US09918417B2
A shield wire is formed of eight twisted insulated core wires 1, an inclusion 2 between these respective insulated core wires 1, a tape 3 laterally wound around an outer periphery of a core formed of the insulated core wires and inclusion, a drain wire 4 disposed on an outer surface of the tape, a conductive fiber braided body 5 formed on an outer peripheral surface of the tape so as to interpose the drain wire, a sheath 6 that forms an outer peripheral surface of the braided body, and an adhesive layer 7 between the braided body and sheath. A braided body 5′ is adhesively integrated to the sheath 6′ by an adhesive layer; thus, the braided body 5′ is stripped with the sheath. This eliminates a need for a removal work of the braided body after stripping the sheath, thus ensuring good workability of the terminal processing.
US09918409B2
A cooling system is provided which includes, for instance, a coolant circulation loop, one or more primary coolant pumps, and a fill and drain pump. The primary coolant pump(s) is coupled to facilitate circulating coolant through the coolant circulation loop, and the fill and drain pump facilitates selective filling of the cooling system with the coolant, or draining of the coolant from the cooling system. The fill and drain pump is integrated with the cooling system as a backup coolant pump to the primary coolant pump(s), and circulates the coolant through the coolant circulation loop responsive to an error in the primary coolant pump(s). The primary coolant pump(s) and fill and drain pumps may be different types of pumps, and the cooling system further includes a control system for automatically activating the fill and drain pump upon detection of an error in the primary coolant pump(s).
US09918395B1
The present application provides an electronic device having at least a three part housing foldable between multiple use positions. The three part housing includes a first housing part, a second housing part, and a third housing part, where each of the three housing parts has a front facing, a back facing, and two spaced apart sides respectively coupled between the front facing and back facing at opposite edges of the front and back facings. The second housing part is respectively movably coupled to a side of each the first housing part and the third housing part at a different one of the two spaced apart sides of the second housing part. The electronic device further includes a flexible display which extends along at least portions of the first housing part and the second housing part, and across the movably coupled sides, at which the first housing part is coupled to the second housing part. The third housing part is adapted to be moved relative to the second housing part to selectively cover at least a portion of the flexible display.
US09918388B2
A circuit substrate includes: a mounting region having an exposed surface that is planarized, and in which a predetermined chip is to be mounted; patterns provided in the mounting region, and including respective top faces that form a part of the exposed surface; and solder bumps provided on the respective patterns, and having substantially same shape as one another.
US09918384B2
A bond ply, comprising a first outer layer comprising a thermosetting composition and a filler composition; a second outer layer comprising a thermosetting composition and a filler composition that is of the same type as that of the first outer layer; and an intermediate layer disposed between the first and the second outer layers, and comprising a thermosetting composition and a filler composition that is of the same type as the first and second outer layers, wherein the thermosetting composition of the intermediate layer has a degree of cure that is greater than a degree of cure for each of the thermosetting compositions of the first and the second outer layers.
US09918381B2
A component-embedded substrate includes a substrate portion, an embedded electronic component, and a resin portion. The substrate portion has inner electrodes on an inner principal surface. The embedded electronic component has terminal electrodes and is mounted to the substrate portion via solder fillets adhering to the respective terminal electrodes and the respective inner electrodes. The resin portion is stacked on the substrate portion, with the embedded electronic component embedded therein. The resin portion includes a no-filler-added layer and a filler-added layer. The no-filler-added layer extends from the inner principal surface to a height which allows at least the solder fillets to be covered. The filler-added layer contains an inorganic filler and extends from an interface with the no-filler-added layer to a height which allows at least the embedded electronic component to be covered.
US09918379B2
A circuit board includes a substrate, two signal lines, two ground lines and two ground vias. The substrate includes a signal layer, a ground layer and an insulation layer. The signal layer is spaced apart from the ground layer. The signal lines are disposed on the signal layer with a first distance between the signal lines. The two signal lines are symmetrical about a reference line. The ground lines are disposed on the signal layer with a second distance between the first signal line and the first ground line. The second ground lines are disposed on the signal layer with one of the ground lines including two line portions having different widths. One of the ground vias is located at a joint between the two line portions. The two ground vias are symmetrical about the reference line.
US09918378B1
A wiring substrate includes a wiring layer, an insulating layer covering the wiring layer, and a protruding electrode including a protruding metal layer and a surface metal layer. The protruding metal layer is connected to the wiring layer in an opening of the insulating layer, extends from within the opening to be stepped at the edge of the opening to extend outward onto the insulating layer, and includes a first surface contacting a surface of the insulating layer around the opening, a second surface, and a peripheral surface extending between the first and second surfaces, and bent inward to form a space between the peripheral surface and the surface of the insulating layer. The surface metal layer covers the protruding metal layer without contacting the surface of the insulating layer, and is formed of a metal having a lower melting point than the protruding metal layer.
US09918375B2
The present disclosure is directed to laser produced plasma light sources having a target material, such as Xenon, that is coated on the outer surface of a cylindrically-symmetric element (e.g., drum). Embodiments include a pre-pulsing arrangement which can be optimized to reduce irradiation damage to the drum and a pulse trimming unit which can be employed to reduce irradiation damage to the drum. In addition, an embodiment is disclosed wherein the surface of a cylindrically-symmetric element is formed with a plurality of grooves having a groove depth greater than 1 mm and a focusing unit focusing a laser beam and establishing an irradiation site to produce plasma from the target material, with the irradiation site distanced from a groove surface portion to protect the surface portion from irradiation damage.
US09918371B2
A wireless replacement light bulb with one or more accompanying control switches, such as an integrated switch and/or a wireless lamp switch is provided. The bulb comprises a light source, such as an LED element, a controller, a wireless interface, and one or more accompanying control switches, such as an integrated switch and/or a wireless lamp switch. The bulb can be controlled, such as turned on or off, by a user using the integrated switch, the wireless lamp switch, or a combination thereof. The integrated switch and the wireless lamp switch does not remove power from the controller, allowing the controller to control the bulb in response to receiving a wireless control signal from a remote electronic device, such as a remote control, a smartphone, a tablet, or the like.
US09918370B2
An electroluminescent device and a method of making an electroluminescent device that includes one or more optical spacers are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes forming an electroluminescent element on a substrate. The method further includes selectively thermally transferring an optical spacer.
US09918369B2
Disclosed is an LED backlight driving circuit and method for detecting failure thereof. A driving chip of the circuit, on the one hand, is electrically connected to a control end of a booster unit so as to transmit a gate control signal to the booster unit, for regulating a driving voltage supplied by a power supply unit to an LED light strip through the booster unit, and on the other, is electrically connected between an output end of a detection unit and a negative end of the LED light strip, forming a current path of the LED light strip. When the detection unit outputs a variable testing voltage, the driving chip controls a current flowing through the LED light strip so that the current changes with the testing voltage, and judges whether to cut off its electrical connection to the LED light strip based on a comparison of a voltage on the negative end of the LED light strip and a predetermined threshold voltage.
US09918366B2
The present disclosure relates to an LED-based lighting component that can control the color rendering capability of its generated light based on the presence or characteristics of ambient light. In one embodiment, the lighting component may employ at least two different types of LEDs to generate light. Control circuitry of the lighting component is able to monitor ambient light and drive the LEDs based on an ambient light characteristic that is indicative of the CRI of the ambient light. If the ambient light characteristic is indicative of the ambient light having a lower CRI, the control system will drive the LEDs to emit light with a defined CRI. If the ambient light characteristic is indicative of the ambient light having a higher CRI, the control system will drive the LEDs to emit light with a reduced CRI, which is lower than the defined CRI.
US09918361B1
A light-emitting diode (LED) tube including a ballast compatible buffer circuit for interfacing with a ballast circuit and for driving a light-emitting diode LED tube. The LED tube includes an LED driver circuit with first and second input terminals coupled to receive an ac input signal from the ballast circuit, an input rectifier circuit coupled to receive the ac input signal and output a rectified voltage signal, a switching regulator including a regulator switch controlled by a controller that regulates transfer of energy to the LED load through an energy transfer element and the ballast compatible buffer circuit.
US09918360B2
A lighting apparatus using light emitting diodes is disclosed. A plurality of light-emitting groups are connected to each other in series at an output terminal of a rectification unit. Current diodes as current sources are branched from a node between the light-emitting groups. Current values set in the current diodes are set according to the amount of current flowing into the light-emitting groups. Therethrough, the amount of current flowing in each light-emitting group can be determined.
US09918357B2
A fixing member, a cooking range and an oven with the same are provided. The fixing member includes: a base plate defining a mounting hole; a connecting plate comprising a first plate segment connected at a first side of the base plate, a second plate segment, and a third plate segment substantially parallel to the base plate, the second plate segment being connected between the first and third plate segments; and a fixing plate defining a first end connected at a second side of the base plate and perpendicular to the base plate, and a second end having a snapping tongue bent and extended in a direction away from the connecting plate, a vertical distance between a free end of the snapping tongue and the base plate being equal to or smaller than that between the third plate segment and the base plate.
US09918356B2
The invention relates to a heating element for a room in a building having a flat support which includes carbon nanotubes and a plurality of contacts, wherein the carbon nanotubes can be excited to infrared emission by connecting an electrical voltage to the contacts. The invention further relates to a method for producing such heating element, the support thereof being attached to a wall of the room. In order to simplify the heating element, according to the invention the support includes a flexible textile material in which the contacts are embedded and to which the carbon nanotubes are applied in an aqueous dispersion and the water is evaporated.
US09918342B2
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and, more specifically, provides a method and device for transmitting/receiving a frame in accordance with the bandwidth thereof in a WLAN system. The method for performing a response process in a WLAN system according to one embodiment of the present invention may comprise: a step in which a first station (STA) transmits a frame requesting a response frame to a second STA; and a step in which the first STA awaits the response frame for an ACKTimeout interval. The value of the ACKTimeout interval may be determined differently according to the preamble channel bandwidth type of the frame.
US09918340B1
A wireless access point includes a medium access control circuit that generates a first traffic indication map announcing a restricted access window (RAW). A physical layer device transmits a first beacon, including the first traffic indication map, over a wireless medium. The RAW begins subsequent to the first beacon and ends prior to the next beacon. During the RAW, the physical layer device accesses the wireless medium using a first set of channel access parameters. Outside of the RAW, the physical layer device accesses the wireless medium using a second set of channel access parameters different than the first set. The second set includes channel access values respectively corresponding to access categories. A first frame, associated with a first access category, is transmitted after waiting for a period of time that is based on a channel access value corresponding to the first access category.
US09918339B2
A method of accessing a channel in a wireless LAN system is disclosed. A method of accessing a channel in a terminal includes receiving TIM information included in a beacon transmitted by an access point, determining a channel access slot allocated to the terminal based on the TIM information, transmitting a data transmission request to the access point in the channel access slot, and receiving data transmission slot allocation information corresponding to the data transmission request from the access point. Accordingly, a time slot can be prevented from unnecessarily wasting.
US09918328B2
A method and system are provided for scheduling data transmission in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system. The MIMO system may comprise at least one MIMO transmitter and at least one MIMO receiver. Feedback from one or more receivers may be used by a transmitter to improve quality, capacity, and scheduling in MIMO communication systems. The method may include generating or receiving information pertaining to a MIMO channel metric and information pertaining to a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) in respect of a transmitted signal; and sending a next transmission to a receiver using a MIMO mode selected in accordance with the information pertaining to the MIMO channel metric, and an adaptive coding and modulation selected in accordance with the information pertaining to the CQI.
US09918323B2
A method for transmitting and receiving a signal in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprises the steps of: setting, by a first transmission point, a frequency resource area in at least one subframe; and transmitting information related to the set frequency resource area to a second transmission point, wherein when the first transmission point transmits a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in the set frequency resource area, a ratio of a PDSCH energy per resource element (EPRE) to a cell-specific reference signal (CRS) EPRE in the set frequency resource area is less than a ratio of a PDSCH EPRE to a CRS EPRE in resource areas other than the set frequency resource area.
US09918319B2
Systems, devices and methods are provided for solving technical problems related to communicating between two or more unrelated mobile devices based on location without needing contact information for the unrelated mobile computing devices. In various implementations, the service is adapted to use a common user base for a location-based matching process. In some implementations, a rough order of magnitude is maintained for users until the user is identified as a potential responder to a location-based request at which time a location request may be made to a mobile computing device. Further, parallel location based requests, such as surveys, may be performed.
US09918316B2
Embodiments are described of devices and methods for processing a signal using a plurality of vector signal generators (VSGs). A digital signal may be provided to a plurality of signal paths, each of which may process a respective frequency band of the signal, the respective frequency bands having regions of overlap. The gain and phase of each signal path may be adjusted such that continuity of phase and magnitude are preserved through the regions of overlap. The adjustment of gain and phase may be accomplished by a complex multiply with a complex calibration constant. The calibration constant may be determined for each signal path by comparing the gain and phase of one or more calibration tones generated within each region of overlap. Each signal path may comprise a VSG to convert the respective signal to an analog signal, which may be combined to obtain a composite signal.
US09918314B2
System and method for providing uplink inter cell interference coordination in a network environment
A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include determining one or more uplink inter cell interference coordination (ICIC) parameters for a plurality of cells based, at least in part, on feedback information associated with the plurality of cells; exchanging interference information between neighboring cells; and scheduling uplink transmissions for user equipment served by the neighboring cells based, at least in part, on the uplink ICIC parameters and the interference information exchanged between neighboring cells. A method is provided in another example embodiment and may include determining a ratio relating a first portion of a frequency spectrum for assigning fractional frequency re-use resources to a second portion of the frequency spectrum for assigning re-use one resources; and updating the ratio relating the first portion and the second portion of the frequency spectrum to optimize throughput rates for the plurality of user equipment across the plurality of cells.
US09918309B2
In the base station (100), a search space setting unit (103) sets a search space on the basis of a search space setting rule in accordance with R-PDCCH range of a setting target slot, and an allocating unit (108) places DCI in one of a plurality of candidates of to-be-decoded unit range included in the set search space. The search space setting rules are associated with respective numbers of candidates of to-be-decoded unit range corresponding to the respective ones of a plurality of numbers of connections for R-CCE, and a first search space setting rule of a slot 0 and a second search space setting rule of a slot 1 are different from each other in terms of the patterns related to the numbers of candidates of to-be-decoded unit range corresponding to the plurality of numbers of connections for R-CCE.
US09918308B2
The present invention relates to configuring search spaces of at least two coexisting control channels in a communication system. In particular, the control channels are defined in at least partially overlapping regions, wherein the overlapping is in the time and/or frequency domain. This configuration enables coexistence of the at least two channels in the same resource grid and better utilization of the resources. Furthermore, it enables sharing of the reference signals.
US09918307B2
UTRAN MAC-d multiplexing of data from multiple logical channels to a single MAC-d flow is supported while reducing overhead and achieving octet alignment in MAC-d PDU length. In one embodiment, the C/T field of a multiplexed MAC-d PDU is eliminated, and the logical channels multiplexed into the MAC-d flow are mapped to a MAC-hs PQ in at least the NodeB (and preferably in the UE as well). In other embodiments, the C/T field is retained, and an octet-aligned length indicator is transmitted from the RNC to the UE. In one embodiment, the length indicator is octet-aligned by padding the MAC-d PDUs. In another embodiment, transmitters and receivers in the path from RNC to UE are configured with an offset to add to the length indicator to achieve octet alignment. The padding or offset is (8−n) bits, where n=the number of bits in C/T field.
US09918306B2
The present invention relates to a method for receiving a downlink control channel by means of a terminal in a wireless communication system and to an apparatus for same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for detecting downlink control information by means of a terminal in a wireless communication system that supports carrier aggregation, the method comprising: a step of receiving resource region information for an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) from a base station; a step of constructing at least one resource block as a search space for EPDCCH monitoring based on the resource region information; and a step of monitoring the search space to detect downlink control information. The resource region information is a resource region configuration based on cells to be cross-carrier scheduled.
US09918298B2
One embodiment provided herein relates to a method in which a mobile device selects a paging cell whose location area is registered to the network and determines where paging of this mobile device takes place, and selects an access cell to be used by the mobile device when connecting to the network. When the mobile device receives a paging message in the paging cell it sends the paging response through the access cell. Nodes in the mobile network are configured not to reject or filter out paging responses received from mobile devices that this node did not page. Instead, the nodes initiate call setup for such mobile devices.
US09918296B2
Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method of positioning and a corresponding portable device. In one embodiment, a method of positioning is provided. The method comprises: capturing, by image capturing equipment of a portable device, a visually encoded to in an environment; decoding the visually encoded tag to obtain an identification for generating the visually encoded tag; and determining a location of the portable device in the environment by querying a predefined library using the identification, the library recording correspondences between a set of identifications for generating visually encoded tags and a set of locations in the environment.
US09918295B2
In one embodiment, characteristics of signals of a plurality of Wi-Fi access points within a target area are determined at least in part from observing the signals during a traversal of a programmatic route through the target area by a scanning device. A location is calculated for each of the plurality of Wi-Fi access points based on the characteristics of the signals of the Wi-Fi access point, and stored in records of a reference database. A request from an application or service executing on a mobile device is received for a current location of the mobile device. Positioning software obtains characteristics of signals of one or more Wi-Fi access points observed by the mobile device from the current location. The positioning software computes the current location of the mobile device using at least the characteristics of signals observed by the mobile device and the location of Wi-Fi access points stored in the reference database, and provides the computed current location to the application or service.
US09918293B2
A monitoring device may monitor its proximity to a monitored station. The monitored station may transmit a proximity indicator to the monitoring device. For example, the proximity indicator may include the received signal strength of a signal sent by the monitored station. Wireless interface control circuitry at the monitoring device may monitor the status of the proximity indicator for changes. If one or more criteria set by an application processor are met by a detected change, the wireless interface control circuitry may send a status update to the application processor. In the criteria are not met, generation of the status update may be forgone. The application processor need not monitor the proximity indicator status and may remain in a reduced power consumption mode for longer periods.
US09918289B2
Provided is a communication unit that includes first and second power-amplification modules, which can be integrated. The first power-amplification module includes a first power-amplifier for a first frequency band in a first communication scheme, a second power-amplifier for a second frequency band in the first communication scheme, a third power-amplifier for a third frequency band in a second communication scheme, a fourth power-amplifier for a fourth frequency band in the second communication scheme, a first bias circuit that generates a first bias current to the first and second power-amplifiers, and a bias current circuit that converts the first bias current into a second bias current to the third and fourth power-amplifiers. The second power-amplification module includes a fifth power-amplifier for a fifth frequency band in the first communication scheme, and a second bias circuit that generates a third bias current to the fifth power-amplifier.
US09918288B2
Disclosed is a method performed by a system of network nodes in a wireless communication network, for finding neighboring user equipments, UEs, with which a first UE (121) may be able to communicate directly. The system of network nodes includes a first base station, BS, (111), and the first UE is wirelessly connected to the first BS. The method comprises receiving, from a plurality of UEs (122, 123, 124, 125) wirelessly connected to the first BS (111) and from the first UE (121), power measurements performed on signals received from neighboring BSs (112, 113, 114, 115). The method further comprises determining (204) correlation values between the power measurements received from the first UE and the power measurements received from individual of the plurality of UEs by comparing a level of the power measurements of the first UE and a level of the power measurements of individual of the plurality of UEs, which power measurements are performed on signals received from the same neighboring BS, and, based on the determined correlation values, determining neighboring UEs for the first UE, out of the plurality of UEs, and sending identities, IDs, of the determined neighboring UEs to the first UE.
US09918287B2
A method and a user equipment (UE) for receiving a power headroom report in a wireless access system that supports a carrier aggregation are discussed. The method according to an embodiment includes transmitting by an eNB to a UE an uplink transmission grant allocating uplink resources on a predetermined subframe in an anchor uplink component carrier (UL CC); and receiving the power headroom report by the eNB from the UE. The power headroom report includes a power headroom value for the anchor UL CC, when the eNB has configured the UE for a simultaneous physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission. The method further includes reporting the power headroom value to a base station. The power headroom value is calculated.
US09918278B2
Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for operating based on a power save mode in a wireless LAN. The method for operating based on the power save mode in a wireless LAN may comprise the steps of: an STA receiving, from an AP, a beacon frame from a beacon frame time resource for the beacon frame, wherein a TIM included in the beacon frame indicates pending downlink data for the STA; the STA maintaining a sleep mode after receiving the beacon frame and until a monitoring start time resource for the downlink frame for delivering downlink data; and the STA receiving, from the AP, the downlink frame from a listen window including the monitoring start time resource.
US09918276B2
Mobile devices such as cellular telephones are provided that communicate with wireless networks. Cellular telephone network equipment may communicate with a cellular telephone over a data connection. The cellular telephone may have an internet protocol (IP) address that allows data to be provided to the cellular telephone over the data connection. To conserve resources and release unused IP addresses, the cellular telephone network equipment may deactivate inactive data connections after a period of inactivity. A baseband processor within a mobile device may periodically send User Datagram Protocol (UDP) keep-alive packets over the data connection to ensure that the data connection remains active. The keep-alive packets may be directed to a packet sink server or may be associated with a black hole route. An applications processor in the telephone may remain in sleep mode during keep-alive packet transmission to conserve power.
US09918267B2
A wireless UE device uses a method of radio technology and channel selection for transferring device traffic that includes detecting, at a wireless user equipment device, a condition related to at least one of temperature and radio interference and responsive to the detecting, determining to associate a data application on the wireless UE device with a radio access technology (RAT).
US09918261B2
A bearer management device that performs control to reliably receive an incoming packet call that is made while a mobile terminal device is moving is provided. A bearer management device (10) includes an incoming call control unit (11) that, in the case where a mobility management device (30) manages a location of a mobile terminal device (40) as a result of movement of the mobile terminal device (40) whose location has been managed by a mobility management device (20), suspends processing of an incoming call to the mobile terminal device (40) made during movement of the mobile terminal device (40) until receiving a notification about completion of movement of the mobile terminal device (40) from the mobility management device (30), and resumes incoming call processing to the mobile terminal device (40) after receiving a notification about completion of movement of the mobile terminal device (40) from the mobility management device (30).
US09918259B2
Aspects relate to automatically establishing neighbor relations for adjacent sectors based on one or more network events. The neighbor relations can be established between sectors that can be identified as inter-frequency neighbors or intra-frequency neighbors. In an aspect, the network events can be active call data events received from one or more mobile devices. The active call data events can be radio access bearer establishments and internal system releases. In another aspect, the network events can be idle call data events received from one or more mobile devices. If a first event ended on a first sector and a second event started on a second sector before expiration of an interval that started when the first event ended, the first sector and second sector can be defined as neighbors.
US09918248B2
Service continuity when a user equipment (UE) employing local breakout mechanisms at a femto access point (FAP) for a communication session and moves out of the femto coverage area is disclosed. In particular, a network change detection component can be employed to detect when the UE, attached to the FAP, changes its connection from the femto network to the macro network. Further, an active communication session can exist between the UE and a device/service/application on a local Area network (LAN) connected to a FAP, and/or the Internet, which utilizes local breakout at the FAP. When the UE moves out of the femto network, a context management component can be employed to seamlessly resume the communication session, via the macro network.
US09918247B2
Receiving Internet Protocol (IP) data content having an associated file type and service port number is disclosed. Determining a level of service for a portable wireless transceiver is further disclosed. The level of service may be associated with the file type, the service port number and a saturation of users in a cell of the wireless transceiver. On a condition the level of service is determined to be a partial service level, data content may be delivered to the portable wireless transceiver at a limited data rate. On a condition the level of service is determined to be a full service level, the data content may be delivered to the portable wireless transceiver at a data rate higher than the limited data rate.
US09918246B2
A method for transmission of environment-related information between a user equipment and a mobile communication network includes: transmitting measurement configuration information from a mobile communication network to a user equipment; obtaining local network information by conducting a requested measurement; and transmitting the local network information together with at least one other uplink transmission performed by the user equipment to the base station entity by using at least one radio interface of the user equipment.
US09918242B2
A dynamic channel selection approach for wireless communication networks is provided by measuring an ineffective communication metric on a currently-used channel. The network can switch channels if the ineffective communication metric from a device on the network satisfies a channel selection condition. To change the wireless communication network to the new channel, all network devices in the wireless communication network are instructed to switch to the new channel. As network communications start on the new channel, the ineffective communication metric measurements begin again on the new channel. Communications on the new channel continue until the channel selection condition is satisfied on the new channel, at which point another random selection of a channel is executed. The process continues in such iterations during the operation of the network and its network devices.
US09918238B2
A base station operable to adapt cell coverage based on user equipment (UE) distribution information for a communications network is disclosed. The base station can determine UE distribution information for a cell formed by the base station. The UE distribution information can indicate a geographical distribution of UEs in the cell. The base station can trigger an adjustment of a coverage area of the cell formed by the base station based on the UE distribution information for the cell.
US09918229B2
The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer readable media for access network protocol interworking and authentication proxying. One method includes receiving an authentication request from a node in an access network for authenticating a user using cellular network authentication. The method further includes, in response to the request, using a native protocol of the cellular network to obtain an authentication challenge from a node in the cellular network. The method further includes communicating the authentication challenge to the node in the access network. The method further includes receiving a response to the authentication challenge from the node in the access network. The method further includes determining whether the response matches an expected response. The method further includes, in response to determining that the response matches the expected response, communicating an indication of successful authentication to the node in the access network.
US09918226B2
The disclosed embodiments related to a first electronic device (such as a cellular telephone) that includes a secure element. In response to a challenge and a request for a secure-element identifier associated with the secure element, which are received from a second electronic device (such as a trusted services manager that loads content onto the secure element), the secure element provides to the second electronic device: the secure-element identifier, a certificate associated with a provider of the secure element, and a digital signature. The digital signature may include a signed version of the challenge and the secure-element identifier, which are encrypted using an encryption key associated with a provider of the secure element. In this way, the second electronic device may certify the secure element.
US09918220B1
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a system that manages reuse of mobile subscriber identity information. The use of a same generic mobile subscriber identity information by multiple devices can be based on the mobility and/or device location. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09918209B2
Techniques for policies for selecting sources for resource strings are described. Generally, a resource string refers to a set of characters that can be used to initiate communication with a particular resource. According to one or more embodiments, techniques discussed herein enable resource strings to be determined at different locations, e.g., geographic locations. In at least some embodiments, string source policies are implemented that specify parameters for selecting a source from which to obtain resource strings. According to one or more embodiments, string profiles are implemented that specify resource strings that correspond to particular resources and/or types of resources.
US09918197B2
Disclosed is a novel system and process to provide an interactive environment for advertisers utilizing physical advertisement structures to provide their advertisements to users. Users are able to receive advertisement information associated with the advertisements on these structures along with additional information associated with the advertisements. This is also beneficial for the advertisers because this static form of advertising now becomes dynamic and interactive. Advertisers are now able to provide more detailed information regarding their products, services, etc. than what is normally available via an advertisement structure such as a billboard.
US09918183B2
Mobile phones and other portable devices are equipped with a variety of technologies by which existing functionality can be improved, and new functionality can be provided. Some aspects relate to visual search capabilities, and determining appropriate actions responsive to different image inputs. Others relate to processing of image data. Still others concern metadata generation, processing, and representation. Yet others concern user interface improvements. Other aspects relate to imaging architectures, in which a mobile phone's image sensor is one in a chain of stages that successively act on packetized instructions/data, to capture and later process imagery. Still other aspects relate to distribution of processing tasks between the mobile device and remote resources (“the cloud”). Elemental image processing (e.g., simple filtering and edge detection) can be performed on the mobile phone, while other operations can be referred out to remote service providers. The remote service providers can be selected using techniques such as reverse auctions, through which they compete for processing tasks. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US09918178B2
Methods and apparatus include headphones that determine a size of a head of a listener and a shape of an ear of the listener. The size of the head and the shape of the ear determine head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) that are customized to the listener. The headphones include head tracking, and sound is adjusted so that a location of a source of the sound continues to originate from a fixed sound localization point (SLP) in empty space that is at least one meter away from the head of the listener while the head orientations of the listener change with respect to the fixed location.
US09918167B2
Embodiments for a speaker spider of a loudspeaker are provided. The speaker spider may include a central opening and a plurality of concentric corrugations. Dimensions of the speaker spider may substantially homogenize stress on the speaker spiders during operation of the loud speaker. Dimensions of such a speaker spider that substantially homogenizes stress on the speaker spider during operation may involve one or more of (i) corrugations having azimuthally varying depths, (ii) corrugations having azimuthally varying crest and/or trough curvature radii, and (iii) corrugations having angularly varying distances from the central opening of the speaker spider, among other possibilities.
US09918163B1
An echo cancellation system that detects and compensations for differences in sample rates between the echo cancellation system and a set of wireless speakers based on a frequency-domain analysis of estimated impulse response coefficients. The system tracks the real and imaginary number components of the coefficients, and determines a “rotation” of the coefficients over time caused by a frequency offset between the audio sent to the speakers and the audio received from a microphone. Based on the rotation, samples of the audio are added or dropped when echo cancellation is performed, compensating for the frequency offset.
US09918161B1
A speaker box is disclosed. The speaker box includes a housing; a speaker unit accommodated in the housing and including a diaphragm for generating sound; a front sound cavity cooperatively formed by the diaphragm and the housing; a sound channel communicating the front sound cavity with outside space of the speaker box; and a sound-absorbing device disposed in the sound channel. The sound-adsorbing device includes an accommodation housing, sound-absorbing powder filled in the accommodation housing and a separation net sealing the accommodation housing. The speaker box achieves designed acoustic parameters with good acoustic performance.
US09918155B2
A portable sound equipment having a body curved in C-shape, the body including an elastic part, an earbud holder provided to the body, an earbud detachably attached to the earbud holder, the earbud including a sound output module configured to output sound, a main board situated within the body, the main board configured to control the sound output module by being connected to the earbud, a sound cable connecting the earbud and the main body, a rotation module located within the body between an end portion of the body and main board, the rotation module configured to have the sound cable wound on an outer circumference thereof, a bridge coupled with the body to cover one surface of the rotation module, a flexible board disposed along the bridge and having one side connected to the main board and another side coupled to a microphone.
US09918154B2
A tactile vibration driver for use in a headphone includes a support structure, at least one suspension member suspending at least one rigid member relative to the support structure, and a plurality of magnetic members attached to the at least one rigid member and configured to drive oscillating movement of the at least one rigid member and the at least one suspension member so as to produce tactile vibrations during operation of the tactile vibration driver. An audio system includes the tactile vibration driver. A method of operating an audio system includes driving a plurality of magnetic members attached to a rigid member of the tactile vibration driver to cause oscillations of the plurality of magnetic members and the rigid member relative to a suspension member and producing tactile vibrations responsive to receipt of an electrical signal.
US09918143B2
In one embodiment, a method for providing media content implemented on a broadcast headend includes defining at least one metablock of media content according to a number of media content data blocks, where the media content data blocks are ordered in accordance with associated serial numbers, reordering the media content data blocks in the at least one metablock of media content to generate reordered data blocks, obfuscating the associated serial numbers in the reordered data blocks, providing details of the reordering to a receiving device, and transmitting the reordered data blocks to a receiving device.
US09918142B2
Television is the largest advertising category in the United States with over 65 billion spent by advertisers per year. A variety of different targeting algorithms are compared, ranging from the traditional age-gender targeting methods employed based on Nielsen ratings, to new approaches that attempt to target high probability buyers using Set Top Box data. The performance of these different algorithms on a real television campaign is shown, and the advantages and limitations of each method are discussed. In contrast to other theoretical work, all methods presented herein are compatible with targeting the existing 115 million Television households in the United States and are implementable on current television delivery systems.
US09918134B2
A method and system for providing video content on a data network connected device having a display and a device display controller including a player. The method comprises the steps of a data network connected device, accesses a reference file including a plurality of player control parameter values and linking data for one or more content sources. Play control commands are provided to the player based on the play control parameter values. Content data is acquired by the player from one or more content sources via the data network using the linking data, and the content acquired from each source played on the display in accordance with the player control commands. The reference file may be a pre-existing reference file or a reference file created in response to a request to play the video content data. A reference file compiler is provided for generating the reference file.
US09918129B2
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, detecting a first wearable device and a second wearable device in proximity of a display device and identifying a first user profile associated with the first wearable device and a second user profile associated with the second wearable device. Further aspects may include identifying a first set of media content preferences according to the first user profile and a second set of media content preferences according to the second user profile. Additional aspects may include providing a first filtered electronic programming guide to the first wearable device and providing a second filtered electronic programming guide to the second wearable device. The first filtered electronic programming guide indicates the first set of media content preferences and the second filtered electronic programming guide indicates the second set of media content preferences. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09918122B2
A display apparatus includes a display configured to display an image based on at least one between received first and second broadcast signals, a first signal processor configured to selectively activate and inactivate an operation for processing the first broadcast signal, a second signal processor configured to selectively activate and inactivate an operation for processing the second broadcast signal, and a controller configured to control the first signal processor and the second signal processor to selectively activate or inactivate the operations for processing the first broadcast signal and the second broadcast signal in response to a command for switching between the first broadcast signal and the second broadcast signal.
US09918114B2
Provided are methods and systems for controlling data such as content and/or application data transmitted to one or more user devices. One method can comprise receiving a request for first content and generating, in response to the request for the first content, a first transport stream comprising the first content and application data relating to a first application. At least a portion of the first transport stream is transmitted to a recipient device. An interruption in the transmission of the first transport stream is detected and a determination is made that only a first portion of the application data has been transmitted to the recipient device. A second transport stream including second content and a second portion of the application data is generated and transmitted.
US09918113B2
A digital broadcasting system and a method of processing data are disclosed. Herein, additional encoding is performed on mobile service data, which are then transmitted, thereby providing robustness in the processed mobile service data, so that the mobile service data can respond more strongly against fast and frequent channel changes. In a transmitting system including a service multiplexer and a transmitter located in a remote site, a method of processing data of the transmitting system includes comparing an output data rate of the service multiplexer and a transmission data rate of the transmitter, when a difference occurs between the two data rates, adjusting a burst size, wherein the burst transmits mobile service data, and encoding the mobile service data, and referring to the burst size so as to multiplex main service data and the encoded mobile service data in a burst structure.
US09918097B2
A method for decoding chroma image is discussed. The method includes deriving a chroma intra prediction mode of a prediction unit; determining a size of a current chroma block using luma transform size information; generating a chroma prediction block of the current chroma block using the chroma intra prediction mode; generating a chroma residual block of the current chroma block using the chroma intra prediction mode and a chroma quantization parameter; and generating a chroma reconstructed block adding the chroma prediction block and the chroma residual block.
US09918095B1
A method of processing pixels in a picture of a video sequence comprising multiple pictures comprises identifying a pixel to be processed in the picture for which a variation in a linear representation of a color of the pixel that is smaller than a first threshold value results in a variation in a non-linear representation of the color that is larger than a second threshold value. The variation in the linear representation of the color also results in a variation in a luminance and chrominance based representation of the color that is smaller than a third threshold value. The method also comprises processing the identified pixel by modifying a value of at least one color component of the pixel. The method achieves a selective denoising of particular color components in certain situations to reduce the encoding cost yet do not significantly affect the visual quality.
US09918089B2
An image coding method for an image coding apparatus configured to divide an image into divisional blocks of a plurality of sizes and to perform coding on the image while controlling image quality according to a parameter value in units of divisional blocks includes acquiring a block size of a target block to be coded, acquiring a minimum block size used to control the parameter value, acquiring a state of division of the target block, acquiring the parameter value, determining whether the target block is divided according to the state of division of the target block, determining whether the block size of the target block is greater than or equal to the minimum block size, determining whether the block size of the target block is equal to the minimum block size, and coding the acquired parameter value.
US09918076B2
Multi-layer display of content on a flexible display is provided. A roll profile of a rolled transparent flexible display is detected, the rolled transparent flexible display forming a plurality of overlapping display layers of the transparent flexible display. Content is then displayed on the plurality of overlapping display layers, where different portions of the content are displayed on different display layers of the plurality of display layers to present the content as three-dimensional content.
US09918069B2
A method of decoding and outputting video information suitable for three-dimensional [3D] display, the video information comprising encoded main video information suitable for displaying on a 2D display and encoded additional video information for enabling three-dimensional [3D] display, the method comprising: receiving or generating three-dimensional [3D] overlay information to be overlayed over the video information; buffering a first part of the overlay information to be overlayed over the main video information in a first buffer; buffering a second part of overlay information to be overlayed over the additional video information in a second buffer; decoding the main video information and the additional video information and generating as a series of time interleaved video frames, each outputted video frame being either main video frame or additional video frame; determining a type of an video frame to be outputted being either a main video frame or an additional video frame; overlaying either first or second part of the overlay information on an video frame to be outputted in agreement with the determined type of frame outputting the video frames and the overlayed information.
US09918060B2
A light source unit emits multi-colored light. The amount of light of each color is controlled so that the multi-colored light has a first light emission ratio. A color image sensor images an object and outputs a multi-colored image signal. Again coefficient calculator calculates provisional gain coefficients based on the multi-colored image signal. A noise evaluation value calculator calculates a noise evaluation value based on the provisional gain coefficients and set color correction coefficients. A judging section judges whether or not the noise evaluation value is an allowance or less. In a case where the noise evaluation value is judged to be the allowance or less, a coefficient determiner determines the provisional gain coefficients as set gain coefficients, and a light emission ratio determiner determines the first light emission ratio of the multi-colored light as a set light emission ratio.
US09918046B2
A peer to peer surveillance architecture comprising a plurality of independent nodes for capturing, analyzing, storing, and viewing surveillance information is disclosed. The surveillance architecture has no central controller or single point of failure because of the peer to peer or independent relationship between its nodes. Generally, surveillance information of various types is captured by one or more capture nodes and transmitted to or one or more viewing, content storage, or server nodes for display, analysis, storage, or a combination thereof. Server nodes may provide authentication services to validate user or device credentials prior to granting access to surveillance information. In one or more embodiments, specialized video compression hardware is provided to allow high quality video surveillance information to be transmitted across low bandwidth connections. Compression may also be performed on other types of surveillance information.
US09918041B1
A system including a motion adaptive de-interlacer, a film mode detector, and a combiner. The motion adaptive de-interlacer is configured to determine a first output by de-interlacing a plurality of interlaced frames based on at least a first motion indicator indicating motion between fields of the plurality of interlaced frames. The film mode detector is configured to determine a second output based on a film mode detected based on at least a second motion indicator indicating motion between fields of the plurality of interlaced frames. The film mode detector is further configured to output a control signal based on the second motion indicator and the film mode. The combiner is configured to combine the first output and the second output based on the control signal.
US09918039B2
A docking assembly serves as an interface between (1) a portable digital media storage and playback (PDMSP) device, and (2) a media reproduction system. A remote controller preferably controls the docking assembly and PDMSP device, which may receive electric charge from the assembly. Media reproduction systems may reproduce audio and video signals in user-perceptible form. Telephonic relay capability is further provided between a telephonic PDMSP playback device and a telephonic remote controller by way of a telephone rebroadcast receiver associated with the docking assembly. Methods for downloading digital media files, and for creating or modifying playlists with a remotely controllable docking assembly adapted to provide a television-compatible video output signal, are further provided.
US09918033B2
A signal processing apparatus comprising: an analog-digital converter that uses reference signals having different slopes from each other; a supply unit that supplies analog signals of predetermined different output levels; and a calculation unit that calculates a slope ratio and an offset amount between the plurality of different slopes for correcting a converted digital signal based on digital signals respectively obtained by converting the analog signals of the different output levels using the reference signals. In a case where the conversion is performed using a reference signal with a steeper slope, the supply unit supplies at least one high level analog signal whose level is higher than a case where the conversion is performed using a reference signal with a gentler slope, and a digital signal obtained by converting the high level analog signal is further used when calculating the slope ratio.
US09918029B2
Electronic devices may include image sensors having image pixel arrays with image pixels arranged in pixel rows and pixel columns. Each pixel column may be coupled to a column line having column readout circuitry and column power control circuitry that selectively enables or disables the column readout circuitry for various column lines. The column power control circuitry and the column readout circuitry may be coupled to column decoder circuitry. The column decoder circuitry may provide a column address signals to the power control and the readout circuitry. The power control circuitry may enable only column lines for which column addresses have been received.
US09918023B2
Various techniques are provided for implementing a segmented focal plane array (FPA) of infrared sensors. In one example, a system includes a segmented FPA. The segmented FPA includes a top die having an array of infrared sensors (e.g., bolometers). The top die may also include a portion of a read-out integrated circuit (ROIC). The segmented FPA also includes a bottom die having at least a portion of the ROIC. The top and the bottom dies are electrically coupled via inter-die connections. Advantageously, the segmented FPA may be fabricated with a higher yield and a smaller footprint compared with conventional FPA architectures. Moreover, the segmented FPA may be fabricated using different semiconductor processes for each die.
US09918005B2
The focusing control device capable of preventing deterioration in precision of focusing control from being caused by an error in phase-difference depending on ambient temperature includes: an imaging element that outputs a pair of image signals deviated in one direction on the basis of one subject light image; a phase-difference detection section that detects a phase-difference between the pair of image signals; a temperature detection section; a correction section that corrects the in-focus position of the focus lens based on the detection phase-difference, which is the phase-difference detected by the phase-difference detection section, on the basis of the data in which the temperature, the focus lens position, and the information for in-focus position correction are associated with one another, the temperature which is detected by the temperature detection section, and the focus lens position; and a lens control section that moves the focus lens to the corrected in-focus position.
US09918004B2
A camera body, to which a lens barrel having an optical system can be attached, includes a controller that controls the camera body, an image sensor that captures an object image, and an image sensor actuator that drives the image sensor along an optical axis. The controller determines a change in an optical state of the object image captured by the image sensor and, in response to the determination, drives the image sensor actuator to move the image sensor to a predetermined reference position located within a movable range of the image sensor.
US09918003B2
A control apparatus includes a focus detector configured to perform focus detection based on an image signal obtained via a first optical system, the first optical system having a shallowest depth of field in a plurality of optical systems having focal lengths different from each other, and a controller configured to perform focus control of the plurality of optical systems based on an output signal from the focus detector.
US09917996B2
An image pickup device (10) includes: an image pickup section (11) that captures an image of an object (16); an illumination section (12) that irradiates the object (16) with light to cast a shadow over the object (16); and a calculator that calculates an illumination optical path (25) extending from a virtual illumination (20). Furthermore, the image pickup device (10) includes: a first conveyer (14) that moves the image pickup section (11) and the illumination section (12) in a first direction when the image pickup section (11) scans the object (16) to capture the image of the object (16); and a second conveyer (15) that moves the light from the illumination section (12) into a plane containing the illumination optical path (25), in accordance with the movement of the image pickup section (11) and the illumination section (12) in the first direction.
US09917993B2
A lens mounting module includes an image pickup unit; a mount plate that includes an installation surface on which a lens unit is installed; a first support frame located between the image pickup unit and the mount plate, that supports the mount plate, and that includes a contact point that provides an electrical contact with the lens unit installed on the mount plate; and a second support frame installed between the first support frame and the image pickup unit, that supports the first support frame, and that includes an insertion part through which the image pickup unit is inserted.
US09917991B2
Some embodiments include an actuator assembly for mounting a moving component. In some embodiments, the actuator assembly includes a base substrate including a first portion for mounting comb drive actuators and a second portion for mounting the moving component. In some embodiments, the actuator assembly includes a plurality of comb drive actuators rigidly affixed to the first portion of the base substrate. In some embodiments, the plurality of comb drive actuators is flexibly affixed to the second portion of the base substrate by a plurality of respective mechanical flexures. In some embodiments, the respective mechanical flexures provide a flexible mechanical connection between the second portion and the first portion, and the plurality of comb drive actuators is arranged to control the motion of the second portion to adjust the position of the moving component in multiple degrees of freedom relative to first portion.
US09917984B2
Certain embodiments provide an image forming apparatus, including: an image forming part to form an image made of plural pixels by using plural printing colors and a special color different from the plural printing colors; an input part of image data of the image; an image processing part to output component data of the plural printing colors from the image data for each of the pixels; a user interface to specify a condition for converting the component data of the plural printing colors into component data of a multi color in which the special color is added to the plural printing colors; and a conversion part to convert the component data of the plural printing colors from the image processing part into the component data of the multi color to the image forming part based on the condition of the user interface.
US09917982B2
An image reading apparatus includes: a sensor module which includes a light source and sensors; a reference member for creating black correction data and white correction data; and an image processor. The image processor corrects uneven density of an image resulting from interference of image signals from the sensors, by performing, on the image signals obtained by the sensors, shading correction using black correction data and white correction data. The image processor obtains causes the sensors to obtain image signals of the reference member, and creates the white correction data based on white data, and the black correction data based on intermediate data. At least one of when creating the white correction data and when creating the black correction data, the image processor causes the sensors to obtain image signals of the reference member a plurality of times.
US09917972B2
An image processor executing a predetermined image process on an input image including a plurality of pixels to generate an output image includes an image-processing unit reading the input image required for generating the output image into an internal storing circuit as a reference image to execute an image process, a storing capacity determination unit determining whether or not a data size of the reference image is within a storing capacity range of the internal storing circuit, and a reference image division unit dividing the data size of the reference image when the data size of the reference image exceeds a storing capacity of the internal storing circuit by the storing capacity determination unit.
US09917967B2
An image processing apparatus includes a first controller, a second controller, and a third controller. The first controller controls an output unit that outputs an image. The second controller controls a reading unit that reads an image. The third controller controls, in response to receipt of a power reduction request, the first controller or the second controller to restrict performance of the output unit or the reading unit so as to satisfy the power reduction request.
US09917966B2
Upon occurrence of an interruption factor before image data for one page of a target document has been stored in a storage device, a printing apparatus performs control to store specific data in a storage area of the storage device in which the remaining image data of the target document is to be stored. In a case where an interruption factor occurs before image data for one page of the target document has been stored in the storage device, the printing apparatus performs printing based on the image data of the target document and the specific data stored in the storage device.
US09917964B2
It is possible to notify a user of a condition of a Web server in the case where Web contents cannot be acquired from the Web server in an apparatus that employs a Web UI. A request for Web contents is made to a server by using a first communication method, a screen based on the Web contents received as a response to the request is displayed on a display unit, a condition of the server is acquired from the server by using a second communication method different from the first communication method, and a screen based on the condition of the server acquired by using the second communication method is displayed on the display unit without displaying a screen indicating an error of the request on the display unit in the case where the Web contents cannot be acquired as a response to the request.
US09917962B1
A system and method for logging into a document processing includes a touchscreen for receiving touch-based user input and displaying digital images. A memory stores avatar data for each of a plurality of avatars, including image data for generating an image of each avatar on the touchscreen and a plurality of identifiable areas within each avatar. A login screen on the touchscreen includes images of the avatars. A user selects an avatar and the login screen displays an image of the selected avatar on the touchscreen. The user touches the touchscreen, and tap point data is captured corresponding to the user touches on the image of the selected avatar relative to a touchscreen location of the avatar. The processor compares received tap point data with stored tap point data stored in the memory associatively with the selected avatar and selectively enables device operation in accordance with the comparison.
US09917956B2
An image processing apparatus is provided that includes a controller configured to control a communication device to transmit, to an information processing terminal device, image processing information indicating a specific one of image processing operations that has been selected at a time when the controller starts establishment of communication with the information processing terminal device, control the communication device to receive execution instructing information from the information processing terminal device, and control a specific one of image processing executing devices that corresponds to the received execution instructing information to execute the specific image processing operation in accordance with the received execution instructing information.
US09917954B2
Example methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to determine a telecommunications account status. An example method includes initiating a credit transfer request via the device identifier, determining, via a processor, whether an account associated with the device identifier comprises a prepaid type in response to receiving an indication of credit transfer success, and determining whether the account associated with the device identifier comprises a non-prepaid account type in response to receiving an indication of credit transfer failure.
US09917953B2
The present invention provides flexible, user-definable call screening processes. The user can optionally define to which telecommunication terminals a screened call is to be broadcast to and under what conditions. An incoming call is forwarded to a call management system that asks the caller to leave a voice message. The call management system selectively couples the call to a POTS line or a VoIP-capable device so that the user can listen to the incoming message and thereby screen the incoming call. Based on the screening, the user can instruct the call management system to connect the caller to the user.
US09917948B2
A call processing method and apparatus are provided as a call processing solution. An example method comprises acquiring multimedia data from a calling subscriber before a call ends, where the calling subscriber is a subscriber that initiates the call, determining whether the call satisfies a preset call processing condition according to the multimedia data from the calling subscriber, and processing the call if the call processing condition is satisfied.
US09917947B2
An IP text relay is described herein, to facilitate communication through the use of VOIP or internet telephone system between people of hearing impaired and non hearing impaired. This service and device will enable users to communicate with users of hearing via assistance of an operator who will transcribe.
US09917944B2
To provide a mobile phone which can be used without hampering convenience in a condition where functions of the mobile phone are switched and can improve operability. The mobile phone includes an optical sensor, a display element, a pixel circuit portion where a plurality of pixels having a plurality of transistors are arranged in matrix, an optical sensor control circuit which is connected to an optical sensor driver circuit for driving the optical sensor and reads a signal from the optical sensor, a display portion control circuit which is connected to a display element driver circuit for driving the display element and outputs an image signal for displaying an image on a display portion, a gradient detection portion for outputting a signal in accordance with a gradient of the mobile phone, and an arithmetic circuit for performing display in the pixel circuit portion by switching image signals output to the display portion control circuit with a signal from the gradient detection portion.
US09917943B2
Disclosed is a first audio device comprising a speaker for reproduction of first audio signals, a microphone for reception of second audio signals, a first transceiver configured for establishing a wireless link according to a short-distance wireless technology, where the first audio device is configured for establishing the wireless link with a second audio device configured for establishing a call, where the first audio device is configured for transmission of the first and second audio signals of the call via the wireless link, wherein the first audio device is configured for detecting a call-end request during the call, wherein the first audio device is configured for, upon detecting the call-end request, inquiring whether the wireless link between the first audio device and the second audio device should be disconnected.
US09917937B1
A protective case for an electronic device having an integrated camera ring stand is disclosed. The protective case includes a device compartment defined by multiple walls including a back side wall that is configured to overlie the back face of the device when the device is in the case. The back face wall includes a first aperture that is configured to encompass the camera feature on the back face of the mobile device when the device is in the case and a hinged stand that is coupled to the back face wall and movable from a fixed closed position to fixed open positions. The stand includes a second aperture that is configured to overlie the first aperture to facilitate camera operation in both the closed and open positions. The stand may be retained within a stand housing that is housed within a camera ring housing that may be a separate component from the stand housing.
US09917931B2
A transmission unit of a radio apparatus generates a packet including: a header part containing identifier data identifying at least a transmission destination radio station and a transmission source radio station; and a data part in which an audio frame and a data frame, each having a predetermined length, are consecutively arranged one after another. When communication is performed in a fast data mode in which data for data communication to be transmitted, instead of a digital audio signal, is inserted in the audio frame, the transmission unit generates, according to an instruction from the controller, a packet in which data for data communication is inserted in the audio frame and the data frame, and the transmission unit converts the packet into a radio signal and transmits the radio signal.
US09917922B2
An interface mechanism is provided for developers to bundle together a set of extensions (or add-ins) to a productivity suite allowing end users and system administrators to manage their lifecycle in a unified way. Aspects such as discovery, acquisition, authorization deployment, management, updates, and similar ones may be addressed for the bundle as opposed to each of the different extensions (for example extensions for different versions of the same application such as desktop version, web application version, mobile version, etc.). Bundles may also provide a means to match specific functional sets or commercial offerings to specific user or customer profiles.
US09917916B2
A media delivery service may include a media source, a proxy cache and one or more client devices. The media source may generate coded segments from an input media stream and develop a playlist identifying network locations of the segments. The media source may broadcast the coded segments and their storage locations to a proxy cache in a broadcast channel. The proxy cache may store successfully received coded segments and develop a mapping table identifying the segments' network locations. The client may request segments from the proxy cache based on the received playlist form the media source. If the proxy cache does not store a requested segment, it may so notify the client and the client may request the segment from the media source.
US09917912B2
Techniques for communicating between service nodes within a hybrid cloud computing system. These techniques include utilizing a messaging provider within an off-premise computing system to pass messages between off-premise servers holding a connection to an on-premise computer system and off-premise servers holding a connection to an end user computer system.
US09917908B1
A first server receives, from a client network application, a request for a network resource. The first server retrieves the requested network resource, where the requested network resource is handled by a second server that is different than the first server. The first server validates whether at least a portion of the retrieved network resource conforms to a set of one or more rules. If it does, the first server cryptographically signs the at least portion of the retrieved network resource thereby creating a digital signature. The first server transmits a response to the client network application that includes the at least the portion of the retrieved network resource and the digital signature. The client network application is configured to validate the first digital signature that validates that the portion of the network resource conforms to the set of rules.
US09917906B2
The present application discloses a location based task management method. A computational device obtains first location information concerning one or more geographical locations where a first client device has been located, and assigns a task to the first client device based on the one or more geographical locations. The task includes a task performance location. The computational device then receives from the first client device a first message that includes second location information corresponding to the task performance location and at least one additional information item. The at least one additional information item is captured by first client device at or near the task performance location after completing the task. The progress of the task is then managed based on the second location information, the at least one additional information item and a time difference between the assignment of the task and the receipt of the first message.
US09917903B2
A method, a device, and a non-transitory storage medium provides an installation of an IoT device in which the installation includes to store Internet of Things (IoT) management information, which includes IoT device information of the IoT device; upload the IoT management information to a network device in response to the storing of the IoT management information; store the IoT management information at the IoT device in response to the upload; present a map of the location; receive a designation of a location point on the map that indicates where the IoT device is to be installed; determine whether the IoT device is to be updated; update the IoT device in response to a determination that an update for the IoT device is available; calibrate one or more sensors of the IoT device; and configure the IoT device to transmit IoT data to another network device.
US09917898B2
Methods and systems for storing and accessing dental images. The system includes an imaging system for acquiring x-ray projection frames. The imaging system is connected to a local server through a local area network. A cloud server communicates with devices on the local area. The x-ray projection frames are transmitted from the imaging system to the local server. The local server stores the series of related x-ray projection frames according to a specified policy. In one embodiment, the x-ray projection frames are compressed into a compressed image data set using a modified video compression prediction algorithm customized for x-ray images. The x-ray image data (whether compressed or not) is transmitted to the cloud server for storage. The x-ray image data can be accessed from the cloud server by external devices and by other local area networks.
US09917892B2
A method, device, and system for selecting one or more devices and users to capture and share images of an event with other users includes establishing one or more ad-hoc groups with a resource management server. The resource management server communicates with one or more computing devices over a network to assign the computing devices to an ad-hoc group as a function of one or more users requesting to receive images captured at an event. For each ad-hoc group, the resource management server selects a device and a user to capture images of the event, which are distributed to the one or more users. Additionally, the computing devices may establish an ad-hoc group without the resource management server. A computing device of the ad-hoc group is selected to capture images of the event, which are distributed to users of the ad-hoc group through an ad-hoc network.
US09917868B2
Certain examples provide systems and methods for medical diagnostic collaboration. An example medical collaboration system includes an imaging service manager to provide a first device access to images from a database in response to a request received, the images to be viewed at the first device as first images; a collaboration server to access a request to initiate a conversation between the first device and a second device, in response to the conversation being initiated between the first device and the second device, the collaboration server to generate a study identifier that describes a viewport hanging protocol of the first images at the first device; a conversation manager to: access the images from the database in response to the second device launching the study identifier, the images to be viewed at the second device as second images; organize the second images based on the viewport hanging protocol; and enable the second images to be viewable at the second device to enable real-time collaboration between the first device and the second device.
US09917865B2
The present disclosure is directed to multi-level application programming interface (API) integration of a distributed enterprise application architecture deployed across datacenter/private cloud and public cloud, such as end-to-end configuration of bridging two virtual or physical datacenters via a cloud bridge using simple/user-friendly configuration interfaces and API calls. Seamless integration of infrastructure from various providers with proprietary APIs can be achieved, without requiring user intervention or reconfiguration. Accordingly, the solution masks the inherent complexity and architectural expertise required to effectively use the cloud bridging solution with the various Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) architectures and technologies.
US09917860B2
Network security management technology as disclosed herein generates and dynamically updates an intuitive, interactive visualization of a computer network in live operation. The network security management technology interprets human user interactions, such as gestures, as network directives. The network directives may be implemented by the network in response to security events.
US09917855B1
A sandbox system includes a mixed analysis engine that allows for dynamic and static analysis of a sample process for malware. The sample process is executed in a virtual machine and interrupted to allow the mixed analysis engine to identify functions that are called by malware to perform a malicious behavior. The functions are correlated to identify a behavior node that is indicative of the malicious behavior, and behavior nodes are correlated to identify a behavior net. The behavior net is scored to determine if the sample process is malware.
US09917854B2
A computer implemented method, computer program product and comprising rolling an image to a point in time in a protection window by applying write data using write metadata and examining read metadata, the write data, and the write metadata to determine if the image was accessed by an intruder.
US09917853B2
Systems and techniques for displaying timelines of event logs are described. A software application may identify event logs associated with an identifier, such as an IP address of a network element or a username. The software application may group the identified event logs based on specified criteria. The software application may determine multiple sessions in which an individual session includes a group of event logs arranged along a timeline. Sessions associated with a same network element may be displayed with a same magnitude. Sessions associated with different network elements may be displayed with different magnitudes. For example, a first timeline of event logs in a first session at a first network element may be displayed at a first height. A second timeline of event logs in a second session at a second network element may be displayed at a second height.
US09917846B1
An improved technique identifies risky transactions by mapping raw user location data to a particular cell in a fixed grid. Along these lines, when a user initiates a transaction with a service provider over a mobile device, the service provider collects raw location data such as a latitude and longitude for the user and transmits the location data to an adaptive authentication server. The adaptive authentication server then accesses a fixed set of geographical areas overlaid on a map of the Earth. For example, the geographic areas can correspond to square cells whose corners are defined by selected latitudes and longitudes. The adaptive authentication server finds a particular geographical area which contains the latitude and longitude for the user. Based on an identifier of the particular geographical area, the adaptive authentication server assigns a risk score to the transaction.
US09917830B2
Systems and methods for weak authentication data reinforcement are described. In some embodiments, authentication data is received in a request to authenticate a user. In response to detecting weak authentication data, the systems and methods determine whether the identifier of the device was previously associated with a human user and whether the authentication data is weak. An example embodiment may include initiating a verification process in response to determining that the authentication data is weak and that the identifier of the device was not previously associated with a human user.
US09917821B2
An example method of establishing an authenticated session between two communicating devices includes establishing, by a first processor of a first device, a secure connection with a second device over the network using a communications protocol; receiving, by the first processor, an identity authentication request from the second device; passing, by the first processor, the identity authentication request to a second processor located on an authentication chip of the first device; generating, by the second processor using one or more authentication code functions stored on the authentication chip, one or more authentication codes using a unique serial number of the first device and an authentication key, both stored on the authentication chip; providing, by the second processor, the one or more generated authentication codes to the first processor; and sending, by the first processor, a response to the second device that includes the one or more generated authentication codes.
US09917819B2
A system and method for providing a Proxied Contact Management System (PCMS) so that individual owners of personal contact data may control and manage the access and dissemination of their personal data and also control who may contact them. The owner of personal contact data may securely register the data with a secured information vault of the PCMS and specify which other parties may contact them. In this way, duplication of the personal data is avoided, but at the same time is always current. In use, a second party's device, such as a telephone or a PDA may request that the PCMS, under public key infrastructure (PKI) control, establish a connection with the first party. Once verified, the PCMS may establish a proxy connection between the first and second parties according to the permitted mode of communication defined by criteria established by the first party and managed by the PCMS. In this way, personal contact information, such as a telephone number, is kept secure and private and not provided to the second party.
US09917815B2
A data communication system uses Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). A first BGP Virtual Machine (VM) in a first NFV computer system transfers NFV request data in first BGP signaling for delivery to a second BGP VM in a second NFV computer system. The second BGP VM in the second NFV computer system processes the NFV request data and responsively transfers NFV time-slice data for the second BGP VM in second BGP signaling for delivery to the first BGP VM in the first NFV computer system. The first BGP VM in the first NFV computer system verifies the NFV time-slice data for the second BGP VM and performs a BGP state process only if the NFV time-slice data for the second BGP VM is verified. A Hardware Root of Trust (HRoT) verification for the second BGP VM may be also performed using the BGP signaling.
US09917813B2
Systems and methods for designating interfaces of a network security appliance as source/destination interfaces in connection with defining a security rule are provided. According to one embodiment, a security rule configuration interface is displayed through which a network administrator can specify parameters of security rules to be applied to traffic attempting to traverse the network security appliance. Information defining a traffic flow to be controlled by a security rule is received via the security rule configuration interface. The information defining the traffic flow includes: (i) a set of source interfaces; and (ii) a set of destination interfaces. At least one of which includes multiple interfaces such that the security rule permits the traffic flow to be defined in terms of multiple source interfaces and/or multiple destination interfaces.
US09917809B2
A computer receives an out of office status a user has indicated on an email application, the email application using a communications network and determines a quota status of the user based on a previous quota usage pattern and a current quota usage pattern, wherein the quota includes an amount of storage spaced allotted to the user. The computer receives a new email to be delivered to the user and assigns a quota status to the new email. In response to the assigned quota status, the computer determines when the new email should be delivered to the email application of the user. As soon as the sender enters the name(s) of the recipients, the quota usage monitoring engine retrieves the quota status information from the recipients mail box. The engine determines if the new email should be sent out from the senders outbox and dropped to recipients mail box.
US09917807B2
Identifying recipients to receive communication based on content selection may be provided. An indication of content selected by a user is received. The content may be part of group communication that is communicated among users via an online communication application. The content and an author of the content are identified. One or more criteria may be applied to the content to determine the recipients of the communication. The communication may be transmitted as a single message to the recipients simultaneously.
US09917805B2
Collecting online group chat messages. The method may include receiving a message associated with an online group chat session between chat participants. The method may also include determining the received message satisfies at least one message collection rule. The method may further include recording the received message to at least one message table based on each chat participant mentioned in the received message. The method may also include determining a first chat participant chooses to open a private chat session with at least one second chat participant. The method may further include identifying recorded messages within the message tables associated with the at least one second chat participant. The method may also include displaying the identified recorded messages in a private chat session sub-window.
US09917794B2
A method for redirecting Internet Protocol (IP) packets from a packet redirect source to a packet redirect destination through a switch fabric of Ethernet switches is disclosed. At the packet redirect source, the topological location and the identifier of the packet redirect destination are put in a first set of bits and a second set of bits of the destination Media Access Control (MAC) address field of the packet to be redirected. The switch fabric forwards the packet to the switch directly connected to the packet redirect destination according to the first set of bits. Then the switch forwards the packet to the packet redirect destination according to the second set of bits.
US09917793B2
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for processing a data packet in a software defined network SDN protocol-based network. The method comprises: receiving a data packet forwarded by a SDN switch in the network; obtaining a rule corresponding to a data flow where the data packet is located; determining, according to the received data packet, data flow characteristics of the data flow where the data packet is located; determining timeout information of the rule according to a predetermined matching relationship between the data flow characteristics and the timeout information, the timeout information indicating time that the rule will be kept in a flow table of the SDN switch; and sending the rule and the timeout information of the rule to the SDN switch for processing the data packet by the SDN switch according to the rule. By means of the method and apparatus of the embodiments of the present invention, the timeout information of the rule may be set flexibly, so that the performance of SDN is boosted efficiently.
US09917792B2
In one example embodiment, a system and method is illustrated that includes processes a first data packet using a first operating system, the first data packet received from a first network. A second operation is shown that processes a second data packet using a second operating system, the second data packet received from a second network. Further, an additional operation is shown that determines a route associated with the first data packet and the second data packet, the route including at least one of a logical route or physical route. Moreover, an operation is shown that parses the first data packet into at least one first logical segment, and parsing the second data packet into at least one second logical segment. An operation is shown that transmits the first logical segment and the second logical segment as at least one data packet across the WAN.
US09917789B2
Embodiments include methods and apparatuses for allocating computing elements in a data receiving link. Aspects include receiving baseband data in the data receiving link and allocating a computing element from a resource pool of computing elements for converting the baseband data to transmission block data.
US09917784B2
One or more techniques and/or devices are provided for dynamic resource allocation based upon network flow control. For example, a first counter, corresponding to a count of communication availability signals provided by a network interface to a storage process, may be maintained. A second counter, corresponding to a count of communication unavailability signals provided by the network interface to the storage process, may be maintained. Responsive to the first counter exceeding a resource allocation threshold, additional resources may be dynamically allocated to the storage process during operation of the storage process. Responsive to the second counter exceeding a resource deallocation threshold, resources may be dynamically deallocated from the storage process during operation of the storage process. In this way, resources allocation for the storage process may be dynamically adjusted based upon real-time network flow control information indicative of whether the storage process is efficiently utilizing network communication channel availability.
US09917776B2
In one embodiment, a packet switching device comprises: a lookup chip including one or more processors and on-lookup chip memory, and off-lookup chip memory. In one embodiment, the lookup chip is configured to determine processing information for packets including performing a longest prefix match on a destination address of packets using progressive, exact matching of one or more single prefix length hash keys generated from the packets with entries in one or more hash tables until a matching hash table entry is found. The matching hash table entry is associated with particular information identifying how to process (e.g., manipulate, forward, drop) the corresponding packet. In one embodiment, entries of a hash table are distributed between said on-lookup chip memory and said off-lookup chip memory. In one embodiment, signatures of lookup keys are included in a hash table entry to quickly evaluate whether there is a match.
US09917771B2
Methods and systems are provided for virtual expansion of a fabric network edge to include edge network devices. For example, unique virtual Internet Protocol (IP) addresses may be assigned to a plurality of L2 switches, wherein the L2 switches are connected to one or more fabric edge devices in a fabric, and wherein the L2 switches are located outside of the fabric. Next, the unique virtual IP addresses may be announced in an underlay of the fabric.
US09917769B2
In one embodiment, a method is implemented in a network element coupled to the SDN system, which contains a set of network elements processing traffic flows and a SDN controller managing the set of network elements. The method includes creating a set of virtual tables for processing packets of traffic flows at the network element based on a set of flow tables of the network element, where the set of flow tables is ordered in a sequence. The method further includes mapping each of the set of virtual tables to a single flow table of the set of flow tables, where the mapping causes at least one flow table being mapped to a plurality of the set of virtual tables. The method also includes forwarding packets of traffic flows to the set of virtual tables for processing.
US09917765B2
Disclosed are a cross-domain protection interacting method and system. The method includes: an interconnecting node on a cross-domain working path between a first domain and a second domain sends second identification information of the second domain to a first node in the first domain, wherein the first domain and the second domain are neighboring domains; when a link failure occurs in the first domain, an interconnecting backup node between the first domain and the second domain receives first failure state information sent by the first node, wherein the first failure state information carrying the second identification information; and the interconnecting backup node activates a second protection path in the second domain according to the second identification information, and uses a first protection path in the first domain and the second protection path to transmit a cross-domain service. The present invention can ensure protection independence in each domain and achieve an effect of interaction of cross-domain protection.
US09917759B2
According to one embodiment of the disclosure, a system monitors a first metric associated with a host device. The system accesses, at a monitoring frequency, data associated with the first metric. The system determines, based on the data, a metric rating for the first metric. The system further determines, based on the metric rating, whether the metric rating is above a threshold. The system modifies, based at least in part on the metric rating being above the threshold, a monitoring behavior of a probe.
US09917757B2
Examples of the present invention present a method of determining the network connectivity technology being used in a network link. The method sends test packets from the router to an end device, such as a set-top box, and measures the latency in the received packets at the end device. The packets are gradually increased in size. The increasing packet size effectively results in increasing the load on the network link between the router and the end device. The latency characteristics vary as a function of packet size (representing increasing network load), and result in a signature or “fingerprint” for the network connectivity technology being used for the link, across the load cycle. The signature can be compared to predetermined models to identify the specific technology used. The technique can be enabled using software modules installed at the gateway/router and at the end-point, such as a set-top box.
US09917755B1
Techniques are disclosed related to determining delay in a radio frequency (RF) communications device configured to perform envelope tracking. The RF communications device may comprise a power amplifier and an envelope tracker. First and second input stimuli signals may be transmitted to each of the power amplifier and envelope tracker, respectively. The RF communications device may output, by the power amplifier, an output signal to a vector signal analyzer (VSA). The VSA may determine a first delay offset by cross-correlating the output signal with a reference signal, and the VSA may determine a second delay offset based on an amplitude distortion of the output signal. A relative delay between the first and second input stimuli signals may be determined based on a difference between the first and second delay offsets.
US09917750B2
A method includes: inputting information indicating power usage corresponding to each of a plurality of user IDs; generating a differential value between i) a first cumulative value of power usage corresponding to a first user ID in a prescribed period and ii) a second cumulative value of power usage corresponding to a second user ID in the prescribed period; generating a first conversion value by converting the differential value to a use time of an electric home appliance corresponding to a first type among electric home appliances corresponding to the first user ID; generating display data indicating that the differential value corresponds to the first conversion value; and transmitting the display data to an information terminal device corresponding to the first user ID.
US09917749B2
A device may determine log information, collected by a user device, that may include information associated with communications between the user device and a base station. The user device and the base station may be associated with a wireless network. The device may analyze the log information to determine event information associated with the user device. The event information may include information associated with an event experienced by the user device during the communications between the user device and the base station. The device may generate action information based on the event information. The action information may include information associated with organizing, categorizing, classifying, or diagnosing the event experienced by the user device. The device may provide the action information.
US09917737B2
According to at least one embodiment, a system including a server is provided. The server includes a memory and at least one processor coupled to the memory. The at least one processor is configured to receive configuration information encoded in a QR code, the configuration information being based on one or more values of one or more configuration options for at least one programmable device. The at least one processor is also configured to determine if the configuration information is in accord with target configuration information and transmit a message indicating whether the configuration information is in accord with the target configuration information.
US09917724B2
The present invention provides an access method and system of a customer premise equipment, and a broadband network gateway. The access method of a customer premise equipment includes: receiving, by a BNG in a BNG pool, an access request packet sent by a CPE, where the access request packet carries an identifier of a CPE group to which the CPE belongs; and obtaining, by the BNG, an access policy of the CPE group according to the identifier of the CPE group, and performing access control on the CPE according to the access policy. Through the present invention, a BNG in a BNG pool is enabled to provide an access service for a CPE according to an access policy, so that when a BNG in a BNG pool is faulty, a BNG that is not faulty in the BNG pool can provide an access service for a CPE originally accessing the faulty BNG, thereby improving the reliability of the entire network.
US09917721B2
Methods, systems, and apparatus for receiving an input signal, where the input signal includes a carrier signal modulated with a first modulation signal and a second modulation signal, and where the second modulation signal is a TM signal. Demodulating the first modulation signal from the input signal. Modulating an un-modulated carrier signal with the first modulation signal to generate a third signal, where the third signal includes the carrier signal modulated by the first modulation signal. And, removing the first modulation signal from the input signal by subtracting the third signal from the input signal to extract the TM signal from the input signal.
US09917718B2
A method and an apparatus for receiving broadcast signals thereof are disclosed. The method for receiving broadcast signals, the method comprises receiving the broadcast signals, demodulating the received broadcast signals by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) scheme, parsing a signal frame from the demodulated broadcast signals, MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) decoding service data in the parsed signal frame, decoding signaling data in the parsed signal frame and decoding the MIMO decoded service data.
US09917687B2
Systems and methods facilitating a framework that provides a core trusted computing base (TCB) of an electronic device with various security capabilities. The framework can include a low-resource device and at least one distributed resource. The low-resource device can be configured to generate sealing keys, migration keys, and attestation keys that are based on a device secret associated with the low-resource device and one or more software modules. The low-resource device can further be configured to use the migration keys and the sealing keys to both verify a software update and migrate secrets from a previous version of the software to a newer version of the software. Additionally, the low-resource device can be configured to generate an attestation statement using the attestation keys and perform attestation using the attestation statement and the at least one distributed resource.
US09917678B2
The present disclosure discloses a method and an apparatus for generating a long training sequence and sending a signal, and belongs to the field of wireless communications. The method includes: obtaining a plurality of long training sequences according to a system parameter and a preset sequence construction formula, wherein the plurality of long training sequences include a plurality of basic training sequences and a plurality of shift training sequences obtained according to cyclic shift of the basic training sequences; and configuring a mapping rule between a terminal device and a long training sequence, for enabling the terminal device to select a long training sequence according to the mapping rule as a long training sequence for sending a signal. By adopting the present disclosure, energy consumption of the receiving end may be reduced and accuracy of channel estimation may be improved.
US09917673B2
In accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention, disclosed is a method and an apparatus thereof for handling codec rate adaptation in a communication network applying circuit switched communication. The method is performed by a wireless device. The method comprises receiving an indication of a codec mode and determining a codec mode subset based on the indicated codec mode. Rate adaptation is applied based on the codec modes comprised in the determined codec mode subset having a bit rate below or equal to a bit rate associated with the indicated codec mode.
US09917667B2
A system for testing synchronous TTP communication networks is provided. The system includes a first and second nodes coupled to a transmission bus. The first node is configured to generate a test command, which includes a test flag and a test round field, set the test flag, and transmit the test command and a plurality of parameters via the transmission bus using data frames. The second node is configured to receive the test command and the plurality of parameters from the transmission bus, determine whether the test flag is set, and compare parameter values in the received data frames with expected values in a test vector stored on the second node, for each of the plurality of parameters, in response to determining that the test flag is set. The first and second nodes are configured to communicate with each other using a TTP on a time slot basis.
US09917651B2
A feed signal generator (10) for a phased array antenna, comprising: an input (12) to receive an optical spectrum having first and second phase-locked spectral components, respectively having first and second optical frequencies; wavelength selective separator apparatus (14) to separate the optical spectrum into a first optical signal being the first spectral component and a second optical signal being the second spectral component; an optical time delay element (16) to apply a time delay to the first optical signal to form a delayed optical signal; a heterodyning device (20) to heterodyne the delayed optical signal and the second optical signal to generate a feed signal (22) having a power proportional to a product of the amplitudes of the second and delayed optical signals and a phase proportional to the time delay; and optical amplitude control apparatus (18) to set an amplitude of the delayed optical signal such that the product of said amplitudes causes the power of the feed signal to have a preselected value.
US09917650B2
Photonic integration has primarily sought to exploit optical parallelism through wavelength division multiplexing whilst in many instances “brute-force” time division multiplexing offers benefits through reduced complexity and cost. However, photoreceivers are primarily the same now for operation at 10 Gb/s, 20 Gb/s, 40 Gb/s and above as 20 or 25 years ago and exploit the same optical detection—amplification—logic processing design. However, high speed low cost electronics ca be leveraged in conjunction with optical time sampling and logic to provide a new design paradigm. An incoming XGbs−1 optical data stream is sampled and processed by N photodetectors each operating at (X/N)Gbs−1 rather than the current direct XGbs−1 front-end of the prior art. Flexibility for the designer in establishing N within optical layer constraints, electronics capabilities etc. allows for further cost—power—complexity—performance tradeoffs to be established in different systems such that high capacity TDM links can exploit direct CMOS integrated optoelectronic front-ends.
US09917643B2
Systems and methods for optical narrowcasting are provided for transmitting various types of content. Optical narrowcasting content indicative of the presence of additional information along with identifying information may be transmitted. The additional information (which may include meaningful amounts of advertising information, media, or any other content) may also be transmitted as optical narrowcasting content. Elements of an optical narrowcasting system may include optical transmitters and optical receivers which can be configured to be operative at distances ranging from, e.g., 400 meters to 1200 meters. Moreover, the elements can be implemented on a miniaturized scale in conjunction with small, user devices such as smartphones, thereby also realizing optical ad-hoc networking, as well as interoperability with other types of data networks. Optically narrowcast content can be used to augment a real-world experience, enhance and/or spawn new forms of social-media and media content.
US09917636B2
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a transmission system having a coupling device, a bypass circuit, a memory and a processor. The coupling device can facilitate transmission or reception of electromagnetic waves that propagate along a surface of a transmission medium. The memory can store instructions, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform operations including restarting a timer to prevent the bypass circuit from disabling the transmission or reception of electromagnetic waves by the coupling device. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09917631B2
Switching apparatus for use in RF transmission systems. The apparatus comprises first and second RF signal inputs, each coupled to an RF signal path including a coupler directing a portion of input RF signal power to corresponding first and second RF signal outputs. The apparatus includes an RF signal switching arrangement having a control input, a switch output, a first switch input coupled to the first RF signal path, a second switch input coupled to the second RF signal path, and the RF signal switching arrangement is operable by the control input to selectively connect the first or second switch input to the switch output. An RF signal monitoring output is coupled to the switch output, and a processor is configured to receive a switch command input and generate a switch control signal which is adapted to configure the RF signal switch arrangement in accordance with the switch command input.
US09917628B2
This invention presents methods for MU-MIMO wireless communication systems comprising a BS with plural of antennas, either closely located or distributed; A plural of AFRs deployed over a coverage area, each AFR has N_BF≧1 BF antennas with a beam pattern facing the MU-BFer and N_UF≧1 UF antennas with a beam pattern facing UEs or downstream AFR(s); A channel estimation module for estimating the Total Channels between a plural of UEs and the BS with the AFRs in place; and, A MU-BFer that uses the estimates of the Total Channels to perform beamforming computations for transmitting and/or receiving multiple spatially multiplexed streams of signals to or from a plural of UEs using the same frequency resource.
US09917627B2
A base station apparatus of mobile communication system is provided, including an antenna system including first antenna for transceiving signals for a first path among MIMO paths, and a second antenna for transceiving signals for a second path among the MIMO paths, a first duplexer including transmission filter for processing the transmitted signal of first path and reception filter for processing the received signal of second path, a second duplexer including reception filter for processing the received signal of first path and transmission filter for processing the transmitted signal of second path, and a path change unit for providing the transmitted signal provided from the first duplexer to the first antenna and the received signal provided from the first antenna to the second duplexer and to provide the transmitted signal from the second duplexer to the second antenna and the received signal from the second antenna to the first duplexer.
US09917626B2
A base station apparatus of mobile communication system is provided, including an antenna system including first antenna for transceiving signals for a first path among MIMO paths, and a second antenna for transceiving signals for a second path among the MIMO paths, a first duplexer including transmission filter for processing the transmitted signal of first path and reception filter for processing the received signal of second path, a second duplexer including reception filter for processing the received signal of first path and transmission filter for processing the transmitted signal of second path, and a path change unit for providing the transmitted signal provided from the first duplexer to the first antenna and the received signal provided from the first antenna to the second duplexer and to provide the transmitted signal from the second duplexer to the second antenna and the received signal from the second antenna to the first duplexer.
US09917623B1
This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatus for digital beamforming. In one aspect, a subsystem of a spacecraft can include multipliers and a data distribution network including adders to provide beamformed signals.
US09917617B2
In accordance with an embodiment, the vectoring controller is configured to iterate through successive crosstalk acquisition cycles and, within respective ones of the crosstalk acquisition cycles, to configure sequences of crosstalk probing symbols for transmission over the respective communication lines, to receive sequences of error samples as successively measured by respective receivers coupled to the respective communication lines while the sequences of crosstalk probing symbols are being transmitted, and to determine crosstalk estimates between the respective communication lines based on the sequences of error samples. The vectoring controller is further configured to randomize the successive sequences of crosstalk probing symbols used during the successive crosstalk acquisition cycles, and to iteratively configure the vectoring processor based on the successive crosstalk estimates.
US09917610B2
A method includes detecting, by a contact sensing layer, a position of one or more fingers of a mobile device user, the contact sensing layer is located in a back area of a mobile device and the one or more fingers of the mobile device user are in direct contact with the contact sensing layer, receiving the detected position of the one or more fingers, identifying a plurality of advanced features contained in at least one software application running on the mobile device, selecting a feedback type based on the plurality of advanced features, and sending the selected feedback type to an interactive layer of the mobile device causing the interactive layer to generate a notification which is detectable by the one or more fingers, the notification communicates at least one of the advanced features to the mobile device user.
US09917609B2
A method implemented by an enterprise server to facilitate activation of a virtual subscriber identity module (SIM) service on a mobile communication device. The method includes detecting a triggering event and in response to detecting the triggering event: determining that a SIM application on a physical universal integrated circuit card (UICC) currently inserted into the mobile communication device is associated with a mobile network operator (MNO) providing one or more virtual SIMs to which the enterprise server has access; determining whether the SIM application on the physical UICC is associated with one of the virtual SIMs provided by the MNO; and if the SIM application on the physical UICC is associated with a virtual SIM provided by the MNO, sending a message to the mobile communication device indicating that the mobile communication device is enabled for a virtual SIM service.
US09917603B2
A multiplexer includes a common terminal connected to an inductance element at a connection path with an antenna element, filter elements including different pass bands and connected to the antenna element with the common terminal therebetween, and an inductance element arranged in series between a transmission filter with a largest capacitance when viewed from the antenna side among the filter elements and the common terminal. An inductive component of the inductance element and a capacitive component of the transmission filter element define an LC series resonant circuit, and a resonant frequency of the LC series resonant circuit is lower than any of pass bands of the filter elements.
US09917602B2
Provided are an antenna system, an integrated communication structure and a terminal. The antenna system comprises: a first antenna which is connected to transmission paths of a plurality of communication modules and used for transmitting transmission signals from each of the transmission paths; and a second antenna which is connected to receiving paths of the plurality of communication modules and used for transmitting a received signal from the outside to a corresponding communication module via a corresponding receiving path. By means of the technical solution of the present invention, transmitting antennas and reception antennas of all communication modules in a terminal can be integrated respectively. The number of antennas can be effectively reduced, and the stacking difficulty is reduced, thereby avoiding antenna interference among a plurality of communication devices, and making it easy to realize multi-mode.
US09917601B2
According to one aspect, a method for adaptive error correction in a memory system includes reading data from a memory array of a non-volatile memory device in the memory system. Error correcting logic checks the data for at least one error condition stored in the memory array. Based on determining that the at least one error condition exists, a write-back indicator is asserted by the error correcting logic to request correction of the at least one error condition, where the write-back indicator is a discrete signal sent to a memory controller, and the at least one non-volatile memory device asserting the write-back indicator extends cycle timing monitored by the memory controller while the write-back indicator is asserted. Based on determining that the at least one error condition does not exist, accesses of the memory array continue without asserting the write-back indicator.
US09917597B1
A processor includes a decoder to decode an instruction to compress an input data stream and an execution unit for executing the instruction. The execution unit to generate metadata for a current input of the input data stream, the metadata comprises a first hint based on a portion of a current input that represents the input data stream at a current offset, select a first pointer to identify a location in a history buffer in a hash chain, determine whether the metadata generated for the current input matches metadata previously generated for the first pointer, and filter the first pointer from a search for a best match for the current input in the history buffer based on the determination that at least a portion of the metadata for the current input does not match a portion of the metadata for the first pointer.
US09917593B2
An analog to digital converter includes an error integration circuit configured to receive an input charge from a detector and to integrate a difference between the input charge and one or more feedback charge pulses to create an error voltage. A quantizer is in operable communication with the error integration circuit and is responsive to the created error voltage. An accumulator having a mantissa component and a radix component is in operable communication with the quantizer. A charge feedback device in operable communication with the quantizer and the radix component of the accumulator. The charge feedback device is configured to generate the one or more feedback charge pulses proportional to the radix component of the accumulator and an output of the quantizer. Digital focal plane read out integrated circuits including the analog to digital converter are also disclosed.
US09917587B2
A voltage level shifting circuit with an input terminal and an output terminal. The level shifting circuit has a field-effect transistor (FET) switch with a gate attached to the input terminal, a drain attached to the output terminal and a source attached to a current changing mechanism. The current changing mechanism includes a current mirror circuit having an output connected between the source and an electrical earth. The output of the current mirror circuit is preferably adapted to change a current flowing between the drain and the source based on an input voltage applied to the gate.
US09917585B2
A data output circuit includes a data driving unit suitable for driving a data transmission line with a driving voltage corresponding to data during a data transmission operation, and a charging/discharging unit suitable for storing charges on the data transmission line and reuse the stored charges as the driving voltage.
US09917584B2
A bootstrap circuit integrated to a voltage converter integrated circuit (IC) and a voltage converter IC for a switch mode voltage regulator. The bootstrap circuit is used to provide a bootstrap voltage signal for driving a high side switch of the voltage converter IC. The bootstrap circuit has a pre-charger and a bootstrap capacitor. The pre-charger provides a first bootstrap signal to pre-charge a control terminal of the high side switch, and the bootstrap capacitor provides a second bootstrap signal to enhance the charge of the control terminal of the high side switch.
US09917582B2
An optical sensor, optical system, and proximity sensor are disclosed. An illustrative proximity sensor is disclosed to include a light source, a photodetector including a photo-sensitive area that receives incident light and converts the received incident light into an electrical signal, and a plurality of polarization layers stacked on the photodetector that limit light from becoming received incident light for the photo-sensitive area to light traveling toward the photodetector along a predetermined path.
US09917579B2
A switching circuit includes a first diode coupled between a first terminal and a second terminal, a second diode coupled between the first terminal and a third terminal, and a bias circuit coupled to the first terminal and configured to bias the first diode on and the second diode off in a first switch state and to bias the first diode off and the second diode on in a second switch state, the bias circuit including a voltage converter configured to convert a fixed voltage to an intermediate voltage and a current source coupled in series with the voltage converter.
US09917577B1
A brown-out detector and power-on-reset circuit can be used to monitor a supply voltage to determine when brown-out and power-on events occur and provide the appropriate reset signal in response. The circuit can include a comparator to generate the reset signal and a first monitoring circuit that operates in conjunction with a second monitoring circuit to provide an input voltage to the comparator. The first monitoring circuit can incorporate a bandgap circuit and can be used to control the input voltage based on the comparison of the supply voltage and a corresponding supply voltage threshold. The second monitoring circuit can incorporate a diode and can be used when the supply voltage is lower than a threshold voltage for the bandgap circuit. The second monitoring circuit can be used to control the input voltage based on a comparison of the supply voltage and a threshold voltage for the diode.
US09917572B2
A semiconductor device includes a logic circuit capable of storing configuration data. The logic circuit includes a latch circuit, an arithmetic circuit, a delay circuit, and a first output timing generation circuit. The latch circuit has a function of receiving a pulse signal and a reset signal and outputting a first signal. The delay circuit has a function of receiving the first signal and outputting a second signal. The first signal controls power supply to the arithmetic circuit and the delay circuit. The second signal is obtained by delaying the first signal so as to correspond to a delay in a critical path of the arithmetic circuit. The first output timing generation circuit has a function of receiving a third signal obtained by a logical operation on the first signal and the second signal and outputting the reset signal.
US09917567B2
A ladder filter includes a plurality of series resonators and a plurality of shunt resonators connected between an input port and an output port. At least one of the series or shunt resonators include a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator structure, which includes: a first electrode disposed over a substrate; an air cavity located in the substrate and below the first electrode; a piezoelectric layer disposed over the first electrode and comprising aluminum scandium nitride, the piezoelectric layer having a thickness in a range of approximately 1.0 microns to approximately 1.5 microns; and a second electrode disposed over the piezoelectric layer. The BAW resonator structure has an area, and the area is less than an area of a comparable BAW resonator structure comprising identical layers and materials except for an undoped aluminum nitride piezoelectric layer.
US09917560B1
Disclosed is an amplifier for incremental wattage reduction. The amplifier comprises a first pair of pentode vacuum tubes and a second pair of pentode vacuum tubes arranged in a push-pull-parallel power configuration. Each pentode vacuum tube from the first pair of pentode vacuum tubes and the second pair of pentode vacuum tubes includes a plate element, a screen grid element and a cathode element. The amplifier further comprises a single multi-position user switch to configure the first pair of pentode vacuum tubes and the second pair of pentode vacuum tubes to achieve varying wattage outputs of the amplifier by deactivating at least one of the first pair of pentode vacuum tubes or the second pair of vacuum tubes, and causing at least one of the first pair of pentode vacuum tubes or the second pair of vacuum tubes to operate as triodes.
US09917552B2
A first amplifier circuit includes differential pair transistors that amplify a difference between input voltages and active load transistors connected to the differential pair transistors. A second amplifier circuit amplifies output voltage of the first amplifier circuit. An offset correction current source is connected in parallel with the active load transistors and adjusts electric current flowing through the differential pair transistors correct offset voltage. An offset correction switch switches a driving state of the offset correction current source. A transconductance proportional current generation circuit generates transconductance proportional current for compensating for temperature drift of offset correction voltage for correcting the offset voltage. The transconductance proportional current is proportional to transconductance.
US09917545B2
Monitoring thermal conditions of an electric motor using current signals from power supplied to the motor is disclosed herein. The current signals may be used to calculate composite current values which may be used to calculate slip. The slip may be used to provide thermal monitoring and protection to the electric motor. Slip may be calculated using only values from the stator of the electric motor for providing thermal monitoring and protection to electric motors where rotor measurements are not available.
US09917541B2
The present disclosure relates a motor driving device that includes: an H-bridge circuit that includes first and second legs, each of which has one pair of switches, and supplies a driving current to a motor; a current sensor disposed between the H-bridge circuit and a voltage source; and a controller that acquires a first sensing signal from the current sensor for a first period of time during which a turn-on signal is supplied to a first switch disposed in the first leg or a fourth switch disposed in the second leg, to acquire a second sensing signal from the current sensor for a second period of time during which a turn-on signal is supplied to a second switch disposed in the first leg or a third switch disposed in the second leg, and determines an abnormality in the H-bridge circuit.
US09917536B2
A driving apparatus according to the present invention includes: a movable part including a vibrator including a piezoelectric element and a pressurization part for bringing the vibrator into pressure contact with a base part by applying impression force to the vibrator, the movable part being linearly driven; and a cover part for receiving reactive force of the impression force through intermediation of a rolling part, the cover part being fixed to the base part by a holding part extending in a direction crossing a movement direction of the movable part, in which the rolling part is sandwiched by a guide part of the movable part extending in the movement direction of the movable part and a cover guide part of the cover part extending in the movement direction of the movable part, and the movable part is positioned on an outer side beyond a side of the holding part facing the movable part.
US09917534B2
A power conversion device is provided which includes a plurality of series circuits each formed of a voltage source and a controlled current source. At least two of said series circuits formed of the voltage source and the controlled current source are connected in parallel. Further, parallel connection points of the series circuits connected in parallel form output terminals.
US09917527B2
An arrangement is provided for alternatively providing a 3-phase or a 1-phase power stream. In an embodiment, the arrangement includes a 3-phase power source including a first, a second and a third power source output terminal; a switching section adapted to selectively provide, from the three power source output terminals of the 3-phase power source, either: a 3-phase power stream at three arrangement output terminals or a 1-phase power stream at two arrangement output terminals, different from the three arrangement output terminals.
US09917522B2
The present invention relates to a power control apparatus for sub-modules in a Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC), which controls the supply of power to sub-modules in an MMC connected to an HVDC system and to a STATCOM. The power control apparatus includes a half-bridge circuit unit for switching multiple switches, converting an input voltage across P and N buses of the MMC into a relatively low voltage, and outputting the low voltage; a transformer for transferring the low output voltage (primary side), output through switching of the switches in the half-bridge circuit unit via switching of the switches, to a secondary side of the transformer; a DC/DC converter for converting an output voltage on the secondary side of the transformer; a photocoupler for outputting a reference signal corresponding to a magnitude of the secondary side output voltage of the transformer; a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) control unit for controlling switching of the switches in the half-bridge circuit unit in response to the reference signal output from the photocoupler; and a starting circuit unit for supplying an initial starting voltage to the PWM control unit, wherein the PWM control unit is started in response to the starting voltage initially supplied from the starting circuit unit, and is configured to control switching of the switches in response to the reference voltage received from the photocoupler, and to receive the secondary side output voltage of the transformer as an operating voltage depending on the switching, thus being operated.
US09917518B2
A method and a circuit of detecting attachment and detachment between a portable device and a power converter are provided. The method and the circuit confirm attachment of the portable device to the power converter and generate an attachment signal. The method and the circuit further detect a bus voltage of the power converter for confirming detachment of the portable device from the power converter.
US09917514B2
A switched power converter includes a power stage for generating an output voltage according to a switching signal and an input voltage via a switching element. The switching signal is generated by a variable timing generator which is controlled by a compensator. The pulses of the switching signal are generated on a “need to have basis”. Hence, theses pulses may be generated independently of a PWM period. The pulses can be generated such that switching losses are minimized. A switching pattern can be matched to the load current pattern. Thus, the behavior of the compensator can be synchronized to a regular pattern of the load current. A high resolution variable timing generator may be employed.
US09917513B1
An integrated circuit with voltage regulator circuitry is provided. The voltage regulator circuitry may include an adaptive bleeder circuit. The adaptive bleeder circuit may include one or more switchable current leaker paths and an associated bleeder control circuit having current sensing circuitry and voltage comparison circuitry. The current sensing circuitry may monitor the amount of current that is being delivered to a load circuit, whereas the voltage comparison circuitry may output control signals that selectively activate one or more of the current leaker paths depending on the monitored current values. Adaptive bleeder circuit configured in this way can help maintain stability of the voltage regulator while minimizing dynamic power consumption.
US09917512B2
An electronic device is provided, which includes a user interface unit configured to receive an input of a user command, a controller configured to perform an operation according to the input user command and to control the user interface to display a screen according to the result of the operation, and a power supply configured to provide a power to the user interface and the controller, wherein the power supply includes a plurality of converters configured to supply the power to respective loads of the electronic device, and the plurality of converters output voltage values that correspond to levels of the respective loads connected thereto.
US09917511B2
A circuit for clamping current in a charge pump is disclosed. The charge pump includes switching circuitry having a number of switching circuitry transistors. Each of first and second pairs of transistors in the circuit can provide an additional path for current from its associated one of the switching circuitry transistors during off-switching of that transistor so that a spike in current from the switching circuitry transistor is only partially transmitted through a path extending between the switching circuitry transistor and a capacitor of the charge pump.
US09917504B2
A synchronous rectifier applied to a power converter includes a gate coupling effect suppressing unit. The gate coupling effect suppressing unit is used for suppressing an induced voltage coupled to a gate of a metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor coupled to a secondary side of the power converter to ensure that the metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor is turned off when the power converter operates in a start-up condition and a power switch of the power converter is turned on. When the power converter operates in the start-up condition, a driving voltage of the secondary side of the power converter for driving the synchronous rectifier is not enough to drive the synchronous rectifier yet.
US09917503B2
A power factor correction circuit includes an overcurrent protection circuit, and the overcurrent protection circuit detects at least one of a line input voltage, a switch current of a power factor correction circuit, and a line period peak and performs overcurrent protection operations using a detection result.
US09917500B2
A non-traditional topology of a superconductive electric motor or generator increases the air gap flux density by reducing stray flux and concentrating lines of flux within the air gap. An electric motor or generator utilizing the invention will include three components: a rotating armature, a permanent magnet stator and a shielding sleeve. The shielding sleeve of the motor is a hollow cylinder that fits between the armature and the stator, and is configured to cool a plurality of high-temperature superconductors within it to a temperature below their critical temperatures. These superconductors are placed at an optimized position to redirect flux and promote greater efficiency.
US09917496B2
In one embodiment, a latching sector motor actuator includes a housing, a permanent magnet, and a pole piece. The permanent magnet rotates relative to the housing. The pole piece has a polarity and a pair of wound wire coils, is fixedly attached to the housing, and communicates with the permanent magnet to cause the permanent magnet to rotate one of clockwise and counterclockwise, depending upon the polarity of the pole piece. In another embodiment, a failsafe sector motor actuator has a pole piece with a singularly wound wire coil and further includes an auxiliary permanent magnet. The auxiliary permanent magnet is adjustably attached to the housing to extend rotation of the permanent magnet from 80° to 120°, depending upon location and magnitude of the auxiliary permanent magnet.
US09917493B2
A molding apparatus and method for fixing permanent magnets in a rotor core during production of drive motors for environmental vehicles, in which the permanent magnets, which are inserted into magnet insertion apertures of the rotor core, are aligned at identical positions with respect to the axial direction of the rotor core, thus contributing to an improvement in the performance of the drive motors.
US09917491B2
An enclosure for a ground ring includes an enclosure housing configured to accept a ground ring and hold the ground ring in a predetermined position around a shaft that is electrically connected to a drive shaft of an electric motor. The ground ring having a first opening for the drive shaft and the enclosure housing has a second opening for the drive shaft. The enclosure includes an attachment configured to hold the enclosure housing around the shaft to dissipate an electrical charge and to form a cavity that contains the ground ring and includes a predetermined gap between a perimeter of the second opening of the enclosure and a surface of the drive shaft.
US09917488B2
An electric motor includes a stator, a rotor, and weights removably attached to the rotor shell for use in balancing the rotor. The removable weights may be integrally formed with a rotor shell such that the weights and the rotor shell form a unitary, one-piece construction. The removable weights may be substantially uniformly spaced apart around an entirety of the outer perimeter of the rotor shell. In a method of making an electric motor, the stator is coupled to the rotor such that the weights are accessible for selective removal during balancing of the rotor.
US09917486B2
An electric motor assembly including a stator having a stator core and windings around the stator core is disclosed. The stator core has opposing ends and an outer surface extending between the opposing ends. The electric motor assembly also includes a housing having an inner surface enclosing at least a portion of the stator, and at least one fluid passage between the outer surface of the stator core and the inner surface of the housing. The fluid passage permits a coolant in the fluid passage to contact one or more portions of the outer surface of the stator core to remove heat from the stator core during operation of the electric motor assembly. Additional motor assemblies including stator and/or rotor cooling features are disclosed.
US09917471B2
A mobile solar array is provided which can be reconfigured between an operational (i.e. flat) configuration, and a retracted (i.e. folded) configuration. This is a two-step process. First, the structure that supports the solar array in its operation configuration on a docking pad is collapsed. This lowers the solar array toward the docking pad. Next, the solar array, which includes three sections of photovoltaic modules is folded lengthwise. Specifically, side sections of the solar array are folded out-of-plane from the center section. This places the solar array in its retracted configuration.
US09917466B2
A direct current (DC) power source includes a rechargeable battery and a battery charging circuit, and supplies an output voltage within a specified output voltage range to at least one output port. In one embodiment, the power source determines whether an input voltage is present at an input port, where the input voltage is usable to produce a battery charging voltage during normal operation of the charging circuit. The power source also determines whether at least one load device is coupled to the output port(s). When the input voltage is present at the input port and at least one load device is coupled to the output port(s), the power source electronically decouples the rechargeable battery from the charging circuit, electronically adjusts a voltage at an output of the charging circuit so as to be within the specified output voltage range, and provides the adjusted voltage to the output port(s).
US09917457B2
A battery pack includes a housing, at least one battery cell housed in the housing, a wireless transmitter housed in the housing, a button that initiates a pairing with an electronic device so that the battery pack may wirelessly communicate with the electronic device through the wireless transmitter, a connection section including a first electrical connector configured to supply power to a power tool and a charging port configured to supply power to an external device. The charging port can be in an on state in which the charging port is operable to supply power to the external device and an off state in which the charging port is not operable to supply power to the external device.
US09917453B1
A unitary wall outlet charging station for charging portable electronic devices including a unitary unitary wall outlet plug body operably configured to be removeably plugged into a wall outlet disposed on a building wall, the unitary unitary wall outlet plug body having an inner surface of each of a front face, a rear face, a first sidewall, and a second sidewall defining a cavity; a set of wall outlet plugs extending outwardly from the rear face; and a wall outlet disposed on the front face. The unitary wall outlet charging station further includes a pair of retractable cables each having a connector coupled to an end thereof and each disposed within the cavity in a retracted configuration and outside of the cavity in an extended configuration.
US09917451B2
A battery pack and a controlling method thereof are disclosed. In one aspect, the battery pack includes a charge/discharge control switch connected between the battery cell and a terminal of the battery pack and configured to control charge and discharge current of the battery cell. The battery pack also includes a battery management system configured to generate an operating signal to control the charge/discharge control switch, wherein the operating signal comprises a first operating signal having a varying level or a second operating signal having a constant level. The battery pack further includes a monitoring unit configured to control an on/off state of the charge/discharge control switch based at least in part the operating signal received from the battery management system, and a blocking unit configured to turn off the charge/discharge control switch based at least in part a blocking signal received from the battery management system.
US09917438B2
A system for recognizing and swapping polarity for DC powered devices that includes a polarity detection module that is configured to identify polarity of DC power input, and further configured to send an output to a controller based on identification of polarity of the DC power input. The system includes a power switch array that is operatively coupled with the controller, and wherein the controller, based on the output, can set one or more switches of the power switch array for executing polarity switching.
US09917437B2
An apparatus comprises an input node, a power rail to power a circuit load, and multiple current paths coupled in parallel with each other between the input node and the power rail. Each current path respectively provides a sense output to indicate current in the path and a current switch having a control input to control the current in the path. A control circuit, coupled to each control input individually and to each sense output individually, controls the current in each path individually based on the indicated current therein after a non-zero input voltage is initially applied to the input node, such that all of the paths concurrently conduct current from the input node to the power rail and collectively cause a total inrush current and corresponding voltage at the power rail to gradually increase.
US09917432B2
An improved electrical system may be provided by electrically isolating horizontal power distribution bus bars of differing phases, disposed along a preconfigured isolated bus support molding, from one another by covering each bus bar with an electrically insulating molded assembly. The electrically insulating molded assembly has contours configured to cover a particular bus bar (with respect to another bus bar or live fastener), arranged within the constraints of the preconfigured isolated bus support molding in the electrical system (such as along the back of the isolated bus support, between the isolated bus support and a wall of the electrical system).
US09917430B2
In one example, a cover plate may include a face plate with at least one outlet aperture, a back plate abutting the back of the face plate, an electric load between the face plate and the back plate, and at least one prong that extends from the face plate to a free end. The prong may be configured to interface with a terminal on the side of an outlet receptacle body and may include any or all of the following: an insulated portion and/or an electrical contact. The prong may resiliently deflects outward when interfacing with the terminal and may deflect with a first resistance prior to contacting a wall and with a second resistance that is greater than the first resistance when the prong contacts the wall. The cover play may also include at least one conductor electrically connecting the prong to the electric load.
US09917421B2
A quantum cascade laser and its method of fabrication are provided. The quantum cascade laser comprises one or more p-type electrical isolation regions and a plurality of electrically isolated laser sections extending along a waveguide axis of the laser. An active waveguide core is sandwiched between upper and lower n-type cladding layers and the active core and the upper and lower n-type cladding layers extend through the electrically isolated laser sections of the quantum cascade laser. A portion of the upper n-type cladding layer comprises sufficient p-type dopant to have become p-type and to have become an electrical isolation region, which extends across at least a part of the thickness upper n-type cladding layer along a projection separating the sections of the quantum cascade laser. Laser structures are also contemplated where isolation regions are solely provided at the window facet sections of the laser to provide vertical isolation in the facet sections, to reduce the current into the facet regions of the laser, and help minimize potentially harmful facet heating.
US09917419B2
An optoelectronic semiconductor device is disclosed wherein the device is a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser or a photodiode containing a section, the top part of which is electrically isolated from the rest of the device. The electric isolation can be realized by etching a set of holes and selective oxidation of AlGaAs layer or layers such that the oxide forms a continuous layer or layers everywhere beneath the top surface of this section. Alternatively, a device can be grown epitaxially on a semi-insulating substrate, and a round trench around a section of the device can be etched down to the semi-insulating substrate thus isolating this section electrically from the rest of the device. Then if top contact pads are deposited on top of the electrically isolated section, the pads have a low capacitance, and a pad capacitance below two hundred femto-Farads, and the total capacitance of the device below three hundred femto-Farads can be reached.
US09917408B2
A brush lead guide for a brush holder assembly configured to retain the leads extending from a brush in a desired position/orientation to ensure the leads do not interfere with movement of the brush within the brush holder. In some instances, the lead guide includes a first guide rail including a channel for receiving a first lead of the brush and a second guide rail including a channel for receiving a second lead from the brush. The lead guide maintains the leads in a position such that the leads are held within the width of the opening of the brush holder to ensure the leads do not interfere with movement of the brush within the brush holder during use of the brush holder assembly.
US09917403B2
An electrical connector includes a housing formed of a fixed housing and a movable housing movable relative to the fixed housing. The connector further includes a terminal. The terminal includes a connecting portion to be connected to the electrical circuit board and a contact portion to be contacted with the mating connecting member. The terminal further includes a fixed side held portion, a movable side held portion, and an elastic portion. The connecting structure further includes a regulating portion for regulating the elastic portion from elastically deforming within a specific elastic deformation range. The elastic portion is configured to have a specific elastic deformation range. When the electrical connector is connected to the mating connecting member, the spring force is smaller than a holding force between the contact portion of the terminal and the mating connecting member in a direction that the electrical connector is pulled out.
US09917398B1
A connector assembly includes a first component having a slot and an indentation and a second component having a hook and a protrusion. The hook is configured to engage with the slot by being inserted into the slot and being translated with respect to the slot. The protrusion is configured to at least partially depress as the hook is inserted into the slot and engage with the indentation when the hook is positioned to engage with the slot. The hook and the slot, when engaged, resist separation of the second component from the first component. The protrusion and the indentation, when engaged, resist disengagement of the hook from the slot.
US09917391B2
An electrical connector includes an insulative housing and two rows of terminals reversely-symmetrically arranged in the insulative housing, each terminal having a contacting portion, a securing portion, and a tail portion, each row of terminals comprising a first and a second grounding terminals and a first and a second power terminals, each row of terminals lacking two terminals to thereby form a first vacant space between the first grounding terminal and the first power terminal and lacking another two terminals to thereby form a second vacant space between the second grounding terminal and the second power terminal. For each row of terminals, the width of the securing portion of each of the first grounding terminal, the second grounding terminal, and the first power terminal is greater than that of each of the remaining terminals. Each row of terminals include a third power terminal disposed in the second vacant space.
US09917388B2
A cable includes a line and a coupling housing. The line includes a plurality of cores and a sheath. The sheath is radially outwardly disposed relative to the cores. Each of the cores has a conductor and an insulation surrounding the conductor. Each of the conductors is stripped of the insulation at an end of the cores. A coupling housing including a coupling ring, a pin housing, and a sealing element. The coupling ring embraces the pin housing and the sheath and is fixed to the sheath. The pin housing surrounds the stripped ends of the conductors. The sealing element is disposed between the coupling ring and the pin housing. The conductors are formed of a solid and coated steel wire and the stripped ends of the conductors are useable as pin contacts.
US09917387B2
In various embodiments, a connector for a lighting device is provided. The lighting device has a planar support with at least one electrical contact formation at an edge of the planar support. The connector includes a fork-shaped shell with a notch coupleable with said planar support edge with said planar support edge inserted in said notch, and an electrical contact structure on at least one side of said notch configured to provide electrical contact with an electrical contact formation on said edge inserted in said notch.
US09917383B1
Examples herein relate to printed circuit assemblies (PCA's). In one example, a PCA comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) having an elongated cut-out, the cut-out defining a first and a second opposite elongated edges on the PCB, a movable bracket having a standoff established on a surface of the movable bracket, the movable bracket connecting to the first and the second opposite elongated edges and a platform connector established on the PCB.
US09917379B2
The present disclosure relates to a conduit coupler including a hub and a lock nut that thread on the hub. In one example, the lock nut includes a ground connection location including a linear wire retention slot. The ground wire can be retained in the linear wire retention slot by a grounding bracket secured at the ground connection location by a grounding screw. The grounding bracket can be captive relative to the grounding screw. The grounding bracket can include integrated spring washer functionality. The ground connection location can be provided on a tower of the lock nut.
US09917373B1
Antenna structures and methods of operating the same are described. One apparatus includes a metal housing that includes a first slot formed in a first portion of a wall of the metal housing and a second slot formed in a second portion of the wall. The apparatus includes a fin structure disposed within the metal housing. The fin structure includes fins that form a first sectorial cavity behind the first portion of the wall corresponding to the first slot and a second sectorial cavity behind the second portion of the wall corresponding to the second slot. Radio frequency (RF) circuitry is disposed on a circuit board disposed within the metal housing and is operable to radiate electromagnetic energy via the first slot and to radiate electromagnetic energy via the second slot.
US09917372B2
An integrated circuit package comprises a dielectric material, a first stack comprising at least a first electrically isolating layer and a second electrically isolating layer arranged at a first side of the integrated circuit package, an electrically conductive material arranged on a second side opposed to the first side, and an integrated antenna structure for transmitting and/or receiving a radio frequency signal arranged between the first and second electrically isolating layers. The electrically conductive material is separated from the integrated antenna structure by at least the dielectric material and the first electrically isolating layer, arranged to partly overlap the integrated antenna structure and to reflect the radio frequency signal received by the electrically conductive material through at least the first electrically isolating layer and the dielectric material to the first side.
US09917367B2
An antenna device includes a power supply coil including wire patterns provided on or in magnetic layers and antenna coils including wire patterns provided on or in the magnetic layers. The power supply coil and the antenna coils include coil winding axes thereof coinciding with a lamination direction of the magnetic layers and generate magnetic field coupling to each other. The power supply coil is located on an inner side portion relative to the antenna coils when seen in the lamination direction. At least portions of the antenna coils are located on outer side portions relative to the power supply coil in the lamination direction. With this, an antenna device and a communication apparatus capable of communicating with a communication party reliably without forming an unnecessary communication path with a party-side coil are provided.
US09917360B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a remote electrical tilt unit, a base station, and a method for managing a remote electrical tilt antenna. The method includes: receiving, by the remote electrical tilt unit, permission configuration information sent by a first base station through a group of AISG ports of the remote control unit; configuring management permission of the first base station on the remote electrical tilt unit according to the permission configuration information, where the management permission includes at least control permission and query permission, and control permission on the remote electrical tilt unit can be allocated to only one base station. In this way, multiple base stations jointly manage a remote electrical tilt unit in a remote electrical tilt antenna, and a problem that it is difficult to locate and troubleshoot a fault when configuration of the remote electrical tilt unit is incorrect is resolved.
US09917354B2
Exemplary embodiments are disclosed of multiband vehicular antenna assemblies with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) capabilities. In exemplary embodiments, a multiband antenna assembly is operable with more than two satellite navigation system frequencies (e.g., Global Positioning System (GPS), BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), etc.). For example, a multiband antenna assembly may include a first patch antenna operable with at least three different satellite navigation system frequencies, e.g., GPS, BeiDou, and GLONASS, etc. The first patch antenna may be stacked on a second patch antenna. The second patch antenna may be operable with other frequencies, such as Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services (SDARS) signals (e.g., Sirius XM, etc.). The antenna assembly may also include a coupler that couples the signals from the feed ports of the first patch antenna.
US09917347B2
A hinge barrel antenna system includes a first hinge device and a second hinge device that couple a chassis base to a display device. A hinge barrel extends between the first hinge device and the second hinge device. A hinge barrel support member is included in the hinge barrel and defines a first slot that extends through the hinge barrel support member. A feed structure is coupled to the hinge barrel support member adjacent the first slot by a circuit board. The first slot is dimensioned such that the combination of the first slot and the feed structure emit radio waves having a first predetermined frequency when the feed structure is activated.
US09917344B2
A cavity resonator tuning diaphragm comprising a plurality of inner corrugations, the plurality of inner corrugations having a first depth. An outer corrugation located between the plurality of inner corrugations and a perimeter of the diaphragm is also included, the outer corrugation having a second depth greater than the first depth. The addition of the outer deep corrugation provides increased thermal stability and reduced required actuation voltage.
US09917343B2
A coaxial to waveguide transition includes a first rigid portion comprising an inverted hollow cone, a second rigid portion comprising a hollow tube, and a third rigid portion comprising a hollow cone. The first rigid portion has a first end and a second end, and tapers inward at a first angle from its first end towards its second end. The second rigid portion has a first end and a second end, with the first end being partially disposed within the second end of the first rigid portion. The third rigid portion has a first end and a second end, with the first end of the third rigid portion being partially disposed within the second end of the second rigid portion. The third rigid portion tapers outward at a second angle from its first end towards its second end, where the second angle is less than the first angle.
US09917340B2
The disclosed embodiments relate to the design of a portable and cost-effective fuel cell system for a portable computing device. This fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack which converts fuel into electrical power. It also includes a fuel source for the fuel cell stack and a controller which controls operation of the fuel cell system. The fuel system also includes an interface to the portable computing device, wherein the interface comprises a power link that provides power to the portable computing device, and a bidirectional communication link that provides bidirectional communication between the portable computing device and the controller for the fuel cell system.
US09917339B2
A lithium-air electrochemical cell is provided. The battery comprises: an anode compartment; a cathode compartment; and a lithium ion conductive membrane separating the anode compartment from the cathode compartment. The anode compartment comprises an anode having lithium, a lithium alloy or a porous material capable of adsorption and release of lithium and a lithium ion electrolyte, while the cathode compartment comprises an air electrode, an ionic liquid capable of supporting the reduction of oxygen and a dissolved concentration of potassium superoxide. A lithium ion concentration in the cathode compartment is low in comparison to the concentration of potassium ion.
US09917338B2
A battery pack includes a battery module including a plurality of cells, a housing that accommodates the battery module and is thermally coupled to the battery module, and a temperature adjuster that is thermally coupled and attached to the housing. The temperature adjuster changes a temperature of the housing.
US09917337B2
A film covered battery (1) has a flat shape with an outer cover member (5) formed of a laminate film to accommodate therein a battery element (4) together with an electrolytic solution. For reliable inspection of an insulation failure between a metal layer (52) of the laminate film and a negative electrode plate (42) of the battery element (4), an inspection test is performed on the film covered battery by a first inspection device (73) under a condition where pressure is applied to a center region of the outer cover member (5) by a first press bar (72); and an inspection test is performed on the film covered battery by a second inspection device (83) under a condition where pressure is applied to the remaining side regions of the outer cover member (5) by a second press bar (82).
US09917335B2
Methods and systems for detecting and compensating for expansion of rechargeable batteries over time. An expansion detector may be coupled to or positioned proximate a rechargeable battery to monitor for expansion thereof. After expansion exceeding a selected threshold is detected, the expansion detector may report the expansion to an associated processing unit. The processing unit may undertake to arrest further rechargeable battery expansion by modifying or changing one or more characteristics of charging and/or discharging circuitry coupled to the rechargeable battery. For example, the processing unit may charge the rechargeable battery at a lower rate or with reduced voltage after detecting expansion.
US09917326B2
A battery capable of improving ionic conduction is provided. The battery includes a cathode, an anode, and a solid electrolyte layer. One or more of the cathode, the anode, and the solid electrolyte layer includes a solid electrolyte binder.
US09917319B2
A process of generating a gas includes providing an encapsulation of reactive metal particles, releasing the reactive metal particles from the encapsulation, mixing the reactive metal particles in turbulent water, reacting the reactive metal particles in the turbulent water to generate hydrogen, cooling the turbulent water and the hydrogen with water jets, separating solids and liquids from the hydrogen, and providing the hydrogen to an electrochemical cell.
US09917315B2
A state determination device for a fuel cell for generating power upon receiving the supply of anode gas and cathode gas, comprising: an internal impedance measurement unit configured to measure an internal impedance of the fuel cell on the basis of an alternating-current signal of a predetermined frequency output from the fuel cell; and an anode reaction resistance estimation/calculation unit configured to calculate an estimation value of a reaction resistance of an anode electrode of the fuel cell on the basis of a measurement value of the internal impedance, wherein: the predetermined frequency is selected such that a difference between the estimation value of the reaction resistance of the anode electrode during hydrogen starvation and the estimation value of the reaction resistance of the anode electrode during oxygen starvation is not smaller than a predetermined value.
US09917309B2
An energy storage device includes a printed current collector layer, where the printed current collector layer includes nickel flakes and a current collector conductive carbon additive. The energy storage device includes a printed electrode layer printed over the current collector layer, where the printed electrode layer includes an ionic liquid and an electrode conductive carbon additive. The ionic liquid can include 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (C2mimBF4). The current collector conductive carbon can include graphene and the electrode conductive carbon additive can include graphite, graphene, and/or carbon nanotubes.
US09917308B2
The present invention provides a method for producing metal-supported carbon, which includes supporting metal microparticles on the surface of carbon black, by a liquid-phase reduction method, in a thin film fluid formed between processing surfaces arranged to be opposite to each other so as to be able to approach to and separate from each other, at least one of which rotates relative to the other, as well as a method for producing crystals comprising fullerene molecules and fullerene nanowhisker/nanofiber nanotubes, which includes uniformly stirring and mixing a solution containing a first solvent having fullerene dissolved therein, and a second solvent in which fullerene is less soluble than in the first solvent, in a thin film fluid formed between processing surfaces arranged to be opposite to each other so as to be able to approach to and separate from each other, at least one of which rotates relative to the other.
US09917301B2
Described herein are solid solution composites that are used as cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. The solid solution composite of α LiMVO4-βLiNi1-x-yCoxMnyO2, in which LiMVO4 has cubic close-packed structure, LiNi1-x-yCoxMnyO2 has hexagonal layered structure, and both share an oxygen lattice fully or partly. The new solid solution materials have advantage for lithium-ion batteries that the working voltage of the composite is adjustable by controlling the molar ratio of α and β and have higher working voltage than current secondary battery materials.Also described herein are methods of preparing such composite.
US09917296B2
A nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery includes: a positive electrode that includes a positive electrode active material layer; a negative electrode that includes a negative electrode active material layer; and a nonaqueous electrolytic solution. When a void volume of the positive electrode active material layer per battery capacity is represented by α (cm3/Ah), and when a void volume of the negative electrode active material layer per battery capacity is represented by β (cm3/Ah), the following conditions are satisfied: 1.00≦α≦2.20; (1) 2.17≦β≦3.27; and (2) α<α. (3)
US09917295B2
A method for using atomic layer deposition to produce a film configured for use in an anode, cathode, or solid state electrolyte of a lithium-ion battery or a lithium-sulfur battery. The method includes repeating a cycle for a predetermined number of times in an inert atmosphere. The cycle includes exposing a substrate to a first precursor, purging the substrate with inert gas, exposing the substrate to a second precursor, and purging the substrate with inert gas. The film is a metal sulfide.
US09917294B2
Disclosed herein is a battery cell assembly including a battery cell array including two or more battery cells, each of which has an electrode assembly of a cathode/separator/anode structure disposed in a battery case together with an electrolyte in a sealed state, arranged in the lateral direction, and a protection circuit module (PCM) connected to the upper end of the battery cell array to control the operation of the battery pack, wherein the outer sides of the battery cells or the outer side of the battery cell array is coated with a resin by insert injection molding excluding electrode terminals of the battery cells.
US09917293B2
Battery parts having retaining and sealing features and associated assemblies and methods are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a battery part includes a base portion that is configured to be embedded in battery container material of a corresponding battery container. The battery part and base portion include several torque resisting features and gripping features that resist torsional or twist loads that are applied to the battery part after it has been joined to the battery container. For example, the base portion can include several internal and external torque resisting features and gripping features that are configured to resist twisting or loosening of the battery part with reference to the battery container material, as well as prevent or inhibit fluid leakage from the battery container.
US09917291B2
The present disclosure relates to a battery module that includes a stack of battery cells, where each battery cell has a terminal, and the terminal has a first alloy of a metal. The battery module has a bus bar that includes a body having a second alloy of the metal, nickel plating on at least a portion of the body, and an indentation disposed on the body, where a thickness of the nickel plating is between 0.2% and 20% of an overall thickness of the body, and a weld physically and electrically coupling the respective terminal to the bus bar. The indentation has a depth between 10% and 90% of the overall thickness, an area of the indentation is between 5% and 20% of an overall area of the body, and the nickel plating enables the weld to be stronger than a weld between the first and second alloys.
US09917289B2
Provided is a laminate which is capable of ensuring a high level of safety by preventing an internal short circuit due to, for example, breakage of a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery while maintaining various performance capabilities of the non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery. A laminate (10) includes: a porous film containing polyolefin as a main component; and a porous layer containing fine particles; the porous layer being laminated to at least one side of the porous film, in an electrical conduction test by nail penetration in which test a difference between (a) a test force of the laminate (10) which is brought into electrical conduction and (b) a test force of the laminate (10) in which a dielectric breakdown occurs, the difference being obtained by subtracting the test force (b) from the test force (a), is measured by use of a nail (2) of N50 specified in JIS A 5508 and under a condition in which the nail (2) descends at a descending speed of 50 μm/min, the difference being not less than 5 N and not more than 50 N.
US09917287B2
A composition for a porous membrane of a secondary battery including a non-conductive particle and a water-soluble polymer, wherein the water-soluble polymer contains 80% by weight or more of a (meth)acrylamide monomer unit, and the water-soluble polymer has a storage modulus at 150° C. of 2.0×105 Pa or more; and a porous membrane manufactured therefrom and a secondary battery including the same.
US09917286B2
A power storage device includes an outer casing and two battery units housed in the outer casing. Each battery unit includes a battery casing formed with a top casing and a bottom casing. The battery casing houses a battery block group in which battery lines are arranged in parallel in a direction substantially perpendicular to the battery line extending direction, and are arranged like stacked straw bags. The battery casing also houses partition plates that are inserted between adjacent battery lines facing one another, and are secured between the top casing and the bottom casing.
US09917279B2
Disclosed are an organic light emitting diode display and a manufacturing method thereof, and, more particularly, an organic light emitting diode display which includes an encapsulation layer including an inorganic layer containing carbon at a level of about 0.2 wt % to about 6.2 wt % and an organic layer and a manufacturing method thereof.
US09917276B2
A display device includes a driving circuit layer including a thin film transistor, a display layer at the driving circuit layer and overlapping a portion of the driving circuit layer, a window at the display layer, a first adhesive member between the driving circuit layer and the window, and a second adhesive member between the display layer and the window and spaced from the first adhesive member in a plane view.
US09917271B2
A light-emitting device in which different electrodes in a work function are used in a first light-emitting element and a second light-emitting element are provided. A light-emitting device includes a first light-emitting element and a second light-emitting element. The first light-emitting element includes a first electrode, an EL layer, and a second electrode in this order. The second light-emitting element includes a third electrode, the EL layer, and the second electrode in this order. The EL layer includes a first light-emitting layer, a layer, and a second light-emitting layer in this order. The structure of the first light-emitting layer is different from the structure of the second light-emitting layer. The first light-emitting element and the second light-emitting element are different in a carrier-injection property.
US09917267B2
A method for manufacturing a display device is provided. The method includes: forming, between a first substrate and a second substrate, a light-emitting element including an electroluminescence layer and a wiring over which a peeling layer formed by using the material of the electroluminescence layer is provided; and peeling whole of the second substrate from the first substrate so that the peeling layer over the wiring is simultaneously exposed.
US09917266B2
A bendable device is provided. The device comprises: a display stack which comprises a window layer and at least one active layer, and a body which comprises an extendable bending region. The active layers are fixed to the window layer at the bottom side of the window layer. Edges of the window layer extend outwards in relation to the at least one active layer at two or more sides of the display stack, and the window layer is rigidly fixed to the body at the edges which extend outwards at the bottom side of the window layer. A method for assembling a bendable device comprising a display is disclosed.
US09917262B2
An organic light-emitting device including a first electrode; a second electrode; and an organic layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, the organic layer including an emission layer; wherein the emission layer includes a first host represented by the following Formula 1, and a second host represented by the following Formula 2:
US09917258B2
Provided are an organic light emitting device including: a substrate; a first electrode; a second electrode; and an organic layer interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode and including an emission layer, wherein one of the first electrode and the second electrode is a reflective electrode and the other is a semitransparent or transparent electrode, and wherein the organic layer includes a layer having at least one of the compounds having at least one carbazole group, and a flat panel display device including the organic light emitting device. The organic light emitting device has low driving voltage, excellent current density, high brightness, excellent color purity, high efficiency, and long lifetime.
US09917256B2
This invention relates to a compound for an organic electroluminescent device and to an organic electroluminescent device including the same. This compound for an organic electroluminescent device including the same is improved in thermal stability and light emission efficiency. When this compound is used as a hole transport layer material, a triplet energy of a phosphorescent light emitting material is increased, thus improving the efficiency of the organic electroluminescent device.
US09917253B2
Some embodiments include a memory array having a first series of access/sense lines which extend along a first direction, a second series of access/sense lines over the first series of access/sense lines and which extend along a second direction substantially orthogonal to the first direction, and memory cells vertically between the first and second series of access/sense lines. Each memory cell is uniquely addressed by a combination of an access/sense line from the first series and an access/sense line from the second series. The memory cells have programmable material. At least some of the programmable material within each memory cell is a polygonal structure having a sidewall that extends along a third direction which is different from the first and second directions. Some embodiments include methods of forming memory arrays.
US09917250B2
A switching device includes a first electrode and a second electrode that are disposed over a substrate, and an electrolyte layer disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode and including a porous oxide. The switching device performs threshold switching operation on the basis of oxidation-reduction reactions of metal ions that are provided from the first electrode or the second electrode to the electrolyte layer.
US09917249B2
A magnetic junction and method for providing the magnetic junction are described. The magnetic junction resides on a substrate and is usable in a magnetic device. The magnetic junction includes free and pinned layers separated by a nonmagnetic spacer layer. The free layer is switchable between stable magnetic states when a write current is passed through the magnetic junction. The pinned layer has a pinned layer perpendicular magnetic anisotropy energy greater than a pinned layer out-of-plane demagnetization energy. The pinned layer includes a high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) layer including at least one nonmagnetic component, a magnetic layer and a magnetic barrier layer between the high PMA layer and the magnetic layer. The magnetic barrier layer includes Co and at least one of Ta, W and Mo. The magnetic barrier layer is for blocking diffusion of the nonmagnetic component of the high PMA layer.
US09917241B2
A thermoelectric conversion apparatus includes a substrate, and a power generation part formed on the substrate for generating a thermoelectric power. The power generation part includes a magnetic layer with magnetization and an electrode layer including a material exhibiting a spin-orbit interaction and formed on the magnetic layer. The substrate and the power generation part have flexibility, respectively. The thermoelectric conversion apparatus further includes a cover layer having flexibility and formed on the substrate so as to cover at least the power generation part. The magnetic layer includes magnetic layer pieces separated in a layer direction with a gap portion interposed between the magnetic layer pieces.
US09917225B2
A solar antenna array may comprise an emitter that may convert visible light into black body infrared radiation, and an array of antennas that may capture and convert the black body radiation into electrical power. Methods for constructing the solar antenna array may include using thermal insulation, high-gain low-e glass, and gasses with minimal heat transfer. A black body infrared antenna array may augment the electrical power from a visible light antenna array by converting its waste heat into additional electrical power.
US09917218B2
The present invention presents a process for preparing a quantum dot array comprising at least the steps of: (a) providing a crystalline semiconductor substrate surface; (b) depositing quantum dots on the said substrate surface by a process of successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR). The steps can be repeated to build up a quantum dot superlattice structure.
US09917212B1
The present disclosure provides a transistor structure, including a self-aligned source-drain structure surrounded by an insulating structure and a gate of a second conductive type separated from the source and the drain by the insulating structure. The self-aligned source-drain structure includes a source and a drain of a first conductive type, a channel between the source and the drain, and a polysilicon contact over and aligned with the channel. A method for manufacturing the transistor structure is also provided in the present disclosure.
US09917210B1
Embodiments are directed to a method of forming a semiconductor device and resulting structures that reduce shallow trench isolation (STI) undercutting, floating gates, and gate voids without degrading epitaxy quality. The method includes forming a first and second semiconductor fin on a substrate. A buffer layer is formed on a surface of the substrate between the first and second semiconductor fins and a semiconducting layer is formed on the buffer layer. The buffer layer is selectively removed and replaced with a dielectric layer. A first gate is formed over a first channel region of the first semiconductor fin and a second gate is formed over a second channel region of the first semiconductor fin. Source and drain epitaxy regions are selectively formed on surfaces of the first gate.
US09917198B2
The present disclosure provides an array substrate, a manufacturing method thereof and a display device. The array substrate includes an active layer, a gate insulating layer and a gate electrode layer formed sequentially on a base substrate. The active layer includes a first heavily-doped region, a first lightly-doped region, a first non-doped region, a second lightly-doped region, a second non-doped region, a third lightly-doped region and a second heavily-doped region which are sequentially arranged in a horizontal direction.
US09917196B1
A semiconductor device includes a fin structure comprising a cylindrical shape and including a recess formed in an upper surface of the fin structure, an inner gate formed inside the fin structure, an outer gate formed outside the fin structure, and a conductor formed in the recess and connecting the inner and outer gates.
US09917192B2
A method includes forming an isolation feature in a semiconductor substrate; forming a first fin-like active region and a second fin-like active region in the semiconductor substrate and interposed by the isolation feature; forming a dummy gate stack on the isolation feature, wherein the dummy gate extends to the first fin-like active region from one side and to the second fin-like active region from another side.
US09917186B2
A semiconductor device includes transistor cells and control structures. The transistor cells include source zones of a first conductivity type and body zones of a second conductivity type. The source and body zones are formed in a semiconductor mesa formed from a portion of a semiconductor body. The control structures include first portions extending from a first surface into the semiconductor body on at least two opposing sides of the semiconductor mesa, second portions between the first portions and separated from the first surface by portions of the semiconductor mesa, and third portions connecting the first and the second portions and separated from the first surface by portions of the semiconductor mesa. Constricted sections of the semiconductor mesa separate third portions neighboring each other along a horizontal longitudinal extension of the semiconductor mesa.
US09917184B2
Embodiments include a method and structure to that provide a clamping structure in an integrated semiconductor device. In accordance with an embodiment, the method includes forming trenches in a semiconductor material and forming a shield electrode in a portion of at least one of the trenches. A clamping structure is formed adjacent to a trench. The clamping structure has an electrode that may be electrically connected to a source region of the integrated semiconductor device. In accordance with another embodiment, an impedance element is formed in a trench.
US09917178B2
Devices and structures that include a gate spacer having a gap or void are described along with methods of forming such devices and structures. In accordance with some embodiments, a structure includes a substrate, a gate stack over the substrate, a contact over the substrate, and a spacer disposed laterally between the gate stack and the contact. The spacer includes a first dielectric sidewall portion and a second dielectric sidewall portion. A void is disposed between the first dielectric sidewall portion and the second dielectric sidewall portion.
US09917174B2
In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, an isolation pattern may be formed on a substrate to define a plurality of active patterns. The active patterns may protrude from the isolation pattern. A preliminary polysilicon layer may be formed on the active patterns to fill a gap between adjacent ones of the active patterns. Ions having no conductivity may be implanted into the preliminary polysilicon layer to form a polysilicon layer having no void. The active patterns maintain their crystalline state during the implanting of the ions. The polysilicon layer may be patterned to form a dummy gate structure on the active pattern. A source/drain region may be formed at an upper portion of the active patterns adjacent to sides of the dummy gate structure.
US09917165B2
A split-gate flash memory cell for improved erase speed is provided. An erase gate and a floating gate are laterally spaced over a semiconductor substrate. The floating gate has a height increasing towards the erase gate, a concave sidewall surface neighboring the erase gate, and a tip defined an interface of the concave sidewall surface and an upper surface of the floating gate. A control gate and a sidewall spacer are arranged over the upper surface of the floating gate. The control gate is laterally offset from the tip of the floating gate, and the sidewall spacer is laterally arranged between the control gate and the tip. A method for manufacturing the split-gate flash memory cell is also provided.
US09917158B2
A semiconductor device can include a channel region with a first semiconductor material for a majority carrier in the channel region during operation (on state) of the device and a metal contact. A source/drain region can include a semiconductor material alloy including a second semiconductor material and at least one heterojunction located between the metal contact and the channel region, wherein the heterojunction forms a band-edge offset for the majority carrier that is less than or equal to about 0.2 eV.
US09917155B2
A superlattice cell that includes Group IV elements is repeated multiple times so as to form the superlattice. Each superlattice cell has multiple ordered atomic planes that are parallel to one another. At least two of the atomic planes in the superlattice cell have different chemical compositions. One or more of the atomic planes in the superlattice cell one or more components selected from the group consisting of carbon, tin, and lead. These superlattices make a variety of applications including, but not limited to, transistors, light sensors, and light sources.
US09917145B2
A light-emitting device includes a drive transistor for controlling the quantity of current supplied to a light-emitting element, a capacitor element electrically connected to a gate electrode of the drive transistor, and an electrical continuity portion for electrically connecting the drive transistor and the light-emitting element, these elements being disposed on a substrate. The electrical continuity portion is disposed on the side opposite to the capacitor element with the drive transistor disposed therebetween.
US09917144B2
A display panel includes an EL panel section, a CF panel section, and a sealing resin layer. In the EL panel section, the surface of a sealing layer has a projected and recessed shape in a Z-axis direction as a whole, wherein a light-emitting region corresponding to a region between banks is a recessed section, and a non-light-emitting region corresponding to a top portion of the bank is a projected section. The sealing resin layer includes a first sealing resin layer and a second sealing resin layer. Prior to performing heating or light irradiation in a step of forming the first and second sealing resin layers, the viscosity of a second non-fluid resin constituting the second sealing resin layer is lower than the viscosity of a first non-fluid resin constituting the first sealing resin layer.
US09917133B2
An optoelectronic device is disclosed. The optoelectronic device includes a flexible substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) array disposed on a first surface of the flexible substrate, a photodiode layer disposed on the TFT array, and a plurality of data lines and scan lines connected to the TFT array and disposed on the first surface of the flexible substrate. The device further includes a electronics signal module assembly disposed on a second surface of the flexible substrate opposite the TFT array, and an interconnect disposed through the flexible substrate, connecting the data lines and scan lines to the electronics signal module assembly.
US09917124B2
An image sensor arranged inside and on top of a semi-conductor substrate having a front surface and a rear surface, the sensor including a plurality of pixels, each including: a photosensitive area, a reading area, and a storage area extending between the photosensitive area and the reading area; a vertical insulated electrode including an opening of transfer between the photosensitive area and the storage area; and at least one insulation element among the following: a) a layer of an insulating material extending under the surface of the photosensitive area and of the storage area and having its front surface in contact with the rear surface of the electrode; and b) an insulating wall extending vertically in the opening, or under the opening.
US09917123B2
Methods and apparatus for packaging a backside illuminated (BSI) image sensor or a BSI sensor device with an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) are disclosed. A bond pad array may be formed in a bond pad area of a BSI sensor where the bond pad array comprises a plurality of bond pads electrically interconnected, wherein each bond pad of the bond pad array is of a small size which can reduce the dishing effect of a big bond pad. The plurality of bond pads of a bond pad array may be interconnected at the same layer of the pad or at a different metal layer. The BSI sensor may be bonded to an ASIC in a face-to-face fashion where the bond pad arrays are aligned and bonded together.
US09917116B2
A semiconductor device having a high aperture ratio and including a capacitor capable of increasing the charge capacity is provided. A semiconductor device includes a transistor over a substrate, a first light-transmitting conductive film over the substrate, an oxide insulating film covering the transistor and having an opening over the first light-transmitting conductive film, a nitride insulating film over the oxide insulating film and in contact with the first light-transmitting conductive film in the opening, a second light-transmitting conductive film connected to the transistor and having a depressed portion in the opening, and an organic resin film with which the depressed portion of the second light-transmitting conductive film is filled.
US09917110B2
A semiconductor device that is suitable for miniaturization is provided. The semiconductor device has a plurality of different transistors, active layers of the plurality of transistors are each an oxide semiconductor, and in the plurality of transistors, field-effect mobility of a transistor whose channel length is maximum and field-effect mobility of a transistor whose channel length is minimum are substantially constant. Alternatively, when channel lengths ranges from 0.01 μm to 100 μm, a reduction in field-effect mobility of a transistor whose channel length is minimum with respect to field-effect mobility of a transistor whose channel length is maximum is less than or equal to 70%.
US09917105B2
A method of forming replacement fins in a complimentary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) device that includes a p-type field effect transistor device (pFET) and an n-type field effect transistor device (nFET) and a CMOS device are described. The method includes forming strained silicon (Si) fins from a strained silicon-on-insulator (SSOI) layer in both an nFET region and a pFET region, forming insulating layers over the strained Si fins, and forming trenches within the insulating layers to expose the strained Si fins in the pFET region only. The method also includes etching the strained Si fins in the pFET region to expose a buried oxide (BOX) layer of the SSOI layer, etching the exposed portions of the BOX layer to expose a bulk substrate, epitaxially growing a Si portion of pFET replacement fins from the bulk substrate, and epitaxially growing silicon germanium (SiGe) portions of the pFET replacement fins on the Si portion of the pFET replacement fins.
US09917098B2
One embodiment includes a plurality of memory cells and a plurality of conducting layers. The memory cells are three-dimensionally disposed on a semiconductor substrate. The conducting layers are disposed in a laminating direction. Each of the plurality of the conducting layers is connected to each of the plurality of the memory cells. Each conducting layer has a structure where a first conductive film and a second conductive film are laminated in the laminating direction. The conducting layers adjacent to one another in the laminating direction have a laminating order of the first conductive film and the second conductive film different from one another.
US09917085B2
A device includes a gate isolation plug, which further includes a U-shaped layer having a bottom portion and two sidewall portions, and an inner region overlapping the bottom portion. The inner region contacts the two sidewall portions. A first transistor has a first gate stack, and a first end of the first gate stack is in contact with both the inner region and the U-shaped layer of the gate isolation plug. A second transistor has a second gate stack, and a second end of the second gate stack is in contact with both the inner region and the U-shaped layer of the gate isolation plug. The first gate stack and the second gate stack are on opposite sides of the gate isolation plug.
US09917081B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a fin-type field effect transistor (finFET) on a first region and a fin varactor on a second region. The finFET includes a first semiconductor fin that extends from an upper finFET surface thereof to the upper surface of the first region to define a first total fin height. The fin varactor includes a second semiconductor fin that extends from an upper varactor surface thereof to the upper surface of the second region to define a second total fin height that is different from the first total fin height of the finFET.
US09917078B2
The manufacturing yield of a semiconductor device is improved. There is provided a semiconductor device of a cascode coupling system, which is equipped with a plurality of normally-on junction FETs using as a material, a substance larger in bandgap than silicon, and a normally-off MOSFET using silicon as a material. At this time, the semiconductor chip has a plurality of junction FET semiconductor chips (semiconductor chip CHP0 and semiconductor chip CHP1) formed with the junction FETs in a divided fashion, and a MOSFET semiconductor chip (semiconductor chip CHP2) formed with the MOSFET.
US09917077B2
A display device includes at least one semiconductor body, which has a semiconductor layer sequence, which has an active region provided for producing radiation and forms a plurality of pixels. The device also includes a driver circuit that has a plurality of switches, which are each provided for controlling at least one pixel. A first metallization layer and/or the second metallization layer are electroconductively connected to at least one of the pixels. The first metallization layer and the second metallization layer are arranged overlapping one another in such a manner that, in a plan view onto the display device, the driver circuit is covered with at least one of the metallization layers at every point which overlaps with one of the pixels or is arranged between two adjacent pixels.
US09917075B2
The present application discloses a light-emitting device including a first support structure having a first surface, a plurality of light-emitting elements arranged on the first surface, and a first adhesive layer arranged on the first support structure. Each light-emitting element has a side wall, a bottom surface, a first electrode pad, and a second electrode pad arranged on the bottom surface. The first adhesive layer surrounds the side wall and does not directly contact the bottom surface. The first support structure includes a plurality of through holes located on positions corresponding to the first electrode pad and the second electrode pad.
US09917074B2
A semiconductor device includes a MOSFET including a PN junction diode. A unipolar device is connected in parallel to the MOSFET and has two terminals. A first wire connects the PN junction diode to one of the two terminals of the unipolar device. A second wire connects the one of the two terminals of the unipolar device to an output line, so that the output line is connected to the MOSFET and the unipolar device via the first wire and the second wire. In one embodiment the connection of the first wire to the diode is with its anode, and in another the connection is with the cathode.
US09917072B2
A method includes forming a first through-via from a first conductive pad of a first device die, and forming a second through-via from a second conductive pad of a second device die. The first and second conductive pads are at top surfaces of the first and the second device dies, respectively. The first and the second conductive pads may be used as seed layers. The second device die is adhered to the top surface of the first device die. The method further includes encapsulating the first and the second device dies and the first and the second through-vias in an encapsulating material, with the first and the second device dies and the first and the second through-vias encapsulated in a same encapsulating process. The encapsulating material is planarized to reveal the first and the second through-vias. Redistribution lines are formed to electrically couple to the first and the second through-vias.
US09917060B1
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a gate stack on a semiconductor substrate, forming a source/drain region on an exposed portion of the substrate, and forming a semiconductor material layer on the source/drain region. A first liner layer is deposited on the semiconductor material layer, and a second liner layer is deposited on the first liner layer. A conductive contact material is deposited on the second liner layer.
US09917059B2
A metallization scheme for vertical field effect transistors (FETs) is provided. By forming lower-level local interconnects connecting source regions located at bottom portions of semiconductor fins, and upper-level interconnects connecting adjacent metal gates located along sidewalls of channel regions of the semiconductor fins, electrical connections to the source regions and the metal gates can be provided through the lower-level local interconnects and the upper-level local interconnects, respectively. As a result, gate, source and drain contact structures are formed on the same side of vertical FETs.
US09917056B2
A layer of a mask material is deposited on a substrate. A beam of energy is scanned across the mask material in a rasterized linear pattern and in accordance with a scan pitch that is based on a pitch of conductive structure segments to be formed on the substrate. The beam of energy is defined to transform the mask material upon which the beam of energy is incident into a removable state. During scanning the beam of energy across the mask material, the beam of energy is turned on at locations where a conductive structure is to be formed on the substrate, and the beam of energy is turned off at locations where a conductive structure is not to be formed on the substrate.
US09917054B2
As means for preventing a leakage of a fuse element cut by laser trimming due to a conductive residue or the like, an insulating film which has a high thermal conductivity and a relatively low adhesion is formed between an element isolation region and the fuse element in the case of forming the fuse element on the element isolation region in a groove on a main surface of an epitaxial substrate. When the fuse element is cut by performing the laser trimming, both of a part of the fuse element and the insulating film below the part of the fuse element are removed.
US09917049B2
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes interconnects extending from a element formation area to the drawing area, and connected with semiconductor elements in the element formation area and connected with contacts in the drawing area. The interconnects are formed based on a pattern of a (n+1)th second sidewall film matching a pattern of a nth (where n is an integer of 1 or more) first sidewall film on a lateral surface of a sacrificial layer. A first dimension matching an interconnect width of the interconnects and an interconnects interval in the element formation area is (k1/2n)×(λ/NA) or less when an exposure wavelength of an exposure device is λ, a numerical aperture of a lens of the exposure device is NA and a process parameter is k1. A second dimension matching an interconnect interval in the drawing area is greater than the first dimension.
US09917045B2
Methods and apparatus are provide for an interposer for interconnecting one or more semiconductor chips with an organic substrate in a semiconductor package, the interposer including: a first glass substrate having first and second opposing major surfaces, the first glass substrate having a first coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE1); a second glass substrate having first and second opposing major surfaces, the second glass substrate having a second coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE2); and an interface disposed between the first and second glass substrates and joining the second major surface of the first glass substrate to the first major surface of the second glass substrate, where CTE1 is less than CTE2, the first major surface of the first glass substrate operates to engage the one or more semiconductor chips, and the second major surface of the second glass substrate operates to engage the organic substrate.
US09917044B2
Some embodiments of the present disclosure describe a multi-layer package with a bi-layered dielectric structure and associated techniques and configurations. In one embodiment, an integrated circuit (IC) package assembly includes a dielectric structure coupled with a metal layer, with the dielectric structure including a first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer, wherein the first dielectric layer has a thickness less than a thickness of the second dielectric layer and a dielectric loss tangent greater than a dielectric loss tangent of the second layer. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09917039B2
A method of forming a packaged semiconductor device includes providing a conductive frame structure. The conductive frame structure includes a first frame having leadfingers configured for directly attaching to a semiconductor device, such as an integrated power semiconductor device that includes both power devices and logic type devices. The leadfingers are further configured to provide high current capacity and a high thermal dissipation capacity for the power device portion of the semiconductor device. In one embodiment, the conductive frame structure further includes a second frame joined to the first frame. The second frame includes a plurality of leads configured to electrically connect to low power device portions of the semiconductor device. A package body is formed to encapsulate the semiconductor device and at least portions of the leadfingers and leads.
US09917036B2
Various embodiments provide for a chip package consisting of a layer over a carrier, further carrier material over the layer, wherein one or more portions of the further carrier material is removed, and a chip with one or more contact pads, where the chip is adhered to the carrier via the layer. A wafer level package consisting of a plurality of chips adhered to the carrier via a plurality of portions of the layer released from the further carrier material is also provided for.
US09917022B2
A silicon single crystal wafer is provided. The silicon single crystal wafer includes an IDP which is divided into an NiG region and an NIDP region, wherein the IDP region is a region where a Cu based defect is not detected, the NiG region is a region where an Ni based defect is detected and the NIPD region is a region where an Ni based defect is not detected.
US09917018B2
Methods and apparatuses relate to implanting a surface of a semiconductor substrate with dopants, making undoped semiconductor material directly on the surface implanted with the dopants, and making a transistor with a transistor channel in the undoped semiconductor material, such that the transistor channel of the transistor remains undoped throughout manufacture of the integrated circuit.
US09917015B2
Silicon fins are formed in a bulk silicon substrate and thereafter trench isolation regions are formed between each silicon fin. The silicon fins in nFET and pFET device regions are then recessed. A relaxed silicon germanium alloy fin portion is formed on a topmost surface of each recessed silicon fin portion or on exposed surface of the substrate. A compressively strained silicon germanium alloy fin portion is formed on each relaxed silicon germanium alloy fin portion within the pFET device region, and a strained silicon-containing fin portion is formed on each relaxed silicon germanium alloy fin portion within the nFET device region. Sidewall surfaces of each compressively strained silicon-containing germanium alloy fin portion and each tensile strained silicon-containing fin portion are then exposed. A functional gate structure is provided on the exposed sidewall surfaces of each compressively strained silicon-containing germanium alloy fin portion and each tensile strained silicon-containing fin portion.
US09917006B1
A method includes forming a patterned layer on a substrate having a first region and a second region being adjacent each other. The patterned layer includes first features in the first region. The second region is free of the patterned layer. The method further includes forming a material layer on the patterned layer and the substrate; forming a first guard ring disposed in the second region and surrounding the first features; forming a flowable-material (FM) layer over the material layer; forming a patterned resist layer over the FM layer, wherein the patterned resist layer includes a plurality of openings; and transferring the plurality of openings to the material layer.
US09917000B2
A wafer carrier comprises a first foil, a second foil, and a chamber between the first and the second foil. The first foil has a perforation and is used for carrying the wafer. The first and the second foil are connected to each other so as to form the chamber. The chamber is configured to be evacuated to form a vacuum in the chamber, the vacuum causes an underpressure at the perforation, the underpressure forms a carrying force to the wafer to be carried.
US09916998B2
A substrate support assembly comprises a ceramic body and a thermally conductive base bonded to a lower surface of the ceramic body. The substrate support assembly further comprises a protective layer covering an upper surface of the ceramic body, wherein the protective layer comprises at least one of yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) or a ceramic compound comprising Y4Al2O9 and a solid-solution of Y2O3—ZrO2.
US09916996B2
A vapor phase growth method of growing a film on a substrate by supplying material gases to the substrate while heating the substrate with a heating unit according to an embodiment, the method includes: measuring a temperature of the substrate with a radiation thermometer; executing a temperature feedback control to control an output of the heating unit to cause a measurement value of the radiation thermometer to have a set value when a film is not grown on the substrate; and executing a constant output control to maintain an output of the heating unit constant when a film causing thin-film interference in a wavelength measured by the radiation thermometer is grown on the substrate.
US09916993B2
The embodiments herein relate to methods and apparatus for performing ion etching on a semiconductor substrate, as well as methods for forming such apparatus. In some embodiments, an electrode assembly may be fabricated, the electrode assembly including a plurality of electrodes having different purposes, with each electrode secured to the next in a mechanically stable manner. Apertures may be formed in each electrode after the electrodes are secured together, thereby ensuring that the apertures are well-aligned between neighboring electrodes. In some cases, the electrodes are made from degeneratively doped silicon, and the electrode assembly is secured together through electrostatic bonding. Other electrode materials and methods of securing may also be used. The electrode assembly may include a hollow cathode emitter electrode in some cases, which may have a frustoconical or other non-cylindrical aperture shape. A chamber liner and/or reflector may also be present in some cases.
US09916992B2
Die may be thinned using a thinning and/or a polishing process. Such thinned die may be flexible and may change operational characteristics when flexed. The flexible die may be applied to a mechanical carrier (e.g., a PCB) of a card or device. Detection circuitry may also be provided on the PCB and may be used to detect changed operational characteristics. Such detection circuitry may cause a reaction to the changed characteristics by controlling other components on the card or device based upon the flex-induced changed characteristics. The thinned die may be stacked, interconnected, and encapsulated between sheets of laminate material to form a flexible card or device.
US09916988B2
Techniques and structures for protecting etched features during etch mask removal. In embodiments, a mask is patterned and a substrate layer etched to transfer the pattern. Subsequent to etching the substrate layer, features patterned into the substrate are covered with a sacrificial material backfilling the etch mask. At least a top portion of the mask is removed with the substrate features protected by the sacrificial material. The sacrificial material and any remaining portion of the mask are then removed. In further embodiments, a gate contact opening etched into a substrate layer is protected with a sacrificial material having the same composition as a first material layer of a multi-layered etch mask. A second material layer of the etch mask having a similar composition as the substrate layer is removed before subsequently removing the sacrificial material concurrently with the first mask material layer.
US09916986B2
Aspects of the disclosure include method of making semiconductor structures. Aspects include providing a semiconductor structure including a plurality of spacer, an organic planarization layer, and a SiARC layer. Aspects also include forming an inverted mask on the semiconductor structure, the inverted mask including an inverted mask opening above a portion of the plurality of spacers and a portion of the TiN layer. Aspects also include eroding the portion of the plurality of spacers below the inverted mask opening. Aspects also include depositing a fill material masking the portion of the plurality of spacers below the inverted mask opening and the portion of the TiN layer below the inverted mask opening to generate a masked TiN layer segment and an unmasked TiN layer segment and removing a portion of the unmasked TiN layer segment.
US09916980B1
A method of forming a layer on a substrate is provided by providing the substrate with a hardmask material. The hardmask material is infiltrated with infiltration material during N infiltration cycles by: a) providing a first precursor to the hardmask material on the substrate in the reaction chamber for a first period T1; b) removing a portion of the first precursor for a second period T2; and, c) providing a second precursor to the hardmask material on the substrate for a third period T3, allowing the first and second precursor to react with each other forming the infiltration material.
US09916968B1
An electrode assembly is provided in a high sub-atmospheric pressure region of an ion source, between an ionization chamber and a vacuum region of a spectrometer, such as a mass spectrometer, an ion mobility spectrometer, or an ion mobility-mass spectrometer. The electrode assembly is spaced at a distance from an outlet of an ion transfer device. A voltage source imparts a potential difference between the ion transfer device and the electrode assembly to accelerate ions emitted from the outlet to a collision energy. The collision energy is effective to cause collisional heating of ions in the high sub-atmospheric pressure region without voltage breakdown. The collision energy may be set to cause unfolding of folded biomolecular ions and/or dissociation of ions.
US09916967B2
A plasma processing apparatus and method to control a temperature of a chamber component therein are described. A process chamber may include a temperature controlled chamber component and at least one remote heat transfer fluid loop comprising a first heat exchanger having a primary side in fluid communication with a heat sink or heat source, and a local heat transfer fluid loop placing the chamber component in fluid communication with a secondary side of the first heat exchanger. The local loop may be of significantly smaller fluid volume than the remote loop(s) and circulated to provide thermal load of uniform temperature. Temperature control of heat transfer fluid in the local loop and temperature control of the chamber component may be implemented with a cascaded control algorithm. The plasma processing apparatus further includes an AC heated electrostatic chuck (ESC) assembly.
US09916966B1
An apparatus for improving the uniformity of an ion beam is disclosed. The apparatus includes a heating element to heat an edge of the suppression electrode that is located furthest from the suppression aperture. In operation, the edge of the suppression electrode nearest to the suppression electrode may be heated by the ion beam. This heat may cause the suppression electrode to distort, affecting the uniformity of the ion beam. By heating the distal edge of the suppression electrode, the thermal distortion of the suppression electrode can be controlled. In other embodiments, the distal edge of the suppression electrode is heated to create a more uniform ion beam. By monitoring the uniformity of the ion beam downstream from the suppression electrode, such as by use of a beam uniformity profiler, a controller can adjust the heat applied to the distal edge to achieve the desired ion beam uniformity.
US09916961B2
An X-ray tube comprising: a cathode including an emitter; an anode; a first magnetic quadrupole formed on a first yoke and having a magnetic quadrupole gradient for focusing an electron beam in a first direction and defocusing the beam in a second direction; a second magnetic quadrupole formed on a second yoke and having a magnetic quadrupole gradient for focusing the electron beam in the second direction and defocusing the electron beam in the first direction; wherein a combination of the first and second magnetic quadrupoles provides a net focusing effect in both first and second directions of a focal spot of the electron beam; and a pair of opposing quadrupole electromagnetic coils having alternating current offset being configured to deflect the electron beam in order to shift the focal spot of the electron beam on a target.
US09916960B2
A device for the production of an electron beam with high surface strengths. The device has a cathode component with a convex cathode face with a predetermined radius for extracting the electron beam in such an alignment that a magnetic field or the magnetic field lines thereof, for causing the extraction of the electron beam, is almost collinearly to the convex cathode face.
US09916948B2
A button assembly configured to be illuminated is provided. The button assembly includes a movable button having a viewing surface and a back side. The button has portions defining a window in the viewing surface. A flexible light conductor is disposed on the back side of the button. The flexible light conductor has an inlet end configured to receive light, and the flexible light conductor has a light-emitting portion disposed adjacent to the window. The flexible light conductor is configured to conduct light from the inlet end to the light-emitting portion. The light-emitting portion is configured to emit light so that the light is visible through the window.
US09916945B2
A key mechanism including one or more butterfly hinges. Each butterfly hinge may include a double wing design operative to move between a depressed position and non-depressed position. Hinged coupling mechanisms couple respective arms of the wings together. Additionally or alternatively, a key mechanism can include one or more half-butterfly hinges. Each half-butterfly hinge includes a double wing design operative to move between a depressed position and non-depressed position. A hinged coupling mechanism couples one set of corresponding arms of the wings together, while the other set of corresponding arms are not coupled together.
US09916936B2
A method for forming conductive electrode patterns of a solar cell is provided. The method includes preparing a glass substrate and forming a transparent conductive oxide film (TCO) on the glass substrate. Then, a titanium oxide (TiO2) layer and a silver (Ag) electrode are formed on the glass substrate. A nickel (Ni) layer is formed on the Ag electrode and a copper (Cu) layer is formed on the Ni layer. In addition, a tin (Sn) layer is formed on the Cu layer.
US09916934B1
A capacitor assembly is provided having a case containing an upper capacitor and a lower capacitor in vertical alignment, each of the capacitor elements are separately sealed and provided with a pressure interrupter. A terminal board overlays the cover of the upper capacitor and is affixed to the top of the case. The terminals associated with the upper capacitor are mounted on the cover and extend through openings in the terminal board. The terminals associated with the lower capacitor are mounted on the terminal board and connected to contacts on the cover of the lower capacitor. The common leads of all of the capacitor elements are connected, thereby allowing any or all of the capacitor elements to be connected in parallel by accessing the terminals from the terminal board.
US09916924B2
A center-tapped transformer comprises a magnetic core, and windings including a primary winding and a secondary windings. The primary winding comprises at least one layer of a primary effective conductor, and the secondary winding comprises at least one layer of a first secondary effective conductor and at least one layer of a second secondary effective conductor. The total thickness hp of the primary effective conductor and the total thickness hs of the secondary effective conductor satisfy: 0.65
US09916922B2
There is provided an iron oxide magnetic nanoparticle powder having a ferromagnetic property even if the particles have an average particle size of 15 nm or less, preferably 10 nm or less, and a method of producing the same, an iron oxide magnetic nanoparticle thin film containing the iron oxide magnetic nanoparticle powder and a method of producing the same, wherein the iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles having an ε-Fe2O3 single phase, having the average particle size of 15 nm or less, and further 10 nm or less, are generated by using β-FeO(OH) (iron oxide hydroxide) nanoparticles as a starting material, and coating the (iron oxide hydroxide) nanoparticles with silicon oxide, and applying heat treatment thereto under an atmospheric air, and further the iron oxide magnetic nanoparticle thin film is obtained by using the iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles.
US09916920B2
A rotary variable resistor includes an insulating substrate, a resistor pattern and a current collector pattern that are provided on the insulating substrate, a rotor that is mounted on the insulating substrate in a rotatable manner, and a slider that is mounted on the rotor and makes sliding contact with the resistor pattern and the current collector pattern to cause the resistor pattern and the current collector pattern to be conducted to each other. When a maximum dimension of the resistor pattern, which defines a variable resistor, is Z [mm] and electric linearity is L [%], Z≦4.0 and Z×L<10 are satisfied.
US09916912B2
A method for encapsulating a fuel rod or a fuel rod section in a container includes inserting the fuel rod or fuel rod section into the container. One of the ends of the container is connected to a purging-gas line. The container is dehydrated and purged by use of a purging gas. The ends of the container are connected to a bypass line in such a way that a closed gas circuit is produced and a hot gas is circulated in the gas circuit until the absolute moisture content reaches an end value at which the absolute moisture content no longer rises. The container is disconnected from the gas circuit and subsequently the container is closed in a fluid-tight manner at both ends.
US09916904B2
Memory devices and methods of reducing leakage current therein are disclosed. The memory device includes a memory core array including a plurality of bitlines, and peripheral logic configured to interface with the memory core array. The memory device further includes a footswitch configured to isolate the peripheral logic from a ground voltage, and a headswitch configured to isolate a precharge current path from the plurality of bit lines of the memory core array. Leakage current within the memory device may be reduced via the isolation provided by the footswitch and the headswitch.
US09916902B2
The thinning of a semiconductor substrate of an integrated circuit from a back face is detected using the measurement of a physical quantity representative of the resistance between the ends of two electrically-conducting contacts situated at an interface between an insulating region and an underlying substrate region. The two electrically-conducting contacts extend through the insulating region to reach the underlying substrate region.
US09916893B2
The present disclosure provides a static random access memory (SRAM) cell. The SRAM cell includes first and second inverters cross-coupled for data storage, each inverter including at least one pull-up device and at least two pull-down devices; at least four pass gate devices configured with the two cross-coupled inverters; at least two ports coupled with the at least four pass-gate devices for reading and writing; a first contact feature contacting first two pull-down devices (PD-11 and PD-12) of the first inverter; and a second contact feature contacting second two pull-down devices (PD-21 and PD-22) of the second inerter.
US09916888B1
A system for measuring an access time of a memory includes a first delay unit configured to delay a clock signal by a first delay time and to output a first delayed clock signal, a second delay unit configured to delay the clock signal by a second delay time greater than the first delay time and to output a second delayed clock signal, a memory configured to store data, the data being read from the memory in response to the first delayed clock signal, a detection data storage configured to store the data read from the memory in response to the second delayed clock signal, and a controller configured to measure an access time of the memory based on a comparison of the data in the detection data storage and the data in the memory, the first delayed clock signal and the second delayed clock signal.
US09916884B2
Described is a physically unclonable functional circuit comprising: a resistive memory device (e.g., an MTJ device) having at least two terminals; a transistor coupled to one of the at least two terminals of the resistive memory device; and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) having an input coupled to the one of the at least two terminals of the resistive memory device.
US09916880B2
Apparatuses, circuits, and methods are disclosed for biasing signal lines in a memory array. In one such example the memory array includes a signal line coupled to a plurality of memory cells and is configured to provide access to the plurality of memory cells responsive to a biasing condition of the signal line. The memory array also includes a signal line driver coupled to the signal line, the signal line driver configured to provide a biasing signal to the signal line and to provide a preemphasis in the biasing signal responsive to a control signal. The control signal is responsive to an operating condition.
US09916879B2
An I/O control circuit, includes a mode setting unit configured to generate a first mode signal, a second mode signal, a third mode signal, and a fourth mode signal in accordance with one of a plurality of I/O option modes, a first control signal generation unit configured to generate a first mode determination signal and a first control signal enable signal in response to the first I/O option signal and the first mode signal, and a second control signal generation unit configured to generate a second control signal enable signal, a third control signal enable signal, and a fourth control signal enable signal in response to a second I/O option signal, the first mode determination signal, the second mode signal, the third mode signal, and the fourth mode signal.
US09916862B2
A computer implemented method and apparatus for editing video scenes based on learned user preferences. The method comprises identifying a plurality of scenes in a video; for each scene of the plurality of scenes: applying an effect to a representative frame of a scene, wherein the effect is based on learned user preferences; receiving an input that adjusts at least one effect on the representative frame; updating user preferences based on received input; and applying the at least one effect to all frames of the scene; interpolating the adjusted at least one effect at a boundary of two consecutive scenes; and applying the interpolated at least one effect to transitional frames between the two consecutive scenes.
US09916861B2
According to one exemplary embodiment, a method for editing at least one media file on a device is provided. The method may include receiving the at least one media file. The method may also include determining a content of interest region within the at least one media file. The method may then include generating an at least one edited media file based on the content of interest region and the at least one media file. The method may further include transmitting the at least one edited media file to a target destination.
US09916858B1
Systems and methods for determining an occurrence of non-operation shock (NOS) in a disc drive are described. Such determining may be used to determine whether or not the disc drive should be recalibrated or compensated to account for changes induced by NOS. Determining NOS may be based at least in part on a harmonic of the spindle of the disc drive other than the first harmonic, such as a third harmonic of the spindle. In some embodiments, determining NOS may be based on the first harmonic of the spindle and at least one other harmonic of the spindle.
US09916851B1
Embodiments described herein involve a method comprising generating a seek command in a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) device. A first current is supplied to a laser diode of the HAMR device in response to the seek command to preheat the laser diode. The first current is insufficient to cause erasure of data on media of the HAMR device. A second current that is greater than the first current is supplied to the laser diode for writing to a magnetic recording medium of the HAMR device after executing the seek command. Preheating the laser diode reduces a likelihood of a laser mode hop occurring while writing to the medium.
US09916844B2
Disclosed are a method for determining whether a person is drunk after consuming alcohol on the basis of a difference among a plurality of formant energy energies, which are generated by applying linear predictive coding according to a plurality of linear prediction orders, and a recording medium and a terminal for carrying out the method. The alcohol consumption determining terminal comprises: a voice input unit for receiving voice signals and converting same into voice frames and outputting the voice frames; a voiced/unvoiced sound analysis unit for extracting voice frames corresponding to a voiced sound from among the voice frames; an LPC processing unit for calculating a plurality of formant energy energies by applying linear predictive cording according to the plurality of linear prediction orders to the voice frames corresponding to the voiced sound; and an alcohol consumption determining unit for determining whether a person is drunk after consuming alcohol on the basis of a difference among the plurality of formant energy energies which have been calculated by the LPC processing unit, thereby determining whether a person is drunk after consuming alcohol depending on a change in the formant energy energies generated by applying linear predictive coding according to the plurality of linear prediction orders to voice signals.
US09916837B2
Methods and corresponding apparatuses for transmitting and receiving audio signals are described. A transformation is performed on the audio signals in units of frame in order to obtain transformed audio data of each frame, said transformed audio data consisting of multiple signal components in the frequency domain. These signal components of each frame are distributed into multiple adjacent packets in order to generate packets in which signal components distributed from multiple frames are interleaved. Subsequently, the generated packets are transmitted. Accordingly, in case that packet loss occurs during transmission, the audio signals can be recovered based on the received signal components without consuming additional bandwidth. Therefore, robustness against packet loss can be achieved with little overhead.
US09916834B2
An approach is described that obtains spectrum coefficients for a replacement frame of an audio signal. A tonal component of a spectrum of an audio signal is detected based on a peak that exists in the spectra of frames preceding a replacement frame. For the tonal component of the spectrum a spectrum coefficients for the peak and its surrounding in the spectrum of the replacement frame is predicted, and for the non-tonal component of the spectrum a non-predicted spectrum coefficient for the replacement frame or a corresponding spectrum coefficient of a frame preceding the replacement frame is used.
US09916831B2
A method and an electronic device for handling a spoken user request of a user, executable by each one of at least two applications installed on the electronic device, comprising determining that the spoken user request corresponds to an action executable by an other one of the at least two of the applications; and causing execution of the action by the other one of the at least two of the applications. A method and an electronic device for handling a spoken user request received from a user of the electronic device, comprising detecting reception of a spoken user request by a first application; transferring the spoken user request to the second application by the first application; determining, by the second application, that the spoken user request corresponds to an action executable by a third application; and causing, by the second application, execution of the action by the third application.
US09916829B2
A user seeking information relevant to the purchase of a home improvement product or other product submits a query to an automated system. The system transforms the user's voice query into a text statement and searches a knowledge base for candidate responses. Quality scores for the candidate responses are determined. If no candidate response having at least a minimum quality score is identified, the query is sent to a second device associated with an agent. The agent response is provided to the user and stored in the knowledge base for future use.
US09916828B2
Voice command recognition with dialect translation is disclosed. User voice input can be translated to a standard voice pattern using a dialect translation unit. A control command can then be generated based on the translated user voice input. In certain embodiments, the voice command recognition system with dialect translation can be implemented in a driving apparatus. In those embodiments, various control commands to control the driving apparatus can be generated by a user with a dialect input. The generated voice control commands for the driving apparatus can include starting the driving apparatus, turning on/off A/C unit, controlling the A/C unit, turning on/off entertainment system, controlling the entertainment system, turning on/off certain safety features, turning on/off certain driving features, adjusting seat, adjusting steering wheel, taking a picture of surroundings and/or any other control commands that can control various functions of the driving apparatus.
US09916823B2
Apparatus, methods, and other embodiments associated with producing gradient waveforms derived from music are provided. A piece of encoded music (e.g., MP3 file) is converted to an encoding gradient associated with a magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) pulse sequence. The encoding gradient may be optimized with respect to maximum gradient amplitude, gradient slew rate, and other properties of a magnetic resonance (MR) apparatus that will perform the MRF pulse sequence. The MR apparatus may then be controlled to perform an MRF procedure using the encoding gradient. Performing the MRF procedure using the encoding gradient may cause the MR apparatus to reproduce the piece of encoded music. The encoding gradient may be manipulated (e.g., rotated) to encode additional lines in k-space.
US09916810B2
In a method of driving a display apparatus, an outside illuminance is sensed by an illuminance sensor. At least one first color subpixel of a plurality of first color subpixels is disabled. Remaining first color subpixels are enabled based on the sensed outside illuminance. The first color subpixels corresponding to a first color are arranged along a first direction and a second direction crossing the first direction. An image is displayed on the remaining enabled first color subpixels.
US09916795B2
A display having a spatial light modulator for dynamically controlling a luminance of each pixel according to an input signal, the spatial light modulator having a non uniform spatial characteristic, the display also having an optical filter having a spatial pattern to alter the luminance to compensate at least partially for the non uniform spatial characteristic. An electronic signal processing element applies some pre compensation predominantly of higher spatial frequencies for the non uniform spatial characteristic. Such dynamic and optical compensation can enable tuning for different optimizations or for compensating for variations over time. A backlight has an optical source and an optical filter, the source having a color output which has a non uniform spatial characteristic, and the optical filter having a spatial pattern to alter the color to compensate in part at least for the non uniform spatial characteristic.
US09916787B2
This application sets forth systems, methods, and apparatus for improving charge settling times for lines and pixels of a display panel. The charge settling times are improved by providing an over drive signal and a bias current to a line and/or pixel of the display panel based a comparison of content data to be output by the display panel. In this way, by initially charging the line and/or pixel with the over drive signal, the line and/or pixel can be fully charged more quickly in display panels that operate at higher refresh rates.
US09916782B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to integrated modular display panels. In one embodiment, modular display panel includes a shell with a first thermally conductive material, a printed circuit board disposed in the shell, and a plurality of LEDs attached to a first side of the printed circuit board. A driver circuit is disposed in the shell and coupled to the plurality of LEDs from a second side of the printed circuit board. The panel further includes a power supply unit for powering the LEDs. The printed circuit board are disposed between the power supply unit and the plurality of LEDs. A second thermally conductive material is disposed between the power supply unit and an outer back side of the panel. A protective structure is disposed over the first side of the printed circuit board, where a display side of the panel, opposite the outer back side, is waterproof.
US09916779B1
A multi-position illuminated signage panel comprising a mounting assembly anchored to a vehicle, a display assembly, and an intermediate assembly. The display assembly comprises an illumination panel and a sign insert for displaying a visual element. The intermediate assembly comprises a control unit for controlling the operation of the illumination panel, the control unit having a solar panel, rechargeable battery, motion sensor, light sensor, and control module. The illumination panel is positioned behind the sign insert and produces a back-light effect by emitting light which passes through the sign insert. The illumination panel can be activated when the motion sensor detects the vehicle's motion, and deactivated when the photosensor is exposed to light. The display assembly is hingedly connected to the intermediate assembly, which is in turn hingedly connected to the mounting assembly, allowing the multi-position signage panel to be configured in multiple display positions.
US09916777B2
The present invention relates to labels and labelstock materials, and to substances used therein, and components thereof. The present invention further relates to a method of manufacturing the labelstock and labels, uses thereof and products comprising them.
US09916775B2
A joint assembly for a crash test dummy includes a first joint member for connection to a first member of the crash test dummy. The joint assembly also includes a first ball member received by the first joint member. The joint assembly includes a second ball member spaced from the first ball member. The joint assembly also includes a second joint member for connection to a second member of the crash test dummy. The second joint member receives the second ball member and is operatively connected to the first joint member. The joint assembly further includes an adjustable member operatively cooperating with the first ball member and the second ball member to move the first ball member and the second ball member toward and away from each other to adjust a friction tightness of the joint assembly.
US09916768B2
Systems and methods for providing sunlight simulation in a vehicle simulator include a vehicle simulator. The vehicle simulator includes a visual projector configured to generate visual scene images and a bright forward field of view projector mounted with the visual projector, wherein the bright forward field of view projector includes plural light emitting diode (LED) light sources configured to generate a bright forward field of view. The vehicle simulator also includes a projection screen configured to project the visual scene images generated by the visual projector or the bright forward field of view generated by the bright forward field of view projector.
US09916767B2
Devices for simulating a transportation emergency and kits for the same are disclosed. The devices have a base with a framework of interconnected supports extending therefrom as a skeletal portion of a simulated transportation device and defining a chamber configured to receive a human or a medical-training manikin. Within the chamber a seat for receiving the human or the medical-training manikin is disposed. The framework defines one or more openings representative of access openings into the simulated transportation device such that a first responder in-training can receive instructions on how to assist a victim positioned in the simulated transportation device. The framework also defined one or more open frames representative of structural features of the simulated transportation device that block access to the victim such that realistic training occurs.
US09916766B2
A method includes performing operations as follows on a processor: indexing a database of records for a topic based on a training suitability criterion, the records comprising programming errors and associated resolutions; generating a deck of electronic flash cards containing training questions thereon, respectively, from the database of records based on the training suitability criterion; and displaying the electronic flash cards.
US09916761B2
An improved system and method for creating and accessing a centralized database containing an assorted variety of information related to a debtor such as physical addresses of the debtor or his friends, associates and relatives, as well as information related to a mobile asset, such as physical description information, collectively referred to as “identifying information.” Methods are also disclosed for lenders and others to send identifying information to the centralized database, and for users such as skip tracers to be able to download and use the information located in the database for asset recovery purposes.
US09916760B1
By storing an increased number of traffic conditions within existing coding uniforms, the system described herein efficiently transmits traffic conditions with a high degree of granularity and low bandwidth cost. A digital map server determines a traffic condition for a portion of a road, packages the traffic condition within a channel of an individual coding uniform of a coding language, and transmits the coding uniform to a computing device. Alternatively, the traffic condition can be encoded within the channel of the coding uniform by the computing device. The coding uniform can also store a length of the portion of road to which the traffic condition corresponds. The computing device may then access the traffic condition, and then render a visual representation of traffic patterns on a digital map. The traffic conditions may also be packaged as arrays within a picture or texture file.
US09916750B2
A method for a terminal to perform reminding includes outputting first reminding information according to a first event alarm of an event flow alarm clock at a first reminding time of the first event alarm. The event flow alarm clock contains at least two event alarms. The method further includes, when there exists a second event alarm having a second reminding time later than the first reminding time, outputting second reminding information according to the second event alarm at the second reminding time.
US09916747B2
An allergy warning and protection system and method to proactively warn a user and protect a dependent individual, such as a child, suffering from allergies. The system comprises a beacon housed within a wearable, such as a bracelet, that is worn by the dependent. The beacon has an associated identifier that is linked to data stored on a server that corresponds to the allergy and sensitivity levels of the dependent individual with an allergy, indicating that the child is allergic to peanuts, eggs, gluten and/or other allergens. When in use, the beacon transmits identification data to a handheld device operated by a user which is utilized to retrieve the allergy and other confidential information, such as emergency contact information, from the server and to issue an alert notification to the user. In a preferred embodiment, a layer of privacy is provided so that a user must first be “trusted” before receiving confidential information about a person with allergies.
US09916743B2
A monitoring device arranged to be fitted to a door, wherein the door includes an operating bar mounted on the door for angular movement about its axis and a handle which is connected to the operating bar by a pivotal connection; wherein the device comprises a body element and a cover element arranged to slide relative to the body element and the two elements having a closed configuration and an open configuration in which the cover element is extended relative to the body element thereby allowing the device to be fitted to a door; the body and cover elements being shaped so that when in the closed configuration a pocket is formed that substantially surrounds an operating bar and further wherein the cover element comprises a portion extending over a region of a handle of a door to which the device is fitted such that that handle is prevented from rotating relative to the door; and monitoring circuitry arranged to monitor the device.
US09916728B2
Systems for operating a Sudoku style hybrid game are disclosed. Sudoku style hybrid games can include a themed entertainment game in which a player places symbols into a Sudoku puzzle and events within the entertainment portion of the Sudoku style entertainment game can trigger wagers in a real world game of chance. Players may compete against each other to determine a winning player based on the amount of time taken to complete the puzzle of the Sudoku style entertainment game. The outcome of the wagers can result in payouts of real world credit and can also affect gameplay within the Sudoku style entertainment game.
US09916710B2
A coin-shaped detection object discriminating device may be used with a detection object in a coin shape, and the coin-shaped detection object discriminating device may include a passage through which the detection object is passed; a permanent magnet; and a magnetic sensor disposed opposite to the permanent magnet across the passage.
US09916702B2
A vehicle may include at least one operative sub-system that includes at least one sensor configured to output one or more sensor signals related to the at least one operative sub-system. A monitoring system is in communication with the operative sub-system(s). The monitoring system is configured to correlate the one or more sensor signals with respect to time, compile initial statistics of the one or more sensor signals with respect to a plurality of variables; and correlate the plurality of variables.
US09916698B1
Systems and methods are disclosed for determining whether or not a crash involving a vehicle has occurred. The acceleration of the vehicle may be measured using, for example, an accelerometer of a mobile device, which may be located inside the vehicle. The system may determine the magnitude of each accelerometer measurement and whether the magnitude exceeds one or more acceleration magnitude thresholds. The system may also determine the number of accelerometer events within a time window and whether the number exceeds one or more count thresholds. The system may determine whether a crash involving the vehicle has occurred based on the magnitudes of acceleration, number of acceleration events, and various thresholds. In some examples, the system may confirm that a crash has occurred based on, for example, the location of the mobile device.
US09916690B2
This invention solves the problem that objects in the field of view of reading glasses using multifocal lenses for correcting ocular refractive errors such as presbyopia appear distorted. This image display device is provided with the following: a distance computation unit that computes the distance to a subject in a field-of-view image; a visual-acuity-information acquisition unit that stores visual-acuity information for the user in advance; a corrected-image generation unit that generates and outputs a corrected image on the basis of the field-of-view image and an eye image generated from the field-of-view image, the distance information, and the visual-acuity information; and a display unit that displays the corrected image by superimposing same onto the user's field of view. Since the corrected image is superimposed without the use of lenses, lenses being the cause of the abovementioned distortion, the user can see close objects clearly.
US09916684B2
The present disclosure is directed toward systems and methods for providing a preview that includes a visualization of various properties of an object to be printed from a three-dimensional input model. For example, systems and methods described herein involve performing one or more of a printability analysis, appearance analysis, true-visual analysis, accuracy analysis, and an integrity analysis to identify defects, visual characteristics and other properties of the object to be printed. Systems and methods described herein further relate to generating texture maps and applying the texture maps to three-dimensional renderings of the three-dimensional model to provide an interactive preview to enable a user to view and comprehend various issues associated with printing the object from the three-dimensional model.
US09916680B2
Techniques are disclosed for suppressing access to a depth processing unit associated with a graphics processing pipeline. The method includes receiving a graphics primitive from a first pipeline stage associated with the graphics processing pipeline. The method further includes determining that the graphics primitive is visible over one or more graphics primitives previously rendered to a frame buffer, and determining that the depth buffer is in a read-only mode. The method further includes suppressing an operation to transmit the graphics primitive to the depth processing unit. One advantage of the disclosed technique is that power consumption is reduced within the GPU by avoiding unnecessary accesses to the depth processing unit.
US09916677B2
According to one exemplary implementation, a method for use by a global illumination system including a hardware processor includes identifying, using the hardware processor, a first interior vertex of multiple first interior vertices of a light path, the first interior vertices being situated within a volume having a refractive boundary. In addition, the method includes determining, using the hardware processor, a surface vertex of the light path at the refractive boundary, and determining, using the hardware processor, a linear direction from the surface vertex to a light source of the light path. The method also includes determining, using the hardware processor, one or more second interior vertices for completing the light path by constructing a path from the surface vertex to the first interior vertex, based on the linear direction, the surface vertex and the first interior vertex.
US09916673B2
A method including causing, at least in part, rendering of a perspective view showing one or more objects in a field of view. The method further including retrieving content associated with an object of the one or more objects in the field of view, and causing, at least in part, rendering of a graphic representation relating to the content on a surface of the object visible in the perspective view in a user interface for a location-based service of a mobile device.
US09916668B2
Systems and methods for using geometric primitives to identify background in video data. In one embodiment, a method obtains video data depicting at least a portion of a user. The video data is processed with at least one persona identification module comprising a geometric primitive module for generating a first persona probability map at least in part by: detecting at least one geometric primitive within the video data; identifying a respective region within the video data associated with each of the at least one detected geometric primitives; and assigning the respective regions an increased background-probability in the first persona probability map; and outputting a persona image by extracting pixels from the video data based on the persona probability map.
US09916666B2
An image processing apparatus includes: an imaging distance estimating unit configured to estimate an imaging distance to a subject shown in an image; an examination region setting unit configured to set an examination region in the image such that an index indicating a spread of a distribution of imaging distances to the subject shown in the examination region is within a given range; and an abnormal structure identifying unit configured to identify whether or not a microstructure of the subject shown in the examination region is abnormal, by using texture feature data that enables identification of an abnormality in the microstructure of the subject shown in the examination region, the texture feature data being specified according the examination region.
US09916662B2
A technique for foreground determination includes analyzing pixels that are deemed to be changing between frames, and applying a filtration technique that is based on fractal methods. Implementations include applying a filter that is designed to eliminate structures of dimensionality less than unity while preserving those of dimensionality unity and greater. The technique may be performed in real-time and makes use of a variable threshold for foreground determination and image segmentation techniques.
US09916656B2
Provided is a method for processing a radiographic image including obtaining a radiographic image using an indirect radiographic detector comprising a scintillator panel and a pixel array panel, determining a parameter value for defining a point spread function (PSF) according to the scintillator panel or the pixel array panel, and correcting the radiographic image by deconvoluting the radiographic image using the PSF to which the parameter value is applied.
US09916651B2
A method of characterizing a part made of woven composite material, includes calculating autocorrelation values of a three-dimensional image in an observation window of the volume of the part for a plurality of spatial vectors used as the autocorrelation interval, and then detecting at least one local extremum in the autocorrelation value on a main orientation of the weaving in order to determine a mean in the observation window for the distance between neighboring parallel yarns.
US09916650B2
An arrangement for visual fault inspection of at least one component includes a fault identification unit for identifying a structural fault of the component and for determining at least one piece of fault information, and an overlay device connected to the fault identification unit, configured for context-dependent overlay of the fault information in a component image in real-time.
US09916643B1
An efficient method and system for multi-sample antialiasing in graphics processing is described. Geometric edges as well as implicit edges of primitives in a bin are identified by iteratively rendering bins of pixels. Selective multi-sample antialiasing is applied to pixels that are touched by either a geometric edge or an implicit edge; pixels that are fully covered are not antialiased.
US09916637B1
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to image signal processing logic, and in particular, to separating an undecimated image signal data to create two components with lower resolution and full-resolution, generating an interpolation guidance information based on the two components created by separation, forming a difference image data representing the difference between the chroma and luma values of each pixel and its neighboring pixels, and merging the processed image data from the processing pipelines with the unprocessed image data using the interpolation guidance information generated. The generation of the interpolation guidance information is based on determining distances between pixel values from a group comprising pixels from interpolation nodes, pixels diagonally located adjacent to the interpolation nodes, pixels horizontally adjacent to the interpolation nodes, and pixels vertically adjacent to the interpolation nodes.
US09916626B2
Methods, systems and articles of manufacture for generating interface elements of an electronic tax preparation application to allow a taxpayer or user to view a portion of an image of a tax document that is a source of data for a field of a screen generated by the electronic tax application. The image portion displayed may be a particular box or field of a tax document for a corresponding particular field of the screen generated by the electronic tax preparation or a bounding region including one or more adjacent or surrounding boxes or fields. Embodiments allow taxpayers to view an image of a source document while viewing the data that was entered in the field from within the tax preparation application without having to consult paper copies of the tax documents.
US09916622B2
A high speed apparatus and method for processing a plurality of financial market data messages are disclosed. With respect to an exemplary embodiment, a reconfigurable logic device is employed to map the symbols present in the financial market data messages to another symbology.
US09916611B2
A system and method is disclosed for collecting website visitor activity for profiling visitor interests and dynamically modifying the content of the website to better match the visitor's profile. The visitor activity data is collected directly from the visitor's client browser or from the website's own web log information. The collected data consists of the page identifier, page links, and the previous page identifier. Similarly, the modified page content can be sent directly to the client browser or can be sent back to the website server for integration with the other page content. The collected data is stored in a database. Based on the amount of information collected on the visitor and the various items that are presented on the website, the visitors and items are profiled so that a visitor's response to other items can be predicted and recommended to the visitor. The recommendations can be requested and displayed directly by and to the client browser or the website server can make the request and subsequently display the matching content. The system has application in personalization, behavioral targeting, Internet retailing, social networking, affiliate marketing, and online advertising, to name but a few applications.
US09916608B1
Techniques for providing friction-free transactions using geolocation and user identifiers are described herein. These techniques may ascertain a user's location based on a location of a mobile device. A transaction between the user and a merchant may be completed with zero or minimal input from the user based on the geolocation of the mobile device and the user identifiers. In some implementations, a transaction initiated earlier is completed when the mobile device arrives at the merchant. Additionally, a parent-child or similar relationship may be established between multiple devices. Security on the mobile device based may be provided by biometric identification and calculation of variance from regular movement patterns. Advertisements may be sent to the mobile device based on bids from merchants near to the mobile device. Promotions may be sent to the mobile device when more than a threshold number of mobile devices are located at the same merchant.
US09916606B2
A system for processing a transaction document including one or more financial transaction entries, including a record generation subsystem having data processing means configured to a) receive or generate a complete character string characterizing the financial transaction entries displayed on the document; b) analyze each complete character string to identify known transaction identifiers used in financial transactions; c) analyze each complete character string to identify transaction data strings associated with each identified transaction character string; and d) store transaction data, including the transaction character strings and associated transaction data strings, for each single financial transaction in a database.
US09916599B2
A computer method and system for ranking computer network portal users is provided. The system and method comprise a ranking module which determines rank of an individual in a community of global computer network users. The ranking module determines rank of an individual as a function of user demand. The function of user demand includes any one or combination of number of requests to be connected to the individual user, readership following of the individual user and keywords common between profiles or authored works by the individual user and those of other users. An output member is coupled to receive the determined rank from the ranking module and generates an ordered list of user names ordered by determined rank of individuals. The rank of individuals may be provided to external entities such as fraud detection systems or advertising targeting engines.
US09916598B2
The embodiment of the present invention allows for a simple and intuitive system and method to manage email by applying time-elapsed rules to emails matching specific criteria (i.e. emails coming from specific email addresses): Time-elapsed rules are rules that will execute an action on an email message after the email has been in the inbox for a certain period of time. These actions may include, but are not limited to, moving the email to another folder, copying the email to another folder, and deleting the email.
US09916595B2
Apparatus and methods for providing an incentive-based system for the superdistribution of content, which include one or more communications devices transmitting one or more referral messages relating to the content. Further, the apparatus and methods include the communications devices ordering content from across the network based on the referral messages, where a reward is generated for one or more referring devices based on the one or more referral messages. Additionally, the application of privacy and authentication mechanisms protects the privacy and verifies the identities of the parties involved in the transaction.
US09916587B2
Systems and methods are disclosed for automatically adding advertisements into a ticker. The disclosure includes receiving a request for a ticker data feed and generating a modified ticker data feed from the original data feed. One or more advertisements are selected and inserted as data items into the modified ticker data feed. The modified ticker data feed is then transmitted to the requester. When rendered on the requestor's device, the modified ticker data feed displays the data items of the originally requested data feed along with the advertisements in a scrolling ticker.
US09916584B2
A method (and system) of assigning a sales opportunity, includes creating an assignment model based on clustering historical sales opportunities, and providing a scoring mechanism on a plurality of sales agents for automatically optimizing an assignment of at least one sales opportunity to at least one of the plurality of sales agents.
US09916582B2
A system, method, and article of manufacture for generating a digital pass is disclosed. The method may comprise retrieving a plurality of identity attributes, and grouping a subset of identity attributes in the plurality of identity attributes to generate at least one digital pass. The method may further comprise grouping a subset of static identity attributes and a subset of dynamic identity attributes to generate a digital pass.
US09916580B2
An object that enables electronic commerce is disclosed where the object has a holographic image on security contacts. The security contacts may be in communication with a security element that provides security features. The contacts may be placed in predetermined locations but may be extended to create a complementary identifiable image.
US09916579B1
Systems and related methods facilitating secure payments are discussed herein. Some embodiments may provide for a system including a payment gateway server, a tokenizer server and a detokenizer server. The payment gateway server may receive payment card data from a merchant device and provide the payment data the tokenizer server. The tokenizer server may be configured to generate one or more tokens based on the payment data and provide the one or more tokens to the payment gateway server. During payment processing, the payment gateway server may be configured to provide the one or more tokens to the detokenizer server configured to determine the payment data based on the one or more tokens to facilitate completion of a financial transaction. In some embodiments, the one or more tokens may be stored for subsequent payments. Furthermore, some embodiments may provide for secure promotion redemptions in addition or alternative to payments.
US09916577B1
A computer-implemented system and method that includes receiving by a mobile wallet device a product code that identifies a product after a user of the mobile device has been authenticated into the mobile wallet device, determining by the mobile wallet device the identity of a merchant from a plurality of merchants based on at least a portion of the product code. The method includes sending the received product code to a merchant computer, receiving by the mobile wallet device a price, information regarding the product and merchant bank information. The method further includes transferring payment for the product to a merchant bank from an account held by the user.
US09916572B2
A method, programmed medium and system are provided for using a payment card with an embedded RFID device. In one example, a cellular telephone or other wireless device is used to generate a one-time password (OTP), which is then transmitted by a read-write RFID in the wireless device to the read-write RFID which is embedded within a payment card. The user's phone or other wireless device then activates the writing of the OTP to the RFID of the payment card. The payment card, with the one time password now saved in the card, is then handed to the waiter or store clerk for payment approval and/or further processing. The user's OTP is then read by the merchant's RFID reader and transmitted to an approving agency/server for approval or disapproval of the user's purchase.
US09916559B2
A mobile transceiver having selectable travel modes and a method of operation are provided. In accordance with one embodiment, there is provided a method of operating a mobile transceiver having a processor, and a wireless transceiver and a satellite receiver each coupled to the processor, the method comprising: sending a message to an asset tracking service, the message from a mobile transceiver including a device identifier (ID) associated with the mobile transceiver; receiving a message from the asset tracking service, the message including an instruction for the mobile transceiver to apply a selected travel mode; and applying the selected travel mode as a current travel mode.
US09916556B2
Item movement is determined via wireless tracking using RFID data from at least one RFID reader. The RFID data associates RFID tag information with each antenna of the RFID reader that receives the tag information. At least one processer is configured to identify a first appearance of unique tag information in the RFID data. Items may be grouped when their first appearance in RFID data and their antenna association indicates that they first appear in a location within a predetermined amount of time, as indicated by RFID data, and/or when they have all moved from a previous location within a predetermined amount of time, as indicated by different RFID data. A group designation comprises the relevant unique tag information, which may be stored in memory along with a time stamp.
US09916551B1
Disclosed are methods and systems for optimizing business continuity in IT environments. One such method involves comparing a representation and a template. The representation represents units of computing entities, and relationships between the units of computing entities. The method determines whether a system represented by the representation meets a threshold represented by the template based on a result of the comparing, and provides a result of the determining. The threshold can established by a disaster recovery site, a service level agreement, or a configuration drift, and the result of the determining can be used to evaluate the disaster recovery site, the service level agreement, or the configuration drift.
US09916545B1
Methods and apparatus for portable network interfaces to manage authentication and license enforcement. A system may include a plurality of resource instances including a producer instance configured to implement a network-accessible service, and an authentication coordinator. The coordinator may assign an interface record to the service, wherein the interface record comprises an IP address and a set of security properties. The coordinator may configure the security properties to allow a client to request an attachment of the interface record to a selected resource instance, such that the selected resource instance is enabled to transmit network messages from the IP address using one or more physical network interfaces of the selected resource instance. The producer resource instance initiates authentication operations for the service, including at least one authentication operation based on the IP address of the interface record.
US09916535B2
Systems and methods are provided relating to predictive analysis, and more specifically to predictive analysis of one or more data types in a data center environment. The data center environment itself includes a power manager in communication with at least one cabinet power distribution unit (CDU) that is in power-supplying communication with at least one electronic appliance in an electronic equipment rack. The predictive analysis approach estimates the rate of change over a future interval of time for at least one data type based on said historical data and predicts when said at least one data type will reach an associated user-defined threshold based on said rate of change. Results can be displayed graphically on an application program associated with the power manager.
US09916534B2
A method for ingesting a plurality of content according to a statistical similarity of at least one portion of the ingested plurality of content into an information handling system capable of answering questions, whereby the ingested plurality of content is based on a received topic and ingesting the plurality of content comprises ingesting a plurality of documents associated with the received topic is provided. The method may include determining at least one similarity between each document based on a similarity criteria. The method may also include applying a statistical model to characterize the determined at least one similarity between each document. The method may further include creating at least one pair-wise link for each document. The method may additionally include mapping the created at least one pair-wise link. The method may include generating a plurality of rules for ingesting a plurality of additional content.
US09916531B1
An apparatus is described herein. The apparatus comprises an accumulator, a controller, and a convolutional neural network. The accumulator is to accumulate a plurality of values within a predetermined bit width. The controller is to determine a parameter quantization and a data quantization. The convolutional neural network is adapted to the data quantization, wherein a quantization point is selected based on the parameter quantization, data quantization, and accumulator bit width.
US09916526B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image generating unit and a printing device. The image generating unit is configured to generate a document image based on document data of a user. The printing device is configured to print the document image. If a character appears plural times in the document data, the image generating unit converts the character that appears plural times to respective user-specific handwritten characters that are different from each other.
US09916524B2
Techniques for determining depth for a visual content item using machine-learning classifiers include obtaining a visual content item of a reference light pattern projected onto an object, and determining shifts in locations of pixels relative to other pixels representing the reference light pattern. Disparity, and thus depth, for pixels may be determined by executing one or more classifiers trained to identify disparity for pixels based on the shifts in locations of the pixels relative to other pixels of a visual content item depicting in the reference light pattern. Disparity for pixels may be determined using a visual content item of a reference light pattern projected onto an object without having to match pixels between two visual content items, such as a reference light pattern and a captured visual content item.
US09916521B2
A feature point is extracted from an input image including an image region for which depth values of pixels change consecutively. A transformation that normalizes depth values of pixels of a vicinity of the feature point with respect to a region of at least a portion of the input image is set as a normalization transformation, and an image for a feature amount calculation is generated by performing the normalization transformation on a pixel position of the feature point. A feature amount is calculated from the image for the feature amount calculation.
US09916519B2
In one particular aspect, a portable computing device (e.g., a tablet or smartphone) senses audio and/or image content from a user's environment, and initiates one or more recognition agents (e.g., performing image watermark recognition, image recognition, object recognition, facial recognition, barcode recognition, optical character recognition, audio watermark recognition, speech recognition, speaker recognition, or music recognition). Resource allocation to a recognition agent can be varied based on (a) progress of the recognition agent to achieve its recognition goal, and (b) user interest data indicating user interest in the output of the recognition agent. A second candidate recognition agent can be evaluated for possible launch, based on a relevance score, and a cost score. In some embodiments, the device adapts its operation to changing context, by terminating a first recognition agent in favor of a second recognition agent, without express user instruction to do so. A great number of other features and arrangements are also detailed.
US09916513B2
A method for processing an image includes calculating a vanishing point located at a same position in a plurality of images that are temporally successive, receiving specification of a target object whose privacy is to be protected in at least one of the plurality of images, calculating a target location area, which includes the vanishing point and in which the target object is located in each of the plurality of images, on the basis of the specification of the target object in the at least one of the plurality of images received in the receiving and the vanishing point calculated in the calculating the vanishing point, and performing image processing for protecting privacy in an area in each of the plurality of images located at a same position as the target location area calculated in the calculating the target location area.
US09916511B2
An automated system and method to authenticate one or more users based on capturing one or more images of a set of teeth, obtaining a selected image from the one or more captured images and extracting a portion of the selected image to obtain an extracted image. Each extracted image is converted into a grayscale image and stored in a database along with the username and the user keyword of the one or more users. A unique signature matrix and a pattern vector is generated by processing the grayscale image and stored in the database along with the username. One or more images comprising a set of teeth of at least one user is captured and a unique signature matrix obtained from the same is compared with a set of unique signature matrices previously stored in the database and at least one action is triggered based on the comparison.
US09916503B2
A method to determine whether a user is experiencing difficulty visually resolving content is disclosed. The method includes capturing one or more images of the user while the user is viewing the content. The method also includes obtaining facial parameters related to a visual acuity of the user from the captured one or more images. The method further includes determining whether the user is experiencing difficulty visually resolving the content based on the obtained one or more facial parameters. The method is implemented in a device such as a smartphone, tablet computer, or television. The facial parameters include information about the extent to which the user has their eyes open or closed, whether the user is wearing glasses, and the distance at which the user is viewing the content.
US09916501B2
Smart eyeglasses with iris recognition device comprise at least one glasses frame, a glasses arm connected to a side of the glasses frame; an iris recognition device installed on the glasses frame and having a recognition unit facing an inner side of the glasses frame. A light source device installed on the glasses frame projects a light on an inner side of an outer boundary of an iris of an eyeball, and not in contact with the outer boundary of the iris. The iris is sampled more easily and clearly with luminosity compensation of the light source device for enhancing the accuracy and sampling speed.
US09916495B2
A face comparison device according to the present invention includes: an occluded-feature point estimation unit that estimates an occluded-feature point that is a feature point of an invisible face, and outputs position information of the occluded-feature point; a pseudo-feature point estimation unit that estimates a pseudo-feature point that is an erroneously detected feature point not captured within the input image due to occlusion, and outputs position information of the pseudo-feature point; and a comparison unit that generates a normalized image of the input image by using the position information of the occluded-feature point and the pseudo-feature point, generates a normalized image of an acquired comparison image, and compares the first facial feature vector extracted from the normalized image of the input image and the second facial feature vector extracted from the generated normalized image of the comparison image.
US09916494B2
An example method for positioning feature points of a human face edge including fitting a profile edge curve of a human face edge in a human face image according to the human face image; calculating by using a preset human face edge feature point calculation model to obtain feature points of the human face edge in the human face image; calculating by using a preset convergence algorithm to obtain feature information of a convergence feature point corresponding to each feature point; determining respectively whether a distance from each feature point to the profile edge curve is greater than a distance from a respective corresponding convergence feature point to the profile edge curve; and determining whether a magnitude of overall position change of all the feature points of the human face edge in the human face image before and after the above determination is less than a preset threshold.
US09916489B2
A system and method for reading a machine readable code associated with an object moving relative to an imaging device may include capturing a first image of the machine readable code at a first resolution. A second image of the machine-readable code with a non-integer pixel shift in alignment at the first resolution may be captured. An interleaved image may be formed from the first and second images. An image of the machine-readable code may be generated at a second resolution using the interleaved image, where the second resolution is higher than the first resolution.
US09916488B2
A method for evaluating an output pattern printed on a medium is described. A reference pattern is stored. The output pattern is printed on the medium based correspondingly on the stored reference pattern. A scan based instance of the output pattern is rendered, which has a set of features at least corresponding to the printed output pattern and zero or more features additional thereto. A difference image, having the zero or more features of the rendered scan instance, is computed based on a comparison of the rendered scan instance to the stored reference pattern. Upon the zero or more features including at least one feature, the computed difference image is evaluated in relation to a proximity of at least one feature to locations pixels of the reference pattern.
US09916486B2
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for a mobile terminal to process a visual graphics code. The method mainly comprises: obtaining a digital image recorded by the mobile terminal; analyzing the digital image to obtain a visual graphics code in the digital image; decoding the visual graphics code and classifying decoded information obtained after decoding; and processing the decoded information according to the classification of the decoded information. The present invention can achieve an effect that the mobile terminal can adaptively recognize and process various types of visual graphics codes, and greatly enhance the ability for the mobile terminal to intelligently process a visual graphics code, thereby improving the function of the mobile terminal, and causing the mobile terminal to meet the need of a user better.
US09916484B2
Synthesized-beam RFID readers may be used to locate RFID tags. In one embodiment, a tag's response rates on different beams can be used, along with the target locations of those beams, to estimate the tag's location. The estimated tag location is within a region where beams with nonzero tag response rates overlap, and the distances of the estimated tag location from any two different beam target locations may correspond to a ratio of tag response rates on the two different beams. In another embodiment, a tag's response rates on different beam pairs configured to cooperatively power RFID tags can be used, along with the target locations of those beam pairs, to estimate the tag's location.
US09916483B1
An RFID tag may execute instructions from an authenticated RFID reader. A tag determines a handle and a first parameter, both of which may be random numbers, and sends the handle to a reader. Upon receiving a challenge from the reader, the tag determines and sends a cryptographic response to the challenge based on an algorithm, a tag key, the first parameter, and the challenge. Upon receiving a message with a second parameter and a tag instruction, the tag executes the tag instruction upon verifying that the second parameter derives from the first parameter and the tag handle.
US09916482B2
Disclosed are fibers which contains identification fibers. The identification fibers can contain a plurality of distinct features, or taggants, which vary among the fibers and/or along the length of the identification fibers, a fiber band, or yarn. The disclosed embodiments also relate to the method for making and characterizing the fibers. Characterization of the fibers can include identifying distinct features, combinations of distinct features, and number of fibers with various combinations of distinct features and correlating the distinct features to supply chain information. The supply chain information can be used to track the fibers, fiber band, or yarn from manufacturing through intermediaries, conversion to final product, and/or the consumer.
US09916480B2
According to an example, a security apparatus to house a device may include a chassis, a front stop having a front stop wall and a front stop opening, a rear stop having a rear stop wall and a rear stop opening, a front cover to be positioned in front of the front stop having a front cover opening, in which the front stop wall blocks direct line of sight into the front opening of the chassis through the front cover opening when the front cover is positioned in front of the front stop, and a rear cover to be positioned behind the rear stop having a rear cover opening, in which the rear cover blocks direct line of sight into the rear opening of the chassis through the rear cover opening when the rear cover is positioned behind the rear stop wall.
US09916474B2
The present disclosure relates to receiving and sharing wellness data. The wellness data can be received by a user device from any number of sensors external or internal to the user device, from a user manually entering the wellness data, or from other users or entities. The user device can securely store the wellness data on the user device and transmit the wellness data to be stored on a remote database. A user of the device can share some or all of the wellness data with research entities conducting research studies, friends, relatives, caregivers, healthcare providers, or the like.
US09916467B2
A method and a system access data of a database in a MES system by a client application where the database access is required to satisfy a set of custom data protection rules depending on a set of user credentials. The method includes providing, at developing time a secure access layer for enabling the client application to access data to/from the database in a protected manner taking into account the set of custom data protection rules; and at runtime or engineering time by the client application, requesting, through a given authenticated user, data access to/from the database by sending to the secure access layer a given data access descriptor and the given user credentials of the given authenticated user. By the secure access layer, the received data access descriptor is processed to generate a given SQL statement for data access.
US09916462B1
The present embodiments describe methods and systems for intercepting unauthorized communications in a controlled-environment facility. Unauthorized communications may originate from contraband cell phones, for example. In an embodiment, attempted communications from the contraband communication device are intercepted by the facility communication systems. The attempted communication may or may not be connected or completed, depending upon facility rules, policies, and regulations.
US09916454B2
Embodiments of systems, apparatuses, and methods to protect data stored in a storage system of a device from malware alternation are described. In some embodiments, a system receives an indication that the data is to be protected. In addition, the system further triggers an interrupt of the device and secures the data from the malware alternation.
US09916450B2
Systems and methods are provide for reconciling access rights of a computing system are described. Access right information that respectively corresponds to access rights of a computing system may be obtained and evaluated. Reconciliation tasks may be performed using the access right information, and a reconciliation report may be generated during performance of at least one of the reconciliation tasks. The reconciliation report may indicate that one or more of the access rights should either be provisioned or revoked at the computing system.
US09916438B2
A system for detecting user credentials comprising an interface and a processor. The interface is configured to receive a plurality of data chunks. The processor is configured to determine a number of continuous bytes in the plurality of data chunks having appropriate values and, in the event that the number of the continuous bytes is greater than or equal to a threshold number of bytes, determine whether continuous byte data of the continuous bytes comprises a credential.
US09916436B2
An accessory for a host medical device that is capable of authenticating itself to the host medical device. The accessory includes an onboard facility for authenticating the accessory to the host medical device. Various embodiments of the accessory enable it to validate itself to the host medical device without the host medical device reading any stored information from the accessory.
US09916431B2
A method, performed by an electronic device, for verifying a user to allow access to the electronic device is disclosed. In this method, sensor data may be received from a plurality of sensors including at least an image sensor and a sound sensor. Context information of the electronic device may be determined based on the sensor data and at least one verification unit may be selected from a plurality of verification units based on the context information. Based on the sensor data from at least one of the image sensor or the sound sensor, the at least one selected verification unit may calculate at least one verification value. The method may determine whether to allow the user to access the electronic device based on the at least one verification value and the context information.
US09916427B2
An automatic data collection system tracks medical articles by providing a robust electromagnetic (EM) field within an enclosure in which the articles are stored. Respective data carriers, such as RFID tags, attached to each article respond to the electromagnetic field by transmitting data identified with each article. An RFID scanner receives the transmitted RFID tag identification data and a processor compares the received identification data to a data base. The data base associates the identification data with data concerning the medical article to which the RFID tag is affixed, such as the name of the medicine, the size of the dose, and the expiration date. The processor is also programmed to keep track of the number of articles of a particular type remaining in the enclosure, to note receipt of an article in the enclosure, and to note removal of the article.
US09916420B2
A medical documentation system and a CDI system may be linked together, or integrated, so there is a tie between the two systems that allows for a much more efficient and effective CDI process. In one disclosed embodiment, a CDI system receives from a medical documentation system a structured data set including at least some information relating to one or more medical facts the medical documentation system automatically extracted from text documenting a patient encounter.
US09916418B2
Embodiments are directed to detecting and uploading measurement data of a non-connected medical measuring device. Embodiments include capturing an image of an identification object and a beginning event image of a medical measuring device and extracting identification data from the image of the identification object. Based on detecting that the identification object has been removed, an ending event image of the medical measuring device is captured. Embodiments include determining if a measurement event has occurred by comparing the ending event image and the beginning event image. Based on determining that the measurement event occurred, a measurement data of the ending event image is extracted and upload to a personal health record database.
US09916412B2
A method of automatically generating a set of test layouts for testing a design rule checking tool is described. A layout is a point in a space of several coordinates, and the design rule comprises N design constraints numbered 1 to N, wherein N is greater or equal two and each design constraint is a boolean-valued function of one or more of the coordinates. The set of test layouts includes: one or more zero-error layouts; one or more one-error layouts; and one or more two-error layouts. A zero-error layout is a layout that satisfies all of the design constraints. A one-error layout is a layout that violates exactly one of the design constraints. A two-error layout is a layout that violates exactly two of the design constraints.
US09916411B2
A virtual hierarchical layer (VHL) is constructed for a semiconductor design in order to reduce the computational requirement of design rules checking (DRC) and design rules for manufacture (DRM) procedures. In order to form the VHL, a negative plane is created. A cell and multiple instances of the cell are then identified in the semiconductor design and polygons which overlap the cell and its instances are determined. The polygons are pushed into the negative plane to create holes in the plane. Shapes overlapping other instances of the cell which fall onto holes in the solid virtual cell plane are ignored. The resulting holed solid virtual cell plane can then be inverted to create a VHL to be used for design simulation and verification.
US09916408B2
Systems and methods for designing reconfigurable integrated circuits receive target data and training data; and generate a circuit design for implementing the target data which is over-provisioned with respect to the target data according to the training data.
US09916395B2
An approach is provided to determine answer stability in a question answering (QA) system. In the approach, a question submitted to a question answering (QA) system is selected and data pertaining to a candidate answers generated by the QA system are analyzed. The analysis of the data results in a stability characteristic that pertains to the candidate answers. A confidence value associated with the candidate answers is adjusted based on the respective answer's stability characteristic. One or more of the candidate answers are provided to a requestor based on the adjusted confidence values.
US09916394B2
An input graph is decomposed into a graph topology component and a graph properties component. A matrix representation is generated for each of the graph topology component and the graph properties component. Each of the graph topology matrix representation and graph properties matrix representation are partitioned into one or more sub-matrices. A forward pass comprising one or more vectorized operations is performed over the one or more sub-matrices. An output matrix is generated in response to the performing step.
US09916393B2
A method and system for graphical enumeration. The method includes creating an ordered set of vertices for a graph such that each vertex is associated with a corresponding index, and wherein each vertex in the ordered set of vertices includes information. A plurality of keys is created for defining the information. A plurality of lists of vertices is created, each of which is associated with a corresponding key such that vertices in a corresponding list include information associated with the corresponding key. For a first list of vertices, a least valued index is determined from a group of associated vertices based on vertices in the first list and vertices pointed to by the vertices in the first list. Also, all associated vertices are pointed to a root vertex associated with the least valued index.
US09916381B2
A processing method for classification of contents in a domain that can be represented through a taxonomy includes generating a first digital mathematical representation of the taxonomy; generating a second digital mathematical representation of text documents different from the contents and containing keywords; processing the first and second digital mathematical representations for enriching the taxonomy, by associating keywords of the text documents with the first digital mathematical representation; generating a third digital mathematical representation of the contents; and processing the first digital enriched mathematical representation and third mathematical representation for classifying the contents in the enriched taxonomy.
US09916364B2
News search and browse experience is personalized based on user preferences. User attributes like a geographic location are obtained and news sources preferred by other users with attributes similar to those of a requesting user are identified. News sources that are popular across different user groups are eliminated and relevant news items from the remaining news sources are retrieved and presented to the requesting user.
US09916352B2
Techniques are provided for caching external data sources for SQL processing. According to an embodiment, a database system receives a query that requires foreign data from an external data source. In response to receiving the query, the database system determines whether the foreign data currently resides in a cache of the database system. In response to determining that the foreign does not currently reside in the cache, the database system retrieves the foreign data from the external data source, maps the foreign data to a column granule of a table, and stores the column granule in the cache. In another embodiment, the database system receives a second query that requires the foreign data. In response to determining that the foreign data is cached with the stored column granule, the database system retrieves the column granule from the cache.
US09916346B2
A list of command entries is displayed in a search interface, each of the command entries representing one or more commands of a plurality of commands of a search query. The list of command entries are displayed in a sequence corresponding to the plurality of commands of the search query. Based on a user interaction with a designated command entry in the displayed list of command entries, the displayed list of command entries is modified with respect to the designated command. Furthermore, the search query is automatically modified with respect to the corresponding one or more commands represented by the designated command entry. The modification can include causing the designated command entry to be removed from or reordered in the displayed list of command entries and the automatic modification cam include causing the corresponding one or more commands to be removed from or reordered in the search query.
US09916341B2
Techniques of implementing partition level operations with concurrent activities are disclosed. A first operation can be performed on a first partition of a table of data. The first partition can be one of a plurality of partitions of the table, where each partition has a plurality of rows. A first partition level lock can be applied to the first partition for a period in which the first operation is being performed on the first partition, thereby preventing any operation other than the first operation from being performed on the first partition during the period the first partition level lock is being applied to the first partition. A second operation can be performed on a second partition of the table at a point in time during which the first operation is being performed on the first partition.
US09916339B2
The present invention relates to a method, computer program product and system to compute one sorted list of enumeration values in a specific language, read from at least one relational database including at least one data table storing enumeration programming variable values and at least one catalog table storing an expression, in at least one language, of the enumeration programming variable values, said method comprising the steps of receiving a request for providing enumeration variable values including one list sorted in a specific order, of the values of a specific enumeration, in a specific language; then, all the expressions of the enumeration values for the specific language for the specific enumeration read in a corresponding catalog table are sorted in the specific order; if the sorted list of the specific enumeration expression values matches a list of the specific enumeration variable values sorted in the specific order in the same catalog table, the sorted list of enumeration values in a specific language is created from this ordered catalog table; if in the preceding step the match was not found, if the sorted list of the specific enumeration expressions values matches a list of the specific enumeration variable values sorted in the reverse order from the specific order in the same catalog table, the sorted list of enumeration values in a specific language is created from the sorted catalog table; if in any of the two preceding steps, the match was not found, a new table joined table is built from data and catalog table in the standard way.
US09916337B2
Identifying unvisited portions of visited information to visit includes receiving information to crawl, wherein the information is representative of one of web based information and non-web based information, computing a locality sensitive hash (LSH) value for the received information, and identifying a most similar information visited thus far. Identifying unvisited portions of visited information further includes determining whether the LSH of the received information is equivalent to most similar information visited thus far and, responsive to a determination that the LSH of the received information is not equivalent to most similar information visited thus far, identifying a visited portion of the received information using information for most similar information visited thus far and crawling only unvisited portions of the received information.
US09916326B2
A system that facilitates a geofencing operation is disclosed. The system obtains polygons that define a set of geographic regions. Then, the system projects rays from endpoints of the line segments that define the polygons onto a reference line to form intersection points. For each interval between pairs of consecutive intersection points on the reference line, the system keeps track of open line segments that project onto the interval. For each data point in a set of data points, the system identifies a relevant interval on the reference line that the data point projects onto, and performs a crossing number operation to identify polygons that the data point falls into, and the system increments a count for each polygon that the data point falls into. Finally, the system performs a geofencing operation for the location-aware device based on the identified polygons that the data point falls into.
US09916321B2
Methods, apparatus, and computer-accessible storage media for controlling export of snapshots to external networks in service provider environments. Methods are described that may be used to prevent customers of a service provider from downloading snapshots of volumes, such as boot images created by the service provider or provided by third parties, to which the customer does not have the appropriate rights. A request may be received from a user to access one or more snapshots, for example a request to export the snapshot or a request for a listing of snapshots. For each snapshot, the service provider may determine if the user has rights to the snapshot, for example by checking a manifest for the snapshot to see if entries in the snapshot manifest belong to an account other than the customer's. If the user has rights to the snapshot, the request is granted; otherwise, the request is not granted.
US09916310B2
A data storage system is provided that is configured to achieve end-to-end data protection. The system includes a server running a storage archive manager with a first fixity support module, and the system includes a tape drive running a second fixity support module. During operations, the storage archive manager reads a data file with associated fixity information from a disk storage device, and the storage archive manager builds a set of blocks from the data file for writing to the tape drive. The first fixity support module checks fixity of the set of blocks by processing the fixity information associated with the data file. The processing of the fixity information includes determining whether data in the set of blocks is out of order relative to data in the data file or whether data in the set of blocks is corrupt relative to the data in the data file.
US09916297B1
Various systems and methods are provided for accessing and traversing one or more complex data structures and generating a functional user interface that can enable non-technical users to quickly and dynamically generate detailed reports (including tables, charts, and/or the like) of complex data including time varying attributes. The user interfaces are interactive such that a user may make selections, provide inputs, and/or manipulate outputs. In response to various user inputs, the system automatically calculates applicable time intervals, accesses and traverses complex data structures (including, for example, a mathematical graph having nodes and edges), calculates complex data based on the traversals and the calculated time intervals, displays the calculated complex data to the user, and/or enters the calculated complex data into the tables, charts, and/or the like. The user interfaces may be automatically updated based on a context selected by the user.
US09916292B2
The methods and systems described herein relate to identifying a target object on a web page by receiving rendering instructions associated with the web page, parsing the rendering instructions to identify a target object candidate amongst the web page elements; rendering the web page based on the rendering instructions, executing a verification process to confirm that the target object candidate is the target object, applying a set of predetermined rules to the rendered version of the target object candidate and assigning a likelihood parameter indicative of a probability of the target object candidate being the target object. Other embodiments of the verification process are also disclosed herein.
US09916290B2
Link association analysis systems are presented. Disclosed systems are configured to analyze links created by users and to determine possible reasons underpinning why a user would create such a link. The system derives such reasons by analyzing the context within which the link was created and to which the link points, and then presents the reasons as a data object to users for feedback. The system can be made to be self-refining by collecting survey data regarding its accuracy, so that the more users interact with the system, the more accurate the system is at deriving reasons for link creation.
US09916269B1
A packet header is received from a host and written to a header queue. A direct memory access (DMA) descriptor is received from the host and written to a packet descriptor queue. The DMA descriptor points to packet data in a host memory. The packet data is fetched from host memory and the packet header and the packet data are provided to a network interface.
US09916268B2
A data processing apparatus includes a number of processor cores, a shared processor cache, a bus unit and a bus controller. The shared processor cache is connected to each of the processor cores and to a main memory. The bus unit is connected to the shared processor cache by a bus controller for transferring data to/from an I/O device. In order to achieve further improvements to the data transfer rate between the processor cache and I/O devices, the bus controller is configured, in response to receiving a descriptor from a processor core, to perform a direct memory access to the shared processor cache for transferring data according to the descriptor from the shared processor cache to the I/O device via the bus unit.
US09916265B2
A system includes a plurality of memory classes and a set of one or more processing units coupled to the plurality of memory classes. The system further includes a data migration controller to select a traffic rate as a maximum traffic rate for transferring data between the plurality of memory classes based on a net benefit metric associated with the traffic rate, and to enforce the maximum traffic rate for transferring data between the plurality of memory classes.
US09916256B1
A method of accessing a persistent memory over a memory interface is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes allocating a virtual address range comprising virtual memory pages to be associated with physical pages of a memory buffer and marking each page table entry associated with the virtual address range as not having a corresponding one of the physical pages of the memory buffer. The method further includes generating a page fault when one or more of the virtual memory pages within the virtual address range is accessed and mapping page table entries of the virtual memory pages to the physical pages of the memory buffer. The method further includes transferring data between a physical page of the persistent memory and one of the physical pages of the memory buffer mapped to a corresponding one of the virtual memory pages.
US09916249B2
In one embodiment, a system includes a cache storage device and a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor. The logic is configured to receive a write request including data to be written to the cache storage device. The logic is also configured to determine a size of the write request. Moreover, the logic is configured to select a chunk size from among a plurality of chunk sizes designated for storing data in the cache storage device. In addition, the logic is configured to allocate a fine block descriptor (FBD) having the selected chunk size to the write request.
US09916239B2
The embodiments relate to a computer system, computer program product and method for managing a garbage collection process. Processing control is obtained based on execution of a load instruction and a determination that an object pointer to be loaded indicates a location within a selected portion of memory undergoing a garbage collection process. The determination includes identifying a base address and size of a first memory block subject to the garbage collection, subdividing the first memory block into sections, assigning a binary value to each section, and determining if the first memory block corresponds to the enabled section. An image of the load instruction is obtained and a pointer address is calculated from the image. The object pointer is read and it is determined whether the object pointer is to be modified. The object pointer is modified and stored in a selected location.
US09916229B2
In an approach for generating transaction tracking data that is used to simulate a customer environment or test case scenario, a processor receives user input data, wherein the user input data includes, at least, an application topology constructed using a graphical user interface. A processor validates the user input data for, at least, supported environments of components of the application topology. A processor generates transaction tracking data based on, at least, the user input data.
US09916228B1
An apparatus, method, and computer program product are provided for software development testing utilizing one or more minimal testing features. An acceptance testing system receives one or more first minimal testing features for a first software development component to be developed by a first provider, and one or more second first minimal testing features for a second software development component to be developed by a second provider. Before completion of the second software development component, it is determined whether the first software development component is complete. If it is determined that the first software development component is complete, testing is performed on the first software development component utilizing the one or more first minimal testing features, before the completion of the second software development component.
US09916224B2
Techniques are provided for integrating source code analysis tools with a code review tool. A user submits a code change to the code review tool and one or more code analysis tools are automatically initiated to analyze the changed code. Results of the code analysis tool(s) are automatically provided back to the code review tool. Additionally or alternatively, one or more tests are automatically run to test one or more executables that are based on the changed code. Results of the test(s) are automatically provided to the code review tool. In this way, an effect of a code change is automatically determined and available for review along with the code change. The results of any code analysis tools and/or tests may be posted synchronously or asynchronously with the corresponding code change.
US09916220B2
An improved technique for storing trace data involves storing software operation debug trace information in a buffer memory rather than in a log file in the main memory, and after completion of the software operation either (1) deleting the debug trace information upon the successful completion of the operation, or (2) transferring the debug trace information to a log file memory upon a failure of the operation.
US09916219B2
A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for detecting unanticipated consumption of power by a device. A first set of power consumption data is selected, followed by the collection of a second set of power consumption data, which respectively correspond to the consumption of a first and second amount of power by a device when it performs an authorized operation. The first and second sets of power consumption data are then compared to detect whether the second amount of power consumed is greater than the first amount of power consumed. If so, then a notification is generated, stating that the device has consumed an unanticipated greater amount of power as a result of performing the authorized operation.
US09916218B2
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for intercepting implanted information in an application. The method comprises: determining an Application Programming interface API invoked by an implanted information code as a key API in accordance with information collected in advance, wherein the key API is the API provided by an implanted information provider; after starting a target application, monitoring an act of the target application invoking the key API by hooking the key API; and if the target application initiates a request to invoke the key API, determining that the implanted information code is contained in the target application and intercepting the request to invoke the key API so as to stop the implanted information code from running and to realize the interception of the implanted information in the target application.
US09916217B2
A system includes a CPU including a primary address decode logic module (PADLM) and a plurality of diagnostic registers, wherein the PADLM includes address bus inputs, and an enable input port. The system further includes a data flip-flop having a data input coupled to a master enable signal line, a set input coupled to an interrupt signal line, an output coupled to the enable input port of the PADLM, and a clock input. Still further, the system includes an address decode logic module having a memory address input and an output indicating whether the memory address is within a predetermined address range of the diagnostic registers, wherein the output of the address decode logic module is coupled to the clock input. Memory mapping is enabled in response to receiving an interrupt signal and determining that the memory address is within a predetermined range of memory addresses for diagnostic registers.
US09916215B2
Techniques for selectively utilizing memory available in a redundant host system of a cluster are described. In one embodiment, a cluster of host systems, with at least one redundant host system, with each host system having a plurality of virtual machines with associated virtual machine (VM) reservation memory is provided. A portion of a data store is used to store a base file, the base file accessed by all the plurality of virtual machines. A portion of the memory available in the redundant host system is assigned as spare VM reservation memory. A copy of the base file is selectively stored in the spare VM reservation memory for access by all the plurality of virtual machines.
US09916211B2
A database recovery and index rebuilding method involves reading data pages for a database to be recovered as recovery bases; retrieving all log records from stored post-backup updates and sorting the retrieved log records; as the data pages to be recovered are read, applying the sorted log records to their respective data pages; as the applying completes for individual data pages, extracting and sorting index keys from the individual data pages for which the applying is complete, until all index keys have been extracted from all individual data pages and sorted; on an individual recovered page basis, writing the recovered individual data pages into the database; and when all index keys have been extracted and sorted from all of the recovered individual data pages, rebuilding indexes of the database using the sorted index keys and writing the rebuilt indexes to the non-transitory storage.
US09916208B2
Techniques for determining one or more replication paths for resources in different failure domains, while maintaining a target resiliency level, are disclosed. A replication path is a sequence of at least a subset of the set of resources. Based on the sequence, a resource is selected for replicating at least a portion of the resource consumers corresponding to each of the subset of resources. A replication path may be determined by adding a resource to the replication path and/or replacing one resource with another resource to modify the replication path. The modified replication path maintains the target resiliency level if the modified replication path does not include any loop of a length less than or equal to the target resiliency level.
US09916193B2
A zone selective interlocking device includes a first port, a second port, an input bus, an output bus and a query signal receiving branch. The first and second port each are switchable between two states, connected to the input bus and connected to the output bus, and the zone selective interlocking device is operable in a first mode. In the first mode, the query signal receiving branch is turned on. Within a preset timeslot, a link fault query signal is permitted to be inputted to the query signal receiving branch through the first port, while a link fault query signal is prevented from being inputted to the query signal receiving branch through the second port. Based on whether a link fault query signal is received within the timeslot, a judgment is made on whether a fault has occurred in a communication link connected to a corresponding port.
US09916188B2
A processing device executing a provisioner requests a node level task from a server. The processing device receives an assignment of a first node level task, wherein the first node level task is associated with a cluster management operation for a first cluster. The processing device determines a first plugin capable of performing the first node level task from a plurality of plugins, wherein each of the plurality of plugins comprises a self-contained program for performing a specific set of node level tasks. The processing device performs the first node level task by the first plugin, wherein the first node level task is an operation on a remote target host that does not include software associated with the provisioner. The processing device reports a result of the node level task to the server.
US09916187B2
Techniques are provided for a graph database system that accepts custom graph analytic programs that are written in a high-level graph-specific programming language and compiles the programs into executables that, when executed, directly access graph data of a graph that is stored in the graph database. In this way, a low-level data-access API is avoided. Also, a graph analytic program, which only describes an abstract description of an algorithm, does not include any details regarding data access. In one technique, a user is not required to include explicit parallelization in a graph analytic program in order for the graph analytic program to take advantage of parallelization. A compiler of the graph database system identifies portions of the graph analytic program that can benefit from parallelization and, in response, generates parallelized executable code that corresponds to those portions.
US09916186B2
A facility is provided that, when installed, removes from an architecture a selected architectural function, such that the function is not able to be turned on/off regardless of other controls within the environment. When the facility is installed, the architectural function is not supported when processing in an architectural mode based on the architecture. It is as if the selected architectural function is no longer available in the architecture, and in fact, the code implementing the facility may have been deleted, bypassed, or otherwise eliminated. One such architectural function is virtual address translation, such as dynamic address translation (DAT), and the architecture is, for instance, ESA/390.
US09916180B2
In a transactional memory environment including a first processor and one or more additional processors, a computer-implemented method includes, by the first processor, initializing a time record, listening for zero or more probes from the one more additional processors, responding to each probe of the zero or more probes, and logging each probe of the zero or more probes to yield a probe log. The computer-implemented method further includes, by the first processor, receiving a probe report directive and, responsive to the probe report directive, generating a probe report indication based on the probe log. The probe report indication denotes whether, since the time record, the first processor has received any of the zero or more probes. The computer-implemented method further includes ending the time record. A corresponding computer program product and computer system are also disclosed.
US09916177B2
A computerized predictive workload scheduling tool and methods for analytically implementing a predictive job schedule. The scheduling tool incorporates and uses analytics to leverage information from a plurality of data sources to anticipate and pro-actively correct computing system job failures before they occur. The predictive scheduling tool generates a job schedule, analyzes the job schedule for predictable failures and resolves the identified failures by amending the job schedule. The job schedule generated and analyzed by the scheduling tool is deployed, analyzed and resolved for errors as needed or identified to prevent failures from occurring.
US09916175B2
A network of nodes transports a plurality of flows from central nodes to a plurality of display sessions executing processes that operate under the control of one or more central operating systems. A plurality of isolated virtual nodes comprises 1) a plurality of virtual graphics nodes that concurrently process graphics flows used in the plurality of display sessions at the plurality of remote zero client nodes and 2) a plurality of virtual switches that switch the concurrently processed graphic flows from the virtual graphics nodes to the plurality of remote zero client nodes. Two or more graphic flows are used simultaneously in two or more display sessions at a single remote zero client node that executes a separating operating system for separating the two or more display sessions from each other based on a a separation policy for the two or more graphics flows.
US09916172B2
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the scheduling method includes an acquisition step of acquiring operation state information on a virtual CPU (vCPU) and lock information on an OS in the operation of the vCPU and of a virtual machine (VM) driving the vCPU and including the OS, and a determination step for determining whether the vCPU is in a lock holder preemption (LHP) state on the basis of the operation state information and the lock information. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the LHP can be easily and precisely known on a system using the VM. Also, even with an increase in the number of cores, scalability can be supported in a system by adjusting the pCPU to which operations of the vCPU are allocated through a scheduling scheme. In addition, a fairness hindering problem between the existing technology and the VM can be solved by adjusting the operations for each vCPU and continuously performing a critical section of a lock holder by using a time quantum allocated to a lock contender vCPU which awaits a lock release.
US09916169B2
Configurable electronic devices contain identifying information in a dual-ported memory. A plurality of un-configured units are assembled into a set. Using identifying information, a provisioning server matches each particular unit to configuration settings needed to appropriately configure that device for use by a specific end user. The configuration settings and/or data may be transmitted to the devices via their embedded RFID systems and stored in their dual-ported memory (via the first memory port). The electronic devices may comprise processor-based systems and, upon system initialization, the configuration data can be read from the memory via a second port thereof and used to configure the device for use by the user. In this way, devices may be configured as a set destined for a particular end user immediately prior to shipment and/or deployment and it is not necessary to separately track customized units prior to assembling them into a set.
US09916167B2
Testing correct mirroring of a GUI. Two GUI specifications are received, one that specifies text elements in a left-to-right natural language and another that specifies text elements in a right-to-left natural language and corresponds to a horizontally mirrored counterpart of the first GUI specification. For each child element in the first specification a start position, width, and a width of its parent GUI element are determined; for the corresponding specification a start position and width for the counterpart element is determined, a horizontally mirrored start position is calculated for the child element, it is determined whether the start position and width of the counterpart child GUI element are within a predefined tolerance of the calculated horizontally mirrored start position and the width, respectively, of the child GUI element; and, if not, the second GUI specification is updated with the calculated horizontally mirrored start position or width.
US09916165B2
A basic input/output system may be configured to, during boot of an information handling system in a pre-operating system environment of the information handling system, calculate an amount of energy required to perform a persistent memory save operation in a persistent memory of the information handling system in order to transfer data from a volatile memory of the persistent memory communicatively coupled to the processor to a non-volatile memory of the persistent memory communicatively coupled to the volatile memory, cause charging of an energy storage device for providing electrical energy to perform persistent memory save operations at least until a charging level of the energy storage device satisfies the amount of energy, and boot to an operating system of the information handling system responsive to the charging level of the energy storage device satisfying the amount of energy.
US09916162B2
Methods and systems may synchronize workloads across local thread groups. The methods and systems may provide for receiving, at a graphics processor, a workload from a host processor and receiving, at a plurality of processing elements, a plurality of threads that from one or more local thread groups. Additionally, the processing of the workload may be synchronized across the one or more thread groups. In one example, the global barrier determines that all threads across the thread groups have been completed without polling.
US09916158B2
A system and method to build feature evolution models for existing applications (“apps”) in the market based on open app data repositories). A feature evolution model of an app depicts the app name, its historical versions (historical version labels, release timestamps of each version), rating values of each version, and structured features (e.g., umbrella features and low-level features) each version introduces, improves or deletes. There is further extracted from the app description and release logs the app name, historical version labels, release timestamps, use the rating info of the app to extract and assign rating values for each version of the app, and apply NLP techniques and source code analysis techniques to extract “structured features” of the app through analyzing the app description, the release logs, and corresponding source code revisions of the app. Upon the built feature evolution models, various feature insights may be easily extracted and generated.
US09916157B2
In various embodiments, methods, systems, and non-transitory computer-readable media are disclosed that allow users to specify runtime customizations of documents developed using a desktop integration framework. Workbook metadata is a set of information that describes how a given workbook is integrated with a particular web application. When a workbook is being published, metadata may be written into a local cache in the published workbook as well as a workbook definition file. Metadata management may be handed by a metadata service allowing updates and customization of published workbooks independently of a local cache in the published workbook and the workbook definition file. A workbook composer enables users to customize the metadata and store the customizations using the metadata manager.
US09916155B2
Projects may be recalled by a system based on a selection of a screenshot associated with the project. A request to access a project, by a selection of a screenshot from a group of screenshots may be received. The screenshot may be mapped to a particular workspace location, and it may be associated with trace data stored in a file. The associated trace data may be identified by the system, and the trace data can be read. Using the trace data, the system can access the project associated with the screenshot and launch the workspace and the project.
US09916149B2
An information processing apparatus includes: a detection unit configured to detect a connection of a portable medium storing a plurality of applications, the plurality of applications containing a first type of application and a second type of application that is added to the first type of application to enhance functionality of the first type of application; an installation unit configured to install, in response to a detection by the detection unit, the first type of application first and then install the second type of application among the plurality of applications stored in the portable medium; and a control unit configured to start, after installation by the installation unit, the first type of application after enabling the second type of application.
US09916143B2
Arrangements described herein relate to inserting implicit sequence points into computer program code to support debug operations. Optimization of the computer program code can be performed during compilation of the computer program code and, during the optimization, implicit sequence points can be inserted into the computer program code. The implicit sequence points can be configured to provide virtual reads of symbols contained in the computer program code when the implicit sequence points are reached during execution of the computer program code during a debug operation performed on the computer program code after the computer program code is optimized and compiled.
US09916139B2
The present invention includes systems and methods for retrieving information via a flexible and consistent targeted search model that employs interactive multi-prefix, multi-tier and dynamic menu information retrieval techniques (including predictive text techniques to facilitate the generation of targeted ads) that provide context-specific functionality tailored to particular information channels, as well as to records within or across such channels, and other known state information. Users are presented with a consistent search interface among multiple tiers across and within a large domain of information sources, and need not learn different or special search syntax. A thin-client server-controlled architecture enables users of resource-constrained mobile communications devices to locate targeted information more quickly by entering fewer keystrokes and performing fewer query iterations and web page refreshes, which in turn reduces required network bandwidth. Applications are built by leveraging existing collaborative cloud services that enable the maintenance and sharing of user content.
US09916136B2
Interfaces for a continuation-based runtime. Some embodiments described herein are directed to a framework using continuation based runtime interface that pertain to an infrastructure for enabling the creation of a wide variety of continuation-based programs that perform a wide-array of tasks. The infrastructure provides a foundation for building continuation-based, declarative applications of various scale and complexity.
US09916132B2
A random number generation system, comprising: a light source configured to generate light pulses and a driving unit configured to drive said light source such that the phase of each light pulse has a random relationship to the phase of each subsequently generated light pulse, and such that each light pulse is generated with at least two local maxima in the temporal intensity profile.
US09916129B1
Circuits and methods are disclosed that allow devices to control the flow of DMA transfers to or from the devices using a token based protocol. In one example implementation, a DMA circuit includes a transfer control circuit that performs data transfers over a first data channel of a device, when transactions on the first data channel are enabled. The DMA circuit includes a flow control circuit that increments a token count for a data channel of a device when a token for the data channel is received and decrements the token count for each data transfer on the data channel performed by the DMA circuit. The flow control circuit enables data transfers on the data channel when the token count is greater than 0, and otherwise, disables data transfers on the data channel.
US09916128B2
A computer system may include logic configured to enable voice-enabled web pages. The logic may be configured to receive a request for a web page that includes Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) content and voice browser content from an HTML browser running on a user device; generate a co-browsing session identifier based on the received request; provide a response to the HTML browser, wherein the response includes the HTML content, the generated co-browsing session identifier, and an instruction to establish a Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC) connection with an interactive voice response (IVR) system associated with the voice browser content; receive an indication from the IVR system that the WebRTC connection has been established for the co-browsing session identifier; and provide the voice browser content to a voice browser in the IVR system, in response to receiving the indication that the WebRTC connections has been established for the co-browsing session identifier.
US09916120B2
A method and an electronic device for providing a screen mirroring service are provided. The method includes connecting a control channel to at least one other electronic device when an electronic device executes a screen mirroring service, transmitting screen data comprising an added virtual key, to the other electronic device, and performing a function based on a control signal corresponding to using the virtual key received from the other electronic device over the control channel.
US09916119B2
A multiple display method to be performed by two or more communication terminals to expand visibility is provided. A first communication terminal establishes a wireless connection with a second communication terminal, receives device information of the second communication terminal, generates first screen data based on the device information for configuring a first screen of the first communication terminal and second screen data for configuring a second screen of the second communication terminal in association with the first screen. The second screen data is transmitted to the second communication terminal.
US09916115B2
A computer-implemented method for providing access to plural virtual sequential access volumes by using random access media, includes: accepting an operation for writing first data to a specific virtual sequential access volume of the plural virtual sequential access volumes; and storing a first file including the first data in the random access media, the first file being separate from a second file including second data stored in the random access media in response to an operation for writing the second data to the specific virtual sequential access volume.
US09916113B2
Disclosed is a data processing and/or storage system. The data processing and/or storage system includes at least two interfaces, wherein each of the at least two interfaces includes a non-dedicated communication port for communicating data to and form external data systems or clients based on a rule base.
US09916101B2
A method of data replication from a first data storage device to a second data storage device. The method may include generating, at the first data storage device, at spaced time intervals, a plurality of snapshots for a logical data volume of the first data storage device, the logical data volume being an abstraction of data blocks from one or more physical storage devices, each snapshot identifying changes of data for at least a portion of the logical data volume since a most previous snapshot. Also at the first data storage device, the method includes generating a delta volume, the delta volume indicating changes in the data of at least a portion of the logical data volume between two non-consecutive snapshots. The method further involves replicating the delta volume to the second data storage device, and replicating the changes to the data indicated therein at the second data storage device.
US09916100B2
The disclosed techniques enable push-based piggybacking of a source-driven logical replication system. Logical replication of a data set (e.g., a snapshot) from a source node to a destination node can be achieved from a source-driven system while preserving the effects of storage efficiency operations (deduplication) applied at the source node. However, if missing data extents are detected at the destination, the destination has an extent pulling problem as the destination may not have knowledge of the physical layout on the source-side and/or mechanisms for requesting extents. The techniques overcome the extent pulling problem in a source-driven replication system by introducing specific protocols for obtaining missing extents within an existing replication environment by piggybacking data pushes from the source.
US09916099B2
A method and apparatus for staged execution pipelining and allocating resource to staged execution pipelines are provided. One or more execution pipelines are established, where each of the one or more execution pipelines includes one or more execution stages. Data is provided to the one or more execution pipelines for processing and resources are allocated to the execution pipeline.
US09916087B2
Systems, methods, and/or devices are used to manage a storage system. In one aspect, the method includes, during a first time period: maintaining a credit pool for the first time period; limiting bandwidth used for transmitting data between a storage device of the storage system and a host operatively coupled with the storage device according to a status of the credit pool, where the storage device includes one or more memory devices; monitoring a temperature of the storage device; and, in accordance with a determination that a current temperature of the storage device exceeds a predetermined threshold temperature and the current temperature of the storage device satisfies one or more temperature criteria, reducing an initial value of the credit pool for a second time period according to a first adjustment factor corresponding to the predetermined temperature threshold, where the second time period is subsequent to the first time period.
US09916085B2
The present disclosure provides a mobile terminal including a display unit configured to enable a touch input, and a controller configured to execute a first touch sensing mode for processing a touch input applied to a specific position of the display unit as a control command for the specific position, wherein the controller configured for cooperating with the display unit to: execute a second touch sensing mode which is a different type of sensing mode from the first touch sensing mode, sense a user's touch input within a first region of the display unit in the second touch sensing mode, and process the user's touch input as a control command corresponding to a touch input to a second region of the display unit.
US09916078B2
A mobile terminal includes a terminal body having a front surface and a rear surface, an input unit disposed at the rear surface to sense an input of a control command and a controller configured to process an input applied to the input unit. The input unit includes a first button portion exposed at an outside of the terminal body at the rear surface of the terminal body and configured to receive a push input corresponding to a first function and a second button portion surrounding the first button portion and configured to receive a push input corresponding to a second function different from the first function, the second button portion including keys disposed adjacent the first button portion.
US09916077B1
A user computing device for content presentation to a user is provided. The user computing device includes an interactive surface including an input device and a display device. The display device is configured to provide content presentation to the user. The input device is configured to generate an indication of a gesture when performed by the user. The user computing device also includes at least one processor configured to display a first content item to the user through the display device. The at least one processor is also configured to receive an indication of a continuous gesture made by the user using the input device during the display of the first content item. The at least one processor is also configured to alter the display of the first content item based at least in part on the indication of the continuous gesture.
US09916076B2
A display control unit (23) scrollably displays a plurality of images to be displayed in a specific display area within a screen. An operation receiving unit (21) receives a scroll instruction and a display mode switching instruction that are issued in response to a user operation. When a display mode is switched, the display control unit (23) switches a display in the display area such that, among the plurality of images in the display area displayed in the first display mode, at least one image located as a position that goes out of the display area first upon scroll in a forward direction is arranged, upon a switch to a second display mode, at a position that also goes out of the display area first upon scroll in the forward direction in the display area.
US09916069B2
An adaptive user interface of a computing device receives a user input triggering an animation in the user interface. The animation is configured to progress from an animation start to an animation finish in a transition time dynamically selected from a range of possible transition times based on a duration between the user input triggering the animation and an immediately previous user input. The animation is presented with the dynamically selected transition time.
US09916063B2
A method and system for performing quick reply operations are disclosed. The method for quick reply operations includes displaying a text box; determining a display area of the text box; and receiving a user instruction. The method further includes determining whether the user instruction is a pull-down gesture in the display area of the text box; determining whether the pull-down gesture exceeds a threshold length; and displaying a quick reply text box. The method and system consistent with the present disclosure implement quick reply functions and improve the user experience for replying to various messages and postings.
US09916061B2
A system having a processor is provided that visually manipulates objects on a touch screen responsive to inputs through the touch screen. Based at least in part on data representative of type and size for a plurality of prior objects displayed through a display device, the processor may determine that at least one input through the input device corresponds to a further object having a determined type corresponding to at least one of the prior objects and having a size within predetermined tolerances of corresponding to the at least one of the prior objects. Also the processor may cause responsive thereto the display device to display a replacement object in place of the further object having a size and shape corresponding to the at least one prior object.
US09916048B2
An input display device includes a liquid crystal layer containing liquid crystal molecules that are homogeneously aligned in an absence of an electric field, a first polarizer disposed on a viewing side of the liquid crystal layer, a capacitive sensor disposed between the first polarizer and the liquid crystal layer, and an antistatic layer disposed between the first polarizer and the capacitive sensor, the antistatic layer being attached to the first polarizer. The capacitive sensor has a transparent substrate, a transparent electrode pattern formed on the transparent substrate, and a first adhesive layer formed on the transparent substrate to embed the transparent electrode pattern, and the antistatic layer has a surface resistance value of 1.0×109 to 1.0×1011Ω/□.
US09916047B2
In certain embodiments, a touch sensor comprises a substrate and a plurality of electrodes disposed on the substrate. The plurality of electrodes comprise a drive line having a plurality of drive electrodes and a sense line having a plurality of sense electrodes. At least one of the drive line and sense line has at least three rows of electrodes.
US09916037B2
A computing device includes a housing and a display assembly having a screen. The housing at least partially circumvents the screen so that the screen is viewable and a set of touch sensors are provided with the display assembly. A processor is provided within the housing to detect a gesture via the set of touch sensors, and to interpret the gesture as one of a plurality of user inputs. The processor further detects a presence of extraneous objects on a surface the screen of the display assembly, and adjusts one or more settings of the computing device in response to detecting the presence of extraneous objects. For example, the processor may adjust the one or more settings by reconfiguring a set of actions to be performed in response to the plurality of user inputs.
US09916036B2
An area of a region arranged on one side out of a display region in a direction in which scanning signal lines extend is reduced. A display apparatus includes: a partial circuit; a plurality of scanning signal lines; and a plurality of scanning signal connection wirings for connecting the partial circuit and each of the plurality of scanning signal lines. Each of the plurality of scanning signal lines extends in an X-axis direction, and is arranged with a pitch in a Y-axis direction. A plurality of ends respectively included in the plurality of scanning signal connection wirings are connected to the partial circuit, and are arranged in the Y-axis direction. A distance in the Y-axis direction between the respective centers of the two ends adjacent to each other is narrower than the pitch.
US09916035B2
A display device with an integrated touch screen and a method of driving the same are provided. In a method of driving a display device including an integrated touch screen, including a panel including a plurality of electrodes that are divided into n number of groups, where n is an integer greater than or equal to two, and a touch sensing unit, the method includes: applying data voltages to a plurality of pixels of the panel, during a high logic period of a horizontal sync signal, and applying, by the touch sensing unit, a touch scan signal to one of the n groups every n or more low logic periods of the horizontal sync signal, the touch scan signal being applied to each of the n groups at least one time, during one frame.
US09916034B2
A display device with a touch detection function includes a control device that performs, in normal operation mode, image display control so as to exhibit an image display function of a display function layer based on an image signal and performs touch detection control; a touch detecting unit that detects, in the normal operation mode, a position of an object in proximity to or in contact with the touch detection electrode based on a detection signal transmitted from the touch detection electrode; and a touch-detection controller that detects, in sleep mode, the proximity of the object to or the contact thereof with the touch detection electrode. When the touch-detection controller detects the proximity of the object to or the contact thereof with the touch detection electrode in the sleep mode, the control device controls a pixel electrode to a predetermined potential, and thereafter supplies a touch drive signal to a drive electrode.
US09916025B2
Techniques include receiving a pressure input from a user of a user device at a pressure-sensitive display of the device and determining that the display is covered (e.g., obscured from the user's view) using the device. The techniques further include, in response to receiving the pressure input and determining that the display is covered, receiving a search query from the user at the device via voice input, transmitting the query to a search system via a network using the device, and receiving search results from the system at the device subsequent to transmitting the query. The techniques also include performing one or more actions associated with the search results using the user device (e.g., displaying the results to the user at the display, providing a text-to-speech or playback output for the results to the user, and/or forwarding the results to another computing device for display and/or text-to-speech or playback output).
US09916024B2
Disclosed is a touch display device with tactile feedback function, including a first substrate (10), a second substrate (20), a liquid crystal layer (30), a patterned conductive layer (50) and an insulation layer (40); the patterned conductive layer (50) comprises a plurality of first signal lines (1) which are separately arranged in parallel and extended along a horizontal direction, and a plurality of second signal lines (2) which are separately arranged in parallel, and extended along a vertical direction, and insulated with the first signal lines (1); a side of the second substrate (20) close to the liquid crystal layer (30) includes a plurality of third signal lines (3) which are separately arranged in parallel along the vertical direction; the touch scan is achieved with the first and the third signal lines (1, 3), and the tactile feedback is achieved with the first and the second signal lines (1, 2).
US09916023B2
A display panel and a display device, where the display panel includes a display region and a frame region surrounding the display region. The display panel includes a peripheral touch structure disposed in the frame region and an internal touch structure disposed in the display region.
US09916017B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods, and computer storage media directed to a smart eraser. As such, a particular drawing stroke on a canvas or background can be erased without erasing other strokes overlapping with the eraser path. In some implementations, smart eraser functionality can be triggered by beginning an eraser path at a point that coincides with the stroke to which the smart eraser functionality is to be applied.
US09916016B2
Provided are a method of inputting a user input by using a mobile device and a mobile device using the method. The method of performing operations of the mobile device according to a plurality of input modes, the method being performed by the mobile device, includes operations of, determining whether the mobile device is placed on a surface, if the determining of whether the mobile device is placed on the surface indicates that the mobile device is placed on the surface, changing an input mode of the mobile device, and performing a preset operation that corresponds to the changed input mode.
US09916014B2
A display module includes an electronic display screen and a sensor operable to detect radiation reflected to a surface of the electronic display screen. A method of detecting an object is also disclosed.
US09916012B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus including a hand shape recognition unit that performs hand shape recognition on an input image to detect a position and a size of a hand with a specific shape in the input image, a determination region setting unit that sets a region in a vicinity of the hand on the input image as a determination region used to recognize a gesture performed using the hand, based on the position and the size of the hand, and a gesture recognition unit that recognizes the gesture by monitoring movement of the hand to the determination region.
US09916006B2
A software controlled user interface and method for a head-mountable device equipped with at least one display, and connectivity to at least one touch pad. The method can scale between displaying a small to large number of different eye gaze target symbols at any given time, yet still transmit a large array of different symbols to outside devices. At least part of the method may be implemented by way of a virtual window onto the surface of a virtual cylinder, with touchpad or eye gaze sensitive symbols that can be rotated by touchpad touch or eye gaze thus bringing various groups of symbols into view, and then selected. Specific examples of use of this interface and method on a head-mountable device are disclosed, along with various operation examples including sending and receiving text messages, moving about in virtual or augmented reality, control of robotic devices and control of remote vehicles.
US09916005B2
The invention is directed to systems, methods and computer program products for gaze tracking. An exemplary method includes directing light into an eye using a projector; detecting, using an image-capturing module, a reflection from a surface associated with the eye; and determining a line of sight associated with the eye based on the detected reflection. In some embodiments, the light comprises infra-red light. In some embodiments, the projector comprises a laser. In some embodiments, the projector comprises a liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) chip. In some embodiments, the surface associated with the reflection is at least one of the cornea, the iris, or the retina.
US09916001B2
An apparatus comprises a sensor to be carried by a piece of sporting equipment and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing program logic that operates different operational modes. The program logic receives signals from the sensor, determines from the signals whether the piece of sporting equipment is in a sport action state or a mode input state, records a sport action result in response to determination that the piece of sporting equipment is in a sport action state, and switches the program logic to a different operational mode in response to determination that the piece of sporting equipment is in a mode input state.
