of tuples within a streaming environment. The method includes monitoring one or more tuples being processed within an operator graph where the operator graph includes a first processing element and a queue of the first processing element. The method includes recording a wait time of the one or more tuples within the queue of the first processing element. The method includes recording a processing time of the one or more tuples within the first processing element. The method includes displaying the wait time and the processing time of the one or more tuples. The method includes optimizing a configuration of the operator graph, in response to recording the processing time of the one or more tuples.
US09875276B2

In some embodiments, a system for database view generation may include a view generator configured to generate a database view for one or more database tables. The view generator includes a generation module configured to determine a generation template for the database view, where the generation template is a code structure describing a manner in which the database view is created. The code structure does not reference a database name of the one or more database tables. The generation module is configured to invoke a code composer to insert code commands into the generation template to build a structured query language (SQL) statement for the database view, where the SQL statement references the database name of the one or more database tables. The view generator is configured to create the database view based on the SQL statement.
US09875275B2

Methods, systems and computer readable media for efficient state change support for hierarchical data models in a virtualized system are described. In some implementations, the method can include determining a system status including a system-level bit masked word having a plurality of bits, each bit corresponding to a status of a different hierarchical level of the system, and receiving a change notification. The method can also include querying an entity at a lower hierarchy level if a cascaded state change is identified for that entity. The method can further include continuing to query one or more entities in successively lower hierarchy levels so long as a cascaded state change is identified for a corresponding entity in a lower hierarchy level. The method can also include determining the current status for one or more entities having a changed status. Identifying a cascaded state change can include performing a logical exclusive OR operation on a previous status bit masked word and a current status bit masked word of an entity.
US09875268B2

Natural language management of online social network connections may comprise receiving natural language data associated with a user's social network interactions. The natural language data associated with a user's social network interactions is analyzed and features used in the user's social network interactions are determined based on the analysis. The contexts in which the features are used in the user's social network interactions may be also determined. Point values to the features used in the user's social network interactions are assigned. A fingerprint of the user is created at least based on the features and the point values. The created fingerprint may be compared with information associated with online communities, and based on the comparison, one or more of the online communities may be recommended as user's potential social network connections.
US09875262B2

A distributed storage system may store data object instances in persistent storage and may cache keymap information for those data object instances. The system may cache a latest symbolic key entry for some user keys of the data object instances. When a request is made for the latest version of stored data object instances having a specified user key, the latest version may be determined dependent on whether a latest symbolic key entry exists for the specified user key, and keymap information for the latest version may be returned. When storing keymap information, a flag may be set to indicate that a corresponding latest symbolic key entry should be updated. The system may delete a latest symbolic key entry for a particular user key from the cache in response to determining that no other requests involving the keymap information for data object instances having the particular user key are pending.
US09875256B2

A display window is displayed on a display of an information terminal, the display window including a first display area that displays similar medical images received from a case retrieval system and an instruction function that changes the display number of the similar medical images displayed in the first display area. If an instruction by the instruction function is detected, the display size of an individual area for displaying each of the similar medical images is changed while the display size of a sick portion of each of the similar medical images the same size, and hence the display number of the similar medical images displayed in the first display area is changed.
US09875253B2

For each image in a collection of images to be searched, the image is represented as a collection of color-edge words, where each color-edge words includes location information, shape information, and color information. The images may be indexed based on the color-edge words. A user-generated sketch is received as a query and represented as a collection of color-edge words. The collection of color-edge words representing the sketch is compared to the image index to identify search results based on a combination of location similarity, shape similarity, and color similarity.
US09875252B2

In a histogram intersection calculating apparatus, a histogram intersection calculating unit calculates a histogram intersection to compare histograms of query data and target data to obtain a score value of the histogram intersection. A calculation controlling unit makes the histogram intersection calculating unit calculate the histogram intersection in descending order of bin number of the histogram of the query data from the bin number having the maximum frequency value by using frequency values in the bin numbers of the query data and frequency values in the bin numbers of the target data to obtain a score value of the histogram intersection.
US09875248B2

Disclosed is a system and method for identifying a path in a tree data structure having a plurality of levels. An example method includes receiving a request from a software application to access a resource in a computer file system using a requested path; identifying a first element in the requested path; comparing the first element with nodes in a first level of the tree data structure to identify an exact match; if the first element does not have an exact match, comparing the first element with at least one mask node in the first level of the tree data structure to identify a match by mask; and if the first element does not match one of mask nodes in the first level of the tree data structure, determining that the requested path is not in the tree data structure.
US09875236B2

An analysis subject determination device includes: a demand period detection unit which detects, from data corresponding to audio of a dissatisfaction conversation, a demand utterance period which represents a demand utterance of a first conversation party among a plurality of conversation parties which are carrying out the dissatisfaction conversation; a negation period detection unit which detects, from the data, a negation utterance period which represents a negation utterance of a second conversation party which differs from the first conversation party; and a subject determination unit which, from the data, determines a period with a time obtained from the demand period utterance period as a start point and a time obtained from the negation utterance period after the demand utterance period as an end point to be an analysis subject period of a cause of dissatisfaction of the first conversation party in the dissatisfaction conversation.
US09875229B2

Page layout of web content is performed based on templates. Publishers publish web content referred to as “sources.” Each source comprises one or more assets from one or more asset types. The asset types include title, subtitle, byline, dateline, pull quote, image, video, audio, caption, and in-line text. A content processing system processes the sources using a conversion module and a rule database. The conversion module restructures a received source into a standardized format of the source, wherein each asset of the source is tagged with an asset type according to rules present in the rule database. A layout module interprets the standardized source, determines one or more templates from a template database to use for the layout of the assets of the source, and lays out the assets of the source based on the selected templates.
US09875218B2

A computer implemented method, system and a computer program product is provided for summarizing a document which includes receiving a reading speed of the reader, determining a summary length of a summary of the document based on the received reading speed of the reader, and generating a summary of the document having the determined summary length.
US09875214B2

An apparatus and method are provided for transferring a plurality of data structures between memory and a plurality of vector registers, each vector register being arranged to store a vector operand comprising a plurality of data elements. Access circuitry is used to perform access operations to move data elements of vector operands between the data structures in memory and specified vector registers, each data structure comprising multiple data elements stored at contiguous addresses in the memory. Decode circuitry is responsive to a single access instruction identifying a plurality of vector registers and a plurality of data structures that are located discontiguously with respect to each other in the memory, to generate control signals to control the access circuitry to perform a sequence of access operations to move the plurality of data structures between the memory and the plurality of vector registers such that the vector operand in each vector register holds a corresponding data element from each of the plurality of data structures. This provides a very efficient mechanism for performing complex access operations, resulting in an increase in execution speed, and potential reductions in power consumption.
US09875205B1

A large network of memory system is described comprising a plurality of system controllers and flash memory modules, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. An apparatus is also described comprising a plurality of flash memory modules interconnected with other flash memory modules and to at least one system controller via a point-to-point communication bus topology, in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.
US09875200B2

A military standard-1760 (MIL-STD-1760) interface bridge can include a housing, a translator device, and an energy storage device. The housing can include a MIL-STD-1760 connector on a first end and a weapon side connector on a second end. The translator device can translate a MIL-STD-1553B remote terminal (RT) protocol to a weapon side signaling protocol and translate the weapon side signaling protocol to the MIL-STD-1553B RT protocol. The energy storage device can be coupled to the operating power of the MIL-STD-1760 connector and can be configured to provide power to the translator device for a duration after the power from the MIL-STD-1760 connector is disconnected.
US09875192B1

A system and method that includes receiving a call, from a thread, of a plurality of threads performing the same operations in parallel, in association with a virtual machine, to read a block of data from a file, allocating memory accessible by both the virtual machine and the plurality of threads for receiving the block, and providing the block by causing the block to be copied from the file associated with a file descriptor into the memory. A system and method that includes receiving a call from a thread of a plurality of threads executing the same instructions in parallel in association with a virtual machine, to write a block of data to a file, configuring a buffer accessible by the virtual machine to receive the block, writing the block to the configured buffer, and causing the block to be copied from the configured buffer to the file.
US09875190B2

In general, embodiments of the technology relate to writing data to and reading data from storage appliances. More specifically, embodiments of the technology describe a method and system whereby a global control mechanism may be established, with delegation of specific translation activities to particular storage media device.
US09875184B2

A method for processing a read request comprises intercepting a read request that includes a logical block address (LBA) of the storage device by an IO filter driver and retrieving a disk identifier (ID) associated with the LBA from a metadata file associated with the storage device. The method further comprises sending the LBA and the disk ID to a daemon configured to read and write to a cache. If the daemon returns cached data associated with the LBA and the disk ID, the method returns the cached data in response to the read request. If the daemon does not return cached data associated with the LBA and the disk ID, the method transmits the read request to the storage device.
US09875183B2

Apparatus and method for placing data based on the content of the data in random access memory such that indexing operations are not required. A strong (e.g., cryptographic) hash is applied to a data element resulting in a signature. A weaker hash function is then applied to the signature to generate a storage location in memory for the data element. The weaker hash function assigns multiple data elements to the same storage location while the signature comprises a unique identifier for locating a particular data element at this location. In one embodiment a plurality of weak hash functions are applied successively to increase storage space utilization. In other embodiments, the assigned storage location can be determined by one or more attributes of the data element and/or the storage technology, e.g, long-lived versus short-lived data and/or different regions of the memory having different performance (e.g., access latency memory lifetime) characteristics.
US09875172B2

A developer analytic module executing on an integrated development environment provides location tracing of a software development toolkit and automatic updated of the SDK. The developer analytic module further provides data container transfer functionality to ensure that analytic logic has access to necessary data containers to perform symbolication and/or error detection.
US09875170B2

A method of operating a data storage device which is provided with an operating voltage from a host and communicates with the host is provided. The method includes converting an operation mode of the data storage device into a debugging mode in response to a log start command transmitted from the host, receiving a first operation command from the host and executing the first operation command, generating first log information corresponding to a result of executing the first operation command, storing the first log information in a first storage area of memory of the data storage device, and copying at least part of the first log information from the first storage area to a second storage area of the memory of the data storage device when an event occurs according to the result of executing the first operation command.
US09875158B2

A method for use in a dispersed storage network (DSN) operates to output at least a write threshold number of write slice requests to a set of storage units of the DSN and receive write slice responses from the set of storage units. When the write threshold number of favorable write slice responses is received, the method includes generating a corresponding number of commit requests and outputting the number of commit requests to associated storage units corresponding to the write threshold number of favorable write slice responses received.
US09875140B2

The present invention relates to a method, system, and apparatus for coordinating distributed electronic discovery processing. The method may comprise the steps of receiving electronic discovery data comprising a plurality of electronic files, determining, with at least one processor, a plurality of discrete tasks for processing the electronic discovery data, determining, with at least one processor, a coordinated distribution of the plurality of discrete tasks to a plurality of computers, and assigning at least a portion of the plurality of discrete tasks to the plurality of computers based on the coordinated distribution such that at least one discrete task is assigned to each computer at any given time or during any given time period. A system and apparatus configured to perform the method is also disclosed.
US09875134B2

A set of techniques is described for enabling a virtual machine based transcoding system. The system enables any transcoding provider to make their transcoding service available to other users over a network. The system can automate the deployment, execution and delivery of the transcoding service on behalf of the transcoding provider and enable other users to use the transcoding services to transcode content. The system receives a virtual machine image, transfers the image to a location where the media content is stored and creates a virtual private network of resources that will perform the transcoding of the media content. The virtual private network may be firewalled or otherwise restricted from opening connections with external clients when transcoding the content in order to prevent malicious use of the media content.
US09875131B2

In an example embodiment, a hypervisor exposes a first guest device to a first virtual machine and a second guest device to a second virtual machine. The hypervisor exposes a first virtual host device and a second virtual host device to a third virtual machine. The hypervisor maps a first memory and a second memory into the third virtual machine at a first base address register and a second base address register associated with each virtual host device. The hypervisor sends a first mapping from a first virtual machine and a second mapping from a second virtual machine to the third virtual machine. The hypervisor sends a first address of a first ring of the first guest device and a second address of a second ring of the second guest device to the third virtual machine through the respective virtual host devices.
US09875128B2

A system, methods, and apparatus for using hypervisor trapping for protection against interrupts in virtual machine functions are disclosed. A system includes memory, one or more physical processors, a virtual machine executing on the one or more physical processors, and a hypervisor executing on the one or more physical processors. The hypervisor reads an interrupt data structure on the virtual machine. The hypervisor determines whether the interrupt data structure points to an alternate page view. Responsive to determining that the interrupt data structure points to an alternate page view, the hypervisor disables a virtual machine function.
US09875122B2

A system and method for providing hardware virtualization and resource management in a virtual machine environment. An application server environment is extended to provide an interface from the higher layers in the application server environment to the system's actual processing power, such that the allocation of processing can be made in a machine-independent way. A layer of software can be placed between the virtual machine and the hardware that improves the efficiency of the virtualized Java execution system. The system comprises two main components: a first, lower-level, execution environment that replaces the usual operating system; and a second, higher-level, resource broker that is responsible for handing out new virtual machines to the above layers, and for monitoring the current resource usage of the running virtual machines.
US09875109B2

A method and apparatus for generating a user adaptive application in a mobile terminal are provided. The method includes displaying a list of applications in the mobile terminal and displaying a list of services provided by at least one of the applications in the mobile terminal from among lists of services provided by each of the applications in the mobile terminal, receiving a selection of at least one service for an operation of a desired application module from among the displayed list of services, dynamically loading library modules for performing the selected services, and generating a specific application by combining the loaded library modules.
US09875105B2

Embodiments related to re-dispatching an instruction selected for re-execution from a buffer upon a microprocessor re-entering a particular execution location after runahead are provided. In one example, a microprocessor is provided. The example microprocessor includes fetch logic, one or more execution mechanisms for executing a retrieved instruction provided by the fetch logic, and scheduler logic for scheduling the retrieved instruction for execution. The example scheduler logic includes a buffer for storing the retrieved instruction and one or more additional instructions, the scheduler logic being configured, upon the microprocessor re-entering at a particular execution location after runahead, to re-dispatch, from the buffer, an instruction that has been previously dispatched to one of the execution mechanisms.
US09875101B1

Aspects of the disclosure provide a method for identifying an induction variable in a loop during a compiling process. The method includes searching for a phi-function that includes a first operand and a second operand and defines a candidate basic induction variable (BIV), searching for an add/sub instruction that has a first register and a second register wherein the first register is the second operand of the phi-function, or the value in the first register is subsequently stored to the second operand of the phi-function through one or more move instructions, and determining the candidate BIV is a BIV when the second register of the add/sub instruction is the candidate BIV or stores a value that is passed from the candidate BIV through one or more move instructions.
US09875099B2

A method for executing Android apps nativelyon any environment comprises converting one or more Android applications to a binary format of other applications in the Host Operating System. The Android applications are in one of a source format and a binary format. Further, all equivalent components are replaced from a standard Android environment with ones provided by the Host OS using the Host Operating System's capabilities. Furthermore, Android applications are executed natively by a Host Operating System. Moreover, the method includes mixing Android generated with content created by the Host Operating System to generate a final screen and the user views and interacts with the final screen.
US09875093B2

A system and method of updating device firmware on a rack server computer system using a network switch. The network switch receives a request to update the firmware of a device in the rack server computer system. The network switch determines the location of the device in the rack server system and transmits the firmware update to the device and commands the device to update its firmware using the firmware update transmitted by the switch. Alternatively, the network switch automatically detects a new device connected to the network switch in the rack server computer system. The network switch determines the identification of the new device, including its firmware, and determines if a newer version of the device firmware is available. The network switch obtains the newer version of the device firmware, transmits the firmware to the device, and commands the device to update its firmware with the newer version.
US09875092B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are distribution of a mobile application. In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include storing, at a first user equipment, a mobile payment application installation package; sending, by the first user equipment via a short-range radio link, an invitation to a second user equipment, the invitation representing an offer to receive the mobile payment application installation package; receiving, at the first user equipment, a response to the invitation; and sending, by the first user equipment via the short-range radio link, the mobile payment application installation package, when the response to the invitation represents an acceptance of the offer. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.
US09875085B2

A memory system and method are provided for generating a seed value. In one embodiment, a memory system identifies a random defect in a memory die and, in accordance with the identified random defect in the memory die, generates a seed value, wherein with the generated seed value a random number can be generated. Other embodiments are provided, which can be used alone or in combination with one another.
US09875078B1

An interface configured to allow desired cooperation between an OEM or aftermarket head unit and an external power amplifier. The inventive interface receives an audio input signal from the head unit. It also monitors the vehicle's CAN bus. The interface detects CAN bus commands that cause the head unit to play an audio notification signal such as a “chime.” Upon detecting such a CAN bus command, the inventive interface selectively adjusts the output level so that the user hears the audio notification signal at an appropriate volume.
US09875077B2

A personalized car radio system comprising: a remote application server comprising: a collector, being a software that scans web sites continuously, for detecting content that corresponds to keywords expressing a driver's preferences; a client application, being a software that schedules displaying collected content in accordance with an alertness rank of the driver and a rhythm of the content; and a client device interacting with the application server by Unicast communication, the client device comprising: a safety module, being a software activated continuously or intermittently, for determining an alertness rank according to (a) metered movement of an organ of the driver, and (b) road condition; and a sounding device and a user interface thereof, for sounding the scheduled content; and a text-to-speech converter, being executed either on the server or the client device, for converting text files to audio files.
US09875076B1

A remoting client can be configured to offload various graphics-based remoting protocol processes to the GPU to thereby free up the CPU for performing other remoting tasks. In this way, a remoting client can be executed on a client terminal that has a less powerful CPU even when a graphics-rich desktop is virtualized on the client terminal. When the remoting client receives remoting communications containing graphics display data, the remoting client can write the graphics display data to a location in memory that is accessible to the GPU and can then pass the graphics display data to the GPU for further processing. The CPU is therefore freed from having to fully process the graphics display data including from having to copy the graphics display data to a display buffer.
US09875072B2

There is provided an information processing system. A terminal device includes a parameter transmission unit that transmits a parameter being used for designating processing which is performed by using a first file; an instruction data transmission unit that transmits instruction data for storing a second file which is a duplicate of the first file; a control data memory that store control data which includes the parameter and storing location information of the second file. A control data transmission unit transmits the stored control data, acquires the second file by requiring transmission of the second file based on the storing location information, and transmits the acquired second file to the information processing apparatus which performs processing designated by the parameter included in the control data.
US09875069B2

An information processing apparatus includes a selection section. When the information processing apparatus makes an image forming apparatus perform image formation on a presentation file including first information on a first output image and second information on a second target output image associated with the first output image based on the first information and the second information, the selection section selects a target output image on which the image formation is performed from among the second output image.
US09875062B2

A device includes a memory device and a controller. The controller is coupled to the memory device. The controller is configured to, in response to receiving a request to perform a memory access at the memory device, determine that the memory device has a characteristic indicative of a temperature crossing. The controller is also configured to, in response to the determination, increase a temperature of the memory device by performing memory operations on the memory device until detecting a condition related to the temperature.
US09875056B2

An information processing system includes a plurality of physical machines, in each of which a virtual machine is constructed, and a migration processing unit that executes a migration process for moving a migration source virtual machine, constructed on a migration source physical machine, onto a migration destination physical machine during operation of the migration source virtual machine. The migration processing unit includes a memory data transfer processing unit that transfers first data stored in a first memory of the migration source virtual machine from the first memory to a second memory of the migration destination physical machine, transfers second data written in the first memory during the transfer to the second memory, and, when a transfer completion scheduled time for the first and second data exceeds an allowed time, restricts writing executed on the first memory.
US09875047B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure enable exit-less host memory locking in a virtualized environment. An example method comprises protecting, by a processing device of a host computer system, a memory page from being accessed by a guest operating system of a virtual machine running on the host computer system. The locking indicator resides in a shared memory accessible by the guest operating system. Responsive to determining that the locking indicator indicates that the memory page is not in a locked state, the memory page is accessed. Thereafter, access to the memory page is re-enabled for the guest operating system.
US09875042B1

A method, system, and computer program product for use in a replication environment comprising intercepting an IO sent from a host to a storage device in a splitter, marking information about the IO in a tracking structure, sending the IO to the storage device, and sending the IO to a replication device; wherein the IO is sent to the storage device before confirming that the replication device has received the IO.
US09875038B2

A storage device including a nonvolatile memory device is provided. The storage device may include: a nonvolatile memory device; and a controller configured to control a read operation of the nonvolatile memory device according to a read request from an external host device. The controller is configured to read map data including a segment, and to store different types of map data in an internal random access memory (RAM) based on determining whether the segment corresponds to sequential data.
US09875037B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer program products for implementing multiple raid level configurations in a computer storage device. In one embodiment, performance or resiliency of application data being executed to a single computer storage device can be prioritized. Embodiment of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer program products for a recovery operation, responsive to determining to prioritize performance of application data being executed to the single computer storage device.