| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US07866113B2 |
System and method for adjustable repair and reinforcement of non-standard doors and jambs
A door security system serves to substantially improve the reliability of the entire door assemblies with non-standard door jamb thicknesses. The system may comprise up to four or more components. An adjustable door jamb shield may be mounted around a door jamb on the side of the door jamb corresponding to the door slab free swinging edge. Another adjustable door jamb shield may also be mounted on a door jamb on the hinge side of the door jamb. The adjustable shields comprise attachable sleeves that wrap on three sides around the door jamb to reinforce and stabilize the door system. |
| US07866105B2 |
Flangeless insulation product for compression fitting into insulation cavities
A system provides insulation products for a plurality of insulation wall cavities in buildings, where a substantial portion of the insulation wall cavities have a known nominal width. The system includes providing flangeless insulation products having a blanket of fibrous insulation material and having a facing material with a width substantially equal to the width of the insulation blanket, with the width of the insulation blanket and the width of the facing material being greater than the nominal width of the plurality of insulation cavities. The increased width of the facing material to improves the seal of the facing material when the insulation product is placed within insulation wall cavities of the known nominal width in comparison to the seal provided by flanged insulation products applied with inset stapling to the same insulation wall cavities. |
| US07866104B2 |
Base structure for squash courts
A base structure for a ball court, and in particular a squash court, with a supporting structure resting on a base and a floor forming a playing surface resting on the supporting structure. The floor comprises a plurality of safety glass panes laid adjacent each other and which are freely vertically movable relative to one another and whose surface forming the playing surface is provided with a plurality of rough areas. The supporting structure has an elastic layer beneath the safety glass panes. |
| US07866103B2 |
Building wall panels of hollow core construction
Building wall panels having lightweight hollow core interiors include embodiments suitable for interior and exterior walls, for industrial, commercial or residential buildings, and for multi-story structures. Various methods for making these wall panels are disclosed, including the formation of cast gypsum firewall layers. |
| US07866101B2 |
Inflatable protective home barrier
A fire protection system for homes and other structures including a pliable multi-layered shroud of fire-resistant material having an inflatable support structure embedded therein. The inflatable support structure includes a web of inflatable channels for rapid deployment from a folded configuration to an inflated configuration in which the fire-resistant material partially envelops a structure. The shroud is packed in an enclosure having a bi-fold top panel for ease of access. The enclosure also has one or more air hose couplings to which the inflatable support structure is connected for rapid inflation and deployment out of the enclosure. A plurality of tethers are also provided as tie-downs, which anchor the heat resistant shroud. The system affords ample rapid deployment protection from neighboring fires and heat exposure therefrom. |
| US07866100B2 |
Wall sheathing system and method of installation
The invention comprises a wall sheathing barrier system having moisture permeability and simple improved installation method. The system comprises adjoined structural panels. Each panel has an overlay paper bonded permanently to the structural panel, which provides a moisture permeable barrier and a textured skid-resistant surface. The skid resistant surface may include indicia for aligning strips of tape or for aligning fasteners. Further, the seams of adjoining panels are sealed with a sealing means to complete the moisture barrier. |
| US07866098B2 |
Mounting system for a solar panel
An integrated module fame and racking system for a solar panel is disclosed. The solar panel comprises a plurality of solar modules and a plurality of splices for coupling the plurality of solar modules together. The plurality of splices provide a way to make the connected modules mechanically rigid both during transport to the roof and after mounting for the lifetime of the system, provide wiring connections between modules, provide an electrical grounding path for the modules, provide a way to add modules to the panel, and provide a way to remove or change a defective module. Connector sockets are provided on the sides of the modules to simplify the electrical assembly of modules when the modules are connected together with splices. |
| US07866096B2 |
Slope compensator for pedestal for elevated floors
A slope adjustable head for an adjustable pedestal (10) for supporting beams, panel members, typically pavers, in accurate edge aligned relation, in a level plane is disclosed. The pedestal (10) includes a base block (12) and a series of inter-engaging threaded annular elements (20, 30) which can be rotated relative to each other to adjust the height of the top of the pedestal in a screw jack fashion. A slope compensator is located at the top of the pedestal and comprises a slope compensation plate (100) and a head member (50). Rotation of the slope compensation plate (100) about its center of curvature causes the angle of the adjustment plate relative to the vertical axis to change thus allowing for compensation for the slope of the surface on which the pedestal is standing. |
| US07866095B2 |
Roof edge vortex suppressor
An apparatus attached to the roof perimeter to mitigate wind-generated vortices and uplift loads on the roof perimeter area of a building, applicable for both new constructions and retrofits of existing buildings. The apparatus comprises at least one face portion having face perforation and/or edge serration for increasing small-scale turbulence entrainment, equalizing pressure and disorganizing edge shear layer vorticity, and thus disrupting vortex formation. A roof edge vortex suppressor is preferably mounted along the entire circumference of a roof perimeter. |
| US07866093B2 |
Roof object support system
A support block for supporting objects on a roof. The support block is a moulded elastomeric block with a substantially hollow core. The support block can be used as is or in a system whereby a galvanized steel channel is secured to the top wall of the block accommodating the mating of a variety of clamps. In some embodiments, the block is elongate and generally flat and supports a roof mounted object thereon when two or more blocks are supported parallel and spaced apart from one another with the object spanning between the blocks. |
| US07866087B2 |
Method for repotting plants, as well as a planting head and an apparatus provided with a planting head
Plants are repotted by moving a rootball from a first rootball container to a second rootball container using a planting head. The planting head has legs with pins which may be in a first retracted position or in a second extended position. In a first step the planting head is brought above the rootball surface. In a second step the distance of the distal ends of the legs to the central axis of the planting head is reduced. In a third step the pins are inserted into the rootball. In a fourth step the distal ends of the legs are brought closer together. Then the rootball is taken out of the first rootball container and deposited into the second rootball container. The invention also relates to an apparatus for carrying out the method. |
| US07866086B2 |
Method and apparatus for trapping animals
A repeating animal trap is described that humanely captures animals and allows for their safe release. In one embodiment, the animal trap includes a wire body that forms a cage. The cage includes one or more animal entrances. The one or more animal entrances are each configured such that an animal enters from outside the cage and traverses a passageway that ends about the middle of the cage. The natural instincts of the animal causes the animal to go toward the perimeter and corners of the cage to escape. The natural instinct assists in keeping the animals from finding their way back into the passageway to leave the cage. To further keep animals from leaving the cage via the passageway, a passageway door is provided for each passageway. Each door is configured with a bias and a shape that precludes the animal from opening the passageway door once inside the cage. |
| US07866084B1 |
Fishing jig with easy tie eye
A fishing jig with a hook that has an oversized eye and a jig head that has a funnel-shaped lead-in area. The oversized eye makes it easy to insert the fishing line into the eye. The funnel-shaped lead-in area is used to guide the line directly into the eye of the hook. |
| US07866083B2 |
Modular flashlight apparatus for firearm
The present disclosure relates to a flashlight apparatus including a base module having a mount adaptor mountable on a firearm, a reflector module removably attachable to the base module, a power source module removably attached to the base module, and a light source module removably attachable to the base module, the light source module including an illumination light source and a laser light source. In a further aspect, an identification friend or foe system is provided. |
| US07866080B2 |
Speed loader for a gun, and related systems and methods
A loader for inserting an ammunition cartridge into a gun's magazine includes a body operable to hold two or more ammunition cartridges, a retainer to prevent a cartridge held by the body from leaving the body and operable to release a held cartridge from the body to position the cartridge for insertion into a gun's magazine, and an insertion component to exert pressure on a positioned cartridge to insert the cartridge into the gun's magazine. When the loader is used to insert a cartridge into a gun's magazine, the insertion component extends into the gun's carrier opening, a cartridge from the body is positioned on the insertion component, and the body is then moved relative to the gun's magazine. By holding the cartridges with the body and forcing a positioned cartridge into the gun's magazine with the insertion component, one can quickly and efficiently load a gun's magazine. |
| US07866079B2 |
Modular barrel assembly
A modular barrel assembly for firearms that includes a breech section formed from a high-strength material and a barrel section. the barrel section generally is formed separately from the breech section and can be formed from a different, lighter-weight material. Once formed, the barrel and breech sections are attached together to form the complete barrel assembly. |
| US07866075B2 |
Button capture sign system
A single or double post sign structure that is configured to accommodate the attachment of panels to one or both sides of a vertical upright. The sign panel is provided with keyed indentations that are located at the top and bottom edges of the panel to permit capture and rigid securement of the sign panel by a pair of retaining buttons that are used to anchor the sign panel to the sign post. Each retaining button is provided with protrusions corresponding to the keyed indentations of the sign panel. As a result, when the protrusion of the retaining button is engaged and seated in the keyed indentation of the sign panel, it becomes locked in place so that there is no room for lateral movement or removal of the panel. As a result, vandals or thieves are prevented from laterally sliding the sign panel to improperly remove it. |
| US07866069B2 |
Conveyor and suction band for industrial drying, ironing and folding machines and production method thereof
The belt is of those which have a flat configuration and is closed by means of staples (6) or similar. Said belt comprises a mesh fabric (1), with warp (12) and weft (11), in which a plurality of holes (2) of size and determined density are defined, said fabric (1) being covered and thermofixed by a coating (3) of nonslip and temperature-resistant material. The weft (11) has some reinforced areas (4) alternating with some clearer areas (5), in which the weft (11) has a lower concentration of threads or fibres and, jointly with the warp (12), it defines the holes (2). The invention includes a method of manufacturing said belt (1). |
| US07866067B2 |
Heater box for snow blower
A snow blower is provided that includes a muffler and a heater box that has a top wall. The heater box has a plurality of side walls that extend from the top wall. The top wall and side walls define an interior of the heater box. One of the side walls defines a muffler aperture for use in venting exhaust gases from the muffler. The muffler is at least partially located in the interior of the heater box so that the side walls of the heater box surround at least a portion of all of the sides of the muffler. |
| US07866065B2 |
Integrated buckle strap receiver for footwear
An attachment system for securing footwear to a wearer's foot that includes an integrated buckle strap receiver, which may be disposed on a portion of a footwear upper, comprising an overstrap and securing plate having a unitary construction; a buckle strap having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end of the buckle strap is capable of engaging the integrated buckle strap receiver; and a buckle operably coupled to the second end of the buckle strap for engaging an anchor on an opposing portion of the footwear upper. |
| US07866063B2 |
Article of footwear with shock absorbing heel system
An article of footwear with a shock absorbing heel system is disclosed. The heel system includes a lower heel plate, a set of support members, and an upper heel plate. Also, the heel system includes a heel cover configured to hide the upper heel plate from view. The lower heel plate is associated with a cantilever portion that supports the upper heel plate laterally. As force is applied to the heel system, the support members may compress slightly and the cantilever portion may lower, absorbing energy and or shocks applied by the ground. |
| US07866058B2 |
Spin head and substrate treating method using the same
A spin head includes a rotatable plate, first chucking pins and second chucking pins for supporting a edge portion of a substrate loaded on the plate, and a driving unit for selectively driving the first and second chucking pins. The driving unit includes a first magnet connected to the first chucking pin and disposed at a first height, a second magnet connected to the second chucking pin and disposed at a second height, and a driving magnet for driving the first and second magnets. The driving magnet is elevated by means of an elevating member to selectively apply a magnetic force to the first or second magnet and moves in the radius outside direction of the first or second chucking pin due to a magnetic force. |
| US07866055B2 |
Level provided with impact-absorbing end caps
The present invention provides a level having a body which has a first end, a second end opposed to the first end, and a plane surface which connects the first and second ends, at least one level indicating device mounted to the body, and two end caps which are mounted onto the first and second ends, respectively. Each end cap has an outer end which is distributed by a plurality of resilient portions with small surface area for absorbing impact if the level is accidentally dropped or impacted. |
| US07866054B2 |
Apparatus and method for indicating direction
A pointing device adapted to allow a user to set a pointing arrow to point towards another location, such as a city in another country. The pointing arrow is adapted to not point in a direction along the surface of the earth but to point accurately through the Earth. An apparatus including a pointing device and a calculation portion adapted to allow the user to determine how to point the pointing arrow towards the desired location. The calculation portion may include an electronic device and may include the use of a global computer network. |
| US07866049B2 |
Universal blister pack opener
A hand tool for removing individual items contained in a blister package having an upper surface with raised protrusions with a given individual width containing each item and a lower sheet that holds the items within the protrusions. The hand tool includes a cutting blade having a piercing tip and slicing arms that extend outwardly from opposite sides of the piercing tip. Also included is a handle that is usable for urging the piercing tip through a protrusion and beneath a product item such that the blade will slice into the protrusion between the item and the package lower sheet. The configuration of the blade's piercing tip and slicing arms generate tactile force feedback to the user. The tactile force feedback guides the user to apply appropriate force to open the raised protrusion enough to empty its contents without damaging or losing the contents. |
| US07866048B2 |
Power hand tool
A rotatable rear hand grip (3) is releasably locked at a desired rotational position by operation of a control lever member (4). The power hand tool includes: a tool body (1) including an engine for generating driving power used for performing work; a front hand grip (2) fixed to the tool body; a rear hand grip including: a control lever member coupled to the engine for controlling an output of the engine; a supporting mechanism for supporting the rear hand grip rotationally about an axis (AX) between the tool body and the rear hand grip; a locking mechanism for locking the rear hand grip at one rotational position about the axis in response to the control lever member; and a controlling mechanism (4d) for allowing the control lever member to control the output of the engine after the locking mechanism locks the rear hand grip. |
| US07866038B2 |
Through substrate, interposer and manufacturing method of through substrate
A through substrate which comprises a silicon substrate (10) having a through hole (19) penetrating a front surface (11) and a back surface (12), a oxidized silicon film (13) being provided along the inner wall surface of the through hole (19), layers (14, 15) comprising Zn and Cu, respectively, being formed on the inner wall surface of the oxidized silicon film (13), and a Cu plating layer (18) which has been grown from a Cu seed layer (17) along the inner wall surface of layers (14, 15) comprising Zn and Cu, respectively, via an insulating layer (16) between them. The above through substrate can provide a through electrode capable of avoiding the noise due to the cross talk. |
| US07866031B2 |
Method of manufacturing a vacuum encapsulation having an empty chamber
A seal is provided around a vacuum interrupter and an air-filled cavity, and a tube is provided within the seal. The tube has a first end open to the air-filled cavity and a second end open to an exterior of the seal. The seal, the vacuum interrupter, and the air-filled cavity are encapsulated. |
| US07866027B2 |
Motor driving device manufacturing method
A motor driving device manufacturing method for manufacturing a motor driving device including a motor case, a rotor, and a stator disposed concentrically with the rotor on the outer periphery of the rotor, includes a measuring step for measuring a position of the stator relative to an axial center of the rotor from an inner side of the stator using a measuring device inserted in the stator; an adjusting step for adjusting the position of the stator from the inner side of the stator based on a measurement result of the measuring step using an adjustment device inserted in the stator, wherein the measuring step and the adjusting step are executed in a rotor not-inserted state, in which the stator is housed in the motor case and the rotor is not inserted in the stator; a stator fixing step for fixing the stator in the motor case; and a rotor shaft-support step for inserting the rotor in the stator and shaft-supporting the rotor on the motor case. |
| US07866026B1 |
Method for making calibration-adjusted sensors
A sensor, and methods of making, for determining the concentration of an analyte, such as glucose, in a biological fluid such as blood or serum, using techniques such as coulometry, amperometry, and potentiometry. The sensor includes a working electrode and a counter electrode, and may include an insertion monitoring trace to determine correct positioning of the sensor in a connector. The sensor is calibration-adjusted, eliminating the need for a user to enter a calibration code or for the meter to read a calibration code. |
| US07866024B2 |
Method of manufacture for a push-pull cable assembly
A method of manufacturing is disclosed for a motion transmitting cable assembly having a conduit and a core longitudinally movable within the conduit. The method includes the steps of securing a conduit abutment fitting to an end of the conduit, inserting the core through the conduit, placing an end of the core into a mold while the core is extending through the conduit, injection over-molding a core attachment onto the end of the core, removing the core attachment from the mold. Finally, at least a portion of a guide tube over the juncture of the core and the core attachment. |
| US07866023B2 |
Arrangement for fastening a support of a scale and method for fastening the support, as well as a linear measuring device
An arrangement for fastening a support of a scale of a linear measuring device on a mounting surface of an object to be measured. The arrangement includes a clamping jaw and a force-exerting element urging the clamping jaw against the support. The clamping jaw acts together with the support in such a way that the clamping jaw urges said support with a clamping force that includes 1) a first force component against the mounting surface by the force-exerting element and 2) a second force component that urges the support against an attachment face extending transversely to the mounting surface. The attachment face is directly constituted by an attachment body, which can be fixed positively and free of play in a receptacle on the object to be measured. |
| US07866020B2 |
Method for repairing a crack in an electromechanical rotor, method for preventing crack growth in the same, electromechanical rotor and rotary electrical machine
A method for repairing a crack in an electromechanical rotor (10), including forming a plurality of slots (12) on a periphery of a core portion (11) of an electromechanical rotor (10) along an axial direction thereof; inserting coils into the slots (12), respectively; forming a plurality of wedges for maintaining the coils in the slots (12), respectively; and forming a cut hole (20) at the core portion (11) from an outer surface of the core portion (11) so as to remove at least a deeper area of a crack created at the core portion (11) at a contacting surface between the corresponding wedge and the corresponding slot (12). |
| US07866019B1 |
Method of making simulated landscaping rocks and edging blocks from expended plastic bottles
A method for converting expended plastic water bottles and other plastic beverage bottles into artificial landscape rocks and edging blocks by cutting a flap in an empty plastic bottle, filling the bottle with empty, crushed food cans, or compacted, expended plastic bottles, sealing the flap with wire lath and screws, wrapping the bottle with mason lath or chicken wire, or coating the bottle with a bonding agent, applying a stucco coating to the bottle, brushing the wet stucco, and coloring the stucco with a pigmenting agent. |
| US07866016B2 |
Equipment for producing light gauge shape sheet steel
An information processing system for producing a building material has a design drawing generator, a list generator and a member production controller. The design drawing generator generates design drawing information of an objective building. The list generator generates list information of the members used for the objective building. The member production controller controls the production of the members used for the objective building, based on the list information. |
| US07866015B2 |
High capacitance density vertical natural capacitors
Disclosed are embodiments of a method of forming a capacitor with inter-digitated vertical plates such that the effective gap distance between plates is reduced. This gap width reduction significantly increases the capacitance density of the capacitor. Gap width reduction is accomplished during back end of the line processing by masking connecting points with nodes, by etching the dielectric material from between the vertical plates and by etching a sacrificial material from below the vertical plates. Etching of the dielectric material forms air gaps and various techniques can be used to cause the plates to collapse in on these air gaps, once the sacrificial material is removed. Any remaining air gaps can be filled by depositing a second dielectric material (e.g., a high k dielectric), which will further increase the capacitance density and will encapsulate the capacitor in order to make the reduced distance between the vertical plates permanent. |
| US07866014B2 |
Casket with hidden hinge providing position adjustment of cap on shell
A casket comprises a shell, a lid closable on the shell, and a hinge mounting the lid to the shell. The hinge comprises a first hinge leaf attached to the shell, a second hinge leaf attached to the lid, a first link having a first end pivoted to the first hinge leaf, a second link having a first end fixed to the second hinge leaf, and the first and second links having respective second ends selectably fixable to one another at a plurality of positions along a length of the second link. |
| US07866009B1 |
Wedges for sheathing lock system
A wedge for retaining a tendon in an anchor has first, second, third, and fourth portions. The portions each have a channel. The first portion has a constant thickness from a first end to a second end. The second portion has a first end adjacent to the second end of the first portion and tapers from the first end of the second portion to a second end thereof. The third portion has a first end adjacent to the second end of the second portion and tapers from the first end of the third portion to a second end thereof. The fourth portion has a first end adjacent to the second end of the third portion and tapers from the first end of the fourth portion to a second end thereof. The channels of each of the portions have ribs. |
| US07866008B2 |
Adjustable fastener for foot apparel
A latching mechanism for securing foot apparel to a user's foot. The latching mechanism comprises a first connecting member, a second connecting member, wherein the first connecting member is capable of mating, or interlocking, with the second connecting member. The first connecting member includes a receiving head having an aperture, and an arm, wherein the arm is adjacent the receiving head and the second connecting member includes a locking tongue and an arm, wherein the arm is adjacent the locking tongue. In some embodiments, the first connecting member and second connecting member include a fastener element. The arm of the first connecting member and the arm of the second connecting member further include an aperture that is capable of receiving a securing mechanism. Additional embodiments of the latching mechanism also include a buckle system including a base having complementary sections capable of mating and being laterally adjustable, a button which actuates a floating locking mechanism, and a dome. |
| US07866007B2 |
Retained tension metal locking tie with 360 degree seal
A cable tie is disclosed. The cable tie includes a strap with an extended tab and a locking head secured to the strap. The locking head has a top and a bottom. The bottom of the locking head includes at least one relief slot that enables the locking head to deform when the cable tie is installed around a bundle of objects. The bottom of the locking head also includes at least one tab that extends away from the locking head. The extended tab of the strap, the at least one front tab of the locking head and the at least one relief slot in the bottom of the deforming locking head enable the cable tie to provide a 360 degree seal around the bundle of objects. |
| US07866004B1 |
Handle adaptor for transport carts and the like and associated method
A handle adaptor for transport carts includes a block-shaped lower member with first, second, third and fourth upper surfaces with inner edges. The inner edges are disposed below the inner edges of the first and second upper surfaces. A fifth upper surface is formed the inner edges and coextensively shaped posts are monolithically formed with the outside faces of the lower member. The posts have apertures formed in distal ends. A block-shaped upper member has lower surfaces with a passageway surrounding the proximal ends of the handles of the transport. The upper member further includes a curved flange with a groove that receives and captures an extension. The upper and lower members have passageways. A support plate includes a bracket with threaded shafts and a centrally registered slot. A cover has threaded aperture and a centrally registered slot. The adjustably pivoting mechanism includes a plurality of cotter pins. |
| US07865996B1 |
Sootblower with progressive cleaning arc
A sootblower of the short travel rotary furnace wall type having features which permit indexing of the angular position of the screw tube assembly during successive operating cycles. Indexing of the arc swept by the sootblower nozzle is provided through the use of a novel cam plate component and operating the sootblower in a manner which provides for indexing between operating cycles. |
| US07865995B2 |
Methods and apparatus for reducing buildup of deposits in semiconductor processing equipment
An apparatus for cleaning a gas tube includes an actuator and a plunger head attached to the actuator. The actuator is configured to reciprocate the plunger head along a longitudinal axis of the gas tube between a retracted position and an extended position and to rotate the plunger head from a first angular position to a second angular position. A method of cleaning a gas tube includes positioning a plunger head including a plurality of longitudinally extending tines in the gas tube, rotating the plunger head relative to a longitudinal axis of the gas tube, and scraping deposits from an interior surface of the gas tube using longitudinally extending edges of the tines. |
| US07865994B2 |
Vibrating hair brush
A vibrating hair brush for enhanced detangling of hair, comprising a head portion including a motor assembly for operating a vibrating actuator and a plurality of bristles depending from a bristle pad of the head portion, wherein the actuator is disposed for generating a vibrating movement of the bristles in a curvilinear direction generally within a plane parallel to the bristle pad. |
| US07865992B1 |
Dock leveler for loading dock with air bag actuator
A loading dock leveler having: a base with an inward end; a deck with a top platform, the deck having an inward end hingedly mounted to the inward end of the base for movement between an upper position and a lower position; a bellows assembly spaced a distance below the deck, the bellows assembly including an inflatable air bag with a bottom surface engaging the base and a top surface engaging a lever arm hingedly mounted to the base, the lever arm and air bag moving between an inflated position and a deflated position, the air bag having an internal chamber in communication with a source of pressurized air and an air vent; a support strut having an upper end engaging the deck and a lower end engaging the base, the support strut being moveable with the deck between: the lower position; and the upper position wherein the support strut supports the deck, and; a mechanical motion transfer device engaging the lever arm of the bellows assembly and engaging the base, the motion transfer device transferring relative motion between the base and the lever arm to the support strut, wherein the motion of the lever arm from the deflated to the inflated position moves the support strut from one of: the lower position to the upper position; and the upper position to the lower position. |
| US07865988B2 |
Sleeping surface having two longitudinally connected bladders with a support member
A sleep surface is formed by joining longitudinal sides of two juxtaposed air bladders, thereby providing a continuous sleep surface having two independently inflatable air chambers. A support member can be inserted between the two independently inflatable air bladders to provide a continuous sleep surface that eliminates vertical displacement of a user. |
| US07865985B2 |
Hydraulic column clamping
An operating table is shown, which comprises a table column with a column foot (10) and with a column head and also a bed connectable or connected to the column head, the column foot (10) having a floor-side baseplate (12) and a column-side footplate (14), the footplate (14) being mounted rotatably on the baseplate (12) and being secured, with a vertical play, by means of an abutment (24) against being lifted off from the baseplate (12), and at least one clamping cylinder (42) actuated by pressure medium being provided in order to tension the footplate (14) against the abutment (24). |
| US07865982B2 |
Hospital bed side rail with medical treatment control unit
A headwall is adapted for use with a bed in a room of a healthcare facility. The headwall comprises a service delivery unit movable relative to a wall of the room between a storage position and a use position allowing the bed to dock to the service delivery unit to receive one or more services from the service delivery unit. It is disclosed to use the headwall to provide services to patient care equipment mounted to a side rail of the bed. Such patient care equipment is, for example, a chest drainage unit, an infusion unit, or a vacuum bandage unit. |
| US07865980B1 |
Potty training system
A potty training system includes a base member having a substantially planer bottom surface and including a rubber coated bottom layer to maintain the system at a substantially stationary position during operating conditions. The base member further has a top surface that has an opening wherein a reservoir is removably positionable therein. An upper section connected to the lower section extends upwardly therefrom and has a plurality of slots for storing various objects. The system further includes a mechanism for playing an audio medium. A power source is connected to the playing mechanism and may include a rechargeable battery. The potty training system may further include at least one electronic device for providing audio sounds, a microprocessor connected to the at least one electronic device for controlling the operation thereof based upon an input provided by a user as well as a plurality of speakers connected to the microprocessor. |
| US07865979B2 |
Flush valve structure for a toilet tank
A toilet tank flush valve structure includes a valve base for installation in the outlet hole formed in the floor of a toilet tank and defining a water outflow passage and including a first valve member at the upper end of the water outflow passage. A float assembly is movable relative to the valve base between a sealing position in which a second valve member at a lower end of the float assembly engages the first valve member in sealing relationship and a flushing position in which the second valve member is spaced upwardly from the first valve member. The float assembly includes an outer shell that is open downwards and has a lower edge at which the shell is provided with the second valve member, and a closure member within the outer shell and cooperating with the outer shell to define a float chamber. The closure member is adjustable in position relative to the outer shell, whereby the float chamber is adjustable in volume. |
| US07865978B2 |
Eyemask
An eyemask is formed in such a structure that the protuberance shape of the coupling section (1A) of the first and second eyemask sections (2, 3) connected by the coupling section (1A) is made bigger, and that the light stopping walls (16) are formed on the planar inner face sections (6A) while the nose supporting plates (17) are formed on the annular rim sections (6) thus preventing the eyemask from shifting out of the nose (20) and achieving the light shielding effect. |
| US07865973B1 |
Adjustable hospital gown
A self-contained expandable hospital gown having a central retainment belt from which expandable adjustable upper and lower gown portions can be selectively deployed. Engagement and interlocking tabs provide deployment on the upper torso extending portion and a lower torso extending portion with independent retainment and positioning access openings associated therewith. |
| US07865972B2 |
Clothing for non-ambulatory and wheelchair bound people
Clothing for non-ambulatory people in the form of a shirt and pant legs. A pair of pant legs is each formed and sized to be pulled over a person's leg and having a length so as to reach a person's thigh area, with the pant legs being secured to the thigh area. The shirt has a front body portion and a back body portion. The back body portion is sized and configured to have a length sufficient to extend down to proximately a small or waist area of a person's back. The front body portion is sized and configured to have a length sufficient to extend down and be draped over a thigh area of the person, and has extended side portions configured for draping over each side of the person's body from proximately a waist area of the person down to the thigh area of the person. |
| US07865971B1 |
Child bib neck strap extension assembly
A child bib neck strap extension assembly includes a panel having a bottom edge, a top edge, a first lateral edge and a second lateral edge. The panel has a neck receiving notch therein extending into the top edge and extending towards the bottom edge. A pair of strap portions of the panel is defined between the notch and associated ones of the first and second lateral edges. At least one fastener is attached to the panel to allow the strap portions to be releasably attached together. An elongated strap has a front side and a backside. A securing member is attached to the elongated strap and is releasably engageable with the at least one fastener to extend the elongated strap between and releasably secure the elongated strap to each of the strap portions to selectively increase an effective length of the strap portions. |
| US07865969B2 |
Vibration damping device for glove
A vibration damping device for use in a work glove includes a planar plastic body having palm, thumb and finger areas, and a plurality of resilient, compressible projections extending outwardly from at least one surface of the body. Planar areas or webs in the knuckle and finger joint areas of the body make the device flexible for easy grasping of a tool and bunching of projections in such areas. Bunching of the projections is also avoided or reduced by arranging the projections in parallel, arcuate rows extending from the thumb side rearwardly toward the wrist end of the body. |
| US07870612B2 |
Antivirus protection system and method for computers
The example embodiments herein relate to an antivirus protection system and method for computers based on program behavior analysis. The antivirus protection system may comprise: a Process Behavior-Evaluating Unit for identifying the programs existing in the user's computers and classifying them into normal programs and suspect programs; a Program-Monitoring Unit for monitoring and recording the actions and/or behaviors of programs; a Correlation-Analyzing Unit for creating correlative trees and analyzing the correlations of actions and/or behaviors of programs, the correlative trees comprising a process tree and a file tree; a Virus-Identifying Knowledge Base, comprising a Program-Behavior Knowledge Base and a Database of Attack-Identifying Rules; a Virus-Identifying Unit for comparing captured actions and/or behaviors to the information in the Virus-Identifying Knowledge Base to determine whether the program is a virus program. With the techniques of certain example embodiments, it may be possible to increase efficiency and reduce the need to upgrade virus codes after viruses become active, while also effectively blocking unknown viruses, Trojans, etc. |
| US07870610B1 |
Detection of malicious programs
Various approaches for detecting unauthorized actions on a computing platform are disclosed. In one approach, a memory region is designated as tainted if data is received from an untrusted source (such as the network) and written to that region. Thereafter, destination regions may be designated as tainted based on an operation having source and destination parameters in which at least a portion of an address range of the source overlaps an address range of a tainted memory region, and data from the source is used to update the destination. If an argument in an invocation of a function call references a tainted memory region, the call is determined to be unauthorized and data is output indicative of the unauthorized call. |
| US07870609B2 |
Detection and removal of undesirable items in a data processing environment
Functionality is described for addressing a threat to the security of a user device that utilizes a network-accessible service. The functionality operates by assessing the likelihood that the user device is infected by the undesirable item. When the user device makes a request to access the network-accessible service, the functionality can interact with the user device in a manner that is governed by the assessed likelihood that the user device is infected by the undesirable item. |
| US07870607B2 |
Security and analysis system
A system for providing access to at least one specified application within a software system. The software system comprises security software and a software tool suite. The security software is adapted to authorize a user to access at least one specified application on a computer system comprising a security standard. The software tool suite is adapted to create or modify a user profile for the user. The user profile comprises at least one transaction necessary for the user to access the at least one specified application. The software tool suite is adapted to integrate in real time the user profile into the security software. The software tool suite is adapted to create a user profile report in real time to verify that the user profile is in compliance with the security standard of the computer system. |
| US07870600B2 |
Apparatus and method for secure configuration of shared powerline devices
Client adapter and method simplify security deployment in an EPN, including the shared services electrical power lines of a premises. With direct coupling, piggybacked adapter receives network signals and electrical from EPN-connected first adapter through a shared medium port. An authenticating adapter exchanges security management services and information with supplicant adapter. Two or more adapters may be piggybacked. Piggybacked adapters exchange security management service information without rogue intrusion. Exchanged information, stored, is later used to communicate securely. Defined adjacency (neighborhood) information can be exchanged, and a neighborhood established on an EPN, where one authorized neighbors securely communicate. |
| US07870591B2 |
Multipath data transmission system with transmission sequence identification of data packets for sequential reordering of received data packets
A first communication apparatus includes a data transmission unit that sequentially transmits each data forming a data stream to any of a plurality of transmission paths along with additional information indicating transmission sequence of the each data. A second communication apparatus includes a sequence specification unit that specifies the transmission sequence of the each data based on the additional information provided with the each data sequentially received from the first communication unit via the plurality of the transmission paths. |
| US07870590B2 |
System and method for fast start-up of live multicast streams transmitted over a packet network
A system for multicast streaming of programs over a packet network includes a node having a processor that conditions a video bitstream such that packets containing an I-frame are located near program specific information (PSI) packets, the processor marking a random join point (RJP) in the video bitstream immediately preceding the I-frame and PSI packets, the node outputting the conditioned and marked video bitstream across the packet network. An edge device of the network includes a buffer that caches packets of the conditioned and marked video bitstream video starting at the RJP, and sends the cached packets to a client receiver. |
| US07870588B2 |
Communication system incorporating mobile communication network and video broadcast network and method of same
This invention discloses a communication system incorporating a video broadcast network and a mobile communication network in which a plurality of base stations constitutes at least one cell cluster, said communication system comprising: a central control node which allocates time slots for broadcast video data to a broadcast transmission tower based on a predetermined schedule algorithm and allocates time slots and/or frequency for communication to said base stations; a plurality of base stations each of which communicates with terminals within the time slots for communication allocated by the central control node and at a predetermined frequency or the frequency allocated by the central control node; and a broadcast transmission tower which transmits signals to said terminals within the time slots for broadcast video data allocated by the central control node. |
| US07870587B2 |
Electronic television program guide schedule system and method with remote product ordering
An electronic program schedule system with product ordering capability which includes a data processor for receiving program schedule information for a plurality of programs, and a user control apparatus, such as a remote controller, for generating user control commands and transmitting signals to the data processor in response thereto. The television program schedule information is displayed on a display apparatus such as a television receiver. A video display generator receives video control commands from the data processor and program schedule information and displays a portion of the program schedule information on the receiver. The program schedule information indicates the availability of a product or service for certain of the programs included in the program information, wherein the product or service is associated with the program, such as a program transcript or videocassette. The viewer utilizes the remote control apparatus to generate a first command for displaying information on the receiver describing the product or service, and a second command for placing an order for the product or service. The data processor receives the user control commands and in response to the first command causes the video display generator to display information describing the product or service and in response to the second command generates an order for the product or service. |
| US07870586B2 |
Digital television signal, digital television receiver, and method of processing digital television signal
A digital television (DTV) signal for use in a DTV receiver includes an extended text table (ETT) which includes a header and a message body. The header includes a table identification extension field which serves to establish uniqueness of the ETT, and the message includes an extended text message (ETM). If the ETT is an event ETT, the table ID extension field includes an event identification which specifies an identification number of an event associated with the ETT. On the other hand, if the ETT is a channel ETT, the table identification extension field includes a source identification which specifies a programming source of a virtual channel associated with the ETT. A section-filtering unit included in the DTV receiver is able to use table identification extension fields of a plurality of ETTs for section-filtering a pertinent event or channel ETT from the ETTs. |
| US07870581B1 |
Signal processing apparatus and methods
A unified system of programming communication. The system encompasses the prior art (television, radio, broadcast hardcopy, computer communications, etc.) and new user specific mass media. Within the unified system, parallel processing computer systems, each having an input (e.g., 77) controlling a plurality of computers (e.g., 205), generate and output user information at receiver stations. Under broadcast control, local computers (73, 205), combine user information selectively into prior art communications to exhibit personalized mass media programming at video monitors (202), speakers (263), printers (221), etc. At intermediate transmission stations (e.g., cable television stations), signals in network broadcasts and from local inputs (74, 77, 97, 98) cause control processors (71) and computers (73) to selectively automate connection and operation of receivers (53), recorder/players (76), computers (73), generators (82), strippers (81), etc. At receiver stations, signals in received transmissions and from local inputs (225, 218, 22) cause control processors (200) and computers (205) to automate connection and operation of converters (201), tuners (215), decryptors (224), recorder/players (217), computers (205), furnaces (206), etc. Processors (71, 200) meter and monitor availability and usage of programming. |
| US07870579B2 |
Systems and methods for managing and distributing media content
In accordance with the present invention, a media content management application that allows a user to customize, assemble, distribute, and track one or more versions of media content based on semantic criteria is provided. |
| US07870574B2 |
Method and apparatus for automatically recognizing input audio and/or video streams
A method and system for the automatic identification of audio, video, multimedia, and/or data recordings based on immutable characteristics of these works. The invention does not require the insertion of identifying codes or signals into the recording. This allows the system to be used to identify existing recordings that have not been through a coding process at the time that they were generated. Instead, each work to be recognized is “played” into the system where it is subjected to an automatic signal analysis process that locates salient features and computes a statistical representation of these properties. These features are then stored as patterns for later recognition of live input signal streams. A different set of features is derived for each audio or video work to be identified and stored. During real-time monitoring of a signal stream, a similar automatic signal analysis process is carried out, and many features are computed for comparison with the patterns stored in a large feature database. For each particular pattern stored in the database, only the relevant characteristics are compared with the real-time feature set. Preferably, during analysis and generation of reference patterns, data are extracted from all time intervals of a recording. This allows a work to be recognized from a single sample taken from any part of the recording. |
| US07870573B2 |
Optical recording media and recording/reproducing methods and apparatuses for the same
An optical recording medium in which interference patterns formed from interference between signal light and reference light are recorded as data and a recording/reproducing method and apparatus for the optical recording medium. The optical recording medium including at least a recording layer in which predetermined data is recorded, wherein a thickness of a portion of the recording layer is larger than a thickness of another portion of the recording layer, wherein data is recorded in the thicker region, and the additional information of a recording condition and/or a reproducing condition is recorded in the thinner region. |
| US07870571B2 |
Disc guide of disc carrying device
An object of the present invention is to provide a disc guide of a disc carrying device composed of a guide plate made from a metal plate and guide projections made of a synthetic resin, and that can be easily produced at low cost. Multiple positioning holes where a large hole communicates into a small hole and step differences are arranged in the guide plate made from a metal plate, respectively; multiple engagement projections having a stopper with a large diameter at the end are arranged in the right and left guide projections made of a synthetic resin having a taper surface, respectively; after the stopper is inserted into the corresponding large hole while the inner end of each guide projection is overlapped to the step difference, the guide projection is slid and the engagement projection is moved toward the small hole; the inner end of the guide projection is disengaged from the step difference and the slide along the reverse direction is prohibited by the step difference; and the disc guide is mounted to the guide plate. |
| US07870570B2 |
Disk elevator system
Systems and methods are provided for transporting disks. In one implementation, a disk handling system is provided. The disk handling system includes a dispenser operable to dispense individual optical disks and one or more drives. The disk handling system also includes an elevator operable to transport optical disks received from the dispenser to the one or more drives along a first axis. |
| US07870568B2 |
Adaptive shared computing infrastructure for application server-based deployments
An adaptive system for dynamically provisioning a shared computing infrastructure among a plurality of software applications and a plurality of types of software application servers providing run-time environments for the software applications. The system includes computing engines assigned to execute instances of the software applications, clients accessing the computing engines to request and receive services from the software applications, and a broker device that dynamically allocates engines domains for executing the software applications. The broker device includes an optimization module for allocating the computing engines to the domains, and a configuration manager for configuring the engines. The configuration manager reconfigures a computing engine by halting a current instance of a first software application, and by loading and starting an instance of a second software application. The system is capable of reconfiguring software applications running in environments provided by different types of software application servers. |
| US07870567B2 |
Configuring a device using information from a device table
Provided are a method, system, and program for configuring a device using information from a device table. Device information is obtained for a device coupled to a system. The device information is provided to a device driver executing in the system. The device driver calls a method in response to determining the device driver does not support the device identified by the device information. The method provides device configuration information from a device table to the device driver. The device driver uses the device configuration information in the device table to configure the device for use in the system. |
| US07870558B2 |
Handle passing using an inter-process communication
Sharing access to resources using an inter-process communication (“IPC”) provides a connection in which references to resources are passed from a sender to a receiver in a trusted third party environment. A sender in possession of a reference to a resource, such as a handle to an object, may initiate the connection with the receiver. In turn, the receiver may accept or refuse the connection, and may further specify the types of resources in which the receiver is interested when accepting through the connection. Sharing access to resources in this manner advantageously insures that only a process that already has access to a resource is able to share that access with another process, and further that only processes that wish to do so will accept such access. |
| US07870556B2 |
Managing computing resources in graph-based computations
Executing graph-based computations includes: accepting a specification of a computation graph in which data processing elements are joined by linking elements; dividing the data processing elements into sets, at least one of the sets including multiple of the data processing elements; assigning to each set a different computing resource; and processing data according to the computation graph, including performing computations corresponding to the data processing elements using the assigned computing resources. |
| US07870552B2 |
System and method of providing a fixed time offset based dedicated co-allocation of a common resource set
Disclosed are a system, method and computer-readable medium relating to managing resources within a compute environment having a group of nodes or computing devices. The method comprises, for each node in the compute environment: traversing a list jobs having a fixed time relationship, wherein for each job in the list, the following steps occur: obtaining a range list of available timeframes for each job, converting each availability timeframe to a start range, shifting the resulting start range in time by a job offset, for a first job, copying the resulting start range into a node range, and for all subsequent jobs, logically AND'ing the start range with the node range. Next, the method comprises logically OR'ing the node range with a global range, generating a list of acceptable resources on which to start and the timeframe at which to start and creating reservations according to the list of acceptable resources for the resources in the group of computing devices and associated job offsets. |
| US07870551B2 |
Optimization of thread wake up for shared processor partitions
A mechanism is provided for biasing placement of a software thread on a currently idle and dispatched processor. The operating system starts with the last logical processor on which the software thread ran and determines whether that processor is idle and dispatched and considers each logical processor until a currently dispatched and idle logical processor is found. If a currently dispatched and idle logical processor is not found, then the operating system biases placing the software thread on an idle logical processor. |
| US07870547B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing patchable software systems
A method or corresponding apparatus manages deployment of a software patch (“patch”) by creating a given patch comprising at least one file and associating information with the given patch that prevents other patches from being installed over the given patch. In one some embodiments, patches are no longer delivered directly from a software engineer to a customer. Instead, the software engineer works with a patch manager that, among other tasks, may track a state of software on the customer's machine, allowing for installing another patch without producing adverse effects that may be caused by installing over the given patch. To install another patch, software on the customer's machine is set into a known state by uninstalling the given patch. Once in the known state, the other patch may be installed. |
| US07870546B2 |
Collaborative classloader system and method
Computer implemented method, system and computer program product for searching for a class in a data processing system having classloaders organized in both a classloader hierarchy and a classloader network. A computer implemented method for searching for a class in a data processing system having classloaders organized in both a classloader hierarchy and a classloader network includes receiving a request to load a class at a request receiving classloader in the classloader hierarchy. The request to load a class is forwarded to a gateway classloader in the classloader network, wherein the gateway classloader is also in the classloader hierarchy. The requested class is then searched for in the classloader network. |
| US07870545B2 |
Protecting shared variables in a software transactional memory system
For a variable accessed at least once in a software-based transactional memory system (STM) defined (STM-defined) critical region of a program, modifying an access to the variable that occurs outside any STM-defined critical region system by starting a hardware based transactional memory based transaction, within the hardware based transactional memory based transaction, checking if the variable is currently owned by a STM transaction, checking if the variable is currently owned by a STM transaction; if the variable is not currently owned by a STM transaction, performing the access and then committing the hardware based transactional memory transaction; and if the variable is currently owned by a STM transaction, performing a responsive action. |
| US07870539B2 |
System and method for cross-channel dependency resolution in a dependency model
A knowledge generation machine (KGM) that performs cross-channel dependency resolution is provided. The conventional dependency resolution process often treats irresolvable cross-channel references as an error state, thus ignoring sometimes critical software dependency information. By performing post-processing cross-channel resolution on the dependency model, the KGM can create a robust dependency model that includes dependencies for a software component in multiple segments of information. The dependency model is not restricted to modeling a single segmented space. |
| US07870536B2 |
Computer implemented method and system for sharing resources among hierarchical containers of resources
Computer implemented method, system and computer usable program code for sharing resources among a plurality of containers in a data processing system. A computer implemented method includes creating a shared container for at least one resource to be shared. Then the at least one resource to be shared is moved from an original container of the at least one resource to the shared container, and a link is created between the original container and the at least one resource to be shared in the shared resource container. A link can also be created between a subject resource container and a shared resource in the shared resource container to enable the subject resource container to access and use the shared resource. A shared resource can also be removed from the shared resource container and returned to an original resource container when sharing of the resource is no longer desired. |
| US07870535B2 |
Distributed development environment for building internet applications by developers at remote locations
A system and a method for developing Internet-hosted business applications composed of web services and software for use in such environments where applications and application components interoperate to perform requested business functions. The system and method of the present invention utilize a software development application services provider module (DASP), an Instantiatior module, a Builder module, an Applications Service Provider (ASP) Infrastructure Platform (AIP) module, and a hosted production environment module. The system and method of the present invention seeks to maximize the use of prior work to eliminate repetition and reduce development cost and development time. With each new project the library and experience increases. The system and method of the present invention can use developers and testers situated in diverse locations so that a larger pool of skilled people can be employed, the work can be done around the clock by using people all over the globe, and the costs can be reduced by directing work to people in countries with lower labor rates. The system and method of the present invention increases efficiencies and reduces costs to all parties by partnering the developers with third parties who are brought in at the beginning of development. |
| US07870529B2 |
Operational cycle assignment in a configurable IC
Some embodiments provide a method of designing a configurable integrated circuit (“IC”) with several configurable circuits. The method receives a design having several sets of operations for the configurable circuits to perform in different operational cycles. For at least a first set of operations that has a start operation and an end operation, the method assigns a particular operation in the first set to a first operational cycle based at least partially on the position of the particular operation with respect to the start and end operations. |
| US07870528B2 |
Method and system for unfolding/replicating logic paths to facilitate modeling of metastable value propagation
A net of an integrated circuit design is analyzed by unfolding paths on the receive side of an asynchronous boundary to facilitate modeling of the propagation of a metastable value from a receive latch to sinks of the net. The paths are unfolded by replicating combinational logic and wiring along the coincident portions to form non-intersecting, separate paths from the receive latch to two or more sinks. Common data or control inputs are provided for the gates in the replicated combinational logic. Driver logic may additionally be inserted along each replicated path, upstream of the combinational logic, to independently drive each of the sinks. |
| US07870527B2 |
Method for stacked pattern design of printed circuit board and system thereof
A method for designing stacked pattern of PCB utilizing genetic algorithm and the system thereof are disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: First of all, information data of stacked pattern is inputted into operational interface of the software; Next, initial solution sets of stacked pattern are generated; Then, duplications of the initial solution sets of stacked pattern are generated according to a fitness function; Afterward, crossover of the duplications of stacked pattern are performed at random; Then, mutations are executed by a probability at random; Finally, identification is performed to check if the solution approaches the standard of demand and the result of stacked pattern is shown; otherwise, operational step jumps to duplicate step and repeats above steps until satisfying solution is obtained. The most suitable way for package can be arranged out through making especially mathematical calculations by the system efficiently. |
| US07870525B2 |
Slack sensitivity to parameter variation based timing analysis
A method, system and program product are disclosed for improving an IC design that prioritize failure coefficients of slacks that lead to correction according to their probability of failure. With an identified set of independent parameters, a sensitivity analysis is performed on each parameter by noting the difference in timing, typically on endpoint slacks, when the parameter is varied. This step is repeated for every independent parameter. A failure coefficient is then calculated from the reference slack and the sensitivity of slack for each of the timing endpoints and a determination is made as to whether at least one timing endpoint fails a threshold test. Failing timing endpoints are then prioritized for modification according to their failure coefficients. The total number of runs required is one run that is used as a reference run, plus one additional run for each parameter. |
| US07870522B1 |
Efficient communication of data between blocks in a high level modeling system
A method communicates data with efficient conversion between representations in a high-level modeling system. The data is communicated from a first block in a first external format and the data is communicated to a second block in a second external format. The first block has a first internal representation of the data and the second block has a second internal representation of the data. The first internal representation is converted to the second internal representation without intermediate representation in the first and second external formats in response to different first and second external formats or different first and second internal representations. Conversion between the representations of the data is bypassed in response to like first and second external formats and like first and second internal representations. A signal instance is created that communicates the data between the blocks. Converters between data representations are installed in the signal instance on demand. |
| US07870521B2 |
Method of designing an electronic device and device thereof
A plurality of sequential nodes in a design file for an electronic device are identified and an effective switching capacitance is determined for a first sequential node of the plurality of sequential nodes based upon statically predicted operation of a first device downstream from the first sequential node. The effective switching capacitance for the first sequential node is stored, and the process is repeated for the other identified sequential nodes in the design file. |
| US07870517B1 |
Method and mechanism for implementing extraction for an integrated circuit design
An improved method and system for performing extraction on an integrated circuit design is disclosed. Extraction can be performed at granularities much smaller than the entire IC design, in which a halo is used to identify a geometric volume surrounding an object of interest to identify neighboring objects and generate an electrical model. The extraction approach can be taken for Islands, Nets, as well as other granularities within the design. Re-extraction of a design can occur at granularities smaller than a net. Some approaches utilize Island-stitching to replace an island within a net. An approach is also described for improving cross-references for cross-coupled objects. |
| US07870516B2 |
Asynchronous, multi-rail, asymmetric-phase, static digital logic with completion detection and method for designing the same
A method of converting a Boolean logic circuit into an asynchronous multi-rail circuit is provided. A Boolean logic circuit is converted into a first multi-rail circuit using at least Shannon's expansion. The first multi-rail circuit is technology mapped into a second multi-rail circuit. Completion detection circuitry is added which receives the primary outputs of the second multi-rail circuit. |
| US07870514B2 |
Method of designing a pattern
A method of designing a pattern of a hole pattern having a configuration, in which grid of interval smaller than a minimum permissible pitch according to a design rule for a semiconductor integrated circuit is provided in a pattern drawing, a hole pattern is arranged on a first lattice point which is an intersection of the grid, and, at the same time, other hole patterns are not arranged on a second lattice point group which is on the periphery of the first lattice point, and is adjacent to the first lattice point is provided. And, the number of hole patterns, which may be arranged in a third lattice point group of a plurality of lattice points which are on the periphery of a second lattice point group and are within a predetermined distance from the first lattice point, is controlled. |
| US07870508B1 |
Method and apparatus for controlling display of data on a display screen
In one embodiment, a method for controlling display of data includes identifying a data item selected by a user from multiple data items displayed on a display screen, and modifying the appearance of the multiple data items. The method further includes causing the multiple data items to be displayed on the display screen in the modified form, together with additional information pertaining to the selected data item, where the additional information is presented without obscuring the multiple data items displayed on the display screen. |
| US07870507B2 |
System and method for providing a dynamic user interface for a dense three-dimensional scene with a navigation assistance panel
A system and method for providing a dynamic user interface for a dense three-dimensional scene with a navigation assistance panel is presented. Clusters of semantically scored documents are placed in a three-dimensional scene and are arranged as a cluster spine. Each cluster spine is projected into a two-dimensional display. Controls operating on the cluster spines in the display are presented in a user interface. Compasses framing the cluster spines within the display are provided. A label to identify one concept in one or more of the cluster spines appearing within at least one of the compasses is generated. A plurality of slots in the display positioned circumferentially around the compasses are defined. Each label is assigned to the slot outside of the compass for the cluster spine having a closest angularity to the slot. A perspective-altered rendition of the two-dimensional display is provided by a navigation assistant panel. |
| US07870504B1 |
Method for monitoring a graphical user interface on a second computer display from a first computer
A high level interface between a remote computer and local computer operator permits the remote computer to be controlled via a sequence of interactions. The remote computer may be monitored for display information which is expected, and also controlled in the event the expected information either is or is not obtained. Command language extensions are provided which extend and complement a basic scripting language. Scripts with embedded command language extensions may be executed through a remote interface, permitting remote testing, operation and evaluation. The development of the scripts, including embedded command language extensions, may be prepared through execution of commands at the local computer on a depiction of the GUI received from the remote computer, and subsequently saved as a script. |
| US07870502B2 |
Retaining style information when copying content
An illustrative implementation is described for copying an identified portion of source content along with style information associated with the portion. The implementation allows the identified portion to be pasted into target content. By virtue of the extraction and retention of style information, the identified portion that is pasted into the target content visually resembles the identified portion as it appears in the source content. The implementation can identify relevant style information to be preserved based on a contextual analysis of style information applied to the source content. In one illustrative case, some of the style information may be revealed by parts of the content that are not directly demarcated by the identified portion. |
| US07870493B2 |
Distributed clipboard
Techniques for providing a shared clipboard to participants in a conversation are provided. The shared clipboard is specific to the conversation to which it is associated in that the shared clipboard does not “spill over” from one conversation to another. When a conversation between two or more participants is established, a shared clipboard becomes available to the participants of the conversation. The shared clipboard facilitates the sharing of data between the participants in the conversation. During the conversation, each participant in the conversation is provided access to the shared clipboard, including its contents. When a participant joins or is added to the conversation, the added participant is also provided access to the shared clipboard and its contents. |
| US07870492B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for managing commands in a client server environment
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided in which it is determined whether a command item associated with a user-interface control object is enabled. If the respective command item is enabled, indicate to a user that the respective command item can be selected to initiate a particular command to which the respective command item is associated. In response to the user's selection of the respective command item, route the particular command to a particular destination for execution, based upon one or more predetermined criteria associated with the particular command. |
| US07870490B2 |
On-the-fly device configuration and management
Translators are provided that enable automated and remote device configurations in an efficient and abstract manner. In one aspect, a device configuration system is provided. A configuration component stores one or more remote configuration trees for various devices. A translator component maps the remote configuration trees to at least one device configuration tree associated with the respective devices to enable device configuration in an automated manner. |
| US07870489B2 |
Content display control apparatus and content display control method
A interface unit, which while displaying a current content, receives input of reference information specifying a target content that will be switched to and viewed from the current content. A content sequence creation unit creates a content sequence in which one or more intermediate contents, which have been identified as related to at least one of the current content and the target content, are inserted between the current content and the target content. A display control unit controls content display by passing data to a display apparatus so that a content display is made in accordance with the created content sequence starting from the current content, proceeding through the intermediate contents which are inserted in order, and finally ending with the target content. |
| US07870488B2 |
Media editing system
An audio and video editing system is disclosed. The editing system uses a displayable object document that comprises: (i) a verbal transcript of an audio recording (e.g., a stored version of a recorded interview, etc.), and (ii) one or more hyperlinks into one or more video recordings, where each video recording is a stored version of a video recording (e.g., of a participant in a interview, etc.). Each hyperlink in the object document associates a portion of the stored video recording with a hyperlink caption in the object document. Each time code that appears in the object document is a hyperlink caption that points to a different portion of the video recording. A user can access a desired portion of the video recording by selecting the associated hyperlink caption in the object document. |
| US07870484B2 |
Page flow framework
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to a page flow framework. In aspects, a page flow engine includes logic to navigate between pages. To make its determination of what page is next, the page flow engine uses an indication of the current page and may also use properties associated with the pages. These properties may be filled in as a user enters values on the pages, for example. The page flow engine does not need any additional information to determine the next page besides the current page and the properties. The page flow engine may also store the pages visited in a travel log. This may be used to return previous pages. The page flow engine allows the page flow logic to be removed from the pages and placed in a centralized component. This simplifies creation and maintenance of page flow. |
| US07870476B2 |
System and method for creating a graphical presentation
A system and method for creating graphical presentations is disclosed. A pre-existing graphical presentation is scanned. Data points are extracted from the pre-existing graphical presentation. Corresponding data points are extracted from tabulated data. These corresponding data points are then inserted into the pre-existing graphical presentation to create a new graphical presentation. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. |
| US07870475B2 |
System and method for bookmarking and tagging a content item
The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for saving and tagging a content item available on a computer network, including saving and bookmarking a reference to a content item. According to one embodiment of a method according to the present invention, a user navigates to a content item and selects a control to save a bookmark to the content item. A bookmarking and tagging server receives one or more items of tag information that are related to the bookmarked content item, which are saved in conjunction with the one or more items of tag information. |
| US07870471B2 |
Methods and apparatus for employing redundant arrays to configure non-volatile memory
Systems, methods and apparatus are disclosed for employing redundant arrays to configure non-volatile memory. The present invention may include a substrate including a plurality of memory arrays, wherein the memory arrays include a data array and at least three redundant configuration arrays. The configuration arrays may each be adapted to be programmed with identical configuration information associated with operation of the data array. Majority voting logic with an output coupled to configuration inputs of the data array and inputs coupled to each of the redundant configuration arrays may be employed. The majority voting logic may be adapted to determine a configuration for the data array based upon an outcome of a majority vote function applied to the configuration information stored in the configuration arrays. Numerous other aspects are disclosed. |
| US07870468B1 |
Reed-solomon decoder using a configurable arithmetic processor
A Reed Solomon decoder utilizes re-configurable and re-usable components in a granular configuration which provides an upper array and a lower array of repeated Reconfigurable Elementary Units (REU) which in conjunction with a FIFO can be loaded with syndromes and correction terms to decode Reed Solomon codewords. The upper array of REUs and lower array of REUs handle the Reed Solomon decoding steps in a pipelined manner using systolic REU structures. The repeated REU includes the two registers, two Galois Field adders, a Galois Field multiplier, and multiplexers to interconnect the elements. The REU is then able to perform each of the steps required for Reed-Solomon decoder through reconfiguration for each step using the multiplexers to reconfigure the functions. In this manner, a reconfigurable computational element may be used for each step of the Reed-Solomon decoding process. |
| US07870466B2 |
Parallel cyclic code generation device and parallel cyclic code error detection device
To eliminate the need for buffering in order to calculate data length information on data as an object of computation, a first exclusive-OR unit 53 executes computation of exclusive-OR of a cyclic code R(x) of the integral multiple bit bits block A(x) and a data string of M bits, containing the fraction bits block B(x). A first shifting unit 54 shifts the exclusive-OR of the cyclic code R(x) and the data string of M bits, containing the fraction bits block B(x), by {M−H(k)} bits toward a least significant side, where M is a parallel width and H(k) is a bit length of the fraction bits block B(x). An R′(x) generation unit 55 generates a cyclic code R′(x) that is a cyclic code of the data after shifting. To obtain R″(x), a second shifting unit 56 shifts the cyclic code R(x) by H(k) bits toward a most significant side. A second exclusive-OR unit 57 executes computation of exclusive-OR of the cyclic code R′(x) and data R″(x). |
| US07870460B2 |
Magnetic disk drive capable of refreshing data written to disk and data refresh method
According to one embodiment, the controller controls a data refresh operation. The data refresh operation comprises a refresh-data read operation of reading L blocks of data by a head from a track to be refreshed on a disk, a data backup-write operation of writing the read data by the head to a backup-track on the disk, and a refresh-write operation of writing the read data by the head to the track to be refreshed after the backup-write operation. The controller sets the number L of blocks to a value that satisfies conditions for completing the backup-write operation and the refresh-write operation within a time corresponding to N revolutions of the disk from completion of the refresh-data read operation. |
| US07870456B2 |
Apparatus and method for recording and/or reproducing data on an information storage medium using padding information, and the information storage medium
An apparatus and method for recording and/or reproducing data on a disc are provided using padding information, and a corresponding information storage medium. The recording method includes recording a recording unit block in which invalid data is padded in part of the block and recording padding information indicating that the invalid data is included. According to the method, a disc drive becomes able to distinguish valid data from invalid data in an error correction block such that reliability of reproduction increases and stability of the system is improved. |
| US07870455B2 |
System-on-chip with master/slave debug interface
A System-on-Chip (SOC) integrated circuit (IC) debugging system includes a plurality of SOC ICs connected to a shared debug bus. One of the plurality of SOC ICs is a master SOC IC having a master/slave debug interface and a user interface. The master/slave debug interface on the master SOC IC is a bidirectional debug interface operable to send and receive debug data between the SOC ICs and an external host system. The host system is connected to the at least one of the plurality of SOC ICs via the user interface. |
| US07870454B2 |
Structure for system for and method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via built-in-self-test
A design structure for a system for and method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via built-in-self-test (BIST) is disclosed. In particular, a test system includes a tester for testing an integrated circuit that includes a BIST circuit and a test control circuit. The BIST circuit further includes a BIST engine and fail logic for testing an imbedded memory array. The test control circuit includes three binary up/down counters, a variable delay, and a comparator circuit. A method of performing high speed memory diagnostics via BIST includes, but is not limited to, presetting the counters of the test control circuit, presetting the variable delay to a value that is equal to the latency of the fail logic, setting the BIST cycle counter to decrement mode, presetting the variable delay to zero, re-executing the test algorithm and performing a second test operation of capturing the fail data, and performing a third test operation of transmitting the fail data to the tester. |
| US07870453B2 |
Circuit arrangement and method of testing an application circuit provided in said circuit arrangement
According to an example embodiment, there is an integrated circuit arrangement with at least one application circuit to be tested, and with at least one self-test circuit for testing the application circuit and generating at least one pseudo-random test sample. wherein said The pseudo-random test sample is converted into at least one test vector that is programmable and/or deterministic and is supplied to the application circuit for testing purposes via at least one logic gate and at least one signal that is applied to said logic gate. The output signal arising in dependence on the deterministic test vector is evaluated by the application circuit by at least one signature register. Furthermore, there is a method of testing the application circuit such that Built In Self Test (BIST) hardware connected to the additional deterministic logic is reduced; it is suggested that the signal supplied to the logic gate is made available by a Bit Flipping Function (BFF) logic circuit based on at least one self-test circuit. |
| US07870449B2 |
IC testing methods and apparatus
A testing circuit has a shift register circuit (76) for storing instruction data for the testing of an integrated circuit core. Each stage of the shift register circuit comprises a first shift register storage element (32) for storing a signal received from a serial input (wsi) and providing it to a serial output (wso) in a scan chain mode of operation, and a second parallel register storage element (38) for storing a signal from the first shift register storage element and providing it to a parallel output in an update mode of operation. The testing circuit further comprises a multiplexer (70) for routing either a serial test input to the serial input (wsi) of the shift register circuit or an additional input (wpi[n]) into the serial input of the shift register circuit (76). In a preferred example, the testing circuit further comprises a control circuit (78) which responds to a specific value of data stored in at least one stage of the shift register to generate an update signal for setting the other shift register stages into the update mode of operation. |
| US07870447B2 |
Method and system for carrying out a process on an integrated circuit
System and method for carrying out a process on an integrated circuit. The method includes reading a data key including subkeys, determining a process parameter set using a parameter directory in a manner dependent on the data key read in, and setting the parameters required for the process in accordance with the process parameter set determined. The parameter directory includes rule keys each having subkeys, which are each assigned predeterminable values from a plurality of values, and at least one subkey is assigned a wildcard, and a plurality of process parameter sets each respectively assigned at least one rule key. The step of determining a parameter set includes comparing the data key read in with the rule keys stored in the parameter directory, determining the rule key(s) whose subkeys match those of the data key read in, and outputting the process parameter set(s) assigned to the rule key(s) determined. |
| US07870442B2 |
Read interchange optimization
A method in one embodiment includes detecting an identifier of a drive that has written data to a data storage medium; performing a data transfer operation to read the data from the data storage medium; monitoring the data transfer operation for detecting temporary errors; determining whether an error burst has occurred based on the monitoring; and if an error burst has occurred, altering a condition of the data transfer operation, the alteration being selected based on the identifier of the drive that wrote the data to the data storage medium. Additional methods and systems are also disclosed. |
| US07870439B2 |
Fault tolerant multi-node computing system using periodically fetched configuration status data to detect an abnormal node
A fault tolerant computing system comprises a plurality of processing nodes interconnected by a communication medium for parallel-running identical application programs. A fault detector is connected to the processing nodes via the communication medium for periodically collecting configuration status data from the processing nodes and mutually verifying the collected configuration status data for detecting an abnormal node. In one preferred embodiment of this invention, the system operates in a version diversity mode in which the processing nodes are configured in a substantially equal configuration and the application programs are identical programs of uniquely different software versions. In a second preferred embodiment, the system operates in a configuration diversity mode in which the processing nodes are respectively configured in uniquely different configurations. The configurations of the processing nodes are sufficiently different from each other that a software fault is not simultaneously activated by the processing nodes. |
| US07870437B2 |
Trace data timestamping
A data processing apparatus is provided, comprising monitored circuitry for performing activities, trace circuitry for producing a stream of trace elements representative of at least some of these activities, and detection circuitry for detecting the occurrence of a predetermined subset of the activities for which the trace circuitry is producing trace elements. When an activity in that predetermined subset of activities is detected a timing indication is added to the stream of trace elements. Hence, the valuable trace bandwidth- may be preserved, by limiting the trace elements for which a timing indication is added into the trace stream to a predetermined subset of the activities for which trace elements are generated, and the valuable global or relative timing accuracy of those activities represented in the trace stream is retained, without flooding the trace stream with timing indications. |
| US07870431B2 |
Transaction tracer
A user specifies a threshold trace period and can initiate transaction tracing on one, some or all of the transactions running on a software system. Transactions with an execution time that exceeds the threshold trace period are reported to the user using a graphical user interface that lists transactions exceeding the specified threshold. For each listed transaction, a visualization can be provided that enables the user to immediately understand where time was being spent in the traced transaction. |
| US07870430B2 |
Method and apparatus for sharing debug resources
A method includes providing an integrated circuit having a plurality of debug resources. The debug resources are usable exclusively for debug operations. The debug operations include operations directed by debug software executed by the integrated circuit and operations directed by external debug hardware which is external to the integrated circuit. The method further includes enabling availability of a first portion of the debug resources for use by the debug software, where a second portion of the debug resources are committed for exclusive use by the external debug hardware. The first portion is exclusive of the second portion. The method includes performing operations directed by the debug software using at least one debug resource of the first portion of the debug resources and operations directed by the external debug hardware using at least one debug resource of the second portion of the debug resources. |
| US07870428B2 |
Method of diagnosing circuit board, circuit board, and CPU unit
In a circuit board on which a plurality of CPUs are mounted, the CPUs comprises: monitor units for outputting task statuses of the respective CPUs; and a diagnosis circuit connected to the plurality of CPUs, comparing and judging combinations of the task statuses of the plurality of CPUs based on information on task statuses outputted from the monitor units, and detecting false operations and failures of the circuit board. |
| US07870427B2 |
Accessing removable storage management services to obtain replacement instructions indicating whether to replace removable storage
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for accessing removable storage management services to obtain replacement instructions indicating whether to replace removable storage. Replacement information indicating whether to replace at least one of a plurality of managed removable storages is obtained by interfacing with a service computer over a network. Read/write error information for the at least one removable storage is gathered and transmitted to the service computer. Replacement instructions indicating whether to replace the at least one removable storage are received from the service computer. |
| US07870426B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for transactional peer recovery in a data sharing clustering computer system
The invention provides an apparatus, system, and method for cluster-wide peer recovery in the event of a computer failure. A failure of a first computer is detected and a recovery module is registered as the first computer. In one embodiment, the recovery module is a peer computer. The recovery module retrieves a privately held undo log data through the authorized assumption of the failure identity associated with the failed first computer, backs out in-flight transaction updates of the first computer, and frees up data resources locked by the first computer. |
| US07870423B2 |
Data processing system and copy processing method thereof
The invention is a copy processing technique in a data processing system, which can simultaneously achieve long-distance communication and no data loss when disaster occurs. Among a production site, a local site, and a remote site, long-distance remote copying from a disk array device at the production site to a disk array device at the remote site without data loss is achieved via a disk array device at the local site in combination with synchronous remote copying and asynchronous remote copying. Also, in the disk array devices at the local site and the remote site, copying is performed through a replica function. Even if the production site is affected by disaster, tasks can be continued at the local site having the same data as that of the production site and at the remote site a long distance away from the production site. |
| US07870420B2 |
Method and system to monitor a diverse heterogeneous application environment
A method to detect potential problems within a heterogeneous and diverse application environment. Operations data is received from a plurality of application servers within the application environment. The operations data pertains to operations performed at the plurality of application servers over a predetermined time interval. The operations data is aggregated. The aggregated data is compared to reference data, and a potential problem within the application environment is detected if the aggregated data deviates from the reference data in a predetermined manner. |
| US07870417B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for adapter card failover
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for adapter card failover. A switch module connects a first processor complex to an adapter card through a first port as an owner processor complex. The owner processor complex manages the adapter card except for a second port and receives error messages from the adapter card. The switch module further connects a second processor complex to the adapter card through the second port as a non-owner processor complex. The non-owner processor complex manages the second port. A detection module detects a failure of the first processor complex. A setup module modifies the switch module to logically connect the second processor complex to the adapter card as the owner processor complex and to logically disconnect the first processor complex from the adapter card in response to detecting the failure. |
| US07870415B2 |
Clock processors in high-speed signal converter systems with data clock aligner sharing error signal produced in duty cycle stabilizer
Clock processors are provided to economically control system and data clocks in high-speed signal converters. The processors generally include at least one of a delay-locked loop, phase-locked loop or a duty cycle stabilizer which generates an error signal in its operation. In the example of a stabilizer, it is configured to respond to an input clock to initiate a first portion of each cycle of the system clock and to include a control loop to provide an error signal that controls a second portion of the cycle to thereby maintain a selected duty cycle. The processors also include a data clock aligner configured to share the error signal and provide a data clock that is delayed by a selected delay from a selected one of the input and system clocks. In addition to providing effective control that is independent of disturbing effects (e.g., temperature and clock rate), the shared use reduces processor costs. |
| US07870414B2 |
Clock tree circuit and semiconductor memory device using the same, and duty cycle correction method
A semiconductor memory device, which includes a clock tree circuit for correcting the duty cycle of a clock. The device sets a beta ratio to cause a constant duty cycle by using a reference clock having a constant duty cycle in a test mode, and then applies the set beta ratio to a DLL clock outputted from a delay-locked loop. Then, when the duty cycle of the DLL clock, to which the beta ratio has been applied, is not constant, the duty cycle of the DLL clock is corrected in the delay-locked loop. |
| US07870413B2 |
Synchronization clocking scheme for small scalable multi-processor system
A clocking scheme is provided to synchronize system clock across plural independent SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) domains of the multi-processor system. Each of the SMP domains is connected with another through an interconnection board and two or more identical connectors. The clocking scheme includes a clock source, a SPLL (Select Phase-Locked Loop) and a clock buffer on each of the SMP domains to provide a dedicated base clock. A self-clock path is used to send the base clock from the clock source to the SPLL on the same SMP domain, and on the other hand one or more base clock is sent through a distribution-clock path to another SPLL. The distribution-clock path and the self-clock path will have equal lengths, making the base clock pass through the two connectors or the same connector twice to achieve the similar electrical characteristics and balance the skew or propagation delay. |
| US07870407B2 |
Dynamic processor power management device and method thereof
A processor can operate in different power modes. In an active power mode, the processor executes software. In response to receiving a halt indication from the software, hardware at the processor evaluates bus transactions for the processor. If the bus transactions meet a heuristic, hardware places a processor core in a lower power mode, such as a retention mode. Because the bus transactions are evaluated by hardware, rather than by software, and the software is not required to perform handshakes and other protocols to place the processor in the lower power mode, the processor is able to place the processor core into the lower power mode more quickly, thereby conserving power. |
| US07870405B2 |
Method of controlling power consumption of a memory according to mapping
There is provided a method of controlling power consumption of a memory, which is executed in a computer system including operation server and a management server. The operation server includes one or more memory chips which are units to control the power consumption of the memory, a power control module for controlling power consumption of the memory chips, and a virtualization module for operating one or more virtual servers. The management server manages the mapping between the one or more virtual servers and the one or more memory chips. The method comprises the steps of instructing the operation server to change the power consumption of the one or more memory chips based on whether the obtained access information is capable of achieving predetermined target performance and the mapping information, and changing the power consumption of the one or more memory chips based on the instruction from the management server. |
| US07870402B2 |
Control method of storage system, storage system, and storage apparatus
When power to a storage device is turned on and the storage device can accept a data input and output request being transmitted from an information processing device, the storage device transmits a power-on request for turning on power to the information processing device. The storage device, when it accepts a stop-power instruction, transmits a stop-power request for stopping power to the information processing device. |
| US07870398B2 |
Integrity assurance of query result from database service provider
A method, system and computer program product for confirming the validity of data returned from a data store. A data store contains a primary data set encrypted using a first encryption and a secondary data set using a second encryption. The secondary data set is a subset of the primary data set. A client issues a substantive query against the data store to retrieve a primary data result belonging to the primary data set. A query interface issues at least one validating query against the data store. Each validating query returns a secondary data result belonging to the secondary data set. The query interface receives the secondary data result and provides a data invalid notification if data satisfying the substantive query included in an unencrypted form of the secondary data result is not contained in an unencrypted form of the primary data result. |
| US07870391B2 |
Method of managing multimedia data and mobile communication terminal equipped with function of managing multimedia data
A mobile communication terminal having a function of managing multimedia data is provided, including: a main memory including a multimedia database storing the multimedia data; a signal processor converting the multimedia data stored in the main memory into data of a format suitable to be output to a display of the mobile communication terminal; a back_end chip which processes the multimedia data outputted from the signal processor, stores digest information of multimedia data upon occurrence of an update event of the multimedia data, and provides the stored digest information upon receiving a signal of requesting the digest information to be synchronized; and a front_end chip including a controller which requests the digest information stored in the back_end chip, compares and synchronizes the digest information offered from the back_end chip and digest information stored in advance in the front_end chip. |
| US07870389B1 |
Methods and apparatus for authenticating mobility entities using kerberos
Methods and apparatus for generating and transmitting dynamically generated session keys are disclosed. A key distribution center generates a session key between the key distribution center and a first mobility entity (e.g., an access point). Once the session key between the key distribution center and the access point is transmitted to the access point, the access point retrieves a shared session key between the access point and a Mobile Node from the key distribution center, which is then transmitted to the Mobile Node, enabling the Mobile Node to connect to the network. Similarly, either the Mobile Node or its Home Agent retrieves a session key between the key distribution center and the access point from the key distribution center, enabling a shared session key between the Home Agent and the Mobile Node to be obtained from the key distribution center. The Mobile Node (or Home Agent) then transmits the shared session key to the Home Agent (or Mobile Node). Once the shared session key is obtained by both the Home Agent and the Mobile Node, the shared session key is used to authenticate registration messages (e.g., including registration request and reply packets). In this manner, dynamically generated session keys may be used to securely transmit registration messages in a Mobile IP environment. |
| US07870383B2 |
System, method and program to update certificates in a computer
System, method and program product for updating a current encryption certificate with a new encryption certificate in a computer having a first plurality of communication channels which require an encryption certificate and a second plurality of communication channels which do not require an encryption certificate. The computer stores the current encryption certificate. The first plurality of communication channels are active and use the current encryption certificate for communication. The second plurality of communication channels are also active. The first plurality of communication channels are deactivated without deactivating the second plurality of communication channels, while substituting the new encryption certificate for the current encryption certificate for subsequent use by the first plurality of communication channels. After the substitution, the first plurality of communication channels are reactivated. After the reactivation, the computer communicates with another computer via one of the first plurality of communication channels using the new encryption certificate. |
| US07870380B2 |
Providing secure connections for data transmission
The disclosed system and method allow secure packet transmission to be provided with a minimum amount of overhead and to employ a cache having copies distributed among a plurality of different locations. SSL/TLS session information for a session with each of the proxy servers is stored in the cache so that it is accessible to at least one other proxy server. Using this arrangement, when a client computer switches from a connection with a first proxy server to a connection with a second proxy server, the second proxy server can retrieve SSL/TLS session information from the cache corresponding to the SSL/TLS communication session between the client device and the first proxy server. The second proxy server can then use the retrieved SSL/TLS session information to accept a session with the client device. |
| US07870378B2 |
Electronic system with NAND flash memory storing boot code and highly reliable boot up method
A boot up method makes an electronic system boot up by a processor according to a boot code in a NAND flash memory and includes the following steps. First, the flash memory storing a boot code or boot codes is provided. Next, a first boot code is copied to an XIP memory in response to a hardware reset signal. Then, the processor executes the first boot code in the XIP memory and thus makes the system boot up. Next, whether the system boots up successfully is judged after a time delay. When the system fails to boot up, the system is reset and a second boot code is copied to the XIP memory. Thereafter, the processor executes the second boot code in the XIP memory and thus boots up the system. If the system still fails to boot up, the above-mentioned steps are repeated until the system boots up successfully. |
| US07870376B2 |
System, method and program product for controlling access to computer system
The computer system initially operates in a fully operational mode in which an operating system in the computer system is operating and the computer system executes one or more user applications installed in the computer system. In response to a predefined time interval lapsing, the computer system automatically switches from the fully operational mode to a limited operational mode in which the one or more user applications are terminated, the operating system is shut down, and a BIOS within the computer system solicits entry of a password by a user. If the user fails to enter a valid password, operation of the operating system and execution of the one or more user applications are prevented. If a user attempts to activate the computer system for which the time interval has already lapsed, a BIOS within the computer system boots up, determines that the computer system is currently set for a limited operational mode, prevents boot up of an operating system of the computer system, and solicits a password from a user. If the user fails to enter a valid password, the BIOS continues to prevent boot up of the operating system. If the user enters a valid password, the operating system boots up and executes one or more user applications within the computer system. |
| US07870375B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for updating a code image for a communication adapter
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for updating a code image for a communication adapter. The apparatus includes a save module, an update module, and a restore module. The save module saves configuration data associated with a connection at a communication adapter. The update module updates a code image on the communication adapter. The restore module restores the configuration data in response to the code image update. Advantageously, the apparatus eliminates the need for conventional host recovery, including relogin and reestablishment of paths and connections, after the code image update. |
| US07870373B2 |
System and method for automatic update of embedded data
A system and method for maintaining computer platform components in an optimal state. The method determines whether a platform includes an out-of-band processor, and if the platform includes an out-of-band processor, then the out-of-band processor is enabled to passively or proactively obtain firmware and/or option ROM (Read Only Memory) updates for add-in cards on the platform. Once the out-of-band processor has obtained the updates for the add-in cards on the platform, the out-of-band processor will place the updates in a platform mailbox and send an interrupt to the in-band processor indicating that firmware and/or option ROM updates are available in a platform mailbox. The in-band processor will launch the firmware and/or option ROM updates on the platform. |
| US07870370B2 |
Determining thermal characteristics of instruction sets
Methods, apparatus, and products for determining thermal characteristics of instruction sets comprising one or more computer program instructions executed by a computer processor are disclosed that include tracking, in a performance counter, a number of classes of instructions run during execution of a plurality of instruction sets; identifying, for each instruction set, from the performance counter, a number of each class of instructions run during execution of the instruction set; and ranking the instruction sets in dependence upon the number of each class of instructions run during execution of each instruction set and a profile of thermal characteristics of classes of instructions. |
| US07870368B2 |
System and method for prioritizing branch instructions
The present invention provides a system and method for prioritizing branch instructions in a cascaded pipeline. The system includes a cascaded delayed execution pipeline unit having a plurality of execution pipelines that execute instructions in a common issue group in a delayed manner relative to each other. The system further includes circuitry configured to: (1) receive an issue group of instructions; (2) determine if at least one branch instruction is in the issue group, if so scheduling the least one branch instruction in a one of the plurality of execution pipelines based upon a first prioritization scheme; (3) determine if there is an issue conflict for one of the plurality of execution pipelines and resolving the issue conflict by scheduling the at least one branch instruction in a different execution pipeline; (4) schedule execution of the issue group of instructions in the cascaded delayed execution pipeline unit. |
| US07870356B1 |
Creation of snapshot copies using a sparse file for keeping a record of changed blocks
A snapshot copy facility responds to a request for writing new data to a block of a production dataset by saving original data of the block, and writing the new data to the block of the production dataset and keeping a record of the blocks of the production dataset have been changed since the point in time when the snapshot copy was created. For detection of corruption of the snapshot metadata and for portability of the snapshot copy software, a sparse file is used for keeping a record of the blocks of the production dataset that have been changed since the snapshot. For “copy on first write” snapshots, the sparse file is a “write once read many” (WORM) file to store old data of blocks. For “remap on write” snapshots, the sparse file is a “read-write” (RW) file to which writes to the production file are stored. |
| US07870352B2 |
State-based memory unloading
A system is described for managing memory, the system including, among other things, a memory with logic and a processor configured with the logic to receive an indication of an application state from a plurality of applications in memory and determine which of the plurality of applications to effect removal from the memory based on the received indication. |
| US07870351B2 |
System, apparatus, and method for modifying the order of memory accesses
Systems and methods for controlling memory access operation are disclosed. The system may include one or more requestors performing requests to memory devices. Within a memory controller, a request queue receives requests from a requestor, a bank decoder determines a destination bank, and the request is placed in an appropriate bank queue. An ordering unit determines if the current request can be reordered relative to the received order and generates a new memory cycle order based on the reordering determination. The reordering may be based on whether there are multiple requests to the same memory page, multiple reads, or multiple writes. A memory interface executes each memory request in the memory cycle order. A data buffer holds write data until it is written to the memory and read data until it is returned to the requestor. The data buffer also may hold memory words used in read-modify-write operations. |
| US07870350B1 |
Write buffer for read-write interlocks
A write buffer for read-write interlocks improves memory access performance by minimizing the latency needed to avoid a read-after-write hazard when a read follows a write to the same memory location. Rather than waiting until a write has been stored in the memory location, the write buffer provides an acknowledgement signal before the data has been stored in memory in order for a subsequent read of the memory location to proceed. The write buffer merges the data to be written with any data that is stored in memory for the read request to return the current data for the read request. |
| US07870348B2 |
Processing device
A processing device disclosed herein comprises: a memory access circuit which accesses a memory and sequentially reads data from the memory based on a predetermined access pattern; storage in which the data read by the memory access circuit is stored, wherein the memory access circuit sequentially reads the data from the memory and stores the data in storage until storage is full; and a processor which acquires the data from storage. |
| US07870346B2 |
Servo controller interface module for embedded disk controllers
An embedded disk controller (“controller”) having a servo controller is provided. The controller also includes a servo controller interface with a speed matching module and a pipeline control module such that at least two processors share memory mapped registers without conflicts. The processors operate at different frequencies, while the servo-controller and the servo controller interface operate in same or different frequency domains. The pipeline control module resolves conflict between the first and second processor transaction. The speed matching module ensures communication without inserting wait states in a servo controller interface clock domain for write access to the servo controller and there is no read conflicts between the first and second processor. The controller also includes a hardware mechanism for indivisible register acess to the first or second processor. The hardware mechanisim includes a hard semaphore and/or soft semaphore. |
| US07870345B2 |
Systems and methods for managing stalled storage devices
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for managing stalled storage devices of a storage system. In one embodiment, a method for managing access to storage devices includes determining that a first storage device, which stores a first resource, is stalled and transitioning the first storage device to a stalled state. The method also includes receiving an access request for at least a portion of the first resource while the first storage device is in the stalled state and attempting to provide access to a representation of the portion of the first resource from at least a second storage device that is not in a stalled state. In another embodiment, a method of managing access requests by a thread for a resource stored on a storage device includes initializing a thread access level for an access request by a thread for the resource. The method also includes determining whether the storage device, which has a device access level, is accessible based at least in part on the thread access level and the device access level and selecting a thread operation based at least in part on the determination of whether the storage device is accessible. The thread operation may be selected from attempting the thread access request if the device is accessible and determining whether to restart the thread access request if the device is not accessible. |
| US07870344B2 |
Method and apparatus for emulating linked-load/store-conditional synchronization
The design of nonblocking linked data structures using single-location synchronization primitives such as compare-and-swap (CAS) is a complex affair that often requires severe restrictions on the way pointers are used. One way to address this problem is to provide stronger synchronization operations, for example, ones that atomically modify one memory location while simultaneously verifying the contents of others. We provide a simple and highly efficient nonblocking implementation of such an operation: an atomic k-word-compare single-swap operation (KCSS). Our implementation is obstruction-free. As a result, it is highly efficient in the uncontended case and relies on contention management mechanisms in the contended cases. It allows linked data structure manipulation without the complexity and restrictions of other solutions. Additionally, as a building block of some implementations of our techniques, we have developed the first nonblocking software implementation of load-linked/store-conditional that does not severely restrict word size. |
| US07870339B2 |
Extract cache attribute facility and instruction therefore
A facility and cache machine instruction of a computer architecture for specifying a target cache cache-level and a target cache attribute of interest for obtaining a cache attribute of one or more target caches. The requested cache attribute of the target cache(s) is saved in a register. |
| US07870338B2 |
Flushing cached data upon power interruption
An I/O processor determines whether or not the amount of dirty data on a cache memory exceeds a threshold value and, if the determination is that this threshold value has been exceeded, writes a portion of the dirty data of the cache memory to a storage device. If a power source monitoring and control unit detects a voltage abnormality of the supplied power, the power monitoring and control unit maintains supply of power using power from a battery, so that a processor receives supply of power from the battery and saves the dirty data stored on the cache memory to a non-volatile memory. |
| US07870334B2 |
Distributed task queues in a multiple-port storage system
A storage system, consisting of one or more data storage logical units (LUs) formed in physical media. The LUs are adapted to receive command and respond to the commands to store and recall data. The storage system further includes a plurality of ports, each port being adapted to maintain a respective LU command queue for each of the LUs, such that upon receiving a command directed to one of the LUs, the port places the received command in the respective LU command queue. The port converts the received command to one or more converted commands at least some of which are directed to the physical media of the one of the LUs. The port then conveys the commands directed to the physical media in an order determined by the respective LU command queue. |
| US07870330B2 |
Controller for refreshing memories
A memory utilizes a data refresh algorithm to preserve data integrity over disturbances caused by memory programming or erase operations. The memory device maintains a counter for each memory block or sector. When a memory block or sector is erased or programmed, the associated counter is set to a first value while other counters are incremented or decremented. Whenever a counter reaches a threshold value, the associated block or sector is refreshed. The threshold value is set to ensure that each block or sector is refreshed before data integrity is adversely affected by disturbances caused by repeated programming and erase operations. |
| US07870328B2 |
Memory controller and flash memory system
When a free physical block where data is to be written is searched for, a search process for searching for a pair of free physical blocks is first executed using a free physical block search table. Detection of a free non-pair good block is executed only when a pair of free physical block is not detected in the search process using the free physical block search table. When there is a free physical block, two-plane write is executed. When there is no pair of free physical blocks, data is written in an adequately combined non-pair good blocks. |
| US07870327B1 |
Controlling memory operations using a driver and flash memory type tables
Systems and processes may include a first memory and a second memory. A driver and/or an application may be stored in the first memory. Flash memory type data of the first memory may be stored in the second memory. The driver may control the first memory at least partially based on the flash memory type data. The first memory may be exchanged for a third memory. The driver may be stored on the third memory. The flash memory type data for the third memory may be stored on the second memory. |
| US07870324B2 |
Method and apparatus for serial bus communication
A system and method for providing a serial communication bus is disclosed. A serial communication bus connects multiple footprint devices, such as electronic sensors in a process control sample system. The footprint devices can utilize various footprint device specific communication protocols. Multiple tophat devices act as general I/O ports for connecting with the footprint devices. Each tophat device identifies the footprint device specific communication protocol of a connected footprint device, converts outputs signals transmitted from the connected footprint device from the footprint device specific communication protocol of the footprint device to a standard bus communication protocol, and converts input signals directed to the connected footprint device from the standard bus communication protocol to the footprint device specific communication protocol of the footprint device. The serial communication bus connects the tophat devices and transmits input and output signals using the standard bus communication protocol. |
| US07870321B2 |
Extended computing unit with stand-alone application
An extended computing unit includes a connection module, memory, and hardware. The memory is operable to store one or more computer-level user applications, one or more exclusive extended computing unit user applications, an exclusive extended computing unit operating system, and an operating system extension of a computer-level operating system. When the connection module is not coupled to a handheld computing unit, the hardware is operable to execute the extended computing unit exclusive operating system, detect a request for activation of an extended computing unit exclusive user application of the one or more extended computing unit exclusive user applications, and execute a least a portion of the extended computing unit exclusive user application. |
| US07870319B2 |
Communication interface for an electronic device
A mobile telephone handset is provided with a connector (8) and circuitry (18, 19) which permits universal serial bus (USB) and single-ended (SE) modes of data transmission with another device such as a personal computer, another mobile telephone handset or keyboard. |
| US07870318B2 |
Asynchronous serial communication method and asynchronous serial communication device
An asynchronous serial communication method and the apparatus including a sender transmitting a one bit of serial data by firstly making a signal transition on the data line, secondly putting the one bit of serial data on the data line after a predetermined time T1 yet before another predetermined time T1+T2, and a receiver receiving the one bit of serial data by firstly detecting the signal transition on the data line and secondly capturing the one bit of serial data after a predetermined time T3 (where T3>T1+T2). |
| US07870316B1 |
System and method for providing an inline data conversion for multiplexed data streams
A computing system having an apparatus for providing an inline data conversion processor. The inline data conversion processor includes a host processor interface, a network interface, a peripheral interface, and a packer stream address for defining a data transformation applied to a block of data as it passes between the host processor interface and the peripheral and network interfaces. |
| US07870315B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing data of a portable device using a virtual device for the portable device, and a user interface method using the same
A method and apparatus for managing data to be stored in a memory of a portable device, and a user interface method using the same. The method includes generating a virtual device for the portable device in a storage unit of a data management apparatus; storing information on at least one content file, which is used to transmit the at least one content file to the virtual device, in the virtual device; and if the portable device is connected to the data management apparatus, synchronizing the portable device with the virtual device by transmitting the at least one content file to the portable device with reference to the information stored in the virtual device. |
| US07870307B2 |
DMA and graphics interface emulation
An emulator schedules emulation threads for DMA emulation and other emulation functions in a time-multiplexed manner. Emulation threads are selected for execution according to a load balancing scheme. Non-DMA emulation threads are executed until their execution time period expires or they stall. DMA emulation thread execution is allowed to execute indefinitely until the DMA emulation thread stalls. The DMA emulation thread prefetches additional adjacent data in response to target computer system DMA requests. Upon receiving a target computer system DMA request, the DMA emulation thread first checks to the prefetched data to see if this data matches the request. If so, the request is fulfilled using the prefetched data. If the prefetched data does not match the target computer system DMA request, the DMA emulation thread fetches and stores the requested data and additional adjacent data for potential future use. |
| US07870300B2 |
Remote management of storage controllers
A method for data storage includes accepting a management command by a first storage controller, which exchanges data for storage with at least a second storage controller over a dedicated communication connection using a dedicated storage protocol. The management command is addressed to a destination storage controller and contains an instruction to modify or report a data storage configuration in the destination storage controller. Upon determining that the destination storage controller is different from the first storage controller, the management command is forwarded over the dedicated communication connection from the first storage controller to the second storage controller using the dedicated storage protocol. |
| US07870296B2 |
High availability system and execution state control method
A high availability system includes a first server computer for a first virtual computer and a first hypervisor and a second server computer for a second virtual computer and a second hypervisor. The first virtual computer executes a processing and the second virtual computer executes the processing behind from the first virtual computer. Information associated with an event is transmitted. The event provides an input to the first virtual computer. In the second hypervisor, a control unit performs, control based on the information to match the execution state of the second virtual computer and that of the first virtual computer, and control associated with the information, when the event associated with the information is predetermined one of an I/O completion interrupt from the first virtual storage and an interrupt handler call corresponding to the interrupt, after the interrupt from the second virtual storage corresponding to the interrupt is caught. |
| US07870294B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing policy-based document control
A method and apparatus for providing policy-based document control includes a client node, a collection agent, a policy engine, and a transformation server. The client node requests access to a resource. The collection agent gathers information about the client node. The policy engine receives the gathered information and makes an access control decision based on the received information. The transformation server transforms the contents of the file from a native format to a second format and presents the transformed contents of the file to the client node. |
| US07870289B2 |
Interdomain routing system
In an interdomain network path control, by making path information with a network resource in a destination domain accessible in addition to path information with transmission domain and interdomain network resources, path selection taking network resources into consideration end to end is enabled and optimum path selection not only in a transmission direction but also in a reception direction is also enabled. Moreover, by making not only network resources but also processing load information of a service node accessible, selection of an optimum server and optimum path selection for the server are enabled using both the service node processing load information and the network resources. |
| US07870288B2 |
Sharing data in scalable software blade architecture
A system and method for sharing data between two users on different blades in scalable software blade architecture are disclosed. The system includes a plurality of blades, where each blade includes software components and hardware components, each blade serves a predefined group of users, and each user is associated with one or more user devices. The system further includes a first blade and a second blade, where the first blade connects a first user to a first connected dataset and the second blade connects a second user to a second connected dataset, and the first blade and the second blade operate independent of each other, a blade manager for managing the first and second blades, a pipe device for connecting the first and second blades, and logic for sharing portions of the first connected dataset of the first user with the second user using the pipe device. |
| US07870286B1 |
Method of, system for, and computer program product for providing an e-business connector builder
A transaction-based application is adapted to process transactions over a network such as an internet or intranet. The transaction-based application is adapted by scanning the source code of the transaction-based application to identify a transaction and information related to the transaction; storing the related information in a database; extracting from the database parameter definitions describing communication of information by the transaction; identifying a parameter usage type for each parameter, said parameter usage type selectable from the parameter usage type set comprising input, output, input/output, and unreferenced; displaying the transaction and a subset of the related and extracted information; allowing a user to select the transaction; and using the identified and extracted information to package the user-selected transaction in a form compatible with a connector building tool. |
| US07870285B2 |
Mitigating subscriber side attacks in a cable network
In one embodiment, a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) identifies an endpoint originating undesired traffic. Instead of dropping a bandwidth request for the identified endpoint by not responding, the CMTS responds to such a request by sending a data grant pending message. The data grant pending message causes a cable modem for the identified endpoint to enter a waiting state, which prevents further bandwidth requests for the identified endpoint. |
| US07870283B2 |
Dynamic server side content request delivery system
Disclosed is a system that optimizes transmission bandwidth of a broadband transmission system such as a cable television, satellite system, or wireless information service. Requests for content items from users are employed to add or delete content items from a list. Content items in the list are ranked relative to the number of requests received or by rate of request. Package groups are created with most requested content items being broadcast more frequently than less requested content items. Transmit groups are produced from package groups and placed in a broadcast queue. A transmit process transmits groups retrieved from the queue. |
| US07870280B2 |
Synchronized viewing of file manipulations
Embodiments include computing device readable mediums, computing devices, and methods for synchronized viewing of file manipulations. One method embodiment includes creating a synchronized session between computing devices. The method further includes distributing copies of a file from one computing device to another and allowing each computing device to locally manipulate the file. According to the method, manipulating the file on a first computing device initiates a data stream including executable instructions for manipulating the file on a second computing device. The method also includes forwarding the data stream to the second computing device and manipulating the file according to the data stream received. The method further includes restricting manipulation functionality on the second computing device to the file based on the forwarded data stream, where the restriction of the manipulation functionality does not interrupt functionality of each computing device outside the file. |
| US07870278B2 |
Classification support system and method for fragmented IP packets
A wire-speed forwarding platform and method for supporting multifield classification of a packet fragmented into a plurality of fragments in the wire-speed forwarding platform, comprising: receiving a fragment of the fragmented packet at the forwarding platform and deriving a key from one or more fields of the received fragment; and performing multifield classification of the received fragment by matching the key to a rule out of a plurality of rules, the rule comprising a plurality of fields including at least one field for specifying whether the received fragment's fragmentation characteristics are to be applied when performing the multifield classification. |
| US07870277B2 |
Systems and methods for using object oriented expressions to configure application security policies
Systems and methods for configuring and evaluating policies that direct processing of one or more data streams are described. A configuration interface is described for allowing users to specify object oriented policies. These object oriented policies may allow any data structures to be applied with respect to a payload of a received packet stream, including any portions of HTTP traffic. A configuration interface may also allow the user to control the order in which policies and policy groups are executed, in addition to specifying actions to be taken if one or more policies are undefined. Systems and methods for processing the policies may allow efficient processing of object-oriented policies by applying potentially complex data structures to unstructured data streams. A device may also interpret and process a number of flow control commands and policy group invocation statements to determine an order of execution among a number of policies and policy groups. These policy configurations and processing may allow configuration and processing of complex network behaviors relating to load balancing, VPNs, SSL offloading, content switching, application security, acceleration, and caching. |
| US07870275B1 |
Communication scheme-independent infrastructure
The present invention provides a communication infrastructure that allows application programs within a software system to dynamically use services, such as receiving and transmitting messages, through a common application program interface (API). The communication infrastructure allows the specific communication schemes that are being used to be isolated from the application programs such that the application programs are not dependent upon a particular communication scheme. |
| US07870269B2 |
Method and system for activating a packet data subscriber context for packet data
A method and system for activating a context in a first network so as to transfer a call via said first network and a second network is provided. The method may include receiving a setup message according to an application protocol using a signaling or default context within a network, determining capability information based on the message according to the application protocol and activating a context using the determined capability information. The application protocol may be setup before activating the context. |
| US07870265B2 |
System and method for managing communications sessions in a network
In an embodiment, a system for managing communications sessions is provided. The system embodiment includes a connection to a packet network that receives incoming calls. A stateful tier manages communications sessions established for the at least one incoming call. A stateless tier comprising one or more applications provides service(s) to the communications sessions in the stateful tier. One or more servers allocate and/or manage resources corresponding to the communications sessions established for the incoming calls in the stateful tier. The servers maintain the applications in the stateless tier for providing services to the communications sessions in the stateful tier. |
| US07870262B2 |
Method and element for service control
A service control element stores a user filter criterion. When it receives a session request identifying the user, it checks whether the session request matches the user filter criterion, and outputs the session request to a defined service platform when the session request matches the user filter criterion. The element is arranged to retrieve, before forwarding the request to the service platform, a capability information element that indicates the dynamic capability of a user to utilize the service provided by the service platform. If the information element indicates that the user is not capable to utilize the service provided by the service platform, the session is terminated. Incoming messages can be appropriately managed already in the network element responsible for service control, and thus additional load and unnecessary charging considerations can be avoided. |
| US07870256B2 |
Remote desktop performance model for assigning resources
A request for a remote desktop session is received. A remote desktop session performance model is generated based on the applications to be used in the remote desktop session, and resources are assigned to the remote desktop session using the remote desktop session performance model. |
| US07870253B2 |
Systems and methods for aggregating user profile information in a network of affiliated websites
A plurality of affiliated network of websites may be configured to log user interactions thereon. The respective logs may comprise user identification information to allow a profile aggregation service to correlate user interactions across the plurality of websites and to generate respective user profiles, which may be used to configure the websites. A context aware platform (CAP) website may be configured to provide web services for entities in a business hierarchy. The CAP website may capable of presenting content in one of a plurality of operational modes associated with a geographical granularity of the franchise hierarchy. In addition, the CAP website may be configurable according to a user profile generated using user interactions across a plurality of websites and/or on the CAP website. |
| US07870252B2 |
System and method for networking educational equipment
A system, method and computer program product for monitoring availability of end user devices needed for performing tasks. The system comprises a first network including one or more devices associated with an end user, at least one device adapted for communicating with a service provider over a second network, the service provider providing network-based services in the system. The system includes a memory storage device for maintaining information of tasks associated with an end user, the information including recommended end-user devices adapted to perform the tasks, the information being accessible to at least one end-user device. At least one end-user device detects non-availability or performance deficiencies of any end-user device required in performing end-user tasks, and communicates with the service provider for invoking network-based services to facilitate correcting non-availability of any end-user device. Such a system, method and computer program product enables students to receive these reminders and alerts, to order the necessary upgrades from suppliers via web services, and to monitor delivery from a single user interface provided on one of their devices. |
| US07870248B2 |
Exploiting service heartbeats to monitor file share
Detecting the failure of file transfers via a network copy service from a source computer to a destination computer via a network monitoring service. If the network monitoring service determines that the source computer is no longer available, the destination computer initiates a second file transfer request via the network copy service from a second source of the file. |
| US07870245B2 |
Delivery context aware activity on networks: devices, software, and methods
Software (42) which when run on a processor (40) of a networked resource server (14′, 18′, 20′) reads delivery context aware related data from a contact log of said server and processes said data to produce processed acquired data relating to delivery context aware requests for resources made of the server, and which software causes said processed acquired data to be transmitted out of a network port (58) of the server proactively, without an input trigger signal from outside of the server. |
| US07870244B2 |
Monitoring performance of applications in a distributed environment
A method for management of performance of computer systems and applications includes prompting the user to select information for monitoring, monitoring the performance of applications running on servers, displaying data, and prompting users to input performance adjustments. A user is prompted to select a server or server group, a resource, and a threshold or condition for notification, and in response a system compares the value or quality of the parameter to the threshold or condition, and provides a notification to the user in the event that the parameter reaches the threshold or condition. A method includes the steps of providing the user with performance information, receiving from the user a request for more specific performance information, and providing more detailed performance information. A method according to the invention includes the steps of receiving from the user an identification of a server as an authoritative server, another server as a comparison server, comparing runtime environment data in the form of one or more of CPU data, server data and Java data between the selected servers, and displaying differences to a user. A method of the invention includes the steps of receiving from the user an identification of a server as an authoritative server, and another server as a comparison server, and providing a list of matching and differing file names. The method may further include the step of receiving from the user a selection of a file, conducting a comparison of the files, and providing a result to the user. A method of the invention includes the steps of assigning a role to each user, and mapping between access to functions and each user role by an access control list, whereby access to functions is limited depending on the assigned role of the user. |
| US07870243B1 |
Method, system and program product for managing network performance
A service level agreement between a network service provider and a network user may require that specified service metrics or parameters be maintained within predetermined limits. To reduce the chance those limits (and the service level agreement) will be violated, the service metric is sampled periodically over successive sampling intervals. The mean value and the standard deviation of the set of samples obtained during the most recent sampling interval are used to screen out unreliable data. If the set of samples satisfies the reliability screening, the set is used in combination with past acceptable sets to determine the trend in the sampled service metric. If the trend is toward a violation, the time of the violation is predicted based on the assumption the current trend will continue. If the predicted time of violation is sufficiently near the current time, an alert is sent to the service provider to permit the service provider to initiate anticipatory corrective action. |
| US07870241B2 |
Automated power control policies based on application-specific redundancy characteristics
Power and redundancy management policies are applied individually to the tiers of redundant servers of an application service such that power is reduced while maintaining a high level of system availability. Servers which are determined to be relatively inactive are moved to a free pool. Certain servers of the free pool are maintained in a hot standby state, while others are powered-off or set to operate in a low power mode. During times of high load, the servers in the hot standby state can be provisioned quickly into the application service. |
| US07870240B1 |
Metadata schema for interpersonal communications management systems
A system and method for generating, managing and accessing a schema that facilitates maximizing utility of a managed communication is provided. The system provides a computer-based system for creating, accessing and/or managing a schema employed in utility-optimizing communication management. The system includes computer components for receiving communication related data and storing such communication related data, inferences concerning such data, probabilities and/or probability distributions associated with such data in an extensible, portable, data schema. The schema can facilitate making utility optimizing communication management decisions. |
| US07870239B1 |
Method and system for securing network access to dynamically updateable data stored in a data storage system
This invention is a system and method for managing data in a secure manner in a data storage environment that is in communication with a network including an internet-based network. The system includes logic for securely managing internet client's access to data volumes stored on a data storage system, and may also include logic operating with a file server for providing dynamic access of data available to such clients in a secure fashion. |
| US07870235B2 |
Highly scalable and highly available cluster system management scheme
A cluster system is treated as a set of resource groups, each resource group including a highly available application and the resources upon which it depends. A resource group may have between 2 and M data processing systems, where M is small relative to the cluster size N of the total cluster. Configuration and status information for the resource group is fully replicated only on those data processing systems which are members of the resource group. A configuration object/database record for the resource group has an associated owner list identifying the data processing systems which are members of the resource group and which may therefore manage the application. A data processing system may belong to more than one resource group, however, and configuration and status information for the data processing system is replicated to each data processing system which could be affected by failure of the subject data processing system—that is, any data processing system which belongs to at least one resource group also containing the subject data processing system. The partial replication scheme of the present invention allows resource groups to run in parallel, reduces the cost of data replication and access, is highly scalable and applicable to very large clusters, and provides better performance after a catastrophe such as a network partition. |
| US07870233B2 |
Efficient software download to configurable communication device
An efficient software download to a configurable communication device is disclosed herein. The method of efficiently downloading software begins with a step of receiving a request to configure a communication device to run a communication application. The communication device being configured has a plurality of function blocks with a fixed portion of hardware and a flexible portion of hardware, wherein the same plurality of function blocks is capable of operating a plurality of communication applications. In a next step, the capability of the fixed portion and the flexible portion of hardware of the communication device is evaluated for a capability of implementing the communication application. Next, configuration information only for the flexible portion of hardware of the communication device is transmitted to the communication device to enable it to operate the communication application. An identification of the communication application is also transmitted to the communication device for purposes of tracking its implementation. |
| US07870228B2 |
System and method for remotely controlling mobile communication devices
A system for remotely controlling mobile communication devices includes a redirection system, a remote control system and a mobile data communication device. The redirection system detects a triggering event at a host system and in response to the triggering event continuously redirects data items from the host system to a wireless network. The mobile data communication device receives data items from the wireless network and executes a plurality of device operations. The remote control system receives control information from a user interface and transmits the control information through the redirection system to the wireless network. The control information is received and executed by the mobile data communication device to remotely control one or more of the device operations. Methods of controlling the operation of mobile data communication devices are also disclosed. |
| US07870227B2 |
System and method for merging internet protocol address to location data from multiple sources
Systems and methods for associating a geographic location with an Internet protocol (IP address) are disclosed. Generally, an IP address to location module determines whether a geographic location is associated with a common IP address in a majority of IP address to location data sets. The IP address to location module then stores an association between a geographic location and the IP address in a master IP address to location data set based on whether a geographic location is associated with a common IP address in a majority of IP address to location data sets. |
| US07870224B1 |
Managing online composite image content
A method includes receiving an upload request to retrieve a master image. The method further includes retrieving the master image in response to the upload request. The method also includes storing the retrieved master image. The method further includes generating a composite image file using the retrieved master image. The composite image file can be used to create a plurality of images derived from the master image. |
| US07870222B2 |
Systems and methods for transmitting content being reproduced
Disclosed herein is an information communication terminal including: a storage unit for storing contents; a communication unit for carrying out a communication with an external apparatus; a content reproduction unit for reproducing a content stored in the storage unit; and an accessible-content setting unit for classifying contents into first category contents accessible by an external apparatus and second category contents inaccessible by an external apparatus and changing a content being reproduced by the content reproduction unit to a first category content if the content being reproduced is a second category content. The terminal further includes a transmission control unit for controlling the communication unit to transmit a first category content to an external apparatus if a request for the first category content is received from the external apparatus through said communication unit. |
| US07870218B2 |
Peer-to-peer system and method with improved utilization
The present invention is directed to improving utilization in a peer-to-peer network. Each node in a peer-to-peer network is assigned a number of preferably fixed-size storage slots proportional to the node storage, a first portion of which is allocated to storage zones and a second portion of which is allocated as a free slot reserve. In accordance with an embodiment of an aspect of the invention, this split of a storage zone is delayed until the storage zone becomes full, referred to herein as “lazy splitting”. In accordance with an embodiment of another aspect of the invention, it is advantageous to allocate more storage slots at a node than its actual physical capacity referred to herein as “oversubscription”. In accordance with an embodiment of another aspect of the invention, each physical node is allocated at least one storage zone, even as a new node is added to the system. |
| US07870217B2 |
IP storage processor and engine therefor using RDMA
An IP Storage processor and processing engines for use in the IP storage processor is disclosed. The IP Storage processor uses an architecture that may provide capabilities to transport and process Internet Protocol (IP) packets from Layer 2 through transport protocol layer and may also perform packet inspection through Layer 7. The engines may perform pass-through packet classification, policy processing and/or security processing enabling packet streaming through the architecture at nearly the full line rate. A scheduler schedules packets to packet processors for processing. An internal memory or local session database cache may store a transport protocol session information database and/or store a storage information session database, for a certain number of active sessions. The session information that is not in the internal memory is stored and retrieved to/from an additional memory. An application running on an initiator or target can in certain instantiations register a region of memory, which is made available to its peer(s) for access directly without substantial host intervention through RDMA data transfer. |
| US07870216B2 |
Instant message enabled device and method
An instant message enabled device and method are provided. The method may include accessing at least one control policy for usage of an instant messaging (IM) service using an IM enabled client device. The method may also include installing data related to the at least one control policy at the IM enabled client device to modify functionality of the IM enabled client device to comply with the at least one control policy. |
| US07870209B2 |
Method and apparatus for user moderation of online chat rooms
One embodiment of the present method and apparatus for user-moderation of an online chat room in which a plurality of users are exchanging messages includes providing the chat room and controlling a manner in which the users send and receive the messages in the chat room in accordance with user feedback relating to the messages. In one embodiment, the user feedback is received in the form of user chat profiles, which describe the respective users' participation in the chat room, and flags, which users may be given in response to messages that are deemed inappropriate for the chat room. |
| US07870207B2 |
Method and apparatus for efficient polling
An e-mail distribution server may manage many pull e-mail accounts by periodically, as defined by an interval time, polling associated pull e-mail servers for new mail. If the e-mail distribution server receives an e-mail message destined for a recipient having a pull e-mail account managed by the e-mail distribution server, the e-mail distribution server may recognize an opportunity to poll the pull e-mail server associated with the pull e-mail account sooner than the expiration of the interval time. |
| US07870206B2 |
Method, computer program product, and user interface for making non-shared linked documents in electronic messages accessible to recipients
Linked non-shared documents within email messages are made accessible to a recipient. Upon initiation of sending of an email message by a user, the MIME of the email is automatically parsed through to detect URL tags indicating that a linked document is contained within the email message. Upon detection of a URL tag, the prefix of the URL is checked to determine if it is accessible to a recipient. If the prefix indicates that the link is not accessible to the recipient, the sender is provided with at least the following options for making the linked document accessible to the recipient: sending the linked document as an in-line document by converting the document into HTML format and embedding it into a multi part MIME message, sending the linked document as an attachment with a link to a file system or document library, or converting the linked document into a pdf file and sending it as an attachment. If the prefix is set, by default, as one that is not accessible to the recipient, the option of converting the document into HTML format and embedding it into a multi part MIME message may be automatically selected. |
| US07870204B2 |
Electronic mail system with aggregation and integrated display of related messages
An e-mail system is disclosed that overcomes many deficiencies of, but is backward compatible with, existing e-mail systems. Embodiments of the system may include various features, including but not limited to: (1) secure transfer of e-mail messages, without the need for users to replace existing e-mail clients or to change e-mail addresses; (2) tracking of all actions performed in connection with an e-mail transmission; (3) the ability for a recipient to view information about an e-mail message, optionally including information about how other addressees have responded to it, before deciding whether to retrieve the e-mail message; (4) the aggregation of entire e-mail conversations into a single threaded view; (5) the ability to include both private and public messages in a single e-mail communication; (6) sender control over downstream actions performed in connection with an e-mail message; (7) flexible control over cryptographic methods used to encrypt emails messages for storage. |
| US07870198B2 |
Content rights management for email and documents contents and systems, structures, and methods therefor
An email comprises a body having at least one related and previously sent email, where each previously sent email is represented in the body of the email as a body object. Each of the email and each body object therein is rights-managed as protected content, whereby a recipient of the email can render the protected content of each of the email and each body object therein with a corresponding license if the recipient satisfies terms set forth in the license. |
| US07870197B2 |
System and method to facilitate real-time communications and content sharing among users over a network
A system and method to facilitate real-time communications and content sharing among users over a network are described. In one preferred embodiment, multiple links to content information are dynamically generated for a sender user. Responsive to selection of a link by the sender user, the link and associated metadata information are communicated to at least one recipient user engaged in the real-time communications session with the sender user. |
| US07870194B2 |
Sharing calendar information
Sharing calendar information may be provided. Calendar information may be shared with individuals that may or may not be associated with a local exchange server in order to coordinate schedules. A determination is conducted to decide whether a sender is authorized to send calendar information to another by examining registration rights. Next, if the registration rights are valid, input may be received from the sender associated with sending the calendar information to another using one or more entry points. Next, calendar information settings are received from the sender, which are used when sending the calendar information to another. Next, calendar information is published to the Internet based on the calendar information settings established by the sender, and provided to others for viewing. |
| US07870193B2 |
Collaborative, event driven system management
A collaboration system is provided in combination with a system administration monitoring system. The monitoring software for the system may recognize an error or other event in a component that is being monitored. The monitoring software then sends a message to all administrators that may be associated with the error or event. When an administrator receives an alert, the administrator may choose to join a collaborative resolution session. When a plurality of administrators joins a collaborative resolution session, each administrator is presented with a user interface at his or her console. The user interface may present one or more shared system administration elements, such as system administration portals, and one or more collaboration elements, such as instant messaging elements or the like. Participating administrators may then communicate using the collaboration elements to attempt to resolve an error or other event. Users may share additional system administration elements. |
| US07870191B2 |
Computing system and method of changing I/O configuration thereof
A computing system includes: first and second I/O interfaces that are associated with a server; and an I/O management unit that connects the server with the first and second I/O interfaces. The I/O management unit includes: an I/O buffer; an I/O mapping unit that stores an access request of the server to the first I/O interface in the I/O buffer in response to a change start request of the first I/O interface associated with the server to the second I/O interface; an I/O changing unit that associates the second I/O interface with the server; and an I/O synchronizing unit that converts the access request stored in the I/O buffer into an access request to the second I/O interface, in response to the completion of the association by the I/O changing unit, and executes the converted access request. |
| US07870190B2 |
Information processing system, information processing apparatus, information processing method, and computer program
An information processing system is disclosed. The system includes: a client that executes information display processing; and a server that creates a display structure description file applied in the information display processing, wherein the client acquires image data reference information and transmits display structure description file creating data including the image data reference information to the server, the server creates the display structure description file and transmits the created display structure description file to the client, and the client executes processing for displaying a map on a display unit on the basis of the display structure description file received from the server and acquiring image data from a storage unit within the client on the basis of the image data reference information recorded in the display structure description file and then displaying the acquired image data on the display unit. |
| US07870188B2 |
Systems and methods for exposing web services
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing information technology resources. Management capabilities available for a particular IT resource are defined via at least one management interface. The management interface includes port types that specify attributes and operations available in a Web service to manage the IT resource. The port types are mapped to descriptors in a ModelMBeanInfo interface than can be used with an MBean that corresponds to the Web service. |
| US07870185B2 |
Methods and systems for imaging device event notification administration
Aspects of the present invention relate to systems, methods and devices for imaging device event notification administration and subscription. Some aspects relate to selective imaging device event notification based on user credentials and/or job execution timing. Some aspects may limit notification subscription to authorized credential holders. Some aspects relate to event notification message formats and destinations. |
| US07870184B2 |
Communications services for business process design
A business process software program is executed in a processing element comprising a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor is operative to identify within the software program one or more communications services inserted as generic design elements therein, and for each of the identified communications services, to initiate the execution of one or more corresponding communications tasks. At least one of the communications services may comprise a composite communications service which itself comprises a plurality of communications services. |
| US07870182B2 |
Digital signal processing circuit having an adder circuit with carry-outs
An integrated circuit having a digital signal processing (DSP) circuit is disclosed. The DSP circuit includes: a plurality of multiplexers receiving a first set, second set, and third set of input data bits, where the plurality of multiplexers are coupled to a first opcode register; a bitwise adder coupled to the plurality of multiplexers for generating a sum set of bits and a carry set of bits from bitwise adding together the first, second, and third set of input data bits; and a second adder coupled to the bitwise adder for adding together the sum set of bits and carry set of bits to produce a summation set of bits and a plurality of carry-out bits, where the second adder is coupled to a second opcode register. |
| US07870181B2 |
Chinese abacus adder
A Chinese abacus adder is disclosed. The Chinese abacus adder includes a B/A (binary to abacus) circuit, a P/A (parallel addition) circuit and a T/B (thermometric to binary) circuit. The Chinese abacus adder has a multiple radix calculating structure, which could reduce power consumption of the system and lower the calculation delay time. |
| US07870176B2 |
Method of and apparatus for implementing fast orthogonal transforms of variable size
A reconfigurable architecture for and method of performing a fast orthogonal transform of vectors in multiple stages, the size of a vector being N, wherein N can vary and the number of stages is a function of N, the architecture comprising: a computational unit configured and arranged so as to include one or more butterfly units; a block including one or more multipliers coupled to the output of the computational unit, configured and arranged so as to perform all of the butterfly computations for at least one stage of the transform; a storage unit configured and arranged so as to store the intermediate results of the butterfly computations and predetermined coefficients for use by the computational unit for performing each butterfly computation, the storage unit including memory and multiplexing architecture; the storage unit including memory and multiplexing architecture; a multiplexer unit configured and arranged so as to time multiplex all of the butterfly computations of the transform using said computation unit for the one stage so that only one computation unit is required for the stage; and a controller configured and arranged so as to provide coefficients to the computational unit, and control the sizes of memory and multiplexing architecture in the storage unit; wherein the multipliers' coefficients, the coefficients of the computational unit, the sizes of memories, and multiplexing architecture, for each stage are modified as a function of the value of N. The architecture can be implemented as an integrated chip, and used in communication devices. |
| US07870173B2 |
Storing information in a common information store
Systems, methods and media for storing information in a common information store of a global file storage system are disclosed. Embodiments may include a common information store including a communications module to send and receive information to and from one or more servers in the global file storage system and a pattern database to store a plurality of subfiles for the global file storage system, where each subfile may include an indication of a recognizable pattern. The common information store may also include a common information store manager to analyze newly stored files and to reconstruct stored files of the global file storage system. In a further embodiment, the common information store manager may further comprise a pattern analyzer sub-module to analyze a file for recognizable patterns and to compare the recognizable patterns to the subfiles stored in the pattern database. |
| US07870167B2 |
Implementing event processors
Novel techniques for implementing applications, such as event processors (“EPs”), designed in CQL are provided. Event processors, created as a network of CQL operators, can be implemented in SQL. Implementing an event processor in SQL allows the leveraging of significant industry knowledge and experience in research and development of SQL engines. A user can interact with an EP-generator application to design an event processor in CQL. The EP-generator application can implement the event processor by translating the CQL into SQL statements. Event-processing systems can execute the SQL implementation of the event processor in a first computing environment, such as an SQL database. In this manner, systems described herein can execute event processors defined as a network of CQL operators with high performance and scalability. |
| US07870164B2 |
Database part creation, merge and reuse
Embodiments are provided to merge, manage, create, and reuse database parts in a computer system. Database parts may include database tables, datatypes, field combinations or entire databases. A selection of a database part is received by a database software application executing on a computer system. The application may be configured to check for metadata associated with the database part to identify an action property. If, after checking for the metadata, a merge action property is identified, then the application may check for a metadata property associated with a database table. If a merge action associated with the database table is identified, then the application may merge the database part with the database table in the database. The application may also be configured to generate a user interface for creating database parts using database tables and for creating a database part by saving a database. |
| US07870160B2 |
Block compression algorithm
A method for compressing a data stream based on a 3 byte sequence is used. Each three byte sequence is assigned a code word including a location and a length of the data associated with the code word. When a 6 byte sequence is located, a binary tree of 6 byte sequences sharing the same first three bytes is built, associating each 6 byte sequence with a position in the stream where the 6 byte sequence is found. When the length of a code word is changed, a byte sequence is emitted that identifies the code word to be changed and updating the length of the code word, so that when a match is found, a byte sequence is emitted that identifies the code word associated with the matched data. The method finds particular application in data streams that are sent to printers, and which contain large blocks of identical data. |
| US07870156B2 |
Organizational reference data and entitlement system with entitlement generator
A system including a centralized organizational information system in communication with a centralized organizational information database and an entitlement generator in communication with the centralized organizational information system, wherein the entitlement generator is configured to automatically generate at least one executable entitlement rule based on an input rule. The system also includes a federated set of entitlements engines in communication with the entitlement generator and a plurality of entitlement databases, wherein each of the entitlements engines is for determining whether a user is entitled to access secured resources requested by the user based on the executable entitlement rule. |
| US07870155B2 |
Method and system for navigating within a body of data using one of a number of alternative browse graphs
A facility for navigating within a body of data using one of a number of distinct browse graphs is described. Initially, a navigation request is received. Based upon information contained in the received navigation request, the facility selects one of the plurality of browse graphs. In response to user input, the facility browses the body of data using the selected browse graph. |
| US07870152B2 |
Attaching and displaying annotations to changing data views
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture that may be used to attach annotations to a particular view of data described by the annotation are provided. The annotation may be attached in a manner that allows the annotation to be viewed when subsequent views having at least some visible cells in common with the annotated view are displayed. An annotation created for a view of data may be stored with links to each cell visible in the view. When a predetermined set of cells visible in the annotated view are subsequently displayed in another view, the annotation may be retrieved via the cell links and an indication of the annotation may be provided. |
| US07870151B2 |
Fast accurate fuzzy matching
A computer-implemented technique for fuzzy matching. This works quickly yet accurately to determine if a given computer-readable record is represented, by exact match or pretty close match, in a large collection of computer-readable records. Further tools may be provided to assess the character of the match. |
| US07870149B2 |
Data mining method for finding deviations in data
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for finding deviations in data. A set of candidate patterns is generated. A set of exception patterns that occur in the data less frequently than expected assuming statistical independence is selected from the set of candidate patterns. Data records that comply with at least one of the exception patterns are processed as exception candidates. |
| US07870148B2 |
Scalable computation of data
Techniques for producing a cross tabulation are described. The techniques involve issuing a plurality of queries to a database. The queries are for each of at least one sublevel of data for each of at least one dimension of data associated with records in the database. The queries provide sublists of sorted identifiers for each one of the queries. The technique determines occurrences of intersections of levels of one dimension with levels of another dimension of the data associated with records in the database by traversing the sublists to detect intersections of the dimensions. |
| US07870145B2 |
Utilization of logical fields with conditional constraints in abstract queries
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are provided for enhancing abstract queries by utilizing logical fields with conditional constraints. Building abstract queries with logical fields configured with conditional constraints allows for optimized physical queries to be generated from corresponding abstract queries. |
| US07870143B2 |
Systems and methods for processing XML document as a stream of events using XPath context
An improved XML query system represents an XML document as a stream of discrete events with each event representing a portion of the document as the document is being parsed. Expression-based event matching such as XPath can be performed against the event stream using a stack or tree to keep only the relevant contexts such as XPath context in memory. Observers can be used to listen for matching events. Matching events can then be routed for processing by appropriate objects or components and returned to the event stream if necessary. |
| US07870142B2 |
Text to grammar enhancements for media files
A control system in a vehicle for extracting meta data from a digital media storage device over a communication link. The system includes a communication module for establishing a communication link with the digital media storage device. The system also includes a processing module coupled to the communication module. The processing module is configured to retrieve, via the communication module, meta data associated with a media file from the digital media storage device. The meta data includes a plurality of entries, wherein at least one of the plurality of entries includes text data. The processing module is also configured to compare the text data of the entries with a set of data files stored in a database. The system also includes a memory module configured to store the plurality of entries retrieved from the digital media storage device. |
| US07870141B2 |
Method and system for finding a focus of a document
Method and apparatus for finding the focus of a document. A semantic network includes a plurality of nodes, each representing a concept, and links, connecting the nodes, representing relations between the concepts is used. The method including: providing a list of terms in an input document which match concepts represented by the semantic network, and a frequency value for each matched term indicating the number of times the term appears in the document; mapping each matched term to a referent node or to a plurality of possible referent nodes in the semantic network, and assigning weights to nodes. |
| US07870139B2 |
Correlating genealogy records systems and methods
A method of consolidating genealogy records includes partitioning the records using at least one index file to form one or more partitions, sorting the records in a partition based on a data element in the records, comparing records within a sort range, based on the comparison, identifying same person records, consolidating information in the same person records, receiving a request from a user to view at least a portion of the consolidated information for a particular group of same person records, and sending a file that includes the portion to the user. |
| US07870136B1 |
Clustering data with constraints
A method for clustering data using pairwise constraints that includes receiving a set of data for clustering, the set of data includes a plurality of data units; identifying soft pairwise constraints, each indicating a relationship between two of the plurality of data units in the set of data and having an associated confidence level indicating a probability that each pairwise constraint is present; and clustering the plurality of data units in the set of data into a plurality of data partitions based at least on a chunklet modeling technique that employs the soft pairwise constraints. |
| US07870132B2 |
Constructing web query hierarchies from click-through data
The claimed subject matter is directed to constructing query hierarchies in response to a query request. To construct a query hierarchy, a list of related candidate queries is generated in response to the received query request. The list of related candidate queries is generated by determining the relative coverage of information shared by the candidate queries and the query request. Relationships between the submitted query request and the candidate queries in the list are determined based upon the extent of relative coverage of information shared by the candidate queries and the query request. A query hierarchy is then constructed to reflect the determined relationships between the query request and the candidate queries. |
| US07870123B2 |
Database optimizer plan validation and characterizations
The invention relates to a method of determining the performance of an optimizer program arranged to generate a plan. The method generally comprises the steps of executing the optimizer utilising at least one test case to derive a pre-variation plan; executing the pre-variation plan to generate a first output; varying a strategy of the optimizer program; executing the varied optimizer program utilising the at least one test case to derive a post-variation plan; and executing the post-variation plan to generate a second output. The outputs are then grouped according to at least one element of the plans to assess the performance of the optimizer. |
| US07870122B2 |
Self-tuning index for flash-based databases
Techniques for self-tuning indices for databases, including flash-based databases, are described. Using a data tree structure wherein the nodes of the data tree may operate in two modes (e.g. disk mode or log mode), a self-tuning index determines whether it is more economical to perform a requested operation on a node in its current mode or in an alternate mode. The operation is then performed on the node using the more economical mode. |
| US07870117B1 |
Constructing a search query to execute a contextual personalized search of a knowledge base
Information retrieval systems face challenging problems with delivering highly relevant and highly inclusive search results in response to a user's query. Contextual personalized information retrieval uses a set of integrated methodologies that can combine automatic concept extraction/matching from text, a powerful fuzzy search engine, and a collaborative user preference learning engine to provide accurate and personalized search results. The system can include constructing a search query to execute a search of a database. The system can parse an input query from a user conducting the search of the database into sub-strings, and can match the sub-strings to concepts in a semantic concept network of a knowledge base. The system can further map the matched concepts to criteria and criteria values that specify a set of constraints on and scoring parameters for the matched concepts. |
| US07870110B2 |
Method and system for generating a transaction-bound sequence of records in a relational database table
A method for generating a transaction-bound sequence of records in a database table is disclosed. In response to a transaction attempting to insert a record to a database table within a relational database, an identification (ID) of the transaction and the name of the associated database table are initially obtained. A determination is then made whether or not the obtained transaction ID and the associated database table name are found in the transaction-bound tracking table. If they are not found in the transaction-bound tracking table, a new entry is generated in the transaction-bound tracking table for the obtained transaction ID and database table name, and a value in a last_order_number column associated with the entry is set to 1; otherwise, a value in the last_order_number column associated with the entry is incremented by 1. The value in the last_order_number column associated with the entry is subsequently copied to the corresponding order tracking field associated with the record entry in the database table. |
| US07870099B2 |
Computer readable recording medium having stored therein database synchronizing process program, and apparatus for and method of performing database synchronizing process
A program applicable to a computer system for executing a database synchronizing process, which reflects, onto a database of one server, updating of a database of another server by the use of a business application of such another server, when updating information data in which pieces of updating information capable of specifying pre-updating and post-updating states in the database of the another server are held for every unit of transactions are received, executes determination as to whether or not any logical inconsistency occurs between the databases, if the databases of the one and another servers are updated depending on the updating information of the updating information data. When no inconsistency occurs, the databases are updated depending on the updating information. When the inconsistency occurs, an error log is output. The program is recorded on a computer readable recording medium. |
| US07870097B2 |
Synchronization view
Systems and methods are disclosed for synchronizing data stored in remote stores. Data stored in locations such as computer applications, consumer electronic devices and Internet websites is synchronized with a central database within a computer device. The computer device may also store constraints that limit the type of data that may be synchronized with individual stores. A graphical user interface may use different formats or icons to distinguish between data stored in a store and data included within the central database. |
| US07870094B2 |
Method and system for continuous data protection
In operation of continuous data protection, a continuous data protection method enables the user to easily select a copy data storage volume and an update request storage volume. A storage management server calculates selection conditions of candidates for a copy data storage volume and an update request storage volume based on a continuous data protection period to continuously protect a protection target volume and a disk capacity and an update access characteristic of the protection target volume to thereby select, according to the selection conditions, the candidates for the copy data and update request storage volumes. At occurrence of abnormality in data of the protection target volume, the continuous data protection system can restore data to a particular position (point of time) within the continuous data protection period. |
| US07870092B2 |
Method for storing media captured using a portable electronic device
A method for updating data in a media storage location includes: storing an identity on a portable electronic device, the identity allowing access to the media storage location; storing a file in a device memory of the portable electronic device, the file being captured by a media capturing component of the portable electronic device; and performing a synchronization operation using a media manager, the media manager being in communication with the device memory and the media storage location; the synchronization operation synchronizing data between the device memory and the media storage location. |
| US07870085B2 |
Risk assessment between aircrafts
A risk assessment method and system. The method includes receiving by an inference engine, first sensor cohort data associated with a first cohort located within a first aircraft. The inference engine receives first group technology inferences associated with the first cohort. The inference engine generates first risk cohort inferences based on the first group technology inferences and the first sensor cohort data. The inference engine receives first inference data comprising a first plurality of inferences associated with the first cohort. The inference engine generates second inference data comprising a second plurality of inferences associated with the first cohort. The second inference data is based on the first inference data and the first risk cohort inferences. The inference engine generates a first associated risk level score for the first cohort. The computing system stores the second inference data and the first associated risk level score. |
| US07870083B2 |
Systems and methods for generating predictive matrix-variate T models
Systems and methods are disclosed to predict one or more missing elements from a partially-observed matrix by receiving one or more user item ratings; generating a model parameterized by matrices U, S, V; applying the model to display an item based on one or more predicted missing elements; and applying the model at run-time and determining UiTSVj. |
| US07870082B2 |
Method for machine learning using online convex optimization problem solving with minimum regret
Methods, systems, and computer program products are provided for the online convex optimization problem, in which the decision maker has knowledge of the all past states and resulting cost functions for his previous choices and attempts to make a new choice that results in minimum regret. The method does not rely upon the structure of the cost function or the characterization of the states and takes advantage of the similarity between successive states to enable the method to converge to a reasonably optimal result. |
| US07870078B2 |
System, method and computer program product for assessing risk of identity theft
In one embodiment, this invention analyzes demographic data that is associated with a specific street address when presented as an address change on an existing account or an address included on a new account application when that address is different from the reference address (e.g., a credit bureau type header data). The old or reference address and the new address, the new account application address or fulfillment address demographic attributes are gathered, analyzed, compared for divergence and scaled to reflect the relative fraud risk. |
| US07870076B2 |
Method and an apparatus to provide interoperability between different protection schemes
Some embodiments of a method and an apparatus to provide interoperability between different digital content protection schemes have been presented. In one embodiment, a first copy of digital content encrypted using a first protection scheme is received from a user. In response to a request from the user, it is verified that the user is a rightful owner of the first copy without decrypting the first copy. A second copy of the digital content encrypted using a second protection scheme is sent to the user if the user is a rightful owner of the first copy. |
| US07870071B2 |
Systems, methods, and devices for combined credit card and stored value transaction accounts
The present invention generally relates to a single transaction account identifier that can be used for in transactions with one of multiple transaction accounts. The method includes one or more of the following steps: establishing at least two transaction accounts, wherein the transaction accounts are respectively associated with transaction account identifiers; receiving, at a transaction processing system, a common account identifier; recognizing the common account identifier as being associated with more than one account; and determining, which of the at least two transaction accounts to access for processing the transaction. The determining step may be based on selection criteria and the selection criteria may be modified by a user. One of the first and second transaction account identifiers may be forwarded to the respective first and second transaction accounts based on the determining step; and the transaction may be processed via the selected transaction account. |
| US07870065B2 |
Money-transfer techniques
A financial institution has a web-based server for use in transferring money between a customer and a beneficiary. A customer, having a client computer, and a credit card, opens a transaction web page provided by the server. The customer inputs transaction data into the web page, and sends the transaction data to the server via the Internet. The customer then receives a fund-pick-up (“folio”) number and provides the beneficiary with the fund-pick-up number to use in collecting the funds. |
| US07870054B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for advancing a bidder to a selected rank
The present invention provides a method for advancing a first bidder to a selected rank in an electronic auction. This method includes calculating, in response to actuation of a bid rank advancement function, a new bid for the first bidder, and displaying the new bid to the first bidder. The new bid is calculated by applying a predetermined minimum differential value to a current bid of a second bidder that holds the rank selected by the first bidder. In one embodiment, the rank selected by the first bidder is a rank other than first. The present invention also provides a system and apparatus for advancing a first bidder to a selected rank in an electronic auction. |
| US07870052B1 |
System and method for forecasting portfolio losses at multiple horizons
A computer system, which may comprise a processor, a memory and a database, may implement a loss surface determining software module that forecasts a portfolio's loss surface. Daily loss histories may be collected from actual data or may be generated using a factor model. A model may generate a sequence of iid high frequency loss innovations that can be temporally aggregated with a Fourier transform. For each portfolio, the loss surface may be forecasted and 95% and 99% value-at-risk and expected shortfall forecasts may be derived for various time horizons. |
| US07870048B2 |
Method and system for flexible scheduling of repayment of a loan
The present invention relates to a method, system and computer program product for displaying a flexible schedule for repayment of a loan. The method comprises computing an effective rate of interest on the basis of a nominal rate of interest and a compounding frequency and calculating installments to be paid based on a principal loan amount, a loan term, a disbursement date, the effective rate of interest and a predetermined set of parameters. Multiple installments of a fixed or variable amount can be paid in a particular period of time. The method facilitates entering user selected parameters such as accrual basis, bullet payment amount and period, payment holiday period and incrementing and/or decrementing installments in corresponding predefined period(s). |
| US07870044B2 |
Methods, systems and computer program products for a cloud computing spot market platform
This disclosure details the implementation of methods, systems and computer program products for a cloud computing spot market platform (hereinafter, “Platform”). Fluctuations in demand for computing resources may engender idle processing capacity within the framework of a cloud computing system. Embodiments of the Platform provide infrastructure for redistributing idle capacity to grid-style batch computing processes, such as may be based on the same processing resources as those used by the cloud computing system. In this manner, Platform embodiments may increase the utilization of idle resources and reduce revenue losses associated with demand variability for cloud computing system administrators. In one embodiment, market-oriented floating prices for grid-style batch computing utilizing idle resources may be implemented based on monitored and analyzed levels of computing resource supply and demand. |
| US07870043B2 |
Multiply-integrated system for product inventory, sales, and distribution
A multiply-integrated system for inventory, sales, and distribution of products comprises a supplier database, an order database, and a programmed order processor. The supplier database includes inventory/pricing information for multiple independent participating product suppliers, which may include: product manufacturers, distributors, and/or retailers. The order database includes order information received by the multiple participating product suppliers from multiple independent product purchasers. The multiple product purchasers may include any or all of: product manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and/or purchasers. The order processor is linked to the databases and programmed for implementing a multiply-integrated method comprising the steps of: a) receiving/entering pricing/inventory information for the supplier database; b/c) receiving/entering order information for multiple product purchasers into the order database; d) searching for ordered products available from a supplier; e) issuing instructions for delivery of each ordered and located product; f) updating the order database; and g) creating a financial accounting record for delivered products. |
| US07870042B2 |
Systems and methods for identifying banned waste in a municipal solid waste environment
System and methods for identifying waste items in a waste management environment includes reading data from a plurality of identifiers that are attached to waste items. The read data is compared with reference data stored in one or more data repositories. If a match exists between any of the read data and the reference data, an indication of non-compliance of the waste item with predetermined safety criteria is provided. |
| US07870041B2 |
Method and storage medium for managing collaborative forecasting and replenishment
An exemplary embodiment of the invention relates to a method and storage medium for integrating forecasting and replenishment activities for a networked supply chain including an enterprise and at least one supplier. The method comprises receiving a demand forecast for a first manufacturing cycle from the enterprise, performing a hub inventory assessment, performing a capability assessment, and transmitting a commitment response to the enterprise based upon the demand forecast, the results of the hub inventory assessment, and the results of the capability assessment. The demand forecast is utilized to manage hub inventory for use in a second manufacturing cycle. Other embodiments include a storage medium for implementing the invention. |
| US07870040B2 |
Systems and methods for searching for entertainment tickets via internet
Systems and methods are provided for collecting and listing entertainment ticket information from multiple data sources, and facilitating the sales of entertainment tickets over a network. In accordance with one implementation, a computer-implemented method is provided for offering to sell entertainment tickets over a network. The method includes the steps of providing exhibition data importation rules for importing exhibition data, electronically receiving the exhibition data from multiple exhibition data feeds in accordance with the exhibition data importation rules, and electronically eliminating any duplicates from the exhibition data. The method further includes the step of providing, over the network, to a user a listing of entertainment exhibitions in accordance with user-selected or selected criteria, in which the listing provides an option to purchase an exhibition ticket from an entertainment ticket provider. In the method, the exhibition data may include an entertainment identification information, an entertainment exhibition location, and an entertainment exhibition time. |
| US07870039B1 |
Automatic product categorization
Techniques are provided for automatic product categorization. In one aspect, the categorization is based on text and one or more other values associated with a product offering. In another aspect, a first categorization of a product offering is performed and, if the product category chosen is in a set of co-refinable product categories, then a second (or third, fourth and so on) categorization is performed among the set of co-refinable product categories. In a third aspect, products are categorized based on cost. In another aspect, after products are categorized, the products are flagged for further categorization processing if the cost for categorizing the product is beyond a predefined threshold. |
| US07870035B1 |
Advertising and distribution method for event photographs
A method for providing on-line event photographs includes the steps of capturing multiple photographs during an event, and associating identifying data with each photograph taken. A database is accessed to search for the photograph utilizing the identifying data. A photograph is selected for ordering at a reduced price or for free. A field is created in the digital photograph, such as in a corner or a margin thereof, and visual advertisement indicia are associated with the field. An electronic link may also be associated with the field for connecting the user to an advertiser's electronic document or web-site. The photograph, containing the visual field, is electronically transferred to the user's electronic device or otherwise sent to the user. |
| US07870034B2 |
Method and apparatus for multiple variable bidding in an online auction
A method and apparatus for automatically updating the value of a bid variable or the total bid for a multi-variable bid in an online auction is disclosed. The method includes displaying an automatically adjustable mechanism interfaced to a bidder. Thereafter, the automatic bid adjustments are calculated using the mechanism. |
| US07870030B2 |
Method and system for managing invitations to bid
A system and method for managing the drafting, submission, and evaluation of invitations to bid for the delivery of one or more products and/or services. An archival database of performance descriptions and prices is utilized to generate a list of desired performances; the list being automatically distributed to a plurality of selected potential bidders. Upon receipt of the submitted bids, the system evaluates the bids based on price, past pricings, and bidder performance history. A bid is selected as the winning bid, and a contract listing the desired performances is generated and forwarded to the successful bidder. During contract performance, bidder performance is monitored, with the results being added to a historical database for subsequent use in the bid evaluation and selection process. The contents of the successful bid, including any new performance descriptions drafted during the generation of the bid, are added to the archival database for use in future bid invitation generation applications. |
| US07870029B2 |
Determining the availability of purchasable items in a network environment
Embodiments of the present invention provide for a method, system and article of manufacture for operating vending machines. In general, a plurality of vending machines are nodes of a network. Each node is configured to send, receive and process signals carrying inventory, pricing, reservation and/or refund information. In particular, a first signal is sent to one or more nodes requesting inventory/price information from other nodes. Those nodes carrying the product may reply with a second signal. In this manner, the location of vending machines carrying one or more items specified by a customer may be determined. In another embodiment, vending machine items may be reserved from a remote location. In still another embodiment, vending machines may be configured to provide refunds under controlled conditions. A consumer may request a refund in cases where the consumer was improperly charged for goods are services that were not provided. |
| US07870028B2 |
Multi-device supervisor support for self-checkout systems
A customer self-checkout system includes one or more checkout stations and multiple supervisor terminals. The supervisor terminals provide support to, and control over, the self-checkout system and checkout stations. A controller is used to coordinate communications among the checkout stations and supervisor terminals over a wired and/or wireless network interfaces. A user may provide input at supervisory terminal using an interface providing context sensitive prompting to enable control using a simple keyboard interface. |
| US07870025B2 |
Vendor comparison, advertising and switching
A method for switching vendors, including sending an invitation to a user to rate a first vendor in response to the user designating the first vendor as a payee, receiving a rating assigned to the first vendor, determining a second vendor as an alternative to the first vendor based on the rating being below a predefined threshold, sending information associated with the second vendor to the user, receiving a request from the user to switch from the first vendor to the second vendor, sending a cancellation notice to the first vendor in response to receiving the request, transmitting user information to a computer of the second vendor for setting up a new account, and charging the second vendor a fee for sending the information associated with the second vendor to the user. |
| US07870024B2 |
Systems and methods for electronic marketing
An exemplary system includes a publisher subsystem configured to communicate with an access device and an advertiser device over a data communication network. The publisher subsystem includes a publish module, a session module, and an allocation module. The publish module is configured to publish content over the data communication network, the content including an advertisement. The session module is configured to detect a selection of the advertisement, initiate a session between the access device and the advertiser device in response to the selection, the advertiser device being associated with the advertisement, and receive feedback from the advertiser device. The allocation module is configured to allocate revenue based on the feedback. In some examples, the amount of the revenue is independent of the feedback. |
| US07870023B2 |
Methods and systems for selectively displaying advertisements
A system, including a planning module, a control module and a receiver module, configured to schedule display of one or more advertising impressions of available advertising inventory. The planning module enables scheduling a requested quantity of advertising impressions in accordance with target criteria. Further, the planning module enables selecting an advertising impression goal for advertisement, assigning an advertising type and defining a weight for the advertisements. The control module receives the schedule, the advertising type and the defined weights and generates one or more metadata files that contain target criteria, advertising type and weights for the advertisements. The one or more metadata files, with the advertisements, are delivered to the receiver module that is configured to define a display frequency for the advertisements based upon one or more of the metadata files. The receiver module selectively displays advertisement content associated with the advertisements to achieve the advertising impression goal. |
| US07870018B2 |
Brand value management
A combination of several analytical computer-assisted modeling techniques may be used to evaluate the value of a brand, the relative value of competitive brands and may identify the opportunities to increase brand value and the priority of those opportunities. Image/Attitudinal driver analysis, pyramid analysis, probability analysis, trade-off analysis, and other regression techniques may be used in novel combinations to quantify brand development, impacts and the overall estimate of brand value. For example: (1) image driver analysis may be applied to each level of a brand pyramid to understand how to most effectively move customers through to the next level in the pyramid; (2) probability analysis may be used to estimate the impact of each movement through the pyramid; and (3) tradeoff analysis may be used to improve the value customers perceive at any particular level of the pyramid. |
| US07870013B1 |
Automated system and method for managing goals
A goal management system stores at least first and second goals. The goal management system also stores a relationship between the first goal and the second goal. In one aspect, the goal management system detects modification of the first goal and, in response, causes the second goal to be automatically highlighted for alignment verification. In another aspect, the second goal is a parent goal to the first goal, and the relationship is stored as a parent link associating the first goal with the parent goal. The goal management system also stores an owner for the first goal. In response to detecting modification of the parent goal, the goal management system causes the first goal to be automatically highlighted for alignment verification in a display associated with the owner of the first goal, based on the parent link. Additional aspects relate to additional technological solutions which facilitate goal management through, for example, goal alignment. |
| US07870008B2 |
System for commercial food management
A system and method for commercial food management. Nutritional information for identified food items is stored on a central server, along with recipes using the food items. Each recipe is assigned a diet type, and using the nutritional information, menus for a requested diet type are prepared. |
| US07870007B1 |
System and method of determining interactions between medicines
A system and method of determining interactions between medicines which includes a pharmacy kiosk. One embodiment of the pharmacy kiosk includes a display, an input device, and a computer for displaying a prompt to enter medicine identification information for a medicine, for recording the medicine identification information, for obtaining interaction information between the medicine and other medicines, and for displaying the interaction information. The computer may additionally record operator identification information, obtain prescriptions of the operator for the other medicines using the operator identification information, obtain interaction information between the medicine and the other medicines, and display the interaction information. |
| US07870006B2 |
Methods and systems for managing clinical research information
A method for managing clinical study (CS) information for a clinical research entity using a server system coupled to a centralized database and at least one client system is provided. The centralized database has a plurality of templates stored therein. The method includes receiving at the server system CS information relating to at least one patient involved in a clinical study wherein the CS information is entered through a user selected template displayed on the client system, storing CS information received at the server system in the centralized database, tracking CS information stored in the centralized database, updating the centralized database periodically with newly received CS information to maintain CS information, and providing CS information in response to an inquiry. |
| US07870005B2 |
System, method, and computer program product for configuring and purchasing a medical device
A system, method, and computer program product for configuring a medical device. A personal data assistant is used by a practitioner to gather patient information. Patient information is transferred to a server, and three optional medical devices are configured as a “good,” “better,” and “best” alternative. One of the proposed options is selected customized by the practitioner prior to ordering. Order status may be obtained online, and historical patient and order information is maintained. A catalog of medical device components is also provided, the catalog items are either ordered “as is” or are customized through the customizer prior to ordering. |
| US07870003B2 |
Acoustical-signal processing apparatus, acoustical-signal processing method and computer program product for processing acoustical signals
An acoustical-signal processing apparatus includes a feature extracting unit that extracts feature data common to each channel signal which forms a multichannel acoustical signal, based on a composite similarity obtained by combining similarities calculated from each channel signal; and a time-base companding unit that executes time compression and time expansion of the multichannel acoustical signal based on the extracted feature data. |
| US07870002B2 |
Computer, display control device, pointer position control method, and program
To provide a pointer position control method and the like for manipulating a pointer more easily. The user moves the pointer P two-dimensionally and perform click and other operations by using only “voice”—by varying the volume and pitch of produced voice without uttering any specific command. The user moves the pointer P by varying the volume and switches the travel direction of the pointer P by changing the pitch. Also, by stopping to vary the volume, the user can automatically enter a fine adjustment mode in which the user can make fine adjustments. Furthermore, the user can perform a click by stopping to produce voice suddenly and return to normal speech recognition mode by keeping silent. |
| US07870000B2 |
Partially filling mixed-initiative forms from utterances having sub-threshold confidence scores based upon word-level confidence data
The present disclosure relates to prompting for a spoken response that provides input for multiple elements. A single spoken utterance including content for multiple elements can be received, where each element is mapped to a data field. The spoken utterance can be speech-to-text converted to derive values for each of the multiple elements. An utterance level confidence score can be determined, which can fall below an associated certainty threshold. Element-level confidence scores for each of the derived elements can then be ascertained. A first set of the multiple elements can have element-level confidence scores above an associated certainty threshold and a second set can have scores below. Values can be stored in data fields mapped to the first set. A prompt for input for the second set can be played. |
| US07869996B2 |
Recognition of speech in editable audio streams
A speech processing system divides a spoken audio stream into partial audio streams, referred to as “snippets.” The system may divide a portion of the audio stream into two snippets at a position at which the speaker performed an editing operation, such as pausing and then resuming recording, or rewinding and then resuming recording. The snippets may be transmitted sequentially to a consumer, such as an automatic speech recognizer or a playback device, as the snippets are generated. The consumer may process (e.g., recognize or play back) the snippets as they are received. The consumer may modify its output in response to editing operations reflected in the snippets. The consumer may process the audio stream while it is being created and transmitted even if the audio stream includes editing operations that invalidate previously-transmitted partial audio streams, thereby enabling shorter turnaround time between dictation and consumption of the complete audio stream. |
| US07869995B1 |
Processing speech transmitted through a network using a plurality of processing levels
A system receives a first value and packets of encoded audio speech from a first client. The system receives a second value and packets of encoded audio speech from a second client. Based on the first value, the system services the packets of encoded audio speech from the first client using a first processing level. Based on the second value, the system services the packets of encoded audio speech from the second client using a second processing level, which is different from the first processing level. |
| US07869990B2 |
Pitch prediction for use by a speech decoder to conceal packet loss
There is provided a pitch lag predictor for use by a speech decoder to generate a predicted pitch lag parameter. The pitch lag predictor comprises a summation calculator configured to generate a first summation based on a plurality of previous pitch lag parameters, and a second summation based on a plurality of previous pitch lag parameters and a position of each of the plurality of previous pitch lag parameters with respect to the predicted pitch lag parameter; a coefficient calculator configured to generate a first coefficient using a first equation based on the first summation and the second summation, and a second coefficient using a second equation based on the first summation and the second summation, wherein the first equation is different than the second equation; and a predictor configured to generate the predicted pitch lag parameter based on the first coefficient and the second coefficient. |
| US07869989B1 |
Methods and apparatus for understanding machine vocabulary
Configurations herein provide a language processing mechanism operable to define a machine vocabulary and identify a machine language version of the words that preserves context and identifies the proper definition of the words by identifying and preserving context of a particular set of words, such as a sentence or paragraph. The machine vocabulary includes a definition section for each definition of a word. Each definition section includes a set of one or more definition elements. The definition elements include a predetermined format of definition fields, and each has a corresponding mask indicative of significant definition fields. The set of definition elements corresponding to a particular definition describe the usage of the word in a context matching that particular definition. Each definition element captures a characteristic of the definition according to fuzzy logic such that the definition elements collectively capture the context. |
| US07869985B2 |
3D vehicle simulator system and simulation method for ECU embedded system
Disclosed is a 3D vehicle simulator system for an ECU embedded system comprising an external input apparatus 130, to which signals of one or more external sensors are inputted, an ECU embedded system 120 for processing and executing signals inputted form the external input apparatus 130, an external output apparatus 140 for receiving and outputting the output signals of the ECU embedding system 120, a vehicle simulator 110 for calculating at real time the signals inputted from the ECU embedded system 120, and for 3D-modeling and outputting the status of the vehicle, and a display 150 for displaying the 3D-modeled vehicle outputted form the vehicle simulator 110. |
| US07869984B2 |
System and method for simulating a discrete event process using business system data
The invention provides a method and system to simulate a process of discrete tasks having a plurality of available resources associated therewith. The system may comprise a model database to store a plurality of models, each model including a plurality of task and resource parameters; a model portion in communication with the model database and configured to receive commands from a user, to retrieve one of the plurality of models and corresponding task and resource parameters in response to a user command, to receive input data corresponding to attributes of one or more task and resource parameters from a business database system, and to generate a simulation model based on the selected business database system and the input data; and a model server to perform a simulation of the process by processing the simulation model and to generate an output data file containing output data representative of the simulation. |
| US07869981B2 |
Automated method and system for object configuration
An automated system and method is provided for configuring an object (e.g., a room). In accordance with a preferred embodiment, configuration is facilitated through the use of layering functionality and frame-based inferences to evaluate stored knowledge of object attributes. The frame-based inferences may be supplemented by a rules-based inference system. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a graphics-based user interface may be used to permit interactive configuration using two-dimensional and three-dimensional models of the object, and incorporating engineering specifications, as well as functional and physical attributes. |
| US07869979B2 |
Determination of the gap size of a radial gap
The invention relates to a method for determining the size of a radial gap between rotating and torsion-proof parts, particularly the parts of a turbomachine. According to said method, an original signal emitted by a transmitter device located on the surface of the rotating part is received in a modified manner by a receiver device disposed on the torsion-proof part and is redirected to an evaluation unit. Said evaluation device determines and displays the size of the radial gap from the received signal by determining the parameters of the trajectory of the rotating transmitter device. |
| US07869978B2 |
Determination and control of wellbore fluid level, output flow, and desired pump operating speed, using a control system for a centrifugal pump disposed within the wellbore
A method and apparatus for determining a fluid level and/or output flow during operation of a centrifugal pump, are provided, which may be used for production of gas and/or oil from a well, and include a vector feedback model to derive values of torque and speed from signals indicative of instantaneous current and voltage drawn by the pump motor, a pump model which derives values of the fluid flow rate and the head pressure for the pump from torque and speed inputs, a pumping system model that derives, from the estimated values of the pump operating parameters, an estimated value of fluid level and other pumping system parameters. Controllers responsive to the estimated values of the pumping system parameters control the pump to maintain fluid level at the pump input, near an optimum level, or within a safe operating range and/or output flow from the pump. |
| US07869977B2 |
Using multiple antennas to characterize a computer system based on electromagnetic signals
Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system that characterizes a computer system parameter by analyzing a target electromagnetic signal radiating from the computer system. First, the target electromagnetic signal is monitored using a first antenna and a second antenna, wherein an axis of the second antenna is oriented non-parallel to an axis of the first antenna. Then, the target electromagnetic signal received from the first antenna and the target electromagnetic signal received from the second antenna are separately analyzed to characterize the computer system parameter. |
| US07869972B2 |
Method and system for synchronous rectification
The method and system of the present invention uses synchronous rectification and frequency domain analysis to remove the need for calibration of the A/D and D/A components. It is applicable to any sensor based measurement in which either the sensor can be excited with an AC voltage or current, or in which the signal can be modulated with an AC voltage or current. |
| US07869967B2 |
Nonparametric method for determination of anomalous event states in complex systems exhibiting non-stationarity
According to a feature of the present disclosure, a method is provided for the determination of anomalous events in complex systems, such as problems, inefficiencies, and failures, and a tool is provided for the detection of these events. Many complex systems are non-stationary or experience periodic fluctuations or spikes in values that are outside of normal ranges, but constitute normal behavior nevertheless. The method accounts for both non-stationarity, as well as fluctuations and spikes. Additional novel features include both a threshold setting initialization method and a regression method for the determination of the start points and end points of events. |
| US07869966B2 |
Inspection method and its apparatus, inspection system
The present invention relates to a tool for analyzing by priority a defect having a high possibility of causing an electrical failure when inspecting a particle and a pattern defect in a piece of work which constitutes an electronic device such as a semiconductor integrated circuit, and relates to a system therefor. On the basis of the result of comparison between defect information which is the result of inspection by an inspection tool and layout data stored in an auxiliary storage device, or on the basis of the result of reinspection by comparison between a defect and a wiring pattern as a background by an inspection processing operation unit, an object to be reviewed is selected using review conditions stored in the auxiliary storage device. |
| US07869965B2 |
Inferential power monitor without voltage/current transducers
A system that facilitates estimating power consumption in a computer system by inferring the power consumption from instrumentation signals. During operation, the system monitors instrumentation signals within the computer system, wherein the instrumentation signals do not include corresponding current and voltage signals that can be used to directly compute power consumption. The system then estimates the power consumption for the computer system by inferring the power consumption from the instrumentation signals and from an inferential power model generated during a training phase. |
| US07869962B2 |
Process and device for controlling the deformation of a metal part, in particular for redressing a metal part
The method for tracking deformation of a metal part subjected to a pressure force (F) includes the steps of measuring the displacement (d) of the metal part in the deformation zone, of measuring the intensity of the pressure force (F), of calculating, during a first period, the constant ratio (α) between the intensity of the pressure force (F) and the displacement (d) of the metal part, and of determining, during a second period, displacement values (de) and (dp) related respectively to an elastic deformation and to a plastic deformation of the metal part from the constant ratio (α) and a displacement (da) measured during the said second period. |
| US07869961B2 |
Spatial profiling of proteins using hydrophobic moments
Generally, the present invention provides a number of procedures to spatially profile proteins by using hydrophobic moments. In all procedures, a hydrophobicity distribution of a protein is shifted and normalized. In one procedure, a shape or profile of a curve of a second-order moment of hydrophobicity is determined. A second procedure involves determining one or more ratios, such as the ratio of a distance at which the second order moment of hydrophobicity vanishes to the distance at which a zero-order moment of hydrophobicity vanishes. The distance at which a peak occurs in a profile of the zero- or second-order moment of hydrophobicity can also be used for comparison. For many of these procedures, a surface or profiling contour can be chosen and used to accumulate hydrophobicities and to determine the moments. These procedures can be combined to provide a good mathematical determination of whether a protein belongs to a particular class of proteins. |
| US07869956B2 |
Computerized system and method for documenting and presenting mutation observations
A method and system in a computing environment for documenting mutation observations is provided. The method includes receiving mutation information, disassembling the mutation information into discrete elements and storing the discrete elements A method and system for presenting mutations is also provided. The method includes obtaining discrete elements for a mutation, obtaining a standard for presenting the mutation and assembling the mutation presentation utilizing the discrete elements and the standard of presentation. |
| US07869954B2 |
Using microseismic data to characterize hydraulic fractures
Methods and apparatus that use microseismic event data, stress data, seismic data, and rock properties to predict the hydrocarbon production success of a well location are disclosed. An example method generates a hydrocarbon production function based on information associated with at least a first well location, obtains information associated with a second well location, and calculates the hydrocarbon production function using the information associated with the second well location to predict the hydrocarbon production of the second well location. |
| US07869951B1 |
Method of determining local electromagnetic sensor refractivity
Local ES refractivity for a geographical position on a given date is determined by locating the geographical position within one of the Delaunay triangles in a grid of Delaunay triangles defined by a plurality of data points in a database containing temporal (e.g. monthly) average refractivity values at various locations around the globe. Each of the data points in the database form the vertices of the Delaunay triangles and by interpolating the temporal averaged refractivity of the vertices of the triangle enclosing the geographical position to the given date and then interpolating the refractivity of the vertices to the geographical position within the triangle, the local ES refractivity of the geographical position is estimated. |
| US07869949B2 |
Vehicle system and earth-based receiver system
In a vehicle, a vehicle system is provided that includes a position determination module for determining the position of the vehicle using an estimation of the error of satellite signals which are received by an earth-based receiver system, and an integrity module for determining an integrity risk for the position data for a vehicle, the risk being derived using time determinations performed by a satellite navigation system. When a threshold value for the integrity risk for the position data is exceeded, the vehicle system generates a warning signal which, by means of modules that are connected to the vehicle system, is designed to prevent the use of the position data for the vehicle. The integrity risk is determined using an estimated value for the error in the received satellite signal, and the receiver system functionally interacts with a plurality of satellites to determine and transmit data to a vehicle system containing a position determination module for determining the position of the vehicle. |
| US07869947B2 |
Navigation system and navigation method
A navigation system and method having a function of alerting the driver to potential wrong way driving comprises means 102 for determining a position of a vehicle 300, means 107 for calculating a driving route of the vehicle 300, means 108 for determining a driving manoeuvre in accordance with the predetermined driving route 305, means 104, 105, 110, 111 for outputting indications relating to the determined driving manoeuvre to a driver of the vehicle 300, and means 109 for alerting the driver to potential wrong way driving including means 201 for detecting a potential wrong way driving situation and means 202, 104, 105, 110, 111 for outputting an indication relating to the potential wrong way driving situation to the driver. |
| US07869943B1 |
Flight management systems and methods for use with an aerial vehicle
The invention provides, in some aspects, flight management systems and methods that generate three-dimensional (3D) graphical representations of airspace in a vicinity of an aircraft (e.g., in flight or during take-off). Such systems can include a display and a processor that drives the display to generate a two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) depiction of flight path. In a first mode, the processor drives the display to generate a flexible highway-in-the-sky (HITS) fight path having an endpoint that is fixed to a destination and having an origin that moves relative to a current location of the aerial vehicle (e.g., a path that “stays” with the vehicle). In a second mode, the processor drives the display to generate a depiction of a fixed HITS flight path that is fixed as to origin and destination and that does not move relative to the craft. |
| US07869942B2 |
Travel plan presenting apparatus and method thereof
A travel plan presenting apparatus includes: a travel history accumulation unit (109) which accumulates, in association with a date and time, pieces of travel history information regarding a travel of the mobile object from a departure place to an arrival place; a travel pattern extracting unit (112) which extracts at least one travel pattern from the pieces of travel history information and generates travel patterns in each of which an order of arrival places other than the final arrival place included in a corresponding one of the extracted travel patterns; a travel plan calculating unit (113) which calculates estimated arrival times at each of the arrival places in the travel patterns extracted and generated by the travel pattern extracting unit (112); and a display processing unit (114) which generates display information for displaying the estimated arrival time for each travel pattern. |
| US07869940B2 |
Method and system for gathering and processing data for road use charging
A method for processing road use data. A first moving vehicle has an encounter with vehicles in motion. An apparatus in the first vehicle generates and stores encounter records for the encounters. Each encounter record includes a location of the first moving vehicle and a location and identifier of a corresponding vehicle in motion, and is stored in the apparatus. A first encounter record for an encounter between the first moving vehicle and a second moving vehicle is sent by the first moving vehicle to a charging system of a road use charging authority having a data store. If the charging system determines that the data store includes a second encounter record of the encounter received from the second moving vehicle, then the second encounter record is not used in a charging process and/or is deleted from the data store; otherwise, the first encounter record is stored in the data store. |
| US07869930B2 |
Approach for reducing overheating of direct injection fuel injectors
A method of controlling fuel supplied to an engine is provided. The engine includes at least one cylinder having a port injection fuel injector being supplied with fuel from at least one of a first fuel storage tank and a second fuel storage tank and a direct injection fuel injector being selectively supplied with fuel from one of the first fuel storage tank and the second fuel storage tank. The method includes at a first condition, supplying at least some of a second type of fuel from the second fuel storage tank to the direct injection fuel injector and supplying at least some of a first type of fuel from the first fuel storage tank to the port injection fuel injector, and at a second condition, supplying at least some of the first type of fuel from the first fuel storage tank to the direct injection fuel injector. |
| US07869925B2 |
Selector mechanism for a motor vehicle transmission
A rotatable selector mechanism for a motor vehicle transmission has a selector knob rotatable in a housing to select an operating mode of the transmission among a number of selector positions indicated by a label (P, R, N, D, M). The selector mechanism further includes a detent plate which cooperates with a detent pin for maintaining the selector knob in each of positions. The detent plate is connected to position sensors for generating selector signals to a transmission control unit which supplies control signals to an actuator for operate the transmission according to the operating mode selected. The detent plate is also associated to the selector knob and to a drive correction means by means of clutch devices respectively to engage the detent plate to one of the selector knob and the drive correction means. The clutch devices and the drive corrections means are controlled by the transmission control unit to move the detent plate from a selector position selected by the driver to another selector position representative of the operating mode of the transmission by means of the drive correction means without moving the selector knob. The selector knob further includes an illuminated pointer constituted by one of several LEDs controlled by the transmission control unit so as to change the LED illuminated in front of the label according to the position of the detent plate when the latter has been moved by the drive correction means in order to indicate the operating mode of the transmission. |
| US07869922B2 |
Method and apparatus to put a windrower header in the transport mode under specified conditions
A method and apparatus for automatically controlling a header lift system of an agricultural harvesting machine, particularly a windrower, to put a header of the machine into a transport mode wherein the header is raised to an elevated transport position, under certain specific conditions. Such conditions can include, but are not limited to, the machine operating in a high-speed range, the header not operating, the speed of the machine being above a predetermined level, and the last inputted control command being a header raise command. When in the transport mode, the lift system can also be operated in a float mode. Further, the header lift system can be returned to a normal mode when certain criteria are present for doing so. |
| US07869920B2 |
Device and method for controlling control appliances in an on-board supply system of a motor vehicle
An arrangement and method for controlling control devices in an on-board wiring system of a motor vehicle are provided, in which the on-board wiring system has a bus system divided into sub-networks of buses with groups of control devices for controlling operating sequences, and in which the control devices are controllable by way of at least one access to a data transmission via a test instrument. A multifunctional data transmission device is connected to the input side of the bus system, to which data transmission device the sub-networks are connectable directly in parallel and are controllable in a parallel manner with respect to time by way of several control devices distributed on the connected sub-networks. The sub-networks may be structured via a hierarchically defined criteria priority, which takes into account the communication required in the operation between the individual control devices within the sub-networks and between the sub-networks, as well as the data quantities to be transmitted to the individual control devices. |
| US07869919B1 |
Infrared camera systems and methods for vehicular applications
Systems and methods are disclosed herein to provide improved infrared camera techniques for vehicular applications. For example, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a vehicle includes at least a first plate to reflect infrared energy and an infrared camera to detect the infrared energy reflected from the first plate(s) to provide infrared images. The plate allows the infrared camera to provide a desired line of sight view without requiring the infrared camera to be directly within the line of sight. |
| US07869916B2 |
Motor vehicle power management system
A power management system for a motor vehicle is disclosed. The power management system can track one or more usage parameters to insure that electrical accessories or resources do not fully drain a battery and leave enough battery life to conduct at least one cold start. In some cases, the power management system can track one or more of the following usage parameters: the amount of time of one or more hands free telephone systems are used, the number of attempts to contact a computer, and/or the amount of time used to conduct wireless communications with a computer that is physically separate from the motor vehicle. |
| US07869915B2 |
Method and apparatus for validating processors using seed and key tests
A method for validating a processor with a memory in a vehicle control system includes the steps of receiving a test seed, retrieving a pre-stored test key from the processor memory, calculating a check value using the test seed, and comparing the check value to the pre-stored test key. |
| US07869912B2 |
Controlling device of hybrid vehicle
This invention relates to a hybrid vehicle controlling device and method of using the device, in which an engine torque proportion (which is transmitted from an engine to a driving shaft) of a total sum of torque transmitted to the driving shaft is calculated. An allowed surge torque value, which is an upper limit of a surge torque allowed to the engine, is set to a larger value as the engine torque proportion is reduced. Then a predetermined parameter of the engine is changed so that the engine is controlled in a range in which the surge torque of the engine does not go beyond the allowed surge torque value. |
| US07869904B2 |
Utility load control management communications protocol
A method for managing a utility load by controlling electrical consumption of electrically powered devices. The method includes selecting a target for load control forming a single variable length load control message according to a communication protocol. The load control message includes the target address and a plurality of unique concatenated command messages, each of the plurality of unique concatenated command messages being selected from the set consisting of a command message having a predetermined message type and a fixed length message defined for the predetermined message type and a command message having a predetermined message type and a variable length message corresponding to values in a command message control flag field defined for the predetermined message type. The method also includes causing the single variable length load control message to be transmitted to the target and receiving a reply message formed according to the communication protocol from the target. |
| US07869902B2 |
Intelligent seed treatment system and method
A system and method for treating a least a portion of an initial seed sample to create one or more treated seed samples is provided. In various embodiments, one or more seed treatment apparatus components are in communication with one or more controllers such that seed samples treated by a seed treater may be treated at least in part based on one or more instruction sets that may be associated with one or more research plans. As a result, the method and system are configured to accurately, consistently, and predictably treat seed samples, and to adapt and change the treatment of seed samples based on changing research plans. |
| US07869901B2 |
Control systems and methods for a water dispenser assembly
An appliance includes a dispenser having a water valve for controlling a flow of water through the dispenser and a flowmeter for measuring the amount of water dispensed through the dispenser, and a controller operatively coupled to the water valve and the flowmeter. The controller is configured to receive an input relating to a target volume of water, adjust the target volume for a volume error correction to obtain an adjusted target volume, wherein the volume error correction is based on a flow rate, open the water valve, determine a total volume dispensed using the flowmeter, and close the water valve when the total volume dispensed equals the adjusted target volume. |
| US07869897B2 |
Numerical control method for five-axis processing machine
If the angle α formed between the interpolated cutting surface perpendicular direction vector (It, Jt, Kt) and the interpolated tool direction vector (Ttx, Tty, Ttz) becomes smaller, movement of a tool becomes unstable. In this case, the tool diameter compensation vector (TCx, TCy, TCz) is set to the tool diameter compensation vector calculated in the immediately previous interpolation cycle, thereby preventing unstable movement. Further, in case of a block instruction where a distance between positions in cutting point instructions is large whereas distance of movement of linear axis control point is small, an excessive cutting may occur. To deal with this problem, movement of linear axis control point in a current block is stopped or converted into linear movement so as to prevent a loop-shaped movement of the linear axis control point. |
| US07869890B2 |
Keyboards having multiple groups of keys in the management of a process control plant
A parallel operation keyboard (POK) which enables a user to provide multiple inputs simultaneously in managing a process control plant. A lock is provided to disable such simultaneous inputs. In an embodiment, multiple groups of keys are provided, with each group of keys being operable independently to modify the parameter value of a corresponding control loop. A network management station (NMS) and a server are designed to provide a suitable interface. In one implementation, each group of keys contains four keys respectively specifying increasing the parameter value, decreasing the parameter value, manual mode (in which the present level of the variable is controlled by the increase/decrease keys) and normal mode (in which the set point, i.e., the desired value, for the variable is controlled). |
| US07869889B2 |
Distributed and adaptive smart logic with multi-communication apparatus for reliable safety system shutdown
This invention relates to safety instrumented systems (“SIS”) for monitoring and controlling chemical and other industrial process field devices, and that are responsive to signals for the emergency shutdown of the process or system. The patent will significantly improve the reliability of communications within an emergency shutdown system, reduce unwanted trips, and adapt to process conditions by failing to a safe mode in dynamic conditions that are not considered by prior art logic solvers. |
| US07869883B2 |
General purpose accessory for a cochlear implant system
A cochlear implant system comprising a first unit adapted to be worn on or in one ear of an implantee. The first unit has a case housing componentry including a microphone, and a speech processor means. A second unit or accessory is adapted to be worn on or in the other ear of the implantee. The second unit or accessory has a case housing a second power source. An electrical conduction means for transmitting power from the second power source to the componentry of the first unit extends between the first and second units. Such a conduction means can extend around the back of the head of the implantee. |
| US07869878B1 |
Implantable cardiac stimulation device providing IEGM with reduced respiration modulation effect and method
An implantable cardiac stimulation device provides an intracardiac electrogram with reduced respiratory modulation effect. The device includes a sensing circuit that senses cardiac activity and provides an intracardiac electrogram signal extending over a plurality of cardiac cycles, a respiration monitor that monitors respiration associated with the sensed cardiac activity, and a cardiac cycle selector that selects a set of intracardiac electrogram cardiac cycles of the plurality of cardiac cycles in response to the monitored respiration. A processing circuit processes the selected set of intracardiac electrogram cardiac cycles to provide the intracardiac electrogram with reduced respiratory modulation effect. |
| US07869876B2 |
Method and apparatus for monitoring and optimizing atrial function
A method for use in an implantable medical device, comprising: sensing a signal corresponding to ventricular wall acceleration; and determining a metric of atrial function using the ventricular wall acceleration signal. The method includes sensing the ventricular wall acceleration signal during at least during a sensing window corresponding to a ventricular filling phase. |
| US07869875B2 |
Cardiac rhythm management system with maximum tracking rate (MTR) hysteresis
A cardiac rhythm management system provides both a safe maximum pacing rate limit and a physiological maximum pacing rate limit. In one embodiment, a normal maximum tracking rate (MTR) and a hysteresis MTR are provided. The hysteresis MTR is set higher than the normal MTR and functions as a maximum pacing rate. When an atrial rate exceeds the hysteresis MTR limit, the maximum pacing rate limit is set to the normal MTR. Once the atrial rate falls below a predetermined threshold, the maximum pacing rate limit is set to the hysteresis MTR. This provides for a more rapid and natural maximum pacing rate limit for a patient, while still protecting the patient from being paced at abnormally high rates. |
| US07869874B2 |
Methods and apparatus to stimulate heart atria
A method and apparatus for treatment of hypertension and heart failure by increasing vagal tone and secretion of endogenous atrial hormones by excitory pacing of the heart atria. Atrial pacing is done during the ventricular refractory period resulting in atrial contraction against closed AV valves, and atrial contraction rate that is higher than the ventricular contraction rate. Pacing results in the increased atrial wall stress. An implantable device is used to monitor ECG and pace the atria in a nonphysiologic manner. |
| US07869870B1 |
System and method of using vagal stimulation to assess autonomic tone and risk of sudden cardiac death in an implantable cardiac device
A method and apparatus for using vagal stimulation to detect autonomic tone and assess a patient's risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) are presented. The method involves stimulating the patient's vagus nerve in order to induce a drop in arterial blood pressure, which simulates the patient's cardiovascular response to a premature ventricular contraction (PVC). Sinus rhythm data just before and immediately following the stimulation is recorded and analyzed for a degree of heart rate turbulence (HRT) in order to detect abnormalities in autonomic tone and assess the risk of SCD. In an embodiment, the method is implemented in an implantable cardiac device (ICD), which can deliver arrhythmia prevention therapy based on the risk of SCD. The method can assess the patient's vagal activity on-demand by measuring HRT without relying on naturally occurring PVCs and eliminates the risk of causing arrhythmia associated with artificially inducing PVCs in order to measure HRT. |
| US07869869B1 |
Subcardiac threshold vagal nerve stimulation
In one embodiment, an implantable stimulation apparatus includes a vagal nerve stimulator configured to generate electrical pulses below a cardiac threshold of a heart, and an electrode coupled to the vagal nerve stimulator which is configured to transmit the electrical pulses below the cardiac threshold, to a vagal nerve so as to inhibit injury resulting from an ischemia and/or reduce injury resulting from an ischemia. In another embodiment, an implantable stimulation apparatus includes a vagal nerve stimulator configured to generate electrical pulses below a cardiac threshold, and includes an electrode, which is coupled to the vagal nerve stimulator and configured to transmit electrical pulses to a vagal nerve so as to reduce a defibrillation threshold of the heart. |
| US07869868B2 |
Diverse capacitor packaging for maximizing volumetric efficiency for medical devices
Capacitor packaging according to the disclosure provides advantages particularly in connection to compact and/or complex-shaped medical devices (e.g., having limited interior volume defined by domed and/or irregular exterior surfaces). In addition, capacitors of the type shown and described herein can be utilized in relatively compact external defibrillators, such as automatic external defibrillators or clinician-grade, automated or manually-operated external defibrillators. In one form a plurality of capacitors having substantially flat exterior surfaces are placed in an abutting relationship between at least a pair of major surfaces and the major surfaces are spaced from an opposing or adjacent surface in a non-parallel configuration. In other forms, one or more exterior surface portions have a common and/or complex radius dimension (i.e., the surfaces are curved). |
| US07869866B2 |
Device for the monitoring of physiologic variables through measurement of body electrical impedance
A device for the measurement of body impedance includes a current injecting device for injecting a test current through a first set of electrodes to the body of a patient, and a voltage reading device for reading voltage variations between two electrodes belonging to a second set of electrodes using a coherent demodulator. |
| US07869865B2 |
Current-based position sensing
A method for position sensing includes inserting a probe comprising at least one electrode into a body of a subject, and passing electrical currents through the body between the at least one electrode and a plurality of locations on a surface of the body. Respective characteristics of the currents passing through the plurality of the locations are measured in order to determine position coordinates of the probe. |
| US07869864B2 |
Methods, systems and devices for detecting and diagnosing heart diseases and disorders
Disclosed herein methods, devices, and systems for detecting and diagnosing a heart disease or disorder in a subject from a prime electrocardiogram which comprises calculating at least one distribution function of the prime electrocardiogram and determining whether the distribution function is indicative of the presence of absence of the heart disease or disorder. |
| US07869855B2 |
Medical apparatus with releasable applicator
A medical apparatus includes a substrate member and an applicator member. Substrate member includes a medical device and an adhesive layer for adhering to body tissue. Applicator member is releasably attached to the substrate member and is adapted for grasping by a clinician to facilitate application of the substrate member to body tissue. |
| US07869853B1 |
Analyte monitoring device and methods of use
An analyte monitor includes a sensor, a sensor control unit, and a display unit. The sensor has, for example, a substrate, a recessed channel formed in the substrate, and conductive material disposed in the recessed channel to form a working electrode. The sensor control unit typically has a housing adapted for placement on skin and is adapted to receive a portion of an electrochemical sensor. The sensor control unit also includes two or more conductive contacts disposed on the housing and configured for coupling to two or more contact pads on the sensor. A transmitter is disposed in the housing and coupled to the plurality of conductive contacts for transmitting data obtained using the sensor. The display unit has a receiver for receiving data transmitted by the transmitter of the sensor control unit and a display coupled to the receiver for displaying an indication of a level of an analyte. The analyte monitor may also be part of a drug delivery system to alter the level of the analyte based on the data obtained using the sensor. |
| US07869850B2 |
Medical sensor for reducing motion artifacts and technique for using the same
A sensor for pulse oximetry or other applications utilizing spectrophotometry may be adapted to reduce motion artifacts by fixing the optical distance between an emitter and detector. A flexible sensor is provided with a stiffening member to hold the emitter and detector of the sensor in a relatively fixed position when applied to a patient. Further, an annular or partially annular sensor is adapted to hold an emitter and detector of the sensor in a relatively fixed position when applied to a patient. A clip-style sensor is provided with a spacer that controls the distance between the emitter and detector. |
| US07869849B2 |
Opaque, electrically nonconductive region on a medical sensor
A medical sensor may be adapted to prevent unwanted light and electrical interference from corrupting physiological measurements. Sensors are provided with features that reduce the amount of outside light or shunted light that impinge the detecting elements of the sensor. The sensor is adapted to reduce crosstalk between electrical signals, increasing the accuracy of measurements. The sensor is also adapted to reduce the effect of outside light or shunted light on pulse oximetry measurements. |
| US07869846B2 |
Sliding module for sliding-type portable terminal
Disclosed is a sliding module for a sliding-type portable terminal, which is adapted to provide one side of a sliding-type housing with dual elastic force for easy opening/closing operation. The sliding module for a sliding-type portable terminal having a main housing and a sliding housing adapted to slide on the main housing while facing the main housing includes a coupling portion formed on a side of the main housing; a guide member coupled to the coupling portion so as to guide a sliding movement of the sliding housing; and a dual elastic member fastened to the sliding housing while facing the guide member, the dual elastic member providing elastic force in a direction of movement of the sliding housing when the sliding housing is slid and in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the sliding housing. |
| US07869843B2 |
Hand held mobile communication device
A hand held mobile device capable of executing a software application includes a top body portion; a bottom body portion; a hinge portion connecting the top and bottom body portions and permitting movement of the top and bottom body portions between a closed position and an open position. A first screen is provided on the top body portion and is accessible in the open position, and a second screen is slidable on the bottom body portion to reveal a keyboard when the top and bottom body portions are in the open position and the second screen is in an extended position. Preferably, at least one of the screens functions as a touch screen based on at least one function of the software application and whether the second screen is extended to reveal the keyboard. |
| US07869837B2 |
System and method for implementing mobile IP node lossless transition from an idle state to an awake state
A system and method for implementing a “lossless” transition from an idle state to an active or awake state in a mobile station. When a mobile station informs a serving base transceiver station that it is switching to an idle state, a virtual handover is executed, with the mobile station receiving a new Care of Address (CoA). The CoA is taken from an address space that is solely reserved for idle mobile station in a particular access network. The CoA is used to store data packets that are to be transmitted to the mobile station. Once the mobile station reenters an active state, the buffered packets can be forwarded to the mobile station without packet loss. |
| US07869836B2 |
Power saving devices and power saving methods for mobile access point, and wireless network systems
In a power saving device and power saving method for a mobile access point, the power saving device sets a minimum power saving interval among power saving intervals of at least one first station coupled to the mobile access point as a power saving interval of the mobile access point. The power saving device prevents a power supply voltage from being supplied to at least one first wireless interface wirelessly communicating with the first station(s) during the power saving interval of the mobile access point when a minimum remaining power saving interval of at least one second station working in a power saving mode is longer than the power saving interval of the mobile access point. |
| US07869833B2 |
Event display apparatus for mobile communication terminal and method thereof
A mobile communication terminal including a memory unit configured to store at least one call related event, a display configured to display a time line, and a controller configured to display the at least one call related event on the time line based on a time information of the at least one call related event. Further, the time line includes a circular-shaped time line, a chart-shaped time line, a spiral-shaped time line, a snowman-shaped time line, a star-shaped time line, a rectangular-spiral-shaped time line, or a square-shaped time line. |
| US07869832B2 |
Device, system, and method for informing users of functions and characters associated with telephone keys
System and method for informing a user of functions or characters associated with keys on a mobile communications device includes a keyboard operable to input Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) codes and a display screen operable to display information. The display screen is also operable to display a virtual representation of at least a portion of the keyboard. The virtual representation includes help information on one or more virtually represented keys of the keyboard. This help information informs a user of an associated telephone function or character of one or more keys that are virtually represented on the display. |
| US07869830B2 |
Wideband antenna system
Generally, an antenna module includes a plurality of monopole antenna elements (e.g., 3 to 4 antenna elements) that can be coupled together by one or more switches to provide for a tunable, wideband antenna module. For example, the switches may change the overall length of the antenna such that the frequency range of the antenna is changed. The frequency response may also be controlled by a low voltage micro sized varicap, or a varactor diode, and instantiated as a tuned, resonant matching filter network residing with the antenna module. Additionally, switches may be used to “switch in” and “switch out” capacitive elements to adjust the bandwidth of the antenna. The resonant matching filter network may then be used for fine tuning the frequency of that bandwidth. |
| US07869823B2 |
Wirefree intercom having error free transmission system and process
A wireless intercom having a microcontroller that is programmed to place the intercom into a power saving sleep mode unless actively receiving or transmitting signals. The microcontroller of the intercom is interconnected to a transceiver for sending and receiving digital data packets, and to a codec for converting the digital packets to analog sound signals, and vice versa. The intercom receives digital transmission of data over a first channel and then corrects any errors in the digital data using a retransmission of the digital data over a second channel that is sufficiently spaced apart from the first channel to avoid the possibility of interference affecting both the first and second channels. |
| US07869821B2 |
Enhancement of signalling in a “Push to Talk” type communication session by insertion of a visiting card
SIP type signal protocol for a mobile communication network (N), comprising an invitation signal message (MI) “INVITE”, intended to set-up a “Push to Talk” type communication session between a calling communication client (A) and one or several called communication clients (B, C), and containing the logical address of the calling communication client and an address of the called communication client(s).The signal protocol is innovative in that the invitation signal message (MI) also contains a visiting card associated with a user of the calling communication client (A). |
| US07869820B2 |
Providing contact data in a wireless telecommunication system
Providing contact data in a wireless telecommunication system comprises receiving a contact data record from a first mobile device and storing the contact data records in a contact database remote from the mobile device. A selection can be received remotely for the contact data record from a second mobile device. The contact data record can be transmitted to the second mobile device for storage in its memory. |
| US07869811B2 |
Determination of a relative position of a satellite signal receiver
For enhancing the quality of a relative positioning, a filter is adjusted depending on information on a movement of a satellite signal receiver. A position of the satellite signal receiver is determined relative to a reference station using the filter, wherein measurements on satellite signals received by the satellite signal receiver and measurements on satellite signals provided for the reference station are used as input to the filter. The measurements for the reference station may be received in messages which are assembled and provided for transmission and which may include in addition an indication of a current movement of the reference station. |
| US07869805B2 |
Method of selecting data communication provider in a field device
A method and apparatus are provided for allowing a field device to select a data communication provider among a plurality of available data communication providers. Preferably, the method includes periodically, or selectively, assessing the strengths and efficacy of data communication on one or more alternate data communication providers. The data communication provider with the strongest signal and/or most effective data communication is selected for use by the field device. Preferably, the field device logs events where it switches among data communication providers. |
| US07869802B2 |
Uplink frequency multiplexing system
A satellite-borne transponder for two or more uplink service areas, includes uplink antennae, a low noise amplifier and a converter for each uplink antenna, input filters, amplification chains, each amplification chain including a channel amplifier, a high power amplifier, and an output filter, and a downlink antenna for an associated downlink service area. The transponder associates uplink antennae to an uplink service area, the number of antennae being determined by a preset Figure of Merit for each uplink service area. The transponder also includes at least one input multiplexer including a passband filter for each reception chains, each reception chain including an uplink antenna, a low noise amplifier, and a converter linked to the multiplexer. |
| US07869796B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing multimedia messages
Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for managing multimedia messages. If receiving a request to set a retrieval reminder for a specific multimedia message from an MS, an MMS relay/server sets a reminder time for the specific multimedia message to a reminder time included in the request to set the retrieval reminder. If a current time corresponds to the reminder time, the MMS relay/server notifies the MS of retrieving the specific multimedia message. If receiving a request to extend an expiry time of the specific multimedia message from the MS, the MMS relay/server sets the expiry time of the specific multimedia message to an expiry time included in the request to extend the expiry time. |
| US07869794B1 |
Method and system for providing timely message delivery
A system is provided for managing timely delivery of electronic messages, such as short message service (SMS) messages sent by the short message peer to peer (SMPP) protocol. In particular, the system determines an expected delay for the delivery of electronic messages, so that a sender can avoid sending messages when they will take an excessive amount of time to deliver. In one embodiment, a sender of electronic messages, such as a news service provider, sends a session initiation protocol (SIP) “subscribe” message to a delay manager. The delay manager determines when the expected delay of message delivery at a bulk message gateway falls below a threshold delay. When the expected delay falls below the threshold, the delay manager informs the sender, and the sender may create and send an electronic message. |
| US07869787B2 |
Charging for an IP based communication system
There is disclosed a method for charging for services in an IP based communication system, comprising: establishing an accounting session between a network element and a charging function for the session; and initiating a change in the accounting session at the charging function. |
| US07869777B2 |
Method and system for a second order input intercept point (IIP2) correction
In RF transceivers, a method and system for a second order input intercept point (IIP2) correction are provided. A DC offset sensor may detect DC offset voltages produced by blocker signals in “I” and “Q” signal component paths in an RF receiver. The DC offset sensor may generate control signals which may be utilized by a first and second injection circuits to generate DC offset currents that compensate for the DC offset voltages in the signal component paths. An injection circuit may utilize current drivers to generate binary weighted currents which may be added together to produce a DC offset current. The polarity of the DC offset current and the selection of which current drivers to use may be determined by the control signals. A calibration voltage may also be utilized to correct or adjust the gain in the injection circuit. |
| US07869770B2 |
Apparatus, methods and articles of manufacture for a multi-band switch
A single-die multi-band switch includes a plurality of transmitter ports and a plurality of receiver ports, any one of which is selected to be connected to an antenna port. At least some of these switching topologies use a branched or cascaded switching system in order to reduce signal insertion loss. It is preferred that the individual switching elements be field effect transistors. The switching topologies employed include series-connected groups of transistors and interdigitated FETs. |
| US07869762B2 |
Ping feature for electronic devices
A pinging electronic device, a pingable electronic device and a network for the devices are disclosed. The ping electronic devices comprising a ping function and a transmitter wherein the ping function is adapted to generate and the transmitter is adapted to transmit over an ad hoc wireless network at least one associated ping control message to at least one pingable electronic device paired to the pinging electronic device for actuation of at least one indicator element of the at least one pingable electronic device. |
| US07869759B2 |
Satellite communication system and method with asymmetric feeder and service frequency bands
System and method for communicating data in a multibeam satellite system having feeder beams associated with a plurality of gateways and a plurality of service beams associated with a plurality of user subscriber terminals utilizing frequency re-use by service beams between a satellite and a plurality of subscriber terminals, wherein the service beams are transmitted to and from the satellite by re-using at least one common frequency channel of the service beam, such that the beam allocation is asymmetric among available frequency channels. The result is a potential for reduction of transponder resources. |
| US07869758B2 |
Selective service method in multicast system
A multicast service of a 3GPP Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is disclosed. A multicast service stream identifier is provided so that each multicast area can receive different information for one service or one multicast service can be provided with different QoSs to areas. In addition, the multicast service stream identifier is provided which can selectively receive diverse menus or channels for one multicast service provided in the same area. Thus, by providing the multicast service stream identifier, users' desires for various services can be satisfied. |
| US07869757B2 |
Bookbinding apparatus and bookbinding system
A bookbinding apparatus comprising: a supplier which supplies solid adhesive to an adhesive tank; a melting section which melts the solid adhesive supplied to the adhesive tank; a coating member which coats the adhesive melted in the adhesive tank to an end face of a booklet; and a separating section which separates between a place in which the solid adhesive is supplied by the supplier and the coating member in the adhesive tank. |
| US07869756B2 |
Bookbinding apparatus and image forming system provided therewith
A bookbinding apparatus including an adhesive coating section which coats an adhesive onto a spine of a sheet bundle that a plurality of sheets are bundled, by relatively moving the adhesive coating section and the sheet bundle, adheres a cover sheet onto the spine of the sheet bundle onto which the adhesive has been coated by the adhesive coating section. The adhesive coating section includes: a coating member which coats the adhesive storing in ah adhesive tank onto the spine of the sheet bundle; a scraping member which scrapes the adhesive coated onto the spine of the sheet bundle; and a reservoir which stores the adhesive scraped by the scraping member. |
| US07869754B2 |
Bubble creating method, bubble creating device, bubbly fixation fluid producing method, bubbly fixation fluid producing device, fixation fluid, image forming method, and image forming apparatus
A bubbly fluid producing method configured to produce a bubbly fluid containing a bubble with a desired bubble diameter, includes applying a shear to a bubbly fluid containing a bubble with a bubble diameter larger than a desired bubble diameter so as to produce a bubbly fluid containing a bubble with a desired bubble diameter. A bubbly fluid producing device configured to produce a bubbly fluid containing a bubble with a desired bubble diameter, includes a first member configured to apply a shear to a bubbly fluid containing a bubble with a bubble diameter larger than a desired bubble diameter so as to produce a bubbly fluid containing a bubble with a desired bubble diameter. |
| US07869752B2 |
Cleaning device, fixing device, and image forming apparatus
A cleaning device including a cleaning member that moves in a predetermined direction and is in contact with a cleaning target that moves in a predetermined direction and which is directly or indirectly heated by a heater, to remove toner particles on a surface of the cleaning target. A contact surface of the cleaning member with the cleaning target includes a plurality of regions of different toner-releasing ability. |
| US07869749B2 |
Semiconductive rubber roller
A semiconductive rubber roller comprising a toner-transporting portion whose outermost layer is formed essentially of vulcanized rubber containing 0.1 to 30 parts by mass of a phthalocyanine compound for 100 parts by mass of the vulcanized rubber. An electric resistance value of the semiconductive rubber roller which is measured at a temperature of 23° C. and a humidity of 55% is in a range of 103 to 109Ω, when a voltage of 100V is applied thereto. |
| US07869744B2 |
Imaging apparatus and image forming methods
Imaging apparatuses and Image forming methods are described. According to one embodiment, an imaging apparatus includes a photoconductor including an image forming surface configured to receive a latent image, a plurality of developers individually configured to provide a marking agent to the image forming surface to develop the latent image, wherein one of the developers is configured to move in a first direction with respect to the image forming surface to implement development of the latent image by the one of the developers and an other of the developers is configured to move in a second direction different than the first direction to implement development of the latent image by the other of the developers, and wherein the photoconductor is configured to provide the developed image for transfer to media after the development of the latent image by the one and other developers. |
| US07869743B2 |
Image forming apparatus, process cartridge used therein, and production method of charging roller
An image forming apparatus in which a charging roller charges an image carrier to which a lubricant is applied prevents slip of the charging roller. The charging roller is composed of a metal core and a rubber layer mainly made of an epichlorohydrin rubber formed around the metal core. A surface of this rubber layer is hardened with a surface treating solution containing an isocyanate compound. The surface of this rubber layer is also subjected to three abrading processes including two stone grinding processes and one lapping process so that a ten-point height of irregularities Rz thereof becomes 11 μm or more. |
| US07869739B2 |
Two-color IOI drum module enabling N-color monochrome, highlight, full color, phototone color and extended color architectures
A xerographic marking device includes an intermediate transfer unit, a media transport path and at least one two-color image-on-image (IOI) drum module. Each two-color IOI drum module includes in a process order around a photoreceptor: a) a first charging unit; b) a first exposure unit; c) a first development unit; d) a second charging unit; e) a second exposure unit; and f) a second development unit, wherein the intermediate transfer unit receives a first toned image and a second toned image from the photoreceptor in a single transfer and transfers those toner images to print media to produce a toned image on print media. In various embodiments, specific color pairings are provided. |
| US07869737B2 |
Developer cartridge, developing device and image forming apparatus
A developer cartridge includes a storing portion that stores developer and has an opening, a shutter member that opens and closes the opening, and a seal member that seals between the shutter member and the storing portion. The seal member is so provided that both end portions thereof face each other. One end portion of the seal member has at least one angled portion provided inside both side end edges of the seal member in width direction of the seal member, and the other end portion has an angled portion along the angled portion of said one end portion. |
| US07869736B2 |
Transfer unit and image forming apparatus
There are provided: a transfer belt which extends between a plurality of rollers so as to be capable of running in an endless manner, the transfer belt receiving on its front surface or a recording sheet placed on the front surface a toner image which is bore on an image bearing member in accordance with image information; a bending roller having a peripheral surface which is pressed against the front surface side of the transfer belt to bend inwardly the transfer belt which is in a state of extend between the plurality of rollers so as to be capable of running in an endless manner; a first blade which cleans the peripheral surface of the bending roller; a front surface side cleaning mechanism; and a collection crew which collects a foreign object removed by both the first blade and the front surface side cleaning mechanism. |
| US07869734B2 |
Image forming apparatus including a holding portion having an air vent
An image forming apparatus includes a placement tray on which a recording medium is placed and which is attachably and detachably assembled into a housing. The placement tray includes a holding portion having an upwardly concave configuration at one end of the placement tray in an attaching and detaching direction of the placement tray. The holding portion includes at least one air vent for taking air into the housing in a vicinity of at least one of both end portions of the holding portion in a width direction perpendicular to the attaching and detaching direction. |
| US07869729B2 |
Fixing device capable of providing stable quality of fixed image
A fixing device fixes an image on a recording medium by applying heat and pressure. In the fixing device, a belt is looped over a heating roller and a first roller provided inside a loop formed by the belt. A belt tensioner is provided outside the loop formed by the belt to apply tension to the belt. A second roller presses the first roller via the belt to form a nip between the first roller and the second roller via the belt. A holder holds the first roller and the second roller to maintain a distance between the first roller and the second roller. A detector detects a position of the belt tensioner. A controller changes a control parameter for fixing the image on the recording medium at the nip when the recording medium passes through the nip according to a detection result provided by the detector. |
| US07869726B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus performs prints image data. A dividing section divides the image data of a print job into a plurality of sub data areas m(i) (i=1 to n). A duty computing section computes a print duty for each of the plurality of sub data areas (m(1)-m(n)) based on the number of printed dots in the print job and a total number of printable dots in a printable area. A first power supply applies a first voltage to a developing roller. A second power supply applies a second voltage to the developer supplying roller. The voltage difference between the first and second voltages is determined in accordance with the print duty. |
| US07869724B2 |
Image density control device and image forming apparatus
An image density control device includes a first detecting unit that detects a light amount of first specular reflected light which is reflected from a surface of an image carrier, a second detecting unit that detects a light amount of first diffuse reflected light which is reflected from an image on the surface of the image carrier, a surface change information acquiring unit that acquires a surface change information which shows changes with time, and a control unit that corrects the light amount of the first specular reflected light by using the surface change information to a light amount of second specular reflected light, and controls the density of the image by using the light amount of the first diffuse reflected light and the light amount of the second specular reflected light. |
| US07869721B2 |
Apparatus and method for detecting carrier particles in an electrophotographic device
A method (400) and apparatus (100) that detects carrier particles (130) in an electrophotographic device is disclosed. The apparatus may include an image carrying member (110). The image carrying member may have a first side (111) and have a second side (112) opposite from the first side. The image carrying member may be configured to operate in a direction of motion (115). The image carrying member may also be configured to transport an image on the first side. The apparatus may also include a magnet (120) coupled to the second side of the image carrying member. The magnet may have a length (122). The length of the magnet may be at an angle (124) of greater than zero and less than 90 degrees to the direction of motion of the image carrying member. The magnet may be configured to attract toner carrier particles transported on the image carrying member. The apparatus may also include a first sensor (140) coupled in proximity to the first side of the image carrying member and coupled in proximity to the magnet. The first sensor may be configured to sense the toner carrier particles attracted by the magnet. The first sensor may also be configured to output a first signal corresponding to the sensed toner carrier particles. |
| US07869719B2 |
Method and system for automatic feedback control for fine tuning a delay interferometer
A method for receiving an optical signal is included where an ingress signal is split into a first portion and a second portion. A relative delay is induced between the first portion and the second portion, which are optically interfered to generate at least one interfered signal. Quality criteria of a monitored signal at least based on the at least one interfered signal is monitored so that a relative delay based in the quality criteria may be adjusted. |
| US07869713B2 |
Multiplexer with aptical add/drop
A method of extracting a predetermined channel from an OTDM signal includes the steps of combining at the inlet of an SOA the OTDM signal and an impulsive signal with impulses temporally synchronized with the channel to be extracted to produce in the SOA FWM, XGM and XPM effects which shift to a length c the channel chosen for extraction with c outside the length d of the OTDM signal with the other channels outlet from the SOA and filtering the SOA outlet to extract components with c d that represent respectively the desired channel and the cleaned OTDM signal. A multiplexer in accordance with the method includes an inlet (14) of an OTDM signal sent to an SOA (24) together with an appropriate impulsive signal. The SOA outlet is filtered by filters (28, 29) to obtain the signal of the extracted channel (16) and the cleaned OTDM signal (15). |
| US07869712B2 |
Method and apparatus for increasing transmission capacity in optical transport network
Provided are a method and apparatus for increasing transmission capacity for large-capacity high-speed signal transmission in an optical transport network (OTN). A method and apparatus for increasing transmission capacity are needed, which can transmit a large-capacity high-speed signal in order to transmit a signal through a united OTN by adapting signals from various tributary signal networks which have been independently operated for voice, image, or data transmission. Although various types of techniques such as Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), and an optical Printed Circuit Board (PCB) method have been performed, the techniques have various limitations. Therefore, a method and apparatus is provided for embodying a large-capacity optical transmission network, which overcome the limitations by using a Virtual Concatenation (VC) method. |
| US07869710B2 |
Optical network unit of ethernet passive optical network and control method thereof
An optical network unit (ONU) of an Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) and a control method thereof eliminates or substantially reduces instances of an ONU transmitting in time slots other than its allocated time slot. The ONU includes: a medium access controller for accessing a medium without temporal overlapping in order to transmit during one or more allocated TDM time slots without collision in upstream transmission to an optical line terminal; a burst-mode optical transceiver having a separately allocated wavelength before outputting the signal in the upstream transmission; and a complex programmable logic device for controlling an optical output of the burst-mode optical transceiver by monitoring an optical-output control signal from the medium access controller. An erroneous output from an ONU malfunction can be prevented from by cutting off the output once the duration of the allocated time slot has been reached. |
| US07869698B2 |
Information recording/playback method and recording/playback apparatus
An apparatus is provided in which a recording area is effectively utilized even when information-deleted portions and/or information-moved portions are provided on an information recording medium. The apparatus includes a space extent management section which recognizes and manages space extents, an optimization processing section which creates a coupled extent by coupling a information-deleted portion and a space extent in a condition that the above extents are adjacent to each other and optimizes the coupled extent as one space extent to be used for recording, and an extent arrangement processing section which arranges and manages the space extents according to a preset rule. |
| US07869697B2 |
Portable image pickup device
From a time point at which a storage capacity reaches a certain remaining capacity with respect to a limit value of 4 GB per one file depending on a file system, a subtraction time-managing portion (100A) changes photographing elapsed time display (174) which is displayed on a display picture of a liquid crystal display portion (17) to subtraction time display (178) in which residual time until 4 GB is reached is continuously subtracted in the inside of a portable image pickup device (1). Hence, a photographer can be visually informed of timing at which the photographing blank time period will occur. As a result, the photographer can be previously given the opportunity for the judgment about whether the photographing should be continuously performed or the current photographing should be ended to start new photographing. |
| US07869696B1 |
Method for recording recorded digital data stream and for providing presentation managing information for the recorded digital data stream
A method and apparatus for providing presentation managing information for the recording medium, are provided. The method includes generating a transport stream, comprising reproducing, from a recording medium, an MPEG transport stream composed of a series of transport packets carrying data; and selectively inserting, into the reproduced MPEG transport stream, program managing information for managing presentation of certain data carried in the reproduced MPEG transport stream. |
| US07869693B2 |
Method and apparatus of recording digital data stream, and a recording medium containing data recorded through said method
The present invention relates to method and apparatus of recording digital data stream on a recording medium such as a high-density digital versatile disk. The present recording method searches received digital data stream containing video signals for each picture section, packetizes a data section including at least one picture section found in the searching process into a PES (Packetized Elementary Stream) packet, slices the PES packet to make the sliced data pieces to a plurality of transport packets, and writes the plurality of transport packets within a stream object unit if the stream object unit has a space enough to store the plurality of transport packets, or from head point of a next stream object unit if not. Therefore, the head of each stream object unit is aligned with start of an arbitrary picture, thereby improving random accessibility of A/V data stream recorded on a recording medium. |
| US07869691B2 |
Apparatus for recording a main file and auxiliary files in a track on a record carrier
The invention relates to an apparatus for recording a main file comprising a main information signal and auxiliary files comprising auxiliary signals in a track on a record carrier. The apparatus writes in a first location a block of an auxiliary file comprising a part of an auxiliary information signal having a specific presentation time, in a second location a subsequent block of the corresponding auxiliary file and in at least one location between the first and second location at least one block of the main file comprising a part of the main information signal having a presentation time which corresponds to the presentation time of the auxiliary information signal to be written in the first location. In this way the respective files are interleaved written on the record carrier such that the jumping time between subsequent read actions is significantly reduced. This results in an increase of the effective read bit-rate of a playback device. |
| US07869687B2 |
Channel switching system and method of IPTV service in passive optical network
Channel switching system and method of an IPTV service in a passive optical network (PON) are disclosed. To reduce a channel switching time of an IPTV system in the passive optical network, the system and the method use a channel switching control module and a channel list module in the passive optical network. In a case where a passive optical network system receives an IPTV channel switching request transmitted from a terminal user, the channel switching control module checks a recording of a channel list module and a recording of an authentication list module, and then updates a filter recording of an optical network unit to thereby directly transmit an image flow of a new channel in the passive optical network. When such system and method are applied to the passive optical network, high-speed switching of the IPTV service channel by the terminal user can be realized. |
| US07869686B2 |
Amplifying optical fiber
The invention consists in an amplifying optical fiber comprising a core containing a dopant and a cladding, wherein said core comprises a monomode core intended to propagate an optical signal, quantum dots of a semiconductor material being disposed in or near said monomode core, and a multimode core surrounding the monomode core, intended to receive a pumping signal. |
| US07869680B2 |
Nonlinearity compensation in a fiber optic communications system
An optical communications link is described, comprising first and second fiber lines in substantial scaled translational symmetry by a common scaling factor with respect to a second-order dispersion coefficient profile (oppositely signed) and with respect to at least one of a loss/gain coefficient profile and a nonlinear coefficient-power product profile for facilitating progressive compensation along the second fiber line of at least one nonlinearity introduced along the first fiber line. |
| US07869678B2 |
Telecommunications cable jacket adapted for post-extrusion insertion of optical fiber and methods for manufacturing the same
The present disclosure relates to a telecommunications cable having a jacket including a feature for allowing post-extrusion insertion of an optical fiber or other signal-transmitting member. The present disclosure also relates to a method for making a telecommunications cable having a jacket including a feature for allowing post-extrusion insertion of an optical fiber or other signal-transmitting member. |
| US07869674B2 |
Light emitting unit, apparatus and method for manufacturing the same, apparatus for molding lens thereof, and light emitting device package thereof
A light emitting unit, an apparatus and method for manufacturing the same, an apparatus for molding a lens thereof, and a light emitting device package thereof, which are capable of achieving an enhancement in light extraction efficiency and an improvement in mass productivity, are disclosed. The light emitting unit manufacturing apparatus includes a mold including a first mold and a second mold coupled to each other under a condition in which at least one light emitting unit is interposed between the first and second molds, a groove formed in one of the first and second molds at a position facing the light emitting unit, the groove having a lens shape, and a passage extending from an outer surface of the mold to the groove. |
| US07869673B2 |
Remote larger effective area optical fiber
Embodiments described herein relate to an optical fiber stretch that may experience forward Raman amplification in which the peak optical signal power occurs at some distance from the transmitter. Smaller effective area optical fiber is used at a portion of the optical fiber stretch in which the optical signal power is increasing, while larger effective area optical fiber is used at a more remote stretch of the optical fiber stretch that experiences the peak optical signal power. Thus, the quality of the signal is better preserved since the larger effective area fiber reduces maximum optical signal density thereby reducing non-linear degradations on signal quality. |
| US07869671B2 |
Three-dimensional optical waveguide, method of manufacturing same, optical module, and optical transmission system
A three-dimensional optical waveguide is formed by laminating planar substrates such as a plurality of lens substrates and, an isolator substrate and a wavelength division multiplexing filter, the optical substrates at least include a waveguide substrate having a waveguide and a reflecting surface. In the three-dimensional optical waveguide, the planar substrates are positioned by markers integrally formed on at least two of the planar substrates. Light directed into the waveguide is reflected by a reflecting surface and passes through the lens substrates and the isolator substrate. |
| US07869669B2 |
Optical phase modulator
The invention provides an optical phase modulator having a substrate made of an electro-optical material, a signal electrode provided on the substrate and first and second ground electrodes provided on both sides of the signal electrode. The electrodes are provided so that a size of the first gap between the first ground electrode and the signal electrode is smaller than a size of a second gap between the second ground electrode and the signal electrode. Furthermore, an optical waveguide is provided in the first gap as an optical phase modulator and not provided in the second gap. A driving voltage required for the phase adjustments is thereby lowered, the impedance matching is easily made and excellent radio frequency property can be realized. |
| US07869667B1 |
Method for automatic alignment of raster data with vector data in a geographic information system
The present invention relates to methods for aligning raster and vector data. In an embodiment, a raster/vector aligner receives raster data and an approximate vector of a feature within the raster data. The raster/vector aligner generates an edge signal by edge filtering the raster data along a direction of the approximate vector and a smoothness signal by smoothness filtering the raster data along a direction of the approximate vector. The raster/vector aligner combines the edge signal and the smoothness signal into a combined signal which is used to generate a translation vector or a signal weight for the feature within the raster data. |
| US07869665B2 |
Composite method and apparatus for adjusting image resolution
A composite method and apparatus for adjusting an image resolution are provided, which are applied for adjusting a digital image or de-interlace scanning, especially for achieving an edge enhancing effect. The composite method may include: obtaining an original image and a scaling factor for adjustment S; after that, detecting an edge of the original image and generating an edge map for the original image; then, calculating and generating an adjusted image with a scaling factor equal to 2n; and finally, converting the adjusted image into a final image, which is S times the original one. |
| US07869662B2 |
System architecture for sensing an absolute position using a target pattern
A location system and a location system on a chip (LCoS) and method are described. |
| US07869656B2 |
Statistical image processing system and method for image/noise feature detection
A statistical image processing system and method for detecting an original image feature and/or a noise feature in an input image using a statistical hypothesis test, thereby estimating the image or noise when an original image is contaminated with the noise, and a recording medium for recording the method, are provided. The method enables existence/non-existence of an image/noise feature in an input image to be accurately detected without information on the magnitude of a sample variance of noise in the input image. In addition, according to the method, the relative amount of noise and/or image feature can be numerically expressed and can be used in the various fields of image processing application. |
| US07869652B2 |
Flicker correction for moving picture
In flicker correction of a moving picture consisting of a plurality of frames, moving averages of accumulative histograms are calculated for each frame on image data. Then, gamma tables for correcting the image data of a frame in the plurality of frames are made such that the accumulative histograms after corrected with the gamma tables match with the moving averages of the accumulative histograms. Then, the image data of the frame in the plurality of frames is corrected with the gamma tables. In some cased, each frame is divided into areas, and the flicker correction is performed for each area if necessary. |
| US07869650B2 |
Digital video signal processing apparatus and method for compensating a chrominance signal
A digital video signal processing apparatus and method for compensating a chrominance (C) signal includes receiving the C signal separated from an input video signal and compensating the C signal in at least one dimension thereof to generate a compensated C signal. A comparator may determine whether a portion of a Y signal in the input video signal is present in the C signal. The compensator may compensate the C signal only when the comparator determines a portion of the Y signal is present in the C signal. The comparator may calculate a variation between current C data of the input video signal and adjacent C data and compare the variation to a threshold value. |
| US07869643B2 |
Advanced cell-to-cell inspection
Inspection of objects such as semiconductor wafers may proceed on a cell-to-cell or die-to-die basis. An image of a wafer may be obtained and the cells or dies shown therein can be inspected using any combination of appropriate die-to-die or cell-to-cell inspection methods. For example, one or more areas may be designated for cell-to-cell inspection. For each cell type, a reference image can be generated by obtaining an image of the area and displacing the image by an amount equal to the repetition vector for that cell type in opposite directions. The displaced images and the original image can be combined into a single reference image. The original image can then be compared to the reference image. In some embodiments, the displaced images are also compared to the reference image to statistically determine the presence or absence of defects. |
| US07869641B2 |
System and method for finding regions of interest for microscopic digital montage imaging
A system for determining tissue locations on a slide. |
| US07869637B2 |
Histogram calculation for auto-windowing of collimated X-ray image
An X-ray diagnostic imaging system is disclosed that includes an X-ray source for controlling an X-ray beam radiated towards a patient under examination. The X-ray source includes an X-ray tube and X-ray collimator assembly. The system includes an-ray imaging device arranged for receiving the X-ray beam after is has passed through the patient to acquire latent image frames of a region of interest (ROI) of the patient's anatomy, and a system controller coupled to X-ray source and X-ray imaging device for controlling latent image frame acquisition and post-acquisition processing. The controlling includes controlling the X-ray imaging device and X-ray positioning, and collimator assembly operation. An image processing chain including an image processor coupled to the system controller, receives latent image frames from the X-ray imaging device for processing, including calculating a histogram from which pixels within a collimated area are removed. The improved histogram is used in post-acquisition processing such as a window level setting. An X-ray image processed by functions using the improved histogram is displayed by a display device coupled to the image processing chain. |
| US07869632B2 |
Automatic trimming method, apparatus and program
Trimming is automatically performed based on a person or persons in whom a photographer has interest. All of facial images included in a whole image are detected. Then, judgment is made as to whether each of the detected facial images is a facial image of a specific person, face information about whom is stored in a face database. If the detected facial images include a facial image or images of the specific person or persons, trimming is performed based on the facial image or images of the specific person or persons. |
| US07869628B2 |
Two stage detection for photographic eye artifacts
An image acquisition device includes a first speed-optimized filter for producing a first set of candidate red-eye regions for an acquired image; and a second analysis-optimized filter for operating on the first set of candidate red eye regions and the acquired image. |
| US07869627B2 |
Post processing of iris images to increase image quality
A rapid iris acquisition, tracking, and imaging system can be used at longer standoff distances and over larger capture volumes, without the active cooperation of subjects. Light illuminates the subjects' eyes and a high resolution camera captures images of the irises. The images of the irises are processed by a post processing module to improve their quality. In one approach, the point spread function of the image capture subsystem is estimated using glint reflections from the eye, and the estimated point spread function is used in deconvolution to increase the resolution of the iris images. The post processed iris images have sufficient resolution to be used for biometric identification. |
| US07869622B2 |
Image measuring system, image measuring method and image measuring program for measuring moving objects
Within a prioritized mode selection dialog, either a measurement accuracy prioritized mode or a measurement speed prioritized mode is selected. If the measurement accuracy prioritized mode is selected, then processing for entering a tolerable amount of movement is executed. Then, a relative movement speed of a CCD camera to a measurement stage is calculated from the entered amount of movement. Finally, image information is captured at a lower speed than the calculated relative movement speed to execute image measurement. If the measurement speed prioritized mode is selected, then processing for entering a relative movement speed is executed, and image information is captured at the entered relative movement speed to execute image measurement. |
| US07869621B1 |
Method and apparatus for interpreting images in temporal or spatial domains
This is a method and apparatus to create and interpret images in a temporal or spatial domain, which will be helpful with any moving objects. The images are captured and stored in a database. The video images can be viewed in a panoramic fashion or dissected into individual frames or pictures to make the searching of particular objects or events easier. |
| US07869619B2 |
System and method for display device characterization, calibration, and verification
This invention is directed to a system and method for creating characterization information from a first display device that can be transmitted and used by a second display device. Computer readable instructions embodied in a computer readable medium calibrate a first display device, create an ICC color profile from said calibration information, storing the ICC color profile and sending the ICC color profile to a second display device for it to use. The calibration or characterization information can also be associated with an image file and sent to a second location for display. |
| US07869613B2 |
Earwax protection device and method having a contrasting or colored membrane
The present invention provides the ability to efficiently detect a defect of an earwax protection device membrane. To achieve this, a high contrast is set between the membrane and the associated carrier. If the membrane is torn, the carrier in the background can then easily be detected. A particularly suited brightness contrast between the membrane and the carrier is >0.1. In the case of a desired high color contrast, the color of the membrane should be spaced apart from the color of the carrier by at least 60° on a blue-yellow-red color circle. |
| US07869605B2 |
Method for generating group key
A method is provided for generating a group key, including sharing a plurality of secret keys with a plurality of nodes adjacent to a first node of the plurality of nodes, obtaining a plurality of function values using the plurality of secret keys and a result value using the plurality of function values, broadcasting the result value, receiving a plurality of result values generated using a method by which the result value has been obtained, from nodes of the plurality of nodes except for a corresponding node, and obtaining a group key using a plurality of function values extracted from the plurality of function values and the plurality of result values. |
| US07869603B2 |
Encryption key path diagnostic
A method and a computer program product are provided to perform a key path diagnostic that aids in isolating an error within the encryption storage system. A first communication test is performed on a path between the key proxy and the drive. The first communication test verifies that the path between the drive and the key proxy is operational. A second communication test is performed on a path between the key proxy and the key server. The second communication test verifies that the path between the key proxy and the key server is operational. In addition, the drive or the key proxy sends a command to the key manager to attempt communication with the key manager. The communication attempt verifies the installation and configuration parameters related to the key manager. |
| US07869599B2 |
Quantum cryptography key distributing system and synchronizing method used in the same
A quantum cryptography key distributing system includes an optical fiber; a transmission unit and a reception unit. The transmission unit is connected with the optical fiber, generates a transmission optical pulse signal from an optical pulse signal based on a first data in synchronism with an optical clock signal and transmits the transmission optical pulse signal to the reception unit via the optical fiber. Polarization of the transmission optical pulse signal is different from that of the optical pulse signal. The reception unit is connected with the optical fiber, transmits the optical pulse signal to the transmission unit via the optical fiber, phase-modulates a part of the transmission optical pulse signal based on a second data in synchronism with the optical clock signal, and detects a reception data corresponding to the first data based on the transmission optical pulse signal in synchronism with the optical clock signal. |
| US07869597B2 |
Method and system for secure packet communication
A method for processing a communication data item. The communication data item is divided into at least two unencrypted packets to be encrypted. Each encrypted packet is generated from a corresponding unencrypted packet. Each unencrypted packet has a packet header and plaintext data. The packet header has an identifier field that includes a packet identifier. The packet identifier is identical for all unencrypted packets. Generating an encrypted packet for each unencrypted packet includes: determining a vector identifier from the identical packet identifier, wherein the vector identifier is associated with the identical packet identifier; ascertaining an initial vector from the vector identifier; and forming an encrypted packet header by inserting the vector identifier into a first portion of the packet header and encrypting a second portion of the packet header through use of the initial vector. The encrypted packets are subsequently decrypted and combined to reconstruct the communication data item. |
| US07869595B2 |
Content copying device and content copying method
A content copying device has a mutual authentication section that performs a mutual authentication with a copy source recording medium and a copy destination recording medium respectively and generates a first medium unique key and a second medium unique key, a content key decrypting section that reads an encrypted content key from the copy source recording medium, and decrypts the encrypted content key using information based on the first medium unique key, a content key encrypting section that encrypts the decrypted content key using information based on the second medium unique key and writes the encrypted content key onto the copy destination recording medium, and a content copying section that reads an encrypted content from the copy source recording medium and writes the content onto the copy destination recording medium without performing decryption. |
| US07869592B2 |
Calculation apparatus and encrypt and decrypt processing apparatus
A calculation apparatus capable of executing any of a first calculating process operation including a first matrix calculation, and a second calculating process operation including a second matrix calculation, includes: a first calculation unit for executing the second matrix calculation; at least one calculation unit other than the first calculation unit, for executing a matrix calculation in parallel to the first calculation unit so as to execute the first matrix calculation; and a logic circuit for performing a logic calculation with respect to a calculation result of the first calculation unit and a calculation result of the other calculation unit. Then, when a calculation result of the first matrix calculation is requested, the calculation apparatus acquires the calculation result from the logic circuit. As a result, the calculation apparatus and an encrypt/decrypt processing apparatus can commonly perform portions of the plural calculating process operations which contain the matrix calculations, and can realize high speed operation by executing portions of the matrix calculations in parallel. |
| US07869591B1 |
System and method for secure three-party communications
A system and method for communicating information between a first party and a second party, comprising the steps of receiving, by an intermediary, an identifier of desired information and accounting information for a transaction involving the information from the first party, transmitting an identifier of the first party to the second party, and negotiating, by the intermediary, a comprehension function for obscuring at least a portion of the information communicated between the first party and the second party. The data transmission may be made secure with respect to the intermediary by providing an asymmetric key or direct key exchange for encryption of the communication between the first and second party. The data transmission may be made secure with respect to the second party by maintaining the information in encrypted format at the second party, with the decryption key held only by the intermediary, and transmitting a secure composite of the decryption key and a new encryption key to the second party for transcoding of the data record, and providing the new decryption key to the first party, so that the information transmitted to the first party can be comprehended by it. |
| US07869588B2 |
System and method for providing particularized audible alerts
A system and method of generating at least two distinctive auditory alerts upon receiving a transmission or telephone call at a device is described. Data indicative of a first plurality of sounds corresponding to a user of a device configured to receive the transmission or telephone call is accessed, such as from a memory. The first plurality of sounds is played at the device so as to identify a received transmission or telephone call being directed to the user. A telephone number, subscriber name or identifier associated with a transmitting or calling party of the transmission or telephone call is accessed. Data indicative of a second plurality of sounds designating the transmitting or calling party based on the subscriber name, telephone number or identifier is retrieved, such as from a data structure, and the second plurality of sounds is played at the device so as to identify the transmitting or calling party. |
| US07869583B2 |
Real time meeting setup service
A method of automatically organizing a meeting can include selecting a customer profile associated with a customer, identifying a representative according to the customer profile, and determining an availability for the representative based upon context information for the representative. The method further can include scheduling a meeting between the customer and the representative based upon the availability of the representative, and storing the meeting. A measure of availability for the representative can be determined according to the context information and a rating for the customer can be determined. A determination that the representative is not available can be overridden according to the measure of availability for the representative and the rating for the customer. |
| US07869582B2 |
Remote garage door monitoring system
An apparatus and methods for implementing a garage door monitoring system coupled to a garage door opener. The door monitoring system allow a user to actuate the door under control via a network connection. In at least one embodiment, the door monitoring system is controlled by a cell phone or networked appliance capable of transmitting information and data via a cellular telephone network. The door monitoring system provides the added advantage of allowing a remote user to view the areas or regions near to the door under control prior to actuating the door. At least one embodiment comprises a method to validate reception of the pictures or video clips of the areas or regions near to the door prior to enabling the system to actuate the door. In another embodiment a pass code is embedded into the pictures or video provided to the remote user. |
| US07869580B2 |
Mobile phone with music reproduction function, music data reproduction method by mobile phone with music reproduction function, and the program thereof
A mobile phone 100 with music reproduction function comprising a reproduction unit 106 that reproduces music data and a ring tone which are recorded in a music data recording medium 105 and a ring tone, a communication unit 108 that detects an incoming call from outside and a control unit 103 that instructs the reproduction unit 106 to perform a fade-out process of reproducing music data and to perform a fade-in process of outputting a ring tone when the communication unit 108 detects an incoming call while the reproduction unit 106 is reproducing music data. |
| US07869579B2 |
Selectable replay of buffered conversation in a VOIP session
A system, method, and apparatus are directed to enabling a user to record VOIP conversations for selective instant replay. The VOIP conversation may be automatically recorded upon initiation of the conversation, or the user may select to record at least a portion of the VOIP conversation. At any point during the VOIP conversation, the user may select to bookmark a position for later replay. During the VOIP conversation, the user may select to instantly replay at least some of the recorded VOIP conversation. The user may select to instantly replay from a beginning of the recorded conversation, from the bookmarked position, or from a pre-determined time interval into the recorded conversation. Upon completion of the instant replay, the user may then return to a latest chronological rewind position within the recorded VOIP conversation. The other party may also be provided an indicator that the conversation is being recorded. |
| US07869575B2 |
X-ray examination system for analog mammography
An X-ray examination system for analog mammography is provided. The X-ray examination system for analog mammography includes an X-ray system including an X-ray film and labeling device. The X-ray film is exposed to an X-ray beam of the X-ray system with examination images of a patient. The labeling device includes an exposure beam for exposing the X-ray film with additional patient-specific information. The labeling device is a structural component of the X-ray system and is separate from the X-ray system for exposing the X-ray film. The labeling device is positionable relative to the X-ray film. The labeling device is disposed outside the X-ray beam or in the direction of an exposure of the X-ray film. |
| US07869573B2 |
Collimator and method for fabricating the same
A method for fabricating a collimator assembly is provided. The collimator assembly includes a first collimator grid having a first surface and an opposing second surface, wherein the first collimator grid defines a plurality of cells. Each cell of the plurality of cells is aligned in a first direction and extends between the first surface and the second surface. The method includes coupling a reinforcing layer to the first collimator grid such that the reinforcing layer extends substantially perpendicular to the first direction. |
| US07869572B2 |
Apparatus for reducing kV-dependent artifacts in an imaging system and method of making same
An x-ray tube includes a vacuum chamber, a cathode positioned within the vacuum chamber and configured to emit electrons, and an anode positioned within the vacuum chamber to receive the electrons emitted from the cathode and configured to generate a beam of x-rays from the electrons. The x-ray tube further includes a window positioned to pass the beam of x-rays therethrough, an electron collector structure having an aperture formed therein to allow passage of x-rays therethrough, and a layer attached to the electron collector structure and configured to at least partially absorb or reduce diffraction of x-rays that contact the layer. |
| US07869571B2 |
Methods and apparatus for x-ray imaging with focal spot deflection
Methods and apparatus for x-ray imaging with focal spot deflection are provided. The apparatus includes an x-ray tube having a cathode configured to emit electrons and an anode having a target with a target surface defining a target angle. The emitted electrons are deflected onto the target surface with the target surface substantially aligned with a z-axis parallel to a gantry rotation axis. |
| US07869569B2 |
System for quantitative radiographic imaging
A system for spectroscopic imaging of bodily tissue in which a scintillation screen and a charged coupled device (CCD) are used to accurately image selected tissue. Applications include the imaging of radionuclide distributions within the human body or the use of a dual energy source to provide a dual photon bone densitometry apparatus that uses stationary or scanning acquisition techniques. An x-ray source generates x-rays which pass through a region of a subject's body, forming an x-ray image which reaches the scintillation screen. The scintillation screen reradiates a spatial intensity pattern corresponding to the image, the pattern being detected by a CCD sensor. The image is digitized by the sensor and processed by a controller before being stored as an electronic image. A dual energy x-ray source that delivers two different energy levels provides quantitative information regarding the object being imaged using dual photon absorptiometry techniques. Dual scintillation screens can be used to simultaneously generate images of low-energy and high-energy x-ray patterns. Each image is directed onto an associated respective CCD or amorphous silicon detector to generate individual electronic representations of the separate images. |
| US07869567B2 |
Phase contrast imaging
Phase contrast imaging is achieved using a sample mask 8 and a detector mask (6). X-rays emitted from x-ray source (2) are formed into individual beams (16) by sample mask which pass through sample (14) and arrive at individual pixels (12) of the detector (4) through detector mask (6). The individual x-ray beams are arranged to hit the pixel edge (20) of individual rows of pixels, individual columns of pixels or individual pixels. Small deviations θ in the individual beams (16) cause a significant increase or decrease in the signal hitting the exposed area (22) of the pixel resulting in a significant phase contrast signal. |
| US07869566B2 |
Integrated multi-sensor systems for and methods of explosives detection
An integrated, multi-sensor, Level 1 screening device is described, which system provides a next-generation Explosives Detection System (EDS) that enables high throughput, while drastically reducing false alarms. In exemplary embodiments, the present system comprises a non-rotational, Computed Tomography (CT) system and a non-translational, X-ray diffraction (XRD) system, both in an inline configuration. |
| US07869565B2 |
Classification method for sedimentary rocks
A method of determining a parameter of interest of reservoir rock formation is described using the steps of measuring an x-ray attenuation or absorption distribution of a sample of said rock formation, identifying the mineral phase part of said distribution, and subdividing the mineral phase part of said distribution to derive classification or rock type information of said sample. |
| US07869559B2 |
X-ray detector methods and apparatus
A method includes performing an x-ray focal spot deflection to generate two complete projections from two different channels of an x-ray detector, wherein the channels are purposefully different from each other in some respect other than being different channels. |
| US07869540B2 |
Method and apparatus for increased communication channel pre-emphasis for clock-like data patterns
Methods and apparatus are disclosed for increased pre-emphasis for clock-like data patterns to compensate for channel distortions. One aspect of the invention compensates for channel distortions by evaluating a data pattern to be transmitted; determining if the data pattern satisfies one or more predefined criteria defining a clock-like data pattern; and generating a pre-emphasis level for the clock-like data patterns that is higher than a pre-emphasis level for the data patterns that do not satisfy the one or more predefined criteria. For example, a predefined window size can be defined for determining if the data pattern satisfies the one or more predefined criteria defining the clock-like data pattern. In one exemplary implementation, the higher pre-emphasis level is generated for one or more predefined data patterns. A table can optionally be accessed to determine the pre-emphasis level based on the data pattern. |
| US07869538B2 |
System and method for I/Q imbalance compensation
A transmitter (102) generates a first set of data symbols and a first pilot symbol (601) at a first time, and a second set of data symbols and a second pilot symbol (602) at a different, second time. The first (601) and second (602) pilot. symbols are each represented by first (701) and second (702) pilot carriers, respectively, located at first (703) and second (704) predetermined sample frequencies, respectively, in a channel bandwidth. For the first pilot symbol (601), the first (701) and second (702) pilot carriers have first and second predetermined values, respectively. For the second pilot symbol (602), the first (701) and second (702) pilot carriers have third and fourth predetermined values, respectively. A receiver (104) measures the first, second, fourth and third predetermined values responsive to receiving the first (601) and second (602) pilot symbols to determine first, second, third and fourth estimates of channel distortion, respectively, for compensating and recovering the first and the second sets of data symbols. |
| US07869535B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for phase control of transmit diversity signals
Embodiments of the present invention include a method and apparatus for modifying a transmit diversity signal by control of at least a relative parameter, for example, phase difference, in a first signal relative to at least one second signal using various switching modules or techniques. In some embodiments of the invention, the relative difference may be controlled by switching paths, or producing various degrees of relative difference by switching, activating or controlling multiple elements with various resolutions of the relative parameter, or by connecting elements by timing of switches. |
| US07869533B2 |
Communication system and method for receiving high priority and low priority signals
A communication system and method of communicating signals to a plurality of different types of receivers is provided. At least one transmitter transmits hierarchically modulated high priority and low priority signals as a single frequency network. At least one satellite re-transmits the high priority signal in a first circularly polarized direction and the low priority signal in a second circularly polarized direction. At least one of a first receiver having a single antenna is configured to receive the high priority signal in the first circularly polarized direction and switched to receive the low priority signal in the second circularly polarized direction, and a second receiver having a first antenna is configured to receive the high priority signal in the first circularly polarized direction, and a second antenna is configured to receive the low priority signal in the second circularly polarized direction substantially simultaneously. |
| US07869530B2 |
Method for suppression of OFDM energy spectral density for minimization of out of band emission or utilization of fractured spectrum
The Energy spectral density of OFDM signals inherently rolls off slowly. Slow OFDM spectral rolloff has system level implications traditionally mitigated by some combination of the following: addition of bandlimiting filtering; use of significant guard bands of zeroed tones; and, guard time shaping. Each of these techniques negatively impact system performance and/or flexibility. This application presents a methodology for active cancellation of out of band spectral energy. The technique can be used by itself or in conjunction with above traditional methods to help control out of band emission. Examples of the use of the new technique are provided. Computational cost of the new technique is also discussed. |
| US07869529B2 |
System, method and computer-readable medium for detection and avoidance (DAA) of victim services in ultra-wideband systems (UWB)
A system for detection and avoidance of victim services in ultra-wideband (UWB) systems is provided. A detect and avoid module may calculate power averages of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing tones. The power of tones may be measured and compared with power averages of corresponding tones. If a measured tone power exceeds an average power of a corresponding tone by a dynamic threshold, the tone may be identified as associated with an interferer. The threshold may be inversely related to the gain level of an automatic gain control module. The UWB subsystem may be configured with known bands of victim services of other radio frequency systems, and a tone identified as associated with an interferer that is within a known victim service band may be identified as a victim service. The UWB subsystem may attenuate or otherwise suppress transmission within the victim service band to avoid interfering with the victim service. |
| US07869528B2 |
Multi-carrier transceiver assembly
An assembly and method for processing of multi-carrier signals is provided. A plurality of carrier signals are combined into a combined multi-carrier signal represented in a first domain. The combined multi-carrier signal is converted from the first domain to a second domain. The converted multi-carrier signal is distributed into a plurality of signals represented in the second domain. |
| US07869525B2 |
Dynamic bus inversion method and system
A dynamic bus inversion (DBI) method and system are described. In various embodiments, a transmitter transmits data over a multi-bit high-speed bus to a receiver. In an embodiment, the transmitter determines whether to invert the bus based on the number of data bits that will be transitioning to a new value. If it is determined that the bus is to be inverted, the transmitter encodes a DBI signal on a shared line of the bus. In an embodiment, the shared line is used for different purposes at different times, obviating the need for a dedicated line or pin for the encoded DBI signal. The receiver receives and decodes the DBI signal and, in response, appropriately decodes the received data. |
| US07869524B2 |
Pulse generator for ultra-wide-band modulating systems and modulating systems using it
A pulse generator circuit is provided. The pulse generator circuit has an input adapted to receive an input electrical quantity and an output at which an output electrical quantity is made available. A transfer characteristic establishes a relationship between said input and said output electrical quantities. The pulse generator circuit is adapted to provide said output electrical quantity in the form of pulses having a predetermined shape, suitable to be used for UWB transmission. The transfer characteristic has substantially a same shape as that of said pulses. Moreover, a UWB modulating system exploiting the novel pulse generator is proposed. |
| US07869523B2 |
Low complexity deblocking filter
A method of filtering to remove coding artifacts introduced at block edges in a block-based video coder, the method having the steps of: checking the content activity on every line of samples belonging to a boundary to be filtered and where content activity is based on a set of adaptively selected thresholds determined using Variable-Shift Table Indexing (VSTI); determining whether the filtering process will modify the sample values on that particular line based on said content activity; and selecting a filtering mode between at least two filtering modes to apply on a block boundary basis, implying that there would be no switching between the two primary modes on a line by line basis along a given block boundary. The two filtering modes include a default mode based on a non-recursive filter, and a strong filtering mode which features two strong filtering sub-modes and a new selection criterion that is one-sided with respect to the block boundary to determine which of the two strong filtering sub-modes to use. The two strong filtering sub-modes include a new 3-tap filter sub-mode and a 5-tap filter sub-mode that permits a more efficient implementation of the filter. |
| US07869518B2 |
Fast motion estimation apparatus and method using block matching algorithm
A fast motion estimation apparatus and method in which motion estimation is carried out on a current block of a current frame of video image data with reference to a corresponding matching block of a previous frame are provided. The fast motion estimation apparatus includes: a determination unit which determines whether an SAD between pixel values of a current block of a current frame and a corresponding matching block of a previous frame is greater than a predefined threshold; an initial search unit which performs an initial search when the SAD is greater than the predetermined threshold to find which search point of a current search pattern is the minimal SAD point and to determine whether the minimal SAD point matches the center of the current search pattern; and a repetitive search unit which performs an iteration search when the minimal SAD point differs from the center of the current search pattern to reset the minimal SAD point to be a center of the current search pattern and to set a number of search points and the size of a search pattern based on from current search pattern to a center of the search window of the previous frame. |
| US07869516B2 |
Motion estimation using bit-wise block comparisons for video compresssion
Motion estimation uses tally (Population Count) and XOR (or other bit-wise comparison) operations to obtain a block-match measure for reference and predicted blocks to identify motion vectors for use in video compression. The XOR operations can be performed on absolute or relative luminance data. For example, a one-bit-per-pixel representation of a block can indicate for each pixel its luminance relative to a local average luminance. The performance improvement offered by the invention (relative to methods using the absolute value of the differences of absolute luminance values) can more than offset a penalty in block-match accuracy due to loss of information in luminance data reduction and/or the ignoring of bit significance due to the bit-wise comparison. |
| US07869515B2 |
Video encoding/decoding method and apparatus for motion compensation prediction
A video encoding method includes selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations. Each combination includes a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture. A prediction picture signal is generated in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination. A predictive error signal is generated representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal. Encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination is included. |
| US07869512B2 |
Video encoding/decoding method and apparatus for motion compensation prediction
A video encoding method includes selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations. Each combination includes a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture. A prediction picture signal is generated in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination. A predictive error signal is generated representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal. Encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination is included. |
| US07869506B2 |
Video encoding/decoding method and apparatus for motion compensation prediction
A video encoding method comprises selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations each including a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture, generating a prediction picture signal in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination, generating a predictive error signal representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal, and encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination. |
| US07869501B2 |
Method for decoding a video signal to mark a picture as a reference picture
A method for efficiently decoding a video signal is disclosed. The method for decoding a video signal based on fine granularity scalability (FGS) includes acquiring picture identification information indicating a reference picture of a current block, and decoding the current block using the reference picture. A base layer reference picture and an enhanced layer reference picture corresponding thereto have the same picture identification information. Accordingly, it is possible to minimize a problem caused in a procedure for decoding a video signal due to transmission error. |
| US07869500B2 |
Video encoder and method for detecting and encoding noise
A digital video signal encoder and method for detecting and encoding noise is disclosed. In a frame in a video signal, the variance of at least four macroblock luminance blocks is calculated. The Log2 of the minimum of these variances is determined. A running sum of the Log2 calculations is calculated and compared to a noise threshold to determine whether or not the frame contains noise. In one embodiment, a frame is determined to contain noise if the running sum is greater than a noise threshold and encodes the remaining portion of the frame as noise. In another embodiment, a current frame is determined to contain noise and is encoded as noise if the previous frame contained noise. The present invention may encode noise by overriding the original bit rate quantiser scale and/or removing at least one high frequency from a noise block using a DCT filter. |
| US07869497B2 |
Frequency-domain decision feedback equalizing device and method
A fast Fourier transformation is performed on a first vector of signals, and as a result a second vector of signals is provided. A feed forward equalization is performed by multiplying each of the components of said second vector with equalization parameters, and as a result a third vector of signals is provided. An inverse fast Fourier transformation is performed on said third vector, and as a result a fourth vector of signals is provided. An output signal of said first section is provided on the basis of said fourth vector of signals. In a second section a signal derived from an output signal of said second section is is filtered via linear feedback filtering and the filtered signal is added to said first section output signal, and an added signal is provided, and said second section output signal is generated by extracting samples from said added signal. |
| US07869493B2 |
Method for detecting a signal, detector and computer program product
A method for detecting a signal received via a communication channel, the communication channel being affected by noise, is described, wherein the received signal is processed according to a filtering step (202), the filtering step comprises multiplication of at least one component of the received signal with a filter coefficient and the filter coefficient comprises a noise variance offset which corresponds to the variance of the noise. |
| US07869489B2 |
Apparatus and method for acquirying a preamble in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access mobile terminal
A preamble acquisition apparatus includes a first PN code generation unit for generating a first PN code having a bit string, a first correlation calculation unit for correlating a received frequency domain preamble signal with the first PN code within a first correlation range to generate a first correlation value, a first correlation value comparison unit for comparing the first correlation value with a first threshold value, a second PN code generation unit for generating a second PN code, a second correlation calculation unit for correlating the received frequency domain preamble signal with the second PN code within a second correlation range to generate a second correlation value, and a preamble acquisition determination unit for comparing the second correlation value with a second threshold value to determine whether to acquire the preamble. The bit values of the first PN code are located in the second PN code. |
| US07869487B2 |
Quadrature multi-frequency ranging (QMFR) applied to GPS multipath mitigation
A quadrature multi-frequency ranging system applied to DSSS multipath mitigation problems is described. The QMFR techniques include taking the time-of-arrival measurements on the received signal at a time when the multipath component is at a 90 degree angle to the direct path. Further, the preferred embodiment of the present invention recognizes that when a signal is transmitted at a series of frequencies, and the spread of these frequencies is sufficient, a quadrature or near quadrature condition can be forced to occur, at which the TOA estimation gives the highest certainty of measurement. |
| US07869483B2 |
Surface emitting laser
A surface emitting laser which oscillates at a wavelength λ of a blue band, including a photonic crystal layer including a photonic crystal structure, an active layer provided on one surface of the photonic crystal layer, and an electrode provided on the other surface of the photonic crystal layer for injecting electric current into the active layer. The photonic crystal structure has a thickness of 100 nm or more. A laser beam is emitted toward a direction opposite to a side of the photonic crystal layer on which the electrode is provided. |
| US07869477B2 |
System and method for developing high output power nanosecond range pulses from continuous wave semiconductor laser systems
Continuous wave laser diodes are able to be operated so as to achieve a high power pulsed output by operationally exercising them using a subnanosecond input pulse having an IV (power) amplitude characteristic at or exceeding a particular derived power (IV) threshold. Injection current on the order of 1 Amp and an operational voltage in the range of 4 Volts causes a CW laser to define a pulsed output in the 200 mV to 500 mV range. CW lasers having these output characteristics are coupled to mathematically defined branched pathways in order to construct an optical timing device relying on optical pulses traversing optical pathways at the speed of light. Pathway length is precisely controlled in order to define timing intervals relying solely on an optical path length and a known traversal speed. |
| US07869476B2 |
Light source device, projector device, monitor device, and lighting device
The controller 170 controls the output power of the semiconductor laser device 100a depending on the temperature of the semiconductor laser device 100a acquired by the temperature sensor 130. The controller 170 references the correspondence table 510 when the sensor temperature Ts is obtained, obtains the output power PWs corresponding to the sensor temperature Ts, and controls the power supply driving circuit 150a so that the output power per unit time of the semiconductor laser device 100a will be the output power PWs. Thus increase in temperature of the semiconductor laser device is able to be prevented through reducing the output power by controlling the amount of power supplied to the semiconductor laser device. As a result, it is possible to prevent reductions in the service life of the semiconductor laser device, even when there is a failure in a cooling device that cools the semiconductor laser device, and even when the device is used in a high temperature environment not envisioned at the time of manufacturing. |
| US07869474B2 |
Fast wavelength tuning techniques for external cavity lasers
An apparatus comprising a laser source configured to emit a light beam along a first path, an optical beam steering component configured to steer the light beam from the first path to a second path at an angle to the first path, and a diffraction grating configured to reflect back at least a portion of the light beam along the second path, wherein the angle determines an external cavity length. Included is an apparatus comprising a laser source configured to emit a light beam along a first path, a beam steering component configured to redirect the light beam to a second path at an angle to the first path, wherein the optical beam steering component is configured to change the angle at a rate of at least about one Kilohertz, and a diffraction grating configured to reflect back at least a portion of the light beam along the second path. |
| US07869473B2 |
Directly modulated laser with isolated modulated gain electrode for improved frequency modulation
A DBR laser, such as a semiconductor DBR laser is disclosed having improved frequency modulation performance. The laser includes a split gain electrode and a tuning electrode. A modulating current encoding a data signal is injected into a first section of the gain electrode whereas a substantially DC bias voltage is imposed on a second section of the gain electrode positioned between the first gain electrode and the tuning electrode. The first and second gain electrodes are electrically isolated from each other and the tuning electrode by a large isolation resistance. In some embodiments, the isolation resistance is generated by forming the electrodes on a P+ layer and removing portions of the P+ layer between adjacent electrodes. Capacitors may couple to one or both of the second gain electrode and the tuning electrode. |
| US07869465B2 |
Hybrid cross-link
A communication system comprises a first communication unit having a plurality of application ports; and a second communication unit having a plurality of application ports and coupled to the first communication unit; wherein the first communication unit is configured to extract timeslots from a first signal having a first interface format and from a second signal having a second interface format, and to insert the extracted timeslots into a frame for transmission to the second communication unit; wherein the second communication unit is configured to pass the first interface format signal to an application port of a similar interface format and to pass the second interface format signal to an application port of a third dissimilar interface format based on the order of the extracted timeslots in the frame transmitted from the first communication unit. |
| US07869459B2 |
Communicating instructions and data between a processor and external devices
A mechanism for communicating instructions and data between a processor and external devices are provided. The mechanism makes use of a channel interface as the primary mechanism for communicating between the processor and a memory flow controller. The channel interface provides channels for communicating with processor facilities, memory flow control facilities, machine state registers, and external processor interrupt facilities, for example. These channels may be designated as blocking or non-blocking. With blocking channels, when no data is available to be read from the corresponding registers, or there is no space available to write to the corresponding registers, the processor is placed in a low power “stall” state. The processor is automatically awakened, via communication across the blocking channel, when data becomes available or space is freed. Thus, the channels of the present invention permit the processor to stay in a low power state. |
| US07869457B2 |
High speed ring/bus
A data communication bus and method of operation thereof, including a plurality of nodes connected to a respective plurality of media segments. A typical node includes an output port coupled to a media segment that it exclusively controls. And an input port coupled to a media segment that is exclusively controlled by another node of the bus. Each media segment typically includes a plurality of high speed data channels such as electrical transmission lines. |
| US07869456B2 |
Method for determining whether adequate bandwidth is being provided during an unsolicited grant flow
A system and method is presented that uses hardware at a central node to determine if bandwidth being provided to a remote node in accordance with an unsolicited grant service (UGS) flow requires adjustment. In one embodiment, the hardware performs this function by comparing information in two consecutively-received UGS extended headers from the same remote device. If the information in the current and previous UGS extended headers differ, then an indication is provided to software of the central node that the bandwidth being provided to the remote node requires adjustment. |
| US07869454B2 |
Method for communicating scrambling code ID in mobile communication system
Disclosed is a method for transmitting a channel signal in a base station of a mobile communication system which scrambles a common channel signal using a primary scrambling code for identifying the base station. The method comprises determining an identifier (ID) of a secondary scrambling code, upon receipt of a dedicated channel assignment request from a mobile station; transmitting the determined ID of the secondary scrambling code to the mobile station and awaiting a response; upon receipt of a response message from the mobile station, generating a primary scrambling code and a secondary scrambling code using an ID of the primary scrambling code and said ID of the secondary scrambling code; and scrambling a common channel signal using the primary scrambling code, scrambling a dedicated channel signal using the secondary scrambling code, and transmitting the scrambled channel signals. |
| US07869453B2 |
Apparatus and method for data transfer
There is provided an apparatus and method for transferring data packets from a peripheral module to a memory via a memory-controller. When a given peripheral module requests that it send a data packet to the memory via the memory-controller, the memory-controller sends an acknowledgement indicating that the peripheral module can send the data packet, whether or not there is a descriptor for the data packet. If there is a descriptor, the memory-controller receives the data packet from the peripheral module and stores it in the memory. If there is not a descriptor, the memory-controller discards the data packet as it receives it. Thus, whether or not there is a descriptor available for the data packet, the peripheral module still sends the data packet to the memory-controller. The data packets may be assigned classifications and each classification may be assigned a dedicated space in the memory. |
| US07869449B2 |
Statistic reporting method and media gateway
A statistic reporting method includes: obtaining the current time information after an MG determines that the statistic parameter value needs to be reported if the reporting of a statistic parameter value needs to be bound to the time information, when associating the current time with the current value of the statistic parameter to be reported, and reporting such information to an MGC. In the present disclosure, the MG associates the current time information with the current value of the statistic parameter to be reported, and reports such information to the MGC, thus enabling the MGC to obtain the correct time of triggering the reporting of the statistic parameter value, reducing errors and improving the accuracy of subsequent analysis and prediction based on the reported statistic parameter value. |
| US07869446B2 |
Optimized dynamic multipoint virtual private network over IPv6 network
Method and apparatus including registering a first spoke router with a hub router, forwarding an Internet Protocol version Four (IPv4) data packet from the first spoke router to a second spoke router over an Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) multipoint tunnel via the hub router, transmitting a binding information associated with the first spoke router from the hub router to the second spoke router, and establishing a direct communication path by the second spoke router with the first spoke router based on the received binding information are provided. |
| US07869444B2 |
Mixed wireless and cabled data acquisition network
A data acquisition network includes an assembly of nodes including at least one wireless network of nodes in which two neighboring nodes transmit data between each other by radio waves. The assembly of nodes also includes at least one other network of nodes in which two neighboring nodes transmit data between each other by a cable. The data is also conveyed by radio waves. The at least one other network forms a cabled network of nodes. |
| US07869439B1 |
Varying packet switch behavior based on a quantity of virtual interfaces associated with a virtual switch
Packet switch operating methods and packet switches compare a quantity of virtual interfaces associated with a virtual switch to a threshold. If the quantity of virtual interfaces is not greater than the threshold, and the packet switch is configured to learn forwarding fields of packets forwarded by the virtual switch, the methods and switches configure the packet switch to not learn forwarding fields of packets subsequently forwarded by the virtual switch. Other methods and packet switches compare a quantity of virtual interfaces associated with a virtual switch to a threshold. If the quantity of virtual interfaces associated with the virtual switch is not greater than the threshold and the packet switch is configured to learn forwarding fields of packets forwarded by the virtual switch, the methods and packet switches configure the packet switch to not learn forwarding fields of packets subsequently forwarded by the virtual switch. |
| US07869431B2 |
System and method for communication of uncompressed visual information through a network
DisplayPort micropackets of uncompressed visual information are adapted to conventional network infrastructure with a switch having DisplayPort ports, network ports and a packet converter. The packet converter encapsulates DisplayPort packets for communication through network ports and extracts DisplayPort packets from network packets for communication through DisplayPort ports. An address resolution table associates the switch ports with each other and with a packet converter operation by using a control field that defines the packet converter operation for information received at each port, such as encapsulation, extraction or native switching. |
| US07869429B2 |
Packet relaying apparatus with payload reconstruction function
A packet relaying apparatus comprises a payload type discrimination unit for discriminating the type of payload in each received packet, a payload reconstruction unit for dividing the payload in predetermined block size units and for reconstructing the payload in the predetermined block size units, and a controller for overall controlling the apparatus. |
| US07869424B2 |
Systems and methods for voice and data communications including a scalable TDM switch/multiplexer
Integrated communications systems having a scalable or upgradable TDM switch fabric (i.e., e.g., TDM-controlling switch/MUX) are disclosed. At a first point in time a system is first sold, installed and utilized with a first TDM capacity, using a first TDM switch/MUX controlling a first set of TDM streams operating at a first frequency. A first set of line and other cards (e.g., DSP resources) are provided to provide or receive the first set of TDM streams. At a second point in time the system is upgraded by installation of a second TDM switch/MUX; the second TDM switch MUX controls the first set of TDM streams operating at the first frequency and also controls a second set of TDM streams operating at second frequency, which is a frequency different and preferably higher as compared to the first frequency. With at least some of the first cards coupled to the TDM bus, the second TDM switch/MUX couples TDM streams to and from the first cards using the first streams at the first frequency, while concurrently coupling TDM streams to and from the second cards using the second streams at the second frequency. The first switch/MUX preferably operates concurrently with the second switch/MUX to couple streams to and from the TDM bus (e.g., from an HDLC or multi-protocol framing engine, etc.), while the first switch/MUX does not operate to control the TDM bus, as this function is carried out by the second switch/MUX. |
| US07869423B2 |
System and method for extending neighboring cell search window
A system and method for accommodating mobile station synchronization to neighbor cells in a mobile communication system. At least one available frame is utilized as a search window in an uplink data transfer multiframe for receiving neighboring cell synchronization information. At least one transmit time slot in a frame adjacent to the available frame in the uplink data transfer multiframe is surrendered to extend the search window. The neighboring cell synchronization information may then be contiguously received via the extended search window. |
| US07869416B2 |
Method for enabling use of secondary pilot signals across a forward link of a CDMA network employing a slotted transmission scheme and time multiplexed pilot channel
A method enables the use of a secondary pilot signal and a secondary antenna(s) in the forward link of a CDMA-based cellular network employing a slotted transmission scheme with a time-multiplexed primary pilot signal, with backwards compatibility. The forward link is divided into a number of time slots. For communications with “legacy” mobile stations that expect transmissions from a single, primary antenna (and that expect a single, primary pilot signal), during some of the time slots, only the primary antenna is used for transmissions, including transmitting the primary pilot signal. Neither the secondary pilot channel nor any other signals from the secondary antenna are transmitted. During the remaining time slots: (i) the primary pilot signal is transmitted from the primary antenna, and the secondary pilot signal is transmitted from the secondary antenna, but at different times; and (ii) data meant for the legacy mobile stations is not transmitted. |
| US07869407B2 |
Wireless router and software
A broadband wireless network includes intelligent base stations and mobile units. The network includes control means to manage connectivity of the mobile units to the intelligent base stations. Software is provided to control connection of the mobile unit to an intelligent base station having preferred signal characteristics. When a mobile unit connects to an intelligent base station, the software broadcasts corrected routing information to all intelligent base stations on the network allowing persistent wireless connectivity. |
| US07869404B2 |
Deferred access method for uplink packet channel
The equipment and techniques disclosed herein introduce a deferred acknowledgement (DACK), in the context of a protocol for a wireless station to request and obtain access to a wireless network resource for communication of one or more data packets. Essentially, a network node, such as a wireless base station, sends the DACK instruction in response to the access request telling the requesting station that the node has heard the request but that the requesting station should defer its transmission. The requesting station need not back off and re-initiate its access request. Instead, the requesting station waits for a later acknowledgement (ACK) granting access to a resource as requested. Although the DACK provides additional signaling, this technique can still utilize a fast ACK type message, that is to say a relatively short signaling packet. |
| US07869396B2 |
Data transmission method and data re-transmission method
A method which can reduce loss in data transmission is provided. A data block is prepared in a high-level layer and the data block is transmitted in a low-level layer. Status report information associated with reception or non-reception of the data block is received through the low-level layer. When a receiver fails to receive data transmitted from a transmitter, the transmitter can rapidly recognize the reception failure and can retransmit the data. |
| US07869395B2 |
Methods and apparatus for dynamically adjusting a data packet window size for data packet transmission in a wireless communication network
In one example, a method in a wireless router system for transmitting data packets to a mobile device through a wireless network based upon a round trip time is provided. A number of packets matched for a window size are transmitted to the mobile device, and a round trip time is measured. The window size for data packet transmission is re-sized by increasing the window size if the round trip time is within a first threshold, and decreasing the window size if the round trip time is more than the first threshold but less than a second threshold. The window size is also decreased if the round trip time is more than the second threshold, where each such data packet is further marked as a lost packet. A number of packets matched for the re-sized window is subsequently transmitted, including a retransmission any packets marked as lost. |
| US07869394B1 |
Limiting data packet forwarding to trusted ports
This document describes tools that forward data packets to trusted ports and prevent data packets from egressing non-trusted ports. To do so, the tools receive a data packet having a destination address specifying that the data packet be forwarded to a set of ports associated with a domain. The tools identify a subset of the set of ports as trusted ports and forward the data packet to the subset. The tools prevent the data packet from egressing non-trusted ports of the set. In one embodiment, the tools may classify a port as trusted. To do so, the tools receive a configuration communication identifying trusted devices. The tools broadcast a request to the trusted devices and receive a reply from a reply device on a reply port. The tools determine that the reply device is one of the trusted devices and mark the reply port as a trusted port. |
| US07869389B2 |
Network device with proxy address resolution protocol
A network device includes a proxy ARP (address resolution protocol) unit for comparing a target IP (Internet protocol) address contained in an ARP request frame with a first set of IP addresses in a proxy ARP table of the proxy ARP unit, and for generating an ARP reply frame containing a MAC (media access control) address of the network device according to a result of the comparison. In addition, the network device includes a routing table for storing a second set of IP addresses for IP packet routing. Furthermore, the network device includes a processing unit coupled between the proxy ARP unit and the routing table. The processing unit is operable for receiving the ARP request frame, assigning an IP address to a host logging onto the network device, and updating the assigned IP address into the proxy ARP table and the routing table respectively. |
| US07869384B2 |
Network address assignment method and routing method for a long thin zigbee network
A network address assignment method and a routing method for a long thin ZigBee network are provided. The routing method includes the following steps. A network address is assigned to each node of the ZigBee network, wherein each network address includes a cluster ID and a node ID. The cluster ID is used for identifying a plurality of clusters of the ZigBee network. The Node ID is used for identifying a plurality of nodes of each cluster. When a packet is transmitted, check whether the current node holding the packet and the destination node are in the same cluster. If they are in the same cluster, the packet is routed within the cluster according to the node ID of the destination node and a predetermined algorithm. If they are not in the same cluster, the packet is routed among the clusters according to the cluster ID of the destination node. |
| US07869380B2 |
Method of channel assessment and channel searching in a wireless network
A method of channel assessment and channel searching in a wireless network is disclosed. The wireless network separately performs a channel assessment procedure and a channel searching procedure for channel change or another object. The channel assessment procedure is to measure a status or quality of a channel which is currently used in the wireless network. A coordinator of the wireless network designates a time interval for the channel assessment to notify other device of it. The channel assessment procedure may be performed periodically, and is preferably scheduled to allow other devices not to use the channel for the time interval which at least one device performs channel assessment. |
| US07869379B2 |
Method for monitoring channel eye characteristics in a high-speed SerDes data link
A method is disclosed for tuning each channel of a high-speed SerDes cable link interface arranged in a configuration linking a local side physical layer to a remote side physical layer. The method includes initiating an operational state of high-speed SerDes cable link interface, identifying flow-control packet Op codes not cited for use by operational high-speed SerDes cable link interface, transmitting a flow control signal from the local side physical layer to the remote side physical layer to control the remote side physical layer to monitor the eye characteristics of the channels used by the local side physical layer to transfer data to the remote side physical layer, transferring eye characteristics acquired in the monitoring to the local side physical layer and processing the eye characteristics by the local side physical layer to generate equalization setting adjustments. |
| US07869376B2 |
Communicating an operational state of a transport service
This document describes tools that communicate an operational state of a transport service. The transport service provides connectivity between two or more networks, enabling the networks to exchange packets. The tools detect an operational state of a transport service. After doing so, the tools may convey the operational state of the transport service to at least one of the networks through a user-to-network interface port of a network interface device, send a message to a network interface device requesting that the network interface device convey the operational state to a network connected to the network interface device, or configure a network interface device to communicate the operational state. |
| US07869371B2 |
Method and system for testing a connection
According to embodiments of the present invention an apparatus suitable for testing a connection defined between a customer entity and a network entity, the connection traversing at least a first portion of a packet-enabled network between said apparatus and the network entity is provided. The apparatus comprises a first interface adapted to exchange with the network entity data associated with the connection over a first traffic VLAN and a second interface adapted to exchange with the customer entity data associated with the connection over a second traffic VLAN bridged to the first traffic VLAN by a bridging entity. The apparatus further comprises a third interface adapted to exchange with a management entity data associated with a management connection over a management VLAN. A control module coupled to the first, second and third interfaces, the control module is provided and the control module is operable to respond to an instruction received from the management entity to cause the switching entity to perform selective bridging of the management VLAN to at least one of the first traffic VLAN and the second traffic VLAN. |
| US07869368B2 |
Performance measuring in a packet transmission network
In a data packet transmission network a stream of packets of data sent by a first terminal passes in transit through at least one network equipment with which there is associated a stream measurement unit; wherein said first terminal and said measurement unit are connected to a collection unit. The measurement method comprises the following steps the first terminal generates a stream of packets, comprising a first and a second session status control packets the measurement unit analyzes said first and/or second packet of said stream, in transit through the network equipment the first terminal sends the collection unit a sent packet stream description comprising at least the number of packets sent the stream measurement unit sends the collection unit a stream description comprising at least one information item indicating the number of analyzed packets; and the collection unit identifies each analyzed packet of the stream as a function of the stream description to correlate said stream description and said sent packet stream description packet by packet. |
| US07869364B2 |
SIP server overload detection and control
The current invention is related to a system and a method for session overload protocol (SIP) server overload detection and control. The current invention proceeds by receiving SIP messages at the SIP server from a communications network; processing the received SIP messages; detecting an overload based on a trigger condition as a result of receiving and processing SIP messages; and transitioning the SIP server to an overload state and applying appropriate control actions to mitigate the detected overload. |
| US07869362B2 |
Method and system for optical routing of variable-length packet data
A method and system of routing variable-length packet data across a wave division multiplex (WDM) communications network having a plurality of data communications channels comprises inverse-multiplexing each data packet into a respective frame. Each frame includes a label block containing label information of the frame, and two or more respective payload blocks having a predetermined length. The label block contains encoded routing information, a start time, and, possibly an end time, and is transmitted over a label channel of the communications network. The start time preferably indicates a delay between launching a first bit of the label clock and the first bit of the payload blocks. The end time may be a bit count indicative of the location of the last bit of the data packet within the frame. The data packet is divided into a plurality of data segments, each of which is transported across the network within a respective payload block. Each payload block is transmitted over a respective separate data channel of the communications network. Routing control of the frame may be handled using the multi-protocol label switch (MPLS) protocol. |
| US07869361B2 |
Managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles
Apparatus are provided for managing hierarchically organized subscriber profiles. According to one embodiment, a router includes a subscriber manager, a database and a virtual interface. The subscriber manager is operable to receive a connection request from a subscriber of a service provider. The database has stored therein hierarchically organized profile identifiers, including multiple lower-level profile identifiers, which explicitly define subscriber services, and multiple first-level profile identifiers, which define service contexts representing combinations of services available to subscribers when connected to the service provider by (i) explicitly defining the subscriber services or (ii) referring to one or more of the plurality of lower-level profile identifiers. The virtual interface defines a subscriber connection between the router and the subscriber and is created and configured responsive to the connection request based on a first-level profile identifier that is associated with the subscriber. |
| US07869354B2 |
Analyzing and generating network traffic using an improved Markov Modulated Poisson Process model with one bursty state and a plurality of idle states
Methods and products are disclosed for analyzing network traffic using an improved Markov Modulated Poisson Process Model with one bursty state and a plurality of idle states that include: establishing a time scale of operation for each state in the improved MMPP model; establishing a transition value for each state in dependence upon the time scale of operation for the state; measuring inter-arrival times between individual packets received in one or more network adapters; and determining a current state for the network traffic independence upon the measured inter-arrival time of a most recently received packet and the transition values. |
| US07869351B2 |
Communication techniques and generic layer 3 automatic switching protection
In one embodiment, software code in a respective computer system such as one or more data communication devices establishes multiple layer 2 network links between a first data communication device and a second data communication device. The first data communication device and the second data communication device include corresponding layer 3 interfaces enabling layer 3 network communications over each of the multiple layer 2 network links. The first and second data communication devices route traffic over one (e.g., a primary layer 2 link) of the multiple layer 2 network links using the layer 3 network communications. The private links are media independent. Upon detection of a failure associated with the primary layer 2 link, the data communication devices can automatically switch to sending traffic over a backup link of the multiple layer 2 network links without disrupting publicly advertised routing topology information. |
| US07869346B2 |
Methods and apparatus for cluster licensing in wireless switch architecture
Wireless switch licenses are assigned on a cluster basis rather than being limited to individual switches. A switch cluster is made up of two or more wireless switches that each having an assigned number of licenses. Each of the wireless switches is configured to establish the switch cluster with the other wireless switches, and to verify the identity of each other wireless switch in the switch cluster during operation. License restrictions are enforced based upon a total number of licenses for the switch cluster so that the sum of the numbers of licenses assigned to the wireless switches in the cluster are available for use even if one or more of the other wireless switches in the cluster become unavailable. |
| US07869340B2 |
Method of printing label on optical disk, optical disk unit, and optical disk
A visible light characteristic changing layer formed from photosensitive or heat-sensitive material is formed in a location which can be viewed from a part of a label surface of an optical disk. The optical disk is set on a turntable of an optical disk unit while the label surface of the optical disk is directed downward. The optical disk and an optical pickup are moved mutually along the plane of the optical disk. In synchronism with the relative movement, the power of a laser beam output from the optical pickup is modulated in accordance with image data, such as characters or graphic images to be printed, and the laser beam is emitted onto the visible light characteristic changing layer. As a result of the visible light characteristic changing layer being exposed to the laser beam, a visible-light reflectivity of the visible light characteristic changing layer is changed, thereby forming a image corresponding to the image data on the label surface. |
| US07869334B2 |
Seek-scan probe (SSP) memory with sharp probe tips formed at CMOS-compatible temperatures
Embodiments of a process comprising forming one or more micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) probe on a conductive metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafer, wherein each MEMS probe comprises a cantilever beam with a fixed end and a free end and wherein the CMOS wafer has circuitry thereon; forming an unsharpened tip at or near the free end of each cantilever beam; depositing a silicide-forming material over the tip; annealing the wafer to sharpen the tip; and exposing the sharpened tip. Embodiments of an apparatus comprising a conductive metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafer including circuitry therein; one or more micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) probes integrally formed on the CMOS wafer, wherein each MEMS probe comprises a cantilever beam with a fixed end and a free end and a sharpened tip at or near the free end, the sharpened tip formed by a process comprising forming an unsharpened tip at or near the free end of each cantilever beam, depositing a silicide-forming material over the unsharpened tip, annealing the wafer to sharpen the unsharpened tip, and exposing the sharpened tip. |
| US07869330B2 |
Optical disc apparatus and method for reproducing information
An optical disc apparatus reproducing information on the basis of a standing wave recorded on a disc-like volume type recording medium includes: a first focus position adjusting unit configured to adjust the position of a focus on which a first light beam focuses inside a recording layer inside the volume type recording medium in the optical axis direction of the first light beam; a second focus position adjusting unit configured to adjust the position of a focus on which a second light beam focuses inside the recording layer in the optical axis direction of the second light beam; a controller configured to control the first focus position adjusting unit and the second focus position adjusting unit; and first and second detectors configured to detect the first and second reproduction light beams. |
| US07869329B2 |
Optical information recording and reproducing apparatus
An optical information recording and reproducing apparatus is provided for recording and/or reproducing information on an optical disc including a recording layer in which information can be recorded at recording positions each located at a different distance from a surface of the optical disc. The optical information recording and reproducing apparatus includes: a light source; and an objective lens which can converge the light flux from the light source onto one of the recording positions at a predetermined depth in the recording layer for recording information on the optical disc. When information to be recorded is recorded on one of the recording positions at a predetermined depth in the recording layer, the optical information recording and reproducing apparatus records information about the predetermined depth on one of the plurality of recording positions at the predetermined depth, with the information to be recorded. |
| US07869328B2 |
Optical disk and optical disk reproducing device
To provide an optical disk and an optical disk reproducing device capable of preventing sub information from being illegally copied and altered. An optical disk includes an optical disk substrate preliminarily provided with concave/convex recording marks in order to record the main information; and a reflection film which covers the optical disk substrate and of which the reflection coefficient is changed by irradiating laser light at or above a certain intensity. The reflection film is preliminarily provided with additional marks for recording the sub information by changing the reflection coefficient of the reflection film on a region where the concave/convex recording marks are formed and the sub information is recorded for every predetermined recording unit for recording the main information. The laser light at or above the certain intensity is irradiated onto the region where the sub information is recorded to reproduce the main information and delete the sub information. |
| US07869322B2 |
Optical disc device and disc reproducing method
The first layer (DVD layer) is first reproduced using the red layer light. Thereafter, search for the second layer (HDDVD layer) is performed with the blue laser light in accordance with the reproducing operation being temporarily interrupted for menu display (display for chapter or language selection). If the second layer is detected, a display indicating that the second layer can be selected is displayed over the menu display. If instruction to reproduce the second layer is input from the user according to the display, the reproducing operation of the first layer using the red laser light is switched to the reproducing operation of the second layer (HDDVD layer) using the blue laser light. |
| US07869321B2 |
Optical disk device and optical disk discriminating method
An optical disk discriminating method and an optical disk device which can detect reflected rays for making discrimination among kinds of optical disks with high accuracies. By switching a plurality of lasers and moving a spherical aberration corrector while moving an objective lens to cause it to approach or keep away from an optical disk, rays reflected light from the optical disk can be detected with high accuracies. Discrimination among the kinds of a plurality of optical disks can be made on the basis of signals generated from the detected reflected rays. This ensures that the kind of an optical disk can be determined through one operation of sweeping. |
| US07869320B2 |
Method and device for performing tilt correction using multi-dimensional actuator
In a method and device for performing tilt control, a focus and a tilt controlling output is generated, and a focusing and tilt state of an optical recording/reproducing beam is controlled by determining a radial tilt value based on a differentiation of focus control values obtained at different radii of said optical disk (1). The combination of, e.g., a 3D actuator with the dz/dr tilt measurement provides the advantage that focus and tilt adjustment can be performed in the same element. Thereby, influences or measurement variations caused by environmental conditions and/or circuit characteristics can be minimized to reduce compensations requirements. Furthermore, a 3D actuator (11) with a split coil arrangement may be used to provide a three-dimensional focus adjustment. Thereby, the 3D actuator (11) can be used for feed-forward tilt compensation without offset or gain errors and without any additional sensor. |
| US07869315B2 |
Write-once optical disc having update area and access area
A write-once disc, an apparatus for recording information thereon, and a method of reducing access time thereto the write-once disc including at least one record layer. The write-once disc also includes at least one update area in which updated predetermined information is recorded; and an access information area in which location information regarding the updated predetermined information, is recorded for a predetermined period. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce an access time for reading information updated in the write-once disc on which predetermined information is updated and recorded on a new position. |
| US07869313B2 |
Optical pickup actuator
An optical pickup including a moving unit including a lens holder on which an objective lens is positioned, a set of suspension wires to movably support the lens holder on a base of the optical pickup actuator, each suspension wire having one end fixed to a side of the lens holder, and the other end fixed to connection portions positioned at opposite sides of a tilt spring, the tilt spring including a middle portion, between the connection portions, to be connected to a holder positioned on the base, and bridge portions to connect the middle portion to each of the connection portions, the bridge portions flexibly deforming when the moving unit is driven, and a magnetic circuit installed at the lens holder and the base to drive the moving unit. |
| US07869311B2 |
Built-in type optical disc apparatus
An optical disc apparatus includes a first electric power source portion to convert a first power source voltage into a predetermined voltage, to be supplied to a part of the optical disc apparatus. A second electric power source, to convert a second power source voltage into another predetermined voltage, is supplied to other parts of the optical disc apparatus. An electric power source observation portion observes voltages of the first electric power source portion and the second electric power source portion so as to release resetting of a system constituting the optical disc apparatus, when the voltages of the first electric power source portion and the second electric power source portion reach respective predetermined voltages. |
| US07869310B2 |
Checking a batch of DVD titles to be archived
Administrating content of a digital video disc (DVD) having, on-disc, a database involves storing, externally to the DVD, information of the database. Based on the stored information, a check is made as to whether the DVD is operable to accommodate a proposed change to the content. The change on the DVD is made and the on-disc database is correspondingly updated, if the check determines that the DVD is so operable, e.g., if remaining resources of the DVD suffice to make the change. Preferably, the making of the change and the updating on-disc are interactively subject to the user's acceptance by means of a user interface. |
| US07869309B2 |
Dual wire integrated WAMR/HAMR writing head
An apparatus comprises a waveguide, an optical transducer for coupling electromagnetic radiation from the waveguide to a point adjacent to an air bearing surface to heat a portion of a storage medium, and a first wire positioned adjacent to the air bearing surface, wherein current in the wire produces a magnetic field in the heated portion of the storage medium. |
| US07869307B2 |
Ultrasonic transmission member
An ultrasonic transmission member including one end part and the other end part and transmitting an ultrasonic wave input into the one end part to the other end part is formed by preparing a main mold having a casting cavity corresponding to a whole outer shape of the ultrasonic transmission member, melting an alloy which is a material of a metallic glass, and pouring the melted alloy into the casting cavity of the main mold to solidify the melted alloy in a liquid phase state thereof. |
| US07869305B2 |
Ground vehicle collision prevention systems and methods
The present invention comprises systems and methods for preventing collisions between aircraft and ground vehicles. In one embodiment, a system includes a proximity detection unit and a transducer proximate to a selected structural portion of an aircraft, the proximity detection unit being operable to emit ranging signals through the transducer and to receive reflected signals through the transducer to determine the position of an object within a ranging area adjacent to the structural portion. The system further includes an alarm device coupled to the proximity detection unit that is responsive to a signal generated by the proximity detection unit. In another embodiment, a method includes determining a distance between the ground service vehicle and a selected structural portion of the aircraft when the vehicle is positioned in a ranging area about the aircraft. The method further includes generating a proximity alarm based upon the distance. |
| US07869301B2 |
Apparatus for writing to multiple banks of a memory device
In a multi-bank memory system such as a synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), a method of writing data to the banks is provided. This method allows for writing to any number of banks. More particularly, this method allows for writing to a selected number of banks between one and all banks. In addition, the method retains the discrete nature of the selected banks by allowing any row in each bank to be accessed regardless of the rows activated in other banks. As a result, rows of different memory banks that are intended to store similar data may be accessed simultaneously for purposes of writing the data in test and non-test modes. This allows for quicker writing to the SDRAM without the errors that may be created by other fast writing modes, such as data compression. |
| US07869297B2 |
Dynamic semiconductor memory with improved refresh mechanism
Various embodiments for implementing refresh mechanisms in dynamic semiconductor memories that allow simultaneous read/write and refresh operations. In one embodiment, the invention provides a synchronous multi-bank dynamic memory circuit that employs a flag to indicate a refresh mode of operation wherein refresh operation can occur in the same bank at the same time as normal access for read/write operation. In a specific embodiment, to resolve conflicts between addresses, an address comparator compares the address for normal access to the address for refresh operation. In case of a match between the two addresses, the invention cancels the refresh operation at that array and allows the normal access to proceed. |
| US07869292B2 |
Dynamic type semiconductor memory device and operation method of the same
A dynamic type semiconductor memory device includes a sense amplifier connected with a bit line pair to amplify and sense a voltage difference on the bit line pair; a precharge circuit configured to precharge the bit line pair to a power supply voltage on a lower side in response to a first control signal; a memory cell capacitance having one end which is connected with the bit line pair through a first switch circuit which is controlled in response to a signal on a word line; and a reference cell capacitance having one end which is connected with the bit line pair through a second switch circuit which is controlled in response to a signal on a reference word line. The other end of the memory cell capacitance and the other end of the reference cell capacitance are electrically separated. |
| US07869286B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and method for operating the same
The semiconductor memory device includes a data input/output unit configured to input data synchronously with a data clock and to output the data to a memory cell in response to an output strobe signal; and an output strobe signal generation unit configured to output the output strobe signal, wherein the output strobe signal is synchronized with a system clock in response to a write command regardless of whether the semiconductor memory device is in a write training mode. |
| US07869283B2 |
Method for determining native threshold voltage of nonvolatile memory
A method for determining native threshold voltage of nonvolatile memory includes following steps. A memory cell including a control gate, a charge storage layer, a source region, and a drain region is provided. A programming operation is performed on the memory cell by using F-N tunneling effect to obtain a programming curve of time versus threshold voltage. In the programming operation, a positive voltage is applied to the control gate. An erase operation is performed on the memory cell by using F-N tunneling effect to obtain an erasure curve of time versus threshold voltage. In the erase operation, a negative voltage is applied to the control gate. The absolute values of the positive voltage and the negative voltage are the same. The native threshold voltage of memory cell is determined from the cross point of the programming curve and the erasure curve. |
| US07869282B2 |
Method of programming and erasing a non-volatile memory array
A method of processing an array of non-volatile memory cells to program or erase the same, by applying a voltage to the same through a program and verify pulse application circuit. The process includes a first step of selecting a voltage to be applied. Then, the maximum number of memory cells that can be processed simultaneously is determined, based on the selected voltage and characteristics of the memory cells and the circuit. The array is divided into processing groups, each group having a number of cells less than or equal to the maximum determined number. Finally, the voltage is applied to the cells. |
| US07869277B1 |
Managing data writing to memories
Systems and processes may use a first memory, a second memory, and a memory controller. The second memory is at least as large as a block of the first memory. Data is received and stored in the second memory for further writing to the second memory. |
| US07869275B2 |
Memory structure capable of bit-wise write or overwrite
An integrated circuit includes a plurality of tiles. One tile is a master tile. Other tiles contain writable registers of memory structures. Information for configuring circuitry of the tile is stored in the register in the tile. An individual one of the registers can be written via the master tile. Each memory structure of a register includes a non-volatile floating gate cell (that stores the configuration information) as well as a volatile cell. All transistors have the same gate insulator thickness. Although a programming pulse signal is applied to all memory structures, the state of the non-volatile cell of a memory structure is only changed if the state stored by the associated non-volatile cell differs from the state stored by the volatile cell. Floating gates are automatically refreshed by the programming pulse signal. By storing configuration information in each tile, inefficiencies associated with using blocks of non-volatile memory are avoided. |
| US07869274B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A memory includes: first sense amplifiers arranged in a first interval of an arrangement of memory cell arrays, each being connected to first bit lines corresponding to two memory cell arrays provided at both sides of the first sense amplifier; second sense amplifiers arranged in a second interval of the arrangement of the memory cell arrays, each being connected to second bit lines corresponding to two memory cell arrays at both sides of the second sense amplifier; edge arrays provided beside both ends of an arrangement of the memory cell arrays, the edge arrays generating only the reference data; and edge sense amplifiers provided between the arrangement of the memory cell arrays and the edge arrays, wherein the edge sense amplifier detects data from the memory cell array at one end of the memory cell arrays based on the reference data from one of the edge arrays. |
| US07869273B2 |
Reducing the impact of interference during programming
A system for programming non-volatile storage is proposed that reduces the impact of interference from the boosting of neighbors. Memory cells are divided into two or more groups. In one example, the memory cells are divided into odd and even memory cells; however, other groupings can also be used. Prior to a first trigger, a first group of memory cells are programmed together with a second group of memory cells. Subsequent to the first trigger and prior to a second trigger, the first group of memory cells are programmed separately from the second group of memory cells. Subsequent to the second trigger, the first group of memory cells are programmed together with the second group of memory cells. Before and after both triggers, the first group of memory cells are verified together with the second group of memory cells. |
| US07869271B2 |
Method of testing PRAM device
A method of testing PRAM devices is disclosed. The method simultaneously writes input data to a plurality of memory banks by writing set data to a first group of memory banks and writing reset data to a second group of memory banks, performs a write operation test by comparing data read from the plurality of memory banks with corresponding input data, and determines a fail cell in relation to the test results. |
| US07869270B2 |
Set algorithm for phase change memory cell
Memory devices and methods for operating such devices are described herein. A method is described herein for operating a memory cell comprising phase change material and programmable to a plurality of resistance states including a high resistance state and a lower resistance state. The method comprises applying a first bias arrangement to the memory cell to establish the lower resistance state, the first bias arrangement comprising a first voltage pulse. The method further comprises determining whether the memory cell is in the lower resistance state, and if the memory cell is not in the lower resistance state then applying a second bias arrangement to the memory cell. The second bias arrangement comprises a second voltage pulse having a pulse height greater than that of the first voltage pulse. |